300-328.] Concerning his poverty ridiculous stories were in circulation.

It was said that a shoemaker, to whom he could not pay ready money, had torn from his leg the new gaiter he had just put on, and gone off, leaving the King with his old ones.[585] It was related how one day La Hire and Saintrailles, coming to see him, had found him dining with the Queen, with two chickens and a sheep's tail as their only entertainment.[586] But these were merely good stories.

The King still possessed domains wide and rich; Auvergne, Lyonnais, Dauphine, Touraine, Anjou, all the provinces south of the Loire, except Guyenne and Gascony.[587] [Footnote 585: Le doyen de Saint-Thibaud, _Tableau des rois de France_, in _Trial_, vol.iv, p.

325.] [Footnote 586: Martial d'Auvergne, _Les vigiles de Charles VII_, ed.
Coustelier, 1724 (2 vols.

in 12mo), vol.i, p.