"Loys, by the grace of God, King of France. Beloved brother and cousin, we have received the letters you have written making mention, as you have heard, that in the truce lately concluded between us and the Duke of Burgundy up to April 1st next coming, which will be the year 1473, the Duke of Burgundy has mentioned you as his ally, which you do not like because you never asked the Duke of Burgundy to do so, and you do not know whether he made this statement on the advice of the Venetian ambassador who is with him.
"Therefore, and because you do not mean to enter into alliance or understanding with the Duke of Burgundy but wish to remain our confederate and ally and have sworn to that effect before notaries, and sealed your oath with your seal ... that you are no ally of the Duke of Burgundy and that you renounce and repudiate his nomination as such ... also you may be certain that on our part we are determined to maintain all friendship between us and you ... and if we make any treaty in the future we will expressly include you in it and never will do ."[23]
"Monseigneur the grand master, I am advised how while the truce is still in being, the Duke of Burgundy has taken Nesle and slain all whom he found within. I must be avenged for this. I wished you to know so that if you can find means to do him a like injury in his country you will do it there and anywhere that you can without sparing anything. I have good hopes that God will aid in avenging us, considering the murders for which he is responsible within the church and elsewhere, and because by virtue of the terms of their surrender [they thought] they had saved their lives.
"Done at Angers, June 19th.
"P.S.—If the said place had been destroyed and rased as I ordered this never would have happened. Therefore, see to it that all such places be rased to the ground, for if this be not done the people will be ruined and there will be an increase of dishonour and damage to me."[24]
One fact stated by Louis in this letter was true. Charles of Burgundy broke the truce when it had but two weeks to run, and thus put himself in the wrong. The death of Guienne made him wild with anger. Apparently he had not believed in the imminence of the danger, although he had been constantly informed of the progress of the prince's illness. But to his mind, it was the hand of Louis, not the judgment of God, that ended the life of the prince.
"On the morrow, which was about May 15, 1472, so far as I remember [says Commines] came letters from Simon de Quingey, the duke's ambassador to the king, announcing the death of the Duke of Guienne and that the king had recovered the majority of his places. Messages from various localities followed headlong one on the other, and every one had a different story of the death.
"The duke being in despair at the death, at the instigation of other people as much concerned as himself, wrote letters full of bitter accusations against the king to several towns—an action that profited little for nothing was done about it.[25]... In this violent passion the duke proceeded towards Nesle in Vermandois, and commenced a kind of warfare such as he had never used before, burning and destroying wherever he passed."
It is interesting to note how smoothly Commines sails by the capital charges against the king. He neither accepts nor denies the king's crime, while frankly admitting that Guienne's decease was an opportune circumstance for Louis. He apologises for mentioning any evil report of either king or duke, but urges his duty as historian to tell the truth without palliation.
Nesle was a little place on a tributary of the Somme which refused the duke's summons to surrender, sent to it on June 10th. It seems possible that there was a misunderstanding between the citizens and the garrison which resulted in the slaughter of the Burgundian heralds. Whereupon, the exasperated soldiers rushed headlong upon the ill-defended burghers and wreaked a terrible vengeance on the town.