 cages which he has so forcibly described. It was there that he
regretted the fate of a court-life. »I have ventured on the great ocean,« he
said in his affliction, »and the waves have devoured me.« He was subjected to a
trial, and exiled from court for some years by the Parliament of Paris, being
found guilty of holding intercourse with disaffected persons. He survived this
cloud, however, and was afterwards employed by Charles VIII. in one or two
important missions, where talents were required. Louis XII. also transferred his
favour to the historian, but did not employ him. He died at his Castle of
Argenton in 1509, and was regretted as one of the most profound statesmen, and
certainly the best historian, of his age. In a poem to his memory by the poet
Ronsard, he received the distinguished praise that he was the first to show the
lustre which valour and noble blood derived from being united with learning.
 
62 The heralds of the middle ages, like the feciales of the Romans, were
invested with a character which was held almost sacred. To strike a herald was a
crime which inferred a capital punishment; and to counterfeit the character of
such an august official was a degree of treason towards those men, who were
accounted the depositaries of the secrets of monarchs and the honour of nobles.
Yet a prince so unscrupulous as Louis XI. did not hesitate to practise such an
imposition, when he wished to enter into communication with Edward IV. of
England.
Exercising that knowledge of mankind for which he was so eminent, he selected,
as an agent fit for his purpose, a simple valet. This man, whose address had
been known to him, he disguised as a herald, with all the insignia of his
office, and sent him in that capacity to open a communication with the English
army. Two things are remarkable in this transaction. First, that the stratagem,
though of so fraudulent a nature, does not seem to have been necessarily called
for, since all that King Louis could gain by it would be, that he did not commit
himself by sending a more responsible messenger. The other circumstance worthy
of notice is, that Comines, though he mentions the affair at great length, is so
pleased with the King's shrewdness in selecting, and dexterity at
indoctrinating, his pseudo-herald, that he forgets all remark on the impudence
and fraud of the imposition, as well as the great risk of discovery. From both
which circumstances we are led to the conclusion, that the solemn character
which the
