The rebels lost heart at once.  Without the king, they had no confidence in their own efforts.  Envoys were despatched to Philip who refused to answer their humble requests for pardon until his son could decide what punishment the principality deserved.  Nor was much delay to be anticipated before an answer would be forthcoming.  Charles hastened to Liege direct from Paris, not pausing even to greet his father.  By the third week of January, he was encamped between St. Trond and Tongres, where a fresh deputation from Liege found him.  These envoys, between eighty and a hundred, were well armed chiefly because they feared attacks from their anti-peace fellow-citizens.[9]

They found Charles flushed by his recent achievement of bringing King Louis to his way of thinking.  His army, too, was a stronger body than when it left the Netherlands.  The troops were more skilled from their experience and elated at what they counted their success; more capable, too, of acting as one body under the guidance of a resolute leader, now inclined to despise councils with free discussion.  The count’s quick temper had gained him weight but it had made him feared.  The slightest breach of discipline brought a thunder-cloud on his face.  If we may believe one authority,[10] he himself was often so lacking in discipline that he would strike an officer with a baton, and once at least, he killed a soldier with his own hand.

His audience with the envoys resulted in a treaty, of which certain articles were so harsh that the messengers were insulted when the report was made in Liege.  Only eleven out of thirty-two gilds voted to accept all the articles.  A certain noble on pleasant terms with the count offered to carry the unpopular document back to him to ask for a modification of the harsh terms.

By this time the weather was severe.  Charles’s troops were in need of repose, and it seemed prudent to avoid hostility if possible.  Charles revoked the objectionable clauses in consideration of an increase of the war indemnity.  With this change the treaty was accepted, and a Piteous Peace it was indeed for the proud folk of Liege.  Instead of owing allegiance to emperor and to pope alone as free imperial citizens, they agreed to recognise the Burgundian dukes as hereditary protectors of Liege.

When it was desired, Burgundian troops could march freely across the territory.  Burgundian coins were declared valid at Burgundian values.  No Liege fortresses were to menace Burgundian marches, and unqualified obedience was pledged to the new overlords.  The same terms were conceded to all the rebel towns alike except to Dinant.  The story of the personal insult to himself and his mother had reached the count’s ears and he was not inclined to ignore the circumstance.  His further action was, however, deferred.

January 24, 1466, is the final date of the treaty[11] and, after its conclusion, Charles ordered a review of his forces, a review that almost culminated in a pitched battle between army and citizens of St. Trond, and then on January 31st, the count returned to Brussels where there was a great display of Burgundian etiquette before the duke embraced his victorious son.