The common rumour was, that, at this meeting, the king of France required of the duke that he should restore to him the castlewicks of Lille, Douay, and Orchies, in consideration of two hundred thousand livres in cash, and ten thousand livres a-year that he would pay him,--for which sums they had been pledged by a king of France to an earl of Flanders. The duke replied, that when his grandfather duke Philip of Burgundy, son to king John of France, married the lady Margaret, heiress to the earl of Flanders, these castlewicks were given him by the king of France, to be enjoyed by him and his heirs-male for ever,---but that, should there be no male heirs, these castlewicks were to be restored to the crown, on payment of the above sums to the earl of Flanders. The king, as was said, made other requests to the duke, who granted none of them, as he thought them unreasonable. The duke, on his part, made three requests to the king: first, that he would have in his good graces the count de Charolois, having heard that the king was displeased with him. Secondly, that he would desist from constraining such of the nobility as held fiefs under the crown from taking any other but the usual oaths,--for some of the nobles had been forced to make oath to serve him against all other men whatever. Thirdly, that he would finish and fulfil all that he had promised and sworn to respecting various articles of the treaty of Arras, at the time he made his payment for the recovery of the towns on the Somme. To all which requests the king evaded giving any positive answer, and the next day departed from Hêdin, for Abbeville and Rouen. Shortly after, namely, about the end of July, the king returned to Nouvion, a village near the forest of Cressy, where he staid some time; but though the duke was still at Hêdin, they no longer visited each other,--but the lord de Croy went often to talk with the king, and then returned to Hêdin. While the duke was at Hêdin, he hanged on a gibbet a gentleman called Jean de l'Esquerre, for many heavy crimes of which he had been guilty, notwithstanding that he was one of the most valiant men in the county of Artois, and that his friends made urgent requests to save him; but all they could obtain was liberty to take his body from the gibbet, and inter it in the church of the Cordeliers at Hêdin. On the 15th of August, this year, died pope Pius; and on the day of his decease the lightning struck many places in the neighbourhood of Rome, and did great damage: of this event, people spoke differently. After the death of pope Pius II. pope Paul II.[34] as elected in his room. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 34: Paul II. Pietro Barbo, a Venetian.] CHAP. XXIX. THE BASTARD DE REUBEMPRÉ IS SENT TO HOLLAND, TO ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE COUNT DE CHAROLOIS.--HE IS ARRESTED HIMSELF.