[Footnote 25:  Odet d’Aydie, whom Louis had hoped to have converted to his cause, was the man to spread the charge against Louis broadcast over the land.  The truth of the death is not proven.  Frequent mentions of Guienne’s condition occur through the letters of the winter ’71-72.  The story was that the poison, administered subtly by the king’s orders, caused the illness of both the prince and his mistress, Mme. de Thouan.  She died after two months of suffering, December 14th, while he resisted the poison longer, though his health was completely shattered and his months of longer life were unutterably wretched and painful, a constant torture until death mercifully released him in May.  Accusations of poisoning are often repeated in history.  In this case, there was certainly a wide-spread belief in Louis’s guilt.  In his manifestos, (Lenglet, ii., 198) Charles declares that the king’s tools in compassing his brother’s death were a friar, Jourdain Favre, and Henri de la Roche, esquire of his kitchen.

The story told by Brantome (OEuvres Completes de Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantome, ii., 329.  “Grands Capitaines Francois.”  There is nothing too severe for Brantome to say about Louis XI.) is very detailed.  A fool passed to Louis’s service from that of the dead prince.  While this man was attending his new master in the church of Notre Dame de Clery, he heard him make this prayer to the Virgin:  “Ah! my good Lady, my little mistress, my great friend in whom I have always put my trust, I pray thee be a suppliant to God in my behalf, be my advocate with Him so that He may pardon me for the death of my brother whom I had poisoned by this wicked Abbe of St. John.  I confess it to thee as to my good patron and mistress.  But what was to be done?  He was a torment to my realm.  Get me pardoned and I know well what I will give thee.”

Brantome tells further that the fool, using the privilege of free speech accorded to his class, talked about Guienne’s death at dinner in public and after that day was never seen again.  On the other hand, the young duke’s will was all to his brother’s favour.  Louis was made executor and legatee, “and if we have ever offended our beloved brother,” dictated the dying man, “we implore him to pardon us as we with debonnaire affection pardon him.”  Mandrot, editor of Commynes (1901), i., 230, considers the whole story a malicious fabrication of Odet d’Aydie, and other authorities refer the cause to disease.  The very date of the death varies from May 12th to May 24th.]

[Footnote 26:  Commines, iii., ch. ix.]

[Footnote 27:  There is a curious document in existence (see Bulletins de L’Hist. de France, 1833-34) dated fifty years after the event.  It is the deposition of several old people who had been just old enough to remember that awful experience of their youth.  Fifty years of repetition gave time for the growth of the story.]

[Footnote 28:  Commines, iii., ch. x.]