When the Duke of Lorraine had passed through his own dominions, after several days’ march, he arrived at the camp of the confederates not many hours before the engagement. Though he brought but few men, yet his arrival was much to his honour and advantage, for otherwise he would have had a poor reception. Just as he arrived, both armies were advancing to engage; for the allies had lain three days or more strongly encamped at a small distance from the Duke of Burgundy, whose army, after some small resistance, was entirely defeated and put to flight.[528] Nor did he escape so well as in the first engagement: for the Swiss not having then a body of horse, he lost not above seven men-at-arms; but at this battle of Morat they had 4000 good horse, who pursued the Burgundians a great way, and cut off a considerable number of them. Besides, their whole body of infantry was engaged with the duke’s foot, who were very numerous; for, besides his own subjects, and a considerable body of English, who were in his pay, he had great reinforcements out of Piedmont and Milan, as I said before. And when the Prince of Tarento was with the king, he told me he had never seen a finer army in his life; for, as they marched over a bridge, he caused them to be numbered, and they amounted to 23,000 men in pay, besides those that belonged to the train of artillery, and followed the camp. To me this seems a very great number, yet there are some who make it much greater, and upon very slight grounds will multiply armies prodigiously. The Lord of Contay arrived at our court not long after the battle, and owned in my presence, that the Duke of Burgundy lost in that battle 8000 of his standing forces, besides those that followed the camp; and, by the best information I could get, I presume that the number of the slain in all, might amount to near 18,000 men; which is not at all improbable, if we consider the great bodies of horse that the princes of Germany had there, and the vast number of those that were slain in the duke’s camp before Morat. The duke fled himself as far as Burgundy, in great disconsolateness, and not without reason; he stopped at a place called La Rivière[529], where he rallied what forces he could. The Germans pursued only that night, and then gave over the chase, without following him any farther. CH. IV.—How, after the Battle of Morat, the Duke of Burgundy seized upon the Duchess of Savoy, and how she was delivered by our King, and sent back into her own Country.—1476.