This year, ambassadors from England arrived in France, anxious to obtain an alliance with the king by a marriage or truce; but the king would neither hear nor see them. They were, therefore, forced to return without effecting any thing; and what was more, neither lord nor lady would accept of their palfreys, which they had brought with them in numbers, to gain the friendship of the lords and ladies of the court.
In the month of June, in this year, the duke of Burgundy, being very desirous of the welfare of Christendom, sent his nephew the duke of Cleves, as his proxy and ambassador, to Mantua, where the meeting was to take place of the pope and the princes, and cardinals of Europe, to consider on the means of opposing the enterprises of the grand Turk, who was making daily conquests on the Christians, more especially in Greece. The duke of Cleves was nobly received wherever he passed, as well to honour the duke of Burgundy, whose proxy he was, as out of respect to his own personal worth.
About this time, the count d'Estampes, by orders from his uncle the duke of Burgundy, made prisoner, in the town of Amiens, the viscount d'Amiens and lord of Pecquigny, whom he carried prisoner to Vilvorden,[8] on account of his having conducted himself in a manner unbecoming a person of his rank.
Toward the end of July, in this year, the princess Charlotte of Savoy, dauphiness of France, was delivered of a fair son, who was baptised by the name of Joachim. Great rejoicings took place for this event throughout the territories of the duke of Burgundy, wherein the dauphin resided during the time he was in ill estimation with his father king Charles VII. and indeed so long as the king lived, keeping his court at the castle of Genappe in Brabant. These rejoicings were, however, turned to grief, for the child did not long survive its birth.
In the month of August, it happened that while the king of Scotland was pointing a cannon, to try its power, it burst, and the king was so severely wounded by a splinter that he died soon after: it was a melancholy accident. He had married a daughter of the duke of Gueldres, and niece to the duke of Burgundy, by whom he had several children.[9]
A terrible and melancholy transaction took place this year in the town of Arras, the capital of the country of Artois, which said transaction was called, I know not why, Vaudoisie;[10] but it was said, that certain men and women transported themselves whither they pleased from the places where they were, by virtue of a compact with the devil. Suddenly they were carried to forests or deserts, where they found assembled great numbers of both sexes, and with them a devil in the form of a man, whose face they never saw. This devil read to them, or repeated, his laws and commandments, and in what manner they were to worship and serve him; then each person kissed his backside,—and he gave to them, after this ceremony, some little money: he then regaled them with great plenty of meats and wines, when the lights were extinguished, and each male selected a female for amorous dalliance, and suddenly they were all transported back to the places they had come from.
For such criminal and mad acts, many of the principal persons of the town were imprisoned; and others of the lower ranks, with women and such as were known to be of this sect, were so terribly tormented that some confessed matters to have happened as has been related. They likewise confessed to have seen and known many persons of rank, prelates, nobles, and governors of districts, as having been present at their meetings,—such, indeed, as, upon the rumour of common fame, their judges and examiners named, and, as it were, put into their mouths,—so that, through the pains of the torments, they accused many, and declared that they had seen them at these meetings.
Such as had been thus accused were instantly arrested, and so long and grievously tormented that they were forced to confess just whatever their judges pleased, when those of the lower ranks were inhumanly burnt. Some of the richer and more powerful ransomed themselves from this disgrace by dint of money,—while others of the higher orders were remonstrated with and seduced by their examiners into confessions, under a promise that, if they would confess, they should not suffer in person or fortune. Others again suffered the severest torments with the utmost fortitude and patience.