, have borne the burden and defended itself through so
many battles. La Tremoille sent one of the gentlemen of his house, the
chevalier Reginald de Moussy, to the king, to give an account of what he
had done, and of his motives. Some gentlemen about the persons of the
king and the queen had implanted some seeds of murmuring and evil
thinking in the mind of the queen, and through her in that of the king,
who readily gave ear to her words because good and discreet was she. The
said Reginald de Moussy, having warning of the fact, and without
borrowing aid of a soul (for bold man was he by reason of his virtues),
entered the king's chamber, and, falling on one knee, announced,
according to order, the service which his master had done, and without
which the kingdom of France was in danger of ruin, whereof he set forth
the reasons. The whole was said in presence of them who had brought the
king to that evil way of thinking, and who knew not what to reply to the
king when he said to them, 'By the faith of my body, I think and do know
by experience that my cousin the lord of La Tremoille is the most
faithful and loyal servant that I have in my kingdom, and the one to whom
I am most bounden to the best of his abilities. Go, Reginald, and tell
him that I will do all that he has promised; and if he has done well, let
him do better.' The queen heard of this kind answer made by the king,
and was not pleased at it; but afterwards, the truth being known, she
judged contrariwise to what she, through false report, had imagined and
thought." [_Memoires de la Tremoille,_ in the Petitot collection,
t. xiv. pp. 476-492.]

Word was brought at the same time to Amiens that Tournai, invested on the
15th of September by the English, had capitulated, that Henry VIII. had
entered it on the 21st, and that he had immediately treated it as a
conquest of which he was taking possession, for he had confirmed it in
all its privileges except that of having no garrison.

Such was the situation in which France, after a reign of fifteen years
and in spite of so many brave and devoted servants, had been placed by
Louis XII.'s foreign policy. Had he managed the home affairs of his
kingdom as badly and with as little success as he had matters abroad, is
it necessary to say what would have been his people's feelings towards
him, and what name he would have left in history? Happily for France and
for the memory of Louis XII., his home-government was more