■ band of Liegeois, favoured by the darkness, fell suddenly on the lodgings of Charles the Bold and Louis XI. This sortie was ably conducted, and nearly met with all the success which the besieged hoped for; the two princes, with their servants, narrowly escaped finding defeat and death where they had imagined their triumph would be certain and easy, It was most fortunate for the duke that he had not followed the advice of some of his councillors, who recommended him "to dismiss a part of his army, seeing that the city of Liege had had its gates and walls demolished during the previous years, and that it could hope for succour from no quarter." The king, who had his reasons for it, was inclined to adopt this suggestion; but Commines and other prudent councillors remonstrated against so imprudent a step, and their advice was followed, less perhaps because of its wisdom than because the duke greatly suspected the king.

The alarm was so sudden and unforeseen that Commines and his two fellow-chamberlains had scarcely time" to arm the duke with his cuirass, and put a helmet on his head." The enemy were pouring in on all sides, and, in order to get out into the street, it was necessary to drive back the Liegeois, who were resolutely attacking the doors and windows. Numbers at length obtained the advantage over desperate courage; the Liegeois, hemmed in on all sides, were cut to pieces. They met with a similar fate at the king's quarters, which were valiantly defended by the Scottish archers of his guard. We may note, en passant, that these brave Scottish archers, renowned above all others for their skill, were on this occasion so awkward that, with their numerous arrows, "they wounded more Burgundians than Liegeois."

On the following day, the town, attacked on both sides, was captured, set on fire, and given up to pillage. The devastation and massacre lasted for five or six days longer, after which the king began to negotiate for leave to return home and, in a short time, he departed, leaving the Duke of Burgundy to pursue his work of destruction alone.

To return, however, to Commines. His father had not been an irreproachable administrator of the public funds, and had died, owing the duke enormcus sums, for the recovery of which the agents of that prince sold one of the estates of the defaulter, named Renescure. The proceeds of this

sale, however, did not amount to a sufficient sum to liquidate the entire debt. On the 1st of October, 1469, Commines obtained, in reward for his services, a receipt in full for all that might still be due from his family to the ducal treasury. In the following year, he was sent on a mission to the Governor of Calais, which, though very simple at first, was eventually rendered by circumstances very delicate, and even dangerous. At one moment the danger became so great, that he thought it prudent to apply for a safe-conduct, and inform his master of his position. He soon received an answer: the duke sent him his signet ring, ordering him to continue his negotiation, and promising that if he were made prisoner, he would ransom him. Commines had acted wisely in obtaining sureties, for the duke never hesitated to expose one of his servants to danger, when he had need of his assistance." The negotiation, however, was ably conducted, and brought to a successful issue, to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned.

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'The skilful agent of this treaty was entrusted with a new mission about the month of July or August, 1471. We are not acquainted with the object he had in view, but it is certain that he had an interview with Louis XI., by permission of the Duke of Burgundy. It was a very great mistake on the part of the duke to have allowed this; for, as Molinet says, the king's speech was so gentle and virtuous, that, like the voice of the siren, it lulled to sleep all who listened." To this remarkable suavity of language Louis XI. added, according to the testimony of Commines himself, another no less powerful means of attraction; of all contemporary princes, he was the one "who most laboured to gain any man who was able to serve or injure him.

And he was

never diverted from his purpose by being once refused by any man whom he was endeavouring to gain; but steadfastly continued making him large promises, and actually giving him money and estates which he knew would please him."

Commines, who was moreover allured by many great and truly royal qualities of Louis XI., allowed himself to be seduced, as many others had been, by promises and gifts. For we do not hesitate to believe that it was during this journey into France, that he deposited in the hands of Jean de Beaune, a merchant of Tours, a sum of 6000 livres

tournois, to which we shall presently have occasion to refer again, and which he had probably received from the king.

The interested liberality of the monarch required some return, and Commines, in exchange for the favours he accepted, doubtless had to contract one of those engagements which are seldom evidenced by written agreements, but proved only by subsequent facts. What was the nature of this convention? We cannot say with certainty, but it appears extremely probable that the conditions of the treaty were these: Louis XI. assured to Commines, if he would consent to leave Charles the Bold and enter his service, the same position of councillor and chamberlain at the Court of France that he had held at the Court of Burgundy, together with numerous estates and lordships, offices and dignities of great value, and an annual pension of 6000 livres tournois. He further engaged to give him in marriage one of the rich heiresses of the kingdom. Of a truth there was in these offers enough to dazzle a young and ambitious man; the siren had lulled many consciences to sleep at less cost.

Commines accepted the conditions of the treaty; but on his return to his native land, a very natural feeling of hesitation made him recoil from the final accomplishment of the transaction. Louis XI., however, daily pressed him more urgently; the wily monarch could not consent to have tried his powers of seduction in vain. If Commines escaped his grasp, he determined at least to make sure of his money. A councillor of the great council, Master Pierre Clutin, was ordered to proceed to the residence of Jean de Beaune, and, in the king's name, to seize the 6000 livres which had been entrusted to him by Commines. This was an able and decisive measure. The publicity of this seizure placed Commines in the unpleasant alternative of seeing his practices divulged, without gaining any profit by them, or of securing their advantages only by setting aside the scruples which delayed him. He took the latter and safer course, and during the night of the 7th of August, 1472, he abandoned Burgundy for ever. The king was then at Pont-de-Cè, and there his new servant joined him.

Very different opinions have been passed on this act in the life of Commines; some are too severe, and others too indulgent, to be adopted without qualiñcation. Some writers,

VOL. 1.

among whom we may instance Voltaire, seem to have forgotten that in weighing the actions of men, regard should be had to the times in which they lived, and to the daily examples which they had before their eyes; while others appear to have fallen into the opposite error of forgetting that, although equity requires us to take all the circumstances of the case into consideration, there are nevertheless certain acts which a healthy morality cannot wholly absolve. Let us award to Commines all the blame that he merits for his defection, but let us neither exaggerate his fault beyond due measure, nor extenuate it with blind and unreasoning partiality. Would that it were the gravest reproach to be addressed to his memory!

The confiscation of all the property, moveable and immoveable, which Commines left behind him, was an inevitable and expected consequence of the resolution he had taken. On the very day of his departure, at six o'clock in the morning, the Duke of Burgundy bestowed on the Lord of Quiévrain all the rights and properties reverting to the fugitive from the Lord of Trazegnies and his estate, in virtue of a decree of the Court of Mons. But whatever Commines lost on the one side, he regained a hundredfold on the other. No sooner had he arrived at the court of Louis XI., than he received in the first place, the title of councillor and chamberlain of the king; soon after, a pension of 6000 livres was bestowed on him, "that he might have the means of honourably maintaining his rank;" he was also rewarded with the office of captain of the castle and donjon of the town of Chinon; and, finally, he was presented with the rich principality of Talmont, the importance of which was greatly increased by its numerous dependencies, Olonne, Curzon, and ChateauGaultier, and which was soon after still further augmented by the chastellanies, lands, and lordships of Bran and Brandois. To impart additional value to these gifts, the town of Sables, in the lordship of Olonne, was exempted from all taxes, on condition that the inhabitants should enclose and fortify it.

Before pursuing our narrative any further, it will be expedient at once to acquaint the reader with certain details necessary to the proper understanding of our subsequent tatements. The letters of Louis XI., conferring on Comi

mines the principality of Talmont and its dependencies, although dated in the month of October, 1472, were not registered by the Parliament until the 13th of December, 1473, or by the Cour des Comptes until the 2nd of May, 1474. The proverbial slowness of judicial procedure was not the only cause of this delay. Opposition, which was only too well founded, as we shall presently see, had prevented Commines from entering upon the enjoyment of his royal master's liberalities at an earlier period. The king's title to the estates and lordships with which he had enriched his new chamberlain, was very doubtful and disputable. It was by a series of violent and arbitrary acts that the royal domain had been increased by these spoils of the house of Amboise. The last male representative of that illustrious family, Louis d'Amboise, Vicomte de Thouars, was the father of three daughters, of whom the eldest, Frances, was sought in marriage by George de la Tremoille, the all-powerful minister of Charles VII., who intended her for his eldest son. But a more advantageous match had previously presented itself, and Mademoiselle d'Amboise was already betrothed to Pierre de Bretagne, second son of the reigning duke. The minister could not see so rich an heiress escape from his grasp without feeling the utmost disappointment and displeasure. As his pride had, moreover, been wounded by the haughty manner in which his proposals had been rejected, he conceived a project of revenge which he carried, ere long, into execution. Under the pretext that the Vicomte de Thouars had made an attempt to deprive him of his liberty, he ordered him to be arrested and imprisoned in the Castle of Poitiers. The parliament was then sitting in that town. George de la Tremoille obtained a decree from that assembly, dated May 8. 1431, which declared the Lord of Amboise guilty of high treason for having attempted to seize upon the person of the king, by arresting the Lord de la Tremoille his minister, and by this means to obtain the direction of state affairs; and condemned him, as a traitor, to the punishment of death, and the confiscation of all his property, The latter part of this sentence was alone executed, as the king commuted the punishment of death into perpetual imprisonment. But even his captivity came to an end after three years, in consequence of the intervention of the Queen,