Duchess Yolande, who had hastened to the relief of Duke Charles, was also so suspected by her defeated ally that he caused her to be arrested by his maître d'hôtel and some brutal Italian soldiers and cast into the Burgundian fortress of Rouvres, whence, finally convinced that her brother was the most powerful as well as the most friendly of her foes, she appealed to him for deliverance. Brought by his agents to France after three months' imprisonment, Louis summoned her to his presence at Plessis-les-Tours: "Madame la Bourguignonne," he said with his evil smile, "you are welcome." "I am a good French woman," replied his sister, "and ready to obey the will of your Majesty."
Whether, as has been recorded, Louis really loved his sister, who was almost as able and far more attractive than himself, he kept her in strict imprisonment until she signed a paper of perpetual fidelity to him, and then he sent her back to Savoy and reëstablished her on her ducal throne. The prince bishop of Geneva was even more eager than his sister-in-law to desert Duke Charles, and fearing that his city would suffer the fate of Lausanne, offered to assist the Bernois in invading Burgundy, there to complete the duke's destruction; whereupon the Bernois at the price of an enormous indemnity consented to spare Geneva, and to cease all further conquests in the Pays de Vaud. They also agreed, under the repeated commands of King Louis to send their deputies to a convention of the ambassadors of all the powers to meet at Fribourg in July, 1476. A great and imposing company were these ambassadors, who from France and Austria, Savoy, and the confederated cities and cantons of Switzerland met to treat of the long needed peace. Among them were Duke René of Lorraine and Count Louis of Gruyère, who together with a representative of Archduke Sigismund, were chosen as arbitrators to decide the terms of the proposed treaty. Acting for Savoy, the count of Gruyère, who only by _force majeure_ had sided with its foes, now ably and happily proved his real fidelity to its interests, providing for the restoration of all its possessions in the Pays de Vaud. At a second conference at Annecy, when the alliance between the Confederates and Savoy was amicably regulated, he was also present, receiving from the Genevan delegates rich donations for his invaluable services. For Duke Charles, also Count Louis was as before willing to negotiate a peace with Fribourg, but when a second deputation of the same messengers whom the duke had before despatched to him, was again unable to furnish the written authority he required, he was once more unable to mediate on the duke's behalf. But when his friend and co-arbitrator, Duke René of Lorraine, appealed for assistance to the Swiss to repel Duke Charles' final attack upon his duchy, no answer was forthcoming from Gruyère, and among the German-Swiss confederates at whose hands Duke Charles suffered his cruel death before the walls of Nancy, Count Louis' soldiers had no part. Small benefit was destined to accrue, as the history of Europe unrolled through the succeeding years, from the fall of the house of Burgundy. For while Louis XI by his evil plotting had enlarged his kingdom, by obliterating the barrier of Burgundy between France and Austria he had at the same time made way for centuries of wars. "Here," said the 15th Louis before the tomb of the last duke of Burgundy, "is the cradle of all our wars." As for Switzerland, the system of mercenary service inaugurated by Louis debased its honor and divided its sons, who, fighting in the opposing armies of Europe, delayed for many years the development and the independence of their country. For a few years only, Savoy and Romand Switzerland enjoyed peace. Duchess Yolande, although still threatened by the Savoy princes, was sustained upon the throne by her brother who in this one instance was faithful to his promises. She reëstablished the customs of the ducal court and organized plays and festivities; and surrounding herself with a train of musicians, with the soothing sounds of flutes and harps, attempted to forget the fierce trials and tumults of her reign. But her spirit and her strength were broken, and, succumbing to an early death, she left her young son Philibert to succeed to the duchy under the governorship of the Count de la Chambre, who had been chosen by King Louis. The influence of this agent, however, became too great for the designing king who intended to preserve his jurisdiction over Savoy. He, therefore, instigated a revolt in the Piemontaise provinces of the duchy with the connivance of its ruler the Savoyard prince, Count Philippe de la Bresse.