"Oh, whatever you say about Charles VII pales beside the testimony of
the portrait of him in the Louvre painted by Foucquet. That bestial
face, with the eyes of a small-town ursurer and the sly psalm-singing
mouth that butter wouldn't melt in, has often arrested me. Foucquet
depicts a debauched priest who has a bad cold and has been drinking sour
wine. Yet you can see that this monarch is of the very same type as the
more refined, less salacious, more prudently cruel, more obstinate and
cunning Louis XI, his son and successor. Well, Charles VII was the man
who had Jean Sans Peur assassinated, and who abandoned Jeanne d'Arc.
What more need be said?"

"What indeed? Well, Gilles de Rais, who had raised an army at his own
expense, was certainly welcomed by this court with open arms. There is
no doubt that he footed the bills for tournaments and banquets, that he
was vigilantly 'tapped' by the courtiers, and that he lent the king
staggering sums. But in spite of his popularity he never seems to have
evaded responsibility and wallowed in debauchery, like the king. We find
Gilles shortly afterward defending Anjou and Maine against the English.
The chronicles say that he was 'a good and hardy captain,' but his
'goodness' and 'hardiness' did not prevent him from being borne back by
force of numbers. The English armies, uniting, inundated the country,
and, pushing on unchecked, invaded the interior. The king was ready to
flee to the Mediterranean provinces and let France go, when Jeanne d'Arc
appeared.

"Gilles returned to court and was entrusted by Charles with the 'guard
and defence' of the Maid of Orleans. He followed her everywhere, fought
at her side, even under the walls of Paris, and was with her at Rheims
the day of the coronation, at which time, says Monstrelet, the king
rewarded his valour by naming him Marshal of France, at the age of