ssals to avenge Duke John." At Paris, on the 12th of
September, the next day but one after the murder, the chancellor, the
parliament, the provost royal, the provost of tradesmen, and all the
councillors and officers of the king assembled, "together with great
number of nobles and burgesses and a great multitude of people," who all
swore "to oppose with their bodies and all their might the enterprise of
the criminal breakers of the peace, and to prosecute the cause of
vengeance and reparation against those who were guilty of the death and
homicide of the late Duke of Burgundy." Independently of party-passion,
such was, in Northern and Eastern France, the general and spontaneous
sentiment of the people. The _dauphin_ and his councillors, in order to
explain and justify their act, wrote in all directions to say that,
during the interview, Duke John had answered the _dauphin_ "with mad
words . . . He had felt for his sword in order to attack and outrage
our person, the which, as we have since found out, he aspired to place in
subjection . . . but, through his own madness, met death instead."
But these assertions found little credence, and one of the two knights
who were singled out by the _dauphin_ to accompany him on to the bridge
of Montereau, Sire de Barbazan, who had been a friend of the Duke of
Orleans and of the Count of Armagnac, said vehemently to the authors of
the plot, "You have destroyed our master's honor and heritage, and I
would rather have died than be present at this day's work, even though I
had not been there to no purpose." But it was not long before an event,
easy to foresee, counterbalanced this general impression and restored
credit and strength to the _dauphin_ and his party. Henry V., King of
England, as soon as he heard about the murder of Duke John, set himself
to work to derive from it all the advantages he anticipated. "A great
loss," said he, "is the Duke of Burgundy; he was a good and true knight
and an honorable prince; but through his death we are by God's help at
the summit of our wishes. We shall thus, in spite of all Frenchmen,
possess Dame Catherine, whom we have so much desired." As early as the
24th of September, 1419, Henry V. gave full powers to certain of his
people to treat "with the illustrious city of Paris and the other towns
in adherence to the said city." On the 17th of October was opened at
Arras a congress between the plenipotentiaries of England and those of
B