ormed, and followed by a banquet. Charles was arrayed in royal
robes, and his hat was in truth a crown, gorgeous with gold, pearls,
and precious stones. After a repast, prelates, nobles, and civic
deputies were convened in a room adjoining the dining-hall, where
first they listened to a speech from the chancellor. When he had
finished, the duke himself delivered an harangue wherein he expatiated
on the splendours of the ancient kingdom of Burgundy. Wrongfully
usurped by the French kings, it had been belittled into a duchy, a
measure much to be regretted by the Burgundians. Then the speaker
broke off abruptly with an ambiguous intimation "that he had in
reserve certain things that none might know but himself."[3]

What was the significance of these veiled allusions? It could not have
been the simple scheme to erect a kingdom, because that was certainly
known to many. Charles had, doubtless, an ostrich-like quality of
mind which made him oblivious to the world's vision but even he could
hardly have ignored the prevalence of the rumours regarding the
interview of Treves, rumours flying north, east, south, and west.
Might not this suggestion of secrets yet untold have had reference to
the ripening intentions of Edward IV. and himself to divide France
between them?

When his own induction into his heritage was accomplished, Charles was
ready to pay the last earthly tribute to his parents. A cortege had
been coming slowly from Bruges bearing the bodies of Philip and
Isabella to their final resting-place in the tomb at Dijon, to which
they were at last consigned.[4]

A few weeks more Charles tarried in the city of his birth, and then
went to Dole where he was invested with the sovereignty of the
Franche-Comte and confirmed the privileges. Thus after seven years of
possession _de facto_, he first actually completed the formalities
needful for the legal acquisition of his paternal heritage. The
expansion of that heritage had been steady for over half a century.
Every inch of territory that had come under the shadow of the family's
administration had remained there, quickly losing its ephemeral
character, so that temporary holdings were regarded in the same light
as the estates actually inherited. At least, Charles, sovereign duke,
count, overlord, mortgagee, made no distinction in the natures of his
tenures. But just as the last link was legally riveted in his own
chain of lands, he was to learn that there were other points o