But in a way we are able to piece together from Dorn Gregory's later
statements, and from certain traditions which still linger here and
there in the highways and byways of Poitou, enough material to
enable us to ascertain with something like sufficient accuracy, what
it was that Master Fran?ois Villon did accomplish as Count of
Montcorbier in those seven days of splendour which his mocking king
accorded to him. We know for certain that the king found him an
admirable counsellor, cool, wary and judicious, and that during the
period of his ministry, Louis followed his advice with a faith
which, if it were founded indeed upon a superstitious adherence to
the edicts of the stars, proved itself to be thoroughly justified by
his Lord Constable's common sense, foresight and astonishing
knowledge of human nature. We know, too, that he proved himself no
less skilled as a soldier than as a statesman, as capable of
pre-eminence in the arts of war as in the arts of peace. His
knowledge of Caesar's Commentaries and his natural inclination to
strategy, interpreted by an eloquent tongue fired by a ready mother
wit, earned him the ear and won him the heart of the king's great
captains and wrung from them at first a reluctant but finally such a
delighted adherence as their sires had been compelled to surrender
to the Maid of Orleans.
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