Hardly had he turned towards the Netherlands, when Louis marched into Brittany against his weakest foe.  There was no fighting, but Francis found it wise to accept a truce.  Odet d’Aydie, who had ridden in hot haste to Brittany, scattering from his saddle dire accusations of fratricide against Louis—­this same Odet became silenced and took service with the king.[31] When reconcilations were effected, most kind to the returning ally or servant did Louis always show himself.

On November 3d, a truce was struck between Louis and Charles, which, later, was renewed for a year.  But never again did the two men come into actual conflict with each other, though they were on the eve of doing so in 1475.

The period of the great coalitions among the nobles was at an end.  Charles of France was dead and so, too, were others who were strong enough to work the king ill.  The Duke of Brittany showed no more energy.  When again within his own territories, Charles of Burgundy became absorbed in other projects which he wished to perfect before he again measured steel with Louis.

  “The Duke of Berry, he is dead,
  Brittany doth nod his head,
  Burgundy doth sulky sit,
  While Louis works with every wit."[32]

Such was the tenor of a doggerel verse sung in France, a verse that probably never came to Charles’s ears—­though Louis might have listened to it cheerfully.

Infinitely disastrous were the events of that summer to Charles of Burgundy.  Not only had he lost in allies, not only had he squandered life and money uselessly in his reckless expedition over the north of France, but his own retinue was diminished and weakened by the men whom Louis had succeeded in luring from his service.  The loss that Charles suffered was not only for the time but for posterity.  Among those convinced that there was more scope for men of talent in France than in Burgundy was that clever observer of humanity who had been at Charles’s side for eight years.  In August of 1472, Philip de Commines took French leave of his master and betook himself to Louis, who evidently was not surprised at his advent.

The historian’s own words in regard to this change of base are laconic:  “About this time I entered the king’s service (and it was the year 1472), who had received the majority of the servitors of his brother the Duke of Guienne.  And he was then at Pont de Ce."[33] This passing from one lord to another happened on the night between the 7th and 8th of August, when the Burgundian army lay near Eu.

The suddenness of the departure was probably due to the duke’s discovery of his servant’s intentions not yet wholly ripe, and those intentions had undoubtedly been formed at Orleans, in 1471, when Commines made a secret journey to the king.  On his way back to Burgundy, he deposited a large sum of money at Tours.  Evidently he did not dare put this under his own name, or claim it when it was confiscated as the property of a notorious adherent of Louis’s foe.[34]