direct contrast to that of Louis XI.

The latter was calm, deliberate, and crafty, never prosecuting
a desperate enterprise, and never abandoning one likely to be
successful, however distant the prospect. The genius of the Duke
was entirely different. He rushed on danger because he loved it, and
on difficulties because he despised them. As Louis never sacrificed
his interest to his passion, so Charles, on the other hand, never
sacrificed his passion, or even his humour, to any other consideration.
Notwithstanding the near relationship that existed between them,
and the support which the Duke and his father had afforded to Louis
in his exile when Dauphin, there was mutual contempt and hatred
betwixt them. The Duke of Burgundy despised the cautious policy of
the King, and imputed to the faintness of his courage that he sought
by leagues, purchases, and other indirect means those advantages
which, in his place, the Duke would have snatched with an armed
hand. He likewise hated the King, not only for the ingratitude he
had manifested for former kindnesses, and for personal injuries
and imputations which the ambassadors of Louis had cast upon him,
when his father was yet alive, but also, and especially, because
of the support which he afforded in secret to the discontented
citizens of Ghent, Liege, and other great towns in Flanders. These
turbulent cities, jealous of their privileges, and proud of their
wealth, were frequently in a state of insurrection against their
liege lords, the Dukes of Burgundy, and never failed to find underhand
countenance at the court of Louis, who embraced every opportunity
of fomenting disturbance within the dominions of his overgrown
vassal.

The contempt and hatred of the Duke were retaliated by Louis with