The interview between the king and the constable occurred in 1474, and at that time, the Duke of Burgundy seized upon the province of Guelders[384], upon a quarrel well worthy to be related, to demonstrate the justice and power of God. There was a young Duke of Guelders called Adolphus[385], who had married a daughter[386] of the house of Bourbon, sister to the present duke, Pierre. The marriage having been consummated in the Duke of Burgundy’s court, he still retained some affection for him, and continued his friend. This young duke had committed a most execrable act, in seizing upon his father[387] one night as he was going to bed, carrying him five German leagues on foot, bare-legged, in very cold weather, and confining him a close prisoner in a dungeon at the bottom of a tower[388], where there was no light but what came through a cleft in the wall; and he kept him in that miserable condition for the space of six months. This barbarous action occasioned a desperate war between the Duke of Cleves (whose sister the imprisoned duke had married) and the young Duke Adolphus. The Duke of Burgundy often interposed his good offices, and would fain have accommodated their difference, but could not. At length the pope and the emperor[389] began to stir in the affair, and the Duke of Burgundy was commanded upon great penalty to release Duke Arnold from prison, and it was done; for the young duke, seeing so many princes concerned in the business, and fearing lest the Duke of Burgundy would otherwise have done it by force, did not dare to refuse. I saw them both several times in the Duke of Burgundy’s chamber, pleading their causes before the council, and the good old man in a passion threw his son his glove, and demanded a combat. The Duke of Burgundy would fain have reconciled them, and offered to the young duke, who was his favourite, the title of governor of the province, with the whole revenue thereof, and that only a small town near Brabant, called Grave[390], with a revenue of 6000 florins (one half to be received out of the profits of the said town, and the other as a pension), should be continued to his father, with the title of duke, as was but reasonable. I was deputed (with others wiser than myself) to make this proposal to the young duke, whose answer was, “That he had rather fling his father headforemost into a well, and himself after him, than consent to such an accommodation; for his father had been duke four and forty years already, and it was time now that he should have his turn; but he would willingly allow him a pension of 3000 florins, upon condition he would leave the duchy, and never come into it again;” besides several other extravagant and detestable expressions to that effect.