112 STATESMEN AND SAGES portunities for extinguishing the local governments of the fiefs which fell into their hands. The Valois kings granted many of them as appanages to their younger sons, and so created a new set of great vassals, who revived the struggle for feudal independence. The most dangerous of these, the Duke of Burgundy, openly aided the English invaders. This prince, besides his French fiefs, pos- sessed the yet more important territories now known as Belgium and the Netherlands. Charles VII., the father of Louis XL, having expelled the Eng- lish, established a permanent force of nine thousand cavalry the first standing army in modern times. During the life of his father, Louis was not a dutiful subject. His masterful spirit could brook no superior. He even conspired with the rebel vassals. But as king (1461-1483) he pursued the policy of his greatest predecessors with un- daunted courage, patient perseverance, and political genius of the highest order. At first he was too much in a hurry. He tried to clip the wings of all his vas- sals at once. He irritated the industrial classes by severe taxation. He drove into exile or rebellion his father's ablest generals and councillors. This brought upon him the so-called " League of Public Welfare," headed by Charles the Bold, heir of Burgundy, which aimed at a virtual dismemberment of France. Persevering as Louis was, he had none of the weak obstinacy which cannot dis- tinguish between means and ends. Finding himself overmatched, though he had cut his way through the hosts of rebels at Montlhery, he conceded to them everything they demanded. By the treaty of Conflans (1465) he might seem to have flung up the game in despair, and to have signed the ruin of France. But his high Court of Justice (Parlement), by refusing to register the treaty, gave him an excuse for evading its performance, and by negotiating with the princes separately he broke up their coalition. The peaceful and industrious classes stood by him, and he studiously cared for their interests ; mixing familiarly with the citizens of Paris, dining at their houses, standing godfather to their children, putting aside all state and ceremony, and even dressing in humble attire. The precautions of his residence at Plessis belong only to the last months of his life, when he was old and paralytic. Never ashamed to own a mistake and to retrace false steps, he won back the most valuable of his father's servants, whom he had at first driven away. His designs against feudalism were not for a moment sus- pended. But instead of attacking all his vassals at once he took them in detail ; while one was being crushed, others were humored till their turn came. As a young man he had shoWn warlike tastes and brilliant personal valor ; but as king he always preferred negotiation and policy. It was a too daring con- fidence in his mastery of these weapons which led him to risk his famous visit to Charles the Bold, at Peronne (1468), so vividly painted by Scott in "Ouentin Durward," who, however, omits to mention the safe-conduct which Charles basely violated. At such critical moments Louis's nerve became steadiest and his intellect most acute. The concessions extorted from him at Peronne seemed to undo the work of years ; but when once he was free he found means to rem- edy all the mischief that had been done. " Never," says his Minister Comines,
