[26] [Maillart entered into communication with two leaders of the dauphin’s party, Pépin des Essarts and John de Charny. All three with their men “came properly armed, a little before midnight, to the porte St. Denis, where they found the provost of the merchants with the keys of the gate in his hand. Upon this, John Maillart said to him, calling him by his name, ‘Étienne, what do you do here at this time of night?’ The provost replied, ‘John, why do you ask it? I am here to take care of, and to guard the city, of which I have the government.’ ‘By God,’ answered John, ‘things shall not go on so: you are not here at this hour for any good, which I will now show you,’ addressing himself to those near him; ‘for see how he has got the keys of the gate in his hand, to betray the city.’ The provost said, ‘John, you lie.’ John replied, ‘It is you, Étienne, who lie’; and rushing on him, cried to his people, ‘Kill them, kill them: now strike home, for they are all traitors.’ There was a very great bustle; and the provost would gladly have escaped, but John struck him such a blow with his axe on the head, that he felled him to the ground, although he was his comrade, and never left him until he had killed him. Six others, who were present, were also killed; the remainder were carried to prison. They then put themselves in motion, and awakened everyone in the different streets of Paris.”[g]] [27] [According to Leber,[m] the king’s ransom would equal 247,500,000 modern francs; and he adds: “This sum, enormous as it is, cannot equal the total of the single ransoms that went out of the country during this reign.”] [28] [This famous house consisted of but four dukes: Philip the Bold, 1363; John the Fearless, 1404; Philip the Good, 1419; and Charles the Bold (_le téméraire_), 1467-1477.] [29] [This story is related by Froissart[g], but, as Martin[b] says, “the fact is more than doubtful.” Charles’ biographer, Christine de Pisan,[p] is unable to give the cause of the king’s constitutional weakness.] [Illustration] CHAPTER VII. THE BETRAYAL OF THE KINGDOM Fourteenth century France was the prey of Anarchy, of Civil War, of Foreign Invasion. When one considers the unhappy reigns of Philip of Valois and of John, the captivity of the king, the occupation of France by the English, the insanity of Charles VI, and the crimes of Isabella of Bavaria, one can explain why two centuries separated the literary epoch of France from that of Italy.--VILLEMAIN.[t] [Sidenote: [1380-1422 A.D.]]