Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/565

A.D. 1419.] union, and Burgundy was still unavailingly entreating the dauphin to join his father's council at Troyes, and the dauphin recommending Burgundy and the queen to meet him at Montoreau-sue-Yonue. As neither would move, the influence of Madame do Giac was again employed, who succeeded in prevailing on the duke to go as far as Bray-sur-Seine, only two leagues from Montereau. Having succeeded so far, fitting instruments wore then chosen to induce the unfortunate Burgundy to proceed to Montereau to an interview with the dauphin, for that base prince would not budge a step out of his safe quarters to bring about this necessary interview. The notorious Tannegui du Chastel was set to complete the work of the equally notorious Madame de Giac. He took with him some companions of his own stamp, and with them the Bishop of Valence, whose brother, the Bishop of Langres, either a weak dupe, or a traitor inferior to none of them, was with the duke.

This ominous deputation used all their influence to persuade the duke to meet the dauphin, for a conference of their affairs at this pressing crisis, on the bridge of Montereau, not requiring him to advance into the town. The duke knew the character both of the dauphin and of those about him; and could not expel from his memory his own murder of the Duke of Orleans twelve years before. These deadly suspicions of each other, based on too much well-grounded experience of each other's utter destitution of honour, did not augur much blessing to the country from their co-operation. When all arguments and protestations proved incapable of moving the duke, recourse was once more had to the influence of Madame de Giac, and the all-powerful mistress won from him the fatal consent to the meeting on the 10th of September.

Every apparent precaution was taken for the peace of the interview and the security of the leaders. Tannegui du Chastel, on the day previous to the meeting, took an oath from the followers of the duke to observe strictly the alliance pledged between the parties, and Burgundy sent the husband of Madame de Giac and another of his officers to impose the same oath on the followers of the dauphin. But no precautions or formalities can bind men without honour or principle, and when the duke was himself ready to go, his most experienced friends strongly dissuaded him from it, reminding him that around the dauphin were his most deadly enemies. Whatever might bo his own internal feelings. Burgundy now appeared resolved to go. He talked of the great advantages to be obtained by gaining the command of the brave captains and men in the service of the dauphin, and boasted that once united, it would soon be seen which was the better man, "Hannotin of Flanders," a nickname given him by his Flemish subjects, or "Henry of Lancaster."

His astrologer declared that if he went he would never return, and at the moment of starting his friends once more crowded round him, and urged him to give up the hazardous enterprise. Resisting, if not despising these warnings, the doomed duke rode away, attended by 400 men-at-arms.

On approaching the town, Burgundy sent to announce to the dauphin his arrival, when he was speedily attended by Tannegui du Chastel, who brought him from the dauphin the most solemn assurances, "on the word of a prince," that no injury should be offered to him or his. It was agreed that he should take only ten knights with him, and that the dauphin should only bring the same number on his side. The meeting was to take place on the bridge, which was to be guarded at the end by which he entered by his own troops, and at the other by those of the dauphin. Before proceeding, the duke learned that three barriers were drawn across the bridge with a gate in each; this appeared to excite his suspicion, and at this moment one of his valets, who had been into the castle to make preparations for the reception of the duke and his train, came in haste and warned him not to go upon the bridge, as ho would assuredly be slain or taken prisoner. On this the duke, turning to Tannegui, said, "How is this? You have pledged your honour for our safety, but do you say true?" The traitor swore he would die himself rather than permit any injury to the duke, and the victim went on.

Yet again, as he had dismounted, and was walking to the bridge, another of his servants rushed up and implored him to remain, for he had seen throngs of armed men collecting on the other side of the river. On this the duke paused, and sent forward the Sieur do Giac to see if it were so, but the false man reported that the whole was a fiction: and Tannegui urged the duke to make haste, for his master had been waiting for him more than an hour. This decided the matter; the duke hurried forward, and no sooner had he passed the first gate on the bridge with his attendants, than it was closed and secured behind him, and so the second. Once more the suspicious of the duke being roused, he laid his hand on Tannegui, and said, "Here is what I trust in." It was a deadly trust. "Let us hasten," said Tannegui, "to my lord the dauphin." They pushed forward towards the next banner, where the dauphin was standing, and on the duke kneeling with his velvet cap in his hand, he was suddenly struck down from behind by the villain who had lured him on by every sacred assurance. He was speedily dispatched; one of his followers, the Sieur do Navailles, was killed also by Tannegui as he attempted to defend his master. The Lord of Neuchatel darted away, sprang over the barriers, and escaped; the rest of the attendants were surrounded, overpowered, and seized. While this was going on, the soldiers of the dauphin, of whom Burgundy had been warned by his faithful servants, rushed from their hiding-place, scoured over the bridge, and fell upon the duke's followers. These, thus taken by surprise, fled, and got back to Bray.

Nothing could demonstrate the dreadful state of moral turpitude in France at this period more clearly than this studied and most impolitic murder. At the very moment when the most imminent danger to the country from foreign invasion called upon them to put forth all their energies for its defence, to forgot all past differences, and, in fact, everything but the national welfare, these wretched princes thus deliberately sought each other's lives, and stabbed their country through their party antagonists.

The savage troops of the dauphin stripped the body of the duke of everything of value, and would have thrown it into the river, but a priest resisted their design, and had it convoyed to the church of Montereau. The honour which this most detestable deed excited throughout