CHAPTER VII

LIEGE AND ITS FATE

1465-1467


"When we have finished here we shall make a fine beginning against
those villains the Liegeois." Thus wrote the count's secretary on
October 18th.[1] Charles had no desire to rest on the laurels won
before Paris. To another city he now turned his attention, to Liege
which owed nothing whatsoever to Burgundy.

Before the days when the buried treasures of the soil filled the
air with smoke, the valley where Liege lies was a lovely spot.[2]
Tradition tells how, in the sixth century, Monulphe, Bishop of
Tongres, as he made a progress through his diocese was attracted by
the beauties of the site where a few hovels then clustered near the
Meuse. After looking down from the heights to the river's banks for
a brief space, the bishop turned to his followers and said, as if
uttering a prophecy:

"Here is a place created by God for the salvation of many faithful
souls. One day a prosperous city shall flourish here. Here I will
build a chapel." Dedicated to Cosmo and Damian, the promised chapel
became a shrine which attracted many pilgrims who returned to their
various homes with glowing tales of the beautiful and fertile valley.
Little by little others came who did not leave, and by the seventh
century when Bishop Lambert sat in the see of Tongres, Liege was a