In the meantime, this great man was irresolute and wavering in his mind, and could not tell whither he should fly for security: for he had received information from all hands of his intended ruin, and had seen copies of the agreement signed against him at Bouvines. Sometimes he consulted his Lorraine servants, and then he resolved to go with them into Germany, and (there being no danger of travelling that way) to carry such a sum of money with him as would purchase some place upon the Rhine, where he might live securely till he could make his peace either with the king or the Duke of Burgundy. Another time, he was for staying in the fine Castle of Ham, which he had been at vast expense in fortifying, on purpose to defend himself in such a case of necessity; and indeed it was as well provided with ammunition and provision as any castle that I ever knew; but he had no soldiers that he could depend on, for all his garrison were subjects either of the king or of the Duke of Burgundy; and perhaps his fear was so great, he durst not discover his condition to them; for I verily believe if he had, he would have been deserted only by a very few; nor would it have been so dangerous for him to have been besieged by both princes at once as by one, for it would have been impossible for their two armies to have agreed. At last he resolved to put himself into the Duke of Burgundy’s hands, upon the strength of his safe-conduct; and accordingly, attended only by fifteen or twenty horse, he went[488] directly to Mons, in Hainault, of which the Lord of Aimeries, who was his particular friend, was governor. He stayed with him till he could hear further from the Duke of Burgundy, who had begun a war against the Duke of Lorraine, for sending him a defiance as he lay in his trenches before Nuz, and for the ravages and devastations he had committed in the province of Luxembourg.