full gallop, proclaiming the renewal of the principal tax. There was a
fresh outbreak. The populace, armed with all sorts of weapons, with
strong mallets amongst the rest, spread in all directions, killing the
collectors, and storming and plundering the Hotel de Ville. They were
called the Malleteers. They were put down, but with as much timidity as
cruelty. Some of them were arrested, and at night thrown into the Seine,
sewn up in sacks, without other formality or trial. A fresh meeting of
notables was convened, towards the middle of April, at Compiegne, and the
deputies from the principal towns were summoned to it; but they durst not
come to any decision: "They were come," they said, "only to hear and
report; they would use their best endeavors to prevail on those by whom
they had been sent to do the king's pleasure." Towards the end of April
some of them returned to Meaux, reporting that they had everywhere met
with the most lively resistance; they had everywhere heard shouted at
them, "Sooner death than the tax." Only the deputies from Sens had voted
a tax, which was to be levied on all merchandise; but, when the question
of collecting it arose, the people of Sens evinced such violent
opposition that it had to be given up. It was when facts and feelings
were in this condition in France, that Charles VI. and the Duke of
Burgundy had set out with their army to go and force the Flemish communes
to submit to their count.

[Illustration: The Procession went over the Gates----16]

Returning victorious from Flanders to France, Charles VI. and his uncles,
everywhere brilliantly feasted on their march, went first of all for nine
days to Compiegne, "to find recreation after their fatigues," says the
monk of St. Denis, "in the pleasures of the chase; afterwards, on the
10th of January, 1383, the king took back in state to the church of St.
Denis the oriflamme which he had borne away on his expedition; and next