The king went into the plain to see the spot where the king his grandfather was encamped, when he besieged Arras, in the year 1414. Thence he returned to the city; and on the morrow departed suddenly, according to his custom, and was followed by his attendants to Tournay, where he was most honourably received,--for upward of three thousand men came out to meet him dressed in white, with a border of flowers de luce round their robes. At the gate was a model, in paper, of a castle, similar to the fortifications of Tournay, which was presented to the king with the keys of the town. From the top of the gate, a virgin (the handsomest girl in the town) descended by machinery, and after saluting the king, threw aside the robe from her breast, and displayed a well-made heart, which burst open, and there came out a golden flower de luce, of great value, which she gave to the king, in the name of the town, saying, 'Sire, I am a virgin, and so is this town,--for it has never been taken, nor has it ever turned from its allegiance to the kings of France,--for all the inhabitants thereof have a flower de luce in their hearts.' The king saw many pageants and histories represented in the streets he passed through,--and he took his lodgings at the house of a canon. From Tournay he went to Lille, where he arrived the 18th of February, then the fourth day of Lent. The duke of Burgundy came to Lille on the eve of the first Sunday in Lent, to wait on the king,--and from that day to the Friday following there were splendid tiltings and other amusements. During their residence at Lille, the king remonstrated personally, and by the means of others, so effectually with the duke, on his intended expedition, that he postponed it for one whole year; when the king promised to give him ten thousand combatants, paid for four months, to attend him whither he should be then pleased to go. It was also said, that the king of England would aid him with a great body of archers. By this means was the expedition to Turkey broken off, to the displeasure of the duke of Burgundy, whose whole desire was to go there for once. When this was settled, the king departed from Lille on his return to France, and found at St Cloud the duke of Savoy, quite debilitated with the gout, and his eldest son, who were there waiting for him. It was rumoured, that they were very unpopular in Savoy, by reason of their not conducting themselves according to the wishes of their people; and that they had chosen the duke's third son, Philip, for their lord, who was reported to be wise, subtle, and valiant in arms. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 32: Arras--is divided into two parts: the cité being the older, and la ville the new town. See _Martiniere's Dictionary_] [A.D. 1464.] CHAP. XXVII.