The year before the destruction of Dinant (which was the summer in which the Count of Charolois arrived before Paris, and joined with the French lords who were in confederacy with him) the town made an agreement and peace with the count, by which they were obliged to pay to him a certain sum of money, and had separated from the city of Liege and managed their affairs apart. When people (whose interest binds them together in an alliance) divide and forsake one another, it is a certain sign of destruction, not only for towns and little states, but for princes and great potentates: but because I suppose everybody may have read or observed examples enough of this nature, I forbear to say any more than this, that King Louis our master understood breaking and dividing of leagues better than any prince that I ever knew, for he spared neither money nor pains, and that as well with the servants as the masters. But to return; by degrees the Dinanters began to repent heartily of the above-mentioned treaty, and caused four of their chief citizens, who had been instrumental in concluding the peace, to be most barbarously executed, and began the war afresh in the county of Namur. For these reasons, and upon the earnest solicitation of the inhabitants of Bouvines, this siege was undertaken by Duke Philip; but the command of the army was given to his son, to whom the Count of St. Paul, Constable of France, repaired, but, coming in a private capacity, and acting without any authority from the king, he could not bring any of the standing forces of the kingdom to the assistance of the Duke of Burgundy, but was forced to content himself with what forces he could assemble on the frontiers of Picardy. The Dinanters made a bold sally one day; but it proved much to their disadvantage, for they were beaten so cruelly, that eight days after (their friends having no time to consider of their relief) the town was taken by storm and set on fire, and the prisoners (about 800) drowned before Bouvines at the earnest request of the men of Bouvines. Whether God permitted it as a judgment upon them for their malice, I cannot determine, but certainly it was a dreadful revenge. The next day after the taking of the town, the Liegeois (contrary to their agreement[170]) arrived in great numbers to have relieved it; for by that treaty they also had obliged themselves not to meddle with the affairs of the Dinanters, as the Dinanters had separated from them.