Upon his return to Paris Charles showed a forbearance unusual in those times of swift reprisals. There were confiscations of the property of some of Marcel’s friends and even the beheading of two of them on the Grève, but that was before the regent’s entrance into the city, and he tactfully steadied popular feeling and gave no rein to the spirit of revenge which he might have been expected to feel. He even entered into an agreement of peace with that weathercock, Charles of Navarre, and Paris and its neighborhood drew a sigh of relief. The dauphin seized the opportunity offered by this time of quiet to make the Louvre more habitable. The ancient tower was left undisturbed except that a gallery sprang from it to the northern wall which Charles built to complete the rectangle which Philip Augustus had begun. Marcel had met his reward in the summer of 1358. The next spring Charles received from London the terms of a treaty which his father had made with king Edward III. A large stretch of western territory was to be yielded to England and an enormous ransom to be paid for the king’s release. It is a testimony to the increased strength of the subject in France that Charles submitted this document to a gathering of deputies who surrounded the regent on the great outer staircase of the palace and filled the courtyard below. They rejected with promptness and scorn the proposal to make their enemies a gift of nearly half of France and to ruin themselves by the raising of the exorbitant sum of four million crowns of gold. If any money was to be raised they preferred to spend it in fighting the English, and they offered their services as soldiers. When Edward learned of France’s refusal to accept the treaty he promptly crossed the Channel. He met with such small success, however, that he was glad to make a compact with Burgundy by which he promised--for a consideration--to let that province alone for two years. Edward then pressed on to Paris which he approached on the south. Charles, learning of his coming, burned all the villages adjoining the city on that side so that the English army would have to seek far for food. He discouraged any response to Edward’s attempts to draw the French soldiers outside the walls, and at the end of a week, the English, bored and hungry, withdrew. Not long after, Charles was able to negotiate the Peace of Brétigny, which was all too hard upon France in its demands for the cession of territory and of a large ransom for John, but which the people, weary of war, received with joy. The bells of Notre Dame pealed their satisfaction, and the light-hearted Parisians danced and feasted in the squares, and entertained heartily the four Englishmen who represented King Edward. Each was given a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, the choicest possession of Paris.