hat Messire Charles of
Valois had abandoned to his mercenaries the city and the citizens of
all ranks, high and low, men and women, and that he intended to plough
up the very ground on which Paris stood. Such a rumour represented him
very falsely; on all occasions he was pitiful and debonair; his
Council had prudently converted the coronation campaign into an armed
and peaceful procession. But the Parisians were incapable of judging
sanely when the intentions of the King of France were concerned; and
they knew only too well that once their town was taken there would be
nothing to prevent the Armagnacs from laying it waste with fire and
sword.[1750]

[Footnote 1750: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 356.]

One other circumstance intensified their fear and their dislike. When
they heard that Friar Richard, to whose sermons they had once listened
so devoutly, was riding with the Dauphin's men and with his nimble
tongue winning such good towns as Troyes in Champagne, they called
down upon him the malediction of God and his Saints. They tore from
their caps the pewter medals engraved with the holy name of Jesus,
which the good Brother had given them, and in their bitter hatred
towards him they returned straightway to the dice, bowls and draughts
which they had renounced at his exhortation. With no less horror did
the Maid inspire them. It was said that she was acting the prophetess
and uttering such words as: "In very deed this or that shall come to
pass." "With the Armagnacs is a creature in woman's form. What it is
God only knows," they cried. They spoke of her as a woman of ill
fame.[1751] Among these enemies, there were those who filled them with
even greater horror than pagans and Saracens--to wit: a monk and a
maid. They all took the cross of Saint Andrew.[1752]

[Footnote 1751: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 242.]

[Footnote 1752: _Ibid._, p. 243.]

While the Dauphin had been away at his coronation an army had come
from England into France. The Regent intended it to overrun Normandy.
In its march on Rouen he commanded it in person. The defence and ward
of Paris he left to Louis of Luxembourg, Bishop of Therouanne,
Chancellor of France for the English, to the Sire de l'Isle-Adam,
Marshal of France, Captain of Paris, to two thousand men-at-arms and
to the Parisian train-bands. To the last were entrusted the defence of
the ramparts and the management of the artillery. They were commanded
by twenty-four b