CHAP. V.
THE COMMONALTY OF PARIS ASSEMBLE IN GREAT NUMBERS, AND CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH THEIR PRISONERS.
THE COMMONALTY OF PARIS ASSEMBLE IN GREAT NUMBERS, AND CRUELLY PUT TO DEATH THEIR PRISONERS.
Aboutfour o'clock on the 12th day of June, the populace of Paris rose to the amount of about sixty thousand, fearing (as they said) that the prisoners would be set at liberty, although the new provost of Paris, and other lords, assured them to the contrary. They were armed with old mallets, hatchets, staves, and other disorderly weapons, and paraded through the streets, shouting, 'Long live the king and the duke of Burgundy!' toward the different prisons in Paris, namely, the Palace, St Magloire,St Martin des Champs, the Chatelet, the Temple, and to other places wherein any prisoners were confined.
They forced open all their doors and killed Chepier and Chepiere[2], with the whole of the prisoners, to the amount of sixteen hundred, or thereabout: the principal of whom were the count d'Armagnac constable of France, master Henry de Marle chancellor to the king, the bishops of Coutances, of Bayeux, of Evreux, of Senlis, of Saintes, the count de Grand-Pré, Raymonnet de la Guerre, the abbot de St Conille de Compiegne, sir Hector de Chartres, sir Enguerrand de Marcoignet, Charlot Poupart master of the king's wardrobe, the members of the courts of justice and of the treasury, and in general all they could find: among the number were several even of the burgundian party confined for debt.
In this massacre several women were killed, and left on the spot where they had been put to death. This cruel butchery lasted until ten o'clock in the morningof the following day. Those confined in the grand Chatelet, having arms, defended themselves valiantly, and slew many of the populace; but, on the morrow, by means of fire and smoke, they were conquered, and the mob made many of them leap from the battlements of the towers, when they were received on the points of the spears of those in the streets, and cruelly mangled. At this dreadful business were present the new provost of Paris, sir John de Luxembourg, the lord de Fosseux, the lord de l'Isle-Adam, the vidame of Amiens, the lord de Chevreuse, the lord de Chastellus, the lord de Cohen, sir James de Harcourt, sir Emond de Lombers, the lord d'Auxois, and others, to the amount of upward of a thousand combatants armed and on horseback, ready to defend the murderers should there be any necessity.
Many were shocked and astonished at such cruel conduct; but they dared not say any thing, except 'Well done my boys!' The bodies of the constable, the chancellor, and of Raymonnet de la Guerre were stripped naked, tied together with a cord,and dragged for three days by the blackguards of Paris through the streets. The body of the constable had the breadth of two fingers of his skin cut off crosswise, like to a bend in heraldry, by way of derision; and they were thus publicly exposed quite naked to the sight of all; on the fourth day, they were dragged out of Paris on a hurdle, and buried with the others in a ditch called la Louviere.
Notwithstanding the great lords after this took much pains to pacify the populace, and remonstrated with them, that they ought to allow the king's justice to take its regular course against offenders, they would not desist, but went in great crowds to the houses of such as had favoured the Armagnacs, or of those whom they disliked, and killed them without mercy, carrying away all they could find. In these times, it was enough if one man hated another at Paris, of whatever rank he might be, Burgundian or not, to say, 'There goes an Armagnac,' and he was instantly put to death, without further inquiry being made.
FOOTNOTES:[2]These were probably the gaoler and his wife.
[2]These were probably the gaoler and his wife.
[2]These were probably the gaoler and his wife.