Francis I.
consented and repaired to Moulins with his mother and nearly all his court.

The constable's magnificence astonished even the magnificent king "five hundred gentlemen, all clad in velvet, and all wearing a chain of gold going three times round the neck," were in habitual attendance upon the duke; "the throng of the invited was so great that neither the castle of Moulins nor the town itself sufficed to lodge them; tents had to be pitched in the public places, in the streets, in the park." Francis I.
could not refrain from saying that a King of France would have much difficulty in making such a show; the queen-mother did not hide her jealousy; regal temper came into collision with feudal pride.

Admiral Bonnivet, a vassal of the constable and a favorite of the king, was having built, hard by Chatellerault, a castle so vast and so magnificent, "that he seemed," says Brantome, "to be minded to ride the high horse over the house of M.de Bourbon, in such wise that it should appear only a nest beside his own." Francis I., during a royal promenade, took the constable one day to see the edifice the admiral was building, and asked him what he thought of it.

"I think," said Bourbon, "that the cage is too big and too fine for the bird." "Ah!" said the king, "do you not speak with somewhat of envy ?" "I!" cried the constable; "I feel envy of a gentleman whose ancestors thought themselves right happy to be squires to mine!" In their casual and familiar conversations the least pretext would lead to sharp words between the Duke of Bourbon and his kingly guest.

The king was rallying him one day on the attachment he was suspected of having felt for a lady of the court.