t the Duke of Burgundy took up arms
and marched on Paris. Charles VI., on his side, annulled, in the
presence of Parliament, all acts adverse to the Duke of Orleans and his
adherents; and the king, the queen, and the _dauphin_ bound themselves by
oath not to treat with the duke of Burgundy until they had destroyed his
power. At the end of March, 1414, the king's army was set in motion;
Compiegne, Soissons, and Bapaume, which held out for the Duke of
Burgundy, were successively taken by assault or surrendered; the royal
troops treated the people as vanquished rebels; and the four great
communes of Flanders sent a deputation to the king to make protestations
of their respect and an attempt to arrange matters between their lord and
his suzerain. Animosity was still too lively and too recent in the
king's camp to admit of satisfaction with a victory as yet incomplete.
On the 28th of July began the siege of Arras; but after five weeks the
besiegers had made no impression; an epidemic came upon them; the Duke of
Bavaria and the constable, Charles d'Albret, were attacked by it;
weariness set in on both sides; the Duke of Burgundy' himself began to be
anxious about his position; and he sent the Duke of Brabant, his brother,
and the Countess of Hainault, his sister, to the king and the _dauphin_,
with more submissive words than he had hitherto deigned to utter. The
Countess of Hainault, pleading the ties of family and royal interests,
managed to give the _dauphin_ a bias towards peace; and the _dauphin_ in
his turn worked upon the mind of the king, who was becoming more and more
feeble and accessible to the most opposite impressions. It was in vain
that the most intimate friends of the Duke of Orleans tried to keep the
king steadfast in his wrath from night to morning. One day, when he was
still in bed, one of them softly approaching and putting his hand under
the coverlet, said, plucking him by the foot, "My lord, are you asleep?"
"No, cousin," answered the king; "you are quite welcome; is there
anything new?" "No, sir; only that your people report that if you would
assault Arras there would be good hope of effecting an entry." "But if
my cousin of Burgundy listens to reason, and puts the town into my hands
without assault, we will make peace." "What! sir; you would make peace
with this wicked, this disloyal man who so cruelly had your brother
slain?" "But all was forgiven him with the consent of my nephew of
Orleans,"