Throughout Lorraine, the captains of the garrisons seized every occasion to harry the Burgundians.  Familiar with the lay of the land, with every cross-road and by-path, they were able to lie in wait for the foragers and to do much damage.  Four hundred cavaliers, coming up from Burgundy, were attacked by one Malhortie de Roziere, and literally cut to pieces, while their horses changed sides with ease.  Only a few escaped to report the fate of the others to Charles.  Not long after, Malhortie, encouraged by this success, crept up to the Burgundian camp, fell upon the sleepers, and captured a goodly number of horses.

The troops on which Charles counted most confidently were Campobasso’s.  Several attempts were made to warn him that treachery was possible in that quarter if the commander were too much exasperated by delays in payment, too much tried by the ill-temper of his employer.  But the duke persisted in being oblivious to what was passing under his eyes.  Thus, while awaiting the moment for his final defection, the Italian found it possible to enter into communication with Rene and to retard the operations of the siege so as to give time for the advance of the army of relief.

The weather of this year was a marked contrast to the mild season of 1473.  The winter set in early and the cold became very severe, almost at once.  Their sufferings made the burghers very impatient for the relief of whose coming they could get no certain assurance.  The Burgundian lines were held so rigidly that the interchange of messages between the city and her friends was rendered very difficult.[12] One Suffren de Baschi tried to slip through to Nancy, to tell the besieged that Rene was levying troops in Switzerland and would soon be with them.  Baschi fell into the duke’s hands and was immediately hanged.  One story says that Campobasso was among the interceders for his life and received a box on the ear for his pains, an insult that proved the last straw in his allegiance to Charles.  Commines, however, declares that the Italian urged the death of the captive, fearful of the premature betrayal of his own intended treachery.

This execution was one of those arbitrary acts condemned by public opinion as contrary to the code of warfare.  Intense indignation among the Lorrainers and the Swiss forced Rene to retaliatory measures, and he ordered the execution of all the Burgundian prisoners.  One hundred and twenty bodies hung on the gibbets, each bearing an inscription to the effect that their death was the work of le temeraire.  The rancour of the proceedings became terrible.  No quarter was given in any engagements.  Slaughter was the only thought on either side.

Towards the end of December, one Thierry, a draper of Mirecourt, proved more successful than Baschi in reaching Nancy.  His information, that Rene’s army would leave Basel on December 26th, put heart into the beseiged and the bells rang out joyfully.