After the delivery of the constable’s answer to the Duke of Burgundy, he found nothing of friendship was to be expected from him, but that he was the contriver and principal manager of the war; upon which he conceived a mortal hatred for him, which could never after be extinguished, especially when he reflected that his remonstrances of danger tended to no other end, but to constrain him to the marriage of his daughter. In the meantime the Duke of Burgundy had recollected himself in some measure, and assembled a considerable army. By the messages which were sent, first from the Duke of Guienne, and afterwards from the constable, it is plain the whole business was premeditated; for, not long after, the Duke of Bretagne wrote to him in the same, or more terrible language; and suffered the Lord of Lescut to put himself into the king’s service, with 100 of his Breton men-at-arms; so that it may be easily concluded this war was undertaken to force the Duke of Burgundy to consent to that match. The king was deceived when he was put upon it; and the story of their intelligence in the Duke of Burgundy’s country was utterly, or to a great extent, false. However, during this whole expedition, the king was served faithfully by the constable, who mortally hated the Duke of Burgundy, because he knew that the duke had no affection for him. The Duke of Guienne also served the king very honestly in this war, with a considerable body of troops, and the Duke of Burgundy’s affairs were in a dangerous condition; yet if, in the beginning of this rupture, the duke (as I said before) would have consented to the marriage of his daughter with the Duke of Guienne, all the above-mentioned great lords would have abandoned the king, and employed all their power and interest against him; but it is in vain for man to determine in these cases, for God Almighty ever executes as he pleases. CH. III.—How the Duke of Burgundy took Picquigny; and the means he found out to make a Truce with the King for a Year, to the great Dissatisfaction of the Constable of France.—1471.