After a few minutes ten men came up on to the
platform; by this time the body of the hall was full, and the doors at the
other end were closed. A man, whom Guy recognized as John de Troyes,
stepped forward from the others on the platform and, standing in front of
the table, addressed his comrades.
"My friends," he said, "it is time that we were at work again. Paris is
becoming infested by enemies of the people, and we must rid ourselves of
them. The nobles are assembled for the purpose, as they say, of being
present at the marriage of Louis of Bavaria with the widow of Peter de
Navarre, but we know well enough that this is but a pretext; they have
come to consult how best they can overthrow the power of our Duke of
Burgundy and suppress the liberty of this great city. The question is, are
we tamely to submit to this?"
A deep shout of "No!" ran through the multitude.
"You are right, we will not submit. Were we to do so we know that it would
cost the lives of all those who have made themselves prominent in the
defence of the liberties of Paris; they might even go so far as to
suppress all our privileges and to dissolve our guilds. In this matter the
Duke of Burgundy hesitates and is not inclined to go with us to the full,
but we Parisians must judge for ourselves what is necessary to be done.
The duke has furnished us with a list of twelve names; these men are all
dangerous and obnoxious to the safety of Paris.
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