Note 512 — BOOK THE FIFTH.

His subjects were, however, beginning to reject his demands. He assembled the Estates of Franche-Comté at Salins, and stated his intention to levy an army of 40,000 men, and to impose a tax of one-fourth of their property on his subjects. In answer, the Estates declared that all they could offer him was a force of 3000 men, “to guard the country.” The Estates of Burgundy declared at Dijon that the war was utterly useless, and that they would not involve themselves in a groundless quarrel, in which they could have no hope of success. And to crown all, the Flemings wrote to him that, if he were surrounded by the Swiss and Germans, and had not men enough to extricate himself, they would come to his relief. See Michelet’s Louis XI., et Charles le Temeraire, pp. 129, 130.