eign and detestably
traitorous king, and the coming of the great Duke Charles was awaited by
all the inhabitants of the Romand country as a welcome deliverance from
the hated Bernois. Postponing his Italian campaign, Duke Charles, deaf
to his advisers and eager to chastise the cruel depredations of the
"insolent cowherds" he so despised, started from Nancy with his
magnificent army in midwinter of the year 1476 as for a brief pleasure
excursion, and laid siege to Grandson which had been captured by the
Bernois. After a stubborn resistance the Bernois garrison, promised
pardon by a venal German volunteer of the Burgundian cause, surrendered
only to suffer the same cruel fate which they had dealt to the
defenders of the Savoy fortresses. But now flocking to the aid of their
confederates came the unconquerable victors of the Austrian dukes, the
Waldstetten; and the horn of the Alps with the same fatal clarion led
the mountaineers from the heights above Grandson to their old victory
over the nobles, and to the surprising defeat of such an army of wealth
and kingly power as the world had not seen since Xerxes. Massed in his
jeweled tents and golden chapel were the treasures of the richest
potentate in all Europe; harnesses and habiliments of gold and velvet,
tapestries and gemmed crowns and orders, ropes of pearls, rubies and
diamonds (which still glorify the tiaras of the pope and emperors)--all
these were sold for a few sous or were trampled in the snow by the
ignorant shepherds and cowherds of the Alps. After such an unimaginable
tragedy, Duke Charles, like a beaten child, weeping with rage and sick
with despair, at last roused himself to send with the consent of the
Duchess Yolande a deputation to treat with the Confederates; and this
deputation was sent to Count Louis of Gruyere. Announcing this
extraordinary event to the authorities at Fribourg, he wrote: "It is
true that I received last Saturday a letter from M. de Viry, with a
sauf-conduit, to take me to Vauruz, to talk of peace. When asked what
authority I had to act for you, Gentlemen of Fribourg, I replied that I
had none whatsoever. I said, moreover, that I could not engage to
approach you without the written consent of M. de Bourgogne, but that I
would, with this guarantee, work body and soul in the matter. These
gentlemen assured me on their honor that they would not have spoken
without his consent, but I answered that trusting them in all else, I
would have not