There were abundance of people attending without, during the king’s private discourse with the herald, all of them impatient to hear what the king would say, and to see how his majesty looked when he came forth. When he had done, he called me, and charged me to entertain the herald, till he ordered him an escort, that I might keep him from talking privately with anybody; he commanded me likewise to give him a piece of crimson velvet of thirty ells, which I did. After which the king addressed himself to the rest of the company, gave them an account of his letters of defiance, and calling seven or eight of them apart, he ordered the letters to be read aloud, showing himself very cheerful and valiant, without the least sign of fear in the world; for indeed he was much revived by what he had learned from the herald. CH. VI.—Of the Trouble and Perplexity of the Constable, and of certain Letters he wrote to the King of England and the Duke of Burgundy, which afterwards were partly the Cause of his Death.—1475. I here must say a word or two concerning the constable, who was in great perplexity for the trick which he had played the Duke of Burgundy about St. Quentin; and he now looked upon himself as quite ruined in the king’s favour, who had already drawn away from him the Lords of Genly[436] and of Moüy (two of his principal servants), though the Lord of Moüy went to visit him sometimes. The king very earnestly desired the constable to come to him, and offered him certain recompenses which he demanded for the county of Guise, and which the king had formerly promised him; the constable was willing to come, but required that the king should swear upon the cross of St. Lou of Angers[437] neither to do, nor consent that any mischief should be done to his person; insisting, that his majesty might as well take this oath to him now, as he had formerly done to the Lord of Lescut.[438] The king replied, that he would never take that oath again for any man whatever; but let him propose any other, and he would take it. You must understand that both constable and king were in great uneasiness and perplexity of mind; so that for a good while together there was not a day passed, but somebody or other went between them to settle this oath. And to a thoughtful man it is a great instance of the misery and infelicity of human life, that we should speak and write so many things contrary to our minds, as if it were done on purpose to shorten it. But if these two I have mentioned were full of cares and anxieties, the King of England and the Duke of Burgundy had their share of trouble also.