for the remainder nor for the government of Normandy. So long as he
enjoyed the favour and good will of his father he had no need to crave
favour of any man.

"I think verily had it not been for the reverence he bore to his said
father who was there present" continues the observant page, "and to
whom he addressed his speech that he would have used much bitterer
terms. In the end, Duke Philip very wisely and humbly besought the
king not lightly to conceive an evil opinion of him or his son but to
continue his favour towards them. Then the banquet was brought in and
the ambassadors took their leave. As they passed out Charles stood
apart from his father and said to the archbishop of Narbonne, who
brought up the rear of the little company:

"'Recommend me very humbly to the good grace of the king. Tell him he
has had me scolded here by the chancellor but that he shall repent it
before a year is past.'" His message was duly delivered and to this
incident Commines attributes momentous results.

Exasperated at the nonchalant manner in which Louis's ambassadors
treated him, indignant at the injury to his heritage by the redemption
of the towns on the Somme, and further, already alienated from his
royal cousin through the long series of petty occasions where the
different natures of the two young men clashed, in this year 1464,
Charles was certainly more than ready to enter into an open contest
with the French monarch. It was not long before the opportunity came
for him to do so with a certain éclat.

In the early years of his own freedom, before he learned wisdom, Louis
XI. had planted many seeds of enmity which brought forth a plentiful