‘In regard to the divine high treason, as that concerns the Sovereign Judge in the heavens, I shall not lay any great stress upon this article, but shall touch upon it incidentally, when I speak of human high treason. I shall therefore enumerate, article by article, how he has committed human high treason in the four degrees above stated, and shall consequently divide my minor into four heads.
‘Respecting the first charge I make, of his having committed high treason in the first degree,—that is, when the offence has been done directly against the person of the king,—it may be done two ways: the first by imagining and practising the death and destruction of the prince, his sovereign lord, which may be divided into several heads, but I shall content myself with three.
‘The first by practising the death of the prince by sorcery, charms and witchcraft; the second, by poisons, venoms and intoxication; the third, by killing or causing the prince to be killed by arms, water, fire, and other violent injections.
‘That he is guilty of the first charge, I prove thus: To cause the king our lord to die of a disorder so languishing, and so slow, that no one should divine the cause of it,—by dint of money, he bribed four persons, one of whom was an apostate monk, the others a knight, an esquire, and a varlet, to whom he gave his own sword, his dagger and a ring, for them to consecrate to, or, more properly speaking, to make use of, in the name of the devils.
‘As suchlike sorceries can only be performed in solitude, and far from the world, these persons took up their abode for many days in the tower of Mont-Jay, near Laigny-sur-Marne. The aforesaid apostate monk, who was the principal in this diabolical work, made there several invocations to the devil, and at different times, the whole of which took place between Easter and Ascension-day; and one grand invocation on a Sunday, very early and before sun-rise, on a mountain near to the tower of Mont-jay.
‘The monk performed many superstitious acts near a bush, with invocations to the devil; and while doing these, he stripped himself naked to his shirt and kneeled down: he then stuck the points of the sword and dagger into the ground, and placed the ring near them. Having uttered many invocations to the devils, two of them appeared to him, in the shape of two men, clothed in brownish green, one of whom was called Hermias, and the other Estramain. He paid them such honours and reverence as were due to God our Saviour, after which he withdrew behind the bush.
‘The devil who had come for the ring took it and vanished; but he who was come for the sword and dagger remained,—but afterward, having seized them, he also vanished. The monk, shortly after, came to where the devils had been, and found the sword and dagger lying flat on the ground, the sword having the point broken,—but he saw the point among some powder, where the devil had laid it. Having waited for half an hour, the other devil returned, and gave him the ring, which to the sight was of the colour of red, nearly scarlet, and said to him, ‘Thou wilt put it into the mouth of a dead man, in the manner thou knowest,’ and then he vanished. The monk obeyed his instructions, thinking to burn the king our lord,—but through the providence of God, and the aid of those most excellent ladies the duchesses of Berry and Burgundy, who were present, he escaped.
‘I shall next show that the duke of Orleans was guilty of the crime of high treason in the first degree, by the alliances he contracted contrary to the interest of the king and kingdom. It is a fact, that when the king our lord and king Richard of England were firmly united in friendship, by the marriage of Richard with the eldest princess of France, king Richard would, at any risk, speak to the king our lord respecting his health; and when they were together, he told him, that the infirmity he was subject to was caused by means used by the dukes of Orleans and of Milan, and entreated him, by the love of God, to be on his guard against them.
‘The king, after this conversation, conceived so great a hatred against the duke of Milan, and not without cause, that the herald who bore his arms dared not appear in his presence. When this came to the ears of the duke of Orleans, he took a mortal dislike to king Richard, and inquired who was the greatest enemy he had in this world. He soon learnt that it was Henry of Lancaster, to whom he made advances, and at length concluded an alliance with him, in order to destroy the king, and to strengthen himself as much as possible, to arrive at his damnable ends.
‘The duke of Orleans and Henry of Lancaster agreed mutually to labour and assist each other to accomplish the deaths of the two kings, that they might obtain the crowns of France and England,—that of France for Louis d’Orleans, and that of England for Henry of Lancaster.