Duchatel, a Breton nobleman, provost of Paris, were hard and haughty.
When a complaint was made to them of any violent procedure, they would
answer, "What business had you there? If it were the Burgundians, you
would make no complaint." The Parisian population was becoming every day
more Burgundian. In the latter days of May. 1418, a plot was contrived
for opening to the Burgundians one of the gates of Paris. Perrinet
Leclerc, son of a rich iron-merchant having influence in the quarter of
St. Germain des Pros, stole the keys from under the bolster of his
father's bed; a troop of Burgundian men-at-arms came in, and they were
immediately joined by a troop of Parisians. They spread over the city,
shouting, "Our Lady of peace! Hurrah for the king! Hurrah for Burgundy!
Let all who wish for peace take arms and follow us!" The people swarmed
from the houses and followed them accordingly. The Armagnacs were
surprised and seized with alarm. Tanneguy Duchatel, a man of prompt and
resolute spirit, ran to the _dauphin_'s, wrapped him in his bed-clothes,
and carried him off to the Bastille, where he shut him up with several of
his partisans. The Count of Armagnac, towards whose house the multitude
thronged, left by a back-door, and took refuge at a mason's, where he
believed himself secure. In a few hours the Burgundians were masters of
Paris. Their chief, the lord of Isle-Adam, had the doors of the hostel
of St. Paul broken in, and presented himself before the king. "How fares
my cousin of Burgundy?" said Charles VI.; "I have not seen him for some
time." That was all he said. He was set on horseback and marched
through the streets. He showed no astonishment at anything; he had all
but lost memory as well as reason, and no longer knew the difference
between Armagnac and Burgundian. A devoted Burgundian, Sire Guy de Bar,
was named provost of Paris in the place of Tanneguy Duchatel. The mason
with whom Bernard of Armagnac had taken refuge went and told the new
provost that the constable was concealed at his house. Thither the
provost hurried, made the constable mount behind him, and carried him off