[Illustration: Death of Valentine de Milan----45]
The Duke of Burgundy's negotiations at Tours were not fruitless. The
result was, that on the 9th of March, 1409, a treaty was concluded and an
interview effected at Chartres between the duke on one side and on the
other the king, the queen, the _dauphin_, all the royal family, the
councillors of the crown, the young Duke of Orleans, his brother, and a
hundred knights of their house, all met together to hear the king declare
that he pardoned the Duke of Burgundy. The duke prayed "my lord of
Orleans and my lords his brothers to banish from their hearts all hatred
and vengeance;" and the princes of Orleans "assented to what the king
commanded them, and forgave their cousin the Duke of Burgundy everything
entirely." On the way back from Chartres the Duke of Burgundy's fool
kept playing with a church-paten (called "peace"), and thrusting it under
his cloak, saying, "See, this is a cloak of peace;" and, "Many folks,"
says Juvenal des Ursins, "considered this fool pretty wise." The Duke of
Burgundy had good reason, however, for seeking this outward
reconciliation; it put an end to a position too extended not to become
pretty soon untenable; the peace was a cause of great joy at Paris; the
king was not long coming back; and two hundred thousand persons, says the
chronicle, went out to meet him, shouting, "Noel!" The Duke of Burgundy
had gone out to receive him; and the queen and the princes arrived two
days after-wards. It was not known at the time, though it was perhaps
the most serious result of the negotiation, that a secret understanding
had been established between John the Fearless and Isabel of Bavaria.
The queen, as false as she was dissolute, had seen that the duke might be
of service to her on occasion if she served him in her turn, and they had
added the falsehood of their undivulged arrangement to that of the
general reconciliation.
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