contrary, houses in ruins,
fields without tillage, men and women in rags, faces pinched and pale.
It is a great pity, and my soul is filled with sorrow at it. All my
desire is to apply a remedy thereto, and, with God's help, we will bring
it to pass." The good folks departed, charmed with such familiarity, so
prodigal of hope; but facts before long gave the lie to words. "When the
time came for renewing at Rheims the claim for local taxes, the people
showed opposition, and all the papers were burned in the open street.
The king employed stratagem. In order not to encounter overt resistance,
he caused a large number of his folks to disguise themselves as tillers
or artisans; and so entering the town, they were masters of it before the
people could think of defending themselves. The ringleaders of the
rebellion were drawn and quartered, and about a hundred persons were
beheaded or hanged. At Angers, at Alencon, and at Aurillac, there were
similar outbursts similarly punished." From that moment it was easy to
prognosticate that with the new king familiarity would not prevent
severity, or even cruelty. According to the requirements of the crisis
Louis had no more hesitation about violating than about making promises;
and, all the while that he was seeking after popularity, he intended to
make his power felt at any price.

How could he have done without heavy imposts and submission on the part
of the tax-payers? For it was not only at home in his own kingdom that
he desired to be chief actor and master. He pushed his ambition and his
activity abroad into divers European states. In Italy he had his own
claimant to the throne of Naples in opposition to the King of Arragon's.
In Spain the Kings of Arragon and of Castile were in a state of rivalry
and war. A sedition broke out in Catalonia. Louis XI. lent the King of
Arragon three hundred and fifty thousand golden crowns to help him in
raising eleven hundred lances, and reducing the rebels. Civil war was
devastating England. The houses of York and Lancaster were disputing the
crown. Louis XI. kept up relations with both sides; and without
embroiling himself with the Duke of York, who became Edward IV., he
received at Chinon the heroic Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI., and
lent twenty thousand pounds sterling to that prince, then disthroned, who
undertook either to repay them within a year or to hand over Calais, when
he was re-established upon his throne, to