I have somewhere read, that, prior to this battle, the Burgundians arrived at the town of St Denis, on a Friday, the 5th day of July, in this same year, and attempted to cross the bridge of St Cloud (as Monstrelet says), but were this time repulsed by the gallant resistance of the nobles and other valiant French. The Burgundians then made an attempt on the following Sunday, the 7th of July, to alarm Paris,--but they gained nothing, for some of their men were slain by the artillery on the walls, and the rest returned in haste to St Denis. The next day they appeared again before the walls of Paris, and some with all their artillery; but before they displayed the whole of their force, they sent four heralds to the four different gates. Over the gate of St Denis, as commanders for the day, were master Pierre l'Orfevre, lord of Ermenonville, and master Jean de Poppincourt, lord of Cercelles, from whom the heralds required provision for their army, and permission for it to march through Paris. These demands they made with haughtiness and menaces; and while the captains were listening to them, and before they could give any answers, the Burgundians (thinking to surprise the parisian guard, and those who were posted at the gates and barriers,) advanced with a great body of men at arms as far as St Ladre and even farther, intending to gain the newly-erected barriers in the suburbs, and in front of that gate,--firing at the same cannons, serpentines, and other artillery; but they were so valiantly resisted by the inhabitants of Paris, and others resident therein, that they were repulsed. Joachim Rohault came in person with his men to this conflict, in which many of the Burgundians were slain and wounded, which caused them to make a precipitate retreat without attempting any thing more. They were afterward drawn up in battle-array before Paris, as has been already related by Enguerrand de Monstrelet. CHAP. LVIII. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL EVENTS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE REIGNS OF KING CHARLES VII. AND HIS SON LOUIS XI. WHICH HAVE BEEN OMITTED, OR SLIGHTLY MENTIONED, IN THE CHRONICLE OF ENGUERRAND DE MONSTRELET. In order to make a regular report of many events that happened in France and in the adjoining countries, I shall begin at the year 1460, during the reign of king Charles VII. of France. At the commencement of this year, the rivers Seine and Marne were greatly swelled; and the Marne, near to St Maur des Fossés, rose in one night the height of a man, and did very great damage to all the country round. This river caused such an inundation at the village of Claye[66] that it swept away a mansion of the bishop of Meaux, which had lately had two handsome towers added to it, with fair apartments, having glass windows and mats, and richly furnished with beds, tapestry, and wainscotting,--all of which the river destroyed and carried away.