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English under Somerset who were eager to fight with the enemy of France.
The duke, still ill and half insane with fury and the determination to
avenge his defeat, was in no condition easily to accomplish that
revenge. He was determined to let no further time elapse, therefore he
assembled these forces and established his fortified camp within a mile
of the little city of Morat, held by a Bernese garrison. Magnificently
fighting before the great breaches in the defending walls, the Bernese
held the city during ten long days, giving time for their confederates
to assemble behind the hills which concealed their approach from the
Burgundian camp. Six thousand more men of Berne were joined by the
Waldstetten mountaineers, the German troops of Archduke Sigismund, one
hundred horse and six hundred foot from Gruyere, "all men of great
stature, athletic force and indomitable courage;" and, lastly, by the
men of Zurich, who had marched day and night to swell this army of
24,000 which were to meet a like number of Burgundians. On the 22nd day
of June, the anniversary of the death of the ten thousand martyrs who
had fallen at Laupen, their descendants prepared with masses and with
prayers to avenge their death. It was a day of pelting rain, and when
the Burgundians, advancing to the attack, had waited six hours under the
downpour for any sign of an approaching foe, they retired to their camp
with soaked powder and loosened bow-strings at the very moment when the
clouds dispersed and the sudden sunshine illuminated the serried pikes
of the Swiss as they advanced in unexpected numbers over the crest of
the hills. Duke Charles had retired to his tent and was surprised at
table by a messenger announcing the imminent attack of the enemy. He was
compelled to don his armor on the battlefield itself where he took
command of his confused ill-arranged forces, fighting beside the English
soldiers under Somerset in the thick of the battle as it raged about the
green hedge and little moat which divided the two armies. Against them
was Duke Rene, battling with the Swiss to regain his lost Lorraine, and
Louis of Gruyere with his brave soldiers. Many times the Swiss
halberdiers were driven back under the fire of the Burgundian artillery,
as many times the Burgundian cavalry charged with brilliant success, and
a hope of regaining his lost honor began to smile upon Duke Charles,
when a terrible clamor arose from the very midst of his camp. Again th