A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3Guizot, François
History
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3
Guizot, François
France -- History
between Armagnac and Burgundian. A devoted Burgundian, Sire Guy de Bar,
was named provost of Paris in the place of Tanneguy Duchatel. The mason
with whom Bernard of Armagnac had taken refuge went and told the new
provost that the constable was concealed at his house. Thither the
provost hurried, made the constable mount behind him, and carried him off
to prison at the Chatelet, at the same time making honorable exertions to
prevent massacre and plunder.
But factions do not so soon give up either their vengeance or their
hopes. On the 11th of June, 1418, hardly twelve days after Paris had
fallen into the hands of the Burgundians, a body of sixteen hundred men
issued from the Bastille, and rushed into the street St. Antoine,
shouting, “Hurrah for the king, the _dauphin_, and the Count of Armagnac!”
They were Tanneguy Duchatel and some of the chiefs of the Armagnacs who
were attempting to regain Paris, where they had observed that the
Burgundians were not numerous. Their attempt had no success, and merely
gave the Burgundians the opportunity and the signal for a massacre of
their enemies. The little band of Tanneguy Duchatel was instantly
repulsed, hemmed in, and forced to re-enter the Bastille with a loss of
four hundred men. Tanneguy saw that he could make no defence there; so
he hastily made his way out, taking the _dauphin_ with him to Melun. The
massacre of the Armagnacs had already commenced on the previous evening:
they were harried in the hostelries and houses; they were cut down with
axes in the streets. On the night between the 12th and 13th of June a
rumor spread about that there were bands of Armagnacs coming to deliver
their friends in prison. “They are at the St. Germain gate,” said some.
No, it is the St. Marceau gate,” said others. The mob assembled and made
a furious rush upon the prison-gates. “The city and burgesses will have
no peace,” was the general saying, “so long as there is one Armagnac
left! Hurrah for peace! Hurrah for the Duke of Burgundy!” The provost
of Paris, the lord of Isle-Adam, and the principal Burgundian chieftains,
galloped up with a thousand horse, and strove to pacify these madmen,
numbering, it is said, some forty thousand. They were received with a
stout of, “A plague of your justice and pity! Accursed be he whosoever
shall have pity on these traitors of Armagnacs. They are English; they
are hounds. They had already made banners for the King of England, and
would fain have planted them upon the gates of the city. They made us
work for nothing, and when we asked for our due they said, ‘You rascals,
haven’t ye a sou to buy a cord and go hang yourselves? In the devil’s
name speak no more of it; it will be no use, whatever you say.’” The
provost of Paris durst not oppose such fury as this. “Do what you
please,” said he. The mob ran to look for the constable Armagnac and the
chancellor de Marle in the Palace-tower, in which they had been shut up,
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