object of the league was to relieve its members from the burden of
receiving men-at-arms and the peril of having two hostile masters.
Certain of the townsfolk therefore presented themselves before King
Charles and promised him such submission as should be accorded by the
towns of Troyes, Chalons, and Reims.[1376]

[Footnote 1376: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90. _Journal du
siege_, p. 108. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 313. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, p. 436. Abbe Lebeuf, _Histoire ecclesiastique d'Auxerre_, vol. ii,
p. 51. Chardon, _Histoire de la ville d'Auxerre_, vol. ii, p. 259.]

This was not obedience, neither was it rebellion. Negotiations were
begun; ambassadors went from the town to the camp and from the camp to
the town. Finally the confederates, who were not lacking in
intelligence, proposed an acceptable compromise,--one that princes
were constantly concluding with each other, to wit, a truce.

They said to the King: "We entreat and request you to pass on, and we
ask you to agree to refrain from fighting." And, in order to secure
their request being granted, they gave two thousand crowns to the
Sire de la Tremouille, who, it is said, kept them without a blush.
Further, the townsfolk undertook to revictual the army in return for
money down; and that was worth considering, for there was famine in
the camp.[1377] This truce by no means pleased the men-at-arms, who
thereby lost a fine opportunity for robbery and pillage. Murmurs
arose; many lords and captains said that it would not be difficult to
take the town, and that its capture should have been attempted. The
Maid, who was always receiving promises of victory from her Voices,
never ceased calling the soldiers to arms.[1378] Unaffected by any of
these things, the King concluded the proposed truce; for he cared not
by force of arms to obtain more than could be compassed by peaceful
methods. Had he attacked the town he might have taken it and held it
in his mercy; but it would have meant certain pillage, murder,
burning, and ravishing. On his heels would have come the Burgundians,
and there would have been plundering, burning, ravishing, massacring
over again. How many examples had there not been already of unhappy
towns captured and then lost almost immediately, devastated by the
French, devastated by the English and the Burgundians, when each
citizen kept in his coffer a red cap and a white cap, which he wore in
turns! Was there to be no end to these