ions granted
by the terms of the Perpetual Peace. This offer Count Michel indignantly
refused, threatening to send back the Order of St. Michael, and appealing
to the Diet to confirm his undoubted status as a Confederate. Berne and
Fribourg and at length the Diet ratified this claim and sent messengers
to the king recommending its recognition, but assigned the greatly
reduced sum of 60,000 francs as the amount of the pensions due. The king
replying that he would in no case alter his decision, the Berne
authorities, with a singular consideration for their unfortunate debtor
procured the additional recommendations of all the cantons; but the king
still insisted that as Chevalier of St. Michael, the count was bound to
come to Paris to present his claims before the tribunal of the order.
The count, however, as persistently refused to go to Paris "to be mocked
by the King," and defiantly proposed that the latter should be summoned
to personally appear before the Diet. A less extravagant demand, a less
obstinate refusal, would have surely obtained a better recognition from
the monarch who "never broke his word," but failing to persuade either
the king or his claimant, the Confederates were forced to abandon their
intervention and Count Michael got nothing at all. Ill and despairing, he
now abandoned the administration of his hopelessly involved estates to
his brother Francois, who with the aid of an appointed council vainly
essayed to bring order out of confusion. In an open assembly the people
were asked to guarantee a new loan on the promise of the cession of all
the Gruyere revenues at a fixed date. Irritated but still faithful to
their ruler they consented, but the delay thus obtained only postponed
the inevitable disaster. Berne and Fribourg now announced their
intention of assuming the debts of the entirely mortgaged domain and
dividing it between them. The unhappy people of Gruyere prepared to
witness the dispossession of their ruler and the dismemberment of their
beloved country when Count Michel played his last card, marrying through
the good offices of his uncle Claude de Vergy, (who had now succeeded
his father as marechal of Burgundy) the widow of the Baron d'Alegre,
Madeleine de Miolans, a daughter of a once illustrious Savoyard family.
To her devotion and that of his de Vergy's relatives, who spared nothing
but the necessary funds to avert his impending ruin, Michel owed a short
reprieve from the execution of his