During the truce, about two thousand of the most decent of the Bretons and Burgundians came in great pomp, to show themselves, as far as the ditches behind St Antoine aux Champs, whither several of the Parisians came out to see and converse with them, although the king had forbidden it, and was so much displeased, when he saw them doing so, that he was tempted to fire at them with the serpentines and other cannon, that were ready loaded, from the tower of Billy.
Sunday, the 8th of September, being the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, the king set out from the hôtel of the Tournelles, to go to the cathedral; and as he passed by the church of the Magdalen, he entered himself a companion of the great brotherhood of the burghers of Paris, in which he was followed by the bishop of Evreux and others of the nobility. The next day, the Burgundians and Bretons took possession of the vineyards at Aignancourt, La Courtille, and others round Paris, and made wine for their own drinking, although the grapes were not ripe. This forced the Parisians to do the same at other vineyards; and the wines, consequently, were thin and weak.
Many nobles from Normandy now arrived at Paris to serve the king in his wars, and were quartered, with their men, in the suburbs of St Marcel. Among them were some loose companions, who committed many robberies and riots, which being opposed by the inhabitants, made them attempt to enter Paris by force. As the burghers resisted, the Normans abused them much, by calling them Traitors and Burgundians; adding, that they would bring them to understand things better,—for that they had only come from Normandy to Paris to put them to death, and pillage them. This conduct, according to master Robert Gaguin, was heavily complained of; and examinations having taken place in consequence, the ringleader of these riots was condemned to make an amende honorable, before the town-hall, to the procurator of the said town. This was publicly done by the criminal, bareheaded, ungirdled, with a lighted torch in his hand; and when he was arrived in front of the town-hall, he declared that he had falsely and wickedly lied in uttering the above words, and begged to be pardoned for having so done; after which declaration, he had his tongue pierced with a hot iron, and was then banished for ever.
The following Monday, some of the Burgundians came to show themselves before Paris, among whom was the count de St Pol,—and the king issued out of the town to confer with him. They were about two hours in conversation; and the king gave him the count du Maine as an hostage, who remained in the burgundian camp until the return of the count de St Pol.
This same day, according to Gaguin, the king said to some of the Parisians, at the gate of St Anthony, on his return from this conference, that the Burgundians should not, in future, give them the trouble they had done, for that he would defend them well. An attorney of the Châtelet, named Pierre Beron, replied, 'Indeed, sire! but they vintage and eat our grapes without any remedy being provided against them.' The king answered, that it was better they should eat their grapes than enter Paris and seize their plate and valuables, which they had hidden in their cellars.
The following Friday, two hundred horse-loads of salt fish, and other sorts, arrived at the Paris-market, in spite of the Burgundians, Bretons, and others, who had threatened to reduce the inhabitants to eat their cats and rats.
The truce was again prolonged several times, and at length until the 18th of September,—during which, the Burgundians victualled their camps well, at the expense of the poor people in the country around. There cannot be a doubt but that if the king had been willing to have risked a general engagement, provided he had been faithfully served by his captains, he would have reduced his enemies to such a state that they would have been unable to return to the countries they had come from, and would have fully repaid them for having insulted Paris.
On Wednesday, the 18th, all hopes of a peace were at an end,—for, notwithstanding the frequent conferences of the commissioners, all was broken off; and on this day the blockade of the Port à l'Anglois was raised by the king, and the men at arms were lodged in the carthusian convent: they were six hundred men, with their horses and attendants,—which so completely filled the convent that the holy religious men were driven from their cells and places of devotion.
On the morrow, a grand council was held in the hall of the court of exchequer, at which were present all the aldermen and the deputies of the sixteen wards, together with a number of counsellors from the court of parliament and other officers. The chancellor, Morvilliers, then explained to them, in the king's name, what great offers he had made to the princes before Paris, in answer to their demands respecting the appanage of his brother, the duke of Berry, for whom they required the duchies of Guienne, Poitou, and Saintonge, or the duchy of Normandy. The king's commissioners had replied to this, that his majesty could not dismember the domains of the crown; and the king afterward offered to give his brother, in lieu of these duchies, the counties of Champagne and Brie, reserving to himself the towns of Meaux, Montereau, and Melun.