ties of La Palisse, Champignelle,
Beaumont, and Villeneuve la Genet, and the marquisate of Toucy. He also
procured for his son, Jean Coeur, who had chosen the Church for his
profession, a post no less distinguished than that of Archbishop of
Bourges.

Every body said that so much wealth could not have been honestly acquired;
and both rich and poor longed for the day that should humble the pride of
the man, whom the one class regarded as an upstart and the other as an
oppressor. Jacques was somewhat alarmed at the rumours that were afloat
respecting him, and of dark hints that he had debased the coin of the
realm and forged the king's seal to an important document, by which he had
defrauded the state of very considerable sums. To silence these rumours,
he invited many alchymists from foreign countries to reside with him, and
circulated a counter rumour, that he had discovered the secret of the
philosopher's stone. He also built a magnificent house in his native city,
over the entrance of which he caused to be sculptured the emblems of that
science. Some time afterwards he built another, no less splendid, at
Montpellier, which he inscribed in a similar manner. He also wrote a
treatise upon the hermetic philosophy, in which he pretended that he knew
the secret of transmuting metals.

[Illustration: HOUSE OF JACQUES COEUR, BOURGES.]

But all these attempts to disguise his numerous acts of peculation proved
unavailing; and he was arrested in 1452, and brought to trial on several
charges. Upon one only, which the malice of his enemies invented to ruin
him, was he acquitted; which was, that he had been accessory to the death,
by poison, of his kind patroness, Agnes Sorel. Upon the others he was
found guilty, and sentenced to be banished the kingdom, and to pay the
enormous fine of four hundred thousand crowns. It was proved that he had
forged the king's seal; that in his capacity of master of the mint of
Bourges, he had debased, to a very great extent, the gold and silver coin
of the realm; and that he had not hesitated to supply the Turks with arms
and money to enable them to carry on war against their Christian
neighbours, for which service he had received the most munificent
recompenses. Charles VII. was deeply grieved at his condemnation, and
believed to the last that he was innocent. By his means the fine was
reduced within a sum which Jacques Coeur could pay. After remaining for
some time in prison, he was liberated, a