Charles VII was obliged to take forcible measures.
It was small wonder that the King's patience was exhausted. Louis, not
content with the rule of his province, had made attempts to win over
many of the nobility, and to bribe the archers of the Scotch Guard.
Though not liberal as a rule, he had also expended large sums to
different secret agents for some specific purpose, which was in all
probability to secure his father's death, for he was not the sort of man
to stick at parricide even, if it would secure his ends.

The plot was revealed to Charles by Antoine de Chabannes, Comte de
Dampmartin. Louis, when taxed with his misconduct, impudently denied
that he had been mixed up with the conspiracy, but denounced all his
accomplices, and allowed them to suffer for his misdeeds. He did not,
however, forget to revenge them, so far as lay in his power. The fair
Agnes Sorel, whom he had always regarded as his bitterest enemy, died
shortly afterwards at Jumieges, and it has always been believed, and
with great show of reason, that she was poisoned by his orders. He was
not able to take vengeance on Antoine de Chabannes until after he became
King.

Finding that his plots were of no avail, he essayed to get together
an army large enough to combat his father, but before he completed his
plans, Charles VII, tired of his endless treason and trickery, sent an
army, under the faithful de Chabannes, into the Dauphine, with orders to
arrest the Dauphin.

The forces which Louis had at his disposal were numerically so much
weaker, that he did not dare to risk a battle.

"If God or fortune," he cried, "had been kind enough to give me but half
the men-at-arms which now belong to the King, my father, and will be
mine some day, by Our Lady, my mistress, I would have spared him the
trouble of coming so far to seek me, but would have met him and fought
him at Lyon."

Not having sufficient forces, and feeling that he could not hope for
fresh pardon, he resolved to fly from France, and take refuge at the
Court of the Duke of Burgundy.

One day in June, 1456, he pretended to go hunting, and then, attended
by only half a dozen friends, rode as fast as he could into Burgundian
territory, and arrived at Saint Claude.

From there he wrote to his father, excusing his flight, and announcing
his intention of joining an expedition which Philippe le Bon, the
reigning Duke of Burgundy was about to undertake against the Turks. The
Duke was at that m