facility with which he had just succeeded almost everywhere in getting possession of important places had intoxicated him. Commines persisted in thinking that the wise slowness of negotiations and alliances was preferable to the dangerous risks which would otherwise be incurred, because by maintaining the kingdom in peace, it would hold more secure possession of its pacific conquests. These prudent suggestions, meliciously interpreted, were obnoxious to the king, who had made up his mind to pursue a different course. Under the pretext of a mission into Poitou, on the frontiers of Bretagne, he dismissed his unwelcome adviser. This was a real disgrace. All the courtiers saw this, and amused themselves at Commines' expense; but, as he tells us himself, he had no mind to laugh at their jokes, as he feared that the king might be at the bottom of the sport. Another circumstance added the climax to his anxieties. He had written into Hainault to enlist partizans for his master; and one of his relatives came to him, bearing promises of adherence from a number of notable persons, who undertook to deliver into his hands the principal towns and fortresses in the country. Before his departure, Commines communicated these offers of service to Louis XI., who flatly refused them, thinking he would be able to dispense with the assistance of these noblemen; but he afterwards had reason to repent his refusal; "for," says Commines, "I saw he would have highly esteemed them, if he could have renewed his dealings with them."

The king's ill-humour, however, was not of long duration, and his liberalities to others did not prevent his remembering Commines, who received his fair share of the confiscated property of Jacques d'Armagnac, which Louis XI. distributed among his favourites.

Towards the end of the year 1477, or perhaps at the beginning of the year following, Commines was sent into Burgundy at the head of the pensioners of the king's house-. hold but he does not explain the object of his mission. New annoyances awaited him in that country, and his stay therein was short. That rich province was unfortunate in its governors. The Lord of Craon, who had been recalled on account of his extortionate rapine, had been lately succeeded by Charles d'Amboise, Lord of Chaumont, "a very

valiant and prudent man," but no less avaricious than his predecessor, and who treated the province which he ruled "as if it were his own estate." In relating these facts, Commines registers rather than censures them. If he blames the conduct of the Lord of Craon, it is with prudent reserve, and because his pillagings, in truth, were too excessive." The spirit of tolerance in which his narrative is composed lends some probability to the accusations which were, ere long, brought against himself. He was denounced to the king as having spared "certain burghers of Dijon concerning the quarters of men-at-arms." This peccadillo

alone would doubtless have been insufficient to necessitate his recall; but, "with some other slight suspicion," about which the discreet historian makes no revelation, it combined to induce Louis XI. to send him " Florence.

very suddenly" to

As soon as he had received his credentials, Commines set out on his journey, travelling very rapidly, and halting at as few places as possible. He remained for two or three days only at Turin, to pay his respects to the Duchess of Savoy; and about the same time at Milan. In this latter town, he had instructions to demand, in his master's name, the execution of a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance which pledged the Milanese government to support the Florentines. The assistance which he solicited was liberally and readily granted. He then continued his journey to Florence, where he arrived towards the end of April, 1478. A formidable plot, which had been sternly repressed, had just deluged that city with blood: and Commines has given a graphic account of it in his Memoirs. If the sole object of his mission had reference to this event, it also tended to prove the interest felt by France in the cause of the Florentines (or, to speak more correctly, of the Medici family), who were then menaced by a powerful league, headed by Pope Sixtus V. and the King of Naples. The favour thus openly avowed was not injurious to the protégés of Louis XI., but a good army would have served them far more effectually. Commines brought with him no troops, and wielded no weapons but those of diplomacy. Of these, he made the best use he could, and, as it would appear, to the entire satisfaction of the parties interested.

After a stay of some months in Florence and the towns in its territory, he began to think of returning to France; but, before his departure, he renewed with the ambassadors of the Duke of Milan, the ancient treaties of alliance between France and that duchy. This act of renewal was executed at Florence on the 18th of August, 1478, and was signed by Commines and Lorenzo de Medici, as representatives of the King of France. In the same capacity, on the 7th of September following, our historian received from Giovanni Galeazzo-Maria, Duke of Milan, the fealty and homage due by that prince for the duchies of Genoa and Savona, of which Louis XI. was suzerain lord.

A considerable period had now elapsed since Commines had left the court in order to discharge these various missions. On his return, he was struck by the change which had taken place in the appearance of his royal master, whom he found somewhat aged," and " beginning to have a tendency to illness." He met with a most flattering reception from the king, who consulted him more than ever about his affairs, and, as a mark of signal favour, allowed him to sleep with him. This favour continued until the monarch's death; but before we proceed any further, we must go back a little to relate the most painful part of Commines' personal history.

We have already described the iniquitous and violent proceedings by which Louis XI. had seized upon the property of Louis d'Amboise; and we have related how the Lord de la Tremoille, in the name of his children, gave all the opposition in his power to the putting Commines into possession of that part of the spoils which had fallen to his share. It will be remembered that the parliament, after an honourable resistance, had finally yielded; but on the very day after its submission to the orders of the king, it entered a protest on its records, declaring that its conduct had been under compulsion, and could not therefore be prejudicial to the rights of the family of La Tremoille, in whose favour it renewed its reservations. That family was in no degree disposed to abdicate its rights, but pursued its claims with courageous perseverance. Commines was in possession, it is true; but, finding himself disturbed in his possession by ceaseless lawsuits, he requested the Procureur du Roi, in conformity with

the terms of the letters-patent granting him the property in question, to secure him from all future hindrances to his peaceable enjoyment of the same. The Procureur du Roi consequently interfered; and thenceforward the parties to the suit, in appearance at least, were Louis XI. and those whom he had spoiled. The parliament, with an independence which does it honour, availed itself of every pretext for securing to the oppressed family some remnant of their ancient domains. A great deal of the property had been sold to the king by the last possessor, but the conveyance had been illegally made, and of this the La Tremoilles furnished abundant proof. Louis XI. then adduced the letters of confiscation issued by his father against Louis d'Amboise and if this property had been subsequently restored to that nobleman, it was, urged the king's advocates, on conditions which had not been accomplished - among others, on condition that Jeanne d'Amboise should not marry without the consent of Charles VII. That permission, replied La Tremoille, had been obtained; but where was the proof? doubtless in the archives of the Chateau de Thouars, the ancient residence of their ancestors.

Louis XI., it will be remembered, had ordered the Seigneur de Bressuyre to take possession of this chateau at the beginning of the last illness of Louis d'Amboise. After his decease, no member of his family, not even his widow, was allowed to enter it. A very summary inventory of the furniture was hastily prepared, and great care was taken not to particularise the contents of the charter chests. In order to sustain his pretended rights against the persistent opposition of the La Tremoille family, and to cloak the most revolting iniquity with a show of justice, the king appointed a commission of inquiry to search the archives of Thouars for letters likely to serve his case. Two documents of great importance were found, under the hand and seal of Charles VII.; one granting the Vicomte de Thouars the restitution of all his confiscated properly, and the other giving him permission to marry his daughter to the Prince of Bretagne, or any other husband he might select. Commines, who was one of the commissioners, saw at once that these papers would destroy all bis chances of success, and he threw them into the fire. Jean Chambon, another commissioner, took them out again

immediately, expressing his indignation at such culpable conduct; and the papers were transmitted to the king, whom Commines had informed of their character. On receiving them from the Seigneur de Bressuyre, the wily monarch threw them into the fire, saying, "It is not I who burn them, but the fire:" and he required all present to swear never to divulge what they had seen.

Thus were destroyed the only deeds which could establish the right of the La Tremoilles to protest against the spoliation of which they were the victims. This was done in October, 1476; but it was not until many months later that the king determined to avail himself of the advantage he had thus iniquitously obtained. On the 21st of July, 1479, a decree was issued, terminating the suit in favour of the king and his servant Commines. This decree, however, as it often happens in such cases, satisfied none of the parties, and least of all, the Lord of Argenton. He certainly found himself maintained in the possession of Talmont, ChateauGaultier, and Berrye; but Olonne, Curzon, and La Chaume, which Louis d'Amboise had given to his daughter as her dowry, were adjudged to the La Tremoille family, as appertaining to their maternal inheritance. By this sentence of the parliament, therefore, Commines found all his plans frustrated. "That sort of maritime sovereignty," says M. de Vaudoré, "which he was anxious to create for himself in Lower Poitou, and which he had delighted in representing to his master as likely to prove a second Flanders, as far as commerce and productiveness were concerned, was now greatly diminished. To lose Olonne and La Chaume was to be deprived of a port to which he expected to attract the ships of all countries, and whither, in fact, they afterwards came by hundreds: to give up Bran and Brandois was to renounce the drainage of fertile marshes: to restore Curzon was to resign a position which combined both these advantages." And yet, how was he to avoid compliance with the orders of justice? His genius, ever fertile in expedients, suggested to him the means of doing 80. At his instigation, Louis XI. offered to Louis de la Tremoille certain other lands and lordships in exchange for those of which the parliament had acknowledged his children to be proprietors. This offer was indignantly