take such oaths as are usually taken, or any more solemn ones, such as you shall think proper.

Item, we recommend that the defence of the frontiers of Picardy, of Acquitaine, and of other parts, be sufficiently provided for, by allotting adequate sums of money for the payment of men at arms and repairs of castles, so that all danger of invasion, and other inconveniences, may be prevented.

Item, to check as much as possible the daily oppression of the lower orders, by provosts and other inferior officers, it will be necessary to nominate honest and discreet persons, with moderate salaries, to overlook their conduct, and see that these men do not surcharge the poor by exorbitant fines.

Itcm, there are several other oppressive grievances that have lasted for a considerable time, and which cannot be immediately remedied. Your daughter and aforesaid dutiful subjects promise to apply themselves diligently concerning them; and they most humbly and earnestly supplicate you to reform the abuses they have stated to you, and more especially those that relate to your treasury, which has been exceedingly wasted, and that without any

⚫ cause. They also beg of you to appoint commission of the princes of your blood, with other well-informed persons, no way connected or related to those who have had the management of your finances, that they may reform and punish all who have been culpable, let their rank be what it may.

Item, we also entreat that you would order the prelates and chief citizens in the different provinces, to impeach those who in their districts have been guilty of any peculations in your finances. All these things, most redoubted lord, have your aforesaid daughter and dutiful subjects laid before you, as being anxiously interested in your honour and welfare, and in the preservation of your crown and kingdom. Your aforesaid daughter has not done this through any expectation of worldly profit, but simply as her duty; for it is well known she has not been accustomed to hold offices, nor to seek for such profits, but solely to attend to her studies, and to remonstrate with you on what touches your honour and welfare whenever the case may require it.

1

But although she has several times presented herself before you, to remonstrate on some of the before-mentioned grievances,

no remedy has been hitherto applied, by which your kingdom is in the utmost possible danger. Your faithful and loyal subjects again acquit themselves of their duty; and, that the reformation may now be entered upon in earnest, your aforesaid daughter requires the aid of your eldest son the duke of Acquitaine, and of the duke of Burgundy, by whom a reform was some time since begun, with heart and hand, without sparing any one, with whom your daughter joined, considering such reformation was so much wanted.

. However, from the great opposition made by those who were interested in checking it, no great progress was made, for they were afraid the consequences would have been fatal to them. They urged every objection to it, as well as those now in power. We demand also the assistance of our much-honoured lords of Nevers, of Vertus, of Charolois, of Bar, and of Lorraine, of the constable and marshal of France, of the grand master of Rhodes, of the admiral, of the master of the cross-bows, and in general of all the chivalry and esquiredom in the realm, whose peculiar duty is to watch for the preservation of your crown, and also of your counsellors and all other your subjects,

who, according to their several situations, may wish to acquit themselves toward your majesty.!!

It has been publicly said by some, that your aforesaid daughter has made this exposition to your majesty, through hatred to particular persons, and from the reports of five or six. May it please you to know, that she has never been accustomed to gain information by such means, but has learnt the existence of the before-stated grievances from their public notoriety; and there is no man so ignorant as not to be fully sensible of the truths we have asserted, and of the culpability of those we have impeached. She has also received informations from many who are attached to your person, who have not indeed been gainers by it; but in further regard to them, she will be silent, unless you shall order otherwise in a private audience.

Your daughter, therefore, concludes by begging your majesty to pursue diligently, and without delay, an examination and reform of the above grievances, in which she will join without the least personal disrepect to your royal person, otherwise your daughter would not acquit herself properly in regard to your royal majesty.'

After this conclusion, the university demanded of the princes, prelates, and lords, then present, that they would avow that what they had declared would be for the honour of the king and the welfare of the kingdom, which they complied with; adding, that they were ready to assist in carrying the aforesaid reforms into execution to the utmost of their power.

The king's ministers, more especially those of the finances, were thunderstruck, and fearful of an immediate arrest. Among them, master Henry de Marle, chancellor of France, seeing that he was accused with the others, found means of admission to the king, and by his fair promises, and by engaging to pay a very large sum of ready money within a few days, he contrived to gain his tavour.

On the following Saturday, the 24 day of March, Andrew Cuiffart, one of the treasurers, was arrested and confined in the Châtelet: his associate, John Guerin, took refuge in a church, and thither also fled sir Peter des Essars, provost of Paris, who lately had great command in the expedition to Bourges. The duke of Burgundy had hitherto supported him, but his affection was cooled, for the provost