Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/82

 58 HISTORY OF FRANCE. [chap. on hini to put an end to the troubles and defend the kingdom. " Let those guard the kingdom who take the money," sneered Charles. Whereupon, at a sign from Marcel, his followers killed the two marshals of Nor- mandy and Champagne. The Dauphin begged for mercy on his knees, and Marcel, putting his badge, a blue and red cap, on his head, and pointing to the bodies, said, " I require you to sanction the death of those traitors, since the deed was by the will of the people." Charles feigned submission ; but he soon escaped, and raised troops in the south to attack Paris, while Marcel turned the - royal garrison out of the Louvre and drew chains across the streets. The sight of the strife among the oppressors emboldened the down-trodden peasantry. At first a few Auvergnats broke into a castle near Clermont, killed those within, and set it on fire and having thus felt their strength, hosts aiose with one cry, " Death to the lords ! " Wherever castle or town could be broken into by men armed with knives, axes, and scythes, there every one that could be called noble was slaughtered in revenge for years of cruel oppression. This outbreak was called the Jacquerie, from Jacques Bonhoinmc, the nobles' nickname for the peasants. Marcel made common cause with them, sending a troop to aid them against the castle of Meaux. In that castle were royal men at-arms, cruel spoilers of the neighbourhood, and likewise the Dauphin's wife, Joan of Bourbon, and 300 ladies, whose fate would have been dreadful had they fallen into the hands of the 10,000 maddened peasants who howled round the walls. Two Gascon knights, the Captal dc Buck and Gaston de Foix, with 100 lances {i.e. 400 men), were returning from a crusade against the heathen Prussians, when they heard of the ladies' distress. Viewing their rescue as a knightly duty, though they themselves were subjects of the king of England, they dashed in on the half-armed mob in the market-place, killing and scattering these wild bands. Another large gathering was destroyed by Charles of Navarre, and the nobles fell on the rest, killing, burning, and ravaging : so that the Jacquerie made the state of the country worse than ever. The Dauphin was free to advance on Paris, and Marcel called in the King of Navarre, and made him Captain-General of the city ; but such a train of ruffianly men-at-arms came with him that the Parisians sent to entreat the Dauphin to deliver them. He answered that he would never set foot in the