[Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE BOURGES----FRONTISPIECE]

HISTORY OF FRANCE

By M. Guizot

Volume III. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

XXIII. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. --CHARLES VI. AND THE DUKES OF BURGUNDY. 

XXIV. THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. --CHARLES VII. AND JOAN OF ARC. (1422-1461. )

XXV. LOUIS XI. (1461-1483. )

XXVI. THE WARS OF ITALY. --CHARLES VIII. (1483-1498. )

XXVII. THE WARS IN ITALY. --LOUIS XII. (1498-1515. )

LIST OF STEEL ENGRAVINGS. 

VOLUME III. 

PAGE

[Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE BOURGES----FRONTISPIECE]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOAN OF ARC----85]

[Illustration: CHINON CASTLE----95]

[Illustration: JOAN ENTERING ORLEANS----104]

[Illustration: CHARLES VIII. ----263]

[Illustration: CASTLE OF AMBOISE----308]

[Illustration: STATES GENERAL AT TOURS----329]

WOOD-CUTS:

[Illustration: The Procession went over the Gates----16]

[Illustration: '"Thou art betrayed. "'----26]

[Illustration: Murder of the Duke of Orleans----38]

[Illustration: Death of Valentine de Milan----45]

[Illustration: John the Fearless----51]

[Illustration: Already distressed----57]

[Illustration: Charles VI. And Odette----71]

[Illustration: '"Into the River!"'----77]

[Illustration: The Body of Charles VI. Lying in State----84]

[Illustration: The Shepherdess of Domremy----90]

[Illustration: Joan of Arc in her Father's Garden----91]

[Illustration: Herself drew out the Arrow----109]

[Illustration: Joan examined in Prison----128]

[Illustration: Philip the Good of Burgundy----144]

[Illustration: The Constable Made his Entry on Horseback----150]

[Illustration: Jacques Coeur----165]

[Illustration: Jacques Coeur's Hostel at Bourges----169]

[Illustration: Agnes Sorel----175]

[Illustration: Louis XI. And Burgesses waiting for News----193]

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

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

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

[Illustration: The Corpse of Charles the Rash Discovered----236]

[Illustration: The Balue Cage----245]

[Illustration: Louis XI. At his Devotions----255]

[Illustration: Views of the Castle of Plessis-les-Tours----258]

[Illustration: Louis XI----260]

[Illustration: Anne de Beaujeu----264]

[Illustration: Meeting between Charles VIII, and Anne of Brittany----282]

[Illustration: Charles VIII. Crossing the Alps----285]

[Illustration: Charles VIII----293]

[Illustration: Battle of Fornovo----303]

[Illustration: Louis XII----310]

[Illustration: Bayard----315]

[Illustration: Battle of Agnadello----334]

[Illustration: Cardinal d'Amboise----347]

[Illustration: Chaumont d'Amboise----350]

[Illustration: Bayard's Farewell----358]

[Illustration: Gaston de Foix----364]

CHAPTER XXIII. ----THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR--CHARLES VI. AND THE DUKES OFBURGUNDY. 

Sully, in his Memoirs, characterizes the reign of Charles VI. As "thatreign so pregnant of sinister events, the grave of good laws and goodmorals in France. " There is no exaggeration in these words; thesixteenth century with its St. Bartholomew and The League, the eighteenthwith its reign of terror, and the nineteenth with its Commune of Paris, contain scarcely any events so sinister as those of which France was, inthe reign of Charles VI. , from 1380 to 1422, the theatre and the victim. 

Scarcely was Charles V. Laid on his bier when it was seen what a loss hewas and would be to his kingdom. Discord arose in the king's own family. In order to shorten the ever critical period of minority, Charles V. Hadfixed the king's majority at the age of fourteen. His son, Charles VI. , was not yet twelve, and so had two years to remain under the guardianshipof his four uncles, the Dukes of Anjou, Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon; butthe last being only a maternal uncle and a less puissant prince than hispaternal uncles, it was between the other three that strife began fortemporary possession of the kingly power. 

Though very unequal in talent and in force of character, they were allthree ambitious and jealous. The eldest, the Duke of Anjou, who wasenergetic, despotic, and stubborn, aspired to dominion in France for thesake of making French influence subserve the conquest of the kingdom ofNaples, the object of his ambition. The Duke of Berry was a mediocre, restless, prodigal, and grasping prince. The Duke of Burgundy, Philipthe Bold, the most able and the most powerful of the three, had been thefavorite, first of his father, King John, and then of his brother, Charles V. , who had confidence in him and readily adopted his counsels. His marriage, in 1369, with the heiress to the countship of Flanders, hadbeen vigorously opposed by the Count of Flanders, the young princess'sfather, and by the Flemish communes, ever more friendly to England thanto France; but the old Countess of Flanders, Marguerite of France, vexedat the ill will of the count her son, had one day said to him, as shetore open her dress before his eyes, "Since you will not yield to yourmother's wishes, I will cut off these breasts which gave suck to you, toyou and to no other, and will throw them to the dogs to devour. " Thissingular argument had moved the Count of Flanders; he had consented tothe marriage; and the Duke of Burgundy's power had received suchincrement by it that on the 4th of October, 1380, when Charles VI. Wascrowned at Rheims, Philip the Bold, without a word said previously toany, suddenly went up and sat himself down at the young king's side, above his eldest brother, the Duke of Anjou, thus assuming, withoutanybody's daring to oppose him, the rank and the rights of premier peerof France. 

He was not slow to demonstrate that his superiority in externals couldnot fail to establish his political preponderance. His father-in-law, Count Louis of Flanders, was in almost continual strife with the greatFlemish communes, ever on the point of rising against the taxes he heapedupon them and the blows he struck at their privileges. The city ofGhent, in particular, joined complaint with menace. In 1381 the quarrelbecame war. The Ghentese at first experienced reverses. "Ah! if JamesVan Artevelde were alive!" said they. James Van Artevelde had left a sonnamed Philip; and there was in Ghent a burgher-captain, Peter Dubois, whowent one evening to see Philip Van Artevelde. "What we want now, " saidhe, "is to choose a captain of great renown. Raise up again in thiscountry that father of yours who, in his lifetime, was so loved andfeared in Flanders. " "Peter, " replied Philip, "you make me a greatoffer; I promise that, if you put me in that place, I will do noughtwithout your advice. " "Ah! well!" said Dubois, "can you really behaughty and cruel? The Flemings like to be treated so; with them youmust make no more account of the life of men than you do of larks whenthe season for eating them comes. " "I will do what shall be necessary, "said Van Artevelde. The struggle grew violent between the count and thecommunes of Flanders with Ghent at their head. After alternations ofsuccesses and reverses the Ghentese were victorious; and Count Louis withdifficulty escaped by hiding himself at Bruges in the house of a poorwoman who took him up into a loft where her children slept, and where helay flat between the paillasse and the feather-bed. On leaving thisasylum he went to Bapaume to see his son-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy, and to ask his aid. "My lord, " said the duke to him, "by the allegianceI owe to you and also to the king you shall have satisfaction. It wereto fail in one's duty to allow such a scum to govern a country. Unlessorder were restored, all knighthood and lordship might be destroyed inChristendom. " The Duke of Burgundy went to Senlis, where Charles VI. Was, and asked for his support on behalf of the Count of Flanders. Thequestion was referred to the king's council. The Duke of Berryhesitated, saying, "The best part of the prelates and nobles must beassembled and the whole matter set before them; we will see what is thegeneral opinion. " In the midst of this deliberation the young king camein with a hawk on his wrist. "Well! my dear uncles, " said he, "of whatare you parleying? Is it aught that I may know?" The Duke of Berryenlightened him, saying, "A brewer, named Van Artevelde, who is Englishto the core, is besieging the remnant of the knights of Flanders shut upin Oudenarde; and they can get no aid but from you. What say you to it?Are you minded to help the Count of Flanders to reconquer his heritage, which those presumptuous villains have taken from him?"

"By my faith, " answered the king, "I am greatly minded; go we thither;there is nothing I desire so much as to get on my harness, for I havenever yet borne arms; I would fain set out to-morrow. " Amongst theprelates and lords summoned to Compiegne some spoke of the difficultiesand dangers that might be encountered. "Yes, yes, " said the king, "but'begin nought and win nought. '" When the Flemings heard of the king'sdecision they sent respectful letters to him, begging him to be theirmediator with the count their lord; but the letters were received withscoffs, and the messengers were kept in prison. At this news VanArtevelde said, "We must make alliance with the English; what meaneththis King Wren of France? It is the Duke of Burgundy leading him by thenose, and he will not abide by his purpose; we will frighten France byshowing her that we have the English for allies. " But Van Artevelde wasunder a delusion; Edward III. Was no longer King of England; theFlemings' demand was considered there to be arrogant and opposed to theinterests of the lords in all countries; and the alliance was notconcluded. Some attempts at negotiation took place between the advisersof Charles VI. And the Flemings, but without success. The Count ofFlanders repaired to the king, who said, "Your quarrel is ours; get youback to Artois; we shall soon be there and within sight of our enemies. "

Accordingly, in November, 1382, the King of France and his army marchedinto Flanders. Several towns, Cassel, Bergues, Gravelines, and Turnhout, hastily submitted to him. 

There was less complete unanimity and greater alarm amongst the Flemingsthan their chiefs had anticipated. "Noble king, " said the inhabitants, "we place our persons and our possessions at your discretion, and to showyou that we recognize you as our lawful lord, here are the captains whomVan Artevelde gave us; do with them according to your will, for it isthey who have governed us. " On the 28th of November the two armies foundthemselves close together at Rosebecque, between Ypres and Courtrai. Inthe evening Van Artevelde assembled his captains at supper, and, "Comrades, " said he, "we shall to-morrow have rough work, for the King ofFrance is here all agog for fighting. But have no fear; we are defendingour good right and the liberties of Flanders. The English have nothelped us; well, we shall only have the more honor. With the King ofFrance is all the flower of his kingdom. Tell your men to slay all, andshow no quarter. We must spare the King of France only; he is a child, and must be pardoned; we will take him away to Ghent, and have him taughtFlemish. As for the dukes, counts, barons, and other men-at-arms, slaythem all; the commons of France shall not bear us ill will; I am quitesure that they would not have a single one of them back. " At the verysame moment King Charles VI. Was entertaining at supper the princes hisuncles, the Count of Flanders, the constable, Oliver de Clisson, themarshals, &c. They were arranging the order of battle for the morrow. Many folks blamed the Duke of Burgundy for having brought so young aking, the hope of the realm, into the perils of war. It was resolved toconfide the care of him to the constable de Clisson, whilst conferringupon Sire de Coucy, for that day only, the command of the army. "Mostdear lord, " said the constable to the king, "I know that there is nogreater honor than to have the care of your person; but it would be greatgrief to my comrades not to have me with them. I say not that they couldnot do without me; but for a fortnight now I have been getting everythingready for bringing most honor to you and yours. They would be muchsurprised if I should now withdraw. " The king was somewhat embarrassed. "Constable, " said he, "I would fain have you in my company to-day; youknow well that my lord my father loved you and trusted you more than anyother; in the name of God and St. Denis do whatever you think best. Youhave a clearer insight into the matter than I and those who have advisedme. Only attend my mass to-morrow. " The battle began with spirit thenext morning, in the midst of a thick fog. According to the monk ofSt. Denis, Van Artevelde was not without disquietude. He had bidden oneof his people go and observe the French army; and, "You bring me badnews, " said he to the man in a whisper, "when you tell me there are somany French with the king: I was far from expecting it. . . . This isa hard war; it requires discreet management. I think the best thing forme is to go and hurry up ten thousand of our comrades who are due. " "Whyleave thy host without a head?" said they who were about him: "it was toobey thy orders that we engaged in this enterprise; thou must run therisks of battle with us. " The French were more confident than VanArtevelde. "Sir, " said the constable, addressing the king, cap in hand, "be of good cheer; these fellows are ours; our very varlets might beatthem. " These words were far too presumptuous; for the Flemings foughtwith great bravery. Drawn up in a compact body, they drove back for amoment the French who were opposed to them; but Clisson had madeeverything ready for hemming them in; attacked on all sides they tried, but in vain, to fly; a few, with difficulty, succeeded in escaping andcasting, as they went, into the neighboring swamps the banner of St. George. "It is not easy, " says the monk of St. Denis, "to set down withany certainty the number of the dead; those who were present on this day, and I am disposed to follow their account, say that twenty-five thousandFlemings fell on the field, together with their leader, Van Artevelde, the concoctor of this rebellion, whose corpse, discovered with greattrouble amongst a heap of slain, was, by order of Charles VI. , hung upona tree in the neighborhood. The French also lost in this struggle somenoble knights, not less illustrious by birth than valor, amongst othersforty-four valiant men who, being the first to hurl themselves upon theranks of the enemy to break them, thus won for themselves great glory. "

The victory of Rosebecque was a great cause for satisfaction and pride toCharles VI. And his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy. They had conquered onthe field in Flanders the commonalty of Paris as well as that of Ghent;and in France there was great need of such a success, for, since theaccession of the young king, the Parisians had risen with a demand foractual abolition of the taxes of which Charles V. , on his death-bed, haddeplored the necessity, and all but decreed the cessation. The king'suncles, his guardians, had at first stopped, and indeed suppressed, thegreater part of those taxes; but soon afterwards they had to face apressing necessity: the war with England was going on, and the revenuesof the royal domain were not sufficient for the maintenance of it. TheDuke of Anjou attempted to renew the taxes, and one of Charles V. 'sformer councillors, John Desmarets, advocate-general in parliament, abetted him in his attempt. Seven times, in the course of the year 1381, assemblies of notables met at Paris to consider the project, and on the1st of March, 1382, an agent of the governing power scoured the city atfull gallop, proclaiming the renewal of the principal tax. There was afresh outbreak. The populace, armed with all sorts of weapons, withstrong mallets amongst the rest, spread in all directions, killing thecollectors, and storming and plundering the Hotel de Ville. They werecalled the Malleteers. They were put down, but with as much timidity ascruelty. Some of them were arrested, and at night thrown into the Seine, sewn up in sacks, without other formality or trial. A fresh meeting ofnotables was convened, towards the middle of April, at Compiegne, and thedeputies from the principal towns were summoned to it; but they durst notcome to any decision: "They were come, " they said, "only to hear andreport; they would use their best endeavors to prevail on those by whomthey had been sent to do the king's pleasure. " Towards the end of Aprilsome of them returned to Meaux, reporting that they had everywhere metwith the most lively resistance; they had everywhere heard shouted atthem, "Sooner death than the tax. " Only the deputies from Sens had voteda tax, which was to be levied on all merchandise; but, when the questionof collecting it arose, the people of Sens evinced such violentopposition that it had to be given up. It was when facts and feelingswere in this condition in France, that Charles VI. And the Duke ofBurgundy had set out with their army to go and force the Flemish communesto submit to their count. 

[Illustration: The Procession went over the Gates----16]

Returning victorious from Flanders to France, Charles VI. And his uncles, everywhere brilliantly feasted on their march, went first of all for ninedays to Compiegne, "to find recreation after their fatigues, " says themonk of St. Denis, "in the pleasures of the chase; afterwards, on the10th of January, 1383, the king took back in state to the church of St. Denis the oriflamme which he had borne away on his expedition; and nextday, the 11th of January, he re-entered Paris, he alone being mounted, inthe midst of his army. " The burgesses went out of the city to meet him, and offer him their wonted homage, but they were curtly ordered toretrace their steps; the king and his uncles, they were informed, couldnot forget offences so recent. The wooden barriers which had been placedbefore the gates of the city to prevent anybody from entering withoutpermission, were cut down with battle-axes; the very gates were torn fromtheir hinges; they were thrown down upon the king's highway, and theprocession went over them, as if to trample under foot the fierce prideof the Parisians. When he was once in the city, and was leaving NotreDame, the king sent abroad throughout all the streets an order forbiddingany one, under the most severe penalties, from insulting or causing theleast harm to the burgesses in any way whatsoever; and the constable hadtwo plunderers strung up to the windows of the houses in which they hadcommitted their thefts. But fundamental order having been thus upheld, reprisals began to be taken for the outbreaks of the Parisians, municipalmagistrates or populace, burgesses or artisans, rich or poor, in thecourse of the two preceding years;--arrests, imprisonments, fines, confiscations, executions, severities of all kinds fell upon the mostconspicuous and the most formidable of those who had headed or favoredpopular movements. The most solemn and most iniquitous of thesepunishments was that which befell the advocate-general, John Desmarets. "For nearly a whole year, " says the monk of St. Denis, "he had served asmediator between the king and the Parisians; he had often restrained thefury and stopped the excesses of the populace, by preventing them fromgiving rein to their cruelty. He was always warning the factious that toprovoke the wrath of the king and the princes was to expose themselves toalmost certain death. But, yielding to the prayers of this rebelliousand turbulent mob, he, instead of leaving Paris as the rest of hisprofession had done, had remained there, and throwing himself boldlyamidst the storms of civil discord, he had advised the assumption of armsand the defence of the city, which he knew was very displeasing to theking and the grandees. " When he was taken to execution, "he was put on acar higher than the rest, that he might be better seen by everybody. "Nothing shook for a moment the firmness of this old man of seventy years. "Where are they who judged me?" he said: "let them come and set forth thereasons for my death. Judge me, O God, and separate my cause from thatof the evil-doers. " On his arrival at the market-place, some of thespectators called out to him, "Ask the king's mercy, Master John, that hemay pardon your offences. " He turned round, saying, "I served well andloyally his great-grandfather King Philip, his grandfather King John, andhis father King Charles; none of those kings ever had anything toreproach me with, and this one would not reproach me any the more if hewere of a grown man's age and experience. I don't suppose that he is awhit to blame for such a sentence, and I have no cause to cry him mercy. To God alone must I cry for mercy, and I pray Him to forgive my sins. "Public respect accompanied the old and courageous magistrate beyond thescaffold; his corpse was taken up by his friends, and at a later periodhonorably buried in the church of St. Catherine. 

After the chastisements came galas again, of which the king and his courtwere immoderately fond. Young as he was (he was but seventeen), hispowerful uncle, the Duke of Burgundy, was very anxious to get himmarried, so as to secure his own personal influence over him. The wiseCharles V. , in his dying hours, had testified a desire that his sonshould seek alliances in Germany. A son of the reigning duke, Stephen ofBavaria, had come to serve in the French army, and the Duke of Burgundyhad asked him if there were any marriageable princess of Bavaria. "Myeldest brother, " answered the Bavarian, "has a very beautiful daughter, aged fourteen. " "That is just what we want, " said the Burgundian: "tryand get her over here; the king is very fond of beautiful girls; if shetakes his fancy, she will be Queen of France. " The Duke of Bavaria, being informed by his brother, at first showed some hesitation. "Itwould be a great honor, " said he, "for my daughter to be Queen of France;but it is a long way from here. If my daughter were taken to France, andthen sent back to me because she was not suitable, it would cause me toomuch chagrin. I prefer to marry her at my leisure, and in my ownneighborhood. " The matter was pressed, however, and at last the Duke ofBavaria consented. It was agreed that the Princess Isabel should go ona visit to the Duchess of Brabant, who instructed her, and had her welldressed, say the chroniclers, for in Germany they clad themselves toosimply for the fashions of France. Being thus got ready, the PrincessIsabel was conducted to Amiens, where the king then was, to whom herportrait had already been shown. She was presented to him, and bent theknee before him. He considered her charming. Seeing with what pleasurehe looked upon her, the constable, Oliver de Clisson, said to Sire DeConey, "By my faith, she will bide with us. " The same evening, the youngking said to his councillor, Bureau de la Riviere, "She pleases me: goand tell my uncle, the Duke of Burgundy, to conclude at once. " The duke, delighted, lost no time in informing the ladies of the court, who cried, "Noel!" for joy. The duke had wished the nuptials to take place atArras; but the young king, in his impatience, was urgent for Amiens, without delay, saying that he couldn't sleep for her. "Well, well, "replied his uncle, "you must be cured of your complaint. " On the 18thof July, 1385, the marriage was celebrated at the cathedral of Amiens, whither the Princess Isabel "was conducted in a handsome chariot, whereofthe tires of the wheels were of silvern stuff. " King, uncles, andcourtiers were far from a thought of the crimes and shame which would beconnected in France with the name of Isabel of Bavaria. There is stillmore levity and imprudence in the marriages of kings than in those oftheir subjects. 

Whilst this marriage was being celebrated, the war with England, and hernew king, Richard II. , was going on, but slackly and without result. Charles VI. And his uncle of Burgundy, still full of the proud confidenceinspired by their success against the Flemish and Parisian communes, resolved to strike England a heavy blow, and to go and land there with apowerful army. Immense preparations were made in France for thisexpedition. In September, 1386, there were collected in the port ofEcluse (Sluys) and at sea, between Sluys and Blankenberg, thirteenhundred and eighty-seven vessels, according to some, and according toothers only nine hundred, large and small; and Oliver de Clisson hadcaused to be built at Trdguier, in Brittany, a wooden town which was tobe transported to England and rebuilt after landing, "in such sort, " saysFroissart, "that the lords might lodge therein and retire at night, so asto be in safety from sudden awakenings, and sleep in greater security. "Equal care was taken in the matter of supplies. "Whoever had been atthat time at Bruges, or the Dam, or the Sluys would have seen how shipsand vessels were being laden by torchlight, with hay in casks, biscuitsin sacks, onions, peas, beans, barley, oats, candles, gaiters, shoes, boots, spurs, iron, nails, culinary utensils, and all things that can beused for the service of man. " Search was made everywhere for the varioussupplies, and they were very dear. "If you want us and our service, "said the Hollanders, "pay us on the nail; otherwise we will be neutral. "To the intelligent foresight shown in these preparations was addeduseless magnificence. "On the masts was nothing to be seen but paintingsand gildings; everything was emblazoned and covered with armorialbearings. But nothing came up to the Duke of Burgundy's ship; it waspainted all over outside with blue and gold, and there were five hugebanners with the arms of the duchy of Burgundy and the countships ofFlanders, Artois, Rethel, and Burgundy, and everywhere the duke's device, 'I'm a-longing. '" The young king, too, displayed great anxiety to enteron the campaign. He liked to go aboard his ship, saying, "I am veryeager to be off; I think I shall be a good sailor, for the sea does me noharm. " But everybody was not so impatient as the king, who was waitingfor his uncle, the Duke of Berry, and writing to him letter after letter, urging him to come. The duke, who had no liking for the expedition, contented himself with making an answer bidding him "not to take anytrouble, but to amuse himself, for the matter would probably terminateotherwise than was imagined. " The Duke of Berry at last arrived at Sluyson the 14th of October, 1386. "If it hadn't been for you, uncle, " saidthe king to him, "we should have been by this time in England. " Threemonths had gone by; the fine season was past; the winds were becomingviolent and contrary; the vessels come from Treguier with the constableto join the fleet had suffered much on the passage; and deliberationswere recommencing touching the opportuneness, and even the feasibility, of the expedition thus thrown back. "If anybody goes to England, I will, "said the king. But nobody went. "One day when it was calm, " says the monkof St. Denis, "the king, completely armed, went with his uncles aboard ofthe royal vessel; but the wind did not permit them to get more than twomiles out to sea, and drove them back, in spite of the sailors' efforts, to the shore they had just left. The king, who saw with deep displeasurehis hopes thus frustrated, had orders given to his troops to go back, and, at his departure, left, by the advice of his barons, some men-of-warto unload the fleet, and place it in a place of safety as soon aspossible. But the enemy gave them no time to execute the order. As soonas the calm allowed the English to set sail, they bore down on theFrench, burned or took in tow to their own ports the most part of thefleet, carried off the supplies, and found two thousand casks full ofwine, which sufficed a long while for the wants of England. "

Such a mistake, after such a fuss, was probably not unconnected with aresolution adopted by Charles VI. Some time after the abandonment of theprojected expedition against England. In October, 1388, he assembled atRheims a grand council, at which were present his two uncles, the Dukesof Burgundy and Berry [the third, the Duke of Anjou, had died in Italy, on the 20th of September, 1384, after a vain attempt to conquer thekingdom of Naples], his brother, the Duke of Orleans, his cousins, andseveral prelates and lords of note. The chancellor announced thereatthat he had been ordered by the king to put in discussion the question, whether it were not expedient that he should henceforth take thegovernment of his kingdom upon himself. Cardinal Ascelin de Montaigu, Bishop of Laon, the first to be interrogated upon this subject, repliedthat, in his opinion, the king was quite in a condition, as well as in alegal position, to take the government of his kingdom upon himself, and, without naming anybody, he referred to the king's uncles, and especiallyto the Duke of Burgundy, as being no longer necessary for the governmentof France. Nearly all who were present were of the same opinion. Theking, without further waiting, thanked his uncles for the care they hadtaken of his dominions and of himself, and begged them to continue theiraffection for him. Neither the Duke of Burgundy nor the Duke of Berryhad calculated upon this resolution; they submitted, without making anyobjection, but not without letting a little temper leak out. The Duke ofBerry even said that he and his brother would beg the king to confer withthem more maturely on the subject when he returned to Paris. Hereuponthe council broke up; the king's two uncles started for their owndominions; and a few weeks afterwards the Cardinal-bishop of Laon diedof a short illness. "It was generally believed, " says the monk of St. Denis, "that he died of poison. " At his own dying wish, no inquiry wasinstituted on this subject. The measure adopted in the late council was, however, generally approved of. The king was popular; he had a goodheart, and courteous and gentle manners; he was faithful to his friends, and affable to all; and the people liked to see him passing along thestreets. On taking in hand the government, he recalled to it the formeradvisers of his father, Charles V. , Bureau de la Riviere, Le Mercier deNoviant, and Le Begue de Vilaine, all men of sense and reputation. Thetaxes were diminished; the city of Paris recovered a portion of hermunicipal liberties; there was felicitation for what had been obtained, and there was hope of more. 

Charles VI. Was not content with the satisfaction of Paris only; hewished all his realm to have cognizance of and to profit by hisindependence. He determined upon a visit to the centre and the south ofFrance. Such a trip was to himself, and to the princes and cities thatentertained him, a cause of enormous expense. "When the king stoppedanywhere, there were wanted for his own table, and for the maintenance ofhis following, six oxen, eighty sheep, thirty calves, seven hundredchickens, two hundred pigeons, and many other things besides. Theexpenses for the king were set down at two hundred and thirty livres aday, without counting the presents which the large towns felt bound tomake him. " But Charles was himself magnificent even to prodigality, andhe delighted in the magnificence of which he was the object, withouttroubling himself about their cost to himself. Between 1389 and 1390, for about six months, he travelled through Burgundy, the banks of theRhone, Languedoc, and the small principalities bordering on the Pyrenees. Everywhere his progress was stopped for the purpose of presenting to himpetitions or expressing wishes before him. At Nimes and Montpellier, andthroughout Languedoc, passionate representations were made to himtouching the bad government of his two uncles, the Dukes of Anjou andBerry. "They had plundered and ruined, " he was told, "that beautiful andrich province; there were five or six talliages a year; one was no soonerover than another began; they had levied quite three millions of goldfrom Villeneuve-d'Avignon to Toulouse. " Charles listened with feeling, and promised to have justice done, and his father's old councillors, whowere in his train, were far from dissuading him. The Duke of Burgundy, seeing him start with them in his train, had testified his spite anddisquietude to the Duke of Berry, saying, "Aha! there goes the king on avisit to Languedoc, to hold an inquiry about those who have governed it. For all his council be takes with him only La Riviere, Le Mercier, Montaigu, and Le Begue de Vilaine. What say you to that, my brother?""The king, our nephew, is young, " answered the Duke of Berry: "if hetrusts the new councillors he is taking, he will be deceived, and it willend ill, as you will see. As for the present, we must support him. Thetime will come when we will make those councillors, and the king himself, rue it. Let them do as they please, by God: we will return to our owndominions. We are none the less the two greatest in the kingdom, and solong as we are united, none can do aught against us. "

The future is a blank, as well to the anxieties as to the hopes of men. The king's uncles were on the point of getting back the power which theybelieved to be lost to them. On the 13th of June, 1392, the constable, Oliver de Clisson, was waylaid as he was returning home after a banquetgiven by the king at the hostel of St. Paul. The assassin was Peter deCraon, cousin of John IV. , Duke of Brittany. He believed De Clisson tobe dead, and left him bathed in blood at a baker's door in the streetcalled Culture-Sainte-Catherine. The king was just going to bed, whenone of his people came and said to him, "Ah! sir, a great misfortune hashappened in Paris. " "What, and to whom?" said the king. "To yourconstable, sir, who has just been slain. " "Slain!" cried Charles; "andby whom?" "Nobody knows; but it was close by here, in St. CatherineStreet. " "Lights! quick!" said the king; "I will go and see him;" and heset off, without waiting for his following. When he entered the baker'sshop, De Clisson, grievously wounded, was just beginning to recover hissenses. "Ah! constable, " said the king, "and how do you feel?" "Verypoorly, dear sir. " "And who brought you to this pass?" "Peter de Craonand his accomplices; traitorously and without warning. " "Constable, "said the king, "never was anything so punished or dearly paid for as thisshall be; take thought for yourself, and have no further care; it is myaffair. " Orders were immediately given to seek out Peter de Craon, andhurry on his trial. He had taken refuge, first in his own castle ofSable, and afterwards with the Duke of Brittany, who kept him concealed, and replied to the king's envoys that he did not know where he was. Theking proclaimed his intention of making war on the Duke of Brittany untilPeter de Craon should be discovered, and justice done to the constable. Preparations for war were begun; and the Dukes of Berry and Burgundyreceived orders to get ready for it, themselves and their vassals. Theformer, who happened to be in Paris at the time of the attack, did notcare to directly oppose the king's project; but he evaded, delayed, andpredicted a serious war. According to Froissart, he had been warned, themorning before the attack, by a simple cleric, of Peter de Craon'sdesign; but, "It is too late in the day, " he had said; "I do not like totrouble the king to-day; to-morrow, without fail, we will see to it. " Hehad, however, forgotten or neglected to speak to his nephew. Neither henor his brother, the Duke of Burgundy, there is reason to suppose, wereaccomplices in the attack upon De Clisson, but they were not at all sorryfor it. It was to them an incident in the strife begun betweenthemselves, princes of the blood royal, and those former councillors ofCharles V. , and now, again, of Charles VI. , whom, with the impertinenceof great lords, they were wont to call the marinosettes. They leftnothing undone to avert the king's anger and to preserve the Duke ofBrittany from the war which was threatening him. 

Charles VI. 's excitement was very strong, and endured forever. Hepressed forward eagerly his preparations for war, though attempts weremade to appease him. He was recommended to take care of himself; for hehad been ill, and could scarcely mount his horse; and the Duke ofBurgundy remonstrated with him several times on the fatigue he wasincurring. "I find it better for me, " he answered, "to be on horseback, or working at my council, than to keep resting. Whoso wishes to persuademe otherwise is not of my friends, and is displeasing to me. " A letterfrom the Queen of Arragon gave some ground for supposing that Peter deCraon had taken refuge in Spain; and the Duke of Burgundy took advantageof it to dissuade the king from his prompt departure for the war inBrittany. "At the very least, " he said, "it was right to send to Arragonto know the truth of the matter, and to thank the queen for hercourtesy. " "We are quite willing, uncle, " answered Charles: "you neednot be vexed; but for my own part I hold that this traitor of a Peter deCraon is in no other prison and no other Barcelona than there is in beingquite comfortable at the Duke of Brittany's. " There was no way ofdeterring him from his purpose. He had got together his uncles and histroops at Le Mans; and, after passing three weeks there, he gave the wordto march for Brittany. The tragic incident which at that time occurredhas nowhere been more faithfully or better narrated than in M. DeBarante's History of the Dukes of Burgundy. "It was, " says he, "thebeginning of August, 1392, during the hottest days of the year. The sunwas blazing, especially in those sandy districts. The king was onhorseback, clad in a short and tight dress called a jacket. His was ofblack velvet, and very oppressive. On his head he wore a cap of scarletvelvet, ornamented with a chaplet of large pearls, which the queen hadgiven him at his departure. Behind him were two pages on horseback. Inorder not to incommode the king with dust, he was left to march almostalone. To the left of him were the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry, somepaces in front, conversing together. The Duke of Orleans, the Duke ofBourbon, Sire de Coney, and some others were also in front, forminganother group. Behind were Sires de Navarre, de Bar, d'Albret, d'Artois, and many others in one pretty large troop. They rode along in thisorder, and had just entered the great forest of Le Mans, when all at oncethere started from behind a tree by the road-side a tall man, with barehead and feet, clad in a common white smock, who, dashing forward andseizing the king's horse by the bridle, cried, 'Go no farther; thou artbetrayed!'

[Illustration: '"Thou art betrayed. "'----26]

The men-at-arms hurried up immediately, and striking the hands of thefellow with the butts of their lances, made him let go the bridle. As hehad the appearance of a poor madman, and nothing more, he was allowed togo without any questioning, and he followed the king for nearly half anhour, repeating the same cry from a distance. The king was much troubledat this sudden apparition; and his head, which was very weak, was quiteturned by it. Nevertheless the march was continued. When the forest hadbeen traversed, they came to a great sandy plain, where the rays of thesun were more scorching than ever. One of the king's pages, overcome bythe heat, had fallen asleep, and the lance he carried fell against hishelmet, and suddenly caused a loud clash of steel. 

"The king shuddered; and then he was observed, rising in his stirrups, todraw his sword, touch his horse with the spur, and make a dash, crying, 'Forward upon these traitors! They would deliver me up to the enemy!'Every one moved hastily aside, but not before some were wounded; it iseven said that several were killed, among them a bastard of Polignac. The king's brother, the Duke of Orleans, happened to be quite close by. 'Fly, my nephew d'Orleans, ' shouted the Duke of Burgundy: 'my lord isbeside himself. My God! let some one try and seize him!' He was sofurious that none durst risk it; and he was left to gallop hither andthither, and tire himself in pursuit of first one and then another. Atlast, when he was weary and bathed in sweat, his chamberlain, William deMartel, came up behind and threw his arms about him. He was surrounded, had his sword taken from him, was lifted from his horse, and laid gentlyon the ground, and then his jacket was unfastened. His brother and hisuncles came up, but his eyes were fixed and recognized nobody, and he didnot utter a word. 'We must go back to Le Mans, ' said the Dukes of Berryand Burgundy: 'here is an end of the trip to Brittany. ' On the way theyfell in with a wagon drawn by oxen; in this they laid the King of France, having bound him for fear of a renewal of his frenzy, and so took himback, motionless and speechless, to the town. "

It was not a mere fit of delirious fever; it was the beginning of aradical mental derangement, sometimes in abeyance, or at least for sometime alleviated, but bursting out again without appreciable reason, andaggravated at every fresh explosion. Charles VI. Had always had a tastefor masquerading. When in 1389 the young queen, Isabel of Bavaria, cameto Paris to be married, the king, on the morning of her entry, said tohis chamberlain, Sire de Savoisy, "Prithee, take a good horse, and I willmount behind thee; and we will dress so as not to be known and go to seemy wife cone in. " Savoisy did not like it, but the king insisted; and sothey went in this guise through the crowd, and got many a blow from theofficers' staves when they attempted to approach too near the procession. In 1393, a year after his first outbreak of madness, the king, during anentertainment at court, conceived the idea of disguising as savageshimself and five of his courtiers. They had been sewn up in a linen skinwhich defined their whole bodies; and this skin had been covered with aresinous pitch, so as to hold sticking upon it a covering of tow, whichmade them appear hairy from head to foot. Thus disguised these savageswent dancing into the ball-room; one of those present took up a lightedtorch and went up to them; and in a moment several of them were inflames. It was impossible to get off the fantastic dresses clinging totheir bodies. "Save the king!" shouted one of the poor masquers; but itwas not known which was the king. The Duchess de Berry, his aunt, recognized him, caught hold of him, and wrapped him in her robe, saying, "Do not move; you see your companions are burning. " And thus he wassaved amidst the terror of all present. When he was conscious of his madstate, he was horrified; he asked pardon for the injury he had done, confessed and received the communion. Later, when he perceived hismalady returning, he would allude to it with tears in his eyes, ask tohave his hunting-knife taken away, and say to those about him, "If any ofyou, by I know not what witchcraft, be guilty of my sufferings, I adjurehim, in the name of Jesus Christ, to torment me no more, and to put anend to me forthwith without making me linger so. " He conceived a horrorof Queen Isabel, and, without recognizing her, would say when he saw her, "What woman is this? What does she want? Will she never cease herimportunities? Save me from her persecution!" At first great care wastaken of him. They sent for a skilful doctor from Laon, named William deHarsely, who put him on a regimen from which, for some time, good effectswere experienced. But the doctor was uncomfortable at court; hepreferred going back to his little place at Laon, where he soonafterwards died; and eleven years later, in 1405, nobody took any moretrouble about the king. He was fed like a dog, and allowed to fallravenously upon his food. For five whole months he had not a change ofclothes. At last some shame was felt for this neglect, and an attemptwas made to repair it. It took a dozen men to overcome the madman'sresistance. He was washed, shaved, and dressed in fresh clothes. Hebecame more composed, and began once more to recognize certain persons, amongst others, the former provost of Paris, Juvenal des Ursins, whosevisit appeared to give him pleasure, and to whom he said, without wellknowing why, "Juvenal, let us not waste our time. " On his good days hewas sometimes brought in to sit at certain councils at which there was adiscussion about the diminution of taxes and relief of the people, and heshowed symptoms, at intervals, of taking an interest in them. A fairyoung Burgundian, Odette de Champdivers, was the only one amongst hismany favorites who was at all successful in soothing him during hisviolent fits. It was Duke John the Fearless, who had placed her near theking, that she might promote his own influence, and she took advantage ofit to further her own fortunes, which, however, did not hinder her fromafterwards passing into the service of Charles VII. Against the house ofBurgundy. 

[Illustration: Charles VI. And Odette----71]

For thirty years, from 1392 to 1422, the crown remained on the head ofthis poor madman, whilst France was a victim to the bloody quarrels ofthe royal house, to national dismemberment, to licentiousness in morals, to civil anarchy, and to foreign conquest. 

When, for the first time, in the forest of Le Mans, the Dukes of Berryand Burgundy saw their nephew in this condition, their first feeling wasone of sorrow and disquietude. The Duke of Burgundy especially, who wasaccessible to generous and sympathetic emotions, cried out with tears, ashe embraced the king, "My lord and nephew, comfort me with just oneword!" But the desires and the hopes of selfish ambition reappearedbefore long more prominently than these honest effusions of feeling. "All!" said the Duke of Berry, "De Clisson, La Mviere, Noviant, andVilaine have been haughty and harsh towards me; the time has come whenI shall pay them out in the same coin from the same mint. " Theguardianship of the king was withdrawn from his councillors, andtransferred to four chamberlains chosen by his uncles. The two dukes, however, did not immediately lay hands on the government of the kingdom;the constable De Clisson and the late councillors of Charles V. Remainedin charge of it for some time longer; they had given enduring proofs ofcapacity and fidelity to the king's service; and the two dukes did notat first openly attack them, but labored strenuously, nevertheless, todestroy them. The Duke of Burgundy one day said to Sire de Noviant, "I have been overtaken by a very pressing business, for which I requireforthwith thirty thousand crowns; let me have them out of my lord'streasury; I will restore them at another time. " Noviant answeredrespectfully that the council must be spoken to about it. "I wish noneto know of it, " said the duke. Noviant persisted. "You will not do methis favor?" rejoined the duke; "you shall rue it before long. " It wasagainst the constable that the wrath of the princes was chiefly directed. He was the most powerful and the richest. One day he went, with a singlesquire behind him, to the Duke of Burgundy's house; and, "My lord, " saidhe, "many knights and squires are persecuting me to get the money whichis owing to them. I know not where to find it. The chancellor and thetreasurer refer me to you. Since it is you and the Duke of Berry whogovern, may it please you to give me an answer. " "Clisson, " said theduke, "you have no occasion to trouble yourself about the state of thekingdom; it will manage very well without your services. Whence, pray, have you been able to amass so much money? My lord, my brother of Berryand myself have not so much between us three. Away from my presence, andlet me see you no more! If I had not a respect for myself, I would haveyour other eye put out. " Clisson went out, mounted his horse, returnedto his house, set his affairs in order, and departed, with twoattendants, to his strong castle of Montlhery. The two dukes were verysorry that they had not put him under arrest on the spot. The rupturecame to a climax. Of the king's four other councillors one escaped intime; two were seized and thrown into prison; the fourth, Bureau de laRiviere was at his castle of Auneau, near Chartres, honored and belovedby all his neighbors. Everybody urged him to save himself. "If I wereto fly or hide myself, " said he, "I should acknowledge myself guilty ofcrimes from which I feel myself free. Here, as elsewhere, I am at thewill of God; He gave me all I have, and He can take it away whensoever Hepleases. I served King Charles of blessed memory, and also the king, hisson; and they recompensed me handsomely for my services. I will abidethe judgment of the parliament of Paris touching what I have doneaccording to my king's commands as to the affairs of the realm. " He wastold that the people sent to look for him were hard by, and was asked, "Shall we open to them?" "Why not?" was his reply. He himself went tomeet them, and received them with a courtesy which they returned. He wasthen removed to Paris, where he was shut up with his colleagues in theLouvre. 

Their trial before parliament was prosecuted eagerly, especially in thecase of the absent De Clisson, whom a royal decree banished from thekingdom "as a false and wicked traitor to the crown, and condemned him to'pay a hundred thousand marks of silver, and to forfeit forever theoffice of constable. '" It is impossible in the present day to estimatehow much legal justice there was in this decree; but, in any case, it wascertainly extreme severity to so noble and valiant a warrior who had doneso much for the safety and honor of France. The Dukes of Burgundy andBerry and many barons of the realm signed the decree; but the king'sbrother, the Duke of Orleans, refused to have any part in it. Againstthe other councillors of the king the prosecution was continued, withfits and starts of determination, but in general with slowness anduncertainty. Under the influence of the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry, theparliament showed an inclination towards severity; but Bureau de laRiviere had warm friends, and amongst others, the young and beautifulDuchess of Berry, to whose marriage he had greatly contributed, and JohnJuvenal des Ursins, provost of the tradesmen of Paris, one of the mentowards whom the king and the populace felt the highest esteem andconfidence. The king, favorably inclined towards the accused by his ownbias and the influence of the Duke of Orleans, presented a demand toparliament to have the papers of the procedure brought to him. Parliamenthesitated and postponed a reply; the procedure followed its course; andat the end of some months further the king ordered it to be stopped, andSires de la Riviere and Neviant to be set at liberty and to have theirreal property restored to them, at the same time that they lost theirpersonal property and were commanded to remain forever at fifteenleagues' distance, at least, from the court. This was moral equity, ifnot legal justice. The accused had been able and faithful servants oftheir king and country. Their imprisonment had lasted more than a year. The Dukes of Burgundy and Berry remained in possession of power. 

They exercised it for ten years, from 1392 to 1402, without any greatdispute between themselves--the Duke of Burgundy's influence beingpredominant--or with the king, who, save certain lucid intervals, tookmerely a nominal part in the government. During this period no event ofimportance disturbed France internally. In 1393 the King of England, Richard II. , son of the Black Prince, sought in marriage the daughter ofCharles VI. , Isabel of France, only eight years old. In both courts andin both countries there was a desire for peace. An embassy came in stateto demand the hand of the princess. The ambassadors were presented, andthe Earl of Northampton, marshal of England, putting one knee to theground before her, said, "Madame, please God you shall be our sovereignlady and Queen of England. " The young girl, well tutored, answered, "Ifit please God and my lord and father that I should be Queen of England, Iwould be willingly, for I have certainly been told that I should then bea great lady. " The contract was signed on the 9th of March, 1396, with apromise that, when the princess had accomplished her twelfth year, sheshould be free to assent to or refuse the union; and ten days after themarriage, the king's uncles and the English ambassadors mutually signed atruce, which promised--but quite in vain--to last for eight and twentyyears. 

About the same time Sigismund, King of Hungary, threatened with aninvasion of his kingdom by the great Turkish Sultan Bajazet I. , nicknamedLightning (El Derfr), because of his rapid conquests, invoked the aid ofthe Christian kings of the West, and especially of the King of France. Thereupon there was a fresh outbreak of those crusades so often renewedsince the end of the thirteenth century. All the knighthood of Francearose for the defence of a Christian king. John, Count of Nevers, eldestson of the Duke of Burgundy, scarcely eighteen years of age, said to hiscomrades, "If it pleased my two lords, my lord the king and my lord andfather, I would willingly head this army and this venture, for I have adesire to make myself known. " The Duke of Burgundy consented, and, inperson, conducted his son to St. Denis, but without intending to make hima knight as yet. "He shall receive the accolade, " said he, "as a knightof Jesus Christ, at the first battle against the infidels. " In April, 1396, an army of new crusaders left France and traversed Germanyuproariously, everywhere displaying its valiant ardor, presumptuousrecklessness, and chivalrous irregularity. Some months elapsed withoutany news; but, at the beginning of December, there were seen arriving inFrance some poor creatures, half naked, dying of hunger, cold, andweariness, and giving deplorable accounts of the destruction of theFrench army. The people would not believe them: "They ought to be throwninto the water, " they said, "these scoundrels who propagate such lies. "But, on the 23th of December, there arrived at Paris James de Helly, aknight of Artois, who, booted and spurred, strode into the hostel ofSt. Paul, threw himself on his knees before the king in the midst of theprinces, and reported that he had come straight from Turkey; that on the28th of the preceding September the Christian army had been destroyed atthe battle of Nicopolis; that most of the lords had been either slain inbattle or afterwards massacred by the sultan's order; and that the Countof Nevers had sent him to the king and to his father the duke, to getnegotiations entered into for his release. There was no exaggerationabout the knight's story. The battle had been terrible, the slaughterawful. For the latter, the French, who were for a moment victorious, hadset a cruel example with their prisoners; and Bajazet had surpassed themin cool ferocity. After the first explosion of the father's and thepeople's grief, the ransom of the prisoners became the topic. It was alarge sum, and rather difficult to raise; and, whilst it was being soughtfor, James de Helly returned to report as much to Bajazet, and to placehimself once more in his power. "Thou art welcome, " said the sultan;"thou hast loyally kept thy word; I give thee thy liberty; thou canst gowhither thou wiliest. "

Terms of ransom were concluded; and the sum total was paid through thehands of Bartholomew Pellegrini, a Genoese trader. Before the Count ofNevers and his comrades set out, Bajazet sent for them. "John, " said heto the count through an interpreter, "I know that thou art a great lordin thy country, and the son of a great lord. Thou art young. It may bethat thou art abashed and grieved at what hath befallen thee in thy firstessay of knighthood, and that, to retrieve thine honor, thou wilt collecta powerful army against me. I might, ere I release thee, bind thee byoath not to take arms against me, neither thyself nor thy people. Butno; I will not exact this oath either from them or from thee. When thouhast returned yonder, take up arms if it please thee, and come and attackme. Thou wilt find me ever ready to receive thee in the open field, theeand thy men-at-arms. And what I say to thee, I say for the sake of allthe Christians thou mayest purpose to bring. I fear them not; I was bornto fight them, and to conquer the world. " Everywhere and at all timeshuman pride, with its blind arrogance, is the same. Bajazet saw noglimpse of that future when his empire would be decaying, and heldtogether only by the interested protection of Christian powers. Afterpaying dearly for their errors and their disasters, Count John of Neversand his comrades in captivity re-entered France in February, 1398, andtheir expedition to Hungary was but one of the last vain ventures ofchivalry in the great struggle that commenced in the seventh centurybetween Islamry and Christendom. 

While this tragic incident was taking place in Eastern Europe, the courtof the mad king was falling a victim to rivalries, intrigues, andscandals which, towards the close of this reign, were to be the curse andthe shame of France. There had grown up between Queen Isabel of Bavariaand Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of the king, an intimacy which, throughout the city and amongst all honorable people, shocked even theleast strait-laced. It was undoubtedly through the queen's influencethat Charles VI. , in 1402, suddenly decided upon putting into the handsof the Duke of Orleans the entire government of the realm and the rightof representing him in everything during the attacks of his malady. TheDuke of Burgundy wrote at once about it to the parliament of Paris, saying, "Take counsel and pains that the interests of the king and hisdominion be not governed as they now are, for, in good truth, it is apity and a grief to hear what is told me about it. " The accusation wasnot grounded solely upon the personal ill-temper of the Duke of Burgundy. His nephew, the Duke of Orleans, was elegant, affable, volatile, good-natured; he had for his partisans at court all those who shared hisworse than frivolous tastes and habits; and his political judgment was nobetter than his habits. No sooner was he invested with power than heabused it strangely; he levied upon the clergy as well as the people anenormous talliage, and the use he made of the money increased stillfurther the wrath of the public. An Augustine monk, named James Legrand, already celebrated for his writings, had the hardihood to preach evenbefore the court against abuses of power and licentiousness of morals. The king rose up from his own place, and went and sat down right oppositethe preacher. "Yes, sir, " continued the monk, "the king your father, during his reign, did likewise lay taxes upon the people, but with theproduce of them he built fortresses for the defence of the kingdom, hehurled back the enemy and took possession of their towns, and he effecteda saving of treasure which made him the most powerful amongst the kingsof the West. But now, there is nothing of this kind done; the height ofnobility in the present day is to frequent bagnios, to live indebauchery, to wear rich dresses with pretty fringes and big cuffs. This, O queen, " he added, "is what is said to the shame of the court;and, if you will not believe me, put on the dress of some poor woman andwalk about the city, and you will hear it talked of by plenty of people. "In spite of his malady and his affection for his brother, Charles VI. , either from pure feebleness or because he was struck by those truths soboldly proclaimed, yielded to the counsels of certain wise men whorepresented to him "that it was neither a reasonable nor an honorablething to intrust the government of the realm to a prince whose youthneeded rather to be governed than to govern. " He withdrew the directionof affairs from the Duke of Orleans and restored it to the Duke ofBurgundy, who took it again and held it with a strong grasp, and didnot suffer his nephew Louis to meddle in anything. But from that timeforward open distrust and hatred were established between the two princesand their families. In the very midst of this court-crisis Duke Philipthe Bold fell ill and died within a few days, on the 27th of April, 1404. He was a prince valiant and able, ambitious, imperious, eager in thepursuit of his own personal interests, careful in humoring those whom heaspired to rule, and disposed to do them good service in whatever was notopposed to his own ends. He deserved and possessed the confidence andaffection not only of his father, King John, but also of his brother, Charles V. , a good judge of wisdom and fidelity. He founded that greathouse of Burgundy which was for more than a century to eclipse and oftento deplorably compromise France; but Philip the Bold loved Francesincerely, and always gave her the chief place in his policy. Hisprivate life was regular and staid, amidst the scandalous licentiousnessof his court. He was of those who leave behind them unfeigned regret andan honored memory, without having inspired their contemporaries with anylively sympathy. 

John the Fearless, Count of Nevers, his son and successor in the dukedomof Burgundy, was not slow to prove that there was reason to regret hisfather. His expedition to Hungary, for all its bad leadership and badfortune, had created esteem for his courage and for his firmness underreverses, but little confidence in his direction of public affairs. Hewas a man of violence, unscrupulous and indiscreet, full of jealousy andhatred, and capable of any deed and any risk for the gratification of hispassions or his fancies. At his accession he made some popular moves; heappeared disposed to prosecute vigorously the war against England, whichwas going on sluggishly; he testified a certain spirit of conciliation bygoing to pay a visit to his cousin, the Duke of Orleans, lying ill at hiscastle of Beaute, near Vincennes; when the Duke of Orleans was wellagain, the two princes took the communion together, and dined together attheir uncle's, the Duke of Berry's; and the Duke of Orleans invited thenew Duke of Burgundy to dine with him the next Sunday. The Parisianstook pleasure in observing these little matters, and in hoping for there-establishment of harmony in the royal family. They were soon to becruelly undeceived. 

On the 23d of November, 1407, the Duke of Orleans had dined at QueenIsabel's. He was returning about eight in the evening along Vieille Ruedu Temple, singing and playing with his glove, and attended by only twosquires riding one horse, and by four or five varlets on foot, carryingtorches. It was a gloomy night; not a soul in the streets. When theduke was about a hundred paces from the queen's hostel, eighteen ortwenty armed men, who had lain in ambush behind a house called Image deNotre-Dame, dashed suddenly out; the squires' horse took fright and ranaway with them; and the assassins rushed upon the duke, shouting, "Death!death!" "What is all this?" said he; "I am the Duke of Orleans. " "Justwhat we want, " was the answer; and they hurled him down from his mule. He struggled to his knees; but the fellows struck at him heavily with axeand sword. A young man in his train made an effort to defend him, andwas immediately cut down; and another, grievously wounded, had but justtime to escape into a neighboring shop. A poor cobbler's wife opened herwindow, and, seeing the work of assassination, shrieked, "Murder!murder!" "Hold your tongue, you strumpet!" cried some one from thestreet. Others shot arrows at the windows where lookers-on might be. Atall man, wearing a red cap which came down over his eyes, said in a loudvoice, "Out with all lights, and away!" The assassins fled at the top oftheir speed, shouting, "Fire! fire!" throwing behind them foot-trippers, and by menaces causing all the lights to be put out which were beinglighted here and there in the shops. 

[Illustration: Murder of the Duke of Orleans----38]

The duke was quite dead. One of his squires, returning to the spot, found his body stretched on the road, and mutilated all over. He wascarried to the neighboring church of Blancs-Manteaux, whither all theroyal family came to render the last sad offices. The Duke of Burgundyappeared no less afflicted than the rest. "Never, " said he, "was a morewicked and traitorous murder committed in this realm. " The provost ofParis, Sire de Tignouville, set on foot an active search after theperpetrators. He was summoned before the council of princes, and theDuke of Berry asked him if he had discovered anything. "I believe, " saidthe provost, "that if I had leave to enter all the hostels of the king'sservants, and even of the princes, I could get on the track of theauthors or accomplices of the crime. " He was authorized to enterwherever it seemed good to him. He went away to set himself to work. The Duke of Burgundy, looking troubled and growing pale, "Cousin, " saidthe King of Naples, Louis d'Anjou, who was present at the council, "canyou know aught about it? You must tell us. " The Duke of Burgundy tookhim, together with his uncle, the Duke of Berry, aside, and told themthat it was he himself who, tempted of the devil, had given orders forthis murder. "O God!" cried the Duke of Berry, "then I lose both mynephews!" The Duke of Burgundy went out in great confusion, and thecouncil separated. Research brought about the discovery that the crimehad been for a long while in preparation, and that a Norman nobleman, Raoul d'Auquetonville, late receiver-general of finance, having beendeprived of his post by the Duke of Orleans for malversation, had beenthe instrument. The council of princes met the next day at the Hotel deNesle. The Duke of Burgundy, who had recovered all his audacity, came totake his seat there. Word was sent to him not to enter the room. DukeJohn persisted; but the Duke of Berry went to the door and said to him, "Nephew, give up the notion of entering the council; you would not beseen there with pleasure. " "I give up willingly, " answered Duke John;"and that none may be accused of putting to death the Duke of Orleans, Ideclare that it was I, and none other, who caused the doing of what hasbeen done. " Thereupon he turned his horse's head, returned forthwith tothe Hotel d'Artois, and, taking only six men with him, he gallopedwithout a halt, except to change horses, to the frontier of Flanders. The Duke of Bourbon complained bitterly at the council that an immediatearrest had not been ordered. The Admiral de Brabant, and a hundred ofthe Duke of Orleans' knights, set out in pursuit, but were unable to comeup in time. Neither Raoul d'Anquetonville nor any other of the assassinswas caught. The magistrates, as well as the public, were seized withstupor in view of so great a crime and so great a criminal. 

But the Duke of Orleans left a widow who, in spite of his infidelitiesand his irregularities, was passionately attached to him. ValentineVisconti, the Duke of Milan's daughter, whose dowry had gone to pay theransom of King John, was at Chateau-Thierry when she heard of herhusband's murder. Hers was one of those natures, full of softness and atthe same time of fire, which grief does not overwhelm, and in which apassion for vengeance is excited and fed by their despair. She startedfor Paris in the early part of December, 1407, during the roughestwinter, it was said, ever known for several centuries, taking with herall her children. The Duke of Berry, the Duke of Bourbon, the Count ofClermont, and the constable went to meet her. Herself and all her trainin deep mourning, she dismounted at the hostel of St. Paul, threw herselfon her knees before the king with the princes and council around him, anddemanded of him justice for her husband's cruel death. The chancellorpromised justice in the name of the king, who added with his own lips, "We regard the deed relating to our own brother as done to ourself. " Thecompassion of all present was boundless, and so was their indignation;but it was reported that the Duke of Burgundy was getting ready to returnto Paris, and with what following and for what purpose would he come?Nothing was known on that point. There was no force with which to make adefence. Nothing was done for the Duchess of Orleans; no prosecutionbegan. As much vexed and irritated as disconsolate, she set out forBlois with her children, being resolved to fortify herself there. Charles had another relapse of his malady. The people of Paris, who wererather favorable than adverse to the Duke of Burgundy, laid the blame ofthe king's new attack, and of the general alarm, upon the Duchess ofOrleans, who was off in flight. John the Fearless actually re-enteredParis on the 20th of February, 1408, with a thousand men-at-arms, amidstpopular acclamation, and cries of "Long live the Duke of Burgundy!"Having taken up a strong position at the Hotel d'Artois, he sent a demandto the king for a solemn audience, proclaiming his intention of settingforth the motives for which he had caused the Duke of Orleans to beslain. The 8th of March was the day fixed. Charles VI. , being worsethan ever that day, was not present; the _dauphin_, Louis, Duke ofGuienne, a child of twelve years, surrounded by the princes, councillors, a great number of lords, doctors of the university, burgesses of note, and people of various conditions, took his father's place at thisassembly. The Duke of Burgundy had intrusted a Norman Cordelier, MasterJohn Petit, with his justification. The monk spoke for more than fivehours, reviewing sacred history, and the histories of Greece, Rome, andPersia, and the precedents of Phineas, Absalom the son of David, QueenAthaliah, and Julian the Apostate, to prove "that it is lawful, and notonly lawful, but honorable and meritorious, in any subject to slay orcause to be slain a traitor and disloyal tyrant, especially when he is aman of such mighty power that justice cannot well be done by thesovereign. " This principle once laid down, John Petit proceeded to applyit to the Duke of Burgundy, "causing to be slain that criminal tyrant, the Duke of Orleans, who was meditating the damnable design of thrustingaside the king and his children from their crown;" and he drew from itthe conclusion that "the Duke of Burgundy ought not to be at all blamedor censured for what had happened in the person of the Duke of Orleans, and that the king not only ought not to be displeased with him, but oughtto hold the said lord of Burgundy, as well as his deed, agreeable to him, and authorized by necessity. " The defence thus concluded, letters wereactually put before the king, running thus: "It is our will and pleasurethat our cousin of Burgundy, his heirs and successors, be and abide atpeace with us and our successors, in respect of the aforesaid deed, andall that hath followed thereon; and that by us, our said successors, ourpeople and officers, no hinderance, on account of that, may be offeredthem, either now or in time to come. "

Charles VI. , weak in mind and will, even independently of his attacks, signed these letters, and gave Duke John quite a kind reception, tellinghim, however, that "he could cancel the penalty, but not the resentmentof everybody, and that it was for him to defend himself against perilswhich were probably imminent. " The duke answered proudly that "so longas he stood in the king's good graces, he did not fear any man living. "

Three days after this strange audience and this declaration, QueenIsabel, but lately on terms of the closest intimacy with the Duke ofOrleans, who had been murdered on his way home after dining with her, wasfilled with alarm, and set off suddenly for Melun, taking with her herson Louis, the _dauphin_, and accompanied by nearly all the princes, who, however, returned before long to Paris, being troubled by the displeasurethe Duke of Burgundy testified at their departure. For more than fourmonths, Duke John the Fearless remained absolute master of Paris, disposing of all posts, giving them to his own creatures, and puttinghimself on good terms with the university and the principal burgesses. A serious revolt amongst the Liigese called for his presence in Flanders. The first troops he had sent against them had been repulsed; and he feltthe necessity of going thither in person. But two months after hisdeparture from Paris, on the 26th of August, 1408, Queen Isabel returnedthither from Melun, with the _dauphin_ Louis, who for the first time rodeon horseback, and with three thousand men-at-arms. She set up herestablishment at the Louvre. The Parisians shouted "Noel, " as she passedalong; and the Duke of Berry, the Duke of Bourbon, the Duke of Brittany, the constable, and all the great officers of the crown rallied round her. Two days afterwards, on the 28th of August, the Duchess of Orleansarrived there from Blois, in a black litter drawn by four horsescaparisoned in black, and followed by a large number of mourningcarriages. On the 5th of September, a state assembly was held at theLouvre. All the royal family, the princes and great officers of thecrown, the presidents of the parliament, fifteen archbishops or bishops, the provost of Paris, the provost of tradesmen, and a hundred burgessesof note attended it. Thereupon Master Juvenal des Ursins, king'sadvocate, announced the intention of Charles VI. In his illness to conferthe government upon the queen, set forth the reasons for it, called tomind the able regency of Queen Blanche, mother of St. Louis, and producedroyal letters, sealed with the great seal. Immediately the Duchess ofOrleans came forward, knelt at the _dauphin_'s feet, demanding justicefor the death of her husband, and begged that she might have a dayappointed her for refuting the calumnies with which it had been sought toblacken his memory. The _dauphin_ promised a speedy reply. On the 11thof September, accordingly, a new meeting of princes, lords, prelates, parliament, the university, and burgesses was held in the great hall ofthe Louvre. The Duchess of Orleans, the Duke her son, their chancellor, and the principal officers of her household were introduced, and leavewas given them to proceed with the justification of the late Duke ofOrleans. It had been prepared beforehand; the duchess placed themanuscript before the council, as pledging herself unreservedly to all itcontained, and Master Serisy, Abbot of St. Fiacre, a monk of the order ofSt. Benedict, read the document out publicly. It was a long and learneddefence, in which the imputations made by the cordelier, John Petit, against the late Duke of Orleans, were effectually and in some partseloquently refuted. After the justification, Master Cousinot, advocateof the Duchess of Orleans, presented in person his demands against theDuke of Burgundy. They claimed that he should be bound to come, "withoutbelt or chaperon, " and disavow solemnly and publicly, on his knees beforethe royal family, and also on the very spot where the crime wascommitted, the murder of the Duke of Orleans. After several other actsof reparation which were imposed upon him, he was to be sent into exilefor twenty years beyond the seas, and on his return to remain at twentyleagues' distance, at least, from the king and the royal family. Afterreacting these demands, which were more legitimate than practicable, theyoung _dauphin_, well instructed as to what he had to say, addressed theDuchess of Orleans and her children in these terms: "We and all theprinces of the blood royal here present, after having heard thejustification of our uncle, the Duke of Orleans, have no doubt lefttouching the honor of his memory, and do hold him to be completelycleared of all that hath been said contrary to his reputation. As to thefurther demands you make, they shall be suitably provided for in courseof justice. " At this answer the assembly broke up. 

It had just been reported that the Duke of Burgundy had completely beatenand reduced to submission the insurgent Liegese, and that he waspreparing to return to Paris with his army. Great was the consternationamongst the council of the queen and princes. They feared aboveeverything to see the king and the _dauphin_ in the Duke of Burgundy'spower; and it was decided to quit Paris, which had always testified afavorable disposition towards Duke John. Charles VI. Was the first todepart, on the 3d of November, 1408. The queen, the _dauphin_, and theprinces followed him two days afterwards, and at Gien they all took boaton the Loire to go to Tours. The Duke of Burgundy on his arrival atParis, on the 28th of November, found not a soul belonging to the royalfamily or the court; and he felt a moment's embarrassment. Even hisaudacity and lack of scruple did not go to the extent of doing withoutthe king altogether, or even of dispensing with having him for a tool;and he had seen too much of the Parisian populace not to know howprecarious and fickle was its favor. He determined to negotiate with theking's party, and for that purpose he sent his brother-in-law the Countof Hainault, to Tours, with a brilliant train of unarmed attendants, bidden to make themselves agreeable, and not to fight. 

A recent event had probably much to do with his decision. His mostindomitable foe, she to whom the king and his councillors had latelygranted a portion of the vengeance she was seeking to take on him, Valentine of Milan, Duchess of Orleans, died on the 4th of December, 1408, at Blois, far from satisfied with the moral reparation she hadobtained in her enemy's absence, and clearly foreseeing that against theDuke of Burgundy, flushed with victory and present in person, she wouldobtain nothing of what she had asked. For spirits of the best mettle, and especially for a woman's heart, impotent passion is a heavy burden tobear; and Valentine Visconti, beautiful, amiable, and unhappy even in herbest days through the fault of the husband she loved, sank under thistrial. At the close of her life she had taken for device, "Nought have Imore; more hold I nought" (Bien ne m 'est plus; plus ne m 'est rien);and so fully was that her habitual feeling that she had the wordsinscribed upon the black tapestry of her chamber. In her last hours shehad by her side her three sons and her daughter, but there was anotherstill whom she remembered. She sent for a child, six years of age, John, a natural son of her husband by Marietta d'Enghien, wife of Sire deCany-Dunois. "This one, " said she, "was filched from me; yet there isnot a child so well cut out as he to avenge his father's death. "Twenty-five years later John was the famous Bastard of Orleans, CountDunois, Charles VII. 's lieutenant-general, and Joan of Arc's comrade inthe work of saving the French kingship and France. 

[Illustration: Death of Valentine de Milan----45]

The Duke of Burgundy's negotiations at Tours were not fruitless. Theresult was, that on the 9th of March, 1409, a treaty was concluded and aninterview effected at Chartres between the duke on one side and on theother the king, the queen, the _dauphin_, all the royal family, thecouncillors of the crown, the young Duke of Orleans, his brother, and ahundred knights of their house, all met together to hear the king declarethat he pardoned the Duke of Burgundy. The duke prayed "my lord ofOrleans and my lords his brothers to banish from their hearts all hatredand vengeance;" and the princes of Orleans "assented to what the kingcommanded them, and forgave their cousin the Duke of Burgundy everythingentirely. " On the way back from Chartres the Duke of Burgundy's foolkept playing with a church-paten (called "peace"), and thrusting it underhis cloak, saying, "See, this is a cloak of peace;" and, "Many folks, "says Juvenal des Ursins, "considered this fool pretty wise. " The Duke ofBurgundy had good reason, however, for seeking this outwardreconciliation; it put an end to a position too extended not to becomepretty soon untenable; the peace was a cause of great joy at Paris; theking was not long coming back; and two hundred thousand persons, says thechronicle, went out to meet him, shouting, "Noel!" The Duke of Burgundyhad gone out to receive him; and the queen and the princes arrived twodays after-wards. It was not known at the time, though it was perhapsthe most serious result of the negotiation, that a secret understandinghad been established between John the Fearless and Isabel of Bavaria. The queen, as false as she was dissolute, had seen that the duke might beof service to her on occasion if she served him in her turn, and they hadadded the falsehood of their undivulged arrangement to that of thegeneral reconciliation. 

But falsehood does not extinguish the facts it attempts to disguise. Thehostility between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy could not fail tosurvive the treaty of Chartres, and cause search to be made for a man tohead the struggle so soon as it could be recommenced. The hour and theman were not long waited for. In the very year of the treaty, Charles ofOrleans, eldest son of the murdered duke and Valentine of Milan, lost hiswife, Isabel of France, daughter of Charles VI. ; and as early as thefollowing year (1410) the princes, his uncles, made him marry Bonned'Armagnac, daughter of Count Bernard d'Armagnac, one of the mostpowerful, the most able, and the most ambitious lords of Southern France. Forthwith, in concert with the Duke of Berry, the Duke of Brittany, andseveral other lords, Count Bernard put himself at the head of the Orleansparty, and prepared to proceed against the Duke of Burgundy in the causeof dominion combined with vengeance. From 1410 to 1415 France was a preyto civil war between the Armagnacs and Burgundians, and to theiralternate successes and reverses brought about by the unscrupulousemployment of the most odious and desperate means. The Burgundians hadgenerally the advantage in the struggle, for Paris was chiefly the centreof it, and their influence was predominant there. Their principal alliesthere were the butchers, the boldest and most ambitious corporation inthe city. For a long time the butcher-trade of Paris had been in thehands of a score of families the number had been repeatedly reduced, andat the opening of the fifteenth century, three families, the Legoix, theSt. Yons, and the Thiberts, had exercised absolute mastery in the marketdistrict, which in turn exercised mastery over nearly the whole city. "One Caboche, a flayer of beasts in the shambles of Hotel-Dieu, andMaster John de Troyes, a surgeon with a talent for speaking, were theirmost active associates. Their company consisted of 'prentice-butchers, medical students, skinners, tailors, and every kind of lewd fellows. When anybody caused their displeasure they said, 'Here's an Armagnac, 'and despatched him on the spot, and plundered his house, or dragged himoff to prison to pay dear for his release. The rich burgesses lived infear and peril. More than three hundred of them went off to Melun withthe provost of tradesmen, who could no longer answer for the tranquillityof the city. " The Armagnacs, in spite of their general inferiority, sometimes got the upper hand, and did not then behave with much morediscretion than the others. They committed the mistake of asking aidfrom the King of England, "promising him the immediate surrender of allthe cities, castles, and bailiwicks they still possessed in Guienne andPoitou. " Their correspondence fell into the hands of the Burgundians, and the Duke of Burgundy showed the king himself a letter stating that"the Duke of Berry, the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of Bourbon hadlately conspired together at Bourges for the destruction of the king, thekingdom, and the good city of Paris. " "Ah!" cried the poor king withtears, "we quite see their wickedness, and we do conjure you, who are ofour own blood, to aid and advise us against them. " The duke and hispartisans, kneeling on one knee, promised the king all the assistancepossible with their persons and their property. The civil war waspassionately carried on. The Burgundians went and besieged Bourges. Thesiege continued a long while without success. Some of the besiegers grewweary of it. Negotiations were opened with the besieged. An interviewtook place before the walls between the Duke of Berry and the Duke ofBurgundy. "Nephew, " said the former, "I have acted ill, and you stillworse. It is for us to try and maintain the kingdom in peace andprosperity. " "I will be no obstacle, uncle, " answered Duke John. Peacewas made. It was stipulated that the Duke of Berry and the Armagnaclords should give up all alliance with the English, and all confederacyagainst the Duke of Burgundy, who, on his side, should give up any thathe might have formed against them. An engagement was entered intomutually to render aid, service, and obedience to the king against hisfoe of England, as they were bound by right and reason to do; and lastlya promise was made to observe the articles of the peace of Chartres, andto swear them over again. There was a special prohibition against using, for the future, the words Armagnacs and Burgundians, or any other termreflecting upon either party. The pacification was solemnly celebratedat Auxerre, on the 22d of August, 1412; and on the 29th of Septemberfollowing, the _dauphin_ once more entered Paris, with the Duke ofBurgundy at his side. The king, queen, and Duke of Berry arrived a fewdays afterwards. The people gave a hearty reception to them, even to theArmagnacs, well known as such, in their train; but the butchers and themen of their faction murmured loudly, and treated the peace as treason. Outside, it was little more than nominal; the Count of Armagnac remainedunder arms and the Duke of Orleans held aloof from Paris. A violentferment again began there. The butchers continued to hold the mastery. The Duke of Burgundy, all the while finding them very much in the way, did not cease to pay court to them, Many of his knights were highlydispleased at seeing themselves mixed up with such fellows. The honestburgesses began to be less frightened at the threats and more angry atthe excesses of the butchers. The advocate-general, Juvenal des Ursins, had several times called without being received at the Hotel d'Artois, but one night the Duke of Burgundy sent for him, and asked him what hethought of the position. "My lord, " said the magistrate, "do not persistin always maintaining that you did well to have the Duke of Orleansslain; enough mischief has come of it to make you agree that you werewrong. It is not to your honor to let yourself be guided by flayers ofbeasts and a lot of lewd fellows. I can guarantee that a hundredburgesses of Paris, of the highest character, would undertake to attendyou everywhere, and do whatever you should bid them, and even lend youmoney if you wanted it. " The duke listened patiently, but answered thathe had done no wrong in the case of the Duke of Orleans, and would neverconfess that he had. "As to the fellows of whom you speak, " said he, "I know my own business. " Juvenal returned home without much belief inthe duke's firmness. He himself, full of courage as he was, durst notyet declare himself openly. The thought of all this occupied his mindincessantly, sleeping and waking. One night, when he had fallen asleeptowards morning, it seemed to him that a voice kept saying, _Surgite cumsederitis, qui manducatis panem doloris_ (Rise up from your sitting, yewho eat the bread of sorrow). When he awoke, his wife, a good and piouswoman, said to him, "My dear, this morning I heard some one saying toyou, or you pronouncing in a dream, some words that I have often read inmy Hours;" and she repeated them to him. "My dear, " answered Juvenal, "we have eleven children, and consequently great cause to pray God togrant us peace; let us hope in Him, and He will help us. " He often sawthe Duke of Berry. "Well, Juvenal, " the old prince would say to him, "shall this last forever? Shall we be forever under the sway of theselewd fellows?" "My lord, " Juvenal would answer, "hope we in God; yet alittle while and we shall see them confounded and destroyed. "

Nor was Juvenal mistaken. The opposition to the yoke of the Burgundianswas daily becoming more and more earnest and general. The butchersattempted to stein the current; but the carpenters took sides againstthem, saying, "We will see which are the stronger in Paris, the hewers ofwood or the fellers of oxen. " The parliament, the exchequer-chamber, andthe Hotel-de-Ville demanded peace; and the shouts of Peace! peace!resounded in the streets. A great crowd of people assembled on theGreve; and thither the butchers came with their company of about twelvehundred persons, it is said. They began to speak against peace, butcould not get a hearing. "Let those who are for it go to the right, "shouted a voice, "and those who are against it to the left!" But theadversaries of peace durst not risk this test. The Duke of Burgundycould not help seeing that he was declining rapidly; he was no longersummoned to the king's council; a watch was kept upon his house; and hedetermined to go away. On the 23d of August, 1413, without a word said, even to his household, he went away to the wood of Vincennes, prevailingon the king to go hawking with him. There was a suspicion that the dukemeant to carry off the king. Juvenal des Ursins, with a company of armedburgesses, hurried off to Vincennes, and going straight to the king, said, "Sir, come away to Paris; it is too hot to be out. " The kingturned to go back to the city. The Duke of Burgundy was angry, sayingthat the king was going a-hawking. "You would take him too far, "rejoined Juvenal; "your people are in travelling dress, and you haveyour trumpeters with you. "

[Illustration: John the Fearless----51]

The duke took leave of the king, said business required his presence inFlanders, and went off as fast as he could. 

When it was known that he had gone, there was a feeling of regret anddisquietude amongst the sensible and sober burgesses at Paris. What theywanted was peace; and in order to have it the adherence of the Duke ofBurgundy was indispensable. Whilst he was present, there might be hopeof winning him or forcing him over to it; but, whilst he was absent, headstrong as he was known to be, a renewal of war was the most probablecontingency. And this result appeared certain when it was seen how theprinces hostile to the Duke of Burgundy, above all, Duke Charles ofOrleans, the Count of Armagnac and their partisans hastened back toParis, and resumed their ascendency with the king and in his council. The _dauphin_, Louis Duke of Aquitaine, united himself by the ties ofclose friendship with the Duke of Orleans, and prevailed upon him to giveup the mourning he had worn since his father's murder; the two princesappeared everywhere dressed alike; the scarf of Armagnac re-placed thatof Burgundy; the feelings of the populace changed as the fashion of thecourt; and when children sang in the streets the song but lately invogue, "Burgundy's duke, God give thee joy!" they were struck and hurledto the ground. Facts were before long in accordance with appearances. After a few pretences of arrangement the Duke of Burgundy took up armsand marched on Paris. Charles VI. , on his side, annulled, in thepresence of Parliament, all acts adverse to the Duke of Orleans and hisadherents; and the king, the queen, and the _dauphin_ bound themselves byoath not to treat with the duke of Burgundy until they had destroyed hispower. At the end of March, 1414, the king's army was set in motion;Compiegne, Soissons, and Bapaume, which held out for the Duke ofBurgundy, were successively taken by assault or surrendered; the royaltroops treated the people as vanquished rebels; and the four greatcommunes of Flanders sent a deputation to the king to make protestationsof their respect and an attempt to arrange matters between their lord andhis suzerain. Animosity was still too lively and too recent in theking's camp to admit of satisfaction with a victory as yet incomplete. On the 28th of July began the siege of Arras; but after five weeks thebesiegers had made no impression; an epidemic came upon them; the Duke ofBavaria and the constable, Charles d'Albret, were attacked by it;weariness set in on both sides; the Duke of Burgundy' himself began to beanxious about his position; and he sent the Duke of Brabant, his brother, and the Countess of Hainault, his sister, to the king and the _dauphin_, with more submissive words than he had hitherto deigned to utter. TheCountess of Hainault, pleading the ties of family and royal interests, managed to give the _dauphin_ a bias towards peace; and the _dauphin_ inhis turn worked upon the mind of the king, who was becoming more and morefeeble and accessible to the most opposite impressions. It was in vainthat the most intimate friends of the Duke of Orleans tried to keep theking steadfast in his wrath from night to morning. One day, when he wasstill in bed, one of them softly approaching and putting his hand underthe coverlet, said, plucking him by the foot, "My lord, are you asleep?""No, cousin, " answered the king; "you are quite welcome; is thereanything new?" "No, sir; only that your people report that if you wouldassault Arras there would be good hope of effecting an entry. " "But ifmy cousin of Burgundy listens to reason, and puts the town into my handswithout assault, we will make peace. " "What! sir; you would make peacewith this wicked, this disloyal man who so cruelly had your brotherslain?" "But all was forgiven him with the consent of my nephew ofOrleans, " said the king mournfully. "Alas! sir, you will never see thatbrother again. " "Let me be, cousin, " said the king, impatiently; "Ishall see him again on the day of judgment. "

Notwithstanding this stubborn way of working up the irreconcilableenmities which caused divisions in the royal family, peace was decidedupon and concluded at Arras, on the 4th of September, 1414, on conditionsas vague as ever, which really put no end to the causes of civil war, butpermitted the king on the one hand and the Duke of Burgundy on the other, to call themselves and to wear an appearance of being reconciled. Aserious event which happened abroad at that time was heavily felt inFrance, reawakened the spirit of nationality, and opened the eyes of allparties a little to the necessity of suspending their own selfishdisagreements. Henry IV. , King of England, died on the 20th of March, 1413. Having been chiefly occupied with the difficulties of his owngovernment at home, he, without renouncing the war with France, had notprosecuted it vigorously, and had kept it in suspense or adjournment by arepetition of truces. Henry V. , his son and successor, a young prince offive and twenty, active, ambitious, able, and popular, gave, from thevery moment of his accession, signs of having bolder views, which werenot long coming to maturity, in respect of his relations with France. The Duke of Burgundy had undoubtedly anticipated them, for, as soon as hewas cognizant of Henry IV. 's death, he made overtures in London for themarriage of his daughter Catherine with the new King of England, and hereceived at Bruges an English embassy on the subject. When this wasknown at Paris, the council of Charles VI. Sent to the Duke of BurgundySire de Dampierre and the Bishop of Evreux bearing letters to him fromthe king "which forbade him, on pain of forfeiture and treason, to enterinto any treaty with the King of England, either for his daughter'smarriage or for any other cause. " But the views of Henry V. Soaredhigher than a marriage with a daughter of the Duke of Burgundy. It wasto the hand of the King of France's daughter, herself also namedCatherine, that he made pretension, flattering himself that he would findin this union aid in support of his pretences to the crown of France. These pretences he put forward, hardly a year after his accession to thethrone, basing them, as Edward III. Had done, on the alleged right ofIsabel of France, wife of Edward II. , to succeed King John. No reply wasvouchsafed from Paris to this demand. Only the Princess Catherine, whowas but thirteen, was presented to the envoys of the King of England, andshe struck them as being tall and beautiful. A month later, in August, 1414, Henry V. Gave Charles VI. To understand that he would be contentwith a strict execution of the treaty of Bretigny, with the addition ofNormandy, Anjou, and Maine, and the hand of the Princess Catherine with adowry of two million crowns. The war between Charles VI. And John theFearless caused a suspension of all negotiations on this subject; but, after the peace of Arras, in January, 1415, a new and solemn embassy fromEngland arrived at Paris, and the late proposals were again broughtforward. The ambassadors had a magnificent reception; splendid presentsand entertainments were given them; but no answer was made to theirdemands; they were only told that the King of France was about to send anembassy to the King of England. It did not set out before the 27th ofthe following April; the Archbishop of Bourges, the most eloquent prelatein the council, was its spokesman; and it had orders to offer the King ofEngland the hand of the Princess Catherine with a dowry of eight hundredand forty thousand golden crowns, besides fifteen towns in Aquitaine andthe seneschalty of Limoges. Henry V. Rejected these offers, declaringthat, if he did not get Normandy and all the districts ceded by thetreaty of Bretigny, he would have recourse to war to recover a crownwhich belonged to him. To this arrogant language the Archbishop ofBourges replied, "O king, what canst thou be thinking of that thouwouldst fain thus oust the King of the French, our lord, the most nobleand excellent of Christian kings, from the throne of so powerful akingdom? Thinkest thou that it is for fear of thee and of the Englishthat he hath made thee an offer of his daughter together with so great asum and a portion of his land? Nay, verily; he was moved by pity and thelove of peace; he would not that the innocent blood should be spilt andChristian people destroyed in the hurly-burly of battle. He will invokethe aid of God Almighty, of the blessed virgin Mary, and of all thesaints. Then by his own arms and those of his loyal subjects, vassals, and allies, thou wilt be driven from his kingdom, and, peradventure, meetwith death or capture. "

On returning to Paris the ambassadors, in presence of the king's counciland a numerous assembly of clergy, nobility, and people, gave an accountof their embassy and advised instant preparation for war withoutlistening to a single word of peace. "They loudly declared, " says themonk of St. Denis, "that King Henry's letters, though they wereapparently full of moderation, had lurking at the bottom of them a greatdeal of perfidy, and that this king, all the time that he was offeringpeace and union in the most honeyed terms, was thinking only how he mightdestroy the kingdom, and was levying troops in all quarters. " Henry V. , indeed, in November, 1414, demanded of his Parliament a large subsidy, which was at once voted without any precise mention of the use to be madeof it, and merely in the terms following: "For the defence of the realmof England and the security of the seas. " At the commencement of thefollowing year, Henry resumed negotiations with France, renouncing hisclaims to Normandy, Anjou, and Maine; but Charles VI. And his counciladhered to their former offers. On the 16th of April, 1415, Henryannounced to a grand council of spiritual and temporal peers, assembledat Westminster, his determination "of setting out in person to go and, byGod's grace, recover his heritage. " He appointed one of his brothers, the Duke of Bedford, to be regent in his absence, and the peers, ecclesiastical and laical, applauded his design, promising him theirsincere co-operation. Thus France, under a poor mad king and amidstcivil dissensions of the most obstinate character, found the questionrenewed for her of French versus English king-ship and nationalindependence versus foreign conquest. 

On the 14th of August, 1415, an English fleet, having on board, togetherwith King Henry V. , six thousand men-at-arms, twenty-four thousandarchers, powerful war-machines, and a multitude of artisans and "smallfolk, " came to land near Harfleur, not far from the mouth of the Seine. It was the most formidable expedition that had ever issued from the portsof England. The English spent several days in effecting their landingand setting up their siege-train around the walls of the city. "It wouldhave been easy, " says the monk of St. Denis, "to hinder their operations, and the inhabitants of the town and neighborhood would have workedthereat with zeal, if they had not counted that the nobility of thedistrict and the royal army commanded by the constable, Charles d'Albret, would come to their aid. " No one came. The burgesses and the smallgarrison of Harfleur made a gallant defence; but, on the 22d ofSeptember, not receiving from Vernon, where the king and the _dauphin_were massing their troops, any other assistance than the advice to "takecourage and trust to the king's discretion, " they capitulated; and HenryV. , after taking possession of the place, advanced into the country withan army already much reduced by sickness, looking for a favorable pointat which to cross the Somme and push his invasion still farther. It wasnot until the 19th of October that he succeeded, at Bethencourt, near St. Quentin. Charles VI. , who at that time had a lucid interval, afterholding at Rouen a council of war, at which it was resolved to give theEnglish battle, wished to repair with the _dauphin_, his son, to Bapaume, where the French army had taken position; but his uncle, the Duke ofBerry, having still quite a lively recollection of the battle ofPoitiers, fought fifty-nine' years before, made opposition, saying, "Better lose the battle than the king and the battle. " All the princesof the royal blood and all the flower of the French nobility, except theking and his three sons, and the Dukes of Berry, Brittany, and Burgundy, joined the army. The Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and the Constabled'Albret, who was in command, sent to ask the King of England on what dayand at what place he would be pleased to give them battle. "I do notshut myself up in walled towns, " replied Henry; "I shall be found at anytime and any where ready to fight, if any attempt be made to cut off mymarch. " The French resolved to stop him between Agincourt andFramecourt, a little north of St. Paul and Hesdin. The encounter tookplace on the 25th of October, 1415. It was a monotonous and lamentablerepetition of the disasters of Crecy and Poitiers; disasters almostinevitable, owing to the incapacity of the leaders and ever the samedefects on the part of the French nobility, defects which rendered theirvalorous and generous qualities not only fruitless, but fatal. Never hadthat nobility been more numerous and more brilliant than in thispremeditated struggle. On the eve of the battle, Marshal de Boucicauthad armed five hundred new knights; the greater part passed the night onhorse-back, under arms, on ground soaked with rain; and men and horseswere already distressed in the morning, when the battle began. It weretedious to describe the faulty manoeuvres of the French army and theirdeplorable consequences on that day. Never was battle more stubborn ordefeat more complete and bloody. Eight thousand men of family, amongstwhom were a hundred and twenty lords bearing their own banners, were lefton the field of battle. The Duke of Brabant, the Count of Nevers, theDuke of Bar, the Duke of Alencon, and the Constable d'Albret were killed. The Duke of Orleans was dragged out wounded from under the dead. WhenHenry V. , after having spent several hours on the field of battle, retired to his quarters, he was told that the Duke of Orleans wouldneither eat nor drink. He went to see him. "What fare, cousin?" saidhe. "Good, my lord. " "Why will you not eat or drink?" "I wish to fast. ""Cousin, " said the king, gently, "make good cheer: if God has granted megrace to gain the victory, I know it is not owing to my deserts; Ibelieve that God wished to punish the French; and, if all I have heardis true, it is no wonder, for they say that never were seen disorder, licentiousness, sins, and vices like what is going on in France just now. Surely, God did well to be angry. " It appears that the King of England'sfeeling was that also of many amongst the people of France. "Onreflecting upon this cruel mishap, " says the monk of St. Denis, "all theinhabitants of the kingdom, men and women, said, 'In what evil days arewe come into this world that we should be witnesses of such confusion andshame!'" During the battle the eldest son of Duke John the Fearless, theyoung Count of Charolais (at that time nineteen), who was afterwardsPhilip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was at the castle of Aire, where hisgovernors kept him by his father's orders and prevented him from joiningthe king's army. His servants were leaving him one after another to goand defend the kingdom against the English. 

[Illustration: Already distressed----57]

When he heard of the disaster at Agincourt he was seized with profounddespair at having failed in that patriotic duty; he would fain havestarved himself to death, and he spent three whole days in tears, nonebeing able to comfort him. When, four years afterwards, he became Dukeof Burgundy, and during his whole life, he continued to testify his keenregret at not having fought in that cruel battle, though it should havecost him his life, and he often talked with his servants about that eventof grievous memory. When his father, Duke John, received the news of thedisaster at Agincourt, he also exhibited great sorrow and irritation; hehad lost by it his two brothers, the Duke of Brabant and the Count ofNevers; and he sent forthwith a herald to the King of England, who wasstill at Calais, with orders to say, that in consequence of the death ofhis brother, the Duke of Brabant, who was no vassal of France, and heldnothing in fief there, he, the Duke of Burgundy, did defy him mortally(fire and sword) and sent him his gauntlet. "I will not accept thegauntlet of so noble and puissant a prince as the Duke of Burgundy, " wasHenry V. 's soft answer; "I am of no account compared with him. If I havehad the victory over the nobles of France, it is by God's grace. Thedeath of the Duke of Brabant hath been an affliction to me; but I doassure thee that neither I nor my people did cause his death. Take backto thy master his gauntlet; if he will be at Boulogne on the 15th ofJanuary next, I will prove to him by the testimony of my prisoners andtwo of my friends, that it was the French who accomplished his brother'sdestruction. "

The Duke of Burgundy, as a matter of course, let his quarrel with theKing of England drop, and occupied himself for the future only inrecovering his power in France. He set out on the march for Paris, proclaiming everywhere that he was assembling his army solely for thepurpose of avenging the kingdom, chastising the English, and aiding theking with his counsels and his forces. The sentiment of nationality wasso strongly aroused that politicians most anxious about their ownpersonal interests, and about them alone, found themselves obliged to payhomage to it. 

Unfortunately, it was, so far as Duke John was concerned, only asuperficial and transitory homage. There is no repentance so rarely seenas that of selfishness in pride and power. The four years which elapsedbetween the battle of Agincourt and the death of John the Fearless werefilled with nothing but fresh and still more tragic explosions of hatredand strife between the two factions of the Burgundians and Armagnacs, taking and losing, re-taking and re-losing, alternately, their ascendencywith the king and in the government of France. When, after the battle ofAgincourt, the Duke of Burgundy marched towards Paris, he heard almostsimultaneously that the king was issuing a prohibition against the entryof his troops, and that his rival, the Count of Armagnac, had justarrived and been put in possession of the military power, as constable, and of the civil power, as superintendent-general of finance. The dukethen returned to Burgundy, and lost no time in recommencing hostilitiesagainst the king's government. At one time he let his troops make war onthe king's and pillage the domains of the crown; at another he enteredinto negotiations with the King of England, and showed a disposition toadmit his claims to such and such a province, and even perhaps to thethrone of France. He did not accede to the positive alliance offered himby Henry; but he employed the fear entertained of it by the king'sgovernment as a weapon against his enemies. The Count of Armagnac, onhis side, made the most relentless use of power against the Duke ofBurgundy and his partisans; he pursued them everywhere, especially inParis, with dexterous and pitiless hatred. He abolished the wholeorganization and the privileges of the Parisian butcherdom which hadshown so favorable a leaning towards Duke John; and the system heestablished as a substitute was founded on excellent grounds appertainingto the interests of the people and of good order in the heart of Paris;but the violence of absolute power and of hatred robs the best measuresof the credit they would deserve if they were more disinterested anddispassionate. A lively reaction set in at Paris in favor of thepersecuted Burgundians; even outside of Paris several towns ofimportance, Rheims, Chalons, Troyes, Auxerre, Amiens, and Rouen itself, showed a favorable disposition towards the Duke of Burgundy, and made asort of alliance with him, promising to aid him "in reinstating the kingin his freedom and lordship, and the realm in its freedom and justrights. " The Count of Armagnac was no more tender with the court thanwith the populace of Paris. He suspected, not without reason, that thequeen, Isabel of Bavaria, was in secret communication with and gaveinformation to Duke John. Moreover, she was leading a scandalouslylicentious life at Vincennes; and one of her favorites, Louis deBosredon, a nobleman of Auvergne and her steward, meeting the king oneday on the road, greeted the king cavalierly and hastily went his way. Charles VI. Was plainly offended. The Count of Armagnac seized theopportunity; and not only did he foment the king's ill-humor, but talkedto him of all the irregularities of which the queen was the centre, andin which Louis de Bosredon was, he said, at that time her principalaccomplice. Charles, in spite of the cloud upon his mind, could hardlyhave been completely ignorant cf such facts; but it is not necessary tobe a king to experience extreme displeasure on learning that offensivescandals are almost public, and on hearing the whole tale of them. Theking, carried away by his anger, went straight to Vincennes, had aviolent scene with his wife, and caused Bosredon to be arrested, imprisoned, and put to the question; and he, on his own confession it issaid, was thrown into the Seine, sewn up in a leathern sack, on whichwere inscribed the words, "Let the king's justice run its course!"Charles VI. And Armagnac did not stop there. Queen Isabel was first ofall removed from the council and stripped of all authority, and thenbanished to Tours, where commissioners were appointed to watch over herconduct, and not to let her even write a letter without their seeing it. But royal personages can easily elude such strictness. A few monthsafter her banishment, whilst the despotism of Armagnac and the warbetween the king and the Duke of Burgundy were still going on, QueenIsabel managed to send to the duke, through one of her servants, hergolden seal, which John the Fearless well knew, with a message to theeffect that she would go with him if he would come to fetch her. On thenight of November 1, 1417, the Duke of Burgundy hurriedly raised thesiege of Corbeil, advanced with a body of troops to a position within twoleagues from Tours, and sent the queen notice that he was awaiting her. Isabel ordered her three custodians to go with her to mass at the Conventof Marmoutier, outside the city. Scarcely was she within the church whena Burgundian captain, Hector de Saveuse, presented himself with sixty menat the door. "Look to your safety, madame, " said her custodians toIsabel; "here is a large company of Burgundians or English. " "Keep closeto me, " replied the queen. Hector de Saveuse at that moment entered andsaluted the queen on behalf of the Duke of Burgundy. "Where is he?"asked the queen. "He will not be long coming. " Isabel ordered thecaptain to arrest her three custodians; and two hours afterwards DukeJohn arrived with his men-at-arms. "My dearest cousin, " said the queento him, "I ought to love you above every man in the realm; you have leftall at my bidding, and are come to deliver me from prison. Be assuredthat I will never fail you. I quite see that you have always beendevoted to my lord, his family, the realm, and the common-weal. " Theduke carried the queen off to Chartres; and as soon as she was settledthere, on the 12th of November, 1417, she wrote to the good towns of thekingdom, "We, Isabel, by the grace of God Queen of France, having, by reason of mylord the king's seclusion, the government and administration of thisrealm, by irrevocable grant made to us by the said my lord the king andhis council, are come to Chartres in company with our cousin, the Duke ofBurgundy, in order to advise and ordain whatsoever is necessary topreserve and recover the supremacy of my lord the king, on advice takenof the prud'hommes, vassals, and subjects. "

She at the same time ordered that Master Philip de Morvilliers, heretofore councillor of the Duke of Burgundy, should go to Amiens, accompanied by several clerics of note and by a registrar, and that thereshould be held there, by the queen's authority, for the bailiwicks ofAmiens, Vermandois, Tournai, and the countship of Ponthieu, a sovereigncourt of justice, in the place of that which there was at Paris. Thus, and by such a series of acts of violence and of falsehoods, the Duke ofBurgundy, all the while making war on the king, surrounded himself withhollow forms of royal and legal government. 

Whilst civil war was thus penetrating to the very core of the kingship, foreign war was making its way again into the kingdom. Henry V. , afterthe battle of Agincourt, had returned to London, and had left his army torepose and reorganize after its sufferings and its losses. It was notuntil eighteen months afterwards, on the 1st of August, 1417, that helanded at Touques, not far from Honfleur, with fresh troops, and resumedhis campaign in France. Between 1417 and 1419 he successively laid siegeto nearly all the towns of importance in Normandy, to Caen, Bayeux, Falaise, Evreux, Coutances, Laigle, St. Lo, Cherbourg, &c. , &c. Somehe occupied after a short resistance, others were sold to him by theirgovernors; but when, in the month of July, 1418, he undertook the siegeof Rouen, he encountered there a long and serious struggle. Rouen had atthat time, it is said, a population of one hundred and fifty thousandsouls, which was animated by ardent patriotism. The Rouennese, on theapproach of the English, had repaired their gates, their ramparts, andtheir moats; had demanded re-enforcements from the King of France and theDuke of Burgundy; and had ordered every person incapable of bearing armsor procuring provisions for ten months, to leave the city. Twelvethousand old men, women, and children were thus expelled, and died eitherround the place or whilst roving in misery over the neighboring country;"poor women gave birth unassisted beneath the walls, and goodcompassionate people in the town drew up the new-born in baskets to havethem baptized, and afterwards lowered them down to their mothers to dietogether. " Fifteen thousand men of city-militia, four thousand regularsoldiers, three hundred spearmen and as many archers from Paris, and itis not quite known how many men-at-arms sent by the Duke of Burgundy, defended Rouen for more than five months amidst all the usual sufferingsof strictly-besieged cities. "As early as the beginning of October, "says Monstrelet, "they were forced to eat horses, dogs, cats, and otherthings not fit for human beings;" but they nevertheless made frequentsorties, "rushing furiously upon the enemy, to whom they caused many aheavy loss. " Four gentlemen and four burgesses succeeded in escaping andgoing to Beauvais, to tell the king and his council about the deplorablecondition of their city. The council replied that the king was not in acondition to raise the siege, but that Rouen would be relieved "within"on the fourth day after Christmas. It was now the middle of December. The Rouennese resigned themselves to waiting a fortnight longer; but, when that period was over, they found nothing arrive but a message fromthe Duke of Burgundy recommending them "to treat for their preservationwith the King of England as best they could. " They asked to capitulate. Henry V. Demanded that "all the men of the town should place themselvesat his disposal. " "When the commonalty of Rouen heard this answer, theyall cried out that it were better to die all together sword in handagainst their enemies than place themselves at the disposal of yonderking, and they were for shoring up with planks a loosened layer of thewall inside the city, and, having armed themselves and joined all of themtogether, men, women, and children, for setting fire to the city, throwing down the said layer of wall into the moats, and getting themgone by night whither it might please God to direct them. " Henry V. Wasunwilling to confront such heroic despair; and on the 13th of January, 1419, he granted the Rouennese a capitulation, from which seven personsonly were excepted, Robert Delivet, the archbishop's vicar-general, whofrom the top of the ramparts had excommunicated the foreign conqueror;D'Houdetot, baillie of the city; John Segneult, the mayor; AlanBlanchard, the captain of the militia-crossbowmen, and three otherburgesses. The last-named, the hero of the siege, was the only one whopaid for his heroism with his life; the baillie, the mayor, and the vicarbought themselves off. On the 19th of January, at midday, the English, king and army, made their solemn entry into the city. It was two hundredand fifteen years since Philip Augustus had won Rouen by conquest fromJohn Lackland, King of England; and happily his successors were not to becondemned to deplore the loss of it very long. 

These successes of the King of England were so many reverses and perilsfor the Count of Armagnac. He had in his hands Paris, the king, and the_dauphin_; in the people's eyes the responsibility of government and ofevents rested on his shoulders; and at one time he was doing nothing, at another he was unsuccessful in what he did. Whilst Henry V. Wasbecoming master of nearly all the towns of Normandy, the constable, withthe king in his army, was besieging Senlis; and he was obliged to raisethe siege. The legates of Pope Martin V. Had set about establishingpeace between the Burgundians and Armagnacs, as well as between Franceand England; they had prepared, on the basis of the treaty of Arras, anew treaty, with which a great part of the country, and even of theburgesses of Paris, showed themselves well pleased; but the constable hadit rejected on the ground of its being adverse to the interests of theking and of France; and his friend, the chancellor, Henry de Marle, declared that, if the king were disposed to sign it, he would have toseal it himself, for that, as for him, the chancellor, he certainly wouldnot seal it. Bernard of Armagnac and his confidential friend, TanneguyDuchatel, a Breton nobleman, provost of Paris, were hard and haughty. When a complaint was made to them of any violent procedure, they wouldanswer, "What business had you there? If it were the Burgundians, youwould make no complaint. " The Parisian population was becoming every daymore Burgundian. In the latter days of May. 1418, a plot was contrivedfor opening to the Burgundians one of the gates of Paris. PerrinetLeclerc, son of a rich iron-merchant having influence in the quarter ofSt. Germain des Pros, stole the keys from under the bolster of hisfather's bed; a troop of Burgundian men-at-arms came in, and they wereimmediately joined by a troop of Parisians. They spread over the city, shouting, "Our Lady of peace! Hurrah for the king! Hurrah for Burgundy!Let all who wish for peace take arms and follow us!" The people swarmedfrom the houses and followed them accordingly. The Armagnacs weresurprised and seized with alarm. Tanneguy Duchatel, a man of prompt andresolute spirit, ran to the _dauphin_'s, wrapped him in his bed-clothes, and carried him off to the Bastille, where he shut him up with several ofhis partisans. The Count of Armagnac, towards whose house the multitudethronged, left by a back-door, and took refuge at a mason's, where hebelieved himself secure. In a few hours the Burgundians were masters ofParis. Their chief, the lord of Isle-Adam, had the doors of the hostelof St. Paul broken in, and presented himself before the king. "How faresmy cousin of Burgundy?" said Charles VI. ; "I have not seen him for sometime. " That was all he said. He was set on horseback and marchedthrough the streets. He showed no astonishment at anything; he had allbut lost memory as well as reason, and no longer knew the differencebetween Armagnac and Burgundian. A devoted Burgundian, Sire Guy de Bar, was named provost of Paris in the place of Tanneguy Duchatel. The masonwith whom Bernard of Armagnac had taken refuge went and told the newprovost that the constable was concealed at his house. Thither theprovost hurried, made the constable mount behind him, and carried him offto prison at the Chatelet, at the same time making honorable exertions toprevent massacre and plunder. 

But factions do not so soon give up either their vengeance or theirhopes. On the 11th of June, 1418, hardly twelve days after Paris hadfallen into the hands of the Burgundians, a body of sixteen hundred menissued from the Bastille, and rushed into the street St. Antoine, shouting, "Hurrah for the king, the _dauphin_, and the Count of Armagnac!"They were Tanneguy Duchatel and some of the chiefs of the Armagnacs whowere attempting to regain Paris, where they had observed that theBurgundians were not numerous. Their attempt had no success, and merelygave the Burgundians the opportunity and the signal for a massacre oftheir enemies. The little band of Tanneguy Duchatel was instantlyrepulsed, hemmed in, and forced to re-enter the Bastille with a loss offour hundred men. Tanneguy saw that he could make no defence there; sohe hastily made his way out, taking the _dauphin_ with him to Melun. Themassacre of the Armagnacs had already commenced on the previous evening:they were harried in the hostelries and houses; they were cut down withaxes in the streets. On the night between the 12th and 13th of June arumor spread about that there were bands of Armagnacs coming to delivertheir friends in prison. "They are at the St. Germain gate, " said some. No, it is the St. Marceau gate, " said others. The mob assembled and madea furious rush upon the prison-gates. "The city and burgesses will haveno peace, " was the general saying, "so long as there is one Armagnacleft! Hurrah for peace! Hurrah for the Duke of Burgundy!" The provostof Paris, the lord of Isle-Adam, and the principal Burgundian chieftains, galloped up with a thousand horse, and strove to pacify these madmen, numbering, it is said, some forty thousand. They were received with astout of, "A plague of your justice and pity! Accursed be he whosoevershall have pity on these traitors of Armagnacs. They are English; theyare hounds. They had already made banners for the King of England, andwould fain have planted them upon the gates of the city. They made uswork for nothing, and when we asked for our due they said, 'You rascals, haven't ye a sou to buy a cord and go hang yourselves? In the devil'sname speak no more of it; it will be no use, whatever you say. '" Theprovost of Paris durst not oppose such fury as this. "Do what youplease, " said he. The mob ran to look for the constable Armagnac and thechancellor de Marle in the Palace-tower, in which they had been shut up, and they were at once torn to pieces amidst ferocious rejoicings. Allthe prisons were ransacked and emptied; the prisoners who attemptedresistance were smoked out; they were hurled down from the windows uponpikes held up to catch them. The massacre lasted from four o'clock inthe morning to eleven. The common report was, that fifteen hundredpersons had perished in it; the account rendered to parliament made thenumber eight hundred. The servants of the Duke of Burgundy mentioned tohim no more than four hundred. 

It was not before the 14th of July that he, with Queen Isabel, came backto the city; and he came with a sincere design, if not of punishing thecut-throats, at least of putting a stop to all massacre and pillage; butthere is nothing more difficult than to suppress the consequences of amischief of which you dare not attack the cause. One Bertrand, head ofone of the companies of butchers, had been elected captain of St. Denisbecause he had saved the abbey from the rapacity of a noble Burgundianchieftain, Hector de Saveuse. The lord, to avenge himself, had thebutcher assassinated. The burgesses went to the duke to demand that theassassin should be punished; and the duke, who durst neither assent norrefuse, could only partially cloak his weakness by imputing the crime tosome disorderly youngsters whom he enabled to get away. On the 20th ofAugust an angry mob collected in front of the Chatelet, shouting out thatnobody would bring the Armagnacs to justice, and that they were every daybeing set at liberty on payment of money. The great and little Chateletwere stormed, and the prisoners massacred. The mob would have liked toserve the Bastille the same; but the duke told the rioters that he wouldgive the prisoners up to them if they would engage to conduct them to theChatelet without doing them any harm, and, to win them over, he graspedthe hand of their head man, who was no other than Capeluche, the cityexecutioner. Scarcely had they arrived at the court-yard of the littleChatelet when the prisoners were massacred there without any regard forthe promise made to the duke. He sent for the most distinguishedburgesses, and consulted them as to what could be done to check suchexcesses; but they confined themselves to joining him in deploring them. He sent for the savages once more, and said to them, "You would do farbetter to go and lay siege to Montlhery, to drive off the king's enemies, who have come ravaging everything up to the St. Jacques gate, andpreventing the harvest from being got in. " "Readily, " they answered, "only give us leaders. " He gave them leaders, who led six thousand ofthem to Montlhery. As soon as they were gone Duke John had Capeluche andtwo of his chief accomplices brought to trial, and Capeluche was beheadedin the market-place by his own apprentice. But the gentry sent to thesiege of Montlhery did not take the place; they accused their leaders ofhaving betrayed them, and returned to be a scourge to the neighborhood ofParis, everywhere saying that the Duke of Burgundy was the mostirresolute man in the kingdom, and that if there were no nobles the warwould be ended in a couple of months. Duke John set about negotiatingwith the _dauphin_ and getting him back to Paris. The _dauphin_ repliedthat he was quite ready to obey and serve his mother as a good sonshould, but that it would be more than he could stomach to go back to acity where so many crimes and so much tyranny had but lately beenpractised. Terms of reconciliation were drawn up and signed on the 16thof September, 1418, at St. Maur, by the queen, the Duke of Burgundy, andthe pope's legates; but the _dauphin_ refused to ratify them. Theunpunished and long-continued massacres in Paris had redoubled hisdistrust towards the Duke of Burgundy; he had, moreover, just assumed thetitle of regent of the kingdom; and he had established at Poitiers aparliament, of which Juvenal des Ursins was a member. He had promisedthe young Count of Armagnac to exact justice for his father's crueldeath; and the old friends of the house of Orleans remained faithful totheir enmities. The Duke of Burgundy had at one time to fight, and atanother to negotiate with the _dauphin_ and the King of England, both atonce, and always without success. The _dauphin_ and his council, thoughshowing a little more discretion, were going on in the same alternativeand unsatisfactory condition. Clearly neither France and England nor thefactions in France had yet exhausted their passions or their powers; andthe day of summary vengeance was nearer than that of real reconciliation. 

Nevertheless, complicated, disturbed and persistently resultlesssituations always end by becoming irksome to those who are entangled inthem, and by inspiring a desire for extrication. The King of England, inspite of his successes and his pride, determined upon sending the Earl ofWarwick to Provins, where the king and the Duke of Burgundy still were: atruce was concluded between the English and the Burgundians, and it wasarranged that on the 30th of May, 1419, the two kings should meet betweenMantes and Melun, and hold a conference for the purpose of trying toarrive at a peace. A few days before the time, Duke John set out fromProvins with the king, Queen Isabel, and Princess Catherine, and repairedfirst of all to Pontoise, and then to the place fixed for the interview, on the borders of the Seine, near Meulan, where two pavilions had beenprepared, one for the King of France and the other for the King ofEngland. Charles VI. , being ill, remained at Pontoise. Queen Isabel, Princess Catherine, and the Duke of Burgundy arrived at the appointedspot. Henry V. Was already there; he went to meet the queen, salutedher, took her hand, and embraced her and Madame Catherine as well; DukeJohn slightly bent his knee to the king, who raised him up and embracedhim likewise. This solemn interview was succeeded by several others towhich Princess Catherine did not come. The queen requested the King ofEngland to state exactly what he proposed; and he demanded the executionof the treaty of Bretigny, the cession of Normandy, and the absolutesovereignty, without any bond of vassalage, of whatever should be cededby the treaty. A short discussion ensued upon some secondary questions. There appeared to be no distant probability of an understanding. TheEnglish believed that they saw an inclination on the Duke of Burgundy'spart not to hasten to a conclusion, and to obtain better conditions fromKing Henry by making him apprehensive of a reconciliation with the_dauphin_. Henry proposed to him, for the purpose of ending everything, a conference between themselves alone; and it took place on the 3d ofJune. "Cousin, " said the king to the duke, "we wish you to know that wewill have your king's daughter, and all that we have demanded with her;else we will thrust him out of his kingdom, and you too. " "Sir, "answered the duke, "you speak according to your pleasure; but beforethrusting my lord and myself from the kingdom you will have what willtire you, we make no doubt, and you will have enough to do to keepyourself in your own island. " Between two princes so proud there waslittle probability of an understanding; and they parted with no otherresult than mutual displeasure. 

Some days before, on the 14th of May, 1419, a truce of three months hadbeen concluded between the _dauphin_ and the Duke of Burgundy, and was tolead to a conference also between these two princes. It did not commencebefore the 8th of July. During this interval, Duke John had submittedfor the mature deliberation of his council the question whether it werebetter to grant the English demands, or become reconciled to the_dauphin_. Amongst his official councillors opinions were divided; but, in his privacy, the lady of Giac, "whom he loved and trusted mightily, "and Philip Jossequin, who had at first been his chamber attendant, andafterwards custodian of his jewels and of his privy seal, strongly urgedhim to make peace with the _dauphin_; and the pope's fresh legate, theBishop of Laon, added his exhortations to these home influences. Therehad been fitted up at a league's distance from Melun, on the embankmentof the ponds of Vert, a summer-house of branches and leaves, hung withdrapery and silken stuffs; and there the first interview between the twoprinces took place. The _dauphin_ left in displeasure; he had found theDuke of Burgundy haughty and headstrong. Already the old servants of thelate Duke of Orleans, impelled by their thirst for vengeance, were sayingout loud that the matter should be decided by arms, when the lady of Giacwent after the _dauphin_, who from infancy had also been very muchattached to her, and she, going backwards and forwards between the twoprinces, was so affectionate and persuasive with both that she prevailedupon them to meet again, and to sincerely wish for an understanding. Thenext day but one they returned to the place of meeting, attended, each ofthem, by a large body of men-at-arms. They advanced towards one anotherwith ten men only, and dismounted. The Duke of Burgundy went on bendedknee. The _dauphin_ took him by the hand, embraced him, and would haveraised him up. "No, my lord, " said the duke; "I know how I ought toaddress you. " The _dauphin_ assured him that he forgave every offence, if indeed he had received any, and added, "Cousin, if in the proposedtreaty between us there be aught which is not to your liking, we desirethat you amend it, and henceforth we will desire all you shall desire;make no doubt of it. " They conversed for some time with every appearanceof cordiality; and then the treaty was signed. It was really a treaty ofreconciliation, in which, without dwelling upon "the suspicions andimaginings which have been engendered in the hearts of ourselves and manyof our officers, and have hindered us from acting with concord in thegreat matters of my lord the king and his kingdom, and resisting thedamnable attempts of his and our old enemies, " the two princes mademutual promises, each in language suitable to their rank and connection, "to love one another, support one another, and serve one anothermutually, as good and loyal relatives, and bade all their servants, ifthey saw any hinderance thereto, to give them notice thereof, accordingto their bounden duty. " The treaty was signed by all the men of notebelonging to the houses of both princes; and the crowd which surroundedthem shouted "Noel!" and invoked curses on whosoever should be mindedhenceforth to take up arms again in this damnable quarrel. When the_dauphin_ went away, the duke insisted upon holding his stirrup, and theyparted with every demonstration of amity. The _dauphin_ returned toTouraine, and the duke to Pontoise, to be near the king, who, by lettersof July 19, confirmed the treaty, enjoined general forgetfulness of thepast, and ordained that "all war should cease, save against the English. "

There was universal and sincere joy. The peace fulfilled therequirements at the same time of the public welfare and of nationalfeeling; it was the only means of re-establishing order at home, anddriving from the kingdom the foreigner who aspired to conquer it. Onlythe friends of the Duke of Orleans, and of the Count of Armagnac, oneassassinated twelve years before, and the other massacred but lately, remained sad and angry at not having yet been able to obtain eitherjustice or vengeance; but they maintained reserve and silence. They werenot long in once more finding for mistrust and murmuring grounds orpretexts which a portion of the public showed a disposition to take up. The Duke of Burgundy had made haste to publish his ratification of thetreaty of reconciliation; the _dauphin_ had let his wait. The Parisianswere astounded not to see either the _dauphin_ or the Duke of Burgundycoming back within their walls, and at being, as it were, forgotten anddeserted amidst the universal making-up. They complained that no armedforce was being collected to oppose the English, and that there was anappearance of flying before them, leaving open to them Paris, in which atthis time there was no captain of renown. They were still more troubledwhen, on the 29th of July, they saw the arrival at the St. Denis gate ofa multitude of disconsolate fugitives, some wounded, and others droppingfrom hunger, thirst, and fatigue. When they were asked who they were, and what was the reason of their desperate condition, "We are fromPontoise, " they said; "the English took the town this morning; theykilled or wounded all before them; happy he whosoever could escape fromtheir hands; never were Saracens so cruel to Christians as yonder folkare. " It was a real fact. The King of England, disquieted at thereconciliation between the Duke of Burgundy and the _dauphin_, and at theill success of his own proposals at the conference of the 30th of Maypreceding, had vigorously resumed the war, in order to give both thereunited French factions a taste of his resolution and power. He hadsuddenly attacked and carried Pontoise, where the command was in thehands of the lord of Isle-Adam, one of the most valiant Burgundianofficers. Isle-Adam, surprised and lacking sufficient force, had made afeeble resistance. There was no sign of an active union on the part ofthe two French factions for the purpose of giving the English battle. Duke John, who had fallen back upon Troyes, sent order upon order for hisvassals from Burgundy, but they did not come up. Public alarm anddistrust were day by day becoming stronger. Duke John, it was said, wasstill keeping up secret communications with the seditious in Paris andwith the King of England; why did he not act with more energy againstthis latter, the common enemy? The two princes in their conference ofJuly 9, near Melun, had promised to meet again; a fresh interviewappeared necessary in order to give efficacy to their reconciliation. Duke John was very pressing for the _dauphin_ to go to Troyes, where theking and queen happened to be. The _dauphin_ on his side was earnestlysolicited by the most considerable burgesses of Paris to get thisinterview over in order to insure the execution of the treaty of peacewhich had been sworn to with the Duke of Burgundy. The _dauphin_ showeda disposition to listen to these entreaties. He advanced as far asMontereau in order to be ready to meet Duke John as soon as a place ofmeeting should be fixed. 

Duke John hesitated, from irresolution even more than from distrust. Itwas a serious matter for him to commit himself more and more, by his ownproper motion, against the King of England and his old allies amongst thepopulace of Paris. Why should he be required to go in person to seek the_dauphin_? It was far simpler, he said, for Charles to come to the kinghis father. Tanneguy Duchatel went to Troyes to tell the duke that the_dauphin_ had come to meet him as far as Montereau, and, with the help ofthe lady of Giae, persuaded on his side, to Bray-sur-Seine, two leaguesfrom Montereau. When the two princes had drawn thus near, their agentsproposed that the interview should take place on the very bridge ofMontereau, with the precautions and according to the forms decided on. In the duke's household many of his most devoted servants were opposedto this interview; the place, they said, had been chosen by and would beunder the ordering of the _dauphin_'s people, of the old servants of theDuke of Orleans and the Count of Armagnac. At the same time foursuccessive messages came from Paris urging the duke to make the plunge;and at last he took his resolution. "It is my duty, " said he, "to riskmy person in order to get at so great a blessing as peace. Whateverhappens, my wish is peace. If they kill me, I shall die a martyr. Peacebeing made, I will take the men of my lord the _dauphin_ to go and fightthe English. He has some good men of war and some sagacious captains. Tanneguy and Barbazan are valiant knights. Then we shall see which isthe better man, Jack (Hannotin) of Flanders or Henry of Lancaster. " Heset out for Bray on the 10th of September, 1419, and arrived about twoo'clock before Montereau. Tanneguy Duchatel came and met him there. "Well, " said the duke, "on your assurance we are come to see my lord the_dauphin_, supposing that he is quite willing to keep the peace betweenhimself and us, as we also will keep it, all ready to serve him accordingto his wishes. " "My most dread lord, " answered Tanneguy, "have ye nofear; my lord is well pleased with you, and desires henceforth to governhimself according to your counsels. You have about him good friends whoserve you well. " It was agreed that the _dauphin_ and the duke should, each from his own side, go upon the bridge of Montereau, each with tenmen-at-arms, of whom they should previously forward a list. The_dauphin_'s people had caused to be constructed at the two ends of thebridge strong barriers closed by a gate; about the centre of the bridgewas a sort of lodge made of planks, the entrance to which was, on eitherside, through a pretty narrow passage; within the lodge there was nobarrier in the middle to separate the two parties. Whilst Duke John andhis confidants, in concert with the _dauphin_'s people, were regulatingthese material arrangements, a chamber-attendant ran in quite scared, shouting out, "My lord, look to yourself; without a doubt you will bebetrayed. " The duke turned towards Tanneguy, and said, "We trustourselves to your word; in God's holy name, are you quite sure of whatyou have told us? For you would do ill to betray us. " "My most dreadlord, " answered Tanneguy, "I would rather be dead than commit treasonagainst you or any other: have ye no fear; I certify you that my lordmeaneth you no evil. " "Very well, we will go then, trusting in God andyou, " re-joined the duke; and he set out walking to the bridge. Onarriving at the barrier on the castle side he found there to receive himSire de Beauveau and Tanneguy Duchatel. "Come to my lord, " said they;"he is awaiting you. " "Gentlemen, " said the duke, "you see how I come;"and he showed them that he and his people had only their swords; thenclapping Tanneguy on the shoulder, he said, "Here is he in whom I trust, "and advanced towards the _dauphin_, who remained standing, on the townside, at the end of the lodge constructed in the middle of the bridge. On arriving at the prince's presence Duke John took off his velvet capand bent his knee to the ground. "My lord, " said he, "after God, my dutyis to obey and serve you; I offer to apply thereto and employ therein mybody, my friends, my allies, and well-wishers. Say I well?" he added, fixing his eyes on the _dauphin_. "Fair cousin, " answered the prince, "you say so well that none could say better; rise and be covered. "Conversation thereupon ensued between the two princes. The _dauphin_complained of the duke's delay in coming to see him: "For eighteen days, "he said, "you have made us await your coming in this place of Montereau, this place a prey to epidemic and mortality, at the risk of and probablywith an eye to our personal danger. " The duke, surprised and troubled, resumed his haughty and exacting tone: "We can neither do nor adviseaught, " said he, "save in your father's presence; you must come thither. ""I shall go when I think proper, " said Charles, "and not at your will andpleasure; it is well known that whatever we do, we two together, the kingwill be content therewith. " Then he reproached the duke with hisinertness against the English, with the capture of Pontoise, and with hisalliances amongst the promoters of civil war. The conversation wasbecoming more and more acrid and biting. "In so doing, " added the_dauphin_, "you were wanting to your duty. " "My lord, " replied the duke, "I did only what it was my duty to do. " "Yes, you were wanting, "repeated Charles. "No, " replied the duke. It was probably at thesewords that, the lookers-on also waxing wroth, Tanneguy Duchatel told theduke that the time had come for expiating the murder of the Duke ofOrleans, which none of them had forgotten, and raised his battle-axe tostrike the duke. Sire de Navailles, who happened to be at his master'sside, arrested the weapon; but, on the other hand, the Viscount ofNarbonne raised his over Navailles, saying, "Whoever stirs is a deadman. " At this moment, it is said, the mob which was thronging before thebarriers at the end of the bridge heard cries of "Alarm! slay, slay. "Tanneguy had struck and felled the duke; several others ran their swordsinto him; and he expired. The _dauphin_ had withdrawn from the scene andgone back into the town. After his departure his partisans forced thebarrier, charged the dumbfounded Burgundians, sent them flying along theroad to Bray, and returning on to the bridge would have cast the body ofDuke John, after stripping it, into the river; but the minister ofMontereau withstood them, and had it carried to a mill near the bridge. "Next day he was put in a pauper's shell, with nothing on but his shirtand drawers, and was subsequently interred at the church of Notre-Dame deMontereau, without winding-sheet and without pall over his grave. "

[Illustration: '"Into the River!"'----77]

The enmities of the Orleannese and the Armagnacs had obtainedsatisfaction; but they were transferred to the hearts of the Burgundians. After twelve years of public crime and misfortune the murder of Louis ofOrleans had been avenged; and should not that of John of Burgundy be, inits turn? Wherever the direct power or the indirect influence of theDuke of Burgundy was predominant, there was a burst of indignation andvindictive passion. As soon as the Count of Charolais, Philip, afterwards called the Good, heard at Ghent, where he happened at thattime to be, of his father's murder, he was proclaimed Duke of Burgundy. "Michelle, " said he to his wife, sister of the _dauphin_, Charles, "yourbrother has murdered my father. " The princess burst into tears; but thenew duke calmed her by saying that nothing could alter the love andconfidence he felt towards her. At Troyes Queen Isabel showed more angerthan any one else against her son, the _dauphin_; and she got a letterwritten by King Charles VI. To the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, beggingher, her and her children, "to set in motion all their relatives, friends, and vassals to avenge Duke John. " At Paris, on the 12th ofSeptember, the next day but one after the murder, the chancellor, theparliament, the provost royal, the provost of tradesmen, and all thecouncillors and officers of the king assembled, "together with greatnumber of nobles and burgesses and a great multitude of people, " who allswore "to oppose with their bodies and all their might the enterprise ofthe criminal breakers of the peace, and to prosecute the cause ofvengeance and reparation against those who were guilty of the death andhomicide of the late Duke of Burgundy. " Independently of party-passion, such was, in Northern and Eastern France, the general and spontaneoussentiment of the people. The _dauphin_ and his councillors, in order toexplain and justify their act, wrote in all directions to say that, during the interview, Duke John had answered the _dauphin_ "with madwords . . . He had felt for his sword in order to attack and outrageour person, the which, as we have since found out, he aspired to place insubjection . . . But, through his own madness, met death instead. "But these assertions found little credence, and one of the two knightswho were singled out by the _dauphin_ to accompany him on to the bridgeof Montereau, Sire de Barbazan, who had been a friend of the Duke ofOrleans and of the Count of Armagnac, said vehemently to the authors ofthe plot, "You have destroyed our master's honor and heritage, and Iwould rather have died than be present at this day's work, even though Ihad not been there to no purpose. " But it was not long before an event, easy to foresee, counterbalanced this general impression and restoredcredit and strength to the _dauphin_ and his party. Henry V. , King ofEngland, as soon as he heard about the murder of Duke John, set himselfto work to derive from it all the advantages he anticipated. "A greatloss, " said he, "is the Duke of Burgundy; he was a good and true knightand an honorable prince; but through his death we are by God's help atthe summit of our wishes. We shall thus, in spite of all Frenchmen, possess Dame Catherine, whom we have so much desired. " As early as the24th of September, 1419, Henry V. Gave full powers to certain of hispeople to treat "with the illustrious city of Paris and the other townsin adherence to the said city. " On the 17th of October was opened atArras a congress between the plenipotentiaries of England and those ofBurgundy. On the 20th of November a special truce was granted to theParisians, whilst Henry V. , in concert with Duke Philip of Burgundy, wasprosecuting the war against the _dauphin_. On the 2d of December thebases were laid of an agreement between the English and the Burgundians. The preliminaries of the treaty, which was drawn up in accordance withthese bases, were signed on the 9th of April, 1420, by King Charles VI. , and on the 20th communicated at Paris by the chancellor of France to theparliament and to all the religious and civil, royal and municipalauthorities of the capital. After this communication, the chancellor andthe premier president of parliament went with these preliminaries toHenry V. At Pontoise, where he set out with a division of his army forTroyes, where the treaty, definitive and complete, was at last signed andpromulgated in the cathedral of Troyes, on the 21st of May, 1420. 

Of the twenty-eight articles in this treaty, five contained its essentialpoints and fixed its character: 1st. The King of France, Charles VI. , gave his daughter Catherine in marriage to Henry V. , King of England. 2d. "Our son, King Henry, shall place no hinderance or trouble in the wayof our holding and possessing as long as we live, and as at the presenttime, the crown, the kingly dignity of France, and all the revenues, proceeds, and profits which are attached thereto for the maintenance ofour state and the charges of the kingdom. 3d. It is agreed thatimmediately after our death, and from that time forward, the crown andkingdom of France, with all their rights and appurtenances, shall belongperpetually and shall be continued to our son King Henry and his heirs. 4th. Whereas we are, at most times, prevented from advising by ourselvesand from taking part in the disposal of the affairs of our kingdom, thepower and the practice of governing and ordering the commonweal shallbelong and shall be continued, during our life, to our son King Henry, with the counsel of the nobles and sages of the kingdom who shall obey usand shall desire the honor and advantage of the said kingdom. 5th. Ourson King Henry shall strive with all his might, and as soon as possible, to bring back to their obedience to us, all and each of the towns, cities, castles, places, districts, and persons in our kingdom thatbelong to the party commonly called of the _dauphin_ or Armagnac. "

This substitution, in the near future, of an English for the Frenchkingship; this relinquishment, in the present, of the government ofFrance to the hands of an English prince nominated to become before longher king; this authority given to the English prince to prosecute inFrance, against the _dauphin_ of France, a civil war; this completeabdication of all the rights and duties of the kingship, of paternityand of national independence; and, to sum up all in one word, thisanti-French state-stroke accomplished by a king of France, with theco-operation of him who was the greatest amongst French lords, to theadvantage of a foreign sovereign--there was surely in this enough toexcite the most ardent and most legitimate national feelings. They didnot show themselves promptly or with a blaze. The fourteenth andfifteenth centuries, after so many military and civil troubles, hadgreat weaknesses and deep-seated corruption in mind and character. Nevertheless the revulsion against the treaty of Troyes was real andserious, even in the very heart of the party attached to the Duke ofBurgundy. He was obliged to lay upon several of his servants formalinjunctions to swear to this peace, which seemed to them treason. He hadgreat difficulty in winning John of Luxembourg and his brother Louis, Bishop of Therouenne, over to it. "It is your will, " said they; "we willtake this oath; but if we do, we will keep it to the hour of death. "Many less powerful lords, who had lived a long while in the household ofDuke John the Fearless, quitted his son, and sorrowfully returned totheir own homes. They were treated as Armagnacs, but they persisted incalling themselves good and loyal Frenchmen. In the duchy of Burgundythe majority of the towns refused to take the oath to the King ofEngland. The most decisive and the most helpful proof of this awakeningof national feeling was the ease experienced by the _dauphin_, who wasone day to be Charles VII. , in maintaining the war which, after thetreaty of Troyes, was, in his father's and his mother's name, made uponhim by the King of England and the Duke of Burgundy. This war lastedmore than three years. Several towns, amongst others, Melun, Crotoy, Meaux, and St. Riquier, offered an obstinate resistance to the attacks ofthe English and Burgundians. On the 23d of March, 1421, the _dauphin_'stroops, commanded by Sire de la Fayette, gained a signal victory overthose of Henry V. , whose brother, the Duke of Clarence, was killed inaction. It was in Perche, Anjou, Maine, on the banks of the Loire, andin Southern France, that the _dauphin_ found most of his enterprising anddevoted partisans. The sojourn made by Henry V. At Paris, in December, 1420, with his wife, Queen Catherine, King Charles VI. , Queen Isabel, andthe Duke of Burgundy, was not, in spite of galas and acclamations, asubstantial and durable success for him. His dignified but haughtymanners did not please the French; and he either could not or would notrender them more easy and amiable, even with men of note who werenecessary to him. Marshal Isle-Adam one day went to see him in camp onwar-business. The king considered that he did not present himself withsufficient ceremony. "Isle-Adam, " said he, "is that the robe of amarshal of France?" "Sir, I had this whity-gray robe made to come hitherby water aboard of Seine-boats. " "Ha!" said the king, "look you a princein the face when you speak to him?" "Sir, it is the custom in France, that when one man speaks to another, of whatever rank and puissance thatother may be, he passes for a sorry fellow, and but little honorable, ifhe dares not look him in the face. " "It is not our fashion, " said theking; and the subject dropped there. A popular poet of the time, AlanChattier, constituted himself censor of the moral corruption andinterpreter of the patriotic paroxysms caused by the cold and harshsupremacy of this unbending foreigner, who set himself up for king ofFrance, and had not one feeling in sympathy with the French. AlanChartier's _Quadriloge invectif_ is a lively and sometimes eloquentallegory, in which France personified implores her three children, theclergy, the chivalry, and the people, to forget their own quarrels andunite to save their mother whilst saving themselves; and this politicalpamphlet getting spread about amongst the provinces did good service tothe national cause against the foreign conqueror. An event more powerfulthan any human eloquence occurred to give the _dauphin_ and his partisansearlier hopes. Towards the end of August, 1422, Henry V. Fell ill; and, too stout-hearted to delude himself as to his condition, he thought nolonger of anything but preparing himself for death. He had himselfremoved to Vincennes, called his councillors about him, and gave them hislast royal instructions. "I leave you the government of France, " said heto his brother, the Duke of Bedford, "unless our brother of Burgundy havea mind to undertake it; for, above all things, I conjure you not to haveany dissension with him. If that should happen God preserve you from it!--the affairs of this kingdom, which seem well advanced for us, wouldbecome bad. " As soon as he had done with politics he bade his doctorstell him how long he had still to live. One of them knelt down beforehis bed and said, "Sir, be thinking of your soul; it seemeth to us that, saving the divine mercy, you have not more than two hours. " The kingsummoned his confessor with the priests, and asked to have recited to himthe penitential psalms. When they came to the twentieth versicle of the_Miserere, --Ut oedificentur muri Hierusalem_ (that the walls of Jerusalemmay be built up), --He made them stop. "Ah!" said he, "if God had beenpleased to let me live out my time, I would, after putting an end to thewar in France, reducing the _dauphin_ to submission or driving him out ofthe kingdom in which I would have established a sound peace, have gone toconquer Jerusalem. The wars I have undertaken have had the approval ofall the proper men and of the most holy personages; I commenced them andhave prosecuted them without offence to God or peril to my soul. " Thesewere his last words. The chanting of the psalms was resumed around him, and he expired on the 31st of August, 1422, at the age of thirty-four. Agreat soul and a great king; but a great example also of the boundlesserrors which may be fallen into by the greatest men when they pursue witharrogant confidence their own views, forgetting the laws of justice andthe rights of other men. 

On the 22d of October, 1422, less than two months after the death ofHenry V. , Charles VI. , King of France, died at Paris in the forty-thirdyear of his reign. As soon as he had been buried at St. Denis, the Dukeof Bedford, regent of France according to the will of Henry V. , caused aherald to proclaim, "Long live Henry of Lancaster, King of England and ofFrance!" The people's voice made very different proclamation. It hadalways been said that the public evils proceeded from the state ofillness into which the unhappy King Charles had fallen. The goodness hehad given glimpses of in his lucid intervals had made him an object oftender pity. Some weeks yet before his death, when he had entered Parisagain, the inhabitants, in the midst of their sufferings and under theharsh government of the English, had seen with joy their poor mad kingcoming back amongst them, and had greeted him with thousand-fold shoutsof "Noel!" His body lay in state for three days, with the faceuncovered, in a hall of the hostel of St. Paul, and the multitude wentthither to pray for him, saying, "Ah! dear prince, never shall we haveany so good as thou Wert; never shall we see thee more. Accursed be thydeath! Since thou dost leave us, we shall never have aught but wars andtroubles. As for thee, thou goest to thy rest; as for us, we remain intribulation and sorrow. We seem made to fall into the same distress asthe children of Israel during the captivity in Babylon. "

[Illustration: The Body of Charles VI. Lying in State----84]

The people's instinct was at the same time right and wrong. France hadyet many evil days to go through and cruel trials to endure; she was, however, to be saved at last; Charles VI. Was to be followed by CharlesVII. And Joan of Arc. 

CHAPTER XXIV. ----THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. --CHARLES VII. AND JOANOF ARC. 1422-1461. 

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOAN OF ARC----85]

Whilst Charles VI. Was dying at Paris, his son Charles, the _dauphin_, was on his way back from Saintonge to Berry, where he usually resided. On the 24th of October, 1422, at Mehun-sur-Yevre, he heard of hisfather's death. For six days longer, from the 24th to the 29th ofOctober, he took no style but that of regent, as if he were waiting tosee what was going to happen elsewhere in respect of the succession tothe throne. It was only when he knew that, on the 27th of October, theparliament of Paris had, not without some little hesitation andambiguity, recognized "as King of England and of France, Henry VI. , sonof Henry V. Lately deceased, " that the _dauphin_ Charles assumed on the30th of October, in his castle of Mehun-sur-Yevre, the title of king, andrepaired to Bourges to inaugurate in the cathedral of that city his reignas Charles VII. 

[Illustration: The Shepherdess of Domremy----90]

He was twenty years old, and had as yet done nothing to gain for himself, not to say anything of glory, the confidence and hopes of the people. Hepassed for an indolent and frivolous prince, abandoned to his pleasuresonly; one whose capacity there was nothing to foreshadow, and of whomFrance, outside of his own court, scarcely ever thought at all. Somedays before his accession he had all but lost his life at Rochelle by thesudden breaking down of the room in the episcopal palace where he wasstaying; and so little did the country know of what happened to him that, a short time after the accident, messengers sent by some of his partisanshad arrived at Bourges to inquire if the prince were still living. At atime when not only the crown of the kingdom, but the existence andindependence of the nation, were at stake, Charles had not given anysigns of being strongly moved by patriotic feelings. "He was, in person, a handsome prince, and handsome in speech with all persons, andcompassionate towards poor folks, " says his contemporary Monstrelet; "buthe did not readily put on his harness, and he had no heart for war if hecould do without it. " On ascending the throne, this young prince, solittle of the politician and so little of the knight, encountered at thehead of his enemies the most able amongst the politicians and warriors ofthe day in the Duke of Bedford, whom his brother Henry V. Had appointedregent of France, and had charged to defend on behalf of his nephew, Henry VI. , a child in the cradle, the crown of France, already more thanhalf won. Never did struggle appear more unequal or native king moreinferior to foreign pretender. 

Sagacious observers, however, would have easily discerned in the causewhich appeared the stronger and the better supported many seeds ofweakness and danger. When Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, heard atArras, that Charles VI. Was dead, it occurred to him immediately that ifhe attended the obsequies of the English King of France he would beobliged, French prince as he was, and cousin-german of Charles VI. , toyield precedence to John, Duke of Bedford, regent of France, and uncle ofthe new king, Henry VI. He resolved to hold aloof, and contented himselfwith sending to Paris chamberlains to make his excuses and supply hisplace with the regent. On the 11th of November, 1422, the Duke ofBedford followed alone at the funeral of the late king of France, andalone made offering at the mass. Alone he went, but with the sword ofstate borne before him as regent. The people of Paris cast down theireyes with restrained wrath. "They wept, " says a contemporary, "and notwithout cause, for they knew not whether for a long, long while theywould have any king in France. " But they did not for long confinethemselves to tears. Two poets, partly in Latin and partly in French, Robert Blondel, and Alan Chartier, whilst deploring the public woes, excited the popular feeling. Conspiracies soon followed the songs. Onewas set on foot at Paris to deliver the city to king Charles VII. , but itwas stifled ruthlessly; several burgesses were beheaded, and one womanwas burned. In several great provincial cities, at Troyes and at Rheims, the same ferment showed itself, and drew down the same severity. WilliamPrieuse, superior of the Carmelites, was accused of propagatingsentiments favorable to the _dauphin_, as the English called Charles VII. Being brought, in spite of the privileges of his gown, before JohnCauchon, lieutenant of the captain of Rheims [related probably to PeterCauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who nine years afterwards was to sentenceJoan of Arc to be burned], he stoutly replied, "Never was English king ofFrance, and never shall be. " The country had no mind to believe in theconquest it was undergoing; and the Duke of Burgundy, the most puissantally of the English, sulkily went on eluding the consequences of theanti-national alliance he had accepted. 

Such being the disposition of conquerors and conquered, the war, thoughstill carried on with great spirit, could not, and in fact did not, bringabout any decisive result from 1422 to 1429. Towns were alternatelytaken, lost, and retaken, at one time by the French, at another by theEnglish or Burgundians; petty encounters and even important engagementstook place with vicissitudes of success and reverses on both sides. AtCrevant-sur-Yonne, on the 31st of July, 1423, and at Verneuil, inNormandy, on the 17th of August, 1424, the French were beaten, and theirfaithful allies, the Scots, suffered considerable loss. In the latteraffair, however, several Norman lords deserted the English flag, refusingto fight against the King of France. On the 26th of September, 1423, atLa Gravelle, in Maine, the French were victorious, and Du Guesclin wascommemorated in their victory. Anne de Laval, granddaughter of the greatBreton warrior, and mistress of a castle hard by the scene of action, sent thither her son, Andrew de Laval, a child twelve years of age, and, as she buckled with her own hands the sword which his ancestor had worn, she said to him, "God make thee as valiant as he whose sword this was!"The boy received the order of knighthood on the field of battle, andbecame afterwards a marshal of France. Little bands, made up ofvolunteers, attempted enterprises which the chiefs of the regular armiesconsidered impossible. Stephen de Vignolles, celebrated under the nameof La Hire, resolved to succor the town of Montargis, besieged by theEnglish; and young Dunois, the bastard of Orleans, joined him. Onarriving, September 5, 1427, beneath the walls of the place, a priest wasencountered in their road. La Hire asked him for absolution. The priesttold him to confess. "I have no time for that, " said La Hire; "I am in ahurry; I have done in the way of sins all that men of war are in thehabit of doing. " Whereupon, says the chronicler, the chaplain gave himabsolution for what it was worth; and La Hire, putting his handstogether, said, "God, I pray Thee to do for La Hire this day as much asThou wouldst have La Hire do for Thee if he were God and Thou wert LaHire. " And Montargis was rid of its besiegers. The English determinedto become masters of Mont St. Michel au peril de la mer, that abbey builton a rock facing the western coast of Normandy and surrounded every dayby the waves of ocean. The thirty-second abbot, Robert Jolivet, promisedto give the place up to them, and went to Rouen with that design; but oneof his monks, John Enault, being elected vicar-general by the chapter, and supported by some valiant Norman warriors, offered an obstinateresistance for eight years, baffled all the attacks of the English, andretained the abbey in the possession of the King of France. Theinhabitants of La Rochelle rendered the same service to the king and toFrance in a more important case. On the 15th of August, 1427, an Englishfleet of a hundred and twenty sail, it is said, appeared off their citywith invading troops aboard. The Rochellese immediately levied uponthemselves an extraordinary tax, and put themselves in a state ofdefence; troops raised in the neighborhood went and occupied the heightsbordering on the coast; and a bold Breton sailor, Bernard de Kercabin, put to sea to meet the enemy, with ships armed as privateers. Theattempt of the English seemed to them to offer more danger than chance ofsuccess; and they withdrew. Thus Charles VII. Kept possession of theonly seaport remaining to the crown. Almost everywhere in the midst of awar as indecisive as it was obstinate local patriotism and the spirit ofchivalry successfully disputed against foreign supremacy the scatteredfragments of the fatherland and the throne. 

In order to put an end to this doubtful condition of events and of minds, the Duke of Bedford determined to aim a grand blow at the national partyin France and at her king. After Paris and Rouen, Orleans was the mostimportant city in the kingdom; it was as supreme on the banks of theLoire as Paris and Rouen were on those of the Seine. After havingobtained from England considerable re-enforcements commanded by leadersof experience, the English commenced, in October, 1428, the siege ofOrleans. The approaches to the place were occupied in force, andbastilles closely connected one with another were constructed around thewalls. As a set-off, the most valiant warriors of France, La Hire, Dunois, Xaintrailles, and the Marshal La Fayette threw themselves intoOrleans, the garrison of which amounted to scarcely twelve hundred men. Several towns, Bourges, Poitiers, and La Rochelle, sent thither money, munitions, and militia; the states-general, assembled at Chinon, voted anextraordinary aid; and Charles VII. Called out the regulars and thereserves. Assaults on the one side and sorties on the other were begunwith ardor. Besiegers and besieged quite felt that they were engaged ina decisive struggle. The first encounter was unfortunate for theOrleannese. In a fight called the Herring affair, they were unsuccessfulin an attempt to carry off a supply of victuals and salt fish which SirJohn Falstolf was bringing to the besiegers. Being a little discouraged, they offered the Duke of Burgundy to place their city in his hands, thatit might not fall into those of the English; and Philip the Good acceptedthe offer, but the Duke of Bedford made a formal objection: "He didn'tcare, " he said, "to beat the bushes for another to get the birds. "Philip in displeasure withdrew from the siege the small force ofBurgundians he had sent. The English remained alone before the place, which was every day harder pressed and more strictly blockaded. Thebesieged were far from foreseeing what succor was preparing for them. 

This very year, on the 6th of January, 1428, at Domremy, a little villagein the valley of the Meuse, between Neufchateau and Vaucouleurs, on theedge of the frontier from Champagne to Lorraine, the young daughter ofsimple tillers of the soil, "of good life and repute, herself a good, simple, gentle girl, no idler, occupied hitherto in sewing or spinningwith her mother, or driving afield her parent's sheep, and sometimes, even, when her father's turn came round, keeping for him the whole flockof the commune, " was fulfilling her sixteenth year. It was Joan of Arc, whom all her neighbors called Joannette. She was no recluse; she oftenwent with her companions to sing and eat cakes beside the fountain by thegooseberry-bush, under an old beech, which was called the fairy-tree: butdancing she did not like. She was constant at church, she delighted inthe sound of the bells, she went often to confession and communion, andshe blushed when her fair friends taxed her with being too religious. In1421, when Joan was hardly nine, a band of Anglo-Burgundians penetratedinto her country, and transferred thither the ravages of war. Thevillage of Domremy and the little town of Vaucouleurs were French, andfaithful to the French king-ship; and Joan wept to see the lads of herparish returning bruised and bleeding from encounters with the enemy. Her relations and neighbors were one day obliged to take to flight, andat their return they found their houses burned or devastated. Joanwondered whether it could possibly be that God permitted such excessesand disasters. In 1425, on a summer's day, at noon, she was in herfather's little garden. She heard a voice calling her, at her rightside, in the direction of the church, and a great brightness shone uponher at the same time in the same spot. At first she was frightened, butshe recovered herself on finding that "it was a worthy voice;" and, atthe second call, she perceived that it was the voice of angels. "I sawthem with my bodily eyes, " she said, six years later, to her judges atRouen, "as plainly as I see you; when they departed from me I wept, andwould fain have had them take me with them. " The apparitions came againand again, and exhorted her "to go to France for to deliver the kingdom. "She became dreamy, rapt in constant meditation. "I could endure nolonger, " said she, at a later period, "and the time went heavily with meas with a woman in travail. " She ended by telling everything to herfather, who listened to her words anxiously at first, and afterwardswrathfully. He himself one night dreamed that his daughter had followedthe king's men-at-arms to France, and from that moment he kept her understrict superintendence. "If I knew of your sister's going, " he said tohis sons, "I would bid you drown her; and, if you did not do it, I woulddrown her myself. " Joan submitted: there was no leaven of pride in hersublimation, and she did not suppose that her intercourse with celestialvoices relieved her from the duty of obeying her parents. Attempts weremade to distract her mind. A young man who had courted her was inducedto say that he had a promise of marriage from her, and to claim thefulfilment of it. Joan went before the ecclesiastical judge, madeaffirmation that she had given no promise, and without difficulty gainedher cause. Everybody believed and respected her. 

[Illustration: Joan of Arc in her Father's Garden----91]

In a village hard by Domremy she had an uncle whose wife was near herconfinement; she got herself invited to go and nurse her aunt, andthereupon she opened her heart to her uncle, repeating to him a popularsaying, which had spread indeed throughout the country: "Is it not saidthat a woman shall ruin France, and a young maid restore it?" Shepressed him to take her to Vaucouleurs to Sire Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the bailiwick, for she wished to go to the _dauphin_ and carryassistance to him. Her uncle gave way, and on the 13th of May, 1428, hedid take her to Vaucouleurs. "I come on behalf of my Lord, " said she toSire de Baudricourt, "to bid you send word to the _dauphin_ to keephimself well in hand, and not give battle to his foes, for my Lord willpresently give him succor. " "Who is thy lord?" asked Baudricourt. "TheKing of Heaven, " answered Joan. Baudricourt set her down for mad, andurged her uncle to take her back to her parents "with a good slap o' theface. "

In July, 1428, a fresh invasion of Burgundians occurred at Domremy, andredoubled the popular excitement there. Shortly afterwards, the reporttouching the siege of Orleans arrived there. Joan, more and morepassionately possessed with her idea, returned to Vaucouleurs. "I mustgo, " said she to Sire de Baudricourt, "for to raise the siege of Orleans. I will go, should I have to wear off my legs to the knee. " She hadreturned to Vaucouleurs without taking leave of her parents. "Had Ipossessed, " said she, in 1431, to her judges at Rouen, "a hundred fathersand a hundred mothers, and had I been a king's daughter, I should havegone. " Baudricourt, impressed without being convinced, did not opposeher remaining at Vaucouleurs, and sent an account of this singular younggirl to Duke Charles of Lorraine, at Nancy, and perhaps even, accordingto some chronicles, to the king's court. Joan lodged at Vaucouleurs in awheelwright's house, and passed three weeks there, spinning with herhostess, and dividing her time between work and church. There was muchtalk in Vaucouleurs of her, and her visions, and her purpose. John ofMetz [also called John of Novelompont], a knight serving with Sire deBaudricourt, desired to see her, and went to the wheelwright's. "What doyou here, my dear?" said he; "must the king be driven from his kingdom, and we become English?" "I am come hither, " answered Joan, "to speak toRobert de Baudricourt, that he may be pleased to take me or have me takento the king; but he pays no heed to me or my words. However, I must bewith the king before the middle of Lent, for none in the world, norkings, nor dukes, nor daughter of the Scottish king can recover thekingdom of France; there is no help but in me. Assuredly I would farrather be spinning beside my poor mother, for this other is not mycondition; but I must go and do the work because my Lord wills that Ishould do it. " "Who is your lord?" "The Lord God. " "By my faith, "said the knight, seizing Joan's hands, "I will take you to the king, Godhelping. When will you set out?" "Rather now than to-morrow; ratherto-morrow than later. " Vaucouleurs was full of the fame and the sayingsof Joan. Another knight, Bertrand de Poulengy, offered, as John of Metzhad, to be her escort, Duke Charles of Lorraine wished to see her, andsent for her to Nancy. Old and ill as he was, he had deserted theduchess his wife, a virtuous lady, and was leading anything but a regularlife. He asked Joan's advice about his health. "I have no power to cureyou, " said Joan, "but go back to your wife and help me in that for whichGod ordains me. " The duke ordered her four golden crowns, and shereturned to Vaucouleurs, thinking of nothing but her departure. Therewas no want of confidence and good will on the part of the inhabitants ofVaucouleurs in forwarding her preparations. John of Metz, the knightcharged to accompany her, asked her if she intended to make the journeyin her poor red rustic petticoats. "I would like to don man's clothes, "answered Joan. Subscriptions were made to give her a suitable costume. She was supplied with a horse, a coat of mail, a lance, a sword, thecomplete equipment, indeed, of a man-at-arms; and a king's messenger andan archer formed her train. Baudricourt made them swear to escort hersafely, and on the 25th of February, 1429, he bade her farewell, and allhe said was, "Away then, Joan, and come what may. "

Charles VII. Was at that time residing at Chinon, in Touraine. In orderto get there Joan had nearly a hundred and fifty leagues to go, in acountry occupied here and there by English and Burgundians, andeverywhere a theatre of war. She took eleven days to do this journey, often marching by night, never giving up man's dress, disquieted by nodifficulty and no danger, and testifying no desire for a halt save toworship God. "Could we hear mass daily, " said she to her comrades, "weshould do well. " They only consented twice, first in the abbey of St. Urban, and again in the principal church of Auxerre. As they were fullof respect, though at the same time also of doubt, towards Joan, shenever had to defend herself against their familiarities, but she hadconstantly to dissipate their disquietude touching the reality or thecharacter of her mission. "Fear nothing, " she said to them; "God showsme the way I should go; for thereto was I born. " On arriving at thevillage of St. Catherine-de-Fierbois, near Chinon, she heard three masseson the same day, and had a letter written thence to the king, to announceher coming and to ask to see him; she had gone, she said, a hundred andfifty leagues to come and tell him things which would be most useful tohim. Charles VII. And his councillors hesitated. The men of war did notlike to believe that a little peasant-girl of Lorraine was coming tobring the king a more effectual support than their own. Neverthelesssome, and the most heroic amongst them, --Dunois, La Hire, andXaintrailles, --were moved by what was told of this young girl. Theletters of Sire de Baudricourt, though full of doubt, suffered a gleam ofsomething like a serious impression to peep out; and why should not theking receive this young girl whom the captain of Vaucouleurs had thoughtit a duty to send? It would soon be seen what she was and what she woulddo. The politicians and courtiers, especially the most trusted of them, George de la Tremoille, the king's favorite, shrugged their shoulders. What could be expected from the dreams of a young peasant-girl ofnineteen? Influences of a more private character and more disposedtowards sympathy--Yolande of Arragon, for instance, Queen of Sicily andmother-in-law of Charles VII. , and perhaps, also, her daughter, the youngqueen, Mary of Anjou, were urgent for the king to reply to Joan that shemight go to Chinon. She was authorized to do so, and, on the 6th ofMarch, 1429, she with her comrades arrived at the royal residence. 

At the very first moment two incidents occurred to still further increasethe curiosity of which she was the object. Quite close to Chinon somevagabonds, it is said, had prepared an ambuscade for the purpose ofdespoiling her, her and her train. She passed close by them without theleast obstacle. The rumor went that at her approach they were struckmotionless, and had been unable to attempt their wicked purpose. Joanwas rather tall, well shaped, dark, with a look of composure, animation, and gentleness. A man-at-arms, who met her on her way, thought herpretty, and with an impious oath expressed a coarse sentiment. "Alas!"said Joan, "thou blasphemest thy God, and yet thou art so near thydeath!" He drowned himself, it is said, soon after. Already popularfeeling was surrounding her marvellous mission with a halo ofinstantaneous miracles. 

[Illustration: CHINON CASTLE----95]

On her arrival at Chinon she at first lodged with an honest family nearthe castle. For three days longer there was a deliberation in thecouncil as to whether the king ought to receive her. But there was badnews from Orleans. There were no more troops to send thither, and therewas no money forthcoming: the king's treasurer, it was said, had but fourcrowns in the chest. If Orleans were taken, the king would perhaps bereduced to seeking a refuge in Spain or in Scotland. Joan promised toset Orleans free. The Orleannese themselves were clamorous for her;Dunois kept up their spirits with the expectation of this marvellousassistance. It was decided that the king should receive her. She hadassigned to her for residence an apartment in the tower of the Coudray, ablock of quarters adjoining the royal mansion, and she was committed tothe charge of William Bellier, an officer of the king's household, whosewife was a woman of great piety and excellent fame. On the 9th of March, 1429, Joan was at last introduced into the king's presence by the Countof Vendome, high steward, in the great hall on the first story, a portionof the wall and the fireplace being still visible in the present day. Itwas evening, candle-light; and nearly three hundred knights were present. Charles kept himself a little aloof, amidst a group of warriors andcourtiers more richly dressed than he. According to some chroniclers, Joan had demanded that "she should not be deceived, and should havepointed out to her him to whom she was to speak;" others affirm that shewent straight to the king, whom she had never seen, "accosting him humblyand simply, like a poor little shepherdess, " says an eye-witness, and, according to another account, "making the usual bends and reverences asif she had been brought up at court. " Whatever may have been her outwardbehavior, "Gentle _dauphin_, " she said to the king (for she did not thinkit right to call him king so long as he was not crowned), "my name is Joanthe maid; the King of Heaven sendeth you word by me that you shall beanointed and crowned in the city of Rheims, and shall be lieutenant ofthe King of Heaven, who is King of France. It is God's pleasure that ourenemies the English should depart to their own country; if they depart noevil will come to them, and the kingdom is sure to continue yours. "Charles was impressed without being convinced, as so many others had beenbefore, or were, as he was, on that very day. He saw Joan again severaltimes. She did not delude herself as to the doubts he still entertained. "Gentle _dauphin_, " she said to him one day, "why do you not believe me?I say unto you that God hath compassion on you, your kingdom, and yourpeople; St. Louis and Charlemagne are kneeling before Him, making prayerfor you, and I will say unto you, so please you, a thing which will giveyou to understand that you ought to believe me. " Charles gave heraudience on this occasion in the presence, according to some accounts, offour witnesses, the most trusted of his intimates, who swore to revealnothing, and, according to others, completely alone. "What she said tohim there is none who knows, " wrote Alan Chartier, a short time after [inJuly, 1429], "but it is quite certain that he was all radiant with joythereat as at a revelation from the Holy Spirit. " M. Wallop, after ascrupulous sifting of evidence, has given the following exposition ofthis mysterious interview. "Sire de Boisy, " he says, "who was in hisyouth one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber on the most familiar termswith Charles VII. , told Peter Sala, giving the king himself as hisauthority for the story, that one day, at the period of his greatestadversity, the prince, vainly looking for a remedy against so manytroubles, entered in the morning, alone, into his oratory, and there, without uttering a word aloud, made prayer to God from the depths of hisheart that if he were the true heir, issue of the house of France (and adoubt was possible with such a queen as Isabel of Bavaria), and thekingdom ought justly to be his, God would be pleased to keep and defendit for him; if not, to give him grace to escape without death orimprisonment, and find safety in Spain or in Scotland, where he intendedin the last resort to seek a refuge. This prayer, known to God alone, the Maid recalled to the mind of Charles VII. ; and thus is explained thejoy which, as the witnesses say, he testified, whilst none at that timeknew the cause. Joan by this revelation not only caused the king tobelieve in her; she caused him to believe in himself and his right andtitle: though she never spoke in that way as of her own motion to theking, it was always a superior power speaking by her voice, 'I tell theeon behalf of my Lord that thou art true heir of France, and son of theking. '" (Jeanne d'Arc, by M. Wallon, t. I. P. 32. )

Whether Charles VII. Were or were not convinced by this interview ofJoan's divine mission, he clearly saw that many of those about him hadlittle or no faith in it, and that other proofs were required to upsettheir doubts. He resolved to go to Poitiers, where his council, theparliament, and several learned members of the University of Paris werein session, and have Joan put to the strictest examination. When shelearned her destination, she said, "In the name of God, I know that Ishall have tough work there, but my Lord will help me. Let us go, then, for God's sake. " On her arrival at Poitiers, on the 11th of March, 1429, she was placed in one of the most respectable families in the town, thatof John Rabuteau, advocate-general in parliament. The Archbishop ofRheims, Reginald de Chartres, Chancellor of France, five bishops, theking's councillors, several learned doctors, and amongst others FatherSeguin, an austere and harsh Dominican, repaired thither to question her. When she saw them come in, she went and sat down at the end of the bench, and asked them what they wanted with her. For two hours they setthemselves to the task of showing her, "by fair and gentle arguments, "that she was not entitled to belief. "Joan, " said William Aimery, professor of theology, "you ask for men-at-arms, and you say that it isGod's pleasure that the English should leave the kingdom of France, anddepart to their own land; if so, there is no need of men-at-arms, forGod's pleasure alone can discomfit them, and force them to return totheir homes. " "In the name of God, " answered Joan, "the men-at-arms willdo battle, and God will give them victory. " Master William did not urgehis point. The Dominican, Seguin, "a very sour man, " says the chronicle, asked Joan what language the voices spoke to her. "Better than yours, "answered Joan. The doctor spoke the Limousine dialect. "Do you believein God?" he asked, ill-humoredly. "More than you do, " retorted Joan, offended. "Well, " rejoined the monk, "God forbids belief in you withoutsome sign tending thereto: I shall not give the king advice to trustmen-at-arms to you, and put them in peril on your simple word. " "In thename of God, " said Joan, "I am not come to Poitiers to show signs; takeme to Orleans, and I will give you signs of what I am sent for. Let mehave ever so few men-at-arms given me, and I will go to Orleans;" then, addressing another of the examiners, Master Peter of Versailles, who wasafterwards Bishop of Meaux, she said, "I know nor A nor B; but in ourLord's book there is more than in your books; I come on behalf of theKing of Heaven to cause the siege of Orleans to be raised, and to takethe king to Rheims, that he may be crowned and anointed there. " Theexamination was prolonged for a fortnight, not without symptoms ofimpatience on the part of Joan. At the end of it, she said to one of thedoctors, John Erault, "Have you paper and ink? Write what I shall say toyou. " And she dictated a form of letter which became, some weeks later, the manifesto addressed in a more developed shape by her from Orleans tothe English, calling upon them to raise the siege and put a stop to thewar. The chief of those piously and patriotically heroic phrases were asfollows:--

 "Jesu Maria, "King of England, account to the King of Heaven for His blood royal. Give up to the Maid the keys of all the good towns you have taken by force. She is come from God to avenge the blood royal, and quite ready to make peace, if you will render proper account. If you do not so I am a war-chief; in whatsoever place I shall fall in with your folks in France, if they be not willing to obey, I shall make them get thence, whether they will or not; and if they be willing to obey, I will receive them to mercy. . . . The Maid cometh from the King of Heaven as His representative, to thrust you out of France; she doth promise and certify you that she will make therein such mighty _haha_ [great tumult], that for a thousand years hitherto in France was never the like. . . . Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of France, the Maid doth pray you and request you not to bring destruction on yourself; if you do not justice towards her, she will do the finest deed ever done in Christendom. 

 "Writ on Tuesday in the great week. " [Easter week, March, 1429]. Subscribed: "Hearken to the news from God and the

 Maid. "

At the end of their examination, the doctors decided in Joan's favor. Two of them, the Bishop of Castres, Gerard Machet, the king's confessor, and Master John Erault, recognized the divine nature of her mission. Shewas, they said, the virgin foretold in the ancient prophecies, notably inthose of Merlin; and the most exacting amongst them approved of theking's having neither accepted nor rejected, with levity, the promisesmade by Joan; "after a grave inquiry there had been discovered in her, "they said, "nought but goodness, humility, devotion, honesty, simplicity. Before Orleans she professes to be going to show her sign; so she must betaken to Orleans, for to give her up without any appearance on her partof evil would be to fight against the Holy Spirit, and to become unworthyof aid from God. " After the doctors' examination came that of the women. Three of the greatest ladies in France, Yolande of Arragon, Queen ofSicily; the Countess of Gaucourt, wife of the Governor of Orleans; andJoan de Mortemer, wife of Robert le Macon, Baron of Troves, were chargedto examine Joan as to her life as a woman. They found therein nothingbut truth, virtue, and modesty; "she spoke to them with such sweetnessand grace, " says the chronicle, "that she drew tears from their eyes;"and she excused herself to them for the dress she wore, and for which thesternest doctors had not dreamed of reproaching her. "It is moredecent, " said the Archbishop of Embrun, "to do such things in man'sdress, since they must be done along with men. " The men of intelligenceat court bowed down before this village-saint, who was coming to bring tothe king in his peril assistance from God; the most valiant men of warwere moved by the confident outbursts of her patriotic courage; and thepeople everywhere welcomed her with faith and enthusiasm. Joan had asyet only just appeared, and already she was the heaven-sent interpretressof the nation's feeling, the hope of the people of France. 

Charles no longer hesitated. Joan was treated, according to her ownexpression in her letter to the English, "as a war-chief;" there wereassigned to her a squire, a page, two heralds, a chaplain, BrotherPasquerel, of the order of the hermit-brotherhood of St. Augustin, varlets, and serving-folks. A complete suit of armor was made to fither. Her two guides, John of Metz and Bertrand of Poulengy, had notquitted her; and the king continued them in her train. Her sword hewished to be supplied by himself; she asked for one marked with fivecrosses; it would be found, she said, behind the altar in the chapel ofSt. Catherine-de-Fierbois, where she had halted on her arrival atChinon; and there, indeed, it was found. She had a white banner made, studded with lilies, bearing the representation of God seated upon theclouds, and holding in His hand the globe of the world. Above were thewords "Jesu Maria, " and below were two angels, on their knees inadoration. Joan was fond of her sword, as she said two years afterwardsat her trial, but she was forty times more fond of her banner, which was, in her eyes, the sign of her commission and the pledge of victory. Onthe completion of the preparations she demanded the immediate departureof the expedition. Orleans was crying for succor; Dunois was sendingmessenger after messenger; and Joan was in a greater hurry than anybodyelse. 

More than a month elapsed before her anxieties were satisfied. Duringthis interval we find Charles VII. And Joan of Arc at Chatelherault, atPoitiers, at Tours, at Florent-les-Saumur, at Chinon, and at Blois, goingto and fro through all that country to push forward the expeditionresolved upon, and to remove the obstacles it encountered. Through ahaze of vague indications a glimpse is caught of the struggle which wascommencing between the partisans and the adversaries of Joan, and infavor of or in opposition to the impulse she was communicating to the warof nationality. Charles VII. 's mother-in-law, Yolande of Arragon, Queenof Sicily, and the young Duke of Alencon, whose father had been killed atthe battle of Agincourt, were at the head of Joan's partisans. Yolandegave money and took a great deal of trouble in order to promote theexpedition which was to go and succor Orleans. The Duke of Alencon, hardly twenty years of age, was the only one amongst the princes of thehouse of Valois who had given Joan a kind reception on her arrival, andwho, together with the brave La Hire, said that he would follow herwhithersoever she pleased to lead him. Joan, in her gratitude, calledhim the handsome duke, and exhibited towards him amity and confidence. 

But, side by side with these friends, she had an adversary in the king'sfavorite, George de la Tremoille, an ambitious courtier, jealous of anyone who seemed within the range of the king's favor, and opposed to avigorous prosecution of the war, since it hampered him in the policy hewished to keep up towards the Duke of Burgundy. To the ill will of LaTremoille was added that of the majority of courtiers enlisted in thefollowing of the powerful favorite, and that of warriors irritated at theimportance acquired at their expense by a rustic and fantastic littleadventuress. Here was the source of the enmities and intrigues whichstood in the way of all Joan's demands, rendered her successes moretardy, difficult, and incomplete, and were one day to cost her moredearly still. 

At the end of about five weeks the expedition was in readiness. It was aheavy convoy of revictualment, protected by a body of ten or twelvethousand men, commanded by Marshal de Boussac, and numbering amongst themXaintrailles and La Hire. The march began on the 27th of April, 1429. Joan had caused the removal of all women of bad character, and hadrecommended her comrades to confess. She took the communion in the openair, before their eyes; and a company of priests, headed by her chaplain, Pasquerel, led the way whilst chanting sacred hymns. Great was thesurprise amongst the men-at-arms, many had words of mockery on theirlips. It was the time when La Hire used to say, "If God were a soldier, He would turn robber. " Nevertheless, respect got the better of habit;the most honorable were really touched; the coarsest consideredthemselves bound to show restraint. On the 29th of April they arrivedbefore Orleans. But, in consequence of the road they had followed, theLoire was between the army and the town; the expeditionary corps had tobe split in two; the troops were obliged to go and feel for the bridge ofBlois in order to 'cross the river; and Joan was vexed and surprised. Dunois, arrived from Orleans in a little boat, urged her to enter thetown that same evening. "Are you the bastard of Orleans?" asked she, when he accosted her. "Yes; and I am rejoiced at your coming. " "Was ityou who gave counsel for making me come hither by this side of the river, and not the direct way, over yonder where Talbot and the English were?""Yes; such was the opinion of the wisest captains. " "In the name of God, the counsel of my Lord is wiser than yours; you thought to deceive me, and you have deceived yourselves, for I am bringing you the best succorthat ever had knight, or town, or city, and that is the good will of God, and succor from the King of Heaven; not assuredly for love of me, it isfrom God only that it proceeds. " It was a great trial for Joan toseparate from her comrades, "so well prepared, penitent, and welldisposed; in their company, " said she, "I should not fear the whole powerof the English. " She was afraid that disorder might set in amongst thetroops, and that they might break up, instead of fulfilling her mission. Dunois was urgent for her to go herself at once into Orleans, with suchportion of the convoy as boats might be able to transport thither withoutdelay. "Orleans, " said he, "would count it for nought, if they receivedthe victuals without the Maid. " Joan decided to go: the captains of herdivision promised to rejoin her at Orleans; she left them her chaplain, Pasquerel, the priests who accompanied him, and the banner around whichshe was accustomed to muster them; and she herself, with Dunois, La Hire, and two hundred men-at-arms, crossed the river at the same time with apart of the supplies. 

[Illustration: JOAN ENTERING ORLEANS----104]

The same day, at eight P. M. , she entered the city, on horseback, completely armed, preceded by her own banner, and having beside herDunois, and behind her the captains of the garrison and several of themost distinguished burgesses of Orleans who had gone out to meet her. The population, one and all, rushed thronging round her, carryingtorches, and greeting her arrival "with joy as great as if they had seenGod come down amongst them. They felt, " says the Journal of the Siege, "all of them recomforted and as it were disbesieged by the divine virtuewhich they had been told existed in this simple maid. " In their anxietyto approach her, to touch her, one of their lighted torches set fire toher banner. Joan disengaged herself with her horse as cleverly as itcould have been done by the most skilful horseman, and herselfextinguished the flame. The crowd attended her to the church whither shedesired to go first of all to render thanks to God, and then to the houseof John Boucher, the Duke of Orleans's treasurer, where she was receivedtogether with her two brothers and the two gentlemen who had been herguides from Vaucouleurs. The treasurer's wife was one of the mostvirtuous city dames in Orleans, and from this night forth her daughterCharlotte had Joan for her bedfellow. A splendid supper had beenprepared for her; but she would merely dip some slices of bread in wineand water. Neither her enthusiasm nor her success, the two greatesttempters to pride in mankind, made any change in her modesty andsimplicity. 

The very day after her arrival she would have liked to go and attack theEnglish in their bastilles, within which they kept themselves shut up. La Hire was pretty much of her opinion; but Dunois and the captains ofthe garrison thought they ought to await the coming of the troops whichhad gone to cross the Loire at Blois, and the supports which severalFrench garrisons in the neighborhood had received orders to forward toOrleans. Joan insisted. Sire de Gamaches, one of the officers present, could not contain himself. "Since ear is given, " said he, "to the adviceof a wench of low degree rather than to that of a knight like me, I willnot bandy more words; when the time comes, it shall be my sword thatwill speak; I shall fall, perhaps, but the king and my own honor demandit; henceforth I give up my banner and am nothing more than a pooresquire. I prefer to have for master a noble man rather than a girl whohas heretofore been, perhaps, I know not what. " He furled his bannerand handed it to Dunois. Dunois, as sensible as he was brave, would notgive heed either to the choler of Gamaches or to the insistence of Joan;and, thanks to his intervention, they were reconciled on being inducedto think better, respectively, of giving up the banner and ordering animmediate attack. Dunois went to Blois to hurry the movements of thedivision which had repaired thither; and his presence there was highlynecessary, since Joan's enemies, especially the chancellor Regnault, were nearly carrying a decision that no such re-enforcement should besent to Orleans. Dunois frustrated this purpose, and led back toOrleans, by way of Beauce, the troops concentrated at Blois. On the 4thof May, as soon as it was known that he was coming, Joan, La Hire, andthe principal leaders of the city as well as of the garrison, went tomeet him, and re-entered Orleans with him and his troops, passingbetween the bastilles of the English, who made not even an attempt tooppose them. "That is the sorceress yonder, " said some of thebesiegers; others asked if it were quite so clear that her power, didnot come to her from on high; and their commander, the Earl of Suffolk, being himself, perhaps, uncertain, did not like to risk it: doubtproduced terror, and terror inactivity. The convoy from Blois enteredOrleans, preceded by Brother Pasquerel and the priests. 

Joan, whilst she was awaiting it, sent the English captains a freshsummons to withdraw conformably with the letter which she had alreadyaddressed to them from Blois, and the principal clauses of which werejust now quoted here. They replied with coarse insults, calling herstrumpet and cow-girl, and threatening to burn her when they caught her. She was very much moved by their insults, insomuch as to weep; butcalling God to witness her innocence, she found herself comforted, andexpressed it by saying, "I have had news from my Lord. " The English haddetained the first herald she had sent them; and when she would have sentthem a second to demand his comrade back, he was afraid. "In the name ofGod, " said Joan, "they will do no harm nor to thee nor to him; thou shalttell Talbot to arm, and I too will arm; let him show himself in front ofthe city; if he can take me, let him burn me; if I discomfit him, let himraise the siege, and let the English get them gone to their own country. "The second herald appeared to be far from reassured; but Dunois chargedhim to say that the English prisoners should answer for what was done tothe heralds from the Maid. The two heralds were sent back. Joan made upher mind to iterate in person to the English the warnings she had giventhem in her letter. She mounted upon one of the bastions of Orleans, opposite the English bastille called Tournelles, and there, at the top ofher voice, she repeated her counsel to them to be gone; else, woe andshame would come upon them. The commandant of the bastille, Sir WilliamGladesdale [called by Joan and the French chroniclers _Glacidas_], answered with the usual insults, telling her to go back and mind hercows, and alluding to the French as miscreants. "You lie, " cried Joan, "and in spite of you soon shall ye depart hence; many of your peopleshall be slain; but as for you, you shall not see it. "

Dunois, the very day of his return to Orleans, after dinner, went to callupon Joan, and told her that he had heard on his way that Sir JohnFalstolf, the same who on the 12th of the previous February had beatenthe French in the Herring affair, was about to arrive withre-enforcements and supplies for the besiegers. "Bastard, bastard, " saidJoan, "in the name of God I command thee, as soon as thou shalt know ofthis Pascot's coming, to have me warned of it, for, should he passwithout my knowing of it, I promise thee that I will have thy head cutoff. " Dunois assured her that she should be warned. Joan was tired withthe day's excitement; she threw herself upon her bed to sleep, butunsuccessfully; all at once she said to Sire Daulon, her esquire, "Mycounsel doth tell me to go against the English; but I know not whetheragainst their bastilles or against this Fascot. I must arm. " Heresquire was beginning to arm her when she heard it shouted in the streetthat the enemy were at that moment doing great damage to the French. "MyGod, " said she, "the blood of our people is running on the ground; whywas I not awakened sooner? Ah! it was ill done! . . . My arms! Myarms! my horse!" Leaving behind her esquire, who was not yet armed, shewent down. Her page was playing at the door: "Ah! naughty boy, " saidshe, "not to come and tell me that the blood of France was being shed!Come! quick! my horse!" It was brought to her; she bade them hand down toher by the window her banner, which she had left behind, and, without anyfurther waiting, she departed and went to the Burgundy gate, whence thenoise seemed to come. Seeing on her way one of the townsmen passing whowas being carried off wounded, she said, "Alas! I never see a Frenchman'sblood but my hair stands up on my head!" It was some of the Orleannesethemselves who, without consulting their chiefs, had made a sortie andattacked the Bastille St. Loup, the strongest held by the English on thisside. The French had been repulsed, and were falling back in flight whenJoan came up, and soon after her Dunois and a throng of men-at-arms whohad been warned of the danger. The fugitives returned to the assault;the battle was renewed with ardor; the bastille of St. Loup, notwithstanding energetic resistance on the part of the English whomanned it, was taken; and all its defenders were put to the sword beforeTalbot and the main body of the besiegers could come up to theirassistance. Joan showed sorrow that so many people should have diedunconfessed; and she herself was the means of saving some who haddisguised themselves as priests in gowns which they had taken from thechurch of St. Loup. Great was the joy in Orleans, and the enthusiasm forJoan was more lively than ever. "Her voices had warned her, " they said, "and apprised her that there was a battle; and then she had found byherself alone and without any guide the way to the Burgundy gate. "Men-at-arms and burgesses all demanded that the attack upon the Englishhastilles should be resumed; but the next day, the 5th of May, wasAscension-day. Joan advocated lions repose on this holy festival, andthe general feeling was in accord with her own. She recommended hercomrades to fulfil their religious duties, and she herself received thecommunion. The chiefs of the besieged resolved to begin on the morrow acombined attack upon the English bastilles which surrounded the palace;but Joan was not in their counsels. "Tell me what you have resolved, "she said to them; "I can keep this and greater secrets. " Dunois made heracquainted with the plan adopted, of which she fully approved; and on themorrow, the 6th of May, a fierce struggle began again all round Orleans. For two days the bastilles erected by the besiegers against the placewere repeatedly attacked by the besieged. On the first day Joan wasslightly wounded in the foot. Some disagreement arose between her andSire de Gaucourt, governor of Orleans, as to continuing the struggle; andJohn Boucher, her host, tried to keep her back the second day. "Stay anddine with us, " said he, "to eat that shad which has just been brought. ""Keep it for supper, " said Joan; "I will come back this evening and bringyou some goddamns (Englishman) or other to eat his share;" and shesallied forth, eager to return to the assault. On arriving at theBurgundy gate she found it closed; the governor would not allow anysortie thereby to attack on that side. "Ah! naughty man, " said Joan, "you are wrong; whether you will or no, our men-at-arms shall go and winon this day as they have already won. " The gate was forced; andmen-at-arms and burgesses rushed out from all quarters to attack thebastille of Tournelles, the strongest of the English works. It was teno'clock in the morning; the passive and active powers of both partieswere concentrated on this point; and for a moment the French appearedweary and downcast. Joan took a scaling-ladder, set it against therampart, and was the first to mount. There came an arrow and struck herbetween neck and shoulder, and she fell. Sire de Gamaches, who had butlately displayed so much temper towards her, found her where she lay. "Take my horse, " said he, "and bear no malice: I was wrong; I had formeda false idea of you. " "Yes, " said Joan, "and bear no malice: I never sawa more accomplished knight. " She was taken away and had her armorremoved. The arrow, it is said, stood out almost half-a-foot behind. There was an instant of faintness and tears; but she prayed and felt herstrength renewed, and pulled out the arrow with her own hand. 

[Illustration: Herself drew out the Arrow----109]

Some one proposed to her to charm the wound by means of cabalistic words;but "I would rather die, " she said, "than so sin against the will of God. I know full well that I must die some day; but I know nor where nor whennor how. If, without sin, my wound may be healed, I am right willing. "A dressing of oil and lard was applied to the wound; and she retiredapart into a vineyard, and was continually in prayer. Fatigue anddiscouragement were overcoming the French; and the captains ordered theretreat to be sounded. Joan begged Dunois to wait a while. "My God, "said she, "we shall soon be inside. Give your people a little rest; eatand drink. " She resumed her arms and remounted her horse; her bannerfloated in the air; the French took fresh courage; the English, whothought Joan half dead, were seized with surprise and fear; and one oftheir principal leaders, Sir William Gladesdale, made up his mind toabandon the outwork which he had hitherto so well kept, and retire withinthe bastille itself. Joan perceived his movement. "Yield thee, " sheshouted to him from afar; "yield thee to the King of Heaven! Ah!Glacidas, thou hast basely insulted me; but I have great pity on thesouls of thee and thine. " The Englishman continued his retreat. Whilsthe was passing over the drawbridge which reached from the out-work to thebastille, a shot from the side of Orleans broke down the bridge;Gladesdale fell into the water and was drowned, together with many of hiscomrades; the French got into the bastille without any fresh fighting;and Joan re-entered Orleans amidst the joy and acclamations of thepeople. The bells rang all through the night, and the Te Deum waschanted. The day of combat was about to be succeeded by the day ofdeliverance. 

On the morrow, the 8th of May, 1429, at daybreak, the English leadersdrew up their troops close to the very moats of the city, and seemed tooffer battle to the French. Many of the Orleannese leaders would haveliked to accept this challenge; but Joan got up from her bed, where shewas resting because of her wound, put on a light suit of armor, and ranto the city gates. "For the love and honor of holy Sunday, " said she tothe assembled warriors, "do not be the first to attack, and make to themno demand; it is God's good will and pleasure that they be allowed to getthem gone if they be minded to go away; if they attack you, defendyourselves boldly; you will be the masters. " She caused an altar to beraised; thanksgivings were sung, and mass was celebrated. "See!" saidJoan; "are the English turning to you their faces, or verily theirbacks?" They had commenced their retreat in good order, with standardsflying. "Let them go: my Lord willeth not that there be any fightingto-day; you shall have them another time. " The good words spoken by Joanwere not so preventive but that many men set off to pursue the English, and cut off stragglers and baggage. Their bastilles were found to befull of victual and munitions; and they had abandoned their sick and manyof their prisoners. The siege of Orleans was raised. 

The day but one after this deliverance, Joan set out to go and rejoin theking, and prosecute her work at his side. She fell in with him on the13th of May, at Tours, moved forward to meet him, with her banner in herhand and her head uncovered, and bending down over her charger's neck, made him a deep obeisance. Charles took off his cap, held out his handto her, and, "as it seemed to many, " says a contemporary chronicler, "hewould fain have kissed her, for the joy that he felt. " But the king'sjoy was not enough for Joan. She urged him to march with her againstenemies who were flying, so to speak, from themselves, and to startwithout delay for Rheims, where he would be crowned. "I shall hardlylast more than a year, " said she; "we must think about working right wellthis year, for there is much to do. " Hesitation was natural to Charles, even in the hour of victory. His favorite, La Tremoille, and hischancellor, the Archbishop of Rheims, opposed Joan's entreaties with allthe objections that could be devised under the inspiration of their illwill: there were neither troops nor money in hand for so great a journey;and council after council was held for the purpose of doing nothing. Joan, in her impatience, went one day to Loches, without previous notice, and tapped softly at the door of the king's privy chamber (chambre de re-trait). He bade her enter. She fell upon her knees, saying, "Gentle_dauphin_, hold not so many and such long councils, but rather come toRheims, and there assume your crown; I am much pricked to take youthither. " "Joan, " said the Bishop of Castres, Christopher d'Harcourt, the king's confessor, "cannot you tell the king what pricketh you?""Ah! I see, " replied Joan, with some embarrassment: "well, I will tellyou. I had set me to prayer, according to my wont, and I was makingcomplaint for that you would not believe what I said; then the voice cameand said unto me, 'Go, go, my daughter; I will be a help to thee; go. 'When this voice comes to me, I feel marvellously rejoiced; I would thatit might endure forever. " She was eager and overcome. 

Joan and her voices were not alone in urging the king to shake off hisdoubts and his indolence. In church, and court, and army, allies werenot wanting to the pious and valiant maid. In a written document datedthe 14th of May, six days after the siege of Orleans was raised, the mostChristian doctor of the age, as Gerson was called, sifted the questionwhether it were possible, whether it were a duty, to believe in the Maid. "Even if (which God forbid), " said he, "she should be mistaken in herhope and ours, it would not necessarily follow that what she does comesof the evil spirit, and not of God, but that rather our ingratitude wasto blame. Let the party which hath a just cause take care how, byincredulity or injustice, it rendereth useless the divine succor somiraculously manifested, for God, without any change of counsel, changeththe upshot according to deserts. " Great lords and simple gentlemen, oldand young warriors, were eager to go and join Joan for the salvation ofthe king and of France. The constable, De Richemont, banished from thecourt through the jealous hatred of George la Tremoille, made a pressingapplication there, followed by a body of men-at-arms; and, when the kingrefused to see him, he resolved, though continuing in disgrace, to takean active part in the war. The young Duke of Alencon, who had been aprisoner with the English since the battle of Agincourt, hurried on thepayment of his ransom in order to accompany Joan as lieutenant-general ofthe king in the little army which was forming. His wife, the duchess, was in grief about it. "We have just spent great sums, " said she, "inbuying him back from the English; if he would take my advice, he wouldstay at home. " "Madame, " said Joan, "I will bring him back to you safeand sound, nay, even in better contentment than at present; be notafraid. " And on this promise the duchess took heart. Du Guesciin'swidow, Joan de Laval, was still living; and she had two grandsons, Guyand Andrew de Laval, who were amongst the most zealous of those takingservice in the army destined to march on Rheims. The king, to allappearance, desired to keep them near his person. "God forbid that Ishould do so, " wrote Guy de Laval, on the 8th of June, 1429, to thosemost dread dames, his grandmother and his mother; "my brother says, asalso my lord the Duke d'Alencon, that a good riddance of bad rubbishwould he be who should stay at home. " And he describes his firstinterview with the Maid as follows: "The king had sent for her to comeand meet him at Selles-en-Berry. Some say that it was for my sake, inorder that I might see her. She gave right good cheer (a kind reception)to my brother and myself; and after we had dismounted at Selles I went tosee her in her quarters. She ordered wine, and told me that she wouldsoon have me drinking some at Paris. It seems a thing divine to look onher and listen to her. I saw her mount on horseback, armed all in whitearmor, save her head, and with a little axe in her hand, on a great blackcharger, which, at the door of her quarters, was very restive, and wouldnot let her mount. Then said she, 'Lead him to the cross, ' which was infront of the neighboring church, on the road. There she mounted himwithout his moving, and as if he were tied up; and turning towards thedoor of the church, which was very nigh at hand, she said, in quite awomanly voice, 'You, priests and church-men, make procession and prayersto God. ' Then she resumed her road, saying, 'Push forward, pushforward. ' She told me that three days before my arrival she had sentyou, dear grand-mother, a little golden ring, but that it was a verysmall matter, and she would have liked to send you something better, having regard to your estimation. "

It was amidst this burst of patriotism, and with all these valiantcomrades, that Joan recommenced the campaign on the 10th of June, 1429, quite resolved to bring the king to Rheims. To complete the deliveranceof Orleans, an attack was begun upon the neighboring places, Jargeau, Meung, and Beaugency. Before Jargeau, on the 12th of June, although itwas Sunday, Joan had the trumpets sounded for the assault. The Duked'Alencon thought it was too soon. "Ah!" said Joan, "be not doubtful; itis the hour pleasing to God; work ye, and God will work. " And she added, familiarly, "Art thou afeard, gentle duke? Knowest thou not that I havepromised thy wife to take thee back safe and sound?" The assault began;and Joan soon had occasion to keep her promise. The Duke d'Alencon waswatching the assault from an exposed spot, and Joan remarked a piecepointed at this spot. "Get you hence, " said she to the duke; "yonder isa piece which will slay you. " The Duke moved, and a moment afterwardsSire de Lude was killed at the self-same place by a shot from the saidpiece. Jargeau was taken. Before Beaugency a serious incident tookplace. The constable, De Richemont, came up with a force of twelvehundred men. When he was crossing to Loudun, Charles VII. , swayed asever by the jealous La Tremoille, had word sent to him to withdraw, andthat if he advanced he would be attacked. "What I am doing in thematter, " said the constable, "is for the good of the king and the realm;if anybody comes to attack me, we shall see. " When he had joined thearmy before Beaugency, the Duke d'Alencon was much troubled. The king'sorders were precise, and Joan herself hesitated. But news came thatTalbot and the English were approaching. "Now, " said Joan, "we mustthink no more of anything but helping one another. " She rode forward tomeet the constable, and saluted him courteously. "Joan, " said he, "I wastold that you meant to attack me; I know not whether you come from God ornot; if you are from God, I fear you not at all, for God knows my goodwill; if you are from the devil, I fear you still less. " He remained, and Beaugency was taken. The English army came up. Sir John Falstolfhad joined Talbot. Some disquietude showed itself amongst the French, soroughly handled for some time past in pitched battles. "Ah! fairconstable, " said Joan to Richemont, "you are not come by my orders, butyou are right welcome. " The Duke d'Alencon consulted Joan as to what wasto be done. "It will be well to have horses, " was suggested by thoseabout her. She asked her neighbors, "Have you good spurs?" "Ha!" criedthey, "must we fly, then?"

"No, surely, " replied Joan: "but there will be need to ride boldly; weshall give a good account of the English, and our spurs will serve usfamously in pursuing them. " The battle began on the 18th of June, atPatay, between Orleans and Chateaudun. By Joan's advice, the Frenchattacked. "In the name of God, " said she, "we must fight. Though theEnglish were suspended from the clouds, we should have them, for God hathsent us to punish them. The gentle king shall have to-day the greatestvictory he has ever had; my counsel hath told me they are ours. " TheEnglish lost heart, in their turn; the battle was short, and the victorybrilliant; Lord Talbot and the most part of the English captains remainedprisoners. "Lord Talbot, " said the Duke d'Alencon to him, "this is notwhat you expected this morning. " "It is the fortune of war, " answeredTalbot, with the cool dignity of an old warrior. Joan's immediate returnto Orleans was a triumph; but even triumph has its embarrassments andperils. She demanded the speedy march of the army upon Rheims, that theking might be crowned there without delay; but objections were raised onall sides, the objections of the timid and those of the jealous. "Byreason of Joan the Maid, " says a contemporary chronicler, "so many folkscame from all parts unto the king for to serve him at their own expense, that La Tremoille and others of the council were much wroth thereat, through anxiety for their own persons. " Joan, impatient and irritated atso much hesitation and intrigue, took upon herself to act as if thedecision belonged to her. On the 25th of June she wrote to theinhabitants of Tournai, "Loyal Frenchmen, I do pray and require you to beall ready to come to the coronation of the gentle King Charles, atRheims, where we shall shortly be, and to come and meet us when ye shalllearn that we are approaching. " Two days afterwards, on the 27th ofJune, she left Gien, where the court was, and went to take up herquarters in the open country with the troops. There was nothing for itbut to follow her. On the 29th of June, the king, the court (includingLa Tremoille), and the army, about twelve thousand strong, set out on themarch for Rheims. Other obstacles were encountered on the road. In mostof the towns the inhabitants, even the royalists, feared to compromisethemselves by openly pronouncing against the English and the Duke ofBurgundy. Those of Auxerre demanded a truce, offering provisions, andpromising to do as those of Troyes, Chalons, and Rheims should do. AtTroyes the difficulty was greater still. There was in it a garrison offive or six hundred English and Burgundians, who had the burgesses undertheir thumbs. All attempts at accommodation failed. There was greatperplexity in the royal camp; there were neither provisions enough for along stay before Troyes, nor batteries and siege trains to carry it byforce. There was talk of turning back. One of the king's councillors, Robert le Macon, proposed that Joan should be summoned to the council. It was at her instance that the expedition had been undertaken; she hadgreat influence amongst the army and the populace; the idea ought not tobe given up without consulting her. Whilst he was speaking, Joan cameknocking at the door; she was told to come in; and the chancellor, theArchbishop of Rheims, put the question to her. Joan, turning to theking, asked him if he would believe her. "Speak, " said the king; "if yousay what is reasonable and tends to profit, readily will you bebelieved. " "Gentle king of France, " said Joan, "if you be willing toabide here before your town of Troyes, it shall be at your disposalwithin two days, by love or by force; make no doubt of it. " "Joan, "replied the chancellor, "whoever could be certain of having it within sixdays might well wait for it; but say you true?" Joan repeated herassertion; and it was decided to wait. Joan mounted her horse, and, withher banner in her hand, she went through the camp, giving orderseverywhere to prepare for the assault. She had her own tent pitchedclose to the ditch, "doing more, " says a contemporary, "than two of theablest captains would have done. " On the next day, July 10, all wasready. Joan had the fascines thrown into the ditches, and was shoutingout, "Assault!" when the inhabitants of Troyes, burgesses andmen-at-arms, came demanding permission to capitulate. The conditionswere easy. The inhabitants obtained for themselves and their propertysuch guarantees as they desired; and the strangers were allowed to go outwith what belonged to them. On the morrow, July 11, the king enteredTroyes with all his captains, and at his side the Maid carrying herbanner. All the difficulties of the journey were surmounted. On the15th of July the Bishop of Chalons brought the keys of his town to theking, who took up his quarters there. Joan found there four or five ofher own villagers, who had hastened up to see the young girl of Domremyin all her glory. She received them with a satisfaction in whichfamiliarity was blended with gravity. To one of them, her godfather, shegave a red cap which she had worn; to another, who had been a Burgundian, she said, "I fear but one thing--treachery. " In the Duke d'Alencon'spresence she repeated to the king, "Make good use of my time, for I shallhardly last longer than a year. " On the 16th of July King Charlesentered Rheims, and the ceremony of his coronation was fixed for themorrow. 

It was solemn and emotional, as are all old national traditions whichrecur after a forced suspension. Joan rode between Dunois and theArchbishop of Rheims, chancellor of France. The air resounded with theTe Deum sung with all their hearts by clergy and crowd. "In God's name, "said Joan to Dunois, "here is a good people and a devout when I die, Ishould much like it to be in these parts. " "Joan, " inquired Dunois, "know you when you will die, and in what place?" "I know not, " said she, "for I am at the will of God. " Then she added, "I have accomplished thatwhich my Lord commanded me, to raise the siege of Orleans and have thegentle king crowned. I would like it well if it should please him tosend me back to my father and mother, to keep their sheep and theircattle, and do that which was my wont. " "When the said lords, " says thechronicler, an eye-witness, "heard these words of Joan, who, with eyestowards heaven, gave thanks to God, they the more believed that it wassomewhat sent from God, and not otherwise. "

Historians, and even contemporaries, have given much discussion to thequestion whether Joan of Arc, according to her first ideas, had reallylimited her design to the raising of the siege of Orleans and thecoronation of Charles VII. At Rheims. She had said so herself severaltimes, just as she had to Dunois at Rheims on the 17th of July, 1429; butshe sometimes also spoke of more vast and varied projects, as, forinstance, driving the English completely out of France, and withdrawingfrom his long captivity Charles, Duke of Orleans. He had been a prisonerin London ever since the battle of Agincourt, and was popular in his day, as he has continued to be in French history, on the double ground ofhaving been the father of Louis XII. And one of the most charming poetsin the ancient literature of France. The Duke d'Alencon, who was so highin the regard of Joan, attributed to her more expressly this quadrupledesign: "She said, " according to him, "that she had four duties; to getrid of the English, to have the king anointed and crowned, to deliverDuke Charles of Orleans, and to raise the siege laid by the English toOrleans. " One is inclined to believe that Joan's language to Dunois atRheims in the hour of Charles VII. 's coronation more accurately expressedher first idea; the two other notions occurred to her naturally inproportion as her hopes as well as her power kept growing greater withsuccess. But however lofty and daring her soul may have been, she had asimple and not at all a fantastic mind. She may have foreseen thecomplete expulsion of the English, and may have desired the deliveranceof the Duke of Orleans, without having in the first instance premeditatedanything more than she said to Dunois during the king's coronation atRheims, which was looked upon by her as the triumph of the nationalcause. 

However that may be, when Orleans was relieved, and Charles VII. Crowned, the situation, posture, and part of Joan underwent a change. She no longer manifested the same confidence in herself and her designs. She no longer exercised over those in whose midst she lived the sameauthority. She continued to carry on war, but at hap-hazard, sometimeswith and sometimes without success, just like La Hire and Dunois; neverdiscouraged, never satisfied, and never looking upon her-self astriumphant. After the coronation, her advice was to march at once uponParis, in order to take up a fixed position in it, as being the politicalcentre of the realm of which Rheims was the religious. Nothing of thesort was done. Charles and La Tremoille once more began their course ofhesitation, tergiversation, and changes of tactics and residence withoutdoing anything of a public and decisive character. They negotiated withthe Duke of Burgundy, in the hope of detaching him from the Englishcause; and they even concluded with him a secret, local, and temporarytruce. From the 20th of July to the 23d of August Joan followed the kingwhithersoever he went, to Chateau-Thierry, to Senlis, to Blois, toProvins, and to Compigne, as devoted as ever, but without having herformer power. She was still active, but not from inspiration and to obeyher voices, simply to promote the royal policy. She wrote the Duke ofBurgundy a letter full of dignity and patriotism, which had no moreeffect than the negotiations of La Tremoille. During this fruitlesslabor amongst the French the Duke of Bedford sent for five thousand menfrom England, who came and settled themselves at Paris. One division ofthis army had a white standard, in the middle of which was depicted adistaff full of cotton; a half-filled spindle was hanging to the distaff;and the field, studded with empty spindles, bore this inscription: "Now, fair one, come!" Insult to Joan was accompanied by redoubled war againstFrance. Joan, saddened and wearied by the position of things, attemptedto escape from it by a bold stroke. On the 23d of August, 1429, she setout from Compiegne with the Duke d'Alencon and "a fair company ofmen-at-arms;" and suddenly went and occupied St. Denis, with the view ofattacking Paris. Charles VII. Felt himself obliged to quit Compiegnelikewise, "and went, greatly against the grain, " says a contemporarychronicler, "as far as into the town of Senlis. " The attack on Parisbegan vigorously. Joan, with the Duke d'Alencon, pitched her camp at LaChapelle. Charles took up his abode in the abbey of St. Denis. Themunicipal corporation of Paris received letters with the arms of the Duked'Alencon, which called upon them to recognize the king's authority, andpromised a general amnesty. The assault was delivered on the 8th ofSeptember. Joan was severely wounded, but she insisted upon remainingwhere she was. Night came, and the troops had not entered the breachwhich had been opened in the morning. Joan was still calling out topersevere. The Duke d'Alencon himself begged her, but in vain, toretire. La Tremoille gave orders to retreat; and some knights came up, set Joan on horse-back, and led her back, against her will, to LaChapelle. "By my martin" (staff of command), said she, "the place wouldhave been taken. " One hope still remained. In concert with the Duked'Alencon she had caused a flying bridge to be thrown across the Seineopposite St. Denis. The next day but one she sent her vanguard in thisdirection; she intended to return thereby to the siege; but, by theking's order, the bridge had been cut adrift. St. Denis fell once moreinto the hands of the English. Before leaving, Joan left there, on thetomb of St. Denis, her complete suit of armor and a sword she had latelyobtained possession of at the St. Honore gate of Paris, as trophy of war. 

From the 13th of September, 1429, to the 24th of May, 1430, she continuedto lead the same life of efforts ever equally valiant and equallyineffectual. She failed in an attempt upon Laemir. Charite-sur-Loire, undertaken, for all that appears, with the sole design of recovering animportant town in the possession of the enemy. The English evacuatedParis, and left the keeping of it to the Duke of Burgundy, no doubt totest his fidelity. On the 13th of Aprils 1430, at the expiration of thetruce he had concluded, Philip the Good resumed hostilities againstCharles VII. Joan of Arc once more plunged into them with her wontedzeal. Ile-de-France and Picardy became the theatre of war. Compiegnewas regarded as the gate of the road between these two provinces; and theDuke of Burgundy attached much importance to holding the key of it. Theauthority of Charles VII. Was recognized there; and a young knight ofCompiegne, William de Flavy, held the command there as lieutenant of LaTremoille, who had got himself appointed captain of the town. LaTremoille attempted to treat with the Duke of Burgundy for the cession ofCompiegne; but the inhabitants were strenuously opposed to it. "Theywere, " they said, "the king's most humble subjects, and they desired toserve him with body and substance; but as for trusting themselves to thelord Duke of Burgundy, they could not do it; they were resolved to sufferdestruction, themselves and their wives and children, rather than beexposed to the tender mercies of the said duke. " Meanwhile Joan of Arc, after several warlike expeditions in the neighborhood, re-enteredCompiegne, and was received there with a popular expression ofsatisfaction. "She was presented, " says a local chronicler, with threehogsheads of wine, a present which was large and exceeding costly, andwhich showed the estimate formed of this maiden's worth. " Joanmanifested the profound distrust with which she was inspired of the Dukeof Burgundy. There is no peace possible with him, " she said, "save atthe point of the lance. " She had quarters at the house of the king'sattorney, Le Boucher, and shared the bed of his wife, Mary. "She oftenmade the said Mary rise from her bed to go and warn the said attorney tobe on his guard against several acts of Burgundian treachery. " At thisperiod, again, she said she was often warned by her voices of what musthappen to her; she expected to be taken prisoner before St. John's orMidsummer-day (June 24); on what day and hour she did not know; she hadreceived no instructions as to sorties from the place; but she hadconstantly been told that she would be taken, and she was distrustful ofthe captains who were in command there. She was, nevertheless, not theless bold and enterprising. On the 20th of May, 1430, the Duke ofBurgundy came and laid siege to Compiegne. Joan was away on anexpedition to Crepy in Valois, with a small band of three or four hundredbrave comrades. On the 24th of May, the eve of Ascension-day, shelearned that Compiegne was being besieged, and she resolved to re-enterit. She was reminded that her force was a very weak one to cut its waythrough the besiegers' camp. "By my martin, " said she, "we are enough; Iwill go see my friends in Compiegne. " She arrived about daybreak withouthinderance, and penetrated into the town; and repaired immediately to theparish church of St. Jacques to perform her devotions on the eve of sogreat a festival. Many persons, attracted by her presence, and amongstothers "from a hundred to six-score children, " thronged to the church. After hearing mass, and herself taking the communion, Joan said to thosewho surrounded her, "My children and dear friends, I notify you that I amsold and betrayed, and that I shall shortly be delivered over to death; Ibeseech you, pray God for me. " When evening came, she was not the lesseager to take part in a sortie with her usual comrades and a troop ofabout five hundred men. William de Flavy, commandant of the place, gotready some boats on the Oise to assist the return of the troops. All thetown-gates were closed, save the bridge-gate. The sortie wasunsuccessful. Being severely repulsed and all but hemmed in, themajority of the soldiers shouted to Joan, "Try to quickly regain thetown, or we are lost. " "Silence, " said Joan; "it only rests with you tothrow the enemy into confusion; think only of striking at them. " Herwords and her bravery were in vain; the infantry flung themselves intothe boats, and regained the town, and Joan and her brave comrades coveredtheir retreat. The Burgundians were coming up in mass upon Compiegne, and Flavy gave orders to pull up the draw-bridge and let down theportcullis. Joan and some of her following lingered outside, stillfighting. She wore a rich surcoat and a red sash, and all the efforts ofthe Burgundians were directed against her. Twenty men thronged round herhorse; and a Picard archer, "a tough fellow and mighty sour, " seized herby her dress, and flung her on the ground. All, at once, called on herto surrender. "Yield you to me, " said one of them; "pledge your faith tome; I am a gentleman. " It was an archer of the bastard of Wandonne, oneof the lieutenants of John of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny. "I havepledged my faith to one other than you, " said Joan, "and to Him I willkeep my oath. " The archer took her and conducted her to Count John, whose prisoner she became. 

Was she betrayed and delivered up, as she had predicted? Did William deFlavy purposely have the drawbridge raised and the portcullis loweredbefore she could get back into Compiegne? He was suspected of it at thetime, and many historians have indorsed the suspicion. But there isnothing to prove it. That La Tremoille, prime minister of Charles VII. , and Reginald de Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims, had an antipathy to Joanof Arc, and did all they could on every occasion to compromise her anddestroy her influence, and that they were glad to see her a prisoner, isas certain as anything can be. On announcing her capture to theinhabitants of Rheims, the arch-bishop said, "She would not listen tocounsel, and did everything according to her pleasure. " But there is along distance between such expressions and a premeditated plot to deliverto the enemy the young heroine who had just raised the siege of Orleansand brought the king to be crowned at Rheims. History must not, withoutproof, impute crimes so odious and so shameful to even the most depravedof men. 

However that may be, Joan remained for six months the prisoner of John ofLuxembourg, who, to make his possession of her secure, sent her, undergood escort, successively to his two castles of Beaulieu and Beaurevoir, one in the Vermandois and the other in the Cambresis. Twice, in July andin October, 1430, Joan attempted, unsuccessfully, to escape. The secondtime she carried despair and hardihood so far as to throw herself downfrom the platform of her prison. She was picked up cruelly bruised, butwithout any fracture or wound of importance. Her fame, her youth, hervirtue, her courage, made her, even in her prison and in the very familyof her custodian, two warm and powerful friends. John of Luxembourg hadwith him his wife, Joan of Bethune, and his aunt, Joan of Luxembourg, godmother of Charles VII. They both of them took a tender interest inthe prisoner; and they often went to see her, and left nothing undone tomitigate the annoyances of a prison. One thing only shocked them abouther--her man's clothes. "They offered her, " as Joan herself said, whenquestioned upon this subject at a later period during her trial, "awoman's dress, or stuff to make it to her liking, and requested her towear it; but she answered that she had not leave from our Lord, and thatit was not yet time for it. " John of Luxembourg's aunt was full of yearsand reverenced as a saint. Hearing that the English were tempting hernephew by the offer of a sum of money to give up his prisoner to them, she conjured him in her will, dated September 10, 1430, not to sully bysuch an act the honor of his name. But Count John was neither rich norscrupulous; and pretexts were not wanting to aid his cupidity and hisweakness. Joan had been taken at Compiegne on the 23d of May, in theevening; and the news arrived in Paris on the 25th of May, in themorning. On the morrow, the 26th, the registrar of the University, inthe name and under the seal of the inquisition of France, wrote acitation to the Duke of Burgundy "to the end that the Maid should bedelivered up to appear before the said inquisitor, and to respond to thegood counsel, favor, and aid of the good doctors and masters of theUniversity of Paris. " Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, had been theprime mover in this step. Some weeks later, on the 14th of July, seeingthat no reply arrived from the Duke of Burgundy, he caused a renewal ofthe same demands to be made on the part of the University in more urgentterms, and he added, in his own name, that Joan, having been taken atCompiegne, in his own diocese, belonged to him as judge spiritual. Hefurther asserted that "according to the law, usage, and custom of France, every prisoner of war, even were it king, _dauphin_, or other prince, might be redeemed in the name of the King of England in consideration ofan indemnity of ten thousand livres granted to the capturer. " Nothingwas more opposed to the common law of nations and to the feudal spirit, often grasping, but noble at bottom. For four months still, John ofLuxembourg hesitated; but his aunt, Joan, died at Boulogne, on the 13thof November, and Joan of Arc had no longer near him this powerfulintercessor. The King of England transmitted to the keeping of hiscoffers at Rouen, in golden coin, English money, the sum of ten thousandlivres. John of Luxembourg yielded to the temptation. On the 21st ofNovember, 1430, Joan of Arc was handed over to the King of England, andthe same day the University of Paris, through its rector, Hebert, besought that sovereign, as King of France, "to order that this woman bebrought to their city for to be shortly placed in the hands of thejustice of the Church, that is, of our honored lord, the Bishop and Countof Beauvais, and also of the ordained inquisitor in France, in order thather trial may be conducted officially and securely. "

It was not to Paris, but to Rouen, the real capital of the English inFrance, that Joan was taken. She arrived there on the 23d of December, 1430. On the 3d of January, 1431, an order from Henry VI. , King ofEngland, placed her in the hands of the Bishop of Beauvais, PeterCauchon. Some days afterwards, Count John of Luxembourg, accompanied byhis brother, the English chancellor, by his esquire, and by two Englishlords, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Humphrey, Earl ofStafford, the King of England's constable in France, entered the prison. Had John of Luxembourg come out of sheer curiosity, or to relieve himselfof certain scruples by offering Joan a chance for her life? "Joan, " saidhe, "I am come hither to put you to ransom, and to treat for the price ofyour deliverance; only give us your promise here to no more bear armsagainst us. " "In God's name, " answered Joan, "are you making a mock ofme, captain? Ransom me! You have neither the will nor the power; no, you have neither. " The count persisted. "I know well, " said Joan, "thatthese English will put me to death; but were they a hundred thousand moreGoddams than have already been in France, they shall never have thekingdom. "

At this patriotic burst on the heroine's part, the Earl of Stafford halfdrew his dagger from the sheath as if to strike Joan, but the Earl ofWarwick held him back. The visitors went out from the prison and handedover Joan to the judges. 

The court of Rouen was promptly formed, but not without opposition anddifficulty. Though Joan had lost somewhat of her greatness andimportance by going beyond her main object, and by showing recklessness, unattended by success, on small occasions, she still remained the true, heroic representative of the feelings and wishes of the nation. When shewas removed from Beaurevoir to Rouen, all the places at which she stoppedwere like so many luminous points for the illustration of her popularity. At Arras, a Scot showed her a portrait of her which he wore, an outwardsign of the devoted worship of her lieges. At Amiens, the chancellor ofthe cathedral gave her audience at confession and administered to her theeucharist. At Abbeville, ladies of distinction went five leagues to payher a visit; they were glad to have had the happiness of seeing her sofirm and resigned to the will of Our Lord; they wished her all the favorsof heaven, and then wept affectionately on taking leave of her. Joan, touched by their sympathy and open heartedness, said, "Ah! what a goodpeople is this! Would to God I might be so happy, when my days areended, as to be buried in these parts!"

When the Bishop of Beauvais, installed at Rouen, set about forming hiscourt of justice, the majority of the members he appointed amongst theclergy or the University of Paris obeyed the summons without hesitation. Some few would have refused; but their wishes were overruled. The Abbotof Jumieges, Nicholas de Houppeville, maintained that the trial was notlegal. The Bishop of Beauvais, he said, belonged to the party whichdeclared itself hostile to the Maid; and, besides, he made himself judgein a case already decided by his metropolitan, the Archbishop of Rheims, of whom Beauvais was holden, and who had approved of Joan's conduct. Thebishop summoned before him the recalcitrant, who refused to appear, saying that he was under no official jurisdiction but that of Rouen. Hewas arrested and thrown into prison, by order of the bishop, whoseauthority he denied. There was some talk of banishing him, and even ofthrowing him into the river; but the influence of his brethren saved him. The sub-inquisitor himself allowed the trial in which he was to be one ofthe judges to begin without him; and he only put in an appearance at theexpress order of the inquisitor-general, and on a confidential hint thathe would be in danger of his life if he persisted in his refusal. Thecourt being thus constituted, Joan, after it had been put in possessionof the evidence already collected, was cited, on the 20th of February, 1431, to appear on the morrow, the 21st, before her judges assembled inthe chapel of Rouen Castle. 

The trial lasted from the 21st of February to the 30th of May, 1431. Thecourt held forty sittings, mostly in the chapel of the castle, some inJoan's very prison. On her arrival there, she had been put in an ironcage; afterwards she was kept no longer in the cage, but in a dark roomin a tower of the castle, wearing irons upon her feet, fastened by achain to a large piece of wood, and guarded night and day by four or five"soldiers of low grade. " She complained of being thus chained; but thebishop told her that her former attempts at escape demanded thisprecaution. "It is true, " said Joan, as truthful as heroic, "I did wishand I still wish to escape from prison, as is the right of everyprisoner. " At her examination, the bishop required her to take an oathto tell the truth about everything as to which she should be questioned. ""I know not what you mean to question me about; perchance you may ask methings I would not tell you; touching my revelations, for instance, youmight ask me to tell something I have sworn not to tell; thus I should beperjured, which you ought not to desire. " The bishop insisted upon anoath absolute and with-out condition. "You are too hard on me, " saidJoan; I do not like to take an oath to tell the truth save as to matterswhich concern the faith. " The bishop called upon her to swear on pain ofbeing held guilty of the things imputed to her. 

[Illustration: Joan examined in Prison----128]

"Go on to something else, " said she. And this was the answer she made toall questions which seemed to her to be a violation of her right to besilent. Wearied and hurt at these imperious demands, she one day said, "I come on God's business, and I have nought to do here; send me back toGod, from whom I come. " "Are you sure you are in God's grace?" asked thebishop. "If I be not, " answered Joan, "please God to bring me to it; andif I be, please God to keep me in it!" The bishop himself remaineddumbfounded. 

There is no object in following through all its sittings and all itstwistings this odious and shameful trial, in which the judges' prejudicedservility and scientific subtlety were employed for three months to wearout the courage or overreach the understanding of a young girl ofnineteen, who refused at one time to lie, and at another to enter intodiscussion with them, and made no defence beyond holding her tongue orappealing to God who had spoken to her and dictated to her that which shehad done. In order to force her from her silence or bring her to submitto the Church instead of appealing from it to God, it was proposed toemploy the last means of all, torture. On the 9th of May the bishop hadJoan brought into the great tower of Rouen Castle; the instruments oftorture were displayed before her eyes; and the executioners were readyto fulfil their office, "for to bring her back, " said the bishop, "intothe ways of truth, in order to insure the salvation of her soul and body, so gravely endangered by erroneous inventions. " "Verily, " answered Joan, "if you should have to tear me limb from limb, and separate soul frombody, I should not tell you aught else; and if I were to tell you aughtelse, I should afterwards still tell you that you had made me tell it byforce. " The idea of torture was given up. It was resolved to displayall the armory of science in order to subdue the mind of this young girl, whose conscience was not to be subjugated. The chapter of Rouen declaredthat in consequence of her public refusal to submit herself to thedecision of the Church as to her deeds and her statements, Joan deservedto be declared a heretic. The University of Paris, to which had beenhanded in the twelve heads of accusation resulting from Joan's statementsand examinations, replied that "if, having been charitably admonished, she would not make reparation and return to union with the Catholicfaith, she must be left to the secular judges to undergo punishment forher crime. " Armed with these documents the Bishop of Beauvais had Joanbrought up, on the 23d of May, in a hall adjoining her prison, and, afterhaving addressed to her a long exhortation, "Joan, " said he, "if in thedominions of your king, when you were at large in them, a knight or anyother, born under his rule and allegiance to him, had risen up, saying, 'I will not obey the king or submit to his officers, ' would you not havesaid that he ought to be condemned? What then will you say of yourself, you who were born in the faith of Christ and became by baptism a daughterof the Church and spouse of Jesus Christ, if you obey not the officers ofChrist, that is, the prelates of the Church?" Joan listened modestly tothis admonition, and confined herself to answering, "As to my deeds andsayings, what I said of them at the trial I do hold to and mean to abideby. " "Think you that you are not bound to submit your sayings and deedsto the Church militant or to any other than God?" "The course that Ialways mentioned and pursued at the trial I mean to maintain as to that. If I were at the stake, and saw the torch lighted, and the executionerready to set fire to the fagots, even if I were in the midst of theflames, I should not say aught else, and I should uphold that which Isaid at the trial even unto death. "

According to the laws, ideas, and practices of the time the legalquestion was decided. Joan, declared heretic and rebellious by theChurch, was liable to have sentence pronounced against her; but she hadpersisted in her statements, she had shown no submission. Although sheappeared to be quite forgotten, and was quite neglected by the king whosecoronation she had effected, by his councillors, and even by the bravewarriors at whose side she had fought, the public exhibited a livelyinterest in her; accounts of the scenes which took place at her trialwere inquired after with curiosity. Amongst the very judges whoprosecuted her, many were troubled in spirit, and wished that Joan, by anabjuration of her statements, would herself put them at ease and relievethem from pronouncing against her the most severe penalty. What meanswere employed to arrive at this end? Did she really, and with fullknowledge of what she was about, come round to the adjuration which therewas so much anxiety to obtain from her? It is difficult to solve thishistorical problem with exactness and certainty. More than once, duringthe examinations and the conversations which took place at that timebetween Joan and her judges, she maintained her firm posture and herfirst statements. One of those who were exhorting her to yield said toher one day, "Thy king is a heretic and a schismatic. " Joan could notbrook this insult to her king. "By my faith, " said she, "full well dareI both say and swear that he is the noblest Christian of all Christians, and the truest lover of the faith and the Church. " "Make her hold hertongue, " said the usher to the preacher, who was disconcerted at havingprovoked such language. Another day, when Joan was being urged to submitto the Church, brother Isambard de la Pierre, a Dominican, who wasinterested in her, spoke to her about the council, at the same timeexplaining to her its province in the church. It was the very time whenthat of Bale had been convoked. "Ah!" said Joan, "I would fain surrenderand submit myself to the council of Bale. " The Bishop of Beauvaistrembled at the idea of this appeal. "Hold your tongue in the devil'sname!" said he to the monk. Another of the judges, William Erard, askedJoan menacingly, "Will you abjure those reprobate words and deeds ofyours?" "I leave it to the universal Church whether I ought to abjure ornot. " "That is not enough: you shall abjure at once or you shall burn. "Joan shuddered. "I would rather sign than burn, " she said. There wasput before her a form of abjuration, whereby, disavowing her revelationsand visions from heaven, she confessed her errors in matters of faith, and renounced them humbly. At the bottom of the document she made themark of a cross. Doubts have arisen as to the genuineness of this longand diffuse deed in the form in which it has been published in thetrial-papers. Twenty-four years later, in 1455, during the trialundertaken for the rehabilitation of Joan, several of those who had beenpresent at the trial at which she was condemned, amongst others the usherMassieu and the registrar Taquel, declared that the form of abjurationread out at that time to Joan and signed by her contained only seven oreight lines of big writing; and according to another witness of the sceneit was an Englishman, John Calot, secretary of Henry VI. , King ofEngland, who, as soon as Joan had yielded, drew from his sleeve a littlepaper which he gave to her to sign, and, dissatisfied with the mark shehad made, held her hand and guided it so that she might put down hername, every letter. However that may be, as soon as Joan's abjurationhad thus been obtained, the court issued on the 24th of May, 1431, adefinitive decree, whereby, after some long and severe strictures in thepreamble, it condemned Joan to perpetual imprisonment, "with the bread ofaffliction and the water of affliction, in order that she might deplorethe errors and faults she had committed, and relapse into them no morehenceforth. "

The Church might be satisfied; but the King of England, his councillorsand his officers, were not. It was Joan living, even though a prisoner, that they feared. They were animated towards her by the two ruthlesspassions of vengeance and fear. When it was known that she would escapewith her life, murmurs broke out amongst the crowd of enemies present atthe trial. Stones were thrown at the judges. One of the Cardinal ofWinchester's chaplains, who happened to be close to the Bishop ofBeauvais, called him traitor. "You lie, " said the bishop. And thebishop was right; the chaplain did lie; the bishop had no intention ofbetraying his masters. The Earl of Warwick complained to him of theinadequacy of the sentence. "Never you mind, my lord, " said one of PeterCauchon's confidants; "we will have her up again. " After the passing ofher sentence Joan had said to those about her, "Come, now, you churchmenamongst you, lead me off to your own prisons, and let me be no more inthe hands of the English. " "Lead her to where you took her, " said thebishop; and she was conducted to the castle prison. She had been told bysome of the judges who went to see her after her sentence, that she wouldhave to give up her man's dress and resume her woman's clothing, as theChurch ordained. She was rejoiced thereat; forthwith, accordingly, resumed her woman's clothes, and had her hair properly cut, which up tothat time she used to wear clipped round like a man's. When she wastaken back to prison, the man's dress which she had worn was put in asack in the same room in which she was confined, and she remained incustody at the said place in the hands of five Englishmen, of whom threestaid by night in the room and two outside at the door. "And he whospeaks [John Massieu, a priest, the same who in 1431 had been present asusher of the court at the trial in which Joan was condemned] knows forcertain that at night she had her legs ironed in such sort that she couldnot stir from the spot. When the next Sunday morning, which was TrinitySunday, had come, and she should have got up, according to what sheherself told to him who speaks, she said to her English guards, 'Unironme; I will get up. ' Then one of then took away her woman's clothes; theyemptied the sack in which was her man's dress, and pitched the said dressto her, saying, 'Get up, then, ' and they put her woman's clothes in thesame sack. And according to what she told me she only clad herself inher man's dress after saying, 'You know it is forbidden me; I certainlywill not take it. ' Nevertheless they would not allow her any other;insomuch that the dispute lasted to the hour of noon. Finally, fromcorporeal necessity, Joan was constrained to get up and take the dress. "

The official documents drawn up during the condemnation-trial containquite a different account. "On the 28th of May, " it is there said, "eight of the judges who had taken part in the sentence [their names aregiven in the document, t. I. P. 454] betook themselves to Joan's prison, and seeing her clad in man's dress, 'which she had but just given upaccording to our order that she should resume woman's clothes, we askedher when and for what cause she had resumed this dress, and who hadprevailed on her to do so. Joan answered that it was of her own will, without any constraint from any one, and because she preferred that dressto woman's clothes. To our question as to why she had made this change, she answered, that, being surrounded by men, man's dress was moresuitable for her than woman's. She also said that she had resumed itbecause there had been made to her, but not kept, a promise that sheshould go to mass, receive the body of Christ, and be set free from herfetters. She added that if this promise were kept, she would be good, and would do what was the will of the Church. As we had heard somepersons say that she persisted in her errors as to the pretendedrevelations which she had but lately renounced, we asked whether she hadsince Thursday last heard the voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret;and she answered, Yes. To our question as to what the saints had saidshe answered, that God had testified to her by their voices great pityfor the great treason she had committed in abjuring for the sake ofsaving her life, and that by so doing she had damned herself. She saidthat all she had thus done last Thursday in abjuring her visions andrevelations she had done through fear of the stake, and that all herabjuration was contrary to the truth. She added that she did not herselfcomprehend what was contained in the form of abjuration she had been madeto sign, and that she would rather do penance once for all by dying tomaintain the truth than remain any longer a prisoner, being all the whilea traitress to it. "

We will not stop to examine whether these two accounts, though verydifferent, are not fundamentally reconcilable, and whether Joan resumedman's dress of her own desire or was constrained to do so by the soldierson guard over her, and perhaps to escape from their insults. Theimportant points in the incident are the burst of remorse which Joan feltfor her weakness and her striking retractation of the abjuration whichhad been wrung from her. So soon as the news was noised abroad, herenemies cried, "She has relapsed!" This was exactly what they had hopedfor when, on learning that she had been sentenced only to perpetualimprisonment, they had said, "Never you mind; we will have her up again. ""_Farewell, farewell_, my lord, " said the Bishop of Beauvais to the Earlof Warwick, whom he met shortly after Joan's retractation; and in hiswords there was plainly an expression of satisfaction, and not a merephrase of politeness. On the 29th of May the tribunal met again. Fortyjudges took part in the deliberation; Joan was unanimously declared acase of relapse, was found guilty, and cited to appear next day, the30th, on the Vieux-Marche to hear sentence pronounced, and then undergothe punishment of the stake. 

When, on the 30th of May, in the morning, the Dominican brother MartinLadvenu was charged to announce her sentence to Joan, she gave way atfirst to grief and terror. "Alas!" she cried, "am I to be so horriblyand cruelly treated that this my body, full pure and perfect and neverdefiled, must to-day be consumed and reduced to ashes! Ah! I wouldseven times rather be beheaded than burned!" The Bishop of Beauvais atthis moment came up. "Bishop, " said Joan, "you are the cause of mydeath; if you had put me in the prisons of the Church and in the hands offit and proper ecclesiastical warders, this had never happened; I appealfrom you to the presence of God. " One of the doctors who had sat injudgment upon her, Peter Maurice, went to see her, and spoke to her withsympathy. "Master Peter, " said she to him, "where shall I be to-night?""Have you not good hope in God?" asked the doctor. "O! yes, " sheanswered; "by the grace of God I shall be in paradise. " Being left alonewith the Dominican, Martin Ladvenu, she confessed and asked tocommunicate. The monk applied to the Bishop of Beauvais to know what hewas to do. "Tell brother Martin, " was the answer, "to give her theeucharist and all she asks for. " At nine o'clock, having resumed herwoman's dress, Joan was dragged from prison and driven to the Vieux-Marche. From seven to eight hundred soldiers escorted the car andprohibited all approach to it on the part of the crowd, which encumberedthe road and the vicinities; but a man forced a passage and flung himselftowards Joan. It was a canon of Rouen, Nicholas Loiseleur, whom theBishop of Beauvais had placed near her, and who had abused the confidenceshe had shown him. Beside himself with despair, he wished to ask pardonof her; but the English soldiers drove him back with violence and withthe epithet of traitor, and but for the intervention of the Earl ofWarwick his life would have been in danger. Joan wept and prayed; andthe crowd, afar off, wept and prayed with her. On arriving at the place, she listened in silence to a sermon by one of the doctors of the court, who ended by saying, "Joan, go in peace; the Church can no longer defendthee; she gives thee over to the secular arm. " The laic judges, RaoulBouteillier, baillie of Rouen, and his lieutenant, Peter Daron, werealone qualified to pronounce sentence of death; but no time was giventhem. The priest Massieu was still continuing his exhortations to Joan, but "How now! priest, " was the cry from amidst the soldiery, "are yougoing to make us dine here?" "Away with her! Away with her!" said thebaillie to the guards; and to the executioner, "Do thy duty. " When shecame to the stake, Joan knelt down completely absorbed in prayer. Shehad begged Massieu to get her a cross; and an Englishman present made oneout of a little stick, and handed it to the French heroine, who took it, kissed it, and laid it on her breast. She begged brother Isambard de laPierre to go and fetch the cross from the church of St. Sauveur, thechief door of which opened on the Vieux-Marche, and to hold it "uprightbefore her eyes till the coming of death, in order, " she said, "that thecross whereon God hung might, as long as she lived, be continually in hersight;" and her wishes were fulfilled. She wept over her country and thespectators as well as over herself. "Rouen, Rouen, " she cried, "is ithere that I must die? Shalt thou be my last resting-place? I feargreatly thou wilt have to suffer for my death. " It is said that the agedCardinal of Winchester and the Bishop of Beauvais himself could notstifle their emotion--and, peradventure, their tears. The executionerset fire to the fagots. When Joan perceived the flames rising, she urgedher confessor, the Dominican brother, Martin Ladvenu, to go down, at thesame time asking him to keep holding the cross up high in front of her, that she might never cease to see it. The same monk, when questionedfour and twenty years later, at the rehabilitation trial, as to the lastsentiments and the last words of Joan, said that to the very latestmoment she had affirmed that her voices were heavenly, that they had notdeluded her, and that the revelations she had received came from God. When she had ceased to live, two of her judges, John Alespie, canon ofRouen, and Peter Maurice, doctor of theology, cried out, "Would that mysoul were where I believe the soul of that woman is!" And Tressart, secretary to King Henry VI. , said sorrowfully, on returning from theplace of execution, "We are all lost; we have burned a saint. "

A saint indeed in faith and in destiny. Never was human creature moreheroically confident in, and devoted to, inspiration coming from God, acommission received from God. Joan of Arc sought nothing of all thathappened to her and of all she did, nor exploit, nor power, nor glory. "It was not her condition, " as she used to say, to be a warrior, to gether king crowned, and to deliver her country from the foreigner. Everything came to her from on high, and she accepted everything withouthesitation, without discussion, without calculation, as we should say inour times. She believed in God, and obeyed Him. God was not to her anidea, a hope, a flash of human imagination, or a problem of humanscience; He was the Creator of the world, the Saviour of mankind throughJesus Christ, the Being of beings, ever present, ever in action, solelegitimate sovereign of man whom He has made intelligent and free, thereal and true God whom we are painfully searching for in our own day, andwhom we shall never find again until we cease pretending to do withoutHim and putting ourselves in His place. Meanwhile one fact may bementioned which does honor to our epoch and gives us hope for our future. Four centuries have rolled by since Joan of Arc, that modest and heroicservant of God, made a sacrifice of herself for France. For four andtwenty years after her death, France and the king appeared to think nomore of her. However, in 1455, remorse came upon Charles VII. And uponFrance. Nearly all the provinces, all the towns, were freed from theforeigner, and shame was felt that nothing was said, nothing done, forthe young girl who had saved everything. At Rouen, especially, where thesacrifice was completed, a cry for reparation arose. It was timidlydemanded from the spiritual power which had sentenced and delivered overJoan as a heretic to the stake. Pope Calixtus III. Entertained therequest preferred, not by the King of France, but in the name of IsabelRomee, Joan's mother, and her whole family. Regular proceedings werecommenced and followed up for the rehabilitation of the martyr; and, onthe 7th of July, 1456, a decree of the court assembled at Rouen quashedthe sentence of 1431, together with all its consequences, and ordered"a general procession and solemn sermon at St. Ouen Place and the Vieux-Marche, " where the said maid had been cruelly and horribly burned; besidesthe planting of a cross of honor (crucis honestee) on the Vieux-Marche, the judges reserving the official notice to be given of their decision"throughout the cities and notable places of the realm. " The city ofOrleans responded to this appeal by raising on the bridge over the Loirea group in bronze representing Joan of Arc on her knees before Our Ladybetween two angels. This monument, which was broken during the religiouswars of the sixteenth century and repaired shortly afterwards, wasremoved in the eighteenth century, and, Joan of Arc then received a freshinsult; the poetry of a cynic was devoted to the task of diverting alicentious public at the expense of the saint whom, three centuriesbefore, fanatical hatred had brought to the stake. In 1792 the councilof the commune of Orleans, "considering that the monument in bronze didnot represent the heroine's services, and did not by any sign call tomind the struggle against the English, " ordered it to be melted down andcast into cannons, of which "one should bear the name of Joan of Arc. "It is in our time that the city of Orleans and its distinguished bishop, Mgr. Dupanloup, have at last paid Joan homage worthy of her, not only byerecting to her a new statue, but by recalling her again to the memory ofFrance with her true features, and in her grand character. NeitherFrench nor any other history offers a like example of a modest littlesoul, with a faith so pure and efficacious, resting on divine inspirationand patriotic hope. 

During the trial of Joan of Arc the war between France and England, without being discontinued, had been somewhat slack: the curiosity andthe passions of men were concentrated upon the scenes at Rouen. Afterthe execution of Joan the war resumed its course, though without anygreat events. By way of a step towards solution, the Duke of Bedford, inNovember, 1431, escorted to Paris King Henry VI. , scarcely ten years old, and had him crowned at Notre-Dame. The ceremony was distinguished forpomp, but not for warmth. The Duke of Burgundy was not present; it wasan Englishman, the Cardinal-bishop of Winchester, who anointed the youngEnglander King of France; the Bishop of Paris complained of it as aviolation of his rights; the parliament, the university, and themunicipal body had not even seats reserved at the royal banquet; Pariswas melancholy, and day by day more deserted by the native inhabitants;grass was growing in the court-yards of the great mansions; the studentswere leaving the great school of Paris, to which the Duke of Bedford atCaen, and Charles VII. Himself at Poitiers, were attempting to raise uprivals; and silence reigned in the Latin quarter. The child-king wasconsidered unintelligent, and ungraceful, and ungracious. When, on theday after Christmas, he started on his way back to Rouen, and from Rouento England, he did not confer on Paris "any of the boons expected, eitherby releasing prisoners or by putting an end to black-mails, gabels, andwicked imposts. " The burgesses were astonished, and grumbled; and theold queen, Isabel of Bavaria, who was still living at the hostel of St. Paul, wept, it is said, for vexation, at seeing from one of her windowsher grandson's royal procession go by. 

Though war was going on all the while, attempts were made to negotiate;and in March, 1433, a conference was opened at Seineport, near Corbeil. Everybody in France desired peace. Philip the Good himself began to feelthe necessity of it. Burgundy was almost as discontented and troubled asIle-de-France. There was grumbling at Dijon as there was conspiracy atParis. The English gave fresh cause for national irritation. Theyshowed an inclination to canton themselves in Normandy, and abandon theother French provinces to the hazards and sufferings of a desultory war. Anne of Burgundy, the Duke of Bedford's wife and Philip the Good'ssister, died. The English duke speedily married again without evengiving any notice to the French prince. Every family tie between the twopersons was broken; and the negotiations as well as the war remainedwithout result. 

An incident at court caused a change in the situation, and gave thegovernment of Charles a different character. His favorite, George de laTremoille, had become almost as unpopular amongst the royal family as inthe country in general. He could not manage a war, and he frustratedattempts at peace. The Queen of Sicily, Yolande d'Aragon, her daughter, Mary d'Anjou, Queen of France, and her son, Louis, Count of Maine, whoall three desired peace, set themselves to work to overthrow thefavorite. In June, 1433, four young lords, one of whom, Sire de Beuil, was La Tremoille's own nephew, introduced themselves unexpectedly intohis room at the castle of Coudray, near Chinon, where Charles VII. Was. La Tremoille showed an intention of resisting, and received asword-thrust. He was made to resign all his offices, and was sent understrict guard to the castle of Alontresor, the property of his nephew, Sire de Beuil. The conspirators had concerted measures with LaTremoille's rival, the constable De Richemont, Arthur of Brittany, a mandistinguished in war, who had lately gone to help Joan of Arc, and whowas known to be a friend of peace at the same time that he was firmlydevoted to the national cause. He was called away from his castle ofParthenay, and set at the head of the government as well as of the army. Charles VII. At first showed anger at his favorite's downfall. He askedif Richemont was present, and was told no: where-upon he seemed to growcalmer. Before long he did more; he became resigned, and, continuing allthe while to give La Tremoille occasional proofs of his former favor, hefully accepted De Richemont's influence and the new direction which theconstable imposed upon his government. 

War was continued nearly everywhere, with alternations of success andreverse which deprived none of the parties of hope without giving victoryto any. Peace, however, was more and more the general desire. Scarcelyhad one attempt at pacification failed when another was begun. Theconstable De Richemont's return to power led to fresh overtures. He wasa states-man as well as a warrior; and his inclinations were known atDijon and London, as well as at Chinon. The advisers of King Henry VI. Proposed to open a conference, on the 15th of October, 1433, at Calais. They had, they said, a prisoner in England, confined there ever since thebattle of Agincourt, Duke Charles of Orleans, who was sincerely desirousof peace, in spite of his family enmity towards the Duke of Burgundy. Hewas considered a very proper person to promote the negotiations, althoughhe sought in poetry, which was destined to bring lustre to his name, arefuge from politics which made his life a burden. He, one day meetingthe Duke of Burgundy's two ambassadors at the Earl of Suffolk's, HenryVI. 's prime minister, went up to them, affectionately took their hands, and, when they inquired after his health, said, "My body is well, my soulis sick; I am dying with vexation at passing my best days a prisoner, without any one to think of me. " The ambassadors said that people wouldbe indebted to him for the benefit of peace, for he was known to belaboring for it. "My Lord of Suffolk, " said he, "can tell you that Inever cease to urge it upon the king and his council; but I am as uselesshere as the sword never drawn from the scabbard. I must see my relativesand friends in France; they will not treat, surely, without havingconsulted with me. If peace depended upon me, though I were doomed todie seven days after swearing it, that would cause me no regret. However, what matters it what I say? I am not master in anything at all;next to the two kings, it is the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke ofBrittany who have most power. Will you not come and call upon me?" headded, pressing the hand of one of the ambassadors. "They will see youbefore they go, " said the Earl of Suffolk, in a tone which made it plainthat no private conversation would be permitted between them. And, indeed, the Earl of Suffolk's barber went alone to wait upon theambassadors in order to tell them that, if the Duke of Burgundy desiredit, the Duke of Orleans would write to him. "I will undertake, " headded, "to bring you his letter. " There was evident mistrust; and it wasexplained to the Burgundian ambassadors by the Earl of Warwick's remark, "Your duke never once came to see our king during his stay in France. The Duke of Bedford used similar language to them. Why, " said he, "doesmy brother the Duke of Burgundy give way to evil imaginings against me?There is not a prince in the world, after my king, whom I esteem so much. The ill-will which seems to exist between us spoils the king's affairsand his own too. But tell him that I am not the less disposed to servehim. "

In March, 1435, the Duke of Burgundy went to Paris, taking with him histhird wife, Isabel of Portugal, and a magnificent following. There wereseen, moreover, in his train, a hundred wagons laden with artillery, armor, salted provisions, cheeses, and wines of Burgundy. There was oncemore joy in Paris, and the duke received the most affectionate welcome. The university was represented before him, and made him a great speech onthe necessity of peace. Two days afterwards a deputation from the citydames of Paris waited upon the Duchess of Burgundy, and implored her touse her influence for the re-establishment of peace. She answered, "Mygood friends, it is the thing I desire most of all in the world; I prayfor it night and day to the Lord our God, for I believe that we all havegreat need of it, and I know for certain that my lord and husband has thegreatest willingness to give up to that purpose his person and hissubstance. " At the bottom of his soul Duke Philip's decision was alreadytaken. He had but lately discussed the condition of France with theconstable, De Richemont, and Duke Charles of Bourbon, his brother-in-law, whom he had summoned to Nevers with that design. Being convinced of thenecessity for peace, he spoke of it to the King of England's adviserswhom he found in Paris, and who dared not show absolute opposition to it. It was agreed that in the month of July a general, and, more properlyspeaking, a European conference should meet at Arras, that the legates ofPope Eugenius IV. Should be invited to it, and that consultation shouldbe held thereat as to the means of putting an end to the sufferings ofthe two kingdoms. 

Towards the end of July, accordingly, whilst the war was being prosecutedwith redoubled ardor on both sides at the very gates of Paris, therearrived at Arras the pope's legates and the ambassadors of the EmperorSigismund, of the Kings of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, Cyprus, Poland, and Denmark, and of the Dukes of Brittany and Milan. Theuniversity of Paris and many of the good towns of France, Flanders, andeven Holland, had sent their deputies thither. Many bishops were therein person. The Bishop of Liege came thither with a magnificent train, mounted, says the chroniclers, on two hundred white horses. The Duke ofBurgundy made his entrance on the 30th of July, escorted by three hundredarchers wearing his livery. All the lords who happened to be in the citywent to meet him at a league's distance, except the cardinal-legates ofthe pope, who confined themselves to sending their people. Two daysafterwards arrived the ambassadors of the King of France, having at theirhead the Duke of Bourbon and the constable De Richemont, together withseveral of the greatest French lords, and a retinue of four or fivehundred persons. Duke Philip, forewarned of their coming, issued fromthe city with all the princes and lords who happened to be there. TheEnglish alone refused to accompany him, wondering at his showing suchgreat honor to the ambassadors of their common enemy. Philip wentforward a mile to meet his two brothers-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon andthe Count de Richemont, embraced them affectionately, and turned backwith them into Arras, amidst the joy and acclamations of the populace. Last of all arrived the Duchess of Burgundy, magnificently dressed, andbringing with her her young son, the Count of Charolais, who washereafter to be Charles the Rash. The Duke of Bourbon, the constable DeRichemont, and all the lords were on horseback around her litter; but theEnglish, who had gone, like the others, to meet her, were unwilling, onturning back to Arras, to form a part of her retinue with the French. 

Grand as was the sight, it was not superior in grandeur to the event onthe eve of accomplishment. The question was whether France should remaina great nation, in full possession of itself and of its independenceunder a French king, or whether the King of England should, in London andwith the title of King of France, have France in his possession and underhis government. Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, was called upon tosolve this problem of the future, that is to say, to decide upon the fateof his lineage and his country. 

[Illustration: Philip the Good of Burgundy----144]

As soon as the conference was opened, and no matter what attempts weremade to veil or adjourn the question, it was put nakedly. The English, instead of peace, began by proposing a long truce, and the marriage ofHenry VI. With a daughter of King Charles. The French ambassadorsrefused, absolutely, to negotiate on this basis; they desired adefinitive peace; and their conditions were, that the King and people ofEngland making an end of this situation, so full of clanger for the wholeroyal house, and of suffering for the people. Nevertheless, the dukeshowed strong scruples. The treaties he had sworn to, the promises hehad made, threw him into a constant fever of anxiety; he would not haveany one able to say that he had in any respect forfeited his honor. Heasked for three consultations, one with the Italian doctors connectedwith the pope's legates, another with English doctors, and another withFrench doctors. He was granted all three, though they were morecalculated to furnish him with arguments, each on their own side, thanto dissipate his doubts, if he had any real ones. The legates ended bysolemnly saying to him, "We do conjure you, by the bowels of our LordJesus Christ, and by the authority of our holy father, the pope, of theholy council assembled at Bale, and of the universal Church, to renouncethat spirit of vengeance whereby you are moved against King Charles inmemory of the late Duke John, your father; nothing can render you morepleasing in the eyes of God, or further augment your fame in this world. "For three days Duke Philip remained still undecided; but he heard thatthe Duke of Bedford, regent of France on behalf of the English, who washis brother-in-law, had just died at Rouen, on the 14th of September. Hewas, besides the late King of England, Henry V. , the only English-man whohad received promises from the duke, and who lived in intimacy with him. Ten days afterwards, on the 21th of September, the queen, Isabel ofBavaria, also died at Paris; and thus another of the principal causes ofshame to the French kingship, and misfortune to France, disappeared fromthe stage of the world. Duke Philip felt himself more free and more atrest in his mind, if not rightfully, at any rate so far as political andworldly expedience was concerned. He declared his readiness to acceptthe proposals which had been communicated to him by the ambassadors ofCharles VII. ; and on the 21st of September, 1435, peace was signed atArras between France and Burgundy, without any care for what Englandmight say or do. 

There was great and general joy in France. It was peace, and nationalreconciliation as well; Dauphinizers and Burgundians embraced in thestreets; the Burgundians were delighted at being able to call themselvesFrenchmen. Charles VII. Convoked the states-general at Tours, toconsecrate this alliance. On his knees, upon the bare stone, before theArchbishop of Crete, who had just celebrated mass, the king laid hishands upon the Gospels, and swore the peace, saying that "It was his dutyto imitate the King of kings, our divine Saviour, who had brought peaceamongst men. " At the chancellor's order, the princes and great lords, one after the other, took the oath; the nobles and the people of thethird estate swore the peace all together, with cries of "Long live theking! Long live the Duke of Burgundy!" "With this hand, " said Sire deLannoy, "I have thrice sworn peace during this war; but I call God towitness that, for my part, this time it shall be kept, and that neverwill I break it (the peace). " Charles VII. , in his emotion, seized thehands of Duke Philip's ambassadors, saying, "For a long while I havelanguished for this happy day; we must thank God for it. " And the TeDeum was intoned with enthusiasm. 

Peace was really made amongst Frenchmen; and, in spite of many internaldifficulties and quarrels, it was not broken as long as Charles VII. AndDuke Philip the Good were living. But the war with the English went onincessantly. They still possessed several of the finest provinces ofFrance; and the treaty of Arras, which had weakened them very much on theContinent, had likewise made them very angry. For twenty-six years, from1435 to 1461, hostilities continued between the two kingdoms, at one timeactively and at another slackly, with occasional suspension by truce, butwithout any formal termination. There is no use in recounting thedetails of their monotonous and barren history. Governments and peopleoften persist in maintaining their quarrels and inflicting mutualinjuries by the instrumentality of events, acts, and actors that deservenothing but oblivion. There is no intention here of dwelling upon anyevents or persons save such as have, for good or for evil, to its gloryor its sorrow, exercised a considerable influence upon the condition andfortune of France. 

The peace of Arras brought back to the service of France and her king theconstable De Richemont, Arthur of Brittany, whom the jealousy of Georgede la Tremoille and the distrustful indolence of Charles VII. Had so longkept out of it. By a somewhat rare privilege, he was in reality, thereis reason to suppose, superior to the name he has left behind him inhistory; and it is only justice to reproduce here the portrait given ofhim by one of his contemporaries who observed him closely and knew himwell. "Never a man of his time, " says William Gruet, "loved justice morethan he, or took more pains to do it according to his ability. Never wasprince more humble, more charitable, more compassionate, more liberal, less avaricious, or more open-handed in a good fashion and withoutprodigality. He was a proper man, chaste and brave as prince can be; andthere was none of his time of better conduct than lie in conducting agreat battle, or a great siege, and all sorts of approaches in all sortsof ways. Every day, once at least in the four and twenty hours, hisconversation was of war, and he took more pleasure in it than in aughtelse. Above all things he loved men of valor and good renown, and hemore than any other loved and supported the people, and freely did goodto poor mendicants and others of God's poor. "

Nearly all the deeds of Richemont, from the time that he became powerfulagain, confirm the truth of this portrait. His first thought and hisfirst labor were to restore Paris to France and to the king. The unhappycity in subjection to the English was the very image of devastation andruin. "The wolves prowled about it by night, and there were in it, " saysan eye-witness, "twenty-four thousand houses empty. " The Duke ofBedford, in order to get rid of these public tokens of misery, attemptedto supply the Parisians with bread and amusements (panem et circenses);but their very diversions were ghastly and melancholy. In 1425, therewas painted in the sepulchre of the Innocents a picture called the Danceof Death: Death, grinning with fleshless jaws, was represented taking bythe hand all estates of the population in their turn, and making themdance. In the Hotel Armagnac, confiscated, as so many others were, fromits owner, a show was exhibited to amuse the people. "Four blind men, armed with staves, were shut up with a pig in a little paddock. They hadto see whether they could kill the said pig, and when they thought theywere belaboring it most they were belaboring one another. " The constableresolved to put a stop to this deplorable state of things in the capitalof France. In April, 1433, when he had just ordered for himselfapartments at St. Denis, he heard that the English had just got in thereand plundered the church. He at once gave orders to march. TheBurgundians, who made up nearly all his troop, demanded their pay, andwould not mount. Richemont gave them his bond; and the march was begunto St. Denis. "You know the country?" said the constable to MarshalIsle-Adam. "Yes, my lord, " answered the other; "and by my faith, in theposition held by the English, you would do nothing to harm or annoy them, though you had ten thousand fighting men. " "Ah! but we will, " repliedRichemont; "God will help us. Keep pressing forward to support theskirmishers. " And he occupied St. Denis, and drove out the English. Thepopulation of Paris, being informed of this success, were greatly movedand encouraged. One brave burgess of Paris, Michel Laillier, master ofthe exchequer, notified to the constable, it is said, that they wereready and quite able to open one of the gates to him, provided that anengagement were entered into in the king's name for a general amnesty andthe prevention of all disorder. The constable, on the king's behalf, entered into the required engagement, and presented himself the next day, the 13th of April, with a picked force before the St. Michel gate. Theenterprise was discovered. A man posted on the wall made signs to themwith his hat, crying out, "Go to the other gate; there's no opening this;work is going on for you in the Market-quarter. " The picked forcefollowed the course of the ramparts up to the St. Jacques gate. "Whogoes there?" demanded some burghers who had the guard of it. "Some ofthe constable's people. " He himself came up on his big charger, withsatisfaction and courtesy in his mien. Some little time was required foropening the gate; a long ladder was let down; and Marshal Isle-Adam wasthe first to mount, and planted on the wall the standard of France. Thefastenings of the drawbridge were burst, and when it was let down, theconstable made his entry on horseback, riding calmly down St. JacquesStreet, in the midst of a joyous and comforted crowd. "My good friends, "he said to them, "the good King Charles, and I on his behalf, do thankyou a hundred thousand times for yielding up to him so quietly the chiefcity of his kingdom. If there be amongst you any, of whatsoevercondition he may be, who hath offended against my lord 'the king, all isforgiven, in the case both of the absent and the present. "

[Illustration: The Constable Made his Entry on Horseback----150]

Then he caused it to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet throughout thestreets that none of his people should be so bold, on pain of hanging, asto take up quarters in the house of any burgher against his will, or touse any reproach whatever, or do the least displeasure to any. At sightof the public joy, the English had retired to the Bastille, where theconstable was disposed to besiege them. "My lord, " said the burghers tohim, "they will surrender; do not reject their offer; it is so far a finething enough to have thus recovered Paris; often, on the contrary, manyconstables and many marshals have been driven out of it. Takecontentedly what God hath granted you. " The burghers' prediction was notunverified. The English sallied out of the Bastille by the gate whichopened on the fields, and went and took boat in the rear of the Louvre. Next day abundance of provisions arrived in Paris; and the gates wereopened to the country folks. The populace freely manifested their joy atbeing rid of the English. "It was plain to see, " was the saving, "thatthey were not in France to remain; not one of them had been seen to sow afield with corn or build a house; they destroyed their quarters without athought of repairing them; they had not restored, peradventure, a singlefireplace. There was only their regent, the Duke of Bedford, who wasfond of building and making the poor people work; he would have likedpeace; but the nature of those English is to be always at war with theirneighbors, and accordingly they all made a bad end; thank God there havealready died in France more than seventy thousand of them. "

Up to the taking of Paris by the constable the Duke of Burgundy had kepthimself in reserve, and had maintained a tacit neutrality towardsEngland; he had merely been making, without noisy demonstration, preparations for an enterprise in which he, as Count of Flanders, wasvery much interested. The success of Richemont inspired him with a hope, and perhaps with a jealous desire, of showing his power and hispatriotism as a Frenchman by making war, in his turn, upon the English, from whom he had by the treaty of Arras effected only a pacificseparation. In June, 1436, he went and besieged Calais. This wasattacking England at one of the points she was bent upon defending mostobstinately. Philip had reckoned on the energetic cooperation of thecities of Flanders, and at the first blush the Flemings did display astrong inclination to support him in his enterprise. "When theEnglish, " they said, "know that my lords of Ghent are on the way toattack them with all their might they will not await us; they will leavethe city and flee away to England. " Neither the Flemings nor Philip hadcorrectly estimated the importance which was attached in London to thepossession of Calais. When the Duke of Gloucester, lord-protector ofEngland, found this possession threatened, he sent a herald to defy theDuke of Burgundy and declare to him that, if he did not wait for battlebeneath the walls of Calais, Humphrey of Gloucester would go after himeven into his own dominions. "Tell your lord that he will not need totake so much trouble, and that he will find me here, " answered Philipproudly. His pride was over-confident. Whether it were only a people'sfickleness or intelligent appreciation of their own commercial interestsin their relations with England, the Flemings grew speedily disgustedwith the siege of Calais, complained of the tardiness in arrival of thefleet which Philip had despatched thither to close the port againstEnglish vessels, and, after having suffered several reverses by sortiesof the English garrison, they ended by retiring with such precipitationthat they abandoned part of their supplies and artillery. Philip, according to the expression of M. Henri Martin, was reduced to coveringtheir retreat with his cavalry; and then he went away sorrowfully toLille, to advise about the means of defending his Flemish lordshipsexposed to the reprisals of the English. 

Thus the fortune of Burgundy was tottering whilst that of France wasrecovering itself. The constable's easy occupation of Paris led themajority of the small places in the neighborhood, St. Denis, Chevreuse, Marcoussis, and Montlhery to decide either upon spontaneous surrender orallowing themselves to be taken after no great resistance. Charles VII. , on his way through France to Lyon, in Dauphiny, Languedoc, Auvergne, andalong the Loire, recovered several other towns, for instance, Chateau-Landon, Nemours, and Charny. He laid siege in person to Montereau, animportant military post with which a recent and sinister reminiscence wasconnected. A great change now made itself apparent in the king'sbehavior and disposition. He showed activity and vigilance, and wasready to expose himself without any care for fatigue or danger. On theday of the assault (10th of October, 1437) he went down into thetrenches, remained there in water up to his waist, mounted the scaling-ladder sword in hand, and was one of the first assailants who penetratedover the top of the walls right into the place. After the surrender ofthe castle as well as the town of Montereau, he marched on Paris, andmade his solemn re-entry there on the 12th of November, 1437, for thefirst time since in 1418 Tanneguy-Duchatel had carried him away, whilststill a child, wrapped in his bed-clothes. Charles was received andentertained as became a recovered and a victorious king; but he passedonly three weeks there, and went away once more, on the 3d of December, to go and resume at Orleans first, and then at Bourges, the serious caresof government. It is said to have been at this royal entry into Paristhat Agnes Sorel or Soreau, who was soon to have the name of Queen ofBeauty, and to assume in French history an almost glorious thoughillegitimate position, appeared with brilliancy in the train of thequeen, Mary of Anjou, to whom the king had appointed her a maid of honor. It is a question whether she did not even then exercise over Charles VII. That influence, serviceable alike to the honor of the king and of France, which was to inspire Francis I. , a century later, with this gallantquatrain:

 "If to win back poor captive France be aught, More honor, gentle Agnes, is thy weed, Than ere was due to deeds of virtue wrought By cloistered nun or pious hermit-breed. "

It is worth while perhaps to remark that in 1437 Agnes Sorel was alreadytwenty-seven. 

[Illustration: Agnes Sorel----175]

One of the best informed, most impartial, and most sensible historians ofthat epoch, James Duclercq, merely says on this subject, King Charles, before he had peace with Duke Philip of Burgundy, led a right holy lifeand said his canonical hours. But after peace was made with the duke, though the king continued to serve God, he joined himself unto a youngwoman who was afterwards called Fair Agnes. 

Nothing is gained by ignoring good even when it is found in company withevil, and there is no intention here of disputing the share of influenceexercised by Agnes Sorel upon Charles VII. 's regeneration in politics andwar after the treaty of Arras. Nevertheless, in spite of the king'ssuccesses at Montereau and during his passage through Central andNorthern France, the condition of the country was still so bad in 1440, the disorder was so great, and the king so powerless to apply a remedy, that Richemont, disconsolate, was tempted to rid and disburden himselffrom the government of France and between the rivers [Seine and Loire, nodoubt] and to go or send to the king for that purpose. But one day theprior of the Carthusians at Paris called on the constable and found himin his private chapel. "What need you, fair father?" asked Richemont. The prior answered that he wished to speak with my lord the constable. Richemont replied that it was he himself. "Pardon me, my lord, " said theprior, "I did not know you; I wish to speak to you, if you please. ""Gladly, " said Richemont. "Well, my lord, you yesterday held counsel andconsidered about disburdening yourself from the government and office youhold hereabouts. " "How know you that? Who told you?" "My lord, I donot know it through any person of your council, and do not put yourselfout to learn who told me, for it was one of my brethren. My lord, do notdo this thing; and be not troubled, for God will help you. " "Ah! fairfather, how can that be? The king has no mind to aid me or grant me menor money; and the men-at-arms hate me because I have justice done onthem, and they have no mind to obey me. " "My lord, they will do what youdesire; and the king will give you orders to go and lay siege to Meaux, and will send you men and money. " "Ah! fair father, Meaux is so strong!How can it be done? The King of England was there for nine months beforeit. " "My lord, be not you troubled; you will not be there so long; keephaving good hope in God and He will help you. Be ever humble and grownot proud; you will take Meaux ere long; your men will grow proud; theywill then have somewhat to suffer; but you will come out of it to yourhonor. "

The good prior was right. Meaux was taken; and when the constable wentto tell the news at Paris the king made him "great cheer. " There was acontinuance of war to the north of the Loire; and amidst manyalternations of successes and reverses the national cause made great waythere. Charles resolved, in 1442, to undertake an expedition to thesouth of the Loire, in Aquitaine, where the English were still dominant;and he was successful. He took from the English Tartas, Saint-Sever, Marmande, La Reole, Blaye, and Bourg-sur-Mer. Their ally, Count Johnd'Armagnac, submitted to the King of France. These successes costCharles VII. The brave La Hire, who died at Montauban of his wounds. On returning to Normandy, where he had left Dunois, Charles, in 1443, conducted a prosperous campaign there. The English leaders were gettingweary of a war without any definite issue; and they had proposals made toCharles for a truce, accompanied with a demand on the part of their youngking, Henry VI. , for the hand of a French princess, Margaret of Anjou, daughter of King Rena, who wore the three crowns of Naples, Sicily, andJerusalem, without possessing any one of the kingdoms. The truce and themarriage were concluded at Tours, in 1444. Neither of the arrangementswas popular in England; the English people, who had only a far-off touchof suffering from the war, considered that their government made too manyconcessions to France. In France, too, there was some murmuring; theking, it was said, did not press his advantages with sufficient vigor;everybody was in a hurry to see all Aquitaine reconquered. "But a joythat was boundless and impossible to describe, " says Thomas Bazin, themost intelligent of the contemporary historians, "spread abroad throughthe whole population of the Gauls. Having been a prey for so long toincessant terrors, and shut up within the walls of their towns likeconvicts in a prison, they rejoiced like people restored to freedom aftera long and bitter slavery. Companies of both sexes were seen going forthinto the country and visiting temples or oratories dedicated to thesaints, to pay the vows which they had made in their distress. One factespecially was admirable and the work of God Himself: before the truce soviolent had been the hatred between the two sides, both men-at-arms andpeople, that none, whether soldier or burgher, could without risk to lifego out and pass from one place to another unless under the protection ofa safe-conduct. But, so soon as the truce was proclaimed, every one wentand came at pleasure, in full liberty and security, whether in the samedistrict or in districts under divided rule; and even those who, beforethe proclamation of the truce, seemed to take no pleasure in anything buta savage outpouring of human blood, now took delight in the sweets ofpeace, and passed the days in holiday-making and dancing with enemies whobut lately had been as bloodthirsty as themselves. "

But for all their rejoicing at the peace, the French, king, lords, andcommons, had war still in their hearts; national feelings were waking upafresh; the successes of late years had revived their hopes; and thecivil dissensions which were at that time disturbing England letfavorable chances peep out. Charles VII. And his advisers employed theleisure afforded by the truce in preparing for a renewal of the struggle. They were the first to begin it again; and from 1449 to 1451 it waspursued by the French king and nation with ever-increasing ardor, andwith obstinate courage by the veteran English warriors astounded at nolonger being victorious. Normandy and Aquitaine, which was beginning tobe called Guyenne only, were throughout this period the constant and thechief theatre of war. Amongst the greatest number of fights andincidents which distinguished the three campaigns in those two provinces, the recapture of Rouen by Dunois in October, 1449, the battle ofFormigny, won near Bayeux on the 15th of April, 1450, by the constable DeRichemont, and the twofold capitulation of Bordeaux, first on the 28th ofJune, 1451, and next on the 9th of October, 1453, in order to submit toCharles VII. , are the only events to which a place in history is due, forthose were the days on which the question was solved touching theindependence of the nation and the kingship in France. The Duke ofSomerset and Lord Talbot were commanding in Rouen when Dunois presentedhimself beneath its walls, in hopes that the inhabitants would open thegates to him. Some burgesses, indeed, had him apprised of a certainpoint in the walls at which they might be able to favor the entry of theFrench. Dunois, at the same time making a feint of attacking in anotherquarter, arrived at the spot indicated with four thousand men. Thearchers drew up before the wall; the men-at-arms dismounted; theburgesses gave the signal, and the planting of scaling-ladders began; butwhen hardly as many as fifty or sixty men had reached the top of the wallthe banner and troops of Talbot were seen advancing. He had been warnedin time and had taken his measures. The assailants were repulsed; andCharles VII. , who was just arriving at the camp, seeing the abortivenessof the attempt, went back to Pont-de-l'Arehe. But the English had nolong joy of their success. They were too weak to make any effectualresistance, and they had no hope of any aid from England. Their leadersauthorized the burgesses to demand of the king a safe-conduct in order totreat. The conditions offered by Charles were agreeable to theburgesses, but not to the English; and when the archbishop read themout in the hall of the mansion-house, Somerset and Talbot witnessed anoutburst of joy which revealed to them all their peril. Fagots andbenches at once began to rain down from the windows; the English shutthemselves up precipitately in the castle, in the gate-towers, and in thegreat tower of the bridge; and the burgesses armed themselves and tookpossession during the night of the streets and the walls. Dunois, havingreceived notice, arrived in force at the Martainville gate. Theinhabitants begged him to march into the city as many men as he pleased. "It shall be as you will, " said Dunois. Three hundred men-at-arms andarchers seemed sufficient. Charles VII returned before Rouen; theEnglish asked leave to withdraw without loss of life or kit; and "oncondition, " said the king "that they take nothing on the march withoutpaying. " "We have not the wherewithal, " they answered; and the king gavethem a hundred francs. Negotiations were recommenced. The king requiredthat Harfleur and all the places in the district of Caux should be givenup to him. "Ah! as for Harfleur, that cannot be, " said the Duke ofSomerset; "it is the first town which surrendered to our glorious king, Henry V. , thirty-five years ago. " There was further parley. The Frenchconsented to give up the demand for Harfleur; but they required thatTalbot should remain as a hostage until the conditions were fulfilled. The English protested. At last, however, they yielded, and undertook topay fifty thousand golden crowns to settle all accounts which they owedto the tradesmen in the city, and to give up all places in the districtof Caen except Harfleur. The Duchess of Somerset and Lord Talbotremained as hostages; and on the 10th of November, 1449, Charles enteredRouen in state, with the character of a victor who knew how to usevictory with moderation. 

The battle of Formigny was at first very doubtful. In order to get fromValognes to Bayeux and Caen the English had to cross at the mouth of theVire great sands which were passable only at low tide. A weak body ofFrench under command of the Count de Clermont had orders to cut them offfrom this passage. The English, however, succeeded in forcing it; butjust as they were taking position, with the village of Formigny to covertheir rear, the constable De Richemont was seen coming up with threethousand men in fine order. The English were already stronglyintrenched, when the battle began. "Let us go and look close in theirfaces, admiral, " said the constable to Sire de Coetivi. "I doubt whetherthey will leave their intrenchments, " replied the admiral. "I vow to Godthat with His grace they will not abide in them, " rejoined theconstable; and he gave orders for the most vigorous assault. It lastednearly three hours; the English were forced to fly at three points, andlost thirty-seven hundred men; several of their leaders were madeprisoners; those who were left retired in good order; Bayeux, Avranches, Caen, Falaise, and Cherbourg fell one after the other into the hands ofCharles VII. ; and by the end of August, 1450, the whole of Normandy hadbeen completely won back by France. 

The conquest of Guyenne, which was undertaken immediately after that ofNormandy, was at the outset more easy and more speedy. Amongst the lordsof Southern France several hearty patriots, such as John of Blois, Countof Perigord, and Arnold Amanieu, Sire d'Albret, of their own accord beganthe strife, and on the 1st of November, 1450, inflicted a somewhat severereverse upon the English, near Blanquefort. In the spring of thefollowing year Charles VII. Authorized the Count of Armagnac to take thefield, and sent Dunois to assume the command-in-chief. An army of twentythousand men mustered under his orders; and, in the course of May, 1451, some of the principal places of Guyenne, such as St. Emillon, Blaye, Fronsac, Bourg-en-Mer, Libourne, and Dax were taken by assault orcapitulated. Bordeaux and Bayonne held out for some weeks; but, on the12th of June, a treaty concluded between the Bordelese and Dunois securedto the three estates of the district the liberties and privileges whichthey had enjoyed under English supremacy; and it was further stipulatedthat, if by the 24th of June the city had not been succored by Englishforces, the estates of Guyenne should recognize the sovereignty of KingCharles. When the 24th of June came, a herald went up to one of thetowers of the castle and shouted, "Succor from the King of England forthem of Bordeaux!!" None replied to this appeal; so Bordeauxsurrendered, and on the 29th of June Dunois took possession of it in thename of the King of France. The siege of Bayonne, which was begun on the6th of August, came to an end on the 20th by means of a similar treaty. Guyenne was thus completely won. But the English still had aconsiderable following there. They had held it for three centuries;and they had always treated it well in respect of local liberties, agriculture, and commerce. Charles VII. , on recovering it, was lesswise. He determined to establish there forthwith the taxes, the laws, and the whole regimen of Northern France; and the Bordelese were asprompt in protesting against these measures as the king was in employingthem. In August, 1452, a deputation from the three estates of theprovince waited upon Charles at Bourges, but did not obtain theirdemands. On their return to Bordeaux an insurrection was organized; andPeter de Montferrand, Sire de Lesparre, repaired to London and proposedto the English government to resume possession of Guyenne. On the 22d ofOctober, 1452, Talbot appeared before Bordeaux with a body of fivethousand men; the inhabitants opened their gates to him; and he installedhimself there as lieutenant of the King of England, Henry VI. Nearly allthe places in the neighborhood, with the exception of Bourg and Blaye, returned beneath the sway of the English; considerable reenforcementswere sent to Talbot from England; and at the same time an English fleetthreatened the coast of Normandy. But Charles VII. Was no longer theblind and indolent king he had been in his youth. Nor can the prompt andeffectual energy he displayed in 1453 be any longer attributed to theinfluence of Agnes Sorel, for she died on the 9th of February, 1450. Charles left Richemont and Dunois to hold Normandy; and, in the earlydays of spring, moved in person to the south of France with a strong armyand the principal Gascon lords who two years previously had broughtGuyenne back under his power. On the 2d of June, 1453, he opened thecampaign at St. Jean-d'Angely. Several places surrendered to him as soonas he appeared before their walls; and on the 13th of July he laid siegeto Castillon, on the Dordogne, which had shortly before fallen into thehands of the English. The Bordelese grew alarmed and urged Talbot tooppose the advance of the French. "We may very well let them come neareryet, " said the old warrior, then eighty years of age; "rest assured that, if it please God, I will fulfil my promise when I see that the time andthe hour have come. "

On the night between the 16th and 17th of July, however, Talbot set outwith his troops to raise the siege of Castillon. He marched all nightand came suddenly in the early morning upon the French archers, quarteredin an abbey, who formed the advanced guard of their army, which wasstrongly intrenched before the place. A panic set in amongst this smallbody, and some of them took to flight. "Ha! you would desert me then?"said Sire de Rouault, who was in command of them; "have I not promisedyou to live and die with you?" They thereupon rallied and managed tojoin the camp. Talbot, content for the time with this petty success, sent for a chaplain to come and say mass; and, whilst waiting for anopportunity to resume the fight, he permitted the tapping of some casksof wine which had been found in the abbey, and his men set themselves todrinking. A countryman of those parts came hurrying up, and said toTalbot, "My lord, the French are deserting their park and taking toflight; now or never is the hour for fulfilling your promise. " Talbotarose and left the mass, shouting, "Never may I hear mass again if I putnot to rout the French who are in yonder park. " When he arrived in frontof the Frenchmen's intrenchment, "My lord, " said Sir Thomas Cunningham, an aged gentleman who had for a long time past been his standard-bearer, "they have made a false report to you; observe the depth of the ditch andthe faces of yonder men; they don't look like retreating; my opinion is, that for the present we should turn back; the country is for us, we haveno lack of provisions, and with a little patience we shall starve out theFrench. " Talbot flew into a passion, gave Sir Thomas a sword-cut acrossthe face, had his banner planted on the edge of the ditch, and began theattack. The banner was torn down and Sir Thomas Cunningham killed. "Dismount!" shouted Talbot to his men-at-arms, English and Gascon. TheFrench camp was defended by a more than usually strong artillery; a bodyof Bretons, held in reserve, advanced to sustain the shock of theEnglish; and a shot from a culverin struck Talbot, who was alreadywounded in the face, shattered his thigh, and brought him to the ground. Lord Lisle, his son, flew to him to raise him. "Let me be, " said Talbot;"the day is the enemies'; it will be no shame for thee to fly, for thisis thy first battle. " But the son remained with his father, and wasslain at his side. The defeat of the English was complete. Talbot'sbody, pierced with wounds, was left on the field of battle. He was sodisfigured that, when the dead were removed, he was not recognized. Notice, however, was taken of an old man wearing a cuirass covered withred velvet; this, it was presumed, was he; and he was placed upon ashield and carried into the camp. An English herald came with a requestthat he might look for Lord' Talbot's body. "Would you know him?" he wasasked. "Take me to see him, " joyfully answered the poor servant, thinking that his master was a prisoner and alive. When he saw him, hehesitated to identify him; he knelt down, put his finger in the mouth ofthe corpse, and recognized Talbot by the loss of a molar tooth. Throwingoff immediately his coat-of-arms with the colors and bearings of Talbot, "Ah! my lord and master, " he cried, "can this be verily you? May Godforgive your sins! For forty years and more I have been yourofficer-at-arms and worn your livery, and thus I give it back to you!"And he covered with his coat-of-arms the stark-stripped body of theold hero. 

The English being beaten and Talbot dead, Castillon surrendered; and atunequal intervals Libourne, St. Emillon, Chateau-Neuf de Medoc, Blanquefort, St. Macaire, Cadillac, &c. , followed the example. At thecommencement of October, 1453, Bordeaux alone was still holding out. Thepromoters of the insurrection which had been concerted with the English, amongst others Sires de Duras and de Lesparre, protracted the resistancerather in their own self-defence than in response to the wishes of thepopulation; the king's artillery threatened the place by land, and by seaa king's fleet from Rochelle and the ports of Brittany blockaded theGironde. "The majority of the king's officers, " says the contemporaryhistorian, Thomas Basin, "advised him to punish by at least thedestruction of their walls the Bordelese who had recalled the English totheir city; but Charles, more merciful and more soft-hearted, refused. "He confined himself to withdrawing from Bordeaux her municipalprivileges, which, however, she soon partially recovered, and to imposingupon her a fine of a hundred thousand gold crowns, afterwards reduced tothirty thousand; he caused to be built at the expense of the city twofortresses, the Fort of the Ila and the Castle of Trompette, to keep incheck so bold and fickle a population; and an amnesty was proclaimed forall but twenty specified persons, who were banished. On these conditionsthe capitulation was concluded and signed on the 17th of October; theEnglish re-embarked; and Charles, without entering Bordeaux, returned toTouraine. The English had no longer any possession in France but Calaisand Guines; the Hundred Years' War was over. 

And to whom was the glory?

Charles VII. Himself decided the question. When in 1455, twenty-fouryears after the death of Joan of Are, he at Rome and at Rouen prosecutedher claims for restoration of character and did for her fame and hermemory all that was still possible, he was but relieving his consciencefrom a load of ingratitude and remorse which in general weighs butlightly upon men, and especially upon kings; and he was dischargingtowards the Maid of Domremy the debt due by France and the Frenchkingship when he thus proclaimed that to Joan above all they owed theirdeliverance and their independence. Before men and before God Charleswas justified in so thinking; the moral are not the sole, but they arethe most powerful forces which decide the fates of people; and Joan hadroused the feelings of the soul, and given to the struggles betweenFrance and England its religious and national character. At Rheims, whenshe repaired thither for the king's coronation, she said of her ownbanner, "It has a right to the honor, for it has been at the pains. "She, first amongst all, had a right to the glory, for she had been thefirst to contribute to the success. 

Next to Joan of Arc, the constable De Richemont was the most effectiveand the most glorious amongst the liberators of France and of the king. He was a strict and stern warrior, unscrupulous and pitiless towards hisenemies, especially towards such as he despised, severe in regard tohimself, dignified in his manners, never guilty of swearing himself andpunishing swearing as a breach of discipline amongst the troops placedunder his orders. Like a true patriot and royalist, he had more at hearthis duty towards France and the king than he had his own personalinterests. He was fond of war, and conducted it bravely and skilfully, without rashness, but without timidity: "Wherever the constable is, " saidCharles VII. , "there I am free from anxiety; he will do all that ispossible!" He set his title and office of constable of France above hisrank as a great lord; and when, after the death of his brother, DukePeter II. , he himself became Duke of Brittany, he always had theconstable's sword carried before him, saying, "I wish to honor in my oldage a function which did me honor in my youth. " His good services werenot confined to the wars of his time; he was one of the principalreformers of the military system in France by the substitution of regulartroops for feudal service. He has not obtained, it is to be feared, inthe history of the fifteenth century, the place which properly belongs tohim. 

Dunois, La Hire, Xaintrailles, and Marshals De Boussac and De La Fayettewere, under Charles VII. , brilliant warriors and useful servants of theking and of Fiance; but, in spite of their knightly renown, it isquestionable if they can be reckoned, like the constable De Richemont, amongst the liberators of national independence. There are degrees ofglory, and it is the duty of history not to distribute it too readily andas it were by handfuls. 

Besides all these warriors, we meet, under the sway of Charles VII. , atfirst in a humble capacity and afterwards at his court, in his diplomaticservice and sometimes in his closest confidence, a man of quite adifferent origin and quite another profession, but one who neverthelessacquired by peaceful toil great riches and great influence, both broughtto a melancholy termination by a conviction and a consequent ruin fromwhich at the approach of old age he was still striving to recover bymeans of fresh ventures. Jacques Coeur was born at Bourges at the closeof the fourteenth century. His father was a furrier, alreadysufficiently well established and sufficiently rich to allow of his son'smarrying, in 1418, the provost's daughter of his own city. Some yearsafterwards Jacques Coeur underwent a troublesome trial for infraction ofthe rules touching the coinage of money; but thanks to a commutation ofthe penalty, graciously accorded by Charles VII. , he got off with a fine, and from that time forward directed all his energies towards commerce. In 1432 a squire in the service of the Duke of Burgundy was travelling inthe Holy Land, and met him at Damascus in company with several Venetians, Genoese, Florentine, and Catalan traders with whom he was doingbusiness. "He was, " says his contemporary, Thomas Basin, "a manunlettered and of plebeian family, but of great and ingenious mind, wellversed in the practical affairs of that age. He was the first in allFrance to build and man ships which transported to Africa and the Eastwoollen stuffs and other produce of the kingdom, penetrated as far asEgypt, and brought back with them silken stuffs and all manner of spices, which they distributed not only in France, but in Catalonia and theneighboring countries, whereas heretofore it was by means of theVenetians, the Genoese, or the Barcelonese that such supplies found theirway into France. "

[Illustration: Jacques Coeur----165]

Jacques Coeur, temporarily established at Montpellier, became a great anda celebrated merchant. In 1433 Charles VII. Put into his hands thedirection of the mint at Paris, and began to take his advice as to theadministration of the crown's finances. In 1440 he was appointedmoneyman to the king, ennobled together with his wife and children, commissioned soon afterwards to draw up new regulations for themanufacture of cloth at Bourges, and invested on his own private accountwith numerous commercial privileges. He had already at this period, itwas said, three hundred manufacturing hands in his employment, and he wasworking at the same time silver, lead, and copper mines situated in theenvirons of Tarare and Lyons. Between 1442 and 1446 he had one of hisnephews sent as ambassador to Egypt, and obtained for the French consulsin the Levant the same advantages as were enjoyed by those of the mostfavored nations. Not only his favor in the eyes of the king, but hisadministrative and even his political appointments, went on constantlyincreasing. Between 1444 and 1446 the king several times named him oneof his commissioners to the estates of Languedoc and for the installationof the new parliament of Toulouse. In 1446 he formed one of an embassysent to Italy to try and acquire for France the possession of Genoa, which was harassed by civil dissensions. In 1447 he received fromCharles VII. A still more important commission, to bring about anarrangement between the two popes elected, one under the name of FelixV. , and the other under that of Nicholas V. ; and he was successful. Hisimmense wealth greatly contributed to his influence. M. Pierre Clement[Jacques Coeur et Charles WE, ou la France au quinzieme siecle; t. Ii. , pp. 1-46] has given a list of thirty-two estates and lordships whichJacques Coeur had bought either in Berry or in the neighboring provinces. He possessed, besides, four mansions and two hostels at Lyons; mansionsat Beaucaire, at Beziers, at St. Pourcain, at Marseilles, and atMontpellier; and he had built, for his own residence, at Bourges, thecelebrated hostel which still exists as an admirable model of Gothic andnational art in the fifteenth century, attempting combination with theart of Italian renaissance. 

[Illustration: Jacques Coeur's Hostel at Bourges----169]

M. Clement, in his table of Jacques Coeur's wealth does not count eitherthe mines which he worked at various spots in France, nor the vastcapital, unknown, which he turned to profit in his commercialenterprises; but, on the other hand, he names, with certain et ceteras, forty-two court-personages, or king's officers, indebted to Jacques Coeurfor large or small sums he had lent them. We will quote but twoinstances of Jacques Coeur's financial connection, not with courtiers, however, but with the royal family and the king himself. Margaret ofScotland, wife of the _dauphin_, who became Louis XI. , wrote with her ownhand, on the 20th of July, 1445, "We, Margaret, dauphiness of Viennois, do acknowledge to have received from Master Stephen Petit, secretary ofmy lord the king, and receiver-general of his finances for Languedoc andGuienne, two thousand livres of Tours, to us given by my said lord, andto us advanced by the hands of Jacques Coeur, his moneyman, we being butlately in Lorraine, for to get silken stuff and sables to make robes forour person. " In 1449, when Charles VII. Determined to drive the Englishfrom Normandy, his treasury was exhausted, and he had recourse to JacquesCoeur. "Sir, " said the trader to the king, "what I have is yours, " andlent him two hundred thousand crowns; "the effect of which was, " saysJacques Duclercq, "that during, this conquest, all the men-at-arms of theKing of France, and all those who were in his service, were paid theirwages month by month. "

An original document, dated 1450, which exists in the "cabinet destitres" of the National Library, bears upon it a receipt for sixtythousand livres from Jacques Coeur to the king's receiver-general inNormandy, "in restitution of the like sum lent by me in ready money tothe said lord in the month of August last past, on occasion of thesurrendering to his authority of the towns and castle of Cherbourg, atthat time held by the English, the ancient enemies of this realm. " Itwas probably a partial repayment of the two hundred thousand crowns lentby Jacques Coeur to the king at this juncture, according to all thecontemporary chroniclers. 

Enormous and unexpected wealth excites envy and suspicion at the sametime that it confers influence; and the envious before long becomeenemies. Sullen murmurs against Jacques Coeur were raised in the king'sown circle; and the way in which he had begun to make his fortune--thecoinage of questionable money--furnished some specious ground for them. There is too general an inclination amongst potentates of the earth togive an easy ear to reasons, good or bad, for dispensing with thegratitude and respect otherwise due to those who serve them. CharlesVII. , after having long been the patron and debtor of Jacques Coeur, allat once, in 1451, shared the suspicions aroused against him. Toaccusations of grave abuses and malversations in money matters was addedone of even more importance. Agnes Sorel had died eighteen monthspreviously (February 9, 1450); and on her death-bed she had appointedJacques Coeur one of the three executors of her will. In July, 1451, Jacques was at Taillebourg, in Guyenne, whence he wrote to his wife that"he was in as good case and was as well with the king as ever he hadbeen, whatever anybody might say. " Indeed, on the 22d of July CharlesVII. Granted him a "sum of seven hundred and seventy-two livres of Toursto help him to keep up his condition and to be more honorably equippedfor his service;" and, nevertheless, on the 31st of July, on theinformation of two persons of the court, who accused Jacques Coeur ofhaving poisoned Agnes Sorel, Charles ordered his arrest and the seizureof his goods, on which he immediately levied a hundred thousand crownsfor the purposes of the war. Commissioners extraordinary, taken fromamongst the king's grand council, were charged to try him; and CharlesVII. Declared, it is said, that "if the said moneyman were not foundliable to the charge of having poisoned or caused to be poisoned AgnesSorel, he threw up and forgave all the other cases against him. " Theaccusation of poisoning was soon acknowledged to be false, and the twoinformers were condemned as calumniators; but the trial was, nevertheless, proceeded with. Jacques Coeur was accused "of having soldarms to the infidels, of having coined light crowns, of having pressed onboard of his vessels, at Montpellier, several individuals, of whom onehad thrown himself into the sea from desperation, and lastly of havingappropriated to himself presents made to the king, in several towns ofLanguedoc, and of having practised in that country frequent exaction, tothe prejudice of the king as well as of his subjects. " After twenty-twomonths of imprisonment, Jacques Coeur, on the 29th of May, 1453, wasconvicted, in the king's name, on divers charges, of which severalentailed a capital penalty; but "whereas Pope Nicholas V. Had issued arescript and made request in favor of Jacques Coeur, and regard alsobeing had to services received from him, " Charles VII. Spared his life, "on condition that he should pay to the king a hundred thousand crowns byway of restitution, three hundred thousand by way of fine, and should bekept in prison until the whole claim was satisfied;" and the decree endedas follows: "We have declared and do declare all the goods of the saidJacques Coeur confiscated to us, and we have banished and do banish thisJacques Coeur forever from this realm, reserving thereanent our own goodpleasure. "

After having spent nearly three years more in prison, transported fromdungeon to dungeon, Jacques Coeur, thanks to the faithful and zealousaffection of a few friends, managed to escape from Beaucaire, to embarkat Nice and to reach Rome, where Pope Nicholas V. Welcomed him withtokens of lively interest. Nicholas died shortly afterwards, just whenhe was preparing an expedition against the Turks. His successor, Calixtus III. , carried out his design, and equipped a fleet of sixteengalleys. This fleet required a commander of energy, resolution, andcelebrity. Jacques Coeur had lived and fought with Dunois, Xaintrailles, La Hire, and the most valiant French captains; he was known and popularin Italy and the Levant; and the pope appointed him captain-general ofthe expedition. Charles VII. 's moneyman, ruined, convicted, and banishedfrom France, sailed away at the head of the pope's squadron and of someCatalan pirates to carry help against the Turks to Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos, and the whole Grecian archipelago. On arriving at Chios, inNovember, 1456, he fell ill there, and perceiving his end approaching, he wrote to his king "to commend to him his children, and to beg that, considering the great wealth and honors he had in his time enjoyed in theking's service, it might be the king's good pleasure to give something tohis children, in order that they, even those of them who were secular, might be able to live honestly, without coming to want. " He died atChits on the 25th of November, 1456, and, according to the historian Johnd'Auton, who had probably lived in the society of Jacques Coeur'schildren, "he remained interred in the church of the Cordeliers in thatisland, at the centre of the choir. "

We have felt bound to represent with some detail the active and energeticlife, prosperous for a long while and afterwards so grievous andhazardous up to its very last day, of this great French merchant at theclose of the middle ages, who was the first to extend afar in Europe, Africa, and Asia the commercial relations of France, and, after theexample of the great Italian merchants, to make an attempt to combinepolitics with commerce, and to promote at one and the same time thematerial interests of his country and the influence of his government. There can be no doubt but that Jacques Coeur was unscrupulous andfrequently visionary as a man of business; but, at the same time, he wasinventive, able, and bold, and, whilst pushing his own fortunes to theutmost, he contributed a great deal to develop, in the ways of peace, thecommercial, industrial, diplomatic, and artistic enterprise of France. In his relations towards his king, Jacques Coeur was to Charles VII. Aservant often over-adventurous, slippery, and compromising, but oftenalso useful, full of resource, efficient, and devoted in the hour ofdifficulty. Charles VII. Was to Jacques Coeur a selfish and ungratefulpatron, who contemptuously deserted the man whose brains he had sucked, and ruined him pitilessly after having himself contributed to enrich himunscrupulously. 

We have now reached the end of events under this long reign; all thatremains is to run over the substantial results of Charles VII. 'sgovernment, and the melancholy imbroglios of his latter years with hisson, the turbulent, tricky, and wickedly able born-conspirator, who wasto succeed him under the name of Louis XI. 

One fact is at the outset to be remarked upon; it at the first blushappears singular, but it admits of easy explanation. In the firstnineteen years of his reign, from 1423 to 1442, Charles VII. Veryfrequently convoked the states-general, at one time of Northern France, or Langue d'oil, at another of Southern France, or Langue d'oc. Twenty-four such assemblies took place during this period at Bourges, at Selles in Berry, at Le Puy in Velay, at Mean-sur-Yevre, at Chinon, at Sully-sur-Loire, at Tours, at Orleans, at Nevers, at Carcassonne, and at different spots in Languedoc. It was the time of the great warbetween France on the one side and England and Burgundy allied on theother, the time of intrigues incessantly recurring at court, and the timelikewise of carelessness and indolence on the part of Charles VII. , moredevoted to his pleasures than regardful of his government. He hadincessant need of states-general to supply him with money and men, andsupport him through the difficulties of his position. But when, datingfrom the peace of Arras (September 21, 1435), Charles VII. , having becomereconciled with the Duke of Burgundy, was deliverer from civil war, andwas at grips with none but England alone already half beaten by thedivine inspiration, the triumph, and the martyrdom of Joan of Arc, hisposture and his behavior underwent a rare transformation. Withoutceasing to be coldly selfish and scandalously licentious king he becamepractical, hard-working, statesman-like king, jealous and disposed togovern by himself, but at the same time watchful and skilful in availinghimself of the able advisers who, whether it were by a happy accident orby his own choice, were grouped around him. "He had his days and hoursfor dealing with all sorts of men, one hour with the clergy, another withthe nobles, another with foreigners, another with mechanical folks, armorers, and gunners; and in respect of all these persons he had a fullremembrance of their cases and their appointed day. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday he worked with the chancellor, and got through all claimsconnected with justice. On Wednesday he first of all gave audience tothe marshals, captains, and men of war. On the same day he held acouncil of finance, independently of another council which was also heldon the same subject every Friday. " It was by such assiduous toil thatCharles VII. , in concert with his advisers, was able to take in hand andaccomplish, in the military, financial, and judicial system of the realm, those bold and at the same time prudent reforms which wrested the countryfrom the state of disorder, pillage, and general insecurity to which ithad been a prey, and commenced the era of that great monarchicaladministration, which, in spite of many troubles and vicissitudes, wasdestined to be, during more than three centuries, the government ofFrance. The constable De Richemont and marshal De la Fayette were, inrespect of military matters, Charles VII. 's principal advisers; and itwas by their counsel and with their co-operation that he substituted forfeudal service and for the bands of wandering mercenaries (routiers), mustered and maintained by hap-hazard, a permanent army, regularlylevied, provided for, paid, and commanded, and charged with the duty ofkeeping order at home, and at the same time subserving abroad theinterests and policy of the state. In connection with, and as a naturalconsequence of this military system, Charles VII. , on his own soleauthority, established certain permanent imposts with the object ofmaking up any deficiency in the royal treasury, whilst waiting for a voteof such taxes extraordinary as might be demanded of the states-general. Jacques Coeur, the two brothers Bureau, Martin Gouge, Michel Lailler, William Cousinot, and many other councillors, of burgher origin, laboredzealously to establish this administrative system, so prompt and freedfrom all independent discussion. Weary of wars, irregularities, andsufferings, France, in the fifteenth century, asked for nothing but peaceand security; and so soon as the kingship showed that it had an intentionand was in a condition to provide her with them, the nation took littleor no trouble about political guarantees which as yet it knew neither howto establish nor how to exercise; its right to them was not disputed inprinciple, they were merely permitted to fall into desuetude; and CharlesVII. , who during the first half of his reign had twenty-four timesassembled the states-general to ask them for taxes and soldiers, was ablein the second to raise personally both soldiers and taxes without drawingforth any complaint hardly, save from his contemporary historian, theBishop of Lisieux, Thomas Basin, who said, "Into such misery andservitude is fallen the realm of France, heretofore so noble and free, that all the inhabitants are openly declared by the generals of financeand their clerks taxable at the will of the king, without anybody'sdaring to murmur or even ask for mercy. " There is at every juncture, andin all ages of the world, a certain amount, though varying very much, ofgood order, justice, and security, without which men cannot get on; andwhen they lack it, either through the fault of those who govern them orthrough their own fault, they seek after it with the blind eyes ofpassion, and are ready to accept it, no matter what power may procure itfor them, or what price it may cost them. Charles VII. Was a princeneither to be respected nor to be loved, and during many years his reignhad not been a prosperous one; but "he re-quickened justice, which hadbeen a long while dead, " says a chronicler devoted to the Duke ofBurgundy; "he put an end to the tyrannies and exactions of themen-at-arms, and out of an infinity of murderers and robbers he formedmen of resolution and honest life; he made regular paths in murderouswoods and forests, all roads safe, all towns peaceful, all nationalitiesof his kingdom tranquil; he chastised the evil and honored the good, andhe was sparing of human blood. "

Let it be added, in accordance with contemporary testimony, that at thesame time that he established an all but arbitrary rule in military andfinancial matters, Charles VII. Took care that "practical justice, in thecase of every individual, was promptly rendered to poor as well as rich, to small as well as great; he forbade all trafficking in the offices ofthe magistracy, and every time that a place became vacant in a parliamenthe made no nomination to it, save on the presentations of the court. "

Questions of military, financial, and judicial organization were not theonly ones which occupied the government of Charles VII. He attacked alsoecclesiastical questions, which were at that period a subject ofpassionate discussion in Christian Europe amongst the councils of theChurch and in the closets of princes. The celebrated ordinance, known bythe name of Pragmatic Sanction, which Charles VII. Issued at Bourges onthe 7th of July, 1438, with the concurrence of a grand national council, laic and ecclesiastical, was directed towards the carrying out, in theinternal regulations of the French Church, and in the relations either ofthe State with the Church in France, or of the Church of France with thepapacy, of reforms long since desired or dreaded by the different powersand interests. It would be impossible to touch here upon these difficultand delicate questions without going far beyond the limits imposed uponthe writer of this history. All that can be said is, that there was nolack of a religious spirit, or of a liberal spirit, in the PragmaticSanction of Charles VII. , and that the majority of the measures containedin it were adopted with the approbation of the greater part of the Frenchclergy, as well as of educated laymen in France. 

In whatever light it is regarded, the government of Charles VII. In thelatter part of his reign brought him not only in France, but throughoutEurope, a great deal of fame and power. When he had driven the Englishout of his kingdom, he was called Charles the Victorious; and when he hadintroduced into the internal regulations of the state so many importantand effective reforms, he was called Charles the Well-served. "The sensehe had by nature, " says his historian Chastellain, "had been increased totwice as much again, in his straitened fortunes, by long constraint andperilous dangers, which sharpened his wits perforce. " "He is the king ofkings, " was said of him by the Doge of Venice, Francis Foscari, a goodjudge of policy; "there is no doing without him. "

Nevertheless, at the close, so influential and so tranquil, of his reign, Charles VII. Was, in his individual and private life, the most desolate, the most harassed, and the most unhappy man in his kingdom. In 1442 and1450 he had lost the two women who had been, respectively, the mostdevoted and most useful, and the most delightful and dearest to him, hismother-in-law, Yolande of Arragon, Queen of Sicily, and his favorite, Agnes Sorel. His avowed intimacy with Agnes, and even, independently ofher and after her death, the scandalous licentiousness of his morals, hadjustly offended his virtuous wife, Mary of Anjou, the only lady of theroyal establishment who survived him. She had brought him twelvechildren, and the eldest, the _dauphin_ Louis, after having from his veryyouth behaved in a factious, harebrained, turbulent way towards the kinghis father, had become at one time an open rebel, at another a venomousconspirator and a dangerous enemy. At his birth in 1423, he had beennamed Louis in remembrance of his ancestor, St. Louis, and in hopes thathe would resemble him. In 1440, at seventeen years of age, he alliedhimself with the great lords, who were displeased with the new militarysystem established by Charles VII. , and allowed himself to be drawn bythem into the transient rebellion known by the name of Praguery. Whenthe king, having put it down, refused to receive the rebels to favor, the_dauphin_ said to his father, "My lord, I must go back with them, then;for so I promised them. " "Louis, " replied the king, "the gates are open, and if they are not high enough I will have sixteen or twenty fathom ofwall knocked down for you, that you may go whither it seems best to you. "Charles VII. Had made his son marry Margaret Stuart of Scotland, thatcharming princess who was so smitten with the language and literature ofFrance that, coming one day upon the poet Alan Chartier asleep upon abench, she kissed him on the forehead in the presence of her mightilyastonished train, for he was very ugly. The _dauphin_ rendered his wifeso wretched that she died in 1445, at the age of one and twenty, withthese words upon her lips: "O! fie on life! Speak to me no more of it!"In 1449, just when the king his father was taking up arms to drive theEnglish out of Normandy, the _dauphin_ Louis, who was now living entirelyin Dauphiny, concluded at Briancon a secret league with the Duke of Savoy"against the ministers of the King of France, his enemies. " In 1456, inorder to escape from the perils brought upon him by the plots which he, in the heart of Dauphiny, was incessantly hatching against his father, Louis fled from Grenoble and went to take refuge in Brussels with theDuke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, who willingly received him, at thesame time excusing himself to Charles VII. "on the ground of the respecthe owed to the son of his suzerain, " and putting at the disposal ofLouis, "his guest, " a pension of thirty-six thousand livres. "He hasreceived the fox at his court, " said Charles: "he will soon see what willbecome of his chickens. " But the pleasantries of the king did not chaseaway the sorrows of the father. "Mine enemies have full trust in me, "said Charles, "but my son will have none. If he had but once spoken withme, he would have known full well that he ought to have neither doubtsnor fears. On my royal word, if he will but come to me, when he hasopened his heart and learned my intentions, he may go away againwhithersoever it seems good to him. " Charles, in his old age and hissorrow, forgot how distrustful and how fearful he himself had been. "Itis ever your pleasure, " wrote one of his councillors to him in a burst offrankness, "to be shut up in castles, wretched places, and all sorts oflittle closets, without showing yourself and listening to the complaintsof your poor people. " Charles VII. Had shown scarcely more confidence tohis son than to his people. Louis yielded neither to words, nor tosorrows of which proofs were reaching him nearly every day. He remainedimpassive at the Duke of Burgundy's, where he seemed to be waiting withscandalous indifference for the news of his father's death. Charles sankinto a state of profound melancholy and general distrust. He had hisdoctor, Adam Fumee, put in prison; persuaded himself that his son hadwished, and was still wishing, to poison him; and refused to take anykind of nourishment. No representation, no solicitation, could win himfrom his depression and obstinacy. It was in vain that Charles, Duke ofBerry, his favorite child, offered to first taste the food set beforehim. It was in vain that his servants "represented to him with tears, "says Bossuet, "what madness it was to cause his own death for fear ofdying; when at last he would have made an effort to eat, it was too late, and he must die. " On the 2nd of July, 1461, he asked what day it was, and was told that it was St. Magdalen's day. "Ah!" said he, "I do laudmy God, and thank Him for that it hath pleased Him that the most sinfulman in the world should die on the sinful woman's day! Dampmartin, " saidhe to the count of that name, who was leaning over his bed, "I do beseechyou that after my death you will serve so far as you can the little lord, my son Charles. " He called his confessor, received the sacraments, gaveorders that he should be buried at St. Denis beside the king his father, and expired. No more than his son Louis, though for different reasons, was his wife, Queen Mary of Anjou, at his side. She was living atChinon, whither she had removed a long while before by order of the kingher husband. Thus, deserted by them of his own household, and disgustedwith his own life, died that king of whom a contemporary chronicler, whilst recommending his soul to God, re-marked, "When he was alive, hewas a right wise and valiant lord, and he left his kingdom united, and ingood case as to justice and tranquillity. "

CHAPTER XXV. ----LOUIS XI. (1461-1483. )

Louis XI. Was thirty-eight years old, and had been living for five yearsin voluntary exile at the castle of Genappe, in Hainault, beyond thedominions of the king his father, and within those of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, when, on the 23d of July, 1461, the day after CharlesVII. 's death, he learned that he was King of France. He started at onceto return to his own country, and take possession of his kingdom. Hearrived at Rheims on the 14th of August, was solemnly crowned there onthe 18th, in presence of the two courts of France and Burgundy, and onthe 30th made his entry into Paris, within which he had not set foot forsix and twenty years. In 1482, twenty-one years afterwards, he, sick andalmost dying in his turn at his castle of Plessis-les-Tours, went, nevertheless, to Amboise, where his son the _dauphin_, who was about tobecome Charles VIII. , and whom he had not seen for several years, wasliving. "I do expressly enjoin upon you, " said the father to the son, "as my last counsel and my last instructions, not to change a single oneof the chief officers of the crown. When my father. King Charles VII. , went to God, and I myself came to the throne, I disappointed [i. E. , deprived of their appointments] all the good and notable knights of thekingdom who had aided and served my said father in conquering Normandyand Guienne, in driving the English out of the kingdom, and in restoringit to peace and good order, for so I found it, and right rich also. Therefrom much mischief came to me, for thence I had the war called theCommon Weal, which all but cost me my crown. "

With the experience and paternal care of an old man, whom the nearprospect of death rendered perfectly disinterested, wholly selfish as hisown life had been, Louis's heart was bent upon saving his son from thefirst error which he himself had committed on mounting the throne. "Gentlemen, " said Dunois on rising from table at the funeral-banquet heldat the abbey of St. Denis in honor of the obsequies of King Charles VII. , "we have lost our master; let each look after himself. " The old warriorforesaw that the new reign would not be like that which had just ended. Charles VII. Had been a prince of indolent disposition, more inclined topleasure than ambition, whom the long and severe trials of his life hadmoulded to government without his having any passion for governing, andwho had become in a quiet way a wise and powerful king, without any eagerdesire to be incessantly and everywhere chief actor and master. His sonLouis, on the contrary, was completely possessed with a craving fordoing, talking, agitating, domineering, and reaching, no matter by whatmeans, the different and manifold ends he proposed to himself. Anythingbut prepossessing in appearance, supported on long and thin shanks, vulgar in looks and often designedly ill-dressed, and undignified in hismanners though haughty in mind, he was powerful by the sheer force of amind marvellously lively, subtle, unerring, ready, and inventive, and ofa character indefatigably active, and pursuing success as a passionwithout any scruple or embarrassment in the employment of means. Hiscontemporaries, after observing his reign for some time, gave him thename of the universal spider, so relentlessly did he labor to weave a webof which he himself occupied the centre and extended the filaments in alldirections. 

As soon as he was king, he indulged himself with that first piece ofvindictive satisfaction of which he was in his last moments obliged toacknowledge the mistake. At Rheims, at the time of his coronation, theaged and judicious Duke Philip of Burgundy had begged him to forgive allthose who had offended him. Louis promised to do so, with the exception, however, of seven persons whom he did not name. They were the mostfaithful and most able advisers of the king his father, those who hadbest served Charles VII. Even in his embroilments with the _dauphin_, hisconspiring and rebellious son, viz. , Anthony de Chabannes, Count ofDampmartin, Peter de Breze, Andrew de Laval, Juvenal des Ursins, &c. Some lost their places, and were even, for a while, subjected topersecution; the others, remaining still at court, received there manymarks of the king's disfavor. On the other hand, Louis made a show oftreating graciously the men who had most incurred and deserved disgraceat his father's hands, notably the Duke of Alencon and the Count ofArmagnac. Nor was it only in respect of persons that he departed frompaternal tradition; he rejected it openly in the case of one of the mostimportant acts of Charles VII. 's reign, the Pragmatic Sanction, issued bythat prince at Bourses, in 1438, touching the internal regulations of theChurch of France and its relations towards the papacy. The popes, andespecially Pius II. , Louis XI. 's contemporary, had constantly andvigorously protested against that act. Barely four months after hisaccession, on the 27th of November, 1461, Louis, in order to gain favorwith the pope, abrogated the Pragmatic Sanction, and informed the pope ofthe fact in a letter full of devotion. There was great joy at Rome, andthe pope replied to the king's letter in the strongest terms of gratitudeand commendation. But Louis's courtesy had not been so disinterested asit was prompt. He had hoped that Pius II. Would abandon the cause ofFerdinand of Arragon, a claimant to the throne of Naples, and woulduphold that of his rival, the French prince, John of Anjou, Duke ofCalabria, whose champion Louis had declared himself. He bade hisambassador at Rome to remind the pope of the royal hopes. "You know, "said the ambassador to Pius II. , "it is only on this condition thatthe king my master abolished the Pragmatic; he was pleased to desire thatin his kingdom full obedience should be rendered to you; he demands, onthe other hand, that you should be pleased to be a friend to France;otherwise I have orders to bid all the French cardinals withdraw, and youcannot doubt but that they will obey. " But Pius II. Was more proud thanLouis XI. Dared to be imperious. He answered, "We are under very greatobligations to the King of France, but that gives him no right to exactfrom us things contrary to justice and to our honor; we have sent aid toFerdinand by virtue of the treaties we have with him; let the king yourmaster compel the Duke of Anjou to lay down arms and prosecute his rightsby course of justice, and if Ferdinand refuse to submit thereto we willdeclare against him; but we cannot promise more. If the French who areat our court wish to withdraw, the gates are open to them. " The king, alittle ashamed at the fruitlessness of his concession and of his threat, had for an instant some desire to re-establish the Pragmatic Sanction, for which the parliament of Paris had taken up the cudgels; but, allconsidered, he thought it better to put up in silence with his rebuff, and pay the penalty for a rash concession, than to get involved with thecourt of Rome in a struggle of which he could not measure the gravity;and he contented himself with letting the parliament maintain inprinciple and partially keep up the Pragmatic. This was his firstapprenticeship in that outward resignation and patience, amidst his ownmistakes, of which he was destined to be called upon more than once inthe course of his life to make a humble but skilful use. 

At the same time that at the pinnacle of government and in his courtLouis was thus making his power felt, and was engaging a new set ofservants, he was zealously endeavoring to win over, everywhere, themiddle classes and the populace. He left Rouen in the hands of its owninhabitants; in Guienne, in Auvergne, at Tours, he gave the burgessesauthority to assemble, and his orders to the royal agents were, "Whatever is done see that it be answered for unto us by two of the mostnotable burgesses of the principal cities. " At Rheims the rumor ran thatunder King Louis there would be no more tax or talliage. Whendeputations went before him to complain of the weight of imposts, hewould say, "I thank you, my dear and good friends, for making suchremonstrances to me; I have nothing more at heart than to put an end toall sorts of exactions, and to re-establish my kingdom in its ancientliberties. I have just been passing five years in the countries of myuncle of Burgundy; and there I saw good cities mighty rich and full ofinhabitants, and folks well clad, well housed, well off, lacking nothing;the commerce there is great, and the communes there have fine privileges. When I came into my own kingdom I saw, on the contrary, houses in ruins, fields without tillage, men and women in rags, faces pinched and pale. It is a great pity, and my soul is filled with sorrow at it. All mydesire is to apply a remedy thereto, and, with God's help, we will bringit to pass. " The good folks departed, charmed with such familiarity, soprodigal of hope; but facts before long gave the lie to words. "When thetime came for renewing at Rheims the claim for local taxes, the peopleshowed opposition, and all the papers were burned in the open street. The king employed stratagem. In order not to encounter overt resistance, he caused a large number of his folks to disguise themselves as tillersor artisans; and so entering the town, they were masters of it before thepeople could think of defending themselves. The ringleaders of therebellion were drawn and quartered, and about a hundred persons werebeheaded or hanged. At Angers, at Alencon, and at Aurillac, there weresimilar outbursts similarly punished. " From that moment it was easy toprognosticate that with the new king familiarity would not preventseverity, or even cruelty. According to the requirements of the crisisLouis had no more hesitation about violating than about making promises;and, all the while that he was seeking after popularity, he intended tomake his power felt at any price. 

How could he have done without heavy imposts and submission on the partof the tax-payers? For it was not only at home in his own kingdom thathe desired to be chief actor and master. He pushed his ambition and hisactivity abroad into divers European states. In Italy he had his ownclaimant to the throne of Naples in opposition to the King of Arragon's. In Spain the Kings of Arragon and of Castile were in a state of rivalryand war. A sedition broke out in Catalonia. Louis XI. Lent the King ofArragon three hundred and fifty thousand golden crowns to help him inraising eleven hundred lances, and reducing the rebels. Civil war wasdevastating England. The houses of York and Lancaster were disputing thecrown. Louis XI. Kept up relations with both sides; and withoutembroiling himself with the Duke of York, who became Edward IV. , hereceived at Chinon the heroic Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI. , andlent twenty thousand pounds sterling to that prince, then disthroned, whoundertook either to repay them within a year or to hand over Calais, whenhe was re-established upon his throne, to the King of France. In thesame way John II. , King of Arragon, had put Roussillon and Cerdagne intothe hands of Louis XI. , as a security for the loan of three hundred andfifty thousand crowns he had borrowed. Amidst all the plans andenterprises of his personal ambition Louis was seriously concerned forthe greatness of France; but he drew upon her resources, and compromisedher far beyond what was compatible with her real interests, by mixinghimself up, at every opportunity and by every sort of intrigue, with theaffairs and quarrels of the kings and peoples around him. 

In France itself he had quite enough of questions to be solved and perilsto be surmounted to absorb and satisfy the most vigilant and most activeof men. Four princes of very unequal power, but all eager forindependence and preponderance, viz. , Charles, Duke of Berry, hisbrother; Francis II. , Duke of Brittany; Philip the Good, Duke ofBurgundy, his uncle; and John, Duke of Bourbon, his brother-in-law, werevassals whom he found very troublesome, and ever on the point of becomingdangerous. It was not long before he had a proof of it. In 1463, twoyears after Louis's accession, the Duke of Burgundy sent one of his mosttrusty servants, John of Croy, Sire de Chimay, to complain of certainroyal acts, contrary, he said, to the treaty of Arras, which, in 1435, had regulated the relations between Burgundy and the crown. The envoyhad great difficulty in getting audience of the king, who would not evenlisten for more than a single moment, and that as he was going out of hisroom, when, almost without heeding, he said abruptly, "What manner ofman, then, is this Duke of Burgundy? Is he of other metal than the otherlords of the realm?" "Yes, sir, " replied Chimay, "he is of other metal;for he protected you and maintained you against the will of your fatherKing Charles, and against the opinion of all those who were opposed toyou in the kingdom, which no other prince or lord would have dared todo. " Louis went back into his room without a word. "How dared you speakso to the king, " said Dunois to Chimay. "Had I been fifty leagues awayfrom here, " said the Burgundian, "and had I thought that the king had anidea only of addressing such words to me, I would have come back expressto speak to him as I have spoken. " The Duke of Brittany was lesspuissant and less proudly served than the Duke of Burgundy; but, beingvain and inconsiderate, he was incessantly attempting to exalt himselfabove his condition of vassal, and to raise his duchy into a sovereignty, and when his pretensions were rejected he entered, at one time with theKing of England and at another with the Duke of Burgundy and themalcontents of France, upon intrigues which amounted very nearly totreason against the king his suzerain. Charles, Louis's younger brother, was a soft and mediocre but jealous and timidly ambitious prince; heremembered, moreover, the preference and the wishes manifested on hisaccount by Charles VII. , their common father, on his death-bed, and heconsidered his position as Duke of Berry very inferior to the hopes hebelieved himself entitled to nourish. Duke John of Bourbon, on espousinga sister of Louis XI. , had flattered himself that this marriage and theremembrance of the valor he had displayed, in 1450, at the battle ofFormigny, would be worth to him at least the sword of constable; butLouis had refused to give it him. When all these great malcontents sawLouis's popularity on the decline, and the king engaged abroad in diverspolitical designs full of onerousness or embarrassment, they consideredthe moment to have come, and, at the end of 1464, formed together analliance "for to remonstrate with the king, " says Commynes, "upon the badorder and injustice he kept up in his kingdom, considering themselvesstrong enough to force him if he would not mend his ways; and this warwas called the common weal, because it was undertaken under color ofbeing for the _common weal_ of the kingdom, the which was soon convertedinto private weal. " The aged Duke of Burgundy, sensible and weary as hewas, gave only a hesitating and slack adherence to the league; but hisson Charles, Count of Charolais, entered into it passionately, and thefather was no more in a condition to resist his son than he was inclinedto follow him. The number of the declared malcontents increased rapidly;and the chiefs received at Paris itself, in the church of Notre Dame, theadhesion and the signatures of those who wished to join them. They allwore, for recognition's sake, a band of red silk round their waists, and, "there were more than five hundred, " says Oliver de la Marche, aconfidential servant of the Count of Charolais, "princes as well asknights, dames, damsels, and esquires, who were well acquainted with thisalliance without the king's knowing anything as yet about it. "

It is difficult to believe the chronicler's last assertion. Louis XI. , it is true, was more distrustful than far-sighted, and, though he placedbut little reliance in his advisers and servants, he had so muchconfidence in himself, his own sagacity, and his own ability, that heeasily deluded himself about the perils of his position; but the factswhich have just been set forth were too serious and too patent to haveescaped his notice. However that may be, he had no sooner obtained aclear insight into the league of the princes than he set to work with hisusual activity and knowledge of the world to checkmate it. To rallytogether his own partisans and to separate his foes, such was the twofoldend he pursued, at first with some success. In a meeting of the princeswhich was held at Tours, and in which friends and enemies were stillmingled together, he used language which could not fail to meet theirviews. "He was powerless, " he said, "to remedy the evils of the kingdomwithout the love and fealty of the princes of the blood and the otherlords; they were the pillars of the state; without their help one manalone could not bear the weight of the crown. " Many of those presentdeclared their fealty. "You are our king, our sovereign lord, " said KingRene, Duke of Anjou; "we thank you for the kind, gracious, and honestwords you have just used to us. I say to you, on behalf of all our lordshere present, that we will serve you in respect of and against every one, according as it may please you to order us. " Louis, by a manifesto, addressed himself also to the good towns and to all his kingdom. Hedeplored therein the enticements which had been suffered to draw away"his brother, the Duke of Berry and other princes, churchmen, and nobles, who would never have consented to this league if they had borne in mindthe horrible calamities of the kingdom, and especially the English, thoseancient enemies, who might well come down again upon it as heretofore. . . . They proclaim, " said he, "that they will abolish the imposts;that is what has always been declared by the seditious and rebellious;but, instead of relieving, they ruin the poor people. Had I been willingto augment their pay, and permit them to trample their vassals under footas in time past, they would never have given a thought to the commonweal. They pretend that they desire to establish order everywhere, andyet they cannot endure it anywhere; whilst I, without drawing from mypeople more than was drawn by the late king, pay my men-at-arms well, andkeep them in a good state of discipline. "

Louis, in his latter words, was a little too boastful. He had very muchaugmented the imposts without assembling the estates, and without caringfor the old public liberties. If he frequently repressed local tyrannyon the part of the lords, he did not deny himself the practice of it. Amongst other tastes, he was passionately fond of the chase; and, wherever he lived, he put it down amongst his neighbors, noble or other, without any regard for rights of lordship. Hounds, hawking birds, nets, snares, all the implements of hunting were forbidden. He even went sofar, it is said, on one occasion, as to have two gentlemen's ears cut offfor killing a hare on their own property. Nevertheless, the publicationof his manifesto did him good service. Auvergne, Dauphiny, Languedoc, Lyon and Bordeaux turned a deaf ear to all temptations from the league ofprinces. Paris, above all, remained faithful to the king. Orders weregiven at the Hotel de Ville that the principal gates of the city shouldbe walled up, and that there should be a night watch on the ramparts; andthe burgesses were warned to lay in provision of arms and victual. Marshal Joachim Rouault, lord of Gamaches, arrived at Paris on the 30thof June, 1465, at the head of a body of men-at-arms, to protect the cityagainst the Count of Charolais, who was coming up; and the king himself, not content with despatching four of his chief officers to thank theParisians for their loyal zeal, wrote to them that he would send thequeen to lie in at Paris, "the city he loved most in the world. "

Louis would have been glad to have nothing to do but to negotiate andtalk. Though he was personally brave, he did not like war and itsunforeseen issues. He belonged to the class of ambitious despots whoprefer stratagem to force. But the very ablest speeches and artifices, even if they do not remain entirely fruitless, are not sufficient toreduce matters promptly to order when great interests are threatened, passions violently excited, and factions let loose in the arena. Betweenthe League of the Common Neal and Louis XI. There was a question toogreat to be, at the very outset, settled peacefully. It was feudalism indecline at grips with the kingship, which had been growing greater andgreater for two centuries. The lords did not trust the king's promises;and one amongst those lords was too powerful to yield without a fight. At the beginning Louis had, in Auvergne and in Berry, some successes, which decided a few of the rebels, the most insignificant, to accepttruces and enter upon parleys; but the great princes, the Dukes ofBurgundy, Brittany, and Berry, waxed more and more angry. The aged Dukeof Burgundy, Philip the Good himself, sobered and wearied as he was, threw himself passionately into the struggle. "Go, " said he to his son, Count Charles of Charolais, "maintain thine honor well, and, if thou haveneed of a hundred thousand more men to deliver thee from difficulty, Imyself will lead them to thee. " Charles marched promptly on Paris. Louis, on his side, moved thither, with the design and in the hope ofgetting in there without fighting. But the Burgundians, posted at St. Denis and the environs, barred his approach. His seneschal, Peter deBreze, advised him to first attack the Bretons, who were advancing tojoin the Burgundians. Louis, looking at him somewhat mistrustfully, said, "You, too, Sir Seneschal, have signed this League of the CommonWeal. " "Ay, sir, " answered Brez, with a laugh, "they have my signature, but you have myself. " "Would you be afraid to try conclusions with theBurgundians?" continued the king. "Nay, verily, " replied the seneschal;"I will let that be seen in the first battle. " Louis continued his marchon Paris. The two armies met at Montlhery, on the 16th of July, 1465. Breze, who commanded the king's advance-guard, immediately went intoaction, and was one of the first to be killed. Louis came up to hisassistance with troops in rather loose order; the affair became hot andgeneral; the French for a moment wavered, and a rumor ran through theranks that the king had just been killed. 

"No, my friends, " said Louis, taking off his helmet, "no, I am not dead;defend your king with good courage. " The wavering was transferred to theBurgundians. Count Charles himself was so closely pressed that a Frenchman-at-arms laid his hand on him, saying, "Yield you, my lord; I know youwell; let not yourself be slain. " "A rescue!" cried Charles; "I'll notleave you, my friends, unless by death: I am here to live and die withyou. " He was wounded by a sword-thrust which entered his neck betweenhis helmet and his breastplate, badly fastened. Disorder set in on bothsides, without either's being certain how things were, or being able toconsider itself victorious. Night came on; and French and Burgundiansencamped before Montlhery. The Count of Charolais sat down on two heapsof straw, and had his wound dressed. Around him were the strippedcorpses of the slain. As they were being moved to make room for him, apoor wounded creature, somewhat revived by the motion, recoveredconsciousness and asked for a drink. The count made them pour down histhroat a drop of his own mixture, for he never drank wine. The woundedman came completely to himself, and recovered. It was one of the archersof his guard. Next day news was brought to Charles that the Bretons werecoming up, with their own duke, the Duke of Berry, and Count Dunois attheir head. He went as far as Etampes to meet them, and informed them ofwhat had just happened. The Duke of Berry was very much distressed; itwas a great pity, he said, that so many people had been killed; heheartily wished that the war had never been begun. "Did you hear, " saidthe Count of Charolais to his servants, "how yonder fellow talks? He isupset at the sight of seven or eight hundred wounded men going about thetown, folks who are nothing to him, and whom he does not even know; hewould be still more upset if the matter touched him nearly; he is justthe sort of fellow to readily make his own terms and leave us stuck inthe mud; we must secure other friends. " And he forthwith made one of hispeople post off to England, to draw closer the alliance between Burgundyand Edward IV. 

Louis, meanwhile, after passing a day at Corbeil, had once more, on the18th of July, entered Paris, the object of his chief solicitude. Hedismounted at his lieutenant's, the Sire de Meinn's, and asked for somesupper. Several persons, burgesses and their wives, took supper withhim. He excited their lively interest by describing to them the battleof Montlhery, the danger he had run there, and the scenes which had beenenacted, adopting at one time a pathetic and at another a bantering tone, and exciting by turns the emotion and the laughter of his audience. Inthree days, he said, he would return to fight his enemies, in order tofinish the war; but he had not enough of men-at-arms, and all had not atthat moment such good spirits as he. He passed a fortnight in Paris, devoting himself solely to the task of winning the hearts of theParisians, reducing imposts, giving audience to everybody, lending afavorable ear to every opinion offered him, making no inquiry as to whohad been more or less faithful to him, showing clemency without appearingto be aware of it, and not punishing with severity even those who hadserved as guides to the Burgundians in the pillaging of the villagesaround Paris. A crier of the Chatelet, who had gone crying about thestreets the day on which the Burgundians attacked the gate of St. Denis, was sentenced only to a month's imprisonment, bread and water, and aflogging. He was marched through the city in a night-man's cart; and theking, meeting the procession, called out, as he passed, to theexecutioner, "Strike hard, and spare not that ribald; he has welldeserved it. "

Meanwhile the Burgundians were approaching Paris and pressing it moreclosely every day. Their different allies in the League were coming upwith troops to join them, including even some of those who, after havingsuffered reverses in Auvergne, had concluded truces with the king. Theforces scattered around Paris amounted, it is said, to fifty thousandmen, and occupied Charenton, Conflans, St. Maur, and St. Denis, makingready for a serious attack upon the place. Louis, notwithstanding hisfirm persuasion that things always went ill wherever he was not presentin person, left Paris for Rouen, to call out and bring up the regularsand reserves of Normandy. In his absence, interviews and parleys tookplace between besiegers and besieged. The former, found partisansamongst the inhabitants of Paris, in the Hotel de Ville itself. TheCount de Dunois made capital of all the grievances of the League againstthe king's government, and declared that, if the city refused to receivethe princes, the authors of this refusal would have to answer forwhatever misery, loss, and damage might come of it; and, in spite of allefforts on the part of the king's officers and friends, some wavering wasmanifested in certain quarters. But there arrived from Normandyconsiderable re-enforcements, announcing the early return of the king. And, in fact, he entered Paris on the 28th of August, the mass of thepeople testifying their joy and singing "Noel. " Louis made as if he knewnothing of what had happened in his absence, and gave nobody a blacklook; only four or five burgesses, too much compromised by theirrelations with the besiegers, were banished to Orleans. Sharp skirmisheswere frequent all round the place; there was cannonading on both sides;and some balls from Paris came tumbling about the quarters of the Countof Charolais, and killed a few of his people before his very door. ButLouis did not care to risk a battle. He was much impressed by theenemy's strength, and by the weakness of which glimpses had been seen inParis during his absence. Whilst his men-of-war were fighting here andthere, he opened negotiations. Local and temporary truces were accepted, and agents of the king had conferences with others from the chiefs of theLeague. The princes showed so exacting a spirit that there was notreating on such conditions; and Louis determined to see whether he couldnot succeed better than his agents. He had an interview of two hours'duration in front of the St. Anthony gate, with the Count of St. Poi, aconfidant of the Count of Charolais. On his return he found before thegate some burgesses waiting for news. 

[Illustration: Louis XI. And Burgesses waiting for News----193]

"Well, my friends, " said he, "the Burgundians will not give you so muchtrouble any more as they have given you in the past. " "That is all verywell, sir, " replied an attorney of the Chatelet, "but meanwhile they eatour grapes and gather our vintage without any hinderance. " "Still, " saidthe king, "that is better than if they were to come and drink your winein your cellars. " The month of September passed thus in parleys withoutresult. Bad news came from Rouen; the League had a party in that city. Louis felt that the Count of Charolais was the real head of theopposition, and the only one with whom anything definite could he arrivedat. He resolved to make a direct attempt upon him; for he had confidencein the influence he could obtain over people when he chatted and treatedin person with them. One day he got aboard of a little boat with five ofhis officers, and went over to the left bank of the Seine. There theCount of Charolais was awaiting him. "Will you insure me, brother?" saidthe king, as he stepped ashore. "Yes, my lord, as a brother, " said thecount. The king embraced him and went on; "I quite see, brother, thatyou are a gentleman and of the house of France. " "How so, my lord?""When I sent my ambassadors lately [in 1464] to Lille on an errand to myuncle, your father and yourself, and when my chancellor, that fool of aMorvilliers, made you such a fine speech, you sent me word by theArchbishop of Narbonne that I should repent me of the words spoken to youby that Morvilliers, and that before a year was over. Piques-Dieu, you've kept your promise, and before the end of the year has come. Ilike to have to do with folks who hold to what they promise. " This hesaid laughingly, knowing well that this language was just the sort offlattery to touch the Count of Charolais. They walked for a long whiletogether on the river's bank, to the great curiosity of their people, whowere surprised to see them conversing on such good terms. They talked ofpossible conditions of peace, both of them displaying considerablepliancy, save the king touching the duchy of Normandy, which he would notat any price, he said, confer on his brother the Duke of Berry, and theCount of Charolais touching his enmity towards the house of Croy, withwhich he was determined not to be reconciled. At parting, the kinginvited the count to Paris, where he would make him great cheer. "Mylord, " said Charles, "I have made a vow not to enter any good town untilmy return. " The king smiled; gave fifty golden crowns for distribution, to drink his health, amongst the count's archers, and once more gotaboard of his boat. Shortly after getting back to Paris he learned thatNormandy was lost to him. The widow of the seneschal, De Breze, latelykilled at Montlhery, forgetful of all the king's kindnesses and againstthe will of her own son, whom Louis had appointed seneschal of Normandyafter his father's death, had just handed over Rouen to the Duke ofBourbon, one of the most determined chiefs of the League. Louis at oncetook his course. He sent to demand an interview with the Count ofCharolais, and repaired to Conflans with a hundred Scots of his guard. There was a second edition of the walk together. Charles knew nothing asyet about the surrender of Rouen; and Louis lost no time in telling himof it before he had leisure for reflection and for magnifying hispretensions. "Since the Normans, " said he, "have of themselves feltdisposed for such a novelty, so be it! I should never of my own freewill have conferred such an appanage on my brother; but, as the thing isdone, I give my consent. " And he at the same time assented to all theother conditions which had formed the subject of conversation. 

In proportion to the resignation displayed by the king was the joy of theCount of Charolais at seeing himself so near to peace. Everything wasgoing wrong with his army; provisions were short; murmurs and dissensionswere setting in; and the League of common weal was on the point of endingin a shameful catastrophe. Whilst strolling and conversing withcordiality the two princes kept advancing towards Paris. Withoutnoticing it, they passed within the entrance of a strong palisade whichthe king had caused to be erected in front of the city-walls, and whichmarked the boundary-line. All on a sudden they stopped, both of themdisconcerted. The Burgundian found himself within the hostile camp; buthe kept a good countenance, and simply continued the conversation. Amongst his army, however, when he was observed to be away so long, therewas already a feeling of deep anxiety. The chieftains had met together. "If this young prince, " said the marshal of Burgundy, "has gone to hisown ruin like a fool, let us not ruin his house. Let every man retire tohis quarters, and hold himself in readiness without disturbing himselfabout what may happen. By keeping together we are in a condition to fallback on the marches of Hainault, Picardy, or Burgundy. " The veteranwarrior mounted his horse and rode forward in the direction of Paris tosee whether Count Charles were coming back or not. It was not longbefore he saw a troop of forty or fifty horse moving towards him. Theywere the Burgundian prince and an escort of the king's own guard. Charles dismissed the escort, and came up to the marshal, saying, "Don'tsay a word; I acknowledge my folly; but I saw it too late; I was alreadyclose to the works. " "Everybody can see that I was not there, " said themarshal; "if I had been, it would never have happened. You know, yourhighness, that I am only on loan to you, as long as your father lives. "Charles made no reply, and returned to his own camp, where allcongratulated him and rendered homage to the king's honorable conduct. 

Negotiations for peace were opened forthwith. There was no difficultyabout them. Louis was ready to make sacrifices as soon as be recognizedthe necessity for them, being quite determined, however, in his heart torecall them as soon as fortune came back to him. Two distinct treatieswere concluded: one at Conflans on the 5th of October, 1465, betweenLouis and the Count of Charolais; and the other at St. Maur on the 29thof October, between Louis and the other princes of the League. By one orthe other of the treaties the king granted nearly every demand that hadbeen made upon him; to the Count of Charolais he gave up all the towns ofimportance in Picardy; to the Duke of Berry he gave the duchy ofNormandy, with entire sovereignty; and the other princes, independentlyof the different territories that had been conceded to them, all receivedlarge sums in ready money. The conditions of peace had already beenagreed to, when the Burgundians went so far as to summon, into thebargain, the strong place of Beauvais. Louis quietly complained toCharles: "If you wanted this town, " said he, "you should have asked mefor it, and I would have given it to you; but peace is made, and it oughtto be observed. " Charles openly disavowed the deed. When peace wasproclaimed, on the 30th of October, the king went to Vincennes to receivethe homage of his brother Charles for the duchy of Normandy, and that ofthe Count of Charolais for the lands of Picardy. The count asked theking to give up to him "for that day the castle of Vincennes for thesecurity of all. " Louis made no objection; and the gate and apartmentsof the castle were guarded by the count's own people. But the Parisians, whose favor Louis had won, were alarmed on his account. Twenty-twothousand men of the city militia marched towards the outskirts ofVincennes and obliged the king to return and sleep at Paris. He wentalmost alone to the grand review which the Count of Charolais held of hisarmy before giving the word for marching away, and passed from rank torank speaking graciously to his late enemies. The king and the count, onseparating, embraced one another, the count saying in a loud voice, "Gentlemen, you and I are at the command of the king my sovereign lord, who is here present, to serve him whensoever there shall be need. "

When the treaties of Conflans and St. Maur were put before the parliamentto be registered, the parliament at first refused, and the exchequer-chamber followed suit; but the king insisted in the name of necessity, and the registration took place, subject to a declaration on the part ofthe parliament that it was forced to obey. Louis, at bottom, was notsorry for this resistance, and himself made a secret protest against thetreaties he had just signed. 

At the outset of the negotiations it had been agreed that thirty-sixnotables, twelve prelates, twelve knights, and twelve members of thecouncil, should assemble to inquire into the errors committed in thegovernment of the kingdom, and to apply remedies. They were to meet onthe 15th of December, and to have terminated their labors in two monthsat the least, and in three months and ten days at the most. The kingpromised on his word to abide firmly and stably by what they shoulddecree. But this commission was nearly a year behind time in assembling, and, even when it was assembled, its labors were so slow and so futile, that the Count de Dampmartin was quite justified in writing to the Countof Charolais, become by his father's death Duke of Burgundy, "The Leagueof common weal has become nothing but the League of common woe. "

Scarcely were the treaties signed and the princes returned each to hisown dominions when a quarrel arose between the Duke of Brittany and thenew Duke of Normandy. Louis, who was watching for dissensions betweenhis enemies, went at once to see the Duke of Brittany, and made with hima private convention for mutual security. Then, having his movementsfree, he suddenly entered Normandy to retake possession of it as aprovince which, notwithstanding the cession of it just made to hisbrother, the King of France could not dispense with. Evreux, Gisors, Gournay, Louviers, and even Rouen fell, without much resistance, againinto his power. The Duke of Berry made a vigorous appeal for support tohis late ally, the Duke of Burgundy, in order to remain master of the newduchy which had been conferred upon him under the late treaties. TheCount of Charolais was at that time taking up little by little thegovernment of the Burgundian dominions in the name of his father, theaged Duke Philip, who was ill and near his end; but, by pleading his ownengagements, and especially his ever-renewed struggle with his Flemishsubjects, the Liegese, the count escaped from the necessity of satisfyingthe Duke of Berry. 

In order to be safe in the direction of Burgundy as well as that ofBrittany, Louis had entered into negotiations with Edward IV. , King ofEngland, and had made him offers, perhaps even promises, which seemed totrench upon the rights ceded by the treaty of Conflans to the Duke ofBurgundy, as to certain districts of Picardy. The Count of Charolais wasinformed of it; and in his impetuous wrath he wrote to King Louis, dubbing him simply Sir, instead of giving him, according to the usagebetween vassal and suzerain, the title of My most dread lord, "May itplease you to wit, that some time ago I was apprised of a matter at whichI cannot be too much astounded. It is with great sorrow that I name itto you, when I remember the fair expressions I have all through this yearhad from you, both in writing and by word of mouth. It is certain thatparley has been held between your people and those of the King ofEngland, that you have thought proper to assign to them the district ofCaux and the city of Rouen; that you have promised to obtain from themAbbeville and the count-ship of Ponthieu, and that you have concludedwith them certain alliances against me and my country, whilst making themlarge offers to my prejudice. Of what is yours, sir, you may disposeaccording to your pleasure; but it seems to me that you might do betterthan wish to take from my hands what is mine, in order to give it to theEnglish or to any other foreign nation. I pray you, therefore, sir, ifsuch overtures have been made by your people, to be pleased not toconsent thereto in any way, but to put a stop to the whole, to the endthat I may remain your most humble servant, as I desire to be. "

Louis returned no answer to this letter. He contented him-self withsending to the commission of thirty-six notables, then in session atEtampes for the purpose of considering the reform of the kingdom, arequest to represent to the Count of Charolais the impropriety of suchlanguage, and to appeal for the punishment of the persons who hadsuggested it to him. The count made some awkward excuses, at the sametime that he persisted in complaining of the king's obstinate pretensionsand underhand ways. A serious incident now happened, which for a whiledistracted the attention of the two rivals from their mutualrecriminations. Duke Philip the Good, who had for some time past beenvisibly declining in body and mind, was visited at Bruges by a stroke ofapoplexy, soon discovered to be fatal. His son, the Count of Charolais, was at Ghent. At the first whisper of danger he mounted his horse, andwithout a moment's halt arrived at Bruges on the 15th of June, 1467, andran to his father's room, who had already lost speech and consciousness. "Father, father, " cried the count, on his knees and sobbing, "give meyour blessing; and if I have offended you, forgive me. " "My lord, " addedthe Bishop of Bethlehem, the dying man's confessor, "if you only hear us, bear witness by some sign. " The duke turned his eyes a little towardshis son, and seemed to feebly press his hand. This was his last effortof life; and in the evening, after some hours of passive agony, he died. His son flung himself upon the bed: "He shrieked, he wept, he wrung hishands, " says George Chatelain, one of the aged duke's oldest and mosttrusted servants, "and for many a long day tears were mingled with allhis words every time he spoke to those who had been in the service of thedead, so much so that every one marvelled at his immeasurable grief; ithad never heretofore been thought that he could feel a quarter of thesorrow he showed, for he was thought to have a sterner heart, whatevercause there might have been; but nature overcame him. " Nor was it to hisson alone that Duke Philip had been so good and left so many grounds forsorrow. "With you we lose, " was the saying amongst the crowd thatfollowed the procession through the streets, "with you we lose our goodold duke, the best, the gentlest, the friendliest of princes, our peaceand eke our joy! Amidst such fearful storms you at last brought us outinto tranquillity and good order; you set justice on her seat and gavefree course to commerce. And now you are dead, and we are orphans!"Many voices, it is said, added in a lower tone, "You leave us in handswhereof the weight is unknown to us; we know not into what perils we maybe brought by the power that is to be over us, over us so accustomed toyours, under which we, most of us, were born and grew up. "

What the people were anxiously forecasting, Louis foresaw with certainty, and took his measures accordingly. A few days after the death of Philipthe Good, several of the principal Flemish cities, Ghent first and thenLiege, rose against the new Duke of Burgundy in defence of theirliberties, already ignored or threatened. The intrigues of Louis werenot unconnected with these solicitations. He would undoubtedly have beenvery glad to have seen his most formidable enemy beset, at the verycommencement of his ducal reign, by serious embarrassments, and obligedto let the king of France settle without trouble his differences with hisbrother Duke Charles of Berry, and with the Duke of Brittany. But thenew Duke of Burgundy was speedily triumphant over the Flemishinsurrections; and after these successes, at the close of the year 1467, he was so powerful and so unfettered in his movements, that Louis might, with good reason, fear the formation of a fresh league amongst his greatneighbors in coalition against him, and perhaps even in communicationwith the English, who were ever ready to seek in France allies for thefurtherance of their attempts to regain there the fortunes wrested fromthem by Joan of Arc and Charles VII. In view of such a position Louisformed a resolution, unpalatable, no doubt, to one so jealous of his ownpower, but indicative of intelligence and boldness; he confronted thedifficulties of home government in order to prevent perils from without. The remembrance had not yet faded of the energy displayed and theservices rendered in the first part of Charles VII. 's reign by thestates-general; a wish was manifested for their resuscitation; and theywere spoken of, even in the popular doggerel, as the most effectualremedy for the evils of the period. 

"But what says Paris?"--"She is deaf and dumb. "

"Dares she not speak?"--"Nor she, nor parliament. "

"The clergy?"--"O! the clergy are kept mum. "

"Upon your oath?"--"Yes, on the sacrament. "

"The nobles, then?"--"The nobles are still worse. "

"And justice?"--"Hath nor balances nor weights. "

"Who, then, may hope to mitigate this curse?"

"Who? prithee, who?"--"Why, France's three estates. "

"Be pleased, O prince, to grant alleviation . . . "

"To whom?"--"To the good citizen who waits . . . "

"For what?"--"The right of governing the nation . . . "

"Through whom? pray, whom?"--"Why, France's three estates. "

In the face of the evil Louis felt no fear of the remedy. He summonedthe states-general to a meeting at Tours on the 1st of April, 1468. Twenty-eight lords in person, besides representatives of several otherswho were unable to be there themselves, and a hundred and ninety-twodeputies elected by sixty-four towns, met in session. The chancellor, Juvenal des Ursins, explained, in presence of the king, the object of themeeting: "It is to take cognizance of the differences which have arisenbetween the king and Sir Charles, his brother, in respect of the duchy ofNormandy and the appanage of the said Sir Charles; likewise the greatexcesses and encroachments which the Duke of Brittany hath committedagainst the king by seizing his places and subjects, and making open warupon him; and thirdly, the communication which is said to be kept up bythe Duke of Brittany with the English, in order to bring them down uponthis country, and hand over to them the places he doth hold in Normandy. Whereupon we are of opinion that the people of the three estates shouldgive their good advice and council. " After this official programme, theking and his councillors withdrew. The estates deliberated during sevenor eight sessions, and came to an agreement "without any opposition ordifficulty whatever, that as touching the duchy of Normandy it ought notto and cannot be separated from the crown in any way whatsoever, but mustremain united, annexed, and conjoined thereto inseparably. Further, anyarrangement of the Duke of Brittany with the English is a thing damnable, pernicious, and of most evil consequences, and one which is not to bepermitted, suffered, or tolerated in any way. Lastly, if Sir Charles, the Duke of Brittany, or others, did make war on the king our sovereignlord, or have any treaty or connection with his enemies, the king isbound to proceed against them who should do so, according to what must bedone in such case for the tranquillity and security of the realm. . . . And as often soever as the said cases may occur, the peopleof the estates have agreed and consented, do agree and consent, that, without waiting for other assemblage or congregation of the estates, theking have power to do all that comports with order and justice; the saidestates promising and agreeing to serve and aid the king touching thesematters, to obey him with all their might, and to live and die with himin this quarrel. "

Louis XI. Himself could demand no more. Had they been more experiencedand far-sighted, the states-general of 1468 would not have been disposedto resign, even temporarily, into the hands of the kingship, their rightsand their part in the government of the country; but they showedpatriotism and good sense in defending the integrity of the kingdom, national unity, and public order against the selfish ambition anddisorderly 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 withFrancis II. , Duke of Brittany, who gave up his alliance with the house ofBurgundy, and undertook to prevail upon Duke Charles of France to acceptan arbitration for the purpose of settling, before two years were over, the question of his territorial appanage in the place of Normandy. Inthe meanwhile a pension of sixty thousand livres was to be paid by thecrown to that prince. Thus Louis was left with the new duke, Charles ofBurgundy, as the only adversary he had to face. His advisers weredivided as to the course to be taken with this formidable vassal. Was heto be dealt with by war or by negotiation? Count de Dampmartin, Marshalde Rouault, and nearly all the military men earnestly advised war. "Leave it to us, " they said: "we will give the king a good account ofthis Duke of Burgundy. Plague upon it! what do these Burgundians mean?They have called in the English and made alliance with them in order togive us battle; they have handed over the country to fire and sword; theyhave driven the king from his lordship. We have suffered too much; wemust have revenge; down upon them, in the name of the devil, down uponthem. The king makes a sheep of himself and bargains for his wool andhis skin, as if he had not wherewithal to defend himself. 'Sdeath! ifwe were in his place, we would rather risk the whole kingdom than letourselves be treated in this fashion. " But the king did not like to riskthe kingdom; and he had more confidence in negotiation than in war. Twoof his principal advisers, the constable De St. Pol and the cardinal Dela Balue, Bishop of Evreux, were of his opinion, and urged him to the topof his bent. Of them he especially made use in his more or less secretrelations with the Duke of Burgundy; and he charged them to sound himwith respect to a personal interview between himself and the duke. Ithas been very well remarked by M. De Barante, in his _Histoire des Duesde Bourgogne, _ that "Louis had a great idea of the influence he gainedover people by his wits and his language; he was always convinced thatpeople never said what ought to be said, and that they did not set towork the right way. " It was a certain way of pleasing him to give himpromise of a success which he would owe to himself alone; and theconstable and the cardinal did not fail to do so. They found the Duke ofBurgundy very little disposed to accept the king's overtures. "By St. George, " said he, "I ask nothing but what is just and reasonable; Idesire the fulfilment of the treaties of Arras and of Conflans to whichthe king has sworn. I make no war on him; it is he who is coming to makeit on me; but should he bring all the forces of his kingdom I will notbudge from here or recoil the length of my foot. My predecessors haveseen themselves in worse plight, and have not been dismayed. " Neitherthe constable De St. Pol nor the cardinal De la Balue said anything tothe king about this rough disposition on the part of Duke Charles; theyboth in their own personal interest desired the interview, and did notcare to bring to light anything that might be an obstacle to it. Louispersisted in his desire, and sent to ask the duke for a letter ofsafe-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 weredisplayed about Louis; the interview appeared to be a mad idea; thevicegerent (vidam) of Amiens came hurrying up with a countryman whodeclared on his life that mylord of Burgundy wished for it only to makean attempt upon the king's person; the king's greatest enemies, it wassaid, were already, or soon would be, with the duke; and the captainsvehemently reiterated their objections. But Louis held to his purpose, and started for Noyon on the 2d of October, taking with him theconstable, the cardinal, his confessor, and, for all his escort, fourscore of his faithful Scots, and sixty men-at-arms. This knowinggossip, as his contemporaries called him, had fits of rashness andaudacious vanity. 

Duke Charles went to meet him outside the town. They embraced oneanother, and returned on foot to Peronne, chatting familiarly, and theking 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; thecastle of Peronne being, it was said, in too bad a state, and too illfurnished, for his reception. On the very day that the king enteredPeronne, the duke's army, commanded by the Marshal of Burgundy, arrivedfrom the opposite side, and encamped beneath the walls. Several formerservants of the king, now not on good terms with him, accompanied theBurgundian army. "As soon as the king was apprised of the arrival ofthese folks, " says Commynes, "he had a great fright, and sent to beg ofthe Duke of Burgundy that he might be lodged at the castle, seeing thatall those who had come were evil disposed towards him. The duke was verymuch rejoiced thereat, had him lodged there, and stoutly assured him thathe had no cause for doubt. " Next day parleys began between thecouncillors of the two princes. They did not appear much disposed tocome to an understanding, and a little sourness of spirit was beginningto show itself on both sides, when there came news which excited a grandcommotion. "King Louis, on coming to Peronne, had not considered, " saysCommynes, "that he had sent two ambassadors to the folks of Liege toexcite them against the duke. Nevertheless, the said ambassadors hadadvanced matters so well that they had already made a great mass (ofrebels). The Liegese came and took by surprise the town of Tongres, wherein were the Bishop of Liege and the Lord of Humbercourt, whom theytook also, slaying, moreover, some servants of the said bishop. " Thefugitives who reported this news at Peronne made the matter a great dealworse than it was; they had no doubt, they said, but that the bishop andSire d'Humbercourt had also been murdered; and Charles had no more doubtabout it than they. His fury was extreme; he strode to and fro, everywhere relating the news from Liege. "So the king, " said he, "camehere only to deceive me; it is he who, by his ambassadors, excited thesebad folks of Liege; but, by St. George, they shall be severely punishedfor it, and he, himself, shall have cause to repent. " He gave immediateorders to have the gates of the town and of the castle closed and guardedby the archers; but being a little troubled, nevertheless, as to theeffect which would be produced by this order, he gave as his reason forit that he was quite determined to have recovered a box full of gold andjewels which had been stolen from him. "I verily believe, " saysCommynes, "that if just then the duke had found those whom he addressedready to encourage him, or advise him to do the king a bad turn, he wouldhave done it; but at that time I was still with the said duke; I servedhim as chamberlain, and I slept in his room when I pleased, for such wasthe usage of that house. With me was there none at this speech of theduke's, save two grooms of the chamber, one called Charles de Visen, anative of Dijon, an honest man, and one who had great credit with hismaster; and we exasperated nought, but assuaged according to our power. "

Whilst Duke Charles was thus abandoning himself to the first outburst ofhis wrath, King Louis remained impassive in the castle of Peronne, quiteclose to the great tower, wherein, about the year 925, King Charles theSimple had been confined by Herbert, Count of Vermandois, and died aprisoner in 929. None of Louis's people had been removed from him; butthe 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 tovisit him; he had no occasion to parley, explain himself, and guess whatit was expedient for him to say or do; he was alone, wrestling with hisimagination and his lively impressions, with the feeling upon him of therecent mistakes he had committed, especially in exciting the Liegese torebellion, and forgetting the fact just when he was coming to placehimself in his enemy's hands. Far, however, from losing his head, Louisdisplayed in this perilous trial all the penetration, activity, andshrewdness of his mind, together with all the suppleness of hischaracter; he sent by his own servants questions, offers, and promises toall the duke's servants from whom he could hope for any help or any goodadvice. Fifteen thousand golden crowns, with which he had providedhimself at starting, were given by him to be distributed amongst thehousehold of the Duke of Burgundy; a liberality which was perhapsuseless, since it is said that he to whom he had intrusted the sum kept agood portion of it for himself. The king passed two days in this stateof 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 thenight. Louis had sent to make an offer to swear a peace, such as, at themoment of his arrival, had been proposed to him, without any reservationor difficulty on his part. He engaged to join the duke in making warupon the Liegese and chastising them for their rebellion. He would leaveas hostages his nearest relatives and his most intimate advisers. At thebeginning of the council his proposals were not even listened to; therewas no talk but of keeping the king a prisoner, and sending after hisbrother, the Prince Charles, with whom the entire government of thekingdom should be arranged; the messenger had orders to be in readinessto start at once; his horse was in the court-yard; he was only waitingfor the letters which the duke was writing to Brittany. The chancellorof Burgundy and some of the wiser councillors besought the duke toreflect. 

The king had come to Peronne on the faith of his safe-conduct; it wouldbe an eternal dishonor for the house of Burgundy if he broke his word tohis sovereign lord; and the conditions which the king was prepared togrant would put an end, with advantage to Burgundy, to serious anddifficult business. The duke gave heed to these honest and prudentcounsels; the news from Liege turned out to be less serious than thefirst rumors had represented; the bishop and Sire d'Humbercourt had beenset at liberty. Charles retired to his chamber; and there, withoutthinking of undressing, he walked to and fro with long strides, threwhimself upon his bed, got up again, and soliloquized out loud, addressinghimself occasionally to Commynes, who lay close by him. Towards morning, though he still showed signs of irritation, his language was lessthreatening. "He has promised me, " said he, "to come with me toreinstate the Bishop of Liege, who is my brother-in-law, and a relationof his also; he shall certainly come; I shall not scruple to hold him tohis word that he gave me;" and he at once sent Sires de Crequi, deCharni, and de la Roche to tell the king that he was about to come andswear peace with him. Commynes had only just time to tell Louis in whatframe of mind the duke was, and in what danger he would place himself, ifhe 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 castlewhere the king was a prisoner. His look was courteous, but his voicetrembled with choler; his words were short and bitter, his manner wasthreatening. A little troubled at his aspect, Louis said, "Brother, I amsafe, am I not, in your house and your country?" "Yes, sir, " answeredthe duke, "so safe that if I saw an arrow from a bow coming towards you Iwould throw myself in the way to protect you. But will you not bepleased to swear the treaty just as it is written?" "Yes, " said theking, "and I thank you for your good will. " "And will you not be pleasedto come with me to Liege, to help me punish the treason committed againstme by these Lidgese, all through you and your journey hither? The bishopis your near relative, of the house of Bourbon. " "Yes, Padues-Dieu, "replied Louis, "and I am much astounded at their wickedness. But beginwe by swearing this treaty; and then I will start, with as many or as fewof my people as you please. "

Forthwith was taken out from the king's boxes the wood of the so-calledtrue cross, which was named the cross of St. Laud, because it had beenpreserved in the church of St. Laud, at Angers. It was supposed to haveformerly belonged to Charlemagne; and it was the relic which Louisregarded as the most sacred. The treaty was immediately signed, withoutany change being made in that of Conflans. The Duke of Burgundy merelyengaged to use his influence with Prince Charles of France to induce himto be content with Brie and Champagne as appanage. The storm wasweathered; and Louis almost rejoiced at seeing himself called upon tochastise in person the Liegese, who had made him commit such a mistakeand run such a risk. 

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

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

They made a more energetic and a longer resistance than had beenexpected. The besiegers, confident in their strength, kept carelesswatch, and the sorties of the besieged became more numerous. One nightCharles received notice that his men had just been attacked in a suburbwhich they had held, and were flying. He mounted his horse, gave ordersnot to awake the king, repaired by himself to the place where the fightwas, put everything to rights, and came back and told the whole affair toLouis, who exhibited great joy. Another time, one dark and rainy night, there was an alarm, about midnight, of a general attack upon the wholeBurgundian camp. The duke was soon up, and a moment afterwards the kingarrived. There was great disorder. "The Liegese sallied by this gate, "said some; "No, " said others, "it was by that gate!" there was nothingknown for certain, and there were no orders given. Charles was impetuousand brave, but he was easily disconcerted, and his servants were somewhatvexed not to see him putting a better countenance on things before theking. Louis, on the other hand, was cool and calm, giving commandsfirmly, and ready to assume responsibility wherever he happened to be. "Take what men you have, " said he to the constable St. Poi, who was athis 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. Twodays afterwards there was a more serious affair. The inhabitants of acanton which was close to the city, and was called Franchemont, resolvedto make a desperate effort, and go and fall suddenly upon the very spotwhere the two princes were quartered. One night, about ten P. M. , sixhundred men sallied out by one of the breaches, all men of stout heartsand well armed. The duke's quarters were first attacked. Only twelvearchers were on guard below, and they were playing at dice. Charles wasin bed. Commynes put on him, as quickly as possible, his breastplate andhelmet, and they went down stairs. The archers were with greatdifficulty defending the doorway, but help arrived, and the danger wasover. The quarters of King Louis had also been attacked; but at thefirst sound the Scottish archers had hurried up, surrounded their master, and repulsed the attack, without caring whether their arrows killedLiegese or such Burgundians as had come up with assistance. The gallantfellows from Franchemont fell, almost to a man. The duke and hisprincipal captains held a council the next day; and the duke was fordelivering the assault. The king was not present at this council, andwhen he was informed of the resolution taken he was not in favor of anassault. "You see, " said he, "the courage of these people; you know howmurderous and uncertain is street fighting; you will lose many brave mento no purpose. Wait two or three days, and the Liegese will infalliblycome to terms. " Nearly all the Burgundian captains sided with the king. The duke got angry. "He wishes to spare the Liegese, " said he; "whatdanger is there in this assault? There are no walls; they can't put asingle gun in position; I certainly will not give up the assault; if theking is afraid, let him get him gone to Namur. " Such an insult shockedeven the Burgundians. Louis was informed of it, but said nothing. Nextday, the 30th of October, 1468, the assault was ordered; and the dukemarched at the head of his troops. Up came the king; but, "Bide, " saidCharles; "put not yourself uselessly in danger; I will send you word whenit is time. " "Lead on, brother, " replied Louis; "you are the mostfortunate prince alive; I will follow you. " And he continued marchingwith him. But the assault was unnecessary. Discouragement had takenpossession of the Liegese, the bravest of whom had fallen. It wasSunday, and the people who remained were not expecting an attack; "thecloth was laid in every house, and all were preparing for dinner. " TheBurgundians moved forward through the empty streets; and Louis marchedquietly along, surrounded by his own escort, and shouting, "Hurrah forBurgundy!" The duke turned back to meet him, and they went together togive thanks to God in the cathedral of St. Lambert. It was the onlychurch which had escaped from the fury and the pillaging of theBurgundians; by midday there was nothing left to take in the houses or inthe churches. Louis loaded Duke Charles with felicitations andcommendations: "He knew how to turn them in a fashion so courteous andamiable that the duke was charmed and softened. " The next day, as theywere talking together, "Brother, " said the king to the duke, "if youhave still need of my help, do not spare me; but if you have nothing morefor me to do, it would be well for me to go back to Paris, to make publicin 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 suchis the custom of France. Next summer we must meet again; you will comeinto your duchy of Burgundy, and I will go and pay you a visit, and wewill pass a week joyously together in making good cheer. " Charles madeno answer, and sent for the treaty lately concluded between them atPeronne, leaving it to the king's choice to confirm or to renounce it, and excusing himself in covert terms for having thus constrained him andbrought him away. The king made a show of being satisfied with thetreaty, and on the 2d of November, 1468, the day but one after thecapture of Liege, set out for France. The duke bore him company towithin half a league of the city. As they were taking leave of oneanother, the king said to him, "If, peradventure, my brother Charles, whois in Brittany, should be discontented with the assignment I make him forlove of you, what would you have me do?" "If he do not please to takeit, " answered the duke, "but would have you satisfy him, I leave it toyou two. " Louis desired no more: he returned home free and confident inhimself, "after having passed the most trying three weeks of his life. "

But Louis XI. 's deliverance after his quasi-captivity at Peronne, and thenew treaty he had concluded with Duke Charles, were and could be only atemporary break in the struggle between these two princes, destined asthey were, both by character and position, to irremediableincompatibility. They were too powerful and too different to live atpeace when they were such close neighbors, and when their relations wereso complicated. We find in the chronicle of George Chastelain, a Flemishburgher, and a servant on familiar terms with Duke Charles, as he hadbeen with his father, Duke Philip, a judicious picture of thisincompatibility and the causes of it. "There had been, " he says, "at alltimes a rancor between these two princes, and, whatever pacificationmight have been effected to-day, everything returned to-morrow to the oldcondition, and no real love could be established. They suffered fromincompatibility of temperament and perpetual discordance of will; and themore they advanced in years the deeper they plunged into a state ofserious difference and hopeless bitterness. The king was a man ofsubtlety 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 yieldand to give up in order to receive double, and how to bear and toleratefor a time his own grievances in hopes of being able at last to have hisrevenge. He was, therefore, very much to be feared for his practicalknowledge, showing the greatest skill and penetration in the world. DukeCharles was to be feared for his great courage, which he evinced anddisplayed in his actions, making no account of king or emperor. Thus, whilst the king had great sense and great ability, which he used withdissimulation 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 fearof putting himself in a false position. " Between 1468 and 1477, from theincident at Peronne to the death of Charles at the siege of Nancy, thehistory of the two princes was nothing but one constant alternationbetween ruptures and re-adjustments, hostilities and truces, wherein bothwere constantly changing their posture, their language, and their allies. It was at one time the affairs of the Duke of Brittany or those of PrinceCharles of France, become Duke of Guienne; at another it was therelations with the different claimants to the throne of England, or thefate of the towns, in Picardy, handed over to the Duke of Burgundy by thetreaties of Conflans and Peronne, which served as a ground or pretext forthe frequent recurrences of war. In 1471 St. Quentin opened its gates toCount Louis of St. Poi, constable of France; and Duke Charles complainedwith threats about it to the Count of Dampmartin, who was in commend, onthat frontier, of Louis XI. 's army, and had a good understanding with theconstable. 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 oncereplied to the duke, 'Most high and puissant prince, I suppose yourletters to have been dictated by your council and highest clerics, whoare folks better at letter-making than I am, for I have not lived byquill-driving. . . . If I write you matter that displeases you, andyou have a desire to revenge yourself upon me, you shall find me so nearto 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 theking, it will at last be found out by all the world that as a soldier youhave mistaken your calling. " The next year (1472) war broke out. DukeCharles went and laid siege to Beauvais, and on the 27th of Junedelivered the first assault. The inhabitants were at this moment leftalmost alone to defend their town. A young girl of eighteen, JoanFourquet, whom a burgher's wife of Beauvais, Madame Laisne, her mother byadoption, 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, andcrying, "O glorious virgin, come to my aid; to arms! to arms!" Theassault was repulsed; re-enforcements came up from Noyon, Amiens, andParis, under the orders of the Marshal de Rouault; and the mayor ofBeauvais presented Joan to him. "Sir, " said the young girl to him, "youhave everywhere been victor, and you will be so with us. " On the 9th ofJuly the Duke of Burgundy delivered a second assault, which lasted fourhours. Some Burgundians had escaladed a part of the ramparts; JoanHachette arrived there just as one of them was planting his flag on thespot; she pushed him over the side into the ditch, and went down inpursuit of him; the man fell on one knee; Joan struck him down, tookpossession of the flag, and mounted up to the ramparts again, crying, "Victory!" The same cry resounded at all points of the wall; the assaultwas everywhere repulsed. The vexation of Charles was great; the daybefore he had been almost alone in advocating the assault; in theevening, as he lay on his camp-bed, according to his custom, he had askedseveral of his people whether they thought the townsmen were prepared forit. "Yes, certainly, " was the answer; "there are a great number ofthem. " "You will not find a soul there to-morrow, " said Charles with asneer. He remained for twelve days longer before the place, looking fora better chance; but on the 12th of July he decided upon raising thesiege, and took the road to Normandy. Some days before attackingBeauvais, he had taken, not without difficulty, Nesle in the Vermandois. "There it was, " says Commynes, "that he first committed a horrible andwicked deed of war, which had never been his wont; this was burningeverything everywhere; those who were taken alive were hanged; a prettylarge number had their hands cut off. It mislikes me to speak of suchcruelty; but I was on the spot, and must needs say something about it. "Commynes undoubtedly said something about it to Charles himself, whoanswered, "It is the fruit borne by the tree of war; it would have beenthe fate of Beauvais if I could have taken the town. "

Between the two rivals in France, relations with England were a subjectof constant manoeuvring and strife. In spite of reverses on theContinent and civil wars in their own island, the Kings of England hadnot abandoned their claims to the crown of France; they were still inpossession of Calais; and the memory of the battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt was still a tower of strength to them. Between 1470 and1472 the house of York had triumphed over the house of Lancaster; andEdward IV. Was undisputed king. In his views touching France he found anatural ally in the Duke of Burgundy; and it was in concert with Charlesthat Edward was incessantly concocting and attempting plots and campaignsagainst Louis XI. In 1474 he, by a herald, called upon Louis to give upto him Normandy and Guienne, else, he told him, he would cross over toFrance with his army. "Tell your master, " answered Louis coolly, "that Ishould not advise him to. " Next year the herald returned to tell Louisthat the King of England, on the point of embarking, called upon him togive up to him the kingdom of France. Louis had a conversation with theherald. "Your king, " said he, "is undertaking this war against his owngrain at the solicitation of the Duke of Burgundy; he would do muchbetter to live in peace with me, instead of devoting himself to allieswho cannot but compromise him without doing him any service;" and he hadthree hundred golden crowns presented to the herald, with a promise ofconsiderably more if peace were made. The herald, thus won over, promised, in his turn, to do all he could, saying that he believed thathis master would lend a willing ear, but that, before mentioning thesubject, they must wait until Edward had crossed the sea and formed someidea of the difficulties in the way of his enterprise; and he advisedLouis to establish communications with my lord Howard and my lordStanley, who had great influence with King Edward. "Whilst the king wasparleying with the said herald, there were many folks in the hall, " saysCommynes, "who were waiting, and had great longing to know what the kingwas saying to him, and what countenance he would wear when he came fromwithin. The king, when he had made an end, called me and told me to keepthe said herald talking, so that none might speak to him, and to havedelivered unto him a piece of crimson velvet containing thirty ells. Sodid I, and the king was right joyous at that which he had got out of thesaid herald. "

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

It was now three years since Philip de Commynes had left the Duke ofBurgundy's service to enter that of Louis XI. In 1471 Charles had, noneknows why, rashly authorized an interview between Louis and De Commynes. "The king's speech, " says the chronicler Molinet, in the Duke ofBurgundy's service, "was so sweet and full of virtue that it entranced, siren-like, all those who gave ear to it. " "Of all princes, " saysCommynes himself, "he was the one who was at most pains to gain over aman who was able to serve him, and able to injure him; and he was not putout at being refused once by one whom he was working to gain over, butcontinued thereat, making him large promises, and actually giving moneyand estate when he made acquaintances that were pleasing to him. "Commynes spoke according to his own experience. Louis, from the momentof making his acquaintance, had guessed his value; and as early as 1468, in the course of his disagreeable adventure at Peronne, he had found thegood offices of Commynes of great service to him. It was probably fromthis very time that he applied himself assiduously to the task of gaininghim over. Commynes hesitated a long while; but Louis was even moreperseveringly persistent than Commynes was hesitating. The king backedup 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 thebanker'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 seizurecould not but be, and indeed was, to put Commynes in the awkward dilemmaof seeing his practices (as the saying was at that time) divulged withoutreaping the fruit of them, or of securing the advantages only by settingaside the scruples which held him back. He chose the latter course, which had become the safer; and during the night between the 7th and 8thof August, 1472, he left Burgundy forever. The king was at that time atPonts-de-Ce, and there his new servant joined him. " The very day of hisdeparture, at six A. M. , Duke Charles had a seizure made of all the goodsand all the rights belonging to the fugitive; "but what Commynes lost onone side, " says his editor, "he was about to recover a hundred fold onthe other; scarcely had he arrived at the court of Louis XI. When hereceived at once the title of councillor and chamberlain to the king;soon afterwards a pension of six thousand livres of Tours was secured tohim, 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 townof Chinon; and lastly, a present was made to him of the rich principalityof Talmont. " Six months later, in January, 1473, Commynes married Helende Chambes, daughter of the lord of Montsoreau, who brought him as dowrytwenty-seven thousand five hundred livres of Tours, which enabled him topurchase the castle, town, barony, land, and lordship of Argenton[arrondissement of Bressuire, department of Deux-Sevres], the title ofwhich he thenceforward assumed. 

Half a page or so can hardly be thought too much space to devote in aHistory of France to the task of tracing to their origin the conduct andfortunes of one of the most eminent French politicians, who, after havingtaken a chief part in the affairs of their country and their epoch, havededicated themselves to the work of narrating them in a spirit of liberaland admirable comprehension both of persons and events. But we willreturn to Louis XI. 

The King of England readily entertained the overtures announced to him byhis herald. He had landed at Calais on the 22d of June, 1475, with anarmy of from sixteen to eighteen thousand men thirsting for conquest andpillage in France, and the Duke of Burgundy had promised to go and joinhim with a considerable force; but the latter, after having appeared fora moment at Calais to concert measures with his ally, returned no more, and even hesitated about admitting the English into his towns of Artoisand Picardy. Edward waited for him nearly two months at Peronne, but invain. During this time Louis continued his attempts at negotiation. Hefixed his quarters at Amiens, and Edward came and encamped half a leaguefrom the town. The king sent to him, it is said, three hundred wagonsladen with the best wines he could find, "the which train, " saysCommynes, "was almost an army as big as the English;" at the entrance ofthe 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 ofthese two tables he had caused to be seated five or six men of goodfamily, stout and fat, to make better sport for them who had a mind todrink. When the English went into the town, wherever they put up theyhad nothing to pay; there were nine or ten taverns, well supplied, whither they went to eat and drink, and asked for what they pleased. Andthis lasted three or four days. " An agreement was soon come to as to theterms of peace. King Edward bound himself to withdraw with his army toEngland so soon as Louis XI. Should have paid him seventy-five thousandcrowns. Louis promised besides to pay annually to King Edward fiftythousand crowns, in two payments, during the time that both princes werealive. A truce for seven years was concluded; they made mutual promisesto lend each other aid if they were attacked by their enemies or by theirown subjects in rebellion; and Prince Charles, the eldest son of LouisXI. , was to marry Elizabeth, Edward's daughter, when both should be ofmarriageable age. Lastly, Queen Margaret of Anjou, who had been aprisoner in England since the death of her husband, Henry VI. , was to beset at liberty, and removed to France, on renouncing all claim to thecrown of England. These conditions having been formulated, it was agreedthat the two kings should meet and sign them at Pecquigny, on the Somme, three leagues from Amiens. Thither, accordingly, they repaired, on the29th of August, 1475. Edward, as he drew near, doffed "his bonnet ofblack velvet, whereon was a large fleur-de-lis in jewels, and bowed downto within half a foot of the ground. " Louis made an equally deepreverence, saying, "Sir my cousin, right welcome; there is no man in theworld I could more desire to see than I do you, and praised be God thatwe are here assembled with such good intent. " The King of Englandanswered this speech "in good French enough, " says Commynes. The missalwas brought; the two kings swore and signed four distinct treaties; andthen they engaged in a long private conversation, after which Louis wentaway to Amiens and Edward to his army, whither Louis sent to him "allthat he had need of, even to torches and candles. " As he went chattingalong the road with Commynes, Louis told him that he had found the Kingof England so desirous of paying a visit to Paris that he had beenanything but pleased. "He is a right handsome king, " said he: "he isvery fond of women; and he might well meet at Paris some smitten one whowould know how to make him such pretty speeches as to render him desirousof another visit. His predecessors were far too much in Normandy andParis; his comradeship is worth nothing on our side of the sea; on theother side, over yonder, I should like very well to have him for goodbrother and good friend. " Throughout the whole course of the negotiationLouis had shown pliancy and magnificence; he had laden Edward's chiefcourtiers with presents; two thousand crowns by way of pension had beenallowed to his grand chamberlain, Lord Hastings, who would not give anacknowledgment. "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 metake it, you shall slip it here inside my sleeve, and have no letter orvoucher beyond; I do not wish to have people saying, 'The grandchamberlain of England was the King of France's pensioner, ' or to have myacknowledgments found in his exchequer-chamber. " Lord Hastings had notalways been so scrupulous, for, on the 15th of May, 1471, he had receivedfrom the Duke of Burgundy a pension for which he had given anacknowledgment. Another Englishman, whose name is not given by Commynes, waxed wroth at hearing some one say, "Six hundred pipes of wine and apension given you by the king soon sent you back to England. " "That iscertainly what everybody said, " answered the Englishman, "that you mighthave the laugh against us. But call you the money the king gives uspension? Why, it is tribute; and, by St. George, you may perhaps talk somuch about it as to bring us down upon you again!" "There was nothing inthe world, " says Commynes, "of which the king was more fearful than lestany word should escape him to make the English think that they were beingderided; at the same time that he was laboring to gain them over, he wascareful to humor their susceptibilities;" and Commynes, under hisschooling, had learned to understand them well: "They are rather slowgoers, " says he, "but you must have a little patience with them, and notlose your temper. . . . I fancy that to many it might appear that theking abased himself too much; but the wise might well hold that thekingdom was in great danger, save for the intervention of God, who diddispose the king's mind to choose so wise a course, and did greatlytrouble that of the Duke of Burgundy. . . . Our king knew well thenature of the King of England, who was very fond of his ease and hispleasures: when he had concluded these treaties with him, he ordered thatthe money should be found with the greatest expedition, and every one hadto lend somewhat to help to supply it on the spot. The king said thatthere was nothing in the world he would not do to thrust the King ofEngland out of the realm, save only that he would never consent that theEnglish should have a bit of territory there; and, rather than sufferthat, he would put everything to jeopardy and risk. "

Commynes had good reason to say that the kingdom was in great peril. Theintentions of Charles the Rash tended to nothing short of bringing backthe English into France, in order to share it with them. He made noconcealment of it. "I am so fond of the kingdom, " said he, "that I wouldmake six of it in France. " He was passionately eager for the title ofking. He had put out feelers for it in the direction of Germany, and theemperor, Frederic III. , had promised it to him together with that ofvicar-general of the empire, on condition that his daughter, Mary ofBurgundy, married Duke Maximilian, Frederic's son. Having beenunsuccessful on the Rhine, Charles turned once more towards the Thames, and made alliance with Edward IV. , King of England, with a view ofrenewing the English invasion of France, flattering himself, of course, that he would profit by it. To destroy the work of Joan of Arc andCharles VII. --such was the design, a criminal and a shameful one for aFrench prince, which was checkmated by the peace of Peequigny. Charleshimself 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 hehad of them, but to enable them to recover what belonged to them;" andLouis XI. Was a patriotic king when he declared that "there was nothingin the world he would not do to thrust the King of England out of therealm, and, rather than suffer the English to have a bit of territory inFrance, he would put everything to jeopardy and risk. "

The Duke of Burgundy, as soon as he found out that the King of Francehad, under the name of truce, made peace for seven years with the King ofEngland, and that Edward IV. Had recrossed the Channel with his army, sawthat his attempts, so far, were a failure. Accordingly he too lost notime in signing [on the 13th of September, 1475] a truce with King Louisfor nine years, and directing his ambition and aiming his blows againstother quarters than Western France. Two little states, his neighbors onthe east, Lorraine and Switzerland, became the object and the theatre ofhis passion for war. Lorraine had at that time for its duke Rene II. , ofthe house of Anjou through his mother Yolande, a young prince who waswavering, as so many others were, between France and Burgundy. Charlessuddenly entered Lorraine, took possession of several castles, had theinhabitants who resisted hanged, besieged Nancy, which made a valiantdefence, and ended by conquering the capital as well as thecountry-places, leaving Duke Rene no asylum but the court of Louis XI. , of whom the Lorraine prince had begged a support, which Louis, after hiscustom, had promised without rendering it effectual. Charles did notstop there. He had already been more than once engaged in hostilitieswith his neighbors the Swiss; and he now learned that they had just madea sanguinary raid upon the district of Vaud, the domain of a petty princeof 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 the11th of June, 1476, to go and avenge his client, and wreak his haughtyand 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, andto reap advantage, against him, from the leisure secured to the King ofFrance by his peace with the King of England and the Duke of Brittany. Alate occurrence had still further strengthened his position: his brotherCharles, who became Duke of Guienne, in 1469, after the treaty ofPeronne, had died on the 24th of May, 1472. There were sinister rumorsabroad touching his death. Louis was suspected, and even accused to theDuke of Brittany, an intimate friend of the deceased prince, of havingpoisoned his brother. He caused an inquiry to be instituted into thematter; but the inquiry itself was accused of being incomplete andinconclusive. "King Louis did not, possibly, cause his brother's death, "says M. De Barante, "but nobody thought him incapable of it. " The willwhich Prince Charles had dictated a little before his death increased thehorror inspired by such a suspicion. He manifested in it a feeling ofaffection and confidence towards the king his brother; he requested himto treat his servants kindly; "and if in any way, " he added, "we have everoffended our right dread and right well-beloved brother, we do beg him tobe pleased to forgive us; since, for our part, if ever in any matter hehath offended us, we do affectionately pray the Divine Majesty to forgivehim, 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 hiswill. If we acknowledge, however, that Louis was not incapable of such acrime, it must be admitted that there is no trust-worthy proof of hisguilt. At any rate his brother's death had important results for him. Not only did it set him free from all fresh embarrassment in thatdirection, 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 markedattention. He re-established at Bordeaux the parliament he had removedto Poitiers; he pardoned the towns of Pdzenas and Montignac for some lateseditions; and, lastly, he took advantage of this incident to pacify andsatisfy this portion of the kingdom. Of the great feudal chieftains who, in 1464, had formed against him the League of the common weal, the Dukeof Burgundy was the only one left on the scene, and in a condition to puthim 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 mostformidable foe, and never ceased to look about for means and allieswherewith to encounter him. He could no longer count upon theco-operation, more or less general, of the Flemings. His behavior to theLiegese after the incident at Peronne, and his share in the disasterwhich befell Liege, had lost him all his credit in the Flemish cities. The Flemings, besides, had been disheartened and disgusted at the idea ofcompromising themselves for or against their Burgundian prince. Whenthey saw him entering upon the campaign in Lorraine and Switzerland, theythemselves 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 hadnot 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 andtheir property to go after him and fetch him back safely within his saidborders, but as for making war again at his instance, they were not freeto aid him any more with either men or money. " Louis XI. , then, hadnothing to expect from the Flemings any more; but for two years past, andso soon as he observed the commencement of hostilities between the Dukeof Burgundy and the Swiss, he had paved the way for other alliances inthat quarter. In 1473 he had sent "to the most high and mighty lords andmost dear friends of ours, them of the league and city of Berne and ofthe great and little league of Germany, ambassadors charged to makeproposals to them, if they would come to an understanding to be friendsof friends and foes of foes" (make an offensive and defensive alliance). The proposal was brought before the diet of the cantons assembled atLucerne. The King of France "regretted that the Duke of Burgundy wouldnot 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 toeach canton an annual friendly donation of two thousand livres; and heengaged not to summon their valiant warriors to take service save in caseof pressing need, and unless Switzerland were herself at war. " Thequestion was discussed with animation; the cantons were divided; somewould have nothing to do with either the alliance or the money of LouisXI. , of whom they spoke with great distrust and antipathy; othersinsisted upon the importance of being supported by the King of France intheir quarrels with the Duke of Burgundy, and scornfully repudiated thefear that the influence and money of Louis would bring a taint upon theindependence and the good morals of their country. The latter opinioncarried the day; and, on the 2d of October, 1474, conformably with atreaty concluded, on the 10th of the previous January, between the Kingof France and the league of Swiss cantons, the canton of Berne made tothe French legation the following announcement: "If, in the future, thesaid lords of the league asked help from the King of France against theDuke of Burgundy, and if the said lord king, being engaged in his ownwars, could not help them with men, in this case he should cause to belodged and handed over to them, in the city of Lyons, twenty thousandRhenish florins every quarter of a year, as long as the war actuallycontinued; and we, on our part, do promise, on our faith and honor, thatevery time and however many times the said lord king shall ask help fromthe said lords of the league, we will take care that they do help him andaid him with six thousand men in his wars and expeditions, according tothe tenor of the late alliance and union made between them, howbeit onpayment. "

A Bernese messenger carried this announcement to the Burgundian campbefore the fortress of Neuss, and delivered it into the hands of DukeCharles himself, whose only remark, as he ground his teeth, was, "Ah!Berne! Berne!" At the be-ginning of January, 1476, he left Nancy, ofwhich he had recently gained possession, returned to Besancon, andstarted thence on the 6th of February to take the field with an armyamounting, it is said, to thirty or forty thousand men, provided with apowerful artillery and accompanied by an immense baggage-train, whereinCharles delighted to display his riches and magnificence in contrast withthe simplicity and roughness of his personal habits. At the rumor ofsuch an armament the Swiss attempted to keep off the war from theircountry. "I have heard tell, " says Commynes, "by a knight of theirs, whohad been sent by them to the said duke, that he told him that againstthem he could gain nothing, for that their country was very barren andpoor; that there were no good prisoners to make, and that the spurs andthe horses' bits in his own army were worth more money than all thepeople of their territory could pay in ransom even if they were taken. "Charles, however, gave no heed, saw nothing in their representations butan additional reason for hurrying on his movements with confidence, andon the 19th of February arrived before Granson, a little town in thedistrict of Vaud, where war had already begun. 

Louis XI. Watched all these incidents closely, keeping agents everywhere, treating secretly with everybody, with the Duke of Burgundy as well aswith the Swiss, knowing perfectly well what he wanted, but holdinghimself ready to face anything, no matter what the event might be. Whenhe saw that the crisis was coming, he started from Tours and went to takeup his quarters at Lyons, close to the theatre of war and within an easydistance for speedy information and prompt action. Scarcely had hearrived, on the 4th of March, when he learned that, on the day but onebefore, Duke Charles had been tremendously beaten by the Swiss atGranson; the squadrons of his chivalry had not been able to make anyimpression upon the battalions of Berne, Schwitz, Soleure, and Fribourg, armed with pikes eighteen feet long; and at sight of the mountaineersmarching with huge strides and lowered heads upon their foes andheralding their advance by the lowings of the bull of Uri and the cow ofUnterwalden, two enormous instruments made of buffalo-horn, and given, itwas said, to their ancestors by Charlemagne, the whole Burgundian army, seized with panic, had dispersed in all directions, "like smoke beforethe northern blast. " Charles himself had been forced to fly with onlyfive horsemen, it is said, for escort, leaving all his camp, artillery, treasure, oratory, jewels, down to his very cap garnished with preciousstones and his collar of the Golden Fleece, in the hands of the "poorSwiss, " astounded at their booty and having no suspicion of its value. "They sold the silver plate for a few pence, taking it for pewter, " saysM. De Barante. Those magnificent silks and velvets, that cloth of goldand damask, that Flanders lace, and those carpets from Arras which werefound heaped up in chests, were cut in pieces and distributed by the ell, like common canvas in a village shop. The duke's large diamond which hewore round his neck, and which had once upon a time glittered in thecrown of the Great Mogul, was found on the road, inside a little box setwith fine pearls. The man who picked it up kept the box and threw awaythe diamond as a mere bit of glass. Afterwards he thought better of it;went to look for the stone, found it under a wagon, and sold it for acrown to a clergyman of the neighborhood. "There was nothing saved butthe bare life, " says Commynes. 

That even the bare life was saved was a source of sorrow to Louis XI. In the very midst of his joy at the defeat. He was, nevertheless, mostproper in his behavior and language towards Duke Charles, who sent to himSire de Contay "with humble and gracious words, which was contrary to hisnature and his custom, " says Commynes; "but see how an hour's timechanged him; he prayed the king to be pleased to observe loyally thetruce concluded between them, he excused himself for not having appearedat the interview which was to have taken place at Auxerre, and he boundhimself to be present, shortly, either there or elsewhere, according tothe king's good pleasure. " Louis promised him all he asked, "for, " addsCommynes, "it did not seem to him time, as yet, to do other-wise;" and hegave the duke the good advice "to return home and bide there quietly, rather than go on stubbornly warring with yon folks of the Alps, so poorthat there was nought to gain by taking their lands, but valiant andobstinate in battle. " Louis might give this advice fearlessly, beingquite certain that Charles would not follow it. The latter's defeat atGranson had thrown him into a state of gloomy irritation. At Lausanne, where he staid for some time, he had "a great sickness, proceeding, " saysCommynes, "from grief and sadness on account of this shame that he hadsuffered; and, to tell the truth, I think that never since was hisunderstanding so good as it had been before this battle. " Before he fellill, on the 12th of March, Charles issued orders from his camp beforeLausanne to his lieutenant at Luxembourg to put under arrest "and visitwith the extreme penalty of death, without waiting for other command fromus, all the men-at-arms, archers, cross-bowmen, infantry, or othersoldiery" who had fled or dispersed after the disaster at Granson; "andas to those who be newly coming into our service it is ordered by us thatthey, on pain of the same punishment, do march towards us with alldiligence; and if they make any delay, our pleasure is that you proceedagainst them in the manner hereinabove declared without fail in any way. "With such fiery and ruthless energy Charles collected a fresh army, having a strength, it is said, of from twenty-five to thirty thousandmen, Burgundians, Flemings, Italians, and English; and after havingreviewed it on the platform above Lausanne, he set out on the 27th ofMay, 1476, and pitched his camp on the 10th of June before the littletown of Morat, six leagues from Berne, giving notice everywhere that itwas war to the death that he intended. The Swiss were expecting it, andwere prepared for it. The energy of pride was going to be pitted againstthe energy of patriotism. "The Duke of Burgundy is here with all hisforces, his Italian mercenaries and some traitors of Germans, " said theletter written to the Bernese by the governor of Morat, Adrian ofBubenberg; "the gentlemen of the magistracy, of the council, and of theburgherhood may be free from fear and hurry, and may set at rest theminds of all our confederates: I will defend Morat;" and he swore to thegarrison and the inhabitants that he would put to death the first whoshould speak of surrender. Morat had been for ten days holding outagainst the whole army of the Burgundians; the confederate Swiss werearriving successively at Berne; and the men of Zurich alone were late. Their fellow-countryman, Hans Waldmann, wrote to them, "We positivelymust give battle or we are lost, every one of us. The Burgundians arethree times more numerous than they were at Granson, but we shall manageto pull through. With God's help great honor awaits us. Do not fail tocome as quickly as possible. " On the 21st of June, in the evening, theZurichers arrived. "Ha!" the duke was just saying, "have these houndslost heart, pray? I was told that we were about to get at them. " Nextday, the 22d of June, after a pelting rain and with the first gleams ofthe returning sun, the Swiss attacked the Burgundian camp. A man-at-armscame and told the duke, who would not believe it, and dismissed themessenger with a coarse insult, but hurried, nevertheless, to the pointof attack. The battle was desperate; but before the close of the day itwas hopelessly lost by the Burgundians. Charles had still three thousandhorse, but he saw them break up, and he himself had great difficulty ingetting away, with merely a dozen men behind him, and reaching Merges, twelve leagues from Morat. Eight or ten thousand of his men had fallen, more than half, it is said, killed in cold blood after the fight. Neverhad the Swiss been so dead set against their foes; and "as cruel as atMorat" was for a long while a common expression. 

"The king, " says Commynes, "always willingly gave somewhat to him who wasthe first to bring him some great news, without forgetting the messenger, and he took pleasure in speaking thereof before the news came, saying, 'Iwill give so much to him who first brings me such and such news. ' Mylord of Bouchage and I (being together) had the first message about thebattle of Morat, and told it both together to the king, who gave each ofus two hundred marks of silver. " Next day Louis, as prudent in the hourof joy as of reverse, wrote to Count de Dampmartin, who was in command ofhis troops concentrated at Senlis, with orders to hold himself inreadiness for any event, but still carefully observe the truce with theDuke of Burgundy. Charles at that time was thinking but little of Louisand their truce; driven to despair by the disaster at Morat, but moredead set than ever on the struggle, he repaired from Morges to Gex, andfrom Gex to Salins, and summoned successively, in July and August, atSalins, at Dijon, at Brussels, and at Luxembourg the estates of hisvarious domains, making to all of them an appeal, at the same timesupplicatory and imperious, calling upon them for a fresh army with whichto recommence the war with the Swiss, and fresh subsidies with which topay it. "If ever, " said he, "you have desired to serve us and do uspleasure, see to doing and accomplishing all that is bidden you; make nodefault in anything whatsoever, and he henceforth in dread of thepunishments which may ensue. " But there was everywhere a feeling ofdisgust with the service of Duke Charles; there was no more desire ofserving him and no more fear of disobeying him; he encountered almosteverywhere nothing but objections, complaints, and refusals, or else asilence and an inactivity which were still worse. Indignant, dismayed, and dumbfounded at such desertion, Charles retired to his castle of LaRiviere, between Pontarlier and Joux, and shut himself up there for morethan six weeks, without, however, giving up the attempt to collectsoldiers. "Howbeit, " says Commynes, "he made but little of it; he kepthimself quite solitary, and he seemed to do it from sheer obstinacy morethan anything else. His natural heat was so great that he used to drinkno wine, generally took barley-water in the morning and ate preservedrose-leaves to keep himself cool; but sorrow changed his complexion somuch that he was obliged to drink good strong wine without water, and, tobring the blood back to his heart, burning tow was put into cupping-glasses, and they were applied thus heated to the region of the heart. Such are the passions of those who have never felt adversity, especiallyof proud princes who know not how to discover any remedy. The firstrefuge, in such a case, is to have recourse to God, to consider whetherone have offended Him in aught, and to confess one's misdeeds. Afterthat, what does great good is to converse with some friend, and not beashamed to show one's grief before him, for that lightens and comfortsthe heart; and not at any rate to take the course the duke took ofconcealing himself and keeping himself solitary; he was so terrible tohis own folks that none durst come forward to give him any comfort orcounsel; but all left him to do as he pleased, feeling that, if they madehim any remonstrance, it would be the worse for them. "

But events take no account of the fears and weaknesses of men. Charleslearned before long that the Swiss were not his most threatening foes, and that he had something else to do instead of going after them amongsttheir mountains. During his two campaigns against them, the Duke ofLorraine, Rend II. , whom he had despoiled of his dominions and drivenfrom Nancy, had been wandering amongst neighboring princes and people inFrance, Germany, and Switzerland, at the courts of Louis XI. And theEmperor Frederic III. , on visits to the patricians of Berne, and in thefree towns of the Rhine. He was young, sprightly, amiable, and brave; hehad nowhere met with great assistance, but he had been well received, andcertain promises had been made him. When he saw the contest so hotlycommenced between the Duke of Burgundy and the Swiss, he resolutely puthimself at the service of the republican mountaineers, fought for them intheir ranks, and powerfully contributed to their victory at Morat. Thedefeat of Charles and his retreat to his castle of La Riviere gave Rendnew hopes, and gained him some credit amongst the powers which hadhitherto merely testified towards him a good will of but little value;and his partisans in Lorraine recovered confidence in his for-tunes. Oneday, as he was at his prayers in a church, a rich widow, Madame Walther, came up to him in her mantle and hood, made him a deep reverence, andhanded him a purse of gold to help him in winning back his duchy. Thecity of Strasbourg gave him some cannon, four hundred cavalry, and eighthundred infantry; Louis XI. Lent him some money; and Rend before longfound himself in a position to raise a small army and retake Epinal, Saint-Did, Vaudemont, and the majority of the small towns in Lorraine. He then went and laid siege to Nancy. The Duke of Burgundy had leftthere as governor John de Rubemprd, lord of Bievres, with a feeblegarrison, which numbered amongst its ranks three hundred English, pickedmen. Sire de Bievres sent message after message to Charles, who did noteven reply to him. The town was short of provisions; the garrison wasdispirited; and the commander of the English was killed. Sire deBievres, a loyal servant, but a soldier of but little energy, determinedto capitulate. On the 6th of October, 1476, he evacuated the place atthe head of his men, all safe in person and property. At sight of himRend dismounted, and handsomely went forward to meet him, saying, "Sir, my good uncle, I thank you for having so courteously governed my duchy;if you find it agreeable to remain with me, you shall fare the same asmyself. " "Sir, " answered Sire de Bievres, "I hope that you will notthink ill of me for this war; I very much wish that my lord of Burgundyhad never begun it, and I am much afraid that neither he nor I will seethe end of it. "

Sire de Bievres had no idea how true a prophet he was. Almost at thevery moment when he was capitulating, Duke Charles, throwing off hissombre apathy, was once more entering Lorraine with all the troops hecould collect, and on the 22d of October he in his turn went and laidsiege to Nancy. Duke Rend, not considering himself in a position tomaintain the contest with only such forces as he had with him, determinedto quit Nancy in person and go in search of re-enforcements at adistance, at the same time leaving in the town a not very numerous but adevoted garrison, which, together with the inhabitants, promised to holdout for two months. And it did hold out whilst Rend was visitingStrasbourg, Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne, presenting himself before thecouncils of these petty republics with, in order to please them, a tamebear behind him, which he left at the doors, and promising, thanks toLouis XI. 's agents in Switzerland, extraordinary pay. He thus obtainedauxiliaries to the number of eight thousand fighting men. He had, moreover, in the very camp of the Duke of Burgundy, a secret ally, anItalian condottiere, the Count of Campo-Basso, who, either from personalhatred or on grounds of interest, was betraying the master to whom he hadbound himself. The year before, he had made an offer to Louis XI. To goover to him with his troops during a battle, or to hand over to him theDuke of Burgundy, dead or alive. Louis mistrusted the traitor, and sentCharles notice of the offers made by Campo-Basso. But Charles mistrustedLouis's information, and kept Campo-Basso in his service. A littlebefore the battle of Morat Louis had thought better of his scruples orhis doubts, and had accepted, with the compensation of a pension, thekind offices of Campo-Basso. When the war took place in Lorraine, thecondottiere, whom Duke Charles had one day grossly insulted, entered intocommunication with Duke Rend also, and took secret measures for insuringthe failure of the Burgundian attempts upon Nancy. Such was the positionof the two princes and the two armies, when, on the 4th of June, 1477, Rend, having returned with re-enforcements to Lorraine, found himselfconfronted with Charles, who was still intent upon the siege of Nancy. The Duke of Burgundy assembled his captains. "Well!" said he, "sincethese drunken scoundrels are upon us, and are coming here to look formeat and drink, what ought we to do?" The majority of those present wereof opinion that the right thing to do was to fall back into the duchy ofLuxembourg, there to recruit the enfeebled army. "Duke Rene, " they said, "is poor; he will not be able to bear very long the expense of the war, and his allies will leave him as soon as he has no more money; wait buta little, and success is certain. " Charles flew into a passion. "Myfather and I, " said he, "knew how to thrash these Lorrainers; and we willmake them remember it. By St. George! I will not fly before a boy, before Rend of Vaudemont, who is coming at the head of this scum. He hasnot so many men with him as people think; the Germans have no idea ofleaving their stoves in winter. This evening we will deliver the assaultagainst the town, and to-morrow we will give battle. "

And the next day, January the 5th, the battle did take place, in theplain of Nancy. The Duke of Burgundy assumed his armor very early in themorning. When he put on his helmet, the gilt lion, which formed thecrest of it, fell off. "That is a sign from God!" said he; but, nevertheless, he went and drew up his army in line of battle. The daybut one before, Campo-Basso had drawn off his troops to a considerabledistance; and he presented himself before Duke Rene, having taken off hisred scarf and his cross of St. Andrew, and being quite ready, he said, togive proofs of his zeal on the spot. Rene spoke about it to his Swisscaptains. "We have no mind, " said they, "to have this traitor of anItalian fighting beside us; our fathers never made use of such folk orsuch practices in order to conquer. " And Campo-Basso held aloof. Thebattle began in gloomy weather, and beneath heavy flakes of snow, lastedbut a short time, and was not at all murderous in the actual conflict, but the pursuit was terrible. Campo-Basso and his troops held the bridgeof Bouxieres, by which the Burgundian fugitives would want to pass; andthe Lorrainerss of Rend and his Swiss and German allies scoured thecountry, killing all with whom they fell in. Rend returned to Nancy inthe midst of a population whom his victory had delivered from famine aswell as war. "To show him what sufferings they had endured, " says M. DeBarante, "they conceived the idea of piling up in a heap, before the doorof his hostel, the heads of the horses, dogs, mules, cats, and otherunclean animals which had for several weeks past been the only food ofthe besieged. " When the first burst of joy was over, the question was, what had become of the Duke of Burgundy; nobody had a notion; and hisbody was not found amongst the dead in any of the places where his mostvaliant and faithful warriors had fallen. The rumor ran that he was notdead; some said that one of his servants had picked him up wounded on thefield of battle, and was taking care of him, none knew where; andaccording to others, a German lord had made him prisoner, and carried himoff beyond the Rhine. "Take good heed, " said many people, "how yecomport yourselves otherwise than if he were still alive, for hisvengeance would be terrible on his return. " On the evening of the dayafter the battle, the Count of Campo-Basso brought to Duke Rend a youngRoman page who, he said, had from a distance seen his master fall, andcould easily find the spot again. Under his guidance a move was madetowards a pond hard by the town; and there, half buried in the slush ofthe pond, were some dead bodies, lying stripped. A poor washerwoman, amongst the rest, had joined in the search; she saw the glitter of ajewel in the ring upon one of the fingers of a corpse whose face was notvisible; she went forward, turned the body over, and at once cried, "Ah!my prince!" There was a rush to the spot immediately. As the head wasbeing detached from the ice to which it stuck, the skin came off, and alarge wound was discovered. On examining the body with care, it wasunhesitatingly recognized to be that of Charles, by his doctor, by hischaplain, by Oliver de la Marche, his chamberlain, and by several groomsof the chamber; and certain marks, such as the scar of the wound he hadreceived at Montlhery, and the loss of two teeth, put their assertionbeyond a doubt. As soon as Duke Rend knew that they had at last foundthe body of the Duke of Burgundy, he had it removed to the town, and laidon a bed of state of black velvet, under a canopy of black satin. It wasdressed in a garment of white satin; a ducal crown, set with preciousstones, was placed on the disfigured brow; the lower limbs were cased inscarlet, and on the heels were gilded spurs. The Duke of Lorraine wentand sprinkled holy water on the corpse of his unhappy rival, and, takingthe dead hand beneath the pall, "Ah! dear cousin, " said he, with tears inhis _eyes_. 

For the time that I knew him he was not cruel; but he became so beforehis death, and that was a bad omen for a long existence. He was verysumptuous in dress and in all other matters, and a little too much so. He showed very great honor to ambassadors and foreign folks; they wereright well feasted and entertained by him. He was desirous of greatglory, and it was that more than ought else that brought him into hiswars; he would have been right glad to be like to those ancient princesof whom there has been so much talk after their death; he was as bold aman as any that reigned in his day. . . . After the long felicity andgreat riches of this house of Burgundy, and after three great princes, good and wise, who had lasted six score years and more in good sense andvirtue, God gave this people the Duke Charles, who kept them constantlyin great war, travail, and expense, and almost as much in winter as insummer. Many rich and comfortable folks were dead or ruined in prisonduring these wars. The great losses began in front of Neuss, andcontinued through three or four battles up to the hour of his death; andat that hour all the strength of his country was sapped; and dead, orruined, or captive, were all who could or would have defended thedominions and the honor of his house. Thus it seems that this loss wasan equal set-off to the time of their felicity. "Please God to forgiveDuke Charles his sins!"

[Illustration: The Corpse of Charles the Rash Discovered----236]

To this pious wish of Commynes, after so judicious a sketch, we may addanother: Please God that people may no more suffer themselves to be takencaptive by the corrupting and ruinous pleasures procured for them bytheir masters' grand but wicked or foolish enterprises, and may learn togive to the men who govern them a glory in proportion to the wisdom andjustice of their deeds, and by no means to the noise they make and therisks they sow broadcast around them!

The news of the death of Charles the Rash was for Louis XI. An unexpectedand unhoped-for blessing, and one in which he could scarcely believe. The news reached him on the 9th of January, at the castle of Plessis-les-Tours, by the medium of a courier sent to him by George de la Tremoille, Sire de Craon, commanding his troops on the frontier of Lorraine. 

"Insomuch as this house of Burgundy was greater and more powerful than theothers, " says Commynes, "was the pleasure great for the king more thanall the others together; it was the joy of seeing himself set above allthose he hated, and above his principal foes; it might well seem to himthat he would never in his life meet any to gainsay him in his kingdom, or in the neighborhood near him. " He replied the same day to Sire deCraon, "Sir Count, my good friend, I have received your letters, and thegood news you have brought to my knowledge, for which I thank you as muchas I am able. Now is the time for you to employ all your five naturalwits to put the duchy and countship of Burgundy in my hands. And, tothat end, place yourself with your band and the governor of Champagne, ifso be that the Duke of Burgundy is dead, within the said country, andtake care, for the dear love you bear me, that you maintain amongst themen of war the best order, just as if you were inside Paris; and makeknown to them that I am minded to treat them and keep them better thanany in my kingdom; and that, in respect of our god-daughter, I have anintention of completing the marriage that I have already had incontemplation between my lord the _dauphin_ and her. Sir Count, Iconsider it understood that you will not enter the said country, or makemention of that which is written above, unless the Duke of Burgundy bedead. And, in any case, I pray you to serve me in accordance with theconfidence I have in you. And adieu!"

Beneath the discreet reserve inspired by a remnant of doubt concerningthe death of his enemy, this letter contained the essence of Louis XI. 'sgrand and very natural stroke of policy. Charles the Rash had left onlya daughter, Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of all his dominions. Toannex this magnificent heritage to the crown of France by the marriage ofthe heiress with the _dauphin_ who was one day to be Charles VIII. , wasclearly for the best interests of the nation as well as of the Frenchkingship, and such had, accordingly, been Louis XI. 's first idea. "Whenthe Duke of Burgundy was still alive, " says Commynes, "many a time spokethe king to me of what he would do if the duke should happen to die; andhe spoke most reasonably, saying that he would try to make a matchbetween his son (who is now our king) and the said duke's daughter (whowas afterwards Duchess of Austria); and if she were not minded to hear ofit for that my lord, the _dauphin_, was much younger than she, he wouldessay to get her married to some younger lord of this realm, for to keepher and her subjects in amity, and to recover without dispute that whichhe claimed as his; and still was the said lord on this subject a weekbefore he knew of the said duke's death. . . . Howbeit it seems thatthe king our master took not hold of matters by the end by which heshould have taken hold for to come out triumphant, and to add to hiscrown all those great lordships, either by sound title or by marriage, aseasily he might have done. "

Commynes does not explain or specify clearly the mistake with which hereproaches his master. Louis XI. , in spite of his sound sense andcorrect appreciation, generally, of the political interests of France andof his crown, allowed himself on this great occasion to be swayed bysecondary considerations and personal questions. His son's marriage withthe heiress of Burgundy might cause some embarrassment in his relationswith Edward IV. , King of England, to whom he had promised the _dauphin_as a husband for his daughter Elizabeth, who was already sometimescalled, in England, the Dauphiness. In 1477, at the death of the dukeher father, Mary of Burgundy was twenty years old, and Charles, the_dauphin_, was barely eight. There was another question, a point offeudal law, as to whether Burgundy, properly so called, was a fief whichwomen could inherit, or a fief which, in default of a male heir, mustlapse to the suzerain. Several of the Flemish towns which belonged tothe Duke of Burgundy were weary of his wars and his violence, and showedan inclination to pass over to the sway of the King of France. All thesefacts offered pretexts, opportunities, and chances of success for thatcourse of egotistical pretension and cunning intrigue in which Louisdelighted and felt confident of his ability; and into it he plunged afterthe death of Charles the Rash. Though he still spoke of his desire ofmarrying his son, the _dauphin_, to Mary of Burgundy, it was no longerhis dominant and ever-present idea. Instead of taking pains to win thegood will and the heart of Mary herself, he labored with his usual zealand address to dispute her rights, to despoil her brusquely of one oranother town in her dominions, to tamper with her servants, or exciteagainst them the wrath of the populace. Two of the most devoted and mostable amongst them, Hugonet, chancellor of Burgundy, and Sired'Humbercourt, were the victims of Louis XI. 's hostile manoeuvres andof blind hatred on the part of the Ghentese; and all the Princess Mary'spassionate entreaties were powerless both with the king and with theFlemings to save them from the scaffold. And so Mary, alternatelythreatened or duped, attacked in her just rights or outraged in heraffections, being driven to extremity, exhibited a resolution never tobecome the daughter of a prince unworthy of the confidence she, poororphan, had placed in the spiritual tie which marked him out as herprotector. "I understand, " said she, "that my father had arranged mymarriage with the emperor's son; I have no mind for any other. " Louis inhis alarm tried all sorts of means, seductive and violent, to preventsuch a reverse. He went in person amongst the Walloon and Flemishprovinces belonging to Mary. "That I come into this country, " said he tothe inhabitants of Quesnoy, "is for nothing but the interests of Mdlle. De Burgundy, my well-beloved cousin and god-daughter. . . . Of herwicked advisers some would have her espouse the son of the Duke ofCleves; but he is a prince of far too little lustre for so illustrious aprincess; I know that he has a bad sore on his leg; he is a drunkard, like all Germans, and, after drinking, he will break his glass over herhead, and beat her. Others would ally her with the English, thekingdom's old enemies, who all lead bad lives: there are some who wouldgive her for her husband the emperor's son, but those princes of theimperial house are the most avaricious in the world; they will carry offMdlle. De Burgundy to Germany, a strange land and a coarse, where shewill know no consolation, whilst your land of Hainault will be leftwithout any lord to govern and defend it. If my fair cousin were welladvised, she would espouse the _dauphin_; you speak French, you Walloonpeople; you want a prince of France, not a German. As for me, I esteemthe folks of Hainault more than any nation in the world; there is nonemore noble, and in my sight a hind of Hainault is worth more than a grandgentleman of any other country. " At the very time that he was using suchflattering language to the good folks of Hainault, he was writing to theCount de Dampmartin, whom he had charged with the repression ofinsurrection in the country-parts of Ghent and Bruges, "Sir Grand Master, I send you some mowers to cut down the crop you wot off; put them, I prayyou, to work, and spare not some casks of wine to set them drinking, andto make them drunk. I pray you, my friend, let there be no need toreturn a second time to do the mowing, for you are as much crown-officeras I am, and, if I am king, you are grand master. " Dampmartin executedthe king's orders without scruple; and at the season of harvest theFlemish country-places were devastated. "Little birds of heaven, " criesthe Flemish chronicler Molinet, "ye who are wont to haunt our fields andrejoice our hearts with your amorous notes, now seek out other countries;get ye hence from our tillages, for the king of the mowers of France hathdone worse to us than do the tempests. "

All the efforts of Louis XI. , his winning speeches, and his ruinousdeeds, did not succeed in averting the serious check he dreaded. On the18th of August, 1477, seven months after the battle of Nancy and thedeath of Charles the Rash, Arch-duke Maximilian, son of the EmperorFrederick III. , arrived at Ghent to wed Mary of Burgundy. "The moment hecaught sight of his betrothed, " say the Flemish chroniclers, "they bothbent down to the ground and turned as pale as death--a sign of mutuallove according to some, an omen of unhappiness according to others. "Next day, August 19, the marriage was celebrated with great simplicity inthe chapel of the Hotel de Ville; and Maximilian swore to respect theprivileges of Ghent. A few days afterwards he renewed the same oath atBruges, in the midst of decorations bearing the modest device, "Mostglorious prince, defend us lest we perish" (Gloriosissime princeps, defende nos ne pereamus). Not only did Louis XI. Thus fail in his firstwise design of incorporating with France, by means of a marriage betweenhis son the _dauphin_ and Princess Mary, the heritage of the Dukes ofBurgundy, but he suffered the heiress and a great part of the heritageto pass into the hands of the son of the German emperor; and thereby hepaved the way for that determined rivalry between the houses of Franceand Austria, which was a source of so many dangers and woes to bothstates during three centuries. It is said that in 1745, when Louis XV. , after the battle of Fontenoy, entered Bruges cathedral, he remarked, ashe gazed on the tombs of the Austro-Burgundian princes, "There is theorigin of all our wars. " In vain, when the marriage of Maximilian andMary was completed, did Louis XI. Attempt to struggle against his new anddangerous neighbor; his campaigns in the Flemish provinces, in 1478 and1479, had no great result; he lost, on the 7th of August, 1479, thebattle of Guinegate, between St. Omer and Therouanne; and before long, tired of war, which was not his favorite theatre for the display of hisabilities, he ended by concluding with Maximilian a truce at first, andthen a peace, which in spite of some conditionals favorable to France, left the principal and the fatal consequences of the Austro-Burgundianmarriage to take full effect. This event marked the stoppage of thatgreat, national policy which had prevailed during the first part of LouisXI. 's reign. Joan of Arc and Charles VII. Had driven the English fromFrance; and for sixteen years Louis XI. Had, by fighting and graduallydestroying the great vassals who made alliance with them, prevented themfrom regaining a footing there. That was work as salutary as it wasglorious for the nation and the French kingship. At the death of Charlesthe Rash, the work was accomplished; Louis XI. Was the only power left inFrance, without any great peril from without, and without any great rivalwithin; but he then fell under the sway of mistaken ideas and a viciousspirit. The infinite resources of his mind, the agreeableness of hisconversation, his perseverance combined with the pliancy of his will, theservices he was rendering France, the successes he in the long ruinfrequently obtained, and his ready apparent resignation under hisreverses, for a while made up for or palliated his faults, hisfalsehoods, his perfidies, his iniquities; but when evil is predominantat the bottom of a man's soul, he cannot do without youth and success;he cannot make head against age and decay, reverse of fortune and theapproach of death; and so Louis XI. When old in years, master-power stillthough beaten in his last game of policy, appeared to all as he reallywas and as he had been prediscerned to be by only such eminent observersas Commynes, that is, a crooked, swindling, utterly selfish, vindictive, cruel man. Not only did he hunt down implacably the men who, afterhaving served him, had betrayed or deserted him; he revelled in thevengeance he took and the sufferings he inflicted on them. He had raisedto the highest rank both in state and church the son of a cobbler, or, according to others, of a tailor, one John de Balue, born in 1421, at themarket-town of Angles, in Poitou. After having chosen him, as anintelligent and a clever young priest, for his secretary and almoner, Louis made him successively clerical councillor in the parliament ofParis, then Bishop of Evreux, and afterwards cardinal; and he employedhim in his most private affairs. It was a hobby of his thus to make thefortunes of men born in the lowest stations, hoping that, since theywould owe everything to him, they would never depend on any but him. Itis scarcely credible that so keen and contemptuous a judge of humannature could have reckoned on dependence as a pledge of fidelity. And inthis case Louis was, at any rate, mistaken; Balue was a traitor to him, and in 1468, at the very time of the incident at Peronne, he was secretlyin the service of Duke Charles of Burgundy, and betrayed to him theinterests and secrets of his master and benefactor. In 1469 Louisobtained material proof of the treachery; and he immediately had Baluearrested and put on his trial. The cardinal confessed everything, askingonly to see the king. Louis gave him an interview on the way fromAmboise to Notre-Dame de Clery; and they were observed, it is said, conversing for two hours, as they walked together on the road. The trialand condemnation of a cardinal by a civil tribunal was a serious businesswith the court of Rome. The king sent commissioners to Pope Paul II. :the pope complained of the procedure, but amicably and withoutpersistence. The cardinal was in prison at Loches; and Louis resolved toleave him there forever, without any more fuss. But at the same timethat, out of regard for the dignity of cardinal, which he had himselfrequested of the pope for the culprit, he dispensed with the legalcondemnation to capital punishment, he was bent upon satisfying hisvengeance, and upon making Balue suffer in person for his crime. Hetherefore had him confined in a cage, "eight feet broad, " says Commynes, "and only one foot higher than a man's stature, covered with iron platesoutside and inside, and fitted with terrible bars. " There is still to beseen in Loches castle, under the name of the Balue cage, that instrumentof prison-torture which the cardinal, it is said, himself invented. Init he passed eleven years, and it was not until 1480 that he was let out, at the solicitation of Pope Sixtus IV. , to whom Louis XI. , being old andill, thought he could not possibly refuse this favor. He remembered, perhaps, at that time how that, sixteen years before, in writing to hislieutenant-general in Poitou to hand over to Balue, Bishop of Evreux, theproperty of a certain abbey, he said, "He is a devilish good bishop justnow; I know not what he will be here-after. "

[Illustration: The Balue Cage----245]

He was still more pitiless towards a man more formidable and lesssubordinate, both in character and origin, than Cardinal Balue. Louis ofLuxembourg, Count of St. Pol, had been from his youth up engaged in thewars and intrigues of the sovereigns and great feudal lords of WesternEurope--France, England, Germany, Burgundy, Brittany, and Lorraine. From1433 to 1475 he served and betrayed them all in turn, seeking andobtaining favors, incurring and braving rancor, at one time on one sideand at another time on another, acting as constable of France and asdiplomatic agent for the Duke of Burgundy, raising troops and takingtowns for Louis XI. , for Charles the Rash, for Edward IV. , for the Germanemperor, and trying nearly always to keep for himself what he had takenon another's account. The truth is, that he was constantly occupied withthe idea of making for himself an independent dominion, and becoming agreat sovereign. "He was, " says Duclos, "powerful from his possessions, a great captain, more ambitious than politic, and, from his ingratitudeand his perfidies, worthy of his tragic end. " His various patrons grewtired at last of being incessantly taken up with and then abandoned, served and then betrayed; and they mutually interchanged proofs of thedesertions and treasons to which they had been victims. In 1475 Louisof Luxembourg saw a storm threatening; and he made application for asafe-conduct to Charles the Rash, who had been the friend of his youth. "Tell him, " replied Charles to the messenger, "that he has forfeited hispaper and his hope as well;" and he gave orders to detain him. As soonas Louis XI. Knew whither the constable had retired, he demanded of theDuke of Burgundy to give him up, as had been agreed between them. "Ihave need, " said he, "for my heavy business, of a head like his;" and headded, with a ghastly smile, "it is only the head I want; the body maystay where it is. " On the 24th of November, 1475, the constable was, accordingly, given up to the king; and on the 27th, was brought to Paris. His trial, begun forthwith, was soon over; he himself acknowledged thegreater part of what was imputed to him; and on the 19th of December hewas brought up from the Bastille before the parliament. "My lord of St. Pol, " said the chancellor to him, "you have always passed for being thefirmest lord in the realm; you must not belie yourself to-day, when youhave more need than ever of firmness and courage;" and he read to him thedecree which sentenced him to lose his head that very day on the Place deGreve. "That is a mighty hard sentence, " said the constable; "I pray Godthat I may see Him to-day. " And he underwent execution with serene andpious firmness. He was of an epoch when the most criminal enterprisesdid not always preclude piety. Louis XI. Did not look after theconstable's accomplices. "He flew at the heads, " says Duclos, "and wasset on making great examples; he was convinced that noble blood, when itis guilty, should be shed rather than common blood. Nevertheless therewas considered to be something indecent in the cession by the king to theDuke of Burgundy of the constable's possessions. It seemed like theprice of the blood of an unhappy man, who, being rightfully sacrificedonly to justice and public tranquillity, appeared to be so to vengeance, ambition, and avarice. "

In August, 1477, the battle of Nancy had been fought; Charles the Rashhad been killed; and the line of the Dukes of Burgundy had beenextinguished. Louis XI. Remained master of the battle-field on which thegreat risks and great scenes of his life had been passed through. Itseemed as if he ought to fear nothing now, and that the day for clemencyhad come. But such was not the king's opinion; two cruel passions, suspicion and vengeance, had taken possession of his soul; he remainedconvinced, not without reason, that nearly all the great feudal lords whohad been his foes were continuing to conspire against him, and that heought not, on his side, ever to cease from striving against thorn. Thetrial of the constable, St. Pol, had confirmed all his suspicions; he haddiscovered thereby traces and almost proofs of a design for a long timepast conceived and pursued by the constable and his associates--thedesign of seizing the king, keeping him prisoner, and setting his son, the _dauphin_, on the throne, with a regency composed of a council oflords. Amongst the declared or presumed adherents of this project, theking had found James d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, the companion andfriend of his youth; for his father, the Count of Pardiac, had beengovernor to Louis, at that time _dauphin_. Louis, on becoming king, hadloaded James d'Armagnac with favors; had raised his countship of Nemoursto a duchy-peerage of France; had married him to Louise of Anjou, daughter of the Count of Maine and niece of King Rend. The new Duke ofNemours entered, nevertheless, into the League of Common Weal against theking. Having been included, in 1465, with the other chiefs of the leaguein the treaty of Conflans, and reconciled with the king, the Duke ofNemours made oath to him, in the Sainte-Chapelle, to always be to him agood, faithful, and loyal subject, and thereby obtained the governorshipof Paris and Ile-de-France. But, in 1469, he took part in the revolt ofhis cousin, Count John d'Armagnac, who was supposed to be incommunication with the English; and having been vanquished by the Countde Dampmartin, he had need of a fresh pardon from the king, which heobtained on renouncing the privileges of the peerage if he should offendagain. He then withdrew within his own domains, and there lived intranquillity and popularity, but still keeping up secret relations withhis old associates, especially with the Duke of Burgundy and theconstable of St. Pol. In 1476, during the Duke of Burgundy's firstcampaign against the Swiss, the more or less active participation of theDuke of Nemours with the king's enemies appeared to Louis so grave, thathe gave orders to his son-in-law, Peter of Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu, togo and besiege him in his castle of Carlat, in Auvergne. The Duke ofNemours was taken prisoner there and carried off to Vienne, in Dauphiny, where the king then happened to be. In spite of the prisoner'sentreaties, Louis absolutely refused to see him, and had him confined inthe tower of Pierre-Encise. The Duke of Nemours was so disquieted at hisposition and the king's wrath, that his wife, Louise of Anjou, who was inher confinement at Carlat, had a fit of terror and died there; and hehimself, shut up at Pierre-Encise, in a dark and damp dungeon, found hishair turn white in a few days. He was not mistaken about the gravity ofthe danger. Louis was both alarmed at these incessantly renewedconspiracies of the great lords and vexed at the futility of his pardons. He was determined to intimidate his enemies by a grand example, andavenge his kingly self-respect by bringing his power home to the ingrateswho made no account of his indulgence. He ordered that the Duke ofNemours should be removed from Pierre-Encise to Paris, and put in theBastille, where he arrived on the 4th of August, 1476, and thatcommissioners should set about his trial. The king complained of thegentleness with which the prisoner had been treated on arrival, and wroteto one of the commissioners, "It seems to me that you have but one thingto do; that is, to find out what guarantees the Duke of Nemours had giventhe constable of being at one with him in making the Duke of Burgundyregent, putting me to death, seizing my lord the _dauphin_, and takingthe authority and government of the realm. He must he made to speakclearly on this point, and must get hell (be put to the torture) in goodearnest. I am not pleased at what you tell me as to the irons havingbeen taken off his legs, as to his being let out from his cage, and as tohis being taken to the mass to which the women go. Whatever thechancellor or others may say, take care that he budge not from his cage, that he be never let out save to give him hell (torture him), and that hesuffer hell (torture) in his own chamber. " The Duke of Nemours protestedagainst the choice of commissioners, and claimed, as a peer of the realm, his right to be tried by the parliament. When put to the torture heended by saying, "I wish to conceal nothing from the king; I will tellhim the truth as to all I know. " "My most dread and sovereign lord, " hehimself wrote to Louis, "I have been so misdoing towards you and towardsGod that I quite see that I am undone unless your grace and pity beextended to me; the which, accordingly, most humbly and in greatbitterness and contrition of heart, I do beseech you to bestow upon meliberally;" and he put the simple signature, "Poor James. " "He confessedthat he had been cognizant of the constable's designs; but he added that, whilst thanking him for the kind offers made to himself, and whilsttestifying his desire that the lords might at last get their guarantees, he had declared what great obligations and great oaths he was under tothe king, against the which he would not go; he, moreover, had told theconstable he had no money at the moment to dispose of, no relative towhom he was inclined to trust himself or whom he could exert himself towin over, not even M. D'Albret, his cousin. " In such confessions therewas enough to stop upright and fair judges from the infliction of capitalpunishment, but not enough to reassure and move the heart of Louis XI. On the chancellor's representations he consented to have the businesssent before the parliament; but the peers of the realm were not invitedto it. The king summoned the parliament to Noyon, to be nearer his ownresidence; and he ordered that the trial should be brought to aconclusion in that town, and that the original commissioners who hadcommenced proceedings, as well as thirteen other magistrates and officersof the king denoted by their posts, should sit with the lords of theparliament, and deliberate with them. 

In spite of so many arbitrary precautions and violations of justice, thewill of Louis XI. Met, even in a parliament thus distorted, with someresistance. Three of the commissioners added to the court abstained fromtaking any part in the proceedings; three of the councillors pronouncedagainst the penalty of death; and the king's own son-in-law, Sire deBeaujeu, who presided, confined himself to collecting the votes withoutdelivering an opinion, and to announcing the decision. It was to theeffect that "James d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, was guilty of hightreason, and, as such, deprived of all honors, dignities, andprerogatives, and sentenced to be beheaded and executed according tojustice. " Furthermore the court declared all his possessions confiscatedand lapsed to the king. The sentence, determined upon at Noyon on the10th of July, 1477, was made known to the Duke of Nemours on the 4th ofAugust, in the Bastille, and carried out, the same day, in front of themarket-place. A disgusting detail, reproduced by several modern writers, has almost been received into history. Louis XI. , it is said, orderedthe children of the Duke of Nemours to be placed under the scaffold, andbe sprinkled with their father's blood. None of his contemporaries, eventhe most hostile to Louis XI. , and even amongst those who, at the states-general held in 1484, one of them after his death, raised their voicesagainst the trial of the Duke of Nemours, and in favor of his children, has made any mention of this pretended atrocity. Amongst the men whohave reigned and governed ably, Louis XI. Is one of those who could bemost justly taxed with cruel indifference when cruelty might be useful tohim; but the more ground there is for severe judgment upon the chieftainsof nations, the stronger is the interdict against overstepping the limitjustified and authorized by facts. 

The same rule of historical equity makes it incumbent upon us to remarkthat, in spite of his feelings of suspicion and revenge, Louis XI. Couldperfectly well appreciate the men of honor in whom he was able to haveconfidence, and would actually confide in them even contrary to ordinaryprobabilities. He numbered amongst his most distinguished servantsthree men who had begun by serving his enemies, and whom he conquered, so to speak, by his penetration and his firm mental grasp of policy. The first was Philip of Chabannes, Count de Dampmartin, an able andfaithful military leader under Charles VII. , so suspected by Louis XI. At his accession, that, when weary of living in apprehension andretirement he came, in 1463, and presented himself to the king, who wason his way to Bordeaux, "Ask you justice or mercy?" demanded Louis. "Justice, sir, " was the answer. "Very well, then, " replied the king, "I banish you forever from the kingdom. " And he issued an order to thateffect, at the same time giving Dampmartin a large sum to supply thewants of exile. It is credible that Louis already knew the worth of theman, and wished in this way to render their reconciliation more easy. Three years afterwards, in 1466, he restored to Dampmartin hispossessions together with express marks of royal favor, and twelve yearslater, in 1478, in spite of certain gusts of doubt and disquietude whichhad passed across his mind as to Dampmartin under circumstances criticalfor both of them, the king wrote to him, "Sir Grand Master, I havereceived your letters, and I do assure you, by the faith of my body, that I am right joyous that you provided so well for your affair atQuesnoy, for one would have said that you and the rest of the old oneswere no longer any good in an affair of war, and we and the rest of theyoung ones would have gotten the honor for ourselves. Search, I prayyou, to the very roots the case of those who would have betrayed us, andpunish them so well that they shall never do you harm. I have alwaystold you that you have no need to ask me for leave to go and do yourbusiness, for I am sure that you would not abandon mine without havingprovided for everything. Wherefore, I put myself in your hands, and youcan go away without leave. All goes well; and I am much better pleasedat your holding your own so well than if you had risked a loss of two toone. And so, farewell!" In 1465, another man of war, Odet d'Aydie, Lord of Lescun in Warn, had commanded at Montlhery the troops of theDukes of Berry and Brittany against Louis XI. ; and, in 1469, the king, who had found means of making his acquaintance, and who "was wiser, "says Commynes, "in the conduct of such treaties than any other prince ofhis time, " resolved to employ him in his difficult relations with hisbrother Charles, then Duke of Guienne, "promising him that he and hisservants, and he especially, should profit thereby. " Three yearsafterwards, in 1472, Louis made Lescun Count of Comminges, "wherein heshowed good judgment, " adds Commynes, "saying that no peril would comeof putting in his hands that which he did put, for never, during thosepast dissensions, had the said Lescun a mind to have any communicationwith the English, or to consent that the places of Normandy should behanded over to them;" and to the end of his life Louis XI. Kept up theconfidence which Lescun had inspired by his judicious fidelity in thecase of this great question. There is no need to make any addition tothe name of Philip de Commynes, the most precious of the politicconquests made by Louis in the matter of eminent counsellors, to whom heremained as faithful as they were themselves faithful and useful to him. The _Memoires of Commynes_ are the most striking proof of the rare andunfettered political intellect placed by the future historian at theking's service, and of the estimation in which the king had wit enoughto hold it. 

Louis XI. Rendered to France, four centuries ago, during a reign oftwenty-two years, three great services, the traces and influence of whichexist to this day. He prosecuted steadily the work of Joan of Arc andCharles VII. , the expulsion of a foreign kingship and the triumph ofnational independence and national dignity. By means of the provinceswhich he successively won, wholly or partly, Burgundy, Franche-Comte, Artois, Provence, Anjou, Roussillon, and Barrois, he caused France tomake a great stride towards territorial unity within her naturalboundaries. By the defeat he inflicted on the great vassals, the favorhe showed the middle classes, and the use he had the sense to make ofthis new social force, he contributed powerfully to the formation of theFrench nation, and to its unity under a national government. Feudalsociety had not an idea of how to form itself into a nation, ordiscipline its forces under one head; Louis XI. Proved its politicalweakness, determined its fall, and labored to place in its stead Franceand monarchy. Herein are the great facts of his reign, and the proofs ofhis superior mind. 

But side by side with these powerful symptoms of a new regimen appearedalso the vices of which that regimen contained the germ, and those of theman himself who was laboring to found it. Feudal society, perceivingitself to be threatened, at one time attacked Louis XI. With passion, atanother entered into violent disputes against him; and Louis, in order tostruggle with it, employed all the practices, at one time crafty and atanother violent, that belong to absolute power. Craft usuallypredominated in his proceedings, violence being often too perilousfor him to risk it; he did not consider himself in a condition to saybrazen-facedly, "Might before right;" but he disregarded right in thecase of his adversaries, and he did not deny himself any artifice, anylie, any baseness, however specious, in order to trick them or ruin themsecretly, when he did not feel himself in a position to crush them at ablow. "The end justifies the means"--that was his maxim; and the end, in his case, was sometimes a great and legitimate political object, nothing less than the dominant interest of France, but far more often hisown personal interest, something necessary to his own success or his owngratification. No loftiness, no greatness of soul, was natural to him;and the more experience of life he had, the more he became selfish anddevoid of moral sense and of sympathy with other men, whether rivals, tools, or subjects. All found out before long, not only how littleaccount he made of them, but also what cruel pleasure he sometimes tookin making them conscious of his disdain and his power. He was"familiar, " but not by no means "vulgar;" he was in conversation able andagreeable, with a mixture, however, of petulance and indiscretion, evenwhen he was meditating some perfidy; and "there is much need, " he used tosay, "that my tongue should sometimes serve me; it has hurt me oftenenough. " The most puerile superstitions, as well as those most akin to ablind piety, found their way into his mind. When he received any badnews, he would cast aside forever the dress he was wearing when the newscame; and of death he had a dread which was carried to the extent ofpusillanimity and ridiculousness. "Whilst he was every day, " says M. DeBarante, "becoming more suspicious, more absolute, more terrible to hischildren, to the princes of the blood, to his old servants, and to hiswisest counsellors, there was one man who, without any fear of his wrath, treated him with brutal rudeness. This was James Cattier, his doctor. When the king would sometimes complain of it before certain confidentialservants, 'I know very well, ' Cattier would say, that some fine morningyou'll send me where you've sent so many others; but, 'sdeath, you'll notlive a week after!'" Then the king would coax him, overwhelm him withcaresses, raise his salary to ten thousand crowns a month, make him apresent of rich lordships; and he ended by making him premier presidentof the Court of Exchequer. All churches and all sanctuaries of any smallcelebrity were recipients of his oblations, and it was not the salvationof his soul, but life and health, that he asked for in return. One daythere was being repeated, on his account and in his presence, an orisonto St. Eutropius, who was implored to grant health to the soul and healthto the body. "The latter will be enough, " said the king; "it is notright to bother the saint for too many things at once. " He showed greatdevotion for images which had received benediction, and often had one ofthem sewn upon his hat. Hawkers used to come and bring them to him; andone day he gave a hundred and sixty livres to a pedler who had in hispack one that had received benediction at Aix-la-Chapelle. 

[Illustration: Louis XI. At his Devotions----255]

Whatever may have been, in the middle ages, the taste and the custom inrespect of such practices, they were regarded with less respect in thefifteenth than in the twelfth century, and many people scoffed at thetrust that Louis XI. Placed in them, or doubted his sincerity. 

Whether they were sincere or assumed, the superstitions of Louis XI. Didnot prevent him from appreciating and promoting the progress ofcivilization, towards which the fifteenth century saw the first realgeneral impulse. He favored the free development of industry and trade;he protected printing, in its infancy, and scientific studies, especiallythe study of medicine; by his authorization, it is said, the operationfor the stone was tried, for the first time in France, upon a criminalunder sentence of death, who recovered, and was pardoned; and he welcomedthe philological scholars who were at this time laboring to diffusethrough Western Europe the works of Greek and Roman antiquity. Heinstituted, at first for his own and before long for the public service, post-horses and the letter-post within his kingdom. Towards intellectualand social movement he had not the mistrust and antipathy of an old, one-grooved, worn-out, unproductive despotism; his kingly despotism wasnew, and, one might almost say, innovational, for it sprang and wasgrowing up from the ruins of feudal rights and liberties which hadinevitably ended in monarchy. But despotism's good services areshort-lived; it has no need to last long before it generates iniquity andtyranny; and that of Louis XI. , in the latter part of his reign, bore itsnatural, unavoidable fruits. "His mistrust, " says M. De Barante, "becamehorrible, and almost insane; every year he had surrounded his castle ofPlessis with more walls, ditches, and rails. On the towers were ironsheds, a shelter from arrows, and even artillery. More than eighteenhundred of those planks bristling with nails, called caltrops, weredistributed over the yonder side of the ditch. There were every day fourhundred crossbow-men on duty, with orders to fire on whosoeverapproached. Every suspected passer-by was seized, and carried off toTristan l'Hermite, the provost-marshal. No great proofs were requiredfor a swing on the gibbet, or for the inside of a sack and a plunge inthe Loire. . . . Men who, like Sire de Commynes, had been the king'sservants, and who had lived in his confidence, had no doubt but that hehad committed cruelties and perpetrated the blackest treachery; stillthey asked themselves whether there had not been a necessity, and whetherhe had not, in the first instance, been the object of criminalmachinations against which he had to defend himself. . . . But, throughout the kingdom, the multitude of his subjects who had notreceived kindnesses from him, nor lived in familiarity with him, norknown of the ability displayed in his plans, nor enjoyed the wit of hisconversation, judged only by that which came out before their eyes; theimposts had been made much heavier, without any consent on the part ofthe states-general; the talliages, which under Charles VII. Brought inonly eighteen hundred thousand livres, rose, under Louis XI. , tothirty-seven hundred thousand; the kingdom was ruined, and the peoplewere at the last extremity of misery; the prisons were full; none wassecure of life or property; the greatest in the land, and even theprinces of the blood, were not safe in their own houses. 

An unexpected event occurred at this time to give a little more heart toLouis XI. , who was now very ill, and to mingle with his gloomy broodingsa gleam of future prospects. Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles theRash, died at Bruges on the 27th of March, 1482, leaving to her husband, Maximilian of Austria, a daughter, hardly three years of age, PrincessMarguerite by name, heiress to the Burgundian-Flemish dominions which hadnot come into the possession of the King of France. Louis, as soon as heheard the news, conceived the idea and the hope of making up for thereverse he had experienced five years previously through the marriage ofMary of Burgundy. He would arrange espousals between his son, the_dauphin_, Charles, thirteen years old, and the infant princess left byMary, and thus recover for the crown of France the beautiful domains hehad allowed to slip from him. A negotiation was opened at once on thesubject between Louis, Maximilian, and the estates of Flanders, and, onthe 23d of December, 1482, it resulted in a treaty, concluded at Arras, which arranged for the marriage, and regulated the mutual conditions. InJanuary, 1483, the ambassadors from the estates of Flanders and fromMaximilian, who then for the first time assumed the title of archduke, came to France for the ratification of the treaty. Having been firstreceived with great marks of satisfaction at Paris, they repaired toPlessis-les-Tours. Great was their surprise at seeing this melancholyabode, this sort of prison, into which "there was no admittance saveafter so many formalities and precautions. " When they had waited awhile, they were introduced, in the evening, into a room badly lighted. In a dark corner was the king, seated in an arm-chair. They movedtowards him; and then, in a weak and trembling voice, but still, as itseemed, in a bantering tone, Louis asked pardon of the Abbot of St. Peter of Ghent and of the other ambassadors for not being able to riseand greet them. After having heard what they had to say, and having helda short conversation with them, he sent for the Gospels for to make oath. He excused himself for being obliged to take the holy volume in his lefthand, for his right was paralyzed and his arm supported in a sling. Then, holding the volume of the Gospels, he raised it up painfully, andplacing upon it the elbow of his right arm, he made oath. Thus appearedin the eyes of the Flemings that king who had done them so much harm, andwho was obtaining of them so good a treaty by the fear with which heinspired them, all dying as he was. 

On the 2d of June following, the infant princess, Marguerite of Austria, was brought by a solemn embassy to Paris first, and then, on the 23d ofJune, to Amboise, where her betrothal to the _dauphin_, Charles, wascelebrated. Louis XI. Did not feel fit for removal to Amboise; and hewould not even receive at Plessis-les-Tours the new Flemish embassy. Assuredly neither the king nor any of the actors in this regal sceneforesaw that this marriage, which they with reason looked upon as atriumph of French policy, would never be consummated; that, at therequest of the court of France, the pope would annul the betrothal; andthat, nine years after its celebration, in 1492, the Austrian princess, after having been brought up at Amboise under the guardianship of theDuchess of Bourbon, Anne, eldest daughter of Louis XI. , would be sentback to her father, Emperor Maximilian, by her affianced, Charles VIII. , then King of France, who preferred to become the husband of a Frenchprincess with a French province for dowry, Anne, Duchess of Brittany. 

[Illustration: Views of the Castle of Plessis-les-Tours----258]

It was in March, 1481, that Louis XI. Had his first attack of thatapoplexy, which, after several repeated strokes, reduced him to such astate of weakness that in June, 1483, he felt himself and declaredhimself not in a fit state to be present at his son's betrothal. Twomonths afterwards, on the 25th of August, St. Louis's day, he had a freshstroke, and lost all consciousness and speech. He soon recovered them;but remained so weak that he could not raise his hand to his mouth, and, under the conviction that he was a dead man, he sent for his son-in-law, Peter of Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu; and "Go, " said he, "to Amboise, to theking, my son; I have intrusted him as well as the government of thekingdom to your charge and my daughter's care. You know all I haveenjoined upon him; watch and see that it be observed. Let him show favorand confidence towards those who have done me good service and whom Ihave named to him. You know, too, of whom he should beware, and who mustnot be suffered to come near him. " He sent for the chancellor fromParis, and bade him go and take the seals to the king. "Go to the king, "he said to the captains of his guards, to his archers, to his huntsmen, to all his household. "His speech never failed him after it had comeback to him, " says Commynes, "nor his senses; he was constantly sayingsomething of great sense and never in all his illness, which lasted fromMonday to Saturday evening, did he complain, as do all sorts of folkwhen they feel ill. . . . "Notwithstanding all those commands herecovered heart, " adds Commynes, "and had good hope of escaping. " Inconversation at odd times with some of his servants, and even withCommynes himself, he had begged them, whenever they saw that he was veryill, not to mention that cruel word death; he had even made a covenantwith them, that they should say no more to him than, "Don't talk much, "which would be sufficient warning. But his doctor, James Coettier, andhis barber, Oliver the Devil, whom he had ennobled and enriched underthe name of Oliver le Daim, did not treat him with so much indulgence. "They notified his death to him in brief and harsh terms, " saysCommynes; "'Sir, we must do our duty; have no longer hope in your holyman of Calabria or in other matters, for assuredly all is over with you;think of your soul; there is no help for it. ' 'I have hope in God thatHe will aid me, ' answered Louis, coldly; 'peradventure I am not so illas you think. '

"He endured with manly virtue so cruel a sentence, " says Commynes, "andeverything, even to death, more than any man I ever saw die; he spoke ascoolly as if he had never been ill. " He gave minute orders about hisfuneral, sepulchre, and tomb. He would be laid at Notre-Dame de Clery, and not, like his ancestors, at St. Denis; his statue was to be giltbronze, kneeling, face to the altar, head uncovered, and hands claspedwithin his hat, as was his ordinary custom. Not having died on thebattle-field and sword in hand, he would be dressed in hunting-garb, with jack-boots, a hunting-horn, slung over his shoulder, his houndlying beside him, his order of St. Michael round his neck, and his swordat his side. As to the likeness, he asked to be represented, not as hewas in his latter days, bald, bow-backed, and wasted, but as he was inhis youth and in the vigor of his age, face pretty full, nose aquiline, hair long, and falling down behind to his shoulders. After having takenall these pains about himself after his death, he gave his chiefremaining thoughts to France and his son. "Orders must be sent, " saidhe, "to M. D'Esquerdes [Philip de Crevecoeur, Baron d'Esquerdes, adistinguished warrior, who, after the death of Charles the Rash, had, through the agency of Commynes, gone over to the service of Louis XI. , and was in command of his army] to attempt no doings as to Calais. Wehad thought to drive out the English from this the last corner they holdin the kingdom; but such matters are too weighty; all that business endswith me. M. D'Esquerdes must give up such designs, and come and guardmy son without budging from his side for at least six months. Let anend be put, also, to all our disputes with Brittany, and let this DukeFrancis be allowed to live in peace without any more causing him troubleor fear. This is the way in which we, must now deal with all ourneighbors. Five or six good years of peace are needful for the kingdom. My poor people have suffered too much; they are in great desolation. IfGod had been pleased to grant me life, I should have put it all torights; it was my thought and my desire, let my son be strictly chargedto remain at peace, especially whilst he is so young. At a later time, when he is older, and when the kingdom is in good case, he shall do ashe pleases about it. "

[Illustration: Louis XI----260]

On Saturday, August 30, 1483, between seven and eight in the evening, Louis XI. Expired, saying, "Our Lady of Embrun, my good mistress, havepity upon me; the mercies of the Lord will I sing forever (misericordiasDomini in ceternum cantabo). "

"It was a great cause of joy throughout the kingdom, " says M. De Barantewith truth, in his _Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne_: "this moment hadbeen impatiently waited for as a deliverance, and as the ending of somany woes and fears. For a long time past no King of France had been soheavy on his people or so hated by them. "

This was certainly just, and at the same time ungrateful. 

Louis XI. Had rendered France great service, but in a manner void offrankness, dignity, or lustre; he had made the contemporary generationpay dearly for it by reason of the spectacle he presented of trickery, perfidy, and vindictive cruelty, and by his arbitrary and tyrannicalexercise of kingly power. People are not content to have useful service;they must admire or love; and Louis XI. Inspired France with neither ofthose sentiments. He has had the good fortune to be described andappraised, in his own day too, by the most distinguished and independentof his councillors, Philip de Commynes, and, three centuries afterwards, by one of the most thoughtful and the soundest intellects amongst thephilosophers of the eighteenth century, Duclos, who, moreover, had theadvantage of being historiographer of France, and of having studied thehistory of that reign in authentic documents. We reproduce here the twojudgments, the agreement of which is remarkable:--

"God, " says Commynes, "had created our king more wise, liberal, and fullof manly virtue than the princes who reigned with him and in his day, andwho were his enemies and neighbors. In all there was good and evil, forthey were men; but without flattery, in him were more things appertainingto the office of king than in any of the rest. I saw them nearly all, and knew what they could do. "

"Louis XI. , " says Duclos, "was far from being without reproach; fewprinces have deserved so much; but it may be said that he was equallycelebrated for his vices and his virtues, and that, everything being putin the balance, he was a king. "

We will be more exacting than Commynes and Duclos; we will not consent toapply to Louis XI. The words liberal, virtuous, and virtue; he had norgreatness of soul, nor uprightness of character, nor kindness of heart;he was neither a great king nor a good king; but we may assent to Duclos'last word--he was a king. 

CHAPTER XXVI. ----THE WARS OF ITALY. -- CHARLES VIII. -- 1483-1498. 

[Illustration: CHARLES VIII. ----263]

Louis XI. Had by the queen his wife, Charlotte of Savoy, six children;three of them survived him: Charles VIII. , his successor; Anne, hiseldest daughter, who had espoused Peter of Bourbon, Sire de Beaujeu; andJoan, whom he had married to the Duke of Orleans, who became Louis XII. At their father's death, Charles was thirteen; Anne twenty-two ortwenty-three; and Joan nineteen. According to Charles V. 's decree, whichhad fixed fourteen as the age for the king's majority, Charles VIII. , onhis accession, was very nearly a major; but Louis XI. , with good reason, considered him very far from capable of reigning as yet. On the otherhand, he had a very high opinion of his daughter Anne, and it was to herfar more than to Sire de Beaujeu, her husband, that, six days before hisdeath, and by his last instructions, he intrusted the guardian-ship ofhis son, to whom he already gave the title of King, and the government ofthe realm. They were oral instructions not set forth in or confirmed byany regular testament; but the words of Louis XI. Had great weight, evenafter his death. Opposition to his last wishes was not wanting. Louis, Duke of Orleans, was a natural claimant to the regency; but Anne deBeaujeu, immediately and without consulting anybody, took up the positionwhich had been intrusted to her by her father, and the fact was acceptedwithout ceasing to be questioned. Louis XI. Had not been mistaken in hischoice; there was none more fitted than his daughter Anne to continue hispolicy under the reign and in the name of his successor; "a shrewd andclever woman, if ever there was one, " says Brantome, "and the true imagein everything of King Louis, her father. "

[Illustration: Anne de Beaujeu----264]

She began by acts of intelligent discretion. She tried, not to subdue byforce the rivals and malcontents, but to put them in the wrong in theeyes of the public, and to cause embarrassment to themselves by treatingthem with fearless favor. Her brother-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon, wasvexed at being only in appearance and name the head of his own house; andshe made him constable of France and lieutenant-general of the kingdom. The friends of Duke Louis of Orleans, amongst others his chief confidant, George of Amboise, Bishop of Montauban, and Count Dunois, son of CharlesVII. 's hero, persistently supported the duke's rights to the regency; and_Madame_ (the title Anne de Beaujeu had assumed) made Duke Louis governorof Ile-de-France and of Champagne, and sent Dunois as governor toDauphiny. She kept those of Louis XI. 's advisers for whom the public hadnot conceived a perfect hatred like that felt for their master; andCommynes alone was set aside, as having received from the late king toomany personal favors, and as having too much inclination towardsindependent criticism of the new regency. Two of Louis XI. 's subordinateand detested servants, Oliver de Daim and John Doyac, were prosecuted, and one was hanged and the other banished; and his doctor, James Cattier, was condemned to disgorge fifty thousand crowns out of the enormouspresents he had received from his patient. At the same time that shethus gave some satisfaction to the cravings of popular wrath, Anne deBeaujeu threw open the prisons, recalled exiles, forgave the people aquarter of the talliage, cut down expenses by dismissing six thousandSwiss whom the late king had taken into his pay, re-established some sortof order in the administration of the domains of the crown, and, in fine, whether in general measures or in respect of persons, displayedimpartiality without paying court, and firmness without using severity. Here was, in fact, a young and gracious woman who gloried solely insigning herself simply Anne of France, whilst respectfully following outthe policy of her father, a veteran king, able, mistrustful, andpitiless. 

Anne's discretion was soon put to a great trial. A general cry wasraised for the convocation of the states-general. The ambitious hopedthus to open a road to power; the public looked forward to it for areturn to legalized government. No doubt Anne would have preferred toremain more free and less responsible in the exercise of her authority;for it was still very far from the time when national assemblies could beconsidered as a permanent power and a regular means of government. ButAnne and her advisers did not waver; they were too wise and too weak tooppose a great public wish. The states-general were convoked at Toursfor the 5th of January, 1484. On the 15th they met in the great hall ofthe arch-bishop's palace. Around the king's throne sat two hundred andfifty deputies, whom the successive arrivals of absentees raised to twohundred and eighty-four. "France in all its entirety, " says M. Picot, "found itself, for the first time, represented; Flanders alone sent nodeputies until the end of the session; but Provence, Roussillon, Burgundy, and Dauphiny were eager to join their commissioners to thedelegates from the provinces united from the oldest times to the crown. "[_Histoire des Etats Generaux_ from 1355 to 1614, by George Picot, t. I. P. 360. ]

We have the journal of these states-general drawn up with precision anddetail by one of the chief actors, John Masselin, canon of and deputy forRouen, "an eminent speaker, " says a contemporary Norman chronicle, "whodelivered on behalf of the common weal, in the presence of kings andprinces, speeches full of elegance. " We may agree that, compared withthe pompous pedantry of most speakers of his day, the oratorical style ofJohn Masselin is not without a certain elegance, but that is not hisgreat and his original distinction; what marks him out and gives him sohigh a place in the history of the fifteenth century, is the judiciousand firm political spirit displayed in his conduct as deputy and in hisnarrative as historian. [The Journal, written by the author in Latin, was translated into French and published, original and translation, by M. A. Bernier, in 1835, in the _Collection des Documents ineditsrelatifs d l'Histoire de France. _] And it is not John Masselin only, butthe very assembly itself in which he sat, that appears to us, at the endof five centuries, seriously moved by a desire for a free government, andnot far from comprehending and following out the essential conditions ofit. France had no lack of states-general, full of brilliancy and power, between 1356 and 1789, from the reign of Charles V. To that ofLouis XVI. ; but in the majority of these assemblies, for all theambitious soarings of liberty, it was at one time religious party-spiritand at another the spirit of revolution that ruled and determined bothacts and events. Nothing of that kind appeared in the states-generalassembled at Tours in 1484; the assembly was profoundly monarchical, notonly on general principles, but in respect of the reigning house and theyoung king seated on the throne. There was no fierce struggle, either, between the aristocracy and the democracy of the day, between theecclesiastical body and the secular body; although widely differing andwidely separated, the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate were notat war, even in their hearts, between themselves. One and the same idea, one and the same desire, animated the three orders; to such a degreethat, as has been well pointed out by M. Picot, "in the majority of thetowns they proceeded in common to the choice of deputies: the clergy, nobles, and commons who arrived at Tours were not the representativesexclusively of the clergy, the nobles, or the third estate: they combinedin their persons a triple commission;" and when, after having examinedtogether their different memorials, by the agency of a committee ofthirty-six members taken in equal numbers from the three orders, theycame to a conclusion to bring their grievances and their wishes beforethe government of Charles VIII. , they decided that a single spokesmanshould be commissioned to sum up, in a speech delivered in solemnsession, the report of the committee of Thirty-six; and it was the canon, Master John Masselin, who received the commission to speak in the name ofall. They all had at heart one and the same idea; they desired to turnthe old and undisputed monarchy into a legalized and free government. Clergy, nobles, and third estate, there was not in any of their minds anyrevolutionary yearning or any thought of social war. It is the peculiarand the beautiful characteristic of the states-general of 1484 that theyhad an eye to nothing but a great political reform, a regimen of legalityand freedom. 

Two men, one a Norman and the other a Burgundian, the canon John Masselinand Philip Pot, lord of la Roche, a former counsellor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, were the exponents of this political spirit, at oncebold and prudent, conservative and reformative. The nation's sovereigntyand the right of the estates not only to vote imposts but to exercise areal influence over the choice and conduct of the officers of the crown, this was what they affirmed in principle, and what, in fact, they laboredto get established. "I should like, " said Philip de la Roche, "to seeyou quite convinced that the government of the state is the people'saffair; and by the people I mean not only the multitude of those who aresimply subjects of this crown, but indeed all persons of each estate, including the princes also. Since you consider yourselves deputies fromall the estates of the kingdom, why are you afraid to conclude that youhave been especially summoned to direct by your counsels the commonwealthduring its quasi-interregnum caused by the king's minority? Far be itfrom me to say that the reigning, properly so called, the dominion, infact, passes into any hands but those of the king; it is only theadministration, the guardianship of the kingdom, which is conferred for atime upon the people or their elect. Why tremble at the idea of takingin hand the regulation, arrangement, and nomination of the council of thecrown? You are here to say and to advise freely that which, byinspiration of God and your conscience, you believe to be useful for therealm. What is the obstacle that prevents you from accomplishing soexcellent and meritorious a work? I can find none, unless it be your ownweakness and the pusillanimity which causes fear in your minds. Come, then, most illustrious lords, have great confidence in yourselves, havegreat hopes, have great manly virtue, and let not this liberty of theestates, that your ancestors were so zealous in defending, be imperilledby reason of your soft-heartedness. " "This speech, " says Masselin, "waslistened to by the whole assembly very attentively and very favorably. "Masselin, being called upon to give the king "in his privy chamber, before the Dukes of Orleans and Lorraine and a numerous company ofnobles, " an exact account of the estates' first deliberations, held inhis turn language more reserved than, but similar to, that of Lord Philipde la Roche, whose views he shared and whose proud openness he admired. The question touching the composition of the king's council and the partto be taken in it by the estates was for five weeks the absorbing ideawith the government and with the assembly. There were made, on bothsides, concessions which satisfied neither the estates nor the court, fortheir object was always on the part of the estates to exercise a realinfluence on the government, and on the part of the court to escape beingunder any real influence of the estates. Side by side with the questionof the king's council was ranged that of the imposts; and here it was noeasier to effect an understanding: the crown asked more than the estatesthought they ought or were able to vote; and, after a long and obscurecontroversy about expenses and receipts, Masselin was again commissionedto set-before the king's council the views of the assembly and itsultimate resolution. "When we saw, " said he, "that the aforesaidaccounts or estimates contained elements of extreme difficulty, and thatto balance and verify them would subject us to interminable discussionsand longer labor than would be to our and the people's advantage, wehastened to adopt by way of expedient, but nevertheless resolutely, thedecision I am about to declare to you. . . . Wishing to meetliberally the king's and your desires, we offer to pay the sum that KingCharles VII. Used to take for the impost of talliages, provided, however, that this sum be equally and proportionately distributed between theprovinces of the kingdom, and that in the shape of an aid. And thiscontribution be only for two years, after which the estates shall beassembled as they are to-day to discuss the public needs; and if at thattime or previously they see the advantage thereof, the said sum shall bediminished or augmented. Further, the said my lords the deputies dodemand that their next meeting be now appointed and declared, and that anirrevocable decision do fix and decree that assembly. "

This was providing at one and the same time for the wants of the presentand the rights of the future. The impost of talliage was, indeed, votedjust as it had stood under Charles VII. , but it became a temporary aidgranted for two years only; at the end of them the estates were to beconvoked and the tax augmented or diminished according to the publicwants. The great question appeared decided; by means of the vote, necessary and at the same time temporary, in the case of the impost, thestates-general entered into real possession of a decisive influence inthe government; but the behavior and language of the officers of thecrown and of the great lords of the court rendered the situation asdifficult as ever. In a long and confused harangue the chancellor, William de Rochefort, did not confine himself to declaring the sum voted, twelve hundred thousand livres, to be insufficient, and demanding threehundred thousand livres more; he passed over in complete silence thelimitation to two years of the tax voted and the requirement that at theend of that time the states-general should be convoked. "Whilst thechancellor was thus speaking, " says Masselin, "many deputies of a moreindependent spirit kept groaning, and all the hall resounded with aslight murmuring because it seemed that he was not expressing himselfwell as to the power and liberty of the people. " The deputies askedleave to deliberate in the afternoon, promising a speedy answer. "As youwish to deliberate, do so, but briefly, " said the chancellor; "it wouldbe better for you to hold counsel now so as to answer in the afternoon. "The deputies took their time; and the discussion was a long and a hotone. "We see quite well how it is, " said the princes and the majority ofthe great lords; "to curtail the king's power, and pare down his nails tothe quick, is the object of your efforts; you forbid the subjects to paytheir prince as much as the wants of the state require: are they masters, pray, and no longer subjects? You would set up the laws of some fancifulmonarchy, and abolish the old ones. " "I know the rascals, " said one ofthe great lords [according to one historian, it was the Duke of Bourbon, Anne de Beaujeu's brother-in-law]; "if they are not kept down byover-weighting them, they will soon become insolent; for my part, Iconsider this tax the surest curb for holding them in. " "Strange words, "says Masselin, "unworthy of utterance from the mouth of a man so eminent;but in his soul, as in that of all old men, covetousness had increasedwith age, and he appeared to fear a diminution of his pension. "

After having deliberated upon it, the states-general persisted in theirvote of a tax of twelve hundred thousand livres, at which figure it hadstood under King Charles VII. , but for two years only, and as a gift orgrant, not as a permanent talliage any more, and on condition that at theend of that time the states should be necessarily convoked. At the sametime, however, "and over and above this, the said estates, who do desirethe well-being, honor, prosperity, and augmentation of the lord king andof his kingdom, and in order to obey him and please him in all wayspossible, do grant him the sum of three hundred thousand livres of Tours, for this once only, and without being a precedent, on account of his latejoyful accession to the throne of France, and for to aid and support theoutlay which it is suitable to make for his holy consecration, coronation, and entry into Paris. "

On this fresh vote, full of fidelity to the monarchy and at the same timeof patriotic independence, negotiations began between the estates and thecourt; and they lasted from the 28th of February to the 12th of March, but without result. At bottom, the question lay between absolute powerand free government, between arbitrariness and legality; and, on thisfield, both parties were determined not to accept a serious and finaldefeat. Unmoved by the loyal concessions and assurances they received, the advisers of the crown thought no longer of anything but gettingspeedily rid of the presence of the estates, so as to be free from thetrouble of maintaining the discussion with them. The deputies sawthrough the device; their speeches were stifled, and the necessity ofreplying was eluded. "My lord chancellor, " said they, at an interview onthe 2d of March, 1484, "if we are not to have a hearing, why are we here?Why have you summoned us? Let us withdraw. If you behave thus, you donot require our presence. We did not at all expect to see the fruits ofour vigils, and the decisions adopted after so much trouble by soillustrious an assembly rejected so carelessly. " The complaints were notalways so temperate. A theologian, whom Masselin quotes without givinghis name, "a bold and fiery partisan of the people, " says he, added thesealmost insulting words: "As soon as our consent had been obtained forraising the money, there is no doubt but that we have been cajoled, thateverything has been treated with contempt, the demands set down in ourmemorials, our final resolutions, and the limits we fixed. Speak we ofthe money. On this point, our decisions have been conformed to only sofar as to tell us, 'This impost shall no longer be called talliage; itshall be a free grant. ' Is it in words, pray, and not in things, that ourlabor and the well-being of the state consist? Verily, we would ratherstill call this impost _talliage, _ and even blackmail (_maltote_), orgive it a still viler name, if there be any, than see it increasingimmeasurably and crushing the people. The curse of God and theexecration of men upon those whose deeds and plots have caused such woes!They are the most dangerous foes of the people and of the commonwealth. ""The theologian burned with a desire to continue, " adds Masselin; "butthough he had not wandered far from the truth, many deputies chid him andconstrained him to be silent. . . . Already lethargy had fallen uponthe most notable amongst us; glutted with favors and promises, they nolonger possessed that ardor of will which had animated them at first;when we were prosecuting our business, they remained motionless at home;when we spoke before them, they held their peace or added but a fewfeeble words. We were wasting our time. "

On the 12th of March, 1484, the deputies from Normandy, twenty-five innumber, happened to hold a meeting at Montils-les-Tours. The Bishop ofCoutances told them that there was no occasion for the estates to holdany more meetings; that it would be enough if each of the six sectionsappointed three or four delegates to follow the course of affairs; andthat, moreover, the compensation granted to all the deputies of theestates would cease on the 14th of March, and after that would be grantedonly to their delegates. This compensation had already, amongst theestates, been the subject of a long discussion. The clergy and thenobility had attempted to throw the whole burden of it upon the thirdestate; the third estate had very properly claimed that each of the threeorders should, share proportionately in this expense, and the chancellorhad with some difficulty got it decided that the matter should stand so. On the 14th of March, accordingly, the six sections of the estates metand elected three or four deputies apiece. The deputies were a littlesurprised, on entering their sessions-hall, to find it completelydismantled: carpets, hangings, benches, table, all had been removed, so certainly did the government consider the session over. Some members, in disgust, thought and maintained that the estates ought not to separatewithout carrying away with them the resolutions set down in their generalmemorial, formally approved and accompanied by an order to the judges tohave them executed. "But a much larger number, " says Masselin, "wereafraid of remaining too long, and many of our colleagues, in spite of thezeal which they had once shown, had a burning desire to depart, accordingto the princes' good pleasure and orders. As for us, we enjoined uponthe three deputies of our Norman nationality not to devote themselvessolely to certain special affairs which had not yet been terminated, butto use redoubled care and diligence in all that concerned the generalmemorial and the aggregate of the estates. And having thus left ourcommissioners at Tours and put matters to rights, we went away wellcontent; and we pray God that our labors and all that has been done maybe useful for the people's welfare. "

Neither Masselin nor his descendants for more than three centuries weredestined to see the labors of the states-general of 1484 obtainsubstantial and durable results. The work they had conceived andattempted was premature. The establishment of a free government demandseither spontaneous and simple virtues, such as may be found in a youngand small community, or the lights, the scientific method, and thewisdom, painfully acquired and still so imperfect, of great and civilizednations. France of the fifteenth century was in neither of theseconditions. But it is a crown of glory to have felt that honest andpatriotic ambition which animated Masselin and his friends at theirexodus from the corrupt and corrupting despotism of Louis XI. Who woulddare to say that their attempt, vain as it was for them, was so also forgenerations separated from them by centuries? Time and space are asnothing in the mysterious development of God's designs towards men, andit is the privilege of mankind to get instruction and example fromfar-off memories of their own history. It was a duty to render to thestates-general of 1484 the homage to which they have a right by reason oftheir intentions and their efforts on behalf of the good cause and inspite of their unsuccess. 

When the states-general had separated, Anne de Beaujeu, withoutdifficulty or uproar, resumed, as she had assumed on her father's death, the government of France; and she kept it yet for seven years, from 1484to 1491. During all this time she had a rival and foe in Louis, Duke ofOrleans, who was one day to be Louis XII. "I have heard tell, " saysBrantome, "how that, at the first, she showed affection towards him, nay, even love; in such sort that, if M. D'Orleans had been minded to giveheed thereto, he might have done well, as I know from a good source; buthe could not bring himself to it; especially as he found her tooambitious, and he would that she should be dependent on him, as premierprince and nearest to the throne, and not he on her; whereas she desiredthe contrary, for she was minded to have the high place and ruleeverything. . . . They used to have, " adds Brantome, "prickings ofjealousy, love, and ambition. " If Brantome's anecdote is true, as one isinclined to believe, though several historians have cast doubts upon it, Anne de Beaujeu had, in their prickings of jealousy, love, and ambition, a great advantage over Louis of Orleans. They were both young, andexactly of the same age; but Louis had all the defects of youth, whilstAnne had all the qualities of mature age. He was handsome, volatile, inconsiderate, impudent, brave, and of a generous, open nature, combinedwith kindliness; she was thoughtful, judicious, persistent, and probablya little cold and hard, such, in fact, as she must needs have become inthe school of her father, Louis XI. As soon as the struggle between thembegan, the diversity of their characters appeared and bore fruit. TheDuke of Orleans plunged into all sorts of intrigues and ventures againstthe fair regent, exciting civil war, and, when he was too muchcompromised or too hard pressed, withdrawing to the court of Francis II. , Duke of Brittany, an unruly vassal of the King of France. Louis ofOrleans even made alliance, at need, with foreign princes, Henry VII. , King of England, Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Arragon, and Maximilian, archduke of Austria, without much regard for the interests of his ownkingly house and his own country. Anne, on the contrary, in possessionof official and legal authority, wielded it and guarded it with prudenceand moderation in the interests of France and of the crown, never takingthe initiative in war, but having the wit to foresee, maintain, and, after victory, end it. She encountered from time to time, at her owncourt and in her own immediate circle, a serious difficulty: the youngking, Charles, was charmed by the Duke of Orleans's brilliant qualities, especially by the skill and bravery that Louis displayed at tournaments. One day, interrupting the Bishop of Montauban, George of Amboise, who wasreading the breviary to him, "Send word to the Duke of Orleans, " said theking, "to go on with his enterprise, and that I would fain be with him. "Another day he said to Count Dunois, "Do take me away, uncle: I'm longingto be out of this company. " Dunois and George of Amboise, both of thempartisans of the Duke of Orleans, carefully encouraged the king insentiments so favorable to the fair regent's rival. Incidents of anothersort occurred to still further embarrass the position for Anne deBeaujeu. The eldest daughter of Francis II. , Duke of Brittany, herselfalso named Anne, would inherit his duchy, and on this ground she wasardently wooed by many competitors. She was born in 1477; and at fouryears of age, in 1481, she had been promised in marriage to Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward IV. , King of England. But two yearsafterwards, in 1483, this young prince was murdered, or, according toother accounts, imprisoned by his uncle Richard III. , who seized thecrown; and the Breton promise vanished with him. The number of claimantsto the hand of Anne of Brittany increased rapidly; and the policy of theduke her father consisted, it was said, in making for himself five or sixsons-in-law by means of one daughter. Towards the end of 1484, the Dukeof Orleans, having embroiled himself with Anne de Beaujeu, sought refugein Brittany; and many historians have said that he not only at that timeaspired to the hand of Anne of Brittany, but that he paid her assiduouscourt and obtained from her marks of tender interest. Count Darn, in his_Histoire de Bretagne_ (t. Iii. P. 82), has put the falsehood of thisassertion beyond a doubt; the Breton princess was then only seven and theDuke of Orleans had been eight years married to Joan of France, youngerdaughter of Louis XI. But in succeeding years and amidst the continualalternations of war and negotiation between the King of France and theDuke of Brittany, Anne de Beaujeu and the Duke of Orleans, competitionand strife between the various claimants to the hand of Anne of Brittanybecame very active; Alan, Sire d'Albret, called the Great because of hisreputation for being the richest lord of the realm, Viscount James deRohan, and Archduke Maximilian of Austria, all three believed themselvesto have hopes of success, and prosecuted them assiduously. Sired'Albret, a widower and the father of eight children already, wasforty-five, with a pimply face, a hard eye, a hoarse voice, and aquarrelsome and gloomy temper; and Anne, being pressed to answer hissuit, finally declared that she would turn nun rather than marry him. James de Rohan, in spite of his powerful backers at the court of Rennes, was likewise dismissed; his father, Viscount John II. , was in the serviceof the King of France. Archduke Maximilian remained the only claimantwith any pretensions. He was nine and twenty, of gigantic stature, justly renowned for valor and ability in war, and of more literaryculture than any of the princes his contemporaries, a trait he had incommon with Princess Anne, whose education had been very carefullyattended to. She showed herself to be favorably disposed towards him;and the Duke of Orleans, whose name, married though he was, was stillsometimes associated with that of the Breton princess, formally declared, on the 26th of January, 1486, that, "when he came to the Duke ofBrittany's, it was solely to visit him and advise him on certain pointstouching the defence of his duchy, and not to talk to him of marriagewith the princesses his daughters. " But, whilst the negotiation was thusinclining towards the Austrian prince, Anne de Beaujeu, ever far-sightedand energetic, was vigorously pushing on the war against the Duke ofBrittany and his allies. She had found in Louis de la Tremoille an ableand a bold warrior, whom Guicciardini calls the greatest captain in theworld. In July, 1488, he came suddenly down upon Brittany, took oneafter the other Chateaubriant, Ancenis, and Fougeres, and, on the 28th, gained at St. Aubin-du-Cormier, near Rennes, over the army of the Duke ofBrittany and his English, German, and Gascon allies, a victory whichdecided the campaign: six thousand of the Breton army were killed, andDuke Louis of Orleans, the Prince of Orange, and several French lords, his friends, were made prisoners. On receiving at Angers the news ofthis victory, Charles VIII. Gave orders that the two captive princesshould be brought to him; but Anne de Beaujeu, fearing some ebullition onhis part of a too prompt and too gratuitous generosity, caused delay intheir arrival; and the Duke of Orleans, who was taken first to the castleof Sable and then to Lusignan, went ultimately to the Tower of Bourges, where he was to await the king's decision. 

It was a great success for Anne de Beaujeu. She had beaten her unitedfoes; and the most formidable of them all, the Duke of Orleans, was herprisoner. Two incidents that supervened, one a little before and theother a little after the battle of St. Aubin-du-Cormier, occurred to bothembarrass the position and at the same time call forth all the energy ofAnne. Her brother-in-law, Duke John of Bourbon, the head of his house, died on the 1st of April, 1488, leaving to his younger brother, Peter, his title and domains. Having thus become Duchess of Bourbon, and beingwell content with this elevation in rank and fortune, Madame the Great(as Anne de Beaujeu was popularly called) was somewhat less eagerlyoccupied with the business of the realm, was less constant at the king'scouncil, and went occasionally with her husband to stay a while in theirown territories. Charles VIII. , moreover, having nearly arrived at man'sestate, made more frequent manifestations of his own personal will; andAnne, clear-sighted and discreet though ambitious, was little by littlechanging her dominion into influence. But some weeks after the battle ofSt. Aubin-du-Cormier, on the 7th or 9th of September, 1488, the death ofFrancis II. , Duke of Brittany, rendered the active intervention of theDuchess of Bourbon natural and necessary; for he left his daughter, thePrincess Anne, barely eighteen years old, exposed to all the difficultiesattendant upon the government of her inheritance, and to all theintrigues of the claimants to her hand. In the summer of 1489, CharlesVIII. And his advisers learned that the Count of Nassau, having arrivedin Brittany with the proxy of Archduke Maximilian, had by a mock ceremonyespoused the Breton princess in his master's name. This strange mode ofcelebration could not give the marriage a real and indissolublecharacter; but the concern in the court of France was profound. InBrittany there was no mystery any longer made about the young duchess'sengagement; she already took the title of Queen of the Romans. CharlesVIII. Loudly protested against this pretended marriage; and to give stillmore weight to his protest he sent to Henry VII. , King of England, whowas much mixed up with the affairs of Brittany, ambassadors charged toexplain to him the right which France had to oppose the marriage of theyoung Duchess with Archduke Maximilian, at the same time taking care notto give occasion for thinking that Charles had any views on his ownaccount in that quarter. "The king my master, " said the ambassador, "doth propose to assert by arms his plain rights over the kingdom ofNaples, now occupied by some usurper or other, a bastard of the house ofArragon. He doth consider, moreover, the conquest of Naples only as abridge thrown down before him for to take him into Greece; there he isresolved to lavish his blood and his treasure, though he should have topawn his crown and drain his kingdom, for to overthrow the tyranny of theOttomans, and open to himself in this way the kingdom of Heaven. " TheKing of England gave a somewhat ironical reply to this chivalrousaddress, merely asking whether the King of France would consent not todispose of the heiress of Brittany's hand, save on the condition of notmarrying her himself. The ambassadors shuffled out of the question bysaying that their master was so far from any such idea, that it had notbeen foreseen in their instructions. 

Whether it had or had not been foreseen and meditated upon, so soon asthe reunion of Brittany with France by the marriage of the young duchess, Anne, with King Charles VIII. Appeared on the horizon as a possible, and, peradventure, probable fact, it became the common desire, aim, and laborof all the French politicians who up to that time had been opposed, persecuted, and proscribed. Since the battle of St. Aubin-du-Cormier, Duke Louis of Orleans had been a prisoner in the Tower of Bourges, and sostrictly guarded that he was confined at night in an iron cage likeCardinal Balue's for fear he should escape. In vain had his wife, Joanof France, an unhappy and virtuous princess, ugly and deformed, who hadnever been able to gain her husband's affections, implored herall-powerful sister, Anne of Bourbon, to set him at liberty: "As I amincessantly thinking, " she wrote to her, "about my husband's release, Ihave conceived the idea of setting down in writing the fashion in whichpeace might be had, and my said husband be released. I am writing it outfor the king, and you will see it all. I pray you, sister, to look to itthat I may get a few words in answer; it has been a very sad thing for methat I never see you now. " There is no trace of any answer from Anne toher sister. Charles VIII. Had a heart more easily touched. When Joan, in mourning, came and threw herself at his feet, saying, "Brother, myhusband is dragging on his life in prison; and I am in such trouble thatI know not what I ought to say in his defence. If he has had aughtwherewith to reproach himself, I am the only one whom he has outraged. Pardon him, brother; you will never have so happy a chance of beinggenerous. " "You shall have him, sister, " said Charles, kissing her;"grant Heaven that you may not repent one day of that which you are doingfor him to-day!" Some days after this interview, in May, 1491, Charles, without saying anything about it to the duchess, Anne of Bourbon, set offone evening from Plessis du Pare on pretence of going a-hunting, and onreaching Berry sent for the Duke of Orleans from the Tower of Bourges. Louis, in raptures at breathing the air of freedom, at the farthestglimpse he caught of the king, leaped down from his horse and knelt, weeping, on the ground. "Charles, " says the chronicler, "sprang upon hisneck, and knew not what cheer (reception) to give him, to make itunderstood that he was acting of his own motion and free will. " Charlesill understood his sister Anne, and could scarcely make her out. But twoconvictions had found their way into that straightforward and steady mindof hers; one, that a favorable time had arrived for uniting Brittany withFrance, and must be seized; the other, that the period of her personaldominion was over, and that all she had to do was to get herself wellestablished in her new position. She wrote to the king her brother towarn him against the accusations and wicked rumors of which she mightpossibly be the object. He replied to her on the 21st of June, 1491:"My good sister, my dear, Louis de Pesclins has informed me that you haveknowledge that certain matters have been reported to me against you;whereupon I answered him that nought of the kind had been reported to me;and I assure you that none would dare so to speak to me; for, inwhatsoever fashion it might, I would not put faith therein, as I hope totell you when we are together, --bidding you adieu, my good sister, mydear. " After having re-assured his sister, Charles set about reconcilingher, as well as her husband, the Duke of Bourbon, with herbrother-in-law, the Duke of Orleans. Louis, who was of a frank and by nomeans rancorous disposition, as he himself said and proved at a laterperiod, submitted with a good grace; and on the 4th of September, 1491, at La Fleche, the princes jointly made oath, by their baptism and withtheir hands on the book of the Gospels, "to hold one another once more inperpetual affection, and to forget all old rancor, hatred, and ill will, for to well and loyally serve King Charles, guard his person andauthority, and help him to comfort the people, and set in order hishousehold and his kingdom. " Councillors and servants were included inthis reconciliation of the masters; and Philip de Commynes and the Bishopof Montauban, ere long Archbishop of Rouen, Governor of Normandy, andCardinal d'Amboise, went out of disgrace, took their places again in theking's councils, and set themselves loyally to the work of accomplishingthat union between Charles VIII. And Anne of Brittany, whereby France wasto achieve the pacific conquest of Brittany. 

Pacific as it was, this conquest cost some pains, and gave some trouble. In person Charles VIII. Was far from charming; he was short and badlybuilt; he had an enormous head; great, blank-looking eyes; an aquilinenose, bigger and thicker than was becoming; thick lips, too, andeverlastingly open; nervous twitchings, disagreeable to see; and slowspeech. "In my judgment, " adds the ambassador from Venice, ZacharyContarini, who had come to Paris in May, 1492, "I should hold that, bodyand mind, he is not worth much; however, they all sing his praises inParis as a right lusty gallant at playing of tennis, and at hunting, andat jousting, exercises to the which, in season and out of season, he dothdevote a great deal of time. " The same ambassador says of Anne ofBrittany, who had then been for four months Queen of France, "The queenis short also, thin, lame of one foot, and perceptibly so, though shedoes what she can for herself by means of boots with high heels, abrunette and very pretty in the face, and, for her age, very knowing; insuch sort that what she has once taken into her head she will obtainsomehow or other, whether it be smiles or tears that be needed for it. "--[_La Diplomatic Venitienne au Seizieme Siecle, _ by M. Armand Baschet, p. 325 (Paris, 1862). ] Knowing as she was, Anne was at the same timeproud and headstrong; she had a cultivated mind; she was fond of thearts, of poetry, and of ancient literature; she knew Latin, and even alittle Greek; and having been united, though by proxy and at a distance, to a prince whom she had never seen, but whom she knew to be tall, wellmade, and a friend to the sciences, she revolted at the idea of givinghim up for a prince without beauty, and to such an extent withouteducation, that, it is said, Charles VIII. , when he ascended the throne, was unable to read. When he was spoken of to the young princess, "I amengaged in the bonds of matrimony to Archduke Maximilian, " said Anne:"and the King of France, on his side, is affianced to the PrincessMarguerite of Austria; we are not free, either of us. " She went so faras to say that she would set out and go and join Maximilian. Heradvisers, who had nearly all of them become advocates of the Frenchmarriage, did their best to combat this obstinacy on the part of theirprincess, and they proposed to her other marriages. Anne answered, "Iwill marry none but a king or a king's son. " Whilst the question wasthus being disputed at the little court of Rennes, the army of CharlesVIII. Was pressing the city more closely every day. Parleys took placebetween the leaders of the two hosts; and the Duke of Orleans made hisway into Rennes, had an interview with the Duchess Anne, and succeeded inshaking her in her refusal of any French marriage. "Many maintain, " saysCount Philip de Segur [_Histoire de Charles VIII, _ t. I. P. 217], "thatCharles VIII. Himself entered alone and without escort into the town hewas besieging, had a conversation with the young duchess, and left to herthe decision of their common fate, declaring to her that she was free andhe her captive; that all roads would be open to her to go to England orto Germany; and that, for himself, he would go to Touraine to await thedecision whereon depended, together with the happiness of his own future, that of all the kingdom. " Whatever may be the truth about thesechivalrous traditions, there was concluded on the 15th of September, 1491, a treaty whereby the two parties submitted themselves for anexamination of all questions that concerned them to twenty-fourcommissioners, taken half and half from the two hosts; and, in order togive the preconcerted resolution an appearance of mutual liberty, authority was given to the young Duchess Anne to go, if she pleased, and join Maximilian in Germany. Charles VIII. , accompanied by a hundredmen-at-arms and fifty archers of his guard, again entered Rennes; andthree days afterwards the King of France and the Duchess of Brittany weresecretly affianced in the chapel of Notre-Dame. The Duke of Orleans, theDuchess of Bourbon, the Prince of Orange, Count Dunois, and some Bretonlords, were the sole witnesses of the ceremony. Next day Charles VIII. Left Rennes and repaired to the castle of Langeais in Touraine. Therethe Duchess Anne joined him a fortnight afterwards. The young PrincessMarguerite of Austria, who had for eight years been under guardianshipand education at Amboise as the future wife of the King of France, wasremoved from France and taken back into Flanders to her father, ArchdukeMaximilian, with all the external honors that could alleviate such aninsult. On the 13th of December, 1491, the contract of marriage betweenCharles VIII. And Anne of Brittany was drawn up in the great hall of thecastle of Langeais, in two drafts, one in French and the other in Breton. The Bishop of Alby celebrated the nuptial ceremony. By that deed, "if myLady Anne were to die before King Charles, and his children, issue oftheir marriage, she ceded and transferred irrevocably to him and hissuccessors, kings of France, all her rights to the duchy of Brittany. King Charles ceded in like manner to my Lady Anne his rights to thepossession of the said duchy, if he were to die before her with-outchildren born of their marriage. My Lady Anne could not, in case ofwidowhood, contract a second marriage save with the future king, if itwere his pleasure and were possible, or with other near and presumptivefuture successor to the throne, who should be bound to make to the kingregnant, on account of the said duchy, the same acknowledgments that thepredecessors of the said Lady Anne had made. " On the 7th of February, 1492, Anne was crowned at St. Denis; and next day, the 8th of February, she made her entry in state into Paris, amidst the joyful and earnestacclamations of the public. A sensible and a legitimate joy: for thereunion of Brittany to France was the consolidation of the peace which, in this same century, on the 17th of September, 1453, had put an end tothe Hundred Years' War between France and England, and was the greatestact that remained to be accomplished to insure the definitive victory andthe territorial constitution of French nationality. 

[Illustration: Meeting between Charles VIII, and Anne of Brittany----282]

Charles VIII. Was pleased with and proud of himself. He had achieved abrilliant and a difficult marriage. In Europe, and within his ownhousehold, he had made a display of power and independence. In order toespouse Anne of Brittany, he had sent back Marguerite of Austria to herfather. He had gone in person and withdrawn from prison his cousin Louisof Orleans, whom his sister, Anne de Beaujeu, had put there; and so farfrom having got embroiled with her, he saw all the royal familyreconciled around him. This was no little success for a young prince oftwenty-one. He thereupon devoted himself with ardor and confidence tohis desire of winning back the kingdom of Naples, which Alphonso I. , King of Arragon, had wrested from the house of France, and of therebyre-opening for himself in the East, and against Islamry, that career ofChristian glory which had made a saint of his ancestor, Louis IX. Mediocre men are not safe from the great dreams which have more than onceseduced and ruined the greatest men. The very mediocre son of Louis XI. , on renouncing his father's prudent and by no means chivalrous policy, hadno chance of becoming a great warrior and a saint; but not the less didhe take the initiative as to those wars in Italy which were to be socostly to his successors and to France. By two treaties concluded in1493 [one at Barcelona on the 19th of January and the other at Senlis onthe 23d of May], he gave up Roussillon and Cerdagne to Ferdinand theCatholic, King of Arragon, and Franche-Comte, Artois, and Charolais tothe house of Austria, and, after having at such a lamentable pricepurchased freedom of movement, he went and took up his quarters at Lyonsto prepare for his Neapolitan venture. 

In his council he found loyal and able opponents. "On the undertaking ofthis trip, " says Philip de Commynes, one of those present, "there wasmany a discussion, for it seemed to all folks of wisdom and experiencevery dangerous . . . All things necessary for so great a purpose werewanting; the king was very young, a poor creature, wilful and with but asmall attendance of wise folk and good leaders; no ready money; neithertents, nor pavilions for wintering in Lombardy. One thing good they had:a lusty company full of young men of family, but little under control. "The chiefest warrior of France at this time, Philip de Crevecoeur, Marshal d'Esquerdes, threw into the opposition the weight of his age andof his recognized ability. "The greatness and tranquillity of therealm, " said he, "depend on possession of the Low Countries; that is thedirection in which we must use all our exertions rather than against astate, the possession of which, so far from being advantageous to us, could not but weaken us. " "Unhappily, " says the latest, learnedhistorian of Charles VIII. [_Histoire de Charles VIII. _, by the late M. De Cherrier, t. I. P. 393], "the veteran marshal died on the 22d ofApril, 1494, in a small town some few leagues from Lyons, and thenceforthall hope of checking the current became visionary. . . . On the 8thof September, 1494, Charles VIII. Started from Grenoble, crossed MountGenevre, and went and slept at Oulx, which was territory of Piedmont. Inthe evening a peasant who was accused of being a master of Vaudery[i. E. One of the Vaudois, a small population of reformers in the Alps, between Piedmont and Dauphiny] was brought before him; the king gave himaudience, and then handed him over to the provost, who had him hanged ona tree. " By such an act of severity, perpetrated in a foreign countryand on the person of one who was not his own subject, did Charles VIII. Distinguish his first entry into Italy. 

[Illustration: Charles VIII. Crossing the Alps----285]

It were out of place to follow out here in all its details a war whichbelongs to the history of Italy far more than to that of France; it willsuffice to point out with precision the positions of the principalItalian states at this period, and the different shares of influence theyexercised on the fate of the French expedition. 

Six principal states, Piedmont, the kingdom of the Dukes of Savoy; theduchy of Milan; the republic of Venice; the republic of Florence; Romeand the pope; and the kingdom of Naples, co-existed in Italy at the endof the fifteenth century. In August, 1494, when Charles VIII. Startedfrom Lyons on his Italian expedition, Piedmout was governed by Blanche ofMontferrat, widow of Charles the 'Warrior, ' Duke of Savoy, in the name ofher son Charles John Amadeo, a child only six years old. In the duchy ofMilan the power was in the hands of Ludovic Sforza, called the Moor, who, being ambitious, faithless, lawless, unscrupulous, employed it inbanishing to Pavia the lawful duke, his own nephew, John Galeas MarioSforza, of whom the Florentine ambassador said to Ludovic himself, "Thisyoung man seems to me a good young man and animated by good sentiments, but very deficient in wits. " He was destined to die ere long, probablyby poison. The republic of Venice had at this period for its dogeAugustin Barbarigo; and it was to the council of Ten that in respect offoreign affairs as well as of the home department the power reallybelonged. Peter de' Medici, son of Lorenzo de' Medici, the father of theMuses, was feebly and stupidly, though with all the airs and pretensionsof a despot, governing the republic of Florence. 

Rome had for pope Alexander VI. (Poderigo Borgia), a prince who wascovetous, licentious, and brazen-facedly fickle and disloyal in hispolicy, and who would be regarded as one of the most utterly demoralizedmen of the fifteenth century, only that he had for son a Caesar Borgia. Finally, at Naples, in 1494, three months before the day on which CharlesVIII, entered Italy, King Alphonso II. Ascended the throne. "No man, "says Commynes, "was ever more cruel than he, or more wicked, or morevicious and tainted, or more gluttonous; less dangerous, however, thanhis father, King Ferdinand, the which did take in and betray folks whilstgiving them good cheer (kindly welcome), as hath been told to me by hisrelatives and friends, and who did never have any pity or compassion forhis poor people. " Such, in Italy, whether in her kingdoms or herrepublics, were the Heads with whom Charles VIII. Had to deal when hewent, in the name of a disputed right, three hundred leagues away fromhis own kingdom in quest of a bootless and ephemeral conquest. 

The reception he met with at the outset of his enterprise could not butconfirm him in his illusory hopes. Whilst he was at Lyons, engaged inpreparations for his departure, Duke Charles of Savoy, whose territorieswere the first he would have to cross, came to see him on a personalmatter. "Cousin, my good friend, " said the king to him, "I am delightedto see you at Lyons, for, if you had delayed your coming, I had intendedto go myself to see you, with a very numerous company, in your owndominions, where it is likely such a visit could not but have caused youloss. " "My lord, " answered the duke, "my only regret at your arrival inmy dominions would be, that I should be unable to give you such welcomethere as is due to so great a prince. . . . However, whether here orelsewhere, I shall be always ready to beg that you will dispose of me andall that pertains to me just as of all that might belong to your ownsubjects. " Duke Charles of Savoy had scarcely exaggerated; he was nolonger living in September, 1494, when Charles VIII, demanded of hiswidow Blanche, regent in the name of her infant son, a free passage forthe French army over her territory, and she not only granted his request, but, when he entered Turin, she had him received exactly as he might havebeen in the greatest cities of France. He admired the magnificent jewelsshe wore; and she offered to lend them to him. He accepted them, andsoon afterwards borrowed on the strength of them twelve thousand goldenducats; so ill provided was he with money. The fair regent, besides, made him a present of a fine black horse, which Commynes calls the bestin the world, and which, ten months later, Charles rode at the battle ofFornovo, the only victory he was to gain on retiring from this sorrycampaign. On entering the country of the Milanese he did not experiencethe same feeling of confidence that Piedmont had inspired him with. Notthat Ludovic the Moor hesitated to lavish upon him assurances ofdevotion. "Sir, " said he, "have no fear for this enterprise; there arein Italy three powers which we consider great, and of which you have one, which is Milan; another, which is the Venetians, does not stir; so youhave to do only with that of Naples, and many of your predecessors havebeaten us when we were all united. If you will trust me, I will help tomake you greater than ever was Charlemagne; and when you have in yourhands this kingdom of Naples, we shall easily drive yon Turk out of thatempire of Constantinople. " These words pleased Charles VIII. Mightily, and he would have readily pinned his faith to them; but he had at hisside some persons more clear-sighted, and Ludovic had enemies who did notdeny themselves the pleasure of enlightening the king concerning him. Heinvited Charles to visit Milan; he desired to parade before the eyes ofthe people his alliance and intimate friendship with the powerful King ofFrance; but Charles, who had at first treated him as a friend, all atonce changed his demeanor, and refused to go to Milan, "so as not to losetime. " Ludovic was too good a judge to make any mistake in the matter;but he did not press the point. Charles resumed his road to Piacenza, where his army awaited him. At Pavia, vows, harangues, felicitations, protestations of devotion, were lavished upon him without restoring hisconfidence; quarters had been assigned to him within the city; hedetermined to occupy the castle, which was in a state of defence; his ownguard took possession of the guard-posts; and the watch was doubledduring the night. Ludovic appeared to take no notice, and continued toaccompany the king as far as Piacenza, the last town in the state ofMilan. Into it Charles entered with seventy-eight hundred horse, manySwiss foot, and many artillerymen and bombardiers. The Italianpopulation regarded this army with an admiration tinged with timidity andanxiety. News was heard there to the effect that young John Galeas, nephew of Ludovic the Moor and lawful Duke of Milan, was dead. He left ason, five years old, for whom he had at Pavia implored the king'sprotection; and "I will look upon him as my own, " King Charles hadanswered as he fondled the child. Ludovic set out in haste for Milan;and it was not long before it was known that he had been proclaimed dukeand put in possession of the duchy. Distrust became general throughoutthe army. "Those who ought to have known best told me, " says Commynes, "that several, who had at first commended the trip, now found fault withit, and that there was a great inclination to turn back. " However, themarch was continued forward; and on the 29th of October, 1494, the Frencharmy encamped before Sarzana, a Florentine town. Ludovic the Moorsuddenly arrived in the camp with new proposals of alliance, on newconditions: Charles accepted some of them, and rejected the principalones. Ludovic went away again on the 3d of November, never to return. 

From this day the King of France might reckon him amongst his enemies. With the republic of Florence was henceforth to be Charles's business. Its head, Peter de' Medici, went to the camp at Sarzana, and Philip deCommynes started on an embassy to go and negotiate with the doge andsenate of Venice, which was the chiefest of the Italian powers and theterritory of which lay far out of the line of march of the King of Franceand his army. In the presence of the King of France and in the midst ofhis troops Peter de' Medici grew embarrassed and confused. He had goneto meet the king without the knowledge of the Florentines and was alreadyalarmed at the gravity of his situation; and he offered more concessionand submission than was demanded of him. "Those who treated with him, "says Commynes, "told me, turning him to scorn and ridicule, that theywere dumbfounded at his so readily granting so great a matter and whatthey were not prepared for. " Feelings were raised to the highest pitchat Florence when his weaknesses were known. There was a numerous andpowerful party, consisting of the republicans and the envious, hostile tothe Medicis; and they eagerly seized the opportunity of attacking them. A deputation, comprising the most considerable men of the city, was sent, on the 5th of November, to the King of France with a commission to obtainfrom him more favorable conditions. The Dominican, Jerome Savonarola, atthat time the popular oracle of Florence, was one of them. With a pioushauteur that was natural and habitual to him, he adopted the same tonetowards Charles as towards the people of Florence. "Hearken thou to mywords, " said he, "and grave them upon thy heart. I warn thee, in God'sname, that thou must show thyself merciful and forbearing to the peopleof Florence, if thou wouldest that He should aid thee in thy enterprise. "Charles, who scarcely knew Savonarola by name, answered simply that hedid not wish to do the Florentines any harm, but that he demanded a freepassage, and all that had been promised him: "I wish to be received atFlorence, " he added, "to sign there a definitive treaty which shallsettle everything. " At these cold expressions the ambassadors withdrewin some disquietude. Peter de' Medici, who was lightly confident, returned to Florence on the 8th of November, and attempted again to seizethe supreme power. A violent outbreak took place; Peter was as weakbefore the Florentine populace as he had been before the King of France;and, having been harried in his very palace, which was given up topillage, it was only in the disguise of a monk that he was able, on the9th of November, to get out of the city in company with his two brothers, Julian and Cardinal John de' Medici, of whom the latter was to be, tenyears later, Pope Leo X. Peter and his brothers having been driven out, the Florentines were anxious to be reconciled with Charles VIII. Both bypolitical tradition and popular bias the Florentine republic wasfavorable to France. Charles, annoyed at what had just taken place, showed but slight inclination to enter into negotiation with them; buthis wisest advisers represented to him that, in order to accomplish hisenterprise and march securely on Naples, he needed the good will ofFlorence; and the new Florentine authorities promised him the best ofreceptions in their city. Into it Charles entered on the 17th ofNovember, 1494, at the head of all his army. His reception on the partof officials and populace was really magnificent. Negotiation wasresumed. Charles was at first very exacting; the Florentine negotiatorsprotested; one of them, Peter Capponi, "a man of great wits and greatcourage, " says Guiceiardini, "highly esteemed for those qualities inFlorence, and issue of a family which had been very powerful in therepublic, " when he heard read the exorbitant conditions proposed to themon the king's behalf, started up suddenly, took the paper from thesecretary's hands, and tore it up before the king's eyes, saying, "Sinceyou impose upon us things so dishonorable, have your trumpets sounded, and we will have our bells rung;" and he went forth from the chambertogether with his comrades. Charles and his advisers thought better ofit; mutual concessions were made; a treaty, concluded on the 25th ofNovember, secured to the King of France a free passage through the wholeextent of the republic, and a sum of one hundred and twenty thousandgolden florins "to help towards the success of the expedition againstNaples;" the commune of Florence engaged to revoke the order putting aprice upon the head of Peter de' Medici as well as confiscating hisgoods, and not to enforce against him any penalty beyond proscriptionfrom the territory; and, the honor as well as the security of both thecontracting parties having thus been provided for, Charles VIII. LeftFlorence, and took, with his army, the road towards the Roman States. 

Having on the 7th of December, 1494, entered Acquapendente, and, on the10th, Viterbo, he there received, on the following day, a message fromPope Alexander VI. , who in his own name and that of Alphonso II. , King ofNaples, made him an offer of a million ducats to defray the expenses ofthe war, and a hundred thousand livres annually, on condition that hewould abandon his enterprise against the kingdom of Naples. "I have nomind to make terms with the Arragonese usurper, " answered Charles: "Iwill treat directly with the pope when I am in Rome, which I reckon uponentering about Christmas. I have already made known to him myintentions; I will forthwith send him ambassadors commissioned to repeatthem to him. " And he did send to him the most valiant of his warriors, Louis de la Tremoille, "the which was there, " says the contemporarychronicler, John Bouchet, "with certain speakers, who, after havingpompously reminded the pope of the whole history of the French kingshipin its relations with the papacy, ended up in the following strain:'prayeth you, then, our sovereign lord the king not to give him occasionto be, to his great sorrow, the first of his lineage who ever had war anddiscord with the Roman Church, whereof he and the Christian Kings ofFrance, his predecessors, have been protectors and augmenters. ' Morebriefly and with an affectation of sorrowful graciousness, the pope madeanswer to the ambassador: 'If it please King Charles, my eldest spiritualson, to enter into my city without arms in all humility, he will be mostwelcome; but much would it annoy me if the army of thy king should enter, because that, under shadow of it, which is said to be great and riotous, the factions and bands of Rome might rise up and cause uproar andscandal, wherefrom great discomforts might happen to the citizens. '"For three weeks the king and the pope offered the spectacle, only toocommon in history, of the hypocrisy of might pitted against the hypocrisyof religion. At last the pope saw the necessity of yielding; he sent forPrince Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples, and told him that he must nolonger remain at Rome with the Neapolitan troops, for that the King ofFrance was absolute about entering; and he at the same time handed him asafe-conduct under Charles's own hand. Ferdinand refused thesafe-conduct, and threw himself upon his knees before the pope, askinghim for his blessing: "Rise, my dear son, " said the pope; "go, and havegood hope; God will come to our aid. " The Neapolitans departed, and onthe 1st of January, 1495, Charles VIII. Entered Rome with his army, "saying gentlewise, " according to Brantome, "that a while agone he hadmade a vow to my lord St. Peter of Rome, and that of necessity he mustaccomplish it at the peril of his life. Behold him, then, entered intoRome, " continues Brantome, "in bravery and triumph, himself armed at allpoints, with lance on thigh, as if he would fain pick forward to thecharge. Marching in this fine and furious order of battle, with trumpetsa-sounding and drums a-beating, he enters in and takes his lodging, bythe means of his harbingers, wheresoever it seems to him good, has hisbodies of guards set, posts his sentinels about the places and districtsof the noble city, with no end of rounds and patrols, has his tribunalsand his gallows planted in five or six different spots, his edicts andordinances being published and proclaimed by sound of trumpet, as if hehad been in Paris. Go find me ever a King of France who did such things, save Charlemagne; yet trow I he did not bear himself with authority sosuperb and imperious. What remained, then, more for this great king, ifnot to make himself full master of this glorious city which had subduedall the world in days of yore, as it was in his power to do, and as he, perchance, would fain have done, in accordance with his ambition and withsome of his council, who urged him mightily thereto, if it were only forto keep himself secure. But far from this: violation of holy religiongave him pause, and the reproach that might have been brought against himof having done offence to his Holiness, though reason enough had beengiven him: on the contrary, he rendered him all honor and obedience, evento kissing in all humility his slipper!" [_Oeuvres de Brantome_ (Paris, 1822), t. Ii. P. 3. ] No excuse is required for quoting this fragment ofBrantome; for it gives the truest and most striking picture of theconditions of facts and sentiments during this transitory encounterbetween a madly adventurous king and a brazen-facedly dishonest pope. Thus they passed four weeks at Rome, the pope having retired at first tothe Vatican and afterwards to the castle of St. Angelo, and Charlesremaining master of the city, which, in a fit of mutual ill-humor andmistrust, was for one day given over to pillage and the violence of thesoldiery. At last, on the 15th of January, a treaty was concluded whichregulated pacific relations between the two sovereigns, and secured tothe French army a free passage through the States of the Church, bothgoing to Naples and also returning, and provisional possession of thetown of Civita Vecchia, on condition that it should be restored to thepope when the king returned to France. On the 16th and 19th of Januarythe pope and the king had two interviews, one private and the otherpublic, at which they renewed their engagements, and paid one another thestipulated honors. It was announced that, on the 23d of January, theArragonese King of Naples, Alphonso II. , had abdicated in favor of hisson, Ferdinand II. ; and, on the 28th of January, Charles VIII. Tooksolemn leave of the pope, received his blessing, and left Rome, as he hadentered it, at the head of his army, and more confident than ever in thesuccess of the expedition he was going to carry out. 

[Illustration: Charles VIII----293]

Ferdinand II. , the new King of Naples, who had no lack of energy orcourage, was looking everywhere, at home and abroad, for forces andallies to oppose the imminent invasion. To the Duke of Milan he wrote, "Remember that we two are of the same blood. It is much to be desiredthat a league should at once be formed between the pope, the kings of theRomans and Spain, you, and Venice. If these powers are united, Italywould have nought to fear from any. Give me your support; I have thegreatest need of it. If you back me, I shall owe to you the preservationof my throne, and I will honor you as my father. " He ordered theNeapolitan envoy at Constantinople to remind Sultan Bajazet of there-enforcements he had promised his father, King Alphonso: "Time presses;the King of France is advancing in person on Naples; be instant insolicitation; be importunate if necessary, so that the Turkish army crossthe sea without delay. Be present yourself at the embarkation of thetroops. Be active; run; fly. " He himself ran through all his kingdom, striving to resuscitate some little spark of affection and hope. He hadno success anywhere; the memory of the king his father was hateful; hewas himself young and without influence; his ardor caused fear instead ofsympathy. Charles kept advancing along the kingdom through the midst ofpeople that remained impassive when they did not give him a warmreception. The garrison of Monte San Giovanni, the strongest place onthe frontier, determined to resist. The place was carried by assault ina few hours, and "the assailants, " says a French chronicler, "withoutpity or compassion, made short work of all those plunderers andmalefactors, whose bodies they hurled down from the walls. The carnagelasted eight whole hours. " A few days afterwards Charles with his guardarrived in front of San Germano: "The clergy awaited him at the gate withcross and banner; men of note carried a dais under the which he took hisplace; behind him followed men, women, and children, chanting thisversicle from the Psalms: 'Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini!Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord!'" The town of Capuawas supposed to be very much attached to the house of Arragon; John JamesTrivulzio, a valiant Milanese captain, who had found asylum and fortunein Naples, had the command there; and thither King Ferdinand hurried. "I am going to Naples for troops, " said he to the inhabitants; "wait forme confidently; and if by to-morrow evening you do not see me return, make your own terms with King Charles; you have my full authority. "On arriving at Naples, he said to the Neapolitans, "Hold out for afortnight; I will not expose the capital of my kingdom to be stormed bybarbarians; if, within a fort-night hence, I have not prevented the enemyfrom crossing the Volturno, you may ask him for terms of capitulation;"and back he went to Capua. When he was within sight of the ramparts heheard that on the previous evening, before it was night, the French hadbeen admitted into the town. Trivulzio had been to visit King Charles atTeano, and had offered, in the name of his troops and of the Capuans, tosurrender Capua; he had even added, says Guicciardini, that he did notdespair of bringing King Ferdinand himself to an arrangement, if asuitable provision were guaranteed to him. "I willingly accept the offeryou make me in the name of your troops and of the Capuans, " answeredCharles: "as for the Arragonese prince, he shall be well received if hecome to me; but let him understand that not an inch of ground shall beleft to him in this kingdom; in France he shall have honors and beautifuldomains. " On the 18th of February Charles entered Capua amidst thecheers of the people; and on the same day Trivulzio went over to hisservice with a hundred lances. On returning to Naples, Ferdinand foundthe gates closed, and could not get into Castel Nuovo save by a postern. At that very moment the mob was pillaging his stables; he went down fromthe fortress, addressed the crowd collected beneath the ramparts in a fewsad and bitter words, into which he tried to infuse some leaven of hope, took certain measures to enable the two forts of Naples, Castel Nuovo andCastel dell Uovo, to defend themselves for a few days longer, and, on the23d of February, went for refuge to the island of Ischia, repeating outloud, as long as he had Naples in sight, this versicle from the Psalms:"Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!" AtIschia itself "he had a fresh trial to make, " says Guicciardini, "of hiscourage and of the ungrateful faithlessness displayed towards those whomFortune deserts. " The governor of the island refused to admit himaccompanied by more than one man. The prince, so soon as he got in, flung himself upon him, poniard in hand, with such fury and such anoutburst of kingly authority, that all the garrison, astounded, submittedto him and gave up to him the fort and its rock. On the very eve of theday on which King Ferdinand II. Was thus seeking his last refuge in theisland of Ischia, Charles VIII. Was entering Naples in triumph at thehead of his troops, on horseback, beneath a pall of cloth of gold borneby four great Neapolitan lords, and "received, " says Guicciardini, "withcheers and a joy of which it would be vain to attempt a description; theincredible exultation of a crowd of both sexes, of every age, of everycondition, of every quality, of every party, as if he had been the fatherand first founder of the city. " And the great French historian bearssimilar witness to that of the great Italian historian: "Never, " saysCommynes, "did people show so much affection to king or nation as theyshowed to the king, and thought all of them to be free of tyranny. "

At the news hereof the disquietude and vexation of the principal Italianpowers were displayed at Venice as well as at Milan and at Rome. TheVenetian senate, as prudent as it was vigilant, had hitherto maintained ademeanor of expectancy and almost of good will towards France; they hopedthat Charles VIII. Would be stopped or would stop of himself in his madenterprise, without their being obliged to interfere. The doge, AugustinBarbarigo, lived on very good terms with Commynes, who was as desirous ashe was that the king should recover his senses. Commynes was destined tolearn how difficult and sorry a thing it is to have to promote a policyof which you disapprove. When he perceived that a league was near tobeing formed in Italy against the King of France, he at once informed hismaster of it, and attempted to dissuade the Venetians from it. Theydenied that they had any such design, and showed a disposition to form, in concert with the Kings of France, Spain, and the Romans, and with thewhole of Italy, a league against the Turks, provided that Charles VIII. Would consent to leave the King of Naples in possession of his kingdom, at the same time keeping for himself three places therein, and acceptinga sum in ready money which Venice would advance. "Would to God, " saysCommynes, "that the king had been pleased to listen then! Of all did Igive him notice, and I got bare answer. . . . When the Venetiansheard that the king was in Naples, and that the strong fort, which theyhad great hopes would hold out, was surrendered, they sent for me onemorning, and I found them in great number, about fifty or sixty, in theapartment of the prince (the doge) who was ill. Some were sitting upon astaircase leading to the benches, and had their heads resting upon theirhands, others otherwise, all showing that they had great sadness atheart. And I trow that, when news came to Rome of the battle lost atCannae against Hannibal, the senators who had remained there were notmore dumbfounded and dismayed than these were; for not a single one madesign of seeing me, or spoke to me one word, save the duke (the doge), whoasked me if the king would keep to that of which he had constantly sentthem word, and which I had said to them. I assured them stoutly that hewould, and I opened up ways for to remain at sound peace, hoping toremove their suspicions, and then I did get me gone. "

The league was concluded on the 31st of March, 1495, between PopeAlexander VI. , Emperor Maximilian I. , as King of the Romans, the King ofSpain, the Venetians, and the Duke of Milan: "To three ends, " saysCommynes, "for to defend Christendom against the Turks, for the defenceof Italy, and for the preservation of their Estates. There was nothingin it against the king, they told me, but it was to secure themselvesfrom him; they did not like his so deluding the world with words bysaying that all he wanted was the kingdom, and then to march against theTurk, and all the while he was showing quite the contrary. . . . Iremained in the city about a month after that, being as well treated asbefore; and then I went my way, having been summoned by the king, andbeing conducted in perfect security, at their expense, to Ferrara, whenceI went to Florence for to await the king. "

When Ferdinand II. Took refuge in the island of Ischia, and Castel Nuovoand Castel dell' Uovo had surrendered at Naples, Charles VIII. , considering himself in possession of the kingdom, announced hisintention, and, there is reason to believe, actually harbored the design, of returning to France, without asserting any further his pretensions asa conqueror. On the 20th of March, before the Italian league had beendefinitively concluded, Briconnet, Cardinal of St. Malo, who had attendedthe king throughout his expedition, wrote to the queen, Anne of Brittany, "His Majesty is using diligence as best he can to return over yonder, andhas expressly charged me, for my part, to hasten his affairs. I hope hewill be able to start hence about the 8th of April. He will leave overhere, as lieutenant, my lord de Montpensier, with a thousand or twelvehundred lances, partly French and partly of this country, fifteen hundredSwiss, and a thousand French crossbow-men. " Charles himself wrote, onthe 28th of March, to his brother-in-law, the Duke of Bourbon, that hewould mount his horse immediately after Quasimodo [the first Sunday afterEaster], to return to France without halting, or staying in any place. But Charles, whilst so speaking and projecting, was forgetful of hisgiddy indolence, his frivolous tastes, and his passion for theatricaldisplay and licentious pleasure. The climate, the country, the customsof Naples charmed him. "You would never believe, " he wrote to the Dukeof Bourbon, "what beautiful gardens I have in this city; on my faith, they seem to me to lack only Adam and Eve to make of them an earthlyparadise, so beautiful are they, and full of nice and curious things, asI hope to tell you soon. To add to that, I have found in this countrythe best of painters; and I will send you some of them to make the mostbeautiful ceilings possible. The ceilings at Beauce, Lyons, and otherplaces in France do not approach those of this place in beauty andrichness. . . . Wherefore I shall provide myself with them, and bringthem with me for to have some done at Arnboise. " Politics were forgottenin the presence of these royal fancies. Charles VIII. Remained nearlytwo months at Naples after the Italian league had been concluded, andwhilst it was making its preparations against him was solely concernedabout enjoying, in his beautiful but precarious kingdom, "all sorts ofmundane pleasaunces, " as his councillor, the Cardinal of St. Malo, says, and giving entertainments to his new subjects, as much disposed ashimself to forget everything in amusement. On the 12th of May, 1495, allthe population of Naples and of the neighboring country was afoot earlyto see their new king make his entry in state as King of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, with his Neapolitan court and his French army. Charleswas on horseback beneath a rich dais borne by great Neapolitan lords; hehad a close crown on his head, the sceptre in his right hand, and agolden globe in his left; in front of this brilliant train he took hisway through the principal streets of the city, halting at the five knotsof the noblesse, where the gentlemen and their wives who had assembledthere detained him a long while, requesting him to be pleased to conferwith his own hand the order of knighthood on their sons, which hewillingly did. At last he reached the cathedral church of St. Januarius, which had recently been rebuilt by Alphonso I. Of Arragon, after the earth-quake of 1456. The archbishop, at the head of hisclergy, came out to meet him, and conducted him to the front of the highaltar, where the head of St. Januarius was exhibited. 

When all these solemnities had been accomplished to the greatsatisfaction of the populace, bonfires were lighted up for three days;the city was illuminated; and only a week afterwards, on the 20th of May, 1495, Charles VIII. Started from Naples to return to France, with anarmy, at the most, from twelve to fifteen thousand strong, leaving forguardian of his new kingdom his cousin, Gilbert of Bourbon, Count deMontpensier, a brave but indolent knight (who never rose, it was said, until noon), with eight or ten thousand men, scattered for the most partthroughout the provinces. 

During the months of April and May, thus wasted by Charles VIII. , theItalian league, and especially the Venetians and the Duke of Milan, Ludovic the Moor, had vigorously pushed forward their preparations forwar, and had already collected an army more numerous than that with whichthe King of France, in order to return home, would have to traverse thewhole of Italy. He took more than six weeks to traverse it, passingthree days at Rome, four at Siena, the same number at Pisa, and three atLucca, though he had declared that he would not halt anywhere. He evadedentering Florence, where he had made promises which he could neitherretract nor fulfil. The Dominican Savonarola, "who had always preachedgreatly in the king's favor, " says Commynes, "and by his words had keptthe Florentines from turning against us, " came to see him on his way atPoggibonsi. "I asked him, " said Commynes, "whether the king would beable to cross without danger to his person, seeing the great muster thatwas being made by the Venetians. He answered me that the king would havetrouble on the road, but that the honor would remain his, though he hadbut a hundred men at his back; but, seeing that he had not done well forthe reformation of the Church, as he ought, and had suffered his men toplunder and rob the people, God had given sentence against him, and inshort he would have a touch of the scourge. "

Several contemporary historians affirm that if the Italian army, formedby the Venetians and the Duke of Milan, had opposed the march of theFrench army, they might have put it in great peril; but nothing of thekind was attempted. It was at the passage of the Appennines, so as tocross them and descend into the duchy of Parma, that Charles VIII. Hadfor the first time to overcome resistance, not from men, but from nature. He had in his train a numerous and powerful artillery, from which hepromised himself a great deal when the day of battle came; and he had toget it up and down by steep paths, "Here never, " says the chronicle of LaTremoille, "had car or carriage gone. . . . " The king, knowing thatthe lord of La Tremoille, such was his boldness and his strong will, thought nothing impossible, gave to him this duty, which he willinglyundertook; and, to the end that the footmen, Swiss, German, and others, might labor thereat without fearing the heat, he addressed them asfollows: 'The proper nature of us Gauls is strength, boldness, andferocity. We triumphed at our coming; better would it be for us to die, than to lose by cowardice the delight of such praise; we are all in theflower of our age and the vigor of our years; let each lend a hand to thework of dragging the gun-carriages and carrying the cannon-balls; tencrowns to the first man that reaches the top of the mountain before me!'Throwing off his armor, La Tremoille, in hose and shirt, himself lent ahand to the work; by dint of pulling and pushing, the artillery was gotto the brow of the mountain; it was then harder still to get it down theother side, along a very narrow and rugged incline; and five whole dayswere spent on this rough work, which luckily the generals of the enemydid not attempt to molest. La Tremoille, "black as a Moor, " says thechronicle, "by reason of the murderous heat he had endured, made hisreport to the king, who said, 'By the light of this day, cousin, you havedone more than ever could Annibal of Carthage or Caesar have done, to theperil of your person, whereof you have not been sparing to serve me, meand mine. I vow to God, that if I may only see you back in France, therecompense I hope to make you shall be so great, that others shallconceive fresh desire to serve me. '"

Charles VIII. Was wise to treat his brave men well; for the day was athand when he would need them and all their bravery. It was in the duchyof Parma, near the town of Fornovo, on the right bank of the Taro, anaffluent of the Po, that the French and Italian armies met, on the 5th ofJuly, 1495. The French army was nine or ten thousand strong, with fiveor six thousand camp followers, servants or drivers; the Italian armynumbered at least thirty thousand men, well supplied and well rested, whereas the French were fatigued with their long march, and very badlyoff for supplies. During the night between the 5th and 6th of July, aviolent storm burst over the country, "rain, lightnings, and thunder somighty, " says Commynes, "that none could say more; seemed that heaven andearth would dissolve, or that it portended some great disaster to come. "Next day, at six in the morning, Charles VIII. Heard mass, received thecommunion, mounted on horseback, and set out to join his own division. "I went to him, " says Commynes, "and found him armed at all points, andmounted upon the finest horse I had ever seen in my life, called Savoy;Duke Charles of Savoy (the Duchess of Savoy, ? v. P. 288) had given ithim; it was black, and had but one eye; it was a middle-sized horse, ofgood height for him who was upon it. Seemed that this young man wasquite other than either his nature, his stature, or his complexionbespoke him, for he was very timid in speaking, and is so to this day. That horse made him look tall; and he had a good countenance, and of goodcolor, and speech bold and sensible. " On perceiving Commynes, the kingsaid to him, "Go and see if yonder folks would fain parley. " "Sir, "answered Commynes, "I will do so willingly; but I never saw two so greathosts so near to one another, and yet go their ways without fighting. "He went, nevertheless, to the Venetian advanced posts, and his trumpeterwas admitted to the presence of the Marquis of Mantua, who commanded theItalian army; but skirmishing had already commenced in all quarters, andthe first boom of the cannon was heard just as the marquis was readingCommynes' letter. "It is too late to speak of peace, " said he; and thetrumpeter was sent back. The king had joined the division which he wasto lead to battle. "Gentlemen, " said he to the men-at-arms who pressedaround him, "you will live or die here with me, will you not?" And thenraising his voice that he might be heard by the troops, "They are tentimes as many as we, " he said; "but you are ten times better than they;God loves the French; He is with us, and will do battle for us. As faras Naples I have had the victory over my enemies; I have brought youhither without shame or blame; with God's help I will lead you back intoFrance, to our honor and that of our kingdom. " The men-at-arms made thesign of the cross; the foot-soldiers kissed the ground; and the king madeseveral knights, according to custom, before going into action. TheMarquis of Mantua's squadrons were approaching. "Sir, " said the bastardof Bourbon, "there is no longer time for the amusement of making knights;the enemy is coming on in force; go we at him. " The king gave orders tocharge, and the battle began at all points. 

[Illustration: Battle of Fornovo----303]

It was very hotly contested, but did not last long, with alternations ofsuccess and reverse on both sides. The two principal commanders in theking's army, Louis de la Tremoille and John James Trivulzio, sustainedwithout recoiling the shock of troops far more numerous than their own. "At the throat! at the throat!!" shouted La Tremoille, after the firstonset, and his three hundred men-at-arms burst upon the enemy and broketheir line. In the midst of the melley, the French baggage was attackedby the Stradiots, a sort of light infantry composed of Greeks recruitedand paid by the Venetians. "Let them be, " said Trivulzio to his men;"their zeal for plunder will make them forget all, and we shall give thebetter account of them. " At one moment, the king had advanced before themain body of his guard, without looking to see if they were close behindhim, and was not more than a hundred paces from the Marquis of Mantua, who, seeing him scantily attended, bore down at the head of his cavalry. "Not possible is it, " says Commynes, "to do more doughtily than was doneon both sides. " The king, being very hard pressed, defended himselffiercely against those who would have taken him; the bastard Matthew ofBourbon, his brother-in-arms and one of the bravest knights in the army, had thrown himself twenty paces in front of him to cover him, and hadjust been taken prisoner by the Marquis of Mantua in person, when a massof the royal troops came to their aid, and released them from all peril. Here it was that Peter du Terrail, the Chevalier de Bayard, who wasbarely twenty years of age, and destined to so glorious a renown, madehis first essay in arms; he had two horses killed under him, and took astandard, which he presented to the king, who after the battle made him apresent of five hundred crowns. 

Charles VIII. Remained master of the battle-field. "There were still tobe seen, " says Commynes, "outside their camp, a great number ofmen-at-arms, whose lances and heads only were visible, and likewisefoot-soldiers. The king put it to the council whether he ought to givechase to them or not; some were for marching against them; but the Frenchwere not of this opinion; they said that enough had been done, that itwas late, and that it was time to get lodged. Night was coming on; thehost which had been in front of us withdrew into their camp, and we wentto get lodged a quarter of a league from where the battle had been. Theking put up at a poorly-built farm-house, but he found there an infinitequantity of corn in sheaves, whereby the whole army profited. Some otherbits of houses there were hard by, which did for a few; and every onelodged as he could, without making any cantonment, I know well enoughthat I lay in a vineyard, at full length on the bare ground, withoutanything else and without cloak, for the king had borrowed mine in themorning. Whoever had the wherewith made a meal, but few had, save ahunch of bread from a varlet's knapsack. I went to see the king in hischamber, where there were some wounded whom he was having dressed; hewore a good mien, and every one kept a good face; and we were not soboastful as a little before the battle, because we saw the enemy nearus. " Six days after the battle, on the 12th of July, the king wrote tohis sister, the Duchess Anne of Bourbon, "Sister, my dear, I commendmyself to you right heartily. I wrote to my brother how that I found inmy way a big army that Lord Ludovic, the Venetians, and their allies, hadgot ready against me, thinking to keep me from passing. Against which, with God's help, such resistance was made, that I am come hither withoutany loss. Furthermore, I am using the greatest diligence that can be toget right away, and I hope shortly to see you, which is my desire, inorder to tell you at good length all about my trip. And so God blessyou, sister, my dear, and may He have you in His keeping!"

Both armies might and did claim the victory, for they had, each of them, partly succeeded in their design. The Italians wished to unmistakablydrive out of Italy Charles VIII. , who was withdrawing voluntarily; but tomake it an unmistakable retreat, he ought to have been defeated, his armybeaten, and himself perhaps a prisoner. With that view they attempted tobar his passage and beat him on Italian ground: in that they failed;Charles, remaining master of the battle-field, went on his way infreedom, and covered with glory, he and his army. He certainly leftItaly, but he left it with the feeling of superiority in arms, and withthe intention of returning thither better informed and better supplied. The Italian allies were triumphant, but without any ground of security orany lustre; the expedition of Charles VIII. Was plainly only thebeginning of the foreigner's ambitious projects, invasions and warsagainst their own beautiful land. The King of France and his men of warhad not succeeded in conquering it, but they had been charmed with suchan abode; they had displayed in their campaign knightly qualities morebrilliant and more masterful than the studied duplicity and eleganteffeminacy of the Italians of the fifteenth century, and, after thebattle of Fornovo, they returned to France justly proud and foolishlyconfident, notwithstanding the incompleteness of their success. 

[Illustration: CASTLE OF AMBOISE----308]

Charles VIII. Reigned for nearly three years longer after his return tohis kingdom; and for the first two of them he passed his time inindolently dreaming of his plans for a fresh invasion of Italy, and infrivolous abandonment to his pleasures and the entertainments at hiscourt, which he moved about from Lyons to Moulins, to Paris, to Tours, and to Amboise. The news which came to him from Italy was worse andworse every day. The Count de Montpensier, whom he had left at Naples, could not hold his own there, and died a prisoner there on the 11th ofNovember, 1496, after having found himself driven from place to place byFerdinand II. , who by degrees recovered possession of nearly all hiskingdom, merely, himself also, to die there on the 6th of October, leaving for his uncle and successor, Frederick III. , the honor ofrecovering the last four places held by the French. Charles ordered afresh army of invasion to be formed, and the Duke of Orleans was singledout to command it; but he evaded this commission. The young _dauphin_, Charles Orlando, three years old, had just died, "a fine child and boldof speech, " says Commynes, "and one that feared not the things that otherchildren are wont to fear. " Duke Louis of Orleans, having thus becomeheir to the throne, did not care to go and run risks at a distance. He, nevertheless, declared his readiness to obey an express command from theking if the title of lieutenant-general were given him; but "I will neversend him to war on compulsion, " said Charles, and nothing more was saidabout it. Whilst still constantly talking of the war he had in view, Charles attended more often and more earnestly than he hitherto had tothe internal affairs of his kingdom. "He had gotten it into his head, "says Commynes, "that he would fain live according to God's commandments, and set justice and the Church in good order. He would also revise hisfinances, in such sort as to levy on the people but twelve hundredthousand francs, and that in form of talliage, besides his own propertyon which he would live, as did the kings of old. " His two immediatepredecessors, Charles VII. And Louis IX. , had decreed the collation andrevision of local customs, so often the rule of civil jurisdiction; butthe work made no progress: Charles VIII. , by a decree dated March 15, 1497, abridged the formalities, and urged on the execution of it, thoughit was not completed until the reign of Charles IX. By another decree, dated August 2, 1497, he organized and regulated, as to its powers aswell as its composition, the king's grand council, the supremeadministrative body, which was a fixture at Paris. He began even tocontemplate a reformation of his own life; he had inquiries made as tohow St. Louis used to proceed in giving audience to the lower orders; hisintention, he said, was to henceforth follow the footsteps of the mostjustice-loving of French kings. "He set up, " says Commynes, "a publicaudience, whereat he gave ear to everybody, and especially to the poor;I saw him thereat, a week before his death, for two good hours, and Inever saw him again. He did not much business at this audience; but atleast it was enough to keep folks in awe, and especially his ownofficers, of whom he had suspended some for extortion. " It is buttoo often a man's fate to have his life slip from him just as he wasbeginning to make a better use of it. On the 7th of April, 1498, CharlesVIII. Was pleased, after dinner, to go down with the queen into thefosses of the castle of Amboise, to see a game of tennis. Their way laythrough a gallery the opening of which was very low; and the king, shortas he was, hit his forehead. Though he was a little dizzy with the blow, he did not stop, watched the players for some time, and even conversedwith several persons; but about two in the afternoon, whilst he was asecond time traversing this passage on his way back to the castle, hefell backwards and lost consciousness. He was laid upon a paltrypaillasse in that gallery where everybody went in and out at pleasure;and in that wretched place, after a lapse of nine hours, expired "he, "says Commynes, "who had so many fine houses, and who was making so finean one at Amboise; so small a matter is our miserable life, which givethus so much trouble for the things of the world, and kings cannot helpthemselves any more than peasants. I arrived at Amboise two days afterhis decease; I went to say mine orison at the spot where was the corpse;and there I was for five or six hours. And, of a verity, there was neverseen the like mourning, nor that lasted so long; he was so good thatbetter creature cannot be seen; the most humane and gentle address thatever was was his; I trow that to never a man spake he aught that coulddisplease; and at a better hour could he never have died for to remain ofgreat renown in histories and regretted by those that served him. I trowI was the man to whom he showed most roughness; but knowing that it wasin his youth, and that it did not proceed from him, I never bore himill-will for it. "

Probably no king was ever thus praised for his goodness, and his goodnessalone, by a man whom he had so maltreated, and who, as judicious andindependent as he was just, said of this same king, "He was not betteroff for sense than for money, and he thought of nothing but pastime andhis pleasures. "

CHAPTER XXVII. ----THE WARS IN ITALY. --LOUIS XII. 1498-1515. 

On ascending the throne Louis XII. Reduced the public taxes andconfirmed in their posts his predecessor's chief advisers, using to Louisde la Tremoille, who had been one of his most energetic foes, thatcelebrated expression, "The King of France avenges not the wrongs of theDuke of Orleans. " At the same time, on the day of his coronation atRheims [May 27, 1492], he assumed, besides his title of King of France, the titles of King of Naples and of Jerusalem and Duke of Milan. Thiswas as much as to say that he would pursue a pacific and conservativepolicy at home and a warlike and adventurous policy abroad. And, indeed, his government did present these two phases, so different andinharmonious. By his policy at home Louis XII. Deserved and obtained thename of Father of the People; by his enterprises and wars abroad heinvolved France still more deeply than Charles VIII. Had in that madcourse of distant, reckless, and incoherent conquests for which hissuccessor, Francis I. , was destined to pay by capture at Pavia and by thelamentable treaty of Madrid, in 1526, as the price of his release. Letus follow these two portions of Louis XII. 's reign, each separately, without mixing up one with the other by reason of identity of dates. Weshall thus get at a better understanding and better appreciation of theircharacter and their results. 

Outside of France, Milaness [the Milanese district] was Louis XII. 'sfirst thought, at his accession, and the first object of his desire. Helooked upon it as his patrimony. His grandmother, Valentine Visconti, widow of that Duke of Orleans who had been assassinated at Paris in 1407by order of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, had been the last toinherit the duchy of Milan, which the Sforzas, in 1450, had seized. When Charles VIII. Invaded Italy in 1494, "Now is the time, " said Louis, "to enforce the rights of Valentine Visconti, my grandmother, toMilaness. " And he, in fact, asserted them openly, and proclaimed hisintention of vindicating them so soon as he found the moment propitious. When he became king, his chance of success was great. The Duke ofMilan, Ludovic, the Moor, had by his sagacity and fertile mind, by histaste for arts and sciences and the intelligent patronage he bestowedupon them, by his ability in speaking, and by his facile character, obtained in Italy a position far beyond his real power. Leonardo daVinci, one of the most eminent amongst the noble geniuses of the age, lived on intimate terms with him; but Ludovic was, nevertheless, aturbulent rascal and a greedy tyrant, of whom those who did not profitby his vices or the enjoyments of his court were desirous of beingrelieved. He had, moreover, embroiled himself with his neighbors theVenetians, who were watching for an opportunity of aggrandizingthemselves at his expense. As early as the 20th of April, 1498, afortnight after his accession, Louis XII. Addressed to the Venetians aletter "most gracious, " says the contemporary chronicler Marino Sanuto, "and testifying great good-will;" and the special courier who brought itdeclared that the king had written to nobody in Italy except the pope, the Venetians, and the Florentines. The Venetians did not care toneglect such an opening; and they at once sent three ambassadors toLouis XII. Louis heard the news thereof with marked satisfaction. "Ihave never seen Zorzi, " said he, "but I know him well; as for Loredano, I like him much; he has been at this court before, some time ago. " Hegave them a reception on the 12th of August, at Etampes, "not in apalace, " says one of the senate's private correspondents, "but at theFountain inn. You will tell me that so great a king ought not to put upat an inn; but I shall answer you that in this district of Etampes thebest houses are as yet the inns. There is certainly a royal castle, inthe which lives the queen, the wife of the deceased king; neverthelesshis Majesty was pleased to give audience in this hostelry, all coveredexpressly with cloth of Alexandrine velvet, with lilies of gold at thespot where the king was placed. As soon as the speech was ended, hisMajesty rose up and gave quite a brotherly welcome to the brilliantambassadors. The king has a very good countenance, a smilingcountenance; he is forty years of age, and appears very active in make. To-day, Monday, August 13, the ambassadors were received at a privateaudience. "

[Illustration: Louis XII----310]

A treaty concluded on the 9th of February, 1499, and published as signedat Blois no earlier than the 15th of April following, was the result ofthis negotiation. It provided for an alliance between the King of Franceand the Venetian government, for the purpose of making war in common uponthe Duke of Milan, Ludovic Sforza, on and against every one, save thelord pope of Rome, and for the purpose of insuring to the Most Christianking restoration to the possession of the said duchy of Milan as hisrightful and olden patrimony. And on account of the charges and expenseswhich would be incurred by the Venetian government whilst renderingassistance to the Most Christian king in the aforesaid war, the MostChristian king bound himself to approve and consent that the city ofCremona and certain forts or territories adjacent, specially indicated, should belong in freehold and perpetuity to the Venetian government. Thetreaty, at the same time, regulated the number of troops and the militarydetails of the war on behalf of the two contracting powers, and itprovided for divers political incidents which might be entailed, and towhich the alliance thus concluded should or should not be applicableaccording to the special stipulations which were drawn up with a view tothose very incidents. 

In the month of August, 1499, the French army, with a strength of fromtwenty to five and twenty thousand men, of whom five thousand were Swiss, invaded Milaness. Duke Ludovic Sforza opposed to it a force prettynearly equal in number, but far less full of confidence and of far lessvalor. In less than three weeks the duchy was conquered; in only twocases was any assault necessary; all the other places were given up bytraitors or surrendered without a show of resistance. The Venetians hadthe same success on the eastern frontier of the duchy. Milan and Cremonaalone remained to be occupied. Ludovic Sforza "appeared before histroops and his people like the very spirit of lethargy, " says acontemporary unpublished chronicle, "with his head bent down to theearth, and for a long while he remained thus pensive and without a singleword to say. Howbeit he was not so discomfited but that on that verysame day he could get his luggage packed, his transport-train underorders, his horses shod, his ducats, with which he had more than thirtymules laden, put by, and, in short, everything in readiness to decampnext morning as early as possible. " Just as he left Milan, he said tothe Venetian ambassadors, "You have brought the King of France to dinnerwith me; I warn you that he will come to supper with you. "

"Unless necessity constrain him thereto, " says Machiavelli [treatise DuPrince, ch. Xxi. ], "a prince ought never to form alliance with onestronger than himself in order to attack others, for, the most powerfulbeing victor, thou remainest, thyself, at his discretion, and princesought to avoid, as much as ever they can, being at another's discretion. The Venetians allied themselves with France against the Duke of Milan;and yet they might have avoided this alliance, which entailed theirruin. " For all his great and profound intellect, Machiavelli was wrongabout this event and the actors in it. The Venetians did not deserve hiscensure. By allying themselves, in 1499, with Louis XII. Against theDuke of Milan, they did not fall into Louis's hands, for, between 1499and 1515, and many times over, they sided alternately with and againsthim, always preserving their independence and displaying it as suitedthem at the moment. And these vicissitudes in their policy did not bringabout their ruin, for at the death of Louis XII. Their power andimportance in Southern Europe had not declined. It was Louis XII. Whodeserved Machiavelli's strictures for having engaged, by means ofdiplomatic alliances of the most contradictory kind, at one time with theVenetians' support, and at another against them, in a policy of distantand incoherent conquests, without any connection with the nationalinterests of France, and, in the long run, without any success. 

[Illustration: Bayard----315]

Louis was at Lyons when he heard of his army's victory in Milaness and ofLudovic Sforza's flight. He was eager to go and take possession of hisconquest, and, on the 6th of October, 1499, he made his triumphal entryinto Milan amidst cries of "Hurrah! for France. " He reduced the heavyimposts established by the Sforzas, revoked the vexatious game-laws, instituted at Milan a court of justice analogous to the Frenchparliaments, loaded with favors the scholars and artists who were thehonor of Lombardy, and recrossed the Alps at the end of some weeks, leaving as governor of Milaness John James Trivulzio, the valiantCondottiere, who, four years before, had quitted the service of FerdinandII. , King of Naples, for that of Charles VIII. Unfortunately Trivulziowas himself a Milanese and of the faction of the Guelphs. He had thepassions of a partisan and the habits of a man of war; and he soon becameas tyrannical and as much detested in Milaness as Ludovic the Moor hadbut lately been. A plot was formed in favor of the fallen tyrant, whowas in Germany expecting it, and was recruiting, during expectancy, amongst the Germans and Swiss in order to take advantage of it. On the25th of January, 1500, the insurrection broke out; and two months laterLudovic Sforza had once more become master of Milaness, where the Frenchpossessed nothing but the castle of Milan. In one of the fights broughtabout by this sudden revolution the young Chevalier Bayard, carried awayby the impetuosity of his age and courage, pursued right into Milan thefoes he was driving before him, without noticing that his French comradeshad left him; and he was taken prisoner in front of the very palace inwhich were the quarters of Ludovic Sforza. The incident created somenoise around the palace; Ludovic asked what it meant, and was informedthat a brave and bold gentleman, younger than any of the others, hadentered Milan pell-mell with the combatants he was pursuing, and had beentaken prisoner by John Bernardino Casaccio, one of the leaders of theinsurrection. Ludovic ordered him to be brought up, which was done, though not without some disquietude on the part of Bayard's captor, "a courteous gentleman, who feared that Lord Ludovico might do him somedispleasure. " He resolved himself to be his conductor, after havingdressed him in one of his own robes and made him look like a gentleman. "Marvelling to see Bayard so young, 'Come hither, my gentleman, ' saidLudovico: 'who brought you into the city?' 'By my faith, my lord, 'answered Bayard, who was not a whit abashed, 'I never imagined I wasentering all alone, and thought surely I was being followed of mycomrades, who knew more about war than I, for if they had done as I didthey would, like me, be prisoners. Howbeit, after my mishap, I laud thefortune which caused me to fall into the hands of so valiant and discreeta knight as he who has me in holding. ' 'By your faith, ' asked Ludovico, 'of how many is the army of the King of France?' 'On my soul, my lord, 'answered Bayard, 'so far as I can hear, there are fourteen or fifteenhundred men-at-arms and sixteen or eighteen thousand foot; but they areall picked men, who are resolved to busy themselves so well this boutthat they will assure the state of Milan to the king our master; andmeseems, my lord, that you would surely be in as great safety in Germanyas you are here, for your folks are not the sort to fight us. ' With suchassurance spoke the good knight that Lord Ludovico took pleasurethere-in, though his say was enough to astound him. 'On my faith, mygentleman, ' said he, as it were in raillery, 'I have a good mind that theKing of France's army and mine should come together, in order that bybattle it may be known to whom of right belongs this heritage, for I seeno other way to it. ' 'By my sacred oath, my lord, ' said the good knight, 'I would that it might be to-morrow, provided that I were out ofcaptivity. ' 'Verily, that shall not stand in your way, ' said Ludovico, 'for I will let you go forth, and that presently. Moreover, ask of mewhat you will, and I will give it you. ' The good knight, who, on bendedknee, thanked Lord Ludovico for the offers he made him, as there was goodreason he should, then said to him, 'My lord, I ask of you nothing saveonly that you may be pleased to extend your courtesy so far as to get meback my horse and my arms that I brought into this city, and so send meaway to my garrison, which is twenty miles hence; you would do me a verygreat kindness, for which I shall all my life feel bounden to you; and, barring my duty to the king my master and saving my honor, I would showmy gratitude for it in whatsoever it might please you to command me. ''In good faith, ' said Lord Ludovico, 'you shall have presently that whichyou do ask for. ' And then he said to the Lord John Bernardino, 'At once, Sir Captain, let his horse be found, his arms and all that is his. ''My lord, ' answered the captain, 'it is right easy to find, it is all atmy quarters. ' He sent forthwith two or three servants, who brought thearms and led up the horse of the good young knight; and Lord Ludovico hadhim armed before his eyes. When he was accoutred, the young knightleaped upon his horse without putting foot to stirrup; then he asked fora lance, which was handed to him, and, raising his eyes, he said to LordLudovico, 'My lord, I thank you for the courtesy you have done me; pleaseGod to pay it back to you. ' He was in a fine large court-yard; then hebegan to set spurs to his horse, the which gave four or five jumps, sogayly that it could not be better done; then the young knight gave him alittle run, in the which he broke the lance against the ground into fiveor six pieces; whereat Lord Ludovico was not over pleased, and said outloud, 'If all the men-at-arms of France were like him yonder, I shouldhave a bad chance. ' Nevertheless he had a trumpeter told off to conducthim to his garrison. " [Histoire du bon Chevalier sans Peur et sansReproche, t. I. Pp. 212-216. ]

For Ludovic the Moor's chance to be bad it was not necessary that themen-at-arms of France should all be like Chevalier Bayard. Louis XII. , so soon as he heard of the Milanese insurrection, sent into Italy Louisde la Tremoille, the best of his captains, and the Cardinal d'Amboise, his privy councillor and his friend, the former to command the royaltroops, French and Swiss, and the latter "for to treat about thereconciliation of the rebel towns, and to deal with everything as if itwere the king in his own person. " The campaign did not last long. TheSwiss who had been recruited by Ludovic and those who were in LouisXII. 's service had no mind to fight one another; and the formercapitulated, surrendered the strong place of Novara, and promised toevacuate the country on condition of a safe-conduct for themselves andtheir booty. Ludovic, in extreme anxiety for his own safety, was on thepoint of giving himself up to the French; but, whether by his own freewill or by the advice of the Swiss who were but lately in his pay, andwho were now withdrawing; he concealed himself amongst them, putting on adisguise, "with his hair turned up under a coif, a collaret round hisneck, a doublet of crimson satin, scarlet hose, and a halberd in hisfist;" but, whether it were that he was betrayed or that he wasrecognized, he, on the 10th of April, 1500, fell into the hands of theFrench, and was conducted to the quarters of La Tremoille, who said nomore than, "Welcome, lord. " Next day, April 11, Louis XII. Received nearLyons the news of this capture, "whereat he was right joyous, and hadbonfires lighted, together with devotional processions, giving thanks tothe Prince of princes for the happy victory he had, by the divine aid, obtained over his enemies. " Ludovic was taken to Lyons. "At theentrance into the city a great number of gentlemen from the king'shousehold were present to meet him; and the provost of the householdconducted him all along the high street to the castle of Pierre-Encise, where he was lodged and placed in security. " There he passed afortnight. Louis refused to see him, but had him "questioned as toseveral matters by the lords of his grand council; and, granted that hehad committed nought but follies, still he spoke right wisely. " He wasconducted from Pierre-Encise to the castle of Loches in Touraine, wherehe was at first kept in very strict captivity, "without books, paper, orink, " but it was afterwards less severe. "He plays at tennis and atcards, " says a despatch of the Venetian ambassador, Dominic of Treviso, "and he is fatter than ever. " [_La Diplomatic Venitienne, _ by M. ArmandBaschet (1862), p. 363. ] He died in his prison at the end of eight years, having to the very last great confidence in the future of his name, forhe wrote, they say, on the wall of his prison these words: "Servicesrendered me will count for an heritage. " And "thus was the duchy ofMilan, within seven months and a half, twice conquered by the French, "says John d'Auton in his Claronique, "and for the nonce was ended the warin Lombardy, and the authors thereof were captives and exiles. "

Whilst matters were thus going on in the north of Italy, Louis XII. Waspreparing for his second great Italian venture, the conquest of thekingdom of Naples, in which his predecessor Charles VIII. Had failed. Hethought to render the enterprise easier by not bearing the whole burdenby himself alone. On the 11th of November, 1500, he concluded at Grenada"with Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Castile and Arragon, " atreaty, by which the Kings of France and Spain divided, by anticipation, between them the kingdom of Naples, which they were making an engagementto conquer together. Terra di Lavoro and the province of the Abruzzi, with the cities of Naples and Gaeta, were to be the share of Louis XII. , who would assume the title of King of Naples and of Jerusalem; Calabriaand Puglia (Apulia), with the title of duchies, would belong to the Kingof Spain, to whom Louis XII. , in order to obtain this chance of anaccessary and precarious kingship, gave up entirely Roussillon andCerdagne, that French frontier of the Pyrenees which Louis XI. Hadpurchased, a golden bargain, from John II. , King of Arragon. In thisarrangement there was a blemish and a danger of which the superficial andreckless policy of Louis XII. Made no account: he did not here, as he haddone for the conquest of Milaness, join himself to an ally of farinferior power to his own, and of ambition confined within far narrowerboundaries, as was the case when the Venetians supported him againstLudovie Sforza: he was choosing for his comrade, in a far greaterenterprise, his nearest and most powerful rival, and the most dexterousrascal amongst the kings of his day. "The King of France, " saidFerdinand one day, "complains that I have deceived him twice; he lies, the drunkard; I have deceived him more than ten times. " Whether thisbarefaced language were or were not really used, it expressed nothing butthe truth: mediocre men, who desire to remain pretty nearly honest, havealways the worst of it, and are always dupes when they ally themselveswith men who are corrupt and at the same time able, indifferent to goodand evil, to justice and iniquity. Louis XII. , even with the Cardinald'Amboise to advise him, was neither sufficiently judicious to abstainfrom madly conceived enterprises, nor sufficiently scrupulous andclear-sighted to unmask and play off every act of perfidy and wickedness:by uniting himself, for the conquest and partition of the kingdom ofNaples, with Ferdinand the Catholic, he was bringing upon himself firstof all hidden opposition in the very midst of joint action, andafterwards open treason and defection. He forgot, moreover, thatFerdinand had at the head of his armies a tried chieftain, Gonzalvo ofCordova, already known throughout Europe as the great captain, who hadwon that name in campaigns against the Moors, the Turks, and thePortuguese, and who had the character of being as free from scruple asfrom fear. Lastly the supporters who, at the very commencement of hisenterprises in Italy, had been sought and gained by Louis XII. , PopeAlexander VI. And his son Caesar Borgia, were as little to be dependedupon in the future as they were compromising at the present by reason oftheir reputation for unbridled ambition, perfidy, and crime. The King ofFrance, whatever sacrifices he might already have made and might stillmake in order to insure their co-operation, could no more count upon itthan upon the loyalty of the King of Spain in the conquest they wereentering upon together. 

The outset of the campaign was attended with easy success. The Frencharmy, under the command of Stuart d'Aubigny, a valiant Scot, arrived onthe 25th of June, 1501, before Rome, and there received a communicationin the form of a bull of the pope which removed the crown of Naples fromthe head of Frederick III. , and partitioned that fief of the Holy Seebetween the Kings of France and Spain. Fortified with this authority, the army continued its march, and arrived before Capua on the 6th ofJuly. Gonzalvo of Cordova was already upon Neapolitan territory with aSpanish army, which Ferdinand the Catholic had hastily sent thither atthe request of Frederick III. Himself, who had counted upon theassistance of his cousin the King of Arragon against the French invasion. Great was his consternation when he heard that the ambassadors of Franceand Spain had proclaimed at Rome the alliance between their masters. Atthe first rumor of this news, Gonzalvo of Cordova, whether sincerely ornot, treated it as a calumny; but, so soon as its certainty was madepublic, he accepted it without hesitation, and took, equally with theFrench, the offensive against the king, already dethroned by the pope, and very near being so by the two sovereigns who had made alliance forthe purpose of sharing between them the spoil they should get from him. Capua capitulated, and was nevertheless plundered and laid waste. AFrench fleet, commanded by Philip de Ravenstein, arrived off Naples whenD'Aubigny was already master of it. The unhappy King Frederick tookrefuge in the island of Ischia; and, unable to bear the idea of seekingan asylum in Spain with his cousin who had betrayed him so shamefully, he begged the French admiral himself to advise him in his adversity. "Asenemies that have the advantage should show humanity to the afflicted, "Ravenstein sent word to him, "he would willingly advise him as to hisaffairs; according to his advice, the best thing would be to surrenderand place himself in the hands of the King of France, and submit to hisgood pleasure; he would find him so wise, and so debonnair, and soaccommodating, that he would be bound to be content. Better or safercounsel for him he had not to give. " After taking some precautions onthe score of his eldest son, Prince Ferdinand, whom he left at Tarento, in the kingdom he was about to quit, Frederick III. Followed Ravenstein'scounsel, sent to ask for "a young gentleman to be his guide to France, "put to sea with five hundred men remaining to him, and arrived atMarseilles, whither Louis XII. Sent some lords of his court to receivehim. Two months afterwards, and not before, he was conducted to the kinghimself, who was then at Blois. Louis welcomed him with his naturalkindness, and secured to him fifty thousand livres a year on the duchy ofAnjou, on condition that he never left France. It does not appear thatFrederick ever had an idea of doing so, for his name is completely lostto history up to the day of his death, which took place at Tours on the9th of November, 1504, after three years' oblivion and exile. 

On hearing of so prompt a success, Louis XII. 's satisfaction was great. He believed, and many others, no doubt, believed with him, that hisconquest of Naples, of that portion at least which was assigned to himby his treaty with the King of Spain, was accomplished. The senate ofVenice sent to him, in December, 1501, a solemn embassy to congratulatehim. In giving the senate an account of his mission, one of theambassadors, Dominic of Treviso, drew the following portrait ofLouis XII. : "The king is in stature tall and thin, and temperate ineating, taking scarcely anything but boiled beef; he is by nature miserlyand retentive; his great pleasure is hawking; from September to April hehawks. The Cardinal of Rouen [George d'Amboise] does everything;nothing, however, with-out the cognizance of the king, who has a far fromstable mind, saying yes and no. . . . I am of opinion that theirlordships should remove every suspicion from his Majesty's mind, and aimat keeping themselves closely united with him. " [Armand Baschet, _LaDiplomatic, L'enitienne_, p. 362. ] It was not without ground that theVenetian envoy gave his government this advice. So soon as the treaty ofalliance between Louis XII. And the Venetians for the conquest ofMilaness had attained its end, the king had more than once felt andtestified some displeasure at the demeanor assumed towards him by hisformer allies. They had shown vexation and disquietude at the extensionof French influence in Italy; and they had addressed to Louis certainrepresentations touching the favor enjoyed at his hands by the pope'snephew, Caesar Borgia, to whom he had given the title of Duke ofValentinois on investing him with the countships of Valence and of Die inDauphiny. Louis, on his side, showed anxiety as to the conduct whichwould be exhibited towards him by the Venetians if he encountered anyembarrassment in his expedition to Naples. Nothing of the kind happenedto him during the first month after King Frederick III. 's abandonment ofthe kingdom of Naples. The French and the Spaniards, D'Aubigny andGonzalvo of Cordova, at first gave their attention to nothing butestablishing themselves firmly, each in the interests of the king hismaster, in those portions of the kingdom which were to belong to them. 

But, before long, disputes arose between the two generals as to themeaning of certain clauses in the treaty of November 11, 1500, and as tothe demarcation of the French and the Spanish territories. D'Aubignyfell ill; and Louis XII. Sent to Naples, with the title of viceroy, Louisd'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, a brave warrior, but a negotiator inclinedto take umbrage and to give offence. The disputes soon took the form ofhostilities. The French essayed to drive the Spaniards from the pointsthey had occupied in the disputed territories; and at first they had theadvantage. Gonzalvo of Cordova, from necessity or in prudence, concentrated his forces within Barletta, a little fortress with a littleport on the Adriatic; but he there endured, from July, 1502, to April, 1503, a siege which did great honor to the patient firmness of theSpanish troops and the persistent vigor of their captain. Gonzalvo wasgetting ready to sally from Barletta and take the offensive against theFrench when he heard that a treaty signed at Lyons on the 5th of April, 1503, between the Kings of Spain and France, made a change in theposition, reciprocally, of the two sovereigns, and must suspend themilitary operations of their generals within the kingdom of Naples. "The French general declared his readiness to obey his king, " saysGuicciardini; "but the Spanish, whether it were that he felt sure ofvictory or that he had received private instructions on that point, saidthat he could not stop the war without express orders from his king. "And sallying forthwith from Barletta, he gained, on the 28th of April, 1503, at Cerignola, a small town of Puglia, a signal victory over theFrench commanded by the Duke of Nemours, who, together with threethousand men of his army, was killed in action. The very day after hissuccess Gonzalvo heard that a Spanish corps, lately disembarked inCalabria, had also beaten, on the 21st of April, at Seminara, a Frenchcorps commanded by D'Aubigny. The great captain was as eager to profitby victory as he had been patient in waiting for a chance of it. Hemarched rapidly on Naples, and entered it on the 14th of May, almostwithout resistance; and the two forts defending the city, the CastelNuovo and the Castel dell' Uovo surrendered, one on the 11th of June andthe other on the 1st of July. The capital of the kingdom having thusfallen into the hands of the Spaniards, Capua and Aversa followed itsexample. Gaeta was the only important place which still held out for theFrench, and contained a garrison capable of defending it; and thither theremnant of the troops beaten at Seminara and at Cerignola had retired. Louis XII. Hastened to levy and send to Italy, under the command of Louisde la Tremoille, a fresh army for the purpose of relieving Gaeta andrecovering Naples; but at Parma La Tremoille fell ill, "so crushed by hismalady and so despairing of life, " says his chronicler, John Bouchet, "that the physicians sent word to the king that it was impossible in theway of nature to recover him, and that without the divine assistance hecould not get well. " The command devolved upon the Marquis of Mantua, who marched on Gaeta. He found Gonzalvo of Cordova posted with his armyon the left bank of the Garigliano, either to invest the place or torepulse re-enforcements that might arrive for it. The two armies passedfifty days face to face almost, with the river and its marshes betweenthem, and vainly attempting over and over again to join battle. Some ofGonzalvo's officers advised him to fall back on Capua, so as to withdrawhis troops from an unhealthy and difficult position; but "I wouldrather, " said he, "have here, for my grave, six feet of earth by pushingforward, than prolong my life a hundred years by falling back, though itwere but a few arms' lengths. " The French army was dispersing about insearch of shelter and provisions; and the Marquis of Mantua, disgustedwith the command, resigned it to the Marquis of Saluzzo, and returnedhome to his marquisate. Gonzalvo, who was kept well informed of hisenemies' condition, threw, on the 27th of December, a bridge over theGarigliano, attacked the French suddenly, and forced them to fall backupon Gaeta, which they did not succeed in entering until they had lostartillery, baggage, and a number of prisoners. "The Spaniards, " saysJohn d'Auton, "halted before the place, made as if they would lay siegeto it, and so remained for two or three days. The French, who were therein great numbers, had scarcely any provisions, and could not hold out forlong; however, they put a good face upon it. The captain, Gonzalvo, sentword to them that if they would surrender their town he would, on hispart, restore to them without ransom all prisoners and others of theirparty; and he had many of them, James de la Palisse, Stuart d'Aubigny, Gaspard de Coligny, Anthony de la Fayette, &c. , all captains. The Frenchcaptains, seeing that fortune was not kind to them, and that they hadprovisions for a week only, were all for taking this offer. All theprisoners, captains, men-at-arms, and common soldiers were accordinglygiven up, put to sea, and sailed for Genoa, where they were well receivedand kindly treated by the Genoese, which did them great good, for theywere much in need of it. Nearly all the captains died on their return, some of mourning over their losses, others of melancholy at theirmisfortune, others for fear of the king's displeasure, and others ofsickness and weariness. " [_Chroniques of John d'Auton, _ t. Iii. Pp. 68-70. ]

Gaeta fell into the hands of the Spaniards on the 1st of January, 1504. The war was not ended, but the kingdom of Naples was lost to the King ofFrance. 

At the news of these reverses the grief and irritation of Louis XII. Were extreme. Not only was he losing his Neapolitan conquests, but evenhis Milaness was also threatened. The ill-will of the Venetians becamemanifest. They had re-victualled by sea the fortress of Barletta, inwhich Gonzalvo of Cordova had shut himself up with his troops; "and whenthe king presented complaints of this succor afforded to his enemies, thesenate replied that the matter had taken place without their cognizance, that Venice was a republic of traders, and that private persons mightvery likely have sold provisions to the Spaniards, with whom Venice wasat peace, without there being any ground for concluding from it that shehad failed in her engagements towards France. Some time afterwards, fourFrench galleys, chased by a Spanish squadron of superior force, presentedthemselves before the port of Otranto, which was in the occupation of theVenetians, who pleaded their neutrality as a reason for refusing asylumto the French squadron, which the commander was obliged to set on firethat it might not fall into he enemy's hands. " [_Histoire de laRepublique de L'enise, _ by Count Daru, t. Iii. P. 245. ] The determinedprosecution of hostilities in the kingdom of Naples by Gonzalvo ofCordova, in spite of the treaty concluded at Lyons on the 5th of April, 1503, between the Kings of France and Spain, was so much the moreoffensive to Louis XII. In that this treaty was the consequence and theconfirmation of an enormous concession which he had, two yearspreviously, made to the King of Spain on consenting to affiance hisdaughter, Princess Claude of France, two years old, to Ferdinand'sgrandson, Charles of Austria, who was then only one year old, and whobecame Charles the Fifth (emperor)! Lastly, about the same time, PopeAlexander VI. , who, willy hilly, had rendered Louis XII. So manyservices, died at Rome on the 12th of August, 1503. Louis had hoped thathis favorite minister, Cardinal George d'Amboise, would succeed him, andthat hope had a great deal to do with the shocking favor he showed CaesarBorgia, that infamous son of a demoralized father. But the candidatureof Cardinal d'Amboise failed; a four weeks' pope, Pius III. , succeededAlexander VI. ; and, when the Holy See suddenly became once more vacant, Cardinal d'Amboise failed again; and the new choice was Cardinal Juliandella Rovera, Pope Julius II. , who soon became the most determined andmost dangerous foe of Louis XII. , already assailed by so many enemies. 

The Venetian, Dominic of Treviso, was quite right; Louis XII. Was "ofunstable mind, saying yes and no. " On such characters discouragementtells rapidly. In order to put off the struggle which had succeeded soill for him in the kingdom of Naples, Louis concluded, on the 31st ofMarch, 1504, a truce for three years with the King of Spain; and on the22d of September, in the same year, in order to satisfy his grudge onaccount of the Venetians' demeanor towards him, he made an allianceagainst them with Emperor Maximilian I. And Pope Julius II. , with thedesign, all three of them, of wresting certain provinces from them. Withthose political miscalculations was connected a more personal and moredisinterested feeling. Louis repented of having in 1501 affianced hisdaughter Claude to Prince Charles of Austria, and of the enormousconcessions he had made by two treaties, one of April 5, 1503, and theother of September 22, 1504, for the sake of this marriage. He hadassigned as dowry to his daughter, first the duchy of Milan, then thekingdom of Naples, then Brittany, and then the duchy of Burgundy and thecountship of Blois. The latter of these treaties contained even thefollowing strange clause: "If, by default of the Most Christian king orof the queen his wife, or of the Princess Claude, the aforesaid marriageshould not take place, the Most Christian king doth will and consent, from now, that the said duchies of Burgundy and Milan and the countshipof Asti, do remain settled upon the said Prince Charles, Duke ofLuxembourg, with all the rights therein possessed, or possibly to bepossessed, by the Most Christian king. " [_Corps Diplomatique du Droitdes Gens, _ by J. Dumont, t. Iv. Part i. P. 57. ] It was dismemberingFrance, and at the same time settling on all her frontiers, to east, west, and south-west, as well as to north and south, a power which theapproaching union of two crowns, the imperial and the Spanish, on thehead of Prince Charles of Austria, rendered so preponderating and soformidable. 

It was not only from considerations of external policy, and in order toconciliate to himself Emperor Maximilian and King Ferdinand, that LouisXII. Had allowed himself to proceed to concessions so plainly contrary tothe greatest interests of France: he had yielded also to domesticinfluences. The queen his wife, Anne of Brittany, detested Louise ofSavoy, widow of Charles d'Orleans, Count of Angouleme, and mother ofFrancis d'Angouleme, heir presumptive to the throne, since Louis XII. Had no son. Anne could not bear the idea that her daughter, PrincessClaude, should marry the son of her personal enemy; and, being moreBreton than French, say her contemporaries, she, in order to avoid thisdisagreeableness, had used with the king all her influence, which wasgreat, in favor of the Austrian marriage, caring little, and, perhaps, even desiring, that Brittany should be again severed from France. Louis, in the midst of the reverses of his diplomacy, had thus to suffer fromthe hatreds of his wife, the observations of his advisers, and thereproaches of his conscience as a king. He fell so ill that he wassupposed to be past recovery. "It were to do what would be incredible, "says his contemporary, John de St. Gelais, "to write or tell of thelamentations made throughout the whole realm of France, by reason of thesorrow felt by all for the illness of their good king. There were to beseen night and day, at Blois, at Amboise, at Tours, and everywhere else, men and women going all bare throughout the churches and to the holyplaces, in order to obtain from divine mercy grace of health andconvalescence for one whom there was as great fear of losing as if he hadbeen the father of each. " Louis was touched by this popular sympathy;and his wisest councillors, Cardinal d'Amboise the first of all, tookadvantage thereof to appeal to his conscience in respect of theengagements which "through weakness he had undertaken contrary to theinterests of the realm and the coronation-promises. " Queen Anne herself, not without a struggle, however, at last gave up her opposition to thispatriotic recoil; and on the 10th of May, 1505, Louis XII. Put in hiswill a clause to the effect that his daughter, Princess Claude, should bemarried, so soon as she was old enough, to the heir to the throne, Francis, Count of Angouleme. Only it was agreed, in order to avoiddiplomatic embarrassments, that this arrangement should be kept secrettill further notice. [The will itself of Louis XII. Has been inserted inthe _Recueil des Ordonnances des Bois des France, _ t. Xxi. P. 323, dated30th of May, 1505. ]

When Louis had recovered, discreet measures were taken for arousing thefeeling of the country as well as the king's conscience as to this greatquestion. In the course of the year 1505 there took place throughout thewhole kingdom, amongst the nobility and in the principal towns, assemblies at which means were proposed for preventing this evil. Unpleasant consequences might have been apprehended from these meetings, in the case of a prince less beloved by his subjects than the king was;but nothing further was decided thereby than that a representation shouldwith submission be made to him of the dangers likely to result from thistreaty, that he should be entreated to prevent them by breaking it, andthat a proposal should be made to him to assemble the estates todeliberate upon a subject so important. [_Histoire de France, _ by LePere Daniel, t. Viii. P. 427, edit. Of 1755. ] The states-general wereaccordingly convoked and met at Tours on the 10th of May, 1506; and onthe 14th of May Louis XII. Opened them in person at Plessis-les-Tours, seated in a great hall, in the royal seat, between Cardinal d'Amboise andDuke Francis of Valois, and surrounded by many archbishops and all theprinces of the blood and other lords and barons of the said realm ingreat number, and he gave the order for admitting the deputies of theestates of the realm. 

[Illustration: STATES GENERAL AT TOURS----329]

"Far from setting forth the grievances of the nation, as the spokesman ofthe estates had always done, Thomas Bricot, canon of Notre-Dame de Paris, delivered an address enumerating, in simple and touching terms, thebenefits conferred by Louis XII. , and describing to him the nation'sgratitude. To him they owed peace and the tranquillity of the realm, complete respect for private property, release from a quarter of thetalliages, reform in the administration of justice, and the appointmentof enlightened and incorruptible judges. For these causes, the speakeradded, and for others which it would take too long to recount, he wasdestined to be known as Louis XII. , father of the people. 

"At these last words loud cheers rang out; emotion was general, andreached the king himself, who shed tears at hearing the title whichposterity and history were forever to attach to his name. 

"Then, the deputies having dropped on their knees, the speaker resumedhis speech, saying that they were come to prefer a request for thegeneral good of the realm, the king's subjects entreating him to bepleased to give his only daughter in marriage to my lord Francis, herepresent, who is every whit French. 

"When this declaration was ended, the king called Cardinal d'Amboise andthe chancellor, with whom he conferred for some time; and then thechancellor, turning to the deputies, made answer that the king had givendue ear and heed to their request and representation, . . . That if hehad done well, he desired to do still better; and that, as to the requesttouching the marriage, he had never heard talk of it; but that as to thatmatter, he would communicate with the princes of the blood, so as to havetheir opinion. 

"The day after this session the king received an embassy which could notbut crown his joy: the estates of the duchy of Burgundy, more interestedthan any other province in the rupture of the (Austrian) marriage, hadsent deputies to join their most urgent prayers to the entreaties of theestates of France. 

"On Monday, May 18, the king assembled about him his chief councillors, to learn if the demand of the estates was profitable and reasonable forhim and his kingdom. 'Thereon, ' continues the report, 'the first todeliver an opinion was my lord the Bishop of Paris; after him the premierpresident of the parliament of Paris and of that of Bordeaux. ' Theirspeeches produced such effect that, 'quite with one voice and onemind, those present agreed that the request of the estates was sound, just, and reasonable, and with one consent entreated the king to agree tothe said marriage. '

"The most enlightened councillors and the princes of the blood foundthemselves in agreement with the commons. There was no ambiguity aboutthe reply. On the Tuesday, May 19, the king held a session in state forthe purpose of announcing to the estates that their wishes should befully gratified, and that the betrothal of his daughter to the heir tothe throne should take place next day but one, May 21, in order that thedeputies might report the news of it to their constituents. 

"After that the estates had returned thanks, the chancellor gave noticethat, as municipal affairs imperatively demanded the return of thedeputies, the king gave them leave to go, retaining only one burgess fromeach town, to inform him of their wants and 'their business, if suchthere be in any case, wherein the king will give them good and shortdespatch. '

"The session was brought to a close by the festivities of the betrothal, and by the oath taken by the deputies, who, before their departure, sworeto bring about with all their might, even to the risk of body and goods, the marriage which had just been decided upon by the common advice of allthose who represented France. '" [_Histoire des Etats Generaux_ from 1355to 1614, by George Picot, t. I. Pp. 352-354]. 

Francis d'Angouleme was at that time eleven years old, and Claude ofFrance was nearly seven. 

Whatever displeasure must have been caused to the Emperor of Germany andto the King of Spain by this resolution on the part of France and herking, it did not show itself, either in acts of hostility or even incomplaints of a more or less threatening kind. Italy remained for someyears longer the sole theatre of rivalry and strife between these threegreat powers; and, during this strife, the utter diversity of thecombinations, whether in the way of alliance or of rupture, bore witnessto the extreme changeability of the interests, passions, and designs ofthe actors. From 1506 to 1515, between Louis XII. 's will and his death, we find in the history of his career in Italy five coalitions, and asmany great battles, of a profoundly contradictory character. In 1508, Pope Julius II. , Louis XII. , Emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand theCatholic, King of Spain, form together against the Venetians the Leagueof Cambrai. In 1510, Julius II. , Ferdinand, the Venetians, and the Swissmake a coalition against Louis XII. In 1512, this coalition, decomposedfor a while, re-unites, under the name of the League of the Holy Union, between the pope, the Venetians, the Swiss, and the Kings of Arragon andNaples against Louis XII. , minus the Emperor Maximilian, and plus HenryVIII. , King of England. On the 14th of May, 1509, Louis XII. , in thename of the League of Cambrai, gains the battle of Agnadello against theVenetians. On the 11th of April, 1512, it is against Pope Julius II. , Ferdinand the Catholic, and the Venetians that he gains the battle ofRavenna. On the 14th of March, 1513, he is in alliance with theVenetians, and it is against the Swiss that he loses the battle ofNovara. In 1510, 1511, and 1512, in the course of all these incessantchanges of political allies and adversaries, three councils met at Tours, at Pisa, and at St. John Lateran with views still more discordant andirreconcilable than those of all these laic coalitions. We merely pointout here the principal traits of the nascent sixteenth century; we haveno intention of tracing with a certain amount of detail any incidents butthose that refer to Louis XII. And to France, to their procedure andtheir fortunes. 

Jealousy, ambition, secret resentment, and the prospect of despoilingthem caused the formation of the League of Cambrai against the Venetians. Their far-reaching greatness on the seas, their steady progress on land, their riches, their cool assumption of independence towards the papacy, their renown for ability, and their profoundly selfish, but singularlyprosperous policy, had excited in Italy, and even beyond the Alps, thatfeeling of envy and ill-will which is caused amongst men, whether kingsor people, by the spectacle of strange, brilliant, and unexpected goodfortune, though it be the fruits of rare merit. As the Venetians were asmuch dreaded as they were little beloved, great care was taken to concealfrom them the projects that were being formed against them. According totheir historian, Cardinal Bembo, they owed to chance the first noticethey had. It happened one day that a Piedmontese at Milan, in presenceof the Resident of Venice, allowed to escape from his lips the words, "I should have the pleasure, then, of seeing the crime punished of thosewho put to death the most illustrious man of my country. " He alluded toCarmagnola, a celebrated Piedmontese condottiere, who had been accused oftreason and beheaded at Venice on the 3d of May, 1432. The Venetianambassador at Louis XII. 's court, suspecting what had taken place atCambrai, tried to dissuade the king. "Sir, " said he, "it were folly toattack them of Venice; their wisdom renders them invincible. " "I believethey are prudent and wise, " answered Louis, "but all the wrong way of thehair (inopportunely); if it must come to war, I will bring upon them somany fools, that your wiseacres will not have leisure to teach themreason, for my fools hit all round without looking where. " When theleague was decisively formed, Louis sent to Venice a herald to officiallyproclaim war. After having replied to the grievances alleged in supportof that proclamation, "We should never have believed, " said the DogeLoredano, "that so great a prince would have given ear to the envenomedwords of a pope whom he ought to know better, and to the insinuations ofanother priest whom we forbear to mention (Cardinal d'Amboise). In orderto please them, he declares himself the foe of a republic which hasrendered him great services. We will try to defend ourselves, and toprove to him that he has not kept faith with us. God shall judge betwixtus. Father herald, and you, trumpeter, ye have heard what we had to sayto you; report it to your master. Away!" Independently of their naturalhaughtiness, the Venetians were puffed up with the advantages they hadobtained in a separate campaign against the Emperor Maximilian, andflattered themselves that they would manage to conquer, one after theother, or to split up, or to tire out, their enemies; and they preparedenergetically for war. Louis XII. , on his side, got together an armywith a strength of twenty-three hundred lances (about thirteen thousandmounted troops), ten to twelve thousand French foot, and six or eightthousand Swiss. He sent for Chevalier Bayard, already famous, thoughstill quite a youth. "Bayard, " said he, "you know that I am about tocross the mountains, for to bring to reason the Venetians, who by greatwrong withhold from me the countship of Cremona and other districts. I give to you from this present time the company of Captain Chatelard, who they tell me is dead, whereat I am distressed; but I desire that inthis enterprise you have under your charge men afoot; your lieutenant-captain, Pierrepont [Pierre de Pont d'Albi, a Savoyard gentle-man, andBayard's nephew], who is a very good man, shall lead your men-at-arms. ""Sir, " answered Bayard, "I will do what pleaseth you; but how many menafoot will you be pleased to hand over to me to lead?" "A thousand, "said the king: "there is no man that hath more. " "Sir, " replied Bayard, "it is a many for my poor wits; I do entreat you to be content that Ihave five hundred; and I pledge you my faith, sir, that I will take painsto choose such as shall do you service; meseems that for one man it is avery heavy charge, if he would fain do his duty therewith. " "Good!" saidthe king: "go, then, quickly into Dauphiny, and take heed that you be inmy duchy of Milan by the end of March. " Bayard forthwith set out toraise and choose his foot; a proof of the growing importance of infantry, and of the care taken by Louis XII. To have it commanded by men of war ofexperience and popularity. 

[Illustration: Battle of Agnadello----334]

On the 14th of May, 1509, the French army and the Venetian army, ofnearly equal strength, encountered near the village of Agnadello, in theprovince of Lodi, on the banks of the Adda. Louis XII. Commanded his inperson, with Louis de la Tremoille and James Trivulzio for his principallieutenants; the Venetians were under the orders of two generals, theCount of Petigliano and Barthelemy d'Alviano, both members of the Romanfamily of the Orsini, but not on good terms with one another. The Frenchhad to cross the Adda to reach the enemy, who kept in his camp. Trivulzio, seeing that the Venetians did not dispute their passage, criedout to the king, "To-day, sir, the victory is ours!" The French advance-guard engaged with the troops of Alviano. When apprised of this fight, Louis, to whom word was at this same time brought that the enemy wasalready occupying the point towards which he was moving with the mainbody of the army, said briskly, "Forward, all the same; we will halt upontheir bellies. " The action became general and hot. The king, sword inhand, hurried from one corps to another, under fire from the Venetianartillery, which struck several men near him. He was urged to placehimself under cover a little, so as to give his orders thence; but, "Itis no odds, " said he; "they who are afraid have only to put themselvesbehind me. " A body of Gascons showed signs of wavering: "Lads, " shoutedLa Tremoille, "the king sees you. " They dashed forward; and theVenetians were broken, in spite of the brave resistance of Alviano, whowas taken and brought, all covered with blood, and with one eye out, intothe presence of the king. Louis said to him, courteously, "You shallhave fair treatment and fair captivity; have fair patience. " "So Iwill, " answered the condottiere; "if I had won the battle, I had been themost victorious man in the world; and, though I have lost it, still haveI the great honor of having had against me a King of France in person. "Louis, who had often heard talk of the warrior's intrepid presence ofmind, had a fancy for putting it to further proof, and, all the timechatting with him, gave secret orders to have the alarm sounded not farfrom them. "What is this, pray, Sir Barthelemy?" asked the king: "yourfolks are very difficult to please; is it that they want to beginagain?" "Sir, " said Alviano, "if there is fighting still, it must bethat the French are fighting one another; as for my folks, I assure you, on my life, they will not pay you a visit this fortnight. " The Venetianarmy, in fact, withdrew with a precipitation which resembled a rout: for, to rally it, its general, the Count of Petigliano, appointed for itsgathering-point the ground beneath the walls of Brescia, forty miles fromthe field of battle. "Few men-at-arms, " says Guicciardini, "were slainin this affair; the great loss fell upon the Venetians' infantry, whichlost, according to some, eight thousand men; others say that the numberof dead on both sides did not amount to more than six thousand. " Theterritorial results of the victory were greater than the numerical lossesof the armies. Within a fortnight, the towns of Caravaggio, Bergamo, Brescia, Crema, Cremona, and Pizzighitone surrendered to the French. Peschiera alone, a strong fortress at the southern extremity of the Lakeof Garda, resisted, and was carried by assault. "It was a bad thing forthose within, " says the Loyal Serviteur of Bayard; "for all, or nearlyall, perished there; amongst the which was the governor of the Signoryand his son, who were willing to pay good and heavy ransom; but thatserved them not at all, for on one tree were both of them hanged, whichto me did seem great cruelty; a very lusty gentleman, called theLorrainer, had their parole, and he had big words about it with the grandmaster, lieutenant-general of the king; but he got no good thereby. " The_Memoires of Robert de la Marck, _ lord of Fleuranges, and a warrior ofthe day, confirm, as to this sad incident, the story of the LoyalServiteur of Bayard: "When the French volunteers, " says he, "entered bythe breach into the castle of Peschiera, they cut to pieces all those whowere therein, and there were left only the captain, the proveditore, andthe podesta, the which stowed themselves away in a tower, surrendered tothe good pleasure of the king, and, being brought before him, offered himfor ransom a hundred thousand ducats; but the king swore, 'If ever I eator drink till they be hanged and strangled! 'Nor even for all the prayerthey could make could the grand master Chaumont, and even his uncle, Cardinal d'Amboise, find any help for it, but the king would have themhanged that very hour. " Some chroniclers attribute this violence onLouis XII. 's part to a "low and coarse" reply returned by those incommand at Peschiera to the summons to surrender. Guicciardini, whilstalso recording the fact, explains it otherwise than by a fit of anger onLouis's part: "The king, " he says, "was led to such cruelty in orderthat, dismayed at such punishment, those who were still holding out inthe fortress of Cremona might not defend themselves to the lastextremity. " [_Guicciardini, Istoria d'Italia, _ liv. Viii. T. I. P. 521. ] So that the Italian historian is less severe on this act of crueltythan the French knight is. 

Louis XII. 's victory at Agnadello had for him consequences very differentfrom what he had no doubt expected. "The king, " says Guicciardini, "departed from Italy, carrying away with him to France great glory byreason of so complete and so rapidly won a victory over the Venetians;nevertheless, as in the case of things obtained after hope long deferredmen scarcely ever feel such joy and happiness as they had at firstimagined they would, the king took not back with him either greater peaceof mind or greater security in respect of his affairs. " The beatenVenetians accepted their defeat with such a mixture of humility anddignity as soon changed their position in Italy. They began by providingall that was necessary for the defence of Venice herself; foreigners, butonly idle foreigners, were expelled; those who had any business whichsecured them means of existence received orders to continue their labors. Mills were built, cisterns were dug, corn was gathered in, the conditionof the canals was examined, bars were removed, the citizens were armed;the law which did not allow vessels laden with provisions to touch atVenice was repealed, and rewards were decreed to officers who had donetheir duty. Having taken all this care for their own homes and theirfatherland on the sea, the Venetian senate passed a decree by which therepublic, releasing from their oath of fidelity the subjects it could notdefend, authorized its continental provinces to treat with the enemy witha view to their own interests, and ordered its commandants to evacuatesuch places as they still held. Nearly all such submitted without astruggle to the victor of Agnadello and his allies of Cambrai; but atTreviso, when Emperor Maximilian's commissioner presented himself inorder to take possession of it, a shoemaker named Caligaro went runningthrough the streets, shouting, "Hurrah! for St. Mark. "

The people rose, pillaged the houses of those who had summoned theforeigner, and declared that it would not separate its lot from that ofthe republic. So Treviso remained Venetian. Two other small towns, Marano and Osopo, followed her example; and for several months this wasall that the Venetians preserved of their continental possessions. Butat the commencement of July, 1509, they heard that the important town ofPadua, which had fallen to the share of Emperor Maximilian, was utteringpassionate murmurs against its new master, and wished for nothing betterthan to come back beneath the old sway; and, in spite of the oppositionshown by the doge, Loredano, the Venetians resolved to attempt theventure. During the night between the 16th and 17th of July, a smalldetachment, well armed and well led, arrived beneath the walls of Padua, which was rather carelessly guarded. In the morning, as soon as the gatewas opened, a string of large wagons presented themselves for admittance. Behind one of these, and partially concealed by its bulk, advanced sixVenetian men-at-arms, each carrying on his crupper a foot-soldier armedwith an arquebuse; they fired on the guard; each killed his man; theAustrian garrison hurried up and fought bravely; but other Venetiantroops arrived, and the garrison was beaten and surrendered. Paduabecame Venetian again. "This surprisal, " says M. Darn, "causedinexpressible joy in Venice; after so many disasters there was seen agleans of hope. " The Venetians hastened to provision Padua well and toput it in a state of defence; and they at the same time published adecree promising such subjects of the republic as should come back to itssway complete indemnity for the losses they might have suffered duringthe war. It blazed forth again immediately, but at first between theVenetians and the Emperor Maximilian almost alone by himself. LouisXII. , in a hurry to get back to France, contented himself with leaving inLombardy a body of troops under the orders of James de Chabannes, Sire dela Palisse, with orders "to take five hundred of the lustiest men-at-armsand go into the service of the emperor, who was to make a descent uponthe district of Padua. " Maximilian did not make his descent until twomonths after that the Venetians had retaken Padua and provisioned itwell; and it was only on the 15th of September that he sat down beforethe place. All the allies of the League of Cambrai held themselves boundto furnish him with their contingent. On sallying from Milan for thiscampaign, La Palisse "fell in with the good knight Bayard, to whom hesaid, 'My comrade, my friend, would you not like us to be comradestogether?' Bayard, who asked nothing better, answered him graciouslythat he was at his service to be disposed of at his pleasure;" and fromthe 15th to the 20th of September, Maximilian got together before Paduaan army with a strength, it is said, of about fifty thousand men, men-at-arms or infantry, Germans, Spaniards, French, and Italians, sentby the pope and by the Duke of Ferrara, or recruited from all parts ofItaly. 

At the first rumor of such a force there was great emotion in Venice, butan emotion tempered by bravery and intelligence. The doge, LeonardoLoredano, the same who had but lately opposed the surprisal of Padua, rose up and delivered in the senate a long speech, of which only theessential and characteristic points can be quoted here:--

"Everybody knows, excellent gentlemen of the senate, " said he, "that onthe preservation of Padua depends all hope, not only of recovering ourempire, but of maintaining our own liberty. It must be confessed that, great and wonderful as they have been, the preparations made and thesupplies provided hitherto are not sufficient either for the security ofthat town or for the dignity of our republic. Our ancient renown forbidsus to leave the public safety, the lives and honor of our wives and ourchildren, entirely to the tillers of our fields and to mercenarysoldiers, without rushing ourselves to shelter them behind our ownbreasts and defend them with our own arms. For so great and so gloriousa fatherland, which has for so many years been the bulwark of the faithand the glory of the Christian republic, will the personal service of itscitizens and its sons be ever to seek? To save it who would refuse torisk his own life and that of his children? If the defence of Padua isthe pledge for the salvation of Venice, who would hesitate to go anddefend it? And, though the forces already there were sufficient, is notour honor also concerned therein? The fortune of our city so willed itthat in the space of a few days our empire slipped from our hands; theopportunity has come back to us of recovering what we have lost; byspontaneously facing the changes and chances of fate, we shall prove thatour disasters have not been our fault or our shame, but one of thosefatal storms which no wisdom and no firmness of man can resist. If itwere permitted us all in one mass to set out for Padua, if we might, without neglecting the defence of our own homes and our urgent publicaffairs, leave our city for some days deserted, I would not await yourdeliberation; I would be the first on the road to Padua; for how could Ibetter expend the last days of my old age than in going to be present atand take part in such a victory? But Venice may not be deserted by herpublic bodies, which protect and defend Padua by their forethought andtheir orders just as others do by their arms; and a useless mob ofgraybeards would be a burden much more than a reenforcement there. Nordo I ask that Venice be drained of all her youth; but I advise, I exhort, that we choose two hundred young gentlemen, from the chiefest of ourfamilies, and that they all, with such friends and following as theirmeans will permit them to get together, go forth to Padua to do all thatshall be necessary for her defence. My two sons, with many a comrade. Will be the first to carry out what I, their father and your chief, amthe first to propose. Thus Padua will be placed in security; and whenthe mercenary soldiers who are there see how prompt are our youth toguard the gates and everywhere face the battle, they will be movedthereby to zeal and alacrity incalculable; and not only will Padua thusbe defended and saved, but all nations will see that we, we too, as ourfathers were, are men enough to defend at the peril of our lives thefreedom and th safety of the noblest country in the world. "

This generous advice was accepted by the fathers and carried out by thesons with that earnest, prompt, and effective ardor which accompanies theresolution of great souls. When the Paduans, before their city was asyet invested, saw the arrival within their walls of these chosen youthsof the Venetian patriciate, with their numerous troop of friends andfollowers, they considered Padua as good as saved; and when the imperialarmy, posted before the place, commenced their attacks upon it, they soonperceived that they had formidable defenders to deal with. "Five hundredyears it was since in prince's camp had ever been seen such wealth asthere was there; and never was a day but there filed off some three orfour hundred lanzknechts who took away to Germany oxen and kine, beds, corn, silk for sewing, and other articles; in such sort that to the saidcountry of Padua was damage done to the amount of two millions of crownsin movables and in houses and palaces burnt and destroyed. " For threedays the imperial artillery fired upon the town and made in its wallsthree breaches "knocked into one;" and still the defenders kept up theirresistance with the same vigor. "One morning, " says the Loyal Serviteurof Bayard, "the Emperor Maximilian, accompanied by his princes and lordsfrom Germany, went thither to look; and he marvelled and thought it greatshame to him, with the number of men he had, that he had not soonerdelivered the assault. On returning to his quarters he sent for a Frenchsecretary of his, whom he bade write to the lord of La Palisse a letter, whereof this was the substance: 'Dear cousin, I have this morning been tolook at the breach, which I find more than practicable for whoever woulddo his duty. I have made up my mind to deliver the assault to-day. Ipray you, so soon as my big drum sounds, which will be about midday, thatyou do incontinently hold ready all the French gentlemen who are underyour orders at my service, by command of my brother the King of France, to go to the said assault along with my foot; and I hope that, with God'shelp we shall carry it. '

"The lord of La Palisse, " continues the chronicler, "thought this asomewhat strange manner of proceeding; howbeit he hid his thought, andsaid to the secretary, 'I am astounded that the emperor did not send formy comrades and me for to deliberate more fully of this matter; howbeityou will tell him that I will send to fetch them, and when they are comeI will show them the letter. I do not think there will be many who willnot be obedient to that which the emperor shall be pleased to command. '

"When the French captains had arrived at the quarters of the lord of LaPalisse, he said to them, 'Gentlemen, we must now dine, for I havesomewhat to say to you, and if I were to say it first, peradventure youwould not make good cheer. ' During dinner they did nothing but makesport one of another. After dinner, everybody was sent out of the room, save the captains, to whom the lord of La Palisse made known theemperor's letter, which was read twice, for the better understanding ofit. They all looked at one another, laughing, for to see who would speakfirst. Then said the lord of Ymbercourt to the lord of La Palisse, 'Itneeds not so much thought, my lord; send word to the emperor that we areall ready; I am even now a-weary of the fields, for the nights are cold;and then the good wines are beginning to fail us;' whereat every oneburst out a-laughing. All agreed to what was said by the lord ofYmbercourt. The lord of La Palisse looked at the good knight (Bayard), and saw that he seemed to be picking his teeth, as if he had not heardwhat his comrades had proposed. 'Well, and you, ' said he, 'what say youabout it? It is no time for picking one's teeth; we must at once sendspeedy reply to the emperor. ' Gayly the good knight answered, 'If wewould all take my lord of Ymbercourt's word, we have only to go straightto the breach. But it is a somewhat sorry pastime for men-at-arms to goafoot, and I would gladly be excused. Howbeit, since I must give myopinion, I will. The emperor bids you, in his letter, set all the Frenchgentlemen afoot for to deliver the assault along with his lanzknechts. My opinion is, that you, my lord, ought to send back to the emperor areply of this sort: that you have had a meeting of your captains, who arequite determined to do his bidding, according to the charge they havefrom the king their master; but that to mix them up with the foot, whoare of small estate, would be to make them of little account; the emperorhas loads of counts, lords, and gentlemen of Germany; let him set themafoot along with the men-at-arms of France, who will gladly show them theroad; and then his lanzknechts will follow, if they know that it willpay. ' When the good knight had thus spoken, his advice was foundvirtuous and reasonable. To the emperor was sent back this answer, whichhe thought right honorable. He incontinently had his trumpets soundedand his drums beaten for to assemble all the princes, and lords, andcaptains as well of Germany and Burgundy as of Hainault. Then theemperor declared to them that he was determined to go, within an hour, and deliver the assault on the town, whereof he had notified the lords ofFrance, who were all most desirous of doing their duty therein rightwell, and prayed him that along with them might go the gentlemen ofGermany, to whom they would gladly show the road: 'Wherefore, my lords, 'said the emperor, I pray you, as much as ever I can, to be pleased toaccompany them and set yourselves afoot with them; and I hope, with God'shelp, that at the first assault we shall be masters of our enemies. 'When the emperor had done speaking, on a sudden there arose among hisGermans a very wondrous and strange uproar, which lasted half an hourbefore it was appeased; and then one amongst them, bidden to answer forall, said that they were not folks to be set afoot or so to go up to abreach, and that their condition was to fight like gentlemen, a-horseback. Other answer the emperor could not get; but though it wasnot according to his desire, and pleased him not at all, he uttered noword beyond that he said, 'Good my lords, we must advise, then, how weshall do for the best. ' Then, forthwith he sent for a gentleman of hiswho from time to time went backwards and forwards as ambassador to theFrench, and said to him, 'Go to the quarters of my cousin, the lord of LaPalisse; commend me to him and to all my lords the French captains youfind with him, and tell them that for to-day the assault will not bedelivered. ' I know not, " says the chronicler, "how it was nor who gavethe advice; but the night after this speech was spoken the emperor wentoff, all in one stretch, more than forty miles from the camp, and fromhis new quarters sent word to his people to have the siege raised; whichwas done. "

So Padua was saved, and Venice once more became a power. Louis XII. , having returned victorious to France, did not trouble himself much aboutthe check received in Italy by Emperor Maximilian, for whom he had nolove and but little esteem. Maximilian was personally brave and freefrom depravity or premeditated perfidy, but he was coarse, volatile, inconsistent, and not very able. Louis XII. Had amongst his allies ofCambrai and in Italy a more serious and more skilful foe, who waspreparing for him much greater embarrassments. 

Julian Bella Rovera had, before his elevation to the pontifical throne, but one object, which was, to mount it. When he became pope, he hadthree objects: to recover and extend the temporal possessions of thepapacy, to exercise to the full his spiritual power, and to drive theforeigner from Italy. He was not incapable of doubling and artifice. In order to rise he had flattered Louis XII. And Cardinal d'Amboise withthe hope that the king's minister would become the head of Christendom. When once he was himself in possession of this puissant title he showedhimself as he really was; ambitious, audacious, imperious, energetic, stubborn, and combining the egotism of the absolute sovereign with thepatriotism of an Italian pope. When the League of Cambrai had attainedsuccess through the victory of Louis XII. Over the Venetians, Cardinald'Amboise, in course of conversation with the two envoys from Florence atthe king's court, let them have an inkling "that he was not withoutsuspicion of some new design;" and when Louis XII. Announced hisapproaching departure for France, the two Florentines wrote to theirgovernment that "this departure might have very evil results, for thepower of Emperor Maximilian in Italy, the position of Ferdinand theCatholic, the despair of the Venetians, and the character anddissatisfaction of the pope, seemed to foreshadow some freshunderstanding against the Most Christian king. " Louis XII. And hisminister were very confident. "Take Spain, the king of the Romans, orwhom you please, " said Cardinal d'Amboise to the two Florentines; "thereis none who has observed and kept the alliance more faithfully than theking has; he has done everything at the moment he promised; he has borneupon his shoulders the whole weight of this affair; and I tell you, " headded, with a fixed look at those whom he was addressing, "that his armyis a large one, which he will keep up and augment every day. " Louis, forhis part, treated the Florentines with great good-will, as friends onwhom he counted and who were concerned in his success. "You have becomethe first power in Italy, " he said to then one day before a crowd ofpeople: "how are you addressed just now? Are you Most Serene or MostIllustrious?" And when he was notified that distinguished Venetians weregoing to meet Emperor Maximilian on his arrival in Italy, "No matter, "said Louis; "let them go whither they will. " The Florentines did not theless nourish their mistrustful presentiments; and one of Louis XII. 'smost intelligent advisers, his finance-minister Florimond Robertet, wasnot slow to share them. "The pope, " said he to them one day [July 1, 1509], "is behaving very ill towards us; he seeks on every occasion tosow enmity between the princes, especially between the emperor and theMost Christian king;" and, some weeks later, whilst speaking of themoney-aids which the new King of England was sending, it was said, toEmperor Maximilian, he said to the Florentine, Nasi, "It would be a veryserious business, if from all this were to result against us a universalleague, in which the pope, England, and Spain should join. "[_Negotiations Diplomatiques de la France avec la Toscane, _ published byM. Abel Desjardins, in the _Documents relatifs d l'Histoire de France, _t. Ii. Pp. 331, 355, 367, 384, 389, 416. ]

Next year (1510) the mistrust of the Florentine envoys was justified. The Venetians sent a humble address to the pope, ceded to him the placesthey but lately possessed in the Romagna, and conjured him to relievethem from the excommunication he had pronounced against them. JuliusII. , after some little waiting, accorded the favor demanded of him. Louis XII. Committed the mistake of embroiling himself with the Swiss byrefusing to add twenty thousand livres to the pay of sixty thousand hewas giving them already, and by styling them "wretched mountain-shepherds, who presumed to impose upon him a tax he was not disposed tosubmit to. " The pope conferred the investiture of the kingdom of Naplesupon Ferdinand the Catholic, who at first promised only his neutrality, but could not fail to be drawn in still farther when war was rekindled inItaly. In all these negotiations with the Venetians, the Swiss, theKings of Spain and England, and the Emperor Maximilian, Julius II. Took abold initiative. Maximilian alone remained for some time at peace withthe King of France. 

In October, 1511, a league was formally concluded between the pope, theVenetians, the Swiss, and King Ferdinand against Louis XII. A place wasreserved in it for the King of England, Henry VIII. , who, on ascendingthe throne, had sent word to the King of France that "he desired to abidein the same friendship that the king his father had kept up, " but who, atthe bottom of his heart, burned to resume on the Continent an active anda prominent part. The coalition thus formed was called the League ofHoly Union. "I, " said Louis XII. , "am the Saracen against whom thisleague is directed. "

He had just lost, a few months previously, the intimate and faithfuladviser and friend of his whole life: Cardinal George d'Amboise, seizedat Milan with a fit of the gout, during which Louis tended him with theassiduity and care of an affectionate brother, died at Lyons on the 25thof May, 1510, at fifty years of age. He was one not of the greatest, butof the most honest ministers who ever enjoyed a powerful monarch'sconstant favor, and employed it we will not say with completedisinterestedness, but with a predominant anxiety for the public weal. In the matter of external policy the influence of Cardinal d'Amboise, wasneither skilfully nor salutarily exercised: he, like his master, indulgedin those views of distant, incoherent, and improvident conquests whichcaused the reign of Louis XII. To be wasted in ceaseless wars, with whichthe cardinal's desire of becoming pope was not altogether unconnected, and which, after having resulted in nothing but reverses, were a heavyheritage for the succeeding reign. But at home, in his relations withhis king and in his civil and religious administration, Cardinald'Amboise was an earnest and effective friend of justice, of sound socialorder, and of regard for morality in the practice of power. It is saidthat, in his latter days, he, virtuously weary of the dignities of thisworld, said to the infirmary-brother who was attending him, "Ah! BrotherJohn, why did I not always remain Brother John!" A pious regret thesincerity and modesty whereof are rare amongst men of high estate. 

[Illustration: Cardinal d'Amboise----347]

"At last, then, I am the only pope!" cried Julius II. , when he heard thatCardinal d'Amboise was dead. But his joy was misplaced: the cardinal'sdeath was a great loss to him; between the king and the pope the cardinalhad been an intelligent mediator, who understood the two positions andthe two characters, and who, though most faithful and devoted to theking, had nevertheless a place in his heart for the papacy also, andlabored earnestly on every occasion to bring about between the two rivalsa policy of moderation and peace. "One thing you may be certain of, "said Louis's finance-minister Robertet to the ambassador from Florence, "that the king's character is not an easy one to deal with; he is notreadily brought round to what is not his own opinion, which is not alwaysa correct one; he is irritated against the pope; and the cardinal, towhom that causes great displeasure, does not always succeed, in spite ofall influence, in getting him to do as he would like. If our Lord Godwere to remove the cardinal, either by death or in any other manner, frompublic life, there would arise in this court and in the fashion ofconducting affairs such confusion that nothing equal to it would everhave been seen in our day. " [_Negociations Diplomatiques de la Franceavec la Toscane, _ t. Ii. Pp. 428 and 460. ] And the confusion did, infact, arise; and war was rekindled, or, to speak more correctly, resumedits course after the cardinal's death. Julius II. Plunged into it inperson, moving to every point where it was going on, living in the midstof camps, himself in military costume, besieging towns, having his gunspointed and assaults delivered under his own eyes. Men expressedastonishment, not unmixed with admiration, at the indomitable energy ofthis soldier-pope at seventy years of age. It was said that he had castinto the Tiber the keys of St. Peter to gird on the sword of St. Paul. His answer to everything was, "The barbarians must be driven from Italy. "Louis XII. Became more and more irritated and undecided. "To reassurehis people, " says Bossuet (to which we may add, 'and to reassurehimself'), "he assembled at Tours (in September, 1510), the prelates ofhis kingdom, to consult them as to what he could do at so disagreeable acrisis without wounding his conscience. Thereupon it was said that thepope, being unjustly the aggressor, and having even violated an agreementmade with the king, ought to be treated as an enemy, and that the kingmight not only defend himself, but might even attack him without fear ofexcommunication. Not considering this quite strong enough yet, Louisresolved to assemble a council against the pope. The general council wasthe desire of the whole church since the election of Martin V. At thecouncil of Constance (November 11, 1417); for, though that council haddone great good by putting an end to the schism which had lasted forforty years, it had not accomplished what it had projected, which was areformation of the Church in its head and in its members; but, for thedoing of so holy a work, it had ordained, on separating, that thereshould be held a fresh council. . . . This one was opened at Pisa(November 1, 1511) with but little solemnity by the proxies of thecardinals who had caused its convocation. The pope had deposed them, andhad placed under interdict the town of Pisa, where the council was to beheld, and even Florence, because the Florentines had granted Pisa for theassemblage. Thereupon the religious brotherhoods were unwilling to putin an appearance at the opening of the council, and the priests of theChurch refused the necessary paraphernalia. The people rose, and thecardinals, having arrived, did not consider their position safe; insomuchthat after the first session they removed the council to Milan, wherethey met with no better reception. Gaston de Foix, nephew of Louis XII. , who had just appointed him governor of Milaness, could certainly forcethe clergy to proceed and the people to be quiet, but he could not forcethem to have for the council the respect due to so great a name; therewere not seen at it, according to usage, the legates of the Holy See;there were scarcely fifteen or sixteen French prelates there; the EmperorMaximilian had either not influence enough or no inclination to send toit a single one from Germany; and, in a word, there was not to be seen inthis assembly anything that savored of the majesty of a general council, and it was understood to be held for political purposes. " [Bossuet, _Abrege de l'Histoire de France pour l'Education du dauphin_; _OEuvrescompletes_ (1828), t. Xvii. Pp. 541, 545. ] Bossuet had good groundsfor speaking so. Louis XII. Himself said, in 1511, to the ambassador ofSpain, that "this pretended council was only a scarecrow which he had noidea of employing save for the purpose of bringing the pope to reason. "Amidst these vain attempts at ecclesiastical influence the war wascontinued with passionateness on the part of Julius II. , with hesitationon the part of Louis XII. , and with some disquietude on the part of theFrench commanders, although with their wonted bravery and loyalty. Chaumont d'Amboise, the cardinal's nephew, held the command-in-chief inthe king's army. He fell ill: the pope had excommunicated him; andChaumont sent to beg him, with instance, to give him absolution, whichdid not arrive until he was on his death-bed. "This is the worst, " saysBossuet, "of wars against the Church; they cause scruples not only inweak minds, but even, at certain moments, in the very strongest. "Alphonso d' Este, Duke of Ferrara, was almost the only great Italian lordwho remained faithful to France. Julius II. , who was besieging Ferrara, tried to win over the duke, who rejected all his offers, and, instead, won over the negotiator, who offered his services to poison the pope. Bayard, when informed of this proposal, indignantly declared that hewould go and have the traitor hanged, and warning sent to the pope. "Why, " said the duke, "he would have been very glad to do as much for youand me. " "That is no odds to me, " said the knight; "he is God'slieutenant on earth, and, as for having him put to death in such sort, Iwill never consent to it. " The duke shrugged his shoulders, and spittingon the ground, said, 'Od's body, Sir Bayard, I would like to get rid ofall my enemies in that way; but, since you do not think it well, thematter shall stand over; whereof, unless God apply a remedy, both you andI will repent us. " Assuredly Bayard did not repent of his honestindignation; but, finding about the same time (January, 1511) anopportunity of surprising and carrying off the pope, he did not care tomiss it; he placed himself in ambush before day-break, with a hundredpicked men-at-arms, close to a village from which the pope was to issue. "The pope, who was pretty early, mounted his litter, so soon as he sawthe dawn, and the clerics and officers of all kinds went before without athought of anything. When the good knight heard them he sallied forthfrom his ambush, and went charging down upon the rustics, who, soredismayed, turned back again, pricking along with loosened rein andshouting, Alarm! alarm! But all that would have been of no use but foran accident very lucky for the holy father, and very unfortunate for thegood knight. When the pope had mounted his litter, he was not a stone'sthrow gone when there fell from heaven the most sharp and violent showerthat had been seen for a hundred years. 'Holy father, ' said the Cardinalof Pavia to the pope, 'it is not possible to go along this country solong as this lasts; meseems you must turn back again; 'to which the popeagreed; but, just as he was arriving at St. Felix, and was barelyentering within the castle, he heard the shouts of the fugitives whom thegood knight was pursuing as hard as he could spur; whereupon he had sucha fright, that, suddenly and without help, he leaped out of his litter, and himself did aid in hauling up the bridge; which was doing like a manof wits, for had he waited until one could say a _Pater noster, _ he hadbeen snapped up. Who was right down grieved, that was the good knight;never man turned back so melancholic as he was to have missed so fair atake; and the pope, from the good fright he had gotten, shook like apalsy the live-long day. " [_Histoire du ben Chevalier Ballard, _ t. I. Pp. 346-349. ]

[Illustration: Chaumont d'Amboise----350]

From 1510 to 1512 the war in Italy was thus proceeding, but with no greatresults, when Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, came to take the commandof the French army. He was scarcely twenty-three, and had hitherto onlyserved under Trivulzio and La Palisse; but he had already a character forbravery and intelligence in war. Louis XII. Loved this son of hissister, Mary of Orleans, and gladly elevated him to the highest rank. Gaston, from the very first, justified this favor. Instead of seekingfor glory in the field only, he began by shutting himself up in Milan, which the Swiss were besieging. They made him an offer to take the roadback to Switzerland, if he would give them a month's pay; the sum wasdiscussed; Gaston considered that they asked too much for theirwithdrawal; the Swiss broke off the negotiation; but "to the greatastonishment of everybody, " says Guicciardini, "they raised the siege andreturned to their own country. " The pope was besieging Bologna; Gastonarrived there suddenly with a body of troops whom he had marched out atnight through a tempest of wind and snow; and he was safe inside theplace whilst the besiegers were still ignorant of his movement. Thesiege of Bologna was raised. Gaston left it immediately to march onBrescia, which the Venetians had taken possession of for the Holy League. He retook the town by a vigorous assault, gave it up to pillage, punishedwith death Count Louis Avogaro and his two sons, who had excited theinhabitants against France, and gave a beating to the Venetian armybefore its walls. All these successes had been gained in a fortnight. "According to universal opinion, " says Guicciardini, "Italy for severalcenturies had seen nothing like these military operations. "

We are not proof against the pleasure of giving a place in this historyto a deed of virtue and chivalrous kindness on Bayard's part, the storyof which has been told and retold many times in various works. It ishonorable to human kind, and especially to the middle ages, that such menand such deeds are met with here and there, amidst the violence of warand the general barbarity of manners. 

Bayard had been grievously wounded at the assault of Brescia; sogrievously that he said to his neighbor, the lord of Molart, "'Comrade, march your men forward; the town is ours; as for me, I cannot pull onfarther, for I am a dead man. ' When the town was taken, two of hisarchers bare him to a house, the most conspicuous they saw thereabouts. It was the abode of a very rich gentleman; but he had fled away to amonastery, and his wife had remained at the abode under the care of OurLord, together with two fair daughters she had, the which were hidden ina granary beneath some hay. When there came a knocking at her door, shesaw the good knight who was being brought in thus wounded, the which hadthe door shut incontinently, and set at the entrance the two archers, tothe which he said, 'Take heed for your lives, that none enter hereinunless it be any of my own folk; I am certified that, when it is known tobe my quarters, none will try to force a way in; and if, by your aidingme, I be the cause that ye lose a chance of gaining somewhat, never yemind; ye shall lose nought thereby. '

"The archers did as they were bid, and he was borne into a mighty finechamber, into the which the lady of the house herself conducted him; and, throwing herself upon her knees before him, she spoke after this fashion, being interpreted, 'Noble sir, I present unto you this house, and allthat is therein, for well I know it is yours by right of war; but may itbe your pleasure to spare me my honor and life, and those of two youngdaughters that I and my husband have, who are ready for marriage. ' Thegood knight, who never thought wickedness, replied to her, 'Madam, I knownot whether I can escape from the wound that I have; but, so long as Ilive, you and your daughters shall be done no displeasure, any more thanto my own person. Only keep them in your chambers; let them not be seen;and I assure you that there is no man in the house who would take uponhimself to enter any place against your will. '

"When the good lady heard him so virtuously speak, she was all assured. Afterwards, he prayed her to give instructions to some good surgeon, whomight quickly come to tend him; which she did, and herself went in questof him with one of the archers. He, having arrived, did probe the goodknight's wound, which was great and deep; howbeit he certified him thatthere was no danger of death. At the second dressing came to see him theDuke of Nemours' surgeon, called Master Claude, the which didthenceforward have the healing of him; and right well he did his devoir, in such sort that in less than a month he was ready to mount a-horseback. The good knight, when he was dressed, asked his hostess where her husbandwas; and the good lady, all in tears, said to him, 'By my faith, my lord, I know not whether he be dead or alive; but I have a shrewd idea that, ifhe be living, he will be in a large monastery, where be hath largeacquaintance. ' 'Lady, ' said the good knight, 'have him fetched; and Iwill send in quest of him in such sort that he shall have no harm. ' Sheset herself to inquire where he was, and found him; then were sent inquest of him the good knight's steward and two archers, who brought himaway in safety; and on his arrival he had joyous cheer (reception) fromhis guest, the good knight, the which did tell him not to be melancholic, and that there was quartered upon him none but friends. . . . Forabout a month or five weeks was the good knight ill of his wound, withoutleaving his couch. One day he was minded to get up, and he walked acrosshis chamber, not being sure whether he could keep his legs; somewhat weakhe found himself; but the great heart he had gave him not leisure tothink long thereon. He sent to fetch the surgeon who had the healing ofhim, and said to him, 'My friend, tell me, I pray you, if there be anydanger in setting me on the march; me-seems that I am well, or all butso; and I give you my faith that, in my judgment, the biding willhenceforth harm me more than mend me, for I do marvellously fret. ' Thegood knight's servitors had already told the surgeon the great desire hehad to be at the battle, for every day he had news from the camp of theFrench, how that they were getting nigh the Spaniards, and there werehopes from day to day of the battle, which would, to his great sorrow, have been delivered without him. Having knowledge whereof, and alsoknowing his complexion, the surgeon said, in his own language, 'My lord, your wound is not yet closed up; howbeit, inside it is quite healed. Your barber shall see to dressing you this once more; and provided thatevery day, morning and evening, he put on a little piece of lint and aplaister for which I will deliver to him the ointment, it will notincrease your hurt; and there is no danger, for the worst of the wound isa-top, and will not touch the saddle of your horse. ' Whoso had given himten thousand crowns, the good knight had not been so glad. He determinedto set out in two days, commanding his people to put in order all hisgear. 

"The lady with whom he lodged, who held herself all the while hisprisoner, together with her husband and her children, had manyimaginings. Thinking to herself that, if her guest were minded to treatwith rigor herself and her husband, he might get out of them ten ortwelve thousand crowns, for they had two thousand a year, she made up hermind to make him some worthy present; and she had found him so good aman, and of so gentle a heart, that, to her thinking, he would begraciously content. On the morning of the day whereon the good knightwas to dislodge after dinner, his hostess, with one of her servitorscarrying a little box made of steel, entered his chamber, where she foundthat he was resting in a chair, after having walked about a great deal, so as continually, little by little, to try his leg. She threw herselfupon both knees; but incontinently he raised her up, and would neversuffer her to speak a word, until she was first seated beside him. Shebegan her speech in this manner: 'My lord, the grace which God did me, atthe taking of this town, in directing you to this our house, was not lessthan the saving to me of my husband's life, and my own, and my twodaughters', together with their honor, which they ought to hold dearerstill. And more, from the time that you arrived here, there hath notbeen done to me, or to the least of my people, a single insult, but allcourtesy; and there hath not been taken by your folks of the goods theyfound here the value of a farthing without paying for it. My lord, I amwell aware that my husband, and I, and my children, and all of thishousehold are your prisoners, for to do with and dispose of at your goodpleasure, as well as the goods that are herein; but, knowing thenobleness of your heart, I am come for to entreat you right humbly thatit may please you to have pity upon us, extending your wonted generosity. Here is a little present we make you; you will be pleased to take it ingood part. ' Then she took the box which the servitor was holding, andopened it before the good knight, who saw it full of beautiful ducats. The gentle lord, who never in his life made any case of money, burst outlaughing, and said, 'Madam, how many ducats are there in this box?' Thepoor soul was afraid that he was angry at seeing so few, and said to him, 'My lord, there are but two thousand five hundred ducats; but, if you arenot content, we will find a larger sum. ' Then said he, 'By my faith, madam, though you should give me a hundred thousand crowns, you would notdo so well towards me as you have done by the good cheer I have had here, and the kind tendance you have given me; in whatsoever place I may happento be, you will have, so long as God shall grant me life, a gentleman atyour bidding. As for your ducats, I will none of them; and yet I thankyou; take them back; all my life I have always loved people much betterthan crowns. And think not in any wise that I do not go away as wellpleased with you as if this town were at your disposal, and you had givenit to me. '

"The good lady was much astounded at finding herself put off. 'My lord, 'said she, 'I should feel myself forever the most wretched creature in theworld, if you did not take away with you so small a present as I makeyou, which is nothing in comparison with the courtesy you have shown meheretofore, and still show me now by your great kindness. ' When theknight saw her so firm, he said to her, 'Well, then, madam, I will takeit for love of you; but go and fetch me your two daughters, for I wouldfain bid them farewell. ' The poor soul, who thought herself in paradise, now that her present was at last accepted, went to fetch her daughters, the which were very fair, good, and well educated, and had afforded thegood knight much pastime during his illness, for right well could theysing and play on the lute and spinet, and right well work with theneedle. They were brought before the good knight, who, whilst they wereattiring themselves, had caused the ducats to be placed in three lots, two of a thousand each, and the other of five hundred. They, havingarrived, would have fallen on their knees, but were incontinently raisedup, and the elder of the two began to say, 'My lord, these two poorgirls, to whom you have done so much honor as to guard them, are come totake leave of you, humbly thanking your lordship for the favor they havereceived, for which, having nothing else in their power, they will befor-ever bound to pray God for you. ' The good knight, half-weeping tosee so much sweetness and humility in those two fair girls, made answer, 'Dear demoisels, you have done what I ought to do; that is, thank you forthe good company you have made me, and for which I feel myself muchbeholden and bounden. You know that fighting men are not likely to beladen with pretty things for to present to ladies; and for my part, I amsore displeased that I am in no wise well provided for making you suchpresent as I am bound to make. Here is your lady-mother, who has givenme two thousand five hundred ducats, which you see on this table; of themI give to each of you a thousand towards your marriage; and for myrecompense, you shall, an if it please you, pray God for me. ' He put theducats into their aprons, whether they would or not; and then, turning tohis hostess, he said to her, "Madam, I will take these five hundredducats for mine own profit, to distribute them amongst the poorsisterhoods which have been plundered; and to you I commit the charge ofthem, for you, better than any other, will understand where there is needthereof, and thereupon I take my leave of you. " Then he touched them allupon the hand, after the Italian manner, and they fell upon their knees, weeping so bitterly that it seemed as if they were to be led out to theirdeaths. Afterwards, they withdrew to their chambers, and it was time fordinner. After dinner, there was little sitting ere the good knightcalled for the horses; for much he longed to be in the company so yearnedfor by him, having fine fear lest the battle should be delivered beforehe was there. As he was coming out of his chamber to mount a-horseback, the two fair daughters of the house came down and made him, each of them, a present which they had worked during his illness; one was two prettyand delicate bracelets, made of beautiful tresses of gold and silverthread, so neatly that it was a marvel; the other was a purse of crimsonsatin, worked right cunningly. Greatly did he thank them, saying thatthe present came from hand so fair, that he valued it at ten thousandcrowns; and, in order to do them the more honor, he had the bracelets putupon his arms, and he put the purse in his sleeve, assuring them that, solong as they lasted, he would wear them for love of the givers. "

[Illustration: Bayard's Farewell----358]

Bayard had good reason for being in such a hurry to rejoin hiscomrades-in-arms, and not miss the battle he foresaw. All were as fullof it as he was. After the capture of Brescia, Gaston de Foix passedseven or eight days more there, whilst Bayard was confined by his woundto his bed. "The prince went, once at least, every day to see the goodknight, the which he comforted as best he might, and often said to him, 'Hey! Sir Bayard, my friend, think about getting cured, for well I knowthat we shall have to give the Spaniards battle between this and a month;and, if so it should be, I had rather have lost all I am worth than nothave you there, so great confidence have I in you. ' 'Believe me, mylord, ' answered Bayard, 'that if so it is that there is to be a battle, Iwould, as well for the service of the king my master as for love of youand for mine own honor, which is before everything, rather have myselfcarried thither in a litter than not be there at all. ' The Duke ofNemours made him a load of presents according to his power, and one daysent him five hundred crowns, the which the good knight gave to the twoarchers who had staid with him when he was wounded. "

Louis XII. Was as impatient to have the battle delivered as Bayard was tobe in it. He wrote, time after time, to his nephew Gaston that themoment was critical, that Emperor Maximilian harbored a design ofrecalling the five thousand lanzknechts he had sent as auxiliaries to theFrench army, and that they must be made use of whilst they were still tobe had; that, on the other hand, Henry VIII. , King of England, waspreparing for an invasion of France, and so was Ferdinand, King of Spain, in the south: a victory in the field was indispensable to baffle allthese hostile plans. It was Louis XII. 's mania to direct, from Paris orfrom Lyons, the war which he was making at a distance, and to regulateits movements as well as its expenses. The Florentine ambassador, Pandolfini, was struck with the perilousness of this mania; and Cardinald'Amboise was no longer by to oppose it. Gaston de Foix asked fornothing better than to act with vigor. He set out to march on Ravenna, in hopes that by laying siege to this important place he would force abattle upon the Spanish army, which sought to avoid it. There was acurrent rumor in Italy that this army, much reduced in numbers and cooledin ardor, would not hold its own against the French if it encounteredthem. Some weeks previously, after the siege of Bologna had been raised_by the Spaniards, there were distributed about at Rome little bits ofpaper having on them, "If anybody knows where the Spanish army happens tobe, let him inform the sacristan of peace; he shall receive as reward alump of cheese. " Gaston de Foix arrived on the 8th of April, 1512, before Ravenna. He there learned that, on the 9th of March, theambassador of France had been sent away from London by Henry VIII. Another hint came to him from his own camp. A German captain, namedJacob, went and told Chevalier Bayard, with whom he had contracted afriendship, "that the emperor had sent orders to the captain of thelanzknechts that they were to withdraw incontinently on seeing hisletter, and that they were not to fight the Spaniards: 'As for me, ' saidhe, 'I have taken oath to the King of France, and I have his pay; if Iwere to die a hundred thousand deaths, I would not do this wickedness ofnot fighting; but there must be haste. ' The good knight, who well knewthe gentle heart of Captain Jacob, commended him marvellously, and saidto him, by the mouth of his interpreter, 'My dear comrade and friend, never did your heart imagine wickedness. Here is my lord of Nemours, whohas ordered to his quarters all the captains, to hold a council; go wethither, you and I, and we will show him privately what you have toldme. ' 'It is well thought on, ' said Captain Jacob: 'go we thither. ' Sothey went thither. There were dissensions at the council: some said thatthey had three or four rivers to cross; that everybody was against them, the pope, the King of Spain, the Venetians, and the Swiss; that theemperor was anything but certain, and that the best thing would be totemporize: others said that there was nothing for it but to fight or dieof hunger like good-for-noughts and cowards. The good Duke of Nemours, who had already spoken with the good knight and with Captain Jacob, desired to have the opinion of the former, the which said, 'My lord, thelonger we sojourn, the more miserable too will become our plight, for ourmen have no victual, and our horses must needs live on what the willowsshoot forth at the present time. Besides, you know that the king ourmaster is writing to you every day to give battle, and that in your handsrests, not only the safety of his duchy of Milan, but also all hisdominion of France, seeing the enemies he has to-day. 'Wherefore, as forme, I am of opinion that we ought to give battle, and proceed to itdiscreetly, for we have to do with cunning folks and good fighters. Thatthere is peril in it is true; but one thing gives me comfort: theSpaniards for a year past have, in this Romagna, been always living likefish in the water, and are fat and full-fed; our men have had and stillhave great lack of victual, whereby they will have longer breath, and wehave no need of ought else, for whoso fights the longest, to him willremain the 'field. '" The leaders of note in the army sided with the goodknight, "and notice thereof was at once given to all the captains ofhorse and foot. "

The battle took place on the next day but one, April 11. "The gentleDuke of Nemours set out pretty early from his quarters, armed at allpoints. As he went forth he looked at the sun, already risen, which wasmighty red. 'Look, my lords, how red the sun is, ' said he to the companyabout him. There was there a gentleman whom he loved exceedingly, aright gentle comrade, whose name was Haubourdin, the which replied, 'Knowyou, pray, what that means, my lord? To-day will die some prince orgreat captain: it must needs be you or the Spanish viceroy. ' The Duke ofNemours burst out a-laughing at this speech, and went on as far as thebridge to finish the passing-in-review of his army, which was showingmarvellous diligence. " As he was conversing with Bayard, who had come insearch of him, they noticed not far from them a troop of twenty or thirtySpanish gentlemen, all mounted, amongst whom was Captain Pedro de Paz, leader of all their jennettiers [light cavalry, mounted on Spanish horsescalled jennets]. "The good knight advanced twenty or thirty paces andsaluted them, saying, 'Gentlemen, you are diverting your-selves, as weare, whilst waiting for the regular game to begin; I pray you let therebe no firing of arquebuses on your side, and there shall be no firing atyou on ours. '" The courtesy was reciprocated. "Sir Bayard, " asked DonPedro de Paz, who is yon lord in such goodly array, and to whom yourfolks show so much honor?" "It is our chief, the Duke of Nemours, "answered Bayard; "nephew of our prince, and brother of your queen. "[Germaine de Foix, Gaston de Foix's sister, had married, as his secondwife, Ferdinand the Catholic. ] Hardly had he finished speaking, whenCaptain Pedro de Paz and all those who were with him dismounted andaddressed the noble prince in these words: "Sir, save the honor andservice due to the king our master, we declare to you that we are, andwish forever to remain, your servants. " The Duke of Nemours thanked themgallantly for their gallant homage, and, after a short, chivalrousexchange of conversation, they went, respectively, to their own posts. The artillery began by causing great havoc on both sides. "'Od's body, "said a Spanish captain shut up in a fort which the French were attacking, and which he had been charged to defend, "we are being killed here bybolts that fall from heaven; go we and fight with men;" and he salliedfrom the fort with all his people, to go and take part in the generalbattle. "Since God created heaven and earth, " says the Loyal Serviteurof Bayard, "was never seen a more cruel and rough assault than that whichFrench and Spaniards made upon one another, and for more than a long halfhour lasted this fight. They rested before one another's eyes to recovertheir breath; then they let down their vizors and so began all overagain, shouting, France! and Spain! the most imperiously in the world. At last the Spaniards were utterly broken, and constrained to abandontheir camp, whereon, and between two ditches, died three or four hundredmen-at-arms. Every one would fain have set out in pursuit; but the goodknight said to the Duke of Nemours, who was all covered with blood andbrains from one of his men-at-arms, that had been carried off by acannon-ball, 'My lord, are you wounded?' 'No, ' said the duke, 'but Ihave wounded a many others. ' 'Now, God be praised!' said Bayard; 'youhave gained the battle, and abide this day the most honored prince in theworld; but push not farther forward; reassemble your men-at-arms in thisspot; let none set on to pillage yet, for it is not time; Captain Louisd'Ars and I are off after these fugitives that they may not retire behindtheir foot; but stir not, for any man living, from here, unless CaptainLouis d'Ars or I come hither to fetch you. ' "The Duke of Nemourspromised; but whilst he was biding on his ground, awaiting Bayard'sreturn, he said to the Baron du Chimay, --"an honest gentleman who hadknowledge, " says Fleuranges, "of things to come, and who, before thebattle, had announced to Gaston that he would gain it, but he would be indanger of being left there if God did not do him grace, --Well, SirDotard, am I left there, as you said? Here I am still. ' 'Sir, it is notall over yet, ' answered Chimay; whereupon there arrived an archer, whocame and said to the duke, 'My lord, yonder be two thousand Spaniards, who are going off all orderly along the causeway. ' 'Certes, ' saidGaston, 'I cannot suffer that; whoso loves me, follow me. ' And resuminghis arms he pushed forward. 'Wait for your men, ' said Sire de Lautrec tohim; but Gaston took no heed, and followed by only twenty or thirtymen-at-arms, he threw himself upon those retreating troops. " He wasimmediately surrounded, thrown from his horse, and defending himself allthe while, "like Roland at Roncesvalles, " say the chroniclers, he fellpierced with wounds. "Do not kill him, " shouted Lautrec; "it is thebrother of your queen. " Lautrec himself was so severely handled andwounded that he was thought to be dead. Gaston really was, though thenews spread but slowly. Bayard, returning with his comrades frompursuing the fugitives, met on his road the Spanish force that Gaston hadso rashly attacked, and that continued to retire in good order. Bayardwas all but charging them, when a Spanish captain came out of the ranksand said to him, in his own language, "What would you do, sir? You arenot powerful enough to beat us; you have won the battle; let the honorthereof suffice you, and let us go with our lives, for by God's will arewe escaped. " Bayard felt that the Spaniard spoke truly; he had but ahandful of men with him, and his own horse could not carry him anylonger: the Spaniards opened their ranks, and he passed through themiddle of them and let them go. "'Las!" says his Loyal Serviteur, "heknew not that the good Duke of Nemours was dead, or that those yonderwere they who had slain him; he had died ten thousand deaths but he wouldhave avenged him, if he had known it. "

When the fatal news was known, the consternation and grief were profound. At the age of twenty-three Gaston de Foix had in less than six months wonthe confidence and affection of the army, of the king, and of France. Itwas one of those sudden and undisputed reputations which seem to mark outmen for the highest destinies. "I would fain, " said Louis XIL, when heheard of his death, "have no longer an inch of land in Italy, and be ableat that price to bring back to life my nephew Gaston and all the gallantswho perished with him. God keep us from often gaining such victories!""In the battle of Ravenna, " says Guicciardini, "fell at least tenthousand men, a third of them French, and two thirds their enemies; butin respect of chosen men and men of renown the loss of the victors was bymuch the greater, and the loss of Gaston de Foix alone surpassed all theothers put together; with him went all the vigor and furious onset of theFrench army. " La Palisse, a warrior valiant and honored, assumed thecommand of this victorious army; but under pressure of repeated attacksfrom the Spaniards, the Venetians, and the Swiss, he gave up first theRomagna, then Milanes, withdrew from place to place, and ended by fallingback on Piedmont. Julius II. Won back all he had won and lost. Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovic the Moor, after twelve years of exilein Germany, returned to Milan to resume possession of his father's duchy. By the end of June, 1512, less than three months after the victory ofRavenna, the domination of the French had disappeared from Italy. 

[Illustration: Gaston de Foix----364]

Louis XII. Had, indeed, something else to do besides crossing the Alps togo to the protection of such precarious conquests. Into France itselfwar was about to make its way; it was his own kingdom and his own countrythat he had to defend. In vain, after the death of Isabella of Castile, had he married his niece, Germaine de Foix, to Ferdinand the Catholic, whilst giving up to him all pretensions to the kingdom of Naples. In1512 Ferdinand invaded Navarre, took possession of the Spanish portion ofthat little kingdom, and thence threatened Gascony. Henry VIII. , King ofEngland, sent him a fleet, which did not withdraw until after it hadappeared before Bayonne and thrown the south-west of France into a stateof alarm. In the north, Henry VIII. Continued his preparations for anexpedition into France, obtained from his Parliament subsidies for thatpurpose, and concerted plans with Emperor Maximilian, who renounced hisdoubtful neutrality and engaged himself at last in the Holy League. Louis XII. Had in Germany an enemy as zealous almost as Julius II. Was inItaly: Maximilian's daughter, Princess Marguerite of Austria, had neverforgiven France or its king, whether he were called Charles VIII. OrLouis XII. , the treatment she had received from that court, when, afterhaving been kept there and brought up for eight years to become Queen ofFrance, she had been sent away and handed back to her father, to make wayfor Anne of Brittany. She was ruler of the Low Countries, active, able, full of passion, and in continual correspondence with her father, theemperor, over whom she exercised a great deal of influence. [Thiscorrespondence was published in 1839, by the _Societe de l'Histoire deFrance_ (2 vols. 8vo. ), from the originals, which exist in the archivesof Lille. ] The Swiss, on their side, continuing to smart under thecontemptuous language which Louis had imprudently applied to them, becamemore and more pronounced against him, rudely dismissed Louis de laTremoille, who attempted to negotiate with them, re-establishedMaximilian Sforza in the duchy of Milan, and haughtily styled themselves"vanquishers of kings and defenders of the holy Roman Church. " And theRoman Church made a good defender of herself. Julius II. Had convoked atRome, at St. John Lateran, a council, which met on the 3d of May, 1512, and in presence of which the council of Pisa and Milan, after an attemptat removing to Lyons, vanished away like a phantom. Everywhere thingswere turning out according to the wishes and for the profit of the pope;and France and her king were reduced to defending themselves on their ownsoil against a coalition of all their great neighbors. 

"Man proposes and God disposes. " Not a step can be made in historywithout meeting with some corroboration of that modest, pious, grandtruth. On the 21st of February, 1513, ten months since Gaston de Foix, the victor of Ravenna, had perished in the hour of his victory, PopeJulius II. Died at Rome at the very moment when he seemed invited toenjoy all the triumph of his policy. He died without bluster and withoutdisquietude, disavowing nought of his past life, and relinquishing noneof his designs as to the future. He had been impassioned and skilful inthe employment of moral force, whereby alone he could become master ofmaterial forces; a rare order of genius, and one which never lacksgrandeur, even when the man who possesses it abuses it. His constantthought was how he might free Italy from the barbarians; and he liked tohear himself called by the name of liberator, which was commonly givenhim. One day the outspoken Cardinal Grimani said to him that, nevertheless, the kingdom of Naples, one of the greatest and richestportions of Italy, was still under the foreign yoke; whereupon JuliusII. , brandishing the staff on which he was leaning, said, wrathfully, "Assuredly, if Heaven had not otherwise ordained, the Neapolitans toowould have shaken off the yoke which lies heavy on them. " Guicciardinihas summed up, with equal justice and sound judgment, the principaltraits of his character: "He was a prince, " says the historian, "ofincalculable courage and firmness; full of boundless imaginings whichwould have brought him headlong to ruin if the respect borne to theChurch, the dissensions of princes and the conditions of the times, farmore than his own moderation and prudence, had not supported him; hewould have been worthy of higher glory had he been a laic prince, or hadit been in order to elevate the Church in spiritual rank and by processesof peace that he put in practice the diligence and zeal he displayed forthe purpose of augmenting his temporal greatness by the arts of war. Nevertheless he has left, above all his predecessors, a memory full offame and honor, especially amongst those men who can no longer callthings by their right names or appreciate them at their true value, andwho think that it is the duty of the sovereign-pontiffs to extend, bymeans of arms and the blood of Christians, the power of the Holy Seerather than to wear themselves out in setting good examples of aChristian's life and in reforming manners and customs pernicious to thesalvation of souls--that aim of aims for which they assert that Christhas appointed them His vicars on earth. "

The death of Julius II. Seemed to Louis XII. A favorable opportunity foronce more setting foot in Italy, and recovering at least that which heregarded as his hereditary right, the duchy of Milan. He commissionedLouis de la Tremoille to go and renew the conquest; and, whilst thusreopening the Italian war, he commenced negotiations with certain of thecoalitionists of the Holy League, in the hope of causing division amongstthem, or even of attracting some one of them to himself. He knew thatthe Venetians were dissatisfied and disquieted about their allies, especially Emperor Maximilian, the new Duke of Milan Maximilian Sforza, and the Swiss. He had little difficulty in coming to an understandingwith the Venetian senate; and, on the 14th of May, 1513, a treaty ofalliance, offensive and defensive, was signed at Blois between the Kingof France and the republic of Venice. Louis hoped also to find at Romein the new pope, Leo X. [Cardinal John de' Medici, elected pope March11, 1513], favorable inclinations; but they were at first veryambiguously and reservedly manifested. As a Florentine, Leo X. Had aleaning towards France; but as pope, he was not disposed to relinquish ordisavow the policy of Julius II. As to the independence of Italy inrespect of any foreign sovereign, and as to the extension of the power ofthe Holy See; and he wanted time to make up his mind to infuse into hisrelations with Louis XII. Good-will instead of his predecessor'simpassioned hostility. Louis had not, and could not have, any confidencein Ferdinand the Catholic; but he knew him to be as prudent as he wasrascally, and he concluded with him at Orthez, on the 1st of April, 1513, a year's truce, which Ferdinand took great care not to make known to hisallies, Henry VIII. , King of England, and the Emperor Maximilian, theformer of whom was very hot-tempered, and the latter very deeplyinvolved, through his daughter Marguerite of Austria, in the warlikeleague against France. "Madam" [the name given to Marguerite as ruler ofthe Low Countries], wrote the Florentine minister to Lorenzo de' Medici, "asks for nought but war against the Most Christian king; she thinks ofnought but keeping up and fanning the kindled fire, and she has all thegame in her hands, for the King of England and the emperor have fullconfidence in her, and she does with them just as she pleases. " This wasall that was gained during the year of Julius II. 's death by Louis XII. 'sattempts to break up or weaken the coalition against France; and thesefeeble diplomatic advantages were soon nullified by the unsuccess of theFrench expedition in Milaness. Louis de la Tremoille had once moreentered it with a strong army; but he was on bad terms with his principallieutenant, John James Trivulzio, over whom he had not the authoritywielded by the young and brilliant Gaston de Foix; the French were closeto Novara, the siege of which they were about to commence; they heardthat a body of Swiss was advancing to enter the place; La Tremoilleshifted his position to oppose them, and on the 5th of June, 1513, hetold all his captains in the evening that "they might go to theirsleeping-quarters and make good cheer, for the Swiss were not yet readyto fight, not having all their men assembled;" but early next morning theSwiss attacked the French camp. "La Tremoille had hardly time to rise, and, with half his armor on, mount his horse; the Swiss outposts andthose of the French were already at work pell-mell over against hisquarters. " The battle was hot and bravely contested on both sides; butthe Swiss by a vigorous effort got possession of the French artillery, and turned it against the infantry of the lanzknechts, which was drivenin and broken. The French army abandoned the siege of Novara, and putitself in retreat, first of all on Verceil, a town of Piedmont, and thenon France itself. "And I do assure you, " says Fleuranges, an eye-witnessand partaker in the battle, "that there was great need of it; of themen-at-arms there were but few lost, or of the French foot; which turnedout a marvellous good thing for the king and the kingdom, for they foundhim very much embroiled with the English and other nations. " Warbetween, France and England had recommenced at sea in 1512: twosquadrons, one French, of twenty sail, and the other English, of morethan forty, met on the 10th of August somewhere off the island of Ushant;a brave Breton, Admiral Herve Primoguet, aboard of "the great ship of theQueen of France, " named the Cordeliere, commanded the French squadron, and Sir Thomas Knyvet, a young sailor "of more bravery than experience, "according to the historians of his own country, commanded, on board of avessel named the Regent, the English squadron. The two admirals' vesselsengaged in a deadly duel; but the French admiral, finding himselfsurrounded by superior forces, threw his grappling-irons on to theEnglish vessel, and, rather than surrender, set fire to the two admirals'ships, which blew up at the same time, together with their crews of twothousand men. 

The sight of heroism and death has a powerful effect upon men, andsometimes suspends their quarrels. The English squadron went out againto sea, and the French went back to Brest. Next year the strugglerecommenced, but on land, and with nothing so striking. An English armystarted from Calais, and went and blockaded, on the 17th of June, 1513, the fortress of Therouanne in Artois. It was a fortnight afterwardsbefore Henry VIII. Himself quitted Calais, where festivities andtournaments had detained him too long for what he had in hand, and setout on the march with twelve thousand foot to go and join his army beforeTherouanne. He met on his road, near Thournehem, a body of twelvehundred French men-at-arms with their followers a-horseback, and in themidst of them Bayard. Sire de Piennes, governor of Picardy, was incommand of them. "My lord, " said Bayard to him, "let us charge them: noharm can come of it to us, or very little; if, at the first charge, wemake an opening in them, they are broken; if they repulse us, we shallstill get away; they are on foot and we a-horseback;" and "nearly all theFrench were of this opinion, " continues the chronicler; but Sire dePiennes said, Gentlemen, I have orders, on my life, from the king ourmaster, to risk nothing, but only hold his country. Do as you please;for my part I shall not consent thereto. ' Thus was this matter stayed;and the King of England passed with his band under the noses of theFrench. " Henry VIII. Arrived quietly with his army before Therouanne, the garrison of which defended itself valiantly, though short ofprovisions. Louis XII. Sent orders to Sire de Piennes to revictualTherouanne "at any price. " The French men-at-arms, to the number offourteen hundred lances, at whose head marched La Palisse, Bayard, theDuke de Longueville, grandson of the great Dunois, and Sire de Pienneshimself, set out on the 16th of August to go and make, from the directionof Guinegate, a sham attack upon the English camp, whilst eight hundredAlbanian light cavalry were to burst, from another direction, upon theenemies' lines, cut their way through at a gallop, penetrate to the veryfosses of the fortress, and throw into them munitions of war and of thestomach, hung to their horses' necks. The Albanians carried out theirorders successfully. The French men-at-arms, after having skirmished forsome time with the cavalry of Henry VIII. And Maximilian, began to fallback a little carelessly and in some disorder towards their own camp, when they perceived two large masses of infantry and artillery, Englishand German, preparing to cut off their retreat. Surprise led toconfusion; the confusion took the form of panic; the French men-at-armsbroke into a gallop, and, dispersing in all directions, thought ofnothing but regaining the main body and the camp at Blangy. This suddenrout of so many gallants received the sorry name of the affair of spurs, for spurs did more service than the sword. Many a chosen captain, theDuke de Longueville, Sire de la Palisse, and Bayard, whilst trying torally the fugitives, were taken by the enemy. Emperor Maximilian, whohad arrived at the English camp three or four days before the affair, wasof opinion that the allies should march straight upon the French camp, totake advantage of the panic and disorder; but "Henry VIII. And his lordsdid not agree with him. " They contented themselves with pressing on thesiege of Therouanne, which capitulated on the 22d of August, for want ofprovisions. The garrison was allowed to go free, the men-at-arms withlance on thigh and the foot with pike on shoulder, with their harness andall that they could carry. " But, in spite of an article in thecapitulation, the town was completely dismantled and burnt; and, by theadvice of Emperor Maximilian, Henry VIII. Made all haste to go and laysiege to Tournai, a French fortress between Flanders and Hainault, thecapture of which was of great importance to the Low Countries and toMarguerite of Austria, their ruler. 

On hearing these sad tidings, Louis XII. , though suffering from an attackof gout, had himself moved in a litter from Paris to Amiens, and orderedPrince Francis of Angouleme, heir to the throne, to go and take commandof the army, march it back to the defensive line of the Somme, and send agarrison to Tournai. It was one of that town's privileges to have nogarrison; and the inhabitants were unwilling to admit one, saying thatTournai never had turned and never would turn tail; and, if the Englishcame, they would find some one to talk to them. " "Howbeit, " saysFleuranges, "not a single captain was there, nor, likewise, the said lordduke, but understood well how it was with people besieged, as indeed cameto pass, for at the end of three days, during which the people of Tournaiwere besieged, they treated for appointment (terms) with the King ofEngland. " Other bad news came to Amiens. The Swiss, puffed up withtheir victory at Novara and egged on by Emperor Maximilian, had to thenumber of thirty thousand entered Burgundy, and on the 7th of Septemberlaid siege to Dijon, which was rather badly fortified. La Tremoille, governor of Burgundy, shut himself up in the place and bravely repulsed afirst assault, but "sent post-haste to warn the king to send him aid;whereto the king made no reply beyond that he could not send him aid, andthat La Tremoille should do the best he could for the advantage andservice of the kingdom. " La Tremoille applied to the Swiss for asafe-conduct, and "without arms and scantily attended" he went to them totry whether "in consideration of a certain sum of money for the expensesof their army they could be packed off to their own country without doingfurther displeasure or damage. " He found them proud and arrogant ofheart, for they styled themselves chastisers of princes, " and all hecould obtain from them was "that the king should give up the duchy ofMilan and all the castles appertaining thereto, that he should restore tothe pope all the towns, castles, lands, and lordships which belonged tohim, and that he should pay the Swiss four hundred thousand crowns, towit, two hundred thousand down and two hundred thousand at Martinmas inthe following winter. " [_Corps Diplomatique du Droit des Gens, _ byDumont, t. Vi. Part 1, p. 175. ] As brave in undertaking a heavyresponsibility as he was in delivering a battle, La Tremoille did nothesitate to sign, on the 13th of September, this harsh treaty; and, as hehad not two hundred thousand crowns down to give the Swiss, he prevailedupon them to be content with receiving twenty thousand at once, and heleft with them as hostage, in pledge of his promise, his nephew Rendd'Anjou, lord of Mezieres, "one of the boldest and discreetest knights inFrance. " But for this honorable defeat, the veteran warrior thought thekingdom of France had been then undone; for, assailed at all itsextremities, with its neighbors for its foes, it could not, without greatrisk of final ruin, have borne the burden and defended itself through somany battles. La Tremoille sent one of the gentlemen of his house, thechevalier Reginald de Moussy, to the king, to give an account of what hehad done, and of his motives. Some gentlemen about the persons of theking and the queen had implanted some seeds of murmuring and evilthinking in the mind of the queen, and through her in that of the king, who readily gave ear to her words because good and discreet was she. Thesaid Reginald de Moussy, having warning of the fact, and withoutborrowing aid of a soul (for bold man was he by reason of his virtues), entered the king's chamber, and, falling on one knee, announced, according to order, the service which his master had done, and withoutwhich the kingdom of France was in danger of ruin, whereof he set forththe reasons. The whole was said in presence of them who had brought theking to that evil way of thinking, and who knew not what to reply to theking when he said to them, 'By the faith of my body, I think and do knowby experience that my cousin the lord of La Tremoille is the mostfaithful and loyal servant that I have in my kingdom, and the one to whomI am most bounden to the best of his abilities. Go, Reginald, and tellhim that I will do all that he has promised; and if he has done well, lethim do better. ' The queen heard of this kind answer made by the king, and was not pleased at it; but afterwards, the truth being known, shejudged contrariwise to what she, through false report, had imagined andthought. " [_Memoires de la Tremoille, _ in the Petitot collection, t. Xiv. Pp. 476-492. ]

Word was brought at the same time to Amiens that Tournai, invested on the15th of September by the English, had capitulated, that Henry VIII. Hadentered it on the 21st, and that he had immediately treated it as aconquest of which he was taking possession, for he had confirmed it inall its privileges except that of having no garrison. 

Such was the situation in which France, after a reign of fifteen yearsand in spite of so many brave and devoted servants, had been placed byLouis XII. 's foreign policy. Had he managed the home affairs of hiskingdom as badly and with as little success as he had matters abroad, isit necessary to say what would have been his people's feelings towardshim, and what name he would have left in history? Happily for France andfor the memory of Louis XII. , his home-government was more sensible, moreclear-sighted, more able, more moral, and more productive of good resultsthan his foreign policy was. 

When we consider this reign from this new point of view, we are atonce struck by two facts: 1st, the great number of legislative andadministrative acts that we meet with bearing upon the general interestsof the country, interests political, judicial, financial, and commercial;the _Recueil des Ordonnances des Rois de France_ contains forty-threeimportant acts of this sort owing their origin to Louis XII. ; it wasclearly a government full of watchfulness, activity, and attention togood order and the public weal; 2d, the profound remembrance remaining insucceeding ages of this reign and its deserts--a remembrance which wasmanifested, in 1560, amongst the states-general of Orleans, in 1576 and1588 amongst the states of Blois, in 1593 amongst the states of theLeague, and even down to 1614 amongst the states of Paris. During morethan a hundred years France called to mind, and took pleasure in callingto mind, the administration of Louis XII. As the type of a wise, intelligent, and effective regimen. Confidence may be felt in a people'smemory when it inspires them for so long afterwards with sentiment ofjustice and gratitude. 

If from the simple table of the acts of Louis XII. 's home-government wepass to an examination of their practical results it is plain that theywere good and salutary. A contemporary historian, earnest and truthfulthough panegyrical, Claude do Seyssel, describes in the following termsthe state of France at that time: "It is, " says he, "a patent fact thatthe revenue of benefices, lands, and lordships has generally muchincreased. And in like manner the proceeds of gabels, turnpikes, law-fees and other revenues have been augmented very greatly. The traffic, too, in merchandise, whether by sea or land, has multiplied exceedingly. For, by the blessing of peace, all folks (except the nobles, and eventhem I do not except altogether) engage in merchandise. For one traderthat was in Louis XI. 's time to be found rich and portly at Paris, Rouen, Lyons, and other good towns of the kingdom, there are to be found in thisreign more than fifty; and there are in the small towns greater numberthan the great and principal cities were wont to have. So much so thatscarcely a house is made on any street without having a shop formerchandise or for mechanical art. And less difficulty is now made aboutgoing to Rome, Naples London, and elsewhere over-sea than was madeformally about going to Lyons or to Geneva. So much so that there aresome who have gone by sea to seek, and have found, new homes. The renownand authority of the king now reigning are so great that his subjects arehonored and upheld in every country, as well at sea as on land. "

Foreigners were not less impressed than the French themselves with thisadvance in order, activity, and prosperity amongst the French community. Machiavelli admits it, and with the melancholy of an Italian politicianacting in the midst of rivalries amongst the Italian republics, heattributes it above all to French unity, superior to that of any otherstate in Europe. 

As to the question, to whom reverts the honor of the good government athome under Louis XII. , and of so much progress in the social condition ofFrance, M. George Picot, in his _Histoire des Etats Generaux_ [t. I. Pp. 532-536], attributes it especially to the influence of the statesassembled at Tours, in 1484, at the beginning of the reign of CharlesVIII. : "They employed, " he says, "the greatest efforts to reduce thefigure of the impost; they claimed the voting of subsidies, and took carenot to allow them, save by way of gift and grant. They did not hesitateto revise certain taxes, and when they were engaged upon the subject ofcollecting of them, they energetically stood out for the establishment ofa unique, classified body of receivers-royal, and demanded the formationof all the provinces into districts of estates, voting and apportioningtheir imposts every year, as in the cases of Languedoc, Normandy, andDauphiny. The dangers of want of discipline in an ill-organized standingarmy and the evils caused to agriculture by roving bands drove the statesback to reminiscences of Charles VII. 's armies; and they called for amixed organization, in which gratuitous service, commingled in justproportion with that of paid troops, would prevent absorption of thenational element. To reform the abuses of the law, to suppressextraordinary commissions, to reduce to a powerful unity, withparliaments to crown all, that multitude of jurisdictions which weredegenerate and corrupt products of the feudal system in its decay, suchwas the constant aim of the states-general of 1484. They saw that ajudicial hierarchy would be vain without fixity of laws; and theydemanded a summarization of customs and a consolidation of ordinances ina collection placed within reach of all. Lastly they made a claim, whichthey were as qualified to make as they were intelligent in making, forthe removal of the commercial barriers which divided the provinces andprevented the free transport of merchandise. They pointed out therepairing of the roads and the placing of them in good condition as thefirst means of increasing the general prosperity. Not a single branch ofthe administration of the kingdom escaped their conscientious scrutiny:law, finance, and commerce by turns engaged their attention; and in allthese different matters they sought to ameliorate institutions, but neverto usurp power. They did not come forward like the shrievalty of theUniversity of Paris in 1413, with a new system of administration; thereign of Louis XI. Had left nothing that was important or possible, inthat way, to conceive; there was nothing more to be done than to gleanafter him, to relax those appliances of government which he had stretchedat all points, and to demand the accomplishment of such of his projectsas were left in arrear and the cure of the evils he had caused by thefrenzy and the aberrations of his absolute will. "

We do not care to question the merits of the states-general of 1484; wehave but lately striven to bring them to light, and we doubt not but thatthe enduring influence of their example and their sufferings counted formuch in the progress of good government during the reign of Louis XII. It is an honor to France to have always resumed and pursued from crisisto crisis, through a course of many sufferings, mistakes, and tediousgaps, the work of her political enfranchisement and the foundation of aregimen of freedom and legality in the midst of the sole monarchy whichso powerfully contributed to her strength and her greatness. Thestates-general of 1484, in spite of their rebuffs and long years aftertheir separation, held an honorable place in the history of thisdifficult and tardy work; but Louis XII. 's personal share in the goodhome-government of France during his reign was also great andmeritorious. His chief merit, a rare one amongst the powerful of theearth, especially when there is a question of reforms and of liberty, wasthat he understood and entertained the requirements and wishes of hisday; he was a mere young prince of the blood when the states of 1484 weresitting at Tours; but he did not forget them when he was king, and, farfrom repudiating their patriotic and modest work in the cause of reformand progress, he entered into it sincerely and earnestly with the aidof Cardinal d'Amboise, his honest, faithful, and ever influentialcouncillor. The character and natural instincts of Louis XII. Inclinedhim towards the same views as his intelligence and moderation in politicssuggested. He was kind, sympathetic towards his people, and anxious tospare them every burden and every suffering that was unnecessary, and tohave justice, real and independent justice, rendered to all. He reducedthe talliages a tenth at first and a third at a later period. He refusedto accept the dues usual on a joyful accession. When the wars in Italycaused him some extraordinary expense, he disposed of a portion of theroyal possessions, strictly administered as they were, before imposingfresh burdens upon the people. His court was inexpensive, and he had nofavorites to enrich. His economy became proverbial; it was sometimesmade a reproach to him; and things were carried so far that he wasrepresented, on the stage of a popular theatre, ill, pale, and surroundedby doctors, who were holding a consultation as to the nature of hismalady: they at last agreed to give him a potion of gold to take; thesick man at once sat up, complaining of nothing more than a burningthirst. When informed of this scandalous piece of buffoonery, Louiscontented himself with saying, "I had rather make courtiers laugh by mystinginess than my people weep by my extravagance. " He was pressed topunish some insolent comedians; but, "No, " said he, "amongst theirribaldries they may sometimes tell us useful truths let them amusethemselves, provided that they respect the honor of women. " In theadministration of justice he accomplished important reforms, called forby the states-general of 1484 and promised by Louis XI. And CharlesVIII. , but nearly all of them left in suspense. The purchase of officeswas abolished and replaced by a two-fold election; in all grades of themagistracy, when an office was vacant, the judges were to assemble toselect three persons, from whom the king should be bound to choose. Theirremovability of the magistrates, which had been accepted but oftenviolated by Louis XI. , became under Louis XII. A fundamental rule. Itwas forbidden to every one of the king', magistrates, from the premier-president to the lowest provost to accept any place or pension from anylord, under pain of suspension from their office or loss of their salary. The annual Mercurials (Wednesday-meetings) became, in the supreme courts, a general and standing usage. The expenses of the law were reduced. In1501, Louis XII. Instituted at Aix in Provence a new parliament; in 1499the court of exchequer a Rouen, hitherto a supreme but movable andtemporary court became a fixed and permanent court, which afterwardsreceived under Francis I. , the title of parliament. Being convincedbefore long, by facts themselves, that these reforms were seriously meantby their author, and were practically effective, the people conceived, inconsequence, towards the king and the magistrates a general sentiment ofgratitude and respect. In 1570 Louis made a journey from Paris to Lyonsby Champaigne and Burgundy; and "wherever he passed, " says St. Gelais"men and women assembled from all parts, and ran after him for three orfour leagues. And when they were able to touch his mule, or his robe, oranything that was his, they kissed their hands . . . With as greatdevotion as they would have shown to a reliquary. And the Burgundiansshowed as much enthusiasm as the real old French. "

Louis XII. 's private life also contributed to win for him, we will notsay the respect and admiration, but the good will of the public. He wasnot, like Louis IX. , a model of austerity and sanctity; but after thelicentious court of Charles VII. , the coarse habits of Louis XI. , and theeasy morals of Charles VIII. , the French public was not exacting. LouisXII. Was thrice married. His first wife, Joan, daughter of Louis XI. , was an excellent and worthy princess, but ugly, ungraceful, andhump-backed. He had been almost forced to marry her, and he had no childby her. On ascending the throne, he begged Pope Alexander VI. To annulhis marriage; the negotiation was anything but honorable, either to theking or to the pope; and the pope granted his bull in consideration ofthe favors shown to his unworthy son, Caesar Borgia, by the king. Joanalone behaved with a virtuous as well as modest pride, and ended her lifein sanctity within a convent at Bourges, being wholly devoted to piousworks, regarded by the people as a saint, spoken of by bold preachers asa martyr, and "still the true and legitimate Queen of France, " andtreated at a distance with profound respect by the king who had put heraway. Louis married, in 1499, his predecessor's widow, Anne, Duchess ofBrittany, twenty-three years of age, short, pretty, a little lame, witty, able, and firm. It was, on both sides, a marriage of policy, thoughromantic tales have been mixed up with it; it was a suitable andhonorable royal arrangement, without any lively affection on one sideor the other, but with mutual esteem and regard. As queen, Anne washaughty, imperious, sharp-tempered, and too much inclined to mix inintrigues and negotiations at Rome and Madrid, sometimes without regardfor the king's policy; but she kept up her court with spirit and dignity, being respected by her ladies, whom she treated well, and favorablyregarded by the public, who were well disposed towards her for havinggiven Brittany to France. Some courtiers showed their astonishment thatthe king should so patiently bear with a character so far from agreeable;but "one must surely put up with something from a woman, " said Louis, "when she loves her honor and her husband. " After a union of fifteenyears, Anne of Brittany died on the 9th of January, 1514, at the castleof Blois, nearly thirty-seven years old. Louis was then fifty-two. Heseemed very much to regret his wife; but, some few months after herdeath, another marriage of policy was put, on his behalf, in course ofnegotiation. It was in connection with Princess Mary of England, sisterof Henry VIII. , with whom it was very important for Louis XII. And forFrance to be once more at peace and on good terms. The Duke deLongueville, made prisoner by the English at the battle of Guinegate, had, by his agreeable wit and his easy, chivalrous grace, won HenryVIII. 's favor in London; and he perceived that that prince, discontentedwith his allies, the Emperor of Germany and the King of Spain, wasdisposed to make peace with the King of France. A few months, probablyonly a few weeks, after Anne of Brittany's death, De Longueville, nodoubt with Louis XII. 's privity, suggested to Henry VIII. The idea of amarriage between his young sister and the King o France. Henry liked todo sudden and striking things: he gladly seized the opportunity ofavenging himself upon his two allies, who, in fact, had not been veryfaithful to him, and he welcomed De Longueville's idea. Mary wassixteen, pretty, already betrothed to Archduke Charles of Austria, and, further passionately smitten with Charles Brandon, the favorite of HenryVIII. , who had made him Duke of Suffolk, and, according to Englishhistorians, the handsomest nobleman in England. These two difficultieswere surmounted: Mary herself formally declared her intention of breakinga promise of marriage which had been made during her minority, and whichEmperor Maximilian had shown himself in no hurry to get fulfilled; andLouis XII. Formally demanded her hand. Three treaties were concluded onthe 7th of August, 1514, between the Kings of France and England, inorder to regulate the conditions of their political and matrimonialalliance; on the 13th of August, the Duke de Longueville, in hissovereign's name, espoused the Princess Mary at Greenwich; and she, escorted to France by brilliant embassy, arrived on the 8th of October atAbbeville where Louis XII. Was awaiting her. Three days afterwards themarriage was solemnized there in state, and Louis, who had suffered fromgout during the ceremony, carried off his young queen to Paris, afterhaving had her crowned at St. Denis Mary Tudor had given up the Germanprince, who was destined to become Charles V. , but not the handsomeEnglish nobleman she loved. The Duke of Suffolk went to France to seeher after her marriage, and in her train she had as maid of honor a younggirl, a beauty as well, who was one day to be Queen of England--AnneBoleyn. 

Less than three months after this marriage, on the 1st of January, 1515, "the death-bell-men were traversing the streets of Paris, ringing theirbells and crying, 'The good King Louis, father of the people, is dead. '"Louis XII. , in fact, had died that very day, at midnight, from an attackof gout and a rapid decline. "He had no great need to be married, formany reasons, " says the Loyal Serviteur of Bayard, "and he likewise hadno great desire that way; but, because he found himself on every side atwar, which he could not maintain without pressing very hard upon hispeople, he behaved like the pelican. After that Queen Mary had made herentry, which was mighty triumphant, into Paris, and that there had takenplace many jousts and tourneys, which lasted more than six weeks, thegood king, because of his wife, changed all his manner of living: he hadbeen wont to dine at eight, and he now dined at midday; he had been wontto go to bed at six in the evening, and he often now went to bed atmidnight. He fell ill at the end of December, from the which illnessnought could save him. He was, whilst he lived, a good prince, wise andvirtuous, who maintained his people in peace, without pressing hard uponthem in any way, save by constraint. He had in his time much of good andof evil, whereby he got ample knowledge of the world. He obtained manyvictories over his enemies; but towards the end of his days Fortune gavehim a little turn of her frowning face. He was borne to his grave at St. Denis amongst his good predecessors, with great weeping and wailing, andto the great regret of his subjects. "

"He was a gentle prince, " says Robert de la Marck, lord of Fleuranges, "both in war and otherwise, and in all matters wherein he was required totake part. It was pity when this malady of gout attacked him, for he wasnot an old man. "

To the last of his days Louis XII. Was animated by earnest sympathy andactive solicitude for his people. It cost him a great deal to make withthe King of England the treaties of August 7, 1514, to cede Tournai to theEnglish, and to agree to the payment to them of a hundred thousand crowns ayear for ten years. He did it to restore peace to France, attacked onher own soil, and feeling her prosperity threatened. For the same reasonhe negotiated with Pope Leo X. , Emperor Maximilian, and Ferdinand theCatholic, and he had very nearly attained the same end by entering oncemore upon pacific relations with them, when death came and struck himdown at the age of fifty-three. He died sorrowing over the concessionshe had made from a patriotic sense of duty as much as from necessity, andfull of disquietude about the future. He felt a sincere affection forFrancis de Valois, Count of Angouleme, his son-law and successor; themarriage between his daughter Claude and that prince had been the chiefand most difficult affair connected with his domestic life; and it wasonly after the death of the queen, Anne of Brittany, that he had itproclaimed and celebrated. The bravery, the brilliant parts, the amiablecharacter, and the easy grace of Francis I. Delighted him, but he dreadedhis presumptuous inexperience, his reckless levity, and his ruinousextravagance; and in his anxiety as a king and father he said, "We arelaboring in vain; this big boy will spoil everything for us. "

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.