oad thither. On the other hand, those of Paris had also been
informed of the treasures Meaux contained, and had set out from that
place in crowds. Having met the others, they amounted together to nine
thousand men. Their forces were augmenting every step they advanced.

They came to the gates of the town, which the inhabitants opened to them
and allowed them to enter; they did so in such numbers that all the
streets were quite filled, as far as the market-place, which is
tolerably strong, but it required to be guarded, though the river Marne
nearly surrounds it. The noble dames who were lodged there, seeing such
multitudes rushing toward them, were exceedingly frightened. On this,
the two lords and their company advanced to the gate of the
market-place, which they had opened, and, marching under the banners of
the Earl of Foix and Duke of Orleans, and the pennon of the Captal of
Buch, posted themselves in front of this peasantry, who were badly
armed.

When these banditti perceived such a troop of gentlemen, so well
equipped, sally forth to guard the market-place, the foremost of them
began to fall back. The gentlemen then followed them, using their lances
and swords. When they felt the weight of their blows, they, through
fear, turned about so fast they fell one over the other. All manner of
armed persons then rushed out of the barriers, drove them before them,
striking them down like beasts, and clearing the town of them; for they
kept neither regularity nor order, slaying so many that they were tired.
They flung them in great heaps into the river. In short, they killed
upward of seven thousand. Not one would have escaped if they had chosen
to pursue them farther.

On the return of the men-at-arms, they set fire to the town of Meaux,
burned it; and all the peasants they could find were shut up in it,
because they had been of the party of the Jacks. Since this discomfiture
which happened to them at Meaux, they never collected again in any great
bodies; for the young Enguerrand de Coucy had plenty of gentlemen under
his orders, who destroyed them, wherever they could be met with, without
mercy.

CONQUESTS OF TIMUR THE TARTAR

A.D. 1370-1405

EDWARD GIBBON

Timur, better known as Tamerlane ("Timur the Lame"), was
born in Central Asia--probably in the village of Sebzar,
near Samarkand, in Transoxiana (Turkestan). He is supposed
to have been descended from a follower of Genghis Khan,
founder of