himself, not a word would have been breathed against that
amiable and injured princess. He had been an ungrateful and a rebellious son, at
one time conspiring to seize his father's person, and at another, levying open
war against him. For the first offence, he was banished to his appanage of
Dauphiné, which he governed with much sagacity - for the second he was driven
into absolute exile, and forced to throw himself on the mercy, and almost on the
charity, of the Duke of Burgundy and his son, where he enjoyed hospitality,
afterwards indifferently requited, until the death of his father in 1461.
    In the very outset of his reign, Louis was almost overpowered by a league
formed against him by the great vassals of France, with the Duke of Burgundy, or
rather his son, the Count de Charalois, at its head. They levied a powerful
army, blockaded Paris, fought a battle of doubtful issue under its very walls,
and placed the French monarchy on the brink of actual destruction. It usually
happens in such cases, that the more sagacious general of the two gains the real
fruit, though perhaps not the martial fame, of the disputed field. Louis, who
had shown great personal bravery during the battle of Montl'héry, was able, by
his prudence, to avail himself of its undecided character, as if it had been a
victory on his side. He temporised until the enemy had broken up their leaguer,
and shoved so much dexterity in sowing jealousies among those great powers, that
their alliance »for the public weal,« as they termed it, but, in reality, for
the overthrow of all but the external appearance of the French monarchy,
dissolved itself, and was never again renewed in a manner so formidable. From
this period, Louis, relieved of all danger from England, by the Civil wars of
York and Lancaster, was engaged for several years, like an unfeeling but able
physician, in curing the wounds of the body politic, or rather in stopping, now
by gentle remedies, now by the use of fire and steel, the progress of those
mortal gangrenes with which it was then infected. The brigandage of the Free
Companies, and the unpunished oppressions of the nobility, he laboured to
lessen, since he could not actually stop them; and, by dint of unrelaxed
attention, he gradually gained some addition to his own regal authority, or
effected some diminution of those by whom it was counterbalanced.
    Still the King of France was surrounded by doubt and danger. The members of
the league for the public weal