We must now take up our history at the death of Louis XI. One of the first acts of Madame de Beaujeu, the eldest sister of Charles VIII., was to confirm in their governments, positions and offices, all those who had held them at the accession of the new king. This was a wise measure, and Louis XI. had more than once repented that he had acted otherwise towards the servants of his father. Commines was maintained on the list of royal councillors, and continued in the office of Seneschal of Poitou. Shortly afterwards, he was sent on an embassy to the Duke of Bretagne, with the Lords of Châtillon and Richebourg. Finally, he had the honour to be one of the fifteen notable persons whom the princess suggested to the States-general for admission into the council of the young king. In that council, at which the most important affairs of the realm were decided, Commines one day had to defend the rights of Charles VIII. over the county of Provence against the pretensions of a prince, Duke René II. of Lorraine, whom all the courtiers treated with the greatest consideration. He maintained the interests of the crown with so much heat that the duke, in anger, addressed him “in rough and foolish words;” and even succeeded in obtaining his banishment from court. The disgraced courtier easily found a refuge with one of those princes who, dissatisfied with the narrow share allotted to their ambition by the States-general of the kingdom, held themselves aloof from Madame de Beaujeu, and openly fomented rebellion against her administration. It was to Moulins, where the Duke of Bourbon then resided, that the Lord of Argenton betook himself. He met with a gracious reception, and his counsels were listened to with favour: but the duke was a man of notoriously feeble character, and Commines had to employ all his ingenuity to keep him faithful to the opposition party. In this he so far succeeded as to induce the duke to go to the king for the purpose of complaining of the evil administration of his government; but one of the consequences of this interview between Charles VIII. and his uncle was, that Commines was dismissed from the Duke of Bourbon’s service. Upon this, he transferred his allegiance to the Duke of Orleans, whose intrigues were secretly favoured by the king himself, who, as he grew in years, became impatient of the wise, but imperious control of Madame de Beaujeu. In concert with some other nobles, Commines made an attempt to carry off the young king, and place him under the care of the Duke of Orleans; but although Charles was a party to their design, they failed, and he punished them for their failure. Commines was arrested at Amboise, and conducted to Loches, where he was confined for eight months in an iron cage, which had been constructed by order of Louis XI. By decree of the Parliament of Paris, his property was confiscated, and on the 17th of July, 1487, he was brought to Paris, and imprisoned in the Conciergerie. There he remained