had deplored the necessity, and all but decreed the cessation.  The king’s uncles, his guardians, had at first stopped, and indeed suppressed, the greater part of those taxes; but soon afterwards they had to face a pressing necessity:  the war with England was going on, and the revenues of the royal domain were not sufficient for the maintenance of it.  The Duke of Anjou attempted to renew the taxes, and one of Charles V.’s former councillors, John Desmarets, advocate-general in parliament, abetted him in his attempt.  Seven times, in the course of the year 1381, assemblies of notables met at Paris to consider the project, and on the 1st of March, 1382, an agent of the governing power scoured the city at 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 day, the 11th of January, he re-entered Paris, he alone being mounted, in the midst of his army.”  The burgesses went out of the city to meet him, and offer him their wonted homage, but they were curtly ordered to retrace their steps; the king and his uncles, they were informed, could not forget offences so recent.  The wooden