ail of the prince's steed.

In February, 1457, on St. Valentine's Eve, Mary of Burgundy was born.
Our observant court lady describes in detail the ceremonial observed
in the chamber of the Countess of Charolais and at the baptism.
Brussels rang with joyful bells and blazed with torches, four hundred
supplied by the city ahd two hundred by the young father. Each torch
weighed four or five pounds.

The Count of Charolais was his own messenger to announce the birth of
his daughter to the dauphin and to ask him to stand god-father. Joyful
was Louis to accept the invitation and to bestow his mother's name on
the baby-girl. Ste. Gudule was so far from the palace that the Church
of the Caudenberg was selected for the ceremony and richly adorned
with Holland linen, velvet, and cloth of gold. The duchess carried her
grandchild to the font,--a font draped with cramoisy velvet.

"Monsieur the dauphin stood on the right and I heard it said that
there was no one on the left because there was none his equal. On
that day, the duchess wore a round skirt _a la Portuguaise_, edged
with fur. There was no train of cloth nor of silk, so I cannot
state who carried it,"

sagely remarks Alienor with incontrovertible logic.

Later events made later chroniclers less enthusiastic about the honour
paid to Mademoiselle[21] Mary by the dauphin. In a manuscript of La
Marche's _Memoires_ at The Hague, the words "Lord! what a god-father!"
appear in the margin of the page describing the baptism.[22] But in
these early days of his five years' sojourn, Louis seems to have been
a pleasant person and to have posed as the ruined poor relation,
entirely free from pride at his high birth and delighted to repay
hospitality by his general complaisance.

Charles VII. received all the reports with somewhat cynical amusement.
He had no great trust in his son. "Louis is fickle and changeable and
I do not doubt that he will return here before long. I am not at all
pleased with those who influence him," are his words as quoted by
d'Escouchy.[23]

[Illustration: LOUIS XI FROM THE ENGRAVING BY A. BOILLY, AFTER THE
DRAWING BY J. BOILLY]

Undoubtedly, though, the king was much surprised at his son's action.
He had rather expected him to take refuge somewhere but he never
thought that the Duke of Burgundy would be his protector--a strange
choice to his mind. "My cousin of Burgundy nourishes a fox who will
eat his chickens" is reported as anoth