ptains. "Well!" said he, "since
these drunken scoundrels are upon us, and are coming here to look for
meat and drink, what ought we to do?" The majority of those present were
of opinion that the right thing to do was to fall back into the duchy of
Luxembourg, there to recruit the enfeebled army. "Duke Rene," they said,
"is poor; he will not be able to bear very long the expense of the war,
and his allies will leave him as soon as he has no more money; wait but
a little, and success is certain." Charles flew into a passion. "My
father and I," said he, "knew how to thrash these Lorrainers; and we will
make them remember it. By St. George! I will not fly before a boy,
before Rend of Vaudemont, who is coming at the head of this scum. He has
not so many men with him as people think; the Germans have no idea of
leaving their stoves in winter. This evening we will deliver the assault
against the town, and to-morrow we will give battle."

And the next day, January the 5th, the battle did take place, in the
plain of Nancy. The Duke of Burgundy assumed his armor very early in the
morning. When he put on his helmet, the gilt lion, which formed the
crest of it, fell off. "That is a sign from God!" said he; but,
nevertheless, he went and drew up his army in line of battle. The day
but one before, Campo-Basso had drawn off his troops to a considerable
distance; and he presented himself before Duke Rene, having taken off his
red scarf and his cross of St. Andrew, and being quite ready, he said, to
give proofs of his zeal on the spot. Rene spoke about it to his Swiss
captains. "We have no mind," said they, "to have this traitor of an
Italian fighting beside us; our fathers never made use of such folk or
such practices in order to conquer." And Campo-Basso held aloof. The
battle began in gloomy weather, and beneath heavy flakes of snow, lasted
but a short time, and was not at all murderous in the actual conflict,
but the pursuit was terrible. Campo-Basso and his troops held the bridge
of Bouxieres, by which the Burgundian fugitives would want to pass; and
the Lorrainerss of Rend and his Swiss and German allies scoured the
country, killing all with whom they fell in. Rend returned to Nancy in
the midst of a population whom his victory had delivered from famine as
well as war. "To show him what sufferings they had endured," says M. de
Barante, "they conceived the idea of piling up in a heap, before the door
of his hostel