Galeotto, seeing that the day was lost, protected his own mercenaries as best he could, while Campobasso completed the treason that he had plotted with Rene, which had been partially accomplished four days previously, and calmly took up his position on the bridge of Bouxieres on the Meurthe, to make prisoners for the sake of ransom.  Then the besieged made a sudden sortie which increased the disorder.  The battle proper was of short duration, with little bloodshed, but the pursuit was sanguinary in the extreme, because the Burgundian army had left no loophole open for retreat.

The Swiss pursued the fugitives hotly as far as Bouxieres and inflicted carnage right and left on the route.  It was easy work.  The morasses were traps and the Burgundians, encumbered with their arms, found it impossible to free themselves, when they once were entangled.  They fell like flies before the fury of the mountaineers.  The Lorrainers and Alsatians were more humane or more mercenary, for they took prisoners instead of killing indiscriminately.  Charles fought desperately to the very end.  There is no doubt that he plunged into the thick of the fight and risked his life in a reckless manner, but there is absolute uncertainty as to how he met his death.  It is generally accepted that the last person to see him alive was one Baptista Colonna, a page in the service of a Neapolitan captain.  This lad, with an extra helmet swung over his shoulder, found himself close to the duke.  He saw him surrounded by troops, noticed his horse stumble, was sure that the rider fell.  The next moment, Colonna’s attention was diverted to himself.  He was taken prisoner and knew no more of the day’s events.  The figure of Charles of Burgundy disappears from the view of man.  A curtain woven of vague rumour hides the closing scenes of his life.

At seven o’clock the victorious Duke of Lorraine rode into the rescued city and re-entered his palace.  At the gates was heaped up a ghastly memorial of the steadfastness of the burghers in their devotion to his cause.  This was a pile of the bones of the foul animals they had consumed when other food was exhausted, rather than capitulate to their liege’s foe.  To ascertain the fate of that foe now became Rene’s chief anxiety, and he despatched messengers to Metz and elsewhere to find out where Charles had taken refuge.  The reports were all negative.  The first positive assurance that the duke was dead came from young Baptista Colonna, whom Campobasso himself introduced into Rene’s presence on Monday evening.  The page told his tale and declared that he could point out the precise place where he had seen the Duke of Burgundy fall.  Accordingly, on Tuesday morning, January 7th, a party went forth from Nancy to the desolate battlefield and were guided by Colonna to the edge of a pool which he asserted confidently was the very spot where he had seen Charles.  Circumstantial evidence went to give corroboration to his word, for the dozen or more bodies that lay