[Footnote 588: _Taille_, so called from a notched stick (Eng. tally), used by the tax-collector, the number of notches indicating the amount of the tax due. There were two _tailles_: _la taille seigneuriale_, a contribution paid by serfs to their lord; and _la taille royale_, paid by the third estate to the King. The latter was first levied by Philippe le Bel (1285-1314), but was only an occasional tax until the reign of Charles VII, who converted it into a regular impost. But although collected at stated intervals its amount varied from reign to reign, becoming intolerably burdensome under the spendthrift kings, while wise rulers, like Henri IV, considerably reduced it. It was not abolished until the Revolution (W.S.).] [Footnote 589: _Recueil des ordonnances_, vol. xiii, p. xcix, and the index of this volume under the word _Impots_. Loiseleur, _Compte des depenses_, pp. 51 _et seq._ A. Thomas, _Les etats generaux sous Charles VII_ in the _Cabinet historique_, vol. xxiv, 1878. _Les etats provinciaux de la France centrale sous Charles VII_, Paris, 1879, 2 vols. in 8vo, _passim_.] [Footnote 590: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii, p. 318. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 390. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 428; vol. ii, pp. 646 _et seq._] In 1427 a free lance, Sabbat by name, in garrison at Langeais, was the terror of Touraine and Anjou. Thus the representatives of the towns were in no hurry to present themselves at the meeting of the Estates. It might have been different had they believed that their money would be employed for the good of the realm. But they knew that the King would first use it to make gifts to his barons. The deputies were invited to come and devise means for the repression of the pillage and plunder from which they were suffering;[591] and, when at the risk of their lives they did come to the royal presence, they were forced to consent to the _taille_ in silence. The King's officers threatened to have them drowned if they opened their mouths. At the meeting of the Estates held at Mehun-sur-Yevre in 1425 the men from the good towns said they would be glad to help the King, but first they desired that an end be put to pillage, and my Lord Bishop of Poitiers, Hugues de Comberel, said likewise. On hearing his words the Sire de Giac said to the King: "If my advice were taken, Comberel would be thrown into the river with the others of his opinion." Whereupon the men from the good towns voted two hundred and sixty thousand livres.[592] In September, 1427, assembled at Chinon, they granted five hundred thousand livres for the war.[593] By writs issued on the 8th of January, 1428, the King summoned the States General to meet six months hence, on the following 18th of July, at Tours.[594] On the 18th of July no one attended. On the 22nd of July came a new summons from the King, commanding the Estates to meet at Tours on the 10th of September.[595]