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But these are exceptional seasons, and for the most part he merely rides at the Gascon's bridle over devastated France. His very party go, not by the name of Orleans, but by the name of Armagnac. Paris is in the hands of the butchers: the peasants have taken to the woods. Alliances are made and broken as if in a country dance; the English called in, now by this one, now by the other.
By their mediation a treaty was concluded between the Queen, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Dauphin; but it was no sooner published than the Count of Armagnac and his partisans made a vehement protest against it and accused of treason all who had promoted it.
But he barred the way with his staff, and, for me, I gripped to my whinger, and watched my chance to run in under his guard. For this cordelier was not to be respected, I deemed, like others of the Order of St. Francis, and all men of Holy Church. "Answer a civil question," he said, "before it comes to worse: Armagnac or Burgundy?" "Armagnac," I answered, "or anything else that is not English.
He had promised the young Count of Armagnac to exact justice for his father's cruel death; and the old friends of the house of Orleans remained faithful to their enmities. The Duke of Burgundy had at one time to fight, and at another to negotiate with the dauphin and the King of England, both at once, and always without success.
In the duke's household many of his most devoted servants were opposed to this interview; the place, they said, had been chosen by and would be under the ordering of the dauphin's people, of the old servants of the Duke of Orleans and the Count of Armagnac. At the same time four successive messages came from Paris urging the duke to make the plunge; and at last he took his resolution.
Their company consisted of 'prentice-butchers, medical students, skinners, tailors, and every kind of lewd fellows. When anybody caused their displeasure they said, 'Here's an Armagnac, and despatched him on the spot, and plundered his house, or dragged him off to prison to pay dear for his release. The rich burgesses lived in fear and peril.
Now, this lord is one that would fain run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, and this side of him is Burgundian and that is Armagnac, and on which of the sides his heart is, none knows. At Azincour, as I have heard, he played the man reasonably well. But he waxes very fat for a man-at-arms, and is fond of women, and wine, and of his ease.
Armagnac and Brun were waving their hats wildly, and even the Doctor's enemies roared applause at this unexpected defiance. Once more a few sentences were inaudible, but they could hear him say: "To my friends I myself should always prefer weapons purely intellectual, and to these an evolved humanity will certainly confine itself.
Translation by Caxton of Recueil des Histoires des Troyes. Normandy ravaged by Charles the Bold. Philippe de Comines, the chronicler, enters into the service of Louis XI. Resumption of the commotions in France; the Count of Armagnac assassinated; the Duke of Alençon arrested. Ferdinand and Isabella commence their joint reign in Castile.
The arrival of Jean sans Peur, and the fortification of his hôtel were the prelude to civil war, for the Orleanists and their allies had rallied to the Count of Armagnac, whose daughter Anne, the new Duke Louis of Orleans had married, and fortified themselves in their stronghold on the site now occupied by the Palais Royal.
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