When the council broke up, the duke of Burgundy returned to Artois, in his country of Flanders, and the other lords to the places whence they had come. On the feast of the Circumcision, a sergeant at arms came to St Pol en Ternois, and presented to the count letters from the king of France, containing positive orders, under pain of his highest displeasure, not to bear arms nor to assemble any men at arms to accompany the duke of Burgundy or others into his kingdom without his especial licence; and that he should give an acknowledgement of the receipt of this royal command, which the count did. While these things were passing, the duke of Acquitaine resided in the Louvre with his state, and the duchess and her attendants at the hôtel of St Pol. On Wednesday, the 12th day of January, the queen, attended by the duchess, went to visit her son. A short time before, by the advice of the king of Sicily, the dukes of Berry, of Orleans, and other princes of the blood, she had caused four knights and many other servants belonging to her son of Acquitaine to be arrested and carried away from the Louvre, which had so much enraged the duke that he wanted to sally out to call the populace to his aid, in rescuing these prisoners. The princes, his relatives, would not permit him to do this; and the queen his mother appeased his anger in the best manner she could, and then went to the king in the hôtel de St Pol, leaving with her son the before mentioned princes, who pacified his anger by gentle and kind words. The four knights who had been arrested were sir John de Croy, the lord de Broy, sir David de Brimeu, sir Bertrand de Montauban, and some others, who very soon after, on promising not to return to the duke of Acquitaine, were set at liberty. Sir John de Croy was detained prisoner, and carried as such to Montlehery. Although that the duke of Acquitaine pretended to be satisfied, he nevertheless secretly sent one of his servants to the duke of Burgundy to desire that he would hasten to Paris with all his forces: he afterward wrote to him several letters with his own hand, and without the knowledge of the queen or the princes. When the duke of Burgundy received this intelligence, he was well pleased, as he wished for nothing more than such a pretext to march to Paris, and instantly issued a summons to men at arms from all countries, appointing a day for them to meet him at Espelry, near St Quentin in the Vermandois. For his exculpation, and that the cause of this armament might be known, he wrote letters to all the principal towns in Picardy, a copy of which is as follows: