on, the duke’s word was worth no more than the king’s, and words were assuredly at a discount just then.  A perusal of the international correspondence of the period leaves the reader marvelling why time was wasted in covering paper, with flimsy, insincere phrases, mendacious sign-posts which gave no true indication of the road to be travelled.  There are, however, differences in the art of dissimulation and Charles never attained a mastery of the science.

The adjective which has attached itself to his name in English in an inaccurate rendering of le temeraire which belongs to him in French.  There were other terms too applied to Charles at different periods of his career.  He was Charles the Hardy in his early youth, Charles the Terrible in those last months when he tried to fortify himself with wine unsuited to his constitution, but at all times he might have been called Charles the self-absorbed, Charles the solitary.  There have been many men more passionate, more uncontrolled, than Charles of Burgundy, whose personal magnetism yet enabled them to win friends and to keep them, as the duke was powerless to do.  The failure to command personal devotion, unquestioning loyalty, was one of his chief personal misfortunes.  Philip, magnificent, lavish, debonair, found many lenient apologists for his crimes, while his son received criticism for his faults even from the faithful among his servitors.  How a reflection of his bearing glows out from the mirror turned casually upon him by Commines’ skilful hand!  Take the glimpse of Louis XI. as he lures on St. Pol’s messenger to imitate Charles.  The Sire de Creville inspired by the royal interest in his narration about an incident at the court of Burgundy, puffs out his cheeks, stamps his feet in a dictatorial manner, and swears by St. George as he quotes the duke’s words.  Behind a screen are hidden Commines, and a Burgundian envoy aghast at hearing his liege lord so mocked.  It is a time when St. Pol is trying to ride three horses at once and the French king takes this method to have Charles informed of his duplicity.  “Speak louder” he says, “I grow a little deaf,” and the flattered envoy repeats his dramatic performance in a way to engrave it on the memory of the duke’s retainer.

[Illustration:  THE TOMB OF CHARLES OF BURGUNDY]

In thus touching on the traits of his former master, Commines does not show malice or even a dislike for the duke.  He is much more severe about Louis—­only he found the latter easier to serve.

In his family life, too, Charles does not seem to have found any companionship that affected his life.  He is lauded as a faithful husband to Isabella of Bourbon but her death seemed to make little difference.  Neither she nor Margaret of York had the actual significance enjoyed by Isabella of Portugal as consort to Philip the Good with his notoriously roving fancy.