did as much.[1633]--"Noel! Noel!"

[Footnote 1633: Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. i, pp. 23, 31.]

The Armagnacs and Burgundians had torn the coats off the peasants'
backs and seized even their pots and pans. It was not far from Crepy
to Meaux. Every one in that country had heard of the Tree of Vauru.

At one of the gates of the town of Meaux was a great elm, whereon the
Bastard of Vauru, a Gascon noble of the Dauphin's party, used to hang
the peasants he had taken, when they could not pay their ransom. When
he had no executioner at hand he used to hang them himself. With him
there lived a kinsman, my Lord Denis de Vauru, who was called his
cousin, not that he was so in fact, but just to show that one was no
better than the other.[1634] In the month of March, in the year 1420, my
Lord Denis, on one of his expeditions, came across a peasant tilling
the ground. He took him prisoner, held him to ransom, and, tying him
to his horse's tail, dragged him back to Meaux, where, by threats and
torture, he exacted from him a promise to pay three times as much as
he possessed. Dragged half dead from his dungeon, the villein sent to
the wife he had married that year to ask her to bring the sum demanded
by the lord. She was with child, and near the time of her delivery;
notwithstanding, she came because she loved her husband and hoped to
soften the heart of the Lord of Vauru. She failed; and Messire Denis
told her that if by a certain day he did not receive the ransom, he
would hang the man from the elm-tree. The poor woman went away in
tears, fondly commending her husband to God's keeping. And her husband
wept for pity of her. By a great effort, she succeeded in obtaining
the sum demanded, but not by the day appointed. When she returned, her
husband had been hanged from the Vauru Tree without respite or mercy.
With bitter sobs she asked for him, and then fell exhausted by the
side of that road, which, on the point of her delivery, she had
traversed on foot. Having regained consciousness, a second time she
asked for her husband. She was told that she would not see him till
the ransom had been paid.

[Footnote 1634: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 170, 171.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 96. _Livre des trahisons_, pp. 167, 168.]

While she was before the Gascon, there in sight of her were brought
forth several craftsmen, held to ransom, who, unable to pay, were
straightway despatched to be hanged or drowned. At this spectac