The princes now advanced to St Maur des Fosses, Conflans, and before Paris, after having staid some days at Estampes, as has been related in the chronicles of Monstrelet.
On the 3d of August, the king, having a singular desire to afford some comfort to the inhabitants of his good town of Paris, lowered the duties on all wines sold by retail within that town, from a fourth to an eighth; and ordained that all privileged persons should fully and freely exercise their privileges as they had done during the reign of his late father, the good Charles VII. whose soul may God pardon! He also ordered that every tax paid in the town, but those on provision, included in the six revenue-farms, which had been disposed of in the gross, should be abolished, namely, the duties on wood-yards, on the sales of cattle, on cloth sold by wholesale, on sea-fish, and others; which was proclaimed that same day they were taken off, by sound of trumpets, in all the squares of the town, in the presence of sir Denis Hesselin, the receiver of the taxes within the said town. On this being made public, the populace shouted for joy, sang carols in the streets, and at night made large bonfires.
The next day, being Sunday the 4th of August, the reverend father in God master John Balue was consecrated bishop of Evreux, in the church of Nôtre Dame in Paris; and this same day the king supped at the hôtel of his treasurer of finance, master Estienne Chevalier.
On Tuesday, the 6th of August, according to Gaguin, was beheaded at the market-place in Paris, a youth called master Pierre de Gueroult, a native of Lusignan, and afterward quartered, according to the sentence of the provost of the marshals, he having confessed that he had come from Brittany to inform the king that some of his principal captains, though serving under him, were otherwise inclined, which was meant solely to create suspicions of them in the king's mind. He had likewise accused many notable persons in Paris of being disloyal to the king. He had also confessed that he was a spy, to see and carry back to the princes and lords that were in rebellion against the king an exact account of the state of Paris, and of the king's preparations, that they might be the better enabled to carry on their damnable enterprises. It was for these crimes that he was executed, and his effects confiscated to the king.
During this time, the Burgundians and Bretons made two attempts to cross the Seine and Yonne; but two good and loyal captains on the king's side, called Salezart and Malortie, resisted them valiantly each time with the few men they had.
In this month of August, the franc-archers from the bailiwicks of Caen and Alençon, in Normandy, arrived at Paris, and were distributed into quarters, as follows: those from Caen, clothed in jackets, on which was embroidered the word 'Caen,' were lodged in the Temple and within its precincts. Those from Alençon dressed likewise in jackets, with the words 'Audi partem' embroidered on them, were lodged in the quarter of the Temple beyond the old gate thereof.
Proclamation was made throughout Paris, on the 13th of August, for all persons having willow-beds, or poplars, growing near to the walls, to cut them down within two days after this proclamation, or they would be abandoned to whoever would cut them down and carry them off. On this day, the count d'Eu came to Paris, as lieutenant-general for the king, and was decently received as such by the town.
Whilst the Burgundians were skirmishing before the walls of Paris, an usher of the court of Châtelet, called Cassin Cholet, had ran through the streets, crying out, 'Get into your houses, and shut your doors, for the Burgundians have entered the town of Paris,' which caused many women to fall in labour before their time, and others to lose their senses. For this cause, he was imprisoned, and, on the 14th of August, was sentenced by the provost of Paris to be flogged through the streets in which he had caused such an alarm, to be deprived of all his offices, and confined for a month on bread and water. He was tied to the tail of a filthy dung-cart, that had just been employed on its stinking business, flogged in all the squares, and then returned to prison.[76]