CHAP. LI.
THE TOWNSMEN OF TOURNAY AGAIN REBEL.
IN the month of July of this year, the inhabitants of Tournay again mutinied against their magistrates, and rose more than once in arms, as they had frequently done before. The cause of the present tumults was the magistrates having laid a tax on beer, to aid them to pay the demands of the duke of Burgundy. However, by the exertions of some prudent persons in the town, peace was restored; and shortly after, one of their leaders called John Isaac, a goldsmith, was arrested,—and for various crimes by him committed, and for having been the cause of Arnoul le Musi and Loctart de Villeries being beheaded, Isaac was publicly hanged on the gibbet at Tournay.
At this time, Réné duke of Bar laid siege to the castle of Passavant, in which was a person named Varnencourt, who had for a long space sorely harrassed and cruelly treated the inhabitants of the country round that place.