difficulty whatever, that as touching the duchy of Normandy it ought not
to and cannot be separated from the crown in any way whatsoever, but must
remain united, annexed, and conjoined thereto inseparably.  Further, any
arrangement of the Duke of Brittany with the English is a thing damnable,
pernicious, and of most evil consequences, and one which is not to be
permitted, suffered, or tolerated in any way.  Lastly, if Sir Charles,
the Duke of Brittany, or others, did make war on the king our sovereign
lord, or have any treaty or connection with his enemies, the king is
bound to proceed against them who should do so, according to what must be
done in such case for the tranquillity and security of the realm
.  .  .  .  And as often soever as the said cases may occur, the people
of the estates have agreed and consented, do agree and consent, that,
without waiting for other assemblage or congregation of the estates, the
king have power to do all that comports with order and justice; the said
estates promising and agreeing to serve and aid the king touching these
matters, to obey him with all their might, and to live and die with him
in this quarrel."

Louis XI. himself could demand no more.  Had they been more experienced
and far-sighted, the states-general of 1468 would not have been disposed
to resign, even temporarily, into the hands of the kingship, their rights
and their part in the government of the country; but they showed
patriotism and good sense in defending the integrity of the kingdom,
national unity, and public order against the selfish ambition and
disorderly violence of feudalism.

Fortified by their burst of attachment, Louis, by the treaty of Ancenis,
signed on the 10th of September, 1468, put an end to his differences with
Francis II., Duke of Brittany, who gave up his alliance with the house of
Burgundy, and undertook to prevail upon Duke Charles of France to accept
an arbitration for the purpose of settling, before two years were over,
the question of his territorial appanage in the place of Normandy.  In
the meanwhile a pension of sixty thousand livres was to be paid by the
crown to that prince.  Thus Louis was left with the new duke, Charles of
Burgundy, as the only adversary he had to face.  His advisers were
divided as to the course to be taken with this formidable vassal.  Was he
to be dealt with by war or by negotiation?  Count de Dampmartin, Marshal
de Rouault, and nearly all the military men earnestly advised war.
"Leave it to us," they said: "we will give the king a good account of
this Duke of Burgundy.  Plague upon it! what do these Burgundians mean?
They have called in the English and made alliance with them in order to
give us battle; they have handed over the country to fire and sword; they
have driven the king from his lordship.  We have suffered too much; we
must have revenge; down upon them, in the name of the devil, down upon
them.  The king makes a sheep of himself and bargains for his wool and
his skin, as if he had not wherewithal to defend himself.  'Sdeath! if
we were in his place, we would rather risk the whole kingdom than let
ourselves be treated in this fashion."  But the king did not like to risk
the kingdom; and he had more confidence in negotiation than in war.  Two
of his principal advisers, the constable De St. Pol and the cardinal De
la Balue, Bishop of Evreux, were of his opinion, and urged him to the top
of his bent.  Of them he especially made use in his more or less secret
relations with the Duke of Burgundy; and he charged them to sound him
with respect to a personal interview between himself and the duke.  It
has been very well remarked by M. de Barante, in his _Histoire des Dues
de Bourgogne,_ that "Louis had a great idea of the influence he gained
over people by his wits and his language; he was always convinced that
people never said what ought to be said, and that they did not set to
work the right way."  It was a certain way of pleasing him to give him
promise of a success which he would owe to himself alone; and the
constable and the cardinal did not fail to do so.  They found the Duke of
Burgundy very little disposed to accept the king's overtures.  "By St.
George," said he, "I ask nothing but what is just and reasonable; I
desire the fulfilment of the treaties of Arras and of Conflans to which
the king has sworn.  I make no war on him; it is he who is coming to make
it on me; but should he bring all the forces of his kingdom I will not
budge from here or recoil the length of my foot.  My predecessors have
seen themselves in worse plight, and have not been dismayed."  Neither
the constable De St. Pol nor the cardinal De la Balue said anything to
the king about this rough disposition on the part of Duke Charles; they
both in their own personal interest desired the interview, and did not
care to bring to light anything that might be an obstacle to it.  Louis
persisted in his desire, and sent to ask the duke for a letter of
safe-conduct.  Charles wrote with his own hand, on the 8th of October,
1468, as follows:--

"My lord, if it is your pleasure to come to this town of Peronne for
to see us, I swear to you and promise you, by my faith and on my
honor, that you may come, remain, sojourn, and go back safely to the
places of Chauny and Noy on, at your pleasure, as many times as it
may please you, freely and frankly, without any hinderance to you or
to any of your folks from me or others in any case whatever and
whatsoever may happen."

[Illustration: Charles the Rash----203]

When this letter arrived at Noyon, extreme surprise and alarm were
displayed about Louis; the interview appeared to be a mad idea; the
vicegerent (vidam) of Amiens came hurrying up with a countryman who
declared on his life that mylord of Burgundy wished for it only to make
an attempt upon the king's person; the king's greatest enemies, it was
said, were already, or soon would be, with the duke; and the captains
vehemently reiterated their objections.  But Louis held to his purpose,
and started for Noyon on the 2d of October, taking with him the
constable, the cardinal, his confessor, and, for all his escort,
fourscore of his faithful Scots, and sixty men-at-arms.  This knowing
gossip, as his contemporaries called him, had fits of rashness and
audacious vanity.

Duke Charles went to meet him outside the town.  They embraced one
another, and returned on foot to Peronne, chatting familiarly, and the
king with his hand resting on the duke's shoulder, in token of amity.
Louis had quarters at the house of the chamberlain of the town; the
castle of Peronne being, it was said, in too bad a state, and too ill
furnished, for his reception.  On the very day that the king entered
Peronne, the duke's army, commanded by the Marshal of Burgundy, arrived
from the opposite side, and encamped beneath the walls.  Several former
servants of the king, now not on good terms with him, accompanied the
Burgundian army.  "As soon as the king was apprised of the arrival of
these folks," says Commynes, "he had a great fright, and sent to beg of
the Duke of Burgundy that he might be lodged at the castle, seeing that
all those who had come were evil disposed towards him.  The duke was very
much rejoiced thereat, had him lodged there, and stoutly assured him that
he had no cause for doubt."  Next day parleys began between the
councillors of the two princes.  They did not appear much disposed to
come to an understanding, and a little sourness of spirit was beginning
to show itself on both sides, when there came news which excited a grand
commotion.  "King Louis, on coming to Peronne, had not considered," says
Commynes, "that he had sent two ambassadors to the folks of Liege to
excite them against the duke.  Nevertheless, the said ambassadors had
advanced matters so well that they had already made a great mass (of
rebels).  The Liegese came and took by surprise the town of Tongres,
wherein were the Bishop of Liege and the Lord of Humbercourt, whom they
took also, slaying, moreover, some servants of the said bishop."  The
fugitives who reported this news at Peronne made the matter a great deal
worse than it was; they had no doubt, they said, but that the bishop and
Sire d'Humbercourt had also been murdered; and Charles had no more doubt
about it than they.  His fury was extreme; he strode to and fro,
everywhere relating the news from Liege.  "So the king," said he, "came
here only to deceive me; it is he who, by his ambassadors, excited these
bad folks of Liege; but, by St. George, they shall be severely punished
for it, and he, himself, shall have cause to repent."  He gave immediate
orders to have the gates of the town and of the castle closed and guarded
by the archers; but being a little troubled, nevertheless, as to the
effect which would be produced by this order, he gave as his reason for
it that he was quite determined to have recovered a box full of gold and
jewels which had been stolen from him.  "I verily believe," says
Commynes, "that if just then the duke had found those whom he addressed
ready to encourage him, or advise him to do the king a bad turn, he would
have done it; but at that time I was still with the said duke; I served
him as chamberlain, and I slept in his room when I pleased, for such was
the usage of that house.  With me was there none at this speech of the
duke's, save two grooms of the chamber, one called Charles de Visen, a
native of Dijon, an honest man, and one who had great credit with his
master; and we exasperated nought, but assuaged according to our power."

Whilst Duke Charles was thus abandoning himself to the first outburst of
his wrath, King Louis remained impassive in the castle of Peronne, quite
close to the great tower, wherein, about the year 925, King Charles the
Simple had been confined by Herbert, Count of Vermandois, and died a
prisoner in 929.  None of Louis's people had been removed from him; but
the gate of the castle was strictly guarded.  There was no entering.
on his service, but by the wicket, and none of the duke's people came to
visit him; he had no occasion to parley, explain himself, and guess what
it was expedient for him to say or do; he was alone, wrestling with his
imagination and his lively impressions, with the feeling upon him of the
recent mistakes he had committed, especially in exciting the Liegese to
rebellion, and forgetting the fact just when he was coming to place
himself in his enemy's hands.  Far, however, from losing his head, Louis
displayed in this perilous trial all the penetration, activity, and
shrewdness of his mind, together with all the suppleness of his
character; he sent by his own servants questions, offers, and promises to
all the duke's servants from whom he could hope for any help or any good
advice.  Fifteen thousand golden crowns, with which he had provided
himself at starting, were given by him to be distributed amongst the
household of the Duke of Burgundy; a liberality which was perhaps
useless, since it is said that he to whom he had intrusted the sum kept a
good portion of it for himself.  The king passed two days in this state
of gloomy expectancy as to what was in preparation against him.

On the 11th of October, Duke Charles, having cooled down a little,
assembled his council.  The sitting lasted all the day and part of the
night.  Louis had sent to make an offer to swear a peace, such as, at the
moment of his arrival, had been proposed to him, without any reservation
or difficulty on his part.  He engaged to join the duke in making war
upon the Liegese and chastising them for their rebellion.  He would leave
as hostages his nearest relatives and his most intimate advisers.  At the
beginning of the council his proposals were not even listened to; there
was no talk but of keeping the king a prisoner, and sending after his
brother, the Prince Charles, with whom the entire government of the
kingdom should be arranged; the messenger had orders to be in readiness
to start at once; his horse was in the court-yard; he was only waiting
for the letters which the duke was writing to Brittany.  The chancellor
of Burgundy and some of the wiser councillors besought the duke to
reflect.

The king had come to Peronne on the faith of his safe-conduct; it would
be an eternal dishonor for the house of Burgundy if he broke his word to
his sovereign lord; and the conditions which the king was prepared to
grant would put an end, with advantage to Burgundy, to serious and
difficult business.  The duke gave heed to these honest and prudent
counsels; the news from Liege turned out to be less serious than the
first rumors had represented; the bishop and Sire d'Humbercourt had been
set at liberty.  Charles retired to his chamber; and there, without
thinking of undressing, he walked to and fro with long strides, threw
himself upon his bed, got up again, and soliloquized out loud, addressing
himself occasionally to Commynes, who lay close by him.  Towards morning,
though he still showed signs of irritation, his language was less
threatening.  "He has promised me," said he, "to come with me to
reinstate the Bishop of Liege, who is my brother-in-law, and a relation
of his also; he shall certainly come; I shall not scruple to hold him to
his word that he gave me;" and he at once sent Sires de Crequi, de
Charni, and de la Roche to tell the king that he was about to come and
swear peace with him.  Commynes had only just time to tell Louis in what
frame of mind the duke was, and in what danger he would place himself, if
he hesitated either to swear peace or to march against the Liegese.

As soon as it was broad day, the duke entered the apartment of the castle
where the king was a prisoner.  His look was courteous, but his voice
trembled with choler; his words were short and bitter, his manner was
threatening.  A little troubled at his aspect, Louis said, "Brother, I am
safe, am I not, in your house and your country?"  "Yes, sir," answered
the duke, "so safe that if I saw an arrow from a bow coming towards you I
would throw myself in the way to protect you.  But will you not be
pleased to swear the treaty just as it is written?"  "Yes," said the
king, "and I thank you for your good will."  "And will you not be pleased
to come with me to Liege, to help me punish the treason committed against
me by these Lidgese, all through you and your journey hither?  The bishop
is your near relative, of the house of Bourbon."  "Yes, Padues-Dieu,"
replied Louis, "and I am much astounded at their wickedness.  But begin
we by swearing this treaty; and then I will start, with as many or as few
of my people as you please."

Forthwith was taken out from the king's boxes the wood of the so-called
true cross, which was named the cross of St. Laud, because it had been
preserved in the church of St. Laud, at Angers.  It was supposed to have
formerly belonged to Charlemagne; and it was the relic which Louis
regarded as the most sacred.  The treaty was immediately signed, without
any change being made in that of Conflans.  The Duke of Burgundy merely
engaged to use his influence with Prince Charles of France to induce him
to be content with Brie and Champagne as appanage.  The storm was
weathered; and Louis almost rejoiced at seeing himself called upon to
chastise in person the Liegese, who had made him commit such a mistake
and run such a risk.

Next day the two princes set out together, Charles with his army, and
Louis with his modest train increased by three hundred men-at-arms, whom
he had sent for from France.  On the 27th of October they arrived before
Liege.  Since Duke Charles's late victories, the city had no longer any
ramparts or ditches; nothing seemed easier than to get into it; but the
besieged could not persuade themselves that Louis was sincerely allied
with the Duke of Burgundy, and they made a sortie, shouting, "Hurrah for
the king!  Hurrah for France!"  Great was their surprise when they saw
Louis advancing in person, wearing in his hat the cross of St. Andrew of
Burgundy, and shouting, "Hurrah for Burgundy!" Some even amongst the
French who surrounded the king were shocked; they could not reconcile
themselves to so little pride and such brazen falsehood.  Louis took no
heed of their temper, and never ceased to repeat, "When pride rides
before, shame and hurt follow close after."  The surprise of the Liegese
was transformed into indignation.

[Illustration: Louis XI. and Charles the Rash at Peronne----209]

They made a more energetic and a longer resistance than had been
expected.  The besiegers, confident in their strength, kept careless
watch, and the sorties of the besieged became more numerous.  One night
Charles received notice that his men had just been attacked in a suburb
which they had held, and were flying.  He mounted his horse, gave orders
not to awake the king, repaired by himself to the place where the fight
was, put everything to rights, and came back and told the whole affair to
Louis, who exhibited great joy.  Another time, one dark and rainy night,
there was an alarm, about midnight, of a general attack upon the whole
Burgundian camp.  The duke was soon up, and a moment afterwards the king
arrived.  There was great disorder.  "The Liegese sallied by this gate,"
said some; "No," said others, "it was by that gate!" there was nothing
known for certain, and there were no orders given.  Charles was impetuous
and brave, but he was easily disconcerted, and his servants were somewhat
vexed not to see him putting a better countenance on things before the
king.  Louis, on the other hand, was cool and calm, giving commands
firmly, and ready to assume responsibility wherever he happened to be.
"Take what men you have," said he to the constable St. Poi, who was at
his side, "and go in this direction; if they are really coming upon us,
they will pass that way."  It was discovered to be a false alarm.  Two
days afterwards there was a more serious affair.  The inhabitants of a
canton which was close to the city, and was called Franchemont, resolved
to make a desperate effort, and go and fall suddenly upon the very spot
where the two princes were quartered.  One night, about ten P.  M., six
hundred men sallied out by one of the breaches, all men of stout hearts
and well armed.  The duke's quarters were first attacked.  Only twelve
archers were on guard below, and they were playing at dice.  Charles was
in bed.  Commynes put on him, as quickly as possible, his breastplate and
helmet, and they went down stairs.  The archers were with great
difficulty defending the doorway, but help arrived, and the danger was
over.  The quarters of King Louis had also been attacked; but at the
first sound the Scottish archers had hurried up, surrounded their master,
and repulsed the attack, without caring whether their arrows killed
Liegese or such Burgundians as had come up with assistance.  The gallant
fellows from Franchemont fell, almost to a man.  The duke and his
principal captains held a council the next day; and the duke was for
delivering the assault.  The king was not present at this council, and
when he was informed of the resolution taken he was not in favor of an
assault.  "You see," said he, "the courage of these people; you know how
murderous and uncertain is street fighting; you will lose many brave men
to no purpose.  Wait two or three days, and the Liegese will infallibly
come to terms."  Nearly all the Burgundian captains sided with the king.
The duke got angry.  "He wishes to spare the Liegese," said he; "what
danger is there in this assault?  There are no walls; they can't put a
single gun in position; I certainly will not give up the assault; if the
king is afraid, let him get him gone to Namur."  Such an insult shocked
even the Burgundians.  Louis was informed of it, but said nothing.  Next
day, the 30th of October, 1468, the assault was ordered; and the duke
marched at the head of his troops.  Up came the king; but, "Bide," said
Charles; "put not yourself uselessly in danger; I will send you word when
it is time."  "Lead on, brother," replied Louis; "you are the most
fortunate prince alive; I will follow you."  And he continued marching
with him.  But the assault was unnecessary.  Discouragement had taken
possession of the Liegese, the bravest of whom had fallen.  It was
Sunday, and the people who remained were not expecting an attack; "the
cloth was laid in every house, and all were preparing for dinner."  The
Burgundians moved forward through the empty streets; and Louis marched
quietly along, surrounded by his own escort, and shouting, "Hurrah for
Burgundy!"  The duke turned back to meet him, and they went together to
give thanks to God in the cathedral of St.  Lambert.  It was the only
church which had escaped from the fury and the pillaging of the
Burgundians; by midday there was nothing left to take in the houses or in
the churches.  Louis loaded Duke Charles with felicitations and
commendations: "He knew how to turn them in a fashion so courteous and
amiable that the duke was charmed and softened."  The next day, as they
were talking together, "Brother," said the king to the duke, "if you
have still need of my help, do not spare me; but if you have nothing more
for me to do, it would be well for me to go back to Paris, to make public
in my court of parliament the arrangement we have come to together;
otherwise it would run a risk of becoming of no avail; you know that such
is the custom of France.  Next summer we must meet again; you will come
into your duchy of Burgundy, and I will go and pay you a visit, and we
will pass a week joyously together in making good cheer."  Charles made
no answer, and sent for the treaty lately concluded between them at
Peronne, leaving it to the king's choice to confirm or to renounce it,
and excusing himself in covert terms for having thus constrained him and
brought him away.  The king made a show of being satisfied with the
treaty, and on the 2d of November, 1468, the day but one after the
capture of Liege, set out for France.  The duke bore him company to
within half a league of the city.  As they were taking leave of one
another, the king said to him, "If, peradventure, my brother Charles, who
is in Brittany, should be discontented with the assignment I make him for
love of you, what would you have me do?"  "If he do not please to take
it," answered the duke, "but would have you satisfy him, I leave it to
you two."  Louis desired no more: he returned home free and confident in
himself, "after having passed the most trying three weeks of his life."

But Louis XI.'s deliverance after his quasi-captivity at Peronne, and the
new treaty he had concluded with Duke Charles, were and could be only a
temporary break in the struggle between these two princes, destined as
they were, both by character and position, to irremediable
incompatibility.  They were too powerful and too different to live at
peace when they were such close neighbors, and when their relations were
so complicated.  We find in the chronicle of George Chastelain, a Flemish
burgher, and a servant on familiar terms with Duke Charles, as he had
been with his father, Duke Philip, a judicious picture of this
incompatibility and the causes of it.  "There had been," he says, "at all
times a rancor between these two princes, and, whatever pacification
might have been effected to-day, everything returned to-morrow to the old
condition, and no real love could be established.  They suffered from
incompatibility of temperament and perpetual discordance of will; and the
more they advanced in years the deeper they plunged into a state of
serious difference and hopeless bitterness.  The king was a man of
subtlety and full of fence; he knew how to recoil for a better spring,
how to affect humility and gentleness in his deep designs, how to yield
and to give up in order to receive double, and how to bear and tolerate
for a time his own grievances in hopes of being able at last to have his
revenge.  He was, therefore, very much to be feared for his practical
knowledge, showing the greatest skill and penetration in the world.  Duke
Charles was to be feared for his great courage, which he evinced and
displayed in his actions, making no account of king or emperor.  Thus,
whilst the king had great sense and great ability, which he used with
dissimulation and suppleness in order to succeed in his views, the duke,
on his side, had a great sense of another sort and to another purpose,
which he displayed by a public ostentation of his pride, without any fear
of putting himself in a false position."  Between 1468 and 1477, from the
incident at Peronne to the death of Charles at the siege of Nancy, the
history of the two princes was nothing but one constant alternation
between ruptures and re-adjustments, hostilities and truces, wherein both
were constantly changing their posture, their language, and their allies.
It was at one time the affairs of the Duke of Brittany or those of Prince
Charles of France, become Duke of Guienne; at another it was the
relations with the different claimants to the throne of England, or the
fate of the towns, in Picardy, handed over to the Duke of Burgundy by the
treaties of Conflans and Peronne, which served as a ground or pretext for
the frequent recurrences of war.  In 1471 St. Quentin opened its gates to
Count Louis of St. Poi, constable of France; and Duke Charles complained
with threats about it to the Count of Dampmartin, who was in commend, on
that frontier, of Louis XI.'s army, and had a good understanding with the
constable.  Dampmartin, "one of the bravest men of his time," says Duclos
[Histoire de Louis XI in the (Enures completes of Duclos, t. ii. p. 429),
"sincere and faithful, a warm friend and an implacable foe, at once
replied to the duke, 'Most high and puissant prince, I suppose your
letters to have been dictated by your council and highest clerics, who
are folks better at letter-making than I am, for I have not lived by
quill-driving.  .  .  .  If I write you matter that displeases you, and
you have a desire to revenge yourself upon me, you shall find me so near
to your army that you will know how little fear I have of you.  .  .  .
Be assured that if it be your will to go on long making war upon the
king, it will at last be found out by all the world that as a soldier you
have mistaken your calling."  The next year (1472) war broke out.  Duke
Charles went and laid siege to Beauvais, and on the 27th of June
delivered the first assault.  The inhabitants were at this moment left
almost alone to defend their town.  A young girl of eighteen, Joan
Fourquet, whom a burgher's wife of Beauvais, Madame Laisne, her mother by
adoption, had bred up in the history, still so recent, of Joan of Arc,
threw herself into the midst of the throng, holding up her little axe
(hachette) before the image of St. Angadresme, patroness of the town, and
crying, "O glorious virgin, come to my aid; to arms! to arms!"  The
assault was repulsed; re-enforcements came up from Noyon, Amiens, and
Paris, under the orders of the Marshal de Rouault; and the mayor of
Beauvais presented Joan to him.  "Sir," said the young girl to him, "you
have everywhere been victor, and you will be so with us."  On the 9th of
July the Duke of Burgundy delivered a second assault, which lasted four
hours.  Some Burgundians had escaladed a part of the ramparts; Joan
Hachette arrived there just as one of them was planting his flag on the
spot; she pushed him over the side into the ditch, and went down in
pursuit of him; the man fell on one knee; Joan struck him down, took
possession of the flag, and mounted up to the ramparts again, crying,
"Victory!"  The same cry resounded at all points of the wall; the assault
was everywhere repulsed.  The vexation of Charles was great; the day
before he had been almost alone in advocating the assault; in the
evening, as he lay on his camp-bed, according to his custom, he had asked
several of his people whether they thought the townsmen were prepared for
it.  "Yes, certainly," was the answer; "there are a great number of
them."  "You will not find a soul there to-morrow," said Charles with a
sneer.  He remained for twelve days longer before the place, looking for
a better chance; but on the 12th of July he decided upon raising the
siege, and took the road to Normandy.  Some days before attacking
Beauvais, he had taken, not without difficulty, Nesle in the Vermandois.
"There it was," says Commynes, "that he first committed a horrible and
wicked deed of war, which had never been his wont; this was burning
everything everywhere; those who were taken alive were hanged; a pretty
large number had their hands cut off.  It mislikes me to speak of such
cruelty; but I was on the spot, and must needs say something about it."
Commynes undoubtedly said something about it to Charles himself, who
answered, "It is the fruit borne by the tree of war; it would have been
the fate of Beauvais if I could have taken the town."

Between the two rivals in France, relations with England were a subject
of constant manoeuvring and strife.  In spite of reverses on the
Continent and civil wars in their own island, the Kings of England had
not abandoned their claims to the crown of France; they were still in
possession of Calais; and the memory of the battles of Crecy, Poitiers,
and Agincourt was still a tower of strength to them.  Between 1470 and
1472 the house of York had triumphed over the house of Lancaster; and
Edward IV. was undisputed king.  In his views touching France he found a
natural ally in the Duke of Burgundy; and it was in concert with Charles
that Edward was incessantly concocting and attempting plots and campaigns
against Louis XI.  In 1474 he, by a herald, called upon Louis to give up
to him Normandy and Guienne, else, he told him, he would cross over to
France with his army.  "Tell your master," answered Louis coolly, "that I
should not advise him to."  Next year the herald returned to tell Louis
that the King of England, on the point of embarking, called upon him to
give up to him the kingdom of France.  Louis had a conversation with the
herald.  "Your king," said he, "is undertaking this war against his own
grain at the solicitation of the Duke of Burgundy; he would do much
better to live in peace with me, instead of devoting himself to allies
who cannot but compromise him without doing him any service;" and he had
three hundred golden crowns presented to the herald, with a promise of
considerably more if peace were made.  The herald, thus won over,
promised, in his turn, to do all he could, saying that he believed that
his master would lend a willing ear, but that, before mentioning the
subject, they must wait until Edward had crossed the sea and formed some
idea of the difficulties in the way of his enterprise; and he advised
Louis to establish communications with my lord Howard and my lord
Stanley, who had great influence with King Edward.  "Whilst the king was
parleying with the said herald, there were many folks in the hall," says
Commynes, "who were waiting, and had great longing to know what the king
was saying to him, and what countenance he would wear when he came from
within.  The king, when he had made an end, called me and told me to keep
the said herald talking, so that none might speak to him, and to have
delivered unto him a piece of crimson velvet containing thirty ells.  So
did I, and the king was right joyous at that which he had got out of the
said herald."

[Illustration: Philip de Commynes----217]

It was now three years since Philip de Commynes had left the Duke of
Burgundy's service to enter that of Louis XI.  In 1471 Charles had, none
knows why, rashly authorized an interview between Louis and De Commynes.
"The king's speech," says the chronicler Molinet, in the Duke of
Burgundy's service, "was so sweet and full of virtue that it entranced,
siren-like, all those who gave ear to it."  "Of all princes," says
Commynes himself, "he was the one who was at most pains to gain over a
man who was able to serve him, and able to injure him; and he was not put
out at being refused once by one whom he was working to gain over, but
continued thereat, making him large promises, and actually giving money
and estate when he made acquaintances that were pleasing to him."
Commynes spoke according to his own experience.  Louis, from the moment
of making his acquaintance, had guessed his value; and as early as 1468,
in the course of his disagreeable adventure at Peronne, he had found the
good offices of Commynes of great service to him.  It was probably from
this very time that he applied himself assiduously to the task of gaining
him over.  Commynes hesitated a long while; but Louis was even more
perseveringly persistent than Commynes was hesitating.  The king backed
up his handsome offers by substantial and present gifts.  In 1471,
according to what appears, he lent Commynes six thousand livres of Tours,
which the Duke of Burgundy's councillor lodged with a banker at Tours.
The next year, the king, seeing that Commynes was still slow to decide,
bade one of his councillors to go to Tours, in his name, and seize at the
banker's the six thousand livres intrusted to the latter by Commynes.
"This," says the learned editor of the last edition of Commynes'
Memoires, "was an able and decisive blow.  The effect of the seizure
could not but be, and indeed was, to put Commynes in the awkward dilemma
of seeing his practices (as the saying was at that time) divulged without
reaping the fruit of them, or of securing the advantages only by setting
aside the scruples which held him back.  He chose the latter course,
which had become the safer; and during the night between the 7th and 8th
of August, 1472, he left Burgundy forever.  The king was at that time at
Ponts-de-Ce, and there his new servant joined him."  The very day of his
departure, at six A. M., Duke Charles had a seizure made of all the goods
and all the rights belonging to the fugitive; "but what Commynes lost on
one side," says his editor, "he was about to recover a hundred fold on
the other; scarcely had he arrived at the court of Louis XI. when he
received at once the title of councillor and chamberlain to the king;
soon afterwards a pension of six thousand livres of Tours was secured to
him, by way of giving him wherewithal to honorably maintain his position;
he was put into the place of captain of the castle and keep of the town
of Chinon; and lastly, a present was made to him of the rich principality
of Talmont."  Six months later, in January, 1473, Commynes married Helen
de Chambes, daughter of the lord of Montsoreau, who brought him as dowry
twenty-seven thousand five hundred livres of Tours, which enabled him to
purchase the castle, town, barony, land, and lordship of Argenton
[arrondissement of Bressuire, department of Deux-Sevres], the title of
which he thenceforward assumed.

Half a page or so can hardly be thought too much space to devote in a
History of France to the task of tracing to their origin the conduct and
fortunes of one of the most eminent French politicians, who, after having
taken a chief part in the affairs of their country and their epoch, have
dedicated themselves to the work of narrating them in a spirit of liberal
and admirable comprehension both of persons and events.  But we will
return to Louis XI.

The King of England readily entertained the overtures announced to him by
his herald.  He had landed at Calais on the 22d of June, 1475, with an
army of from sixteen to eighteen thousand men thirsting for conquest and
pillage in France, and the Duke of Burgundy had promised to go and join
him with a considerable force; but the latter, after having appeared for
a moment at Calais to concert measures with his ally, returned no more,
and even hesitated about admitting the English into his towns of Artois
and Picardy.  Edward waited for him nearly two months at Peronne, but in
vain.  During this time Louis continued his attempts at negotiation.  He
fixed his quarters at Amiens, and Edward came and encamped half a league
from the town.  The king sent to him, it is said, three hundred wagons
laden with the best wines he could find, "the which train," says
Commynes, "was almost an army as big as the English;" at the entrance of
the gate of Amiens Louis had caused to be set out two large tables
"laden with all sorts of good eatables and good wines; and at each of
these two tables he had caused to be seated five or six men of good
family, stout and fat, to make better sport for them who had a mind to
drink.  When the English went into the town, wherever they put up they
had nothing to pay; there were nine or ten taverns, well supplied,
whither they went to eat and drink, and asked for what they pleased.  And
this lasted three or four days."  An agreement was soon come to as to the
terms of peace.  King Edward bound himself to withdraw with his army to
England so soon as Louis XI. should have paid him seventy-five thousand
crowns.  Louis promised besides to pay annually to King Edward fifty
thousand crowns, in two payments, during the time that both princes were
alive.  A truce for seven years was concluded; they made mutual promises
to lend each other aid if they were attacked by their enemies or by their
own subjects in rebellion; and Prince Charles, the eldest son of Louis
XI., was to marry Elizabeth, Edward's daughter, when both should be of
marriageable age.  Lastly, Queen Margaret of Anjou, who had been a
prisoner in England since the death of her husband, Henry VI., was to be
set at liberty, and removed to France, on renouncing all claim to the
crown of England.  These conditions having been formulated, it was agreed
that the two kings should meet and sign them at Pecquigny, on the Somme,
three leagues from Amiens.  Thither, accordingly, they repaired, on the
29th of August, 1475.  Edward, as he drew near, doffed "his bonnet of
black velvet, whereon was a large fleur-de-lis in jewels, and bowed down
to within half a foot of the ground."  Louis made an equally deep
reverence, saying, "Sir my cousin, right welcome; there is no man in the
world I could more desire to see than I do you, and praised be God that
we are here assembled with such good intent."  The King of England
answered this speech "in good French enough," says Commynes.  The missal
was brought; the two kings swore and signed four distinct treaties; and
then they engaged in a long private conversation, after which Louis went
away to Amiens and Edward to his army, whither Louis sent to him "all
that he had need of, even to torches and candles."  As he went chatting
along the road with Commynes, Louis told him that he had found the King
of England so desirous of paying a visit to Paris that he had been
anything but pleased.  "He is a right handsome king," said he: "he is
very fond of women; and he might well meet at Paris some smitten one who
would know how to make him such pretty speeches as to render him desirous
of another visit.  His predecessors were far too much in Normandy and
Paris; his comradeship is worth nothing on our side of the sea; on the
other side, over yonder, I should like very well to have him for good
brother and good friend."  Throughout the whole course of the negotiation
Louis had shown pliancy and magnificence; he had laden Edward's chief
courtiers with presents; two thousand crowns by way of pension had been
allowed to his grand chamberlain, Lord Hastings, who would not give an
acknowledgment.  "This gift comes of the king your master's good pleasure,
and not at my request," said he to Louis's steward; "if you would have me
take it, you shall slip it here inside my sleeve, and have no letter or
voucher beyond; I do not wish to have people saying, 'The grand
chamberlain of England was the King of France's pensioner,' or to have my
acknowledgments found in his exchequer-chamber."  Lord Hastings had not
always been so scrupulous, for, on the 15th of May, 1471, he had received
from the Duke of Burgundy a pension for which he had given an
acknowledgment.  Another Englishman, whose name is not given by Commynes,
waxed wroth at hearing some one say, "Six hundred pipes of wine and a
pension given you by the king soon sent you back to England."  "That is
certainly what everybody said," answered the Englishman, "that you might
have the laugh against us.  But call you the money the king gives us
pension?  Why, it is tribute; and, by St. George, you may perhaps talk so
much about it as to bring us down upon you again!"  "There was nothing in
the world," says Commynes, "of which the king was more fearful than lest
any word should escape him to make the English think that they were being
derided; at the same time that he was laboring to gain them over, he was
careful to humor their susceptibilities;" and Commynes, under his
schooling, had learned to understand them well: "They are rather slow
goers," says he, "but you must have a little patience with them, and not
lose your temper.  .  .  .  I fancy that to many it might appear that the
king abased himself too much; but the wise might well hold that the
kingdom was in great danger, save for the intervention of God, who did
dispose the king's mind to choose so wise a course, and did greatly
trouble that of the Duke of Burgundy.  .  .  .  Our king knew well the
nature of the King of England, who was very fond of his ease and his
pleasures: when he had concluded these treaties with him, he ordered that
the money should be found with the greatest expedition, and every one had
to lend somewhat to help to supply it on the spot.  The king said that
there was nothing in the world he would not do to thrust the King of
England out of the realm, save only that he would never consent that the
English should have a bit of territory there; and, rather than suffer
that, he would put everything to jeopardy and risk."

Commynes had good reason to say that the kingdom was in great peril.  The
intentions of Charles the Rash tended to nothing short of bringing back
the English into France, in order to share it with them.  He made no
concealment of it.  "I am so fond of the kingdom," said he, "that I would
make six of it in France."  He was passionately eager for the title of
king.  He had put out feelers for it in the direction of Germany, and the
emperor, Frederic III., had promised it to him together with that of
vicar-general of the empire, on condition that his daughter, Mary of
Burgundy, married Duke Maximilian, Frederic's son.  Having been
unsuccessful on the Rhine, Charles turned once more towards the Thames,
and made alliance with Edward IV., King of England, with a view of
renewing the English invasion of France, flattering himself, of course,
that he would profit by it.  To destroy the work of Joan of Arc and
Charles VII.--such was the design, a criminal and a shameful one for a
French prince, which was checkmated by the peace of Peequigny.  Charles
himself acknowledged as much when, in his wrath at this treaty, he said,
"He had not sought to bring over the English into France for any need he
had of them, but to enable them to recover what belonged to them;" and
Louis XI. was a patriotic king when he declared that "there was nothing
in the world he would not do to thrust the King of England out of the
realm, and, rather than suffer the English to have a bit of territory in
France, he would put everything to jeopardy and risk."

The Duke of Burgundy, as soon as he found out that the King of France
had, under the name of truce, made peace for seven years with the King of
England, and that Edward IV. had recrossed the Channel with his army, saw
that his attempts, so far, were a failure.  Accordingly he too lost no
time in signing [on the 13th of September, 1475] a truce with King Louis
for nine years, and directing his ambition and aiming his blows against
other quarters than Western France.  Two little states, his neighbors on
the east, Lorraine and Switzerland, became the object and the theatre of
his passion for war.  Lorraine had at that time for its duke Rene II., of
the house of Anjou through his mother Yolande, a young prince who was
wavering, as so many others were, between France and Burgundy.  Charles
suddenly entered Lorraine, took possession of several castles, had the
inhabitants who resisted hanged, besieged Nancy, which made a valiant
defence, and ended by conquering the capital as well as the
country-places, leaving Duke Rene no asylum but the court of Louis XI.,
of whom the Lorraine prince had begged a support, which Louis, after his
custom, had promised without rendering it effectual.  Charles did not
stop there.  He had already been more than once engaged in hostilities
with his neighbors the Swiss; and he now learned that they had just made
a sanguinary raid upon the district of Vaud, the domain of a petty prince
of the house of Savoy, and a devoted servant of the Duke of Burgundy.
Scarcely two months after the capture of Nancy, Charles set out, on the
11th of June, 1476, to go and avenge his client, and wreak his haughty
and turbulent humor upon these bold peasants of the Alps.

In spite of the truce he had but lately concluded with Charles the Rash,
the prudent Louis did not cease to keep an attentive watch upon him, and
to reap advantage, against him, from the leisure secured to the King of
France by his peace with the King of England and the Duke of Brittany.  A
late occurrence had still further strengthened his position: his brother
Charles, who became Duke of Guienne, in 1469, after the treaty of
Peronne, had died on the 24th of May, 1472.  There were sinister rumors
abroad touching his death.  Louis was suspected, and even accused to the
Duke of Brittany, an intimate friend of the deceased prince, of having
poisoned his brother.  He caused an inquiry to be instituted into the
matter; but the inquiry itself was accused of being incomplete and
inconclusive.  "King Louis did not, possibly, cause his brother's death,"
says M. de Barante, "but nobody thought him incapable of it."  The will
which Prince Charles had dictated a little before his death increased the
horror inspired by such a suspicion.  He manifested in it a feeling of
affection and confidence towards the king his brother; he requested him
to treat his servants kindly; "and if in any way," he added, "we have ever
offended our right dread and right well-beloved brother, we do beg him to
be pleased to forgive us; since, for our part, if ever in any matter he
hath offended us, we do affectionately pray the Divine Majesty to forgive
him, and with good courage and good will do we on our part forgive him."
The Duke of Guienne at the same time appointed the king executor of his
will.  If we acknowledge, however, that Louis was not incapable of such a
crime, it must be admitted that there is no trust-worthy proof of his
guilt.  At any rate his brother's death had important results for him.
Not only did it set him free from all fresh embarrassment in that
direction, but it also restored to him the beautiful province of Guienne,
and many a royal client.  He treated the friends of Prince Charles,
whether they had or had not been heretofore his own, with marked
attention.  He re-established at Bordeaux the parliament he had removed
to Poitiers; he pardoned the towns of Pdzenas and Montignac for some late
seditions; and, lastly, he took advantage of this incident to pacify and
satisfy this portion of the kingdom.  Of the great feudal chieftains who,
in 1464, had formed against him the League of the common weal, the Duke
of Burgundy was the only one left on the scene, and in a condition to put
him in peril.

But though here was for the future his only real adversary, Louis XI.
continued, and with reason, to regard the Duke of Burgundy as his most
formidable foe, and never ceased to look about for means and allies
wherewith to encounter him.  He could no longer count upon the
co-operation, more or less general, of the Flemings.  His behavior to the
Liegese after the incident at Peronne, and his share in the disaster
which befell Liege, had lost him all his credit in the Flemish cities.
The Flemings, besides, had been disheartened and disgusted at the idea of
compromising themselves for or against their Burgundian prince.  When
they saw him entering upon the campaign in Lorraine and Switzerland, they
themselves declared to him what he might or might not expect from them.
"If he were pressed," they said, "by the Germans or the Swiss, and had
not with him enough men to make his way back freely to his own borders,
he had only to let them know, and they would expose their persons and
their property to go after him and fetch him back safely within his said
borders, but as for making war again at his instance, they were not free
to aid him any more with either men or money."  Louis XI., then, had
nothing to expect from the Flemings any more; but for two years past, and
so soon as he observed the commencement of hostilities between the Duke
of Burgundy and the Swiss, he had paved the way for other alliances in
that quarter.  In 1473 he had sent "to the most high and mighty lords and
most dear friends of ours, them of the league and city of Berne and of
the great and little league of Germany, ambassadors charged to make
proposals to them, if they would come to an understanding to be friends
of friends and foes of foes" (make an offensive and defensive alliance).
The proposal was brought before the diet of the cantons assembled at
Lucerne.  The King of France "regretted that the Duke of Burgundy would
not leave the Swiss in peace; he promised that his advice and support,
whether in men or in money, should not be wanting to them; he offered to
each canton an annual friendly donation of two thousand livres; and he
engaged not to summon their valiant warriors to take service save in case
of pressing need, and unless Switzerland were herself at war."  The
question was discussed with animation; the cantons were divided; some
would have nothing to do with either the alliance or the money of Louis
XI., of whom they spoke with great distrust and antipathy; others
insisted upon the importance of being supported by the King of France in
their quarrels with the Duke of Burgundy, and scornfully repudiated the
fear that the influence and money of Louis would bring a taint upon the
independence and the good morals of their country.  The latter opinion
carried the day; and, on the 2d of October, 1474, conformably with a
treaty concluded, on the 10th of the previous January, between the King
of France and the league of Swiss cantons, the canton of Berne made to
the French legation the following announcement: "If, in the future, the
said lords of the league asked help from the King of France against the
Duke of Burgundy, and if the said lord king, being engaged in his own
wars, could not help them with men, in this case he should cause to be
lodged and handed over to them, in the city of Lyons, twenty thousand
Rhenish florins every quarter of a year, as long as the war actually
continued; and we, on our part, do promise, on our faith and honor, that
every time and however many times the said lord king shall ask help from
the said lords of the league, we will take care that they do help him and
aid him with six thousand men in his wars and expeditions, according to
the tenor of the late alliance and union made between them, howbeit on
payment."

A Bernese messenger carried this announcement to the Burgundian camp
before the fortress of Neuss, and delivered it into the hands of Duke
Charles himself, whose only remark, as he ground his teeth, was, "Ah!
Berne! Berne!"  At the be-ginning of January, 1476, he left Nancy, of
which he had recently gained possession, returned to Besancon, and
started thence on the 6th of February to take the field with an army
amounting, it is said, to thirty or forty thousand men, provided with a
powerful artillery and accompanied by an immense baggage-train, wherein
Charles delighted to display his riches and magnificence in contrast with
the simplicity and roughness of his personal habits.  At the rumor of
such an armament the Swiss attempted to keep off the war from their
country.  "I have heard tell," says Commynes, "by a knight of theirs, who
had been sent by them to the said duke, that he told him that against
them he could gain nothing, for that their country was very barren and