As they were taken to Montfaucon, they
kept crying "high and clearly" for their benefit of clergy,
but were none the less pitilessly hanged and gibbeted.
Indignant Alma Mater interfered before the king; and the
Provost was deprived of all royal offices, and condemned to
return the bodies and erect a great stone cross, on the road
from Paris to the gibbet graven with the effigies of these
two holy martyrs. (1) We shall hear more of the benefit of
clergy; for after this the reader will not be surprised to
meet with thieves in the shape of tonsured clerks, or even
priests and monks.
(1) Monstrelet: PANTHEON LITTERAIRE, p. 26.
To a knot of such learned pilferers our poet certainly
belonged; and by turning over a few more of M. Longnon's
negatives, we shall get a clear idea of their character and
doings. Montigny and De Cayeux are names already known; Guy
Tabary, Petit-Jehan, Dom Nicolas, little Thibault, who was
both clerk and goldsmith, and who made picklocks and melted
plate for himself and his companions - with these the reader
has still to become acquainted. Petit-Jehan and De Cayeux
were handy fellows and enjoyed a useful pre-eminence in
honour of their doings with the picklock. "DICTUS DES
CAHYEUS EST FORTIS OPERATOR CROCHETORUM," says Tabary's
interrogation, "SED DICTUS PETIT-JEHAN, EJUS SOCIUS, EST
FORCIUS OPERATOR.
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