knights at Sempach and Morgarten and which the Burgundians themselves had heard at Grandson, fell upon their ears; and quickly following the crash of their own guns which had been captured and turned upon themselves by their own adversaries, the mountaineers of the Waldstetten. At the hedge, in the very centre of the conflict, Duke Charles and Somerset still desperately encouraged their men to a hopeless resistance. Here in the midst of the carnage was Duke Rene, leaping from his fallen horse and fighting by the side of Count Louis under the scarlet banner of Gruyere; here fell Somerset and here fell at last the great banner of Burgundy in the arms of its dying defender. Soon the Burgundians were completely surrounded by the rear-guard of the Swiss, and by the Morat garrison, and Duke Charles breaking his way through his beaten and disorganized army with a force of three thousand cavalry, succeeded in making his escape. Red was the water of the little lake where, in a mad retreat, the Burgundians were drowned in thousands; red was the battlefield where, after all hope was gone, a still greater number were massacred in cold blood by the implacable Swiss. "Cruel as Morat" was the saying which, passing into common speech, commemorated for centuries this unforgotten conflict. Ill-prepared to meet the united and well-nigh unconquerable Swiss as was Duke Charles, the irremediable defeat which he suffered in this celebrated battle might have been averted. But like a predestined victim of the gods, driven mad by pride, and surrounded by rumors of the desertion of his supporters, he had most unhappily chosen the only Savoyard prince who was unalterably faithful to him, for his distrust, and had forbidden Count Romont and his strong army of nine thousand men to take part in the conflict. Thus the able general and the fresh, unbroken force which might have saved the day watched from a neighboring hill the the annihilation of the Burgundian army. Retiring at last from his post of observation when he saw the great banner fall, Count Romont offered to cover the retreat of the duke, who, still refusing his aid although deserted by all but a dozen of his guard, fled madly across country, taking refuge at last at Morges. The fleeing remnant of his army was pursued by the Lorraine and Gruyere cavalry to Avenches, Count Romont and his Savoyards alone escaping the general destruction; while Count Louis of Gruyere, still riding triumphantly at the head of his horsemen, as far as Lausanne, laid that city under contribution. The appetite of the Bernois was by no means appeased by the great spoils of the Burgundian army, and in spite of the injunction of Louis the XI, who did not intend to lose the jurisdiction of Savoy, they again took the field, capturing Payerne, burning Surpierre and Lucens; while the chateau of Romont, besieged by their allies of Fribourg and defended gallantly to the last by Count Romont himself, fell also. At Lausanne,