“the Count of Charolais who, equally with his noble company of knights and squires, attracted hearts and eyes in admiration of his rich array wherein cloth of gold and jewelry, velvet and embroidery were lavishly displayed.  And the count had ten pages and twenty-six archers, and this whole company numbered three hundred horse."[21]

This was a Thursday after dinner.  Louis had waited at St. Thierry.  On the actual day of the coronation, preliminaries absorbed so much time that the long cavalcade did not enter Rheims until seven o’clock.  The king passed his night in a very pious and prayerful manner, taking no repose until 5 A.M.  While his suite were occupied at their toilets he slipped off alone to church.

Finally all was ready for the grand ceremony.  Very magnificent were the duke’s robes and ermine when, as chief among the peers, he escorted his late guest to be consecrated king, and very devout and simple was Louis.  After the consecration, the king and his friends listened to an address from the Bishop of Tournay, in which he described in Latin the dauphin’s sojourn in the Netherlands.

The Duke of Burgundy was the hero of the occasion.  He felt that all future power was in his hands and that Louis XI. could never do enough to repay him for his wonderful hospitality.  And for a time Louis was quite ready to foster this belief.  When they entered Paris, the peer so far outshone the sovereign that there was general astonishment.[22] Moreover, whatever the latter did have was a gift.  The very plate used on the royal table was a ducal present.[23]

Louis took great pains to preserve an attitude of grateful humility.  When he met the parlement of Paris, he asked the duke’s advice about its reformation.  It was to Philip that all the petitioners flocked.  But Louis was conscious, too, that there would be a morrow in Burgundy, and he took care to be friendly with the count even while he was flattering the duke.  For this purpose he found Guillaume de Biche a very useful go-between.[24] This was one of the retainers dismissed in 1457 by Charles at his father’s request.  He had then passed into Louis’s service.  This man quickly insinuated himself into the king’s graces, was admitted to his chamber at all hours, and walked arm in arm with the returned exile through Paris.

The Burgundian exile had learned the mysteries of the city well in his four years’ residence.  Louis found him an amusing companion and skilfully managed to flatter the count by his favour towards the man whom he had liked.

For six weeks Philip remained in the capital and astonished the Parisians with the fetes he offered.  Equally astonished were they with their new monarch.  Louis was thirty-eight and not attractive in person.  His eyes were piercing but his visage was made plain by a disproportionate nose.  His legs were thin and misshapen, his gait uncertain.  He dressed very simply, wearing an old pilgrim’s hat, ornamented by a leaden saint.  As he rode into Abbeville in company with Philip, the simple folk who had never seen the king were greatly amazed at his appearance and said quite loud, “Benedicite!  Is that a king of France, the greatest king in the world?  All together his horse and dress are not worth twenty francs."[25]