Shortly after, the bailiff of the Vermandois and his brother quitted the town of Chauny,—and in their stead sir John de Luxembourg first sent sir Hector de Flavy to govern them, and then Waleran de Moreul; but, after what the inhabitants had done, they found them more inclined to disobedience than before the castle was demolished.
THE CITY OF CHARTRES IS CONQUERED BY KING CHARLES'S PARTY.
On the 20th day of April, in this year, was won the noble city of Chartres by the arms of king Charles. This city had followed the party of dukes John and Philip of Burgundy since the year 1417, when she first attached herself to duke John, and afterward to the English party.
The taking of it was owing to two of the inhabitants, named Jean Conseil and le Petit Guillemin, who had formerly been prisoners to the French, with whom they had resided a long time, and had been so well treated by them that they had turned to their side. They had made frequent journeys, with passports from the French, to Blois, Orleans, and other places under their obedience, with different merchandise, bringing back to Chartres other articles in exchange.
There was also within Chartres a jacobin doctor of divinity, called Friar Jean Sarragin, of their way of thinking, who was the principal director of their machinations, and to whom they always had recourse. Having formed their plan, when the day arrived for its execution, the French collected in different parts a force amounting in the whole to four thousand men, the principal leaders of which were the lord de Gaucourt, the bastard of Orleans, Blanchet d'Estouteville, sir Florent de Lers, La Hire, Girard de Felins, and other chiefs of inferior rank.
They began their march toward Chartres, and, when within a quarter of a league, they formed an ambuscade of the greater number of their men. Others, to the amount of forty or fifty, advanced still nearer the town; and the two men before named, who were the plotters of this mischief, were driving carriages laden with wine and other things, especially a great quantity of shad fish. Some expert and determined men at arms were dressed as drivers of these carriages, having their arms concealed under their frocks.
So soon as the gate leading to Blois was opened, these carriages advanced to enter, led on by Jean Conseil and Petit Guillemin. The porters at the gate, knowing them well, asked what news. They said they knew none but what was good,—on which the porters bade them welcome. Then, the better to deceive them, Jean Conseil took a pair of shad, and, giving them to the porters, said, 'There's for your dinner: accept of them with our thanks,—for we often make you and others wait for us to shut and open the gates and barriers.'