On Saturday, the eve of Whitsunday, was proclaimed through all the squares of Paris, with sound of trumpet, a summons from the constable of France, which included one from the king, to declare that he had received information of his ancient enemies the English having raised a very numerous army for the destruction of his kingdom,--and that they had prepared a fleet, accordingly, to invade his coasts; that the king, being resolved to oppose such wicked attempts to the utmost of his power, had ordered his constable to make proclamation thereof in the usual places throughout the realm, that all the noble tenants of the king, as well those of fief as of arriere-fief, of whatever rank, might be properly prepared with arms, horses, and habiliments for war, on the 15th day of June next ensuing, under pain of corporal punishment and confiscation of effects. All franc-archers and others were, at the same time, ordered to be ready by the said 15th day of June. The king displaced, at this time, the lord des Bordes from being governor of the bastile of St. Anthony at Paris, and gave it to the lord de Blot, seneschal of Auvergne, who was said to be a man of an excellent character. At this period, the lord de Montauban[5], who had been admiral of France, grand master of woods and waters, and the principal cause of the disturbances in Brittany, which were followed by those in France, and who had received immense sums of the public money, died at Tours, and was not much lamented. After his death, the king gave the office of lord high admiral to the lord bastard of Bourbon, who had married his natural daughter,--and the office of grand master of woods and waters to the lord de Châtillon, brother to the marshal of Lohéac. A truce was now concluded by sea and land with England for twenty-two months, which was every where publicly proclaimed. At this time, for some particular cause, the king was moved to displace the count du Maine from his government of Languedoc, and give the same to the bastard of Bourbon,--who also received, in consequence of his marriage with Jeanne, the king's natural daughter, the castle and town of Usson[6] in Auvergne, said to be the strongest place in the kingdom, together with the government of Honnefleur, and other places in Normandy.