With this shattered and fatigued army the duke marched out of Lorraine into Burgundy, where the ambassadors of the old German leagues, called Swiss, came to him, and offered, besides the restitution before mentioned, to abandon all alliances that were contrary to his interest (and particularly that with the King of France), to enter into alliance with him, and (for a small sum of money) to serve him against the king with 6000 men, whenever he should require their assistance. But the duke would hearken to no overtures, for his ruin was decreed. The new allies (as they term them in those parts), namely, Basle, Strasburg, and other imperial towns situated near the head of the Rhine, had heretofore joined with Sigismund, Duke of Austria, at the time when he was at war with the Swiss; but now a confederacy was made between them and the Swiss for ten years, at the solicitation and expense of the King of France, at the time that the county of Ferrette was taken from the Duke of Burgundy, and his Governor Pierre d’Archambault (who was the cause of all his misfortunes afterwards) put to death at Basle. A prince ought narrowly to observe and watch the conduct of those persons he appoints as governors over his new conquests; for, instead of easing his subjects, administering justice, and treating them with more gentleness than before, this Archambault proceeded quite otherwise and oppressed them with all manner of violence and extortion, and was the occasion of great mischief both to himself, his prince, and abundance of brave men besides. This alliance (which, as I said before, was to be ascribed wholly to the king’s management) proved afterwards very advantageous to his majesty’s interest, and more so than most people were able to foresee, for I esteem it as one of the wisest and most important actions of his reign, and the most prejudicial to his enemies; for if the Duke of Burgundy’s affairs were once in a low condition, there would be none left to cope with the king, or oppose him in any of his designs—I mean of his subjects, and in his own kingdom, for all the rest sailed under his wind. For this reason, it was of great importance to combine Duke Sigismund and these new confederates in an alliance with the Swiss, between whom there had been great enmity for a long time; but it put his majesty to the expense of several embassies and a vast sum of money.