After this manner (as I have said before), transactions were managed between the two kings for no other purpose but to gain time, by which means the Princess of Burgundy’s affairs began visibly to decay; for of the few soldiers that remained after her father’s death, many revolted from her to the king, especially after the Lord des Cordes had quitted her service, and carried several others along with him. Some were forced to leave her because their estates or abodes lay very near or within the towns which had declared for the king; others left her in hopes of preferment; for in that respect no prince was so noble and generous to his servants as our master. Besides, commotions and factions discovered themselves daily in the great towns, and particularly in Ghent, which wanted to have everything its own way, as you have already heard. Several husbands were proposed to the Princess of Burgundy, and every one was of opinion there was a necessity of her marrying, to defend those territories that she had left to her, or (by marrying the dauphin), to recover what she had lost. Several were entirely for this match, and she was as earnest for it as anybody, before the letters she had sent by the Lord of Humbercourt and the chancellor to the king were betrayed to the ambassadors from Ghent. Some opposed the match, and urged the disproportion of their age, the dauphin being but nine years old, and besides engaged to the King of England’s daughter; and these suggested the son of the Duke of Cleves. Others recommended Maximilian, the emperor’s son, who is at present King of the Romans.