He went to the appointed place of audience well armed, and escorted by the princes and lords whom he had brought with him, and great crowds of Parisians. During his stay at Paris he was always armed, to the surprise of the other princes and members of the royal council, who were afraid to say any thing disagreeable to him, from his popularity with the citizens, and because he was ever surrounded by men at arms, and had his hôtel full of them; for he had quartered there the whole, or the greater part, of those whom he had brought with him. He had also a strong tower constructed of masonry[116], in which he slept at nights, and his chamber was strongly guarded. The justification of the duke now follows, and shall be literally given, as delivered by doctor John Petit. CHAP. XXXIX. THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY OFFERS HIS JUSTIFICATION, FOR HAVING CAUSED THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS, IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING AND HIS GREAT COUNCIL. On the 8th day of March, in the year 1407, duke John of Burgundy offered his justification for having caused the death of the late duke of Orleans, at the hôtel de St Pol at Paris, by the mouth of master John Petit, doctor of theology. There were present, in royal state, the duke of Guienne[117], dauphin of the Viennois, eldest son and heir to the king of France, the king of Sicily, the cardinal de Bar[118], the dukes of Berry, Brittany and Lorraine, and many counts, barons, knights and esquires, from divers countries, the rector of the university, accompanied by a great many doctors and other clerks, and a numerous body of the citizens of Paris and people of all ranks. John Petit[119] opened his speech in the manner following. ‘In the first place,’ said he, ‘the duke of Burgundy, count of Flanders, of Artois and of Burgundy, doubly a peer of France, and dean of the french peerage, comes hither, with all humility, to pay his reverence to his royal majesty, like an obedient subject,—to which he is bounden by four obligations, according to the decisions of the doctors of civil and canon law. The first of these obligations is,—‘Proximi ad proximum qua quisque tenetur proximum non offendere. Secunda, est cognatorum ad illos quorum de genere geniti vel procreati sunt qua tenetur parentes suos non solum non offendere, sed etiam deffendere verbo et facto. Tertia, est vassalorum ad dominum qua tenentur non solum non offendere dominum suum, sed deffendere verbo et facto. Quarta est, non solum non offendere dominum suum, sed etiam principis injurias vindicare.’