lebrate the wedding of one of the
ladies of honour who was a widow. The marriage of a widow was always
the occasion of riotous mirth, and Charles disguised himself and five
of his courtiers as satyrs. They were sewed up in tight-fitting
vestments of linen, which were coated with resin and pitch and covered
with rough tow; on their heads they wore hideous masks. While the
ladies of the court were celebrating the marriage the king and his
companions rushed in howling like wolves and indulged in the most
uncouth gestures and jokes. The Duke of Orleans, drawing too near with
a torch to discover their identity, set fire to the tow and in a
second they were enveloped in so many shirts of Nessus. Unable to
fling off their blazing dresses they madly ran hither and thither,
suffering the most excruciating agony and uttering piteous cries. The
king happened to be near the young Duchess of Berri who, with
admirable presence of mind, flung her robe over him and rescued him
from the flames. One knight saved himself by plunging into a large tub
of water in the kitchen, one died on the spot, two died on the second
day, another lingered for three days in awful torment. The horror of
the scene[90] so affected Charles that his madness returned more
violently than ever. His queen abandoned him and he was left to wander
like some wild animal about his rooms in the Hotel St. Paul, untended,
unkempt, verminous, his only companion his low-born mistress Odette.

[Footnote 90: The scene is quaintly illustrated in an illuminated copy
of Froissart in the British Museum.]

The bitterness of the avuncular factions was now intensified. The
House of Burgundy by marriage and other means had grown to be one of
the most powerful in Europe and was at fierce enmity with the House of
Orleans. At the death of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, his son
Jean sans Peur, sought to assume his father's supremacy as well as his
title: the Duke of Orleans, strong in the queen's support, determined
to foil his purpose. Each fortified his hotel in Paris and assembled
an army. Friends, however, intervened; they were reconciled, and in
November 1407 the two dukes attended mass at the Church of the Grands
Augustins, took the Holy Sacrament and dined together. As Jean rose
from table the Duke of Orleans placed the Order of the Porcupine round
his neck; swore _bonne amour et fraternite_, and they kissed each
other with tears of joy. On 23rd November a forged missive was