what of that? The Burgundians held the
battlefield and they made the best of it.

On July 16th, Louis supped with the military governor of Paris and
"moved the company, nobles and ladies, to sympathetic tears by his
touching description of the perils he had met and escaped." Charles,
meanwhile, effected a junction with his belated allies, Francis of
Brittany and Charles of France, the Duke of Berry, at Etampes. Thither
too, came the dukes of Bourbon and of Lorraine, but none of these
leaguers could claim any share in the battle of Montl'hery.

[Illustration: BATTLE OF MONTL'HERY, JULY 16, 1465 (COMINES, ED.
LENGLET DU FRESNOY, 1.)]

While these peers perfected their plans to force their chief into
redressing the wrongs of the poor people, the king was showing a very
pleasant side of his character to the Parisian citizens. In response
to a petition that he should take advice on the conduct of his
administration, he declared his perfect willingness to add to his
council six burgesses, six members of _parlement_, and the same number
from the university. Besides this concession, he relieved the weight
of the imposts and hastened to restore certain financial franchises to
the Church, to the university, and to various individuals. Three weeks
were consumed in establishing friendly relations in this all important
city, and then the king departed for Normandy to levy troops and to
collect provisions for a siege.[11] There was need for this last for
the allies had moved up to the immediate vicinity of Paris.

Before the king's return to his capital on August 28th, a formidable
array was encamped at Charenton and its neighbourhood. More
formidable, however, they were in numbers than in strength. Like all
confederated bodies there was inherent weakness, for there was no
leader whom all would be willing to obey. The Duke of Berry, heir
presumptive to the throne, was the only one among the peers whose
birth might have commanded the needful authority, but he had not
sufficient personal character to assert his position. So the
confederates remained a loose aggregation of small armies. The longer
they remained in camp the weaker they grew, the more disintegrated.
A pitched battle might have been a great advantage to these gallant
defenders of the Public Weal of France and that was the last desire of
their antagonist.

Many skirmishes took place between the Parisians and the leaguers, but
no engagement. Once, indeed, there were hu