As soon as he was a little recovered, he released Cardinal Balue[83], whom he had kept a prisoner for fourteen[84] years, though the Pope and other princes had many times interceded for his liberation; of which crime he was absolved afterwards by an express bull from his Holiness, which the king had earnestly requested. When he was first seized with his illness, those who were about him took him for dead, and orders were issued for remitting an excessive and cruel tax, which, at the instigation of the Lord des Cordes (his lieutenant in Picardy), he had lately laid upon his subjects, for raising ten thousand foot as a standing force, and two thousand five hundred pioneers, who were to be called the “Gens du Champ;” to which force he added one thousand five hundred men at arms, of his old standing forces, who were to fight on foot upon occasion, among the rest; besides which he caused a vast number of tents and pavilions to be made, and wagons to inclose all, in imitation of the army of the Duke of Burgundy; and this camp cost him fifteen hundred thousand francs a year.[85] When it was ready he went to review it, in a large plain near Pont de l’Arche in Normandy. In this camp there were the six thousand Swiss I mentioned before, and this number he never saw but this once. From thence he returned to Tours, where he was taken with a new fit, and lost his speech again, and for two hours everybody thought him dead; he lay upon a straw-bed in a gallery, with several people about him: the Lord du Bouchage and I devoutly recommended him to St. Claude, and all that were present concurred with our prayers; and immediately he recovered his speech, and walked up and down the house, but he was very weak and feeble; and this second fit took him in 1481. He still went into the country as formerly, and particularly with me to Argenton[86], where he continued a month, and was very ill; from thence he went to Thouars, where he was also very sick; and he then undertook a journey to St. Claude, to whom we had recommended him, as you have already heard. At his departure from Thouars he sent me into Savoy, to oppose the Lords de la Chambre[87], Miolans[88], and Bresse (though he was privately their friend), for having seized upon the person of the Lord de Luy[89] in Dauphiny, whom he had recommended to be governor to his nephew, Duke Philibert. He sent a considerable body of troops[90] after me, whom I led to Maçon against Monsieur de Bresse; however, he and I were agreed underhand. Having taken the Lord de la Chambre[91] in bed with the Duke of Savoy at Turin, in Piedmont, he gave me notice of it, and I caused our soldiers to retire; for he brought the Duke of Savoy to Grenoble, where the Marshal of Burgundy, the Marquis de Rothelin, and myself, went to receive and compliment his highness. The king sent for me to meet him at Beaujeu, in Beaujolois. I was amazed to find him so thin and weak, and wondered how he had strength enough to bear the fatigue