Page 52.

- To reach the o'er-hanging fruit.
High favours like as fig-trees are

That grow upon the sides of rocks, where they
Who reach their fruit adventure must so far

As to hazard their deep downfal.

Page 52. A banish'd man,

De Serres says,

Daniel.

Dunois !

"the king was wonderfully discontented for the departure of Tanneguy of Chastel, whom he called father. A man beloved, and of amiable conditions. But there was no remedy. He had given the chief stroke to John Burgongne. So likewise he protested without any difficulty, to retire himself whithersoever his master should command him."

Richemont caused De Giac to be strangled in his bed, and thrown into the Loire, to punish the negligence that had occasioned him to be defeated by an inferior force at Avranches. The constable had laid siege to St James de Beuvron, a place strongly garrisoned by the English. He had been promised a convoy of money, which De Giac, who had the management of the treasury, purposely detained to mortify the constable. Richemont openly accused the treasurer, and revenged himself thus violently. After this, he boldly declared that he would serve in the same manner any person whatsoever that should endeavour to engross the

king's favour. The Camus of Beaulieu accepted De Giac's place, and was by the constable's means assassinated in the king's presence.

Page 52.—Whose death my arm avenged.

The duke of Orleans was, on a Wednesday, the feastday of pope St. Clement, assassinated in Paris, about seven o'clock in the evening, on his return from dinner. The murder was committed by about eighteen men, who had lodged at an hotel having for sign the image of our Lady, near the Port Barbette, and who, it was afterwards discovered, had for several days intended this assassination.

On the Wednesday before mentioned, they sent one named Scas de Courteheuze, valet de chambre to the king, and one of their accomplices, to the duke of Orleans, who had gone to visit the queen of France at an hotel which she had lately purchased from Montagu, grand master of the king's household, situated very near the Port Barbette. She had lain in there of a child, which had died shortly after its birth, and had not then accomplished the days of her purification.

Scas, on his seeing the duke, said, by way of deceiving, "My lord, the king sends for you, and you must instantly hasten to him, for he has business of great importance to you and him, which he must communicate to you." The duke, on hearing this message, was eager to obey the king's orders, although the

monarch knew nothing of the matter, and immediately mounted his mule, attended by two esquires on one horse, and four or five valets on foot, who followed behind bearing torches; but his other attendants made no haste to follow him. He had made this visit in a private manner, notwithstanding at this time he had within the city of Paris six hundred knights and esquires of his retinue, and at his expence.

On his arrival at the Port Barbette, the eighteen men, all well and secretly armed, were waiting for him, and were lying in ambush under shelter of a penthouse. The night was pretty dark, and as they sallied out against him, one cried out, "Put him to death!" and gave him such a blow on the wrist with his battle-axe as severed it from his arm.

The duke, astonished at this attack, cried out, "I am the duke of Orleans!" when the assassins continuing their blows, answered, "you are the person we were looking for." So many rushed on him that he was struck off his mule, and his skull was split that his brains were dashed on the pavement. They turned him over and over, and massacred him that he was very soon completely dead. A young esquire, a German by birth, who had been his page, was murdered with him: seeing his master struck to the ground, he threw himself on his body to protect him, but in vain, and he suffered for his generous courage. The horse which carried the two esquires that preceded the duke, seeing

so many armed men advance, began to snort, and when he passed them set out on a gallop, so that it was some time before he could be checked.

When the esquires had stopped their horse, they saw their lord's mule following them full gallop: having caught him, they fancied the duke must have fallen, and were bringing it back by the bridle; but on their arrival where their lord lay, they were menaced by the assassins, that if they did not instantly depart they should share his fate. Seeing their lord had been thus basely murdered, they hastened to the hotel of the queen, crying out, Murder! Those who had killed the duke, in their turn, bawled out, Fire! and they had arranged their plan that while some were assassinating the duke, others were to set fire to their lodgings. Some mounted on horseback, and the rest on foot, made off as they could, throwing behind them broken glass and sharp points of iron to prevent their being pursued.

Report said that many of them went the back way to the hotel d'Artois, to their master the duke of Burgundy, who had commanded them to do this deed, as he afterwards publicly confessed, to inform him of the success of their murder; when instantly afterward they withdrew to places of safety.

The chief of these assassins, and the conductor of the business, was one called Rollet d'Auctonville, a Norman, whom the duke of Orleans had a little before deprived of his office of commissioner of taxes,

which the king had given to him at the request of the late duke of Burgundy: from that time the said Rollet had been considering how he could revenge himself on the duke of Orleans. His other accomplices were William Courteheuze and Scas Courteheuze, before mentioned, from the country of Guines, John de la Motte, and others to the amount of eighteen.

Within half an hour the household of the duke of Orleans, hearing of this horrid murder, made loud complaints, and with great crowds of nobles and others hastened to the fatal spot, where they found him lying dead in the street. His knight and esquires, and in general all his dependants, made grievous lamentations, seeing him thus wounded and disfigured. With many groans they raised the body and carried it to the hotel of the lord de Rieux, marshal of France, which was hard by; and shortly afterward the body was covered with a white pall, and conveyed most honourably to the Guillemins, where it lay, as being the nearest church to where the murder had been committed.

Soon afterward the king of Sicily, and many other princes, knights, and esquires, having heard of this foul murder of the only brother of the king of France, came with many tears to visit the body. It was put into a leaden coffin, and the monks of the church, with all the late duke's household, watched it all night, saying prayers, and singing psalms over it. On the morrow, his servants found the hand which had been cut off, and collected much of the brains that had been scattered