clock the
assault was made and within an hour Charles was repulsed. Almost all
the infantry perished. The slain is estimated variously from ten
to twenty-two thousand. Charles did not keep his vow to perish if
defeated. To his assured allies he clung closely, and none had more
reason to be faithful to him than Yolande of Savoy. After Granson he
hastened to give the duchess his own view of the disaster:

"It has given me a singular pleasure to hear of your calmness and
constancy of soul; for the thought of your affliction weighed more
heavily upon me than what has befallen me ... every day diminishes
the inconvenience and proves that the loss in men is less than we
thought. _Such as it is it came from a mere skirmish_. The bulk
of the armies did not engage, to my great displeasure. Had they
fought the victory would have been mine. There has been none on
either side. God, I trust, reserves it for you and for me ... the
hope you have placed in me shall not be vain."

Thus he wrote on March 7th to encourage his anxious protegee.

[Illustration: A PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF MORAT]

After the second defeat it was to her that the duke turned again. In
the very early morning after the battle of Morat, Charles paused at
Morges on the Lake of Geneva, having ridden hard through the night.
There he heard mass, breakfasted, rested awhile, and then rode on,
reaching the castle of Gex at six o'clock in the evening, where
Yolande of Savoy was awaiting his coming in full knowledge of the
second disaster he had suffered.

At the foot of the staircase, attended by her ladies, Yolande was
waiting to greet her disappointed friend. Charles dismounted and
kissed each member of the family in order of precedence, the little
duke, his brother, then the duchess, her daughter, and the ladies
in waiting. Yolande had had time to move out of her own suite of
apartments and have them prepared for her guest's use, and there the
two talked together confidentially, while their attendants waited
patiently just out of earshot.

Then Charles formally escorted his hostess to her son's room,
returning to his own, showing signs of extreme fatigue. Panigarola
was absent, but another Milanese was among her suite, and he pressed
forward as the duke re-entered the apartment, offering to carry any
message to the Duke of Milan, to be cut short with, "It is well. That
is enough." Shortly afterwards, Olivier de la Marche and the S