ng and acquitting this confessed murderer of the king's
brother, upon the ground that tyrannicide is a duty; the sad, crazed
wraith of a king saying the words he had been taught: "Fair cousin, we
pardon you all." And the tragedy and comedy were over!

There was now no check upon the Burgundian power. In the worst days of
English occupation of her land, France had been in less danger from
Edward III. than she now was from the Duke of Burgundy, champion and
defender of the people! The immediate object of the Burgundian or
people's party, and the Orleans and aristocratic party, was the
possession of the person of the king, and control of his acts during
his few lucid moments.

There was civil war in a land divested of every vestige of government.
England would have been blind had she not seen her opportunity; but,
too much occupied with her own revolution, she had to wait. And when
Henry IV., the first Lancastrian, was king, he needed both hands to
hold his crown firmly on his head. But when the young Henry V. came to
the throne, with the energy and ambition of youth, the time was ripe
for the recovery of the lost possessions in France.

The battle of Agincourt (1415) reopened the war with a great defeat for
the French chivalry, which represented the Orleanist party. The
wholesale slaughter of princes, bishops, and knights on this fatal day
was clear gain for the traitor Burgundy, the champion of the people!
The climax of his villainy was at hand.

Henry V., at Rouen, was openly holding his court as King of France.
John, Duke of Burgundy, accompanied by Queen Isabella, presented
himself to the invading king, and formally pledged his support and that
of his followers to the cause of the English!

The infamous treaty of Troyes was signed, 1420. It provided that Henry
should act as regent to Charles VI. while he lived; that upon the death
of that unhappy being he should be Henry V. of England and Henry II. of
France; and that the two kingdoms should thereafter exist under one
crown. The romantic marriage of Henry with the Princess Katharine,
daughter of Charles and Isabella, which was part of the agreement, was
solemnized in that old palace on the island in the Seine. And the same
vaulted ceilings which we may see to-day, looked down upon this
historic marriage, as they also did upon the condemnation of Marie
Antoinette, three and a half centuries later. We know of this union of
Henry and the fair Katharine chi