hesitate to oppress the poor by continual acts of
forestalling and monopoly. As there is no enemy so bitter as the estranged
friend, so of all the tyrants and tramplers upon the poor, there is none
so fierce and reckless as the upstart that sprang from their ranks. The
offensive pride of Jacques Coeur to his inferiors was the theme of
indignant reproach in his own city, and his cringing humility to those
above him was as much an object of contempt to the aristocrats into whose
society he thrust himself. But Jacques did not care for the former, and to
the latter he was blind. He continued his career till he became the
richest man in France, and so useful to the king that no important
enterprise was set on foot until he had been consulted. He was sent, in
1446, on an embassy to Genoa, and in the following year to Pope Nicholas
V. In both these missions he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of his
sovereign, and was rewarded with a lucrative appointment, in addition to
those which he already held.

In the year 1449, the English in Normandy, deprived of their great
general, the Duke of Bedford, broke the truce with the French king, and
took possession of a small town belonging to the Duke of Brittany. This
was the signal for the recommencement of a war, in which the French
regained possession of nearly the whole province. The money for this war
was advanced, for the most part, by Jacques Coeur. When Rouen yielded to
the French, and Charles made his triumphal entry into that city,
accompanied by Dunois and his most famous generals, Jacques was among the
most brilliant of his _cortege_. His chariot and horses vied with those of
the king in the magnificence of their trappings; and his enemies said of
him that he publicly boasted that he alone had driven out the English, and
that the valour of the troops would have been nothing without his gold.

Dunois appears, also, to have been partly of the same opinion. Without
disparaging the courage of the army, he acknowledged the utility of the
able financier, by whose means they had been fed and paid, and constantly
afforded him his powerful protection.

When peace returned, Jacques again devoted himself to commerce, and fitted
up several galleys to trade with the Genoese. He also bought large estates
in various parts of France; the chief of which were the baronies of St.
Fargeau, Meneton, Salone, Maubranche, Meaune, St. Gerant de Vaux, and St.
Aon de Boissy; the earldoms or coun