ce upon the death of the heir of Artois, which for two days was
publicly proclaimed by servants of the countess through the streets of
Paris, in which city generous alms were distributed to the poor; while
pilgrims were despatched at once to Saint-James of Compostella, to
Saint-Louis of Marseilles, and to other shrines, to intercede for the
soul of the dead. A few weeks later Mahaut ordered a sculptor, Jean
Pepin de Huy, to erect a tomb for the _tres noble homme monseigneur
Robert d'Artois, jadis fiuz (fils) de ladite comtesse_. This tomb, of
white stone, bears a recumbent figure of the young count, clothed in
armor, with long, flowing hair about the handsome, beardless face; it is
now preserved in the Abbey of Saint-Denis, having been moved from the
church of the Cordeliers, where it originally rested over the grave of
Mahaut's son.

Long before the death of Robert, the Countess Mahaut's daughters had
played their brief and disastrous parts in the French court. In January,
1307, in accordance with the treaty agreed to by Count Otho in 1291, the
eldest daughter, Jeanne, was married to Philippe de Poitiers, second son
of King Philippe le Bel. The next year, Blanche, a great deal younger
than Jeanne, but already renowned for her unusual beauty, married
Charles le Bel, Count de la Marche, the youngest of the three sons of
Philippe le Bel, Louis le Hutin, the eldest, having married Marguerite,
sister of Hugues de Bourgogne. After their marriage to the princes of
France, we hear little more of Jeanne and Blanche in the accounts of
their mother, though both were guests at her mansion rather frequently,
and presents of various sorts were exchanged between mother and
daughters, until in 1314 came the great catastrophe.

For some time there had been scandalous rumors at the court about the
conduct of the three young princesses, and in the spring of 1314 the
evil report received such confirmation that the old king, Philippe le
Bel, gave the order to arrest them on charges of having been openly and
scandalously unfaithful to their marriage vows with two young knights of
their suite. Marguerite and Blanche were confined in rigid imprisonment
at the famous Chateau Gaillard, built by Richard of the Lion Heart. They
were stripped of all the glory of fine attire, and their heads were
shaved. Meanwhile, their accomplices in adultery, Philippe and Gautier
d'Aulnai, two Norman knights, were put to the torture, and confessed
that during t