amidst the storms of civil discord, he had advised the assumption of arms
and the defence of the city, which he knew was very displeasing to the
king and the grandees." When he was taken to execution, "he was put on a
car higher than the rest, that he might be better seen by everybody."
Nothing shook for a moment the firmness of this old man of seventy years.
"Where are they who judged me?" he said: "let them come and set forth the
reasons for my death. Judge me, O God, and separate my cause from that
of the evil-doers." On his arrival at the market-place, some of the
spectators called out to him, "Ask the king's mercy, Master John, that he
may pardon your offences." He turned round, saying, "I served well and
loyally his great-grandfather King Philip, his grandfather King John, and
his father King Charles; none of those kings ever had anything to
reproach me with, and this one would not reproach me any the more if he
were of a grown man's age and experience. I don't suppose that he is a
whit to blame for such a sentence, and I have no cause to cry him mercy.
To God alone must I cry for mercy, and I pray Him to forgive my sins."
Public respect accompanied the old and courageous magistrate beyond the
scaffold; his corpse was taken up by his friends, and at a later period
honorably buried in the church of St. Catherine.

After the chastisements came galas again, of which the king and his court
were immoderately fond. Young as he was (he was but seventeen), his
powerful uncle, the Duke of Burgundy, was very anxious to get him
married, so as to secure his own personal influence over him. The wise
Charles V., in his dying hours, had testified a desire that his son
should seek alliances in Germany. A son of the reigning duke, Stephen of
Bavaria, had come to serve in the French army, and the Duke of Burgundy
had asked him if there were any marriageable princess of Bavaria. "My
eldest brother," answered the Bavarian, "has a very beautiful daughter,
aged fourteen." "That is just what we want," said the Burgundian: "try