Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/444

430 eager for revenge, applied to the duke of Burgundy to release her; and forgetful of her late inveterate hatred to the assassin of Orleans, she saw in a man, whose soul was familiarized to every deed of darkness, a fit instrument of her vengeance: he seized with joy the invitation, set her at liberty; and, accompanied by her deliverer, she performed the first acts of her new administration at Chartres. A new seal was engraven for public deeds, representing on one side, the queen extending her arms towards the earth; on the reverse, the arms of France and Bavaria. The title she assumed was: "Isabella, by the grace of God, Queen of France, holding for my Lord, the King, the Government and Administration of this Kingdom, by the irrevocable Grant made to us by my said Lord and his Council." Arriving at Troyes, she called a parliament, gave away many of the principal offices of state, and exercised the various functions of royalty.

At length a pacification was effected; the queen and Burgundy were invited to Paris, and the latter with the dauphin associated in the government. But the dauphin was instructed to reject this infamous association; and the people, who had hoped for peace and relief from the burdens of war and taxes, flew to acts of desperation, declaring themselves the partisans of Burgundy, who was still at Troyes with the queen. This vile couple intimating to them that nothing less than the total annihilation of the Armagnac party would engage them to re-enter Paris, inexpressible horrors were immediately committed by the blood-thirsty Parisians; near 4000 being massacred in three days. Exulting in the success of their infernal schemes, the queen and her profligate associates now made their triumphal entry, with an escort of 1200 men at arms; the streets still stained with