ified in resenting it. "You have kept your promise
and that long before the day."[14]

Then in a friendly promenade, Louis gave an opportunity to Charles and
St. Pol to state, informally, the terms on which they would withdraw
from their hostile footing, and count the weal restored to the
oppressed public whose sorrows had moved them to a confederation.

Distasteful as was every item to Louis, he accepted the requisition of
those who felt that they were in a position to dictate, and after a
little more parleying at later dates, the treaty of Conflans was duly
arranged. It was none too soon for the allies. They could hardly have
held together many days longer in the midst of the jealousies rife in
their camps.

The king paused at nothing. To his brother he gave Normandy, to
Charles of Burgundy the towns on the Somme with guarantee of
possession for his lifetime, while the Count of St. Pol was made
Constable of France.

[Illustration: LOUIS XI. WITH THE PRINCES AND SEIGNEURS OF THE WAR
OF PUBLIC WEAL TAKEN FROM CONTEMPORANEOUS MINIATURE IN ABBEY OF ST.
GERMAIN DES PRES (COMINES-LENGLET, II., FRONTISPIECE)]

Boulogne and Guienne, too, were ceded to Charles, lesser places and
pensions to the other confederates. The contest ended with complete
victory for the allies who were left with the proud consciousness
that they had set a definite limit to royal pretensions, at least, on
paper.

After the treaty was signed, the king showed no resentment at his
defeat but urged his cousin to amuse himself a while in Paris before
returning home. Charles was rash, but he had not the temerity to trust
himself so far. Pleading a promise to his father to enter no city gate
until on paternal soil, he declined the invitation and soon returned
to the Netherlands, where his own household had suffered change.
During his absence, the Countess of Charolais had died and been buried
at Antwerp. Charles is repeatedly lauded for his perfect faithfulness
to his wife, but her death seems to have made singularly little ripple
on the surface of his life. The chroniclers touch on the event very
casually, laying more stress on the opportunity it gave Louis XI.
to offer his daughter Anne as her successor, than on the event
itself.[15]

[Footnote 1: La Marche, ii., 227. Peter von Hagenbach was the
chamberlain to enforce this.]

[Footnote 2: The receipt for this half payment was signed October
8, 1462. (Comines, _Memoires_, Lenglet du Fresnoy editi