This threat had the desired effect. The lower orders, imagining the town already taken, and expecting the French to come to pillage, massacre and ravish, as was the custom, took refuge in the churches. As for the clerics and notables, this was just what they wanted.[1451]
Being assured by Charles of Valois that they might come to him in safety, the Lord Bishop Jean Laiguisé, my Lord Guillaume Andouillette, Master of the Hospital, the Dean of the Chapter, the clergy and the notables went to the King.[1452]
Jean Laiguisé was the spokesman. He came to do homage to the King and to offer excuse for the townsfolk.
It is not their fault, he said, if the King enter not according to his good pleasure. The Bailie and those of the garrison, some three or four hundred, guard the gates, and forbid their being opened. Let it please the King to have patience until I have spoken to those of the town. I trust that as soon as I have spoken to them, they will open the gates and render the King such obedience as he shall be pleased withal.[1453]
In replying to the Bishop, the King set forth the reasons for the expedition and the rights he held over the town of Troyes.
Without exception, he said, I will forgive all the deeds of past times, and, according to the example of Saint Louis,[1454] I will maintain the people of Troyes in peace and liberty.
Jean Laiguisé demanded that such revenues and patronage as had been bestowed on churchmen by the late King, Charles VI, should be retained by them, and that those who had received the same from King Henry of England should be given charters by King Charles authorizing them to keep their benefices, even in cases where the King had bestowed them on others.
The King consented and the Lord Bishop beheld in him a new Cyrus. This conference he reported to the Council of the Town. Thereupon it deliberated and resolved to render allegiance to the King, in consideration of his legal right and provided he would grant an amnesty for all offences, would leave no garrison in the city and would abolish all aids, save the gabelle.[1455] Whereupon the Council sent letters to the citizens of Reims making known to them this resolution and exhorting them to take a similar one:
"Thus," they said, "we shall have the same lord over us. You will keep your lives and your goods, as we have done. For otherwise we should all be lost. We do not regret our submission. Our only grief is that we delayed so long. You will be right glad to follow our example; for King Charles is a prince of greater discretion, understanding and valour than any who for many a long year have arisen in the noble house of France."[1456]