administration from the old Parloir aux Bourgeois, enclosed
in the south wall of Paris. The Dauphin,[83] who had assumed the title
of Lieutenant-General, convoked the States-General at Paris, but he
was forced by Marcel and his party to grant some urgent reforms, and a
Committee of National Defence was organised by the trade guilds and
the provost, who became virtually dictator of Paris. Marcel's rule was
however stained by the butchery of the Marshal of Champagne and the
Duke of Normandy before the very eyes of the Dauphin in the palace of
the Cite, who, horrified, fled to Compiegne to rally the nobles.
During the ensuing anarchy the poor, dumb, starving serfs of France,
in their hopeless misery and despair, rose in insurrection and swept
like a flame over the land. Froissart, who writes from the distorted
stories told him by the seigneurs, has woefully exaggerated the
atrocities of the _Jacquerie_."[84] There was much arson and pillage,
but barely thirty of the nobles are known to have perished. Of the
merciless vengeance taken by the seigneurs there is ample
confirmation: the wretched peasants were easily out-manoeuvred and
killed like rats by the mail-clad nobles and their men-at-arms.
Meanwhile the Dauphin was marching on Paris: Marcel seized the Louvre
and set 3000 workmen to fortify the city. In less than a year the
greater part of the northern walls, with gates, bastilles and fosses,
was completed--the greatest feat, says Froissart, the provost ever
achieved. A citizen army was raised, whose hoods of red and blue, the
colours of Paris, distinguished them from the royal sympathisers.
Marcel turned for support to the _Jacques_, and on their suppression
essayed to win over Charles of Navarre. On 30th November 1357, Charles
stood on the royal stage on the walls of the abbey of St. Germain des
Pres, whence the kings of France were wont to witness the judicial
combats in the Pres aux Clercs, and addressed an assembly of 10,000
citizens. _Moult longuement_ he sermonised, says the _Grandes
Chroniques_, so that dinner was over in Paris before he finished.
After yet another harangue at the Maison aux Piliers on 15th June
1358, he was acclaimed by people with "Navarre! Navarre!" and elected
the Captain of Paris. An obscure period of plot and counterplot
followed which culminated in the ruin of Marcel and his followers.
Froissart accuses the provost of a treacherous intent to open the
gates of St. Honore and of St. Antoine t