and victorious enterprise, Vieilleville sent some of his people, including the captured hostile leader, back to the Duke of Nevers; the other wounded soldiers or prisoners, however, would be brought to a secure place. He told the Duke that he could not yet sent the three looted flags, as he needed them for an enterprise which just came to his mind. As people pressed him to say what an enterprise this was, Vieilleville answered that he was not any of those fools who sell the fur before capturing the bear. He did also not want to act like Fabricio Colonna who has sent his messenger to kill him, and now was depending upon his grace.
After this group has left, Vieilleville called his messenger and said to him: “take my white flags, my helm and my arm shields, and go to Pont-a-Mousson. When you will be fifteen minutes away from the city, begin to gallop and shout “Victory!”, tell people that Colonna has beaten Vieilleville and his whole corps, and that he is bringing him prisoner together with thirty or forty other french noblemen. Show them the heraldries on my weapons. Take with you four unknown servants who will help you carry them. Take hence a bunch of broken lances with the little, white french flags to support your speech. Show them an appropriately joyous figure, and degrade me with whatever words you can find; say even that you must be seeing my heart out of my body in two hours, if you are not relieved with ten thousand Thalers. Do also not forget, as soon as you are by the gate, to climb it, as if you wanted to hang my heraldries on the same gate and stay by the iron cratings and drawbridges, so that people do not lift them down. God will do the rest.”
Suligny, hence was named the messenger, headed valiantly to complete his mission which he also executed punctually. In the meantime, Vieilleville ordered all his lancers and guns to hide the white flags and the red banner of the deceased, and otherwise, to put on themselves everything that could be perceived as signs of the imperial or Burgundy armies. From the conquered spanish flags, he gave one to Lord Montbourger, another to Lord Thuré and a third one to Lord Mesnil-Barré with the order to kill whoever came out of the city to see the french prisoners, if such person was not an inhabitant. Should, however, Don Alfonso forget himself so much, that he should abandon the place to congratulate Colonna over such an important victory; hence, they should capture him and remove his weapons without doing him violence. “Now, go, in the name of God,” said he, “the city is ours, if no one will betray us.”
Every one was stunned, for he has still not revealed anything to anyone until now, and people knew not yet what he was up to, when he sent the messenger. This one galloped, as soon as he approached the city with his four weapons carriers and called: “Victoria, Victoria! The damned Frenchman, Vieilleville, and his people are all beaten! Fabricio has led him prisoner to Don Alfonso. Here are his weapons, his shield, his insignias! There are more than hundred deaths on the spot, all the others have surrendered or are wounded. If it was up to me, I would have piled them up one on top of the others. Victoria! Victoria!”
The joy among the soldiers was so great that the few of them who have remained, could not wait to see Vieilleville and honour Fabricio, for people did really not doubt the truthfulness of the story. Don Alfonso, as soon as he saw the weapons and shields of a Prince, so many pieces of lances and white flags, asked not any further question, but rather jumped on his horse and rode, accompanied by twenty men, to meet Fabricio. Orvaulx and Olivet, totally dressed in red, came to him, shouting: “Victoria, Victoria! Los franceses son todos matados! (The Frenchs are all killed)”. Alfonso whom this shouting and the language pleased totally, went ever forward. They fell onto him at once, surrounded him, threw down whoever was around him, including the servants and took him prisoner. Other people came afterward according to their rank in ever greater number; however, all received the same fate.
Now, Vieilleville ordered Mesnil-Barré to give Don Alfonso one flag from his own company, and allow him to ride between the two others. One of them, named the Greek who spoke Spanish, must say to him, that if he did not utter “Victoria!” when approaching the city gates, he would receive a bullet in the head. Mesnil-Barré should lead this mission. Everyone started now to gallop, as people were at a close shot before the gates. The Greek went ahead, told about the Spaniard wonderful feat, so that the garrison which was truly spanish, as it saw Alfonso among the persons who were galloping and shouting, opened the gates and allowed everyone in. People did not give them, however, not any more time to pull up the bridge, for suddenly they spoke another language and shot altogether. “France! France!” will they now be shouting. The guns started also to pound and took over the gates, and hence Vieilleville became master of the city. People found in the same city an unexpectedly great supply of provisions which the widowed Duchess of Lorraine has secretly built up there, through the river, for her uncle serving under the Emperor's armies.
Regarding Don Alfonso, people found him the next morning still fully dressed, dead, on his bed. Vincent of La Porta, a Neapolitan nobleman who was delivered to Vieilleville, could not be forced to get him undressed, although people asked him so pressingly. Cold could not be held responsible for his death, for the nobleman and six other soldiers with whom he kept watch, entertained in the room such a great fire, that people could hardly get in there. It was doubt and heartfelt misery which made him precipitate himself so foolishly into the attack, which took his life in such a violent way. Adding to that, still, the shame and the fear to ever appear before his master who was already irritated against all the military leaders and best officers of his army, as the Duke of Alba wrote to him the day before his capture; this was the content of the letter translated by the Greek in French, in which some ridiculous passages come forward. The letter started in the following manner, after some complimentary introduction:
“The Emperor really knew that the breach (before Metz) is rather considerable, but since none of his officers dared to go in there, he allowed himself to be carried there by four soldiers and asked very angrily, when he saw it: “But for God’s sake! Why don't people go in there? It is indeed large enough and looks like a tomb, what else do you need to begin an incursion, by God!?” I answered to him that we knew certainly that the Duke of Guise has dug a very wide and great retrenchment with innumerable fire holes behind the breach, so that any army could be engulfed there. “To hell!” continued the Emperor, “why have you not attempted to get there?” I was necessitated to answer him, that we were not before Düren, Ingolstadt, Passau, or any other German cities which surrendered themselves, when they were only burned; for in this city, there are ten thousand brave men, sixty to eighty of the most excellent french lords and nine to ten Princes of royal blood, like Your Majesty; you know that our bloody and victorious attacks, always make a lot of losses. After this presentation, he would only get even more angry and said: “By God! I see well that I do not have any man; I must bid farewell to the Empire, to all my plans, to the world and retreat in a cloister, for I am betrayed, sold or at least, so terribly served in a way that any Monarch cannot be! By God, after three years like these, I will become a monk!”
“I assure you, Don Alonso, I would have immediately left his service, if I were not a Spaniard. For he is badly served in this siege; hence, he must rely upon Brabancon, a military leader of the Queen of Hungary who commanded mainly this siege and so to speak, is to be considered french, the same way as the city of Metz enjoys a french climate; and he is bragging about a connivance with many inhabitants, among whom the Tallanges, the Baudoiches, the Gornays, many old, noble people of the city of Metz. We have also attacked the city on its strongest side, our mines were discovered and did not produce any effect. Hence, everything went badly for us and against all hope, went even worse. We have to fight against human beings and the climate. He does not regret it and remains firmly there, and to cover his stubbornness, he blamed us and accused us of all the misfortune and his mistakes. All these days, he sees his infantry storming there massively and particularly our Germans who are covered with mud up to the ears.
Please send to us, indeed, the eleven ships with provisions which Your Highness of Lorraine has determined for us, because our armies have suffered infinitely. Before anything else, however, pay respect to Vieilleville who came from Verdun to Toul with his troops, for the Emperor already augured many terrible things, as he has already for long heard about his braveness and astuteness; he even said that without him, he would have already been King of France; for as he invaded the kingdom in Provence, Vieilleville preceded him and through one of his war tactics, has made himself master of Avignon; hence allowing the Constable to pull together his army which hindered him to advance further. I give you,