Duke John, however, plainly told them, he should pay no attention to this order; for that it was his intention to go to Paris as speedily as possible, to lay his charges and defence publicly before the king and the Parisians. On the morrow of the departure of the two princes, the duke of Burgundy, with his two brothers and those who had accompanied them, returned to the town of Arras, with the exception of Waleran count de St Pol, who remained for six days after them in Amiens.
When the king of Sicily and the duke of Berry, with the lords of the council, were returned to Paris, and had made their report to the king and princes, relating at length the answers which the duke of Burgundy had made, and that he had asserted the king ought to requite him in various ways for having caused the death and murder of the duke of Orleans, they were much disgusted and astonished at the great presumption and audacity of the duke of Burgundy.
It was talked of differently according to the bias of each party. Those of Orleans were much angered, and declared, that the king ought to assemble all his forces to subdue the duke of Burgundy, and punish him as his conduct deserved. While others, attached to the Burgundy-party, held a contrary opinion, thinking the duke had done a praise-worthy act toward the king and his family; and this was the opinion of the greater part of the Parisians, by whom the duke of Burgundy was much beloved. The cause of his popularity in Paris were the hopes they entertained, that through his means the heavy taxes with which they and all France were oppressed would be taken off,—which the duke of Orleans, when alive, had been so instrumental in imposing, because he had had a great share in them.
The duke of Burgundy went shortly after to Flanders, and summoned a great number of his nobles, gentry and men at arms, to prepare themselves to accompany him to Paris,—notwithstanding the king of Sicily and the duke of Berry had forbidden him, in the king’s name, to come thither until further orders. He did not, however, pay any attention to this command, but advanced, by short journeys to St Denis, whither the king of Sicily, and the dukes of Berry and Brittany, and several of the king’s council, came to visit him,—and again forbade him, in the king’s name, to enter Paris, if accompanied by more than two hundred men.
The duke of Burgundy, on this, quitted St Denis, in company with his brother the count de Nevers, his brother-in-law the count de Cleves, and the duke of Lorraine, with a very large body of men well armed, and entered Paris, with the intent of justifying his act and his quarrel with the late duke of Orleans, as well before the king as before all who might think proper to demand it of him.
The Parisians shewed great joy on his entering the town; and even little children sung carols in all the squares, which much displeased the king, the queen, and the princes then in Paris. He dismounted at his hôtel d’Artois, and was, in truth, greatly beloved by the common people; for they believed he was much attached to the good of the kingdom, and to the general weal. This made him more popular than the other princes of the blood,—and the people freshly remembered the heavy taxes that had been laid on them since the death of the late duke Philip of Burgundy, and principally, as they thought, by means of the duke of Orleans, who was exceedingly unpopular with them; and they considered his death, and the being delivered from his government, as a peculiar mark of God’s grace, not foreseeing what was afterward to befal them and the whole kingdom of France.
When the duke of Burgundy had been some days in Paris, and had learnt from his friends and partisans how he was to conduct himself, he found means to obtain an audience of the king, when the princes, clergy and people should be present, to hear his justification of the murder of the late duke of Orleans.
He went to the appointed place of audience well armed, and escorted by the princes and lords whom he had brought with him, and great crowds of Parisians. During his stay at Paris he was always armed, to the surprise of the other princes and members of the royal council, who were afraid to say any thing disagreeable to him, from his popularity with the citizens, and because he was ever surrounded by men at arms, and had his hôtel full of them; for he had quartered there the whole, or the greater part, of those whom he had brought with him. He had also a strong tower constructed of masonry[[116]], in which he slept at nights, and his chamber was strongly guarded. The justification of the duke now follows, and shall be literally given, as delivered by doctor John Petit.
CHAP. XXXIX.
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY OFFERS HIS JUSTIFICATION, FOR HAVING CAUSED THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING AND HIS GREAT COUNCIL.