As soon as the princes were arrived before Paris, they all began to tamper with the citizens, promising them great places and rewards, and everything that might any ways contribute towards advancing their design. By that time we had lain three days before the town, there was held a grand assembly in the Hotel de Ville of Paris, in which, after many and long harangues, upon hearing the princes’ summons and propositions, which (as was pretended) were for no other end than the good of the public; it was unanimously resolved to send commissioners to them to treat of a peace. Whereupon a great number of substantial citizens went to wait on the princes at St. Maur; and Maître Guillaume Chartier[125] (a person of great parts and eloquence, and at that time Bishop of Paris) was their speaker; and the lords appointed the Count of Dunois to be theirs. The Duke of Berry, the king’s brother, was president of the council, and sat in a chair of state, and all the rest of the princes stood round him: on one hand the Dukes of Bretagne and Calabria, and on the other the Count of Charolois, completely armed (all but his head-piece and gauntlets), with a very rich mantle thrown over his cuirass; for he had come from Conflans, and the Bois-de-Vincennes had in it a strong garrison for the king, so that it was necessary for him to come with a strong guard. The request and object of the princes were to be admitted into Paris, to hold friendly consultation with the citizens about reformation of the government, of which they sadly complained, and charged the king with numerous acts of injustice and mal-administration. The answer of the citizens was full of respect and modesty, yet not without some hesitation and demur. However, notwithstanding that, the king was afterwards displeased with the bishop, and with all that went with him. In this manner the commissioners returned, and great practices and intrigues were still carried on; for every one of the princes had a private conference with the citizens; and I believe it was secretly agreed by some of them, that the lords in their own persons might enter the town, and their army pass through it in small bodies at a time, if they desired it. This admission of the princes would not only have been the means of gaining the town, but of finishing the whole enterprise; for the whole people would, for several reasons, have easily gone over, in imitation of their example, to their side, and by consequence the whole kingdom would have revolted. But God gave the king wise counsel, and he executed it vigorously: being informed of all their secret practices and cabals, before the commissioners, who had been to wait on the princes, had made their report, the king arrived in Paris[126], in the condition of a prince that came to relieve and animate his subjects; for he came with a very great company, and brought above 2000 men-at-arms into the city, all the nobility of Normandy, a great number of volunteers, his