had engaged many of his partisans to join him at that court,
and had formed the design of aggrandizing himself by a marriage with
Anne, the heir of that opulent duchy.

The barons of Brittany, who saw all favor engrossed by the duke of
Orleans and his train, renewed a stricter correspondence with France,
and even invited the French king to make an invasion on their country.
Desirous, however, of preserving its independency, they had regulated
the number of succors which France was to send them, and had stipulated
that no fortified place in Brittany should remain in the possession of
that monarchy; a vain precaution, where revolted subjects treat with a
power so much superior! The French invaded Brittany with forces three
times more numerous than those which they had promised to the barons;
and advancing into the heart of the country, laid siege to Ploerrnel. To
oppose them, the duke raised a numerous but ill-disciplined army, which
he put under the command of the duke of Orleans, the count of Dunois,
and others of the French nobility. The army, discontented with this
choice, and jealous of their confederates, soon disbanded, and left
their prince with too small a force to keep the field against his
invaders. He retired to Vannes; but being hotly pursued by the French,
who had now made themselves masters of Ploermel, he escaped to Nantz;
and the enemy, having previously taken and garrisoned Vannes, Dinant,
and other places, laid close siege to that city. The barons of Brittany,
finding their country menaced with total subjection, began gradually to
withdraw from the French army, and to make peace with their sovereign.

This desertion, however, of the Bretons discouraged not the court
of France from pursuing her favorite project of reducing Brittany to
subjection The situation of Europe appeared favorable to the execution
of this design. Maximilian was indeed engaged in close alliance with the
duke of Brittany and had even opened a treaty for marrying his daughter;
but he was on all occasions so indigent, and at that time so disquieted
by the mutinies of the Flemings, that little effectual assistance could
be expected from him. Ferdinand was entirely occupied in the conquest of
Granada; and it was also known, that if France would resign to him
Roussillon and Cerdagne, to which he had pretensions, she could at any
time engage him to abandon the interests of Brittany. England, alone,
was both enabled by her power, and engag