gth in the copy of the articles which
I have given to your ambassador, resident with me . . . . And be
sure, _fratello mio_, that nothing would have induced me to accept
the truce, had you not been comprised therein. And, similarly, you
must be satisfied in all the pacts between the king and myself,
just as you were comprised in the convention lately made at Neuss.

"For the rest, I have heard from your ambassador about the troops
that can be furnished me, for which I am well content, praying you
to continue to serve me in accordance with the promises of your
ambassador. As to the coming of your brother to me [Sforza, Duc de
Bari], I should be very glad. He has no reason now for delay as he
can travel in Lorraine as safely as in Lombardy, as I have said
to your ambassador. Pray the Lord to give you the desires of your
heart.

"Written in my camp at Nancy the penultimate day of October, 1475.

"CHARLES."[11]

Some trifling assistance was offered to Rene by Strasburg and other
foes to Burgundy, but it was wholly insufficient to rescue him from
his difficulties, and he was finally obliged to order the capitulation
of Nancy on November 19th. The magistrates desired to hold out, but
were forced by the populace to submit, and on November 30, 1475,
Charles of Burgundy marched triumphantly through the gate of Craffe
into the capital of Lorraine where he was received as the sovereign
duke.[12]

This time Charles acted the role of a merciful and diplomatic
conqueror. There was no cruelty permitted, and every evidence of
conciliation was shown. The majority of the Lorrainers accepted the
new order of things without further protest. At the end of December,
Charles convened the Estates of Lorraine in the ducal palace,
addressed them as his subjects of Burgundy, promised to be a good
prince, demanded their attachment, confided his plans of expansion,
and announced his intention of making Nancy the capital of his states.
Again the duke's star rose. This acquisition seemed a sign of the
reality of his dreams. Even before the fall of Nancy, his approaching
success bore fruit, inasmuch as the emperor changed the late
convention into a firmer treaty signed on November 17th. Indeed had
Charles died at that moment, there would have been little doubt that
his dreamed-of kingdom had been simply prevented by a mere accident.

The detailed story of all that had happened in t