Those who had killed the duke, in their turn, bawled out, ‘Fire!’ and they had arranged their plan, that while some were assassinating the duke, others were to set fire to their lodgings. Some mounted on horseback, and the rest on foot, made off as fast as they could, throwing behind them broken glass and sharp points of iron to prevent their being pursued.

Report said, that many of them went the back way to the hôtel d’Artois, to their master the duke of Burgundy, who had commanded them to do this deed, as he afterward publicly confessed, to inform him of the success of their murder,—when instantly afterward they withdrew to places of safety.

The chief of these assassins, and the conductor of the business, was one called Rollet d’Auctonville[[109]], a Norman, whom the duke of Orleans had, a little before, deprived of his office of commissioner of taxes, which the king had given to him, at the request of the late duke of Burgundy. From that time, the said Rollet had been considering how he could revenge himself on the duke of Orleans. His other accomplices were William Courteheuze and Scas Courteheuze, before mentioned, from the county of Guines, John de la Motte and others, to the amount of eighteen.

Within half an hour, the household of the duke of Orleans, hearing of this horrid murder, made loud complaints, and, with great crowds of nobles and others, hastened to the fatal spot, where they found him lying dead in the street. His knights and esquires, and in general all his dependants, made grievous lamentations, seeing him thus wounded and disfigured.

With many groans, they raised the body, and carried it to the hôtel of the lord de Rieux, marshal of France, which was hard by; and shortly afterward, the body was covered with a white pall, and conveyed most honourably to the church of the Guillemins[[110]], where it lay, as being the nearest church to where the murder had been committed.

Soon afterward, the king of Sicily, and many other princes, knights and esquires, having heard of this foul murder of the only brother of the king of France, came with many tears to visit the body. It was put into a leaden coffin, and the monks of the church, with all the late duke’s household, watched it all night, saying prayers, and singing psalms over it.

On the morrow, his servants found the hand which had been cut off, and collected much of the brains that had been scattered over the street,—all of which were inclosed in a leaden case and placed by the coffin.

The whole of the princes who were in Paris, except the king and his children, namely, the king of Sicily, the dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon, the marquis du Pont, the counts de Nevers, de Clermont, de Vendôme, de St Pol, de Dammartin, the constable of France and several others, having assembled, with a large body of the clergy and nobles, and a multitude of the citizens of Paris, went in a body to the church of the Guillemins. Then the principal officers of the late duke’s household took the body, and bore it out of the church with a great number of lighted torches carried by the esquires of the defunct. On each side of the body were, in due order, uttering groans and shedding tears, the king of Sicily, the dukes of Berry, Burgundy and Bourbon, each holding a corner of the pall.

After the body followed the other princes, the clergy and barons, according to their rank, recommending his soul to his Creator,—and thus they proceeded with it to the church of the Celestins. When a most solemn service had been performed, the body was interred in a beautiful chapel he himself had founded and built. After the service, all the princes, and others who had attended it, returned to their homes.

Many suspicions were formed, as to the authors of this assassination of the duke of Orleans; and at first it was thought to have been perpetrated by sir Aubert de Canny, from the great hatred he bore the duke, for having carried off his wife[[111]], by whom he had a son, of whom, and his education, I shall say more hereafter. The truth was soon known who were the guilty persons, and that sir Aubert was perfectly innocent of the crime.