correctly--to have been Antoine de la Salle, it is tolerably certain
that Prince Louis heard all the stories related, and very possibly
contributed several of them. The circumstances under which these stories
came to be narrated requires a few words of explanation.

At a very early age, Louis showed those qualities by which he was later
distinguished. When he was only fourteen, he caused his father, Charles
VII, much grief, both by his unfilial conduct and his behaviour to the
beautiful Agnes Sorel, the King's mistress, towards whom he felt an
implacable hatred. He is said to have slapped her face, because he
thought she did not treat him with proper respect. This blow was, it is
asserted, the primary cause of his revolt against his father's authority
(1440). The rebellion was put down, and the Prince was pardoned, but
relations between father and son were still strained, and in 1446, Louis
had to betake himself to his appanage of Dauphiné, where he remained
for ten years, always plotting and scheming, and braving his father's
authority.

At length the Prince's Court at Grenoble became the seat of so many
conspiracies that Charles VII was obliged to take forcible measures.
It was small wonder that the King's patience was exhausted. Louis, not
content with the rule of his province, had made attempts to win over
many of the nobility, and to bribe the archers of the Scotch Guard.
Though not liberal as a rule, he had also expended large sums to
different secret agents for some specific purpose, which was in all
probability to secure his father's death, for he was not the sort of man
to stick at parricide even, if it would secure his ends.

The plot was revealed to Charles by Antoine de Chabannes, Comte de
Dampmartin. Louis, when taxed with his misconduct, impudently denied