THE DEATH OF THE COUNTESS DE CHAROLOIS.—THE COUNT DE NEVERS IS MADE PRISONER IN THE CASTLE OF PERONNE.—THE LIEGEOIS ARE DISCOMFITED AT MONTENAC.[45]—THE TREATY OF CONFLANS, BETWEEN THE KING OF FRANCE AND THE CONFEDERATED PRINCES.
On the 25th day of September, in this year, the countess de Charolois departed this life in the town of Brussels. She was the daughter of the late duke of Bourbon, and a good and devout lady. She left behind only one child, a daughter, named Mary, and had always the grace to be humble, benignant, and full of the best qualities a lady could have, and was never out of humour. The duchesses of Burgundy and Bourbon were present at her decease, and were in great grief for her loss.
A Burgundy-gentleman, named Arkembarc, had made frequent visits to the count de Nevers, in Peronne, for the space of a month, having passports from the lord de Saveuses and from the king: he had likewise been with the count de Charolois and the duke of Burgundy, to find means for the count de Nevers to surrender Peronne. It is to be supposed that there was some secret treaty entered into between them,—for on the 3d day of October, at four o'clock in the morning, the said Arkembarc accompanied by the lords de Roubaix and de Frommeles, and from five to six hundred combatants, advanced to Peronne as secretly as they could.
When he came near the town, he left his companions, and, attended by only twelve persons, approached the bulwark on the outside of the castle, which he entered by scaling ladders, and making prisoners those within, by their means entered the tower and dungeon of the castle. They there found the count de Nevers, the lord de Sally, and some others in bed, whom they laid hands on as day broke; but the count and his companions began shouting so loud that they were heard in the town, and the garrison hastily advanced in arms to enter the castle,—but before this, from sixty to four score of the duke's men had followed their companions into the castle, and, mounting the battlements, harangued those below, declaring they were the duke of Burgundy's men, who had sent them thither, and they now summoned them to surrender the town to the duke. The garrison and townsmen retired apart, to confer together, and, toward the evening, answered, that they were willing to obey the duke, and opened their gates to the lord de Roubaix and all his men.
Thus was the town of Peronne taken, and restored to the obedience of the duke of Burgundy. It was currently reported, that the count de Nevers had wished it to be thus managed, that it might appear to the king, to whom he had sworn allegiance, that it had been won without his consent: it was also added, that it was upon this condition he had made up the disagreements between him, the duke of Burgundy, and the count de Charolois. Whatever truth may have been in these rumours, the count de Nevers was carried a prisoner to Bethune, and Arkembarc remained governor of the town and castle of Peronne.
The 15th of this month of October, about five in the morning, the heavens seemed to open, and the brightest light appeared, resembling a bar of burning iron, of the length of a lance, which turned round, and the end that was at first very thick became suddenly thin, and then disappeared. This was seen, for more than a quarter of an hour, from the town of Arras.
On the 19th of the same month, about eighteen hundred combatants, on the part of the duke of Burgundy, entered the territories of Liege, under the command of the count de Nassau, the seneschal of Hainault, the lords de Groothuse and de Gasebecque, sir John de Rubempré grand bailiff of Hainault, and other knights and esquires. They burnt and destroyed the whole line of their march until they came near to the large village of Montenac, situated five leagues from the city of Liege, and which the Liegeois had fortified and garrisoned with a force of four thousand men, then within it.