"Serve him my royal Master; in his cause "To reach the o'er-hanging * fruit. Thou seest me here +Tanneguy du Châtel had saved the life of Charles when Paris was seized by the Burgundians. Lisle Adam, a man noted for ferocity even in that age, was admitted at midnight into the city with eight hundred horse. The partizans of Burgundy were under arms to assist them, and a dreadful slaughter of the Armagnacs ensued. Du Châtel, then Governor of the Bastile, being unable to restrain the tumult, ran to the Louvre, and carried away the Dauphin in his shirt, in order to secure him in his fortress. * High favours like as fig trees are Rapin. That grow upon the sides of rocks, where they As to hazard their deep downfall. Daniel. "A banish'd + man, Dunois! so to appease "The proud and powerful Richemont, *who, long time "Most sternly jealous of the royal ear, "With midnight murder leagues, and down the Loire, "Rolls the black carcase of his strangled foe. + De Serres says "the King was wonderfully discontented for the departure of Tanneguy of Chastel, whom he called father. A man beloved, and of amiable conditions. But there was no remedy. He had given the chief stroke to John Burgongne. So likewise he protested without any difficulty, to retire himself whithersoever his master should command him. * Richemont caused De Giac to be strangled in his bed, and thrown into the Loire, to punish the negligence that had occasioned him to be defeated by an inferior force at Avranches. The Constable had laid siege to St. James de Beuvron, a place strongly garrisoned by the English. He had been promised a convoy of money, which De Giac, who had the management of the treasury, purposely detained to mortify the constable. Richemont openly accused the treasurer, and revenged himself thus violently. After this, he boldly decla. red that he would serve in the same manner any person whatsover that should endeavour to engross the King's favour. The. Camus of Beaulieu accepted De Giac's place, and was by the constable's means assassinated in the King's presence. "Now confident of strength, at the King's feet "He stabs the King's best friends, and then demands, "As with a conqueror's imperious tone, "The post of honour. Son of that lov'd Chief "Whose death my *arm avenged, may thy days "The Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy had agreed to bury all past quarrels in oblivion, and to enter into strict amity: they swore before the altar the sincerity of their friendship; the priest administered the sacrament to both of them; they gave to each other every pledge which could be deemed sacred among men. But all this solemn preparation was only a cover for the basest treachery, which was deliberately premeditated by the Duke of Burgundy. He procured his rival to be assassinated in the streets of Paris; he endeavoured for some time to conceal the part which he took in the crime, but being detected, he embraced a resolution still more criminal and more dangerous to society, by openly avowing and justifying it. The Parliament itself of Paris, the tribunal of justice, heard the harangues of the Duke's advocate, in defence of assassination, which he termed tyranni-. cide; and that assembly, partly influenced by faction, partly overawed by power, pronounced no sentence of condemnation against this detestable doctrine."- "This murder, and still more the open avowal of the deed, and defence of the doctrine, tended to dissolve all bands of civil society, and even men of "Be happy; serve thy country in the field, "And in the hour of peace amid thy friends "Dwell thou without ambition." honour, who detested the example, might deem it just, on a favourable opportunity, to retaliate upon the author. Burgundy had entered into a secret treaty with the Dauphin, and the two Princes agreed to an interview, in order to concert the means of rendering effectual their common attack on the English; but how both or either of them could with safety venture upon this conference, it seemed somewhat difficult to contrive. The Duke, therefore, who neither dared to give, nor could pretend to expect any truft, agreed to all the contrivances for mutual security which were proposed by the Ministers of the Dauphin. The two Princes came to Monteseau; the Duke lodged in the castle, the Dauphin in the town, which was divided from the castle by the river Yonne; the bridge between them was chosen for the place of interview; two high rails were drawn across the bridge; the gates on each side were guarded, one by the officers of the Dauphin, the other by those of the Duke. The Princes were to enter into the intermediate space by the opposite gates, accompanied each by ten persons, and with all these marks of diffidence, to conciliate their mutual friendship. But it appeared that no precautions are sufficient where laws have no place, and where all principles of honour are utterly abandoned. Tanneguy du Chatel, and others of the Dauphin's retainers, had So he spake. But when the Bastard told the wonderous tale, How interposing Heaven had its high aid. Vouchsafed to France, the old man's eyes flash'd fire, And rising from the bank, the stately steed That grazed beside he mounts. “Farewell Dunois, "Thou too the Delegate of Heaven, farewell! "I go to raise the standard! we shall meet "At Orleans." O'er the plain he spurr'd his steed. They journey on their way till Chinon's towers Of Charles, for Paris with her servile sons, been zealous partizans of the late Duke of Orleans, and they determined to seize the opportunity of revenging on the assassin the murder of that Prince. They no sooner entered the rails, than they drew their swords, and attacked the Duke of Burgundy. His friends were astonished, and thought not of making any defence; and all of them either shared his fate, or were taken prisoners by the retinue of the Dauphin. Hume. |