n thus upheld,
reprisals began to be taken for the outbreaks of the Parisians, municipal
magistrates or populace, burgesses or artisans, rich or poor, in the
course of the two preceding years;--arrests, imprisonments, fines,
confiscations, executions, severities of all kinds fell upon the most
conspicuous and the most formidable of those who had headed or favored
popular movements. The most solemn and most iniquitous of these
punishments was that which befell the advocate-general, John Desmarets.
"For nearly a whole year," says the monk of St. Denis, "he had served as
mediator between the king and the Parisians; he had often restrained the
fury and stopped the excesses of the populace, by preventing them from
giving rein to their cruelty. He was always warning the factious that to
provoke the wrath of the king and the princes was to expose themselves to
almost certain death. But, yielding to the prayers of this rebellious
and turbulent mob, he, instead of leaving Paris as the rest of his
profession had done, had remained there, and throwing himself boldly
amidst the storms of civil discord, he had advised the assumption of arms
and the defence of the city, which he knew was very displeasing to the
king and the grandees." When he was taken to execution, "he was put on a
car higher than the rest, that he might be better seen by everybody."
Nothing shook for a moment the firmness of this old man of seventy years.
"Where are they who judged me?" he said: "let them come and set forth the
reasons for my death. Judge me, O God, and separate my cause from that
of the evil-doers." On his arrival at the market-place, some of the
spectators called out to him, "Ask the king's mercy, Master John, that he
may pardon your offences." He turned round, saying, "I served well and
loyally his great-grandfather King Philip, his grandfather King John, and
his father King Charles; none of those kings ever had anything to
reproach me with, and this one would not reproach me any the more if he
were of a grown man's age and experience. I don't suppose that he is a
whit to blame for such a sentence, and I have no cause to cry him mercy.
To God alone must I cry for mercy, and I pray Him to forgive my sins."
Public respect accompanied the old and courageous magistrate beyond the
scaffold; his corpse was taken up by his friends, and at a later period
honorably buried in the church of St. Catherine.

After the chastisements came galas again, o