‘Thou art bounden, most potent king, to do justice; and should any evil result from it, it will fall on the adverse party, on account of his crimes, as I shall show to you hereafter. The judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ will not certainly fail of having its effect: ‘Qui de gladio percutit, gladio peribit.’ Whoso kills with the sword shall die by the sword. And Ovid, in his Art of Love, says, ‘Neque lex est æquior ulla, quam necis artifices arte perire sua.’ No law is more just than that murderers should perish by their own arts.
‘O, my lord king! open the gates of justice, and listen to the very reasonable complaints which my lady of Orleans makes to thee, that thou mayest verify in thyself the words of the prophet, ‘Dilexisti justitiam et odisti iniquitatem propterea unxit te Deus tuus oleo leticiæ præ consortibus tuis;’ that is to say, Thou hast loved justice, and hast hated iniquity, wherefore the Lord thy God has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows;—and this finishes my fifth argument.
‘My sixth and last argument, for the present, is founded on the conduct and demeanour of our opponent after this cruel and detestable crime.
‘There is nothing in this world a king should so much dread and check as the overbearing pride of any subject in regard to his government; and thou, O king! oughtest to follow, in thy governance, the example of the King of kings, of whom holy writ says, ‘Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.’ God humbles the proud, and raises up the weak-hearted. Thou art therefore bound to humble the pride of our opponent, which has increased to such a pitch as to make him resist thy power in the support of this his wicked deed.
‘Oh! king of France, and all ye my lords, weigh well then the rebellion and disobedience of our adversary, not only against the commands of the king, but contrary to the orders of the whole royal council. It is a well known fact, that the king of Sicily, my lord of Berry, and several others, went lately to Amiens, notwithstanding the great severity of the season, to attempt bringing about a reconciliation between the parties, for the general good of the king and kingdom; but these lords, in truth, could not effect this, though they signified to our opponent the king’s commands,—but he contended that he would not wait upon his sovereign until he should be sent for by the king himself.
‘When the aforesaid lords advised him to obey the king’s commands, they could scarcely obtain from him a promise not to come to the king with a great power of men at arms; and even then he delayed his coming for fifteen days. Consider, my lords, what sort of obedience this is, and what fatal consequences may ensue from it. After the conference at Amiens, what was his conduct? Why, he assembled so large a force of men at arms, that when he came to Paris, he seemed as if he would conquer the whole kingdom.
‘It is true, indeed, that the king and the princes of his blood, hearing of this, collected a sufficient power to provide a remedy. But when the king had commanded him, by especial messengers, not to enter Paris with more than two hundred men at arms, he came accompanied by more than six hundred, in direct opposition to the king’s orders.—On his arrival in Paris with so large a force, it seemed to him that the king, queen, and other princes ought to act according to his will; and for certain, such was the state of affairs that nothing was refused him, but the whole court behaved courteously toward him, to appease his anger.
‘O, government of France! if thou wilt suffer such things to pass with impunity, thou wilt soon have cause for lamentations. Our adversary next caused all the barricadoes and defences round the king’s palace to be taken away, that his wicked intentions, already begun, might be completed. Such deeds are strong proofs of subjects having evil designs against their king. It behoved him to have come to humble himself and seek for pardon; but, on the contrary, he came with his sword drawn, and accompanied by a numerous body of men at arms, the greater part of whom were foreigners.—During his residence in Paris, he frequently excited to rebellion the simple inhabitants, by spreading abroad his defamatory libels, and various false promises. The citizens, believing he was to do wonders, and to be the regent of the kingdom, have been so much deceived by him that they paid great honour to him and to his writings, even by cries of joy, and shoutings of the populace whenever he appeared; by which and other like means, his pride and cruelty are increased, and make him obstinately persist in his iniquities.
‘Alas! my lord king, is it not the very height of presumption to ride through Paris openly armed, after having committed such a crime, and to attend thy peaceful council with his battle-axes and lances? where thou oughtest not to have suffered any one to have entered more armed than thyself, lest the devil, who had instigated him to commit the base act he did, should unfortunately have urged him to commit a still greater, because the princes of the council did not approve of the wickedness he had done. Therefore thou shouldest never allow any one culpable like him, who takes the law into his own hands, to be in thy presence, more strongly armed than thou art thyself; for it is possible for such as him to beguile the people by the means before mentioned, and to lead them to thy own destruction as well as that of thy realm.
‘Be pleased, therefore, to humiliate our opponent, and shew thyself an upright and fearless judge in the cause of truth, that it may be said of thee as it is written in the 8th chapter of the 3d book of kings,—‘Judicabit servos suos, justificans quod justum est, attribuens eis secundum justitiam.’ He will judge his servants, justifying them that are upright, and giving to each according to his deserts. From this, as well as from the preceding arguments, it plainly appears, that thou art bounden to do the justice required by my lady of Orleans.