Towards the end of the year 1477, or perhaps at the beginning of the year following, Commines was sent into Burgundy at the head of the pensioners of the king’s household: but he does not explain the object of his mission. New annoyances awaited him in that country, and his stay therein was short. That rich province was unfortunate in its governors. The Lord of Craon, who had been recalled on account of his extortionate rapine, had been lately succeeded by Charles d’Amboise, Lord of Chaumont, “a very valiant and prudent man,” but no less avaricious than his predecessor, and who treated the province which he ruled “as if it were his own estate.” In relating these facts, Commines registers rather than censures them. If he blames the conduct of the Lord of Craon, it is with prudent reserve, and because “his pillagings, in truth, were too excessive.” The spirit of tolerance in which his narrative is composed lends some probability to the accusations which were, ere long, brought against himself. He was denounced to the king as having spared “certain burghers of Dijon concerning the quarters of men-at-arms.” This peccadillo alone would doubtless have been insufficient to necessitate his recall; but, “with some other slight suspicion,” about which the discreet historian makes no revelation, it combined to induce Louis XI. to send him “very suddenly” to Florence. As soon as he had received his credentials, Commines set out on his journey, travelling very rapidly, and halting at as few places as possible. He remained for two or three days only at Turin, to pay his respects to the Duchess of Savoy; and about the same time at Milan. In this latter town, he had instructions to demand, in his master’s name, the execution of a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance which pledged the Milanese government to support the Florentines. The assistance which he solicited was liberally and readily granted. He then continued his journey to Florence, where he arrived towards the end of April, 1478. A formidable plot, which had been sternly repressed, had just deluged that city with blood: and Commines has given a graphic account of it in his Memoirs. If the sole object of his mission had reference to this event, it also tended to prove the interest felt by France in the cause of the Florentines (or, to speak more correctly, of the Medici family), who were then menaced by a powerful league, headed by Pope Sixtus V. and the King of Naples. The favour thus openly avowed was not injurious to the _protégés_ of Louis XI., but a good army would have served them far more effectually. Commines brought with him no troops, and wielded no weapons but those of diplomacy. Of these, he made the best use he could, and, as it would appear, to the entire satisfaction of the parties interested.