'There have also been many assemblies holden, in which harangues have been made highly prejudicial to my honour and contrary to truth, (saving the honour and respect due to you,) and in which expressions have been uttered as having been said by me, but too confusedly for their meaning to be well understood, and positively contradictory to the peace made at Chartres as well as at Auxerre, and against the terms so lately sworn to, which may be of very bad example, and contrary to the doctrine of Cato, tending to provoke dissensions and warfare, which may ultimately, which God forbid, prove of the greatest detriment and destruction to your kingdom.
'Many letters have been published in various places, as well within as without your realm, making very light, to all who shall peruse them, of your honour, my most-redoubted lord, of that of my lord of Acquitaine, of several princes of your blood, of the university, and of many of the principal inhabitants of Paris.
'If it should be advanced by some of the writers of these letters, that they have been published to clear their own honour, which had been stained by other letters, they ought at least to have kept to the truth, and not have laid the blame on those who were well inclined to keep the terms of your edict.
'I have likewise been charged, contrary to the truth, with having entertained men at arms in direct violation of your ordinance, and with having by such means greatly injured and harrassed your subjects. The fact is, what I have before told you, and of which I have sent you information, that by your orders I had a command of a thousand men at arms with my lord and uncle of Berry and others, to whom you had given orders to oppose several enterprises that were undertaken by some of the free companies even at the gates of Paris, to your great disgrace and scandal. Instantly after the proclamation of your edict, I countermanded them, nor have I ever since summoned any, or quartered them on the country.
'Should any bodies of men at arms throughout the realm say that they belong to me, they have neither had my summons nor are they under my command, and I am perfectly ignorant of their intentions; but as there are yet several free companies that still keep harrassing the country, they may perhaps have assembled to drive them out of it.
'It is a well-known fact, my most redoubted lord, that there are some who have for a long time maintained, and do so still, large bodies of men at arms, between the rivers Loire, Seine, and Yonne, and elsewhere, directly contrary to your ordinance, to the utter ruin of your people, for they make in their pillage no distinction between churchmen and others; and this also is laid to my charge, as they alledge that they keep these bodies under arms for fear lest I should raise a large force and march it against Paris, in direct violation of your ordinance: but this, saving the reverence due to your majesty, is a falsehood; for I have not done this, nor ever thought of doing what would be displeasing to you, in any manner whatever,—nor will I alter this conduct, but, so long as I shall live, will remain your true and loyal relation and obedient subject.
'It is a fact, that several, as I have been informed, have publicly declared, contrary to truth, that I maintained in Paris murderers and assassins, ready to put them to death. In answer to this, my most dear lord, I affirm for truth, that I not only never did so, but that I never thought of such a thing; but these are not the first aspersions they have cast upon me.
'Many have been banished merely from hatred to me, who declare that they were not deserving such punishment, and are ready to prove it, if they be assured of personal security, and of having fair justice done them. I do not say this from any desire to screen from punishment the wicked or such as may have displeased you, my most-redoubted lord, my lady the queen, or my lord of Acquitaine, but in behalf of those who have been so ill treated from contempt to me.
'I must also complain, that several persons have gone to the houses of my poor servants in Paris, which are adjoining to my hôtel of Artois, and have ransacked them from top to bottom, under pretence that letters had been sent thither by me, to be delivered to different persons near to the market-place, to excite them to raise a commotion in your city of Paris, and particularly in the markets,—for which cause many of the wives of my faithful servants have been very harshly treated, and examined at the Châtelet on this subject. May it please you to know, most-redoubted lord, that I never have written myself, nor caused to be written by others, any thing that was contrary to your ordinance.
'Those who make such accusations against me act wickedly, for they may give you and others a bad opinion of me; and those who know Paris are well aware that neither the inhabitants of that or any other quarter would, for their lives, act any way that would be to your dishonour. With regard to me, may God no longer grant me life, when I shall act contrary to your good pleasure!