About this time the king had sent John Tiercelin, Lord of Brosse, on an embassy to the emperor, to prevent any accommodation between him and the Duke of Burgundy, and to excuse him to the emperor for not having sent his forces according to his promise. His ambassador was to assure his imperial majesty that, for the future, he would be more punctual, and to magnify his incursions and exploits, as well against the Duke of Burgundy’s own country, as against the country of Picardy. Besides which, he was to make a new proposal, that they should mutually engage and swear, one to the other, to make no peace nor truce without the knowledge and consent of both; that the emperor should seize and take all such lordships as belonged, or ought to belong, to the said Duke of Burgundy, in the empire, and declare them forfeited; upon which terms the king would possess himself of all that the duke held of the crown of France, as Flanders, Artois, Burgundy, and the rest. The emperor was never accounted valiant in his life, but being old he had seen much, and had a great deal of experience; and these treaties and contrivances between him and the king having taken up much time, the emperor by degrees grew weary of the war, though it had cost him nothing, for the German princes were all at their own charges, as their custom is, whenever the common interest of the empire is concerned. By way of answer to the king’s ambassadors, the emperor told them the following story: Not far from a certain town in Germany there was a great bear, that did a great deal of mischief; two or three boon companions who used often to drink together, came to a tavern, where they had run up a large reckoning before, and desired the landlord that he would give them credit but for that one reckoning, and before two days were at an end they would wipe off all scores, for they were resolved to kill that bear which had done so much mischief, and whose skin would yield them a great deal of money, besides all the presents that would come in to them for the service they had done the country in destroying that ravenous beast. Their landlord trusted them once more, and when they had dined, away they marched in search of the bear. Her den happening to be nearer than they supposed it was, they stumbled upon the bear before they expected, and, being all three in great consternation, they took to their heels; one ran towards the town, the other climbed up a tree, but the third was overtaken, and, having fallen down, the bear trampled upon him with her feet, and ran her snout into his ear. The poor man had thrown himself flat on the ground, and lay in a posture as if he were dead. Now, it is the nature of that beast to suppose that whatever prey it seizes upon, whether man or beast, is dead when it perceives no further motion, and it then lets it alone. Accordingly, this bear went away to her den, without doing him any hurt. By degrees the poor man began to look up, and finding