One Hundred Merrie and Delightsome Stories | Page 9

came to
be narrated requires a few words of explanation.
At a very early age, Louis showed those qualities by which he was later
distinguished. When he was only fourteen, he caused his father, Charles
VII, much grief, both by his unfilial conduct and his behaviour to the
beautiful Agnes Sorel, the King's mistress, towards whom he felt an
implacable hatred. He is said to have slapped her face, because he
thought she did not treat him with proper respect. This blow was, it is
asserted, the primary cause of his revolt against his father's authority
(1440). The rebellion was put down, and the Prince was pardoned, but
relations between father and son were still strained, and in 1446, Louis
had to betake himself to his appanage of Dauphiné, where he remained
for ten years, always plotting and scheming, and braving his father's
authority.
At length the Prince's Court at Grenoble became the seat of so many
conspiracies that Charles VII was obliged to take forcible measures. It
was small wonder that the King's patience was exhausted. Louis, not
content with the rule of his province, had made attempts to win over
many of the nobility, and to bribe the archers of the Scotch Guard.
Though not liberal as a rule, he had also expended large sums to
different secret agents for some specific purpose, which was in all
probability to secure his father's death, for he was not the sort of man to
stick at parricide even, if it would secure his ends.
The plot was revealed to Charles by Antoine de Chabannes, Comte de
Dampmartin. Louis, when taxed with his misconduct, impudently
denied that he had been mixed up with the conspiracy, but denounced
all his accomplices, and allowed them to suffer for his misdeeds. He
did not, however, forget to revenge them, so far as lay in his power.
The fair Agnès Sorel, whom he had always regarded as his bitterest
enemy, died shortly afterwards at Jumièges, and it has always been
believed, and with great show of reason, that she was poisoned by his
orders. He was not able to take vengeance on Antoine de Chabannes
until after he became King.

Finding that his plots were of no avail, he essayed to get together an
army large enough to combat his father, but before he completed his
plans, Charles VII, tired of his endless treason and trickery, sent an
army, under the faithful de Chabannes, into the Dauphiné, with orders
to arrest the Dauphin.
The forces which Louis had at his disposal were numerically so much
weaker, that he did not dare to risk a battle.
"If God or fortune," he cried, "had been kind enough to give me but
half the men-at-arms which now belong to the King, my father, and
will be mine some day, by Our Lady, my mistress, I would have spared
him the trouble of coming so far to seek me, but would have met him
and fought him at Lyon."
Not having sufficient forces, and feeling that he could not hope for
fresh pardon, he resolved to fly from France, and take refuge at the
Court of the Duke of Burgundy.
One day in June, 1456, he pretended to go hunting, and then, attended
by only half a dozen friends, rode as fast as he could into Burgundian
territory, and arrived at Saint Claude.
From there he wrote to his father, excusing his flight, and announcing
his intention of joining an expedition which Philippe le Bon, the
reigning Duke of Burgundy was about to undertake against the Turks.
The Duke was at that moment besieging Utrecht, but as soon as he
heard the Dauphin had arrived in his dominions, he sent orders that he
was to be conducted to Brussels with all the honours befitting his rank
and station.
Shortly afterwards the Duke returned, and listened with real or
pretended sympathy to all the complaints that Louis made against his
father, but put a damper on any hopes that the Prince may have
entertained of getting the Burgundian forces to support his cause, by
saying;
"Monseigneur, you are welcome to my domains. I am happy to see you

here. I will provide you with men and money for any purpose you may
require, except to be employed against the King, your father, whom I
would on no account displease."
Duke Philippe even tried to bring about a reconciliation between
Charles and his son; but as Louis was not very anxious to return to
France, nor Charles to have him there, and a good many of the nobles
were far from desiring that the Prince should come back, the
negotiations came to nothing.
Louis could make himself agreeable when he pleased, and during his
stay in the Duke's domains, he was on good