ithout drawing from my
people more than was drawn by the late king, pay my men-at-arms well, and
keep them in a good state of discipline."

Louis, in his latter words, was a little too boastful. He had very much
augmented the imposts without assembling the estates, and without caring
for the old public liberties. If he frequently repressed local tyranny
on the part of the lords, he did not deny himself the practice of it.
Amongst other tastes, he was passionately fond of the chase; and,
wherever he lived, he put it down amongst his neighbors, noble or other,
without any regard for rights of lordship. Hounds, hawking birds, nets,
snares, all the implements of hunting were forbidden. He even went so
far, it is said, on one occasion, as to have two gentlemen's ears cut off
for killing a hare on their own property. Nevertheless, the publication
of his manifesto did him good service. Auvergne, Dauphiny, Languedoc,
Lyon and Bordeaux turned a deaf ear to all temptations from the league of
princes. Paris, above all, remained faithful to the king. Orders were
given at the Hotel de Ville that the principal gates of the city should
be walled up, and that there should be a night watch on the ramparts; and
the burgesses were warned to lay in provision of arms and victual.
Marshal Joachim Rouault, lord of Gamaches, arrived at Paris on the 30th
of June, 1465, at the head of a body of men-at-arms, to protect the city
against the Count of Charolais, who was coming up; and the king himself,
not content with despatching four of his chief officers to thank the
Parisians for their loyal zeal, wrote to them that he would send the
queen to lie in at Paris, "the city he loved most in the world."

Louis would have been glad to have nothing to do but to negotiate and
talk. Though he was personally brave, he did not like war and its
unforeseen issues. He belonged to the class of ambitious despots who
prefer stratagem to force. But the very ablest speeches and artifices,
even if they do not remain entirely fruitless, are not sufficient to
reduce matters promptly to order when great interests are threatened,
passions violently excited, and factions let loose in the arena. Between
the League of the Common Neal and Louis XI. there was a question too
great to be, at the very outset, settled peacefully. It was feudalism in
decline at grips with the kingship, which had been growing greater and
greater for two centuries. The lords did not t