'This has raised the indignation of my most redoubted lord against me,--for which I am more grieved than I can express. I shall therefore explain the matter fully to you, that you may be made acquainted with the whole, and exculpate me from any blame. 'Prior to this quarrel with the archers, the officers of my most redoubted lord imposed a tax on the land, without calling together a competent number of the three estates to authorize it,--and this tax they wanted to raise on my possessions. Some of my officers made an appeal against this conduct, and matters remained in this state,--when a body of those called Skinners, from the Valois, and other men at arms, showed a disposition to make war on me. 'These appearances obliged me to reinforce my strong places with men at arms,--and I sent Jacotin de Bethune to guard my town of Ham. Some time afterward, certain persons on horseback made an inroad on my villages near to Ham, and carried away horses, cows, and whatever they could lay hands on: in consequence, many women hastened to Ham and complained of these outrages,--upon which Jacotin concluded they must be the Skinners, and instantly sent a party after them, when a scuffle ensued. But as Jacotin followed his men, finding that they belonged to the duke of Burgundy, he immediately put an end to the affray, and was exceedingly distressed that it had happened,--for he could never have supposed that they had belonged to my most redoubted lord, considering that an appeal was then lying in his courts against this tax being laid. 'They had shown great mockery as they had passed by Ham, and had also declared, prior to this, that they had not been ordered to insult my territories; from which it plainly appears, that the dispute was sudden and unpremeditated, although my most redoubted lord summons me on this account to deliver up to him Jacotin de Bethune and his men. I have, consequently, had the matter legally examined into, in the presence of the king's notary-public, and have had the result laid before my most redoubted lord, by which it appears that the said Jacotin and his men have not been so blameable as my lord duke has been told,--but that the fault lies with these archers, and other officers of justice, for having acted illegally. 'At the same time, I entreated him, in consideration of this body of evidence to withdraw his anger, and to suffer the affair to be treated judicially; adding that he might send whomsoever he pleased to take fresh examinations,--and that if I should be found guilty of having done any thing wrong, after having been heard in my own defence, I would make such amends as should be judged proper, or ask his pardon.