Amiens, and was ready to go to supper, three or
four of the English lords, who had attended upon the king of England at the
interview, came to sup with his majesty; and one of them, the lord Howard,
told the king in his ear that, if he desired it, he would readily find a
way to bring the king his master to him to Amiens, and perhaps to Paris
too, to be merry with him. Though this proposition was not in the least
agreeable to Louis, yet he dissembled the matter pretty well, and began
washing his hands, without giving a direct answer; but he whispered to
Commines, and said that what he had dreaded was really coming to pass.
After supper the subject was renewed, but the king then put it off with the
greatest quietness and tact {xlii} imaginable, alleging that his expedition
against the duke of Burgundy would require his departure immediately.

Thus, (as our pleasant friend remarks,) though these affairs were of the
highest moment, and required the gravest caution to manage them discreetly,
yet they were not unattended by some agreeable incidents that deserve to be
related to posterity. Nor ought any man to wonder, considering the great
mischiefs which the English had brought upon the kingdom of France, and the
freshness of their date, that the king should incur so much trouble and
expense to send them home in an amicable manner, and endeavour to make them
his friends for the future, or at least divert them from being his enemies.

The next day the English came into Amiens in great numbers, and some of
them reported that the Holy Ghost had made the peace, producing some
prophecy in support of the assertion: but their greatest proof was that
during the interview a white dove came and sat upon the king of England's
tent, and could not be frightened away by any noise they could make. The
less superstitious, however, explained the incident more rationally; a
shower having fallen, and the sun afterwards shining out very warm, when
the pigeon, finding that tent higher than the others, came thither to dry
herself. This was the explanation given to Commines by a Gascon gentleman
named Louis de Bretailles,[66] who was in the king of England's service.
This gentleman was one of those who saw further than others into the state
of affairs, and, being an old acquaintance of Commines, he privately
{xliii} expressed his opinion that the French were making sport of the king
of England. During the conversation, Commines asked him how many bat