The monk of St. Denis says she was of low origin, and such has been the general opinion; but M. Vallet de Viriville says there is good reason to suppose her to have been the daughter of Odin de Champdivers, a Burgundian gentleman who had a château near Dôle, where, after the death of Charles, she took refuge.[233]
While the Queen and princes were deliberating on the means of punishing Jean Sans-peur, the news of his victorious return from an expedition to Flanders filled them with consternation. The Queen first tried to borrow money to escape with the King and her children, but no one would lend her any. The King, therefore, left Paris with the Duc de Bourbon on the 3rd of November, and went by boat to the Céléstins, and thence to St. Victor with 1,500 men. The Queen, with the Duke and Duchess of Aquitaine,[234] the rest of the children, the Duc de Berry, the Kings of Sicily and Navarre left two days later, went down the Loire to Tours and joined the King. The Duke of Burgundy entered Paris amidst cries of “Noël! Noël!” from the populace.[235]
Valentine Visconti, Duchesse d’Orléans, despairing of getting either justice or vengeance, returned to Blois with her children, and also the little son of Louis d’Orléans and the Dame de Canny, the afterwards famous Dunois, the Bastard of Orléans.
Jean Sans-peur, finding the King, Queen, and royal family all gone, was much disturbed. He resolved to negotiate, and persuaded his brother-in-law, the Comte de Hainault, who was also father-in-law to the King’s second son, to go to Tours for that purpose.
Perhaps what made peace with Burgundy more possible was the death of Valentine Visconti on the 4th of December, at Blois. Overcome with grief, disappointment, and anxiety, her health had given way. She took for her device a _chante-pleurs_[236] dropping tears, and the motto “_Rien ne m’est plus; plus ne m’est rien_,” which she had embroidered on the black hangings of her room. She always charged her sons to avenge their father, and pointing to the little Jean (afterwards Dunois), then six years old, she said, “_Celui-là m’a été enlevé, il n’y a point d’enfant si bien taillé pour venger la mort de son père._”