for his wines, and gave him a thousand francs to bring his wife over from England, but he was to send his brother for her, and not go personally to fetch her; and all these penalties the king imposed upon himself for having indulged in too great freedom of speech.
As soon as king Edward had received his money, and delivered the lord Howard and sir John Cheyne as hostages until he was landed in England, he retired towards Calais by long and hasty marches, for he was suspicious of the duke of Burgundy's anger, and the vengeance of the peasants; and, indeed, if any of his soldiers straggled, some of them were sure to be knocked on the head.
"Uppon the xxviijth daye of Septembre folowynge he was with great tryumphe receyved of the mayor and cytezeyns of London at Blakheth, and with all honoure by theym conveyed thorugh the cytie unto Westmynster, the mayer and aldermen beynge clade in scarlet, and the commoners to the nombre of v C. in murrey."[[67]]
The treacherous constable of France again turning round, in order if possible to recover his lost favour with his own sovereign,[[68]] sent a messenger to Louis, offering to persuade the duke of Burgundy to join his forces with the king's, and destroy the king of England and his whole army on their return. But this last shift of the baffled traitor only contributed to confirm his ruin. King Edward communicated to Louis (probably before this offer) two letters which the constable had addressed to him, and related all the proposals he had from time to time made; so that his three-fold treasons were revealed to all the princes with whose rival interests he had endeavoured to play his own game, and they were all alike provoked to join in his destruction.
Louis contemplated his punishment with the bitterest animosity. When he received the overture above stated, there were only in his presence the lord
Howard the English hostage, the lord de Coutay, who was newly returned from an embassy to the duke of Burgundy, the lord du Lude, and Commines, which two had been employed to receive the constable's messenger. The king, calling for one of his secretaries, dictated a letter to the constable, acquainting him with what had been transacted the day before in relation to the truce; and adding that at that instant he had weighty affairs upon his hands, and wanted such a head as his to finish them. Then turning to the English nobleman and to the lord de Coutay, he said, "I do not mean his body. I would have his head with me, and his body where it is." After the letter had been read, Louis delivered it to Rapine the constable's messenger, who was mightily pleased with it, and took it as a great compliment in the king to write that he wanted such a head as his master's, for he did not perceive the ambiguity and sting of the expression.
We are now arrived at the closing reflections of Commines upon the course which events had taken in France at this memorable crisis. "At the beginning of our affairs with the English, you may remember that the king of England had no great inclination to make his descent; and as soon as he came to Dover, and before his embarkation there, he entered into a sort of treaty with us. But that which prevailed with him to transport his army to Calais was first the solicitation of the duke of Burgundy, and the natural animosity of the English against the French, which has existed in all ages; and next to reserve to himself a great part of the money which had been liberally granted him for that expedition; for, as you have already heard, the kings of England live upon their own demesne revenue, and can raise no taxes but under the pretence of invading France. Besides, the king had another stratagem by which to content his subjects; for he had brought with him ten or twelve citizens of London, and other towns in England, all fat and jolly, the leaders of the English commons, of great power in their countries, such as had promoted the wars and had been very serviceable in raising that powerful army. The king ordered very fine tents to be made for them, in which they lay; but, that not being the kind of living they had been used to, they soon began to grow weary of the campaign, for they expected they should come to an engagement within three days of their landing, and the king multiplied their fears and exaggerated the dangers of the war, on purpose that they might be better satisfied with a peace, and aid him to quiet the murmurs of the people upon his return to England; for, since king Arthur's days, never king of England invaded France with so great a number of the nobility and such a formidable army. But, as you have heard, he returned immediately into England upon the conclusion of the peace, and then reserved for his own private use the
greater part of the money that had been raised to pay the army; so that, in reality, he accomplished most of the designs he had in view. King Edward was not of a complexion or turn of mind to endure much hardship and labour, and such any king of England must encounter who designs to make any considerable conquest in France. Besides, our king was in a tolerable posture of defence, though he was not so well prepared in all respects as he ought to have been, by reason of the variety and multitude of his enemies. Another great object with the king of England was the arrangement of a marriage between our present king Charles the Eighth and his daughter; and this alliance, causing him to wink at several things, was a material advantage to our master's affairs.
"King Louis himself was very desirous to obtain a general peace. The vast numbers of the English had put him into great alarm; he had seen enough of their exploits in his time in his kingdom, and he had no wish to witness any more of them."
When Louis went to meet the duke of Burgundy's plenipotentiaries at a bridge half-way between Avesnes and Vervins, he took the English hostages with him, and they were present when he gave audience to the Burgundians. "One of them then told Commines that, if they had seen many such men of the duke of Burgundy's before, perhaps the peace had not been concluded so soon. The vîcomte of Narbonne, (afterwards comte of Foix,) overhearing him, replied, 'Could you be so weak as to believe that the duke of Burgundy had not great numbers of such soldiers? he had only sent them into quarters of refreshment; but you were in such haste to be at home again, that six hundred pipes of wine and a pension from our king sent you presently back into England.' The Englishman was irritated, and answered with much warmth, 'I plainly see, as everybody said, that you have done nothing but cheat us. But do you call the money your king has given us a pension? It is a tribute; and, by Saint George! you may prate so much as will bring us back again to prove it.' I interrupted their altercation, and turned it into a jest; but the Englishman would not understand it so, and I informed the king of it, and his majesty was much offended with the vîcomte of Narbonne."