The butchers, and those who lived near the market-places, with the greater part of the Parisians, were strong partisans of the duke of Burgundy, and very desirous that only he, or those that were of his party, should govern the kingdom; and, to say the truth, it was now become dangerous for the nobility, of whatever party they might be, to dwell in Paris, for the common people had great sway in its government. In the mean time, the duke of Orleans and his allies were strengthening themselves, by every means in their power, with men at arms. The duke of Bourbon and the count d’Alençon came in these days with a numerous body before the town of Roye in the Vermandois, which belongs to the king of France, and entered it about mid-day, more through fraud than by force of arms, for the townsmen did not suspect any warfare. When they had dined, they sent for the principal inhabitants, and ordered them, whether it were pleasing to them or otherwise, to receive a garrison from them. They then rode to Nesle, in the Vermandois, belonging to the count de Dammartin, wherein they also placed a garrison. Thence they dispatched sir Clugnet de Brabant, who had joined them, sir Manessier Guieret, and other captains well attended, to the town of Ham in the Vermandois, belonging to the duke of Orleans: they returned by Chauni sur Oise, where they also left a garrison, and in many other places, as well belonging to themselves as to others attached to their party. The duke of Bourbon, on his arrival from this expedition at his town of Clermont, strengthened it, and all his other towns in that country, with fortifications. When the garrisons had been properly posted, the war suddenly broke out between the two parties of Armagnacs and Burgundians. The duke of Burgundy had not been idle in fortifying his towns with garrisons, and in collecting men at arms to resist his adversaries: he himself was in Flanders making preparations to march an army to offer them battle. The army of the Armagnacs had already made incursions into Artois, and had done much mischief to friend and foe, by carrying off prisoners and great plunder to the garrisons whence they had come. The Burgundians were not slow in making reprisals, and frequently invaded the county of Clermont and other parts. When by chance the two parties met, the one shouted ‘Orleans!’ and the other ‘Burgundy!’ and thus from this accursed war, carried on in different parts, the country suffered great tribulation. The duke of Burgundy, however, had the king on his side, and those also who governed him: he resided in his hôtel of St Pol in Paris, and the greater part of its inhabitants were likewise attached to the duke of Burgundy.