which had proved a nest of hardy and persistent antagonists to
Burgundian pretensions. Jehan de Mazilles is in close attendance and
gives further details of the pitiless fashion in which Charles carried
out his purpose of leaving no seed of resistance to germinate. Four
nights and three days they sojourned in a certain little village while
there was a hard frost and where, without unarming, they "slept under
the trees and drank water." Meantime a small party was despatched
by the duke to attack the stronghold of Franchimont. The despairing
Liegeois who had taken refuge there abandoned it, and it was taken by
assault. A few more days and the duke was assured that Liege and her
people were shorn of their strength. When the remnant of survivors
began to creep back to the city and tried to recover what was left
of their property, many were the questions to be settled. Lawsuits
succeeded to turmoils and lingered on for years.

In the lordly manner of conquerors Charles, too, demanded
reimbursement for his trouble in bending these free citizens to
his illegal will. The reinstated bishop wanted his rents and legal
perquisites, all difficult to collect, and many were the ponderous
documents that passed on the subject. How justly pained sounds
Charles's remonstrance on the default of payment of taxes to his
friend, the city's lord!

"Therefore [he writes,] in consideration of these things, taking into
account the terror of our departure to Brussels last January, we
decide, my brother and I, that the payment of both _gabelle_ and poll
tax must be forced, and that we cannot permit the retarding of such
taxes under any colour or pretence. At the request of our brother and
cousin we order the inhabitants of the said territories to pay both
_gabelle_ and poll tax, all that is due from the time it was imposed
and for the time to come, under penalty of the confiscation of their
goods and their persons."

It was the old story of bricks without straw--taxes and rents for
property ruthlessly destroyed were so easy. To this extent of tyranny
had Duke Philip never gone, and undoubtedly the treatment of Liege was
a step towards Charles's final disaster. So much hatred was excited
against him that his adherents fell off one by one when his luck began
to fail him.

No omen of misfortune was to be seen at this time, however. That month
of November saw him master absolute wherever he was and he used his
power autocratically. At Huy, he ha