Upon
the other hand, letters were written in the king's name to the various
towns on the line by which Burgundy would advance from Artois, begging
them not to open their gates to him.
The Burgundian army advanced and occupied St. Denis, thence the duke sent
detachments to the various gates of Paris in hopes that the populace would
rise in his favour. However, the citizens remained quiet, and the duke,
being unprovided with the engines and machines necessary for a siege, fell
back again, placing strong garrisons in Compiegne and Soissons. Then the
Orleanists took the offensive, besieged and captured town after town, and
revenged the murder of their friends in Paris by wholesale massacres and
atrocities of the worst description. The Burgundians in vain attempted to
raise an army of sufficient strength to meet that of the king, who himself
accompanied the Orleanist forces in the field. The fact that he was
present with them had a powerful influence in preventing many lords who
would otherwise have done so from joining Burgundy, for although all knew
that the king was but a puppet who could be swayed by those who happened
to be round him, even the shadow of the royal authority had great weight,
and both parties carried on their operations in the king's name,
protesting that any decrees hostile to themselves were not the true
expression of his opinion, but the work of ambitious and traitorous
persons who surrounded him.
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