ough the heights of their
rugged country reached only modest altitudes.[2]

These invaders were fortunate in obtaining as guides the owners of
the very houses requisitioned for the lodgings of the two princes.
Straight to their goal they progressed through paths quite unknown to
the foe, and therefore unwatched. The highlanders made a mistake
in not rushing headlong to the royal lodgings, where in the first
confusion they might have accomplished their design upon the lives of
Louis and of Charles or at least have taken the two prisoners. But a
pause at a French nobleman's tent created a disturbance which roused
the archers in the granary. The latter sallied out, to meet with a
fierce counter-attack. In order to confuse them the mountaineers
echoed the Burgundian cries, _Vive Bourgogne, vive le roy et tuez,
tuez_, and they were not always immediately identified by their harsh
Liege accent.

The highlanders were far outnumbered by the Burgundians, and it was
only by dint of their desperate courage and by reason of the pitchy
darkness and of the locality with its unknown roughness that the
former inflicted the damage that they did.

Commines and his fellows helped the duke into his cuirass, and stood
by his person, while the king's bodyguard of Scottish archers "proved
themselves good fellows, who never budged from their master's feet and
shot arrow upon arrow out into the darkness, wounding more Burgundians
than Liegeois." The first to fall was Charles's own host, the guide of
the marauders to his own cottage door. There were many more victims
and no mercy. It was, indeed, an encounter characterised by the
passions of war and the conditions of a mere burglarious attack on
private houses.

Quaking with fear was the king. He thought that if the duke should now
fail to make a complete conquest of Liege, his own fate would hang in
the balance. At a hasty council meeting held that night, Charles
was very doubtful as to the expediency of carrying out his proposed
assault upon the city. Very distrustful of each other were the allies,
a fact that caused Philip de Commines to comment,[3] "scarcely fifteen
days had elapsed since these two had sworn a definitive peace and
solemnly promised to support each other loyally. But confidence could
not enter in any way."

Charles gave Louis permission to retire to Namur and wait until the
duke had reduced the recalcitrant burghers once for all. Louis thought
it wiser to keep close to