Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/516

 480 Readings in European History arrived in their camp, they wanted courage to make a stand and defend themselves, and they all fled, and the Swiss possessed themselves of their camp, in which were all their artillery and a vast number of tents and pavilions, besides a great deal of valuable plunder, for they saved nothing but their lives. The duke lost all his finest rings, but of men, not above seven men-at-arms ; the rest fled, and the duke with them. It may more properly be said of him, " that he lost his honor and his wealth in one day," than it was of King John of France, who, after a brave defense, was taken prisoner at the battle of Poitiers. This was the first misfortune that ever happened to the duke of Burgundy in his whole life, for in the rest of his enterprises he always acquired either honor or advantage. But what a mighty loss did he sustain that day by his per- verseness and scorn of good advice! How greatly did his family surfer ! In what a miserable condition it is at present, and how like to continue so ! How many great princes and states became his enemies, and openly declared against him, who but the day before the battle were his friends, or at least pretended to be so ! And what was the cause of this war? A miserable cart- load of sheepskins that the count of Romont had taken from a Swiss in his passage through his estates. If God Almighty had not forsaken the duke of Burgundy, it is scarce conceivable that he would have exposed himself to such great dangers upon so small and trivial an occasion ; especially considering the offers the Swiss had made him, and that his conquest of such enemies would yield him neither profit nor honor ; for at that time the Swiss were not in such esteem as now, and no people in the world could be poorer. A gentleman who had been one of their first ambassadors to the duke of Burgundy told me that one of his chief argu- ments to dissuade the duke from attacking them was that there was nothing for him to gain from them; for their country was barren and poor, and he believed that, if all his countrymen were taken prisoners, all the money they