After frolicking awhile with his good people of Paris, Charles started
once more on his travels, and for six months wandered happily and
expensively through his kingdom.
"When the king stopped anywhere, there were wanted for his own table,
and for the maintenance of his following, six oxen, eighty sheep, thirty
calves, seven hundred chickens, two hundred pigeons, and many other
things besides. The expenses for the king were set down at two hundred
and thirty livres a day, without counting the presents which the large
towns felt bound to make him."[5]
Wherever he went, he heard tales of the bad government of his uncles;
listened, promised amendment; those uncles remaining the while at home
in much disquiet of mind. As the event turned out, their anxiety was
needless. Charles's tragic fate was even then closing about him, and the
power was soon to be in their hands again. In June, 1392, Olivier de
Clisson was waylaid after banqueting with the king at St. Paul, stabbed
by Peter de Craon, a cousin of the Duke of Brittany, and left for dead.
The news coming suddenly to the king threw him into great agitation; the
sight of his servant and friend, bathed in blood, added to his
discomposure. He vowed revenge and declared instant war on the Duke of
Brittany. In vain the other uncles sought to quiet his fury; his only
reply was to summon them and his troops to Le Mans, and start with them
on the fatal march to Brittany. It was in the great forest of Le Mans
that the curse of the Valois, long foreshadowed, if men had had eyes to
see, came upon the unhappy king. The heat was excessive; he was clad in
heavy, clinging velvets and satins. He was twice startled, first by the
appearance of a white-clad madman, who, springing out of the woods,
grasped his horse by the bridle, crying, "Go no further! Thou art
betrayed!" then by a sudden clash of steel, lance on helmet of a page
overcome by the heat. At this harsh sound, the king was seen to shudder
and crouch for an instant; then, drawing his sword and rising in his
stirrups, he set spurs to his horse, crying, "Forward upon these
traitors! They would deliver me up to the enemy!" He charged upon his
terrified followers, who scattered in all directions. Several were
wounded, and more than one actually killed by the king in his frenzy.
None dared approach him; he rode furiously hither and thither, shouting
and slashing, till when utterly exhausted, his chamberlain, William de
Martel, was able to come up behind and throw his arms round the panting
body. Charles was disarmed, lifted from his horse, laid on the ground.
His brother and uncles hastened to him, but he did not recognize them;
his eyes were set, and he spoke no word.
"'We must go back to Le Mans,' said the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy;
'here is an end of the trip to Brittany.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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