The dauphin’s surprise and suspicion were still more vivid when the deputies spoke to him about setting at liberty the King of Navarre, who had been imprisoned by King John, and told him that “since this deed of violence no good had come to the king or the kingdom, because of the sin of having imprisoned the said King of Navarre.”  And yet Charles the Bad was already as infamous as he has remained in history; he had labored to embroil the dauphin with his royal father; and there was no plot or intrigue, whether with the malcontents in France or with the King of England, in which he was not, with good reason, suspected of having been mixed up, and of being ever ready to be mixed up.  He was clearly a dangerous enemy for the public peace, as well as for the crown, and, for the states-general who were demanding his release, a bad associate.

[Illustration:  Charles the Bad, King of Navarre, in Prison——­335]

In the face of such demands and such forebodings, the dauphin did all he could to gain time.  Before he gave an answer he must know, he said, what subvention the states-general would be willing to grant him.  The reply was a repetition of the promise of thirty thousand men-at-arms, together with an enumeration of the several taxes whereby there was a hope of providing for the expense.  But the produce of these taxes was so uncertain, that both parties doubted the worth of the promise.  Careful calculation went to prove that the subvention would suffice, at the very most, for the keep of no more than eight or nine thousand men.  The estates were urgent for a speedy compliance with their demands.  The dauphin persisted in his policy of delay.  He was threatened with a public and solemn session, at which all the questions should be brought before the people, and which was fixed for the 3d of November.  Great was the excitement in Paris; and the people showed a disposition to support the estates at any price.  On the 2d of November, the dauphin summoned at the Louvre a meeting of his councillors and of the principal deputies; and there he announced that he was obliged to set out for Metz, where he was going to follow up the negotiations entered into with the Emperor Charles IV. and Pope Innocent VI. for the sake of restoring peace between France and England.  He added that the deputies, on returning for a while to their provinces, should get themselves enlightened as to the real state of affairs, and that he would not fail to recall them so soon as he had any important news to tell them, and any assistance to request of them.

[Illustration:  The Louvre in the Fourtheenth Century——­336]