efooted on pilgrimage to Rome, and we will ourselves
be intercessors for thee with the Imperial Chamber at Ratisbon for thy
life, With our Holy Father the Pope for thy miserable soul."

While Louis of Bourbon proposed these terms, in a tone as decided as if
he still occupied his episcopal throne, and as if the usurper kneeled
a suppliant at his feet, the tyrant slowly raised himself in his chair,
the amazement with which he was at first filled giving way gradually to
rage, until, as the Bishop ceased, he looked to Nikkel Blok, and raised
his finger, without speaking a word. The ruffian struck as if he had
been doing his office in the common shambles, and the murdered Bishop
sunk, without a groan, at the foot of his own episcopal throne. The
Liegeois, who were not prepared for so horrible a catastrophe, and who
had expected to hear the conference end in some terms of accommodation,
started up unanimously, with cries of execration, mingled with shouts of
vengeance.

[In assigning the present date to the murder of the Bishop of Liege,
Louis de Bourbon, history has been violated. It is true that the Bishop
was made prisoner by the insurgents of that city. It is also true that
the report of the insurrection came to Charles with a rumour that the
Bishop was slain, which excited his indignation against Louis, who was
then in his power. But these things happened in 1468, and the Bishop's
murder did not take place till 1482. In the months of August and
September of that year, William de la Marck, called the Wild Boar of
Ardennes, entered into a conspiracy with the discontented citizens
of Liege against their Bishop, Louis of Bourbon, being aided with
considerable sums of money by the King of France. By this means, and the
assistance of many murderers and banditti, who thronged to him as to a
leader befitting them, De la Marck assembled a body of troops, whom he
dressed in scarlet as a uniform, with a boar's head on the left sleeve.
With this little army he approached the city of Liege. Upon this the
citizens, who were engaged in the conspiracy, came to their Bishop, and,
offering to stand by him to the death, exhorted him to march out against
these robbers. The Bishop, therefore, put himself at the head of a few
troops of his own, trusting to the assistance of the people of Liege.
But so soon as they came in sight of the enemy, the citizens, as before
agreed, fled from the Bishop's banner, and he was left with his own
handful o