the little territory of
Franchemont, belonging to the Bishopric of Liege, and reckoned the most valiant
of their troops. They burst out of the town on a sudden, surprised the Duke of
Burgundy's quarters, ere his guards could put on their armour, which they had
laid off to enjoy some repose before the assault. The King of France's lodgings
were also attacked and endangered. A great confusion ensued, augmented
incalculably by the mutual jealousy and suspicions of the French and
Burgundians. The people of Liege were, however, unable to maintain their hardy
enterprise, when the men-at-arms of the King and Duke began to recover from
their confusion, and were finally forced to retire within their walls, after
narrowly missing the chance of surprising both King Louis and the Duke of
Burgundy, the most powerful Princes of their time. At daybreak the storm took
place, as had been originally intended, and the citizens, disheartened and
fatigued by the nocturnal sally, did not make so much resistance as was
expected. Liege was taken and miserably pillaged, without regard to sex or age,
things sacred or things profane. These particulars are fully related by Comines
in his Memoirs, liv. ii. chaps. 11, 12, 13, and do not differ much from the
account of the same events given in the text.
 
67 A homely Scottish expression for something you value.
 
68 A cant expression in Scotland for death, usually delineated as a skeleton.
 
69 We have already noticed the anachronism respecting the crimes of this
atrocious baron; and it is scarce necessary to repeat, that if he in reality
murdered the Bishop of Liege in 1482, the Count of La Marck could not be slain
in the defence of Liege four years earlier. In fact, the Wild Boar of Ardennes,
as he was usually termed, was of high birth, being the third son of John I.,
Count of La Marck and Aremberg, and ancestor of the branch called Barons of
Lumain. He did not escape the punishment due to his atrocity, though it did not
take place at the time, or in the manner narrated in the text. Maximilian,
Emperor of Austria, caused him to be arrested at Utrecht, where he was beheaded
in the year 1485, three years after the Bishop of Liege's death.
 
70 An old rhyme, by which the Leslies vindicate their descent from an ancient
knight who is said to have slain a gigantic Hungarian champion, and to have
formed a proper name for himself by a play of words upon the place where he
fought his adversary.
 
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