ir horses an hour or two to rest, they rode forward, and
pressing on without halt or delay, save such as was absolutely needed by
the horses, they arrived at Meaux late the following night, and found to
their delight that the insurgents, although swarming in immense numbers
round the town, had not yet attacked it.

The arrival of the three knights and their followers was greeted with
joy by the ladies. They, with their guard, had taken up their position
in the market-house and market-place, which were separated from the
rest of the town by the river Maine, which flows through the city.
A consultation was at once held, and it being found that the Duke of
Orleans had but twenty men-at-arms with him it was determined that it
was impossible to defend the city walls, but that upon the following
morning they would endeavour to cut their way with the ladies through
the peasant hosts. In the night, however, an uproar was heard in the
city. The burghers had risen and had opened the gates to the peasants,
who now poured in in thousands. Every hour increased their numbers.

The market-place was besieged in the morning, and an hour or two
afterwards a large body of the ruffians of Paris, under the command of a
brutal grocer named Pierre Gille, arrived to swell their ranks.

The attack on the market-house continued, and the Duke of Orleans held
a consultation with the three knights. It was agreed that against such
a host of enemies the market-place could not long be defended, and that
their best hope lay in sallying out and falling upon the assailants.
Accordingly the men-at-arms were drawn up in order, with the banners of
the Duke of Orleans and the Count de Foix, and the pennons of the
Captal and Sir Walter Somers displayed, the gates were opened, and with
levelled lances the little party rode out. Hitherto nothing had been
heard save yells of anticipated triumph and fierce imprecations and
threats against the defenders from the immense multitude without; but
the appearance of the orderly ranks of the knights and men-at-arms as
they issued through the gate struck a silence of fear through the mass.

Without an instant's delay the knights and men-at-arms, with levelled
lances, charged into the multitude. A few attempted to fight, but more
strove to fly, as the nobles and their followers, throwing away their
lances, fell upon them with sword and battle-axe. Jammed up in the
narrow streets of a small walled town, overthrowing and i