The ministers, therefore, after having been captives for twelve months, and in hourly dread of death, were only condemned to confiscation of their property, and exile to a distance from the court. With respect to the latter part of the sentence, they might well have exclaimed, like Diogenes, “and we condemn you to remain at court!” Charles, on his temporary return to sanity, restored their estates, but they were not again employed. La Rivière died in 1400, and was buried at St. Denis. There was a moment when the Bastile seemed about to be converted to its original purpose, that of a fortress for the defence of Paris. After the duke of Burgundy had, in 1405, obtained possession of the king, the dauphin, and the capital, preparations to recover Paris were made by the beautiful but worthless queen Isabella, and her paramour, the duke of Orleans. In consequence of this, the Burgundian prince placed garrisons in the Bastile and the Louvre; and a report having been spread, that there was a plot to carry off the dauphin, a chain was stretched across the river, from the Bastile to the opposite bank, to prevent the passage of vessels. It was on this occasion that, to win the good will of the Parisians, the duke induced the king to restore to them the barricading chains, of which they had been deprived in 1383, and which had ever since been kept in the castle of Vincennes. The precautions were prudent, but they were made useless, by a treaty between the hostile parties. It has already been observed, that the office of Provost of Paris was no less perilous than honourable. During the disturbed and disastrous reign of Charles the sixth, there were as many as twenty-four provosts, and there were few of them who did not find their dignity a burthen. Among the most unfortunate of them was Peter des Essarts. He was one of the French nobles who were sent to aid the Scotch in their contest with the English; and, in 1402, he fell into the hands of the latter. After he was ransomed he returned to France, and became a zealous partisan of John the Fearless, the duke of Burgundy. The duke amply rewarded him for his services. He successively obtained for him the posts of Provost of Paris, grand butler, grand falconer, first lay president of the chamber of accounts, supreme commissioner of woods and waters, and superintendant of finance, and also the governments of Cherbourg, Montargis, and Nemours.