The company, after this, went to dinner in the great hall of the abbey, where was an open table for all comers. When dinner was ended, the count de Dunois and de Longueville arose, and said with a loud voice, that he and the other servants had lost their master, and that every one must now provide for himself. This speech made every one sorrowful, and not without cause, more especially the pages, who wept bitterly.
[A.D. 1462.]
THE DISGRACEFUL DEATH OF JOHN COUSTAIN, MASTER OF THE WARDROBE TO DUKE PHILIP OF BURGUNDY.—THE CAUSE OF IT.—THE DEATH OF HIS ACCUSER.
On Sunday, the feast of St James and St Christopher, in the month of July, in the year 1462, John Coustain, master of the wardrobe to the noble duke Philip of Burgundy, was arrested and carried prisoner to Rupelmonde, for having intended to poison the count de Charolois,—with which crime he was charged by a poor gentleman from Burgundy, called John d'Juy. The said Coustain had bargained with him, for a large sum of money, to go into Piedmont, and buy for him some poison, and had told him the use he intended to make of it.
When this John d'Juy was returned from Piedmont to Brussels with the poison, he demanded payment as had been agreed on; but Coustain not only refused to give him the money but abused him, in most coarse language,—for this Coustain had not his equal in pride and wickedness. John d'Juy, discontented at such treatment, made his complaints to another gentleman of Burgundy, called Arquembart, and discovered to him the plot. Arquembart, much alarmed, advised him to reveal the whole of it to the count de Charolois, saying, that if he did not instantly do so, he would go and tell it himself.
John d'Juy, without further delay, waited on the count, and, casting himself on his knees, humbly besought him to pardon the wickedness he was about to reveal to him, and then told him the whole truth of the intentions of John Coustain. The count was much astonished and troubled, and, hastening to his father the duke, told him all he had just heard, and demanded justice on John Coustain for his disloyalty and treason. The duke said, he should have instant justice,—on which the count returned to his apartments, and ordered John d'Juy to go and surrender himself a prisoner at Rupelmonde, and wait for him there, as he would speedily follow him.
On the morrow, which was the feast of St James, as I have said, as the duke was ordering the lord d'Auxi and Philip de Crevecoeur to carry John Coustain prisoner to Rupelmonde, he was playing and amusing himself in the duke's park: the duke called to him, and said that he wished he would go to Rupelmonde, with the lord d'Auxi, to answer a gentleman who had made heavy charges against his honour. Coustain answered insolently, according to his custom, that he did not fear any man on earth, and went to boot himself, and mount a fine horse, attended by four others. In this state, he went to the hôtel of the lord d'Auxi, whom he found mounted, together with Philip de Crevecoeur, and fifteen or sixteen of the duke's archers.