his own inheritance, so that the Lord of Chaumont, as well as the Lord of Craon, made his fortune there. This province for some time continued in peace, under the administration of the Lord of Chaumont; but afterwards several towns rebelled, as Beaune[36], Semur[37], Verdun[38], and others. (I was then present, having been sent thither by the king with the pensioners of his household. This was the first time the pensioners had any officer to command them, and since then they have never been without one.) Which towns were reduced by the wisdom and conduct of our general, and the indiscretion of the enemy. By this one may plainly see the vast difference there is between men; which proceeds from the grace of God, who gives wise ministers of state to that nation He designs to support, and imparts to the prince that governs it wisdom to choose them; and He has made, and does still make it appear, that in all things He will maintain our monarchy, not only in the person of our late master, but of our present king. Those who lost these places the second time were strong enough to have defended them, had they assembled their forces sufficiently soon, and thrown them into the towns: but they gave the governor leisure to draw his troops together; which they ought not to have done, for, having intelligence of his strength, and knowing the country was entirely in his interest, they ought to have thrown themselves into Beaune; which was a strong town, and more defensible than the rest. The very day on which the governor marched out to invest a little town called Verdun, upon information of their weak condition, the Burgundians entered it, in their march to Beaune. They were in all, both horse and foot, six hundred choice men out of the county of Ferrete, commanded by several good Burgundian officers, of whom Simon de Quingy was one. They halted at a time when they might have got into Beaune; which, if they had done, the place had been almost impregnable; but for want of good counsel, they stayed a night too long, were besieged in Verdun, and taken by storm: and after that, Beaune was reduced, and all the rest; the loss of which towns the Burgundians could never recover. I was at this time with the king’s pensioners (as I said before) in Burgundy; from whence I was summoned by the king, upon an information he had received that I had favoured certain of the citizens at Dijon about the quartering of soldiers. This charge, with other little suspicions, was the cause why he sent me away very suddenly to Florence.[39] I obeyed him, as in duty bound, and, upon the receipt of his letters set out immediately for Italy. CH. IV.—How the Lord of Argenton was sent to Florence during the Wars in Burgundy, and how he received Homage of the Duke of Milan, in the King’s Name, for the Duchy of Genoa.—1478.