became the object and the theatre of
his passion for war. Lorraine had at that time for its duke Rene II., of
the house of Anjou through his mother Yolande, a young prince who was
wavering, as so many others were, between France and Burgundy. Charles
suddenly entered Lorraine, took possession of several castles, had the
inhabitants who resisted hanged, besieged Nancy, which made a valiant
defence, and ended by conquering the capital as well as the
country-places, leaving Duke Rene no asylum but the court of Louis XI.,
of whom the Lorraine prince had begged a support, which Louis, after his
custom, had promised without rendering it effectual. Charles did not
stop there. He had already been more than once engaged in hostilities
with his neighbors the Swiss; and he now learned that they had just made
a sanguinary raid upon the district of Vaud, the domain of a petty prince
of the house of Savoy, and a devoted servant of the Duke of Burgundy.
Scarcely two months after the capture of Nancy, Charles set out, on the
11th of June, 1476, to go and avenge his client, and wreak his haughty
and turbulent humor upon these bold peasants of the Alps.

In spite of the truce he had but lately concluded with Charles the Rash,
the prudent Louis did not cease to keep an attentive watch upon him, and
to reap advantage, against him, from the leisure secured to the King of
France by his peace with the King of England and the Duke of Brittany. A
late occurrence had still further strengthened his position: his brother
Charles, who became Duke of Guienne, in 1469, after the treaty of
Peronne, had died on the 24th of May, 1472. There were sinister rumors
abroad touching his death. Louis was suspected, and even accused to the
Duke of Brittany, an intimate friend of the deceased prince, of having
poisoned his brother. He caused an inquiry to be instituted into the
matter; but the inquiry itself was accused of being incomplete and
inconclusive. "King Louis did not, possibly, cause his brother's death,"
says M. de Barante, "but nobody thought him incapable of it." The will
which Prince Charles had dictated a little before his death increased the
horror inspired by such a suspicion. He manifested in it a feeling of
affection and confidence towards the king his brother; he requested him
to treat his servants kindly; "and if in any way," he added, "we have ever
offended our right dread and right well-beloved brother, we do beg him to
be pleas