r movements by the slime. Wild were some of the night
skirmishes over the uneven, slippery ground and amidst the little
sheltering hills.

On one occasion, "a great many were hurt and among the rest the Prince
of Orange (whom I had forgotten to name before), who behaved that day
like a courageous gentleman, for he never moved foot off the place he
first possessed.

The duke, too, did not lack in courage but he failed sometimes
in order giving, and to say the truth, he behaved himself not so
advisedly as many wished because of the king's presence."[1]

There is no doubt that Charles entertained increasingly sinister
suspicions of his guest. He thought the king might either try to enter
the city ahead of him and manage to placate his ancient allies by a
specious explanation, or else he might succeed in effecting his escape
without fulfilling his compact. At last Charles appointed Sunday,
October 30th, for an assault. On the 29th, his own quarters were in
a little suburb of mean, low houses, with rough ground and vineyards
separating his camp from the city. Between his house and that of the
king, both humble dwellings, was an old granary, occupied by a picked
Burgundian force of three hundred men under special injunctions to
keep close watch over the royal guest and see that he played no sudden
trick. To further this purpose of espionage, they had made a breach in
the walls with heavy blows of their picks.

The men were wearied with all their marching and skirmishing, and in
order to have them in fighting trim on the morrow, Charles had ordered
all alike to turn in and refresh themselves. The exhausted troops
gladly obeyed this injunction. Charles was disarmed and sleeping, so,
too, were Philip de Commines and the few attendants that lay within
the narrow ducal chamber. Only a dozen pickets mounted guard in the
room over Charles's little apartment, and kept their tired eyes open
by playing at dice.

On that Saturday night when Charles was thus prudently gathering
strength for the final tussle, the people of Liege also indulged in
repose, counting on Sunday being a day of rest, that is, the major
part of the burgher folk did within city limits. But another plan was
on foot among some of the inhabitants of an outlying region. An attack
on the Burgundian camp was planned by a band from Franchimont, a wild
and wooded district, south of the episcopal see. The natives there had
all the characteristics of mountaineers, alth