remained master of the battle-field on which the great risks and great scenes of his life had been passed through.

It seemed as if he ought to fear nothing now, and that the day for clemency had come.

But such was not the king's opinion; two cruel passions, suspicion and vengeance, had taken possession of his soul; he remained convinced, not without reason, that nearly all the great feudal lords who had been his foes were continuing to conspire against him, and that he ought not, on his side, ever to cease from striving against thorn.

The trial of the constable, St.Pol, had confirmed all his suspicions; he had discovered thereby traces and almost proofs of a design for a long time past conceived and pursued by the constable and his associates--the design of seizing the king, keeping him prisoner, and setting his son, the _dauphin_, on the throne, with a regency composed of a council of lords.

Amongst the declared or presumed adherents of this project, the king had found James d'Armagnac, Duke of Nemours, the companion and friend of his youth; for his father, the Count of Pardiac, had been governor to Louis, at that time _dauphin_.