The Duc d’Orléans had raised a troop of fifteen hundred men to go to the assistance of the Emperor Wenceslas, who had been dethroned by his subjects; but although he was joined in Luxembourg by the Duc de Gueldre, who was rash, hot-headed, and a great friend of his, the expedition came to nothing, and they returned to Paris together, with the Duc d’Orléans’s troop and five hundred men of the Duc de Gueldre. They were soon joined by the Bretons who were friends of Clisson, by some Scottish and Welsh companies in the French service, and by a number of Normans and all the vassals of Orléans, ready to fight in his quarrel against the party of Burgundy.
For the rivalry and hatred between the uncle and nephew and their families had arrived at such a pitch that they seemed to be on the verge of a civil war. Besides the question of the regency between Philippe and Louis, and the mortal hatred between the Duchesses of Orléans and Burgundy, it was whispered that a new cause of offence had arisen. Louis d’Orléans had a private room--cabinet, study, or drawing-room--the walls of which he had hung with the portraits of women who he declared had been his mistresses. This room he generally kept closed, but one day by chance, Jean, Comte de Nevers, eldest son of the Duke of Burgundy, went into it and found his wife’s portrait among the others. That this was nothing but an infamous boast on the part of Louis, and that no blame whatever was attached to the Comtesse de Nevers seems certain, that is to say, if the story be true at all. At any rate it was reported and believed at court and related by French historians, and has been given as a reason for the tragic climax to the feud between Burgundy and Orléans. For Jean Sans-peur, as the Comte de Nevers was nick-named, swore vengeance against his cousin for this insult; and the Dukes of Orléans and Burgundy, each with his followers and vassals, fortified themselves in their dwellings--Louis in his hôtel near the porte St. Antoine, and the Burgundians in their hôtel d’Artois[199]--while the citizens trembled at the thought of these fierce and violent men in the midst of them longing to be at each other’s throats and making no secret of their delight at the prospect of sacking Paris. Seven or eight thousand men on each side were waiting the signal to draw their swords; the King was just then mad, and the Queen and Duc de Berry vainly tried to mediate between them. So matters went on all through December, but at the beginning of January, 1402, the Duc de Berry, who was then living at the hôtel de Nesle, managed to get his brother and nephew to meet there. It was no easy matter, as although they sat at the council together they refused to speak to or salute one another, and each vehemently opposed whatever the other proposed. However, he persuaded them at last to embrace, and ride together through the streets to proclaim their reconciliation to the people, and dismiss their soldiers, to the great relief of the court and Parisians, and at the same time the King returned to his senses, so there was a general thanksgiving at St. Denis, and for a time every one breathed more freely.[200]