Note 26 — Chapter LXXXV · The Archpriest assembles a Company of Men at Arms.—He is much honored at Avignon.

After the battle of Poitiers the wretched land of France was tormented by all the ills of lawlessness. This chapter, and the next three, particularly those describing the Jacquerie, will show every boy the frenzies to which a people may be driven when the law is weak. In this case the arm of the law—King John—was wholly lacking in France.—Ed.