The Duke of Normandy (as I said before) had once a design to have retired into Flanders, but on a sudden, a reconciliation was made between the Duke of Bretagne and him,[166] when it was too late; for both of them found their errors, and soon grew sensible that there was nothing in this world so firm and stable, but that division is able to destroy it at last. And, indeed, it is next kin to an impossibility, that many great lords of equal quality and power should continue long in a confederacy, unless one of them be invested with a supreme command and authority over the rest; and it is absolutely necessary, that that person should be a man of great wisdom and highly beloved, to keep them all in obedience. With my own eyes I have seen many examples of this nature, and therefore I speak not by report: besides, we are all but too much inclined to divide thus to our own prejudice, without any regard to the consequences which may follow; and, in my opinion, one wise prince with the command of 10,000 men, and money to pay them, is more to be feared and esteemed than ten, who every one of them has 6000, and all of them allied and confederate together; and the reason is, because they have always so many ceremonies and punctilios of honour to be adjusted and accommodated between them, that half their opportunity is lost before they can agree or decide among themselves. In this manner the Duke of Normandy retired into Bretagne, poor and disconsolate, being forsaken by all those officers that had served his father, Charles VII., who had made their peace with the king, and were advanced to places of higher trust and honour than they ever enjoyed under his father. These two dukes were wise, as the proverb says of the Bretons, when it was too late, and kept themselves close in Bretagne with the Lord de Lescut, their chief servant; during which time, several ambassadors were still going and coming, sometimes from them to the king, sometimes from the king to them; now from them to the Count of Charolois, then from the count to them; sometimes from the king to the Duke of Burgundy, and then again from the Duke of Burgundy to him: some for intelligence, and some to debauch their respective subjects, and make what pernicious bargains they could, and all under the specious pretence of amity and friendship.