descended from the palace, and mounted his horse, to go to the town-house, where the scaffolds were erected for his execution. He was attended by the greffier and ushers of the court of parliament,—and on his arrival at the town-house, he dismounted, and was conducted into the office, against which a large scaffold had been placed, from whence a gallery of wood led to a smaller scaffold, which was to be the place of his execution. He made, during his stay in the office, many pitiful lamentations to his confessors, and dictated his last will, under the good pleasure of the king, to sir Denis Hesselin, who wrote down his dispositions. Having stayed in the office until three o'clock, he advanced on the scaffold,—and throwing himself on his knees, with his face to the church of Notre-Dame, he was long at his prayers with much devotion and contrition; during which, master John Sordun held a crucifix before him, which he often kissed with the utmost reverence, and crying bitterly. When his prayers where ended, he rose up, and one called Petit Jean, son to Harry Cousin, the chief executioner at Paris, came to him, and, with a small cord, tied his hands, which he most patiently suffered; after which, he led him further on to the small scaffold, where he stopped and looked at the chancellor, the lord de Gaucourt, the provost of Paris, the lord de St. Pierre, the greffier civil of the parliament, sir Denis Hesselin, and others the king's officers in great numbers, praying for the king, and entreating them to pray for his soul,-"not," as he said, "if it should cost them anything, and be anyway injurious to their interests." He then turned to the populace, and besought them to pray for his salvation. Having done this, he placed his two knees on a small woollen cushion, having on it the arms of the town, and moved it with one of his feet more conveniently. His eyes were now bandaged by Little John, while he was praying to God, talking to his confessors, and earnestly kissing the cross. Little John now took the sword, which was given to him by his father, and instantly made his head fly from his shoulders so expeditiously that the body fell at the same time on the scaffold with the head.

Little John took up the head, and, having washed it in a pail of water placed there for the purpose, fixed it on the rails of the scaffold for the view of the spectators, who amounted, as was thought, to more than two hundred thousand persons. After some little time, the body was stripped, and, with the head, wrapped in a fine linen cloth, and put in a wooden coffin which sir Denis Hesselin had caused to be prepared. A body of Cordelier friars now approached, to carry away the corpse, to inter it in their church at Paris,-to whom sir Denis Hesselin ordered forty torches to be given, to convoy the body to their church, where, on the morrow, a handsome funeral service was performed. Another was also celebrated in the church of Saint John en Grève, where a grave had been dug, on the supposition that his body would have been there buried. Indeed, this would have been the case, had not master John Sordun told the constable, that a countess de St. Pol had been buried in their church, which made it desirable that he should be there interred likewise. This the count assented to, and prayed his judges that his body might be carried to the church of the Cordeliers.t

After the execution, the whole of the crimes of the said constable, and the sentence passed on him, were publicly read in the court of parliament, with open doors, when divers enormous treasons by him committed were now divulged. Among others, it was declared, that the duke of Burgundy, in conjunction with the count de St. Pol, had sent ambassadors, namely, sir Philip Bouton and sir Philip Pot, knights, on the part of the duke, with Hector de l'Ecluse on the part of the constable, to the duke of Bourbon, to prevail on him to join them in arms against the king, and abjure his allegiance to him; and, although the lord de Fleurac had told them that their attempt was vain, for that the duke would rather die than forfeit his loyalty, the said L'Ecluse had again returned thither with information from the constable, that the English were about invading France, and, with the assistance of the duke of Burgundy and the constable, would doubtless conquer the kingdom. He strongly advised the duke of Bourbon, that, to avoid the ruin that must ensue to his towns and country, he should join them as he would find it most profitable so to do,—for should any misfortunes befall him after this notice, he would have himself solely to blame for them. The duke of Bourbon replied to L'Ecluse, that he should not follow his advice,-for that he would rather die, with the loss of all he possessed, and be reduced to the poverty of Job, than consent, in art or part, to any thing that should be to the prejudice of the king or his kingdom. Hector, therefore, went back again as unsuccessful as before. The duke of Bourbon had,

during these negotiations, transmitted the constable's sealed proposals to the king, which clearly discovered the constable's treason in this instance, and also in others which he had confessed on his trial. The examinations were all read,—but, as they were of great length, I omit them for the sake of brevity.

After the constable had confessed himself, and was preparing to mount the scaffold, he told his confessors, that he had sewed up in his doublet seventy half-crowns of gold, which he took out and gave to the Cordelier, to be distributed in charity from his love to God and for the ease of his conscience. The Cordelier replied, that they would be well employed if distributed among the poor novices of his convent: the Augustin said the same. In order to satisfy them, he desired that they would divide the sum among themselves, and make such distribution in charities as their consciences should approve of. He then took a gold ring set with a diamond from his finger, and, giving it to the penitentiary, desired that he would offer it to the image of the Virgin Mary, and place it on her finger, which he promised to perform. Addressing himself to master John Sordun, he said, "Reverend father, here is a stone that I have long worn round my neck, and which I loved much for its virtue of preserving the wearer from all poison and pestilence,-which stone I beg of you to bear to my young son, to whom you will say, that I entreat he will be careful of it, out of love to me." The friar promised to obey his wishes.

After his execution, the chancellor demanded of the four confessors if he had given them anything; and they informed him of the half-crowns, the ring, and the stone. The chancellor said, that in regard to the half-crowns and the ring, they must obey the injunctions of the deceased; but as to the stone, it must be delivered to the king, for him to do with it according to his pleasure. In consequence of the execution of the constable, the following short epitaph was made:

"Mille quatre cens l'année de Grace
Soixante quinze, en la grande place,
A Paris, que l'on nomme Grève,

L'an que fut fait aux Anglois treve,

De Decembre le dix-neuf,

Sur un échauffaut fait de neuf,

Fut amené le connetable,
Accompagnié grand et notable,
Comme le veut Dieu et raison,
Pour sa grande trahison:
Et là il fut décapité,

En cette très noble cité."

On Saturday, the 23rd of December, an edict was published at Paris, by sound of

Besides these three sons, who were temporal princes, the constable had two others, John his eldest, who was called count of Marle and Soissons, and killed at the battle of Morat, in the life-time of his father, and Charles bishop of Laon, who died in 1509. His daughters were Jacqueline, the wife of Philip de Croy, count of Porcien; Helen, the wife of Janus of Savoy, count of Geneva; Phiippa, abbess of Moncel; and Jane, a nun. Of all these

children, Louis and Jane were the offspring of his second marriage with Mary of Savoy, the sister of Margaret the wife of his eldest surviving son Peter. The constable had besides a numerous illegitimate progeny. John, bishop of Angouleme; Jane, married to Anthony d'Ailly, lord of Varennes; Margaret, the wife of Philip d'Inchy, castellan of Douay, &c. &c.

trumpet, to notify the displacing of the master and officers of the mint, and the causes for the same. In their places, the king appointed only four persons, namely, sir Germain de Merle, Nicholas Potier, Denis le Breton, and Simon Ausoran. It was ordered by this edict, that the crowns of gold bearing the stamp of the king, and which had been current for twenty-four sols parisis three deniers tournois, should be current for thirty-five unzains, equivalent to twenty-five sols eight deniers parisis; and that the other crowns that were marked with a crescent instead of a crown, should pass for thirty-six unzains, worth twentysix sols six deniers parisis,-and the new twelve-penny pieces were to pass for twelve pennies tournois. This day, by permission from the king, the remains of Regnault Veloux, who had been executed for treason, were collected together, his body from the gibbet of Montfaucon, and his head from the lance to which it had been affixed, fronting the townhouse, and carried to the church of the Cordeliers for interment, where a handsome funeral service was performed for the salvation of his soul, all at the cost and expenses of the friends and relatives of the late Regnault Veloux.

On St. Stephen's day, in this year, there appeared before the town-house in Paris a Lombard knight, called sir Boufillé, who had been challenged to mortal combat on foot by an Arragonian knight, but who had failed to keep his engagement on the day appointed for the combat. To obtain such damages as in reason he ought to have, the said Boufillé had come before the count de Dammartin, whom the king had nominated judge, to decide the differences between them. Boufillé appeared in full armour, with his battle-axe on his wrist ready for the combat, and was preceded by his banner and three trumpets, followed by many servants, one of whom bore another battle-axe. After he had stated his case, and made his appeal to the count de Dammartin, he retired to his lodgings at the sign of the Great Cup, near to the town-house. Sunday, the 28th of December, the duke of Alençon, who had long been confined in the prisons of the Louvre, was, by orders from the king, taken thence about six in the evening, to be lodged in any private house that should be by his guards thought sufficiently secure. Sir Denis Hesselin, Jacques Hesselin his brother, and sir John de Harlay, commander of the night-guard of Paris, were appointed to conduct him; which they did, to the house of the late Michael l'Huillier, whither he was preceded by four lighted torches.

In the month of January following, the king caused proclamation to be made in Paris, that whereas, from long antiquity, the kings of France had been allowed by the different popes to assemble, every five years, the prelates of France for the reformation of the church; and whereas this had been neglected for some years, the king, desirous to guard and preserve the rights of the Gallican church, now ordered a council of the prelates and churchmen to be holden at Lyon, or in some town near; and for this purpose the king commanded all archbishops, bishops, and other dignitaries, to be resident in their several dioceses, that they might be in readiness to attend this council at whatever place it should be appointed to be holden, under pain of having all their temporal property seized on by the king, should they fail of obeying this edict as to their residence, within six months after the proclamation of the said edict. Another proclamation followed the above, stating, that, whereas the king, to answer some urgent demands respecting the public welfare, had ordered a crown to be paid for every pipe of wine that was exported, and that all other provision was to pay in proportion, which taxes had for some time been neglected to be raised, he therefore ordered the tax of a crown to be paid from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, on every pipe of wine exported, but that the taxes on other provision were to cease and be annulled. Master Laurence Herbelot, king's counsellor, and Denis Chevalier, formerly notary to the Châtelet, were appointed to collect this tax,-although the king had, a little before, nominated master Pierre Jouvelin inspector of accounts, who was now displaced by this new appointment.

In the month of February, the king left Tours and Amboise for the Bourbonnois and Auvergne. He there performed a nine-days' devotion at the church of Our Lady at Puy, and afterwards went into the Lyonnois and Dauphiny. During his stay at Puy, he received intelligence that the Swiss had met the duke of Burgundy and his army as they were on their march to enter Swisserland, and had defeated him with the loss of sixteen or eighteen

;

thousand men, and taken all his artillery. It was thus told -When the duke of Burgundy had won the town of Granson, he marched his army along the lake of Neufchâtel, toward Fribourg, and found means to gain two castles at the entrance of Swisserland. The Swiss, though informed of this as well as of the capture of Granson, kept advancing to meet him and, on the Friday preceding the first Sunday in Lent, surrounded these castles so effectually that none could come out. They posted two ambuscades in a small wood hard by, and near to the main body of the Burgundians. On the morrow very early, the duke began his march with the artillery; but he had no sooner passed the ambuscades, than the Swiss, who did not amount to more than six thousand infantry armed with culverins, began to fire with such success on the enemy, that the duke's van, panic-struck, took to flight, with very great loss *. The Swiss charged the main body, which fled also; and the duke himself escaped with great difficulty, attended by only four persons: he never stopped, but often looked behind him, until he came to Joigné, which was eight country leagues from the place of his defeat, and equal to sixteen leagues of pretty France, which may God preserve and guard! The duke lost the greater part of his best captains, and there was great slaughter among the Burgundians. After this disgraceful flight, and after the Swiss had taken all his artillery, plate, and baggage †, they won the two castles, and hanged all the Burgundians within them. They also regained the town of Granson, and took down from the gibbets the Swiss and Germans, to the number of five hundred and twelve, whom the duke had caused to be hanged, and buried them. At the same time, they seized on an equal number of Burgundians then in Granson, and tied them up with the same ropes, and at the same places where the Germans and Swiss had been hanged.

The king, during the month of March, had sent the lord of Beaujeu to besiege the duke of Nemours, in the town of Carlat in Auvergne, with a considerable force and a large train of artillery. The duke surrendered himself into the hands of the lord of Beaujeu, who conducted him to the king then in Dauphiny; whence he was, by the king's orders, carried prisoner to the castle of Vienne. During the siege of Carlat, the duchess of Nemours, daughter to Charles d'Anjou, duke of Maine, was brought to bed in the castle; but whether from vexation at the situation of her husband's affairs, or from illness in childbirth, she died: it was a pity, for she was a good and honourable lady. The duke was afterwards removed from the castle of Vienne to Pierre-en-cise, near Lyon.

In the month of April, the count de Campo Basso ‡, a Lombard or Milanese, who had the command of two hundred Lombard lances at the siege of Nuys, and had also been with tae duke at the defeat at Granson, left the duke of Burgundy, and went to Brittany, claiming relationship with that duke, under pretence of going on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Gallicia. The duke of Brittany received him well, and made him handsome presents in money. Campo Basso published abroad, that the duke of Burgundy was cruel and inhuman; that all his enterprises would prove abortive; and that he was only losing time, people, and money by his foolish obstinacy §.

*Comines says, that he lost but seven men-at-arms. Louis de Châlons, lord of Château Guyon, was the only man of note killed.

The spoils of the duke greatly enriched the poor Swiss, and would have been of more advantage had they known the value of the prize. They sold his silver plates and dishes for pewter. The largest diamond then in the world, having an immense pearl fastened to it, was picked up by a Swiss, replaced in its case, and thrown under a cart, and sold afterward to a priest for a florin, who again resold it for three francs. This diamond was, for some time, the first in the crown of France: it is now the second, and known under the name of Sanci, from having been last in the possession of Nicholas de Harlai, lord of Sanci, celebrated in the reigns of Henry III., Henry IV. Sanci bought it of Don Antonio, prior of Crato, who died at Paris, and his pretensions to the crown of Portugal with him. Varillas in his Hist. of Henry III., makes a fine but false story of this diamond.-COMINES.

It used to be said that this diamond was called cent-six, from weighing 106 carats. I believe the emperor Napoleon has it attached to his sword.

Count de Campo Basso. "Every author who mentions him calls him by this name; but his true one was Nicholas de Montfort. He probably descended from some lord of the house of Montfort l'Amaury, several of whom established themselves in the kingdom of Naples, and took the title of Campo Basso from lands situated in the province of Molissa of that kingdom. Cifron, maitre d'hôtel to the duke of Lorraine, when made prisoner by the duke of Burgundy, who caused him. to be hanged, would have told him of the intended treachery of Campo Basso, but he would not hear him. Louis XI. informed him that Campo Basso was a traitor; but he refused to believe it, thinking it only a device of the king to gain Campo Basso to his service."-COMINES.

To explain the occasions and consequences of the several wars in which the duke of Burgundy was engaged down to the period of his death, would be to overload this meagre chronicle with a profusion of commentary which it hardly seems to deserve. It is better to refer generally to the histories of the times, especially to Comines, for ail these particulars.

CHAPTER CLXXII.-THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY

BORROWS MONEY ΤΟ RAISE FORCES ΤΟ RETALIATE ON THE SWISS FOR HIS LATE ILL SUCCESS.THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING OF SICILY AT LYON, WHERE THE KING OF FRANCE THEN WAS.-WHAT PASSED BETWEEN THEM.-OF THE SENESCHAL OF NORMANDY, WHO MURDERED HIS WIFE AND HIS HUNTSMAN FOR ADULTERY.-THE DUKE OF LORRAINE OPPOSES THE DUKE

OF BURGUNDY AT MORAT IN SWISSERLAND, AND IN THE COUNTY OF ROMONT*.

THE KING OF FRANCE MAKES SEVERAL PILGRIMAGES.-THE DUKE OF LORRAINE
RECOVERS THE TOWN OF NANCY.-THE KING OF PORTUGAL ARRIVES IN FRANCE.-
OTHER EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE IN THE YEAR ABOVE MENTIONED.

[A. D. 1476.]

In the month of May, in this year, the duke of Burgundy, smarting from the defeat at Granson, was more eager than ever to be revenged on the Swiss and Germans, and determined to lay siege to the town of Strasbourg; but this he was unable to do without reinforcements of men, and without obtaining a loan of money from his different towns. To succeed in this business, he despatched his chancellor, master William Gounet, and other delegates to the number of twelve, to the principal towns under his government, to relate to them his distress from the defeat at Granson, and to express his determination to be revenged on the Swiss, which induced him to apply to them for money and men. He wanted them to advance him a sixth part of their property, and six men each town, one of whom was to be equipped in armour. The towns in Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Lille, and the estates of Flanders, replied to this application from the delegates, that in regard to the duke of Burgundy, whom they considered as their natural lord, if he were hardly oppressed by the Germans, or had not a sufficiency of men to return to his own country in safety, they would expose their lives and fortunes in the bringing of him home; but in respect to continuing the war, they had resolved not to afford him any further assistance in men or money.

In this interval, the king of France had made Lyon his chief residence, making good cheer; and thither came to him his uncle the king of Sicily, to whom he gave a cordial reception on his arrival, carrying him to see the fair and the handsome citizens' wives and daughters of Lyon. Thither also came a cardinal, nephew to the pope, who had committed some outrages against the king at Avignon, and also against the archbishop of Lyon legate from the pope. The cardinal waited some time for an audience, but at length the disputes between him, the king, and the archbishop, were amicably settled. At the same time, the king of Sicily entered into engagements with the king, that the county of Provence, after his decease, should revert, with all its rights and privileges, to the king, and be united for ever to the crown. In return for this, queen Margaret of England, daughter to the king of Sicily, and widow of Henry VI. was released from her imprisonment by the king of France, who paid king Edward fifty thousand golden crowns for her ransom. In consequence, queen Margaret joined in the cession of the county of Provence to the king after her father's death, on having a sufficient pension secured to her annually for her life.†

On the 13th day of June, the seneschal of Normandy, count of Maulevrier, and son to the late sir Pierre de Brézé, killed at the battle of Montlehery, went to the village of Romiers, near Dourdan, which belonged to him, for the sake of hunting. He took with him his lady, the princess Charlotte of France, natural daughter of the late king Charles VII. by Agnes Sorel. After the chace, when they were returned to Romiers to sup and lodge, the seneschal retired to a single-bedded room for the night. His lady retired also to another chamber, -when, moved by her disorderly passions (as the husband said), she called to her a gentleman from Poitou, named Pierre de la Vergne, who was head huntsman to the seneschal, and made him lie with her. This was told to the seneschal by the master of his household, called Pierre l'Apothicaire; when he instantly arose, and, taking his sword, broke open the door of

Romont, a town of Swisserland, in the canton of Fribourg, and capital of an extensive bailiwick, which was formerly a county.

†This is entirely a mistake. Queen Margaret had been

set at liberty in November 1475, and on the 7th of March following, she renounced all her claims to the county in favour of the king. This was two months before the treaty with king Réné was concluded.-DU CLOS.