avalry to Avenches, Count
Romont and his Savoyards alone escaping the general destruction; while
Count Louis of Gruyere, still riding triumphantly at the head of his
horsemen, as far as Lausanne, laid that city under contribution. The
appetite of the Bernois was by no means appeased by the great spoils of
the Burgundian army, and in spite of the injunction of Louis the XI, who
did not intend to lose the jurisdiction of Savoy, they again took the
field, capturing Payerne, burning Surpierre and Lucens; while the
chateau of Romont, besieged by their allies of Fribourg and defended
gallantly to the last by Count Romont himself, fell also. At Lausanne,
the rage and cupidity of the Bernois knew no restraint, and the city and
cathedral were sacked remorselessly, thus bringing to an end an utterly
unwarranted campaign of wanton destruction.

Duchess Yolande, who had hastened to the relief of Duke Charles, was
also so suspected by her defeated ally that he caused her to be arrested
by his maitre d'hotel and some brutal Italian soldiers and cast into the
Burgundian fortress of Rouvres, whence, finally convinced that her
brother was the most powerful as well as the most friendly of her foes,
she appealed to him for deliverance. Brought by his agents to France
after three months' imprisonment, Louis summoned her to his presence at
Plessis-les-Tours: "Madame la Bourguignonne," he said with his evil
smile, "you are welcome." "I am a good French woman," replied his
sister, "and ready to obey the will of your Majesty."

Whether, as has been recorded, Louis really loved his sister, who was
almost as able and far more attractive than himself, he kept her in
strict imprisonment until she signed a paper of perpetual fidelity to
him, and then he sent her back to Savoy and reestablished her on her
ducal throne. The prince bishop of Geneva was even more eager than his
sister-in-law to desert Duke Charles, and fearing that his city would
suffer the fate of Lausanne, offered to assist the Bernois in invading
Burgundy, there to complete the duke's destruction; whereupon the
Bernois at the price of an enormous indemnity consented to spare Geneva,
and to cease all further conquests in the Pays de Vaud. They also
agreed, under the repeated commands of King Louis to send their deputies
to a convention of the ambassadors of all the powers to meet at
Fribourg in July, 1476. A great and imposing company were these
ambassadors, who from France and Aust