Part 29 (1/2)
When the duke arrived on the spot, the carnage was over, but he was unreproving as he inspected the gruesome result. Into the great church itself he rode, and his horse's hoofs sank through the blood lying inches deep on the floor. The desecrated building was full of dead--men, women, and children--but the duke's only comment as he looked about was, ”Here is a fine sight. Verily I have good butchers with me,” and he crossed himself piously.
”Those who were taken alive were hanged, except some few suffered to escape by the compa.s.sionate common soldiers. Quite a number had their hands chopped off. I dislike to mention this cruelty but I was on the spot and needs must give some account of it.”[26]
The story of the duke's treatment of the innocent little town of Nesle is painted in colours quite as lurid as the king's murder of his brother. There is some ground for the denunciations of Charles, but the gravest accusation, that the duke promised clemency to the citizens on surrender and then basely broke his word, does not deserve credence. He was in a state of exasperation and the horrors were committed in pa.s.sion, not in cold blood.[27]
[Ill.u.s.tration: BURGUNDIAN STANDARD PRESERVED AT BEAUVAIS]
It is delightful to note the king's virtuous indignation at his cousin's proceedings, coupled with his regrets that he himself had not destroyed the town.
With the terrible report of the events at Nesle flying before his advance guard, Charles went on towards Normandy. Roye he gained easily, and then, pa.s.sing by Compiegne where ”Monseigneur the grand master” had intrenched himself, and Amiens with the good burghers whom Louis delighted to honour, he marched on until he reached Beauvais, an old town on the Therain. Some of the garrison from the fallen Roye had taken refuge there, but the place was weak in its defences, not even having its usual garrison or cannon, as it happened.
Disappointed in his first expectation of picking the town like a cherry, Charles sat down before it. The siege that followed won a reputation beyond the warrant of its real importance from the extraordinary tenacity and energy of the people in their own defence.
Every missile that the ingenuity of man or woman could imagine was used to drive back the besiegers when the town was finally invested.
From June 27th to July 9th Charles waited, then an a.s.sault was ordered. Charles laughed at the idea of any serious resistance. ”He asked some of his people whether they thought the citizens would wait for the a.s.sault. It was answered yes, considering their number even if they had nothing before them but a hedge.”[28] He took this as a joke and said, ”To-morrow you will not find a person.” He thought that there would be a simple repet.i.tion of his experience at Dinant and Liege, and that the garrison would simply succ.u.mb in terror. When the Burgundians rushed at the walls their reception showed not only that every point had a defender, but also that those same defenders were provided with huge stones, pots of boiling water, burning torches--all most unpleasant things when thrown in the faces of men trying to scale a wall. Three hours were sufficient to prove to the a.s.sailants the difficulty of the task. Twelve hundred were slain and maimed, and the strength of the place was proven.
Charles was not inclined to relinquish his scheme, but the weather came to the aid of the besieged. Heavy rains forced the troops to change camp. More men were lost in skirmishes and mimic a.s.saults, losses that Charles could ill afford at the moment. Finally at the end of three fruitless weeks, the siege was raised and the Burgundians marched on to try to redeem their reputation in Normandy. Had Beauvais fallen, it would have been possible to relieve the Duke of Brittany, against whom Louis had marched with all his forces and whom he had enveloped as in a net. This reverse was the first serious rebuff that had happened to Charles, and it marked a turn in his fortunes.
Louis fully appreciated the enormous advantage to himself, and was not stinting in his reward to the plucky little town. Privileges and a reduction of taxes were bestowed on Beauvais. An annual procession was inaugurated in which women were to have precedence as a special recognition of their services with boiling water and other irregular weapons, while a special gift was bestowed on one particular girl, Jeanne Laisne, who had wrested a Burgundian standard from a soldier just as he was about to plant it on the wall. Not only was she endowed from the royal purse, but she and her husband and their descendants were declared tax free for ever.[29]
_Charles to the Duke of Brittany_
”My good brother, I recommend myself to you with good heart. I rather hoped to be able to march through Rouen, but the whole strength of the foe was on the frontier, where was the _grand master, of whose loyalty I have not the least doubt_, so that the project could not be effected. I do not know what will happen.
Realising this, I have given subject for thought elsewhere and I have pitched my camp between Rouen and Neufchatel, intending, however, to return speedily. If not I will exploit the war in another quarter more injurious to the enemy, and I will exert myself to keep them from your route. My Burgundians and Luxemburgers have done bravely in Champagne. I know, too, that you have done well on your part, for which I rejoice. I have burned the territory of Caux in a fas.h.i.+on so that it will not injure you, nor us, nor others, and I will not lay down arms without you, as I am certain you will not without me. I will pursue the work commenced by your advice at the pleasure of Our Lord, may He give you good and long life with a fruitful victory.
”Written at my camp near Boscise, September 4th.
”Your loyal brother,
”CHARLES.”[30]
The duke's course was marked by waste and devastation from the walls of Rouen to those of Dieppe, but nothing was gained from this desolation. By September, keen anxiety about his territories led him to fear staying so far from his own boundaries, and he decided to return. Through Picardy he marched eastward burning and laying waste as before.
Hardly had he turned towards the Netherlands, when Louis marched into Brittany against his weakest foe. There was no fighting, but Francis found it wise to accept a truce. Odet d'Aydie, who had ridden in hot haste to Brittany, scattering from his saddle dire accusations of fratricide against Louis--this same Odet became silenced and took service with the king.[31] When reconcilations were effected, most kind to the returning ally or servant did Louis always show himself.
On November 3d, a truce was struck between Louis and Charles, which, later, was renewed for a year. But never again did the two men come into actual conflict with each other, though they were on the eve of doing so in 1475.
The period of the great coalitions among the n.o.bles was at an end.
Charles of France was dead and so, too, were others who were strong enough to work the king ill. The Duke of Brittany showed no more energy. When again within his own territories, Charles of Burgundy became absorbed in other projects which he wished to perfect before he again measured steel with Louis.
”The Duke of Berry, he is dead, Brittany doth nod his head, Burgundy doth sulky sit, While Louis works with every wit.”[32]
Such was the tenor of a doggerel verse sung in France, a verse that probably never came to Charles's ears--though Louis might have listened to it cheerfully.
Infinitely disastrous were the events of that summer to Charles of Burgundy. Not only had he lost in allies, not only had he squandered life and money uselessly in his reckless expedition over the north of France, but his own retinue was diminished and weakened by the men whom Louis had succeeded in luring from his service. The loss that Charles suffered was not only for the time but for posterity. Among those convinced that there was more scope for men of talent in France than in Burgundy was that clever observer of humanity who had been at Charles's side for eight years. In August of 1472, Philip de Commines took French leave of his master and betook himself to Louis, who evidently was not surprised at his advent.
The historian's own words in regard to this change of base are laconic: ”About this time I entered the king's service (and it was the year 1472), who had received the majority of the servitors of his brother the Duke of Guienne. And he was then at Pont de Ce.”[33] This pa.s.sing from one lord to another happened on the night between the 7th and 8th of August, when the Burgundian army lay near Eu.
The suddenness of the departure was probably due to the duke's discovery of his servant's intentions not yet wholly ripe, and those intentions had undoubtedly been formed at Orleans, in 1471, when Commines made a secret journey to the king. On his way back to Burgundy, he deposited a large sum of money at Tours. Evidently he did not dare put this under his own name, or claim it when it was confiscated as the property of a notorious adherent of Louis's foe.[34]