On Thursday, the 16th of February, Charlot le Tonnellier, surnamed La Hotte, a journeyman hosier living at Paris, was confined in the Châtelet for divers thefts he was charged with. He denied his guilt, and was ordered by the provost of Paris, and the crown-officers at the Châtelet, to be put on his trial. He appealed, and by arrest of judgement, was remanded by the provost; but as he was passing from his cell to the chamber of torture, he caught up a knife that lay in his way and cut out his tongue. He was, therefore, led back again, without any thing more being done on that day. At this time, some of the dykes in Holland and Zealand that had been constructed against the sea broke down, and caused so great an inundation in the countries of the duke of Burgundy that many towns and places were utterly destroyed. The damages were said to be much more considerable than what the duke, in his fury, had inflicted on Liege. When Charlot le Tonnellier was cured of the wounds he had inflicted on himself by cutting out his tongue, he was again brought to the torture-chamber, because he would not confess his guilt. Having been for some time seated on the stool of torture, he said he would confess the truth, and then told the whole history of his life, and the great number of thefts that he had committed. He accused many as his accomplices, and in the number his own brother surnamed Le Gendarme, a locksmith, a silversmith, a sergeant fieffé[26] named Pierre Moynet, and others, who were all immediately arrested, examined, and confronted with Charlot. Having confessed their guilt, on Tuesday in Passion-week, La Hotte, his brother, the sergeant, the locksmith, a shearman, and an old cloaths man called Martin de Coulogne, were ordered to be hanged on the gibbet at Paris by sentence of the provost of Paris. They appealed to the parliament against his judgement, and the court confirmed the sentence in regard to four of them, namely, La Hotte, his brother, the shearman, and the locksmith, who were on the following day executed. The two others, namely, the old cloaths man and the sergeant, were detained in prison until after the feast of Easter, when the old cloaths man was given up to the provost, and executed on the eve of Low Sunday. On Good Friday of this year was much thunder and lightning, which alarmed many persons, from the old saying, 'that none should say, Alas! if thunder be not heard in March.' FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 24: Halle,--a town three leagues from Brussels.] [Footnote 25: The cause of the king's ridiculous order to seize all the tame magpies in Paris was owing to many of the Parisians having taught them to cry 'Peronne!' whence he had so narrowly escaped from the duke of Burgundy.] [Footnote 26: A sergeant fieffé,--Cotgrave says, was an hereditary sergeant employed in the collection of taxes, &c.] [A.D. 1469.] CHAP. X.