s horse, and laid gently
on the ground, and then his jacket was unfastened. His brother and his
uncles came up, but his eyes were fixed and recognized nobody, and he did
not utter a word. 'We must go back to Le Mans,' said the Dukes of Berry
and Burgundy: 'here is an end of the trip to Brittany.' On the way they
fell in with a wagon drawn by oxen; in this they laid the King of France,
having bound him for fear of a renewal of his frenzy, and so took him
back, motionless and speechless, to the town."

It was not a mere fit of delirious fever; it was the beginning of a
radical mental derangement, sometimes in abeyance, or at least for some
time alleviated, but bursting out again without appreciable reason, and
aggravated at every fresh explosion. Charles VI. had always had a taste
for masquerading. When in 1389 the young queen, Isabel of Bavaria, came
to Paris to be married, the king, on the morning of her entry, said to
his chamberlain, Sire de Savoisy, "Prithee, take a good horse, and I will
mount behind thee; and we will dress so as not to be known and go to see
my wife cone in." Savoisy did not like it, but the king insisted; and so
they went in this guise through the crowd, and got many a blow from the
officers' staves when they attempted to approach too near the procession.
In 1393, a year after his first outbreak of madness, the king, during an
entertainment at court, conceived the idea of disguising as savages
himself and five of his courtiers. They had been sewn up in a linen skin
which defined their whole bodies; and this skin had been covered with a
resinous pitch, so as to hold sticking upon it a covering of tow, which
made them appear hairy from head to foot. Thus disguised these savages
went dancing into the ball-room; one of those present took up a lighted
torch and went up to them; and in a moment several of them were in
flames. It was impossible to get off the fantastic dresses clinging to
their bodies. "Save the king!" shouted one of the poor masquers; but it
was not known which was the king. The Duchess de Berry, his aunt,
recognized him, caught hold of him, and wrapped him in her robe, saying,
"Do not move; you see your companions are burning." And thus he was
saved amidst the terror of all present. When he was conscious of his mad
state, he was horrified; he asked pardon for the injury he had done,
confessed and received the communion. Later, when he perceived his
malady returning, he woul