secure the good
offices of Charles' advisers. For three nights the angry agitation and
perplexity of Charles were so great that he did not undress. He would
throw himself on his bed for a time and then start up and pace about his
room, uttering threats and invectives against the King.

Nothing was done or decided on the first day, October 11, 1468. On the
second a council was held which sat late into the night. A minority of
the council, the enemies of Louis, or those who were only anxious to
flatter the passions of their master, advised him to use to the full
the opportunity which chance and the foolhardiness and duplicity of his
adversary had placed in his hands. They urged him to keep the King in
secure confinement after providing for the virtual partition of the
kingdom among the great feudatories. The majority, those who had some
regard for the honor of the house of Burgundy, the lawyers, who respected
the letter, if not the spirit, of an agreement, perhaps also the more
far-sighted politicians, were of a different opinion. The fame of the
Duke would suffer irreparable injury by so flagrant a violation of his
plighted word. The advantages, moreover, to be gained by the captivity,
the deposition, perhaps the death of the King, were uncertain. The heir
to the throne was entirely in the hands of the Bretons, and was not
likely to be eager to advance the interests of Burgundy. A large and
well-disciplined army, commanded by experienced captains, was assembled
on the frontiers. If they could not rescue their master, they would at
least endeavor to avenge him, while the new King could acquire an easy
popularity by execrating a crime of which he and Francis of Brittany
would reap all the advantage. It was a wiser course to accept the terms
which the King in his alarm proffered--the settlement in favor of
Burgundy of all the disputed questions which had arisen out of the
treaties of Arras and Conflans--and it might be possible to humiliate and
disgrace Louis by compelling him to take part in the punishment of his
allies, the citizens of Liege, who by their trust in him had been lured
to destruction.

Charles left the council apparently undecided, and passed the night in as
great a storm of passion as the two preceding. The conflict within him
doubtless fanned his wrath. Comines, who shared his room, endeavored to
calm him, and to persuade him to embrace the course most consistent with
his interests and the King's safety;