rgundy's territories, in order
to have an interview with him: but Philip, proud of his great power and
independent dominions, refused to pay this compliment to the regent; and
the two princes, unable to adjust the ceremonial, parted without seeing
each other.[*] A bad prognostic of their cordial intentions to renew
past amity!

* Monstrelet, vol. ii. p. 90. Grafton, p. 561.

Nothing could be more repugnant to the interests of the house of
Burgundy, than to unite the crowns of France and England on the same
head; an event which, had it taken place, would have reduced the duke
to the rank of a petty prince, and have rendered his situation entirely
dependent and precarious. The title also to the crown of France, which,
after the failure of the elder branches, might accrue to the duke or his
posterity, had been sacrificed by the treaty of Troye; and strangers and
enemies were thereby irrevocably fixed upon the throne. Revenge alone
had carried Philip into these impolitic measures; and a point of honor
had hitherto induced him to maintain them. But as it is the nature of
passion gradually to decay, while the sense of interest maintains
a permanent influence and authority, the duke had, for some years,
appeared sensibly to relent in his animosity against Charles, and to
hearken willingly to the apologies made by that prince for the murder of
the late duke of Burgundy. His extreme youth was pleaded in his favor;
his incapacity to judge for himself; the ascendant gained over him by
his ministers; and his inability to resent a deed which, without his
knowledge, had been perpetrated by those under whose guidance he was
then placed. The more to flatter the pride of Philip, the king of France
had banished from his court and presence Tanegui de Chatel, and all
those who were concerned in that assassination; and had offered to make
every other atonement which could be required of him. The distress which
Charles had already suffered, had tended to gratify the duke's revenge;
the miseries to which France had been so long exposed, had begun to move
his compassion; and the cries of all Europe admonished him, that his
resentment, which might hitherto be deemed pious, would, if carried
further, be universally condemned as barbarous and unrelenting. While
the duke was in this disposition, every disgust which he received from
England made a double impression upon him; the entreaties of the count
of Richemont and the duke of Bourbon, wh