These passages I learned from several persons, and particularly from the mouth of Monsieur James de St. Paul, who, when he was prisoner, told them to the king, when nobody was present but myself, and the sincerity of his answers was very serviceable to him. The king demanded of him what number of troops he designed to have put into the town. He told his majesty that, on the third occasion, he had 3000. Then the king asked him if he had succeeded, and entered the town, for whom he would have kept it? whether for him or for the constable? Monsieur James de St. Paul replied, that on the first two occasions he came only to encourage his brother; but the third time, having observed that his brother had twice before deceived both his master and his majesty, if he had found his party the strongest, he would have kept it for his master, but without any violence or detriment to his brother; only if he had commanded him to evacuate the town, he would have disobeyed his orders. Not long after this private conference, the king released Monsieur James, gave him men-at-arms and a large estate, and employed him afterwards in several affairs as long as he lived; and all because of the freedom and sincerity of his answers. Since I began to speak of Nuz, I have intermingled several occurrences, which, however, were coincident; for the siege continued a year[429], and they happened during that time. There were two things which mightily tempted the Duke of Burgundy to raise the siege: one was the war which the King of France had begun against him in Picardy, in which he had burnt three pretty little towns[430], and wasted a good part of the flat country in Artois and Ponthieu; the other was the great army which, at his request and solicitation, the King of England had raised; for he had been importuning him all his life long to invade France, and could never effect it till now. The King of England and all his nobility were highly discontented at the Duke of Burgundy’s delays, and added threats to their entreaties; as they had reason, for they had been at a prodigious expense in raising an army, and the best part of the season was almost spent. The Duke of Burgundy thought it highly for his honour that so puissant an army as the emperor’s (consisting of the forces of so many princes, prelates, and states), which amounted to a greater number than had been assembled together since the memory of man, and for a long time previously, were not able to force him to raise the siege. But he paid dearly for his vanity; for the man who makes profit by a war, bears away all the honour of it. However, the legate I mentioned before continued his good offices on both sides so long, that at length a peace[431] was concluded between the Emperor and the Duke of Burgundy, and Nuz was delivered into the hands of the Pope’s legate, to be disposed of as his Holiness should direct. But to what extremity must the Duke of Burgundy