Even if such an effort proved fruitless, Lewis saw that an English war would not only ruin his plans for the overthrow of the nobles, but would leave him more than ever at their mercy.

Above all it would throw him helplessly into the hands of the Burgundian Duke.

In the new struggle as in the old the friendship of Burgundy could alone bring a favourable issue, and such a friendship would have to be paid for by sacrifices even more terrible than those which had been wrenched from the need of Charles the Seventh.

The passing of Burgundy from the side of England to the side of France after the Treaty of Arras had been bought by the cession to its Duke of the towns along the Somme, of that Picardy which brought the Burgundian frontier to some fifty miles from Paris.
Sacrifices even more costly would have to buy the aid of Burgundy in a struggle with Edward the Fourth.
[Sidenote: The Triple Alliance] How vivid was his sense of these dangers was seen in the eagerness of Lewis to get the truce with England renewed and extended.

But his efforts for a general peace broke down before the demands of the English council for the restoration of Normandy and Guienne.