half of the king: "Dear and
beloved, we have heard reports at length from Amiens and we are
well content with you.... Give credence to all my messengers say.
We thank you heartily for all that you and your deputies have done
in our cause."

At the Burgundian court the duke's friends thought that he would play
the part of wisdom did he keep an army within call, and refrain from
implicitly trusting the king's promises. There was, moreover, an
impression abroad that the latter was not in a position to be very
formidable.

"Once [says Commines][15] I was present when the Seigneur d'Urse
[envoy from the Duke of Guienne] was talking in this wise and
urging the duke to mobilise his forces with all diligence. The
duke called me to a window and said, 'Here is the Seigneur d'Urse
urging me to make my army as big as possible, and tells me that we
would do well for the realm. Do you think that I should wage a war
of benefit if I should lead my troops thither?' Smiling I answered
that I thought not and he uttered these words: 'I love the welfare
of France more than Mons. d' Urse imagines, for instead of the one
king that there is I would fain see six.'"

The animus of this expression is clear. It implies a wish to see the
duke's friends, the French nobles, exalted, Burgundy at the head,
until the titular monarch had no more power than half a dozen of his
peers. Yet Commines states in unequivocal terms that Charles's next
moves were to disregard his friendship for the peers, to discard their
alliance, and to sign a treaty with Louis whose terms were wholly
to his own advantage and implied complete desertion of the allied
interest.

"This peace did the Duke of Burgundy swear and I was present[16]
and to it swore the Seigneur de Craon and the Chancellor of
France[17] in behalf of the king. When they departed they advised
the duke not to disband his army but to increase it, so that the
king their master might be the more inclined to cede promptly the
two places mentioned above. They took with them Simon de Quingey
to witness the king's oath and confirmation of his ambassadors'
work. The king delayed this confirmation for several days.
Meanwhile occurred the death of his brother, the Duke of Guienne
... shortly afterwards the said Simon returned, dismissed by the
king with very meagre phrases and without any oath being taken.
The