handed
to the Duke of Orleans, requiring his attendance on the queen. He set
forth on a mule, accompanied by two squires and five servants carrying
torches. It was a sombre night, and as the unsuspecting prince rode up
the Rue Vieille du Temple behind his little escort, humming a tune and
playing with his glove, a band of assassins fell upon him from the
shadow of the postern La Barbette, crying "_a mort, a mort_" and he
was hacked to death. Then issued from a neighbouring house at the
sign of Our Lady, Jean sans Peur, a tall figure concealed in a red
cloak, lantern in hand, who gazed at the mutilated corpse. "_C'est
bien_," said he, "let's away." They set fire to the house to divert
attention and escaped. Four months before, the house had been hired on
the pretext of storing provisions, and for two weeks a score of
assassins had been concealed there, biding their time. On the morrow,
Burgundy with the other princes went to asperse the dead body with
holy water in the church of the Blancs Manteaux, and as he drew nigh,
exclaiming against the foul murder, blood is said to have issued from
the wounds. At the funeral he held a corner of the pall, but his guilt
was an open secret, and though he braved it out for a time he was
forced to flee to his lands in Flanders for safety. In a few months,
however, Jean was back in force at Paris, and a doctor of the Sorbonne
pleaded an elaborate justification of the deed before the assembled
princes, nobles, clergy and citizens at the Hotel St. Paul. The poor
crazy king was made to declare publicly that he bore no ill-will to
his dear cousin of Burgundy, and later, on the failure of a conspiracy
of revenge by the queen and the Orleans party, to grant full pardon
for a deed "committed for the welfare of the kingdom." The cutting of
the Rue Etienne Marcel has exposed the strong machicolated tower still
bearing the arms of Burgundy (two planes and a plumb line), which Jean
sans Peur built to fortify the Hotel de Bourgogne, as a defence and
refuge against the Orleans faction and the people of Paris. The
Orleans family had for arms a knotted stick, with the device "_Je
l'ennuis_": the Burgundian arms with the motto, "_Je le tiens_,"
implied that the knotted stick was to be planed and levelled.

The arrival of Jean sans Peur, and the fortification of his hotel were
the prelude to civil war, for the Orleanists and their allies had
rallied to the Count of Armagnac, whose daughter Anne, the new