does not seem to have carried into this affair the circumspection and reflection befitting a prince of his quality.  He has maintained towards the duke the most complete silence on the affair of Genoa, and the proposition concerning Italy.  Croy does not think there is anything in it, but if the thing were so it ought not to be secret.  He does not believe that peace will be made between the dauphin and his father, and mentioned that his brother was on the embassy from duke to king, in order, I suppose, to probe the matter to the bottom.

    “The dauphin it seems has been out of humour with the Duke of
    Burgundy on account of the luke-warmness shown for his interests
    by the ambassador sent by this prince to the Duke of Savoy.

“The silent agreement which reigns between the dauphin and Monsg. de Charolais is one of the causes which has chilled this great love between the dauphin and the duke which existed at the beginning.

“Moreover, the dauphin having spent largely, especially in almsgiving without considering his purse finds himself very hard pressed.  He has only two thousand ducats a month from the Duke of Burgundy and that seems to force him into peace with the king.  The duke expects nothing during the king’s lifetime.

“Everything makes me want to wait here for the arrival of news from England.  It is expected daily, good or bad the last play must be made.  The duke fears a descent on Calais, and for this reason is going to a town called St. Omer.  Under pretext of celebrating there the fete of the Toison d’Or he has ordered all his escort to be armed.”

[Illustration:  PHILIP THE GOOD AND CHARLES THE BOLD.  FROM A CONTEMPORARY SKETCH IN MS.]

For a long time before his final illness the death of Charles VII. was anticipated.  When it came it was a dolorous end.[18] At Genappe, the dauphin had been making his preparations for the wished-for event in many ways, all in exact opposition to his father’s policy.  In Italy and in Spain he sided with the opponents of Charles VII.  In England, his sympathies were all for the House of York because his father was favourable to Henry of Lancaster and Margaret of Anjou.  He learned with satisfaction of the success of Edward IV., and was more than willing to see him invade France.  With certain princes of Germany he entertained relations shrouded in mystery, while his father’s own agents disclosed secrets to him from time to time.

In his exile he kept reminding official bodies at Paris that he was heir to the throne.  As dauphin he claimed the right to give orders to the parlement at Grenoble.  There is no actual proof that he had a hand in the conspiracies which troubled the last year of his father’s reign, but it is certain that he managed to win to himself a party within the royal circle.

Certain councillors, fearful of their own fate, did not hesitate to suggest that Louis should be disinherited and his brother Charles put in his stead, but this Charles VII. would not accept.  He kept hoping for Louis’s submission.  The latter, however, had no idea of this.  He was sure that his father would not live to grow old.  A trouble in his leg threatened to be cancerous.  In July, there was a growth in his mouth.  He died July 22nd, convinced that his son had poisoned him.