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Anatole France

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Title: The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2)

Author: Anatole France

Translator: Winifred Stephens

Release Date: October 17, 2006 [EBook #19488]
Last Updated: February 26, 2013

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC


BY ANATOLE FRANCE


A TRANSLATION BY WINIFRED STEPHENS

IN TWO VOLS., VOL. I

[Illustration]

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY: MCMIX

_Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by_
MANZI, JOYANT ET CIE

_Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by_
JOHN LANE COMPANY

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

[Illustration: Joan of Arc]




PREFACE

TO THE ENGLISH EDITION


Scholars have been good enough to notice this book; and the majority
have treated it very kindly, doubtless because they have perceived
that the author has observed all the established rules of historical
research and accuracy. Their kindness has touched me. I am especially
grateful to MM. Gabriel Monod, Solomon Reinach and Germain
Lefèvre-Pontalis, who have discovered in this work certain errors,
which will not be found in the present edition.

My English critics have a special claim to my gratitude. To the memory
of Joan of Arc they consecrate a pious zeal which is almost an
expiatory worship. Mr. Andrew Lang's praiseworthy scruples with regard
to my references have caused me to correct some and to add several.

The hagiographers alone are openly hostile. They reproach me, not with
my manner of explaining the facts, but with having explained them at
all. And the more my explanations are clear, natural, rational and
derived from the most authoritative sources, the more these
explanations displease them. They would wish the history of Joan of
Arc to remain mysterious and entirely supernatural. I have restored
the Maid to life and to humanity. That is my crime. And these zealous
inquisitors, so intent on condemning my work, have failed to discover
therein any grave fault, any flagrant inexactness. Their severity has
had to content itself with a few inadvertences and with a few
printer's errors. What flatterers could better have gratified "the
proud weakness of my heart?"[1]

PARIS, _January, 1909_.

[Footnote 1: "_De mon coeur l'orgueilleuse faiblesse_," Racine,
_Iphigénie en Aulide_, Act i, sc. i.--(W.S.)]




INTRODUCTION


My first duty should be to make known the authorities for this
history. But L'Averdy, Buchon, J. Quicherat, Vallet de Viriville,
Siméon Luce, Boucher de Molandon, MM. Robillard de Beaurepaire, Lanéry
d'Arc, Henri Jadart, Alexandre Sorel, Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, L.
Jarry, and many other scholars have published and expounded various
documents for the life of Joan of Arc. I refer my readers to their
works which in themselves constitute a voluminous literature,[2] and
without entering on any new examination of these documents, I will
merely indicate rapidly and generally the reasons for the use I have
chosen to make of them. They are: first, the trial which resulted in
her condemnation; second, the chronicles; third, the trial for her
rehabilitation; fourth, letters, deeds, and other papers.

[Footnote 2: Le P. Lelong, _Bibliothèque historique de la France_,
Paris, 1768 (5 vols. folio), II, n. 17172-17242. Potthast,
_Bibliotheca medii ævi_, Berlin, 1895, 8vo, vol. i, pp. 643 _seq._ U.
Chevalier, _Répertoire des sources historiques du Moyen Âge_, Paris,
8vo, 1877, pp. 1247-1255; _Jeanne d'Arc, bibliographie_, Montbéliard,
1878 [selections]; _Supplément au Répertoire_, Paris, 1883, pp.
2684-2686, 8vo. Lanéry d'Arc, _Le livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc,
bibliographie raisonnée et analytique des ouvrages relatifs à Jeanne
d'Arc_, Paris, 1894, large 8vo, and supplement. A. Molinier, _Les
sources de l'histoire de France des origines aux guerres d'Italie, IV:
Les Valois, 1328-1461_, Paris, 1904, pp. 310-348.]

First, in the trial[3] which resulted in her condemnation the
historian has a mine of rich treasure. Her cross-examination cannot be
too minutely studied. It is based on information, not preserved
elsewhere, gathered from Domremy and the various parts of France
through which she passed. It is hardly necessary to say that all the
judges of 1431 sought to discover in Jeanne was idolatry, heresy,
sorcery and other crimes against the Church. Inclined as they were,
however, to discern evil in every one of the acts and in each of the
words of one whom they desired to ruin, so that they might dishonour
her king, they examined all available information concerning her life.
The high value to be set upon the Maid's replies is well known; they
are heroically sincere, and for the most part perfectly lucid.
Nevertheless they must not all be interpreted literally. Jeanne, who
never regarded either the bishop or the promoter as her judge, was not
so simple as to tell them the whole truth. It was very frank of her to
warn them that they would not know all.[4] That her memory was
curiously defective must also be admitted. I am aware that the clerk
of the court was astonished that after a fortnight she should remember
exactly the answers she had given in her cross-examination.[5] That
may be possible, although she did not always say the same thing. It is
none the less certain that after the lapse of a year she retained but
an indistinct recollection of some of the important acts of her life.
Finally, her constant hallucinations generally rendered her incapable
of distinguishing between the true and the false.

[Footnote 3: Jules Quicherat, _Procès de condamnation et de
réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 8vo, 1841, vol. i. (Called
hereafter _Trial_.--W.S.)]

[Footnote 4: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 93, _passim_.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 89, 142, 161, 176, 178, 201.]

The record of the trial is followed by an examination of Jeanne's
sayings in _articulo mortis_.[6] This examination is not signed by the
clerks of the court. Hence from a legal point of view the record is
out of order; nevertheless, regarded as a historical document, its
authenticity cannot be doubted. In my opinion the actual occurrences
cannot have widely differed from what is related in this unofficial
report. It tells of Jeanne's second recantation, and of this
recantation there can be no question, for Jeanne received the
communion before her death. The veracity of this document was never
assailed,[7] even by those who during the rehabilitation trial pointed
out its irregularity.[8]

[Footnote 6: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 478 _et seq._]

[Footnote 7: _Cf._ J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux sur l'histoire de
Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1880, pp. 138-144.]

[Footnote 8: Evidence of G. Manchon, _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 14.]

Secondly, the chroniclers of the period, both French and Burgundian,
were paid chroniclers, one of whom was attached to every great baron.
Tringant says that his master did not expend any money in order to
obtain mention in the chronicles,[9] and that therefore he is omitted
from them. The earliest chronicle in which the Maid occurs is that of
Perceval de Cagny, who was in the service of the house of Alençon and
Duke John's master of the house.[10] It was drawn up in the year 1436,
that is, only six years after Jeanne's death. But it was not written
by him. According to his own confession he had "not half the sense,
memory, or ability necessary for putting this, or even a matter of
less than half its importance, down in writing."[11] This chronicle is
the work of a painstaking clerk. One is not surprised to find a
chronicler in the pay of the house of Alençon representing the
differences concerning the Maid, which arose between the Sire de la
Trémouille and the Duke of Alençon, in a light most unfavourable to
the King. But from a scribe, supposed to be writing at the dictation
of a retainer of Duke John, one would have expected a less inaccurate
and a less vague account of the feats of arms accomplished by the Maid
in company with him whom she called her fair duke. Although this
chronicle was written at a time when no one dreamed that the sentence
of 1431 would ever be revoked, the Maid is regarded as employing
supernatural means, and her acts are stripped of all verisimilitude by
being recorded in the manner of a hagiography. Further, that portion
of the chronicle attributed to Perceval de Cagny, which deals with the
Maid, is brief, consisting of twenty-seven chapters of a few lines
each. Quicherat is of opinion that it is the best chronicle of Jeanne
d'Arc[12] existing, and the others may indeed be even more worthless.

[Footnote 9: _Ne donnoit point d'argent pour soy faire mettre ès
croniques._--Jean de Bueil, _Le Jouvencel_, ed. C. Fabre and L.
Lecestre, Paris, 1887, 8vo, vol. ii, p. 283.]

[Footnote 10: Perceval de Cagny, _Chroniques_, published by H.
Moranvillé, Paris, 1902, 8vo.]

[Footnote 11: _Le sens, mémoire, ne l'abillité de savoir faire metre
par escript ce, ne autre chose mendre de plus de la moitié_, Perceval
de Cagny, p. 31.]

[Footnote 12: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 1.]

Gilles le Bouvier,[13] king at arms of the province of Berry, who was
forty-three in 1429, is somewhat more judicious than Perceval de
Cagny; and, in spite of some confusion of dates, he is better
informed of military proceedings. But his story is of too summary a
nature to tell us much.

[Footnote 13: _Ibid._, pp. 40-50. D. Godefroy, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, Paris, 1661, fol. pp. 369-474.]

Jean Chartier,[14] precentor of Saint-Denys, held the office of
chronicler of France in 1449. Two hundred years later he would have
been described as historiographer royal. His office may be divined
from the manner in which he relates Jeanne's death. After having said
that she had been long imprisoned by the order of John of Luxembourg,
he adds: "The said Luxembourg sold her to the English, who took her to
Rouen, where she was harshly treated; in so much that after long
delay, they had her publicly burnt in that town of Rouen, without a
trial, of their own tyrannical will, which was cruelly done, seeing
the life and the rule she lived, for every week she confessed and
received the body of Our Lord, as beseemeth a good catholic."[15] When
Jean Chartier says that the English burned her without trial, he means
apparently that the Bailie of Rouen did not pronounce sentence.
Concerning the ecclesiastical trial and the two accusations of lapse
and relapse he says not a word; and it is the English whom he accuses
of having burnt a good Catholic without a trial. This example proves
how seriously the condemnation of 1431 embarrassed the government of
King Charles. But what can be thought of a historian who suppresses
Jeanne's trial because he finds it inconvenient? Jean Chartier was
extremely weak-minded and trivial; he seems to believe in the magic of
Catherine's sword and in Jeanne's loss of power when she broke it;[16]
he records the most puerile of fables. Nevertheless it is interesting
to note that the official chronicler of the Kings of France, writing
about 1450, ascribes to the Maid an important share in the delivery of
Orléans, in the conquest of fortresses on the Loire and in the victory
of Patay, that he relates how the King formed the army at Gien "by the
counsel of the said maid,"[17] and that he expressly states that
Jeanne caused[18] the coronation and consecration. Such was certainly
the opinion which prevailed at the Court of Charles VII. All that we
have to discover is whether that opinion was sincere and reasonable or
whether the King of France may not have deemed it to his advantage to
owe his kingdom to the Maid. She was held a heretic by the heads of
the Church Universal, but in France her memory was honoured, rather,
however, by the lower orders than by the princes of the blood and the
leaders of the army. The services of the latter the King was not
desirous to extol after the revolt of 1440. During this
_Praguerie_,[19] the Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Vendôme, the Duke
of Alençon, whom the Maid called her fair duke, and even the cautious
Count Dunois had been seen joining hands with the plunderers and
making war on the sovereign with an ardour they had never shown in
fighting against the English.

[Footnote 14: Jean Chartier, _Chronique de Charles VII, roi de
France_, ed. Vallet de Viriville, Paris, 1858, 3 vols., 18mo.
(_Bibliothèque Elzévirienne_).]

[Footnote 15: _Lequel Luxembourg la vendit aux Angloix, qui la
menèrent à Rouen, où elle fut durement traictée; et tellement que,
après grant dillacion de temps, sans procez, maiz de leur voulenté
indeue, la firent ardoir en icelle ville de Rouen publiquement ... qui
fut bien inhumainement fait, veu la vie et gouvernement dont elle
vivoit, car elle se confessoit et recepvoit par chacune sepmaine le
corps de Nostre Seigneur, comme bonne catholique._--Jean Chartier,
_Chronique de Charles VII, roi de France_, vol. i, p. 122.]

[Footnote 16: Jean Chartier, _Chronique de Charles VII, roi de
France_, vol. i, p. 122.]

[Footnote 17: _Par l'admonestement de ladite Pucelle_, Jean Chartier,
vol. i, p. 87.]

[Footnote 18: _Fut cause_, _ibid._, vol. i, p. 97.]

[Footnote 19: This revolt of the French nobles was so named because
various risings of a similar nature had taken place in the city of
Prague.--W.S.]

"Le Journal du Siège"[20] was doubtless kept in 1428 and 1429; but the
edition that has come down to us dates from 1467.[21] What relates to
Jeanne before her coming to Orléans is interpolated; and the
interpolator was so unskilful as to date Jeanne's arrival at Chinon in
the month of February, while it took place on March 6, and to assign
Thursday, March 10, as the date of the departure from Blois, which did
not occur until the end of April. The diary from April 28 to May 7 is
less inaccurate in its chronology, and the errors in dates which do
occur may be attributed to the copyist. But the facts to which these
dates are assigned, occasionally in disagreement with financial
records and often tinged with the miraculous, testify to an advanced
stage of Jeanne's legend. For example, one cannot possibly attribute
to a witness of the siege the error made by the scribe concerning the
fall of the Bridge of Les Tourelles.[22] What is said on page 97 of P.
Charpentier's and C. Cuissart's edition concerning the relations of
the inhabitants and the men-at-arms seems out of place, and may very
likely have been inserted there to efface the memory of the grave
dissensions which had occurred during the last week. From the 8th of
May the diary ceases to be a diary; it becomes a series of extracts
borrowed from Chartier, from Berry, and from the rehabilitation
trial. The episode of the big fat Englishman slain by Messire Jean de
Montesclère at the Siege of Jargeau is obviously taken from the
evidence of Jean d'Aulon in 1446; and even this plagiarism is
inaccurate, since Jean d'Aulon expressly says he was slain at the
Battle of Les Augustins.[23]

[Footnote 20: _Journal du siège d'Orléans_ (1428-1429), ed. P.
Charpentier and C. Cuissart, Orléans, 1896, 8vo.]

[Footnote 21: The oldest copy extant is dated 1472 (MS. fr. 14665).]

[Footnote 22: _Journal du siège d'Orléans_ (1428-1429), p. 87.
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 162, note.]

[Footnote 23: _Journal du siège_, p. 97. _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 215.]

The chronicle entitled _La Chronique de la Pucelle_,[24] as if it were
the chief chronicle of the heroine, is taken from a history entitled
_Geste des nobles François_, going back as far as Priam of Troy. But
the extract was not made until the original had been changed and added
to. This was done after 1467. Even if it were proved that _La
Chronique de la Pucelle_ is the work of Cousinot, shut up in Orléans
during the siege, or even of two Cousinots, uncle and nephew according
to some, father and son according to others, it would remain none the
less true that this chronicle is largely copied from Jean Chartier,
the _Journal du Siège_ and the rehabilitation trial. Whoever the
author may have been, this work reflects no great credit upon him: no
very high praise can be given to a fabricator of tales, who, without
appearing in the slightest degree aware of the fact, tells the same
stories twice over, introducing each time different and contradictory
circumstances. _La Chronique de la Pucelle_ ends abruptly with the
King's return to Berry after his defeat before Paris.

[Footnote 24: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, or _Chronique de Cousinot_,
ed. Vallet de Viriville, Paris, 1859, 16mo. (_Bibliothèque
Gauloise_).]

_Le Mystère du siège_[25] must be classed with the chronicles. It is
in fact a rhymed chronicle in dialogue, and it would be extremely
interesting for its antiquity alone were it possible to do what some
have attempted and to assign to it the date 1435. The editors, and
following them several scholars, have believed it possible to identify
this poem of 20,529 lines with a _certain mistaire_[26] played on the
sixth anniversary of the delivery of the city. They have drawn their
conclusions from the following circumstances: the Maréchal de Rais,
who delighted to organise magnificent farces and mysteries, was in
Duke Charles's city expending vast sums[27] there from September,
1434, till August, 1435; in 1439 the city purchased out of its
municipal funds "a standard and a banner, which had belonged to
Monseigneur de Reys and had been used by him to represent the manner
of the storming of Les Tourelles and their capture from the
English."[28] From such a statement it is impossible to prove that in
1435 or in 1439, on May 8, there was acted a play having the Siege for
its subject and the Maid for its heroine. If, however, we take "the
manner of the storming of Les Tourelles" to mean a mystery rather than
a pageant or some other form of entertainment, and if we consider the
_certain mistaire_ of 1435 as indicating a representation of that
siege which had been laid and raised by the English, we shall thus
arrive at a mystery of the siege. But even then we must examine
whether it be that mystery the text of which has come down to us.

[Footnote 25: _Mystère du Siège d'Orléans_, first published by MM. F.
Guessard and E. de Certain, Paris, 1862, 4to, according to the only
manuscript, which is preserved in the Vatican Library.--_Cf._ _Étude
sur le mystère du siège d'Orléans_, by H. Tivier, Paris, 1868, 8vo.]

[Footnote 26: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 309.]

[Footnote 27: The Abbé E. Bossard and de Maulde, _Gilles de Rais,
Maréchal de France, dit Barbe-Bleue_ (1404-1440), 2nd edition, Paris,
1886, 8vo, pp. 94-113.]

[Footnote 28: _Un estandart et bannière qui furent à Monseigneur de
Reys pour faire la manière de l'assault comment les Tourelles furent
prinses sur les Anglois Mistère du siège_, p. viii.]

Among the one hundred and forty speaking personages in this work is
the Maréchal de Rais. Hence it has been concluded that the mystery was
written and acted before the lawsuit ended by that sentence to which
effect was given above the Nantes Bridge, on October 20, 1440. How,
indeed, it has been asked, after so ignominious a death could the
vampire of Machecoul have been represented to the people of Orléans as
fighting for their deliverance? How could the Maid and Blue Beard be
associated in a heroic action? It is hard to answer such a question,
because we cannot possibly tell how much of that kind of thing could
be tolerated by the barbarism of those rude old times. Perhaps our
text itself, if properly examined, will be found to contain internal
evidence as to whether it is of an earlier or later date than 1440.

The bastard of Orléans was created Count of Dunois on July 14,
1439.[29] The lines of the mystery, in which he is called by this
title, cannot therefore be anterior to that date. They are numerous,
and, by a singularity which has never been explained, are all in the
first third of the book. When Dunois reappears later he is the Bastard
again. From this fact the editors of 1862 concluded that five thousand
lines were prefixed to the primitive text subsequently, although they
in no way differ from the rest, either in language, style, or prosody.
But may the rest of the poem be assigned to 1435 or 1439?

[Footnote 29: _Mistère du siège_, preface, p. x.]

That is not my opinion. In the lines 12093 and 12094 the Maid tells
Talbot he will die by the hand of the King's men. This prophecy must
have been made after the event: it is an obvious allusion to the
noble captain's end, and these lines must have been written after
1453.

Six years after the siege no clerk of Orléans would have thought of
travestying Jeanne as a lady of noble birth.

In line 10199 and the following of the "_Mistère du Siège_" the Maid
replies to the first President of the Parlement of Poitiers when he
questions her concerning her family:

     "As for my father's mansion, it is in the Bar country; and
     he is of gentle birth and rank right noble, a good Frenchman
     and a loyal."[30]

[Footnote 30:

    Quant est de l'ostel de mon père,
      Il est en pays de Barois;
    Gentilhomme et de noble afaire
    Honneste et loyal François.

_Mistère du siège_, pp. 397-398.]

Before a clerk would write thus, Jeanne's family must have been long
ennobled and the first generation must have died out, which happened
in 1469; there must have come into existence that numerous family of
the Du Lys, whose ridiculous pretensions had to be humoured. Not
content with deriving their descent from their aunt, the Du Lys
insisted on connecting the good peasant Jacquot d'Arc with the old
nobility of Bar.

Notwithstanding that Jeanne's reference to "her father's mansion"
conflicts with other scenes in the same mystery, this lengthy work
would appear to be all of a piece.

It was apparently compiled during the reign of Louis XI, by a citizen
of Orléans who was a fair master of his subject. It would be
interesting to make a more detailed study of his authorities than has
been done hitherto. This poet seems to have known a _Journal du siège_
very different from the one we possess.

Was his mystery acted during the last thirty years of the century at
the festival instituted to commemorate the taking of Les Tourelles?
The subject, the style, and the spirit are all in harmony with such an
occasion. But it is curious that a poem composed to celebrate the
deliverance of Orléans on May 8 should assign that deliverance to May
9. And yet this is what the author of the mystery does when he puts
the following lines into the mouth of the Maid:

     "Remember how Orléans was delivered in the year one thousand
     four hundred and twenty-nine, and forget not also that of
     May it was the ninth day."[31]

[Footnote 31:

    ... Ayez en souvenance....
    Comment Orléans eult délivrance....
    L'an mil iiijc xxix;
    Faites en mémoire tous dis;
    Des jours de may ce fut le neuf.

_Mistère du siège_, lines 14375-14381, p. 559.]

Such are the chief chroniclers on the French side who have written of
the Maid. Others who came later or who have only dealt with certain
episodes in her life, need not be quoted here; their testimony will be
best examined when we come to that of the facts in detail. Placing on
one side any information to be obtained from _La Chronique de
l'établissement de la fête_,[32] from _La Relation_[33] of the Clerk
of La Rochelle and other contemporary documents, we are now in a
position to realise that if we depended on the French chroniclers for
our knowledge of Jeanne d'Arc we should know just as much about her as
we know of Sakya Muni.

[Footnote 32: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 285 _et seq._]

[Footnote 33: _Relation inédite sur Jeanne d'Arc, extraite du livre
noir de l'hôtel de ville de La Rochelle_, ed. J. Quicherat, Orléans,
1879, 8vo, and _La Revue Historique_, vol. iv, 1877, pp. 329-344.]

We shall certainly not find her explained by the Burgundian
chroniclers. They, however, furnish certain useful information. The
earliest of these Burgundian chroniclers is a clerk of Picardy, the
author of an anonymous chronicle, called _La Chronique des
Cordeliers_,[34] because the only copy of it comes from a house of the
Cordeliers at Paris. It is a history of the world from the creation to
the year 1431. M. Pierre Champion[35] has proved that Monstrelet made
use of it. This clerk of Picardy knew divers matters, and was
acquainted with sundry state documents. But facts and dates he
curiously confuses. His knowledge of the Maid's military career is
derived from a French and a popular source. A certain credence has
been attached to his story of the leap from Beaurevoir; but his
account if accurate destroys the idea that Jeanne threw herself from
the top of the keep in a fit of frenzy or despair.[36] And it does not
agree with what Jeanne said herself.

[Footnote 34: Bibl. Nat. fr. 23018: J. Quicherat, _Supplément aux
témoignages contemporains sur Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue Historique_,
vol. xix, May-June, 1882, pp. 72-83.]

[Footnote 35: Pierre Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, Paris, 1906, in
8vo, pp. xi, xii.]

[Footnote 36: _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, introduction and
commentary by Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, text established by Léon
Dorez, vol. iii, 1901, p. 302, and vol. iv, supplement xxi.]

Monstrelet,[37] "more drivelling at the mouth than a
mustard-pot,"[38] is a fountain of wisdom in comparison with Jean
Chartier. When he makes use of _La Chronique des Cordeliers_ he
rearranges it and presents its facts in order. What he knew of Jeanne
amounts to very little. He believed that she was an inn servant. He
has but a word to say of her indecision at Montépilloy, but that word,
to be found nowhere else, is extremely significant. He saw her in the
camp at Compiègne; but unfortunately he either did not realise or did
not wish to say what impression she made upon him.

[Footnote 37: Enguerrand de Monstrelet, _Chronique_, ed. Doüet-d'Arcq,
Paris, 1857-1861, 6 vols. in 8vo.]

[Footnote 38: Rabelais, Urquhart's Trans., ii-49, in Bohn's edition,
1849 (W.S.). _Plus baveux que ung pot de moutarde._--Rabelais,
_Pantagruel_, bk. iii, chap. xxiv.]

Wavrin du Forestel,[39] who edited additions to Froissart, Monstrelet,
and Mathieu d'Escouchy, was at Patay; he never saw Jeanne there. He
knows her only by hearsay and that but vaguely. We do not therefore
attach great importance to what he relates concerning Robert de
Baudricourt, who, according to him, indoctrinated the Maid and taught
her how to appear "inspired by Divine Providence."[40] On the other
hand, he gives valuable information concerning the war immediately
after the deliverance of Orléans.

[Footnote 39: Jehan de Wavrin, _Anchiennes croniques d'Engleterre_,
ed. Mademoiselle Dupont, Paris, 1858-1863, 3 vols., 8vo.]

[Footnote 40: Wavrin's additions to Monstrelet in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
407.]

Le Fèvre de Saint-Rémy, Counsellor to the Duke of Burgundy and
King-at-arms of the Golden Fleece,[41] was possibly at Compiègne when
Jeanne was taken; and he speaks of her as a brave girl.

[Footnote 41: _Chronique de Jean le Fèvre, seigneur de Saint-Rémy_,
ed. François Morand, Paris, 1876-1881, 2 vols. in 8vo.]

Georges Chastellain copies Le Fèvre de Saint Remy.[42]

[Footnote 42: _Chroniques des ducs de Bourgogne_, Paris, 1827, 2 vols.
in 8vo; vols. xlii and xliii of the _Collection des Chroniques
françaises_, by Buchon. _Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain_, ed. Kervyn
de Lettenhove, Brussels, 1863, 8 vols. in 8vo.]

The author of _Le Journal_ ascribed to _un Bourgeois de Paris_,[43]
whom we identify as a Cabochien clerk, had only heard Jeanne spoken of
by the doctors and masters of the University of Paris. Moreover he was
very ill-informed, which is regrettable. For the man stands alone in
his day for energy of feeling and language, for passion of wrath and
of pity, and for intense sympathy with the people.

[Footnote 43: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_ (1405-1449), ed. A.
Tuetey, Paris, 1881, in 8vo.]

I must mention a document which is neither French nor Burgundian, but
Italian. I refer to the _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, published and
annotated with admirable erudition by M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis.
This chronicle, or to be more precise, the letters it contains, are
very valuable to the historian, but not on account of the veracity of
the deeds here attributed to the Maid, which on the contrary are all
imaginary and fabulous. In the _Chronique de Morosini_,[44] every
single fact concerning Jeanne is presented in a wrong character and in
a false light. And yet Morosini's correspondents are men of business,
thoughtful, subtle Venetians. These letters reveal how there were
being circulated throughout Christendom a whole multitude of
fictitious stories, imitated some from the Romances of Chivalry,
others from the Golden Legend, concerning that _Demoiselle_ as she is
called, at once famous and unknown.

[Footnote 44: _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, ed. Léon Dorez and
Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, Paris, 1900-1902, 4 vols. in 8vo.]

Another document, the diary of a German merchant, one Eberhard de
Windecke,[45] a conscientious and clever edition of which has also
been published by M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, presents the same
phenomenon. Nothing here related of the Maid is even probable. As soon
as she appears a whole cycle of popular stories grow up round her
name. Eberhard obviously delights to relate them. Thus we learn from
these good foreign merchants that at no period of her existence was
Jeanne known otherwise than by fables, and that if she moved
multitudes it was by the spreading abroad of countless legends which
sprang up wherever she passed and made way before her. And indeed,
there is much food for thought in that dazzling obscurity, which from
the very first enwrapped the Maid, in those radiant clouds of myth,
which, while concealing her, rendered her all the more imposing.

[Footnote 45: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Les sources allemandes de
l'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, Eberhard Windecke, Paris, 1903, in 8vo.]

Thirdly, with its memoranda, its consultations, and its one hundred
and forty depositions, furnished by one hundred and twenty-three
deponents, the rehabilitation trial forms a very valuable collection
of documents.[46] M. Lanéry d'Arc has done well to publish in their
entirety the memoranda of the doctors as well as the treatise of the
Archbishop of Embrun, the propositions of Master Heinrich von Gorcum
and the _Sibylla Francica_.[47] From the trial of 1431 we learn what
theologians on the English side thought of the Maid. But were it not
for the consultations of Théodore de Leliis and of Paul Pontanus and
the opinions included in the later trial we should not know how she
was regarded by the doctors of Italy and France. It is important to
ascertain what were the views held by the whole Church concerning a
damsel condemned during her lifetime, when the English were in power,
and rehabilitated after her death when the French were victorious.

[Footnote 46: _Trial_, vols. ii to iii, 1844-1845 (vols. v and vi,
1846-1847, contain the evidence).]

[Footnote 47: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, 1889, in 8vo. _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 411-468.]

Doubtless many matters were elucidated by the one hundred and
twenty-three witnesses heard at Domremy, at Vaucouleurs, at Toul, at
Orléans, at Paris, at Rouen, at Lyon, witnesses drawn from all ranks
of life--churchmen, princes, captains, burghers, peasants, artisans.
But we are bound to admit that they come far short of satisfying our
curiosity, and for several reasons. First, because they replied to a
list of questions drawn up with the object of establishing a certain
number of facts within the scope of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The
Holy Inquisitor who conducted the trial was curious, but his curiosity
was not ours. This is the first reason for the insufficiency of the
evidence from our point of view.[48]

[Footnote 48: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 378-463.]

But there are other reasons. Most of the witnesses appear excessively
simple and lacking in discernment. In so large a number of men of all
ages and of all ranks it is sad to find how few were equipped with
lucid and judicial minds. It would seem as if the human intellect of
those days was enwrapped in twilight and incapable of seeing anything
distinctly. Thought as well as speech was curiously puerile. Only a
slight acquaintance with this dark age is enough to make one feel as
if among children. Want and ignorance and wars interminable had
impoverished the mind of man and starved his moral nature. The scanty,
slashed, ridiculous garments of the nobles and the wealthy betray an
absurd poverty of taste and weakness of intellect.[49] One of the most
striking characteristics of these small minds is their triviality;
they are incapable of attention; they retain nothing. No one who reads
the writings of the period can fail to be struck by this almost
universal weakness.

[Footnote 49: J. Quicherat, _Histoire du costume_, Paris, 1875, large
8vo, _passim_. G. Demay, _Le costume au moyen âge d'après les sceaux_,
Paris, 1880, p. 121, figs. 76 and 77.]

By no means all the evidence given in these one hundred and forty
depositions can be treated seriously. The daughter of Jacques Boucher,
steward to the Duke of Orléans, depones in the following terms: "At
night I slept alone with Jeanne. Neither in her words or her acts did
I ever observe anything wrong. She was perfectly simple, humble, and
chaste."[50]

[Footnote 50: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 34.]

This young lady was nine years old when she perceived with a
discernment somewhat precocious that her sleeping companion was
simple, humble, and chaste.

That is unimportant. But to show how one may sometimes be deceived by
the witnesses whom one would expect to be the most reliable, I will
quote Brother Pasquerel.[51] Brother Pasquerel is Jeanne's chaplain.
He may be expected to speak as one who has seen and as one who knows.
Brother Pasquerel places the examination at Poitiers before the
audience granted by the King to the Maid in the château of
Chinon.[52]

[Footnote 51: _Ibid._, p. 100.]

[Footnote 52: We must notice, however, that Brother Pasquerel, who was
not present either at Chinon or at Poitiers, is careful to say that he
knows nothing of Jeanne's sojourn in these two towns save what she
herself has told him. Now we are surprised to find that she herself
placed the examination at Poitiers before the audience at Chinon,
since she says in her trial that at Chinon, when she gave her King a
sign, the clerks ceased to contend with her.--_Trial_, vol. i, p.
145.]

Forgetting that the whole relieving army had been in Orléans since May
4, he supposes that, on the evening of Friday the 6th, it was still
expected.[53] From such blunders we may judge of the muddled condition
of this poor priest's brain. His most serious shortcoming, however, is
the invention of miracles. He tries to make out that when the convoy
of victuals reached Orléans, there occurred, by the Maid's special
intervention, and in order to carry the barges up the river, a sudden
flood of the Loire which no one but himself saw.[54]

[Footnote 53: _Expectando succursum regis_, _Trial_, vol. iii, p.
109.]

[Footnote 54: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 105.]

The evidence of Dunois[55] is also somewhat deceptive. We know that
Dunois was one of the most intelligent and prudent men of his day, and
that he was considered a good speaker. In the defence of Orléans and
in the coronation campaign he had displayed considerable ability.
Either his evidence must have seriously suffered at the hands of the
translator and the scribes, or he must have caused it to be given by
his chaplain. He speaks of the "great number of the enemy" in terms
more appropriate to a canon of a cathedral or a woollen draper than to
a captain entrusted with the defence of a city and expected to know
the actual force of the besiegers. All his evidence dealing with the
transport of victuals on April 28 is well-nigh unintelligible. And
Dunois is unable to state that Troyes was the first stage in the
army's march from Gien.[56] Relating a conversation he held with the
Maid after the coronation, he makes her speak as if her brothers were
awaiting her at Domremy, whereas they were with her in France.[57]
Curiously blundering, he attempts to prove that Jeanne had visions by
relating a story much more calculated to give the impression that the
young peasant girl was an apt feigner and that at the request of the
nobles she reproduced one of her ecstasies, like the Esther of the
lamented Doctor Luys.[58]

[Footnote 55: _Ibid._, pp. 2 _et seq._]

[Footnote 56: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 13.]

[Footnote 57: _Ibid._, p. 15.]

[Footnote 58: _Ibid._, p. 12.]

In that portion of this work which deals with the rehabilitation trial
I have given my opinion of the evidence of the clerks of the court, of
the usher Massieu, of the Brothers Isambard de la Pierre and Martin
Ladvenu.[59] All these burners of witches and avengers of God worked
as heartily at Jeanne's rehabilitation as they had at her
condemnation.

[Footnote 59: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 15, 161, 329; vol. iii, pp. 41 and
_passim_.]

In many cases and often on events of importance, the evidence of
witnesses is in direct conflict with the truth. A woollen draper of
Orléans, one Jean Luillier, comes before the commissioners and as bold
as brass maintains that the garrison could not hold out against so
great a besieging force.[60] Now this statement is proved to be false
by the most authentic documents, which show that the English round
Orléans were very weak and that their resources were greatly
reduced.[61]

[Footnote 60: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 23.]

[Footnote 61: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise au siège
d'Orléans_ (1428-1429), Orléans, 1892, in 8vo.]

When the evidence given at the second trial has obviously been dressed
up to suit the occasion, or even when it is absolutely contrary to the
truth, we must blame not only those who gave it, but those who
received it. In its elicitation the latter were too artful. This
evidence has about as much value as the evidence in a trial by the
Inquisition. In certain matters it may represent the ideas of the
judges as much as those of the witnesses.

What the judges in this instance were most desirous to establish was
that Jeanne had not understood when she was spoken to of the Church
and the Pope, that she had refused to obey the Church Militant because
she believed the Church Militant to be Messire Cauchon and his
assessors. In short, it was necessary to represent her as almost an
imbecile. In ecclesiastical procedure this expedient was frequently
adopted. And there was yet another reason, a very strong one, for
passing her off as an innocent, a damsel devoid of intelligence. This
second trial, like the first, had been instituted with a political
motive; its object was to make known that Jeanne had come to the aid
of the King of France not by devilish incitement, but by celestial
inspiration. Consequently in order that divine wisdom might be made
manifest in her she must be shown to have had no wisdom of her own. On
this string the examiners were constantly harping. On every occasion
they drew from the witnesses the statement that she was simple, very
simple. _Una simplex bergereta_,[62] says one. _Erat multum simplex et
ignorans_,[63] says another.

[Footnote 62: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20.]

[Footnote 63: _Ibid._, p. 87.]

But since, despite her ignorance, this innocent damsel had been sent
of God to deliver or to capture towns and to lead men at arms, there
must needs be innate in her a knowledge of the art of war, and in
battle she must needs manifest the strength and the counsel she had
received from above. Wherefore it was necessary to obtain evidence to
establish that she was more skilled in warfare than any man.

Damoiselle Marguerite la Touroulde makes this affirmation.[64] The
Duke of Alençon declares that the Maid was apt alike at wielding the
lance, ranging an army, ordering a battle, preparing artillery, and
that old captains marvelled at her skill in placing cannon.[65] The
Duke quite understands that all these gifts were miraculous and that
to God alone was the glory. For if the merit of the victories had been
Jeanne's he would not have said so much about them.

[Footnote 64: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 85.]

[Footnote 65: _Ibid._, p. 100. On the other hand see the evidence of
Dunois (vol. iii, p. 16), "licet dicta Johanna aliquotiens _jocose_
loqueretur de facto armorum, pro animando armatos ... tamen quando
loquebatur seriose de guerra ... nunquam affirmative asserebat nisi
quod erat missa ad levandum obsidionem Aurelianensem."]

And if God had chosen the Maid to perform so great a task, it must
have been because in her he beheld the virtue which he preferred above
all others in his virgins. Henceforth it sufficed not for her to have
been chaste; her chastity must become miraculous, her chastity and her
moderation in eating and drinking must be exalted into sanctity.
Wherefore the witnesses are never tired of stating: _Erat casta, erat
castissima. Ille loquens non credit aliquam mulierem plus esse castam
quam ista Puella erat. Erat sobria in potu et cibo. Erat sobria in
cibo et potu._[66]

[Footnote 66: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 438, 457; vol. iii, pp. 100,
219.]

The heavenly source of such purity must needs have been made manifest
by Jeanne's possessing singular immunities. And on this point there is
a mass of evidence. Rough men at arms, Jean de Novelompont, Bertrand
de Poulengy, Jean d'Aulon; great nobles, the Count of Dunois and the
Duke of Alençon, come forward and affirm on oath that in them Jeanne
never provoked any carnal desires. Such a circumstance fills these old
captains with astonishment; they boast of their past vigour and wonder
that for once their youthful ardour should have been damped by a maid.
It seems to them most unnatural and humanly impossible. Their
description of the effect Jeanne produced upon them recalls Saint
Martha's binding of the Tarascon beast. Dunois in his evidence is very
much occupied with miracles. He points to this one as, to human
reason, the most incomprehensible of all. If he neither desired nor
solicited this damsel, of this unique fact he can find but one
explanation, it is that Jeanne was holy, _res divina_. When Jean de
Novelompont and Bertrand de Poulengy describe their sudden continence,
they employ identical forms of speech, affected and involved. And then
there comes a king's equerry, Gobert Thibaut, who declares that in the
army there was much talk of this divine grace, vouchsafed to the
Armagnacs[67] and denied to English and Burgundians, at least, so the
behaviour of a certain knight of Picardy, and of one Jeannotin, a
tailor of Rouen, would lead us to believe.[68]

[Footnote 67: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 438; vol. iii, pp. 15, 76, 100,
219, and 457.]

[Footnote 68: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 89 and 121.]

Such evidence obviously answers to the ideas of the judges, and turns,
so to speak, on theological rather than on natural facts.

In inquisitorial inquiries there abound such depositions as those of
Jean de Novelompont and of Bertrand de Poulengy, containing passages
drawn up in identical terms. But I must admit that in the
rehabilitation trial they are rare, partly because the witnesses were
heard at long intervals of time and in different countries, and partly
because in the Maid's case no elaborate proceedings were necessary
owing to her adversaries not being represented.

It is to be regretted that all the evidence given at this trial, with
the exception of that of Jean d'Aulon, should have been translated
into Latin. This process has obscured fine shades of thought and
deprived the evidence of its original flavour.

Sometimes the clerk contents himself with saying that the depositions
of a witness were like those of his predecessor. Thus on the raising
of the siege of Orléans all the burgesses depone like the woollen
draper, who himself was not thoroughly conversant with the
circumstances in which his town had been delivered. Thus the Sire de
Gaucourt, after a brief declaration, gives the same evidence as
Dunois, although the Count had related matters so strikingly
individual that it seems strange they should have been common to two
witnesses.[69]

[Footnote 69: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 2 and 35.]

Certain evidence would appear to have been cut short. Brother
Pasquerel's abruptly comes to an end at Paris. This circumstance, if
we did not possess his signature at the conclusion of the Latin letter
to the Hussites, would lead us to believe that the good Brother left
the Maid immediately after the attack on La Porte Saint-Honoré. It
surely cannot have chanced that in so long a series of questions and
answers not one word was said of the departure from Sully or of the
campaign which began at Lagny and ended at Compiègne.[70]

[Footnote 70: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 100 _et seq._]

We conclude, therefore, that in the study of this voluminous evidence
we must exercise great judgment and that we must not expect it to
enlighten us on all the circumstances of Jeanne's life.

Fourthly. On certain points of the Maid's history the only exact
information is to be obtained from account-books, letters, deeds, and
other authentic documents of the period. The records published by
Siméon Luce and the lease of the Château de l'Île inform us of the
circumstances among which Jeanne grew up.[71] Neither the two trials
nor the chronicles had revealed the terrible conditions prevailing in
the village of Domremy from 1412 to 1425.

[Footnote 71: Siméon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy, recherches
critiques sur les origines de la mission de la Pucelle_, Paris, 1886,
in 8vo; _La France pendant la guerre de cent ans: épisodes historiques
et vie privée aux xiv'e et xv'e siècles_, Paris, 1890, in 12mo.]

The fortress accounts kept at Orléans[72] and the documents of the
English administration[73] enable us to estimate approximately the
respective forces of defenders and besiegers of the city. On this
point also they enable us to correct the statements of chroniclers and
witnesses in the rehabilitation trial.

[Footnote 72: D. Lottin, _Recherches sur la ville d'Orléans_, Orléans,
7 vols. in 8vo; Boucher de Molandon, _Les comptes de ville d'Orléans
des xiv'e et xv'e siècles_, 1880, in 8vo; Jules Loiseleur, _Compte
des dépenses faites par Charles VII pour secourir Orléans pendant le
siège de 1428_, Orléans, 1868, in 8vo; Louis Jarry, _Le compte de
l'armée anglaise au siège d'Orléans_, Orléans, 1892, in 8vo; Couret,
_Un fragment inédit des anciens registres de la prévôté d'Orléans,
relatif au règlement des frais du siège de 1428-1429_, Orléans, 1697,
in 8vo (extract from the _Mémoires de l'Académie de Sainte Croix_).]

[Footnote 73: Rymer, _Foedera, conventiones...._, ed. tercia, Hagae
Comitis, 1739-1745, 10 vols. in folio; Delpit, _Collection de
documents français qui se trouvent en Angleterre_, Paris, 1847, in
4to; J. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers illustrative of the Wars of the
English in France during the reign of Henry VI_, 1861-1864, 3 parts,
in 2 vols. in 8vo; Charles Gross, _The Sources and Literature of
English History_, 1900, in 8vo.]

From the letters in the archives at Reims, copied by Rogier in the
seventeenth century, we learn how Troyes, Châlons, and Reims
surrendered to the King. From these letters also we see how very far
from accurate is Jean Chartier's account of the capitulation of the
city and how insufficient, especially considering the character of the
witness, is the evidence of Dunois on this subject.[74]

[Footnote 74: Varin, _Archives législatives de la ville de Reims_, 2nd
part; _Statuts_, vol. i, p. 596; _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 284 _et seq._]

Four or five records throw a faint light here and there on the
obscurity which shrouds the unfortunate campaign on the Aisne and the
Oise.

The registers of the chapter of Rouen, the wills of canons and sundry
other documents, discovered by M. Robillard de Beaurepaire in the
archives of Seine-Inférieure, serve to correct certain errors in the
two trials.[75]

[Footnote 75: E. Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès
de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, Rouen, 1869, in 8vo [_Précis des
travaux de l'Académie de Rouen, 1867-1868_, pp. 321-448]; _Notes sur
les juges et les assesseurs du procès de condamnation de Jeanne
d'Arc_, Rouen, 1890, in 8vo [_Précis des travaux de l'Académie de
Rouen, 1888-1889_, pp. 375-504].]

How many other detached papers, all valuable to the historian, might I
not enumerate! Surely this is another reason for mistrusting records
false or falsified, as, for example, the patent of nobility of Guy de
Cailly.[76]

[Footnote 76: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 342 _et seq._]

Rapid as this examination of authorities has been, I think nothing
essential has been omitted. To sum up, even in her lifetime the Maid
was scarce known save by fables. Her oldest chroniclers were devoid of
any critical sense, for the early legends concerning her they relate
as facts.

The Rouen trial, certain accounts, a few letters, sundry deeds, public
and private, are the most trustworthy documents. The rehabilitation
trial is also useful to the historian, provided always that we
remember how and why that trial was conducted.

By means of such records we may attain to a pretty accurate knowledge
of Jeanne d'Arc's life and character.

The salient fact which results from a study of all these authorities
is that she was a saint. She was a saint with all the attributes of
fifteenth-century sanctity. She had visions, and these visions were
neither feigned nor counterfeited. She really believed that she heard
the voices which spoke to her and came from no human lips. These
voices generally addressed her clearly and in words she could
understand. She heard them best in the woods and when the bells were
ringing. She saw forms, she said, like myriads of tiny shapes, like
sparks on a dazzling background. There is no doubt she had visions of
another nature, since she tells us how she beheld Saint Michael in the
guise of a _prud'homme_, that is as a good knight, and Saint Catherine
and Saint Margaret, wearing crowns. She saw them saluting her; she
kissed their feet and inhaled their sweet perfume.

What does this mean if not that she was subject to hallucinations of
hearing, sight, touch, and smell? But the most strongly affected of
her senses was her hearing. She says that her voices appear to her;
she sometimes calls them her council. She hears them very plainly
unless there is a noise around her. Generally she obeys them; but
sometimes she resists. We may doubt whether her visions were really so
distinct as she makes out. Because she either could not, or would not,
she never gave her judges at Rouen any very clear or precise
description of them. The angel she described most in detail was the
one which brought the crown, and which she afterwards confessed to
have seen only in imagination.

At what age did she become subject to these trances? We cannot say
exactly. But it was probably towards the end of her childhood,
notwithstanding that according to Jean d'Aulon, childhood was a state
out of which she never completely developed.[77]

[Footnote 77: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 19.]

Although it is always hazardous to found a medical diagnosis on
documents purely historical, several men of science have attempted to
define the pathological conditions which rendered the young girl
subject to false perceptions of sight and hearing.[78] Owing to the
rapid strides made by psychiatry during recent years, I have consulted
an eminent man of science, who is thoroughly conversant with the
present stage attained by this branch of pathology, to which he has
himself rendered important service. I asked Doctor Georges Dumas,
Professor at the Sorbonne, whether sufficient material exists for
science to make a retrospective diagnosis of Jeanne's case. He replied
to my inquiry in a letter which appears as the first Appendix to this
work.[79]

[Footnote 78: Brière de Boismont, _De l'hallucination historique, ou
étude médico-psychique sur les voix et les révélations de Jeanne
d'Arc_, 1861, in 8vo. Le Vicomte de Mouchy, _Jeanne d'Arc, étude
historique et psychologique_, Montpellier, 1868, in 8vo, 67 pp.]

[Footnote 79: Vol. ii, Appendix i.]

With such a subject I am not qualified to deal. But it does lie within
my province to make an observation concerning the hallucinations of
Jeanne d'Arc, which has been suggested to me by a study of the
documents. This observation is of infinite significance. I shall be
careful to restrict it to the limits prescribed by the object and the
nature of this work.

Those visionaries, who believe they are entrusted with a divine
mission, are distinguished by certain characteristics from other
inspired persons. When mystics of this class are studied and compared
with one another, resemblances are found to exist which may extend to
very slight details: certain of their words and acts are identical.
Indeed as we come to recognise how vigorous is the determinism
controlling the actions of these visionaries, we are astonished to
find the human machine, when impelled by the same mysterious agent,
performing its functions with inevitable uniformity. To this group of
the religious Jeanne belongs. In this connection it is interesting to
compare her with Saint Catherine of Sienna,[80] Saint Colette of
Corbie,[81] Yves Nicolazic, the peasant of Kernanna,[82] Suzette
Labrousse, the inspired woman of the Revolution Church,[83] and with
many other seers and seeresses of this order, who all bear a family
likeness to one another.

[Footnote 80: _Acta Sanctorum_, 1675, April, iii, 851.]

[Footnote 81: _Ibid._, March 1, 1532.]

[Footnote 82: Le Père Hugues de Saint-François, _Les grandeurs de Sainte
Anne_, Rennes, 1657, in 8vo; L'abbé Max Nicol, _Sainte-Anne-d'Auray_,
Paris, Brussels, s.d., in 8vo, pp. 37 _et seq._ M. le Docteur G. de
Closmadeuc has kindly lent me his valuable work, as yet unpublished,
on Yves Nicolazic, which is characterised by the same exactness of
information and of criticism as are to be found in his studies of
local history.]

[Footnote 83: _Recueil des ouvrages de la célèbre Mademoiselle
Labrousse, du Bourg de Vauxains, en Périgord, canton de Ribeirac de la
Dordogne, actuellement prisonnière au château Saint-Ange, à Rome_,
Bordeaux, 1797, in 8vo; E. Lairtullier, _Les femmes célèbres de 1789 à
1795_, Paris, 1842, in 8vo, vol. i, pp. 212 _et seq._; Abbé Chr.
Moreau, _Une mystique révolutionnaire Suzette Labrousse_, Paris, 1886,
in 8vo; A. France, _Susette Labrousse_, Paris, 1907, in 12mo.]

Three visionaries especially are closely related to Jeanne. The
earliest in date is a vavasour of Champagne, who had a mission to speak
to King John; of this holy man I have written sufficiently in the
present work. The second is a farrier of Salon, who had a mission to
speak to Louis XIV; the third, a peasant of Gallardon, named Martin,
who had a mission to speak to Louis XVIII. Articles on the farrier and
the farmer, who both saw apparitions and showed signs to their
respective kings, will be found in the appendices at the end of this
work.[84] In spite of difference in sex, the points of similarity
between Jeanne d'Arc and these three men are very close and very
significant; they are inherent in the very nature of Jeanne and her
fellow visionaries; and the variations, which at a first glance might
seem to separate widely the latter from Jeanne, are æsthetic, social,
historical, and consequently external and contingent. Between them and
her there are of course striking contrasts in appearance and in
fortune. They were entirely wanting in that charm which she never
failed to exercise; and it is a fact that while they failed miserably
she grew in strength and flowered in legend. But it is the duty of the
scientific mind to recognise common characteristics, proving identity
of origin alike in the noblest individual and in the most wretched
abortion of the same species.

[Footnote 84: Vol. ii, Appendices ii and iii.]

The free-thinkers of our day, imbued as they are, for the most part,
with transcendentalism, refuse to recognise in Jeanne not merely that
automatism which determines the acts of such a seeress, not only the
influence of constant hallucination, but even the suggestions of the
religious spirit. What she achieved through saintliness and
devoutness, they make her out to have accomplished by intelligent
enthusiasm. Such a disposition is manifest in the excellent and
erudite Quicherat, who all unconsciously introduces into the piety of
the Maid a great deal of eclectic philosophy. This point was not
without its drawbacks. It led free-thinking historians to a ridiculous
exaggeration of Jeanne's intellectual faculties, to the absurdity of
attributing military talent to her and to the substitution of a kind
of polytechnic phenomenon for the fifteenth century's artless marvel.
The Catholic historians of the present day when they make a saint of
the Maid are much nearer to nature and to truth. Unfortunately the
Church's idea of saintliness has grown insipid since the Council of
Trent, and orthodox historians are disinclined to study the variations
of the Catholic Church down the ages. In their hands therefore she
becomes sanctimonious and bigoted. So much so that in a search for the
most curiously travestied of all the Jeannes d'Arc we should have been
driven to choose between their miraculous protectress of Christian
France, the patroness of officers, the inimitable model of the pupils
of Saint-Cyr, and the romantic Druidess, the inspired woman-soldier of
the national guard, the patriot gunneress of the Republicans, had
there not arisen a Jesuit Father to create an ultramontane Jeanne
d'Arc.[85]

[Footnote 85: Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, 5 vols. in large
8vo, Paris, 1894-1902. Writing of this book in a study of
_L'Abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_ (Paris, 1902, pp. 7 and 8, note), Canon
Ulysse Chevalier, author of a valuable _Répertoire des sources du
moyen âge_, displays boldness and sound sense. "From the dimensions of
these five volumes," he says, "one might expect this work to be the
fullest history of Jeanne d'Arc; it is nothing of the sort. It is a
chaos of memoranda translated or rendered into modern French,
reflections and arguments against free-thought as represented by
Michelet, H. Martin, Quicherat, Vallet de Viriville, Siméon Luce, and
Joseph Fabre. Two headings will suffice to give an idea of the book's
tone: _The Pseudo-theologians, executioners of Jeanne d'Arc,
executioners of the Papacy_ (vol. i, p. 87); _The University of Paris
and the Brigandage of Rouen_ (p. 149). The author too often judges the
fifteenth century by the standards of the nineteenth. Is he quite sure
that if he had been a member of the University of Paris in 1431 he
would have thought and pronounced in favour of Jeanne, and in
opposition to his colleagues?"]

On the subject of Jeanne's sincerity I have raised no doubts. It is
impossible to suspect her of lying; she firmly believed that she
received her mission from her voices. But whether she were not
unconsciously directed is more difficult to ascertain. What we know of
her before her arrival at Chinon comes to very little. One is inclined
to believe that she had been subject to certain influences; it is so
with all visionaries: some unseen director leads them. Thus it must
have been with Jeanne. At Vaucouleurs she was heard to say that the
Dauphin held the kingdom in fief (_en commende_).[86] Such a term she
had not learnt from the folk of her village. She uttered a prophecy
which she had not invented and which had obviously been fabricated for
her.

[Footnote 86: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 456.]

She must have associated with priests who were faithful to the cause
of the Dauphin Charles, and who desired above all things the end of
the war. Abbeys were being burned, churches pillaged, divine service
discontinued.[87] Those pious persons who sighed for peace, now that
they saw the Treaty of Troyes failing to establish it, looked for the
realisation of their hopes to the expulsion of the English. And the
wonderful, the unique point about this young peasant girl--a point
suggesting the ecclesiastic and the monk--is not that she felt herself
called to ride forth and fight, but that in "her great pity" she
announced the approaching end of the war, by the victory and
coronation of the King, at a time when the nobles of the two
countries, and the men-at-arms of the two parties, neither expected
nor desired the war ever to come to an end.

[Footnote 87: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises, monastères
hôpitaux en France vers le milieu du xv'ieme siècle_, Mâcon, 1897,
in 8vo.]

The mission, with which she believed the angel had entrusted her and
to which she consecrated her life, was doubtless extraordinary,
marvellous; and yet it was not unprecedented: it was no more than
saints, both men and women, had already endeavoured to accomplish in
human affairs. Jeanne d'Arc arose in the decline of the great Catholic
age, when sainthood, usually accompanied by all manner of oddities,
manias, and illusions, still wielded sovereign power over the minds of
men. And of what miracles was she not capable when acting according to
the impulses of her own heart, and the grace of her own mind? From the
thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries God's servants perform wondrous
works. Saint Dominic, possessed by holy wrath, exterminates heresy
with fire and sword; Saint Francis of Assisi for the nonce founds
poverty as an institution of society; Saint Antony of Padua defends
merchants and artisans against the avarice and cruelty of nobles and
bishops; Saint Catherine brings the Pope back to Rome. Was it
impossible, therefore, for a saintly damsel, with God's aid, to
re-establish within the hapless realm of France that royal power
instituted by our Lord Himself and to bring to his coronation a new
Joash snatched from death for the salvation of the holy people?

Thus did pious French folk, in the year 1428, regard the mission of
the Maid. She represented herself as a devout damsel inspired by God.
There was nothing incredible in that. When she announced that she had
received revelations touching the war from my Lord Saint Michael, she
inspired the men-at-arms of the Armagnac party and the burghers of the
city of Orléans with a confidence as great as could have been
communicated to the troops, marching along the Loire in the winter of
1871, by a republican engineer who had invented a smokeless powder or
an improved form of cannon. What was expected from science in 1871 was
expected from religion in 1428, so that the Bastard of Orléans would
as naturally employ Jeanne as Gambetta would resort to the technical
knowledge of M. de Freycinet.

What has not been sufficiently remarked upon is that the French party
made a very adroit use of her. The clerks at Poitiers, while inquiring
at great length into her religion and her morals, brought her into
evidence. These Poitiers clerks were no monks ignorant of the world;
they constituted the Parliament of the lawful King; they were the
banished members of the University, men deeply involved in political
affairs, compromised by revolutions, despoiled and ruined, and very
impatient to regain possession of their property. They were directed
by the cleverest man in the King's Council, the Duke Archbishop of
Reims, the Chancellor of the kingdom. By the ceremoniousness and the
deliberation of their inquiries, they drew upon Jeanne the curiosity,
the interest, and the hopes of minds lost in amazement.[88]

[Footnote 88: O. Raguenet, _Les juges de Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers,
membres du Parlement ou gens d'Église?_ in _Lettres et mémoires de
l'Académie de Sainte-Croix d'Orléans VII_, 1894, pp. 339-442; D.
Lacombe, _L'hôte de Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers, maître Jean Rabateau,
Président au Parlement de Poitiers in Revue du Bas-Poitou_, 1891, pp.
46-66.]

The defences of the city of Orléans consisted in its walls, its
trenches, its cannon, its men-at-arms, and its money. The English had
failed both to surround it and to take it by assault. Convoys and
companies passed between their bastions. Jeanne was introduced into
the town with a strong relieving army. She brought flocks of oxen,
sheep, and pigs. The townsfolk believed her to be an angel of the
Lord. Meanwhile the men and the money of the besiegers were waxing
scant. They had lost all their horses. Far from being in a position to
attempt a new attack, they were not likely to be able to hold out long
in their bastions. At the end of April there were four thousand
English before Orléans and perhaps less, for, as it was said, soldiers
were deserting every day; and companies of these deserters went
plundering through the villages. At the same time the city was
defended by six thousand men-at-arms and archers, and by more than
three thousand men of the town bands. At Saint Loup, there were
fifteen hundred French against four hundred English; at Les Tourelles,
there were five thousand French against four or five hundred English.
By their retreat from Orléans the _Godons_ abandoned to their fate the
small garrisons of Jargeau, Meung, and Beaugency.[89] The Battle of
Patay gives us some idea of the condition of the English army. It was
no battle but a massacre, and one which Jeanne only reached in time to
mourn over the cruelty of the conquerors. And yet the King, in his
letters to his good towns, attributed to her a share in the victory.
Evidently the Royal Council made a point of glorifying its Holy Maid.

[Footnote 89: Mr. Andrew Lang (_La Jeanne d'Arc de M. Anatole France_,
p. 60) misreads this passage when he takes it to mean that the English
withdrew their garrisons from these places. That their ultimate
surrender became inevitable after the English retreat from Orléans is
what the writer intends to convey.--W.S.]

But at heart what did they really think, those who employed her, those
Regnaults de Chartres, those Roberts le Maçon, those Gérards Machet?
They were certainly in no position to discuss the origin of the
illusions which enveloped her. And, albeit there were atheists even
among churchmen, to the majority there would be nothing to cause
astonishment in the appearance of Saint Michael, the Archangel. In
those days nothing appeared more natural than a miracle. But a miracle
vanishes when closely observed. And they had the damsel before their
very eyes. They perceived that good and saintly as she was, she
wielded no supernatural power.

While the men-at-arms and all the common folk welcomed her as the maid
of God and an angel sent from heaven for the salvation of the realm,
these good lords thought only of profiting from the sentiments of
confidence which she inspired and in which they had little share.
Finding her as ignorant as possible, and doubtless deeming her less
intelligent than she really was, they intended to do as they liked
with her. They must soon have discovered that it was not always easy.
She was a saint, saints are intractable. What were the true relations
between the Royal Council and the Maid? We do not know; and it is a
mystery which will never be solved. The judges at Rouen thought they
knew that she received letters from Saint Michael.[90] It is possible
that her simplicity was sometimes taken advantage of. We have reason
for believing that the march to Reims was not suggested to her in
France; but there is no doubt that the Chancellor of the kingdom,
Messire Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, eagerly desired his
restoration to the see of the Blessed Saint Remi and the enjoyment of
his benefices.

[Footnote 90: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 146.]

The coronation campaign was really nothing but a series of
negotiations, backed by an army. Its object was to show the good towns
a king saintly and pacific. Had there been any idea of fighting, the
campaign would have been directed against Paris or against Normandy.

At the inquiry of 1456, five or six witnesses, captains, magistrates,
ecclesiastics, and an honest widow, gave evidence that Jeanne was well
versed in the art of war. They agreed in saying that she rode a horse
and wielded a lance better than any one. A master of requests stated
that she amazed the army by the length of time she could remain in the
saddle. Such qualities we are not entitled to deny her, neither can we
dispute the diligence and the ardour which Dunois praised in her, on
the occasion of a demonstration by night before Troyes.[91] As to the
opinion that this damsel was clever in arraying and leading an army
and especially skilled in the management of artillery, that is more
difficult to credit and would require to be vouched for by some one
more trustworthy than the poor Duke of Alençon, who was never
considered a very rational person.[92] What we have said about the
rehabilitation trial sufficiently explains this curious glorification
of the Maid. It was understood that Jeanne's military inspiration came
from God. Henceforth there was no danger of its being too much admired
and it came to be praised somewhat at random.

[Footnote 91: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 13.]

[Footnote 92: _Ibid._, p. 100. See _ante_, p. xxvi (note 4).]

After all the Duke of Alençon was quite moderate when he represented
her as a distinguished artillery-woman. As early as 1429, a humanist
on the side of Charles VII asserted in Ciceronian language that in
military glory she equalled and surpassed Hector, Alexander, Hannibal
and Cæsar: "Non Hectore reminiscat et gaudeat Troja, exultet Græcia
Alexandro, Annibale Africa, Italia Cæsare et Romanis ducibus omnibus
glorietur, Gallia etsi ex pristinis multos habeat, hac tamen una
Puella contenta, audebit se gloriari et laude bellica caeteris
nationibus se comparare, verum quoque, si expediet, se anteponere."[93]

[Footnote 93: Letter from Alain Chartier in the _Trial_, vol. v, pp.
135, 136; Capitaine P. Marin, _Jeanne d'Arc tacticien et stratégiste_,
Paris, 1889, 4 vols. in 12mo; Le Général Canonge, _Jeanne d'Arc
guerrière_, Paris, 1907, in 8vo.]

For ever praying and for ever wrapped in ecstasy, Jeanne never
observed the enemy; she did not know the roads; she paid no heed to
the number of troops engaged; she did not take into account either the
height of walls or the breadth of trenches. Even to-day officers are
to be heard discussing the Maid's military tactics.[94] Those tactics
were simple; they consisted in preventing men from blaspheming against
God and consorting with light women. She believed that for their sins
they would be destroyed, but that if they fought in a state of grace
they would win the victory. Therein lay all her military science, save
that she never feared danger.[95] She displayed a courage which was at
once proud and gentle; she was more valiant, more constant, more noble
than the men and in that worthy to lead them. And is it not admirable
and rare to find such heroism united to such innocence?

[Footnote 94: _Rossel et la légende de Jeanne d'Arc_ in _la Petite
République_ of July 15, 1896; _Jeanne d'Arc soldat_ by Art Roë, in _le
Temps_ of May 8, 1907. See also the works of Captain Marin, always so
praiseworthy for their carefulness and good faith.]

[Footnote 95: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 16.]

Certain of the leaders indeed, and notably the princes of the blood
royal, knew no more than she. The art of war in those days resolved
itself into the art of riding. Any idea of marching along converging
lines, of concentrated movements, of a campaign methodically planned,
of a prolonged effort with a view to some great result was unknown.
Military tactics were nothing more than a collection of peasants'
stratagems and a few rules of chivalry. The freebooters, captains, and
soldiers of fortune were all acquainted with the tricks of the trade,
but they recognised neither friend nor foe; and their one desire was
pillage. The nobles affected great concern for honour and praise; in
reality they thought of nothing but gain. Alain Chartier said of them:
"They cry 'to arms,' but they fight for money."[96]

[Footnote 96: Alain Chartier, _Oeuvres_, ed. André du Chesne, p.
412.]

Seeing that war was to last as long as life, it was waged with
deliberation. Men-at-arms, horse-soldiers and foot, archers,
cross-bowmen, Armagnacs as well as English and Burgundians, fought
with no great ardour. Of course they were brave: but they were
cautious too and were not ashamed to confess it. Jean Chartier,
precentor of Saint-Denys, chronicler of the Kings of France, relating
how on a day the French met the English near Lagny, adds: "And there
the battle was hard and fierce, for the French were barely more than
the English."[97] These simple folk, seeing that one man is as good as
another, admitted the risk of fighting one to one. Their minds had not
fed on Plutarch as had those of the Revolution and the Empire. And for
their encouragement they had neither the _carmagnoles_ of Barrère, nor
the songs of Marie-Joseph Chénier, nor the bulletins of _la grande
armée_. Why did these captains, these men-at-arms go and fight in one
place rather than in another seems to be a natural question....
Because they wanted goods.

[Footnote 97: Jean Chartier, _Chronique de Charles VII_, vol. i, p.
121.]

This perpetual warfare was not sanguinary. During what was described
as Jeanne d'Arc's mission, that is from Orléans to Compiègne, the
French lost barely a few hundred men. The English suffered much more
heavily, because they were the fugitives, and in a rout it was the
custom for the conquerors to kill all those who were not worth holding
to ransom. But battles were rare, and so consequently were defeats,
and the number of the combatants was small. There were but a handful
of English in France. And they may be said to have fought only for
plunder. Those who suffered from the war were those who did not fight,
burghers, priests, and peasants. The peasants endured terrible
hardships, and it is quite conceivable that a peasant girl should have
displayed a firmness in war, a persistence and an ardour unknown
throughout the whole of chivalry.

It was not Jeanne who drove the English from France. If she
contributed to the deliverance of Orléans, she retarded the ultimate
salvation of France by causing the opportunity of conquering Normandy
to be lost through the coronation campaign. The misfortunes of the
English after 1428 are easily explained. While in peaceful Guyenne
they engaged in agriculture, in commerce, in navigation, and set the
finances in good order, the country which they had rendered prosperous
was strongly attached to them. On the banks of the Seine and the Loire
it was very different; there they had never taken root; in numbers
they were always too few, and they had never obtained any hold on the
country. Shut up in fortresses and châteaux, they did not cultivate
the country enough to conquer it, for one must work on the land if one
would take possession of it. They left it waste and abandoned it to
the soldiers of fortune by whom it was ravaged and exhausted. Their
garrisons, absurdly small, were prisoners in the country they had
conquered. The English had long teeth, but a pike cannot swallow an
ox. That they were too few and that France was too big had been
plainly seen after Crécy and after Poitiers. Then, after Verneuil,
during the troubled reign of a child, weakened by civil discord,
lacking men and money, and bound to keep in subjection the countries
of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, were they likely to succeed better?
In 1428, they were but a handful in France, and to maintain themselves
there they depended on the help of the Duke of Burgundy, who
henceforth deserted them and wished them every possible harm.

They lacked means alike for the capture of new provinces and the
pacification of those they had already conquered. The very character
of the sovereignty their princes claimed, the nature of the rights
they asserted, which were founded on institutions common to the two
countries, rendered the organisation of their conquest difficult
without the consent and even, one may say, without the loyal
concurrence and friendship of the conquered. The Treaty of Troyes did
not subject France to England, it united one country to the other.
Such a union occasioned much anxiety in London. The Commons did not
conceal their fear that Old England might become a mere isolated
province of the new kingdom.[98] France for her part did not concur in
the union. It was too late. During all the time that they had been
making war on these _Coués_[99] they had grown to hate them. And
possibly there already existed an English character and a French
character which were irreconcilable. Even in Paris, where the
Armagnacs were as much feared as the Saracens, the _Godons_[100] met
with very unwilling support. What surprises us is not that the English
should have been driven from France, but that it should have happened
so slowly. Does this amount to saying that the young saint had no part
whatever in the work of deliverance? By no means. Hers was the nobler,
the better part; the part of sacrifice; she set the example of the
highest courage and displayed heroism in a form unexpected and
charming. The King's cause, which was indeed the national cause, she
served in two ways: by giving confidence to the men-at-arms of her
party, who believed her to be a bringer of good fortune, and by
striking fear into the English, who imagined her to be the devil.

[Footnote 98: See the deliberations of the Commons on December 2,
1421, in Bréquigny, _Lettres de rois, reines et autres personnages des
cours de France et d'Angleterre_, Paris, 1847 (2 vols. in 4to), vol.
ii, pp. 393 _et seq._]

[Footnote 99: For the origin of this term see _post_, vol. i, p. 22
and note 2.--W.S.]

[Footnote 100: For the origin of this term see _ibid._ and note
1.--W.S.]

Our best historians cannot forgive the ministers and captains of 1428
for not having blindly obeyed the Maid. But that was not at all the
advice given at the time by the Archbishop of Embrun to King Charles;
he, on the contrary, recommended him not to abandon the means inspired
by human reason.[101]

[Footnote 101: The Reverend Father M. Fornier, _Histoire des
Alpes-Maritimes_, Paris, 1890, in 8vo, vol. ii, p. 324; Lanéry d'Arc,
_Mémoires et consultations_, pp. 565 _et seq._]

It has frequently been repeated that the lords and captains were
jealous of her, especially old Gaucourt.[102] But such a statement
shows an absolute ignorance of human nature. They were envious one of
another; this and no other sentiment was the jealousy that made them
tolerate the Maid's assuming the title of commander in war.[103]

[Footnote 102: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 117; _Perceval de Cagny_, p. 168;
Marquis de Gaucourt, _Le sire de Gaucourt_, Orléans, 1855, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 103: _Perceval de Cagny_, pp. 168, 170, 171; _Cronicques de
Normendie_, ed. Hellot, pp. 77, 78.]

Those secret intrigues on the part of the King and his captains, who
are said to have plotted together the destruction of the saint, I
admit having found it impossible to discover. To certain historians
they appear very obvious: for my part, do what I may, I cannot discern
them. The Chamberlain, the Sire de la Trémouille, had no pretensions
to nobility of character; and the Chancellor Regnault de Chartres was
hard-hearted, but what strikes me is that the Sire de la Trémouille
refused to give up this valuable damsel to the Duke of Alençon when he
asked for her, and that the Chancellor retained her in order to make
use of her.[104] I am not of the opinion that Jeanne was a prisoner at
Sully. I believe that when she went to join the Chancellor, who
employed her until her capture by the Burgundians, she quitted the
castle in estate, with trumpeters, and banners flying. After the girl
saint he employed a boy saint, a shepherd who had stigmata; which
proves that he did not regret having made use of a devout person to
fight against the King's enemies and to recover his own archbishopric.

[Footnote 104: _Perceval de Cagny_, pp. 170, 171; _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 313; Héraut Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 48.]

The excellent Quicherat and the magnanimous Henri Martin are very hard
on the Government of 1428. According to them it was a treacherous
Government. Yet the only reproach they bring against Charles VII and
his councillors is that they did not understand the Maid as they
themselves understood her. But such an understanding has required the
lapse of four hundred years. To arrive at the illuminated ideas of a
Quicherat and a Henri Martin concerning Jeanne d'Arc, three centuries
of absolute monarchy, the Reformation, the Revolution, the wars of the
Republic and of the Empire, and the sentimental Neo-Catholicism of
'48, have all been necessary. Through all these brilliant prisms,
through all these succeeding lights do romantic historians and
broad-minded paleographers view the figure of Jeanne d'Arc; and we ask
too much from the poor Dauphin Charles, from La Trémouille, from
Regnault de Chartres, from the Lord of Trèves, from old Gaucourt, when
we require them to have seen Jeanne as centuries have made and moulded
her.[105]

[Footnote 105: H. Martin, _Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1856, in 12mo; J.
Quicherat, _Nouvelles preuves des trahisons essuyées par la Pucelle_
in _Revue de Normandie_, vol. vi (1866), pp. 396-401.]

This, however, remains: after having made so much use of her, the
Royal Council did nothing to save her.

Must the disgrace of such neglect fall upon the whole Council and upon
the Council alone? Who ought really to have interfered? And how? What
ought King Charles to have done? Should he have offered to ransom the
Maid? She would not have been surrendered to him at any price. As for
capturing her by force, that is a mere child's dream. Had they entered
Rouen, the French would not have found her there; Warwick would always
have had time to put her in a place of safety, or to drown her in the
river. Neither money nor arms would have availed to recapture her.

But this was no reason for standing with folded arms. Influence could
have been brought to bear on those who were conducting the trial.
Doubtless they were all on the side of the _Godons_; that old
_Cabochien_ of a Pierre Cauchon was very much committed to them; he
detested the French; the clerks, who owed allegiance to Henry VI,
were naturally inclined to please the Great Council of England which
disposed of patronage; the doctors and masters of the University of
France greatly hated and feared the Armagnacs. And yet the judges of
the trial were not all infamous prevaricators; the chapter of Rouen
lacked neither courage nor independence.[106] Among those members of
the University who were so bitter against Jeanne, there were men
highly esteemed for doctrine and character. They for the most part
believed this trial to be a purely religious one. By dint of seeking
for witches, they had come to find them everywhere. These females, as
they called them, they were sending to the stake every day, and
receiving nothing but thanks for it. They believed as firmly as Jeanne
in the possibility of the apparitions which she said had been
vouchsafed to her, only they were persuaded either that she lied or
that she saw devils. The Bishop, the Vice-Inquisitor and the
assessors, to the number of forty and upwards, were unanimous in
declaring her heretical and devilish. There were doubtless many who
imagined that by passing sentence against her they were maintaining
Catholic orthodoxy and unity of obedience against the abettors of
schism and heresy; they wished to judge wisely. And even the boldest
and the most unscrupulous, the Bishop and the Promoter, would not have
dared too openly to infringe the rules of ecclesiastical justice in
order to please the English. They were priests, and they preserved
priestly pride and respect for formality. Here was their weak point;
in this respect for formality they might have been struck. Had the
other side instituted vigorous legal proceedings, theirs might
possibly have been thwarted, arrested, and the fatal sentence
prevented. If the metropolitan of the Bishop of Beauvais, the
Archbishop of Reims, had intervened in the trial, if he had suspended
his suffragan for abuse of authority, or some other reason, Pierre
Cauchon would have been greatly embarrassed; if, as he decided to do
later, King Charles VII had brought about the intervention of the
mother and brothers of the Maid; if Jacques d'Arc and la Romée had
protested in due form against an action so manifestly one-sided; if
the register of Poitiers[107] had been sent for inclusion among the
documents of the trial; if the high prelates subject to King Charles
VII had asked for a safe conduct in order to come and give evidence in
Jeanne's favour at Rouen; finally, if the King, his Council, and the
whole Church of France had demanded an appeal to the Pope, as they
were legally entitled to do, then the trial might have had a different
issue.

[Footnote 106: Even when the canons who took part in the trial are
severally considered. _Cf._ Ch. de Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le
procès de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, Rouen, 1869, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 107: Or at least the conclusions of the doctors which have
been preserved. As for the register itself it could not have contained
anything of great importance. From their evidence at the
rehabilitation trial we see that the Poitiers clerks were not desirous
for much to be said of their inquiry.]

But they were afraid of the University of Paris. They feared lest
Jeanne might be after all what so many learned doctors maintained her
to be, a heretic, a miscreant seduced by the prince of darkness. Satan
transforms himself into an angel of light, and it is difficult to
distinguish the true prophets from the false. The hapless Maid was
deserted by the very clergy whose croziers had so recently been
carried before her; of all the Poitiers masters not one was found to
testify in the château of Rouen to that innocence which they had
officially recognised eighteen months before.

It would be very interesting to trace the reputation of the Maid down
the ages. But to do so would require a whole book. I shall merely
indicate the most striking revolutions of public opinion concerning
her. The humanists of the Renaissance display no great interest in
her: she was too Gothic for them. The Reformers, for whom she was
tainted with idolatry, could not tolerate her picture.[108] It seems
strange to us to-day, but it is none the less certain, and in
conformity with all we know of French feeling for royalty, that whilst
the monarchy endured it was the memory of Charles VII that kept alive
the memory of Jeanne d'Arc and saved her from oblivion.[109] Respect
due to the Prince generally hindered his faithful subjects from too
closely inquiring into the legends of Jeanne as well as into those of
the Holy Ampulla, the cures for King's evil, the _oriflamme_ and all
other popular traditions relating to the antiquity and celebrity of
the royal throne of France. In 1609, when in a college of Paris, the
Maid was the subject of sundry literary themes in which she was
unfavourably treated,[110] a certain lawyer, Jean Hordal, who boasted
that he came of the same race as the heroine, complained of these
academic disputes as being derogatory to royal majesty--"I am greatly
astonished," he said, "that ... public declamations against the honour
of France, of King Charles VII and his Council,[111] should be
suffered in France." Had Jeanne not been so closely associated with
royalty, her memory would have been very much neglected by the wits of
the seventeenth century. In the minds of scholars, Catholics and
Protestants alike, who considered the life of St. Margaret as mere
superstition,[112] her apparitions did her harm. In those days even
the _Sorbonagres_ themselves were expurgating the martyrology and the
legends of saints. One of them, Edmond Richer, like Jeanne a native of
Champagne, the censor of the university in 1600, and a zealous
Gallican, wrote an apology for the Maid who had defended the Crown of
Charles VII[113] with her sword. Albeit a firm upholder of the
liberties of the French Church, Edmond Richer was a good Catholic. He
was pious and of sound doctrine; he firmly believed in angels, but he
did not believe either in Saint Catherine or Saint Margaret, and their
appearing to the Maid greatly embarrassed him. He solved the
difficulty by supposing that the angels had represented themselves to
the Maid as the two saints, whom in her ignorance she devoutly
worshipped. The hypothesis seemed to him satisfactory, "all the more
so," he said, "because the Spirit of God, which governs the Church,
accommodates himself to our infirmity." Thirty or forty years later,
another doctor of the Sorbonne, Jean de Launoy, who was always
ferreting after saints, completed the discrediting of Saint
Catherine's legend.[114] The voices of Domremy were falling into
disrepute.

[Footnote 108: Aug. Vallet, _Observation sur l'ancien monument érigé à
Orléans_, Paris, 1858, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 109: See a curious project for the decoration of the
platform of the Pont-Neuf addressed to Louis XIV (B.N.V., p. zz'338,
in fol.). A Sieur Dupuis, Aide des Cérémonies, proposes that thereon
shall be erected statues to "those great and illustrious captains who
from reign to reign have valiantly maintained the dignity of the
crown.... Artus of Bretagne, Constable, Jean, Count of Dunois, Jeanne
Dark, Maid of Orléans, Roger de Gramont, Count of Guiche, Guillaume,
Count of Chaumont, Amaury de Severac, Vignoles, called La Hire...."
(Communications of M. Paul Lacombe, _Bulletin de la Société de
l'Histoire de Paris_, 1894, p. 115, June 11, 1907. _Ibid._)]

[Footnote 110: _Puellæ Aureliensis causa adversariis orationibus
disceptata auctore Jacobo Jolio_, Parisiis apud Julianum Bertant,
1609.]

[Footnote 111: Jean Hordal, _Heroinae nobilissimae Ioannæ Darc
Lotharingæ vulgo aurelianensis puellæ historia_, Ponti-Mussi, 1612, in
8vo.]

[Footnote 112: Rabelais, _Gargantua_, chap. vi; Abbé Thiers, _Traité
des superstitions selon l'Écriture sainte_, Paris, 1697, vol. i, p.
109.]

[Footnote 113: Edmond Richer, _Histoire de la Pucelle d'Orléans en 4
livres_, MS. Biblioth. Nat. f. Fr. 10448, fol. 12mo.]

[Footnote 114: "The Life of Saint Catherine, virgin and martyr, is
fabulous throughout from beginning to end," _Valesiana_, p. 48. "M. de
Launoy, doctor of theology, had cut Saint Catherine, virgin and
martyr, out of his calendar. He said that her life was a myth, and to
show that he placed no faith in it, every year when the feast of the
saint came round, he said a Requiem mass. This curious circumstance I
learn from his own telling," _Ibid._, p. 36.]

Take Chapelain, for example, whose poem was first published in 1656.
Chapelain is unconsciously burlesque; he is a Scarron without knowing
it. It is none the less interesting to learn from him that he merely
treated his subject as an occasion for glorifying the Bastard of
Orléans. He expressly says in his preface: "I did not so much regard
her (the Maid) as the chief character of the poem, who, strictly
speaking, is the Comte de Dunois." Chapelain was in the pay of the Duc
de Longueville, a descendant of Dunois.[115] It is of Dunois that he
sings; "the illustrious shepherdess" contributes the marvellous
element to his poem, and, according to the good man's own expression,
furnishes _les machines nécessaires_ for an epic. Saint Catherine and
Saint Margaret are too commonplace to be included among _ces
machines_. Chapelain tells us that he took particular care so to
arrange his poem that "everything which happens in it by divine favour
might be believed to have taken place through human agency carried to
the highest degree to which nature is capable of ascending." Herein we
discern the dawn of the modern spirit.

[Footnote 115: Jean Chapelain, _La Pucelle ou la France délivrée_,
Paris, 1656, in fol.]

Bossuet also is careful not to mention Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret. The four or five quarto pages which he devotes to Jeanne
d'Arc in his "Abrégé de l'Histoire de France pour l'instruction du
Dauphin"[116] are very interesting, not for his statement of facts,
which is confused and inexact,[117] but for the care the author takes
to represent the miraculous deeds attributed to Jeanne in an
incidental and dubious manner. In Bossuet's opinion, as in Gerson's,
these things are matters of edification, not of faith. Writing for the
instruction of a prince, Bossuet was bound to abridge; but his
abridgment goes too far when, representing Jeanne's condemnation to be
the work of the Bishop of Beauvais, he omits to say that the Bishop of
Beauvais pronounced this sentence with the unanimous concurrence of
the University of Paris, and in conjunction with the Vice-Inquisitor.[118]

[Footnote 116: _Oeuvres de messire Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet_, Paris,
in 4to, vol. xi, 1749, numbered pages; vol. xii, pp. 234 _et seq._ Cf.
what he says of inspired persons in _l'Instruction sur les états
d'oraison_, Paris, 1697, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 117: "This girl called Jeanne d'Arq ... had been a servant
in an inn," _loc. cit._, p. 233.]

[Footnote 118: We must not be too severe on a tutor's note-books. But
Bossuet, who places the rehabilitation under the date 1431, does not
tell us that it was only pronounced twenty-five years later. On the
contrary, as far as he is concerned, we might conclude that it
occurred before the deliverance of Compiègne. The following are his
words: "In execution of this sentence, she was burned alive at Rouen
in 1431. The English spread the rumour that at the last she had
admitted the revelations which she had so loudly boasted to be false.
But some time afterwards the Pope appointed commissioners. Her trial
was solemnly revised and her conduct approved of by a final sentence
which the Pope himself confirmed. The Burgundians were forced to raise
the siege of Compiègne," _loc. cit._ p. 236. Mézeray is more credulous
than Bossuet; he mentions "the Saints Catherine and Margaret, who
purified her soul with heavenly conversations, wherefore she venerated
them with a particular devotion." In relating the trial, he like
Bossuet, ignores the Vice-Inquisitor (_Histoire de France_, vol. ii,
1746, in folio, pp. 11 _et seq._)]

The eighteenth-century philosophers did not descend on France like a
cloud of locusts; they were the result of two centuries of the
critical spirit. If the story of Jeanne d'Arc contained too much
monkish superstition for their taste, it was because they had learned
their ecclesiastical history from the Baillets and the Tillemonts, who
were pious indeed, but very critical of legends. Voltaire, writing of
Jeanne, jeered at the rascally monks and their dupes. But if we quote
the lines of _La Pucelle_, why not also the article[119] in the
_Dictionnaire Philosophique_, which contains three pages of profounder
truth and nobler thought than certain voluminous modern works in which
Voltaire is insulted in clerical jargon?

[Footnote 119: Voltaire ed. Beuchot, vol. xxvi. _Cf._ also _Essai sur
les moeurs_, chap. lxxx. "Finally, being accused of having once
resumed man's dress, which had been left near her on purpose to tempt
her, her judges ... declared her a relapsed heretic and caused to be
burnt at the stake one who in heroic ages, when men erected altars to
their liberators, would have had an altar raised to her for having
served her King. Afterwards Charles VII rehabilitated her memory,
which her death itself had sufficiently honoured."]

It was precisely at the end of the eighteenth century that Jeanne
began to be better known and more justly appreciated, first through a
little book, which the Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy derived almost wholly
from the unpublished history of old Richer,[120] then by l'Averdy's
erudite researches into the two trials.[121]

[Footnote 120: L'Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc,
vierge, héroïne et martyre d'État suscitée par la Providence pour
rétablir la monarchie française, tirée des procès et pièces originales
du temps_, Paris, 1753-1754, 3 vols. in 12mo.]

[Footnote 121: F. de L'Averdy, _Mémorial lu au comité des manuscrits
concernant la recherche à faire des minutes originales des différentes
affaires qui ont eu lieu par rapport à Jeanne d'Arc, appelée
communément la Pucelle d'Orléans_, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1787, in
4to; _Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du roi,
lus au comité établi par sa Majesté dans l'Académie royale des
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres_, Paris, Imp. Royale, 1790, vol. iii.]

Nevertheless humanism, and after humanism the Reformation, and after
the Reformation Cartesianism, and after Cartesianism experimental
philosophy had banished the old credulity from thoughtful minds. When
the Revolution came, the bloom had already long faded from the flower
of Gothic legend. It seemed as if the glory of Jeanne d'Arc, so
intimately related to the traditions of the royal house of France,
could not survive the monarchy, and as if the tempest which scattered
the royal ashes of Saint Denys and the treasure of Reims, would also
bear away the frail relics and the venerated images of the saint of
the Valois. The new _régime_ did indeed refuse to honour a memory so
inseparable from royalty and from religion. The festival of Jeanne
d'Arc at Orléans, shorn of ecclesiastical pomp in 1791, was
discontinued in 1793. Later the Maid's history appeared somewhat too
Gothic even to the _emigrés_; Chateaubriand did not dare to introduce
her into his "Génie du Christianisme."[122]

[Footnote 122: "Modern times present but two fine subjects for an epic
poem, the Crusades and the Discovery of the New World" (ed. 1802,
Paris, vol. ii, p. 7).]

But in the year XI the First Consul, who had just concluded the
Concordat and was meditating the restoration of all the pageantry of
the coronation, reinstituted the festival of the Maid with its incense
and its crosses. Glorified of old in Charles VII's letters to his good
towns, Jeanne was now exalted in _Le Moniteur_ by Bonaparte.[123]

[Footnote 123: "The illustrious Jeanne d'Arc has proved that there is
no miracle which the French genius is incapable of working when
national independence is at stake" (_Moniteur_ of 10 Pluviose, year
XI, January 30, 1803). For the approval of the First Consul: facsimile
in A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 600. [Original
taken from the Reiset collection.]]

Only by constant transformation do the figures of poetry and history
live in the minds of nations. Humanity cannot be interested in a
personage of old time unless it clothe it in its own sentiments and in
its own passions. After having been associated with the monarchy of
divine right, the memory of Jeanne d'Arc came to be connected with
the national unity which that monarchy had rendered possible; in
Imperial and Republican France she became the symbol of _la patrie_.
Certainly the daughter of Isabelle Romée had no more idea of _la
patrie_ as it is conceived to-day than she had of the idea of landed
property which lies at its base. She never imagined anything like what
we call the nation. That is something quite modern; but she did
conceive of the heritage of kings and of the domain of the House of
France. And it was there, in that domain and in that heritage, that
the French gathered together before forming themselves into _la
patrie_.

Under influences which it is impossible for us exactly to discover,
the idea came to her of re-establishing the Dauphin in his
inheritance; and this idea appeared to her so grand and so beautiful
that in the fulness of her very ingenuous pride, she believed it to
have been suggested to her by angels and saints from Paradise. For
this idea she gave her life. That is why she has survived the cause
for which she suffered. The very highest enterprises perish in their
defeat and even more surely in their victory. The devotion, which
inspired them, remains as an immortal example. And if the illusion,
under which her senses laboured, helped her to this act of
self-consecration, was not that illusion the unconscious outcome of
her own heart? Her foolishness was wiser than wisdom, for it was that
foolishness of martyrdom, without which men have never yet founded
anything great or useful. Cities, empires, republics rest on
sacrifice. It is not without reason therefore, not without justice
that, transformed by enthusiastic imagination, she became the symbol
of _la patrie_ in arms.

In 1817, Le Brun de Charmettes,[124] a royalist jealous of imperial
glory, wrote the first patriotic history of Jeanne d'Arc. The history
is an able work. It has been followed by many others, conceived in the
same spirit, composed on the same plan, written in the same style.
From 1841 to 1849, Jules Quicherat, by his publication of the two
trials and the evidence, worthily opened an incomparable period of
research and discovery. At the same time, Michelet in the fifth volume
of his "Histoire de France," wrote pages of high colour and rapid
movement, which will doubtless remain the highest expression of the
romantic art as applied to the Maid.[125]

[Footnote 124: Le Brun de Charmettes, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc
surnommée la Pucelle d'Orléans_, Paris, 1817, 4 vols. in 8vo.]

[Footnote 125: Michelet, _Histoire de France_, vol. v.]

But of all the histories written between 1817 and 1870, or at least of
all those with which I have made acquaintance, for I have not
attempted to read them all, the most discerning in my opinion is the
fourth book of Vallet de Viriville's "Histoire de Charles VII" in
which his chief preoccupation is to place the Maid in that group of
visionaries to which she really belongs.[126]

[Footnote 126: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, Paris, 1863, in 8vo.]

Wallon's book has been widely circulated if not widely read. A
monotonous, conscientious work moderately enthusiastic, it owes its
success to its unimpeachable exactitude.[127] If there must be an
orthodox Jeanne d'Arc to suit fashionable persons, then for such a
purpose, M. Marius Sepet's representation of the Maid would be equally
exact and more graceful.[128]

[Footnote 127: H. Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1860, 2 vols. in
8vo.]

[Footnote 128: M. Sepet, _Jeanne d'Arc_, with an introduction by Léon
Gautier, Tours, 1869, in 8vo.]

After the war of 1871, the twofold influence of the patriotic spirit,
exalted by defeat, and the revival of Catholicism among the middle
class gave a new impetus to admiration of the Maid. Arts and letters
completed the transfiguration of Jeanne.

Catholics, like the learned Canon Dunand,[129] vie in zeal and
enthusiasm with free-thinking idealists like M. Joseph Fabre.[130] By
reproducing the two trials in a very artistic manner, in modern French
and in a direct form of speech, M. Fabre has popularised the most
ancient and the most touching impression of the Maid.[131]

[Footnote 129: Chanoine Dunand, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, Toulouse,
1898-1899, 3 vols. in 8vo.]

[Footnote 130: Joseph Fabre, _Jeanne d'Arc libératrice de la France_,
new edition, Paris, 1894, in 12mo.]

[Footnote 131: _Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc...._,
translated with commentary by J. Fabre, new edition, Paris, 1895, in
18mo.]

From this period date almost innumerable works of erudition, among
which must be noted those of Siméon Luce, which henceforth no one who
would treat of Jeanne's early years can afford to neglect.[132]

[Footnote 132: _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, _op. cit._; _La France
pendant la guerre de Cent Ans_, _op. cit._]

We are equally indebted to M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis for his fine
editions and his discerning studies so eruditely graceful and exact.

Throughout this period of romantic and Neo-Catholic enthusiasm the
arts of painting and sculpture produced numerous representations of
Jeanne, which had hitherto been very rare. Now everywhere were to be
found Jeanne in armour and on horseback, Jeanne in prayer, Jeanne in
captivity, Jeanne suffering martyrdom. Of all these images expressing
in different manners and with varying merit the taste and the
sentiment of the period, one work only appears great and true, and of
striking beauty: Rude's Jeanne d'Arc beholding a vision.[133]

[Footnote 133: Lanéry d'Arc, _Le livre d'Or de Jeanne d'Arc_, Nos.
2080 to 2112.]

The word _patrie_ did not exist in the days of the Maid. People spoke
of the kingdom of France.[134] No one, not even jurists, knew exactly
what were its limits, which were constantly changing. The diversity of
laws and customs was infinite, and quarrels between nobles were
constantly arising. Nevertheless, men felt in their hearts that they
loved their native land and hated the foreigner. If the Hundred Years'
War did not create the sentiment of nationality in France, it fostered
it. In his "Quadrilogue Invectif" Alain Chartier represents France,
indicated by her robe sumptuously adorned with the emblems of the
nobility, of the clergy and of the _tiers état_, but lamentably soiled
and torn, adjuring the three orders not to permit her to perish.
"After the bond of the Catholic faith," she says to them, "Nature has
called you before all things to unite for the salvation of your native
land, and for the defence of that lordship under which God has caused
you to be born and to live."[135] And these are not the mere maxims of
a humourist versed in the virtues of antiquity. On the hearts of
humble Frenchmen it was laid to serve the country of their birth.
"Must the King be driven from his kingdom, and must we become
English?" cried a man-at-arms of Lorraine in 1428.[136] The subjects
of the Lilies, as well as those of the Leopard, felt it incumbent
upon them to be loyal to their liege lord. But if any change for the
worse occurred in the lordships to which they belonged, they were
quite ready to make the best of it, because a lordship must increase
or decrease, according to power and fortune, according to the good
right or the good pleasure of the holder; it may be dismembered by
marriages, or gifts, or inheritance, or alienated by various
contracts. On the occasion of the Treaty of Bretigny, which seriously
narrowed the dominions of King John, the folk of Paris strewed the
streets with grass and flowers as a sign of rejoicing.[137] As a
matter of fact, nobles changed their allegiance as often as it was
necessary. Juvénal des Ursins relates in his Journal[138] how at the
time of the English conquest of Normandy, a young widow was known to
quit her domain with her three children in order to escape doing
homage to the King from beyond the seas. But how many Norman nobles
were like her in refusing to swear fealty to the former enemies of the
kingdom? The example of fidelity to the king was not always set by
those of his own family. The Duke of Bourbon, in the name of all the
princes of the blood royal, prisoners with him in the hands of the
English, proposed to Henry V that they should go and negotiate in
France for the cession of Harfleur, promising that if the Royal
Council met them with refusal they would acknowledge Henry V to be
King of France.[139]

[Footnote 134: A. Thomas, _Le mot "Patrie" et Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Revue
des Idées_, July 15, 1906.]

[Footnote 135: _Les oeuvres de Maistre Alain Chartier_, published by
André Duchesne, Paris, 1642, in 4to, p. 410.]

[Footnote 136: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436. See _post_, vol. i, p. 82.]

[Footnote 137: Froissart, _Chroniques_, book i, chap. 128.]

[Footnote 138: Jean Juvénal des Ursins in Buchon, _Choix des
Chroniques_, iv.]

[Footnote 139: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. ix, p. 427.]

Every one thought first of himself. Whoever possessed land owed
himself to his land; his neighbour was his enemy. The burgher thought
only of his town. The peasant changed his master without knowing it.
The three orders were not yet united closely enough to form, in the
modern sense of the word, a state.

Little by little the royal power united the French. This union became
stronger in proportion as royalty grew more powerful. In the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, that desire to think and act in common,
which creates great nations, became very strong among us--at least in
those families which furnished officers to the Crown--and it even
spread among the lower orders of society. Rabelais introduces François
Villon and the King of England into a tale so inflamed with military
bravado that it might have been told over the camp fire in an almost
identical manner by one of Napoleon's grenadiers.[140] In his preface
to the poem we have just quoted, Chapelain writes of the occasions
when "_la patrie_ who is our common mother, has need of all her
children." Already the old poet expresses himself like the author of
the _Marseillaise_.[141]

[Footnote 140: _Pantagruel_, book iv, chap. lxvii.]

[Footnote 141: _La Pucelle_, Preface.]

It cannot be denied that the feeling for _la patrie_ did exist under
the old _régime_. The impulse imparted to this sentiment by the
Revolution was none the less immense. It added to it the idea of
national unity and national territorial integrity. It extended to all
the right of property hitherto reserved to a small number, and thus,
so to speak, divided _la patrie_ among the citizens. While rendering
the peasant capable of possessing, the new _régime_ imposed upon him
the obligations of defending his actual or potential possessions.
Recourse to arms is a necessity alike for whomsoever acquires or
wishes to acquire territory. Hardly had the Frenchman come to enjoy
the rights of a man and of a citizen, hardly had he entered into
possession or thought he might enter into possession of a home and
lands of his own, when the armies of the Coalition arrived "to drive
him back to ancient slavery." Then the patriot became a soldier.
Twenty-three years of warfare, with the inevitable alternations of
victories and defeats, built up our fathers in their love of _la
patrie_ and their hatred of the foreigner.

Since then, as the result of industrial progress, there have arisen in
one country and another, rivalries which are every day growing more
bitter. The present methods of production by multiplying antagonism
among nations, have given rise to imperialism, to colonial expansion
and to armed peace.

But how many contrary forces are at work in this formidable creation
of a new order of things! In all countries the great development of
trade and manufactures has given birth to a new class. This class,
possessing nothing, having no hope of ever possessing anything,
enjoying none of the good things of life, not even the light of day,
does not share the fear which haunted the peasant and burgher of the
Revolution, of being despoiled by an enemy coming from abroad; the
members of this new class, having no wealth to defend, regard foreign
nations with neither terror nor hatred. At the same time over all the
markets of the world there have arisen financial powers, which,
although they often affect respect for old traditions, are by their
very functions essentially destructive of the national and patriotic
spirit. The universal capitalist system has created in France, as
everywhere else, the internationalism of the workers and the
cosmopolitanism of the financiers.

To-day, just as two thousand years ago, in order to discern the
future, we must regard not the enterprises of the great but the
confused movements of the working classes. The nations will not
indefinitely endure this armed peace which weighs so heavily upon
them. Every day we behold the organising of an universal community of
workers.

I believe in the future union of nations, and I long for it with that
ardent charity for the human race, which, formed in the Latin
conscience in the days of Epictetus and Seneca, and through so many
centuries extinguished by European barbarism, has been revived in the
noblest breasts of modern times. And in vain will it be argued against
me that these are the mere dream-illusions of desire: it is desire
that creates life and the future is careful to realise the dreams of
philosophers. Nevertheless, that we to-day are assured of a peace that
nothing will disturb, none but a madman would maintain. On the
contrary, the terrible industrial and commercial rivalries growing up
around us indicate future conflicts, and there is nothing to assure us
that France will not one day find herself involved in a great European
or world conflagration. Her obligation to provide for her defence
increases not a little those difficulties which arise from a social
order profoundly agitated by competition in production and antagonism
between classes.

An absolute empire obtains its defenders by inspiring fear; democracy
only by bestowing benefits. Fear or interest lies at the root of all
devotion. If the French proletariat is to defend the Republic
heroically in the hour of peril, then it must either be happy or have
the hope of becoming so. And what use is it to deceive ourselves? The
lot of the workman to-day is no better in France than in Germany, and
not so good as in England or America.

On these important subjects I have not been able to forbear expressing
the truth as it appears to me; there is a great satisfaction in saying
what one believes useful and just.

It now only remains for me to submit to my readers a few reflections
on the difficult art of writing history, and to explain certain
peculiarities of form and language which will be found in this work.

To enter into the spirit of a period that has passed away, to make
oneself the contemporary of men of former days, deliberate study and
loving care are necessary. The difficulty lies not so much in what one
must know as in what one must not know. If we would really live in the
fifteenth century, how many things we must forget: knowledge, methods,
all those acquisitions which make moderns of us. We must forget that
the earth is round, and that the stars are suns, and not lamps
suspended from a crystal vault; we must forget the cosmogony of
Laplace, and believe in the science of Saint Thomas, of Dante, and of
those cosmographers of the Middle Age who teach the Creation in seven
days and the foundation of kingdoms by the sons of Priam, after the
destruction of Great Troy. Such and such a historian or paleographer
is powerless to make us understand the contemporaries of the Maid. It
is not knowledge he lacks, but ignorance--ignorance of modern warfare,
of modern politics, of modern religion.

But when we have forgotten, as far as possible, all that has happened
since the youth of Charles VII, in order to think like a clerk in
exile at Poitiers, or a burgher at Orléans serving on the ramparts of
his city, we must recover all our intellectual resources in order to
embrace the entirety of events, and discover that sequence between
cause and effect which escape the clerk or the burgher. "I have
contracted my horizon," says the Chatterton of Alfred de Vigny, when
he explains how he is conscious of nothing that has happened since the
days of the old Saxons. But Chatterton wrote poems, pseudo chronicles,
and not history. The historian must alternately contract his horizon
and widen it. If he undertake to tell an old story, he must needs
successively--or sometimes at one and the same moment--assume the
credulity of the folk he restores to life, and the discernment of the
most accomplished critic. By a strange process, he must divide his
personality. He must be at once the ancient man and the modern man; he
must live on two different planes, like that curious character in a
story by Mr. H.G. Wells, who lives and moves in a little English town,
and all the time sees herself at the bottom of the ocean.

I have carefully visited cities and countries in which the events I
propose to relate took place. I have seen the valley of the Meuse
amidst the flowers and perfumes of spring, and I have seen it again
beneath a mass of mist and cloud. I have travelled along the smiling
banks of the Loire, so full of renown; through La Beauce, with its
vast horizons bordered with snow-topped mountains; through
l'Île-de-France, where the sky is serene; through La Champagne, with
its stony hills covered with those low vines which, trampled upon by
the coronation army, bloomed again into leaves and fruit, says the
legend, and by St. Martin's Day yielded a late but rich vintage.[142]
I have lingered in barren Picardy, along the Bay of the Somme so sad
and bare beneath the flight of its birds of passage. I have wandered
through the fat meadows of Normandy to Rouen with its steeples and
towers, its ancient charnel houses, its damp streets, its last
remaining timbered houses with high gables. I have imagined these
rivers, these lands, these châteaux and these towns as they were five
hundred years ago.

[Footnote 142: Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Les sources allemandes de
l'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 93.]

I have accustomed my gaze to the forms assumed by the beings and the
objects of those days. I have examined all that remains of stone, of
iron, or of wood worked by the hands of those old artisans, who were
freer and consequently more ingenious than ours, and whose handicraft
reveals a desire to animate and adorn everything. To the best of my
ability I have studied figures carved and painted, not exactly in
France--for there, in those days of misery and death, art was little
practised--but in Flanders, in Burgundy, in Provence, where the
workmanship is often in a style at once affected and _naif_, and
frequently beautiful. As I gazed at the old miniatures, they seemed to
live before me, and I saw the nobles in the absurd magnificence of
their _étoffes à tripes_,[143] the dames and the damoiselles somewhat
devilish with their horned caps and their pointed shoes; clerks seated
at the desk, men-at-arms riding their chargers and merchants their
mules, husbandmen performing from April till March all the tasks of
the rural calendar; peasant women, whose broad coifs are still worn by
nuns. I drew near to these folk, who were our fellows, and who yet
differed from us by a thousand shades of sentiment and of thought; I
lived their lives; I read their hearts.

[Footnote 143: Imitation velvet.]

It is hardly necessary to say that there exists no authentic
representation of Jeanne. In the art of the fifteenth century all that
relates to her amounts to very little: hardly anything remains--a
small piece of _bestion_ tapestry, a slight pen-and-ink figure on a
register, a few illuminations in manuscripts of the reigns of Charles
VII, Louis XI, and Charles VIII, that is all. I have found it
necessary to contribute to this very meagre iconography of Jeanne
d'Arc, not because I had anything to add to it, but in order to
expunge the contributions of the forgers of that period. In Appendix
IV, at the end of this work, will be found the short article in which
I point out the forgeries which, for the most part, are already old,
but had not been previously denounced. I have limited my researches to
the fifteenth century, leaving to others the task of studying those
pictures of the Renaissance in which the Maid appears decked out in
the German fashion, with the plumed hat and slashed doubtlet of a
Saxon ritter or a Swiss mercenary.[144] I cannot say who served as a
prototype for these portraits, but they closely resemble the woman
accompanying the mercenaries in _La Danse des morts_, which Nicholas
Manuel painted at Berne, on the wall of the Dominican Monastery,
between 1515 and 1521.[145] In _le Grand Siècle_ Jeanne d'Arc becomes
Clorinda, Minerva, Bellona in ballet costume.[146]

[Footnote 144: See the picture of 1581, preserved in the Orléans
Museum and reproduced in Wallon's _Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 466.]

[Footnote 145: _La Danse des Morts_, painted at Berne between 1515 and
1520 by Nicolas Manuel, lithographed by Guillaume Stettler, s.d. in
folio oblong, engraving xx. M. Salomon Reinach believes this prototype
may be found in the Judiths of Cranach.]

[Footnote 146: Lanéry d'Arc, _Le livre d'Or de Jeanne d'Arc_,
Iconography, Nos. 2080-2112.]

To my mind a continuous story is more likely than any controversy or
discussion to make my subject live, and bring home its verities to my
readers. It is true that the documents relating to the Maid do not
lend themselves very easily to this kind of treatment. As I have just
shown, they may nearly all be regarded as doubtful from several points
of view, and objections to them arise at every moment. Nevertheless, I
think that by making a cautious and judicious use of these documents
one may obtain material sufficient for a truthful history of
considerable extent. Besides, I have always indicated the sources of
my facts, so that every one may judge for himself of the
trustworthiness of my authorities.

In the course of my story I have related many incidents which, without
having a direct relation to Jeanne, reveal the spirit, the morals, and
the beliefs of her time. These incidents are usually of a religious
order. They must necessarily be so, for Jeanne's story--and I cannot
repeat it too often--is the story of a saint, just like that of
Colette of Corbie, or of Catherine of Sienna.

I have yielded frequently, perhaps too frequently, to the desire to
make the reader live among the men and things of the fifteenth
century. And in order not to distract him suddenly from them, I have
avoided suggesting any comparison with other periods, although many
such occurred to me.

My history is founded on the form and substance of ancient documents;
but I have hardly ever introduced into it literal quotations; I
believe that unless it possesses a certain unity of language a book
is unreadable, and I want to be read.

It is neither affectation of style nor artistic taste that has led me
to adhere as far as possible to the tone of the period and to prefer
archaic forms of language whenever I thought they would be
intelligible, it is because ideas are changed when words are changed
and because one cannot substitute modern for ancient expressions
without altering sentiments and characters.

I have endeavoured to make my style simple and familiar. History is
too often written in a high-flown manner that renders it wearisome and
false. Why should we imagine historical facts to be out of the
ordinary run of things and on a scale different from every-day
humanity?

The writer of a history such as this is terribly tempted to throw
himself into the battle. There is hardly a modern account of these old
contests, in which the author, be he ecclesiastic or professor, does
not with pen behind ear, rush into the _mêlée_ by the side of the
Maid. Even at the risk of missing the revelation of some of the
beauties of her nature, I deem it better to keep one's own personality
out of the action.

I have written this history with a zeal ardent and tranquil; I have
sought truth strenuously, I have met her fearlessly. Even when she
assumed an unexpected aspect, I have not turned from her. I shall be
reproached for audacity, until I am reproached for timidity.

I have pleasure in expressing my gratitude to my illustrious
_confrères_, MM. Paul Meyer and Ernest Lavisse, who have given me
valuable advice. I owe much to M. Petit Dutaillis for certain kindly
observations which I have taken into consideration. I am also greatly
indebted to M. Henri Jadart, Secretary of the Reims Academy; M. E.
Langlois, Professor at the Faculté des Lettres of Lille; M. Camille
Bloch, some time archivist of Loiret, M. Noël Charavay, autographic
expert, and M. Raoul Bonnet.

M. Pierre Champion, who albeit still young is already known as the
author of valuable historical works, has placed the result of his
researches at my disposal with a disinterestedness I shall never be
able adequately to acknowledge. He has also carefully read the whole
of my work. M. Jean Brousson has given me the advantage of his
perspicacity which far surpasses what one is entitled to expect from
one's secretary.

In the century which I have endeavoured to represent in this work,
there was a fiend, by name Titivillus. Every evening this fiend put
into a sack all the letters omitted or altered by the copyists during
the day. He carried them to hell, in order that, when Saint Michael
weighed the souls of these negligent scribes, the share of each one
might be put in the scale of his iniquities. Should he have survived
the invention of printing, surely this most properly meticulous fiend
must to-day be assuming the heavy task of collecting the misprints
scattered throughout the books which aspire to exactitude; it would be
very foolish of him to trouble about others. As occasion requires he
will place those misprints to the account of reader or author. I am
infinitely indebted to my publishers and friends MM. Calmann, Lévy and
to their excellent collaborators for the care and experience they have
employed in lightening the burden, which Titivillus will place on my
back on the Day of Judgment.

PARIS, February, 1908.




CONTENTS


VOL. I

CHAP.                                                        PAGE

PREFACE                                                         v

INTRODUCTION                                                  vii

I. CHILDHOOD                                                    1

II. VOICES                                                     29

III. FIRST VISIT TO VAUCOULEURS. FLIGHT TO NEUFCHÂTEAU.
JOURNEY TO TOUL. SECOND VISIT TO VAUCOULEURS                   61

IV. JOURNEY TO NANCY. ITINERARY FROM VAUCOULEURS
TO SAINTE-CATHERINE-DE-FIERBOIS                                91

V. THE SIEGE OF ORLÉANS FROM THE 12TH OF OCTOBER,
1428, TO THE 6TH OF MARCH, 1429                               106

VI. THE MAID AT CHINON--PROPHECIES                            145

VII. THE MAID AT POITIERS                                     187

VIII. THE MAID AT POITIERS (_continued_)                      204

IX. THE MAID AT TOURS                                         217

X. THE SIEGE OF ORLÉANS FROM THE 7TH OF MARCH
TO THE 28TH OF APRIL, 1429                                    230

XI. THE MAID AT BLOIS. LETTER TO THE ENGLISH.
DEPARTURE FOR ORLÉANS                                         243

XII. THE MAID AT ORLÉANS                                      258

XIII. THE TAKING OF LES TOURELLES AND THE DELIVERANCE
OF ORLÉANS                                                    296

XIV. THE MAID AT TOURS AND SELLES-EN-BERRY.
TREATISES OF JACQUES GÉLU AND JEAN GERSON                     318

XV. TAKING OF JARGEAU. THE MEUNG BRIDGE.
BEAUGENCY                                                     345

XVI. THE BATTLE OF PATAY. OPINIONS OF ITALIAN AND
GERMAN CLERKS. THE GIEN ARMY                                  368

XVII. THE AUXERRE CONVENTION. FRIAR RICHARD.
THE SURRENDER OF TROYES                                       403

XVIII. THE SURRENDER OF CHÂLONS AND OF REIMS.
THE CORONATION                                                435

XIX. RISE OF THE LEGEND                                       461




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


VOL. I

JOAN OF ARC                                        _Frontispiece_
  From a painting by Deruet.

                                                   _To face page_

HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMREMY IN 1419                        12

VIEW OF ORLÉANS, 1428-1429                                    106

PLAN OF ORLÉANS                                               258

CHARLES VII                                                   444
  From an old engraving.




JOAN OF ARC




CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD


From Neufchâteau to Vaucouleurs the clear waters of the Meuse flow
freely between banks covered with rows of poplar trees and low bushes
of alder and willow. Now they wind in sudden bends, now in gradual
curves, for ever breaking up into narrow streams, and then the threads
of greenish waters gather together again, or here and there are
suddenly lost to sight underground. In the summer the river is a lazy
stream, barely bending in its course the reeds which grow upon its
shallow bed; and from the bank one may watch its lapping waters kept
back by clumps of rushes scarcely covering a little sand and moss. But
in the season of heavy rains, swollen by sudden torrents, deeper and
more rapid, as it rushes along, it leaves behind it on the banks a
kind of dew, which rises in pools of clear water on a level with the
grass of the valley.

This valley, two or three miles broad, stretches unbroken between low
hills, softly undulating, crowned with oaks, maples, and birches.
Although strewn with wild-flowers in the spring, it looks severe,
grave, and sometimes even sad. The green grass imparts to it a
monotony like that of stagnant water. Even on fine days one is
conscious of a hard, cold climate. The sky seems more genial than the
earth. It beams upon it with a tearful smile; it constitutes all the
movement, the grace, the exquisite charm of this delicate tranquil
landscape. Then when winter comes the sky merges with the earth in a
kind of chaos. Fogs come down thick and clinging. The white light
mists, which in summer veil the bottom of the valley, give place to
thick clouds and dark moving mountains, but slowly scattered by a red,
cold sun. Wanderers ranging the uplands in the early morning might
dream with the mystics in their ecstasy that they are walking on
clouds.

Thus, after having passed on the left the wooded plateau, from the
height of which the château of Bourlémont dominates the valley of the
Saonelle, and on the right Coussey with its old church, the winding
river flows between le Bois Chesnu on the west and the hill of Julien
on the east. Then on it goes, passing the adjacent villages of Domremy
and Greux on the west bank and separating Greux from Maxey-sur-Meuse.
Among other hamlets nestling in the hollows of the hills or rising on
the high ground, it passes Burey-la-Côte, Maxey-sur-Vaise, and
Burey-en-Vaux, and flows on to water the beautiful meadows of
Vaucouleurs.[147]

[Footnote 147: J. Ch. Chappellier, _Étude historique et géographique
sur Domremy, pays de Jeanne d'Arc_, Saint-Dié, 1890, in 8vo. É.
Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1894, in 18mo.]

In this little village of Domremy, situated at least seven and a half
miles further down the river than Neufchâteau and twelve and a half
above Vaucouleurs, there was born, about the year 1410 or 1412,[148]
a girl who was destined to live a remarkable life. She was born poor.
Her father,[149] Jacques or Jacquot d'Arc, a native of the village of
Ceffonds in Champagne,[150] was a small farmer and himself drove his
horses at the plough.[151] His neighbours, men and women alike, held
him to be a good Christian and an industrious workman.[152] His wife
came from Vouthon, a village nearly four miles northwest of Domremy,
beyond the woods of Greux. Her name being Isabelle or Zabillet, she
received at some time, exactly when is uncertain, the surname of
Romée.[153] That name was given to those who had been to Rome or on
some other important pilgrimage;[154] and it is possible that Isabelle
may have acquired her name of Romée by assuming the pilgrim's shell
and staff.[155] One of her brothers was a parish priest, another a
tiler; she had a nephew who was a carpenter.[156] She had already
borne her husband three children: Jacques or Jacquemin, Catherine, and
Jean.[157]

[Footnote 148: This may be inferred from vol. i, p. 46, of the
_Trial_. But Jeanne did not know how old she was when she left her
father's house (_Trial_, vol. i, p. 51). I have ignored the letter of
Perceval de Boulainvilliers, p. 116, vol. v, of the _Trial_. It is
quite unauthentic and is too much in the manner of a hagiologist. See
post, p. 468, note 1.]

[Footnote 149: Darc (_Trial_, vol. i, p. 191; vol. ii, p. 82). Dars
(Siméon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. 360). Day (_Trial_, vol. v,
p. 150). Daiz (furnished by M. Pierre Champion). This document appears
to justify the pronunciation _Jeanne d'Arc_. Concerning the
orthography of the name d'Arc, cf. Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or de Jeanne
d'Arc_, notes 647-657.]

[Footnote 150: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 46, 208. E. de Bouteiller and G.
de Braux, _La famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1878, in 8vo, p. 185;
_Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, Orléans,
1879, in 12mo, p. x, _passim_. Boucher de Molandon, _Jacques d'Arc,
père de la Pucelle_, Orléans, 1885, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 151: See post, pp. 57, 451, 452.]

[Footnote 152: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 378 _et seq._]

[Footnote 153: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 191, 208; vol. ii, p. 74, note 1.
Armand Boucher de Crèvecoeur, _Les Romée et les de Perthes, famille
maternelle de Jeanne d'Arc_, Abbeville, 1891, in 8vo. Lanéry d'Arc,
_Livre d'or_, notes 1278-1308.]

[Footnote 154: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _Romeus_. G. de
Braux, _Jeanne d'Arc à Saint-Nicolas_, Nancy, 1889, p. 8. _Revue
catholique des institutions et du droit_, August, 1886. E. de
Bouteiller, _Nouvelles recherches_, p. xii. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 43.]

[Footnote 155: Probably before Jeanne's birth. "My surname is d'Arc or
Romée," said Jeanne (_Trial_, vol. i, p. 191). Thus she
indiscriminately assumes either her father's or her mother's surname,
although she says (_Trial_, vol. i, p. 191) that in her country girls
are called by their mother's surname.]

[Footnote 156: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de
Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris,
1879, pp. 3-20. Ch. du Lys, _Traité sommaire tant du nom et des armes
que de la naissance et parenté de la Pucelle d'Orléans et de ses
frères_, ed. Vallet de Viriville, Paris, 1857, p. 28. E. Georges,
_Jeanne d'Arc considérée au point de vue Franco-Champenois_, Troyes,
1893, in 8vo, p. 101.]

[Footnote 157: The order of the births of Jacques d'Arc's children is
extremely doubtful (_Trial_, index, under the word _Arc_).]

Jacques d'Arc's house was on the verge of the precincts of the parish
church, dedicated to Saint Remi, the apostle of Gaul.[158] There was
only the graveyard to cross when the child was carried to the font. It
is said that in those days and in that country the form of exorcism
pronounced by the priest during the baptismal ceremony was much longer
for girls than for boys.[159] We do not know whether Messire Jean
Minet,[160] the parish priest, pronounced it over the child in all its
literal fulness, but we notice the custom as one of the numerous signs
of the Church's invincible mistrust of woman.

[Footnote 158: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 393, _passim_. S. Luce, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Domremy_, vol. xvi, p. 357.]

[Footnote 159: A. Monteil, _Histoire des Français_, 1853, in 18mo,
vol. ii, p. 194.]

[Footnote 160: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 46. Jean Minet was a native of
Neufchâteau.]

According to the custom then prevailing the child had several
godfathers and godmothers.[161] The men-gossips were Jean Morel, of
Greux,[162] husbandman; Jean Barrey, of Neufchâteau; Jean Le Langart
or Lingui, and Jean Rainguesson; the women, Jeannette, wife of
Thévenin le Royer, called Roze, of Domremy; Béatrix, wife of
Estellin,[163] husbandman in the same village; Edite, wife of Jean
Barrey; Jeanne, wife of Aubrit, called Jannet and described as Maire
Aubrit when he was appointed secretary to the lords of Bourlémont;
Jeannette, wife of Thiesselin de Vittel, a scholar of Neufchâteau. She
was the most learned of all, for she had heard stories read out of
books. Among the godmothers there are mentioned also the wife of
Nicolas d'Arc, Jacques' brother, and two obscure Christians, one
called Agnes, the other Sibylle.[164] Here, as in every group of good
Catholics, we have a number of Jeans, Jeannes, and Jeannettes. St.
John the Baptist was a saint of high repute; his festival, kept on the
24th of June, was a red-letter day in the calendar, both civil and
religious; it marked the customary date for leases, hirings, and
contracts of all kinds. In the opinion of certain ecclesiastics,
especially of the mendicant orders, St. John the Evangelist, whose
head had rested on the Saviour's breast and who was to return to earth
when the ages should have run their course, was the greatest saint in
Paradise.[165] Wherefore, in honour of the Precursor of the Saviour
or of his best beloved disciple, when babes were baptised the name
Jean or Jeanne was frequently preferred to all others. To render these
holy names more in keeping with the helplessness of childhood and the
humble destiny awaiting most of us, they were given the diminutive
forms of Jeannot and Jeannette. On the banks of the Meuse the peasants
had a particular liking for these diminutives at once unpretentious
and affectionate: Jacquot, Pierrollot, Zabillet, Mengette,
Guillemette.[166] After the wife of the scholar, Thiesselin, the child
was named Jeannette. That was the name by which she was known in the
village. Later, in France, she was called Jeanne.[167]

[Footnote 161: J. Corblet, _Parrains et marraines_, in _Revue de l'art
chrétien_, 1881, vol. xiv, pp. 336 _et seq._]

[Footnote 162: Siméon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations, li, p. 98.]

[Footnote 163: _Ibid._, p. clxxix, note.]

[Footnote 164: Cf. _Trial_, index, under _parrains_ and _marraines_.
It is not always possible to assign to these personages the names they
bore and the position they occupied at the exact date when they are
introduced.]

[Footnote 165: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue
Historique_, vol. iv, p. 342. Cf. Eustache Deschamps, ballad 354, vol.
iii, p. 83, ed. Queux de Saint Hilaire.]

[Footnote 166: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 74-388; vol. v, pp. 151, 220,
_passim_.]

[Footnote 167: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 46. Henri Lepage, _Jeanne d'Arc
est-elle Lorraine?_ Nancy, 1852, pp. 57-79.]

She was brought up in her father's house, in Jacques' poor
dwelling.[168] In the front there were two windows admitting but a
scanty light. The stone roof forming one side of a gable on the garden
side sloped almost to the ground. Close by the door, as was usual in
that country, were the dung-heap, a pile of firewood, and the farm
tools covered with rust and mud. But the humble enclosure, which
served as orchard and kitchen-garden, in the spring bloomed in a
wealth of pink and white flowers.[169]

[Footnote 168: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 244 _et seq._ Jacques d'Arc's
house doubtless looked on to the road; the Du Lys, or rather the
Thiesselins, pulled it down and erected in its place a house no longer
existing. The shields which ornamented its façade have been placed
upon the door of the building now shown as Jeanne's house. What is
represented as Jeanne's room is the bakehouse (É. Hinzelin, _Chez
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 74). See an article by Henri Arsac in _L'écho de
l'Est_, 26 July, 1890. A whole literature has been written on this
subject (Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, pp. 330 _et seq._).]

[Footnote 169: Émile Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, _passim_.]

These good Christians had one more child, the youngest, Pierre, who
was called Pierrelot.[170]

[Footnote 170: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 151, 220.]

Fed on light wine and brown bread, hardened by a hard life, Jeanne
grew up in an unfruitful land, among people who were rough and sober.
She lived in perfect liberty. Among hard-working peasants the children
are left to themselves. Isabelle's daughter seems to have got on well
with the village children.

A little neighbour, Hauviette, three or four years younger than she,
was her daily companion. They liked to sleep together in the same
bed.[171] Mengette, whose parents lived close by, used to come and
spin at Jacques d'Arc's house. She helped Jeanne with her household
duties.[172] Taking her distaff with her, Jeanne used often to go and
pass the evening at Saint-Amance, at the house of a husbandman
Jacquier, who had a young daughter.[173] Boys and girls grew up as a
matter of course side by side. Being neighbours, Jeanne and Simonin
Musnier's son were brought up together. When Musnier's son was still a
child he fell ill, and Jeanne nursed him.[174]

[Footnote 171: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 417: "_Jacuit amorose in domo
patris sui._"]

[Footnote 172: _Ibid._, p. 429.]

[Footnote 173: _Ibid._, p. 408.]

[Footnote 174: _Ibid._, p. 423.]

In those days it was not unprecedented for village maidens to know
their letters. A few years earlier Maître Jean Gerson had counselled
his sisters, peasants of Champagne, to learn to read, and had
promised, if they succeeded, to give them edifying books.[175] Albeit
the niece of a parish priest, Jeanne did not learn her horn-book, thus
resembling most of the village children, but not all, for at Maxey
there was a school attended by boys from Domremy.[176]

[Footnote 175: E. Georges, _Jeanne d'Arc considérée au point de vue
Franco-Champenois_, p. 115. De La Fons-Mélicocq, _Documents inédits
pour servir à l'histoire de l'instruction publique en France et à
l'histoire des moeurs au XV'ieme siècle_, in the _Bulletin de la
Société des Antiquaires de la Morinie_, vol. iii, pp. 460 _et seq._]

[Footnote 176: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 65-66. (_Item: je donne à Oudinot,
à Richard et à Gérard, clercz enfantz du maistre de l'escole de Marcey
dessoubz Brixey, doubz escus pour priier pour mi et pour dire les sept
psaulmes._) (Item: I give to the boys, Oudinot, Richard, and Gérard,
scholars of the school-master at Marcey below Brixey, twelve crowns to
pray for me and to repeat the seven psalms.) The will of Jean de
Bourlémont, 23 October, 1399, in S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_,
document in facsimile xiii.]

From her mother she learnt the Paternoster, Ave Maria, and the
credo.[177] She heard a few beautiful stories of the saints. That was
her whole education. On holy days, in the nave of the church, beneath
the pulpit, while the men stood round the wall, she, in the manner of
the peasant women, squatted on her toes, listening to the priest's
sermon.[178]

[Footnote 177: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 46, 47.]

[Footnote 178: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 402. See in Montfaucon's
_Monuments de la Monarchie Française_, vol. iii, the second miniature,
the "Douze périls d'enfer" (the twelve perils of hell).]

As soon as she was old enough she laboured in the fields, weeding,
digging, and, like the Lorraine maidens of to-day, doing the work of a
man.[179]

[Footnote 179: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 409, 415, 420.]

The river meadows were the chief source of wealth to the dwellers on
the banks of the Meuse. When the hay harvest was over, according to
his share of the arable land, each villager in Domremy had the right
to turn so many head of cattle into the meadows of the village. Each
family took its turn at watching the flocks and herds in the meadows.
Jacques d'Arc, who had a little grazing land of his own, turned out
his oxen and his horses with the others. When his turn came to watch
them, he delegated the task to his daughter Jeanne, who went off into
the meadow, distaff in hand.[180]

[Footnote 180: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 51, 66; vol. ii, p. 404. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. lij.]

But she would rather do housework or sew or spin. She was pious. She
swore neither by God nor his saints; and to assert the truth of
anything she was content to say: "There's no mistake."[181] When the
bells rang for the _Angelus_, she crossed herself and knelt.[182] On
Saturday, the Holy Virgin's day, she climbed the hill overgrown with
grass, vines, and fruit-trees, with the village of Greux nestling at
its foot, and gained the wooded plateau, whence she could see on the
east the green valley and the blue hills. On the brow of the hill,
barely two and a half miles from the village, in a shaded dale full of
murmuring sounds, from beneath beeches, ash-trees, and oaks gush forth
the clear waters of the Saint-Thiébault spring, which cure fevers and
heal wounds. Above the spring rises the chapel of Notre-Dame de
Bermont. In fine weather it is pervaded by the scent of fields and
woods, and winter wraps this high ground in a mantle of sadness and
silence. In those days, clothed in a royal cloak and wearing a crown,
with her divine child in her arms, Notre-Dame de Bermont received the
prayers and the offerings of young men and maidens. She worked
miracles. Jeanne used to visit her with her sister Catherine and the
boys and girls of the neighbourhood, or quite alone. And as often as
she could she lit a candle in honour of the heavenly lady.[183]

[Footnote 181: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 404.]

[Footnote 182: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 423.]

[Footnote 183: _Trial_, index, at the word _Bermont_. Du Haldat,
_Notice sur la chapelle de Belmont_, in the _Mémoires de l'Académie
Stanislas de Nancy_, 1833-1834, p. 96. É. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 95. Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, p. 330.]

A mile and a quarter west of Domremy was a hill covered with a dense
wood, which few dared enter for fear of boars and wolves. Wolves were
the terror of the countryside. The village mayors gave rewards for
every head of a wolf or wolf-cub brought them.[184] This wood, which
Jeanne could see from her threshold, was the Bois Chesnu, the wood of
oaks, or possibly the hoary [_chenu_] wood, the old forest.[185] We
shall see later how this Bois Chesnu was the subject of a prophecy of
Merlin the Magician.

[Footnote 184: Alexis Monteil, _Histoire des François_, vol. i, p.
91.]

[Footnote 185: _Trial_, index, under the words _Bois Chesnu_.]

At the foot of the hill, towards the village, was a spring[186] on the
margin of which gooseberry bushes intertwined their branches of greyish
green. It was called the Gooseberry Spring or the Blackthorn Spring.[187]
If, as was thought by a graduate of the University of Paris,[188] Jeanne
described it as _La Fontaine-aux-Bonnes-Fées-Notre-Seigneur_, it must
have been because the village people called it by that name. By making
use of such a term it would seem as if those rustic souls were trying
to Christianise the nymphs of the woods and waters, in whom certain
teachers discerned the demons which the heathen once worshipped as
goddesses.[189] It was quite true. Goddesses as much feared and
venerated as the Parcæ had come to be called Fates,[190] and to them
had been attributed power over the destinies of men. But, fallen long
since from their powerful and high estate, these village fairies had
grown as simple as the people among whom they lived. They were invited
to baptisms, and a place at table was laid for them in the room next
the mother's. At these festivals they ate alone and came and went
without any one's knowing; people avoided spying upon their movements
for fear of displeasing them. It is the custom of divine personages to
go and come in secret. They gave gifts to new-born infants. Some were
very kind, but most of them, without being malicious, appeared
irritable, capricious, jealous; and if they were offended even
unintentionally, they cast evil spells. Sometimes they betrayed their
feminine nature by unaccountable likes and dislikes. More than one
found a lover in a knight or a churl; but generally such loves came to
a bad end. And, when all is said, gentle or terrible, they remained
the Fates, they were always the Destinies.[191]

[Footnote 186: _Ibid._, index, under the words _Fontaine des
Groseilliers_.]

[Footnote 187: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 67-210; vol. ii. pp. 391 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 188: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, ed. Tuetey, p. 267.]

[Footnote 189: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 209.]

[Footnote 190: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 67, 187, 209; vol. ii, pp. 390,
404, 450.]

[Footnote 191: Wolf, _Mythologie des fées et des elfes_, 1828, in 8vo.
A. Maury, _Les fées au moyen âge_, 1843, in 18mo, and _Croyances et
légendes du moyen âge_, Paris, 1896, in 8vo.]

Near by, on the border of the wood, was an ancient beech, overhanging the
highroad to Neufchâteau and casting a grateful shade.[192] The beech was
venerated almost as piously as had been those trees which were held sacred
in the days before apostolic missionaries evangelised Gaul.[193] No hand
dared touch its branches, which swept the ground. "Even the lilies are not
more beautiful,"[194] said a rustic. Like the spring the tree had many
names. It was called _l'Arbre-des-Dames_, _l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames_,
_l'Arbre-des-Fées_, _l'Arbre-Charmine-Fée-de-Bourlémont_, _le
Beau-Mai_.[195]

[Footnote 192: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de Jeanne d'Arc_, ms. fr.
10,448, fols. 14, 15.]

[Footnote 193: For tree worship, see an article by M. Henry Carnoy in
_La tradition_, 15 March, 1889.]

[Footnote 194: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 422.]

[Footnote 195: _Ibid._, index, under the words _Arbre des Fées_.]

Every one at Domremy knew that fairies existed and that they had been
seen under _l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames_. In the old days, when Berthe
was spinning, a lord of Bourlémont, called Pierre Granier,[196] became
a fairy's knight, and kept his tryst with her at eve under the
beech-tree. A romance told of their loves. One of Jeanne's godmothers,
who was a scholar at Neufchâteau, had heard this story, which closely
resembled that tale of Melusina so well known in Lorraine.[197] But a
doubt remained as to whether fairies still frequented the beech-tree.
Some believed they did, others thought they did not. Béatrix, another
of Jeanne's godmothers, used to say: "I have heard tell that fairies
came to the tree in the old days. But for their sins they come there
no longer."[198]

[Footnote 196: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 404.]

[Footnote 197: _Ibid._, p. 404, _passim_. _Simple Crayon de la
noblesse des ducs de Lorraine et de Bar_, in Le Brun des Charmettes'
_Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 266. Jules Baudot, _Les
princesses Yolande et les ducs de Bar de la famille des Valois_, first
part. _Mélusine_, Paris, 1901, in 8vo, p. 121.]

[Footnote 198: _Propter eorum peccata_, in the _Trial_, vol. ii, p.
396. There is no doubt as to the meaning of these words.]

This simple-minded woman meant that the fairies were the enemies of
God and that the priest had driven them away. Jean Morel, Jeanne's
godfather, believed the same.[199]

[Footnote 199: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 390.]

[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMREMY IN 1419]

Indeed on Ascension Eve, on Rogation days and Ember days, crosses were
carried through the fields and the priest went to _l'Arbre-des-Fées_
and chanted the Gospel of St. John. He chanted it also at the
Gooseberry Spring and at the other springs in the parish.[200] For the
exorcising of evil spirits there was nothing like the Gospel of St.
John.[201]

[Footnote 200: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 397.]

[Footnote 201: _Ibid._, p. 390. Bergier, _Dictionnaire de théologie_,
under the word _Conjuration_.]

My Lord Aubert d'Ourches held that there had been no fairies at
Domremy for twenty or thirty years.[202] On the other hand there were
those in the village who believed that Christians still held converse
with them and that Thursday was the trysting day.

[Footnote 202: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 187.]

Yet another of Jeanne's godmothers, the wife of the mayor Aubrit, had
with her own eyes seen fairies under the tree. She had told her
goddaughter. And Aubrit's wife was known to be no witch or soothsayer
but a good woman and a circumspect.[203]

[Footnote 203: _Ibid._, pp. 67, 209.]

In all this Jeanne suspected witchcraft. For her own part she had
never met the fairies under the tree. But she would not have said that
she had not seen fairies elsewhere.[204] Fairies are not like angels;
they do not always appear what they really are.[205]

[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, pp. 178, 209 _et seq._]

[Footnote 205: For the traditions of fairies at Domremy and for
Jeanne's opinion of them, see _Trial_, index, under the word _Fées_.]

Every year, on the fourth Sunday in Lent,--called by the Church
"_Lætare_ Sunday," because during the mass of the day was chanted the
passage beginning _Lætare Jerusalem_,--the peasants of Bar held a
rustic festival. This was their well-dressing when they went together
to drink from some spring and to dance on the grass. The peasants of
Greux kept their festival at the Chapel of Notre-Dame de Bermont;
those of Domremy at the Gooseberry Spring and at _l'Arbre-des-Fées_.[206]
They used to recall the days when the lord and lady of Bourlémont
themselves led the young people of the village. But Jeanne was still a
babe in arms when Pierre de Bourlémont, lord of Domremy and Greux,
died childless, leaving his lands to his niece Jeanne de Joinville,
who lived at Nancy, having married the chamberlain of the Duke of
Lorraine.[207]

[Footnote 206: Concerning the Sunday and the Festival of the
Well-Dressing at Domremy, see _Trial_, index, under the word
_Fontaine_.]

[Footnote 207: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 67, 212, 404 _et seq._ S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xx-xxii.]

At the well-dressing the young men and maidens of Domremy went to the
old beech-tree together. After they had hung it with garlands of
flowers, they spread a cloth on the grass and supped off nuts,
hard-boiled eggs, and little rolls of a curious form, which the
housewives had kneaded on purpose.[208] Then they drank from the
Gooseberry Spring, danced in a ring, and returned to their own homes
at nightfall.

[Footnote 208: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 407, 411, 413, 421.]

Jeanne, like all the other damsels of the countryside, took her part
in the well-dressing. Although she came from the quarter of Domremy
nearest Greux, she kept her feast, not at Notre-Dame de Bermont, but
at the Gooseberry Spring and _l'Arbre-des-Fées_.[209]

[Footnote 209: _Ibid._, pp. 391-462.]

In her early childhood she danced round the tree with her companions.
She wove garlands for the image of Notre-Dame de Domremy, whose
chapel crowned a neighbouring hill. The maidens were wont to hang
garlands on the branches of _l'Arbre-des-Fées_. Jeanne, like the
others, bewreathed the tree's branches; and, like the others,
sometimes she left her wreaths behind and sometimes she carried them
away. No one knew what became of them; and it seems their
disappearance was such as to cause wise and learned persons to wonder.
One thing, however, is sure: that the sick who drank from the spring
were healed and straightway walked beneath the tree.[210]

[Footnote 210: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 67, 209, 210.]

To hail the coming of spring they made a figure of May, a mannikin of
flowers and foliage.[211]

[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 434.]

Close by _l'Arbre-des-Dames_, beneath a hazel-tree, there was a
mandrake. He promised wealth to whomsoever should dare by night, and
according to the prescribed rites, to tear him from the ground,[212]
not fearing to hear him cry or to see blood flow from his little human
body and his forked feet.

[Footnote 212: _Atropa Mandragor_, female mandragora, _main de
gloire_, _herbe aux magiciens_. _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 89, 213. _Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 236.]

The tree, the spring, and the mandrake caused the inhabitants of
Domremy to be suspected of holding converse with evil spirits. A
learned doctor said plainly that the country was famous for the number
of persons who practised witchcraft.[213]

[Footnote 213: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 209.]

When quite a little girl, Jeanne journeyed several times to Sermaize
in Champagne, where dwelt certain of her kinsfolk. The village priest,
Messire Henri de Vouthon, was her uncle on her mother's side. She had
a cousin there, Perrinet de Vouthon, by calling a tiler, and his son
Henri.[214]

[Footnote 214: This is probable but not certain. _Trial_, vol. ii, pp.
74, 388; vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles
recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xviii _et seq._; 7, 8,
10, _passim_. C. Gilardoni, _Sermaize et son église_, published at
Vitry-le-François, 1893, 8vo.]

Full thirty-seven and a half miles of forest and heath lie between
Domremy and Sermaize. Jeanne, we may believe, travelled on horseback,
riding behind her brother on the little mare which worked on the
farm.[215]

[Footnote 215: Capitaine Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc écuyère_, Paris,
1901, 12mo, p. 28.]

At each visit the child spent several days at her cousin Perrinet's
house.[216]

[Footnote 216: Boucher de Molandon, _La famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p.
627. E. de Bouteiller et G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. 9
and 10. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xlv _et seq._]

With regard to feudal overlordship the village of Domremy was divided
into two distinct parts. The southern part, with the château on the
Meuse and some thirty homesteads, belonged to the lords of Bourlémont
and was in the domain of the castellany of Grondrecourt, held in fief
from the crown of France. It was a part of Lorraine and of Bar. The
northern half of the village, in which the monastery was situated, was
subject to the provost of Montéclaire and Andelot and was in the
bailiwick of Chaumont in Champagne.[217] It was sometimes called
Domremy de Greux because it seemed to form a part of the village of
Greux adjoining it on the highroad in the direction of Vaucouleurs.[218]
The serfs of Bourlémont were separated from the king's men by a brook,
close by towards the west, flowing from a threefold source and hence
called, so it is said, the Brook of the Three Springs. Modestly the
stream flowed beneath a flat stone in front of the church, and then
rushed down a rapid incline into the Meuse, opposite Jacques d'Arc's
house, which it passed on the left, leaving it in the land of
Champagne and of France.[219] So far we may be fairly certain; but we
must beware of knowing more than was known in that day. In 1429 King
Charles' council was uncertain as to whether Jacques d'Arc was a
freeman or a serf.[220] And Jacques d'Arc himself doubtless was no
better informed. On both banks of the brook, the men of Lorraine and
Champagne were alike peasants leading a life of toil and hardship.
Although they were subject to different masters they formed none the
less one community closely united, one single rural family. They
shared interests, necessities, feelings--everything. Threatened by the
same dangers, they had the same anxieties.

[Footnote 217: E. Misset, _Jeanne d'Arc champenoise_, Paris, s.d.
(1894), 8vo. Concerning the nationality of Joan of Arc there is a
whole literature extremely rich, the bibliography of which it is
impossible to give here. Cf. Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, pp. 295 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 218: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 208.]

[Footnote 219: P. Jollois, _Histoire abrégée de la vie et des exploits
de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1821, engraving I, p. 190. A. Renard, _La
patrie de Jeanne d'Arc_, Langres, 1880, in 18mo, p. 6. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, supplement with proofs and illustrations,
pp. 281, 282.]

[Footnote 220: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 152.]

Lying at the extreme south of the castellany of Vaucouleurs, the
village of Domremy was between Bar and Champagne on the east, and
Lorraine on the west.[221] They were terrible neighbours, always
warring against each other, those dukes of Lorraine and Bar, that
Count of Vaudémont, that Damoiseau of Commercy, those Lord Bishops of
Metz, Toul, and Verdun. But theirs were the quarrels of princes. The
villagers observed them just as the frog in the old fable looked on at
the bulls fighting in the meadow. Pale and trembling, poor Jacques saw
himself trodden underfoot by these fierce warriors. At a time when the
whole of Christendom was given up to pillage, the men-at-arms of the
Lorraine Marches were renowned as the greatest plunderers in the
world. Unfortunately for the labourers of the castellany of
Vaucouleurs, close to this domain, towards the north, there lived
Robert de Saarbruck, Damoiseau of Commercy, who, subsisting on
plunder, was especially given to the Lorraine custom of marauding. He
was of the same way of thinking as that English king who said that
warfare without burnings was no good, any more than chitterlings
without mustard.[222] One day, when he was besieging a little
stronghold in which the peasants had taken refuge, the Damoiseau set
fire to the crops of the neighbourhood and let them burn all night
long, so that he might see more clearly how to place his men.[223]

[Footnote 221: Colonel de Boureulle, _Le pays de Jeanne d'Arc_,
Saint-Dié, 1890, in 8vo, 28 small engravings. J. Ch. Chappellier,
_Étude historique sur Domremy, pays de Jeanne d'Arc_, 2 plans; C.
Niobé, _Le pays de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Mémoires de la Société
académique de l'Aube_, 1894, 3d series, vol. xxxi, pp. 307 _et seq._]

[Footnote 222: Juvénal des Ursins, in the _Collection Michaud et
Poujoulat_, col. 561.]

[Footnote 223: A. Tuetey, _Les écorcheurs sous Charles VII_,
Montbéliard, 1874, vol. i, p. 87.]

In 1419 this baron was making war on the brothers Didier and Durand of
Saint-Dié. It matters not for what reason. For this war as for every
war the villagers had to pay. As the men-at-arms were fighting
throughout the whole castellany of Vaucouleurs, the inhabitants of
Domremy began to devise means of safety, and in this wise. At Domremy
there was a castle built in the meadow at the angle of an island
formed by two arms of the river, one of which, the eastern arm, has
long since been filled up.[224] Belonging to this castle was a chapel
of Our Lady, a courtyard provided with means of defence, and a large
garden surrounded by a moat wide and deep. This castle, once the
dwelling of the Lords of Bourlémont, was commonly called the Fortress
of the Island. The last of the lords having died without children, his
property had been inherited by his niece Jeanne de Joinville. But soon
after Jeanne d'Arc's birth she married a Lorraine baron, Henri
d'Ogiviller, with whom she went to reside at the castle of Ogiviller
and at the ducal court of Nancy. Since her departure the fortress of
the island had remained uninhabited. The village folk decided to rent
it and to put their tools and their cattle therein out of reach of the
plunderers. The renting was put up to auction. A certain Jean Biget of
Domremy and Jacques d'Arc, Jeanne's father, being the highest bidders,
and having furnished sufficient security, a lease was drawn up between
them and the representatives of Dame d'Ogiviller. The fortress, the
garden, the courtyard, as well as the meadows belonging to the domain,
were let to Jean Biget and Jacques d'Arc for a term of nine years
beginning on St. John the Baptist's Day, 1419, and in consideration of
a yearly rent of fourteen _livres tournois_[225] and three _imaux_ of
wheat.[226] Besides the two tenants in chief there were five
sub-tenants, of whom the first mentioned was Jacquemin, the eldest of
Jacques d'Arc's sons.[227]

[Footnote 224: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 66, 215.]

[Footnote 225: In 1390 one _livre tournois_ was worth £7 5_s_ of
present money; in 1488, £5. Cf. Avenel, _Histoire économique_, 1894
(W.S.).]

[Footnote 226: "_Imal_," says Le Trévoux, "is a measure of corn used
at Nancy." There are two _imaux_ in a quarter, and four quarters in a
_réal_, which contains fifteen bushels, according to the Paris
measure.]

[Footnote 227: The Archives of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle,
collection Ruppes II, No. 28. The farm lease, dated 2nd of April,
1420, was first published by M. J. Ch. Chappellier in _Le Journal de
la Société d'Archéologie Lorraine_, Jan.-Feb., 1889; and _Deux actes
inédits du XV siècle sur Domremy_, Nancy, 1889, 8vo, 16 pages. S.
Luce, _La France pendant la guerre de cent ans_, 1890, 18mo, pp. 274
_et seq._ Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Étude historique et géographique sur
Domremy, pays de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des
Chartes_, vol. lvi, pp. 154-168.]

The precaution proved to be useful. In that very year, 1419, Robert de
Saarbruck and his company met the men of the brothers Didier and
Durand at the village of Maxey, the thatched roofs of which were to be
seen opposite Greux, on the other bank of the Meuse, along the foot of
wooded hills. The two sides here engaged in a battle, in which the
victorious Damoiseau took thirty-five prisoners, whom he afterwards
liberated after having exacted a high ransom, as was his wont. Among
these prisoners was the Squire Thiesselin de Vittel, whose wife had
held Jacques d'Arc's second daughter over the baptismal font. From one
of the hills of her village, Jeanne, who was then seven or a little
older, could see the battle in which her godmother's husband was taken
prisoner.[228]

[Footnote 228: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 420-426. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. lxiv.]

Meanwhile matters grew worse and worse in the kingdom of France. This
was well known at Domremy, situated as it was on the highroad, and
hearing the news brought by wayfarers.[229] Thus it was that the
villagers heard of the murder of Duke John of Burgundy on the Bridge
at Montereau, when the Dauphin's Councillors made him pay the price of
the blood he had shed in the Rue Barbette. These Councillors, however,
struck a bad bargain; for the murder on the Bridge brought their young
Prince very low. There followed the war between the Armagnacs and the
Burgundians. From this war the English, the obstinate enemies of the
kingdom, who for two hundred years had held Guyenne and carried on a
prosperous trade there,[230] sucked no small advantage. But Guyenne
was far away, and perhaps no one at Domremy knew that it had once been
a part of the domain of the kings of France. On the other hand every
one was aware that during the recent trouble the English had recrossed
the sea and had been welcomed by my Lord Philip, son of the late Duke
John. They occupied Normandy, Maine, Picardy, l'Île-de-France, and
Paris the great city.[231] Now in France the English were bitterly
hated and greatly feared on account of their reputation for cruelty.
Not that they were really more wicked than other nations.[232] In
Normandy, their king, Henry, had caused women and property to be
respected in all places under his dominion. But war is in itself
cruel, and whosoever wages war in a country is rightly hated by the
people of that country. The English were accused of treachery, and
not always wrongly accused, for good faith is rare among men. They
were ridiculed in various ways. Playing upon their name in Latin and
in French, they were called angels. Now if they were angels they were
assuredly bad angels. They denied God, and their favorite oath
_Goddam_[233] was so often on their lips that they were called
_Godons_. They were devils. They were said to be _coués_, that is, to
have tails behind.[234] There was mourning in many a French household
when Queen Ysabeau delivered the kingdom of France to the
_coués_,[235] making of the noble French lilies a litter for the
leopard. Since then, only a few days apart, King Henry V of Lancaster
and King Charles VI of Valois, the victorious king and the mad king,
had departed to present themselves before God, the Judge of the good
and the evil, the just and the unjust, the weak and the powerful. The
castellany of Vaucouleurs was French.[236] Dwelling there were clerks
and nobles who pitied that later Joash, torn from his enemies in
childhood, an orphan spoiled of his heritage, in whom centred the hope
of the kingdom. But how can we imagine that poor husbandmen had
leisure to ponder on these things? How can we really believe that the
peasants of Domremy were loyal to the Dauphin Charles, their lawful
lord, while the Lorrainers of Maxey, following their Duke, were on the
side of the Burgundians?

[Footnote 229: Liénard, _Dictionnaire topographique de la Meuse_,
introduction, p. x.]

[Footnote 230: Dom Devienne, _Histoire de Bordeaux_, pp. 98, 103. L.
Bachelier, _Histoire du commerce de Bordeaux_, Bordeaux, 1862, in 8vo,
p. 45. D. Brissaud, _Les Anglais en Guyenne_, Paris, 1875, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 231: Ch. de Beaurepaire, _De l'administration de la
Normandie sous la domination Anglaise_, Caen, 1859, in 4to; and _États
de Normandie sous la domination Anglaise_, Évreux, 1859, in 8vo. De
Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. v, pp. 40-56, 261-286.]

[Footnote 232: Thomas Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_,
ed. Quicherat, vol. i, p. 27.]

[Footnote 233: La Curne, under the words _Anglois_ and _Goddons_.]

[Footnote 234: Voragine, _La légende de Saint-Grégoire_. Du Cange,
_Glossaire_, under the word _Caudatus_. Le Roux de Lincy, _Recueil de
chants historiques français_, Paris, 1851, vol. i, pp. 300, 301. This
oath is to be found current as early as Eustache Deschamps; it was
still in use in the seventeenth century (_Sommaire tant du nom et des
armes que de la naissance et parenté de la Pucelle_, ed. Vallet de
Viriville).]

[Footnote 235: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, ch. iii. Carlier,
_Histoire du Valois_, vol. ii, pp. 441 _et seq._]

[Footnote 236: Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. ii, col. 631.
Bonnabelle, _Notice sur la ville de Vaucouleurs_, Bar-le-Duc, 1879, in
8vo, 75 pages.]

Only the river divided Maxey on the right bank from Domremy. The
Domremy and Greux children went there to school. There were quarrels
between them; the little Burgundians of Maxey fought pitched battles
with the little Armagnacs of Domremy. More than once Joan, at the
Bridge end in the evening, saw the lads of her village returning
covered with blood.[237] It is quite possible that, passionate as she
was, she may have gravely espoused these quarrels and conceived
therefrom a bitter hatred of the Burgundians. Nevertheless, we must
beware of finding an indication of public opinion in these boyish
games played by the sons of villeins. For centuries the brats of these
two parishes were to fight and to insult each other.[238] Insults and
stones fly whenever and wherever children gather in bands, and those
of one village meet those of another. The peasants of Domremy, Greux,
and Maxey, we may be sure, vexed themselves little about the affairs
of dukes and kings. They had learnt to be as much afraid of the
captains of their own side as of the captains of the opposite party,
and not to draw any distinction between the men-at-arms who were their
friends and those who were their enemies.

[Footnote 237: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 65, 66. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, pp. 18 _et seq._]

[Footnote 238: N. Villiaumé, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, 1864, in 8vo,
p. 52, note 1.]

In 1429 the English occupied the bailiwick of Chaumont and garrisoned
several fortresses in Bassigny. Messire Robert, Lord of Baudricourt
and Blaise, son of the late Messire Liébault de Baudricourt, was then
captain of Vaucouleurs and bailie of Chaumont for the Dauphin Charles.
He might be reckoned a great plunderer, even in Lorraine. In the
spring of this year, 1420, the Duke of Burgundy having sent an embassy
to the Lord Bishop of Verdun, as the ambassadors were returning they
were taken prisoners by Sire Robert in league with the Damoiseau of
Commercy. To avenge this offence the Duke of Burgundy declared war on
the Captain of Vaucouleurs, and the castellany was ravaged by bands of
English and Burgundians.[239]

[Footnote 239: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, ch. iii.]

In 1423 the Duke of Lorraine was waging war with a terrible man, one
Étienne de Vignolles, a Gascon soldier of fortune already famous under
the dreaded name of La Hire,[240] which he was to leave after his
death to the knave of hearts in those packs of cards marked by the
greasy fingers of many a mercenary. La Hire was nominally on the side
of the Dauphin Charles, but in reality he only made war on his own
account. At this time he was ravaging Bar west and south, burning
churches and laying waste villages.

[Footnote 240: Pierre d'Alheim, _Le jargon Jobelin_, Paris, 1892, in
18mo: glossary, under the word _Hirenalle_, p. 61, and the verbal
communication of M. Marcel Schwob. _Cronique Martiniane_, ed. P.
Champion, p. 8, note 3; _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 270; De
Montlezun, _Histoire de Gascogne_, 1847, in 8vo, p. 143; A. Castaing,
_La patrie du valet de coeur_, in _Revue de Gascogne_, 1869, vol. x,
pp. 29-33.]

While he was occupying Sermaize, the church of which was fortified,
Jean, Count of Salm, who was governing the Duchy of Bar for the Duke
of Lorraine, laid siege to it with two hundred horse. Collot Turlaut,
who two years before had married Mengette, daughter of Jean de
Vouthon and Jeanne's cousin-german,[241] was killed there by a bomb
fired from a Lorraine mortar.

[Footnote 241: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. lxxiii, 87, note
1. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp.
4-15.]

Jacques d'Arc was then the elder (_doyen_) of the community. Many
duties fell to the lot of the village elder, especially in troubled
times. It was for him to summon the mayor and the aldermen to the
council meetings, to cry the decrees, to command the watch day and
night, to guard the prisoners. It was for him also to collect taxes,
rents, and feudal dues, an ungrateful office in a ruined country.[242]

[Footnote 242: Bonvalot, _Le tiers état d'après la charte de Beaumont
et ses filiales_, Paris, 1886, p. 412.]

Under pretence of safeguarding and protecting them, Robert de
Saarbruck, Damoiseau of Commercy, who for the moment was Armagnac, was
plundering and ransoming the villages belonging to Bar, on the left
bank of the Meuse.[243] On the 7th of October, 1423, Jacques d'Arc, as
elder, signed below the mayor and sheriff the act by which the Squire
extorted from these poor people the annual payment of two _gros_ from
each complete household and one from each widow's household, a tax
which amounted to no less than two hundred and twenty golden crowns,
which the elder was charged to collect before the winter feast of
Saint-Martin.[244]

[Footnote 243: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. lxxi _et seq._]

[Footnote 244: _Ibid._, proofs and illustrations, li, p. 97.]

The following year was bad for the Dauphin Charles, for the French and
Scottish horsemen of his party met with the worst possible treatment
at Verneuil. This year the Damoiseau of Commercy turned Burgundian and
was none the better or the worse for it.[245] Captain La Hire was
still fighting in Bar, but now it was against the young son of Madame
Yolande, the Dauphin Charles's brother-in-law, René d'Anjou, who had
lately come of age and was now invested with the Duchy of Bar. At the
point of the lance Captain La Hire was demanding certain sums of money
that the Cardinal Duke of Bar owed him.[246]

[Footnote 245: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp.
16, 17.]

[Footnote 246: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, appendix, lxii.]

At the same time Robert, Sire de Baudricourt, was fighting with Jean
de Vergy, lord of Saint-Dizier, Seneschal of Burgundy.[247] It was a
fine war. On both sides the combatants laid hands on bread, wine,
money, silver-plate, clothes, cattle big and little, and what could
not be carried off was burnt. Men, women, and children were put to
ransom. In most of the villages of Bassigny agriculture was suspended,
nearly all the mills were destroyed.[248]

[Footnote 247: Du Chesne, _Génealogie de la maison de Vergy_, Paris,
1625, folio. _Nouvelle biographie générale_, vol. xlv, p. 1125.]

[Footnote 248: S. Luce, Domremy and Vaucouleurs, from 1412 to 1425, in
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, ch. iii.]

Ten, twenty, thirty bands of Burgundians were ravaging the castellany
of Vaucouleurs, laying it waste with fire and sword. The peasants hid
their horses by day, and by night got up to take them to graze. At
Domremy life was one perpetual alarm.[249] All day and all night there
was a watchman stationed on the square tower of the monastery. Every
villager, and, if the prevailing custom were observed, even the
priest, took his turn as watchman, peering for the glint of lances
through the dust and sunlight down the white ribbon of the road,
searching the horrid depths of the wood, and by night trembling to see
the villages on the horizon bursting into flame. At the approach of
men-at-arms the watchman would ring a noisy peal of those bells, which
in turn celebrated births, mourned for the dead, summoned the people
to prayer, dispelled storms of thunder and lightning, and warned of
danger. Half clothed the awakened villagers would rush to stable, to
cattle-shed, and pell-mell drive their flocks and herds to the castle
between the two arms of the River Meuse.[250]

[Footnote 249: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 66.]

[Footnote 250: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 66. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. lxxxvi, and appendix, xiv, p. 20.]

One day in the summer of 1425, there fell upon the villages of Greux
and Domremy a certain chief of these marauding bands, who was
murdering and plundering throughout the land, by name Henri d'Orly,
known as Henri de Savoie. This time the island fortress was of no use
to the villagers. Lord Henri took all the cattle from the two villages
and drove them fifteen or twenty leagues[251] away to his _château_ of
Doulevant. He had also captured much furniture and other property; and
the quantity of it was so great that he could not store it all in one
place; wherefore he had part of it carried to Dommartin-le-Franc, a
neighbouring village, where there was a _château_ with so large a
court in front that the place was called Dommartin-la-Cour. The
peasants cruelly despoiled were dying of hunger. Happily for them, at
the news of this pillage, Dame d'Ogiviller sent to the Count of
Vaudémont in his _château_ of Joinville, complaining to him, as her
kinsman, of the wrong done her, since she was lady of Greux and
Domremy. The _château_ of Doulevant was under the immediate suzerainty
of the Count of Vaudémont. As soon as he received his kinswoman's
message he sent a man-at-arms with seven or eight soldiers to
recapture the cattle. This man-at-arms, by name Barthélemy de
Clefmont, barely twenty years of age, was well skilled in deeds of
war. He found the stolen beasts in the _château_ of Dommartin-le-Franc,
took them and drove them to Joinville. On the way he was pursued and
attacked by Lord d'Orly's men and stood in great danger of death. But
so valiantly did he defend himself that he arrived safe and sound at
Joinville, bringing the cattle, which the Count of Vaudémont caused to
be driven back to the pastures of Greux and Domremy.[252]

[Footnote 251: A league is two and a half English miles (W.S.).]

[Footnote 252: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. 275 _et seq._]

Unexpected good fortune! With tears the husbandman welcomed his
restored flocks and herds. But was he not likely to lose them for ever
on the morrow?

At that time Jeanne was thirteen or fourteen. War everywhere around
her, even in the children's play; the husband of one of her godmothers
taken and ransomed by men-at-arms; the husband of her cousin-german
Mengette killed by a mortar;[253] her native land overrun by
marauders, burnt, pillaged, laid waste, all the cattle carried off;
nights of terror, dreams of horror,--such were the surroundings of her
childhood.

[Footnote 253: E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles
recherches_, pp. 4-15.]




CHAPTER II

JEANNE'S VOICES


Now, when she was about thirteen, it befell one summer day, at noon,
that while she was in her father's garden she heard a voice that
filled her with a great fear. It came from the right, from towards the
church, and at the same time in the same direction there appeared a
light. The voice said: "I come from God to help thee to live a good
and holy life.[254] Be good, Jeannette, and God will aid thee."

[Footnote 254: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 72, 73, 89, 170.]

It is well known that fasting conduces to the seeing of visions.
Jeanne was accustomed to fast. Had she abstained from food that
morning and if so when had she last partaken of it? We cannot
say.[255]

[Footnote 255: The manuscript runs: _non jejunaverat die præcedenti_.
Quicherat omits _non_. _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52. Cf. _Revue critique_,
March, 1908, p. 215.]

On another day the voice spoke again and repeated, "Jeannette, be
good."

The child did not know whence the voice came. But the third time, as
she listened, she knew it was an angel's voice and she even recognised
the angel to be St. Michael. She could not be mistaken, for she knew
him well. He was the patron saint of the duchy of Bar.[256] She
sometimes saw him on the pillar of church or chapel, in the guise of
a handsome knight, with a crown on his helmet, wearing a coat of mail,
bearing a shield, and transfixing the devil with his lance.[257]
Sometimes he was represented holding the scales in which he weighed
souls, for he was provost of heaven and warden of paradise;[258] at
once the leader of the heavenly hosts and the angel of judgment.[259]
He loved high lands.[260] That is why in Lorraine a chapel had been
dedicated to him on Mount Sombar, north of the town of Toul. In very
remote times he had appeared to the Bishop of Avranches and commanded
him to build a church on Mount Tombe, in such a place as he should
find a bull hidden by thieves; and the site of the building was to
include the whole area overtrodden by the bull. The Abbey of
Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Péril-de-la-Mer was erected in obedience to this
command.[261]

[Footnote 256: V. Servais, _Annales historiques du Barrois_,
Bar-le-Duc, 1865, vol. i, engraving 2.]

[Footnote 257: P. Ch. Cahier, _Caractéristique des saints dans l'art
populaire_, vol. i, p. 363. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 50. S.
Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xcv, xcvi, and proofs and
illustrations, xxiv, p. 74.]

[Footnote 258: _Mystère de Saint Remi_, the Arsenal Library, ms.
3.364, folios 4 and 108.]

[Footnote 259: "_Sed signifer Sanctus Michael representet eas (animas)
in lucem sanctam._" Prayer from the mass for the dead.]

[Footnote 260: A. Maury, _Croyances et légendes du moyen âge_, pp. 171
_et seq._ Barbier de Montault, _Traité d'iconographie chrétienne_,
vol. i, p. 191.]

[Footnote 261: AA. SS., 1672, vol. iii, i, pp. 85 _et seq._ Dom. J.
Huynes, _Histoire générale de l'abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel_, ed. R.
de Beaurepaire, Rouen, 1872, pp. 61 _et seq._ A. Forgeais, _Collection
de plombs_ (seals) _historiés trouvés dans la Seine_, Paris, 1864,
vol. iii, p. 197. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, ch. iv.
_Chronique du Mont-Saint-Michel_ (1343-1468), ed. S. Luce, Paris,
1880-1886 (2 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, pp. 26, 146, 163 _et seq._]

About the time when the child was having these visions, the defenders
of Mont-Saint-Michel discomfited the English who were attacking the
fortress by land and sea. The French attributed this victory to the
all-powerful intercession of the archangel.[262] And why should he not
have favoured the French who worshipped him with peculiar devoutness?
Since my Lord St. Denys had permitted his abbey to be taken by the
English, my Lord St. Michael, who carefully guarded his, was in a fair
way to become the true patron saint of the kingdom.[263] In the year
1419 the Dauphin Charles had had escutcheons painted, representing St.
Michael fully armed, holding a naked sword and in the act of slaying a
serpent.[264] The maid of Domremy, however, knew but little of the
miracles worked by my Lord St. Michael in Normandy. She recognised the
angel by his weapons, his courtesy, and the noble words that fell from
his lips.[265]

[Footnote 262: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 272 (opinion of Jean Bochard, called de Vaucelle,
Bishop of Avranches). Dom. J. Huynes, _loc. cit._, ch. viii, p. 105.]

[Footnote 263: Dom Félibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de
Saint-Denis...._ Paris, 1706, in folio, p. 341.]

[Footnote 264: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de la Pucelle_, ms. fr.
10,448, fol. 13. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations, xxiv.]

[Footnote 265: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 173, 248, 249.]

One day he said to her: "Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret will come
to thee. Act according to their advice; for they are appointed to
guide thee and counsel thee in all thou hast to do, and thou mayest
believe what they shall say unto thee." And these things came to pass
as the Lord had ordained.[266]

[Footnote 266: _Ibid._, p. 170.]

This promise filled her with great joy, for she loved them both.
Madame Sainte Marguerite was highly honoured in the kingdom of
France, where she was a great benefactress. She helped women in
labour,[267] and protected the peasant at work in the fields. She was
the patron saint of flax-spinners, of procurers of wet-nurses, of
vellum-dressers, and of bleachers of wool. Her precious relics in a
reliquary, carried on a mule's back, were paraded by ecclesiastics
through towns and villages. Plenteous alms[268] were showered upon the
exhibitors in return for permission to touch the relics. Many times
had Jeanne seen Madame Sainte Marguerite at church, painted life-size,
a holy-water sprinkler in her hand, her foot on a dragon's head.[269]
She was acquainted with her history as it was related in those days,
somewhat on the lines of the following narrative.

[Footnote 267: _La vierge Marguerite substituée à la Lucine antique_,
analysis of an unpublished poem of the fifteenth century, Paris, 1885,
in 8vo, p. 2. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, vol. i, ch. vi. L'Abbé J.B.
Thiers, _Traité des superstitions qui regarde les sacrements selon
l'Écriture sainte_, Paris, 1697 (4 vols. in 12mo), vol. i, p. 109.]

[Footnote 268: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations, ccxxxiv, p. 272.]

[Footnote 269: Abbé Bourgaut, _Guide du pélerin à Domremy_, Nancy,
1878, in 12mo, p. 60. É. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 65-72.]

The blessed Margaret was born at Antioch. Her father, Theodosius, was
a priest of the Gentiles. She was put out to nurse and secretly
baptised. One day when she was in her fifteenth year, as she was
watching the flock belonging to her nurse, the governor Olibrius saw
her, and, struck by her great beauty, conceived a great passion for
her. Wherefore he said to his servants: "Go, bring me that girl, in
order that if she be free I may marry her, or if she be a slave I may
take her into my service."

And when she was brought he inquired of her her country, her name,
and her religion. She replied that she was called Margaret and that
she was a Christian.

And Olibrius said unto her: "How comes it that so noble and beautiful
a girl as you can worship Jesus the Crucified?"

And because she replied that Jesus Christ was alive for ever, the
governor in wrath had her thrown into prison.

The next day he summoned her to appear before him and said: "Unhappy
girl, have pity on your own beauty and for your own sake worship our
gods. If you persist in your blindness I will have your body rent in
pieces."

And Margaret made answer: "Jesus suffered death for me, and I would
fain die for him."

Then the governor commanded her to be hung from the wooden horse, to
be beaten with rods, and her flesh to be torn with iron claws. And the
blood flowed from the virgin's body as from a pure spring of fresh
water.

Those who stood by wept, and the governor covered his face with his
cloak that he might not see the blood. And he commanded to unloose her
and take her back to prison.

There she was tempted by the Spirit, and she prayed the Lord to reveal
to her the enemy whom she had to withstand. Thereupon a huge dragon,
appearing before her, rushed forward to devour her, but she made the
sign of the cross and he disappeared. Then, in order to seduce her,
the devil assumed the form of a man. He came to her gently, took her
hands in his and said: "Margaret, what you have done sufficeth." But
she seized him by the hair, threw him to the ground, placed her right
foot upon his head and cried: "Tremble, proud enemy, thou liest
beneath a woman's foot."

The next day, in the presence of the assembled people, she was brought
before the judge, who commanded her to sacrifice to idols. And when
she refused he had her body burned with flaming pine-wood, but she
seemed to suffer no pain. And fearing lest, amazed at this miracle,
all the people should be converted, Olibrius commanded that the
blessed Margaret should be beheaded. She spoke unto the executioner
and said: "Brother, take your axe and strike me." With one blow he
struck off her head. Her soul took flight to heaven in the form of a
dove.[270]

[Footnote 270: Voragine, _La légende dorée_ (Légende de Sainte
Marguerite). Douhet, _Dictionnaire des légendes_, pp. 824-836.]

This story had been told in songs and mysteries.[271] It was so well
known that the name of the governor, jestingly vilified and fallen
into ridicule, was in common parlance bestowed on braggarts and
blusterers. A fool who posed as a wicked person was called _an
olibrius_.[272]

[Footnote 271: Gaston Paris, _La littérature française au moyen âge_,
1890, in 16mo, p. 212.]

[Footnote 272: La Curne, _Dictionnaire de l'ancien langage français_,
under the word _Olibrius_. Olibrius figures also in the legend of
Saint Reine, where he is governor of the Gallic Provinces. The legend
of Saint Reine is only a somewhat ancient variant of the legend of
Saint Margaret.]

Madame Sainte Catherine, whose coming the angel had announced to
Jeanne at the same time as that of Madame Sainte Marguerite, was the
protectress of young girls and especially of servants and spinsters.

Orators and philosophers too had chosen as their patron saint the
virgin who had confounded the fifty doctors and triumphed over the
magi of the east. In the Meuse valley rhymed prayers like the
following were addressed to her:

    Ave, très sainte Catherine,
    Vierge pucelle nette et fine.[273]

[Footnote 273:

    Hail, thou holy Catherine,
    Virgin Maid so pure and fine.

_Bibliothèque Mazarine, manuscrit_, 515. _Recueil de prières_, folio
55. This manuscript comes from the banks of the Meuse.]

This fine lady was no stranger to Jeanne; she had her church at Maxey,
on the opposite bank of the river; and her name was borne by Isabelle
Romée's eldest daughter.[274]

[Footnote 274: S. Luce, _loc. cit._, proofs and illustrations, xiii,
p. 19, note 2. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches
sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xvi and 62. _Guide et souvenir du
pélerin à Domremy_, Nancy, 1878, in 18mo, p. 60.]

Jeanne certainly did not know the story of Saint Catherine as it was
known to illustrious clerks; as, for example, about this time it was
committed to writing by Messire Jean Miélot, the secretary of the Duke
of Burgundy. Jean Miélot told how the virgin of Alexandria
controverted the subtle arguments of Homer, the syllogisms of
Aristotle, the very learned reasonings of the famous physicians
Æsculapius and Galen, practised the seven liberal arts, and disputed
according to the rules of dialectics.[275] Jacques d'Arc's daughter
had heard nothing of all that; she knew Saint Catherine from stories
out of some history written in the vulgar tongue, in verse or in
prose, so many of which were in circulation at that time.[276]

[Footnote 275: J. Miélot, _Vie de sainte Cathérine_, text revised by
Marius Sepet, 1881, in large 8vo.]

[Footnote 276: Gaston Paris, _La littérature française au moyen âge_,
pp. 82, 213.]

Catherine, daughter of King Costus and Queen Sabinella, as she grew in
years, became proficient in the arts, and a skilful embroiderer in
silk. While her body was resplendent with beauty, her soul was clouded
by the darkness of idolatry. Many barons of the empire sought her in
marriage; she scorned them and said: "Find me a husband wise,
handsome, noble, and rich." Now in her sleep she had a vision. Holding
the Child Jesus in her arms, the Virgin Mary appeared unto her and
said: "Catherine, will you take him for your husband? And you, my
sweet son, will you have this virgin for your bride?"

The Child Jesus made answer: "Mother, I will not have her; bid her
depart from you, for she is a worshipper of idols. But if she will be
baptised I will consent to put the nuptial ring on her finger."

Desiring to marry the King of Heaven, Catherine went to ask for
baptism at the hands of the hermit Ananias, who lived in Armenia on
Mount Negra. A few days afterwards, when she was praying in her room,
she saw Jesus Christ appear in the midst of a numerous choir of angels
and of saints. He drew near unto her and placed his ring upon her
finger. Then only did Catherine know that her bridal was a spiritual
bridal.

In those days Maxentius was Emperor of the Romans. He commanded the
people of Alexandria to offer great sacrifices to the idols.
Catherine, as she was at prayer in her oratory, heard the chanting of
the priests and the bellowing of the victims. Straightway she went to
the public square, and beholding Maxentius at the gate of the temple,
she said unto him: "How comes it that thou art so foolish as to
command this people to offer incense to idols? Thou admirest this
temple built by the hands of thy workmen. Thou admirest these
ornaments which are but dust blown away by the wind. Thou shouldest
rather admire the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and all that is
therein. Thou shouldest rather admire the ornaments of the heavens:
the sun, the moon, and the stars, and those circling planets, which
from the beginning of the world move from the west and return to the
east and never grow weary. And when thou hast observed all these
things, ask and learn who is their Creator. It is our God, the Lord of
Hosts, and the God of gods."

"Woman," replied the emperor, "leave us to finish our sacrifice;
afterwards we will make answer unto thee."

And he commanded Catherine to be taken into the palace and strictly
guarded, because he marvelled at the great wisdom and the wonderful
beauty of this virgin. He summoned fifty doctors well versed in the
knowledge of the Egyptians and the liberal arts; and, when they were
gathered together, he said unto them: "A maiden of subtle mind
maintains that our gods are but demons. I could have forced her to
sacrifice or have made her pay the penalty of her disobedience; I
judged it better that she should be confounded by the power of your
reasoning. If you triumph over her, you will return to your homes
laden with honours."

And the wise men made answer: "Let her be brought, that her rashness
may be made manifest, that she may confess that never until now has
she met men of wisdom."

And when she learned that she was to dispute with wise men, Catherine
feared lest she should not worthily defend the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But an angel appeared to her and said: "I am the Archangel Saint
Michael, sent by God to make known unto thee that from this strife
thou shalt come forth victorious and worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the hope and crown of those who strive for him."

And the virgin disputed with the doctors. When they maintained that it
was impossible for God to become man, and be acquainted with grief,
Catherine showed how the birth and passion of Jesus Christ had been
announced by the Gentiles themselves, and prophesied by Plato and the
Sibyl.

The doctors had nothing to oppose to arguments so convincing.
Therefore the chief among them said to the emperor: "Thou knowest that
up till now no one has disputed with us without being straightway
confounded. But this maid, through whom the Spirit of God speaks,
fills us with wonder, and we know nothing nor dare we say anything
against Christ. And we boldly confess that if thou hast no stronger
arguments to bring forth in favour of the gods, whom hitherto we have
worshipped, we will all of us embrace the Christian religion."

On hearing these words, the tyrant was so transported with wrath that
he had the fifty doctors burned in the middle of the town. But as a
sign that they suffered for the truth, neither their garments nor the
hairs of their heads were touched by the fire.

Afterwards Maxentius said unto Catherine: "O virgin, issue of a noble
line, and worthy of the imperial purple, take counsel with thy youth,
and sacrifice to our gods. If thou dost consent, thou shalt take rank
in my palace after the empress, and thy image, placed in the middle of
the town, shall be worshipped by all the people like that of a
goddess."

But Catherine answered: "Speak not of such things. The very thought of
them is sin. Jesus Christ hath chosen me for his bride. He is my love,
my glory, and all my delight."

Finding it impossible to flatter her with soft words, the tyrant hoped
to reduce her to obedience through fear; therefore he threatened her
with death.

Catherine's courage did not waver. "Jesus Christ," she said, "offered
himself to his Father as a sacrifice for me; it is my great joy to
offer myself as an agreeable sacrifice to the glory of his name."

Straightway Maxentius commanded that she should be scourged with rods,
and then cast into a dark dungeon and left there without food.
Thereupon, at the call of urgent affairs, Maxentius set out for a
distant province.

Now the empress, who was a heathen, had a vision, in which Saint
Catherine appeared to her surrounded by a marvellous light. Angels
clad in white were with her, and their faces could not be looked upon
by reason of the brightness that proceeded from them. And Catherine
told the empress to draw near. Taking a crown from the hand of one of
the angels who attended her, she placed it upon the head of the
empress, saying: "Behold a crown sent down to thee from heaven, in the
name of Jesus Christ, my God, and my Lord."

The heart of the empress was troubled by this wonderful dream.
Wherefore, attended by Porphyrius, a knight who was commander-in-chief
of the army, in the early hours of night she repaired to the prison in
which Catherine was confined. Here in her cell a dove brought her
heavenly food, and angels dressed the virgin's wounds. The empress and
Porphyrius found the dungeon bathed in a light so bright that it
filled them with a great fear, and they fell prostrate on the ground.
But there straightway filled the dungeon an odour marvellously sweet,
which comforted them and gave them courage.

"Arise," said Catherine, "and be not afraid, for Jesus Christ calleth
you."

They arose, and beheld Catherine in the midst of a choir of angels.
The saint took from the hands of one among them a crown, very
beautiful and shining like gold, and she put it upon the empress's
head. This crown was the sign of martyrdom. For indeed the names of
this queen and of the knight Porphyrius were already written in the
book of eternal rewards.

On his return Maxentius commanded Catherine to be brought before him,
and said unto her: "Choose between two things: to sacrifice and live,
or to die in torment."

Catherine made answer: "It is my desire to offer to Jesus Christ my
flesh and my blood. He is my lover, my shepherd, and my husband."

Then the provost of the city of Alexandria, whose name was Chursates,
commanded to be made four wheels furnished with very sharp iron
spikes, in order that upon these wheels the blessed Catherine should
die a miserable and a cruel death. But an angel broke the machine, and
with such violence that the parts of it flying asunder killed a great
number of the Gentiles. And the empress, who beheld these things from
the top of her tower, came down and reproached the emperor for his
cruelty. Full of wrath, Maxentius commanded the empress to sacrifice;
and when she refused, he commanded her breasts to be torn out and her
head to be cut off. And while she was being taken to the torturer,
Catherine exhorted her, saying: "Go, rejoice, queen beloved of God,
for to-day thou shalt exchange for a perishable kingdom an
everlasting empire, and a mortal husband for an immortal lover."

And the empress was taken to suffer death outside the walls.
Porphyrius carried away the body and had it buried reverently as that
of a servant of Jesus Christ. Wherefore Maxentius had Porphyrius put
to death, and his body cast to the dogs. Then, summoning Catherine
before him, he said unto her: "Since, by thy magic arts thou hast
caused the empress to perish, now if thou repent thou shalt be first
in my palace. To-day, therefore, sacrifice to the gods, or thy head
shall be struck off."

She made answer: "Do as thou hast resolved that I may take my place in
the band of maidens who are around the Lamb of God."

The emperor sentenced her to be beheaded. And when they had led her
outside the city of Alexandria, to the place of death, she raised her
eyes to heaven and said: "Jesus, hope and salvation of the faithful,
glory and beauty of virgins, I pray thee to listen and to answer the
prayer of whomsoever, in memory of my martyrdom, shall invoke me in
death or in peril whatsoever."

And a voice from heaven made answer: "Come, my beloved bride; the gate
of heaven is open to thee. And to those who shall invoke me through
thy intercession, I promise help from on high." From the riven neck of
the virgin flowed forth milk instead of blood.

Thus Madame Sainte Catherine passed from this world to celestial
happiness, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of November, which was
a Friday.[277]

[Footnote 277: Voragine, _La légende dorée_, 1846, pp. 789-797.
Douhet, _Dictionnaire des légendes_, 1855, pp. 824-836.]

My Lord Saint Michael, the Archangel, did not forget his promise. The
ladies Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came as he had said. On
their very first visit the young peasant maid vowed to them to
preserve her virginity as long as it should please God.[278] If there
were any meaning in such a promise, Jeanne, however old she may then
have been, could not have been quite a child. And it seems probable
that the angel and the saints appeared to her first when she was on
the threshold of womanhood, that is, if she ever became a woman.[279]

[Footnote 278: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_,
p. 29. When we come to the trial, we shall consider whether it be
possible to reconcile Jeanne's assertions with regard to this vow.]

[Footnote 279: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128; vol. iii, p. 219.]

The saints soon entered into familiar relations with her.[280] They
came to the village every day, and often several times a day. When she
saw them appear in a ray of light coming down from heaven, shining and
clad like queens, with golden crowns on their heads, wearing rich and
precious jewels, the village maiden crossed herself devoutly and
curtsied low.[281] And because they were ladies of good breeding, they
returned her salutation. Each one had her own particular manner of
greeting, and it was by this manner that Jeanne distinguished one from
the other, for the dazzling light of their countenances rendered it
impossible for her to look them in the face. They graciously permitted
their earth-born friend to touch their feet, to kiss the hems of their
garments, and to inhale rapturously the sweet perfume they
emitted.[282] They addressed her courteously,[283] as it seemed to
Jeanne. They called the lowly damsel daughter of God. They taught her
to live well and go to church. Without always having anything very new
to say to her, since they came so constantly, they spoke to her of
things which filled her with joy, and, after they had disappeared,
Jeanne ardently pressed her lips to the ground their feet had
trodden.[284]

[Footnote 280: _Ibid._, index, under the words, _Voices_, _Catherine_,
and _Marguerite_.]

[Footnote 281: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 71-85, 167 _seq._, 186 _seq._]

[Footnote 282: _Ibid._, pp. 185, 186.]

[Footnote 283: In the French, _humblement_. In old French _humblement_
means courteously. In Froissart there is a passage quoted by La Curne:
"_Li contes de Hainaut rechut ces seigneurs d'Engleterre, l'un après
l'autre, moult humblement._"]

[Footnote 284: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130.]

Oftentimes she received the heavenly ladies in her little garden,
close to the precincts of the church. She used to meet them near the
spring; often they even appeared to their little friend surrounded by
heavenly companies. "For," Isabelle's daughter used to say, "angels
are wont to come down to Christians without being seen, but I see
them."[285] It was in the woods, amid the light rustling of the
leaves, and especially when the bells rang for matins or compline,
that she heard the sweet words most distinctly. And so she loved the
sound of the bells, with which her Voices mingled. So, when at nine
o'clock in the evening, Perrin le Drapier, sexton of the parish,
forgot to ring for compline, she reproached him with his negligence,
and scolded him for not doing his duty. She promised him cakes if in
the future he would not forget to ring the bells.[286]

[Footnote 285: _Ibid._, p. 130.]

[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 413, note 2.]

She told none of these things to her priest; for this, according to
some good doctors, she must be censured, but, according to others
equally excellent, she must be commended. For if on the one hand we
are to consult our ecclesiastical superiors in matters of faith, on
the other, where the gift of the Holy Ghost is poured out, there
reigns perfect liberty.[287]

[Footnote 287: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52, marginal comment of the d'Urfé
MS.: _Celavit visiones curato, patri et matri et cuicumque_, in the
_Trial_, vol. i, p. 128, note. Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et
consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 471.]

Since the two saints had been visiting Jeanne, my Lord Saint Michael
had come less often; but he had not forsaken her. There came a time
when he talked to her of love for the kingdom of France, of that love
which she felt in her heart.[288]

[Footnote 288: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 171: "_Et luy racontet l'angle la
pitié qui estoit ou royaume de France._" _Pitié_ means here occasion
for tenderness and love. The angel is thinking especially of the
Dauphin. For the meaning and use of this word, cf. Monstrelet, vol.
iii, p. 74: "_... et le peuple plorant de pitié et de joie qu'ils
avoient à regarder leur seigneur_." Gérard de Nevers in La Curne:
"_Pitié estoit de voir festoyer leur seigneur; on ne pourroit retenir
ses larmes en voyant la joie qu'ils marquoient de recevoir leur
seigneur._"]

And the holy visitants, whose voices grew stronger and more ardent as
the maiden's soul grew holier and more heroic, revealed to her her
mission. "Daughter of God," they said, "thou must leave thy village,
and go to France."[289]

[Footnote 289: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

Had this idea of a holy militant mission, conceived by Jeanne through
the intermediary of her Voices, come into her mind spontaneously
without the intervention of any outside will, or had it been suggested
to her by some one who was influencing her? It would be impossible to
solve this problem were there not a slight indication to direct us.
Jeanne at Domremy was acquainted with a prophecy foretelling that
France would be ruined by a woman and saved by a maiden.[290] It made
an extraordinary impression upon her; and later she came to speak in a
manner which proved that she not only believed it, but was persuaded
that she herself was the maiden designated by the prophecy.[291] Who
taught her this? Some peasant? We have reason to believe that the
peasants did not know it, and that it was current among
ecclesiastics.[292] Besides, it is important to notice in this
connection that Jeanne was acquainted with a particular form of this
prophecy, obviously arranged for her benefit, since it specified that
the Maiden Redemptress should come from the borders of Lorraine. This
local addition is not the work of a cowherd; it suggests rather a mind
apt to direct souls and to inspire deeds. It is no longer possible to
doubt that the prophecy thus revised is the work of an ecclesiastic
whose intentions may be easily divined. Henceforth one is conscious of
an idea agitating and possessing the young seer of visions.

[Footnote 290: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444.]

[Footnote 291: "_Nonne alias dictum fuit quod Francia per mulierem
desolaretur, et postea per Virginem restaurari debebat?_" Evidence
given by Durand Lassois in _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444.]

[Footnote 292: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 447. Nevertheless the woman Le
Royer of Domremy remembered it and was astonished by it. _Et hunc ipsa
testis hæc audisse recordata est et stupefacta fuit._]

On the banks of the Meuse, among the humble folk of the countryside,
some churchman, preoccupied with the lot of the poor people of France,
directed Jeanne's visions to the welfare of the kingdom and to the
conclusion of peace. He carried the ardour of his pious zeal so far as
to collect prophecies concerning the salvation of the French crown,
and to add to them with an eye to the accomplishment of his design.
For such an ecclesiastic we must seek among the priests of Lorraine
or Champagne upon whom the national misfortunes imposed cruel
sufferings.[293] Merchants and artizans, crushed under the burden of
taxes and subsidies, and ruined by changes in the coinage,[294]
peasants, whose houses, barns, and mills had been destroyed, and whose
fields had been laid waste, no longer contributed to the expenses of
public worship.[295] Canons and ecclesiastics, deprived both of their
feudal dues and of the contributions of the faithful, quitted the
religious houses and set out to beg their bread from door to door,
leaving behind in the monasteries only two or three old monks, and a
few children. The fortified abbeys attracted captains and soldiers of
both sides. They entrenched themselves within the walls; they
plundered and burnt. When one of those holy houses succeeded in
remaining standing, the wandering village folk made it their place of
refuge, and it was impossible to prevent the refectories and
dormitories from being invaded by women.[296] In the midst of this
obscure throng of souls afflicted by the sufferings and the scandals
of the Church may be divined the prophet and the director of the Maid.

[Footnote 293: Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 180. Jean Chartier, _Chronique
latine_, ed. Vallet de Viriville, vol. i, p. 13. Th. Basin, _Histoire
de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, pp. 44 _et seq._]

[Footnote 294: Alain Chartier, _Quadriloge invectif_, ed. André
Duchesne, Paris, 1617, pp. 440 _et seq._ _Ordonnances_, vol. xi, pp.
101 _et seq._ Viutry, _Les monnaies sous les trois premiers Valois_,
Paris, 1881, in 8vo, _passim_. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. i, ch. xi.]

[Footnote 295: Juvénal des Ursins and _Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris_, _passim_. Letter from Nicholas de Clemangis to Gerson, in
_Clemangis opera omnia_, 1613, in 4to, vol. ii, pp. 159 _et seq._]

[Footnote 296: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises, monastères_,
Mâcon, 1897, in 8vo, introduction.]

We shall not be tempted to recognise him in Messire Guillaume
Frontey, priest of Domremy. The successor of Messire Jean Minet, if we
may judge from his conversation which has been preserved, was as
simple as his flock.[297] Jeanne saw many priests and monks. She was
in the habit of visiting her uncle, the priest of Sermaize, and of
seeing in the Abbey of Cheminon,[298] her cousin, a young ecclesiastic
in minor orders, who was soon to follow her into France. She was in
touch with a number of priests who would be very quick to recognise
her exceptional piety, and her gift of beholding things invisible to
the majority of Christians. They engaged her in conversations, which,
had they been preserved, would doubtless present to us one of the
sources whence she derived inspiration for her marvellous vocation.
One among them, whose name will never be known, raised up an angelic
deliverer for the king and the kingdom of France.

[Footnote 297: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 402, 434.]

[Footnote 298: These two persons, however, are only known to us
through somewhat doubtful genealogical documents. _Trial_, vol. v, p.
252. Boucher de Molandon, _La famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 127. G. de
Braux and E. de Bouteiller, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. 7 _et seq._]

Meanwhile Jeanne was living a life of illusion. Knowing nothing of the
influences she was under, incapable of recognising in her Voices the
echo of a human voice or the promptings of her own heart, she
responded timidly to the saints when they bade her fare forth into
France: "I am a poor girl, and know not how to ride a horse or how to
make war."[299]

[Footnote 299: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 53.]

As soon as she began to receive these revelations she gave up her
games and her excursions. Henceforth she seldom danced round the
fairies' tree, and then only in play with the children.[300] It would
seem that she also took a dislike to working in the fields, and
especially to herding the flocks. From early childhood she had shown
signs of piety. Now she gave herself up to extreme devoutness; she
confessed frequently, and communicated with ecstatic fervour; she
heard mass in her parish church every day. At all hours she was to be
found in church, sometimes prostrate on the ground, sometimes with her
hands clasped, and her face turned towards the image of Our Lord or of
Our Lady. She did not always wait for Saturday to visit the chapel at
Bermont. Sometimes, when her parents thought she was tending the
herds, she was kneeling at the feet of the miracle-working Virgin. The
village priest, Messire Guillaume Frontey, could do nothing but praise
the most guileless of his parishioners.[301] One day he happened to
say with a sigh: "If Jeannette had money she would give it to me for
the saying of masses."[302]

[Footnote 300: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 404, 407, 409, 411, 414, 416,
_passim_.]

[Footnote 301: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 402, 434.]

[Footnote 302: _Ibid._, p. 402. Concerning Jeanne's religious
observances, see _Ibid._, index, under the words _Messe_, _Vierge_,
_Cloche_.]

As for the good man, Jacques d'Arc, it is possible that he may have
occasionally complained of those pilgrimages, those meditations, and
those other practices which ill accorded with the ordinary tenor of
country life. Every one thought Jeanne odd and erratic. Mengette and
her friends, when they found her so devout, said she was too
pious.[303] They scolded her for not dancing with them. Among others,
Isabellette, the young wife of Gérardin d'Epinal, the mother of little
Nicholas, Jeanne's godson, roundly condemned a girl who cared so
little for dancing.[304] Colin, son of Jean Colin, and all the
village lads made fun of her piety. Her fits of religious ecstasy
raised a smile. She was regarded as a little mad. She suffered from
this persistent raillery.[305] But with her own eyes she beheld the
dwellers in Paradise. And when they left her she would cry and wish
that they had taken her with them.

[Footnote 303: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 429.]

[Footnote 304: _Ibid._, p. 427.]

[Footnote 305: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 432.]

"Daughter of God, thou must leave thy village and go forth into
France."[306]

[Footnote 306: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 52, 53.]

And the ladies Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret spoke again and
said: "Take the standard sent down to thee by the King of Heaven, take
it boldly and God will help thee." As she listened to these words of
the ladies with the beautiful crowns, Jeanne was consumed with a
desire for long expeditions on horseback, and for those battles in
which angels hover over the heads of the warriors. But how was she to
go to France? How was she to associate with men-at-arms? Ignorant and
generously impulsive like herself, the Voices she heard merely
revealed to her her own heart, and left her in sad agitation of mind:
"I am a poor girl, knowing neither how to bestride a horse nor how to
make war."[307]

[Footnote 307: _Ibid._, p. 53.]

Jeanne's native village was named after the blessed Remi;[308] the
parish church bore the name of the great apostle of the Gauls, who, in
baptising King Clovis, had anointed with holy oil the first Christian
prince of the noble House of France, descended from the noble King
Priam of Troy.

[Footnote 308: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 393, 400, _passim_.]

Thus runs the legend of Saint Remi as it was told by churchmen. In
those days the pious hermit Montan, who lived in the country of Laon,
beheld a choir of angels and an assembly of saints; and he heard a
voice full and sweet saying: "The Lord hath looked down upon the
earth. That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that
he might release the children of the slain: that they may declare the
name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem. When the people
assemble together, and kings to serve the Lord.[309] And Cilinia shall
bring forth a son for the saving of the people."

[Footnote 309: Psalm ci, 20-23. _Vulgate_, Douai Version (W.S.).]

Now Cilinia was old, and her husband Emilius was blind. Yet Cilinia,
having conceived, brought forth a son; and with the milk with which
she nourished her babe she rubbed the eyes of the father, and
straightway his eyes were opened, and he saw.

This child, whose birth had been foretold by angels, was called Remi,
which, being interpreted, means oar; for by his teaching, as with a
well-cut oar, he was to guide the Church of God, and especially the
church of Reims, over the stormy sea of life, and by his merits and
his prayers bring it into the heaven of eternal salvation.

In retirement and in the practice of holy and Christian observances,
Cilinia's son passed his pious youth at Laon. Hardly had he entered
his twenty-second year, when the episcopal seat of Reims fell vacant
on the death of the blessed Bishop Bennade. An immense concourse of
people nominated Remi the shepherd of the flock. He refused a burden
which he said was too heavy for the weakness of his youth. But
suddenly there fell upon his forehead a ray of celestial light, and a
divine liquid was shed upon his hair, and scented it with a strange
perfume. Wherefore, without further delay, the bishops of the
province of Reims, with one consent, consecrated him their bishop.
Established in the seat of Saint Sixtus, the blessed Remi revealed
himself liberal in almsgiving, assiduous in vigilance, fervent in
prayer, perfect in charity, marvellous in doctrine, and holy in all
his conversation. Like a city built on the top of a mountain, he was
admired of all men.

In those days, Clovis, King of France, was a heathen, with all his
knights. But he had won a great victory over the Germans by invoking
the name of Christ. Wherefore, at the entreaty of the saintly Queen
Clotilde, his wife, he resolved to ask baptism at the hands of the
blessed Bishop of Reims. When this pious desire had been made known to
him, Saint Remi taught the King and his subjects that, renouncing
Satan and his pomps and his works, they must believe in God and in
Jesus Christ his Son. And as the solemn festival of Easter was
approaching, he commanded them to fast according to the custom of the
faithful. On the day of the Passion of Our Lord, the eve of the day on
which Clovis was to be baptised, early in the morning the Bishop went
to the King and Queen and led them to an oratory dedicated to the
blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. Suddenly the chapel was filled
with a light so brilliant that the sunshine became as shadow, and from
the midst of this light there came a voice saying: "Peace be with you,
it is I, fear not and abide in my love." After these words the light
faded, but there remained in the chapel an odour of ineffable
sweetness. Then, with his face shining like the countenance of Moses,
and illuminated within by a divine brightness, the holy Bishop
prophesied and said: "Clovis and Clotilde, your descendants shall set
back the boundaries of the kingdom. They shall raise the church of
Jesus Christ and triumph over foreign nations provided they fall not
from virtue and depart not from the way of salvation, neither enter
upon the sinful road leading to destruction and to those snares of
deadly vices which overthrow empires and cause dominion to pass from
one nation to another."

Meanwhile the way is being prepared from the King's palace to the
baptistry; curtains and costly draperies are hung up: the houses on
each side of the street are covered with hangings; the church is
decorated, and the baptistry is strewn with balsam and all manner of
sweet-smelling herbs. Overwhelmed with the Lord's favour the people
seem already to taste the delights of Paradise. The procession sets
out from the palace; the clergy lead with crosses and banners, singing
hymns and sacred canticles; then comes the Bishop leading the King by
the hand; and lastly the Queen follows with the people. By the way the
King asked the Bishop if yonder was the kingdom of God he had promised
him. "No," answered the blessed Remi, "but it is the beginning of the
road that leads to it." When they had reached the baptistry, the
priest who bore the holy chrism was hindered by the crowd from
reaching the sacred font; so that, as God had ordained, there was no
holy oil for the benediction at the font. Then the Pontiff raises his
eyes to heaven, and prays in silence and in tears. Straightway there
descends a dove white as snow, bearing in its beak an ampulla full of
chrism sent from heaven. The heavenly oil emits a delicious perfume,
which intoxicates the multitude with a delight such as they had never
experienced before that hour. The holy Bishop takes the ampulla,
sprinkles the baptismal water with chrism, and straightway the dove
vanishes.

At the sight of so great a miracle of grace, the King, transported
with joy, renounces Satan and his pomps and his works. He demands
instant baptism, and bends over the fountain of life.[310]

[Footnote 310: Grégoire de Tours, _Le livre des miracles_, ed.
Bordier, 1864, in 8vo, vol. ii, pp. 27, 31. Hincmar, _Vita sancti
Remigii_ in the _Patrologie de Migne_, vol. cxxv, pp. 1130 _et seq._
H. Jadart, _Bibliographie des ouvrages concernant la vie et le culte
de saint Remi, évêque de Reims_, 1891, in 8vo.]

Ever since then the kings of France have been anointed with the divine
oil which the dove brought down from heaven. The holy ampulla
containing it is kept in the church of Saint Remi at Reims. And by
God's grace on the day of the King's anointing this ampulla is always
found full.[311]

[Footnote 311: Froissart, Bk. II, ch. lxxiv. Le doyen de
Saint-Thibaud, p. 328. Vertot, _Dissertation au sujet de la sainte
ampoule conservée à Reims_, in _Mémoires de l'Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, 1736, vol. ii, pp. 619-633; vol. iv,
pp. 1350-1365. Leber, _Des cérémonies du sacre ou recherches
historiques et critiques sur les moeurs, les coutumes dans
l'ancienne monarchie_, Paris, Reims, 1825, in 8vo, pp. 255 _et seq._]

Such was the clerks' story; and doubtless the peasants of Domremy on a
humbler note might have said as much or even more. We may believe that
they used to sing the complaint of Saint Remi. Every year, when on the
1st of October the festival of the patron saint came round, the priest
was wont to pronounce an eulogium on the saint.[312]

[Footnote 312: A. Monteil, _Histoire des Français_, 1853, vol. ii, p.
194.]

About this time a mystery was performed at Reims in which the miracles
of the apostle of Gaul were fully represented.[313]

[Footnote 313: _Mystère de saint Remi_, Arsenal Library, ms. no.
3.364. This mystery dates from the fifteenth century, from the time of
the wars in Champagne. The following lines relate to the misfortunes
of the kingdom:

    SAINT-ESTIENNE

    O Jhesucrist, qui les sains cieulx
    As de lumiere environnez,
    Soleil et lune enluminés,
    Et ordonnez à ta plaisance;
    Pour le tres doulz païs de France
    Les martirs, non pas un mais tous,
    A jointes mains et à genoux
    Te requierent que tu effaces
    La grant doleur de France; et faces
    Par ta sainte digne vertu
    Qu'ilz aient paix; adfin que tu,
    Ta doulce mere et tous les sains,
    Et ceulx qui sont de pechiez sains,
    Devotement servis y soient!...

SAINT STEPHEN

O Jesus Christ who hast surrounded the heavens with light and kindled
the sun and the moon, command, if it be thy will, the martyrs, not one
only but all, to clasp their hands and on bended knee to implore thee
to remove the great sorrow from France; and by thy holy and august
merit ordain that they may have peace, that thou, thy sweet mother and
all the saints and those who are cleansed from sin may be served
devoutly!...

    SAINT-NICOLAS

    Dieu tout puissant fay tant qu'il ysse
    Hors du doulz païs sans amer
    Que toutes gens doivent amer
    C'est France, où sont les bons Chrestiens
    S'on les confort; si les soustiens
    Car l'engin de leur adversaire
    Et son faulx art les tire à faire
    Contre ta sainte voulenté.
    Ayez pitié de Crestienté
    Beau sire Dieux
    Tant en France qu'en autres lieux!
    Ce seroit Pitié à oultrance
    Que si noble roiaume, comme France,
    Fust par male temptacion
    Mis du tout à perdicion....

    Fol. 3, verso.

SAINT NICHOLAS

God all powerful grant that he may issue forth from that sweet land
which all must love, all France, where are good Christians, and may
they be comforted, and may they be sustained; for the power of their
adversary and his false art tempt them to withstand thy holy will.
Have pity on Christendom, good lord God, on other lands as well as on
France! It would be the worst of pities if so noble a kingdom as
France were through much temptation to fall into perdition....]

And among them were some which would appeal strongly to rustic souls.
In his mortal life my Lord Saint Remi had healed a blind man possessed
of devils. A man bestowed his goods on the chapter of Reims for the
salvation of his soul and died; ten years after his death Saint Remi
restored him to life, and made him declare his gift. Being
entertained by persons who had nothing to drink, the saint filled
their cask with miraculous wine. He received from King Clovis the gift
of a mill; but when the miller refused to yield it up to him, my Lord
Saint Remi, by the power of God, threw down the mill, and cast it into
the centre of the earth. One night when the Saint was alone in his
chapel, while all his clerks were asleep, the glorious apostles Peter
and Paul came down from Paradise to sing matins with him.

Who better than the folk of Domremy should know of the baptism of King
Clovis of France, and of the descent of the Holy Ghost, at the singing
of Veni Creator Spiritus, bearing in its beak the holy ampulla, full
of chrism blessed by Our Lord?[314]

[Footnote 314: _Mystère de Saint Remi_, Arsenal Library, ms. no.
3.364, fol. 69, verso.]

Who better than they should understand the words addressed to the very
Christian King, by my Lord Saint Remi, not doubtless in the Church's
Latin, but in the good tongue of the people and very much like the
following: "Now, Sire, take knowledge and serve God faithfully and
judge justly, that thy kingdom may prosper. For if justice depart from
it then shall this kingdom be in danger of perdition."[315]

[Footnote 315: _Mystère de Saint Remi_, fol. 71, verso.]

In short, in one way or another, whether through the clerks who
directed her or through the peasants among whom she dwelt, Jeanne had
knowledge of the good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherished the
royal blood in the holy ampulla at Reims, and of the anointing of the
very Christian kings.[316]

[Footnote 316:

    _Le bon archevesque Remy,
    Qui tant aime le sang royal,
    Qui tant a son conseil loyal,
    Qui tant aime Dieu et l'Église._

    _Mystère de Saint Remi_, fol. 77.

The good Archbishop Remi, who so dearly cherishes the _royal_ blood,
so faithful in counsel, so devout a lover of God and the Church.]

And the Angel appeared unto her and said: "Daughter of God, thou shalt
lead the Dauphin to Reims that he may there receive worthily his
anointing."[317]

[Footnote 317: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

The maid understood. The scales fell from her eyes; a bright light was
shed abroad in her mind. Behold wherefore God had chosen her. Through
her the Dauphin Charles was to be anointed at Reims. The white dove,
which of old was sent to the blessed Remi, was to come down again at
the Virgin's call. God, who loves the French, marks their king with a
sign, and when there is no sign the royal power has departed. The
anointing alone makes the king, and Messire Charles de Valois had not
been anointed. Notwithstanding the father lies becrowned and
besceptred in the basilica of Saint-Denys in France, the son is but
the dauphin and will not enter into his inheritance till the day when
the oil of the inexhaustible ampulla shall flow over his forehead. And
God has chosen her, a young, ignorant peasant maid, to lead him,
through the ranks of his enemies, to Reims, where he shall receive the
unction poured upon Saint Louis. Unfathomable ways of God! The humble
maid, knowing not how to ride a horse, unskilled in the arts of war,
is chosen to bring to Our Lord his temporal vicar of Christian France.

Henceforth Jeanne knew what great deeds she was to bring to pass. But
as yet she discerned not the means by which she was to accomplish
them.

"Thou must fare forth into France," Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret
said to her.

"Daughter of God, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims[318] that he
may there receive worthily his anointing," the Archangel Michael said
to her.

[Footnote 318: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130; vol. ii, p. 456; vol. iii, p.
3, _passim_.]

She must obey them--but how? If at that time there were not just at
hand some devout adviser to direct her, one incident quite personal
and unimportant, which then occurred in her father's house, may have
sufficed to point out the way to the young saint.

Tenant-in-chief of the Castle on the island in 1419, and in 1423 elder
of the community, Jacques d'Arc was one of the notables of Domremy.
The village folk held him in high esteem and readily entrusted him
with difficult tasks. Towards the end of March, 1427, they sent him to
Vaucouleurs as their authorised proxy in a lawsuit they were
conducting before Robert de Baudricourt. It was a question of the
payment of damages required at once from the lord and the inhabitants
of Greux and Domremy by a certain Guyot Poignant, of Montigny-le-Roi.
These damages went back four years to when, as a return for his
protection, the Damoiseau of Commercy had extorted from Greux and
Domremy a sum amounting to two hundred and twenty golden crowns.

Guyot Poignant had become security for this sum which had not been
paid by the time fixed. The Damoiseau seized Poignant's wood, hay, and
horses to the value of one hundred and twenty golden crowns, which
amount the said Poignant reclaimed from the nobles and villeins of
Greux and Domremy. The suit was still pending in 1427, when the
community nominated Jacques d'Arc its authorised proxy, and sent him
to Vaucouleurs. The result of the dispute is not known; but it is
sufficient to note that Jeanne's father saw Sire Robert and had speech
with him.[319]

[Footnote 319: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. cliv, clv, clvi,
97, 359 _et seq._; _La France pendant la guerre de cent ans_, p. 287.]

On his return home he must have more than once related these
interviews, and told of the manners and words of so great a personage.
And doubtless Jeanne heard many of these things. Assuredly she must
have pricked up her ears at the name of Baudricourt. Then it was that
her dazzling friend, the Archangel Knight, came once more to awaken
the obscure thought slumbering within her: "Daughter of God," he said,
"go thou to the Captain Robert de Baudricourt, in the town of
Vaucouleurs, that he may grant unto thee men who shall take thee to
the gentle Dauphin."[320]

[Footnote 320: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

Resolved to obey faithfully the behest of the Archangel which
accorded with her own desire, Jeanne foresaw that her mother, albeit
pious, would grant her no aid in her design and that her father would
strongly oppose it. Therefore she refrained from confiding it to
them.[321]

[Footnote 321: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128.]

She thought that Durand Lassois would be the man to give her the
succour of which she had need. In consideration of his age she called
him uncle,--he was her elder by sixteen years.

Their kinship was by marriage: Lassois had married one Jeanne,
daughter of one Le Vauseul, husbandman, and of Aveline, sister of
Isabelle de Vouthon, and consequently cousin-german of Isabelle's
daughter.[322]

[Footnote 322: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 443. Boucher de Molandon, _La
famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 146. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux,
_Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, introduction,
pp. xxi, xxii.]

With his wife, his father-in-law, and his mother-in-law, Lassois dwelt
at Burey-en-Vaulx, a hamlet of a few homesteads, lying on the left
bank of the Meuse, in the green valley, five miles from Domremy, and
less than two and a half miles from Vaucouleurs.[323]

[Footnote 323: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 411, 431, 439. S. Luce, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Domremy_, p. clxi. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 92.]

Jeanne went to see him, told him of her design, and showed him that
she must needs see Sire Robert de Baudricourt. That her kind kinsman
might the more readily believe in her, she repeated to him the strange
prophecy, of which we have already made mention: "Was it not known of
old," she said, "that a woman should ruin the kingdom of France and
that a woman should re-establish it?"[324]

[Footnote 324: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 443, 444.]

This prognostication, it appears, caused Durand Lassois to reflect.
Of the two facts foretold therein, the first, the evil one, had come
to pass in the town of Troyes, when Madame Ysabeau had given the
Kingdom of the Lilies and Madame Catherine of France to the King of
England. It only remained to hope that the second, the good, would
likewise come to pass. If in the heart of Durand Lassois there were
any love for the Dauphin Charles, such must have been his desire; but
on this point history is silent.

During this visit to her cousin, Jeanne met with others besides her
kinsfolk, the Vouthons and their children. She visited a young
nobleman, by name Geoffroy de Foug, who dwelt in the parish of
Maxey-sur-Vayse, of which the hamlet of Burey formed part. She
confided to him that she wanted to go to France. My Lord Geoffroy did
not know much of Jeanne's parents; he was ignorant even of their
names. But the damsel seemed to him good, simple, pious, and he
encouraged her in her marvellous undertaking.[325] A week after her
arrival at Burey she attained her object: Durand Lassois consented to
take her to Vaucouleurs.[326]

[Footnote 325: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 442.]

[Footnote 326: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 53, 221; vol. ii, p. 443.]

Before starting she asked a favour from her aunt Aveline who was with
child; she said to her: "If the babe you bear is a daughter, call her
Catherine in memory of my dead sister."

Catherine, who had married Colin de Greux, had just died.[327]

[Footnote 327: Genealogical Inquiry made by the Bailie of Chaumont
concerning Jehan Royer (8 October, 1555) in E. de Bouteiller and G. de
Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 62.
[Document of doubtful authenticity.]]




CHAPTER III

FIRST VISIT TO VAUCOULEURS--FLIGHT TO NEUFCHÂTEAU--JOURNEY TO
TOUL--SECOND VISIT TO VAUCOULEURS


Robert de Baudricourt, who in those days commanded the town of
Vaucouleurs for the Dauphin Charles, was the son of Liébault de
Baudricourt deceased, once chamberlain of Robert, Duke of Bar,
governor of Pont-à-Mousson, and of Marguerite d'Aunoy, Lady of Blaise
in Bassigny. Fourteen or fifteen years earlier he had succeeded his
two uncles, Guillaume, the Bastard of Poitiers, and Jean d'Aunoy as
Bailie of Chaumont and Commander of Vaucouleurs. His first wife had
been a rich widow; after her death he had married, in 1425, another
widow, as rich as the first, Madame Alarde de Chambley. And it is a
fact that the peasants of Uruffe and of Gibeaumex stole the cart
carrying the cakes ordered for the wedding feast. Sire Robert was like
all the warriors of his time and country; he was greedy and cunning;
he had many friends among his enemies and many enemies among his
friends; he fought now for his own side, now against it, but always
for his own advantage. For the rest he was no worse than his fellows,
and one of the least stupid.[328]

[Footnote 328: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 271. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 67. Le R.P. Benoît, _Histoire ecclésiastique
et politique de la ville et du diocèse de Toul_, Toul, 1707, p. 529.
S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. clxii, clxiii. Léon Mougenot,
_Jeanne d'Arc, le Duc de Lorraine et le Sire de Baudricourt_, 1895, in
8vo. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, p.
xviii. G. Nioré, _Le pays de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Mémoires de la Société
académique de l'Aube_, 1894, vol. xxxi, pp. 307-320. De Pange, _Le
Pays de Jeanne d'Arc; Le fief et l'arrière-fief. Les Baudricourt_,
Paris, 1903, in 8vo.]

Clad in a poor red gown,[329] but her heart bright with mystic love,
Jeanne climbed the hill dominating the town and the valley. Without
any difficulty she entered the castle, for its gates were opened as
freely as if it had been a fair; and she was led into the hall where
was Sire Robert among his men-at-arms. She heard the Voice saying to
her: "That is he!"[330] And immediately she went straight to him, and
spoke to him fearlessly, beginning, doubtless, by saying what she
deemed to be most urgent: "I am come to you, sent by Messire," she
said, "that you may send to the Dauphin and tell him to hold himself
in readiness, but not to give battle to his enemies."[331]

[Footnote 329: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436.]

[Footnote 330: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 53.]

[Footnote 331: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 456.]

Assuredly she must thus have spoken, prompted by a new revelation from
her Voices. And it is important to notice that she repeated word for
word what had been said seventy-five years earlier, not far from
Vaucouleurs, by a peasant of Champagne who was a vavasour, that is, a
freeman. This peasant's career had begun like Jeanne's, but had come
to a much more abrupt conclusion. Jacques d'Arc's daughter had not
been the first to say that revelations had been made to her concerning
the war. Periods of great distress are the times when inspired persons
most commonly appear. Thus it came to pass that in the days of the
Plague and of the Black Prince the vavasour of Champagne heard a voice
coming forth from a beam of light.

While he was at work in the fields the voice had said to him: "Go
thou, and warn John, King of France, that he fight not against any of
his enemies." It was a few days before the Battle of Poitiers.[332]

[Footnote 332: _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_, ed. S. Luce,
Paris, 1861, in 8vo, pp. 46-48.]

Then the counsel was wise; but in the month of May, 1428, it seemed
less wise, and appeared to have little bearing on the state of affairs
at that time. Since the disaster of Verneuil, the French had not felt
equal to giving battle to their enemies; and they were not thinking of
it. Towns were taken and lost, skirmishes were fought, sallies were
attempted, but the enemy was not engaged in pitched battles. There was
no need to restrain the Dauphin Charles, whom in those days nature and
fortune rendered unadventurous.[333] About the time that Jeanne was
uttering these words before Sire Robert, the English in France were
preparing an expedition, and were hesitating, unable to decide whether
to march on Angers or on Orléans.[334]

[Footnote 333: P. de Fénin, _Mémoires_, ed. Mademoiselle Dupont,
Paris, 1837, pp. 195, 222, 223.]

[Footnote 334: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise au siège
d'Orléans_, Orléans, 1892, in 8vo, pp. 75, 76.]

Jeanne gave utterance according to the promptings of her Archangel and
her Saints, and touching warfare and the condition of the kingdom they
knew neither more nor less than she. But it is not surprising that
those who believe themselves sent by God should ask to be waited for.
And again in the damsel's fear lest the French knights should once
more give battle after their own guise there was much of the sound
common sense of the people. They were only too well acquainted with
knightly warfare.

Perfectly calm and self-possessed, Jeanne went on and uttered a
prophecy concerning the Dauphin: "Before mid Lent my Lord will grant
him aid." Then straightway she added: "But in very deed the realm
belongs not to the Dauphin. Nathless it is Messire's will that the
Dauphin should be king and receive the kingdom in trust--_en
commande_.[335] Notwithstanding his enemies, the Dauphin shall be
king; and it is I who shall lead him to his anointing."

[Footnote 335: _Et quod aberet in commendam: illud regnum_, _Trial_,
vol. ii, p. 456 (evidence of Bertrand de Poulengy).]

Doubtless the title Messire, in the sense in which she employed it,
sounded strange and obscure, since Sire Robert, failing to understand
it, asked: "Who is Messire?"

"The King of Heaven," the damsel answered.

She had made use of another term, concerning which, as far as we know,
Sire Robert made no remark; and yet it is suggestive.[336]

[Footnote 336: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 456.]

That word _commande_ employed in matters connected with inheritance
signified something given in trust.[337] If the King received the
kingdom _en commande_ he would merely hold it in trust. Thus the
maid's utterance agreed with the views of the most pious concerning
Our Lord's government of kingdoms. By herself she could not have
happened on the word or the idea; she had obviously been instructed by
one of those churchmen whose influence we have discerned already[338]
in the Lorraine prophecy, but the trace of whom has completely
vanished.

[Footnote 337: See La Curne and Godefroy for the word _commande_.
Durand de Maillane, _Dictionnaire de droit canonique_, 1770, vol. i,
pp. 567 _et seq._]

[Footnote 338: See _ante_, p. 59, _post_, pp. 177, 178.]

Touching things spiritual Jeanne held converse with several priests;
among others with Messire Arnolin, of Gondrecourt-le-Château, and
Messire Dominique Jacob, priest of Moutier-sur-Saulx, who was her
confessor.[339] It is a pity we do not know what these ecclesiastics
thought of the insatiable cruelty of the English, of the pride of my
Lord Duke of Burgundy, of the misfortunes of the Dauphin, and whether
they did not hope that one day Our Lord Jesus Christ at the prayer of
the common folk would condescend to grant the kingdom _en commande_ to
Charles, son of Charles. It was possibly from one of these that Jeanne
derived her theocratic ideas.[340]

[Footnote 339: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 392, 393, 458, 459.]

[Footnote 340: As for Nicolas de Vouthon, priest of the Abbey of
Cheminon, what is stated concerning him in the evidence of the 2nd and
3rd November, 1476, seems improbable. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 252. E. de
Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de
Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xviii _et seq._, 9.]

While she was speaking to Sire Robert there was present, and not by
chance merely, a certain knight of Lorraine, Bertrand de Poulengy, who
possessed lands near Gondrecourt and held an office in the provostship
of Vaucouleurs.[341] He was then about thirty-six years of age. He was
a man who associated with churchmen; at least he was familiar with the
manner of speech of devout persons.[342] Perhaps he now saw Jeanne
for the first time; but he must certainly have heard of her; and he
knew her to be good and pious. Twelve years before he had frequently
visited Domremy; he knew the country well; he had sat beneath _l'Arbre
des Dames_, and had been several times to the house of Jacques d'Arc
and Romée, whom he held to be good honest farmer folk.[343]

[Footnote 341: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 475. Servais, in _Mémoires de la
Société des Lettres, Sciences et Arts de Bar-le-Duc_, vol. vi, p. 139.
E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, p. xxviii.
S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, proofs and illustrations xcv, p.
143 and note 3. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
204.]

[Footnote 342: This appears from the manner in which he reports
Jeanne's words.]

[Footnote 343: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 451, 458.]

It may be that Bertrand de Poulengy was struck by the damsel's speech
and bearing; it is more likely that the knight was in touch with
certain ecclesiastics unknown to us, who were instructing the peasant
seeress with an eye to rendering her better able to serve the realm of
France and the Church. However that may be, in Bertrand she had a
friend who was to be her strong support in the future.

For the nonce, however, if our information be correct, he did nothing
and spoke not a word. Perhaps he judged it best to wait until the
commander of the town should be ready to grant a more favourable
hearing to the saint's request. Sire Robert understood nothing of all
this; one point only appeared plain to him, that Jeanne would make a
fine camp-follower and that she would be a great favourite with the
men-at-arms.[344]

[Footnote 344: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 72. _Journal du siège_,
p. 35.]

In dismissing the villein who had brought her, he gave him a piece of
advice quite in keeping with the wisdom of the time concerning the
chastising of daughters: "Take her back to her father and box her ears
well."

Sire Robert held such discipline to be excellent, for more than once
he urged Uncle Lassois to take Jeanne home well whipped.[345]

[Footnote 345: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444. L. Mougenot, _Jeanne d'Arc,
le Duc de Lorraine et le Sire de Baudricourt_, Nancy, 1895, in 8vo.]

After a week's absence she returned to the village. Neither the
Captain's contumely nor the garrison's insults had humiliated or
discouraged her. Imagining that her Voices had foretold them,[346] she
held them to be proofs of the truth of her mission. Like those who
walk in their sleep she was calm in the face of obstacles and yet
quietly persistent. In the house, in the garden, in the meadow, she
continued to sleep that marvellous slumber, in which she dreamed of
the Dauphin, of his knights, and of battles with angels hovering
above.

[Footnote 346: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

She found it impossible to be silent; on all occasions her secret
escaped from her. She was always prophesying, but she was never
believed. On St. John the Baptist's Eve, about a month after her
return, she said sententiously to Michel Lebuin, a husbandman of
Burey, who was quite a boy: "Between Coussey and Vaucouleurs is a girl
who in less than a year from now will cause the Dauphin to be anointed
King of France."[347]

[Footnote 347: _Ibid._, p. 440.]

One day meeting Gérardin d'Epinal, the only man at Domremy not of the
Dauphin's party, whose head according to her own confession she would
willingly have cut off, although she was godmother to his son, she
could not refrain from announcing even to him in veiled words her
mystic dealing with God: "Gossip, if you were not a Burgundian there
is something I would tell you."[348]

[Footnote 348: _Ibid._, p. 423.]

The good man thought it must be a question of an approaching betrothal
and that Jacques d'Arc's daughter was about to marry one of the lads
with whom she had broken bread under _l'Arbre des Fées_ and drunk
water from the Gooseberry Spring.

Alas! how greatly would Jacques d'Arc have desired the secret to be of
that nature. This upright man was very strict; he was careful
concerning his children's conduct; and Jeanne's behaviour caused him
anxiety. He knew not that she heard Voices. He had no idea that all
day Paradise came down into his garden, that from Heaven to his house
a ladder was let down, on which there came and went without ceasing
more angels than had ever trodden the ladder of the Patriarch Jacob;
neither did he imagine that for Jeannette alone, without any one else
perceiving it, a mystery was being played, a thousand times richer and
finer than those which on feast days were acted on platforms, in towns
like Toul and Nancy. He was miles away from suspecting such incredible
marvels. But what he did see was that his daughter was losing her
senses, that her mind was wandering, and that she was giving utterance
to wild words. He perceived that she could think of nothing but
cavalcades and battles. He must have known something of the escapade
at Vaucouleurs. He was terribly afraid that one day the unhappy child
would go off for good on her wanderings. This agonising anxiety
haunted him even in his sleep. One night he dreamed that he saw her
fleeing with men-at-arms; and this dream was so vivid that he
remembered it when he awoke. For several days he said over and over
again to his sons, Jean and Pierre: "If I really believed that what I
dreamed of my daughter would ever come true, I would rather see her
drowned by you; and if you would not do it I would drown her
myself."[349]

[Footnote 349: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 131, 132, 219.]

Isabelle repeated these words to her daughter hoping that they might
alarm her and cause her to correct her ways. Devout as she was,
Jeanne's mother shared her father's fears. The idea that their
daughter was in danger of becoming a worthless creature was a cruel
thought to these good people. In those troubled times there was a
whole multitude of these wild women whom the men-at-arms carried with
them on horseback. Each soldier had his own.

It is not uncommon for saints in their youth by the strangeness of
their behaviour to give rise to such suspicions. And Jeanne displayed
those signs of sainthood. She was the talk of the village. Folk
pointed at her mockingly, saying: "There goes she who is to restore
France and the royal house."[350]

[Footnote 350: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 421, cf. p. 433, "_et alii juvenes
de ea deridebant_," said Colin's son, referring to her piety.]

The neighbours had no difficulty in finding a cause for the
strangeness which possessed the damsel. They attributed it to some
magic spell. She had been seen beneath the _Beau Mai_ bewreathing it
with garlands. The old beech was known to be haunted as well as the
spring near by. It was well known, too, that the fairies cast spells.
There were those who discovered that Jeanne had met a wicked fairy
there. "Jeannette has met her fate beneath _l'Arbre des Fées_,"[351]
they said. Would that none but peasants had believed that story!

[Footnote 351: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 68.]

On the 22nd of June, from the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France for
Henry VI, Antoine de Vergy, Governor of Champagne, received a
commission to furnish forth a thousand men-at-arms for the purpose of
bringing the castellany of Vaucouleurs into subjection to the English.
Three weeks later, commanded by the two Vergy, Antoine and Jean, the
little company set forth. It consisted of four knights-banneret,
fourteen knights-bachelor, and three hundred and sixty-three
men-at-arms. Pierre de Trie, commander of Beauvais, Jean, Count of
Neufchâtel and Fribourg, were ordered to join the main body.[352]

[Footnote 352: Report of André d'Epernon in S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. clxvii and proofs and illustrations, pp. 217, 218, 220.]

On the march, as was his custom, Antoine de Vergy laid waste all the
villages of the castellany with fire and sword. Threatened once again
with a disaster with which they were only too well acquainted, the
folk of Domremy and Greux already beheld their cattle captured, their
barns set on fire, their wives and daughters ravished. Having
experienced before that the Castle on the Island was not secure
enough, they determined to flee and seek refuge in their market town
of Neufchâteau, only five miles away from Domremy. Thus they set out
towards the middle of July. Abandoning their houses and fields and
driving their cattle before them, they followed the road, through the
fields of wheat and rye and up the vine-clad hills to the town,
wherein they lodged as best they could.[353]

[Footnote 353: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 51, 214; vol. ii, pp. 391-454. S.
Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. clxxvi.]

The d'Arc family was taken in by the wife of Jean Waldaires, who was
called La Rousse. She kept an inn, where lodged soldiers, monks,
merchants, and pilgrims. There were some who suspected her of
harbouring bad women.[354] And there is reason to believe that certain
of her women customers were of doubtful reputation. Albeit she herself
was of good standing, that is to say, she was rich. She had money
enough to lend sometimes to her fellow-citizens.[355] Although
Neufchâteau belonged to the Duke of Lorraine, who was of the
Burgundian party, it has been thought that the hostess of this inn
inclined towards the Armagnacs; but it is vain to attempt to discover
the sentiments of La Rousse concerning the troubles of the kingdom of
France.[356]

[Footnote 354: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 214.]

[Footnote 355: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. clxxvii.]

[Footnote 356: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 51, 214; vol. ii, p. 402.]

At Neufchâteau as at Domremy Jeanne drove her father's beasts to the
field and kept his flocks.[357] Handy and robust she used also to help
La Rousse in her household duties.[358] This circumstance gave rise to
the malicious report set on foot by the Burgundians that she had been
serving maid in an inn frequented by drunkards and bad women.[359] The
truth is that Jeanne, when she was not tending the cattle, and helping
her hostess, passed all her time in church.[360]

[Footnote 357: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 409, 423, 428, 463.]

[Footnote 358: _Ibid._, pp. 416, 417.]

[Footnote 359: Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 314.]

[Footnote 360: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 51.]

There were two fine religious houses in the town, one belonging to the
Grey Friars, the other to the Sisters of St. Claire, the sons and
daughters of good St. Francis.[361] The monastery of the Grey Friars
had been built two hundred years earlier by Mathieu II of Lorraine.
The reigning duke had recently added richly to its endowments. Noble
ladies, great lords, and among others a Bourlémont lord of Domremy and
Greux lay there beneath brasses.[362]

[Footnote 361: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. clxxvii.]

[Footnote 362: Expilly, _Dictionnaire géographique de la France_,
under the word _Neufchâteau_.]

In the flower of their history these mendicant monks of old had
welcomed to their third order crowds of citizens and peasants as well
as multitudes of princes and kings.[363] Now they languished corrupt
and decadent among the French friars. Quarrels and schisms were
frequent. Notwithstanding Colette of Corbie's attempted restoration of
the rule, the old discipline was nowhere observed.[364] These
mendicants distributed leaden medals, taught short prayers to serve as
charms, and vowed special devotion to the holy name of Jesus.[365]

[Footnote 363: S.M. de Vernon, _Histoire générale et particulière du
tiers-ordre de Saint-François_, Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 8vo. Hilarion
de Nolay, _Histoire du tiers-ordre_, Lyon, 1694, in 4to.]

[Footnote 364: Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, p. 549.]

[Footnote 365: Wadding, _Annales Minorum_, vol. v, p. 183.]

During the fortnight Jeanne spent in the town of Neufchâteau,[366] she
frequented the church of the Grey Friars monastery, and two or three
times confessed to brethren of the order.[367] It has been stated that
she belonged to the third order of St. Francis, and the inference has
been drawn that her affiliation dated from her stay at Neufchâteau.[368]

[Footnote 366: Jean Morel declares that she was at Neufchâteau four
days, and he adds: "What I tell you I know, for I was with the others
at Neufchâteau" (_Trial_, vol. ii, p. 392); Gérard Guillemette speaks
of four or five days (_Ibid._, p. 414); Nicolas Bailly of three or
four (_Ibid._, p. 451). But Jeanne told her judges at Rouen that she
stayed a fortnight at Neufchâteau (_Ibid._, vol. i, p. 51). When she
gave her evidence, the event was less remote, and doubtless her
recollection of it was more accurate.]

[Footnote 367: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 51.]

[Footnote 368: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, chs. ix, x, xi. Abbé
V. Mourot, _Jeanne d'Arc et le tiers-ordre de Saint-François_,
Saint-Dié, 1886, in 8vo. L. de Kerval, _Jeanne d'Arc et les
Franciscains_, Vanves, 1893, in 18mo. _E iera begina_, says a
correspondent of Morosini, edited by Lefèvre-Pontalis, vol. iii, p. 92
and note 2.]

Such an inference is very doubtful; and in any case the affiliation
cannot have been very ceremonious. It is difficult to see how in so
short a time the friars could have instructed her in the practices of
Franciscan piety. She was far too imbued with ecclesiastical notions
concerning the spiritual and the temporal power, she was too full of
mysteries and revelations to imbibe their spirit. Besides, her sojourn
at Neufchâteau was troubled by anxiety and broken by absences.

In this town she received a summons to appear before the official of
Toul, in whose jurisdiction she was, as a native of Domremy-de-Greux.
A young bachelor of Domremy alleged that a promise of marriage had
been given him by Jacques d'Arc's daughter. Jeanne denied it. He
persisted in his statement, and summoned her to appear before the
official.[369] To this ecclesiastical tribunal such cases belonged; it
pronounced judgment on questions of nullity of marriage or validity of
betrothal.

[Footnote 369: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 128, 219. E. Misset, _Jeanne d'Arc
Champenoise_, 1895, in 8vo, p. 28.]

The curious part of Jeanne's case is that her parents were against
her, and on the side of the young man. It was in defiance of their
wishes that she defended the suit and appeared before the official.
Later she declared that in this matter she had disobeyed them, and
that it was the only time she had failed in the submission she owed
her parents.[370]

[Footnote 370: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 219: _quibus obediebat in omnibus,
nisi in processu Tullensi_.]

The journey from Neufchâteau to Toul and back involved travelling more
than twenty leagues on foot, over roads infested with bands of armed
men, through a country desolated by fire and sword, from which the
peasants of Domremy had recently fled in a panic. To such a journey,
however, she made up her mind against the will of her parents.

Possibly she may have appeared before the judge at Toul, not once but
two or three times. And there was a great chance of her having to
journey day and night with her so-called betrothed, for he was passing
over the same road at the same time. Her Voices bade her fear nothing.
Before the judge she swore to speak the truth, and denied having made
any promise of marriage.

She had done nothing wrong. But an evil interpretation was set upon
conduct which proceeded alone from an innocence both singular and
heroic. At Neufchâteau it was said that on those journeys she had
consumed all her substance. But what was her substance? Alas! she had
set out with nothing. She may have been driven to beg her bread from
door to door. Saints receive alms as they give them: for the love of
God. There was a story that her betrothed seeing her living during the
trial in company with bad women, had abandoned his demand for justice,
renouncing a bride of such bad repute.[371] Such calumnies were only
too readily believed.

[Footnote 371: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 215. Article 9 of the deed of
accusation is drawn up as the result of an inquiry made at
Neufchâteau.]

After a fortnight's sojourn at Neufchâteau, Jacques d'Arc and his
family returned to Domremy. The orchard, the house, the monastery, the
village, the fields,--in what a state of desolation did they behold
them! The soldiers had plundered, ravaged, burnt everything. Unable to
exact ransom from the villeins who had taken flight, the men-at-arms
had destroyed all their goods. The monastery once as proud as a
fortress, with its watchman's tower, was now nothing but a heap of
blackened ruins. And now on holy days the folk of Domremy must needs
go to hear mass in the church of Greux.[372]

[Footnote 372: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 396, _passim_.]

So full of danger were the times that the villagers were ordered to
keep in fortified houses and castles.[373]

[Footnote 373: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. clxxx, 230.]

Meanwhile the English were laying siege to the town of Orléans, which
belonged to their prisoner Duke Charles. By so doing they acted badly,
for, having possession of his body, they ought to have respected his
property.[374] They built fortified towers round the city of Orléans,
the very heart of France; and it was said that they had entrenched
themselves there in great strength.[375] Now Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret loved the Land of the Lilies; they were the sworn friends and
gentle cousins of the Dauphin Charles. They talked to the shepherd
maid of the misfortunes of the kingdom and continued to say: "Leave
thy village and go into France."[376]

[Footnote 374: _Mistère du siège_, v, 497.]

[Footnote 375: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, chs. xxxiv, xxxv. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, chs. xxxii, xxxv; _Journal du siège_, pp. 2 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 216.]

Jeanne was all the more impatient to set forth because she had herself
announced the time of her arrival in France, and that time was drawing
near. She had told the Commander of Vaucouleurs that succour should
come to the Dauphin before mid Lent. She did not want to make her
Voices lie.[377]

[Footnote 377: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 456.]

Towards the middle of January occurred the opportunity she was looking
for of returning to Burey. At this time Durand Lassois' wife, Jeanne
le Vauseul, was brought to bed.[378] It was the custom in the country
for the young kinswomen and friends of the mother to attend and wait
upon her and her babe. A good and kindly custom, followed all the more
readily because of the opportunity it gave of pleasant meetings and
cheerful gossip.[379] Jeanne urged her uncle to ask her father that
she might be sent to tend the sick woman, and Lassois consented: he
was always ready to do what his niece asked him, and perhaps his
complaisance was encouraged by pious persons of some importance.[380]
But how this father, who shortly before had said that he would throw
his daughter into the Meuse rather than that she should go off with
men-at-arms, should have allowed her to go to the gates of the town,
protected by a kinsman of whose weakness he was well aware, is hard to
understand. However so he did.[381]

[Footnote 378: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 428, 434. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc
à Domremy_, p. clxxx. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles
recherches_, p. xxiii.]

[Footnote 379: _Les caquets de l'accouchée_, new edition by E.
Fournier and Le Roux de Lincy, Paris, 1855, in 16mo, introduction.]

[Footnote 380: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53; vol. ii, p. 443.]

[Footnote 381: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 428, 430, 434.]

Leaving the home of her childhood, which she was never to see again,
Jeanne, in company with Durand Lassois, passed down her native valley
in its winter bareness. As she went by the house of the husbandman
Gérard Guillemette of Greux, whose children and Jacques d'Arc's were
great friends, she cried: "Good-bye! I am going to Vaucouleurs."[382]

[Footnote 382: _Ibid._, p. 416.]

A few paces further she saw her friend Mengette: "Good-bye, Mengette,"
she said. "God bless thee."[383]

[Footnote 383: _Ibid._, p. 431.]

And by the way, on the doorsteps of the houses, whenever she saw faces
she knew, she bade them farewell.[384] But she avoided Hauviette with
whom she had played and slept in childhood and whom she dearly loved.
If she were to bid her good-bye she feared that her heart would fail
her. It was not till later that Hauviette heard of her friend's
departure and then she wept bitterly.[385]

[Footnote 384: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 418.]

[Footnote 385: _Ibid._, p. 419: _dixit quod nescivit recessum dictæ
Johannæ; quæ testis propter hoc multum flebat, quia eam multum propter
suam bonitatem diligebat et quod sua socia erat_.]

On her second arrival at Vaucouleurs, Jeanne imagined that she was
setting foot in a town belonging to the Dauphin, and, in the language
of the day, entering the royal antechamber.[386] She was mistaken.
Since the beginning of August, 1428, the Commander of Vaucouleurs had
yielded the fortress to Antoine de Vergy, but had not yet surrendered
it to him.

[Footnote 386: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 436.]

It was one of those promises to capitulate at the end of a given time.
They were not uncommon in those days, and they ceased to be valid if
the fortress were relieved before the day fixed for its
surrender.[387]

[Footnote 387: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. clxviii, 222,
234.]

Jeanne went to Sire Robert in his castle just as she had done nine
months before; and this was the revelation she made to him: "My Lord
Captain," she said, "know that God has again given me to wit, and
commanded me many times to go to the gentle Dauphin, who must be and
who is the true King of France, and that he shall grant me men-at-arms
with whom I shall raise the siege of Orléans and take him to his
anointing at Reims."[388]

[Footnote 388: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273; _La Chronique de
Lorraine_ in Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. iii, col. vj,
gives an amplified version of these words, the authenticity of which
is doubtful.]

This time she announces that it is her mission to deliver Orléans. And
the anointing is not to come to pass until this the first part of her
task shall have been accomplished. We cannot fail to recognise the
readiness and the tact with which the Voices altered their commands
previously given, according to the necessities of the moment. Robert's
manner towards Jeanne had completely changed. He said nothing about
boxing her ears and sending her back to her parents. He no longer
treated her roughly; and if he did not believe her announcement at
least he listened to it readily.

In one of her conversations with him she spoke of strange matters:
"Once I have accomplished the behest Messire has given me, I shall
marry and I shall bear three sons, the eldest of whom shall be pope,
the second emperor, and the third king."

Sire Robert answered gayly: "Since thy sons are to be such great
personages, I should like to give thee one. Thereby should I myself
have honour."

Jeanne replied: "Nay, gentle Robert, nay. It is not yet time. The Holy
Ghost shall appoint the time."[389]

[Footnote 389: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 219, 220. The source is doubtful.
Nevertheless the accusation here lays stress on these facts produced
by the inquiry. If Jeanne denied having spoken these words, it was
because she had forgotten them, or because they had been so changed
that she could disavow the form in which they were presented to her.]

To judge from the few of her words handed down to us, in the early
days of her mission the young prophetess spoke alternately two
different languages. Her speech seemed to flow from two distinct
sources. The one ingenuous, candid, naïve, concise, rustically simple,
unconsciously arch, sometimes rough, alike chivalrous and holy,
generally bearing on the inheritance and the anointing of the Dauphin
and the confounding of the English. This was the language of her
Voices, her own, her soul's language. The other, more subtle,
flavoured with allegory and flowers of speech, critical with
scholastic grace, bearing on the Church, suggesting the clerk and
betraying some outside influence. The words she uttered to Sire Robert
touching the children she should bear are of the second sort. They are
an allegory. Her triple birth signifies that the peace of Christendom
shall be born of her work, that after she shall have fulfilled her
divine mission, the Pope, the Emperor, and the King--all three sons of
God--shall cause concord and love to reign in the Church of Jesus
Christ. The apologue is quite clear; and yet a certain amount of
intelligence is necessary for its comprehension. The Captain failed to
understand it; he interpreted it literally and answered accordingly,
for he was a simple fellow and a merry.[390]

[Footnote 390: See _ante_, page 66.]

Jeanne lodged in the town with humble folk, Henri Leroyer and his wife
Catherine, friends of her cousin Lassois. She used to occupy her time
in spinning, being a good spinster; and the little she had she gave to
the poor. With Catherine she went to the parish church.[391] In the
morning, in her most devout moods, she would climb the hill, round the
foot of which cluster the roofs of the town, and enter the chapel of
Sainte Marie-de-Vaucouleurs. This collegiate church, built in the
reign of Philippe VI, adjoined the _château_ wherein dwelt the
Commander of Vaucouleurs. The venerable stone nave rose up boldly
towards the east, overlooking the vast extent of hills and meadows,
and dominating the valley where Jeanne had been born and bred. She
used to hear mass and remain long in prayer.[392]

[Footnote 391: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 446.]

[Footnote 392: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 461.]

Under the chapel, in the crypt, there was an image of the Virgin,
ancient and deeply venerated, called Notre-Dame-de-la-Voûte.[393] It
worked miracles, but especially on behalf of the poor and needy.
Jeanne delighted to remain in this dark and lonely crypt, where the
saints preferred to visit her.

[Footnote 393: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cxcxiv.]

One day a young clerk, barely more than a child, who waited in the
chapel, saw the damsel motionless, with hands clasped, head thrown
back, eyes full of tears raised to heaven; and as long as he lived the
vision of that rapture remained imprinted on his mind.[394]

[Footnote 394: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 460, 461 (evidence of Jean le
Fumeux in the rehabilitation trial).]

She confessed often, usually to Jean Fournier, priest of
Vaucouleurs.[395]

[Footnote 395: _Ibid._, p. 446.]

Her hostess was touched by the goodness and gentleness of her manner
of life; but she was profoundly agitated when one day the damsel said
to her: "Dost thou not know it hath been prophesied that France ruined
by a woman shall be saved by a maiden from the Lorraine Marches?"

Leroyer's wife knew as well as Durand Lassois that Madame Ysabeau, as
full of wickedness as Herodias, had delivered up Madame Catherine of
France and the Kingdom of the Lilies to the King of England. And
henceforth she was almost persuaded to believe that Jeanne was the
maid announced by the prophecy.[396]

[Footnote 396: _Ibid._, p. 447.]

This pious damsel held converse with devout persons and also with men
of noble rank. To all alike she said: "I must to the gentle Dauphin.
It is the will of Messire, the King of Heaven, that I wend to the
gentle Dauphin. I am sent by the King of Heaven. I must go even if I
go on my knees."[397]

[Footnote 397: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 448.]

Revelations of this nature she made to Messire Aubert, Lord of
Ourches. He was a good Frenchman and of the Armagnac party, since four
years earlier he had made war against the English and Burgundians. She
told him that she must go to the Dauphin, that she demanded to be
taken to him, and that to him should redound profit and honour
incomparable.

At length through her illuminations and her prophecies, her fame was
spread abroad in the town; and her words were found to be good.[398]

[Footnote 398: _Quæ puella multum bene loquebatur._ _Trial_, vol. ii,
p. 450. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. 103.]

In the garrison there was a man-at-arms of about twenty-eight years of
age, Jean de Novelompont or Nouillompont, who was commonly called Jean
de Metz. By rank a freeman, albeit not of noble estate, he had
acquired or inherited the lordship of Nouillompont and Hovecourt,
situate in that part of Barrois which was outside the Duke's domain;
and he bore its name.[399] Formerly in the pay of Jean de Wals,
Captain and Provost of Stenay, he was now, in 1428, in the service of
the Commander of Vaucouleurs.

[Footnote 399: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 363; _Journal du siège_, p. 45. S.
Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xcv, cxi, cxxvj. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 204, note. E. de Bouteiller and
G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. xxv _et seq._]

Of his morals and manner of life we know nothing, except that three
years before he had sworn a vile oath and been condemned to pay a fine
of two _sols_.[400] Apparently when he took the oath he was in great
wrath.[401] He was more or less intimate with Bertrand de Poulengy,
who had certainly spoken to him of Jeanne.

[Footnote 400: _A sol tournois_ is the twentieth part of a _livre
tournois_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 401: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. cxc, 160, 161.]

One day he met the damsel and said to her: "Well, _ma mie_, what are
you doing here? Must the King be driven from his kingdom and we all
turn English?"[402]

[Footnote 402: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 435-457. E. de Bouteiller and G.
de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. xxvi, xxvii.]

Such words from a young Lorraine warrior are worthy of notice. The
Treaty of Troyes did not subject France to England; it united the two
kingdoms. If war continued after as before, it was merely to decide
between the two claimants, Charles de Valois and Henry of Lancaster.
Whoever gained the victory, nothing would be changed in the laws and
customs of France. Yet this poor freebooter of the German Marches
imagined none the less that under an English king he would be an
Englishman. Many French of all ranks believed the same and could not
suffer the thought of being Anglicised; in their minds their own fates
depended on the fate of the kingdom and of the Dauphin Charles.

Jeanne answered Jean de Metz: "I came hither to the King's territory
to speak with Sire Robert, that he may take me or command me to be
taken to the Dauphin; but he heeds neither me nor my words."

Then, with the fixed idea welling up in her heart that her mission
must be begun before the middle of Lent: "Notwithstanding, ere mid
Lent, I must be before the Dauphin, were I in going to wear my legs to
the knees."[403]

[Footnote 403: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 396 _et seq._]

A report ran through the towns and villages. It was said that the son
of the King of France, the Dauphin Louis, who had just entered his
fifth year, had been recently betrothed to the daughter of the King of
Scotland, the three-year-old Madame Margaret, and the common people
celebrated this royal union with such rejoicings as were possible in a
desolated country.[404] Jeanne, when she heard these tidings, said to
the man-at-arms: "I must go to the Dauphin, for no one in the world,
no king or duke or daughter of the King of Scotland, can restore the
realm of France."

[Footnote 404: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. cxci.]

Then straightway she added: "In me alone is help, albeit for my part,
I would far rather be spinning by my poor mother's side, for this life
is not to my liking. But I must go; and so I will, for it is Messire's
command that I should go."

She said what she thought. But she did not know herself; she did not
know that her Voices were the cries of her own heart, and that she
longed to quit the distaff for the sword.

Jean de Metz asked, as Sire Robert had done: "Who is Messire?"

"He is God," she replied.

Then straightway, as if he believed in her, he said with a sudden
impulse: "I promise you, and I give you my word of honour, that God
helping me I will take you to the King."

He gave her his hand as a sign that he pledged his word and asked:
"When will you set forth?"

"This hour," she answered, "is better than to-morrow; to-morrow is
better than after to-morrow."

Jean de Metz himself, twenty-seven years later, reported this
conversation.[405] If we are to believe him, he asked the damsel in
conclusion whether she would travel in her woman's garb. It is easy to
imagine what difficulties he would foresee in journeying with a
peasant girl clad in a red frock over French roads infested with
lecherous fellows, and that he would deem it wiser for her to disguise
herself as a boy. She promptly divined his thought and replied: "I
will willingly dress as a man."[406]

[Footnote 405: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436.]

[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, p. 436, 437.]

There is no reason why these things should not have occurred. Only if
they did, then a Lorraine freebooter suggested to the saint that idea
concerning her dress which later she will think to have received from
God.[407]

[Footnote 407: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 161, 176, 332. _Journal du siège_,
p. 45. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 372.]

Of his own accord, or rather, acting by the advice of some wise
person, Sire Robert desired to know whether Jeanne was not being
inspired by an evil spirit. For the devil is cunning and sometimes
assumes the mark of innocence. And as Sire Robert was not learned in
such matters, he determined to take counsel with his priest.

Now one day when Catherine and Jeanne were at home spinning, they
beheld the Commander coming accompanied by the priest, Messire Jean
Fournier. They asked the mistress of the house to withdraw; and when
they were left alone with the damsel, Messire Jean Fournier put on
his stole and pronounced some Latin words which amounted to saying:
"If thou be evil, away with thee; if thou be good, draw nigh."[408]

[Footnote 408: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 446.]

It was the ordinary formula of exorcism or, to be more exact, of
conjuration. In the opinion of Messire Jean Fournier these words,
accompanied by a few drops of holy water, would drive away devils, if
there should unhappily be any in the body of this village maiden.

Messire Jean Fournier was convinced that devils were possessed by an
uncontrollable desire to enter the bodies of men, and especially of
maidens, who sometimes swallowed them with their bread. They dwelt in
the mouth under the tongue, in the nostrils, or penetrated down the
throat into the stomach. In these various abodes their action was
violent; and their presence was discerned by the contortions and
howlings of the miserable victims who were possessed.

Pope St. Gregory, in his Dialogues, gives a striking example of the
facility with which devils insinuate themselves into women. He tells
how a nun, being in the garden, saw a lettuce which she thought looked
tender. She plucked it, and, neglecting to bless it by making the sign
of the cross, she ate of it and straightway fell possessed. A man of
God having drawn near unto her, the demon began to cry out: "It is I!
It is I who have done it! I was seated upon that lettuce. This woman
came and she swallowed me." But the prayers of the man of God drove
him out.[409]

[Footnote 409: Voragine, _La légende dorée_, in the Festival of the
Exaltation of the Holy Cross.]

The caution required in such a matter was therefore not exaggerated by
Messire Jean Fournier. Possessed by the idea that the devil is subtle
and woman corrupt, carefully and according to prescribed rules he
proceeded to solve a difficult problem. It was generally no easy
matter to recognise one possessed by the devil and to distinguish
between a demoniac and a good Christian. Very great saints had not
been spared the trial to which Jeanne was to be subjected.

Having recited the formula and sprinkled the holy water, Messire Jean
Fournier expected, if the damsel were possessed, to see her struggle,
writhe, and endeavour to take flight. In such a case he must needs
have made use of more powerful formulæ, have sprinkled more holy
water, and made more signs of the cross, and by such means have driven
out the devils until they were seen to depart with a terrible noise
and a noxious odour, in the shape of dragons, camels, or fish.[410]

[Footnote 410: Migne, _Dictionnaire des sciences occultes_, Paris, 2
vols. in large 8vo, under the word _Exorcisme_.]

There was nothing suspicious in Jeanne's attitude. No wild agitation,
no frenzy. Merely anxious and intreating, she dragged herself on her
knees towards the priest. She did not flee before God's holy name.
Messire Jean Fournier concluded that no devil was within her.

Left alone in the house with Catherine, Jeanne, who now understood the
meaning of the ceremony, showed strong resentment towards Messire Jean
Fournier. She reproached him with having suspected her: "It was wrong
of him," she said to her hostess, "for, having heard my confession, he
ought to have known me."[411]

[Footnote 411: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 446.]

She would have thanked the priest of Vaucouleurs had she known how he
was furthering the fulfilment of her mission by subjecting her to this
ordeal. Convinced that this maiden was not inspired by the devil, Sire
Robert must have been driven to conclude that she might be inspired by
God; for apparently he was a man of simple reasoning. He wrote to the
Dauphin Charles concerning the young saint; and doubtless he bore
witness to the innocence and goodness he beheld in her.[412]

[Footnote 412: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 115. _Journal du siège_, p. 48.
_Mirouer des femmes vertueuses_ in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 267.]

Although it looked as if the Captain would have to resign his command
to my Lord de Vergy, Sire Robert did not intend to quit his country
where he had dealings with all parties. Indeed he cared little enough
about the Dauphin Charles, and it is difficult to see what personal
interest he can have had in recommending him a prophetess. Without
pretending to discover what was passing in his mind, one may believe
that he wrote to the Dauphin on Jeanne's behalf at the request of some
of those persons who thought well of her, probably of Bertrand de
Poulengy and of Jean de Metz. These two men-at-arms, seeing that the
Dauphin's cause was lost in the Lorraine Marches, had every reason for
proceeding to the banks of the Loire, where they might still fight
with the hope of advantage.

On the eve of setting out, they appeared disposed to take the seeress
with them, and even to defray all her expenses, reckoning on repaying
themselves from the royal coffers at Chinon, and deriving honour and
advantage from so rare a marvel. But they waited to be assured of the
Dauphin's consent.[413]

[Footnote 413: Extract from the eighth report of Guillaume Charrier,
in the _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 257 _et seq._]

Meanwhile Jeanne could not rest. She came and went from Vaucouleurs to
Burey and from Burey to Vaucouleurs. She counted the days; time
dragged for her as for a woman with child.[414]

[Footnote 414: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 447.]

At the end of January, feeling she could wait no longer, she resolved
to go to the Dauphin Charles alone. She clad herself in garments
belonging to Durand Lassois, and with this kind cousin set forth on
the road to France.[415] A man of Vaucouleurs, one Jacques Alain,
accompanied them.[416] Probably these two men expected that the damsel
would herself realise the impossibility of such a journey and that
they would not go very far. That is what happened. The three
travellers had barely journeyed a league from Vaucouleurs, when, near
the Chapel of Saint Nicholas, which rises in the valley of Septfonds,
in the middle of the great wood of Saulcy, Jeanne changed her mind and
said to her comrades that it was not right of her to set out thus.
Then they all three returned to the town.[417]

[Footnote 415: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 53; vol. ii, pp. 443 _et seq._]

[Footnote 416: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 445-447.]

[Footnote 417: _Ibid._, pp. 447-457.]

At length a royal messenger brought King Charles's reply to the
Commander of Vaucouleurs. The messenger was called Colet de
Vienne.[418] His name indicates that he came from the province which
the Dauphin had governed before the death of the late King, and which
had remained unswervingly faithful to the unfortunate prince. The
reply was that Sire Robert should send the young saint to
Chinon.[419]

[Footnote 418: _Ibid._, p. 406. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p.
160, note 6.]

[Footnote 419: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 314, 315. Anonymous poem on
the arrival of the Maid, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 30.]

That which Jeanne had demanded and which it had seemed impossible to
obtain was granted. She was to be taken to the King as she had desired
and within the time fixed by herself. But this departure, for which
she had so ardently longed, was delayed several days by a remarkable
incident. The incident shows that the fame of the young prophetess had
gone out through Lorraine; and it proves that in those days the great
of the land had recourse to saints in their hour of need.

Jeanne was summoned to Nancy by my Lord the Duke of Lorraine.
Furnished with a safe-conduct that the Duke had sent her, she set
forth in rustic jerkin and hose on a nag given her by Durand Lassois
and Jacques Alain. It had cost them twelve francs which Sire Robert
repaid them later out of the royal revenue.[420] From Vaucouleurs to
Nancy is twenty-four leagues. Jean de Metz accompanied her as far as
Toul; Durand Lassois went with her the whole way.[421]

[Footnote 420: Durand Lassois says it cost twelve francs, Jean de
Metz, sixteen. "_Ce serait aujourd'hui un cheval de cent écus._" It
would be a horse worth one hundred crowns to-day (L. Champion, _Jeanne
d'Arc écuyère_, 1901, p. 55). According to the reckoning of P.
Clément, from 400 to 800 francs (_Jacques Coeur et Charles VII_,
1873, p. lxvi).]

[Footnote 421: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 54, 222; vol. ii, pp. 391, 406,
432, 437, 442-450, 456, 457; vol. iii, pp. 87, 115. Extract from the
eighth account of Guillaume Charrier and from the thirteenth account
of Hémon Raguier, in the _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 257 _et seq._]

Before going to the Duke of Lorraine's palace, Jeanne ascended the
valley of the Meurthe and went to worship at the shrine of the great
Saint Nicholas, whose relics were preserved in the Benedictine chapel
of Saint-Nicholas-du-Port. She did well; for Saint Nicholas was the
patron saint of travellers.[422]

[Footnote 422: _Et postquam ipsa Johanna fuit in peregrinacio in
Sancto Nicolas et exstitit versus dominum ducem Lotharingiae_, says
Bertrand de Poulengy, _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 457. Cf. The Evidence of J.
Robert, in E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur
la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 33, 34. It is impossible to find in
the text of the _Trial_ a redundancy such as the evidence of D.
Lannois and the woman Le Royer would lead us to expect. A. Renard,
_Jeanne d'Arc. Examen d'une question de lieu_, Orléans, 1861, in 8vo,
16 pages. G. de Braux, _Jeanne d'Arc à Saint-Nicolas_, Nancy, 1889, in
8vo. De Pimodan, _La première étape de Jeanne d'Arc_, 1890, in 8vo,
with maps.]




CHAPTER IV

THE JOURNEY TO NANCY--THE ITINERARY OF VAUCOULEURS--TO
SAINTE-CATHERINE-DE-FIERBOIS


By giving his eldest daughter, Isabelle, the heiress of Lorraine, in
marriage to René, the second son of Madame Yolande, Queen of Sicily
and of Jerusalem, and Duchess of Anjou,[423] Duke Charles II of
Lorraine, who was in alliance with the English, had recently done his
cousin and friend, the Duke of Burgundy, a bad turn. René of Anjou,
now in his twentieth year, was a man of culture as much in love with
sound learning as with chivalry, and withal kind, affable, and
gracious. When not engaged in some military expedition and in wielding
the lance he delighted to illuminate manuscripts. He had a taste for
flower-decked gardens and stories in tapestry; and like his fair
cousin the Duke of Orléans he wrote poems in French.[424] Invested
with the duchy of Bar by the Cardinal Duke of Bar, his great-uncle,
he would inherit the duchy of Lorraine after the death of Duke Charles
which could not be far off. This marriage was rightly regarded as a
clever stroke on the part of Madame Yolande. But he who reigns must
fight. The Duke of Burgundy, ill content to see a prince of the house
of Anjou, the brother-in-law of Charles of Valois, established between
Burgundy and Flanders, stirred up against René the Count of Vaudémont,
who was a claimant of the inheritance of Lorraine. The Angevin policy
rendered a reconciliation between the Duke of Burgundy and the King of
France difficult. Thus was René of Anjou involved in the quarrels of
his father-in-law of Lorraine. It befell that in this year, 1429, he
was waging war against the citizens of Metz, the War of the Basketful
of Apples.[425] It was so called because the cause of war was a
basketful of apples which had been brought into the town of Metz
without paying duty to the officers of the Duke of Lorraine.[426]

[Footnote 423: Le Père Anselme, _Histoire généalogique de la maison de
France_, vol. ii, p. 218. Ludovic Drapeyron, _Jeanne d'Arc et Philippe
le Bon_, in _Revue de Géographie_, November, 1886, p. 236. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. lxvi, cxcix.]

[Footnote 424: _Oeuvres du Roi René_, by Le Comte de Quatrebarbes,
Angers, 1845, vol. i, preface, pp. lxxvi _et seq._ Lecoy de la Marche,
_Le Roi René, sa vie, son administration, ses travaux artistiques et
littéraires_, Paris, 1875, 2 vols. in 8vo, and Giry, Review in the
_Revue critique_.]

[Footnote 425: _La guerre de la hottée de pommes._]

[Footnote 426: Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. ii, col. 695,
703.]

Meanwhile René's mother was sending convoys of victuals from Blois to
the citizens of Orléans, besieged by the English.[427] Although she
was not then on good terms with the counsellors of her son-in-law,
King Charles, she was vigilant in opposing the enemies of the kingdom
when they threatened her own duchy of Anjou. René, Duke of Bar, had
therefore ties of kindred, friendship, and interest binding him at the
same time to the English and Burgundian party as well as to the party
of France. Such was the situation of most of the French nobles. René's
communications with the Commander of Vaucouleurs were friendly and
constant.[428] It is possible that Sire Robert may have told him that
he had a damsel at Vaucouleurs who was prophesying concerning the
realm of France. It is possible that the Duke of Bar, curious to see
her, may have had her sent to Nancy, where he was to be towards the
20th of February. But it is much more likely that René of Anjou
thought less about the Maid of Vaucouleurs, whom he had never seen,
than about the little Moor and the jester who enlivened the ducal
palace.[429] In this month of February, 1429, he was neither desirous
nor able to concern himself greatly with the affairs of France; and
although brother-in-law to King Charles, he was preparing not to
succour the town of Orléans, but to besiege the town of Metz.[430]

[Footnote 427: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93.]

[Footnote 428: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. cxcvii,
clxxxvii, clxxxviii, and 236. The register of the Archives of La
Meuse, B. 1051, bears trace of a regular correspondence between the
Duke of Bar and Baudricourt.]

[Footnote 429: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in Dom Calmet,
_Histoire de Lorraine_, proofs and illustrations, vol. ii, col. cxcix.
S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. cxcvii _et seq._]

[Footnote 430: Letter from Jean Desch, Secretary of the town of Metz,
in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 355. Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_,
vol. ii, proofs and illustrations, col. cxcix.]

Old and ill, Duke Charles dwelt in his palace with his paramour Alison
du Mai, a bastard and a priest's daughter, who had driven out the
lawful wife, Dame Marguerite of Bavaria. Dame Marguerite was pious and
high-born, but old and ugly, while Madame Alison was pretty. She had
borne Duke Charles several children.[431]

[Footnote 431: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cc, note.]

The following story appears the most authentic. There were certain
worthy persons at Nancy who wanted Duke Charles to take back his good
wife. To persuade him to do so they had recourse to the exhortations
of a saint, who had revelations from Heaven, and who called herself
the Daughter of God. By these persons the damsel of Domremy was
represented to the enfeebled old Duke as being a saint who worked
miracles of healing. By their advice he had her summoned in the hope
that she possessed secrets which should alleviate his sufferings and
keep him alive.

As soon as he saw her he asked whether she could not restore him to
his former health and strength.

She replied that "of such things" she knew nothing. But she warned him
that his ways were evil, and that he would not be cured until he had
amended them. She enjoined upon him to send away Alison, his
concubine, and to take back his good wife.[432]

[Footnote 432: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 87. Dom Calmet, _Histoire de
Lorraine_, vol. iii, proofs and illustrations, col. vj.]

No doubt she had been told to say something of this kind; but it also
came from her own heart, for she loathed bad women.

Jeanne had come to the Duke because it was his due, because a little
saint must not refuse when a great lord wishes to consult her, and
because in short she had been brought to Nancy. But her mind was
elsewhere; of nought could she think but of saving the realm of
France.

Reflecting that Madame Yolande's son with a goodly company of
men-at-arms would be of great aid to the Dauphin, she asked the Duke
of Lorraine, as she took her leave, to send this young knight with her
into France.

"Give me your son," she said, "with men-at-arms as my escort. In
return I will pray to God for your restoration to health."

The Duke did not give her men-at-arms; neither did he give her the
Duke of Bar, the heir of Lorraine, the ally of the English, who was
nevertheless to join her soon beneath the standard of King Charles.
But he gave her four francs and a black horse.[433]

[Footnote 433: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 391, 444.]

Perhaps it was on her return from Nancy that she wrote to her parents
asking their pardon for having left them. The fact that they received
a letter and forgave is all that is known.[434] One cannot forbear
surprise that Jacques d'Arc, all through the month that his daughter
was at Vaucouleurs, should have remained quietly at home, when
previously, after having merely dreamed of her being with men-at-arms,
he had threatened that if his sons did not drown her he would with his
own hands. For he must have been aware that at Vaucouleurs she was
living with men-at-arms. Knowing her temperament, he had displayed
great simplicity in letting her go. One cannot help supposing that
those pious persons who believed in Jeanne's goodness, and desired her
to be taken into France for the saving of the kingdom, must have
undertaken to reassure her father and mother concerning their
daughter's manner of life; perhaps they even gave the simple folk to
understand that if Jeanne did go to the King her family would derive
therefrom honour and advantage.

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 129.]

Before or after her journey to Nancy (which is not known), certain of
the townsfolk of Vaucouleurs who believed in the young prophetess
either had made, or purchased for her ready made, a suit of masculine
clothing, a jerkin, cloth doublet, hose laced on to the coat, gaiters,
spurs, a whole equipment of war. Sire Robert gave her a sword.[435]

[Footnote 435: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, pp. 438, 445, 447,
457. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue historique_,
vol. iv, p. 336.]

She had her hair cut round like a boy.[436] Jean de Metz and Bertrand
de Poulengy, with their servants Jean de Honecourt and Julien, were to
accompany her as well as the King's messenger, Colet de Vienne, and
the bowman Richard.[437] There was still some delay and councils were
held, for the soldiers of Antoine de Lorraine, Lord of Joinville,
infested the country. Throughout the land there was nothing but
pillage, robbery, murder, cruel tyranny, the ravishing of women, the
burning of churches and abbeys, and the perpetration of horrible
crimes. Those were the hardest times ever known to man.[438] But the
damsel was not afraid, and said: "In God's name! take me to the gentle
Dauphin, and fear not any trouble or hindrance we may meet."[439]

[Footnote 436: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue
historique_, _ibid._]

[Footnote 437: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 406, 432, 442, 457; vol. iii, p.
209. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xcv, 143 note 3. G. de
Braux and E. de Bouteiller, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. xxix _et
seq._]

[Footnote 438: _Les routiers en Lorraine_, in the _Journal de la
Société archéologique de Lorraine_, 1866, p. 161. Dr. A. Lapierre, _La
guerre de cent ans dans l'Argonne et le Rethélois_, Sedan, 1900, in
8vo.]

[Footnote 439: _Journal du siège_ (interpolation); _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 272 (a document of doubtful authority owing to its
hagiographical character).]

At length, on a day in February, so it is said, the little company
issued forth from Vaucouleurs by La Porte de France.[440]

[Footnote 440: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, p. 437. _Chronique du
Mont-Saint-Michel_, vol. i, p. 30. De Boismarmin, _Mémoire sur la date
de l'arrivée de Jeanne d'Arc à Chinon_, in the _Bulletin du comité des
travaux historiques et scientifiques_, 1892, pp. 350-359. Ulysse
Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 10, note 1. Jeanne had
returned to Vaucouleurs about the first Sunday in Lent, the 13th of
February, 1429 (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 437). Bertrand de Poulengy says
that the journey to Chinon (6th March) lasted eleven days, and that
sometimes they travelled by night only (_ibid._). It is difficult to
admit that they started from Vaucouleurs on the 23rd of February, and
that about 660 kilometres were traversed in eleven days.]

A few friends who had followed her so far watched her go. Among them
were her hosts, Henri Leroyer and Catherine, and Messire Jean Colin,
canon of Saint-Nicolas, near Vaucouleurs, to whom Jeanne had confessed
several times.[441] They trembled for their saint as they thought of
the perils of the way and the length of the journey.

[Footnote 441: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 431, 446.]

"How can you," they asked her, "set forth on such a journey when there
are men-at-arms on every hand?" But out of the serene peace of her
heart she answered them:

"I do not fear men-at-arms; my way has been made plain before me. If
there be men-at-arms my Lord God will make a way for me to go to my
Lord Dauphin. For that am I come."[442]

[Footnote 442: _Ibid._, p. 449.]

Sire Robert was present at her departure. According to the customary
formula he took an oath from each of the men-at-arms that they would
surely and safely conduct her whom he confided to them. Then, being a
man of little faith, he said to Jeanne in lieu of farewell: "Go! and
come what may."[443] And the little company went off into the mist,
which at that season envelops the meadows of the Meuse.

[Footnote 443: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 55.]

They were obliged to avoid frequented roads and to beware especially
of passing by Joinville, Montiers-en-Saulx and Sailly, where there
were soldiers of the hostile party. Sire Bertrand and Jean de Metz
were accustomed to such stealthy expeditions; they knew the byways and
were acquainted with useful precautions, such as binding up the
horses' feet in linen so as to deaden the sound of hoofs on the
ground.[444]

[Footnote 444: De Pimodan, _La première étape de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris,
1891, in 8vo, with maps.]

At nightfall, having escaped all danger, the company approached the
right bank of the Marne and reached the Abbey of Saint-Urbain.[445]
From time immemorial it had been a place of refuge, and in those days
its abbot was Arnoult of Aulnoy, a kinsman of Robert of
Baudricourt.[446] The gate of the plain edifice opened for the
travellers who passed beneath the groined vaulting of its roof.[447]
The abbey included a building set apart for strangers. There they
found the resting-place of the first stage of their journey.

[Footnote 445: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54.]

[Footnote 446: Jolibois, _Dictionnaire historique de la Haute-Marne_,
p. 492.]

[Footnote 447: De Pimodan, _La première étape de Jeanne d'Arc_, _loc.
cit._]

On the right of the outer door was the abbey church wherein were
preserved the relics of Pope Saint Urbain. On the 24th of February, in
the morning, Jeanne attended conventual mass there.[448] Then she and
her companions took horse again. Crossing the Marne by the bridge
opposite Saint-Urbain, they pressed on towards France.

[Footnote 448: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 54, 55.]

They had still one hundred and twenty-five leagues to cover and three
rivers to cross, in a country infested with brigands. Through fear of
the enemy they journeyed by night.[449] When they lay down on the
straw the damsel, keeping her hose laced to her coat, slept in her
clothes, under a covering, between Jean de Metz and Bertrand de
Poulengy in whom she felt confidence. They said afterwards that they
never desired the damsel because of the holiness they beheld in
her;[450] that may or may not be believed.

[Footnote 449: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 437. According to the somewhat
improbable testimony of Bertrand de Poulengy. _See ante_, p. 96, note
6.]

[Footnote 450: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 457.]

Jean de Metz was filled with no such ardent faith in the prophetess,
since he inquired of her: "Will you really do what you say?"

To which she replied: "Have no fear. I do what I am commanded to do.
My brethren in Paradise tell me what I have to do. It is now four or
five years since my brethren in Paradise and Messire told me that I
must go forth to war to deliver the realm of France."[451]

[Footnote 451: _Ibid._, pp. 437, 438.]

These rude comrades did not all preserve an attitude of religious
respect in her presence. Certain mocked her and diverted themselves by
talking before her as if they belonged to the English party.
Sometimes, as a joke, they got up a false alarm and pretended to turn
back. Their jests were wasted. She believed them, but she was not
afraid, and would say gravely to those who thought to frighten her
with the English: "Be sure not to flee. I tell you in God's name, they
will not harm you."[452]

[Footnote 452: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 199.]

Ever at the approach of danger whether real or feigned, there came to
her lips the words of encouragement: "Do not be afraid. You will see
how graciously the fair Dauphin will look upon us when we come to
Chinon."[453]

[Footnote 453: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 458.]

Her greatest grief was that she could not pray in church as often as
she would like. Every day she repeated: "If we could, we should do
well to hear mass."[454]

[Footnote 454: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 438.]

As they avoided high roads they were not often in the way of bridges;
and they were frequently forced to ford rivers in flood. They crossed
the Aube, near Bar-sur-Aube, the Seine near Bar-sur-Seine, the Yonne
opposite Auxerre, where Jeanne heard mass in the church of
Saint-Etienne; then they reached the town of Gien, on the right bank
of the Loire.[455]

[Footnote 455: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, p. 437.]

At length these Lorrainers beheld a French town loyal to the King of
France. They had travelled seventy-five leagues through the enemy's
country without being attacked or molested. Afterwards this was
considered miraculous. But was it impossible for seven or eight
Armagnac horsemen to traverse English and Burgundian lands without
misadventure? The Commander of Vaucouleurs frequently sent letters to
the Dauphin which reached him, and the Dauphin was in the habit of
despatching messengers to the Commander; Colet de Vienne had just
borne his message.[456]

[Footnote 456: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 406, 432, 445, 448, 457.]

In point of fact the followers of the Dauphin ran risks well nigh as
great in the provinces under his sway as in lands subject to other
masters.[457]

[Footnote 457: Monstrelet, vol. v, p. 269. Th. Basin, vol. i, p. 44.
Bueil, _Le jouvencel_, introduction. Royal Pardons, in E. Boutaric,
_Institutions militaires de la France avant les armées permanentes...._
1863, in 8vo, p. 266. _Récit du prieur de Droillet_, ed. Quicherat, in
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, fourth series, vol. iii, p.
359. Mantellier, _Histoire de la communauté des marchands fréquentant
la rivière de Loire_, vol. i, p. 195. Le P. H. Denifle, _La désolation
des églises, monastères, hôpitaux en France, vers le milieu du XV'e
siècle_, Mâcon, in 8vo.]

Freebooters in the pay of King Charles, when they pillaged travellers
and held them to ransom, did not stay to ask whether they were
Armagnacs or Burgundians. Indeed, it was after their passage of the
Loire that Bertrand de Poulengy and his companions found themselves
exposed to the greatest danger.

Informed of their approach, certain men-at-arms of the French party
went before and lay in ambush, waiting to surprise them. They intended
to capture the damsel, cast her into a pit, and keep her there beneath
a great stone, in the hope that the King who had sent for her would
give a large sum for her rescue.[458] It was the custom for
freebooters and mercenaries thus to cast travellers into pits
delivering them on payment of ransom. Eighteen years before, at
Corbeil, five men had been kept in a pit on bread and water by
Burgundians. Three of them died, being unable to pay the ransom.[459]
Such a fate very nearly befell Jeanne. But the wretches who were lying
in wait for her, at the moment when they should have struck did
nothing, wherefore is unknown, perhaps because they were afraid of not
being the stronger.[460]

[Footnote 458: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203.]

[Footnote 459: Abbé J.-J. Bourassé, _Les miracles de Madame Sainte
Katerine de Fierboys en Touraine, d'après un manuscrit de la
Bibliothèque Impériale_, Paris, in 12mo, 1858, p. 28.]

[Footnote 460: I have here interwoven the account given by Seguin,
_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203, with that of Touroulde, _Trial_, vol. iii,
pp. 86, 87. It seems to me the same incident reported summarily by the
former, inexactly by the latter.]

From Gien, the little company followed the northern boundary of the
duchy of Berry, crossed into Blésois, possibly passed through
Selles-sur-Cher and Saint-Aignan, then, having entered Touraine,
reached the green slopes of Fierbois.[461] There one of the two
heavenly ladies, who daily discoursed familiarly with the peasant
girl, had her most famous sanctuary; there it was that Saint Catherine
received multitudes of pilgrims and worked great miracles. According
to popular belief the origin of her worship in this place was warlike
and national and dated back to the beginning of French history. It was
known that after his victory over the Saracens at Poitiers Charles
Martel had placed his sword in the oratory of the Blessed
Catherine.[462] But it must be admitted that since then the sanctuary
had long suffered from desertion and neglect. Rather more than forty
years before the coming of the damsel from Domremy, its walls in the
depths of a wood were overrun by briers and brambles.

[Footnote 461: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 56, 75; vol. iii, pp. 3, 21; vol.
v, p. 378.]

[Footnote 462: That Saint Catherine was known in the west shortly
before the Crusades is possible, but not that her worship should date
back to Charles Martel; at any rate it flourished in the days of
Jeanne d'Arc. _Cf._ H. Moranvillé, _Un pèlerinage en Terre sainte et
au Sinai au XV'e siècle_, in the _Bibliothèque de l'École des
Chartes_, vol. lxvi (1905), pp. 70 _et seq._]

In those days it was not uncommon for saints of both sexes, if they
had suffered from some unjust neglect, to come and complain to some
pious person of the wrong being done them on earth. They appeared
possibly to a monk, to a peasant or a citizen, denounced the impiety
of the faithful in terms urgent and sometimes violent, and commanded
him to reinstate their worship and restore their sanctuary. And this
is what Madame Saint Catherine did. In the year 1375 she entrusted a
knight of the neighbourhood of Fierbois, one Jean Godefroy, who was
blind and paralysed, with the restoration of her oratory to its old
brilliance and fame, promising to cure him if he would pray for nine
days in the place where Charles Martel had put his sword. Jean
Godefroy had himself carried to the deserted chapel, but beforehand
his servants must perforce hew a way through the thicket with their
axes. Madame Saint Catherine restored to Jean Godefroy the use of his
eyes and his limbs, and it was by this benefit that she recalled to
the people of Touraine the glory they had slighted. The oratory was
repaired; the faithful again wended their way thither, and miracles
abounded. At first the saint healed the sick; then, when the land was
ravaged by war, it was her office more especially to deliver from the
hands of the English such prisoners as had recourse to her. Sometimes
she rendered captives invisible to their guards; sometimes she broke
bonds, chains, and locks; to wit, those of a nobleman by name Cazin du
Boys, who in 1418 was taken with the garrison of Beaumont-sur-Oise.
Locked in an iron cage, bound with a strong rope on which slept a
Burgundian, he thought on Madame Saint Catherine, and dedicated
himself to this glorious virgin. Immediately the cage was opened.
Sometimes she even constrained the English to unchain their prisoners
themselves and set them free without ransom. That was a great miracle.
One no less great was worked by her on Perrot Chapon, of
Saint-Sauveur, near Luzarches. For a month Perrot had been in bonds in
an English prison, when he dedicated himself to Saint Catherine and
fell asleep. He awoke, still bound, in his own house.

Generally she helped those who helped themselves. Such was the case of
Jean Ducoudray, citizen of Saumur, a prisoner in the castle of Bellême
in 1429. He commended his soul devoutly to Saint Catherine, then
leapt forth, throttled the guard, climbed the ramparts, dropped the
height of two lances, and went out a free man into the country.[463]

[Footnote 463: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _passim_. G.
Launay, Article in _Bull. soc. archéol. du Vendômois_, 1880, vol. xix,
pp. 23-25.]

Perhaps these miracles would have been less frequent had the English
been in greater force in France; but their men were few: in Normandy
they intrenched themselves in towns, abandoning the open country to
soldiers of fortune who ranged the district and captured convoys, thus
greatly promoting the intervention of Madame Saint Catherine.[464]

[Footnote 464: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La guerre des partisans dans la
Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_
(1893-1896).]

The prisoners, who had become her votaries and whom she had delivered,
discharged their vows by making the pilgrimage to Fierbois. In her
chapel there, they hung the cords and chains with which they had been
bound, their armour, and sometimes, in special cases, the armour of
the enemy.

This had been done nine months before Jeanne's coming to Fierbois by a
certain knight, Jean du Chastel. He had escaped from the hands of a
captain, who accused him of having committed treason thereby, alleging
that du Chastel had given him his word of honour. Du Chastel on the
other hand maintained that he had not sworn, and he challenged the
captain to meet him in single combat. The issue of the combat proved
right to be on the side of the French knight; for with the aid of
Madame Saint Catherine he was victorious. In return he came to
Fierbois to offer to his holy protectress the armour of the vanquished
Englishman, in the presence of my Lord, the Bastard of Orléans, of
Captain La Hire and several other nobles.[465]

[Footnote 465: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _passim_.]

Jeanne must have delighted to hear tell of such miracles, or others
like them, and to see so many weapons hanging from the chapel walls.
She must have been well pleased that the saint who visited her at all
hours and gave her counsel should so manifestly appear the friend of
poor soldiers and peasants cast into bonds, cages and pits, or hanged
on trees by the _Godons_.

She prayed in the chapel and heard two masses.[466]

[Footnote 466: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 75.]




CHAPTER V

THE SIEGE OF ORLÉANS FROM THE 12TH OF OCTOBER, 1428, TILL THE 6TH OF
MARCH, 1429


Since the victory of Verneuil and the conquest of Maine, the English
had advanced but little in France and their actual possessions there
were becoming less and less secure.[467] If they spared the lands of
the Duke of Orléans it was not on account of any scruple. Albeit on
the banks of the Loire it was held dishonourable to seize the domains
of a noble when he was a prisoner,[468] everything is fair in war. The
Regent had not scrupled to seize the duchy of Alençon when its duke
was a prisoner.[469] The truth is that by bribes and entreaties the
good Duke Charles dissuaded the English from attacking his duchy. From
1424 until 1426 the citizens of Orléans purchased peace by money
payments.[470] The _Godons_, not being in a position to take the
field, were all the more ready to enter into such agreements. During
the minority of their half English and half French King, the Duke of
Gloucester, the brother and deputy of the Regent, and his uncle, the
Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of the Kingdom, were tearing out each
other's hair, and their disputes were the occasion of bloodshed in the
London streets.[471] Towards the end of the year 1425 the Regent
returned to England, where he spent seventeen months reconciling uncle
and nephew and restoring public peace. By dint of craft and vigour he
succeeded so far as to render his fellow countrymen desirous and
hopeful of completing the conquest of France. With that object, in
1428, the English Parliament voted subsidies.[472]

[Footnote 467: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 190. Alain
Chartier, _L'espérance ou consolation des trois vertus_, in
_Oeuvres_, p. 271. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 14.]

[Footnote 468: _Mistère du siège_, line 497.]

[Footnote 469: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 21, 22.]

[Footnote 470: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 255. _Chronique de
l'établissement de la fête_ in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 286. Le Maire,
_Histoire et antiquités de la ville et duché d'Orléans_, Orléans,
1645, in 4to, pp. 129 _et seq._ Lottin, _Recherches historiques sur la
ville d'Orléans_, Orléans, 1836-1845 (7 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, p.
197.]

[Footnote 471: Joseph Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, Introduction,
vol. i, p. xlvii. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
17.]

[Footnote 472: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. iv, part iv, p. 135.
Mademoiselle A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais dans l'Orléanais,
la Beauce chartraine et le Gâtinais_ (1421-1428), Orléans, 1893, in
8vo, original documents, p. 134. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol.
i, pp. 403 _et seq._]

[Illustration: VIEW OF ORLÉANS, 1428-1429]

Now the most cunning, the most expert, the most fortunate in arms of
all the English captains and princes was Thomas Montacute, Earl of
Salisbury and of Perche.[473] He had long waged war in Normandy, in
Champagne, and in Maine. At present he was gathering an army in
England, intended for the banks of the Loire. He got as many bowmen as
he wanted; but of horse and men-at-arms he was disappointed. Only
those of low estate were willing to go and fight in a land ravaged by
famine.[474] At length the noble earl, the fair cousin of King Henry,
crossed the sea with four hundred and forty-nine men-at-arms and two
thousand two hundred and fifty archers.[475] In France he found troops
recruited by the Regent, four hundred horse of whom two hundred were
Norman, with three bowmen to each horseman, according to the English
custom.[476] He led his men to Paris where irrevocable resolutions
were taken.[477] Hitherto the plan had been to attack Angers; at the
last moment it was decided to lay siege to Orléans.[478]

[Footnote 473: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 300.]

[Footnote 474: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise au siège
d'Orléans, 1428-1429_, Orléans, 1892, in 8vo, pp. 59 _et seq._]

[Footnote 475: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 293. Rymer, _Foedera_, vol.
iv, part iv, pp. 132, 135, 138.]

[Footnote 476: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 26, 27.]

[Footnote 477: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 294. Stevenson, _Letters and
Papers_, p. lxii.]

[Footnote 478: Boucher de Molandon and A. de Beaucorps, _L'armée
anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc sous les murs d'Orléans_, Orléans,
1892, in 8vo, p. 61. L. Jarry, _loc. cit._]

Between la Beauce and la Sologne, at the entrance to the loyal
provinces Touraine, Blésois, and Berry, the ducal city confronted the
enemy, lying on a bend of the Loire, just as the arrow's point is
lodged on the taut bow.[479] Bishopric, university, market of the
country far and wide, on its belfries, towers, and steeples it raised
proudly towards heaven the cross of Our Lord, the three _coeurs de
lis_ of the city and the three _fleurs de lis_ of the dukes. Beneath
the high slate roofs of its houses of stone or wood, built along
winding streets or dark alleys, Orléans sheltered fifteen thousand
souls. There were to be found officers of justice and of the treasury,
goldsmiths, druggists, grocers, tanners, butchers, fishmongers, rich
citizens as delicate as amber, who loved fine clothes, fine houses,
music and dancing; priests, canons, wardens, and fellows of the
university; booksellers, scriveners, illuminators, painters, scholars
who were not all founts of learning, but who played prettily on the
flute; monks of every habit, Black-friars, Grey-friars, Mathurins,
Carmelites, Augustinians, and artisans and labourers to boot, smiths,
coopers, carpenters, boatmen, fishermen.[480]

[Footnote 479: Le Maire, _Antiquités_, p. 29.]

[Footnote 480: Astesan in _Paris et ses historiens_, by Le Roux de
Lincy and Tisserand, pp. 528 _et seq._ Le Maire, _Antiquités_, ch.
xix, pp. 75 _et seq._ P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège d'Orléans_, in
18mo, pp. 22, 24. E. Fournier, _Le Conteur orléanais_, p. 111. C.
Cuissard, _Étude sur la musique dans l'Orléanais_, Orléans, 1886, p.
50. Jodocius Sincere, _Itirerarium Galliae_, Amstelodami, 1655, pp.
24, 25. Paul Charpentier et Cuissard, _Histoire du siège d'Orléans,
mémoire inédite de M. l'Abbé Dubois_, Orléans, 1894, in 8vo, p. 129.
De Buzonnière, _Histoire architecturale de la ville d'Orléans_, 1849
(2 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, p. 76.]

Of Roman origin, the form of the town was still the same as in the
days of the Emperor Aurelian. The southern side along the Loire and
the northern side extended to some three thousand feet. The eastern
and western boundaries were only one hundred and fifty feet long. The
city was surrounded by walls six feet thick and from eighteen to
thirty-three feet high above the moat. These walls were flanked by
thirty-four towers, pierced with five gates and two posterns.[481] The
following is the description of the situation of these gates,
posterns, and towers, with the names of those which became famous
during the siege.

[Footnote 481: Jollois, _Histoire du siège d'Orléans_, Paris, 1833, in
4to, with plans. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 183 _et seq._]

Passing from the south east to the south west angle of the wall, were:
La Tour Neuve, round and huge, washed by the Loire; three other towers
on the river bank; the postern Chesneau, the only one opening on to
the water and defended by a portcullis; the tower of La
Croiche-Meuffroy, so called from the crook or spur which protruded
from the foot of the tower into the river; two other towers washed by
the Loire; La Port du Pont, with drawbridge and flanked by two towers;
La Tour de l'Abreuvoir; la Tour de Notre-Dame, deriving its name from
a chapel built against the city walls; la Tour de la Barre-Flambert,
the last on this side, at the south west angle of the ramparts and
commanding the river. All along the Loire the walls had a stone
parapet with machicolated battlements, whence pavingstones could be
thrown, and whence, when attempts were made to scale the walls, the
enemy's ladders could be hurled down. The distance between the towers
was about a bow-shot.

On the western side were first three towers, then two gate towers
called Regnard or Renard from the name of citizens to whom had once
belonged the adjoining palace, where in 1428 dwelt Jacques Boucher,
Treasurer of the Duke of Orléans. Then came another tower and lastly
La Porte Bernier or Bannier, at the north west angle of the ramparts.
On this side the walls had been constructed in the days of the
cross-bow, which shot a greater distance than the bow. The towers
here, therefore, were farther apart at the distance of a cross-bow
shot one from the other, and the walls were lower than elsewhere. On
the northern side, looking towards the forest, were ten towers at a
bow-shot's interval. The second, that of Saint-Samson, was used as an
arsenal. The sixth and seventh flanked the Paris Gate.

On the eastern side were likewise ten towers at the same distance one
from the other as those on the north. The fifth and sixth were those
of the Burgundian Gate, also called the Gate of Saint-Aignan, because
it was close to the church of Saint-Aignan without the walls; the last
was the great corner tower, called La Tour Neuve, which thus comes to
have been twice counted.

The stone bridge lined with houses which led from the town to the left
bank of the Loire was famous all over the world. It had nineteen
arches of varying breadth. The first, on leaving the town by La Porte
du Pont, was called l'Allouée or Pont Jacquemin-Rousselet; here was a
drawbridge. The fifth arch abutted on an island which was long,
narrow, and in the form of a boat, like all river islands. Above the
bridge it was called Motte-Saint-Antoine, from a chapel built upon it
dedicated to that saint; and below, Motte-des-Poissonniers, because in
order to keep captured fish alive boats with holes in them were moored
to it. In 1447, to provide against the occupation of this island by
the enemy, the people of Orléans had constructed a tower, the tower or
fortress of Saint-Antoine, beyond the sixth arch and occupying the
whole breadth of the bridge. On the buttress between the eleventh and
twelfth arch was a cross of gilded bronze, supported by a pedestal of
stone. It was indeed what it was called, the Cross Beautiful,--La
Belle-Croix. The buttresses of the eighteenth arch were extended, and
on the abutment there rose a little castle formed of two towers joined
by a vaulted porch. This little castle was called Les Tourelles.
Between the nineteenth and the twentieth arch as in the first was a
drawbridge. Outside it was Le Portereau; and thence ran the road to
Toulouse, which beyond the Loiret on the heights of Olivet joined the
road to Blois.[482]

[Footnote 482: Jollois, _Lettre à Messieurs les membres de la Société
des Antiquaires de France, sur l'emplacement du fort des Tourelles de
l'ancien pont d'Orléans_, Paris, 1834, in folio with illustrations.
Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, dissertation, v. Lottin,
_Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 15-18. Vergniaud Romagnési, _Des différentes
enceintes de la ville d'Orléans_, pp. 17-19. A. Collin, _Le Pont des
Tourelles à Orléans_, Orléans, 1895, in 8vo. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
13, note 2.]

In those days the lazy waters of the Loire flowed midst osier-beds and
birchen thickets, since removed for purposes of navigation. Two and a
half miles east of Orléans, on the height of Chécy, l'Île aux Bourdons
was separated from the Sologne bank by a thin arm of the river and by
a narrow channel from l'Île Charlemagne and l'Île-aux-Boeufs, with
their green grass and underwood facing Combleux on the La Beauce bank.
A boat dropping down the river would next come to the two islands
Saint-Loup, and, doubling La Tour Neuve, would glide between the two
Martinet Islets on the right and l'Île-aux-Toiles on the left. Thence
it would pass under the bridge which overspanned, as we have seen, an
island called above bridge Motte-Saint-Antoine and below,
Motte-des-Poissonniers. At length, below the ramparts, opposite
Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, it would come to two islets Biche-d'Orge
and another, the name of which is unknown, possibly it was
nameless.[483]

[Footnote 483: For some unknown reason modern historians have named
the little island to the right of Saint-Laurent l'Île Charlemagne,
which causes it to be confused with the Île Charlemagne lying to the
East of l'Île-aux-Boeufs. On the accompanying plan we indicate the
little island just below Biche-d'Orge by the name of Petite Île
Charlemagne. Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, engraving 1. Abbé Dubois,
_Histoire du siège_, pp. 193, 199. Boucher de Molandon, _Première
expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 16. Manuscript of M. A. Cagnieul,
librarian at Orléans.]

The suburbs of Orléans were the finest in the kingdom. On the south
the fishermen's suburb of Le Portereau, with its Augustinian church
and monastery, extended along the river at the foot of the vineyards
of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, which produced the best wine in the
country.[484] Above, on the gentle slopes ascending to the bleak
plateau of Sologne, the Loiret, with its torrential springs, its
limpid waters, its shady banks, the gardens and the brooks of Olivet,
smiled beneath a mild and showery sky.

[Footnote 484: Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire de l'église et diocèse
d'Orléans_, Orléans, 1647, vol. i, preface. Le Maire, _Antiquités_, p.
36.]

The _faubourg_ of the Burgundian gate stretching eastwards was the
best built and the most populous. There were the wonderful churches of
Saint-Michel and of Saint-Aignan. The cloister of the latter was held
to be marvellous.[485] Leaving this suburb and passing by the
vineyards along the sandy branch of the Loire extending between the
bank of the river and l'Île-aux-Boeufs about a quarter of a league
further on, one comes to the steep slope of Saint-Loup; and, advancing
still further towards the east, the belfries of Saint-Jean-de-Bray,
Combleux and Chécy may be seen rising one beyond the other between the
river and the Roman road from Autun to Paris. On the north of the city
were fine monasteries and beautiful churches, the chapel of
Saint-Ladre, in the cemetery; the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, the church
of Saint-Pierre-Ensentelée. Directly north, the _faubourg_ of La Porte
Bernier lay along the Paris road, and close by there stretched the
sombre city of the wolves, the deep forest of oaks, horn-beams,
beeches, and willows, wherein were hidden, like wood-cutters and
charcoal-burners, the villages of Fleury and Samoy.[486]

[Footnote 485: _Journal du siège_, pp. 13, 15. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 270. Hubert, _Antiquités historiques de l'église royale
d'Orléans_, Orléans, 1661, in 8vo. Le Maire, _Antiquités_, p. 284.
Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, pp. 133, 205, 277, _passim_.
Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 21. H. Baraude, _Le siège d'Orléans
et Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1906, pp. 10 _et seq._]

[Footnote 486: Le Maire, _Antiquités_, p. 43.]

Towards the west the _faubourg_ of La Porte Renard stretched out into
the fields along the road to Châteaudun, and the hamlet of
Saint-Laurent along the road to Blois.[487]

[Footnote 487: Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 296. Boucher de
Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc, le ravitaillement
d'Orléans, nouveaux documents_, Orléans, 1874, in large 8vo, with
topographical plan: _Orléans, la Loire et ses îles en 1429_.]

These _faubourgs_ were so populous and so extensive that when, on the
approach of the English, the people from the suburbs took refuge
within the city the number of its inhabitants was doubled.[488]

[Footnote 488: Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, pp. 391, 399.
Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, pp. 41, 44. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du
siège_, Orléans, 1867, in 8vo, p. 24. Lottin, _Recherches sur
Orléans_, vol. i, p. 141.]

The inhabitants of Orléans were resolved to fight, not for their
honour indeed; in those days no honour redounded to a citizen from the
defence of his own city; his only reward was the risk of terrible
danger. When the town was captured the great and wealthy had but to
pay ransom and the conqueror entertained them well; the lesser and
poorer nobility ran greater risks. In this year, 1428, the knights,
who defended Melun and surrendered after having eaten their horses and
their dogs, were drowned in the Seine. "Nobility was worth nothing,"
ran a Burgundian song.[489]

[Footnote 489: Le Roux de Lincy, _Chants historiques et populaires du
temps de Charles VII_, Paris, 1862, in 18mo, p. 28.]

But generally being of noble birth saved one's life. As for those
burghers brave enough to defend themselves, they were likely to
perish. There were no fixed rules with regard to them; sometimes
several were hanged; sometimes only one, sometimes all. It was also
lawful to cut off their heads or to throw them into the water, sewn in
a sack. In that same year, 1428, Captains La Hire and Poton had failed
in their assault on Le Mans and decamped just in time. The citizens who
had aided them were beheaded in the square du Cloître-Saint-Julien, on
the Olet stone, by order of William Pole, Earl of Suffolk, who had
already arrived at Olivet, and of John Talbot, the most courteous of
English knights, who was shortly to come there too.[490] Such an
example was sufficient to warn the people of Orléans.

[Footnote 490: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 225, 226. _Geste
des nobles_, p. 202. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 251. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 59. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_,
pp. 107, 112.]

Notwithstanding that it was under the control of the Governor, the
town administered its own affairs by means of twelve magistrates
elected for two years by the citizens, subject to the governor's
approbation.[491] These magistrates risked more than the other
citizens. One of them, as he passed the monastery of Saint-Sulpice,
where was the place of execution, might well reflect that before the
year was out he might have justice executed on him there for having
defended his lord's inheritance. Yet the twelve were resolved to
defend this inheritance; and they acted for the common weal with
promptness and with wisdom.

[Footnote 491: Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 164, 171. P.
Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 25.]

The people of Orléans were not taken by surprise. Their fathers had
watched the English closely, and put their city in a state of defence.
They themselves, in the year 1425, had so firmly expected a siege that
they had collected arms in the Tower of Saint-Samson, while all, rich
and poor alike, had been required to dig dykes and build
ramparts.[492] War has always been costly. They devoted three quarters
of the yearly revenue of the town to keeping up the ramparts and other
preparations for war. Hearing of the approach of the Earl of
Salisbury, with marvellous energy they prepared to receive him.

[Footnote 492: _The Monk of Dunfermline_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 341.
Le Maire, _Antiquités_, pp. 283 _et seq._ Lottin, _Recherches_, vol.
i, pp. 160, 161.]

The walls, except those along the river, were devoid of breastwork;
but in the shops were stakes and cross-beams intended for the
manufacture of balustrades. These were put up on the fortifications to
form parapets, with barbicans of a pent-house shape so as to provide
with cover the defenders firing from the walls.[493] At the entrance
to each suburb wooden barriers were erected, with a lodge for the
porter whose duty it was to open and shut them. On the tops of the
ramparts and in the towers were seventy-one pieces of artillery,
including cannons and mortars, without counting culverins. The quarry
of Montmaillard, three leagues from the town, produced stones which
were made into cannon balls. At great expense there were brought into
the city lead, powder, and sulphur which the women prepared for use in
the cannons and culverins. Every day there were manufactured in
thousands, arrows, darts, stacks of bolts,[494] armed with iron points
and feathered with parchment, numbers of _pavas_, great shields made
of pieces of wood mortised one into the other and covered with
leather. Corn, wine, and cattle were purchased in great quantities
both for the inhabitants and the men-at-arms, the King's men, and
adventurers who were expected.[495]

[Footnote 493: Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 6. Lottin,
_Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 202-205.]

[Footnote 494: An arrow shot from the long-bow, the feathers of the
arrow were spirally arranged to produce a spinning movement in its
flight (W.S.).]

[Footnote 495: The accounts of the fortresses, in _Journal du siège_,
pp. 301 _et seq._ Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 12. P. Mantellier,
_Histoire du siège_, pp. 15-17. Loiseleur, _Comptes des dépenses
faites par Charles VII pour secourir Orléans pendant le siège de
1428_, Orléans, 1868, in 8vo, p. 113. Boucher de Molandon et de
Beaucorps, _L'armée anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 81.]

By a jealously guarded privilege the inhabitants had the right of
defending the ramparts. According to their trades they were divided
into as many companies as there were towers. Thus defending themselves
they had the right to refuse to admit any garrison within the walls.
They held to this right because it delivered them from the pillage,
the rapine, the burnings and constant molestations inflicted by the
King's men. But now they were eager to renounce it; for they realised
that alone with only the town bands and those from the neighbouring
villages, mere peasants, they could not sustain the siege; to resist
the enemy they must have horsemen, skilled in wielding the lance, and
foot, skilled in the use of the cross-bow. While their Governor the
Sire de Gaucourt and my Lord, the Bastard of Orléans, the King's
Lieutenant General, went to Chinon and Poitiers to obtain supplies of
men and money[496] from the King, the citizens in commissions of two
and two went forth asking help of the towns, travelling as far as
Bourbonnais and Languedoc.[497] The magistrates appealed to those
soldiers of fortune who held the neighbouring country for the King of
France. By the mouths of the two heralds of the city, Orléans and
Coeur-de-Lis, they proclaimed that within the city walls were gold
and silver in abundance and such good provision of victuals and arms
as would nourish and accoutre two thousand combatants for two years,
and that every gentle, honest knight who would might share in the
defence of the city and wage battle to the death.[498]

[Footnote 496: Accounts of Hémon Raguier, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 7858, fol.
41. Loiseleur, _Comptes des dépenses_, p. 65. Pallet, _Nouvelle
histoire du Berry_, vol. iii, pp. 78-80. Vallet de Viriville, in
_Bulletin de la Société d'histoire de France. Cabinet historique_,
vol. v, part ii, p. 107. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 15.]

[Footnote 497: A. Thomas, _Le siège d'Orléans, Jeanne d'Arc et les
capitouls de Toulouse_, in _Annales du Midi_, April, 1889, p. 232. M.
Boudet, _Villandrando et les écorcheurs à Saint-Flour_, pp. 18, 19. A.
de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, p. 61.]

[Footnote 498: The monk of Dunfermline in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
341.]

The inhabitants of Orléans feared God. In those days God was greatly
to be feared; he was almost as terrible as in the days of the
Philistines. The poor fisher folk were afraid of being repulsed if
they addressed him in their affliction; they thought it better to take
a roundabout road and to seek the intercession of Our Lady and the
saints. God respected his Mother and sought to please her on every
occasion. Likewise he deferred to the wishes of the Blessed, seated on
his right hand and on his left in Paradise, and he inclined his ear to
listen to the petitions they presented to him. Thus in cases of dire
necessity it was customary to solicit the favour of the saints by
presenting prayers and offerings. Then also did the citizens of
Orléans remember Saint Euverte and Saint-Aignan, the patrons of their
town. In very ancient days Saint Euverte had sat upon that episcopal
seat, now, in 1428, occupied by a Scot. Messire Jean de Saint Michel,
and Saint Euverte had shone with all the glory of apostolic
virtue.[499] His successor, Saint-Aignan had prayed to God. He had
regarded the city in a peril like unto that of which it was now in
danger.

[Footnote 499: _Journal du siège_, p. 51. _Chronique de la fête_ in
the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 296. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp. 27-31.]

The following is his story as it was known to the people of Orléans.
When still young, Saint-Aignan had withdrawn to a solitary place near
Orléans. There Saint Euverte, at that time bishop of the city,
discovered him. He ordained him priest, appointed him Abbot of
Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, and elected him to succeed him in the
government of the faithful. And when Saint Euverte had passed from
this life to the other, the blessed Aignan, with the consent of the
people of Orléans, was proclaimed bishop by the voice of a little
child. For God, who is praised out of the mouths of babes, permitted
one of them, borne in his swaddling clothes to the altar, to speak and
say: "Aignan, Aignan is chosen of God to be bishop of this town." Now
in the sixtieth year of his pontificate, the Huns invaded Gaul, led by
their King Attila, who boasted that wherever he went the stars fell
and the earth trembled beneath him, that he was the hammer of the
world, _stellas pre se cadere, terram tremere, se malleum esse
universi orbis_. Every town on his march had been destroyed by him,
and now he was advancing against Orléans. Then the blessed Aignan went
forth into the city of Arles, to the Patrician Aëtius, who commanded
the Roman army, and implored his aid in so great a peril. Having
obtained of the Patrician promise of succour, Aignan returned to his
episcopal see, which he found surrounded by barbarian warriors. The
Huns, having made breaches in the walls, were preparing an assault.
The blessed saint went up on to the ramparts, knelt and prayed, and
then, having prayed, spat upon the enemy. By God's will that drop of
his saliva was followed by all the raindrops in the sky. A tempest
arose: the rain fell in such torrents on the barbarians that their
camp was flooded; their tents were overturned by the power of the
winds, and many among them perished by lightning. The rain lasted for
three days, after which time Attila assailed the ramparts with
powerful engines of war. When they saw the walls fall down the
inhabitants were terrified. All hope of resistance being at an end,
the holy bishop, clad in his episcopal robes, went to the King of the
Huns and adjured him to take pity on the people of Orléans,
threatening him with the wrath of God if he dealt hardly with the
conquered. These prayers and these threats did not soften Attila's
heart. On his return to the faithful, the bishop warned them that
henceforth nothing remained to them but trust in God; divine succour,
however, would not fail them. And soon, according to the promise he
had given them, God delivered the town by means of the Romans and the
Franks, who defied the Huns in a great battle. Not long after the
miraculous deliverance of his beloved city, Saint Aignan fell asleep
in the Lord.[500]

[Footnote 500: Hubert, _Antiquitez historiques de l'église royale de
Saint-Aignan d'Orléans_, 1661, in 8vo, pp. 1-15.]

Wherefore, in this great peril of the English, the citizens of Orléans
resorted to Saint Euverte and Saint-Aignan for succour and relief.
According to the marvels accomplished by Saint-Aignan in this mortal
life they measured his power of working miracles now that he was in
Paradise. These two confessors had each his church in the faubourg de
Bourgogne, wherein their bodies were jealously guarded.[501] In those
days the bones of martyrs and confessors were devoutly worshipped. It
was said that sometimes they shed abroad a healing odour which
represented the virtues proceeding from them. They were enclosed in
gilded reliquaries adorned with precious stones, and no miracle was
thought too great to be accomplished by these holy relics. On the 6th
of August, 1428, the clergy of the city went to the church wherein was
the reliquary of Saint Euverte and bore it round the walls, that they
might be strengthened. And the holy reliquary made the round of the
whole city, followed by all the people. On the 8th of September a
_tortis_ weighing one hundred and ten livres[502] was offered to
Saint-Aignan. In time of need the favour of the saints was solicited
by all kinds of gifts, garments, jewels, coins, houses, lands, woods,
ponds; but natural wax was thought to be especially grateful to them.
A _tortis_ was a wheel of wax on which candles were placed and two
escutcheons bearing the arms of the city.[503]

[Footnote 501: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 32. _Journal du siège_, p. 14.
Hubert, _loc. cit._, chs. iii, iv. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp.
82, 83.]

[Footnote 502: A livre varied in weight from province to province;
generally it was about seventeen ounces (W.S.).]

[Footnote 503: Le Maire, _Antiquités_, p. 285. P. Mantellier,
_Histoire du siège_, p. 16.]

Thus did the people of Orléans strive to provision and protect their
town.

Adventurers from all parts responded to the magistrates' appeal. The
first to hasten to the city were: Messire Archambaud de Villars,
Governor of Montargis; Guillaume de Chaumont, Lord of Guitry; Messire
Pierre de la Chapelle, a baron of La Beauce; Raimond Arnaud de
Corraze, knight of Béarn; Don Matthias of Aragon; Jean de Saintrailles
and Poton de Saintrailles. The Abbot of Cerquenceaux, sometime student
at the University of Orléans, arrived at the head of a band of
followers.[504] Thus the number of friends who entered the city was
well-nigh as great as that of the expected foe. The defenders were
paid; they were furnished with bread, meat, fish, forage in plenty,
and casks of wine were broached for them. In the beginning the
inhabitants treated them like their own children. The citizens all
contributed to the entertainment of the strangers, and gave them what
they had. But this concord did not long endure. Whatever tradition
alleges as to the friendly relations subsisting between the citizens
and their military guests,[505] affairs in Orléans were in truth not
different from what they were in other besieged towns; before long the
inhabitants began to complain of the garrison.

[Footnote 504: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 257, 258. _Journal du
siège_, pp. 6, 7. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 204. J. Devaux, _Le
Gâtinais au temps de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Ann. Soc. hist. et arch. du
Gâtinais_, vol. v, 1887, p. 220.]

[Footnote 505: _Journal du siège_, p. 92.]

On the 5th of September the Earl of Salisbury reached Janville, having
taken with ease towns, fortified churches or castles to the number of
forty. But that was not his greatest achievement; for, although he had
left but few men in each place, he had by that means rid himself on
the march of that portion of his army which had already shown itself
ready to drop away.[506]

[Footnote 506: _Geste des Nobles_, p. 204. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 256. Letter from Salisbury to the Commons of London, in Delpit,
_Collection de documents français qui se trouvent en Angleterre_, pp.
236, 237. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 79-89.]

From Janville he sent two heralds to Orléans to summon the inhabitants
to surrender. The magistrates lodged these heralds honourably in the
faubourg Bannier, at the Hôtel de la Pomme and confided to them a
present of wine for the Earl of Salisbury; they knew their duty to so
great a prince. But they refused to open their gates to the English
garrison, alleging, doubtless, as was the custom of citizens in those
days, that they were not able to open them, having those within who
were stronger than they.[507]

[Footnote 507: Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 11. Jarry, _Le
compte de l'armée anglaise_, p. 82. Boucher de Molandon, _Les comptes
de ville d'Orléans des quatorzième et quinzième siècles_, Orléans,
1880, in 8vo, pp. 91 _et seq._]

Now that the danger was drawing near, on the 6th of October, priests,
burgesses, notables, merchants, mechanics, women and children walked
in solemn procession with crosses and banners, singing psalms and
invoking the heavenly guardians of the city.[508]

[Footnote 508: Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 205. P. Mantellier,
_Histoire du siège_, p. 17.]

On Tuesday, the 12th of this month, at the news that the enemy was
coming through Sologne, the magistrates sent soldiers to pull down the
houses of Le Portereau, the suburb on the left bank, also the
Augustinian church and monastery of that suburb, as well as all other
buildings in which the enemy might lodge or entrench himself. But the
soldiers were taken by surprise. That very day the English occupied
Olivet and appeared in Le Portereau.[509] With them were the victors
of Verneuil, the flower of English knighthood: Thomas, Lord of Scales
and of Nucelles, Governor of Pontorson, whom the King of England
called cousin; William Neville; Baron Falconbridge; William Gethyn, a
Welsh knight, Bailie of Évreux; Lord Richard Gray, nephew of the Earl
of Salisbury; Gilbert Halsall, Richard Panyngel, Thomas Guérard,
knights, and many others of great renown.

[Footnote 509: _Journal du siège_, p. 4.]

Over the two hundred lances from Normandy there floated the standards
of William Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and of John Pole, two brothers
descended from a comrade-in-arms of Duke William; of Thomas Rampston,
knight banneret, the Regent's chamberlain; of Richard Walter, squire,
Governor of Conches, Bailie and Captain of Évreux; of William Mollins,
knight; of William Glasdale, whom the French called Glacidas, squire,
Bailie of Alençon, a man of humble birth.[510]

[Footnote 510: _Journal du siège_, pp. 2-4. Boucher de Molandon et de
Beaucorps, _L'armée anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 129.]

The archers were all on horseback. There were practically no
foot-soldiers. In carts drawn by oxen were barrels of powder,
cross-bows, arrows, cannon-balls, and guns of all kinds, muskets,
fowling-pieces, and large cannon. The two English master-gunners,
Philibert de Moslant and William Appleby, accompanied the troops.
There were also two masters of mining with thirty-eight workmen. Of
women there were not a few, some of them acting as spies.[511]

[Footnote 511: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 26, 28,
29. Boucher de Molandon and de Beaucorps, _L'armée anglaise vaincue
par Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 50 _et seq._ Mademoiselle A. de Villaret,
_Campagne des anglais_, ch. iv, pp. 39, 53; Accounts of the siege,
nos. 30, 31, p. 214. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 205.]

When the army arrived it was greatly diminished by desertions, having
shed runaways at each victory. Some returned to England, others roamed
through the realm of France robbing and plundering. That very 12th of
October orders had been despatched from Rouen to the Bailies and
Governors of Normandy to arrest those English who had departed from
the company of my Lord, the Earl of Salisbury.[512]

[Footnote 512: L. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, p. 61.]

The fort of Les Tourelles and its outworks barred the entrance to the
bridge. The English established themselves in Le Portereau, placed their
cannon and their mortars on the rising ground of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc,[513]
and, on the following Sunday, they hurled down upon the city a shower
of stone cannon-balls, which did great damage to the houses, but
killed no one save a woman of Orléans, named Belles, who dwelt near
the Chesneau postern on the river bank. Thus the siege, which was to
be ended by a woman's victory, began with a woman's death.

[Footnote 513: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 258. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, p. 66. Jean Raoulet in Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii,
p. 198. _Journal du siège_, pp. 1, 2. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du
siège_, p. 246. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 27. H. Baraude,
_Le siège d'Orléans et Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 31.]

That same week the English cannon destroyed twelve water mills near La
Tour Neuve. Whereupon the people of Orléans constructed within the
city eleven mills worked by horses,[514] in order that there might be
no lack of flour. There were a few skirmishes at the bridge. Then on
Thursday, the 21st of October, the English attempted to storm the
outworks of Les Tourelles. The little band of adventurers in the
service of the town and the city troops made a gallant defence. The
women helped; throughout the four hours that the assault lasted long
lines of gossips might be seen hurrying to the bridge, bearing their
pots and pans filled with burning coals and boiling oil and fat,
frantic with joy at the idea of scalding the _Godons_.[515] The attack
was repulsed; but two days later the French perceived that the
outworks were undermined; the English had dug subterranean passages,
to the props of which they had afterwards set fire. The outworks
having become untenable in the opinion of the soldiers, they were
destroyed and abandoned. It was deemed impossible to defend Les
Tourelles thus dismantled. Those towers which would once have
arrested an army's progress for a whole month were now useless against
cannon. In front of La Belle Croix the townsfolk erected a rampart of
earth and wood. Beyond this outwork two arches of the bridge were cut
and replaced by a movable platform. And when this was done, the fort
of Les Tourelles was abandoned to the English with no great regret.
The latter set up a rampart of earth and faggots on the bridge,
breaking two of its arches, one in front, the other behind their
earthwork.[516]

[Footnote 514: _Journal du siège_, p. 4.]

[Footnote 515: _Ibid._, pp. 7-8. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, pp.
208, 210.]

[Footnote 516: _Journal du siège_, pp. 5-8.]

On the Sunday, towards evening, a few hours after the flag of St.
George had been planted on the fort, the Earl of Salisbury, with
William Glasdale and several captains, went up one of the towers to
observe the lie of the city. Looking from a window he beheld the walls
armed with cannon; the towers vanishing into pinnacles or with
terraces on their flat roofs; the battlements dry and grey; the
suburbs adorned for a few days longer with the fine stone-work of
their churches and monasteries; the vineyards and the woods yellow
with autumn tints; the Loire and its oval-shaped islands,--all
slumbering in the evening calm. He was looking for the weak point in
the ramparts, the place where he might make a breach and put up his
scaling ladders. For his plan was to take Orléans by assault. William
Glasdale said to him, "My Lord, look well at your city. You have a
good bird's-eye view of it from here."

At this moment a cannon-ball breaks off a corner of the window recess,
a stone from the wall strikes Salisbury, carrying away one eye and one
side of his face. The shot had been fired from La Tour Notre-Dame.
That at least was generally believed. It was never known who had fired
it. A townsman, alarmed by the noise, hastened to the spot, saw a
child coming out of the tower and the cannon deserted. It was thought
that the hand of an innocent child had fired the bullet by the
permission of the Mother of God, who had been irritated by the Earl of
Salisbury's despoiling monks and pillaging the Church of Notre Dame de
Cléry. It was said also that he was punished for having broken his
oath, for he had promised the Duke of Orléans to respect his lands and
his towns. Borne secretly to Meung-sur-Loire, he died there on
Wednesday the 27th of October; and the English were very
sorrowful.[517] Most of them felt that loss to be irreparable which
had deprived them of a chief who was conducting the siege vigorously,
and who in less than twelve days had captured Les Tourelles, the very
corner-stone of the city's defence. But there were others who
reflected that he must have been very simple to imagine that thick
ramparts could be overthrown by stone balls, the force of which had
already been spent in crossing the wide stretches of the river, and
that he must have been mad to attempt to storm a city which could only
be reduced by famine. Then they thought: "He is dead. God receive his
soul! But he has brought us into a sorry plight."

[Footnote 517: _Journal du siège_, pp. 10, 12. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 264. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 298. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 63. _Mistère d'Orléans_, line 3104 _et seq._
_Chronique de la fête_ in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 288. Morosini, vol. iii,
p. 131. Lorenzo Buonincontro in Muratori, _Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores_, vol. xxi, col. 136. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée
anglaise_, pp. 85, 86.]

Men told how Maître Jean de Builhons, a famous astrologer, had
prophesied this death,[518] and how in the night before the fatal
day, the Earl of Salisbury himself had dreamed that he was being
clawed by a wolf. A Norman clerk composed two songs on this sad death,
one against the English, the other for them. The first, which is the
better, closes with a couplet, worthy in its profound wisdom of King
Solomon himself:[519]

    Certes le duc de Bedefort
    Se sage est, il se tendra
    Avec sa femme en ung fort,
    Chaudement le mieulx[520] que il porra,
    De bon ypocras finera,
    Garde son corps, lesse la guerre:
    Povre et riche porrist en terre.[521]

[Footnote 518: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 345. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
263. _Journal du siège_, p. 10. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 32.]

[Footnote 519: L. Jarry, _Deux chansons normandes, Orléans_, 1894, in
8vo, p. 11.]

[Footnote 520: The text published by M. Jarry has _mielux_.]

[Footnote 521: Certes that wise man the Duke of Bedford, will keep
himself in a fortress with his wife as snug as may be. He will drink
good hypocras (a kind of wine). He looks after himself, leaves warfare
and the poor and rich to rot in the ground.]

The day after the taking of Les Tourelles and when its loss had been
remedied as best might be, the King's lieutenant-general entered the
town. He was le Seigneur Jean, Count of Porcien and of Montaing, Grand
Chamberlain of France, son of Duke Louis of Orléans, who had been
assassinated in 1407 by order of Jean-Sans-Peur, and whose death had
armed the Armagnacs against the Burgundians. Dame de Cany was his
mother, but he ought to have been the son of the Duchess of Orléans
since the Duke was his father. Not only was it no drawback to children
to be born outside wedlock and of an adulterous union, but it was a
great honor to be called the bastard of a prince. There have never
been so many bastards as during these wars, and the saying ran:
"Children are like corn: sow stolen wheat and it will sprout as well
as any other."[522] The Bastard of Orléans was then twenty-six at the
most. The year before, with a small company, he had hastened to
revictual the inhabitants of Montargis, who were besieged by the Earl
of Warwick. He had not only revictualled the town; but with the help
of Captain La Hire had driven away the besiegers. This augured well
for Orléans.[523] The Bastard was the cleverest baron of his day. He
knew grammar and astrology, and spoke more correctly than any
one.[524] In his affability and intelligence he resembled his father,
but he was more cautious and more temperate. His amiability, his
courtesy and his discretion caused it to be said that he was in favour
with all the ladies, even with the Queen.[525] In everything he was
apt, in war as well as in diplomacy, marvellously adroit, and a
consummate dissembler.

[Footnote 522: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
p. 25; vol. ii, p. 389.]

[Footnote 523: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 273, 274. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, pp. 243, 247. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 54.
_Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 221. _Cronique Martiniane_, p.
7.]

[Footnote 524: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. ii, p. 105.]

[Footnote 525: Mathieu d'Escouchy, _Chronique_, ed. Beaucourt, Paris,
1863, vol. i, p. 186. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 236.]

My Lord the Bastard brought in his train several knights, captains,
and squires of renown, that is to say, of high birth or of great
valour: the Marshal de Boussac, Messire Jacques de Chabannes,
Seneschal of Bourbonnais, the Lord of Chaumont, Messire Théaulde of
Valpergue, a Lombard knight, Captain La Hire, wondrous in war and in
pillage, who had lately done so well in the relief of Montargis, and
Jean, Sire de Bueil, one of those youths who had come to the King on
a lame horse and who had taken lessons from two wise women, Suffering
and Poverty. These knights came with a company of eight hundred men,
archers, arbalesters, and Italian foot, bearing broad shields like
those of St. George in the churches of Venice and Florence. They
represented all the nobles and free-lances who for the moment could be
gathered together.[526]

[Footnote 526: _Journal du siège_, pp. 10, 12. _Cronique Martiniane_,
p. 8. _Le jouvencel_, p. 277. Loiseleur, _Comptes des dépenses_, pp.
90, 91.]

After the death of its chief, Salisbury's army was paralysed by
disunion and diminished by desertions. Winter was coming: the
captains, seeing there was nothing to be done for the present, broke
up their camp, and, with such men as remained to them, went off to
shelter behind the walls of Meung and Jargeau.[527] On the evening of
the 8th of November all that remained before the city was the garrison
of Les Tourelles, consisting of five hundred Norman horse, commanded
by William Molyns and William Glasdale. The French might besiege and
take them: they would not budge. The Governor, the old Sire de
Gaucourt, had just fallen on the pavement in La Rue des Hôtelleries
and broken his arm; he couldn't move.[528] But what about the rest of
the defenders?

[Footnote 527: _Journal du siège_, pp. 12, 13. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire
du siège_, p. 245. Boucher de Molandon et de Beaucorps, _L'armée
anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 92, 111. Jean de Bueil, _Le
jouvencel_, _passim_.]

[Footnote 528: _Journal du siège_, p. 7.]

The truth is, no one knew what to do. These warriors were doubtless
acquainted with many measures for the succour of a besieged town, but
they were all measures of surprise.[529] Their only devices were
sallies, ambuscades, skirmishes, and other such valiant feats of
arms. Should they fail in raising a siege by surprise, then they
remained inactive,--at the end of their ideas and of their resources.
Their most experienced captains were incapable of any common
effort,--of any concerted action, of any enterprise in short,
requiring a continuous mental effort and the subordination of all to
one. Each was for his own hand and thought of nothing but booty. The
defence of Orléans was altogether beyond their intelligence.

[Footnote 529: _Le jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 142.]

For twenty-one days Captain Glasdale remained entrenched, with his
five hundred Norman horse, under the battered walls of Les Tourelles,
between his earthworks on Le Portereau side, which couldn't have
become very formidable as yet, and his barrier on the bridge, which
being but wood, a spark could easily have set on fire.

Meanwhile the citizens were at work. After the departure of the
English they performed a huge and arduous task. Concluding, and
rightly, that the enemy would return not through La Sologne this time,
but through La Beauce, they destroyed all their suburbs on the west,
north, and east, as they had already destroyed or begun to destroy Le
Portereau. They burned and pulled down twenty-two churches and
monasteries, among others the church of Saint-Aignan and its
monastery, so beautiful that it was a pity to see it spoiled, the
church of Saint Euverte, the church of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, not
without promising the blessed patrons of the town that when they
should have delivered the city from the English, the citizens would
build them new and more beautiful churches.[530]

[Footnote 530: _Journal du siège_, p. 19. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 270. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 61. Le P. Denifle, _La
désolation des églises de France_, petition C.]

On the 30th of November Captain Glasdale beheld Sir John Talbot
approaching Les Tourelles. He brought three hundred men furnished with
cannon, mortars, and other engines of war. Thenceforward the
bombardment was resumed more violently than before: roofs were broken
through, walls were battered, but there was more noise than work. In
La Rue Aux-Petits-Souliers a cannon-ball fell on to a table, round
which five persons were dining, and no one was hurt. It was thought to
have been a miracle of Our Lord worked at the intercession of Saint
Aignan, the patron saint of the city.[531] The people of Orléans had
wherewith to answer the besiegers. For the seventy cannon and mortars,
of which the city artillery consisted, there were twelve professional
gunners with servants to wait on them. A very clever founder named
Guillaume Duisy had cast a mortar which from its position at the crook
or spur by the Chesneau postern, hurled stone bullets of one hundred
and twenty _livres_ on to Les Tourelles. Near this mortar were two
cannon, one called Montargis because the town of Montargis had lent
it, the other named _Rifflart_[532] after a very popular demon. A
culverin firer, a Lorrainer living at Angers, had been sent by the
King to Orléans, where he was paid twelve _livres_[533] a month. His
name was Jean de Montesclère. He was held to be the best master of his
trade. He had in his charge a huge culverin which inflicted great
damage on the English.[534]

[Footnote 531: _Journal du siège_, pp. 16, 17.]

[Footnote 532: _Ibid._, p. 17. J.L. Micqueau, _Histoire du siège
d'Orléans par les Anglais_, translated by Du Breton, Paris, 1631, p.
27. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 287. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, pp. 209, 210.]

[Footnote 533: _Livre_, if it were of Paris, was equivalent to one
shilling, if of Tours, to ten pence (W.S.).]

[Footnote 534: _Journal du siège_, p. 18. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. clxxxv. Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses faites par
Charles VII pour secourir Orléans_, in _Mém. Soc. Arch. de
l'Orléanais_, vol. xi, pp. 114, 186.]

A jovial fellow was Maître Jean. When a cannon-ball happened to fall
near him he would tumble to the ground and be carried into the town to
the great joy of the English who believed him dead. But their joy was
short-lived, for Maître Jean soon returned to his post and bombarded
them as before.[535] These culverins were loaded with leaden bullets
by means of an iron ramrod. They were tiny cannon or rather large guns
on gun-carriages. They could be moved easily.[536] And so Maître
Jean's culverin was brought wherever it was needed.

[Footnote 535: _Journal du siège_, p. 28. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol.
i, p. 214.]

[Footnote 536: Loiseleur, _Comptes_, p. 114. P. Mantellier, _Histoire
du siège_, p. 33.]

On the 25th of December a truce was proclaimed for the celebration of
the Nativity of Our Lord. Of one faith and one religion, on feast days
the hostility of the combatants ceased, and courtesy reconciled the
knights of the two camps whenever the calendar reminded them that they
were Christians. Noël is a gay feast. Captain Glasdale wanted to
celebrate it with carol singing according to the English custom. He
asked my Lord Jean, the Bastard of Orléans, and Marshal de Boussac to
send him a band of musicians, which they graciously did. The Orléans
players went forth to Les Tourelles with their clarions and their
trumpets; and they played the English such carols as rejoiced their
hearts. To the folk of Orléans, who came on to the bridge to listen to
the music, it sounded very melodious; but no sooner had the truce
expired than every man looked to himself. For from one bank to the
other the cannon burst from their slumber, hurling balls of stone and
copper with renewed vigour.[537]

[Footnote 537: _Journal du siège_, pp. 15, 18.]

That which the people of Orléans had foreseen happened on the 30th of
December. On that day the English came in great force through La
Beauce to Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.[538] All the French knights went
out to meet them and performed great feats of arms; but the English
occupied Saint-Laurent, and then the siege really began. They erected
a bastion on the left bank of the Loire, west of Le Portereau, in a
place called the Field of Saint-Privé. Another they erected in the
little island to the right of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.[539] On the
right bank, at Saint-Laurent, they constructed an entrenched camp. At
a bow-shot's distance on the road to Blois, in a place called la
Croix-Boissée, they built another bastion. Two bow-shots away, towards
the north on the road to Mans, at a spot called Les Douze-Pierres,
they raised a fort which they called London.[540]

[Footnote 538: To the number of 2500. _Journal du siège_, p. 20.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 265. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire du siège_,
p. 252. Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, pp. 26, 27.]

[Footnote 539: Cf. _ante_, p. 112, note 1. On the plan this island is
called Petite Île Charlemagne.]

[Footnote 540: G. Girault's report in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 283.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 16, note 5; vol. iv, supplement xiii.]

By these works half of Orléans was invested, which was as good as
saying that it was not invested at all. People went in and out as they
pleased. Small relieving companies despatched by the King arrived
without let or hindrance. On the 5th of January, 1429, Admiral de
Culant with five hundred men-at-arms crosses the Loire opposite
Saint-Loup and enters the city by the Burgundian Gate. On the 8th of
February there enters William Stuart, brother of the Constable of
Scotland, at the head of a thousand combatants well accoutred, and
accompanied by several knights and squires. On the morrow they are
followed by three hundred and twenty soldiers. Victuals and ammunition
are constantly arriving; on the 3rd of January, nine hundred and
fifty-four pigs and four hundred sheep; on the 10th, powder and
victuals; on the 12th, six hundred pigs; on the 24th, six hundred head
of fat cattle and two hundred pigs; on the 31st, eight horses loaded
with oil and fat.[541]

[Footnote 541: _Journal du siège_, pp. 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 34.]

It became evident to Lord Scales, William Pole, and Sir John Talbot,
who since Salisbury's[542] death had been conducting the siege, that
months and months must elapse ere the investment could be completed
and the city surrounded by a ring of forts connected by a moat.
Meanwhile the miserable _Godons_, up to the ears in mud and snow, were
freezing in their wretched hovels,--mere shelters of wood and earth.
If things went on thus they were in danger of being worse off and more
starved than the besieged. Therefore, following the example of the
late Earl, from time to time they tried to bring matters to a crisis;
without great hope of success they endeavoured to take the town by
assault.[543]

[Footnote 542: Boucher de Molandon and A. de Beaucorps, _L'armée
anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 3 _et seq._ Jarry, _Le compte
de l'armée anglaise_, proofs and illustrations v, p. 233.]

[Footnote 543: Jan. 1, 2. _Journal du siège_, pp. 21, 22, 30.]

On the side of the Renard Gate the wall was lower than elsewhere; and,
as their strongest force lay in this direction, they preferred to
attack this part of the ramparts. They stormed the Renard Gate,
rushing against the barriers with loud cries of Saint George; but the
king's men and the city bands drove them back to their bastions.[544]
Each of these ill planned and useless assaults cost them many men. And
they already lacked both soldiers and horses.

[Footnote 544: 4-27 Jan. _Journal du siège_, pp. 21, 22, 30.]

Neither had they succeeded in alarming the people of Orléans by their
double bombardment on the south and on the west. There was a joke in
the town that a great cannon-ball had fallen near La Porte Bannière
into the midst of a crowd of a hundred people without touching one,
except a fellow who had his shoe taken off by it, but suffered no
further hurt than having to put it on again.[545]

[Footnote 545: 17 Jan. _Ibid._, p. 26.]

Meanwhile the French, English, and Burgundian knights took delight in
performing valiant deeds of prowess. Whenever the whim took them, and
under the slightest protest, they sallied forth into the country, but
always with the object of capturing some booty, for they thought of
little else. One day, for instance, towards the end of January, when
it was bitterly cold, a little band of English marauders entered the
vineyards of Saint-Ladre and Saint-Jean-de-la-Ruelle to gather sticks
for firewood. The watchman no sooner announces them than behold all
the banners flying to the wind. Marshal de Boussac, Messire Jacques de
Chabannes, Seneschal of Bourbonnais, Messire Denis de Chaîlly, and
many another baron, and with them captains and free-lances, make forth
into the fields. Not one of them can have commanded as many as twenty
men.[546]

[Footnote 546: _Ibid._, p. 32.]

The King's council was making every effort to succour Orléans. The
King summoned the nobles of Auvergne. They had been true to the Lilies
ever since the day when the Dauphin, Canon of Notre-Dame-d'Ancis, and
barely more than a child, had travelled over wild peaks to subdue two
or three rebellious barons.[547] At the royal call the nobles of
Auvergne came forth from their mountains. Beneath the standard of the
Count of Clermont, in the early days of February, they reached Blois,
where they joined the Scottish force of John Stuart of Darnley, the
Constable of Scotland, and a company from Bourbonnais, under the
command of the barons La Tour-d'Auvergne and De Thouars.[548]

[Footnote 547: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. ii, p. 732. Vallet de
Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 213; vol. ii, p. 6,
note 2. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. ccxcv.]

[Footnote 548: _Journal du siège_, pp. 21, 36-38. The accounts of
Hémon Raguier, Bibl. Nat. Fr. 7858, fol. 41. Loiseleur, _Comptes des
dépenses de Charles VII pour secourir Orléans_, _loc. cit._]

Just at this time tidings were received of a convoy of victuals and
ammunition which Sir John Fastolf was bringing from Paris to the
English at Orléans. With two hundred men-at-arms the Bastard started
from Orléans to concert measures with the Count of Clermont. It was
decided to attack the convoy. Commanded by the Count of Clermont and
the Bastard the whole army from Blois marched towards Étampes with the
object of encountering Sir John Fastolf.[549]

[Footnote 549: _Journal du siège_, p. 37.]

On the 11th of February there sallied forth from Orléans fifteen
hundred fighting men commanded by Messire Guillaume d'Albret, Sir
William Stuart, brother of the Constable of Scotland, the Marshal de
Boussac, the Lord of Gravelle, the two Captains Saintrailles, Captain
La Hire, the Lord of Verduzan, and sundry other knights and squires.
They were summoned by the Bastard and ordered to join the Count of
Clermont's army on the road to Étampes, at the village of
Rouvray-Saint-Denis, near Angerville.[550]

[Footnote 550: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 231. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, pp. 266, 267. _Journal du siège_, pp. 37, 38.]

The next day, Saturday, the eve of the first Sunday in Lent, when the
Count of Clermont's army was still some distance away, they reached
Rouvray. There, early in the morning, the Gascons of Poton and La Hire
perceived the head of the convoy advancing into the plain, along the
Étampes road.

There they were, a line of three hundred carts and wagons full of arms
and victuals conducted by English soldiers and merchants and peasants
from Normandy, Picardy, and Paris, fifteen hundred men at the most,
all tranquil and unsuspecting. There naturally occurred to the Gascons
the idea of falling upon these people and making short work with them
at the moment when they least expected it.[551] In great haste they
sent to the Count of Clermont for permission to attack. As handsome as
Absalom and Paris of Troy, full of words and eaten up of vanity, the
Count of Clermont, who was but a lad and none of the wisest, had that
very day received his spurs and was at his first engagement.[552] He
foolishly sent word to the Gascons not to attack before his arrival.
The Gascons obeyed greatly disappointed; they saw what was being lost
by waiting. And at length, perceiving that they have walked into the
lion's mouth, the English leaders, Sir John Fastolf, Sir Richard
Gethyn, Bailie of Évreux, Sir Simon Morhier, Provost of Paris, place
themselves in good battle array. With their wagons they make a long
narrow enclosure in the plain. There they entrench their horsemen,
posting the archers in front, behind stakes planted in the ground with
their points inclined towards the enemy.[553] Seeing these
preparations, the Constable of Scotland loses patience and leads his
four hundred horsemen in a rush upon the stakes, where the horses'
legs are broken.[554] The English, discovering that it is only a small
company they have to deal with, bring out their cavalry and charge
with such force that they overthrow the French and slay three hundred.
Meanwhile the men of Auvergne had reached Rouvray and were scouring
the village, draining the cellars. The Bastard left them and came to
the help of the Scots with four hundred fighting men. But he was
wounded in the foot, and in great danger of being taken.[555]

[Footnote 551: _Journal du siège_, pp. 38, 39. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, pp. 267, 268. _Mistère du siège_, line 8867. Dom Plancher,
_Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, p. 127.]

[Footnote 552: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 312. _Journal du siège_, p. 43.
Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. ii, p. 164.]

[Footnote 553: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 311. _Journal du siège_, p. 39.
_Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 232. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 267, 268. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 137, 139.]

[Footnote 554: _Journal du siège_, pp. 40, 41.]

[Footnote 555: _Ibid._, p. 43. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p.
232.]

There fell in this combat Lord William Stuart and his brother, the
Lords of Verduzan, of Châteaubrun, of Rochechouart, Jean Chabot with
many others of high nobility and great valour.[556] The English, not
yet satiated with slaughter, scattered in pursuit of the fugitives. La
Hire and Poton, beholding the enemy's standards dispersed over the
plain, gathered together as many men as they could, between sixty and
eighty, and threw themselves on a small part of the English force,
which they overcame. If at this juncture the rest of the French had
rallied they might have saved the honour and advantage of the
day.[557] But the Count of Clermont, who had not attempted to come to
the aid of the Bastard and the Constable of Scotland, displayed his
unfailing cowardice to the end. Having seen them all slain, he
returned with his army to Orléans, where he arrived well on into the
night of the 12th of February.[558] There followed him with their
troops in disorder, the Baron La Tour-d'Auvergne, the Viscount of
Thouars, the Marshal de Boussac, the Lord of Gravelle and the Bastard,
who with the greatest difficulty kept in the saddle. Jamet du Tillay,
La Hire, and Poton came last, watching to see that the English did not
complete their discomfiture by falling upon them from the forts.[559]

[Footnote 556: _Journal du siège_, p. 43. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 269. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 313.]

[Footnote 557: _Journal du siège_, p. 42. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 63.]

[Footnote 558: _Journal du siège_, p. 44.]

[Footnote 559: _Ibid._, pp. 43, 44.]

Because the Lenten fast was beginning, the victuals which Sir John
Fastolf was bringing from Paris to the English round Orléans,
consisted largely of red herrings, which had suffered during the
battle from the casks containing them having been broken in. To honour
the French for having discomfited so many natives of Dieppe the
delighted English merrily named the combat the Battle of the
Herrings.[560]

[Footnote 560: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 230-233.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 313. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. ii, p.
62. Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire de la ville d'Orléans_, vol. ii, p.
195. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 37.]

Albeit the Count of Clermont was the King's cousin, the people of
Orléans received him but coldly. He was held to have acted shamefully
and treacherously; and there were those who let him know what they
thought. On the morrow he made off with his men of Auvergne and
Bourbonnais amidst the rejoicings of the townsfolk who did not want to
support those who would not fight.[561] At the same time there left
the city Sire Louis de Culant, High Admiral of France and Captain La
Hire, with two thousand men-at-arms. At their departure there arose
from the citizens such howls of displeasure, that to appease them it
was necessary to explain that the captains were going to fetch fresh
supplies of men and victuals, which was the actual truth. My Lord
Regnault de Chartres, the date of whose arrival at Orléans is
uncertain, departed with them; but he could not be reproached for
going, since as Chancellor of France his place was in the King's
Council. But what must indeed have appeared strange was that my Lord
Saint-Michel, the successor of Saint-Euverte and Saint-Aignan, should
quit his episcopal see and desert his afflicted spouse.[562] When the
rats go the vessel is on the point of sinking. Only the Lord Bastard
and the Marshal de Boussac were left in the city. And even the Marshal
was not to stay long. A month later he went, saying that the King had
need of him and that he must go and take possession of broad lands
fallen to him through his wife, by the death of his brother-in-law,
the Lord of Châteaubrun, at the Battle of the Herrings.[563] The
townsfolk deemed the reason a good one. He promised to return before
long, and they were content. Now the Marshal de Boussac was one of the
barons who had the welfare of the kingdom most at heart.[564] But he
who has lands must needs do his duty by them.

[Footnote 561: 18 Feb. _Journal du siège_, pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 562: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Footnote 563: 16 March. _Ibid._, p. 59.]

[Footnote 564: Thaumas de la Thaumassière, _Histoire du Berry_,
Bourges, 1689, in fol., pp. 648-656.]

Believing that they were betrayed and abandoned, the citizens
bethought them of securing their own safety. Since the King was not
able to protect them, they resolved that in order to escape from the
English, they would give themselves to one more powerful than he.
Therefore, to Lord Philip, Duke of Burgundy, they despatched Captain
Poton of Saintrailles, who was known to him because he had been his
prisoner, and two magistrates of the city, Jean de Saint-Avy and Guion
du Fossé. Their mission was to pray and entreat the Duke to look
favourably on the town, and for the sake of his good kinsman, their
Lord, Charles, Duke of Orléans, a prisoner in England, and thus
prevented from defending his own domain, to induce the English to
raise the siege until such time as the troubles of the realm should be
set at rest.[565] Thus they were offering to place their town as a
pledge in the hands of the Duke of Burgundy. Such an offer was in
accordance with the secret desire of the Duke, who, having sent a few
hundred Burgundian horse to the walls of Orléans, was helping the
English, and did not intend to do it for nothing.[566]

[Footnote 565: _Journal du siège_, p. 52.]

[Footnote 566: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 317. _Journal du siège_, p. 52.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 269. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
p. 65. Morosini, pp. 16, 17, vol. iv, supplement xiv. Du Tillet,
_Recueil des traités_, p. 221.]

Pending the uncertain and distant day when they might be thus
protected, the people of Orléans continued to protect themselves as
best they could. But they were anxious and not without reason. For
although they might prevent the enemy from entering within the city,
they could devise no means for speedily driving him away. In the early
days of March they observed with concern that the English were digging
a ditch to serve them as cover in passing from one bastion to another,
from la Croix-Boissée to Saint-Ladre. This work they attempted to
destroy. They vigorously attacked the _Godons_ and took a few
prisoners. With two shots from his culverin Maître Jean killed five
persons, including Lord Gray, the nephew of the late Earl of
Salisbury.[567] But they could not hinder the English from completing
their work. The siege continued with terrible vigour. Agitated by
doubts and fears, consumed with anxiety, without sleep, without rest,
and succeeding in nothing, they began to despair. Suddenly a strange
rumour arises, spreads, and gains credence.

[Footnote 567: 3 March. _Journal du siège_, p. 54.]

It is told that there had lately passed through the town of Gien a
maid (_une pucelle_), who proclaimed that she was on her way to Chinon
to the gentle Dauphin, and said that she had been sent by God to raise
the siege of Orléans and take the King to his anointing at Reims.[568]

[Footnote 568: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 21, 23. _Journal du siège_, pp.
46 _et seq._ _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 278.]

In colloquial language, a maid (_une pucelle_) was a girl of humble
birth, who earned her livelihood by manual work and was generally a
servant. Thus the leaden pumps used in kitchens were usually called
_pucelles_. The term was doubtless vulgar, but it had no evil meaning.
In spite of Clopinel's naughty saying: "_Je légue ma pucelle à mon
curé_," it was used to describe a respectable girl of good
morals.[569]

[Footnote 569: La Curne, under the word _Pucelle_; Du Cange, ad. v.
_Pucella_.

    _Je laisse cent sols de deniers
    A ceulx qui boivent voluntiers
    Et s'ay laissié a mon curé
    Ma pucelle quand je mourrai,_

says Eustache Deschamps (quoted by La Curne); Du Cange cites a will of
1274: "afterwards I leave to Laurence _ma pucelle_ and twelve _livres_
of Paris."]

The tidings that a little saint of lowly origin, one of Our Lord's
poor, was bringing divine help to Orléans made a great impression on
minds excited by the fevers of the siege and rendered religious
through fear. The Maid inspired them with a burning curiosity, which
the Lord Bastard, like a wise man, deemed it prudent to encourage. He
despatched to Chinon two knights charged to inquire concerning the
damsel. One was Sire Archambaud of Villars, Governor of Montargis,
whom the Bastard had already sent to the King during the siege; he was
an aged knight, once the intimate friend of Duke Louis of Orléans, and
one of the seven Frenchmen who fought against the seven Englishmen at
Montendre,[570] in 1402: an Orléans citizen of the early days,
notwithstanding his great age he had vigourously defended Les
Tourelles on the 21st of October. The other, Messire Jamet du Tillay,
a Breton squire, had recently won great honour by covering the retreat
of Rouvray with his men. They set forth and the whole town anxiously
awaited their return.[571]

[Footnote 570: _Relation contemporaine du combat de Montendre_, in
_Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France_, 1834, pp. 109-113.]

[Footnote 571: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 3, 125, 215. _Journal du siège_,
pp. 5, 6, 31, 44. _Nouvelle biographie générale_, articles by Vallet
de Viriville.]




CHAPTER VI

THE MAID AT CHINON--PROPHECIES


From the village of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, Jeanne dictated a
letter to the King, for she did not know how to write. In this letter
she asked permission to come to him, and told him that to bring him
aid she had travelled over one hundred and fifty leagues, and that she
knew of many things for his good. She was said to have added that were
he hidden amidst many others she would recognise him;[572] but later,
when she was questioned on this matter, she replied that she had no
recollection of it.

[Footnote 572: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 56, 75.]

Towards noon, when the letter had been sealed, Jeanne and her escort
set out for Chinon.[573] She went to the King, just as in those days
there went to him the sons of poor widows of Azincourt and Verneuil
riding lame horses found in some meadow,--fifteen-year-old lads coming
forth from their ruined towers to mend their own fortunes and those of
France; just as Loyalty, Desire, and Famine went to him.[574] Charles
VII was France, the image and symbol of France. Yet he was but a poor
creature withal, the eleventh of the miserable children born to the
mad Charles VI and his prolific Bavarian Queen.[575] He had grown up
among disasters, and had survived his four elder brethren. But he
himself was badly bred, knock-kneed, and bandy-legged;[576] a
veritable king's son, if his looks only were considered, and yet it
was impossible to swear to his descent.[577] Through his presence on
the bridge at Montereau on that day, when, according to a wise man, it
were better to have died than to have been there,[578] he had grown
pale and trembling, looking dully at everything going to wrack and
ruin around him. After their victory of Verneuil and their partial
conquest of Maine, the English had left him four years' respite. But
his friends, his defenders, his deliverers had alike been terrible.
Pious and humble, well content with his plain wife, he led a sad,
anxious life in his châteaux on the Loire. He was timid. And well
might he be so, for no sooner did he show friendship towards or
confidence in one of the nobility than that noble was killed. The
Constable de Richemont and the Sire de la Trémouille had drowned the
Lord de Giac after a mock trial.[579] The Marshal de Boussac, by
order of the Constable, had slain Lecamus de Beaulieu with even less
ceremony. Lecamus was riding his mule in a meadow on the bank of the
Clain, when he was set upon, thrown down, his head split open, and his
hand cut off. The favourite's mule was taken back to the King.[580]
The Constable de Richemont had given Charles in his stead La
Trémouille, a very barrel of a man, a toper, a kind of Gargantua who
devoured the country. La Trémouille having driven away Richemont, the
King kept La Trémouille until the Constable, of whom he was greatly in
dread, should return. And indeed so meek and fearful a prince had
reason to dread this Breton, always defeated, always furious, bitter,
ferocious, whose awkwardness and violence created an impression of
rude frankness.[581]

[Footnote 573: _Ibid._, p. 56.]

[Footnote 574: Bueil, _Le jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 32, and Tringant, xv;
Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, ch. cxxxviii.]

[Footnote 575: Vallet de Viriville, _Isabeau de Bavière_, 1859, in
8vo, and _Notes sur l'état civil des princes et princesses nés
d'Isabeau de Bavière_ in the _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_,
vol. xix, pp. 473-482.]

[Footnote 576: Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_,
vol. i, p. 312. Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. ii, p.
178.]

[Footnote 577: _Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denis_, vol. i, pp.
28, 43. Docteur A. Chevreau, _De la maladie de Charles VI, roi de
France, et des médecins qui ont soigné ce prince_, in _l'Union
Médicale_, February, March, 1862. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. i, p. 4, note.]

[Footnote 578: Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 347.]

[Footnote 579: Gruel, ed. Le Vavasseur, pp. 46 _et seq._ _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 239. Berry, p. 374. Pierre de Fénin, _Mémoires_, ed.
Mademoiselle Dupont, pp. 222, 223. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 453. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_,
vol. ii, p. 432.]

[Footnote 580: Gruel, pp. 53, 193. _Geste des nobles_, p. 200. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 23, 24, 54. De Beaucourt, _Histoire
de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 132. E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de
Richemont_, Paris, 1886, in 8vo, p. 131.]

[Footnote 581: Gruel, p. 231. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 200, 248.
Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. iii, p. 189. De
Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 142. E. Cosneau, _Le
connétable de Richemont_, p. 140.]

In 1428 Richemont wanted to resume his influence over the King. The
Counts of Clermont and of Pardiac united to aid him. The King's
mother-in-law, Yolande of Aragon, the kingdomless Queen of Sicily and
Jerusalem, and the Duchess of Anjou, took the part of the discontented
barons.[582] The Count of Clermont took prisoner the Chancellor of
France, the first minister of the crown, and held him to ransom. The
King had to pay for the restoration of his Chancellor.[583] In Poitou
the Constable was warring against the King's men, while the provinces
which remained loyal were being wasted by free lances in the King's
pay, while the English were advancing towards the Loire.

[Footnote 582: De Beaucourt, _op. cit._, vol. ii, pp. 143, 144 _et
seq._ E. Cosneau, _op. cit._, pp. 142 _et seq._]

[Footnote 583: Dom Morice, _Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne_, vol.
ii, col. 1199. De Beaucourt, _op. cit._, vol. ii, p. 150. E. Cosneau,
_op. cit._, p. 144.]

In the midst of such miseries, King Charles, thin, dwarfed in mind and
body, cowering, timorous, suspicious, cut a sorry figure. Yet he was
as good as another; and perhaps at that time he was just the king that
was needed. A Philippe of Valois or a Jean le Bon would have amused
himself by losing his provinces at the point of the sword. Poor King
Charles had neither their means nor their desire to perform deeds of
prowess, or to press to the front of the battle by riding down the
common herd. He had one good point: he did not love feats of prowess
and it was impossible for him to be one of those chivalrous knights
who make war for the love of it. His grandfather before him, who had
been equally lacking in chivalrous graces, had greatly damaged the
English. The grandson had not Charles V's wisdom, but he also was not
free from guile and was inclined to believe that more may be gained by
the signing of a treaty than at the point of the lance.[584]

[Footnote 584: P. de Fénin, _Mémoires_, p. 222. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, Introduction. E. Charles, _Le caractère de
Charles VII_, in _Revue contemporaine_, vol. xxii, pp. 300-328.]

Concerning his poverty ridiculous stories were in circulation. It was
said that a shoemaker, to whom he could not pay ready money, had torn
from his leg the new gaiter he had just put on, and gone off, leaving
the King with his old ones.[585] It was related how one day La Hire
and Saintrailles, coming to see him, had found him dining with the
Queen, with two chickens and a sheep's tail as their only
entertainment.[586] But these were merely good stories. The King still
possessed domains wide and rich; Auvergne, Lyonnais, Dauphiné,
Touraine, Anjou, all the provinces south of the Loire, except Guyenne
and Gascony.[587]

[Footnote 585: Le doyen de Saint-Thibaud, _Tableau des rois de
France_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 325.]

[Footnote 586: Martial d'Auvergne, _Les vigiles de Charles VII_, ed.
Coustelier, 1724 (2 vols. in 12mo), vol. i, p. 56.]

[Footnote 587: L. Drapeyron, _Jeanne d'Arc et Philippe le Bon_, in
_Revue de géographie_, November, 1886, p. 331.]

His great resource was to convoke the States General. The nobility
gave nothing, alleging that it was beneath their dignity to pay money.
When, notwithstanding their poverty, the clergy did contribute
something, it was still, always the third estate that bore more than
its share of the financial burden. That extraordinary tax, the
_taille_,[588] became annual. The King summoned the Estates every
year, sometimes twice a year. They met not without difficulty.[589]
The roads were dangerous. At every corner travellers might be robbed
or murdered. The officers, who journeyed from town to town collecting
the taxes, had an armed escort for fear of the Scots and other
men-at-arms in the King's service.[590]

[Footnote 588: _Taille_, so called from a notched stick (Eng. tally),
used by the tax-collector, the number of notches indicating the amount
of the tax due. There were two _tailles_: _la taille seigneuriale_, a
contribution paid by serfs to their lord; and _la taille royale_, paid
by the third estate to the King. The latter was first levied by
Philippe le Bel (1285-1314), but was only an occasional tax until the
reign of Charles VII, who converted it into a regular impost. But
although collected at stated intervals its amount varied from reign to
reign, becoming intolerably burdensome under the spendthrift kings,
while wise rulers, like Henri IV, considerably reduced it. It was not
abolished until the Revolution (W.S.).]

[Footnote 589: _Recueil des ordonnances_, vol. xiii, p. xcix, and the
index of this volume under the word _Impôts_. Loiseleur, _Compte des
dépenses_, pp. 51 _et seq._ A. Thomas, _Les états généraux sous
Charles VII_ in the _Cabinet historique_, vol. xxiv, 1878. _Les états
provinciaux de la France centrale sous Charles VII_, Paris, 1879, 2
vols. in 8vo, _passim_.]

[Footnote 590: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii, p. 318. Vallet de
Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 390. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 428; vol. ii, pp. 646 _et seq._]

In 1427 a free lance, Sabbat by name, in garrison at Langeais, was the
terror of Touraine and Anjou. Thus the representatives of the towns
were in no hurry to present themselves at the meeting of the Estates.
It might have been different had they believed that their money would
be employed for the good of the realm. But they knew that the King
would first use it to make gifts to his barons. The deputies were
invited to come and devise means for the repression of the pillage and
plunder from which they were suffering;[591] and, when at the risk of
their lives they did come to the royal presence, they were forced to
consent to the _taille_ in silence. The King's officers threatened to
have them drowned if they opened their mouths. At the meeting of the
Estates held at Mehun-sur-Yèvre in 1425 the men from the good towns
said they would be glad to help the King, but first they desired that
an end be put to pillage, and my Lord Bishop of Poitiers, Hugues de
Comberel, said likewise. On hearing his words the Sire de Giac said to
the King: "If my advice were taken, Comberel would be thrown into the
river with the others of his opinion." Whereupon the men from the good
towns voted two hundred and sixty thousand livres.[592] In September,
1427, assembled at Chinon, they granted five hundred thousand livres
for the war.[593] By writs issued on the 8th of January, 1428, the
King summoned the States General to meet six months hence, on the
following 18th of July, at Tours.[594] On the 18th of July no one
attended. On the 22nd of July came a new summons from the King,
commanding the Estates to meet at Tours on the 10th of September.[595]
But the meeting did not take place until October, at Chinon, just when
the Earl of Salisbury was marching on the Loire. The States granted
five hundred thousand livres.[596]

[Footnote 591: _Le jouvencel_, vol. i, Introduction, pp. xix, xx.]

[Footnote 592: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 237. Loiseleur, _Compte
des dépenses_, p. 61. Vallet de Viriville, _Mémoire sur les
institutions de Charles VII_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des
Chartes_, vol. xxxiii, p. 37.]

[Footnote 593: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.
471.]

[Footnote 594: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
167.]

[Footnote 595: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.
471. A. Thomas, _Les états généraux sous Charles VII_, pp. 49, 50.]

[Footnote 596: Dom Vaissette, _Histoire du Languedoc_, vol. iv, p.
472. Raynal, _Histoire du Berry_, vol. iii, p. 20. Loiseleur, _Comptes
des dépenses_, pp. 63 _et seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. ii, pp. 170 _et seq._]

But the time could not be far off when the good people would be unable
to pay any longer. In those days of war and pillage many a field was
lying fallow, many a shop was closed, and few were the merchants
ambling on their nags from town to town.[597]

[Footnote 597: Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII_, Bk. II, ch. vi.
Antoine Loysel, _Mémoires des pays, villes, comtés et comtes de
Beauvais et Beauvoisis_, Paris, 1618, p. 229. P. Mantellier, _Histoire
de la communauté des marchands fréquentant la rivière de Loire_, vol.
i, p. 195.]

The tax came in badly, and the King was actually suffering from want
of money. To extricate himself from this embarrassment he employed
three devices, of which the best was useless. First, as he owed every
one money,--the Queen of Sicily,[598] La Trémouille,[599] his
Chancellor,[600] his butcher,[601] the chapter of Bourges, which
provided him with fresh fish,[602] his cooks,[603] his footmen,[604]--he
made over the proceeds of the tax to his creditors.[605] Secondly, he
alienated the royal domain: his towns and his lands belonged to every
one save himself.[606] Thirdly, he coined false money. It was not with
evil intent, but through necessity, and the practice was quite
usual.[607]

[Footnote 598: Dom Morice, _Preuves de l'histoire de Bretagne_, vol.
ii, cols. 1145, 1194. _Ordonnances_, vol. xv, p. 147.]

[Footnote 599: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
p. 373. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 175. Duc
de la Trémoïlle, _Chartier de Thouars, Documents historiques et
généalogiques_, p. 17. _Les La Trémoïlle pendant cinq siècles_, vol.
i, p. 175.]

[Footnote 600: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
632.]

[Footnote 601: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii. Accounts, p. 316.
_Cabinet historique_, June, 1858, p. 176.]

[Footnote 602: _Cabinet historique_, September and October, 1858, p.
263.]

[Footnote 603: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
p. 374.]

[Footnote 604: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
632.]

[Footnote 605: Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 606: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
634.]

[Footnote 607: Vuitry, _Les monnaies sous les trois premiers Valois_,
Paris, 1881, in 8vo, pp. 29 _et seq._ Loiseleur, _Compte des
dépenses_, p. 47. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
i, p. 243. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 620
_et seq._]

The only title borne by La Trémouille was that of
Conseiller-Chambellan, but he was also the Grand Usurer of the
kingdom. His debtors were the King and a multitude of nobles high and
low.[608] He was therefore a powerful personage. In those difficult
days he rendered the crown services self-interested, but none the less
valuable. From January to August, 1428, he advanced sums amounting to
about twenty-seven thousand livres for which he received lands and
castles as security.[609] Fortunately the Royal Council included a
number of Jurists and Churchmen who were good business men. One of
them, an Angevin, Robert Le Maçon, Lord of Trèves, of plebeian birth,
had entered the Council during the Regency. He was the first among
those of lowly origin who served Charles VII so ably that he came to
be called The Well Served (_Le Bien Servi_).[610] Another, the Sire de
Gaucourt, had aided his King in war.[611]

[Footnote 608: Clairambault, _Titres, Scellés_, vol. 205, pp. 8769,
8771, 8773, _passim_. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 293.]

[Footnote 609: Archives nationales, J. 183, no. 142. Duc de La
Trémoïlle, _Les La Trémoïlle pendant cinq siècles_, vol. i, p. 177. De
Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 198.]

[Footnote 610: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire généalogique et chronologique
de la maison de France_, vol. vi, p. 399. Vallet de Viriville, in
_Nouvelle biographie générale_. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. i, p. 63.]

[Footnote 611: Marquis de Gaucourt, _Le Sire de Gaucourt_, Orléans,
1855, in 8vo.]

There is yet a third whom we must learn to know as well as possible.
For he will play an important part in this story; and his part would
appear greater still if it were laid bare in its entirety. This is
Regnault de Chartres, whom we have already seen promoted to be
minister of finance.[612] Son of Hector de Chartres, master of Woods
and Waters in Normandy, he took orders, became archdeacon of Beauvais,
then chamberlain of Pope John XXIII, and in 1414, at about
thirty-four, was raised to the archiepiscopal see of Reims.[613] The
following year three of his brothers fell on the gory field of
Azincourt. In 1418 Hector de Chartres perished at Paris, assassinated
by the Butchers.[614] Regnault himself, cast into prison by the
Cabochiens, expected to be put to death. He vowed that if he escaped
he would fast every Wednesday, and drink water for breakfast every
Friday and Saturday, for the rest of his life.[615] One must not judge
a man by an act prompted by fear. Nevertheless we may well hesitate to
rank the author of this vow with those Epicureans who did not believe
in God, of whom there were said to be many among the clerks. We may
conclude rather that his intelligence submitted to the common beliefs.

[Footnote 612: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire généalogique et chronologique
de la maison de France_, vol. vi, p. 339. _Gallia Christiana_, vol.
ix, col. 135. Hermant, _Histoire ecclésiastique de Beauvais_ (Bibl.
nat. fr. 8581), fol. 15 _et seq._ Article by Vallet de Viriville, in
_Nouvelle biographie générale_ and _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii,
pp. 160 _et seq._]

[Footnote 613: Le P. Denifle, _Cartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_,
vol. iv, p. 275.]

[Footnote 614: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 109. In 1411 the
Butchers of Paris, led by Jean-Simonnet Caboche, rose in favour of the
Duke of Burgundy (W.S.).]

[Footnote 615: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_, vol. i, pp.
594, 595. Garnier, _Documents relatifs à la surprise de Paris par les
Bourguignons en Mai_, 1418, in _Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire
de Paris_, 1877, p. 51.]

A tragic fidelity, an inherited loyalty to the Armagnacs recommended
my Lord Regnault to the Dauphin, who entrusted him with important
missions to various parts of Christendom, Languedoc, Scotland,
Brittany, and Burgundy.[616] The Archbishop of Reims acquitted himself
with rare skill and indefatigable zeal. In December he prayed the Holy
Father to dispense him from the fulfilment of the vow taken in the
Butchers' prison,[617] on the grounds of his feeble health and his
services rendered to the Dauphin, who required him to undertake
frequent journeys and arduous embassies.

[Footnote 616: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp.
268, 276, 339. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 4, and proofs and
illustrations, lxxj.]

[Footnote 617: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_, _loc. cit._
According to a "legitimist" fiction he pleads the service he had
rendered to King Charles VI, and his son the Dauphin "_... tam propter
sue persone debililitatem, quam etiam propter assidua viagia et
ambassiatas, que ipse serviendo Carolo Francorum regi et Carolo,
ejusdem regis unigenito filio, dalphino Viennensi...._"]

In 1425, when the King and the kingdom were governed by President
Louvet,[618] a learned lawyer, who may well have been a rogue, my Lord
Regnault was appointed Chancellor of France in the place of my Lord
Martin Gouges of Charpaigne, Bishop of Clermont.[619] But shortly
afterwards, when the Constable of France, Arthur of Brittany, had
dismissed Louvet, Regnault sold his appointment to Martin Gouges for a
pension of two thousand five hundred _livres tournois_.[620]

[Footnote 618: Vallet de Viriville, _Nouvelle biographie générale_. De
Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp. 64 _et seq._]

[Footnote 619: F. Duchesne, _Histoire des chanceliers et gardes des
sceaux de France_, 1680, in fol., p. 483.]

[Footnote 620: The _livre_ of Tours was worth ten pence, while that of
Paris was worth one shilling (W.S.). National Archives, p. 2298.]

The Reverend Father in God, my Lord the Archbishop of Reims, was not
as rich, far from it, as my Lord de la Trémouille; but he made the
best of what he had. Like the Sire de la Trémouille he lent money to
the King.[621] But in those days who did not lend the King money?
Charles VII gave him the town and castle of Vierzon in payment of a
debt of sixteen thousand _livres tournois_.[622] When La Trémouille
had treated the Constable as the Constable had treated Louvet,
Regnault de Chartres became Chancellor again. He entered into his
office on the 8th of November, 1428. By this time the Council had sent
men-at-arms and cannon to Orléans. No sooner was my Lord of Reims
appointed than he threw himself into the city and spared no
trouble.[623] He was keenly attached to the goods of this world and
might pass for a miser.[624] But there can be no doubt of his devotion
to the royal cause, nor of his hatred of those who fought under the
Leopard and the Red Cross.[625]

[Footnote 621: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
632.]

[Footnote 622: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire généalogique de la maison de
France_, vol. i, p. 407.]

[Footnote 623: _Journal du siège_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 624: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_,
introduction. _Cf._ the collection of official receipts in the
National Library, fr. 20,887, original documents 693, Clairambault,
_deeds_, _seals_, vol. 29.]

[Footnote 625: F. Duchesne, _Histoire des chanceliers et garde des
sceaux de France_, p. 487.]

After eleven days' journey, Jeanne reached Chinon on the 6th of
March.[626] It was the fourth Sunday in Lent, that very Sunday on
which the lads and lasses of Domremy went forth in bands, into the
country still grey and leafless, to eat their nuts and hard-boiled
eggs, with the rolls their mothers had kneaded. That was what they
called their well-dressing. But Jeanne was not to recollect past
well-dressings nor the home she had left without a word of
farewell.[627] Ignoring those rustic, well-nigh pagan festivals which
poor Christians introduced into the penance of the holy forty days,
the Church had named this Sunday _Lætare_ Sunday, from the first word
in the introit for the day: _Lætare, Jerusalem_. On that Sunday the
priest, ascending the altar steps, says low mass; and at high mass the
choir sings the following words from Scripture: "_Lætare, Jerusalem;
et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam ..._: Rejoice ye with
Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy
with her all ye that mourn for her: That ye may suck, and be satisfied
with the breasts of her consolations; ..."[628] That day priests,
monks, and clerks versed in holy Scripture, as in the churches with
the people assembled they sang _Lætare, Jerusalem_, had present before
their minds the virgin announced by prophecy, raised up for the
deliverance of the kingdom, marked with a sign, who was then making
her humble entrance into the town. Perhaps more than one applied what
that passage of Scripture says of the Holy Nation to the realm of
France, and in the coincidence of that liturgical text and the happy
coming of the Maid found occasion for hope. _Lætare, Jerusalem!_
Rejoice ye, O people, in your true King and your rightful sovereign.
_Et conventum facite_: and come together. Unite all your strength
against the enemy. _Gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis_:
after your long mourning, rejoice. The Lord sends you succour and
consolation.

[Footnote 626: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 56.]

[Footnote 627: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 394, 462.]

[Footnote 628: Isaiah, ch. 66, verse 10 (W.S.).]

By the intercession of Saint Julien, and probably with the aid of
Collet de Vienne, the King's messenger, Jeanne found a lodging in the
town, near the castle, in an inn kept by a woman of good repute.[629]
The spits were idle. And the guests, deep in the chimney-corner, were
watching the grilling of Saint Herring, who was suffering worse
torments than Saint Lawrence.[630] In those times no one in
Christendom neglected the Church's injunctions concerning the fasts
and abstinences of Holy Lent. Following the example of Our Lord Jesus
Christ who fasted forty days in the desert, the faithful observed the
fast from Quadragesima Sunday until Easter Sunday, making forty days
after abstracting the Sundays when the fast was broken but not the
abstinence. Thus fasting and with her soul comforted, Jeanne listened
to the soft whisper of her Voices.[631] The two days she spent in the
inn were passed in retirement, on her knees.[632] The banks of the
Vienne and the broad meadows, still in their black wintry garb, the
hill-slopes over which light mists floated, did not tempt her. But
when, on her way to church, climbing up a steep street, or merely
grooming her horse in the inn yard, she raised her eyes to the north,
there on a mountain close at hand, just about the distance that would
be traversed by one of those stone cannon-balls which had been in use
for the last fifty or sixty years, she saw the towers of the finest
castle of the realm. Behind its proud walls there breathed that King
to whom she had journeyed, impelled by a miraculous love.

[Footnote 629: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 143.]

[Footnote 630: _La vie de saint Harenc glorieux martir et comment il
fut pesché en la mer et porté à Dieppe_, in _Recueil des poésies
françaises des XV'e et XVI'e siècles_, by A. de Montaiglon, vol.
ii, pp. 325-332.]

[Footnote 631: Still if Jeanne were the age she is said to have been,
about eighteen, she was under no obligation to fast, but only to be
abstinent. Nevertheless, when imprisoned at Rouen, she fasted during
Lent; but we do not know how old her judges considered her to be.]

[Footnote 632: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 143.]

There were three castles merging before her into one long mass of
embattled walls, of keeps, towers, turrets, curtains, barbicans,
ramparts, and watch-towers; three castles separated one from the other
by dykes, barriers, posterns, and portcullis. On her left, towards
sunset, crowded, one behind the other, the eight towers of Coudray,
one of which had been built for a king of England, while the newest
were more than two hundred years old. On the right could be plainly
seen the middle castle, with its ancient walls and its towers crowned
with machicolated battlements. There was the chamber of Saint Louis,
the King's chamber, the apartment of him whom Jeanne called the Gentle
Dauphin. And there also, close to the rush-strewn room, was the great
hall in which she was to be received. Towards the town the site of the
hall was indicated by an adjoining tower, square and very old. On the
right extended a vast bailey or stronghold, intended as a lodging for
the garrison, and a defence of the middle part of the castle. Near by
a large chapel raised its roof, in the form of an inverted keel, above
the ramparts. This chapel, built by Henry II of England, was under the
patronage of Saint George, and from it the bailey received its name of
Fort Saint George.[633] In those days every one knew the story of
Saint George the valiant knight, who with his lance transfixed a
dragon and delivered a King's daughter, and then suffered martyrdom
confessing his faith. Like Saint Catherine he had been bound to a
wheel with sharp spikes, and the wheel had been miraculously broken
like that on which the executioners had bound the Virgin of
Alexandria. And like her Saint George had suffered death by means of
an axe, thus proving that he was a great saint.[634] In one thing,
however, he was wrong; he was of the party of the _Godons_, who for
more than three hundred years had kept his feast as that of all the
English. They held him to be their patron saint and invoked him before
all other saints. Thus his name was pronounced as constantly by the
vilest Welsh archer as by a knight of the Garter. In truth no one
knew what he thought and whether he did not condemn all these
marauders who were fighting for a bad cause; but there was reason to
fear that such great honours would affect him. The saints of Paradise
are generally ready to take the side of those who invoke them most
devoutly. And Saint George, after all, was just as English as Saint
Michael was French. That glorious archangel had appeared as the most
vigilant protector of the Lilies ever since my Lord Saint Denys, the
patron saint of the kingdom, had permitted his abbey to be taken. And
Jeanne knew it.

[Footnote 633: G. de Cougny, _Notice archéologique et historique sur
le château de Chinon_, Chinon, 1860, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 634: _La légende dorée_, translated by Gustave Brunet, 1846,
pp. 259, 264. Douhet, _Dictionnaire des légendes_, pp. 426, 436.]

Meanwhile the despatches brought from the Commander of Vaucouleurs by
Colet de Vienne were presented to the King.[635] These despatches
instructed him concerning the deeds and sayings of the damsel. This
was one of those countless matters to be examined by the Council, one
which, it appears, the King must himself investigate, as pertaining to
his royal office and as interesting him especially, since it might be
a question of a damsel of remarkable piety, and he was himself the
highest ecclesiastical personage in France.[636] His grandfather, wise
prince that he was, would have been far from scorning the counsel of
devout women in whom was the voice of God. About the year 1380 he had
summoned to Paris Guillemette de la Rochelle, who led a solitary and
contemplative life, and acquired such great power therefrom, so it was
said, that during her transports she raised herself more than two feet
from the ground. In many a church King Charles V had beautiful
oratories built, where she might pray for him.[637] The grandson
should do no less, for his need was still greater. There were still
more recent examples in his family of dealings between kings and
saints. His father, the poor King Charles VI, when he was passing
through Tours, had caused Louis, Duke of Orléans, to present to him
Dame Marie de Maillé. She had taken a vow of virginity and had
transformed the spouse, who approached her like a devouring lion, into
a timorous lamb. She revealed secrets to the King, and he was pleased
with her, for three years later he wanted to see her again at Paris.
This time they talked long together in private, and she revealed more
secrets to the King, so that he sent her away with gifts.[638] This
same Prince had granted an audience to a poor knight of Caux, one
Robert le Mennot, to whom, when he was in danger of shipwreck near the
coast of Syria, had been vouchsafed a vision. He proclaimed that God
had sent him to restore peace.[639] Still more favourably had the King
received a woman, Marie Robine, who was commonly called la Gasque of
Avignon.[640] In 1429, there were those at court who remembered the
prophetess sent to Charles VI to confirm him in his subjection to Pope
Benedict XIII. This pope was held to be an antipope; nevertheless, La
Gasque was regarded as a prophetess. Like Jeanne she had had many
visions concerning the desolation of the realm of France; and she had
seen weapons in the sky.[641] The kings of England were no less ready
than the kings of France to heed the words of those saintly men and
women, multitudes of whom were at that time uttering prophecies. Henry
V consulted the hermit of Sainte-Claude, Jean de Gand, who foretold
the King's approaching death; and on his death-bed he again had the
stern prophet summoned.[642] It was the custom of saints to speak to
kings and of kings to listen to them. How could a pious prince disdain
so miraculous a source of counsel? Had he done so he would have
incurred the censure of the wisest.

[Footnote 635: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siège_,
pp. 46, 47.]

[Footnote 636: _Epître de Jouvenel des Ursins_, in De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_ vol. v, p. 206, note 1.]

[Footnote 637: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. x.]

[Footnote 638: _Acta sanctorum_, vol. iii, March, p. 742. Abbé Pétin,
_Dictionnaire hagiographique_, 1850, vol. ii, p. 1516.]

[Footnote 639: Froissart, _Chroniques_, Bk. IV, ch. xliii _et seq._]

[Footnote 640: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 83, note 2. Vallet de Viriville,
_Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1867, in 8vo, pp.
xxxi _et seq._]

[Footnote 641: _Le songe du vieil Pélerin_, by Philippe de Maizières
(Bibl. Nat. French collection, no. 22,542).]

[Footnote 642: Chastellain, ed. Buchon, pp. 114, 116. _Acta Sanctorum
Junii_, vol. 1, p. 648. Le P. De Buck, _Le bienheureux Jean de Gand_,
Brussels, 1862, in 8vo, 40 pages. Le P. Chapotin, _La guerre de cent
ans; Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains_, Évreux, 1888, in 8vo, p. 89.]

King Charles read the Commander of Vaucouleur's letters, and had the
damsel's escort examined before him. Of her mission and her miracles
they could say nothing. But they spoke of the good they had seen in
her during the journey, and affirmed that there was no evil in
her.[643]

[Footnote 643: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siège_,
p. 46.]

Of a truth, God speaketh through the mouths of virgins. But in such
matters it is necessary to act with extreme caution, to distinguish
carefully between the true prophetesses and the false, not to take for
messengers from heaven the heralds of the devil. The latter sometimes
create illusions. Following the example of Simon the Magician, who
worked wonders vying with the miracles of St. Peter, these creatures
have recourse to diabolical arts for the seduction of men. Twelve
years before, there had prophesied a woman, likewise from the
Lorraine Marches, Catherine Suave, a native of Thons near Neufchâteau,
who lived as a recluse at Port de Lates, yet most certainly did the
Bishop of Maguelonne know her to be a liar and a sorceress, wherefore
she was burned alive at Montpellier in 1417.[644] Multitudes of women,
or rather of females, _mulierculæ_,[645] lived like this Catherine and
ended like her.

[Footnote 644: _Parvus Thalamus_, ed. Archæological Society of
Montpellier, p. 464. Th. de Bèze, _Histoire ecclésiastique_, 1580,
vol. i, p. 217. A. Germain, _Catherine Suave_, Montpellier, 1853, in
4to, 16 pages. H.C. Lea, _A History of the Inquisition in the Middle
Ages_ (1906), vol. ii, p. 157. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. x.]

[Footnote 645: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
502.]

Certain ecclesiastics briefly interrogated Jeanne and asked her
wherefore she had come. At first she replied that she would say
nothing save to the King. But when the clerks represented to her that
they were questioning her in the King's name, she told them that the
King of Heaven had bidden her do two things: one was to raise the
siege of Orléans, the other to lead the King to Reims for his
anointing and his coronation.[646] Just as at Vaucouleurs before Sire
Robert, so before these Churchmen she repeated very much what the
vavasour of Champagne had said formerly, when he had been sent to Jean
le Bon, as she was now sent to the Dauphin Charles.

[Footnote 646: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 22. These facts were known at
Lyons on the 22nd of April, 1429. (Clerk of the Chambre des Comptes of
Brabant, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426.)]

Having journeyed as far as the Plain of Beauce, where King John,
impatient for battle, was encamped with his army, the vavasour of
Champagne entered the camp and asked to see the wisest and best of the
King's liegemen at court. The nobles, to whom this request was
carried, began to laugh. But one among them, who had with his own eyes
seen the vavasour, recognised at once that he was a good, simple man
and without guile. He said to him: "If thou hast any advice to give,
go to the King's chaplain." The vavasour therefore went to King John's
chaplain and said to him: "Obtain for me an audience of the King; I
have something to tell that I will say to no one but to him." "What is
it?" asked the chaplain. "Tell me what is in your heart." But the good
man would not reveal his secret. The chaplain went to King John and
said to him: "Sire, there is a worthy man here who seems to me wise in
his way. He desires to say to you something that he will tell to you
alone." King John refused to see the good man. He summoned his
confessor, and, accompanied by the chaplain, sent him to learn the
vavasour's secret. The two priests went to the man and told him that
the King had appointed them to hear him. At this announcement,
despairing of ever seeing King John, and trusting to the Confessor and
the chaplain not to reveal his secret to any but the King, he uttered
these words: "While I was alone in the fields, a voice spake unto me
three times, saying: 'Go unto King John of France and warn him that he
fight not with any of his enemies.' Obedient to that voice am I come
to bring the tidings to King John." Having heard the vavasour's secret
the confessor and the chaplain took him to the King, who laughed at
him. With his comrades-in-arms he advanced to Poitiers, where he met
the Black Prince. He lost his whole army in battle, and, twice wounded
in the face, was taken prisoner by the English.[647]

[Footnote 647: S. Luce, _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_, Paris,
1861, in 8vo, pp. 46, 48.]

The ecclesiastics, who had examined Jeanne, held various opinions
concerning her. Some declared that her mission was a hoax, and that
the King ought to beware of her.[648] Others on the contrary held
that, since she said she was sent of God, and that she had something
to tell the King, the King should at least hear her.

[Footnote 648: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 115. Thomassin, _Registre
Delphinal_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siège_, p. 47.]

Two priests who were then with the King, Jean Girard, President of the
Parlement of Grenoble, and Pierre l'Hermite, later subdean of
Saint-Martin-de-Tours, judged the case difficult and interesting
enough to be submitted to Messire Jacques Gélu, that Armagnac prelate
who had long served the house of Orléans and the Dauphin of France
both in council and in diplomacy. When he was nearly sixty, Gélu had
withdrawn from the Council, and exchanged the archiepiscopal see of
Tours for the bishopric of Embrun, which was less exalted and more
retired. He was illustrious and venerable.[649] Jean Girard and Pierre
l'Hermite informed him of the coming of the damsel in a letter,
wherein they told him also that, having been questioned in turn by
three professors of theology, she had been found devout, sober,
temperate, and in the habit of participating once a week in the
sacraments of confession and communion. Jean Girard thought she might
have been sent by the God who raised up Judith and Deborah, and who
spoke through the mouths of the Sibyls.[650]

[Footnote 649: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. iii, col. 1089.]

[Footnote 650: Le R.P. Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire générale des Alpes
Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, ed. by the Abbé Paul Guillaume, Paris,
1890-1892 (3 vols. in 8vo), vol. ii, pp. 313 _et seq._]

Charles was pious, and on his knees devoutly heard three masses a day.
Regularly at the canonical hours he repeated the customary prayers in
addition to prayers for the dead and other orisons. Daily he
confessed, and communicated on every feast day.[651] But he believed
in foretelling events by means of the stars, in which he did not
differ from other princes of his time. Each one of them had an
astrologer in his service.[652]

[Footnote 651: The Monk of Dunfermline, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
340. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp. 265
_et seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 243.]

[Footnote 652: Simon de Phares, _Recueil des plus célèbres
astrologues_, fr. ms. 1357. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. i, p. 306; vol. ii, p. 345, note. De Beaucourt, _Histoire
de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p. 399.]

The late Duke of Burgundy had been constantly accompanied by a Jewish
soothsayer, Maître Mousque. On that day, the end of which he was never
to see, as he was going to the Bridge of Montereau, Maître Mousque
counselled him not to advance any further, prophesying that he would
not return. The Duke continued on his way and was killed.[653] The
Dauphin Charles confided in Jean des Builhons, in Germain de
Thibonville and in all others of the peaked cap.[654]

[Footnote 653: Chastellain, vol. iii, p. 446.]

[Footnote 654: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
p. 173.]

He always had two or three astrologers at court. These almanac makers
drew up schemes of nativity, cast horoscopes and read in the sky the
approach of wars and revolutions. One of them, Maître Rolland the
Scrivener, a fellow of the University of Paris, was one night, at a
certain hour, observing the heavens from his roof, when he saw the
apex of Virgo in the ascendant, Venus, Mercury, and the sun half way
up the sky.[655] This his colleague, Guillaume Barbin of Geneva,
interpreted to mean that the English would be driven from France and
the King restored by the hand of a mere maid.[656] If we may believe
the Inquisitor Bréhal, some time before Jeanne's coming into France, a
clever astronomer of Seville, Jean de Montalcin by name, had written
to the King among other things the following words: "By a virgin's
counsel thou shalt be victorious. Continue in triumph to the gates of
Paris."[657]

[Footnote 655: I here correct the text of Simon de Phares (_Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 536) according to the written opinion of M. Camille
Flammarion.]

[Footnote 656: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 536.]

[Footnote 657: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 341.]

At that very time the Dauphin Charles had with him at Chinon an old
Norman astrologer, one Pierre, who may have been Pierre de
Saint-Valerien, canon of Paris. The latter had recently returned from
Scotland, whither, accompanied by certain nobles, he had gone to fetch
the Lady Margaret, betrothed to the Dauphin Louis. Not long afterwards
this Maître Pierre was, rightly or wrongly, believed to have read in
the sky that the shepherdess from the Meuse valley was appointed to
drive out the English.[658]

[Footnote 658: Recueil de Simon de Phares, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
32, note.]

Jeanne had not long to wait in her inn. Two days after her arrival,
what she had so ardently desired came to pass: she was taken to the
King.[659] In the last century near the Grand-Carroy, opposite a
wooden-fronted house, there was shown a well on the edge of which,
according to tradition, Jeanne set foot when she alighted from her
horse, before climbing the steep ascent leading to the Castle.
Through La Vieille Porte,[660] she was already crossing the moat when
the King was still hesitating as to whether he would receive her. Many
of his familiar advisers, and those not the least important,
counselled him to beware of a strange woman whose designs might be
evil. There were others who put it before him that this shepherdess
was introduced by letters from Robert de Baudricourt carried through
hostile provinces; that in journeying to the King she had forded many
rivers in a manner almost miraculous. On these considerations the King
consented to receive her.[661]

[Footnote 659: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 143.]

[Footnote 660: The kerb was removed during the Second Empire. Moreover
it is admitted that no faith should be put in such traditions. G. de
Cougny, _Charles VII et Jeanne d'Arc à Chinon_, Tours, 1877, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 661: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 75; vol. iii, p. 115. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siège_, pp. 46, 47. Th. Basin,
_Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 68.]

The great hall was crowded. As at every audience given by the King the
room was close with the breath of the assembled multitude. The vast
chamber presented that aspect of a market-house or of a rout which was
so familiar to courtiers. It was evening; fifty torches flamed beneath
the painted beams of the roof.[662] Men of middle age in robes and
furs, young, smooth-faced nobles, thin and narrow shouldered, of
slender build, their lean legs in tight hose, their feet in long,
pointed shoes; barons fully armed to the number of three hundred,
according to Aulic custom, pushed, crowded and elbowed each other
while the usher was here and there striking the courtiers on the head
with his rod.[663]

[Footnote 662: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 75, 141.]

[Footnote 663: Le Curial, in _Les oeuvres de Maistre Alain
Chartier_, ed. Du Chesne, Paris, 1642, in 4to, p. 398.]

Besides the two ambassadors from Orléans, Messire Jamet du Tillay and
the old baron Archambaud de Villars, governor of Montargis, there were
present Simon Charles, Master of Requests, as well as certain great
nobles, the Count of Clermont, the Sire de Gaucourt, and probably the
Sire de La Trémouille and my Lord the Archbishop of Reims, Chancellor
of the kingdom.[664] On hearing of Jeanne's approach, King Charles
buried himself among his retainers, either because he was still
mistrustful and hesitating, or because he had other persons to speak
to, or for some other reason.[665] Jeanne was presented by the Count
of Vendôme.[666] Robust, with a firm, short neck, her figure appeared
full, although confined by her man's jerkin. She wore breeches like a
man,[667] but still more surprising than her hose was her head-gear
and the cut of her hair. Beneath a woollen hood, her dark hair hung
cut round in soup-plate fashion like a page's.[668] Women of all ranks
and all ages were careful to hide their hair so that not one lock of
it should escape from beneath the coif, the veil, or the high
head-dress which was then the mode. Jeanne's flowing locks looked
strange to the folk of those days.[669] She went straight to the
King, took off her cap, curtsied, and said: "God send you long life,
gentle Dauphin."[670]

[Footnote 664: According to Jeanne there were present La Trémoïlle and
the Archbishop of Reims, but she also mentions the Duke of Alençon,
who was certainly not there.]

[Footnote 665: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 115.]

[Footnote 666: _Ibid._, pp. 102-103.]

[Footnote 667: _Ibid._, p. 219. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 205. Mathieu Thomassin, _ibid._, p. 304. _Chronique de
Lorraine_, _ibid._, p. 330. Philippe de Bergame, _ibid._, p. 523.]

[Footnote 668: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in the _Revue
historique_, vol. iv, p. 336.]

[Footnote 669: St. Paul, Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Labbe,
_Collection des conciles_, vol. vii, p. 978. Saumaise, _Epistola ad
Andream Colvium super cap. xi, I ad Corynth. de cæsarie virorum et
mulierum coma_. Lugd-Batavor ex off. Elz. 1644, in 12mo. _Quelques
notes d'archéologie sur la chevelure féminine_, in _Comptes rendus de
l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres_, 1888, vol. xvi, pp.
419, 425.]

[Footnote 670: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 75; vol. iii, pp. 17, 92, 115. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 67. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
273. _Journal du siège_, p. 46.]

Afterwards there were those who marvelled that she should have
recognised him in the midst of nobles more magnificently dressed than
he. It is possible that on that day he may have been poorly attired.
We know that it was his custom to have new sleeves put to his old
doublets.[671] And in any case he did not show off his clothes. Very
ugly, knock-kneed, with emaciated thighs, small, odd, blinking eyes,
and a large bulbous nose, on his bony, bandy legs tottered and
trembled this prince of twenty-six.[672]

[Footnote 671: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
195.]

[Footnote 672: Th. Basin, vol. i, p. 312. Chastellain, vol. ii, p.
178. _Portrait historique du roi Charles VII_, by Henri Baude,
published by Vallet de Viriville in _Nouvelles recherches sur Henri
Baude_, p. 6. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, p. 83.]

That Jeanne should have seen his picture already and recognised him by
it is hardly likely. Portraits of princes were rare in those days.
Jeanne had never handled one of those precious books in which King
Charles may have been painted in miniature as one of the Magi offering
gifts to the Child Jesus.[673] It was not likely that she had ever
seen one of those figures painted on wood in the semblance of her
King, with hands clasped, beneath the curtains of his oratory.[674]
And if by chance some one had shown her one of these portraits her
untrained eyes could have discerned but little therein. Neither need
we inquire whether the people of Chinon had described to her the
costume the King usually wore and the shape of his hat: for like every
one else he kept his hat on indoors even at dinner. What is most
probable is that those who were kindly disposed towards her pointed
out the King. At any rate he was not difficult to distinguish, since
those who saw her go up to him were in no wise astonished.

[Footnote 673: As in the miniature painted by Jean Fouquet, more than
ten years later. Gruyer, _Les Quarante Fouquet de Chantilly_, Paris,
1897, in 4to.]

[Footnote 674: _Note sur un ancien portrait de Charles VII, conservé
au Louvre_, in the _Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France_,
1862, pp. 67 _et seq._]

When she had made her rustic curtsey, the King asked her name and what
she wanted. She replied: "Fair Dauphin, my name is Jeanne the Maid;
and the King of Heaven speaks unto you by me and says that you shall
be anointed and crowned at Reims, and be lieutenant of the King of
Heaven, who is King of France." She asked to be set about her work,
promising to raise the siege of Orléans.[675]

[Footnote 675: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 103. _Relation du greffier de La
Rochelle_, p. 337. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 67, 68.]

The King took her apart and questioned her for some time. By nature he
was gentle, kind to the poor and lowly, but not devoid of mistrust and
suspicion.

It is said that during this private conversation, addressing him with
the familiarity of an angel, she made him this strange announcement:
"My Lord bids me say unto thee that thou art indeed the heir of France
and the son of a King; he has sent me to thee to lead thee to Reims to
be crowned there and anointed if thou wilt."[676] Afterwards the
Maid's chaplain reported these words, saying he had received them
from the Maid herself. All that is certain is that the Armagnacs were
not slow to turn them into a miracle in favour of the Line of the
Lilies. It was asserted that these words spoken by God himself, by the
mouth of an innocent girl, were a reply to the carking, secret anxiety
of the King. Madame Ysabeau's son, it was said, distracted and
saddened by the thought that perhaps the royal blood did not flow in
his veins, was ready to renounce his kingdom and declare himself a
usurper, unless by some heavenly light his doubts concerning his birth
should be dispelled.[677] Men told how his face shone with joy[678]
when it was revealed to him that he was the true heir of France.

[Footnote 676: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 103 (evidence of Brother
Pasquerel).]

[Footnote 677: The Abridger of the _Trial_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp.
258, 259. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p.
67. _Journal du siège_, p. 48.]

[Footnote 678: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles). S.
Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. lxi.]

Doubtless the Armagnac preachers were in the habit of speaking of
Queen Ysabeau as "_une grande gorre_" and a Herodias of
licentiousness; but one would like to know whence her son derived his
curious misgiving. He had not manifested it on entering into his
inheritance; and, had occasion required, the jurists of his party
would have proved to him by reasons derived from laws and customs that
he was by birth the true heir and the lawful successor of the late
King; for filiation must be proved not by what is hidden, but by what
is manifest, otherwise it would be impossible to assign the legal heir
to a kingdom or to an acre of land. Nevertheless it must be borne in
mind that the King was very unfortunate at this time. Now misfortune
agitates the conscience and raises scruples; and he might well doubt
the justice of his cause since God was forsaking him. But if he were
indeed assailed by painful doubts, how can he have been relieved from
them by the words of a damsel who, as far as he then knew, might be
mad or sent to him by his enemies? It is hard to reconcile such
credulity with what we know of his suspicious nature. The first
thought that occurred to him must have been that ecclesiastics had
instructed the damsel.

A few moments after he had dismissed her, he assembled the Sire de
Gaucourt and certain other members of his Council and repeated to them
what he had just heard: "She told me that God had sent her to aid me
to recover my kingdom."[679] He did not add that she had revealed to
him a secret known to himself alone.[680]

[Footnote 679: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 17, 209. As early as April the
promised deliverance of Orléans and coronation at Reims had been heard
of at Lyons (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426).]

[Footnote 680: Pasquerel alone of the witnesses mentions this
(_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 103). Cf. the anecdote of the Sire de Boissy
related by P. Sala in his collection, _Les hardiesses des grands rois
et empereurs_ (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 278).]

The King's Counsellors, knowing little of the damsel, decided that
they must have her before them to examine her concerning her life and
her belief.[681]

[Footnote 681: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 209.]

The Sire de Gaucourt took her from the inn and lodged her in a tower
of that Castle of Coudray, which for the last three days she had seen
dominating the town.[682] One of the three castles, Le Coudray was
only separated from the middle château in which the King dwelt by a
moat and fortifications.[683] The Sire de Gaucourt confided her to
the care of the lieutenant of the Town of Chinon, Guillaume Bellier,
the King's Major Domo.[684] He gave her for her servant one of his own
pages, a child of fifteen, Immerguet, sometimes called Minguet, and
sometimes Mugot. His real name was Louis de Coutes, and he came of an
old warrior family which had been in the service of the house of
Orléans for a century. His father, Jean, called Minguet, Lord of
Fresnay-le-Gelmert, of la Gadelière and of Mitry, Chamberlain to the
Duke of Orléans, had died in great poverty the year before. He had
left a widow and five children, three boys and two girls, one of whom,
Jeanne by name, had since 1421 been the wife of Messire Florentin
d'Illiers, Governor of Châteaudun. Thus the little page, Louis de
Coutes, and his mother, Catherine le Mercier, Dame de Noviant, who
came of a noble Scottish family, were both in a state of penury,
albeit the Duke of Orléans in acknowledgment of his Chamberlain's
faithful services had from his purse granted aid to the Lady of
Noviant.[685] Jeanne kept Minguet with her all day, but at night she
slept with the women.

[Footnote 682: _Ibid._, p. 66.]

[Footnote 683: G. de Cougny, _Charles VII et Jeanne d'Arc à Chinon_,
Tours, 1877, p. 40.]

[Footnote 684: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17.]

[Footnote 685: _Ibid._, pp. 65, 73. Mademoiselle A. de Villaret,
_Louis de Coutes, page de Jeanne d'Arc_, Orléans, 1890, in 8vo.]

The wife of Guillaume Bellier, who was good and pious, at least so it
was said, watched over her.[686] At Coudray the page saw her many a
time on her knees. She prayed and often wept many tears.[687] For
several days persons of high estate came to speak with her. They found
her dressed as a boy.[688]

[Footnote 686: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17.]

[Footnote 687: _Ibid._, p. 66.]

[Footnote 688: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 274 _et seq._ Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, p. 68.]

Since she had been with the King, divers persons asked her whether
there were not in her country a wood called "Le Bois-Chenu."[689] This
question was put to her because a prophecy of Merlin concerning a maid
who should come from "Le Bois-Chenu" was then in circulation. And folk
were impressed by it; for in those days every one gave heed to
prophecies and especially to those of Merlin the Magician.[690]

[Footnote 689: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 68.]

[Footnote 690: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 133, 340. Thomassin, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 395. Walter Bower, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 489. Christine
de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12. La Borderie, _Les véritables
prophéties de Merlin, examen des poèmes bretons attribués à ce barde_,
in the _Revue de Bretagne_, 1883, vol. liii.]

Begotten of a woman by the Devil, it was from him that Merlin derived
his profound wisdom. To the science of numbers, which is the key to
the future, he added a knowledge of physics, by means of which he
worked his enchantments. Thus it was easy for him to transform rocks
into giants. And yet he was conquered by a woman; the fairy Vivien
enchanted the enchanter and kept him in a hawthorn bush under a spell.
This is only one of many examples of the power of women.

Famous doctors and illustrious masters held that Merlin had laid bare
many future events and prophesied many things which had not yet
happened. To such as were amazed that the son of the Devil should have
received the gift of prophecy they replied that the Holy Ghost is able
to reveal his secrets to whomsoever he pleases, for had he not caused
the Sibyls to speak, and opened the mouth of Balaam's ass?

Merlin had seen in a vision Sire Bertrand du Guesclin in the guise of
a warrior bearing an eagle on his shield. This was remembered after
the Constable had wrought his great deeds.[691]

[Footnote 691: Cuvelier, _Le poème de Du Guesclin_, l. 3285.
Francisque-Michel and Th. Wright, _Vie de Merlin attribuée à Geoffroy
de Monmouth, suivie des prophéties de ce barde tirées de l'histoire
des Bretons_, Paris, 1837, in 8vo, pp. 67 _et seq._ La Villemarqué,
_Myrdhin ou Merlin l'Enchanteur, son histoire, ses oeuvres, son
influence_, n. ed., Paris, 1862, in 12mo. D'Arbois de Jubainville,
_Merlin est-il un personnage réel?_ in the _Revue des questions
historiques_, 1868, pp. 559-568. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Morosini_, vol.
iv, supplement xvi. "[Geoffrey of Monmouth] represented Merlin as
having prophesied all the events of the history of Britain until the
year 1135 in which he wrote. The _Historia Regum_ was very popular in
the ecclesiastical world. Its legends were held to be facts. The
exactness with which its prognostications had been fulfilled down to
1135 was marvelled at, and an attempt was made to interpret the
prophecies relating to subsequent times." Gaston Paris, _La
littérature française au moyen age_, 1890, pp. 86-104.]

In the prophecies of this Wise Man the English believed no less firmly
than the French. When Arthur of Brittany, Count of Richemont, was
taken prisoner, held to ransom, and brought before King Henry, the
latter, when he perceived a boar on the arms of the Duke, broke forth
into rejoicing; for he called to mind the words of Merlin who had
said, "A Prince of Armorica, called Arthur, with a boar for his crest,
shall conquer England, and when he shall have made an end of the
English folk he shall re-people the land with a Breton race."[692]

[Footnote 692: Le Baud, _Histoire de Bretagne_, Paris, 1638, in fol.,
p. 451.]

Now during the Lent of 1429 there was circulated among the Armagnacs
this prophecy, taken from a book of the prophecies of Merlin: "From
the town of the Bois-Chenu there shall come forth a maid for the
healing of the nation. When she hath stormed every citadel, with her
breath she shall dry up all the springs. Bitter tears shall she shed
and fill the Island with a terrible noise. Then shall she be slain by
the stag with ten antlers, of which six branches shall bear crowns of
gold, and the other six shall be changed into the horns of oxen; and
with a horrible sound they shall shake the Isles of Britain. The
forest of Denmark shall rise up and with a human voice say: 'Come,
Cambria, and take Cornwall unto thyself.'"[693]

[Footnote 693: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 340-342.]

In these mysterious words Merlin dimly foretells that a virgin shall
perform great and wonderful deeds before perishing by the hand of the
enemy. On one point only is he clear, or so it seems; that is, when he
says that this virgin shall come from the town of the Bois-Chenu.

If this prophecy had been traced back to its original source and read
in the fourth book of the _Historia Britonum_, where it is to be found
under the title of _Guyntonia Vaticinium_, it would have been seen to
refer to the English city of Winchester, and it would have appeared
that in the version then in circulation in France, the original
meaning had been garbled, distorted, and completely metamorphosed. But
no one thought of verifying the text. Books were rare and minds
uncritical. This deliberately falsified prophecy was accepted as the
pure word of Merlin and numerous copies of it were spread abroad.

Whence came these copies? Their origin doubtless will remain a mystery
for ever; but one point is certain: they referred to La Romée's
daughter, to the damsel who, from her father's house, could see the
edge of "Le Bois-Chenu." Thus they came from close at hand and were of
recent circulation.[694] If this amended prophecy of Merlin be not
the one that reached Jeanne in her village, forecasting that a Maid
should come from the Lorraine Marches for the saving of the kingdom,
then it was closely related to it. The two prognostications have a
family likeness.[695] They were uttered in the same spirit and with
the same intention; and they indicate that the ecclesiastics of the
Meuse valley and those of the Loire had agreed to draw attention to
the inspired damsel of Domremy.

[Footnote 694: Morosini, vol. iv, p. 324.]

[Footnote 695: Pierre Migiet weaves the two prophecies into one, which
he says he has read in a book, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 133.]

As Merlin had foretold the works of Jeanne, so Bede must also have
predicted them, for Bede and Merlin were always together in matters of
prophecy.

The Monk of Wearmouth, the Venerable Bede, who had been dead six
centuries, had been a veritable mine of knowledge in his lifetime. He
had written on theology and chronology; he had discoursed of night and
day, of weeks and months, of the signs of the zodiac, of epacts, of
the lunar cycle, and of the movable feasts of the Church. In his book
_De temporum ratione_ he had treated of the seventh and eighth ages of
the world, which were to follow the age in which he lived. He had
prophesied. During the siege of Orléans, churchmen were circulating
these obscure lines attributed to him, and foretelling the coming of
the Maid:

    _Bis sex cuculli, bis septem se sociabunt,[696]
    Gallorum pulli Tauro nova bella parabunt
    Ecce beant bella, tunc fert vexilla Puella._

[Footnote 696: Adopting the emendation made by M. Germain
Lefèvre-Pontalis in his _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, vol. iii, pp.
126, 127; vol. iv, pp. 316 _et seq._]

The first of these lines is a chronogram, that is, it contains a date.
To decipher it you take the numeral letters of the line and add them
together; the total gives the date.

     bIs seX CVCVLLI, bIs septeM se soCIabVnt.

     1 + 10 + 100 + 5 + 100 + 5 + 50 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 1000 + 100 +
     1 + 5 = 1429.

Had any one sought these lines in the works of the Venerable Bede they
would not have found them, because they are not there; but no one
thought of looking for them any more than they thought of looking for
the Forêt Chenue in Merlin.[697] And it was understood that both Bede
and Merlin had foretold the coming of the Maid. In those days
prophecies, chronograms, and charms flew like pigeons from the banks
of the Loire and spread abroad throughout the realm. Not later than
the May or June of this year the pseudo Bede will reach Burgundy.
Earlier still he will be heard of in Paris. The aged Christine de
Pisan, living in retirement in a French abbey, before the last day of
July, 1429, will write that Bede and Merlin had beheld the Maid in a
vision.[698]

[Footnote 697: _The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede_, ed. Giles,
London, 1843-1844, 12 vols., in 8vo, in _Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_.]

[Footnote 698: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 126. The Dean of Saint Thibaud, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 423. Herman Korner, in Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 279 _et seq._ Walter Bower, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 481.]

The clerks, who were busy forging prophecies for the Maid's benefit,
did not stop at a pseudo Bede and a garbled Merlin. They were truly
indefatigable, and by a stroke of good luck we possess a piece of
their workmanship which has escaped the ravages of time. It is a short
Latin poem written in the obscure prophetic style, of which the
following is a translation through the old French.

"A virgin clothed in man's attire, with the body of a maid, at God's
behest goes forth to raise the downcast King, who bears the lilies,
and to drive out his accursed enemies, even those who now beleaguer
the city of Orléans and strike terror into the hearts of its
inhabitants. And if the people will take heart and go out to battle,
the treacherous English shall be struck down by death, at the hand of
the God of battles who fights for the Maid, and the French shall cause
them to fall, and then shall there be an end of the war; and the old
covenants and the old friendship shall return. Pity and righteousness
shall be restored. There shall be a treaty of peace, and all men shall
of their own accord return to the King, which King shall weigh justice
and administer it unto all men and preserve his subjects in beautiful
peace. Henceforth no English foe with the sign of the leopard shall
dare to call himself King of France [added by the translator] and
adopt the arms of France, which arms are borne by the holy Maid."[699]

[Footnote 699: Buchon, _Math. d'Escouchy_, etc., p. 537. G.
Lefèvre-Pontalis, Eberhard Windecke, pp. 21-31. A Latin text of this
prophecy is to be found on the fly-leaf of the Cartulary of
Thérouanne.]

These false prophecies give some idea of the means employed for the
setting to work of the inspired damsel. Such methods may be somewhat
too crafty for our liking. These clerks had but one object,--the peace
of the realm and of the church. The miraculous deliverance of the
people had to be prepared. We must not be too hasty to condemn those
pious frauds without which the Maid could not have worked her
miracles. Much art and some guile are necessary to contrive for
innocence a hearing.

Meanwhile, on a steep rock, on the bank of the Durance, in the remote
see of Saint-Marcellin, Jacques Gélu remained faithful to the King he
had served and careful for the interests of the house of Orléans and
of France. To the two churchmen, Jean Girard and Pierre l'Hermite, he
replied that, for the sake of the orphan and the oppressed, God would
doubtless manifest himself, and would frustrate the evil designs of
the English; yet one should not easily and lightly believe the words
of a peasant girl bred in solitude, for the female sex was frail and
easily deceived, and France must not be made ridiculous in the eyes of
the foreigner. "The French," he added, "are already famous for the
ease with which they are duped." He ended by advising Pierre l'Hermite
that it would be well for the King to fast and do penance so that
Heaven might enlighten him and preserve him from error.[700]

[Footnote 700: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 393-407; vol. v, p. 473.
Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol.
ii, pp. 313, 314.]

But the mind of the oracle and ex-councillor could not rest. He wrote
direct to King Charles and Queen Marie to warn them of the danger. To
him it seemed that there could be no good in the damsel. He mistrusted
her for three reasons: first, because she came from a country in the
possession of the King's enemies, Burgundians and Lorrainers;
secondly, she was a shepherdess and easily deceived; thirdly, she was
a maid. He cited as an example Alexander of Macedon, whom a Queen
endeavoured to poison. She had been fed on venom by the King's enemies
and then sent to him in the hope that he would fall a victim to the
wench's[701] wiles. But Aristotle dismissed the seductress and thus
delivered his prince from death. The Archbishop of Embrun, as wise as
Aristotle, warned the King against conversing with the damsel in
private. He advised that she should be kept at a distance and
examined, but not repulsed.

[Footnote 701: [In the original French _garce_.] The text has _grace_,
which is not possible. I have conjectured that the word should be
_garce_.]

A prudent answer to those letters reassured Gélu. In a new epistle he
testified to the King his satisfaction at hearing that the damsel was
regarded with suspicion and left in uncertainty as to whether she
would or would not be believed. Then, with a return to his former
misgivings, he added: "It behoves not that she should have frequent
access to the King until such time as certainty be established
concerning her manner of life and her morals."[702]

[Footnote 702: M. Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou
Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313, 314.]

King Charles did indeed keep Jeanne in uncertainty as to what was
believed of her. But he did not suspect her of craftiness and he
received her willingly. She talked to him with the simplest
familiarity. She called him gentle Dauphin, and by that term she
implied nobility and royal magnificence.[703] She also called him her
_oriflamme_, because he was her _oriflamme_, or, as in modern language
she would have expressed it, her standard.[704] The _oriflamme_ was
the royal banner. No one at Chinon had seen it, but marvellous things
were told of it. The _oriflamme_ was in the form of a gonfanon with
two wings, made of a costly silk, fine and light, called
_sandal_,[705] and it was edged with tassels of green silk. It had
come down from heaven; it was the banner of Clovis and of Saint
Charlemagne. When the King went to war it was carried before him. So
great was its virtue that the enemy at its approach became powerless
and fled in terror. It was remembered how, when in 1304 Philippe le
Bel defeated the Flemings, the knight who bore it was slain. The next
day he was found dead, but still clasping the standard in his
arms.[706] It had floated in front of King Charles VI before his
misfortunes, and since then it had never been unfurled.

[Footnote 703: Clerk of the Town Hall of Albi, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
300.]

[Footnote 704: Thomassin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304.]

[Footnote 705: _Sandal_ or _cendal_, a silk bearing some resemblance
to taffetas. Cf. Godefroy, _Lexique de l'ancien français_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 706: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _auriflamma_. Le
Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 150, 251,
257, 259. [_Histoire générale de Paris._]]

One day when the Maid and the King were talking together, the Duke of
Alençon entered the hall. When he was a child, the English had taken
him prisoner at Verneuil and kept him five years in the Crotoy
Tower.[707] Only recently set at liberty, he had been shooting quails
near Saint-Florent-lès-Saumur, when a messenger had brought the
tidings that God had sent a damsel to the King to turn the English out
of France.[708] This news interested him as much as any one because he
had married the Duke of Orléans' daughter; and straightway he had come
to Chinon to see for himself. In the days of his graceful youth the
Duke of Alençon appeared to advantage, but he was never renowned for
his wisdom. He was weak-minded, violent, vain, jealous, and extremely
credulous. He believed that ladies find favour by means of a certain
herb, the mountain-heath; and later he thought himself bewitched. He
had a disagreeable, harsh voice; he knew it, and the knowledge annoyed
him.[709] As soon as she saw him approaching, Jeanne asked who this
noble was. When the King replied that it was his cousin Alençon, she
curtsied to the Duke and said: "Be welcome. The more representatives
of the blood royal are here the better."[710] In this she was
completely mistaken. The Dauphin smiled bitterly at her words. Not
much of the royal blood of France ran in the Duke's veins.

[Footnote 707: Perceval de Cagny, p. 136. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 224, 249.]

[Footnote 708: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

[Footnote 709: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
iii, pp. 408, 409. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi,
pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 710: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

On the next day Jeanne went to the King's mass. When she approached
her Dauphin she bowed before him. The King took her into a room and
sent every one away except the Sire de la Trémouille and the Duke of
Alençon.

Then Jeanne addressed to him several requests. More especially did she
ask him to give his kingdom to the King of Heaven. "And afterwards,"
she added, "the King of Heaven will do for you what he has done for
your predecessors and will restore you to the condition of your
fathers."[711]

[Footnote 711: _Ibid._, pp. 91, 92. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 152 _et
seq._]

In discoursing thus of things spiritual, in giving utterance to those
precepts of reformation and of a new life, she was repeating what the
clerks had taught her. Nevertheless she was by no means imbued with
this doctrine. It was too subtle for her, and it was shortly to fade
from her mind and give place to an ardour less monastic but more
chivalrous.

That same day she rode out with the King and threw a lance in the
meadow with so fine a grace that the Duke of Alençon, marvelling, made
her a present of a horse.[712]

[Footnote 712: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92.]

A few days later this young noble took her to the Abbey of
Saint-Florent-lès-Saumur,[713] the church of which was so greatly
admired that it was called La Belle d'Anjou. Here in this abbey there
dwelt at that time his mother and his wife. It is said that they were
glad to see Jeanne. But they had no great faith in the issue of the
war. The young Dame of Alençon said to her: "Jeannette, I am full of
fear for my husband. He has just come out of prison, and we have had
to give so much money for his ransom that gladly would I entreat him
to stay at home." To which Jeanne replied: "Madame, have no fear. I
will bring him back to you in safety, and either such as he is now or
better."[714]

[Footnote 713: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148.]

[Footnote 714: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 96.]

She called the Duke of Alençon her fair Duke,[715] and loved him for
the sake of the Duke of Orléans, whose daughter he had married. She
loved him also because he believed in her when all others doubted or
denied, and because the English had done him wrong. She loved him too
because she saw he had a good will to fight. It was told how when he
was a captive in the hands of the English at Verneuil, and they
proposed to give him back his liberty and his goods if he would join
their party, he had rejected their offer.[716] He was young like her;
she thought that he like her must be sincere and noble. And perhaps in
those days he was, for doubtless he was not then seeking to discover
powders with which to dry up the King.[717]

[Footnote 715: Perceval de Cagny, p. 151, _passim_.]

[Footnote 716: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 240.]

[Footnote 717: Cf. 1 Kings xiii, 4 (W.S.). P. Dupuy, _Procès de Jean
II, duc d'Alençon, 1458-1474_, 1658, in 4to. Michelet, _Histoire de
France_, vol. v, p. 382. Docteur Chereau, _Médecins du quinzième
siècle_, in _l'Union Médicale_, vol. xiv, August, 1862. Joseph
Guibert, _Jean II duc d'Alençon_, in _Les positions de l'École des
Chartes_, 1893.]

It was decided that Jeanne should be taken to Poitiers to be examined
by the doctors there.[718] In this town the Parlement met. Here also
were gathered together many famous clerks learned in theology, secular
as well as regular,[719] and grave doctors and masters were summoned
to join them. Jeanne set out under escort. At first she thought she
was being taken to Orléans. Her faith was like that of the ignorant
but believing folk, who, having taken the cross, went forth and
thought every town they approached was Jerusalem. Half way she
inquired of her guides where they were taking her. When she heard that
it was to Poitiers: "In God's name!" she said, "much ado will be
there, I know. But my Lord will help me. Now let us go on in God's
strength!"[720]

[Footnote 718: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 209.]

[Footnote 719: Bélisaire Ledain, _Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers_,
Saint-Maixent, 1891, in 8vo, 15 pages. Neuville, _Le Parlement royal à
Poitiers_, in the _Revue historique_, vol. vi, p. 284.]

[Footnote 720: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 275. _Journal du siège_,
p. 48. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 316.]




CHAPTER VII

THE MAID AT POITIERS


For fourteen years the town of Poitiers had been the capital of that
part of France which belonged to the French. The Dauphin Charles had
transferred his Parlement there, or rather had assembled there those
few members who had escaped from the Parlement of Paris. The Parlement
of Poitiers consisted of two chambers only. It would have judged as
wisely as King Solomon had there been any questions on which to
pronounce judgment, but no litigants presented themselves--they were
afraid of being captured on the way by freebooters and captains in the
King's pay; besides, in the disturbed state of the kingdom justice had
little to do with the settlement of disputes. The councillors, who for
the most part had lands near Paris, were hard put to it for food and
clothing. They were rarely paid and there were no perquisites. In vain
they had inscribed their registers with the formula: _Non deliberetur
donec solvantur species_; no payments were forthcoming from the
suitors.[721] The Attorney General, Messire Jean Jouvenel des Ursins,
who owned rich lands and houses in Île-de-France, Brie, and Champagne,
was filled with pity at the sight of that good and honourable lady
his wife, his eleven children, and his three sons-in-law going
barefoot and poorly clad through the streets of the town.[722] As for
the doctors and professors who had followed the King's fortunes, in
vain were they wells of knowledge and springs of clerkly learning,
since, for lack of a University to teach in, they reaped no advantage
from their eloquence and their erudition. The town of Poitiers, having
become the first city in the realm, had a Parlement but no University,
like a lady highly born but one-eyed withal, for the Parlement and the
University are the two eyes of a great city. Thus in their doleful
leisure they were consumed with a desire, if it were God's will, to
restore the King's fortunes as well as their own. Meanwhile, shivering
with cold and emaciated with hunger, they groaned and lamented. Like
Israel in the desert they sighed for the day when the Lord, inclining
his ear to their supplications, should say: "At even ye shall eat
flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread: and ye shall
know that I am the Lord your God." _Vespere comedetis carnes et mane
saturabimini panibus: scietisque quod ego sum Dominus deus vester._
(Exodus xvi, 12.) It was from among these poor and faithful servants
of a poverty-stricken King that were chosen for the most part the
doctors and clerks charged with the examination of the Maid. They
were: the Lord Bishop of Poitiers;[723] the Lord Bishop of
Maguelonne;[724] Maître Jean Lombard, doctor in theology, sometime
professor of theology at the University of Paris;[725] Maître
Guillaume le Maire, bachelor of theology, canon of Poitiers;[726]
Maître Gérard Machet, the King's Confessor;[727] Maître Jourdain
Morin;[728] Maître Jean Érault, professor of theology;[729] Maître
Mathieu Mesnage, bachelor of theology;[730] Maître Jacques
Meledon;[731] Maître Jean Maçon, a very famous doctor of civil law and
of canon law;[732] Brother Pierre de Versailles, a monk of Saint-Denys
in France, of the order of Saint Benedict, professor of theology,
Prior of the Priory of Saint-Pierre de Chaumont, Abbot of Talmont in
the diocese of Laon, Ambassador of his most Christian Majesty the King
of France;[733] Brother Pierre Turelure, of the Order of Saint
Dominic, Inquisitor at Toulouse;[734] Maître Simon Bonnet;[735]
Brother Guillaume Aimery, of the Order of Saint-Dominic, doctor and
professor of theology;[736] Brother Seguin of Seguin of the Order of
Saint Dominic, doctor and professor of theology;[737] Brother Pierre
Seguin, Carmelite;[738] several of the King's Councillors,
licentiates of civil as well as of canon law.

[Footnote 721: Neuville, _Le Parlement royal à Poitiers_, in the
_Revue historique_, vol. vi, p. 18. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. ii, pp. 571 _et seq._]

[Footnote 722: Louis Battifol, _Jean Jouvenel, prévot des marchands de
la ville de Paris_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo. Juvénal des Ursins, _Histoire
de Charles VI_, pp. 359, 360.]

[Footnote 723: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92. _Gallia Christiana_, vol. ii,
col. 1198.]

[Footnote 724: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle
devant l'Église de son temps_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 725: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 203, 204.]

[Footnote 726: _Ibid._, pp. 19, 203.]

[Footnote 727: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 75. Launoy, _Historia Collegii
Navarrici_, lib. ii, _passim_.]

[Footnote 728: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 92, 102.]

[Footnote 729: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 730: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 92, 102.]

[Footnote 731: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 203.]

[Footnote 732: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 27, 28.]

[Footnote 733: _Ibid._, pp. 19, 74, 92, 203. _Gallia Christiana_, vol.
iii, col. 1128.]

[Footnote 734: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203. _Gallia Christiana_, vol.
iii, col. 1129.]

[Footnote 735: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92.]

[Footnote 736: _Ibid._, pp. 19, 83, 203.]

[Footnote 737: _Ibid._, pp. 19, 203. Le P. Chapotin, _La guerre de
cent ans; Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains_, p. 132.]

[Footnote 738: Canon Dunand, _La légende anglaise de Jeanne_, Paris,
1903, in 8vo, p. 118.]

Here was a large assembly of doctors for the cross-examination of one
shepherdess. But we must remember that in those days theology subtle
and inflexible dominated all human knowledge and forced the secular
arm to give effect to its judgment. Therefore, as soon as an ignorant
girl caused it to be believed that she had seen God, the Virgin, the
saints, and the angels, she must either pass from miracle to miracle,
through an edifying death to beatification, or from heresy to heresy
through an ecclesiastical prison, to be burnt as a witch. And, as the
holy inquisitors were fully persuaded that the Devil easily entered
into a woman, the unhappy creature was more likely to be burnt alive
than to die in an odour of sanctity. But Jeanne before the doctors at
Poitiers was an exception; she ran no risk of being suspected in
matters of faith. Even Brother Pierre Turelure himself had no desire
to find in her one of those heretics he zealously sought to discover
at Toulouse. In her presence the illustrious masters drew in their
theological claws. They were churchmen, but they were Armagnacs, for
the most part business men, diplomatists, old councillors of the
Dauphin.[739] As priests, doubtless they were possessed of a certain
body of dogma and morality, and of a code of rules for judging matters
of faith. But now it was a question not of curing the disease of
heresy, but of driving out the English. Jeanne was in favour with my
Lord the Duke of Alençon and with my Lord the Bastard; the inhabitants
of Orléans were looking to her for their deliverance. She promised to
take the King to Reims; and it happened that the cleverest and the
most powerful man in France, the Chancellor of the kingdom, my Lord
Regnault de Chartres, was Archbishop and Count of Reims; and that had
great weight.[740]

[Footnote 739: O. Raguenet de Saint-Albin, _Les juges de Jeanne d'Arc
à Poitiers, membres du Parlement ou gens d'Église_, Orléans, 1894, in
8vo, 46 pages.]

[Footnote 740: See _ante_, pp. 153, 154.]

If it should be as she said, if God had verily sent her to the aid of
the Lilies, to the mind of whomsoever possessed sense and learning it
appeared marvellous but not incredible. No one denied that God could
directly intervene in the affairs of kingdoms, for he himself had
said: _Per me reges regnant_.

In this Church holy and indivisible, there were the doctors of
Poitiers who deliberately pronounced God to be on the side of the
Dauphin, while the University of Paris as deliberately pronounced God
to be on the side of the Burgundians and the English. His messenger
need not necessarily be an angel. He might employ a creature human or
not human, like the raven that fed Elijah. And that a woman should
engage in war accorded with what was written in books concerning
Camilla, the Amazons, and Queen Penthesilea, and with what the Bible
says of the strong women, Deborah, Jahel, Judith of Bethulia, raised
up by God for the salvation of Israel. For it is written: "The mighty
one did not fall by the young men, neither did the sons of Titans
smite him, nor high giants set upon him; but Judith the daughter of
Merari weakened him with the beauty of her countenance."[741]

[Footnote 741: Judith, xvi, 7 (W.S.).]

Jeanne was taken to the mansion where dwelt Maître Jean Rabateau, not
far from the law-courts, in the heart of the town.[742] Maître Jean
Rabateau was Lay Attorney General; all criminal cases went to him,
while civil cases went to the ecclesiastical Attorney General, Jean
Jouvenel. Alike King's advocates, in the King's service, they both
represented him in cases wherein he was concerned. The King was an
unprofitable client. For representing him in criminal trials Maître
Jean Rabateau received four hundred livres a year. He was forbidden to
appear in any but crown cases; and no one suspected him of receiving
many bribes. If in addition he held the office of Councillor to the
Duke of Orléans he gained little by it. Like most Parlement officials
he was for the moment very poor. A stranger in Poitiers, he had no
house there, but lodged in a mansion, which, because it belonged to a
family named Rosier, was called the Hôtel de la Rose. It was a large
dwelling. Witnesses whom it was necessary to keep securely and deal
with honourably were entertained there. Jeanne was taken there
although the Parlement had nothing to do with her cross-examination.[743]
Once again she was placed in charge of a man who served both the Duke
of Orléans and the King of France.

[Footnote 742: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 19, 74, 82, 203. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 275. B. Ledain, _Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers_,
Saint-Maixent, 1891, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 743: Nevertheless see _Le mistère du siège_, pp. 397-406.]

Jean Rabateau's wife, in common with the wives of all lawyers, was a
woman of good reputation.[744] While she was at La Rose, Jeanne would
stay long on her knees every day after dinner. At night she would
rise from her bed to pray, and pass long hours in the little oratory
of the mansion. It was in this house that the doctors conducted her
examination. When their coming was announced she was seized with cruel
anxiety. The Blessed Saint Catherine was careful to reassure her.[745]
She likewise had disputed with doctors and confounded them. True,
those doctors were heathen, but they were learned and their minds were
subtle; for in the life of the Saint it is written: "The Emperor
summoned fifty doctors versed in the lore of the Egyptians and the
liberal arts. And when she heard that she was to dispute with the wise
men, Catherine feared lest she should not worthily defend the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. But an angel appeared unto her and said: 'I am the
Archangel Saint Michael, and I am come to tell thee that thou shalt
come forth from the strife victorious and worthy of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the hope and crown of those who strive for him.' And the
Virgin disputed with the doctors."[746]

[Footnote 744: There can be no reason for suspecting this lady of not
living up to her reputation, for nothing is known of her, not even
whether she were Maître Jean Rabateau's first or second wife, for he
had two. The first was the daughter of Benoît Pidelet. Cf. B. Ledain,
_La maison de Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers, Maître Jean Rabateau_ (_Revue
du Bas-Poitou_, April, 1891, pp. 48, 66). A. Barbier, _Jeanne d'Arc et
l'hôtellerie de la Rose_, Poitiers, 1892, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 745: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 82.]

[Footnote 746: Voragine, _La légende dorée_ (Vie de Sainte
Catherine).]

The grave doctors and masters and the principal clerks of the
Parlement of Poitiers, in companies of two and three, repaired to the
house of Jean Rabateau, and each one of them in turn questioned
Jeanne. The first to come were Jean Lombard, Guillaume le Maire,
Guillaume Aimery, Pierre Turelure, and Jacques Meledon. Brother Jean
Lombard asked: "Wherefore have you come? The King desires to know what
led you to come to him."

Jeanne's reply greatly impressed these clerks: "As I kept my flocks a
_Voice appeared to me_. The Voice said: 'God has great pity on the
people of France. Jeanne, thou must go into France.' On hearing these
words I began to weep. Then the Voice said unto me: 'Go to
Vaucouleurs. There shalt thou find a captain, who will take thee
safely into France, to the King. Fear not.' I did as I was bidden, and
I came to the King without hindrance."[747]

[Footnote 747: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 204 (evidence of Brother
Seguin).]

Then the word fell to Brother Guillaume Aimery: "According to what you
have said, the Voice told you that God will deliver the people of
France from their distress; but if God will deliver them he has no
need of men-at-arms."

"In God's name," replied the Maid, "the men-at-arms will fight, and
God will give the victory."

Maître Guillaume declared himself satisfied.[748]

[Footnote 748: _Ibid._, pp. 203, 204.]

On the 22nd of March, Maître Pierre de Versailles and Maître Jean
Érault went together to Jean Rabateau's lodging. The squire, Gobert
Thibault, whom Jeanne had already seen at Chinon, came with them. He
was a young man and very simple, one who believed without asking for a
sign. As they came in Jeanne went to meet them, and, striking the
squire on the shoulder, in a friendly manner, she said: "I wish I had
many men as willing as you."[749]

[Footnote 749: _Ibid._, p. 74.]

With men-at-arms she felt at her ease. But the doctors she could not
tolerate, and she suffered torture when they came to argue with her.
Although these theologians showed her great consideration, their
eternal questions wearied her; their slowness and heaviness
exasperated her. She bore them a grudge for not believing in her
straightway, without proof, and for asking her for a sign, which she
could not give them, since neither Saint Michael nor Saint Catherine
nor Saint Margaret appeared during the examination. In retirement, in
the oratory, and in the lonely fields the heavenly visitants came to
her in crowds; angels and saints, descending from heaven, flocked
around her. But when the doctors came, immediately the Jacob's ladder
was drawn up. Besides, the clerks were theologians, and she was a
saint. Relations are always strained between the heads of the Church
Militant and those devout women who communicate directly with the
Church Triumphant. She realised that the revelations granted to her so
abundantly inspired her most favourable judges with doubts, suspicion,
and even mistrust. She dared not confide to them much of the mystery
of her Voices, and when the Churchmen were not present she told
Alençon, her fair Duke, that she knew more and could do more than she
had ever told all those clerks.[750] It was not to them she had been
sent; it was not for them that she had come. She felt awkward in their
presence, and their manners were the occasion of that irritation which
is discernible in more than one of her replies.[751] Sometimes when
they questioned her she retreated to the end of her bench and sulked.

[Footnote 750: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92.]

[Footnote 751: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 275.]

"We come to you from the King," said Maître Pierre de Versailles.

She replied with a bad grace: "I am quite aware that you are come to
question me again. I don't know A from B."[752] But to the question:
"Wherefore do you come?" she made answer eagerly: "I come from the
King of Heaven to raise the siege of Orléans, and take the King to be
crowned and anointed at Reims. Maître Jean Érault, have you ink and
paper? Write what I shall tell you." And she dictated a brief
manifesto to the English captains: "You, Suffort, Clasdas, and La
Poule, in the name of the King of Heaven I call upon you to return to
England."[753]

[Footnote 752: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 74 (evidence of Gobert
Thibault).]

[Footnote 753: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 74. Boucher de Molandon and A. de
Beaucorps, _L'armée anglaise_, p. 111. La Poule, as he is called here,
is identical with Suffort, and is none other than William Pole, Earl
of Suffolk, unless John Pole, William's brother, be intended, but he
was not one of the three organisers of the siege. As for Clasdas or
Glasdale, as the French called him, he served under the orders of the
Commander of Les Tourelles. These errors may have been Jeanne's, or
possibly they were made by the witness. They do not recur in the
letter to the English.]

Maître Jean Érault, who wrote at her dictation, was, like most of the
clerks, favourably disposed towards her. Further, he had his own
ideas. He recollected that Marie of Avignon, surnamed La Gasque, had
uttered true and memorable prophecies to King Charles VI. Now La
Gasque had told the King that the realm was to suffer many sorrows;
and she had seen weapons in the sky. Her story of her vision had
concluded with these words: "While I was afeard, believing myself
called upon to take these weapons, a voice comforted me, saying: 'They
are not for thee, but for a Virgin, who shall come and with these
weapons deliver the realm of France.'" Maître Jean Érault meditated on
these marvellous revelations and came to believe that Jeanne was the
Virgin announced by Marie of Avignon.[754]

[Footnote 754: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 83.]

Maître Gérard Machet, the King's Confessor, had found it written that
a Maid should come to the help of the King of France. He remarked on
it to Gobert Thibault, the Squire, who was no very great
personage;[755] and he certainly spoke of it to several others.
Gérard Machet, Doctor of Theology, sometime Vice Chancellor of the
University, from which he was now excluded, was regarded as one of the
lights of the Church. He loved the court,[756] although he would not
admit it, and enjoyed the favour of the King, who had just rewarded
his services by giving him money with which to purchase a mule.[757]
All doubts concerning the disposition of these doctors are removed by
the discovery that the King's Confessor himself put into circulation
those prophecies which had been distorted in favour of the Maid from
the Bois-Chenu.

[Footnote 755: _Ibid._, p. 75.]

[Footnote 756: _Lettres de Gérard Machet_, Bibl. nat. Latin documents,
no. 8577. Launoy, _Regii Navarræ Gymnasii Parisiensis historia_,
Paris, 1682 (2 vols. in 4to), vol. ii, pp. 533, 557. Du Boulay, _Hist.
Univ. Parisiensis_, vol. v, p. 875. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle
biographie générale_.]

[Footnote 757: De Beaucourt, _Extrait du catalogue des actes de
Charles VII_, p. 18.]

The damsel was interrogated concerning her Voices, which she called
her Council, and her saints, whom she imagined in the semblance of
those sculptured or painted figures peopling the churches.[758] The
doctors objected to her having cast off woman's clothing and had her
hair cut round in the manner of a page. Now it is written: "The woman
shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man
put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the
Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy xxii, 5). The Council of Gangres, held in
the reign of the Emperor Valens, had anathematised women who dressed
as men and cut short their hair.[759] Many saintly women, impelled by
a strange inspiration of the Holy Ghost, had concealed their sex by
masculine garb. At Saint-Jean-des-Bois, near Compiègne, was preserved
the reliquary of Saint Euphrosyne of Alexandria, who lived for
thirty-eight years in man's attire in the monastery of the Abbot
Theodosius.[760] For these reasons, and because of these precedents,
the doctors argued: since Jeanne had put on this clothing not to
offend another's modesty but to preserve her own, we will put no evil
interpretation on an act performed with good intent, and we will
forbear to condemn a deed justified by purity of motive.

[Footnote 758: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 71, 72, 73, 171.]

[Footnote 759: Labbe, _Sacro-Sancta Consilia_ (1671), vol. ii, pp.
413, 434.]

[Footnote 760: Surius, _Vitæ S.S._ (1618), vol. i, pp. 21-24. Gabriel
Brosse, _Histoire abrégée de la vie et de la translation de Sainte
Euphrosine, Vierge d'Alexandrie, patronne de l'abbaye de
Beaulieu-lès-Compiègne_, Paris, 1649, in 8vo.]

Certain of her questioners inquired why she called Charles Dauphin
instead of giving him his title of King. This title had been his by
right since the 30th of October, 1422; for on that day, the ninth
since the death of the King his father, at Mehun-sur-Yèvre, in the
chapel royal, he had put off his black gown and assumed the purple
robe, while the heralds, raising aloft the banner of France, cried:
"Long live the King!"

She answered: "I will not call him King until he shall have been
anointed and crowned at Reims. To that city I intend to take
him."[761]

[Footnote 761: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20.]

Without this anointing there was no king of France for her. Of the
miracles which had followed that anointing she had heard every year
from the mouth of her priest as he recited the glorious deeds of the
Blessed Saint Remi, the patron saint of her parish. This reply was
such as to satisfy the interrogators because, both for things
spiritual and temporal, it was important that the King should be
anointed at Reims.[762] And Messire Regnault de Chartres must have
ardently desired it.

[Footnote 762: It may be noticed that during the consultation of the
doctors, according to the report of it given by Thomassin in _Le
registre Delphinal_, Charles of Valois is designated alike by the
title of King and by that of Dauphin (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 303).]

Contradicted by the clerks, she opposed the Church's doctrine by the
inspiration of her own heart, and said to them: "There is more in the
Book of Our Lord than in all yours."[763]

[Footnote 763: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 86.]

This was a bold and biting reply, which would have been dangerous had
the theologians been less favourably inclined to her. Otherwise they
might have held it to be trespassing on the rights of the Church, who,
as the guardian of the Holy Books, is their jealous interpreter, and
does not suffer the authority of Scripture to be set up against the
decisions of Councils.[764] What were those books, which without
having read she judged to be contrary to those of Our Lord, wherein
with mind and spirit she seemed to read plainly? They would seem to be
the Sacred Canons and the Sacred Decretals. This child's utterance
sapped the very foundations of the Church. Had the doctors of Poitiers
been less zealously Armagnac they would henceforth have mistrusted
Jeanne and suspected her of heresy. But they were loyal servants of
the houses of Orléans and of France. Their cassocks were ragged and
their larders empty;[765] their only hope was in God, and they feared
lest in rejecting this damsel they might be denying the Holy Ghost.
Besides, everything went to prove that these words of Jeanne were
uttered without guile and in all ignorance and simplicity. No doubt
that is why the doctors were not shocked by them.

[Footnote 764: Le Père Didon, _Vie de Jésus_, vol. i, Preface.]

[Footnote 765: Juvénal des Ursins, _Histoire de Charles VI_, p. 359.]

Brother Seguin of Seguin in his turn questioned the damsel. He was
from Limousin, and his speech betrayed his origin. He spoke with a
drawl and used expressions unknown in Lorraine and Champagne. Perhaps
he had that dull, heavy air, which rendered the folk of his province
somewhat ridiculous in the eyes of dwellers on the Loire, the Seine,
and the Meuse. To the question: "What language do your Voices speak?"
Jeanne replied: "A better one than yours."[766]

[Footnote 766: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 204.]

Even saints may lose patience. If Brother Seguin did not know it
before, he learnt it that day. And what business had he to doubt that
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who were on the side of the
French, spoke French? Such a doubt Jeanne could not bear, and she gave
her questioner to understand that when one comes from Limousin one
does not inquire concerning the speech of heavenly ladies.
Notwithstanding he pursued his interrogation: "Do you believe in God?"
"Yes, more than you do," said the Maid, who, knowing nothing of the
good Brother, was somewhat hasty in esteeming herself better grounded
in the faith than he.

But she was vexed that there should be any question of her belief in
God, who had sent her. Her reply, if favourably interpreted, would
testify to the ardour of her faith. Did Brother Seguin so understand
it? His contemporaries represented him as being of a somewhat bitter
disposition. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that he was
good-natured.[767]

[Footnote 767: It seems to have been the fate of the inhabitants of
Limousin to be jeered at by the French of Champagne and of l'Île de
France. After Brother Seguin we have the student from Limousin to whom
Pantagruel says: "Thou art Limousin to the bone and yet here thou wilt
pass thyself off as a Parisian." It is the lot of M. de Pourceaugnac.
La Fontaine, in 1663, writes from Limoges to his wife that the people
of Limousin are by no means afflicted; neither do they labour under
Heaven's displeasure "as the folk of our provinces imagine." But he
adds that he does not like their habits. It would seem that at first
Brother Seguin was annoyed by Jeanne's mocking vivacious repartees.
But he cherished no ill-will against her. "The Limousin's good nature
does not permit the endurance of any unfriendly feeling," says Abel
Hugo in _La France pittoresque: Haute-Vienne_. Cf. A. Précicou,
_Rabelais et les Limousins_, Limoges, 1906, in 8vo.]

"But after all," he said, "it cannot be God's will that you should be
believed unless some sign appear to make us believe in you. On your
word alone we cannot counsel the King to run the risk of granting you
men-at-arms."

"In God's name," she answered, "it was not to give a sign that I came
to Poitiers. But take me to Orléans and I will show you the signs
wherefore I am sent. Let me be given men, it matters not how many, and
I will go to Orléans."

And she repeated what she was continually saying: "The English shall
all be driven out and destroyed. The siege of Orléans shall be raised
and the city delivered from its enemies, after I shall have summoned
it to surrender in the name of the King of Heaven. The Dauphin shall
be anointed at Reims, the town of Paris shall return to its allegiance
to the King, and the Duke of Orléans shall come back from
England."[768]

[Footnote 768: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 205.]

Long did the doctors and masters, following the example of Brother
Seguin of Seguin, urge her to show a sign of her mission. They thought
that if God had chosen her to deliver the French nation he would not
fail to make his choice manifest by a sign, as he had done for Gideon,
the son of Joash. When Israel was sore pressed by the Midianites, and
when God's chosen people hid from their enemies in the caves of the
mountains, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon under an oak, and
said unto him: "Surely I will be with thee and thou shalt smite the
Midianites as one man." To which Gideon made answer: "If now I have
found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with
me." And Gideon made ready a kid and kneaded unleavened cakes; the
flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot and brought
the pot and the basket beneath the oak. Then the Angel of God said
unto him: "Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon
this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so. Then the angel of
the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and
touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out
of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. When
Gideon perceived that he had seen an angel of the Lord, he cried out:
"Alas, O Lord God! for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face
to face."[769] With three hundred men Gideon subdued the Midianites.
This example the doctors had before their minds.[770]

[Footnote 769: Judges, ch. vi. (W.S.).]

[Footnote 770: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20.]

But for the Maid the sign of victory was victory itself. She said
without ceasing: "The sign that I will show you shall be Orléans
relieved and the siege raised."[771]

[Footnote 771: _Ibid._, pp. 20, 205. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
278. _Journal du siège_, p. 49.]

Such persistency made an impression on most of her interrogators. They
determined to make of it, not a stone of stumbling, but rather an
example of zeal and a subject of edification. Since she promised them
a sign it behoved them in all humility to ask God to send it, and,
filled with a like hope, joining with the King and all the people, to
pray to the God, who delivered Israel, to grant them the banner of
victory. Thus were overcome the arguments of Brother Seguin and of
those who, led away by the precepts of human wisdom, desired a sign
before they believed.

After an examination which had lasted six weeks, the doctors declared
themselves satisfied.[772]

[Footnote 772: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 19, 20.]

There was one point it was necessary to ascertain; they must know
whether Jeanne was, as she said, a virgin. Matrons had indeed already
examined her on her arrival at Chinon. Then there was a doubt as to
whether she were man or maid; and it was even feared that she might be
an illusion in woman's semblance, produced by the art of demons, which
scholars considered by no means impossible.[773] It was not long since
the death of that canon who held that now and again knights are
changed into bears and spirits travel a hundred leagues in one night,
then suddenly become sows or wisps of straw.[774] Suitable measures
had therefore been taken. But they must be carried out exactly,
wisely, and cautiously, for the matter was of great importance.

[Footnote 773: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 95; vol. iii, p. 209.]

[Footnote 774: Mary Darmesteter, _Froissart_, Paris, 1894, in 12mo, p.
96.]




CHAPTER VIII

THE MAID AT POITIERS (_continued_)


A belief, common to learned and ignorant alike, ascribed special
virtues to the state of virginity. Such ideas had been handed down
from a remote antiquity; their origin was pre-Christian; they were an
immemorial inheritance, one part of which came from the Gauls and
Germans, the other from the Romans and Greeks. In the land of Gaul
there still lingered a memory of the sacred beauty of the white
priestesses of the forest; and sometimes in the Island of Sein, along
the misty shores of the Ocean, there wandered the shades of those nine
sisters at whose bidding, in days of yore, the tempest raged and was
stilled.

According to these beliefs, which had dawned in the childhood of
races, the gift of prophecy is bestowed on virgins alone. It is the
heritage of a Cassandra or a Velleda. It was said that Sibyls had
prophesied the coming of Jesus Christ. In the Church they were
considered the first witnesses of Christ among the Gentiles, and they
were venerated as the august sisters of the prophets of Israel. The
_Dies Iræ_ mentions one of them in the same breath with King David
himself. By what pious frauds their fame for prophecy was established,
we cannot tell any more than Jean Gerson or Gérard Machet. With the
doctors of the fifteenth century we must look upon these virgins as
speaking the word of truth to the nations, who venerated but did not
understand them. Such was the ancient tradition of the Christian
Church. The most ancient fathers of the Church, Justin, Origen,
Clement of Alexandria, frequently made use of the Sibylline oracles;
and the heathen were at a loss for a reply when Lactantius confronted
them with these prophetesses of the nations. Trusting in the word of
Varro, Saint Jerome firmly believed in their existence. Into _The City
of God_ Saint Augustine introduces the Erythrean Sibyl, who, he says,
faithfully foretold the Life of the Saviour. As early as the
thirteenth century, these virgins of old had their places in
cathedrals by the side of patriarchs and prophets. But it was not
until the fifteenth century that multitudes of them were represented;
sculptured on church porches, carved on choir stalls, painted on
chapel walls or glass windows. Each one has her distinctive attribute.
The Persian holds the lantern and the Libyan the torch, which
illuminated the darkness of the Gentiles. The Agrippine, the European,
and Erythrean are armed with the sword; the Phrygian bears the Paschal
cross; the Hellespontine presents a rose tree in flower; the others
display the visible signs of the mystery they foretell: the Cumæan a
manger; the Delphian, the Samian, the Tiburtine, the Cimmerian a crown
of thorns, a sceptre of reeds, scourges, a cross.[775]

[Footnote 775: Jean Philippe de Lignan, Rome, 1481 (not paginated),
leaf 10 and the following. For the comparison of Jeanne d'Arc to the
ancient Sibyl, see the Clerk of Spire, _Sibylla Francica_, in the
_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 422. Christine de Pisano in the _Trial_, vol. v,
p. 12. Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 8-10. Barbier de Montault, _Iconographie des Sibylles_, in
the _Revue de l'art chrétien_, xiii-xiv (1869-1870). Barraud, _Notice
sur les attributs avec lesquelles on représente les Sibylles aux
XV'e et XVI'e siècles_, in the _Bulletin archéologique de la
Commission historique des arts mon._, vol. iv (1848). Cf. Morosini,
vol. iv, supplement xiv, p. 319.]

The very economy of the Christian religion--the ordering of its
mysteries, wherein humanity is represented as ruined by a woman and
saved by a virgin, and all flesh is involved in Eve's curse--led to
the triumph of virginity and the exaltation of a condition which, in
the words of a Father of the Church, is in the flesh, yet not of the
flesh.

"It is because of virginity," says Saint Gregory of Nyssa, "that God
vouchsafes to dwell with men. It is virginity which gives men wings to
soar towards heaven." Celibacy raises the Apostle John above the
Prince of the Apostles himself. At the funeral of the Virgin Mary,
Peter gave John a palm branch, saying: "It becometh one who is
celibate to bear the Virgin's palm."[776]

[Footnote 776: Voragine, _La légende dorée_ (Assomption de la
Vierge).]

Throughout western Christendom the Virgin Mary--the Virgin _par
excellence_--had been the object of zealous devout worship[777] ever
since the twelfth century. The great cathedrals of northern France,
dedicated to Our Lady, celebrated the feast of their patron saint on
the day of the Assumption. On the sculptured pillar of the central
porch was the Virgin, with her divine Child and the Virgin's lily.
Sometimes Eve figured beneath, in order to represent at once sin and
its redemption: the second Eve redeeming the first, the Virgin exalted
the woman humbled. Marvellous scenes are portrayed on the tympanums of
porches. The Virgin is kneeling; at her side is a flowering lily in a
vase. The Angel, book in hand, greets her with an AVE, thus
transposing the name EVA, _mutans Evæ nomen_. Or again, with her feet
resting on the crescent moon, she rises to the highest heaven:
_Exaltata est super choros angelorum_. Further, from Jesus Christ she
receives the precious crown: _Posuit in capite ejus coronam de lapide
pretioso_. In gems of painted glass, church windows portrayed the
figures of Mary's virginity; the stone which Daniel saw dug from the
mountain by no human hand, Gideon's fleece, Moses' burning bush, and
Aaron's budding rod.

[Footnote 777: Le Curé de Saint-Sulpice, _Notre Dame de France ou
histoire du culte de la Sainte Vierge en France_, Paris, 1862, 7 vols.
in 8vo. Abbé Mignard, _La Sainte Vierge_, Paris, 1877, in 8vo, pp. 382
_et seq._]

In an inexhaustible flow of images, expressed in hymns, sequences, and
litanies, she was the Mystic Rose, the Ivory Tower, the Ark of the
Covenant, the Gate of Heaven, the Morning Star. She was the Well of
Living Water, the Fountain of the Garden, the Walled Orchard, the
Bright and Shining Stone, the Flower of Virtue, the Palm of Sweetness,
the Myrtle of Temperance, the Sweet Ointment.

In the Golden Legend, images rich and charming clothed the idea that
grace and power resided in virginity. The hagiographers burst forth in
loving praise of the brides of Jesus Christ; of those especially who
put on the white robe of virginity and the red roses of martyrdom. It
was during the passion of virgins that miracles of the most abounding
grace were worked. Angels bring down to Dorothea celestial roses,
which she scatters over her executioners. Virgin martyrs exercise
their power over beasts. The lions of the amphitheatre lick the feet
of Saint Thecla. The wild beasts of the circus gather together, and
with tails interlaced, prepare a throne for Saint Euphemia; in the
pit, aspics form a pleasing necklace for Saint Christina. It is not
the will of the divine Spouse for whom they endure anguish that they
should suffer in their modesty. When the executioner tears off Saint
Agnes's garments, her hair grows thicker and clothes her in a
miraculous garment. When Saint Barbara is to be taken naked through
the streets, an angel brings her a white tunic. These Agneses and
these Dorotheas, these Catherines and these Margarets, this legion of
innocent conquerors prepared men's minds to believe in the miracle of
a virgin stronger than armed men. Had not Saint Geneviève turned away
Attila and his barbarian warriors from Paris?

The fable of the Maid and the Unicorn, so widely known in those days,
is a lively expression of this belief in a special virtue residing in
the state of virginity.

The unicorn was half goat and half horse, of immaculate whiteness; it
bore a marvellous sword upon its forehead. Hunters, when they saw it
pass in the thicket, had never been able to reach it, so rapid was its
course. But if a virgin in the forest called the unicorn, the creature
obeyed, came and laid its head on her lap, and allowed such feeble
hands to take and bind it. If however a damsel corrupt and no longer a
maid approached it, the unicorn slew her immediately.[778]

[Footnote 778: _De l'unicorne qu'une jeune fille séduit_, in the
_Bestiaire_ of R. de Fournival (Paulin Paris, _Manuscrits français_,
vol. iv, p. 25). Berger de Xivrey, _Traditions tératologiques_, p.
559. J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, vol. i, p.
320. Vallet de Viriville, _Nouvelles recherches sur Agnès Sorel_, in
_Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de Picardie_, vol. vi, p. 621.
A. Maury, _Croyances et légendes du moyen âge_, pp. 262 _et seq._]

It was even said that a virgin had the power to cure king's evil, by
reciting, fasting and naked, certain magic words; but they were not
words from the Gospel.[779]

[Footnote 779: Leber, _Des cérémonies du sacre_, Paris, 1825, in 8vo,
p. 459.]

While mystics and visionaries were glorifying virginity, the Church,
bent on governing the body as well as the soul, condemned opinions
denying the lawfulness of marriage, which she had constituted a
sacrament. Those who would anathematise all works of the flesh she
held to be abominable and impious. A maid deserved praise for
preserving her virginity, provided always that her motives were
praiseworthy. Two hundred years before the reign of Charles VII, a
young girl of Reims realised that a grave sin may be committed against
the Church of God by refusing the solicitations of a clerk in a
vineyard. Here is the damsel's story as related by the canon Gervais.

"On a day, Guillaume with the White Hands, Uncle of King Philippe of
France, for his pleasure rode forth from his town. A clerk of his
following, Gervais by name, who was in the heat of youth, saw a maiden
walking alone in a vineyard. He went to her, greeted her and asked:
'What are you doing in such great haste?' And with fitting words he
courteously solicited her.

"Without even looking at him, calmly and gravely she replied: 'God
forbid, youth, that I should ever be yours or any man's, for if I were
to lose my virginity and my body its purity, I should inevitably fall
into eternal damnation.'

"Such words caused the clerk to suspect that the maiden belonged to
the impious sect of the Cathari, whom the Church was in those days
pursuing relentlessly and punishing severely. One of the errors of
these heretics was indeed to condemn all carnal intercourse. Impatient
to resolve his doubts, Gervais straightway provoked the damsel to a
discussion on the Church's teaching in this matter. Meanwhile, the
Archbishop, Guillaume with the White Hands, turned his steed, and,
followed by his monks, came to the vineyard where the clerk and the
maiden were disputing together. When he learnt the cause of their
disagreement he ordered the maiden to be seized and brought into the
town. There he exhorted her, and, in charity, endeavoured to convert
her to the Catholic Faith.

"She would not submit, however. 'I am not well enough grounded in
doctrine to defend myself,' she said to him. 'But in the town I have a
mistress, who, with good reasons, will easily refute all your
arguments. She it is who lodges in that house.'

"The Archbishop Guillaume straightway sent to inquire after this
woman; and, having questioned her, perceived that what the maiden had
said concerning her was true. The very next day he convoked an
assembly of clerks and nobles to judge the two women. Both of them
were condemned to be burnt. The mistress contrived to escape, but
promises and persuasions having failed to turn the maiden from the
pernicious error of her ways, she was delivered up to the executioner.
She died without shedding a tear, without uttering a complaint."[780]

[Footnote 780: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en
France_, Paris, 1893, in 8vo, p. 293.]

In the year 1416 there was a certain woman, a native of the Duchy of
Bar, Catherine Sauve by name. She was then a solitary, living at
Montpellier, on the road to Lattes. Having been publicly accused, she
was examined by the Inquisitor's Vicar, Maître Raymond Cabasse, and
found to be infected with the heresy of the Cathari. Among other
errors she maintained that all carnal intercourse is sinful, even in
wedlock. Wherefore she was delivered to the secular arm and burned at
the stake on the 2nd of November in that year.[781]

[Footnote 781: Germain, _Catherine Sauve_, in _Académie des sciences
et lettres de Montpellier, Lettres_, vol. i, 1854, in 4to, pp.
539-552.]

It was then commonly believed that such maidens as gave themselves to
the devil were straightway stripped of their virginity; and that thus
he obtained power over these unhappy creatures.[782] Such ways
accorded with what was known of his libidinous disposition. These
pleasures were tempered to his woeful state. And thereby he gained a
further advantage,--that of unarming his victim,--for virginity is as
a coat of mail against which the darts of hell are but blades of
straw. Hence it was all but certain that a soul vowed to the devil
could not reside within a maid.[783] Wherefore, there was one
infallible way of proving that the peasant girl from Vaucouleurs was
not given up to magic or to sorcery, and had made no pact with the
Evil One. Recourse was had to it.

[Footnote 782: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _Matrimonium_.]

[Footnote 783: Pierre Le Loyer, _Livre des spectres_, 1586, in 4to,
pp. 527, 551.]

Jeanne was seen, visited, privately inspected, and thoroughly examined
by wise women, _mulieres doctas_; by knowing virgins, _peritas
virgines_; by widows and wives, _viduas et conjugates_. First among
these matrons were: the Queen of Sicily and of Jerusalem, Duchess of
Anjou; Dame Jeanne de Preuilly, wife of the Sire de Gaucourt, Governor
of Orléans, who was about fifty-seven years of age; and Dame Jeanne de
Mortemer, wife of Messire Robert le Maçon, Lord of Trèves, a man full
of years.[784] The last was only eighteen, and one would have expected
her to be better acquainted with the _Calendrier des Vieillards_ than
with the formulary of matrons. It is strange with what assurance the
good wives of those days undertook the solution of a problem which had
appeared difficult to King Solomon in all his wisdom.

[Footnote 784: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 102. Vallet de Viriville, article
_Le Maçon_, in _Nouvelle biographie générale_.]

Jeanne of Domremy was found to be a maid pure and intact.[785]

[Footnote 785: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 210. Eberhard Windecke, p. 157.
Morosini, p. 99.]

While she herself was being subjected to the interrogatories of
doctors and the examination of matrons, certain clerics who had been
despatched to her native province were there prosecuting an inquiry
concerning her birth, her life, and her morals.[786] The ecclesiastics
had been chosen from those mendicant Friars[787] who could pass freely
along the highways and byways of the enemy's country without exciting
the suspicion of English and Burgundians. And, indeed, they were in no
way molested. From Domremy and from Vaucouleurs they brought back sure
testimony to the humility, the devotion, the honesty, and the
simplicity of Jeanne. But, most important, they had found no
difficulty in gleaning certain pious tales, such as commonly adorned
the childhood of saints. To these monks we must attribute an important
share in the development of those legends of Jeanne's early years,
which were so soon to become popular. From this time, apparently,
dates the story that when Jeanne was in her seventh year, wolves
spared her sheep, and birds of the woods came at her call and ate
crumbs from her lap.[788] Such saintly flowers suggest a Franciscan
origin; among them are the wolf of Gubbio and the birds preached to by
Saint Francis. These mendicants may also have furnished examples of
the Maid's prophetic gift. They may have spread abroad the story that,
when she was at Vaucouleurs, on the day of the Battle of the Herrings,
she knew of the great hurt inflicted on the French at Rouvray.[789]
The success of such little stories was immediate and complete.

[Footnote 786: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 82.]

[Footnote 787: Siméon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cxliii.
_Trial_, vol. ii, p. 397.]

[Footnote 788: Letter from Perceval de Boulainvilliers to the Duke of
Milan, in the _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 115, 121. _Journal d'un bourgeois
de Paris_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 789: _Journal du siège_, p. 48. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 275.]

After this examination and inquiry, the doctors came to the following
conclusions: "The King, beholding his own need and that of his realm,
and considering the constant prayers to God of his poor subjects and
all others who love peace and justice, ought not to repulse or reject
the Maid who says that God has sent her to bring him succour, albeit
these promises may be nothing[790] but the works of man; neither ought
he lightly or hastily to believe in her. But, according to Holy
Scripture he must try her in two ways: to wit, with human wisdom, by
inquiring of her life, her morals, and her motive, as saith Saint Paul
the Apostle: _Probate spiritus, si ex Deo sunt_; and by earnest prayer
to ask for a sign of her work and her divine hope, by which to tell
whether it is by God's will that she is come. Thus God commanded Ahaz
that he should ask for a sign when God promised him victory, saying
unto him: _Pete signum a Domino_; and Gideon did likewise when he
asked for a sign and many others, etc. Since the coming of the said
Maid, the King hath observed her in the two manners aforesaid: to wit,
by trial of human wisdom and by prayer, asking God for a sign. As for
the first, which is trial by human wisdom, he has tested the said Maid
in her life, her origin, her morals, her intention; and has kept her
near him for the space of six weeks to show her to all people, whether
clerks, ecclesiastics, monks, men-at-arms, wives, widows or others. In
public and in private she hath conversed with persons of all
conditions. But there hath been found no evil in her, nothing but
good, humility, virginity, devoutness, honesty, simplicity. Of her
birth, as well as of her life, many marvellous things are related."

[Footnote 790: The word _seules_ in the text is doubtful.]

"As for the second ordeal, the King asked her for a sign, to which she
replied that before Orléans she would give it, but neither earlier nor
elsewhere, for thus it is ordained of God.

"Now, seeing that the King hath made trial of the aforesaid Maid as
far as it was in his power to do, that he findeth no evil in her, and
that her reply is that she will give a divine sign before Orléans;
seeing her persistency, and the consistency of her words, and her
urgent request that she be sent to Orléans to show there that the aid
she brings is divine, the King should not hinder her from going to
Orléans with men-at-arms, but should send her there in due state
trusting in God. For to fear her or reject her when there is no
appearance of evil in her would be to rebel against the Holy Ghost,
and to render oneself unworthy of divine succour, as Gamaliel said of
the Apostles in the Council of the Jews."[791]

[Footnote 791: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 391, 392.]

In short, the doctors' conclusion was that as yet nothing divine
appeared in the Maid's promises, but that she had been examined and
been found humble, a virgin, devout, honest, simple, and wholly good;
and that, since she had promised to give a sign from God before
Orléans, she must be taken there, for fear that in her the gift of the
Holy Ghost should be rejected.

Of these conclusions a great number of copies were made and sent to
the towns of the realm as well as to the princes of Christendom. The
Emperor Sigismond, for example, received a copy.[792]

[Footnote 792: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 32, 41.]

If the doctors of Poitiers had intended this six weeks inquiry,
culminating in a favourable and solemn conclusion, to bring about the
glorification of the Maid and the heartening of the French people by
the preparation and announcement of the marvel they had before them,
then they succeeded perfectly.[793]

[Footnote 793: The conclusions of the Poitiers commission were
circulated everywhere. Traces of them are to be found in Brittany
(Buchon and _Chronique de Morosini_), in Flanders (_Chronique de
Tournai_ and _Chronique de Morosini_), in Germany (Eb. Windecke), in
Dauphiné (Buchon).]

That prolonged investigation, that minute examination reassured those
doubting minds among the French, who suspected a woman dressed as a
man of being a devil; they flattered men's imaginations with the hope
of a miracle; they appealed to all hearts to judge favourably of the
damsel who came forth radiant from the fire of ordeal and appeared as
if glorified with a celestial halo. Her vanquishing the doctors in
argument made her seem like another Saint Catherine.[794] But that she
should have met difficult questions with wise answers was not enough
for a multitude eager for marvels. It was imagined that she had been
subjected to a strange probation from which she had come forth by
nothing short of a miracle. Thus a few weeks after the inquiry, the
following wonderful story was related in Brittany and in Flanders:
when at Poitiers she was preparing to receive the communion, the
priest had one wafer that was consecrated and another that was not. He
wanted to give her the unconsecrated wafer. She took it in her hand
and told the priest that it was not the body of Christ her Redeemer,
but that the body was in the wafer which the priest had covered with
the corporal.[795] After that there could be no doubt that Jeanne was
a great saint.

[Footnote 794: "_Altra santa Catarina_" (Morosini, vol. iii, p. 52).
There is no doubt that here she is compared to Saint Catherine of
Alexandria and not to Saint Catherine of Sienna.]

[Footnote 795: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 101.]

At the termination of the inquiries, a favourable opportunity for
introducing the Maid into Orléans arrived in the beginning of April.
For her arming and her accoutring she was sent first to Tours.[796]

[Footnote 796: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 66, 210.]

Sixty-six years later, an inhabitant of Poitiers, almost a hundred
years old, told a young fellow-citizen that he had seen the Maid set
out for Orléans on horseback, in white armour.[797] He pointed to the
very stone from which she had mounted her horse in the corner of the
Rue Saint-Etienne. Now, when Jeanne was at Poitiers, she was not in
armour. But the people of Poitou had named the stone "the Maid's
mounting stone." With what a glad eager step the Saint must have leapt
from that stone on to the horse which was to carry her away from those
furred cats to the afflicted and oppressed whom she was longing to
succour.[798]

[Footnote 797: Jean Bouchet, _Annales d'Aquitaine_, in the _Trial_,
vol. iv, pp· 536, 537.]

[Footnote 798: Guilbert, _Histoire des villes de France_, vol. iv,
Poitiers. Cf. B. Ledain, _La Maison de Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers_,
Saint-Maixent, 1892, in 8vo. According to M. Ledain the Hôtel de la
Rose was on the spot now occupied by a house, number 13 in La Rue
Notre-Dame-la-Petite.]




CHAPTER IX

THE MAID AT TOURS


At Tours the Maid lodged in the house of a dame commonly called
Lapau.[799] She was Eléonore de Paul, a woman of Anjou, who had been
lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie of Anjou. Married to Jean du Puy, Lord
of La Roche-Saint-Quentin, Councillor of the Queen of Sicily, she had
remained in the service of the Queen of France.[800]

[Footnote 799: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 66.]

[Footnote 800: Vallet de Viriville, _Notices et extraits de chartes et
de manuscrits appartenant au British Museum de Londres_, in the
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, vol. viii, pp. 139, 140.]

The town of Tours belonged to the Queen of Sicily, who grew richer and
richer as her son-in-law grew poorer and poorer. She aided him with
money and with lands. In 1424, the duchy of Touraine with all its
dependencies, except the castellany of Chinon, had come into her
possession.[801] The burgesses and commonalty of Tours earnestly
desired peace. Meanwhile they made every effort to escape from pillage
at the hands of men-at-arms. Neither King Charles nor Queen Yolande
was able to defend them, so they must needs defend themselves.[802]
When the town watchmen announced the approach of one of those
marauding chiefs who were ravaging Touraine and Anjou, the citizens
shut their gates and saw to it that the culverins were in their
places. Then there was a parley: the captain from the brink of the
moat maintained that he was in the King's service and on his way to
fight the English; he asked for a night's rest in the town for himself
and his men. From the heights of the ramparts he was politely
requested to pass on; and, in case he should be tempted to force an
entry, a sum of money was offered him.[803] Thus the citizens fleeced
themselves for fear of being robbed. In like manner, only a few days
before Jeanne's coming, they had given the Scot, Kennedy, who was
ravaging the district, two hundred livres to go on. When they had got
rid of their defenders, their next care was to fortify themselves
against the English. On the 29th of February of this same year, 1429,
these citizens lent one hundred crowns to Captain La Hire, who was
then doing his best for Orléans. And even on the approach of the
English they consented to receive forty archers belonging to the
company of the Sire de Bueil, only on condition that Bueil should
lodge in the castle with twenty men, and that the others should be
quartered in the inns, where they were to have nothing without paying
for it. Thus it was or was not; and the Sire de Bueil went off to
defend Orléans.[804]

[Footnote 801: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
77.]

[Footnote 802: Vallet de Viriville, _Analyse et fragments tirés des
Archives municipales de Tours_ in _Cabinet historique_, vol. v, pp.
102-121.]

[Footnote 803: Quicherat, _Rodrigue de Villandrando_, Paris, 1879, in
8vo, pp. 14 _et seq._]

[Footnote 804: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, Introduction, p. xxii, note 1.]

In Jean du Puy's house, Jeanne was visited by an Augustinian monk, one
Jean Pasquerel. He was returning from the town of Puy-en-Velay where
he had met Isabelle Romée and certain of those who had conducted
Jeanne to the King.[805]

[Footnote 805: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 101.]

In this town, in the sanctuary of Anis, was preserved an image of the
Mother of God, brought from Egypt by Saint Louis. It was of great
antiquity and highly venerated, for the prophet Jeremiah had with his
own hands carved it out of sycamore wood in the semblance of the
virgin yet to be born, whom he had seen in a vision.[806] In holy week,
pilgrims flocked from all parts of France and of Europe,--nobles,
clerks, men-at-arms, citizens and peasants; and many, for penance or
through poverty, came on foot, staff in hand, begging their bread from
door to door. Merchants of all kinds betook themselves thither; and it
was at once the most popular of pilgrimages and one of the richest
fairs in the world. All round the town the stream of travellers
overflowed from the road on to vineyards, meadows, and gardens. On the
day of the Festival, in the year 1407, two hundred persons perished,
crushed to death in the throng.[807]

[Footnote 806: Francisque Mandet, _Histoire du Velay_, Le Puy,
1860-1862 (7 vols. in 12mo), vol. i, pp. 590 _et seq._ S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, ch. xii.]

[Footnote 807: Jean Juvénal des Ursins, 1407.]

In certain years the feast of the conception of Our Lord fell on the
same day as that of his death; and thus there coincided the promise
and the fulfilment of the promise of the greatest of mysteries. Then
Holy Friday became still holier. It was called Great Friday, and on
that day such as entered the sanctuary of Anis received plenary
indulgence. On that day the crowd of pilgrims was greater than usual.
Now, in the year 1429, Good Friday fell on the 25th of March, the day
of the Annunciation.[808]

[Footnote 808: Nicole de Savigni, _Notes sur les exploits de Jeanne
d'Arc et sur divers évènements de son temps_, in the _Bulletin de la
Société de l'Histoire de Paris_, 1, 1874, p. 43. Chanoine Lucot,
_Jeanne d'Arc en Champagne_, Châlons, 1880, pp. 12, 13.]

There is, therefore, nothing extraordinary in Brother Pasquerel's
meeting Jeanne's relatives at Puy during Holy Week. That a peasant
woman should travel two hundred and fifty miles on foot, through a
country infested with soldiers and other robbers, in a season of snows
and mist, to obtain an indulgence, was an every-day matter if we
remember the surname which had for long been hers.[809] This was not
La Romée's first pilgrimage. As we do not know which members of the
Maid's escort the good Brother met, we are at liberty to conjecture
that Bertrand de Poulengy was among them. We know little about him,
but his speech would suggest that he was a devout person.[810]

[Footnote 809: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 191; vol. ii, p. 74, note. La Romée
may have received her surname for an entirely different reason. Most
of our knowledge of Jeanne's mother is derived from documents of very
doubtful authenticity.]

[Footnote 810: Francis C. Lowell considers the idea of La Romée's
pilgrimage to Puy as a "characteristic example of the madness" of
Siméon Luce (_Joan of Arc_, Boston, 1896, in 8vo, p. 72, note).
Nevertheless, after considerable hesitation, I, like Luce, have
rejected the corrections proposed by Lebrun de Charmettes and
Quicherat, and adopted unamended the text of the _Trial_.]

Jeanne's comrades, having made friends with Pasquerel, said to him:
"You must go with us to Jeanne. We will not leave you until you have
taken us to her." They travelled together. Brother Pasquerel went with
them to Chinon, which Jeanne had left; then he went on to Tours, where
his convent was.

The Augustinians, who claimed to have received their rule from St.
Francis himself, wore the grey habit of the Franciscans. It was from
their order that in the previous year the King had chosen a chaplain
for his young son, the Dauphin Louis. Brother Pasquerel held the
office of reader (_lector_) in his monastery.[811] He was in priest's
orders. Quite young doubtless and of a wandering disposition, like
many mendicant monks of those days, he had a taste for the miraculous,
and was excessively credulous.

[Footnote 811: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 101. For the meaning of _Lector_,
professor of theology, cf. Du Cange.]

Jeanne's comrades said to her: "Jeanne, we have brought you this good
father. You will like him well when you know him."

She replied: "The good father pleases me. I have already heard tell of
him, and even to-morrow will I confess to him." The next day the good
father heard her in confession, and chanted mass before her. He became
her chaplain, and never left her.[812]

[Footnote 812: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 101 _et seq._]

In the fifteenth century Tours was one of the chief manufacturing
towns of the kingdom. The inhabitants excelled in all kinds of trades.
They wove tissues of silk, of gold, and of silver. They manufactured
coats of mail; and, while not competing with the armourers of Milan,
of Nuremberg, and of Augsburg, they were skilled in the forging and
hammering of steel.[813] Here it was that, by the King's command, the
master armourer made Jeanne a suit of mail.[814] The suit he furnished
was of wrought iron; and, according to the custom of that time,
consisted of a helmet, a cuirass in four parts, with epaulets,
armlets, elbow-pieces, fore-armlets, gauntlets, cuisses, knee-pieces,
greaves and shoes.[815] The maker had doubtless no thought of
accentuating the feminine figure. But the armour of that period, full
in the bust, slight in the waist, with broad skirts beneath the
corselet, in its slender grace and curious slimness, always has the
air of a woman's armour, and seems made for Queen Penthesilea or for
the Roman Camilla. The Maid's armour was white and unadorned, if one
may judge from its modest price of one hundred _livres tournois_. The
two suits of mail, made at the same time by the same armourer for Jean
de Metz and his comrade, were together worth one hundred and
twenty-five _livres tournois_.[816] Possibly one of the skilful and
renowned drapers of Tours took the Maid's measure for a _houppelande_
or loose coat in silk or cloth of gold or silver, such as captains
wore over the cuirass. To look well, the coat, which was open in
front, must be cut in scallops that would float round the horseman as
he rode. Jeanne loved fine clothes but still more fine horses.[817]

[Footnote 813: E. Giraudet, _Histoire de la ville de Tours_, Tours,
1874, 2 vols. in 8vo, _passim_.]

[Footnote 814: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 67, 94, 210; vol. iv, pp. 3,
301, 363.]

[Footnote 815: J. Quicherat, _Histoire du costume en France_, Paris,
1875, large 8vo, pp. 270, 271.]

[Footnote 816: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 67, 94, 210. _Relation du
greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 60. "The white armour of fifteenth
century soldiers, simple as it was, was expensive; it cost about ten
thousand francs of our present money. But the complete horse's armour
was included in this" (Maurice Maindron, _Pour l'histoire de
l'armure_, in _Le monde moderne_, 1896). According to the calculation
of P. Clément (_Jacques Coeur et Charles VII_, 1873, p. lxvi), 100
livres would be equal to 4000 francs of present money.]

[Footnote 817: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 76. Letter from Perceval de
Boulainvilliers, _ibid._, vol. v, p. 120. Greffier de la Chambre des
comptes of Brabant, _ibid._, vol. iv, p. 428. Le Fèvre de Saint-Rémy,
_ibid._, p. 439.]

The King invited her to choose a horse from his stables. If we may
believe a certain Latin poet, she selected an animal of illustrious
origin, but very old. It was a war horse, which Pierre de Beauvau,
Governor of Maine and Anjou, had given to one of the King's two
brothers; who had both been dead, the one thirteen years, the other
twelve.[818] This steed, or another, was brought to Lapau's house and
the Duke of Alençon went to see it. The horse must likewise be
accoutred, it must be furnished with a chanfrin to protect its head
and one of those wooden saddles with broad pommels which seemed to
encase the rider.[819] A shield was out of the question. Since
chain-armour, which was not proof against blows, had been succeeded by
that plate-armour, on which nothing could make an impression, they had
ceased to be used save in pageants. As for the sword,--the noblest
part of her accoutrement and the bright symbol of strength joined to
loyalty,--Jeanne refused to take that from the royal armourer; she was
resolved to receive it from the hand of Saint Catherine herself.

[Footnote 818: Anonymous poem in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 38 and note.]

[Footnote 819: Capitaine Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc écuyère_, pp. 146 _et
seq._]

We know that on her coming into France she had stopped at Fierbois and
heard three masses in Saint Catherine's chapel.[820] Therein the
Virgin of Alexandria had many swords, without counting the one Charles
Martel was said to have given her, and which it would not have been
easy to find again. A good Touranian in Touraine, Saint Catherine was
an Armagnac ever on the side of those who fought for the Dauphin
Charles. When captains and soldiers of fortune stood in danger of
death, or were prisoners in the hands of their enemies, she was the
saint they most willingly invoked; for they knew she wished them
well. She did not save them all, but she aided many. They came to
render her thanks; and as a sign of gratitude they offered her their
armour, so that her chapel looked like an armoury.[821] The walls
bristled with swords; and, as gifts had been flowing in for half a
century, ever since the days of King Charles V, the sacristans were
probably in the habit of taking down the old weapons to make room for
the new, hoarding the old steel in some store-house until an
opportunity arrived for selling it.[822] Saint Catherine could not
refuse a sword to the damsel, whom she loved so dearly that every day
and every hour she came down from Paradise to see and talk with her on
earth,--a maiden who in return had shown her devotion by travelling to
Fierbois to do the Saint reverence. For we must not omit to state that
Saint Catherine in company with Saint Margaret had never ceased to
appear to Jeanne both at Chinon and at Tours. She was present at all
those secret assemblies, which the Maid called sometimes her Council
but oftener her Voices, doubtless because they appealed more to her
ears and her mind than to her eyes, despite the burst of light which
sometimes dazzled her, and notwithstanding the crowns she was able to
discern on the heads of the saints. The Voices indicated one sword
among the multitude of those in the Chapel at Fierbois. Messire
Richard Kyrthrizian and Brother Gille Lecourt, both of them priests,
were then custodians of the chapel. Such is the title they assumed
when they signed the accounts of miracles worked by their saint.
Jeanne in a letter caused them to be asked for the sword, which had
been revealed to her. In the letter she said that it would be found
underground, not very deep down, and behind the altar. At least these
were all the directions she was able to give afterwards, and then she
could not quite remember whether it was behind the altar or in front.
Was she able to give the custodians of the chapel any signs by which
to recognise the sword? She never explained this point, and her letter
is lost.[823]

[Footnote 820: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 56, 75, 76, 77.]

[Footnote 821: Abbé Bourassé, _Les miracles de madame sainte Katerine
de Fierboys en Touraine_ (1375-1446), Tours, 1858, in 8vo, _passim_.]

[Footnote 822: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 277. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 69.]

[Footnote 823: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 77. _Les miracles de madame sainte
Katerine_, _passim_.]

It is certain, however, that she believed the sword had been shown to
her in a vision and in no other manner. An armourer of Touraine, whom
she did not know (afterwards she maintained that she had never seen
him), was appointed to carry the letter to Fierbois. The custodians of
the chapel gave him a sword marked with five crosses, or with five
little swords on the blade, not far from the hilt. In what part of the
chapel had they found it? No one knows. A contemporary says it was in
a coffer with some old iron. If it had been buried and hidden it was
not very long before, because the rust could easily be removed by
rubbing. The priests were careful to offer it to the Maid with great
ceremony[824] before giving it to the armourer who had come for it.
They enclosed it in a sheath of red velvet, embroidered with the royal
flowers de luce. When Jeanne received it she recognised it to be the
one revealed to her in a celestial vision and promised her by her
Voices, and she failed not to let the little company of monks and
soldiers who surrounded her know that it was so. This they took to be
a good omen and a sign of victory.[825] To protect Saint Catherine's
sword the priests of the town gave her a second sheath; this one was
of black cloth. Jeanne had a third made of very tough leather.[826]

[Footnote 824: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 76, 234, 236. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 277. _Journal du siège_, p. 49. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 69, 70. Guerneri Berni, in the _Trial_, vol.
iv, p. 519. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 267. Morosini, vol.
iii, p. 109. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, pp. 337, 338.
_Chronique Messine_, edition Bouteiller, 1878, Orléans, in 8vo, 26
pages.]

[Footnote 825: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 75, 235.]

[Footnote 826: _Ibid._, p. 76.]

The story of the sword spread far and wide and was elaborated by many
a curious fable. It was said to be the sword of the great Charles
Martel, long buried and forgotten. Many believed it had belonged to
Alexander and the knights of those ancient days. Every one thought
well of it and esteemed it likely to bring good fortune. When the
English and the Burgundians heard tell of the matter, there soon
occurred to them the idea that the Maid had discovered what was hidden
beneath the earth by taking counsel of demons; or they suspected her
of having herself craftily hidden the sword in the place she had
indicated in order to deceive princes, clergy, and people. They
wondered anxiously whether those five crosses were not signs of the
devil.[827] Thus there began to arise conflicting illusions, according
to which Jeanne appeared either saint or sorceress.[828]

[Footnote 827: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109. _Chronique de
Lorraine_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 332. Eberhard Windecke, p. 101.
Cf. _Journal du siège_, p. 49.]

[Footnote 828: Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 122.]

The King had given her no command. Acting according to the counsel of
the doctors, he did not hinder her from going to Orléans with
men-at-arms. He even had her taken there in state in order that she
might give the promised sign. He granted her men to conduct her, not
for her to conduct. How could she have conducted them since she did
not know the way? Meanwhile she had a standard made according to the
command of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, who had said: "Take the
standard in the name of the King of Heaven!" It was of a coarse white
cloth, or buckram, edged with silk fringe. At the bidding of her
Voices, Jeanne caused a painter of the town to represent on it what
she called "the World,"[829] that is, Our Lord seated upon his throne,
blessing with his right hand, and in his left holding the globe of the
world. On his right and on his left were angels, both painted as they
were in churches, and presenting Our Lord with flowers de luce. Above
or on one side were the names Jhesus--Maria, and the background was
strewn with the royal lilies in gold.[830] She also had a coat-of-arms
painted: on an azure shield a silver dove, holding in its beak a
scroll on which was written: "_De par le Roi du Ciel_."[831] This
coat-of-arms she had painted on the reverse of the standard bearing on
the front the picture of Our Lord. A servant of the Duke of Alençon,
Perceval de Cagny, says that she ordered to be made another and a
smaller standard, a banner, on which was the picture of Our Lady
receiving the angel's salutation. The Tours painter Jeanne employed
came from Scotland and was called Hamish Power. He provided the
material and executed the paintings of the two escutcheons, of the
small one as well as of the large. For this he received from the
keeper of the war treasury twenty-five _livres tournois_.[832] Hamish
Power had a daughter, Héliote by name, who was about to be married and
to whom Jeanne afterwards showed kindness.[833]

[Footnote 829: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 77, 179, 236; vol. iii, p. 103.]

[Footnote 830: _Ibid._, pp. 78, 117.]

[Footnote 831: _Ibid._, pp. 78, 117, 181, 300. _Relation du greffier
de La Rochelle_, p. 338. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 110; vol. iv,
supplement, xv, pp. 313, 315.]

[Footnote 832: Perceval de Cagny, p. 150. _Journal du siège_, p. 76.
_Relation du greffier d'Albi_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 301.
_Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 338. _Chronique du doyen de
Saint-Thibaud de Metz_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 322. Extract from
the thirteenth account of Hémon Raguier, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
258.]

[Footnote 833: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 65; _Un épisode de la vie de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliothèque de
l'École des Chartes_, vol. iv, first series, p. 488.]

The standard was the signal for rallying. For long only kings,
emperors, and leaders in war had had the right of raising it. The
feudal suzerain had it carried before him; vassals ranged themselves
beneath their lord's banners. But in 1429 banners had ceased to be
used save in corporations, guilds, and parishes, borne only before the
armies of peace. In war they were no longer needed. The meanest
captain, the poorest knight had his own standard. When fifty French
men-at-arms went forth from Orléans against a handful of English
marauders, a crowd of banners like a swarm of butterflies waved over
the fields. "To raise one's standard" came to be a figure of speech
for "to be puffed up."[834] So indeed it was permissible for a
freebooter to raise his standard when he commanded scarce a score of
men-at-arms and half-naked bowmen. Even if Jeanne, as she may have
done, held her standard to be a sign of sovereign command, and if,
having received it from the King of Heaven, she thought to raise it
above all others, was there a soul in the realm to say her nay? What
had become of all those feudal banners which for eighty years had been
in the vanguard of defeat; sown over the fields of Crécy; collected
beneath bushes and hedges by Welsh and Cornish swordsmen; lost in the
vineyards of Maupertuis, trampled underfoot by English archers on the
soft earth into which sank the corpses of Azincourt; gathered in
handfuls under the walls of Verneuil by Bedford's marauders? It was
because all these banners had miserably fallen, it was because at
Rouvray a prince of the blood royal had shamefully trailed his nobles'
banners in flight, that the peasant now raised her banner.

[Footnote 834: In Beaudouin de Sebourg (xx, 249) is the passage:

    _Il est cousin au conte
    Il en fait estandart_

quoted by Godefroy. Cf. La Curne and Littré.]




CHAPTER X

THE SIEGE OF ORLÉANS FROM THE 7TH OF MARCH TO THE 28TH OF APRIL, 1429


Since the terrible and ridiculous discomfiture of the King's men in
the Battle of the Herrings, the citizens of Orléans had lost all faith
in their defenders.[835] Their minds agitated, suspicious and
credulous were possessed by phantoms of fear and wrath. Suddenly and
without reason they believe themselves betrayed. One day it is
announced that a hole big enough for a man to pass through has been
made in the town wall just where it skirts the outbuildings of the
Aumône.[836] A crowd of people hasten to the spot; they see the hole
and a piece of the wall which had been restored, with two loop-holes;
they fail to understand, and think themselves sold and betrayed into
the enemy's hands; they rave and break forth into howls, and seek the
priest in charge of the hospital to tear him to pieces.[837] A few
days after, on Holy Thursday, a similar rumour is spread abroad:
traitors are about to deliver up the town into the hands of the
English. The folk seize their weapons; soldiers, burgesses, villeins
mount guard on the outworks, on the walls and in the streets. On the
morrow, the day after that on which the panic had originated, fear
still possesses them.[838]

[Footnote 835: "_Pourquoy la Hire, Poton et plusieurs autres vaillants
hommes qui moult enviz s'en alloient ainsi honteusement_," _Journal du
siège_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 836: The hospital of Orléans, close to the cathedral.]

[Footnote 837: 9 March. _Journal du siège_, pp. 56, 57.]

[Footnote 838: _Journal du siège_, p. 64.]

In the beginning of March the besiegers saw approaching the Norman
vassals, summoned by the Regent. But they were only six hundred and
twenty-nine lances all told, and they were only bound to serve for
twenty-six days. Under the leadership of Scales, Pole, and Talbot, the
English continued the investment works as best they could.[839] On the
10th of March, two and a half miles east of the city, they occupied
without opposition the steep slope of Saint-Loup and began to erect a
bastion there, which should command the upper river and the two roads
from Gien and Pithiviers, at the point where they meet near the
Burgundian gate.[840] On the 20th of March they completed the bastion
named London, on the road to Mans. Between the 9th and 15th of April
two new bastions were erected towards the west, Rouen nine hundred
feet east of London, Paris nine hundred feet from Rouen. About the
20th they fortified Saint-Jean-le-Blanc across the Loire and
established a watch to guard the crossing of the river.[841] This was
but little in comparison with what remained to be done, and they were
short of men; for they had less than three thousand round the town.
Wherefore they fell upon the peasants. Now that the season for tending
the vines was drawing near, the country folk went forth into the
fields thinking only of the land; but the English lay in wait for
them, and when they had taken them prisoners, set them to work.[842]

[Footnote 839: Boucher de Molandon, _L'armée anglaise vaincue par
Jeanne d'Arc_, ch. ii. Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 60,
107, 110, 112.]

[Footnote 840: _Journal du siège_, pp. 57, 58. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire
du siège_, dissertation vi.]

[Footnote 841: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 265, 267. Morosini, vol.
iv, supplement xiii.]

[Footnote 842: _Journal du siège_, p. 58.]

In the opinion of those most skilled in the arts of war, these
bastions were worthless. They were furnished with no stabling for
horses. They could not be built near enough to render assistance to
each other; the besieger was in danger of being himself besieged in
them. In short, from these vexatious methods of warfare the English
reaped nothing but disappointment and disgrace. The Sire de Bueil, one
of the defenders, perceived this when he was reconnoitring.[843] In
fact it was so easy to pass through the enemy's lines that merchants
were willing to run the risk of taking cattle to the besieged. There
entered into the town, on the 7th of March, six horses loaded with
herrings; on the 15th, six horses with powder; on the 29th, cattle and
victuals; on the 2nd of April, nine fat oxen and horses; on the 5th,
one hundred and one pigs and six fat oxen; on the 9th, seventeen pigs,
horses, sucking-pigs, and corn; on the 13th, coins with which to pay
the garrison; on the 16th, cattle and victuals; on the 23rd, powder
and victuals. And more than once the besieged had carried off, in the
very faces of the English, victuals and ammunition destined for the
besiegers and including casks of wine, game, horses, bows, forage, and
even twenty-six head of large cattle.[844]

[Footnote 843: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. xxii; vol. ii, p. 44.]

[Footnote 844: _Journal du siège_, pp. 56, 62.]

The siege was costing the English dear,--forty thousand _livres
tournois_ a month.[845] They were short of money; they were obliged to
resort to the most irritating expedients. By a decree of the 3rd of
March King Henry had recently ordered all his officers in Normandy to
lend him one quarter of their pay.[846] In their huts of wood and
earth, the men-at-arms, who had endured much from the cold, now began
to suffer hunger.

[Footnote 845: Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 50, 58.]

[Footnote 846: Pierre Sureau's account in Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée
anglaise_, proofs and illustrations, no. vi, pp. 45, 46.]

The wasted fields of La Beauce, of l'Île-de-France, and of Normandy
could furnish them with no great store of sheep or oxen. Their food
was bad, their drink worse. The vintage of 1427 had been bad, that of
the following year was poor and weak--more like sour grapes than
wine.[847] Now an old English author has written of the soldiers of
his country:

    "They want their porridge and their fat bull-beeves:
    Either they must be dieted like mules
    And have their provender tied to their mouths
    Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice."[848]

[Footnote 847: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 221, 222 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 848: Shakespeare, _Henry VI_, part i, act i, scene ii.
According to M. G. Duval the first part of this play was adapted from
one of Shakespeare's predecessors.]

A sudden humiliation still further weakened the English. Captain Poton
de Saintrailles and the two magistrates, Guyon du Fossé and Jean de
Saint-Avy, who had gone on an embassy to the Duke of Burgundy,
returned to Orléans on the 17th of April. The Duke had granted their
request and consented to take the town under his protection. But the
Regent, to whom the offer had been made, would not have it thus.

He replied that he would be very sorry if after he had beaten the bush
another should go off with the nestlings.[849] Therefore the offer was
rejected. Nevertheless the embassy had been by no means useless, and
it was something to have raised a new cause of quarrel between the
Duke and the Regent. The ambassadors returned accompanied by a
Burgundian herald who blew his trumpet in the English camp, and, in
the name of his master, commanded all combatants who owed allegiance
to the Duke to raise the siege. Some hundreds of archers and
men-at-arms, Burgundians, men of Picardy and of Champagne, departed
forthwith.[850]

[Footnote 849: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 65.]

[Footnote 850: _Journal du siège_, pp. 69, 70. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 270. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 317 _et seq._ Morosini,
vol. iii, pp. 19, 20, 21; vol. iv, supplement xiv, p. 311. Jarry, _Le
compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 68 _et seq._ Boucher de Molandon,
_L'armée anglaise vaincue par Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 145.]

On the next day, at four o'clock in the morning, the citizens
emboldened and deeming the opportunity a good one, attacked the camp
of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. They slew the watch and entered the
camp, where they found piles of money, robes of martin, and a goodly
store of weapons. Absorbed in pillage, they paid no heed to defending
themselves and were surprised by the enemy, who in great force had
hastened to the place. They fled pursued by the English who slew many.
On that day the town resounded with the lamentations of women weeping
for a father, a husband, a brother, kinsmen.[851]

[Footnote 851: _Journal du siège_, p. 70.]

Within those walls, in a space where there was room for not more than
fifteen thousand inhabitants, forty thousand[852] were huddled
together, one vast multitude agonised by all manner of suffering;
depressed by domestic sorrow; racked with anxiety; maddened by
constant danger and perpetual panic. Although the wars of those days
were not so sanguinary as they became later, the sallies of the
inhabitants of Orléans were the occasion of constant and considerable
loss of life. Since the middle of March the English bullets had fallen
more into the centre of the town; and they were not always harmless.
On the eve of Palm Sunday one stone, fired from a mortar, killed or
wounded five persons; another, seven.[853] Many of the inhabitants,
like the provost, Alain Du Bey, died of fatigue or of the infected
air.[854]

[Footnote 852: Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, part vi, ch. i. Abbé
Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, dissertation ix. Loiseleur, _Compte des
dépenses de Charles VII_, ch. v. Lottin, _Recherches historiques sur
la ville d'Orléans_, vol. ii, p. 205. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 25, note
2.]

[Footnote 853: _Journal du siège_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 854: _Ibid._, p. 59.]

In the Christendom of those days all men were taught to believe that
earthquakes, wars, famine, pestilence are punishments for wrong-doing.
Charles, the Fair Duke of Orléans, good Christian that he was, held
that great sorrows had come upon France as chastisement for her sins,
to wit: swelling pride, gluttony, sloth, covetousness, lust, and
neglect of justice, which were rife in the realm; and in a ballad he
discoursed of the evil and its remedy.[855] The people of Orléans
firmly believed that this war was sent to them of God to punish
sinners, who had worn out his patience. They were aware both of the
cause of their sorrows and of the means of remedying them. Such was
the teaching of the good friars preachers; and, as Duke Charles put it
in his ballad, the remedy was to live well, to amend one's life, to
have masses said and sung for the souls of those who had suffered
death in the service of the realm, to renounce the sinful life, and to
ask forgiveness of Our Lady and the saints.[856] This remedy had been
adopted by the people of Orléans. They had had masses said in the
Church of Sainte-Croix for the souls of nobles, captains, and
men-at-arms killed in their service, and especially for those who had
died a piteous death in the Battle of the Herrings. They had offered
candles to Our Lady and to the patron saints of the town, and had
carried the shrine of Saint-Aignan round the walls.[857]

[Footnote 855: Charles d'Orléans, _Poésies_, edited by A.
Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, in 8vo, p. 176.]

[Footnote 856: Miniature in the MS. of the poems of Charles d'Orléans,
in the British Museum, Royal 16 F. ii, fol. 73 v'o.]

[Footnote 857: _Journal du siège_, p. 43. Symphorien Guyon, _Histoire
de la ville d'Orléans_, vol. ii, p. 43.]

Every time they felt themselves in great danger, they brought it forth
from the Church of Sainte-Croix, carried it in grand procession round
the town and over the ramparts,[858] then, having brought it back to
the cathedral, they listened to a sermon preached in the porch by a
good monk chosen by the magistrates.[859] They said prayers in public
and resolved to amend their lives. Wherefore they believed that in
Paradise Saint Euverte and Saint-Aignan, touched by their piety, must
be interceding for them with Our Lord; and they thought they could
hear the voices of the two pontiffs. Saint Euverte was saying,
"All-powerful Father, I pray and entreat thee to save the city of
Orléans. It is mine. I was its bishop. I am its patron saint. Deliver
it not up to its enemies."

[Footnote 858: _Chronique de la fête_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
297.]

[Footnote 859: Accounts of the Commune, _passim_, in _Journal du
siège_, pp. 210 _et seq._]

Then afterwards spoke Saint-Aignan: "Give peace to the people of
Orléans. Father, thou who by the mouth of a child didst appoint me
their shepherd, grant that they fall not into the hands of the enemy."

The inhabitants of Orléans expected that the Lord would not at once
answer the prayers of the two confessors. Knowing the sternness of his
judgments they feared lest he would reply: "For their sins are the
French people justly chastised. They suffer because of their
disobedience to Holy Church. From the least to the greatest in the
realm each vies with the other in evil-doing. The husbandmen,
citizens, lawyers and priests are hard and avaricious; the princes,
dukes and noble lords are proud, vain, cursers, swearers, and
traitors. The corruptness of their lives infects the air. It is just
that they suffer chastisement."

That the Lord should speak thus must be expected, because he was angry
and because the people of Orléans had greatly sinned. But now, behold,
Our Lady, she who loves the King of the Lilies, prays for him and for
the Duke of Orléans to the Son, whose pleasure it is to do her will in
all things: "My Son, with all my heart I entreat thee to drive the
English from the land of France; they have no right to it. If they
take Orléans, then they will take the rest at their pleasure. Suffer
it not, O my Son, I beseech thee." And Our Lord, at the prayer of his
holy Mother, forgives the French and consents to save them.[860]

[Footnote 860: _Mistère du siège_, lines 6964 _et seq._]

Thus in those days, according to their ideas of the spiritual world,
did men represent even the councils of Paradise. There were folk not a
few, and those not unlearned, who believed that as the result of these
councils Our Lord had sent his Archangel to the shepherdess. And it
might even be possible that he would save the kingdom by the hand of a
woman. Is it not in the weak things of the world that he maketh his
power manifest?

Did he not allow the child David to overthrow the giant Goliath, and
did he not deliver into the hands of Judith the head of Holophernes?
In Orléans itself was it not by the mouth of a babe that he had caused
to be named that shepherd who was to deliver the besieged town from
Attila?[861]

[Footnote 861: Aug. Theiner, _Saint Aignan ou le siège d'Orléans par
Attila, notice historique suivie de la vie de ce saint, tirée des MSS.
de la Bibliothèque du Roi_, Paris, 1832, in 8vo.]

The Lord of Villars and Messire Jamet du Tillay, having returned from
Chinon, reported that they had with their own eyes seen the Maid; and
they told of the marvels of her coming. They related how she had
travelled far, fording rivers, passing by many towns and villages held
by the English, as well as through those French lands wherein were
rife pillage and all manner of evils. Then they went on to tell how,
when she was taken to the King, she had spoken fair words to him as
she curtsied, saying: "Gentle Dauphin, God sends me to help and
succour you. Give me soldiers, for by grace divine and by force of
arms, I will raise the siege of Orléans and then lead you to your
anointing at Reims, according as God hath commanded me, for it is his
will that the English return to their country and leave in peace your
kingdom which shall remain unto you. Or, if they do not quit the land,
then will God cause them to perish." Further, they told how,
interrogated by certain prelates, knights, squires, and doctors in
law, her bearing had been found honest and her words wise. They
extolled her piety, her candour, that simplicity which testified that
God dwelt with her, and that skill in managing a horse and wielding
weapons which caused all men to marvel.[862]

[Footnote 862: _Journal du siège_, p. 46. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 278. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, p. 66.]

At the end of March, tidings came, that, taken to Poitiers, she had
there been examined by doctors and famous masters, and had replied to
them with an assurance equal to that of Saint Catherine before the
doctors at Alexandria. Because her words were good and her promises
sure, it was said that the King, trusting in her, had caused her to be
armed in order that she might go to Orléans, where she would soon
appear, riding on a white horse, wearing at her side the sword of
Saint Catherine and holding in her hand the standard she had received
from the King of Heaven.[863]

[Footnote 863: _Journal du siège_, pp. 47, 48. P. Mantellier,
_Histoire du siège_, pp. 61 _et seq._]

To the ecclesiastics what was told of Jeanne seemed marvellous but not
incredible, since parallel instances were to be found in sacred
history, which was all the history they knew. To those who were
lettered among them their erudition furnished fewer reasons for denial
than for doubt or belief. Those who were simple frankly wondered at
these things.

Certain of the captains, and certain even of the people, treated them
with derision. But by so doing they ran the risk of ill usage. The
inhabitants of the city believed in the Maid as firmly as in Our Lord.
From her they expected help and deliverance. They summoned her in a
kind of mystic ecstasy and religious frenzy. The fever of the siege
had become the fever of the Maid.[864]

[Footnote 864: _Journal du siège_, p. 77.]

Nevertheless, the use made of her by the King's men proved that,
following the counsel of the theologians, they were determined to
adopt only such methods as were prompted by human prudence. She was to
enter the town with a convoy of victuals, then being prepared at Blois
by order of the King assisted by the Queen of Sicily.[865] In all the
loyal provinces a new effort was being made for the relief and
deliverance of the brave city. Gien, Bourges, Blois, Châteaudun, Tours
sent men and victuals; Angers, Poitiers, La Rochelle, Albi, Moulins,
Montpellier, Clermont sulphur, saltpetre, steel, and arms.[866] And if
the citizens of Toulouse gave nothing it was because their city, as
the notables consulted by the _capitouls_[867] ingenuously declared,
had nothing to give--_non habebat de quibus_.[868]

[Footnote 865: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93. _Geste des nobles_, in _La
chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 250. The Accounts of fortresses
(1428-1430), in Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 30 _et seq._]

[Footnote 866: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 287. _Journal du siège_,
p. 81. Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp.
28, 29. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 230.]

[Footnote 867: The name by which the town councillors of Toulouse were
called.]

[Footnote 868: _Le siège d'Orléans, Jeanne d'Arc et les capitouls de
Toulouse_, by A. Thomas, in _Annales du Midi_, 1889, p. 232. It would
appear that Saint-Flour, although solicited, did not contribute: it
had enough to do to defend itself from the freebooters who were
constantly hovering round. Cf. _Villandrando et les écorcheurs à
Saint-Flour_ by M. Boudet, Clermont-Ferrand, 1895, in 8vo, pp. 18 _et
seq._]

The King's councillors, notably my Lord Regnault de Chartres,
Chancellor of the Realm, were forming a new army. What they had failed
to accomplish, by means of the men of Auvergne, they would now attempt
with troops from Anjou and Le Mans. The Queen of Sicily, Duchess of
Touraine and Anjou, willingly lent her aid. Were Orléans taken she
would be in danger of losing lands by which she set great store.
Therefore she spared neither men, money, nor victuals. After the
middle of April, a citizen of Angers, one Jean Langlois, brought
letters informing the magistrates of the imminent arrival of the corn
she had contributed. The town gave Jean Langlois a present, and the
magistrates entertained him at dinner at the Écu Saint-Georges. This
corn was a part of that large convoy which the Maid was to
accompany.[869]

[Footnote 869: Receipts of the town of Orléans in 1429, in Boucher de
Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 36.]

Towards the end of the month, by order of my Lord the Bastard, the
captains of the French garrisons of La Beauce and Gâtinais, betook
themselves to the town to reinforce the army of Blois, the arrival of
which was announced. On the 28th, there entered my Lord Florent
d'Illiers,[870] Governor of Châteaudun, with four hundred fighting
men.[871]

[Footnote 870: Florent d'Illiers, descended from an old family of the
Chartres country, had married Jeanne, daughter of Jean de Coutes and
sister of the little page whom the Sire de Gaucourt had given the Maid
(A. de Villaret).]

[Footnote 871: _Journal du siège_, p. 73. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 278.]

What was to become of Orléans? The siege, badly conducted, was causing
the English the most grievous disappointments. Further, their captains
perceived they would never succeed in taking the town by means of
those bastions, between which anything, either men, victuals, or
ammunition, could pass, and with an army miserably quartered in mud
hovels, ravaged by disease, and reduced by desertions to three
thousand, or at the most to three thousand two hundred men. They had
lost nearly all their horses. Far from being able to continue the
attack it was hard for them to maintain the defensive and to hold out
in those miserable wooden towers, which, as Le Jouvencel said, were
more profitable to the besieged than to the besiegers.[872]

[Footnote 872: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 44.]

Their only hope, and that an uncertain and distant one, lay in the
reinforcements, which the Regent was gathering with great
difficulty.[873] Meanwhile, time seemed to drag in the besieged town.
The warriors who defended it were brave, but they had come to the end
of their resources and knew not what more to do. The citizens were
good at keeping guard, but they would not face fire. They did not
suspect the miserable condition to which the besiegers had been
reduced. Hardship, anxiety, and an infected atmosphere depressed their
spirits. Already they seemed to see _Les Coués_ taking the town by
storm, killing, pillaging, and ravaging. At every moment they believed
themselves betrayed. They were not calm and self-possessed enough to
recognise the enormous advantages of their situation. The town's means
of communication, whereby it could be indefinitely reinforced and
revictualled, were still open. Besides, a relieving army, well in
advance of that of the English, was on the point of arriving. It was
bringing a goodly drove of cattle, as well as men and ammunition
enough to capture the English fortresses in a few days.

[Footnote 873: Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 75 _et
seq._]

With this army the King was sending the Maid who had been promised.




CHAPTER XI

THE MAID AT BLOIS--THE LETTER TO THE ENGLISH--THE DEPARTURE FOR
ORLÉANS


With an escort of soldiers of fortune the Maid reached Blois at the
same time as my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Chancellor of France, and
the Sire de Gaucourt, Governor of Orléans.[874] She was in the domain
of the Prince, whom it was her great desire to deliver: the people of
Blois owed allegiance to Duke Charles, a prisoner in the hands of the
English. Merchants were bringing cows, rams, ewes, herds of swine,
grain, powder and arms into the town.[875] The Admiral, De Culant, and
the Lord Ambroise de Loré had come from Orléans to superintend the
preparations. The Queen of Sicily herself had gone to Blois.
Notwithstanding that at this time the King consulted her but seldom,
he now sent to her the Duke of Alençon, commissioned to concert with
her measures for the relief of the city of Orléans.[876] There came
also the Sire de Rais, of the house of Laval and of the line of the
Dukes of Brittany, a noble scarce twenty-four, generous and
magnificent, bringing in his train, with a goodly company from Maine
and Anjou, organs for his chapel, choristers, and little singing-boys
from the choir school.[877] The Marshal de Boussac, the Captains La
Hire and Poton came from Orléans.[878] An army of seven thousand men
assembled beneath the walls of the town.[879] All that was now waited
for was the money necessary to pay the cost of the victuals and the
hire of the soldiers. Captains and men-at-arms did not give their
services on credit. As for the merchants, if they risked the loss of
their victuals and their life, it was only for ready money.[880] No
cash, no cattle--and the wagons stayed where they were.

[Footnote 874: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 4.]

[Footnote 875: _Journal du siège_, _passim_. _Chronique de Tournai_,
ed. Smedt (vol. iii, in the _Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_), p.
409.]

[Footnote 876: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93.]

[Footnote 877: Wavrin, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 407. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 316. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 278. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, p. 68. _Mistère du siège_, lines 11,431 _et seq._ Abbé
Bossard, _Gilles de Rais, Maréchal de France, dit Barbe-Bleue_
(1404-1440), Paris, 1886, 8vo, pp. 31, 106.]

[Footnote 878: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 74.]

[Footnote 879: Jeanne says (in her _Trial_) from 10,000 to 12,000 men;
Monstrelet says, 7000; Eberhard Windecke, 3000; Morosini, 12,000.]

[Footnote 880: "_Car vous ne trouverez nulz marchans qu'ils se mettent
en ceste peine ne en ce danger, s'ilz n'ont l'argent contant._" ("For
you will find no merchants who will take that trouble, and run that
risk, unless they are paid ready money.") _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p.
184.]

In the month of March, Jeanne had dictated to one of the doctors at
Poitiers a brief manifesto intended for the English.[881] She expanded it
into a letter, which she showed to certain of her companions and afterwards
sent by a Herald from Blois to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.
This letter was addressed to King Henry, to the Regent and to the
three chiefs, who, since Salisbury's death, had been conducting the
siege, Scales, Suffolk, and Talbot. The following is the text of
it:[882]

[Footnote 881: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 74.]

[Footnote 882: There are eight ancient texts of this letter: (1) the
text used in the Rouen trial (_Trial_, i, p. 240); (2) a text probably
written by a Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem; the
original document has been lost, but there are two copies dating from
the 18th century (_Ibid._, v, p. 95); (3) the text contained in _Le
journal du siège_ (_Ibid._, iv, p. 139); (4) the text in _La chronique
de la Pucelle_ (_Ibid._, iv, p. 215); (5) the text in Thomassin's
_Registre Delphinal_ (_Ibid._, iv, p. 306); (6) the text of the
Greffier de La Rochelle (_Revue historique_, vol. iv); (7) the text of
the Tournai Chronicle (_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii,
p. 407); (8) the text in _Le mistère du siège_. There may be mentioned
also a German contemporary translation by Eberhard Windecke.

The text from the _Trial_ is the one quoted here. It is a reproduction
of the original. The others differ from it and from original too
widely for it to be possible to indicate the differences except by
giving the whole of each text. And after all these variations are of
no great importance.]

     [cross symbol] JHESUS MARIA [cross symbol]

     King of England, and you, Duke of Bedford, who call yourself
     Regent of the realm of France,--you, Guillaume de la Poule,
     Earl of Sulford; Jehan, Sire de Talebot, and you Thomas,
     Sire d'Escales, who call yourselves Lieutenants of the said
     Duke of Bedfort, do right in the sight of the King of
     Heaven. Surrender to the Maid sent hither by God, the King
     of Heaven, the keys of all the good[883] towns in France
     that you have taken and ravaged.[884] She is come here in
     God's name to claim the Blood Royal.[885] She is ready to
     make peace if so be you will do her satisfaction by giving
     and paying back to France what you have taken from
     her.[886] And you, archers, comrades-in-arms, gentle and
     otherwise,[887] who are before the town of Orléans, go ye
     hence into your own land, in God's name. And if you will
     not, then hear the wondrous works[888] of the Maid who will
     shortly come upon you to your very great hurt. And you, King
     of England, if you do not thus, I am a Chieftain of
     war,--and in whatsoever place in France I meet with your
     men, I will force them to depart willy nilly; and if they
     will not, then I will have them all slain. I am sent hither
     by God, the King of Heaven, body for body, to drive them all
     out of the whole of France. And if they obey, then will I
     show them mercy. And think not in your heart that you will
     hold the kingdom of France [from] God, the King of Heaven,
     Son of the Blessed Mary, for it is King Charles, the true
     heir, who shall so hold it. God, the King of Heaven, so
     wills it, and he hath revealed it unto King Charles by the
     Maid. With a goodly company the King shall enter Paris. If
     ye will not believe these wondrous works wrought by God and
     the Maid, then, in whatsoever place ye shall be, there shall
     we fight. And if ye do me not right, there shall be so great
     a noise as hath not been in France for a thousand years. And
     know ye that the King of Heaven will send such great power
     to the Maid, to her and to her good soldiers, that ye will
     not be able to overcome her in any battle; and in the end
     the God of Heaven will reveal who has the better right. You,
     Duke of Bedfort, the Maid prays and beseeches you that you
     bring not destruction upon yourself. If you do her right,
     you may come in her company where the French will do the
     fairest deed ever done for Christendom. And if ye will have
     peace in the city of Orléans, then make ye answer; and, if
     not, then remember it will be to your great hurt and that
     shortly. Written this Tuesday of Holy Week.

[Footnote 883: The King of France himself designated as _good_ such of
his towns as he wished to honour.]

[Footnote 884: Compare: "Et ardirent la ville et _violèrent
l'abbaye_." ("And burnt the town and _violated the abbey_.")
Froissart, quoted by Littré. As early as _Le chanson de Roland_ we
find: "_Les castels pris, les cités violées._" ("The castles taken,
the cities violated.")]

[Footnote 885: The deliverance of the Duke of Orléans. _Réclamer_ in
the French. M. S. Reinach proposes to substitute _relever_, which is
plausible (cf. _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 421).]

[Footnote 886: _Le journal du siège_ omits the word _France_ and thus
renders the phrase unintelligible. This omission proceeds from a text
of great antiquity on which are based notably _La chronique de la
Pucelle_ and the account of the Greffier de La Rochelle whom this
mangled phrase visibly embarrassed.]

[Footnote 887: _Gentle_ is here in opposition to _villein_. _Gentle
and otherwise_: nobles and villeins. Here we must interpret the terms
_comrades_ and _gentle_ according to their true meaning and not
consider them as used ironically, as in the following passage from
Froissart: "_Il (le duc de Lancastre) entendit comme il pourroit estre
saisy de quatre gentils compaignons qui estranglé avoyent son oncle,
le duc de Glocestre, au chasteau de Calais._" "He (the Duke of
Lancaster) realised how he might be seized by the four gentle comrades
who had strangled his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, in the Castle of
Calais." (Froissart in La Curne.)]

[Footnote 888: French. _Attendez les nouvelles de la Pucelle_ and
further on: _Si vous ne voulés croire lez nouvelles de par Dieu de la
Pucelle...._ This word _Nouvelles_ then as now meant _tidings_, but it
also had a sense of _marvels_ as in the following phrase: "_En celle
année apparurent maintes nouvelles à Rosay en Brie; le vin fut mué en
sang et le pain en chair sensiblement ou (au) sacrement de l'autel._"
("In that year many _marvels_ were wrought at Rosay in Brie; the wine
was turned to blood and the bread to flesh visibly at the sacrament of
the altar.") (_Chroniques de Saint Denys_, in La Curne.)]

Such is the letter. It was written in a new spirit; for it proclaimed
the kingship of Jesus Christ and declared a holy war. It is hard to
tell whether it proceeded from Jeanne's own inspiration or was
dictated to her by the council of ecclesiastics. On first thoughts one
might be inclined to attribute to the priests the idea of a summons,
which is a literal application of the precepts of Deuteronomy:

"When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim
peace unto it.

"And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee,
then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be
tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

"And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against
thee, then thou shalt besiege it:

"And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou
shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

"But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is
in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto
thyself." (Deuteronomy xx, 10-14.)

But at least it is certain that on this occasion the Maid is
expressing her own sentiments. Afterwards we shall find her saying: "I
asked for peace, and when I was refused I was ready to fight."[889]
But, as she dictated the letter and was unable to read it, we may ask
whether the clerks who held the pen did not add to it.

[Footnote 889: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 55, 84, 240.]

Two or three passages suggest the ecclesiastical touch. Afterwards the
Maid did not remember having dictated "body for body," which is quite
unimportant. But she declared that she had not said: "I am chief in
war" and that she had dictated: "Surrender to the King" and not
"Surrender to the Maid."[890] Possibly her memory failed her; it was
not always faithful. Nevertheless she appeared very certain of what
she said, and twice she repeated that "chief in war" and "surrender to
the Maid" were not in the letter. It may have been that the monks who
were with her used these expressions. To these wandering priests a
dispute over fiefs mattered little, and it was not their first concern
to bring King Charles into the possession of his inheritance.
Doubtless they desired the good of the kingdom of France; but
certainly they desired much more the good of Christendom; and we shall
see that, if those mendicant monks, Brother Pasquerel and later Friar
Richard, follow the Maid, it will be in the hope of employing her to
the Church's advantage. Thus it would be but natural that they should
declare her at the outset commander in war, and even invest her with a
spiritual power superior to the temporal power of the King, and
implied in the phrase: "Surrender to the Maid ... the keys of the good
towns."

[Footnote 890: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 56, 84.]

This very letter indicates one of those hopes which among others she
inspired. They expected that after she had fulfilled her mission in
France, she would take the cross and go forth to conquer Jerusalem,
bringing all the armies of Christian Europe in her train.[891] At this
very time a disciple of Bernardino of Siena, Friar Richard, a
Franciscan lately come from Syria,[892] and who was shortly to meet
the Maid, was preaching at Paris, announcing the approach of the end
of the world, and exhorting the faithful to fight against
Antichrist.[893] It must be remembered that the Turks, who had
conquered the Christian knights at Nicopolis and at Semendria, were
threatening Constantinople and spreading terror throughout Europe.
Popes, emperors, kings felt the necessity of making one great effort
against them.

[Footnote 891: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 64, 82 _et seq._ Christine de
Pisan, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 16. Concerning the subject of the
Crusade, cf. N. Jorga, Philippe de Mezières, 1896, in 8vo: _Notes et
extraits pour servir à l'histoire des Croisades au XV'e siècle_,
Paris, 1899-1902, 3 vols. in 8vo (taken from _La revue de l'Orient
Latin_).]

[Footnote 892: _Pii Secundi commentarii_, 1614 edition, p. 440.
Wadding, _Annales Minorum_, vol. v, pp. 130 _et seq._]

[Footnote 893: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 233. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xv, ccxxxvii. See the pictures in the
numerous fifteenth century little popular books concerning Antichrist.
(Brunet, _Manuel du libraire_, vol. i, col. 316.)]

In England it was said that between Saint-Denys and Saint-George there
had been born to King Henry V and Madame Catherine of France a boy,
half English and half French, who would go to Egypt and pluck the
Grand Turk's beard.[894] On his death-bed the conqueror Henry V was
listening to the priests repeating the penitential psalms. When he
heard the verse: _Benigne fac Domine in bona voluntate tua ut
ædificentur muri Jerusalem_, he murmured with his dying breath: "I
have always intended to go to Syria and deliver the holy city out of
the hand of the infidel."[895] These were his last words. Wise men
counselled Christian princes to unite against the Crescent. In France,
the Archbishop of Embrun, who had sat in the Dauphin's Council, cursed
the insatiable cruelty of the English nation and those wars among
Christians which were an occasion of rejoicing to the enemies of the
Cross of Christ.[896]

[Footnote 894: Félix Rabbe, _Jeanne d'Arc en Angleterre_, Paris, 1891,
p. 12.]

[Footnote 895: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 112. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 340.]

[Footnote 896: Le P. Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes, Maritimes
ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 315 _et seq._]

To summon the English and French to take the cross together, was to
proclaim that after ninety-one years of violence and crime the cycle
of secular warfare had come to an end. It was to bid Christendom
return to the days when Philippe de Valois and Edward Plantagenet
promised the Pope to join together against the infidel.

But when the Maid invited the English to unite with the French in a
holy and warlike enterprise, it is not difficult to imagine with what
kind of a reception the _Godons_ would greet such an angelic summons.
And at the time of the siege of Orléans, the French on their side had
good reasons for not taking the cross with the _Coués_.[897]

[Footnote 897: In all extant copies of the Letter to the English,
except that of the Trial, at the passage "you may come" [_Encore que
pourrez venir_] the text is completely illegible.]

The learned did not greatly appreciate the style of this letter. The
Bastard of Orléans thought the words very simple; and a few years
later a good French jurist pronounced it coarse, heavy, and badly
arranged.[898] We cannot aspire to judge better than the jurist and
the Bastard, both men of erudition. Nevertheless, we wonder whether it
were not that her manner of expression seemed bad to them, merely
because it differed from the style of legal documents. True it is that
the letter from Blois indicates the poverty of the French prose of
that time when not enriched by an Alain Chartier; but it contains
neither term nor expression which is not to be met with in the good
authors of the day. The words may not be correctly ordered, but the
style is none the less vivacious. There is nothing to suggest that the
writer came from the banks of the Meuse; no trace is there of the
speech of Lorraine or Champagne.[899] It is clerkly French.

[Footnote 898: _Per unam litteram suo materno idiomate confectam,
verbis bene simplicibus_, _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 7, evidence of the
Bastard of Orléans. Mathieu Thomassin, _Registre Delphinal_, in the
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 306.]

[Footnote 899: On the contrary it contains forms which would never
have been penned by a native of Picardy, Burgundy, Lorraine, or
Champagne, such as the participle _envoyée_. Both the grammar and the
writing are those of a French clerk. (Contributed by M. E.
Langlois.)]

While Isabelle de Vouthon had gone on a pilgrimage to Puy, her two
youngest children, Jean and Pierre, had set out for France to join
their sister, with the intention of making their fortunes through her
or the King. Likewise, Brother Nicolas of Vouthon, Jeanne's cousin
german, a monk in priest's orders in the Abbey of Cheminon, joined the
young saint.[900] To have thus attracted her kinsfolk before giving
any sign of her power, Jeanne must have had witnesses on the banks of
the Meuse; and certain venerable ecclesiastical personages, as well as
noble lords of Lorraine, must have answered for her reputation in
France. Such guarantors of the truth of her mission were doubtless
those who had instructed her in and accredited her by prophecy.
Perhaps Brother Nicolas of Vouthon was himself of the number.

[Footnote 900: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de
Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xx,
9, 10. [Document of very doubtful authenticity.]]

In the army she was regarded as a holy maiden. Her company consisted
of a chaplain, Brother Jean Pasquerel;[901] two pages, Louis de Coutes
and Raymond;[902] her two brethren, Pierre and Jean; two heralds,
Ambleville and Guyenne;[903] two squires, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de
Poulengy.

[Footnote 901: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 101.]

[Footnote 902: _Ibid._, pp. 65, 67, 124. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
277. A. de Villaret, _Louis de Coutes, page de Jeanne d'Arc_, Orléans,
1890, 8vo.]

[Footnote 903: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 26, 27.]

Jean de Metz kept the purse which was filled by the crown.[904] She
had also certain valets in her service. A squire, one Jean d'Aulon,
whom the King gave her for a steward, joined her at Blois.[905] He
was the poorest squire of the realm. He was entirely dependent on the
Sire de La Trémouille, who lent him money; but he was well known for
his honour and his wisdom.[906] Jeanne attributed the defeats of the
French to their riding forth accompanied by bad women and to their
taking God's holy name in vain. And this opinion, far from being held
by her alone, prevailed among persons of learning and religion;
according to whom the disaster of Nicopolis was occasioned by the
presence of prostitutes in the army, and by the cruelty and
dissoluteness of the knights.[907]

[Footnote 904: Extracts from the Accounts of Hémon Raguier, _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 257, 258.]

[Footnote 905: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 211. D'Aulon had seen her at
Poitiers.]

[Footnote 906: _Ibid._, p. 15. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. ii, p. 292, note 3. The loans mentioned occurred later, but
there is no reason to believe that they were the first. Duc de La
Tremoïlle, _Les La Trémouille pendant cinq siècles, Guy VI et Georges_
(1346-1446), Nantes, 1890, pp. 196, 201.]

[Footnote 907: Juvénal des Ursins, year 1396.]

On several occasions, between 1420 and 1425, the Dauphin had forbidden
cursing and denying and blaspheming the name of God, of the Virgin
Mary and of the saints under penalty of a fine and of corporal
punishment in certain cases. The decrees embodying this prohibition
asserted that wars, pestilence, and famine were caused by blasphemy
and that the blasphemers were in part responsible for the sufferings
of the realm.[908] Wherefore the Maid went among the men-at-arms,
exhorting them to turn away the women who followed the army, and to
cease taking the Lord's name in vain. She besought them to confess
their sins and receive divine grace into their souls, maintaining that
their God would aid them and give them the victory if their souls were
right.[909]

[Footnote 908: _Ordonnances des rois de France_, vol. xi, p. 105; vol.
xiii, p. 247. S. de Bouillerie, _La répression du blasphème dans
l'ancienne législation_, in the _Revue historique et archéologique du
Maine_, 1884, pp. 369 _et seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. i, p. 370; vol. ii, p. 189. A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la
domination anglaise_, Paris, 1878, in 8vo, pp. 11, 56.]

[Footnote 909: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 78, 104, 105. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 283. Very early she was mentioned in connection with La
Hire, the most valiant of the French, and it was imagined that she
taught him to confess and to cease swearing. These are pretty stories
(_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 32; vol. iv, p. 327).]

Jeanne took her standard to the Church of Saint-Sauveur and gave it to
the priests to bless.[910] The little company formed at Tours was
joined at Blois by ecclesiastics and monks, who, on the approach of
the English, had fled in crowds from the neighbouring abbeys, and were
now suffering from cold and hunger. It was generally thus. Monks were
for ever flocking to the armies. Many churches and most abbeys had
been reduced to ruin. Those of the mendicants, built outside the
towns, had all perished,--plundered and burnt by the English or pulled
down by the townsfolk; for, when threatened with siege, the
inhabitants always dealt thus with the outlying portions of their
town. The homeless monks found no welcome in the cities, which were
sparing of their goods; they must needs take the field with the
soldiers and follow the army. From such a course their rule suffered
and piety gained nothing. Among mercenaries, sumpters and camp
followers, these hungry nomad monks lived an edifying life. Those who
accompanied the Maid were doubtless neither worse nor better than the
rest, and as they were very hungry their first care was to eat.[911]

[Footnote 910: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 103. Boucher de Molandon,
_Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 47. L.A. Bosseboeuf,
_Jeanne d'Arc en Touraine_, Tours, 1899, pp. 34 _et seq._]

[Footnote 911: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises, monastères,
hôpitaux, en France, vers le milieu du XV'e siècle_, Mâcon, 1897, in
8vo, introduction.]

The men-at-arms were much too accustomed to seeing monks and nuns
mingling side by side in the army to feel any surprise at the sight of
the holy damsel in the midst of a band so disreputable. It is true
that the damsel was said to work wonders. Many believed in them;
others mocked and said aloud: "Behold the brave champion and captain
who comes to deliver the realm of France."[912]

[Footnote 912: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 327. Tringant, _Le Jouvencel_,
vol. ii, p. 277, merely says that few soldiers went willingly to the
relief of Orléans, which is not strictly accurate.]

The Maid had a banner made for the monks to assemble beneath and
summon the men-at-arms to prayer. This banner was white, and on it
were represented Jesus on the Cross between Our Lady and Saint
John.[913] The Duke of Alençon went back to the King to make known to
him the needs of the company at Blois. The King sent the necessary
funds; and at length they were ready to set out.[914] At the start
there were two roads open, one leading to Orléans along the right bank
of the Loire, the other along the left bank. At the end of twelve or
fourteen miles the road along the right bank came out on the edge of
the Plain of La Beauce, occupied by the English who had garrisons at
Marchenoir, Beaugency, Meung, Montpipeau, Saint-Sigismond, and
Janville. In that direction lay the risk of meeting the army, which
was coming to the aid of the English round Orléans. After the
experience of the Battle of the Herrings such a meeting was to be
feared. If the road along the left bank were taken, the march would
lie through the district of La Sologne, which still belonged to King
Charles; and if the river were left well on one side, the army would
be out of sight of the English garrisons of Beaugency and of Meung.
True, it would involve crossing the Loire, but by going up the river
five miles east of the besieged city a crossing could conveniently be
effected between Orléans and Jargeau. On due deliberation it was
decided that they should go by the left bank through La Sologne. It
was decided to take in the victuals in two separate lots for fear the
unloading near the enemy's bastions should take too long.[915] On
Wednesday, the 27th of April, they started.[916] The priests in
procession, with a banner at their head, led the march, singing the
_Veni creator Spiritus_.[917] The Maid rode with them in white armour,
bearing her standard. The men-at-arms and the archers followed,
escorting six hundred wagons of victuals and ammunition and four
hundred head of cattle.[918] The long line of lances, wagons, and
herds defiled over the Blois bridge into the vast plain beyond. The
first day the army covered twenty miles of rutty road. Then at
curfew, when the setting sun, reflected in the Loire, made the river
look like a sheet of copper between lines of dark reeds, it
halted,[919] and the priests sang _Gabriel angelus_.

[Footnote 913: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 104 (Brother Pasquerel's
evidence). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Morosini, vol. iii, pp.
110, 111; vol. iv, pp. 313-315. G. Martin, _L'étendard de Jeanne
d'Arc_, in _Notes d'art et d'arch._, 1834, pp. 65-71, 81-88,
illustrated.]

[Footnote 914: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93. _Chronique du doyen de
Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 327.]

[Footnote 915: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 5, 67, 78, 105, 212. Martial
d'Auvergne, _ibid._, vol. v, p. 53. _Chronique de la fête_, _ibid._,
p. 290. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 71. Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 38 _et seq._]

[Footnote 916: The 28th of April, according to Eberhard Windecke, p.
165. The 27th, if, as Pasquerel says, the army spent two nights on the
march.]

[Footnote 917: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 105.]

[Footnote 918: Eberhard Windecke, p. 167.]

[Footnote 919: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 104 (Brother Pasquerel's
evidence).]

That night they encamped in the fields. Jeanne, who had not been
willing to take off her armour, awoke aching in every limb.[920] She
heard mass and received communion from her chaplain, and exhorted the
men-at-arms always to confess their sins.[921] Then the army resumed
its march towards Orléans.

[Footnote 920: _Ibid._, p. 67 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]

[Footnote 921: _Ibid._, p. 67. Pasquerel says (vol. iii, p. 105) that
the soldiers of fortune were permitted to join the congregation if
they had confessed.]




CHAPTER XII

THE MAID AT ORLÉANS


On the evening of Thursday, the 28th of April, Jeanne was able to
discern from the heights of Olivet the belfries of the town, the
towers of Saint-Paul and Saint-Pierre-Empont, whence the watchmen
announced her approach. The army descended the slopes towards the
Loire and stopped at the Bouchet wharf, while the carts and the cattle
continued their way along the bank as far as l'Île-aux-Bourdons,
opposite Chécy, two and a half miles further up the river.[922] There
the unloading was to take place. At a signal from the watchmen my Lord
the Bastard, accompanied by Thibaut de Termes and certain other
captains, left the town by the Burgundian Gate, took a boat at
Saint-Jean-de-Braye, and came down to hold counsel with the Lords de
Rais and de Loré, who commanded the convoy.[923]

[Footnote 922: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 4, 5. Boucher de Molandon,
_Bulletin de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais_, vol. iv, p.
427; vol. ix, p. 73. The same author, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 41 _et seq._ _Mistère du siège_, lines 11,480 _et seq._
_Chronique de l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
289.]

[Footnote 923: _Journal du siège_, p. 75. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 283.]

[Illustration: PLAN D'ORLÉANS

Siège de 1429]

Meanwhile the Maid had only just perceived that she was on the Sologne
bank,[924] and that she had been deceived concerning the line of
march. Sorrow and wrath possessed her. She had been misled, that was
certain. But had it been done on purpose? Had they really intended to
deceive her? It is said that she had expressed a wish to go through La
Beauce and not through La Sologne, and that she had received the
answer: "Jeanne, be reassured; we will take you through La
Beauce."[925] Is it possible? Why should the barons have thus trifled
with the holy damsel, whom the King had confided to their care, and
who already inspired most of them with respect? Certain of them, it is
true, believing her not to be in earnest, would willingly have turned
her to ridicule; but if one of them had played her the trick of
representing La Beauce as La Sologne, how was it there was no one to
undeceive her? How could Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain, her steward,
and the honest squire d'Aulon, have become the accomplices of so
clumsy a jest? It is all very mysterious, and, when one comes to think
of it, what is most mysterious is that Jeanne should have expressly
asked to go to Orléans through La Beauce. Since she was so ignorant of
the way that when crossing the Blois bridge she never suspected that
she was going into La Sologne, there is not much likelihood of her
realising so exactly the lie of Orléans as to choose between entering
it from the south or the west. A damsel knowing naught beyond the name
of the gate through which she is to enter the city, and who is yet
persuaded by malicious captains to take one road rather than another,
sounds too much like a Mother Goose's tale.

[Footnote 924: "_Et cuidoit bien qu'ils deussent passer par devers les
bastides du siège devers la Beausse._" _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
281.]

[Footnote 925: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285 (the Chronicle here
amplifies the evidence of Dunois, vol. iii, p. 67).]

Jeanne knew no more of Orléans than she did of Babylon. We may
therefore conjecture that there was a misunderstanding. She had spoken
neither of Sologne nor of Beauce. Her Voices had told her that the
English would not budge. They had not shown her a picture of the town,
they had not given her either maps or plans: soldiers did not use
them. Doubtless Jeanne had said to the captains and priests what she
was soon to repeat to the Bastard: "I must go to Talbot and the
English." And the priests and soldiers had replied quite frankly:
"Jeanne, we are going to Talbot and the English."[926] They had
thought they were speaking the truth, since Talbot, who was conducting
the siege, would be before them, so to speak, from whatever side they
approached the town. But apparently they had not thoroughly understood
what the Maid said, and the Maid had not understood what they had
replied. For now she was angry and sad at finding herself separated
from the town by the sands and waters of the river. What was there to
vex her in this? Those who were with her then did not discover; and
perhaps her reasons were misunderstood because they were spiritual and
mystic. She certainly could not have judged that a military mistake
had been made by the bringing of troops and victuals through La
Sologne. As she did not know the roads, it was impossible for her to
tell which was the best. She was ignorant alike of the enemy's
position, of the outworks of the besiegers, and of the defences of the
besieged. She had just learnt on what bank of the river the town was
situated, yet she must have thought she had good ground for complaint;
for she approached the Lord Bastard and inquired sharply: "Are you the
Bastard of Orléans?" "I am he. I rejoice at your coming." "Was it
through your counsel that I came hither on this side of the river, and
that I did not go straight to where Talbot and the English are?" "It
was I and those wiser than I who gave this counsel, believing we acted
for the best and for the greatest safety." But Jeanne retorted: "In
God's name! Messire's counsel is better and wiser than yours. You
thought to deceive me, but you deceive yourselves. For I bring you
surer aid than ever came yet to knight or city; it is the aid of the
King of Heaven and comes from God himself, who not merely for my sake
but at the prayer of Saint Louis and Saint Charlemagne has had pity
upon the town of Orléans, and will not suffer the enemy to hold at
once both the body and the city of the Duke."[927]

[Footnote 926: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 5, 6.]

[Footnote 927: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 5, 6. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 284. Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p.
49.]

One may conclude that what really vexed her was that she had not been
taken straight to Talbot and the English. She had just heard that
Talbot with his camp was on the right bank. And when she spoke of
Talbot and the English she meant only those English who were with
Talbot. For, as she came down into the Loire valley, near the ford of
Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, she must have seen the bastion of Les Augustins
and Les Tourelles at the end of the bridge; and she must have known
that there were also English on the left bank. But still, it is not
clear why she should have desired to appear first before Talbot and
his English, and why she was now so annoyed at being separated from
him by the Loire. Did she think that the entrenched camp,
Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, commanded by Scales, Suffolk, and Talbot
would be attacked immediately? Such an idea would never of itself
have occurred to her, since she did not know the place, and no soldier
would ever have put such madness into her head as an attack on an
entrenched camp by a convoy of cattle and wagons. Neither, as has so
often been asserted, can she have thought of forcing a passage between
the bastion Saint-Pouair and the outskirts of the wood, since of the
bastions and of the forest she knew as little as of the rest. If such
had been her intention she would have announced it plainly to the
Bastard; for she knew how to make her meaning clear, and even educated
persons considered that she spoke well. Then what was her idea? It is
not impossible to discover it if one remembers what must have been in
the saint's mind at that time, or if one merely recollects by what
words and deeds Jeanne had announced and prepared her mission. She had
said to the doctors of Poitiers: "The siege of Orléans shall be raised
and the town delivered from the enemy after I have summoned it to
surrender in God's name."[928] In the name of the King of Heaven she
had called upon Scales, Suffolk, and Talbot to raise the siege. She
had written that she was ready to make peace, and had bidden them
return to England. Now she asked Talbot, Suffolk, and Scales for an
answer. Since the English had not sent back her herald she herself
came to their leaders as the herald of Messire. She came to require
them to make peace, and if they would not make peace she was ready to
fight. It was not until they had refused that she could be certain of
conquering, not for any human reason, but because her Council had so
promised her. Perhaps even she may have hoped that by appearing to the
English captains, her standard in hand, accompanied by Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret and Saint Michael the Archangel, she
would persuade them to leave France. She may have believed that
Talbot, falling on his knees, would obey not her, but Him who sent
her; that thus she would accomplish that for which she came, without
shedding one drop of that French blood which was so dear to her;
neither would the English whom she pitied lose their bodies or their
souls. In any case God must be obeyed and charity shown: it was only
at such a price that victory could be gained. A victory so spiritual,
a conquest so angelic, she had come to win; but now it was snatched
from her by the false wisdom of the leaders of her party. They were
hindering her from fulfilling her mission,--perhaps from giving the
promised sign,--and they were involving her with themselves in
enterprises less certain of success and less noble in spirit. Hence
her sorrow and her wrath.

[Footnote 928: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273.]

Even after the discomfiture of her arrival, in order that she might
please God, she did not consider herself freed from the obligation of
offering peace to her enemies.[929] And since she could not go
straight to Talbot's camp she wanted to appear before the fort of
Saint-Jean-le-Blanc.[930]

[Footnote 929: Opinion of Martin Berruyer, in Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires
et consultations_, ch. vii.]

[Footnote 930: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 78, 214.]

There was no one left behind the palisades. But if she had gone and
found any of the enemy there she would first have offered them peace.
Of this her subsequent behaviour within the city walls is positive
proof. Her mission was not to contribute to the defence of Orléans
plans of campaign or stratagems of war; her share in the work of
deliverance was higher and nobler. To suffering men, weak, unhappy,
and selfish, she brought the invincible forces of love and faith, the
virtue of sacrifice.

My Lord the Bastard who regarded Jeanne's mission as purely religious,
and who would have been greatly astonished had any one told him that
he ought to consult this peasant on military matters,[931] appeared as
if he did not understand the reproaches she addressed to him. And he
went away to see that operations were carried out according to the
plans he had made.

[Footnote 931: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 16.]

Everything had been carefully concerted and prepared, but a slight
obstacle occurred. The barges that the people of Orléans were to send
for the victuals were not yet unmoored.[932] They were sailing
vessels, and, as the wind was blowing from the east, they could not
set out. No one knew how long they would be delayed, and time was
precious. Jeanne said confidently to those who were growing anxious:
"Wait a little, for in God's name everything shall enter the
town."[933]

[Footnote 932: _Ibid._, p. 78. _Journal du siège_, pp. 74, 75.
_Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 290.]

[Footnote 933: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 105. _Chronique du la Pucelle_,
p. 284.]

She was right. The wind changed: the sails were unfurled, and the
barges were borne up the river by a favourable wind, so strong that
one boat was able to tow two or three others.[934] Without hindrance
they passed the Saint-Loup bastion. My Lord the Bastard sailed in one
of these boats with Nicole de Giresme, Grand Prior of France of the
order of Rhodes. And the flotilla came to the port of Chécy, where it
remained at anchor all night.[935] It was decided that the relieving
army should that night encamp at the port of Bouchet and guard the
convoy by watching down the river, while one detachment was stationed
near the Islands of Chécy to watch up the river in the direction of
Jargeau. In company with certain captains, and with a body of
men-at-arms and archers, the Maid followed the bank as far as
l'Île-aux-Bourdons.[936]

[Footnote 934: Boucher de Molandon, _La délivrance d'Orléans et
l'institution de la fête du 8 mai, Chronique anonyme du XV'e
siècle_, Orléans, 1883, in 8vo, pp. 28, 29.]

[Footnote 935: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 6. _Journal du siège_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 936: _Chronique de la fête_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 290.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 23, note 5. Boucher de Molandon, _Première
expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 52-56.]

The lords who had brought the convoy decided that they would set out
immediately after the unloading. Having accomplished the first part of
its task, the army would return to Blois to fetch the remaining
victuals and ammunition, for everything had not been brought at once.
Hearing that the soldiers, with whom she had come, were going away,
Jeanne wished to go with them; and, after having so urgently asked to
be taken to Orléans, now that she was before the gates of the city,
her one idea was to go back.[937] Thus is the soul of the mystic blown
hither and thither by the breath of the Spirit. Now as always Jeanne
was guided by impulses purely spiritual. She would not be parted from
these soldiers because she believed they had made their peace with
God, and she feared that she might not find others as contrite. For
her, victory or defeat depended absolutely on whether the combatants
were in a state of grace or of sin. To lead them to confession was her
only art of war; no other science did she know, whether for fighting
behind ramparts or in the open field.[938]

[Footnote 937: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285. This document very
untrustworthy as a whole is in certain passages a better authority
than _Le journal du siège_.]

[Footnote 938: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 104, 105 (Pasquerel's
evidence).]

"As for entering the town," she said, "it would hurt me to leave my
men, and I ought not to do it. They have all confessed, and in their
company I should not fear the uttermost power of the English."[939]

[Footnote 939: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 284, 285.]

In reality, as one may well imagine, whether or no they had confessed,
whether they were near or far from her, these mercenaries committed
all the sins compatible with the simplicity of their minds. But the
innocent damsel did not see them. Sensitive to things invisible, her
eyes were closed to things material.

She was confirmed in her resolution to return to Blois by the captains
who had brought her and who wanted to take her back, alleging the
King's command. They wished to keep her because she brought good luck.
My Lord the Bastard, however, saw serious obstacles and even dangers
in the way of her return.[940] In the state in which he had left the
people of Orléans, if their Maid were not straightway brought before
them they would rise in fury and despair, with cries, threats,
rioting, and violence; everything was to be feared, even massacres. He
entreated the captains, in the King's interest, to agree to Jeanne's
entering Orléans; and without great difficulty, he induced them to
return to Blois without her. But Jeanne did not give in so quickly. He
besought her to decide to cross the Loire. She refused and with such
insistence that he must have realised how difficult it is to influence
a saint. It was necessary for one of the lords who had brought her,
the Sire de Rais or the Sire de Loré, to join his entreaties to those
of the Bastard, and to say to her: "Assuredly you must go, for we
promise to return to you shortly."[941]

[Footnote 940: "_Ex tunc dictus deponens habuit bonam spem de ea et
plus quam ante_," _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 6.]

[Footnote 941: _Timens ne recedere vellent et quod opus remaneret
imperfectum_, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 78. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
286. _Chronique de la fête_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 285. Boucher
de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 61, 62.]

At last, when she heard that Brother Pasquerel would go with them to
Blois, accompanied by the priests and bearing her standard, believing
that her men would have a good spiritual director, she consented to
stay.[942] She crossed the Loire with her brothers, her little
company, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, the Captain La Hire, and
reached Chécy, which was then quite a town, with two churches, an
infirmary, and a lepers' hospital.[943] She was received by a rich
burgess, one Guy de Cailly, in whose manor of Reuilly she passed the
night.[944]

[Footnote 942: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 105. _Mistère du siège_, line
11,616.]

[Footnote 943: Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 62, 99, note xiv, and in _Bulletin de la Société
archéologique de l'Orléanais_, vol. iv, p. 429; vol. ix, p. 73.]

[Footnote 944: _Journal du siège_, p. 75. Ch. du Lys, _Traité sommaire
tant du nom et des armes que de la naissance et parenté de la Pucelle
d'Orléans et de ses frères_, Paris, 1628, in 4to, p. 50. Abbé Dubois,
_Histoire du siège_, p. 344. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p.
86. Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 65,
proofs and illustrations, note xv.]

On the morning of the 29th the barges, which had been anchored at
Chécy, crossed the Loire, and those who were with the convoy loaded
them with victuals, ammunition, and cattle.[945] The river was
high.[946] The barges were able to drift down the navigable channel
near the left bank. The birches and osiers of l'Île-aux-Boeufs hid
them from the English in the Saint-Loup bastion. Besides, at that
moment, the enemy was occupied elsewhere. The town garrison was
skirmishing with them in order to distract their attention. The
fighting was somewhat hard. There were slain and wounded; prisoners
were taken on both sides; and the English lost a banner.[947] Beneath
the deserted[948] watch of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc the barges passed
unprotected. Between l'Île-aux-Boeufs and the Islet of Les Martinets
they turned starboard, to go down again, following the right bank,
under l'Île-aux-Toiles, as far as La Tour Neuve, the base of which was
washed by the Loire, at the south-eastern corner of the town. Then
they took shelter in the moat near the Burgundian Gate.[949]

[Footnote 945: _Journal du siège_, pp. 75, 76.]

[Footnote 946: Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 68.]

[Footnote 947: _Chronique de la Fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 290.]

[Footnote 948: _Journal du siège_, pp. 74, 75. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 69. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 284, 285.]

[Footnote 949: Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 51 _et seq._]

The whole day the manor of Reuilly was besieged by a procession of
citizens, who could not forbear coming at the risk of their lives to
see the promised Maid. It was six o'clock in the evening before she
left Chécy. The captains wanted her to enter the town at nightfall for
fear of disorders and lest the crush around her should be too
great.[950] Doubtless they passed along the broad valleys leading from
Semoy towards the south, on the borders of the parishes of Saint-Marc
and Saint-Jean-de-Braye. On the way she said to those who rode with
her: "Fear nothing. No harm shall happen to you."[951] And indeed the
only danger was for pedestrians. Horsemen ran little risk of being
pursued by the English, who were short of horses in their bastions.

[Footnote 950: _Journal du siège_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 951: _Ibid._, p. 76.]

On that Friday, the 29th of April, in the darkness, she entered
Orléans, by the Burgundian Gate. She was in full armour and rode a
white horse.[952] A white horse was the steed of heralds and
archangels.[953] The Bastard had placed her on his right. Before her
was borne her standard, on which figured two angels, each holding a
flower de luce, and her pennon, painted with the picture of the
Annunciation. Then came the Marshal de Boussac, Guy de Cailly, Pierre
and Jean d'Arc, Jean de Metz, and Bertrand de Poulengy, the Sire
d'Aulon, and those lords, captains, men-of-war, and citizens who had
come to meet her at Chécy.[954] Bearing torches and rejoicing as
heartily as if they had seen God himself descending among them, the
townfolk of Orléans pressed around her.[955] They had suffered great
privations, they had feared that help would never come; but now they
were heartened and felt as if the siege had been raised already by the
divine virtue, which they had been told resided in this Maid. They
looked at her with love and veneration; elbowing and pushing each
other, men, women, and children rushed forward to touch her and her
white horse, as folk touch the relics of saints. In the crush a torch
set her pennon on fire. The Maid, beholding it, spurred on her horse
and galloped to the flame, which she extinguished with a skill
apparently miraculous; for everything in her was marvellous.[956]
Men-at-arms and citizens, enraptured, accompanied her in crowds to the
Church of Sainte-Croix, whither she went first to give thanks, then to
the house of Jacques Boucher, where she was to lodge.[957]

[Footnote 952: _Journal du siège_, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 953: And even now trumpeters ride white horses (_Histoire de
Jeanne d'Arc_, by Lebrun de Charmettes, 1817, in 8vo, vol. ii, p.
21).]

[Footnote 954: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 7. _Journal du siège_, p. 76.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 287. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
p. 72. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 28, 30.]

[Footnote 955: "_Comme se ilz veissent Dieu descendre entre eulx_,"
says _Le journal du siège_, p. 76. Luillier (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 24)
calls her "the angel of the Lord" (_l'ange de Dieu_).]

[Footnote 956: _Journal du siège_, pp. 76, 77.]

[Footnote 957: _Chronique de l'établissement de la fête_, p. 28.]

Jacques or Jacquet Boucher, as he was called, had been the Duke of
Orléans' treasurer for several years. He was a very rich man and had
married the daughter of one of the most influential burgesses of the
city.[958] Having stayed in the town throughout the siege, he
contributed to the defence by gifts of wheat, oats, and wine, and by
advancing funds for the purchase of ammunition and weapons. As the
care of the ramparts fell to the burgesses, it was Jacques' duty to
keep in repair and ready for defence the Renard Gate, where he dwelt,
which was the most exposed to the English attack. His mansion, one of
the finest and largest in the town, once inhabited by Regnart or
Renard, the family which had given its name to the gate, was in the
Rue des Talmeliers, quite near the fortifications. The captains held
their councils of war there, when they did not meet at the house of
Chancellor Guillaume Cousinot in the Rue de la Rose.[959] Jacques
Boucher's dwelling was doubtless well furnished with silver plate and
storied tapestry. It would appear that in one of the rooms there was
a picture representing three women and bearing this inscription:
_Justice, Peace, Union_.[960]

[Footnote 958: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 101; vol. iii, pp. 34, 68, 124 _et
seq._, 211. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285. Boucher de Molandon,
_Jacques Boucher, sieur de Guilleville, trésorier général du district
d'Orléans...._ in _Mémoires de la Société archéologique de
l'Orléanais_, vol. xxii, 1889, p. 373. Boucher de Molandon, _Première
expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 101, note xvi; proofs and
illustrations, p. 108.]

[Footnote 959: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 73. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, ed. Vallet de Viriville, p. 20. [Note on G. Cousinot
the Chancellor.] Cf. _Nouvelle biographie générale_. Vallet de
Viriville, _Essais critiques sur les historiens originaux du règne de
Charles VII_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, 1857, fourth
series, vol. iii, pp. 11-14, 105-111.]

[Footnote 960: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 101; vol. iii, pp. 68, 124 _et
seq._; vol. iv, pp. 153, 219, 227. _Journal du siège_, pp. 77, 78.
Boucher de Molandon, _Première expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 69,
107, note xvi.]

Into this house the Maid was received with her two brothers, the two
comrades who had brought her to the King, and their valets. She had
her armour taken off.[961] Jacques Boucher's wife and daughter passed
the night with her. Jeanne shared the child's bed. She was nine years
old and was called Charlotte after Duke Charles, who was her father's
lord.[962] It was the custom in those days for the host to share his
bed with his man guest and the hostess with her woman guest. This was
the rule of courtesy; kings observed it as well as burgesses. Children
were taught how to behave towards a sleeping companion, to keep to
their own part of the bed, not to fidget, and to sleep with their
mouths shut.[963]

[Footnote 961: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis (_Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_,
vol. iii, p. 101, note) discovers in _La chronique de la Pucelle_
(xliv, p. 285) a wrong use of an incident cited by Dunois in his
evidence, which must be allowed to have happened on the 7th of May, as
Dunois cited it (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 9).]

[Footnote 962: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 34, 68.]

[Footnote 963: Franklin, _La vie privée d'autrefois_, vols. ii, xix,
_passim_. H. Havard, _Dictionnaire de l'ameublement_, under the word
_lit_.]

Thus the Duke's treasurer took the Maid into his house and entertained
her at the town's expense. Jeanne's horses were stabled by a burgess
named Jean Pillas.

As for the D'Arc brothers, they did not stay with their sister, but
lodged in the house of Thévenin Villedart. The town paid all their
expenses; for example it furnished them with the shoes and gaiters
they needed and gave them a few gold crowns. Three of the Maid's
comrades, who were very destitute and came to see her at Orléans,
received food.[964]

[Footnote 964: Accounts of the fortress in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 259,
260.]

On the next day, the 30th of April, the town bands of Orléans were
early afoot. From morn till eve everything in the town was
topsy-turvy; the rebellion, which had been repressed so long, now
broke forth. As early as February the citizens had begun to mistrust
and hate the knights;[965] now at last they shook off their yoke and
broke it.[966] Henceforth they would recognise no King's lieutenant,
no governor, no lords, no generals; there was but one power and one
defence: the Maid.[967] The Maid was the people's captain. This
damsel, this shepherdess, this nun did the knights the greatest injury
they ever experienced: she reduced them to nothing. On the morning of
the 30th they must have been convinced that the popular revolution had
taken place. The town bands were waiting for the Maid to put herself
at their head, and with her to march immediately against the _Godons_.
The captains endeavoured to make them understand that they must wait
for the army from Blois and the company of Marshal de Boussac, who
that night had set out to meet the army. The citizens in arms would
listen to nothing, and with loud cries clamoured for the Maid. She did
not appear. My Lord the Bastard, who was honey-tongued, had advised
her to keep away.[968] This was the last advantage the leaders gained
over her. And now as before, when she appeared to give way to them,
she was merely doing as she liked. As for the citizens, with the Maid
or without her, they were determined to fight. The Bastard could not
hinder them. They sallied forth,[969] accompanied by the Gascons of
Captain La Hire and the men of Messire Florent d'Illiers. They bravely
attacked the bastion Saint-Pouair, which the English called Paris, and
which was about eight hundred yards from the walls. They overcame the
outposts and approached so close to the bastion that they were already
clamouring for faggots and straw to be brought from the town to set
fire to the palisades. But at the cry "Saint George!" the English
gathered themselves together, and after a sore and sanguinary fight
repulsed the attack of the citizens and free-lances.[970]

[Footnote 965: _Journal du siège_, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 966: _Ibid._, pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 967: See the evidence of S. Charles (vol. iii, pp. 116, 117)
and certain details in _La chronique de la Pucelle_.]

[Footnote 968: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 7, 211; vol. iv, pp. 221, 222.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 250, 251, 287. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 969: _Journal du siège_, pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 970: _Ibid._, p. 78. _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 291, 292. Cf. Letter written from Germany, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 349.]

The Maid had known nothing of it. Sent from God, on her white horse, a
messenger armed yet peaceful, she held it neither just nor pious to
fight the English before they had refused her offers of peace. On that
day as before her one wish was to go in true saintly wise straight to
Talbot. She asked for tidings of her letter and learnt that the
English captains had paid no heed to it, and had detained her herald,
Guyenne.[971] This is what had happened:

[Footnote 971: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 27, 108. _Journal du siège_, p.
79.]

That letter, which the Bastard deemed couched in vulgar phrase,
produced a marvellous impression on the English. It filled them with
fear and rage. They kept the herald who had brought it; and, although
use and custom insisted on the person of such officers being
respected, alleging that a sorceress's messenger must be a heretic,
they put him in chains, and after some sort of a trial condemned him
to be burnt as the accomplice of the seductress.[972]

[Footnote 972: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 284. _Trial_, vol. iii,
pp. 26, 27.]

They even put up the stake to which he was to be bound. And yet,
before executing the sentence, they judged it well to consult the
University of Paris, as in like manner the Bishop of Beauvais was to
consult it eighteen months later.[973] Their evil disposition arose
from fear. These unfortunates, who were treated as devils, were afraid
of devils. They suspected the subtle French of being necromancers and
sorcerers. They said that by repeating magic lines the Armagnacs had
compassed the death of the great King, Henry V. Fearing lest their
enemies should make use of sorcery and enchantment against them, in
order to protect themselves from all evil influences, they wore bands
of parchment inscribed with the formulæ of conjuration and called
_periapts_.[974] The most efficacious of these amulets was the first
chapter of the Gospel of St. John. At this time the stars were
unfavourable to them, and astrologers were reading their approaching
ruin in the sky. Their late King, Henry V, when he was studying at
Oxford, had learnt there the rules of divination by the stars. For his
own special use he kept in his coffers two astrolabes, one of silver
and one of gold. When his queen, Catherine of France, was about to be
confined, he himself cast the horoscope of the expected child. And
further, as there was a prophecy in England[975] which said that
Windsor would lose what Monmouth had gained, he determined that the
Queen should not be confined at Windsor. But destiny cannot be
thwarted. The royal child was born at Windsor. His father was in
France when he heard the tidings. He held them to be of ill omen, and
summoned Jean Halbourd of Troyes, minister general of the Trinitarians
or Mathurins, "excellent in astrology," who, having drawn up the
scheme of nativity, could only confirm the King in his doleful
presentiments.[976] And now the time had come. Windsor reigned; all
would be lost. Merlin had predicted that they would be driven out of
France and by a Virgin utterly undone. When the Maid appeared they
grew pale with fright, and fear fell upon captains and soldiers.[977]
Those whom no man could make afraid, trembled before this girl whom
they held to be a witch. They could not be expected to regard her as a
saint sent of God. The best they could think of her was that she was a
very learned sorceress.[978] To those she came to help she appeared a
daughter of God, to those she came to destroy she appeared a horrid
monster in woman's form. In this double aspect lay all her strength:
angelic for the French, devilish for the English, to one and the other
she appeared invincible and supernatural.

[Footnote 973: Martial de Paris, called d'Auvergne, _Vigiles de
Charles VII_, ed. Coustelier, 1724, vol. i, p. 98.]

[Footnote 974: La Curne, under the word _Periapt_. Shakespeare, _Henry
VI_, part i, act v, sc. iii.]

[Footnote 975: Shakespeare, _Henry VI_, part i, act iii, sc. i.]

[Footnote 976: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
p. 306. Carlier, _Histoire du Valois_, vol. ii, p. 442.]

[Footnote 977: Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, p. 61.]

[Footnote 978: Shakespeare, _Henry VI_, part i, act i, sc. ii.]

In the evening of the 30th she sent her herald, Ambleville, to the
camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils to ask for Guyenne, who had borne
the letter from Blois and had not returned. Ambleville was also
instructed to tell Sir John Talbot, the Earl of Suffolk, and the Lord
Scales that in God's name the Maid required them to depart from France
and go to England; otherwise they would suffer hurt. The English sent
back Ambleville with an evil message.

"The English," he said to the Maid, "are keeping my comrade to burn
him."

She made answer: "In God's name they will do him no harm." And she
commanded Ambleville to return.[979]

[Footnote 979: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 27. _Journal du siège_, p. 79.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 285, 286.]

She was indignant, and, no doubt, greatly disappointed. In truth, she
had never anticipated that Talbot and the leaders of the siege would
give such a welcome to a letter inspired by Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret and Saint Michael; but so broad was her charity that she was
still willing to offer peace to the English. In her innocence she may
have believed that her proclamations in God's name were misunderstood
after all. Besides, whatever happened, she was determined to go
through with her duty to the end. At night she sallied forth from the
Bridge Gate and went as far as the outwork of La Belle-Croix. It was
not unusual for the two sides to address each other. La Belle-Croix
was within ear-shot of Les Tourelles. The Maid mounted the rampart and
cried to the English: "Surrender in God's name. I will grant you your
lives only."

But the garrison and even the Captain, William Glasdale himself,
hurled back at her coarse insults and horrible threats.

"Milk-maid! If ever we get you, you shall be burned alive."[980]

[Footnote 980: _Journal du siège_, p. 79. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 290.]

She answered that it was a lie. But they were in earnest and sincere.
They firmly believed that this damsel was arming legions of devils
against them.

On Sunday, the 1st of May, my Lord the Bastard went to meet the army
from Blois.[981] He knew the country; and, being both energetic and
cautious, he was desirous to superintend the entrance of this convoy
as he had done that of the other. He set out with a small escort. He
did not dare to take with him the Saint herself; but, in order, so to
speak, to put himself under her protection and tactfully to flatter
the piety and affections of the folk of Orléans, he took a member of
her suite, her steward, Sire Jean d'Aulon.[982] Thus he grasped the
first opportunity of showing his good will to the Maid, feeling that
henceforth nothing could be done except with her or under her
patronage.

[Footnote 981: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 7. _Journal du siège_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 982: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 211.]

The fervour of the citizens was not abated. That very day, in their
passionate desire to see the Saint, they crowded round Jacques
Boucher's house as turbulently as the pilgrims from Puy pressed into
the sanctuary of La Vierge Noire. There was a danger of the doors
being broken in. The cries of the townsfolk reached her. Then she
appeared: good, wise, equal to her mission, one born for the salvation
of the people. In the absence of captains and men-at-arms, this wild
multitude only awaited a sign from her to throw itself in tumult on
the bastions and perish there. Notwithstanding the visions of war
that haunted her, that sign she did not give. Child as she was, and
as ignorant of war as of life, there was that within her which turned
away disaster. She led this crowd of men, not to the English bastions,
but to the holy places of the city. Down the streets she rode,
accompanied by many knights and squires; men and women pressed to see
her and could not gaze upon her enough. They marvelled at the manner
of her riding and of her behaviour, in every point like a man-at-arms;
and they would have hailed her as a veritable Saint George had they
not suspected Saint George of turning Englishman.[983]

[Footnote 983: _Journal du siège_, p. 80. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du
siège_, pp. 92, 95.]

That Sunday, for the second time, she went forth to offer peace to the
enemies of the kingdom. She passed out by the Renard Gate and went
along the Blois Road, through the suburbs that had been burnt down,
towards the English bastion. Surrounded by a double moat, it was
planted on a slope at the crossroads called La Croix Boissée or
Buissée, because the townsfolk of Orléans had erected a cross there,
which every Palm Sunday they dressed with a branch of box blessed by
the priest. Doubtless she intended to reach this bastion, and perhaps
to go on to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils situated between La
Croix Boissée and the Loire, where, as she had said, were Talbot and
the English. For she had not yet given up hope of gaining a hearing
from the leaders of the siege. But at the foot of the hill, at a place
called La Croix-Morin, she met some _Godons_ who were keeping watch.
And there, in tones grave, pious, and noble, she summoned them to
retreat before the hosts of the Lord. "Surrender, and your lives shall
be spared. In God's name go back to England. If ye will not I will
make you suffer for it."[984]

[Footnote 984: 1 May. _Journal du siège_, p. 80.]

These men-at-arms answered her with insults as those of Les Tourelles
had done. One of them, the Bastard of Granville, cried out to her:
"Would you have us surrender to a woman?"

The French, who were with her, they dubbed pimps and infidels, to
shame them for being in the company of a bad woman and a witch.[985]
But whether because they thought her magic rendered her invulnerable,
or because they held it dishonourable to strike a messenger, now, as
on other occasions, they forbore to fire on her.

[Footnote 985: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 68 (evidence of Louis de
Coutes).]

That Sunday, Jacquet le Prestre, the town varlet, offered the Maid
wine.[986] The magistrates and citizens could not have more highly
honoured her whom they regarded as their captain. Thus they treated
barons, kings and queens when they were entertained in the city. In
those days wine was highly valued on account of its beneficent power.
Jeanne, when she emphasised a wish, would say: "If I were never to
drink wine between now and Easter!..."[987] But in reality she never
drank wine except mixed with water, and she ate little.[988]

[Footnote 986: Extracts from fortress accounts, in the _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 259.]

[Footnote 987: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 64.]

[Footnote 988: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 9, 15, 18, 22, 60; vol. v, p.
120. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 285. Morosini, p. 101. _Relation du
greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 337.]

Throughout this time of waiting the Maid never rested for a moment. On
Monday, May 2nd, she mounted her horse and rode out into the country
to view the English bastions. The people followed her in crowds; they
had no fear and were glad to be near her. And when she had seen all
that she wanted, she returned to the city, to the cathedral church,
where she heard vespers.[989]

[Footnote 989: _Journal du siège_, p. 80. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du
siège_, p. 95.]

On the morrow, the 3rd of May, the day of the Invention of the Holy
Cross, which was the Cathedral Festival, she followed in the
procession, with the magistrates and the townsfolk. It was then that
Maître Jean de Mâcon, the precentor of the cathedral,[990] greeted her
with these words: "My daughter, are you come to raise the siege?"

[Footnote 990: Charles Cuissard, _Notes chronologiques sur Jean de
Mâcon_, in _Mémoires de la Société archéologique de l'Orléanais_, vol.
xi, 1897, pp. 529, 545.]

She replied: "Yea, in God's name."[991]

[Footnote 991: _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 291.
Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 30.]

The people of Orléans all believed that the English round the city
were as innumerable as the stars in the sky; the notary, Guillaume
Girault, expected nothing short of a miracle.[992] Jean Luillier,
woollen draper[993] by trade, thought it impossible for the citizens
to hold out longer against an enemy so enormously their superior.[994]
Messire Jean de Mâcon was likewise alarmed at the power and the
numbers of the _Godons_.

[Footnote 992: Note by Guill. Girault, notary in the _Trial_, vol. iv,
p. 282. _Journal du siège_, p. 135.]

[Footnote 993: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 112, 113.]

[Footnote 994: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 24. Cf. _Ibid._, pp. 7, 8 (the
evidence of Dunois amounts to much the same).]

"My daughter," he said to the Maid, "their force is great and they are
strongly intrenched. It will be a difficult matter to turn them
out."[995]

[Footnote 995: _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 291.]

If notary Guillaume Girault, if draper Jean Luillier, if Messire Jean
de Mâcon, instead of fostering these gloomy ideas, had counted the
numbers of the besieged and the besieging, they would have found that
the former were more numerous than the latter; and that the army of
Scales, of Suffolk, of Talbot appeared mean and feeble when compared
with the great besieging armies of the reign of King Henry V. Had they
looked a little more closely they would have perceived that the
bastions, with the formidable names of London and of Paris, were
powerless to prevent either corn, cattle, pigs, or men-at-arms being
brought into the city; and that these gigantic dolls were being mocked
at by the dealers, who, with their beasts, passed by them daily. In
short, they would have realised that the people of Orléans were for
the moment better off than the English. But they had examined nothing
for themselves. They were content to abide by public opinion which is
seldom either just or correct. The Maid did not share Messire Jean de
Mâcon's illusions. She knew no more of the English than he did; yet
because she was a saint, she replied tranquilly: "With God all things
are possible."[996] And Maître Jean de Mâcon thought it well that such
should be her opinion.

[Footnote 996: _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 291.]

What aggravated the trouble, the danger, and the panic of the
situation, was that the citizens believed they were betrayed. They
recollected the Count of Clermont at the Battle of the Herrings, and
they suspected the King's men of deserting them once again. After
having done so much and spent so much they saw themselves given up to
the English. This idea made them mad.[997] There was a rumour that the
Marshal de Boussac, who had started with my Lord the Bastard to meet
the second convoy of supplies, and who was to return on Tuesday the
3rd, would not come back. It was said that the Chancellor of France
wanted to disband the army. It was absurd. On the contrary, great
efforts for the deliverance of the city were being made by the King's
Council and that of the Queen of Sicily. But the people's brains had
been turned by their long suffering and their terrible danger. A more
reasonable fear was lest any mishap should occur on the road from
Blois like that which had overtaken the force at Rouvray. The Maid's
comrades were infected with the anxieties of the townsfolk; one of
them betrayed his fears to her, but she was not affected by them. With
the radiant tranquillity of the illuminated, she said:[998] "The
Marshal will come. I am confident that no harm will happen to
him."[999]

[Footnote 997: _Journal du siège_, pp. 51, 52.]

[Footnote 998: Beaucroix, in his evidence, says it was Jean d'Aulon
(_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 79); but, according to his own testimony,
d'Aulon was then following the Bastard (_Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 210).]

[Footnote 999: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 79. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
286. P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 85.]

On that day there entered into the city the little garrisons of Gien,
of Château-Regnard, and of Montargis.[1000] But the Blois army did not
come. On the morrow, at daybreak, it was descried in the plain of La
Beauce. And, indeed, the Sire de Rais and his company, escorted by the
Marshal de Boussac and my Lord the Bastard, were skirting the Forest
of Orléans.[1001] At these tidings the citizens must needs exclaim
that the Maid had been right in wishing to march straight against
Talbot since the captains now followed the very road she had
indicated. But in reality it was not just as they thought. Only one
part of the Blois army had risked forcing its way between the western
bastions; the convoy, with its escort, like the first convoy, was
coming through La Sologne and was to enter the town by water. Those
arrangements for the entrance of supplies, which, in the first
instance, had proved successful, were naturally now repeated.[1002]

[Footnote 1000: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 287.]

[Footnote 1001: _Ibid._, p. 287. _Journal du siège_, p. 81. Abbé
Dubois, _Histoire du siège_, dissertation ix. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, p. 205. Loiseleur, _Comptes des dépenses_, ch. vii.]

[Footnote 1002: On the 4th of May, as on the 29th of April, the corn
was brought down the Loire. Indeed there exists a bill which makes
mention of "sailors who brought the corn which came from Blois on the
4th day of May," "_nottoniers qui amenèrent les blés qui furent amenés
de Blois le iiij'e jour de may_" (Boucher de Molandon, _Première
expédition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 58, 59).]

Captain La Hire and certain other commanders, who had remained in the
city with five hundred fighting men, went out to meet the Sire de
Rais, the Marshal de Boussac and the Bastard. The Maid mounted her
horse and went with them. They passed through the English lines; and,
a little further on, having met the army, they returned to the town
together. The priests, and among them Brother Pasquerel bearing the
banner, were the first to pass beneath the Paris bastion, singing
psalms.[1003]

[Footnote 1003: The 4th of May, _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 105, 211.
_Journal du siège_, p. 81. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 287.]

Jeanne dined at Jacques Boucher's house with her steward, Jean
d'Aulon. When the table was cleared, the Bastard, who had come to the
treasurer's house, talked with her for a moment. He was gracious and
polite, but spoke with restraint.

"I have heard on good authority," he remarked, "that Fastolf is soon
to join the English who are conducting the siege. He brings them
supplies and reinforcements and is already at Janville."

At these tidings Jeanne appeared very glad and said, laughing:
"Bastard, Bastard, in God's name, I command thee to let me know as
soon as thou shalt hear of Fastolf's arrival. For should he come
without my knowledge, I warn thee thou shalt lose thy head."[1004]

[Footnote 1004: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 212 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

Far from betraying any annoyance at so rude a jest, he replied that
she need have no fear, he would let her know.[1005]

[Footnote 1005: _Ibid._, p. 212.]

The approach of Sir John Fastolf had already been announced on the
26th of April. It was expressly in order to avoid him that the army
had come through La Sologne. It is possible that on the 4th of May the
tidings of his coming had no surer foundation. But the Bastard knew
something else. The corn of the second convoy, like that of the first,
was coming down the river. It had been resolved, in a council of war,
that in the afternoon the captains should attack the Saint-Loup
bastion, and divert the English as had been done on the 29th of
April.[1006] The attack had already begun. But of this the Bastard
breathed not a word to the Maid. He held her to be the one source of
strength in the town. But he believed that in war her part was purely
spiritual.[1007]

[Footnote 1006: _Ibid._, p. 212. _Journal du siège_, p. 78.]

[Footnote 1007: I have followed the account of Jean Chartier, vol. i,
p. 73 (amplified in _La chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 288), which is
more plausible than that of _Le journal du siège_.]

After he had withdrawn, Jeanne, worn out by her morning's expedition,
lay down on her bed with her hostess for a short sleep. Sire Jean
d'Aulon, who was very weary, stretched himself on a couch in the same
room, thinking to take the rest he so greatly needed. But scarce had
he fallen asleep when the Maid leapt from her bed and roused him with
a great noise. He asked her what she wanted.

"In God's name," she answered in great agitation, "my Council have
told me to go against the English; but I know not whether I am to go
against their bastions or against Fastolf, who is bringing them
supplies."[1008]

[Footnote 1008: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 212, 213 (Jean d'Aulon's
evidence).]

In her dreams she had been present at her Council, that is to say, she
had beheld her saints. She had seen Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret. There had happened to her what always happens. The saints
had told her no more than she herself knew. They had revealed to her
nothing of what she needed to know. They had not informed her how, at
that very moment, the French were attacking the Saint-Loup bastion and
suffering great hurt. And the Blessed Ones had departed leaving her in
error and in ignorance of what was going on, and in uncertainty as to
what she was to do. The good Sire d'Aulon was not the one to relieve
her from her embarrassment. He, too, was excluded from the Councils of
War. Now he answered her nothing, and set to arming himself as quickly
as possible. He had already begun when they heard a great noise and
cries coming up from the street. From the passers-by, they gleaned
that there was fighting near Saint-Loup and that the enemy was
inflicting great hurt on the French. Without staying to inquire
further, Jean d'Aulon went straightway to his squire to have his
armour put on. Almost at the same time Jeanne went down and asked:
"Where are my armourers? The blood of our folk is flowing."[1009]

[Footnote 1009: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 106.]

In the street she found Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain, with other
priests, and Mugot, her page, to whom she cried: "Ha! cruel boy, you
did not tell me that the blood of France was being shed!... In God's
name, our people are hard put to it."[1010]

[Footnote 1010: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 68 (evidence of Louis de
Coutes).]

She bade him bring her horse and leave the wife and daughter of her
host to finish arming her. On his return the page found her fully
accoutred. She sent him to fetch her standard from her room. He gave
it her through the window. She took it and spurred on her horse into
the high street, towards the Burgundian Gate, at such a pace that
sparks flashed from the pavement.

"Hasten after her!" cried the treasurer's wife.[1011]

[Footnote 1011: _Ibid._, p. 69.]

Sire d'Aulon had not seen her start. He imagined, why, it is
impossible to say, that she had gone out on foot, and, having met a
page on horseback in the street, had made him dismount and give her
his horse.[1012] The Renard Gate and the Burgundian Gate were on
opposite sides of the town. Jeanne, who for the last three days had
been going up and down the streets of Orléans, took the most direct
way. Jean d'Aulon and the page, who were hastily pursuing her, did not
come up with her until she had reached the gate. There they met a
wounded man being brought into the town. The Maid asked his bearers
who the man was. He was a Frenchman, they replied. Then she said: "I
have never seen the blood of a Frenchman flow without feeling my heart
stand still."[1013]

[Footnote 1012: _Ibid._, p. 212.]

[Footnote 1013: _Ibid._, pp. 212, 213 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

The Maid and Sire d'Aulon, with a few fighting men of their company,
pressed on through the fields to Saint-Loup. On the way they saw
certain of their party. The good squire, unaccustomed to great
battles, never remembered having seen so many fighting men at
once.[1014]

[Footnote 1014: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 213.]

For an hour the Sire de Rais' Bretons and the men from Le Mans had
been skirmishing before the bastion. As the custom was those who had
arrived last were keeping watch.[1015] But if these combatants, who
had reached the town only that very morning, had attacked without
taking time to breathe, they must have been hard pressed. They were
doing what had been done on the 29th of April, and for the same
reason:[1016] namely, occupying the English while the barges
corn-laden were coming down the river to the moat. On the top of their
high hill, in their strong fortress, the English had easily held out
albeit they were but few; and the French King's men can hardly have
been able to make head against them, since the Maid and Sire d'Aulon
found them scattered through the fields. She gathered them together
and led them back to the attack. They were her friends: they had
journeyed together: they had sung psalms and hymns together: together
they had heard mass in the fields. They knew that she brought good
luck: they followed her. As she marched at their head her first idea
was a religious one. The bastion was built upon the church and convent
of the Ladies of Saint-Loup. With the sound of a trumpet she had it
proclaimed that nothing should be taken from the church.[1017] She
remembered how Salisbury had come to a bad end for having pillaged the
Church of Notre Dame de Cléry; and she desired to keep her men from
an evil death.[1018] This was the first time she had seen fighting;
and no sooner had she entered into the battle than she became the
leader because she was the best. She did better than others, not
because she knew more; she knew less. But her heart was nobler. When
every man thought of himself, she alone thought of others: when every
man took heed to defend himself, she defended herself not at all,
having previously offered up her life. And thus this child,--who
feared suffering and death like every human being, who knew by her
Voices and her presentiments that she would be wounded,--went straight
on and stood beneath showers of arrows and cannon-balls on the edge of
the moat, her standard in hand, rallying her men.[1019] Through her
what had been merely a diversion became a serious attack. The bastion
was stormed.

[Footnote 1015: Gruel, _Chronique d'Arthur de Richemont_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1016: _Journal du siège_, p. 75.]

[Footnote 1017: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 124, 126. Abbé Dubois,
_Histoire du siège_, dissertation vi. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement
xiii. _Journal du siège_, pp. 83, 84. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol.
i, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1018: Robert Blondel, _De reductione Normanniæ_, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 347. _Journal du siège_, p. 13. _Chronique de la fête_, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 286 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1019: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 109, 127. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 295. Clerk of the Chambre des Comptes de Brabant, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426. Eberhard Windecke, p. 172.]

When he heard that the fort of Saint-Loup was being attacked, Sir John
Talbot sallied forth from the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. In
order to reach the threatened bastion he had some distance to go down
his lines and along the border of the forest. He set out, and on his
way was reinforced by the garrisons of the western bastions. The town
watchmen observed his movements and sounded the alarm. Marshal Boussac
passing through the Parisis Gate, went out to meet Talbot on the
north, towards Fleury. The English captain was preparing to break
through the French force when he saw a thick cloud of smoke rising
over the fort Saint-Loup. He understood that the French had captured
and set fire to it; and sadly he returned to the camp of
Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.[1020]

[Footnote 1020: Perceval de Cagny says: "Soon after [the arrival of
the Maid on the edge of the entrenchments] those in the fort wished to
surrender to her: she would not take them for ransom and said she
would capture them in any event, and redoubled the attack. And
straightway the fort was taken and almost all put to death." This is
hard to believe. The English would sooner have surrendered to the
humblest menial in the Armagnac host than to the Maid: and it is not
likely that she would have refused to hold them as prisoners for
ransom. Besides, Perceval de Cagny has not the remotest idea of what
happened on the 4th of May. For example, he believes that the Maid
opened the attack. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 144 _et seq._ _Journal du
siège_, p. 82. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 289. _Chronique de la
fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 294.]

The attack had lasted three hours. After the burning of the bastion
the English climbed into the church belfry. The French had difficulty
in dislodging them; but they ran no danger thereby. Of prisoners, they
took two score, and the rest they slew. The Maid was very sorrowful
when she saw so many of the enemy dead. She pitied these poor folk who
had died unconfessed.[1021] Certain _Godons_, wearing the
ecclesiastical habit and ornaments, came to meet her. She perceived
that they were soldiers disguised in stoles and hoods taken from the
sacristy of the Abbaye aux Dames. But she pretended to take them for
what they represented themselves to be. She received them and had them
conducted to her house without allowing any harm to come to them. With
a charitable jest she said: "One should never question priests."[1022]

[Footnote 1021: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1022: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 289.]

Before leaving the fort she confessed to Brother Pasquerel, her
chaplain. And she charged him to make the following announcement to
all the men-at-arms: "Confess your sins and thank God for the victory.
If you do not, the Maid will never help you more and will not remain
in your company."[1023]

[Footnote 1023: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 106.]

The Saint-Loup bastion, attacked by fifteen hundred French, had been
defended by only three hundred English. That they made no vigorous
defence is indicated by the fact that only two or three Frenchmen were
slain.[1024] It was not by any severe mental effort or profound
calculation that the French King's men had gained this advantage. It
had cost them little, and yet it was immense. It meant the cutting off
of the besiegers' communications with Jargeau: it meant the opening of
the upper Loire: it was the first step towards the raising of the
siege. Better still, it afforded positive proof that these devils who
had inspired such fear were miserable creatures, who might be
entrapped like mice and smoked out like wasps in their nest. Such
unhoped-for good fortune was due to the Maid. She had done everything,
for without her nothing would have been done. She it was, who, in
ignorance wiser than the knowledge of captains and free-lances, had
converted an idle skirmish into a serious attack and had won the
victory by inspiring confidence.

[Footnote 1024: At the capture of the Saint-Loup bastion:

                          _Number of                  _Number of
                           French engaged._            French slain._

Journal du Siège           1,500
                           without counting nobles.
Letter of Charles VII                                  2
Morosini's correspondent   3,500
Eberhard Windecke                                      2


                               _Number of          _Number of
                                English engaged._   English slain._

Brother Pasquerel               100 picked men      100 slain or taken
Jean d'Aulon                                        all killed or taken
G. Girault                                          120 killed or taken
Charles VII's letter                                all killed or taken
_Journal du siège_                                  114 killed, 40 taken
_Relation de la fête du 8 Mai_  From 120 to 140     all killed or taken
Perceval de Cagny               3,000               all killed or taken
_Chronique de la Pucelle_                           160 killed
Monstrelet                      From 300 to 400     all killed or taken
Eberhard Windecke                                   170 killed, 1,300 taken
_Les Vigiles de Charles VII_                        60 killed, 22 taken]

That very evening the magistrates sent workmen to Saint-Loup to
demolish the captured fortifications.[1025]

[Footnote 1025: The accounts of the fortress in _Journal du siège_, p.
284.]

When at night she returned to her lodging, Jeanne told her chaplain
that on the morrow, which was the day of the Ascension of Our Lord,
she would keep the Festival by not wearing armour and by abstaining
from fighting. She commanded that no one should think of quitting the
town, of attacking or making an assault, until he had first confessed.
She added that the men-at-arms must pay heed that no dissolute women
followed in their train for fear lest God should cause them to be
defeated on account of their sins.[1026]

[Footnote 1026: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 107. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 289, 290.]

When need was the Maid herself saw that her orders concerning bad
women and blasphemers were scrupulously obeyed. More than once she
drove away the camp-followers. She rebuked men-at-arms who swore and
blasphemed. One day, in the open street, a knight began to swear and
take God's name in vain. Jeanne heard him. She seized him by the
throat, exclaiming, "Ah, Sir! dare you take in vain the name of Our
Lord and Master? In God's name you shall take back those words before
I move from this place."

A citizen's wife, passing down the street at that moment, beheld this
man, who seemed to her to be a great baron, humbly receiving the
Saint's reproaches and testifying his repentance.[1027]

[Footnote 1027: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 34, 35 (evidence of the widow
Huré).]

On the morrow, which was Ascension Day, the captains held a
council-of-war in the house of Chancellor Cousinot in the Rue de la
Rose.[1028] There were present, as well as the Chancellor, my Lord the
Bastard, the Sire de Gaucourt, the Sire de Rais, the Sire de Graville,
Captain La Hire, my Lord Ambroise de Loré and several others. It was
decided that Les Tourelles, the chief stronghold of the besiegers,
should be attacked on the morrow. Meanwhile, it would be necessary to
hold in check the English of the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.
On the previous day, when Talbot set out from Saint-Laurent, he had
not been able to reach Saint-Loup in time because he had been obliged
to make a long circuit, going round the town from west to east. But,
although, on that previous day, the enemy had lost command of the
Loire above the town, they still held the lower river. They could
cross it between Saint-Laurent and Saint-Privé[1029] as rapidly as the
French could cross it by the Île-aux-Toiles; and thus the English
might gather in force at Le Portereau. This, the French must prevent
and, if possible, draw off the garrisons from Les Augustins and Les
Tourelles to Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. With this object it was
decided that the people of Orléans with the folk from the communes,
that is, from the villages, should make a feigned attack on the
Saint-Laurent camp, with mantelets, faggots, and ladders. Meanwhile,
the nobles would cross the Loire by l'Île-aux-Toiles, would land at Le
Portereau under the watch of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc which had been
abandoned by the English, and attack the bastion of Les Augustins; and
when that was taken, the fort of Les Tourelles.[1030] Thus there would
be one assault made by the citizens, another by the nobles; one real,
the other feigned; both useful, but only one glorious and worthy of
knights. When the plan was thus drawn up, certain captains were of
opinion that it would be well to send for the Maid and tell her what
had been decided.[1031] And, indeed, on the previous day, she had done
so well that there was no longer need to hold her aloof. Others deemed
that it would be imprudent to tell her what was contemplated
concerning Les Tourelles. For it was important that the undertaking
should be kept secret, and it was feared that the holy damsel might
speak of it to her friends among the common people. Finally, it was
agreed that she should know those decisions which affected the
train-bands of Orléans, since, indeed, she was their captain, but that
such matters as could not be safely communicated to the citizens
should be concealed from her.

[Footnote 1028: May 5th. Quicherat is mistaken when he says (_Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 57, note) that this council was held at Jacques Boucher's.
Cf. _Journal du siège_, p. 83. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, p. 73.
Boucher de Molandon in _Mémoires de la Société archéologique de
l'Orléanais_, vol. xxii, p. 373.]

[Footnote 1029: By the little island without a name which is marked on
the plan as Petite Île Charlemagne. The English had fortified it. See
plan.]

[Footnote 1030: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 74.]

[Footnote 1031: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 75. These statements are very
doubtful.]

Jeanne was in another room of the house with the Chancellor's wife.
Messire Ambroise de Loré went to fetch her; and, when she had come,
the Chancellor told her that the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils
was to be attacked on the morrow. She divined that something was being
kept back; for she possessed a certain acuteness. Besides, since they
had hitherto concealed everything, it was natural she should suspect
that something was still being kept from her. This mistrust annoyed
her. Did they think her incapable of keeping a secret? She said
bitterly: "Tell me what you have concluded and ordained. I could keep
a much greater secret than that."[1032]

[Footnote 1032: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 74, 75. Very
doubtful.]

And refusing to sit down she walked to and fro in the room.

My Lord the Bastard deemed it well to avoid exasperating her by
telling her the truth. He pacified her without incriminating anybody:
"Jeanne, do not rage. It is impossible to tell you everything at once.
What the Chancellor has said has been concluded and ordained. But if
those on the other side [of the water, the English of La Sologne]
should depart to come and succour the great bastion of Saint-Laurent
and the English who are encamped near this part of the city, we have
determined that some of us shall cross the river to do what we can
against those on the other side [those of Les Augustins and Les
Tourelles]. And it seems to us that such a decision is good and
profitable."

The Maid replied that she was content, that such a decision seemed to
her good, and that it should be carried out in the manner
determined.[1033]

[Footnote 1033: _Ibid._, p. 75. _Journal du siège_, pp. 82, 83. Cf.
the evidence of S. Charles (_Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 117).]

It will be seen that by this proceeding the secrecy of the
deliberations had been violated, and that the nobles had not been able
to do what they had determined or at least not in the way they had
determined. On that Ascension Day the Maid for the last time sent a
message of peace to the English, which she dictated to Brother
Pasquerel in the following terms: _Ye men of England, who have no
right in the realm of France, the King of Heaven enjoins and commands
you by me, Jeanne the Maid, to leave your forts and return to your
country. If ye will not I will make so great a noise as shall remain
for ever in the memory of man: This I write to you for the third and
last time, and I will write to you no more._

Signed thus: Jhesus--Maria. Jeanne the Maid.

And below: _I should have sent to you with more ceremony. But you keep
my heralds. You kept my herald Guyenne. If you will send him back to
me, I will send you some of your men taken at the bastion Saint-Loup;
they are not all dead._[1034]

[Footnote 1034: May 5th. _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 107 (Pasquerel's
evidence).]

Jeanne went to La Belle Croix, took an arrow, and tied her letter to
it with a string, then told an archer to shoot it to the English,
crying: "Read! This is the message."

The English received the arrow, untied the letter, and having read it
they cried: "This a message from the Armagnac strumpet."

When she heard them, tears came into Jeanne's eyes and she wept. But
soon she beheld her saints, who spoke to her of Our Lord, and she was
comforted. "I have had a message from my Lord," she said
joyfully.[1035]

[Footnote 1035: _Ibid._, p. 108.]

My Lord the Bastard himself demanded the Maid's herald, threatening
that if he were not sent back he would keep the heralds whom the
English had sent to treat for the exchange of prisoners. It is
asserted that he even threatened to put those prisoners to death. But
Ambleville did not return.[1036]

[Footnote 1036: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 286. _Journal du siège_,
p. 79, gives a different account of this episode.]




CHAPTER XIII

THE TAKING OF LES TOURELLES AND THE DELIVERANCE OF ORLÉANS


On the morrow, Friday the 6th of May, the Maid rose at daybreak. She
confessed to her chaplain and heard mass sung before the priests and
fighting men of her company.[1037] The zealous townsfolk were already
up and armed. Whether or no she had told them, the citizens, who were
strongly determined to cross the Loire and attack Les Tourelles
themselves, were pressing in crowds to the Burgundian Gate. They found
it shut. The Sire de Gaucourt was guarding it with men-at-arms. The
nobles had taken this precaution in case the citizens should discover
their enterprise and wish to take part in it. The gate was closed and
well defended. Bent on fighting and themselves recovering their
precious jewel, Les Tourelles, the citizens had recourse to her before
whom gates opened and walls fell; they sent for the Saint. She came,
frank and terrible. She went straight to the old Sire de Gaucourt,
and, refusing to listen to him, said: "You are a wicked man to try to
prevent these people from going out. But whether you will or no, they
will go and will do as well as they did the other day."[1038]

[Footnote 1037: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 108 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

[Footnote 1038: _Ibid._, pp. 116, 117. Evidence of S. Charles. P.
Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 105.]

Excited by Jeanne's voice and encouraged by her presence, the
citizens, crying slaughter, threw themselves on Gaucourt and his
men-at-arms. When the old baron perceived that he could do nothing
with them, and that it was impossible to bring them to his way of
thinking, he himself joined them. He had the gates opened wide and
cried out to the townsfolk: "Come, I will be your captain."

And with the Lord of Villars and Sire d'Aulon he went out at the head
of the soldiers, who had been keeping the gate, and all the
train-bands of the town. At the foot of La Tour-Neuve, at the eastern
corner of the ramparts, there were boats at anchor. In them
l'Île-aux-Toiles was reached, and thence on a bridge formed by two
boats they crossed over the narrow arm of the river which separates
l'Île-aux-Toiles from the Sologne bank.[1039] Those who arrived first
entered the abandoned fort of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, and, while waiting
for the others, amused themselves by demolishing it.[1040] Then, when
all had passed over, the townsfolk gayly marched against Les
Augustins. The bastion was situated in front of Les Tourelles, on the
ruins of the monastery; and the bastion would have to be taken before
the fortifications at the end of the bridge could be attacked. But the
enemy came out of their entrenchments and advanced within two
bow-shots of the French, upon whom from their bows and cross-bows they
let fly so thick a shower of arrows that the men of Orléans could not
stand against them. They gave way and fled to the bridge of boats:
then, afraid of being cast into the river, they crossed over to
l'Île-aux-Toiles.[1041] The fighting men of the Sire de Gaucourt were
more accustomed to war. With the Lord of Villars, Sire d'Aulon, and a
valiant Spaniard, Don Alonzo de Partada, they took their stand on the
slope of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc and resisted the enemy. Although very few
in number, they were still holding out when, about three o'clock in
the afternoon, Captain La Hire and the Maid crossed the river with the
free-lances. Seeing the French hard put to it, and the English in
battle array, they mounted their horses, which they had brought over
with them, and holding their lances in rest spurred on against the
enemy. The townsfolk, taking heart, followed them and drove back the
English. But at the foot of the bastion they were again
repulsed.[1042] In great agitation the Maid galloped from the bastion
to the bank, and from the bank to the bastion, calling for the
knights; but the knights did not come. Their plans had been upset,
their order of battle reversed, and they needed time to collect
themselves. At last she saw floating over the island the banners of my
Lord the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, and the Lord de Rais. The
artillery came too, and Master Jean de Montesclère with his culverin
and his gunners, bringing all the engines needed for the assault. Four
thousand men assembled round Les Augustins. But much time had been
lost; they were only just beginning, and the sun was going down.[1043]

[Footnote 1039: _Journal du siège_, pp. 83, 84. Abbé Dubois, _Histoire
du siège_, p. 535. Jollois, _Histoire du siège_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 1040: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 290.]

[Footnote 1041: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 76. _Journal du
siège_, pp. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1042: "_Et les rebouterent ils par maintes fois et
tresbucherent de hault en bas._" _Journal du siège_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 1043: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 214, 215 (Jean d'Aulon's
evidence).]

The Sire de Gaucourt's men were ranged behind, to cover the besiegers
in case the English from the bridge end should come to the aid of
their countrymen in Les Augustins. But a quarrel arose in de
Gaucourt's company. Some, like Sire d'Aulon and Don Alonzo, judged it
well to stay at their post. Others were ashamed to stand idle. Hence
haughty words and bravado. Finally Don Alonzo and a man-at-arms,
having challenged each other to see who would do the best, ran towards
the bastion hand in hand. At one single volley Maître Jean's culverin
overthrew the palisade. Straightway the two champions forced their way
in.[1044]

[Footnote 1044: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 215 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

"Enter boldly!" cried the Maid.[1045] And she planted her standard on
the rampart. The Sire de Rais followed her closely.

[Footnote 1045: _Ibid._, p. 78 (evidence of Beaucroix). _Journal du
siège_, p. 86.]

The numbers of the French were increasing. They made a strong attack
on the bastion and soon took it by storm. Then one by one they had to
assault the buildings of the monastery in which the _Godons_ were
entrenched. In the end all the English were slain or taken, except a
few, who took refuge in Les Tourelles. In the huts the French found
many of their own men imprisoned. After bringing them out, they set
fire to the fort, and thus made known to the English their new
disaster.[1046] It is said to have been the Maid who ordered the fire
in order to put a stop to the pillage in which her men were
mercilessly engaging.[1047]

[Footnote 1046: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 291. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 72. _Journal du siège_, pp. 84, 85. Of
doubtful authenticity.]

[Footnote 1047: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 291.]

A great advantage had been won. But the French were slow to regain
confidence. When, in the darkness by the light of the fire, they
beheld for the first time close to them the bulwarks of Les Tourelles,
the men-at-arms were afraid. Certain said: "It would take us more than
a month to capture it."[1048]

[Footnote 1048: Perceval de Cagny, p. 146.]

The lords, captains, and men-at-arms went back to the town to pass a
quiet night. The archers and most of the townsfolk stayed at Le
Portereau. The Maid would have liked to stay too, so as to be sure of
beginning again on the morrow.[1049] But, seeing that the captains
were leaving their horses and their pages in the fields, she followed
them to Orléans.[1050] Wounded in the foot by a caltrop,[1051]
overcome with fatigue, she felt weak, and contrary to her custom she
broke her fast, although the day was Friday.[1052] According to
Brother Pasquerel, who in this matter is not very trustworthy, while
she was finishing her supper in her lodging, there came to her a noble
whose name is not mentioned and who addressed her thus: "The captains
have met in council.[1053] They recognise how few we were in
comparison with the English, and that it was by God's great favour
that we won the victory. Now that the town is plentifully supplied we
may well wait for help from the King. Wherefore, the council deems it
inexpedient for the men-at-arms to make a sally to-morrow."

[Footnote 1049: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 79 (evidence of Beaucroix).]

[Footnote 1050: _Ibid._, p. 70. _Chronique de la fête_, p. 33.]

[Footnote 1051: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 291.]

[Footnote 1052: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 108.]

[Footnote 1053: The council is mentioned in _La chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 292; but this document is a mere echo of Brother
Pasquerel's evidence.]

Jeanne replied: "You have been at your council; I have been at mine.
Now believe me the counsel of Messire shall be followed and shall hold
good, whereas your counsel shall come to nought." And turning to
Brother Pasquerel who was with her, she said: "To-morrow rise even
earlier than to-day, and do the best you can. Stay always at my side,
for to-morrow I shall have much ado--more than I have ever had, and
to-morrow blood shall flow from my body."[1054]

[Footnote 1054: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109. Brother Pasquerel,
whom I follow here, reports Jeanne's saying in the following terms:
_Exibit crastina die sanguis a corpore meo supra mammam._ I suspect
him of having added to the prophecy. He was too fond of miracles and
prophecies. On the 28th of April the Maid says that the wind will
change, and it changed. Brother Pasquerel is not satisfied with so
moderate a marvel. He relates that Jeanne raised the waters of the
Loire. We know on other authority that the Loire was high. It cannot
be denied that long before this Jeanne had foretold that she would be
wounded. This fact, stated in a letter from Lyon, dated the 22nd of
April, 1429, was recorded in a register of La Cour des Comptes of
Brabant. But she did not specify the day. _Dixit ... quod ipsa ante
Aureliam in conflictu telo vulnerabitur_ (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426).]

It was not true that the English outnumbered the French. On the
contrary they were far less numerous. There were scarce more than
three thousand men round Orléans. The succour from the King having
arrived, the captains could not have said that they were waiting for
it. True it is that they were hesitating to proceed forthwith to
attack Les Tourelles on the morrow; but that was because they feared
lest the English under Talbot should enter the deserted town during
the assault, since the townsfolk, refusing to march against
Saint-Laurent, had all gone to Le Portereau. The Maid's Council
troubled about none of these difficulties. No fears beset Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret. To doubt is to fear; they never doubted.
Whatever may be said to the contrary, of military tactics and strategy
they knew nothing. They had not read the treatise of Vegetius, _De re
militari_. Had they read it the town would have been lost. Jeanne's
Vegetius was Saint Catherine.

During the night it was cried in the streets of the city that bread,
wine, ammunition and all things necessary must be taken to those who
had stayed behind at Le Portereau. There was a constant passing to and
fro of boats across the river. Men, women and children were carrying
supplies to the outposts.[1055]

[Footnote 1055: _Journal du siège_, p. 84.]

On the morrow, Saturday the 7th of May, Jeanne heard Brother Pasquerel
say mass and piously received the holy sacrament.[1056] Jacques
Boucher's house was beset with magistrates and notable citizens. After
a night of fatigue and anxiety, they had just heard tidings which
exasperated them. They had heard tell that the captains wanted to
defer the storming of Les Tourelles. With loud cries they appealed to
the Maid to help the townsfolk, sold, abandoned, and betrayed.[1057]
The truth was that my Lord the Bastard and the captains, having
observed during the night a great movement among the English on the
upper Loire, were confirmed in their fears that Talbot would attack
the walls near the Renard Gate while the French were occupied on the
left bank. At sunrise they had perceived that during the night the
English had demolished their outwork Saint Privé, south of
l'Île-Charlemagne.[1058] That also caused them to believe firmly that
in the evening the English had concentrated in the Saint-Laurent camp
and the bastion, London. The townsfolk had long been irritated by the
delay of the King's men in raising the siege. And there is no doubt
that the captains were not so eager to bring it to an end as they
were.[1059] The captains lived by war, while the citizens died of
it,--that made all the difference. The magistrates besought the Maid
to complete without delay the deliverance she had already begun. They
said to her: "We have taken counsel and we entreat you to accomplish
the mission you have received from God and likewise from the King."

[Footnote 1056: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 109. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 295.]

[Footnote 1057: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292. _Trial_, vol. iii,
p. 215. _Journal du siège_, pp. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1058: _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 293.]

[Footnote 1059: "_Par l'accord et consentement des bourgeois d'Orléans
mais contre l'opinion et volonté de tous les chefs et capitaines_,"
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292.]

"In God's name, I will," she said. And straightway she mounted her
horse, and uttering a very ancient phrase, she cried: "Let who loves
me follow me!"[1060]

[Footnote 1060: _Chronique de l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 293. Le Roux de Lincy, _Proverbes_, vol. ii, p. 395.]

As she was leaving the treasurer's house a shad was brought her. She
said to her host, smiling, "In God's name! we will have it for supper.
I will bring you back a _Godon_ who shall eat his share." She added:
"This evening we shall return by the bridge."[1061] For the last
ninety-nine days it had been impossible. But happily her words proved
true.

[Footnote 1061: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 124 (evidence of the woman P.
Milet). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292.]

The townsfolk had been too quick to take alarm. Notwithstanding their
fear of Talbot and the English of the Saint-Laurent camp, the nobles
crossed the Loire in the early morning, and at Le Portereau rejoined
their horses and pages who had passed the night there with the
archers and train-bands. They were all there, the Bastard, the Sire de
Gaucourt, and the lords of Rais, Graville, Guitry, Coarraze, Villars,
Illiers, Chailly, the Admiral de Culant, the captains La Hire, and
Poton.[1062] The Maid was with them. The magistrates sent them great
store of engines of war: hurdles, all kinds of arrows, hammers, axes,
lead, powder, culverins, cannon, and ladders.[1063] The attack began
early. What rendered it difficult was not the number of English
entrenched in the bulwark and lodged in the towers: there were barely
more than five hundred of them;[1064] true, they were commanded by
Lord Moleyns, and under him by Lord Poynings and Captain Glasdale, who
in France was called Glassidas, a man of humble birth, but the first
among the English for courage.[1065] The assailants, citizens,
men-at-arms and archers were ten times more numerous. That so many
combatants had been assembled was greatly to the credit of the French
nation; but so great an army of men could not be employed at once.
Knights were not much use against earthworks; and the townsfolk
although very zealous, were not very tenacious.[1066] Finally, the
Bastard, who was prudent and thoughtful, was afraid of Talbot.[1067]
Indeed if Talbot had known and if he had wanted he might have taken
the town while the French were trying to take Les Tourelles. War is
always a series of accidents, but on that day no attempt whatever was
made to carry out any concerted movement. This vast army was not an
irresistible force, since no one, not even the Bastard, knew how to
bring it into action. In those days the issue of a battle was in the
hands of a very few combatants. On the previous day everything had
been decided by two or three men.

[Footnote 1062: Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 1063: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292. _Journal du siège_,
p. 284, _passim_.]

[Footnote 1064: _Journal du siège_, p. 87. Letter from Charles VII to
the people of Narbonne (10 May, 1429), in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 101 _et
seq._ _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 294. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 77. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 32, note
1.]

[Footnote 1065: Jarry, _Le compte de l'armée anglaise_, pp. 94, 95,
136, 206. Boucher de Molandon, _L'armée anglaise_, pp. 94 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1066: They were employed chiefly in carrying munitions of
war. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292.]

[Footnote 1067: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 5.]

The French assembled before the entrenchments had the air of an
immense crowd of idlers looking on while a few men-at-arms attempted
an escalade. Notwithstanding the size of the army, for a long while
the assault resolved itself into a series of single combats. Twenty
times did the most zealous approach the rampart and twenty times they
were forced to retreat.[1068] There were some wounded and some slain,
but not many. The nobles, who had been making war all their lives,
were cautious, while the soldiers of fortune were careful of their
men. The townsfolk were novices in war.[1069] The Maid alone threw
herself into it with heart and soul. She was continually saying: "Be
of good cheer. Do not retreat. The fort will soon be yours."[1070]

[Footnote 1068: _Journal du siège_, p. 85. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 293. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 77. Morosini, vol. iii,
pp. 31 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1069: Accounts of fortresses in _Journal du siège_, pp. 296,
300. Vergniaud-Romagnési, _Notice historique sur le fort des
Tourelles_, Paris, in 8vo, 1832, p. 50.]

[Footnote 1070: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 293.]

At noon everyone went away to dinner. Then about one o'clock they set
to work again.[1071] The Maid carried the first ladder. As she was
putting it up against the rampart, she was struck on the shoulder over
the right breast, by an arrow shot so straight that half a foot of the
shaft pierced her flesh.[1072] She knew that she was to be wounded;
she had foretold it to her King, adding that he must employ her all
the same. She had announced it to the people of Orléans and spoken of
it to her chaplain[1073] on the previous day; and certainly for the
last five days she had been doing her best to make the prophecy come
true.[1074] When the English saw that the arrow had pierced her flesh
they were greatly encouraged: they believed that if blood were drawn
from a witch all her power would vanish. It made the French very sad.
They carried her apart. Brother Pasquerel and Mugot, the page, were
with her. Being in pain, she was afraid and wept.[1075] As was usual
when combatants were wounded in battle, a group of soldiers surrounded
her; some wanted to charm her. It was a custom with men-at-arms to
attempt to close wounds by muttering paternosters over them. Spells
were cast by means of incantations and conjurations. Certain
paternosters had the power of stopping hemorrhage. Papers covered with
magic characters were also used. But it meant having recourse to the
power of devils and committing mortal sin. Jeanne did not wish to be
charmed.

[Footnote 1071: "Post prandium," says Brother Pasquerel (_Trial_, vol.
iii, p. 108). Cf. the evidence of Dunois (_Ibid._, p. 8).]

[Footnote 1072: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 79. Eberhard Windecke, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1073: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 109.]

[Footnote 1074: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 292. Clerk of _La
Chambre des Comptes_ of Brabant, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426.]

[Footnote 1075: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 109. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 292, 293.]

"I would rather die," she said, "than do anything I knew to be sin or
contrary to God's will."

Again she said: "I know that I am to die. But I do not know when or
how, neither do I know the hour. If my wound may be healed without sin
then am I willing to be made whole."[1076]

[Footnote 1076: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 109 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

Her armour was taken off. The wound was anointed with olive oil and
fat, and, when it was dressed, she confessed to Brother Pasquerel,
weeping and groaning. Soon she beheld coming to her her heavenly
counsellors, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. They wore crowns and
emitted a sweet fragrance. She was comforted.[1077] She resumed her
armour and returned to the attack.[1078]

[Footnote 1077: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 79; vol. iii, p. 110.]

[Footnote 1078: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 293.]

The sun was going down; and since morning the French had been wearing
themselves out in a vain attack upon the palisades of the bulwark. My
Lord the Bastard, seeing his men tired and night coming on, and afraid
doubtless of the English of the Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils Camp,
resolved to lead the army back to Orléans. He had the retreat sounded.
The trumpet was already summoning the combatants to Le Portereau.[1079]
The Maid came to him and asked him to wait a little.

[Footnote 1079: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 216 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence),
p. 25; (evidence of J. Luillier). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 293.]

"In God's name!" she said, "you will enter very soon. Be not afraid
and the English shall have no more power over you."

According to some, she added: "Wherefore, rest a little; drink and
eat."[1080]

[Footnote 1080: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 25. _Journal du siège_, pp. 85,
86. Eberhard Windecke, p. 173.]

While they were refreshing themselves, she asked for her horse and
mounted it. Then, leaving her standard with a man of her company, she
went alone up the hill into the vineyards, which it had been
impossible to till this April, but where the tiny spring leaves were
beginning to open. There, in the calm of evening, among the vine props
tied together in sheaves and the lines of low vines drinking in the
early warmth of the earth, she began to pray and listened for her
heavenly voices.[1081] Too often tumult and noise prevented her from
hearing what her angel and her saints had to say to her. She could
only understand them well in solitude or when the bells were tinkling
in the distance, and evening sounds soft and rhythmic were ascending
from field and meadow.[1082]

[Footnote 1081: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 8 (evidence of Dunois). I
emphatically reject the facts alleged by Charles du Lys, concerning
Guy de Cailly, who is said to have accompanied Jeanne into the
vineyard and seen the angels coming down to her. Guy de Cailly's
patent of nobility is apocryphal. Charles du Lys, _Traité sommaire_,
pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 1082: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 62, 153, 480; vol. ii, pp.
420, 424.]

During her absence Sire d'Aulon, who could not give up the idea of
winning the day, devised one last expedient. He was the least of the
nobles in the army; but in the battles of those days every man was a
law unto himself. The Maid's standard was still waving in front of the
bulwark. The man who bore it was dropping with fatigue and had passed
it on to a soldier, surnamed the Basque, of the company of my Lord of
Villars.[1083] It occurred to Sire d'Aulon, as he looked upon this
standard blessed by priests and held to bring good luck, that if it
were borne in front, the fighting men, who loved it dearly, would
follow it and in order not to lose it would scale the bulwark. With
this idea he went to the Basque and said: "If I were to enter there
and go on foot up to the bulwark would you follow me?"

[Footnote 1083: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 216. The Count Couret, _Un
fragment inédit des anciens registres de la Prévoté d'Orléans_,
Orléans, 1897, pp. 12, 20, 21, _passim_.]

The Basque promised that he would. Straightway Sire d'Aulon went down
into the ditch and protecting himself with his shield, which sheltered
him from the stones fired from the cannon, advanced towards the
rampart.[1084]

[Footnote 1084: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 216.]

After a quarter of an hour, the Maid, having offered a short prayer,
returned to the men-at-arms and said to them: "The English are
exhausted. Bring up the ladders."[1085]

[Footnote 1085: _Journal du siège_, p. 86.]

It was true. They had so little powder that their last volley fired in
an insufficient charge carried no further than a stone thrown by
hand.[1086] Nothing but fragments of weapons remained to them. She
went towards the fort. But when she reached the ditch she suddenly
beheld the standard so dear to her, a thousand times dearer than her
sword, in the hands of a stranger. Thinking it was in danger, she
hastened to rescue it and came up with the Basque just as he was going
down into the ditch. There she seized her standard by the part known
as its tail, that is the end of the flag, and pulled at it with all
her might, crying:

"Ha! my standard, my standard!"

[Footnote 1086: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 293.]

The Basque stood firm, not knowing who was pulling thus from above.
And the Maid would not let it go. The nobles and captains saw the
standard shake, took it for a sign and rallied. Meanwhile Sire d'Aulon
had reached the rampart. He imagined that the Basque was following
close behind. But, when he turned round he perceived that he had
stopped on the other side of the ditch, and he cried out to him: "Eh!
Basque, what did you promise me?"

At this cry the Basque pulled so hard that the Maid let go, and he
bore the standard to the rampart.[1087]

[Footnote 1087: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 216, 217.]

Jeanne understood and was satisfied. To those near her she said: "Look
and see when the flag of my standard touches the bulwark."

A knight replied: "Jeanne, the flag touches."

Then she cried: "All is yours. Enter."[1088]

[Footnote 1088: _Journal du siège_, p. 86. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 293.]

Straightway nobles and citizens, men-at-arms, archers, townsfolk threw
themselves wildly into the ditch and climbed up the palisades so
quickly and in such numbers that they looked like a flock of birds
descending on a hedge.[1089] And the French, who had now entered
within the fortifications, saw retreating before them, but with their
faces turned proudly towards the enemy, the Lords Moleyns and
Poynings, Sir Thomas Giffart, Baillie of Mantes, and Captain Glasdale,
who were covering the flight of their men to Les Tourelles.[1090] In
his hand Glasdale was holding the standard of Chandos, which, after
having waved over eighty years of victories, was now retreating before
the standard of a child.[1091] For the Maid was there, standing upon
the rampart. And the English, panic-stricken, wondered what kind of a
witch this could be whose powers did not depart with the flowing of
her blood, and who with charms healed her deep wounds. Meanwhile she
was looking at them kindly and sadly and crying out, her voice broken
with sobs:

"Glassidas! Glassidas! surrender, surrender to the King of Heaven.
Thou hast called me strumpet; but I have great pity on thy soul and on
the souls of thy men."[1092]

[Footnote 1089: _Chronique de la fête_, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p.
294.]

[Footnote 1090: _Journal du siège_, p. 87.]

[Footnote 1091: Letter from Charles VII to the inhabitants of
Narbonne, 10 May, 1429, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 103. Monstrelet, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 365.]

[Footnote 1092: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 110 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

At the same time, from the walls of the town and the bulwark of La
Belle Croix cannon balls rained down upon Les Tourelles.[1093]
Montargis and Rifflart cast forth stones. Maître Guillaume Duisy's new
cannon, from the Chesneau postern, hurled forth balls weighing one
hundred and twenty pounds.[1094] Les Tourelles were attacked from the
bridge side. Across the arch broken by the English a narrow footway
was thrown, and Messire Nicole de Giresme, a knight in holy orders,
was the first to pass over.[1095] Those who followed him set fire to
the palisade which blocked the approach to the fort on that side. Thus
the six hundred English, their strength and their weapons alike
exhausted, found themselves assailed both in front and in the rear. In
a crafty and terrible manner they were also attacked from beneath. The
people of Orléans had loaded a great barge with pitch, tow, faggots,
horse-bones, old shoes, resin, sulphur, ninety-eight pounds of olive
oil and such other materials as might easily take fire and smoke. They
had steered it under the wooden bridge, thrown by the enemy from Les
Tourelles to the bulwark: they had anchored the barge there and set
fire to its cargo. The fire from the barge had caught the bridge just
when the English were retreating. Through smoke and flames the six
hundred passed over the burning platform. At length it came to the
turn of William Glasdale, Lord Poynings and Lord Moleyns, who with
thirty or forty captains, were the last to leave the lost bulwark; but
when they set foot on the bridge, its beams, reduced to charcoal,
crumbled beneath them, and they all with the Chandos standard were
engulfed in the Loire.[1096]

[Footnote 1093: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 293, 294. Morosini,
vol. iii, p. 31.]

[Footnote 1094: _Journal du siège_, p. 17. Jollois, _Histoire du
siège_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1095: _Journal du siège_, p. 87. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 294. _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 294.]

[Footnote 1096: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 9, 25, 80. _Chronique de
l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 294. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 294. _Journal du siège_, pp. 87, 88. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 78. Perceval de Cagny, p. 145. Eberhard
Windecke, p. 173. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 321. Morosini, vol. iii, pp.
31 _et seq._]

Jeanne moved to pity wept over the soul of Glassidas and over the
souls of those drowned with him.[1097] The captains, who were with
her, likewise grieved over the death of these valiant men, reflecting
that they had done the French a great wrong by being drowned, for
their ransom would have brought great riches.[1098]

[Footnote 1097: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 110 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

[Footnote 1098: _Journal du siège_, p. 87.]

Having escaped from the French on the bulwark, across the burning
planks the six hundred were set upon by the French on the bridge. Four
hundred were slain, the others taken. The day had cost the people of
Orléans a hundred men.[1099]

[Footnote 1099: The number of the English who defended Les Tourelles
is given in _Le journal du siège_ as 400 or 500; in Charles VII's
letter as 600; in _La relation de la fête du 8 mai_ as 800; in _La
chronique de la Pucelle_ as 500. It is impossible to fix exactly the
number of the French, but they were more than ten times as many as the
English.

The English losses, by Guillaume Girault, are said to have been 300
slain and taken; by Berry, 400 or 500 slain and taken; by Jean
Chartier, about 400 slain, the rest taken; by _La chronique de la
Pucelle_, 300 slain, 200 taken; by _Le journal du siège_, 400 or 500
slain besides a few taken. By Monstrelet, in the MSS., 600 or 800
slain or taken; in the printed editions, 1000; by Bower, 600 and more
slain.

The losses of the French are said by Perceval de Cagny to have been 16
to 20 slain; by Eberhard Windecke, 5 slain and a few wounded; by
Monstrelet, about 100. The Maid estimated that in the various
engagements at Orléans in which she took part "one hundred and even
more" of the French were wounded.]

When in the black darkness, along the fire-reddened banks of the
Loire, the last cries of the vanquished had died away, the French
captains, amazed at their victory, looked anxiously towards
Saint-Laurent-des Orgerils, for they were still afraid lest Sir John
Talbot should sally forth from his camp to avenge those whom he had
failed to succour. Throughout that long attack, which had lasted from
sunrise to sunset, Talbot, the Earl of Suffolk and the English of
Saint-Laurent had not left their entrenchments. Even when Les
Tourelles were taken the conquerors remained on the watch, still
expecting Talbot.[1100] But this Talbot, with whose name French
mothers frightened their children, did not budge. He had been greatly
feared that day, and he himself had feared lest,[1101] if he withdrew
any of his troops to succour Les Tourelles, the French would capture
his camp and his forts on the west.

[Footnote 1100: _Journal du siège_, p. 88.]

[Footnote 1101: Perceval de Cagny, p. 147. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 295.]

The army prepared to return to the town. In three hours, the bridge,
three arches of which had been broken, was rendered passable. Some
hours after darkness, the Maid entered the city by the bridge as she
had foretold.[1102] In like manner all her prophecies were fulfilled
when their fulfilment depended on her own courage and determination.
The captains accompanied her, followed by all the men-at-arms, the
archers, the citizens and the prisoners who were brought in two by
two. The bells of the city were ringing; the clergy and people sang
the Te Deum.[1103] After God and his Blessed Mother, they gave thanks
in all humility to Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, who had been
bishops in their mortal lives and were now the heavenly patrons of the
city. The townsfolk believed that both before and during the siege
they had given the saints so much wax and had paraded their relics in
so many processions that they had deserved their powerful
intercession, and that thereby they had won the victory and been
delivered out of the enemy's hand. There was no doubt about the
intervention of the saints because at the time of assault on Les
Tourelles two bishops bright and shining had been seen in the sky,
hovering over the fort.[1104]

[Footnote 1102: _Journal du siège_, p. 88. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 295. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 78.]

[Footnote 1103: _Chronique de l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 294 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1104: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 163.]

Jeanne was brought back to Jacques Boucher's house, where a surgeon
again dressed the wound she had received above the breast. She took
four or five slices of bread soaked in wine and water, but neither ate
nor drank anything else.[1105]

[Footnote 1105: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 295.]

On the morrow, Sunday, the 8th of May, being the Feast of the
Appearance of St. Michael, it was announced in Orléans, in the
morning, that the English issuing forth from those western bastions
which were all that remained to them, were ranging themselves before
the town moat in battle array and with standards flying. The folk of
Orléans, both the men-at-arms and the train-bands, greatly desired to
fall upon them. At daybreak Marshal de Boussac and a number of
captains went out and took up their positions over against the
enemy.[1106]

[Footnote 1106: _Journal du siège_, p. 89. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 296. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 78, 79. _Le
Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 208. The passage beginning with the words, "The
Sire of Rocquencourt said," must be taken as historical.]

The Maid went out into the country with the priests. Being unable to
put on her cuirass because of the wound on her shoulder, she merely
wore one of those light coats-of-mail called _jaserans_.[1107]

[Footnote 1107: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 9 (evidence of Dunois).]

The men-at-arms inquired of her: "To-day being the Sabbath, is it
wrong to fight?"

She replied: "You must hear mass."[1108]

[Footnote 1108: _Ibid._, p. 29 (evidence of J. de Champeaux).]

She did not think the enemy should be attacked.

"For the sake of the holy Sabbath do not give battle. Do not attack
the English, but if the English attack you, defend yourselves stoutly
and bravely, and be not afraid, for you will overcome them."[1109]

[Footnote 1109: _Journal du siège_, p. 89.]

In the country, at the foot of a cross, where four roads met, one of
those consecrated stones, square and flat, which priests carried with
them on their journeys, was placed upon a table. Very solemnly did the
officiating ecclesiastics sing hymns, responses and prayers; and at
this altar the Maid with all the priests and all the men-at-arms heard
mass.[1110]

[Footnote 1110: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 296.]

After the _Deo gratias_ she recommended them to observe the movements
of the English. "Now look whether their faces or their backs be
towards you."

She was told that they had turned their backs and were going away.

Three times she had told them: "Depart from Orléans and your lives
shall be saved." Now she asked that they should be allowed to go
without more being required of them.

"It is not well pleasing to my Lord that they should be engaged
to-day," she said. "You will have them another time. Come, let us give
thanks to God."[1111]

[Footnote 1111: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 296.]

The _Godons_ were going. During the night they had held a council of
war and resolved to depart.[1112] In order to put a bold front on
their retreat and to prevent its being cut off, they had faced the
folk of Orléans for an hour, now they marched off in good order.[1113]
Captain La Hire and Sire de Loré, curious as to which way they would
take and desiring to see whether they would leave anything behind
them, rode three or four miles in pursuit with a hundred or a hundred
and twenty horse. The English were retreating towards Meung.[1114]

[Footnote 1112: _Chronique de l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 294, 295. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 296.]

[Footnote 1113: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 296.]

[Footnote 1114: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. _Journal du
siège_, p. 89. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 297. Morosini, vol. iii,
p. 34. Walter Bower, _Scotichronicon_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 478,
479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 177.]

A crowd of citizens, villeins and villagers rushed into the abandoned
forts. The _Godons_ had left their sick and their prisoners there. The
townsfolk discovered also ammunition and even victuals, which were
doubtless not very abundant and not very excellent. "But," says a
Burgundian, "they made good cheer out of them, for they cost them
little."[1115] Weapons, cannons and mortars were carried into the
town. The forts were demolished so that they might henceforth be
useless to the enemy.[1116]

[Footnote 1115: Charles VII's letter to the people of Narbonne, in the
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 101. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 323.]

[Footnote 1116: _Journal du siège_, pp. 209 _et seq._]

On that day there were grand and solemn processions and a good
friar[1117] preached. Clerks, nobles, captains, magistrates,
men-at-arms and citizens devoutly went to church and the people cried:
"Noël!"[1118]

[Footnote 1117: _Ibid._, p. 216. _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 295.]

[Footnote 1118: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 110. _Journal du siège_, p. 92.]

Thus, on the 8th of May, in the morning, was the town of Orléans
delivered, two hundred and nine days after the siege had been laid and
nine days after the coming of the Maid.




CHAPTER XIV

THE MAID AT TOURS AND AT SELLES-EN-BERRY--THE TREATISES OF JACQUES
GÉLU AND OF JEAN GERSON.


On the morning of Sunday the 8th of May, the English departed,
retreating towards Meung and Beaugency. In the afternoon of the same
day, Messire Florent d'Illiers with his men-at-arms left the town and
went straight to his captaincy of Châteaudun to defend it against the
_Godons_ who had a garrison at Marchenoir and were about to descend on
Le Dunois. On the next day the other captains from La Beauce and
Gâtinais returned to their towns and strongholds.[1119]

[Footnote 1119: _Journal du siège_, p. 91. G. Met-Gaubert, _Notice sur
Florent d'Illiers_, Chartres, 1864, in 8vo.]

On the ninth of the same month, the combatants brought by the Sire de
Rais, receiving neither pay nor entertainment, went off each man on
his own account; and the Maid did not stay longer.[1120] After having
taken part in the procession by which the townsfolk rendered thanks to
God, she took her leave of those to whom she had come in the hour of
distress and affliction and whom she now quitted in the hour of
deliverance and rejoicing. They wept with joy and with gratitude and
offered themselves to her for her to do with them and their goods
whatever she would. And she thanked them kindly.[1121]

[Footnote 1120: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 298.]

[Footnote 1121: _Journal du siège_, pp. 91, 92. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 71.]

From Chinon the King caused to be sent to the inhabitants of the towns
in his dominion and notably to those of La Rochelle and Narbonne, a
letter written at three sittings, between the evening of the 9th of
May and the morning of the 10th, as the tidings from Orléans were
coming in. In this letter he announced the capture of the forts of
Saint-Loup, Les Augustins and Les Tourelles and called upon the
townsfolk to praise God and do honour to the great feats accomplished
there, especially by the Maid, who "had always been present when these
deeds were done."[1122] Thus did the royal power describe Jeanne's
share in the victory. It was in no wise a captain's share; she held no
command of any kind. But, sent by God, at least so it might be
believed, her presence was a help and a consolation.

[Footnote 1122: _Charles VII's Letter to the Inhabitants of Narbonne_,
in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 101, 104. Arcère, _Histoire de La Rochelle_,
vol. i, p. 271 (1756). Moynès, _Inventaire des archives de l'Aude_,
supplement, p. 390. _Procession d'actions de grâces à Brignoles (Var)
en l'honneur de la délivrance d'Orléans par Jeanne d'Arc_ (1429).
Communication made to the Congress of learned Societies at the
Sorbonne (April, 1893) by F. Mireur, Draguignan, 1894, in 8vo, p.
175.]

In company with a few nobles she went to Blois, stayed there two
days,[1123] then went on to Tours, where the King was expected.[1124]
When, on the Friday before Whitsunday, she entered the town, Charles,
who had set out from Chinon, had not yet arrived. Banner in hand, she
rode out to meet him and when she came to him, she took off her cap
and bowed her head as far as she could over her horse. The King lifted
his hood, bade her look up and kissed her. It is said that he felt
glad to see her, but in reality we know not what he felt.[1125]

[Footnote 1123: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 80. _Journal du siège_, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1124: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 72, 76, 80.]

[Footnote 1125: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles).
Eberhard Windecke, p. 177, and _Chronique de Tournai_, edition Smedt,
pp. 407 _et seq._ (vol. iii of _Les chroniques de Flandre_).]

In this month of May, 1429, he received from Messire Jacques Gélu a
treatise concerning the Maid, which he probably did not read, but
which his confessor read for him. Messire Jacques Gélu, sometime
Councillor to the Dauphin and now my Lord Archbishop of Embrun,[1126]
had at first been afraid that the King's enemies had sent him this
shepherdess to poison him, or that she was a witch possessed by
demons. In the beginning he had advised her being carefully
interrogated, not hastily repulsed, for appearances are deceptive and
divine grace moves in a mysterious manner. Now, after having read the
conclusions of the doctors of Poitiers, learnt the deliverance of
Orléans, and heard the cry of the common folk, Messire Jacques Gélu no
longer doubted the damsel's innocence and goodness. Seeing that the
doctors were divided in their opinion of her, he drew up a brief
treatise, which he sent to the King, with a very ample, a very humble,
and a very worthy dedicatory epistle.

[Footnote 1126: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 394, 407; vol. v, p. 413. Le P.
Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol.
ii, p. 320. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'Église de son temps_,
pp. 39, 52.]

About that time, on the pavement of the cathedral of Reims a labyrinth
had been traced with compass and with square.[1127] Pilgrims who were
patient and painstaking followed all its winding ways. The Archbishop
of Embrun's treatise is likewise a carefully planned scholastic
labyrinth. Herein one advances only to retreat and retreats only to
advance, but without entirely losing one's way provided one walks with
sufficient patience and attention. Like all scholastics, Gélu begins
by giving the reasons against his own opinion and it is not until he
has followed his opponent at some length that he returns to his own
argument. Into all the intricacies of his labyrinth it would take too
long to follow him. But since those who were round the King consulted
this theological treatise, since it was addressed to the King and
since the King and his Council may have based on it their opinion of
Jeanne and their conduct towards her, one is curious to know what, on
so singular an occasion, they found taught and recommended therein.

[Footnote 1127: L. Paris, _Notice sur le dédale ou labyrinthe de
l'église de Reims_, in _Ann. des Inst. provinc._, 1857, vol. ix, p.
233.]

Treating first of the Church's weal, Jacques Gélu holds that God
raised up the Maid to confound the heretics, the number of whom,
according to him, is by no means small. "To turn to confusion those
who believe in God as if they believed not," he writes, "the Almighty,
who hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, _King of
Kings and Lord of Lords_, was pleased to succour the King of France by
the hand of a child of low estate." The Archbishop of Embrun discerns
five reasons why the divine succour was granted to the King; to wit:
the justice of his cause, the striking merits of his predecessors, the
prayers of devout souls and the sighs of the oppressed, the injustice
of the enemies of the kingdom and the insatiable cruelty of the
English nation.

That God should have chosen a maid to destroy armies in no way
surprises him. "He created insects, such as flies and fleas, with
which to humble man's pride." So persistently do these tiny creatures
worry and weary us that they prevent our studying or acting. However
strong his self-control, a man may not rest in a room infested with
fleas. By the hand of a young peasant, born of poor and lowly parents,
subject to menial labour, ignorant and simple beyond saying, it hath
pleased Him to strike down the proud, to humble them and make His
Majesty manifest unto them by the deliverance of the perishing.

That to a virgin the Most High should have revealed His designs
concerning the Kingdom of the Lilies cannot astonish us; on virgins He
readily bestows the gift of prophecy. To the sibyls it pleased Him to
reveal mysteries hidden from all the Gentiles. On the authority of
Nicanor, of Euripides, of Chrysippus, of Nennius, of Apollodorus, of
Eratosthenes, of Heraclides Ponticus, of Marcus Varro and of
Lactantius, Messire Jacques Gélu teaches that the sibyls were ten in
number: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the
Erythrean, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine, the Phrygian and
the Tiburtine. They prophesied to the Gentiles the glorious
incarnation of Our Lord, the resurrection of the dead and the
consummation of the ages. This example appears to him worthy of
consideration.

As for Jeanne, she is in herself unknowable. Aristotle teaches: there
is nothing in the intellect which hath not first been in the senses,
and the senses cannot penetrate beyond experience. But what the mind
cannot grasp directly it may come to comprehend by a roundabout way.
When we consider her works, as far as in our human weakness we can
know, we say the Maid is of God. Albeit she hath adopted the
profession of arms, she never counsels cruelty; she is merciful to her
enemies when they throw themselves upon her mercy and she offers
peace. Finally the Archbishop of Embrun believes that this Maid is an
angel sent by God, the Lord of Hosts, for the saving of the people;
not that she has the nature, but that she does the work of an angel.

Concerning the conduct to be followed in circumstances so marvellous,
the doctor is of opinion that in war the King should act according to
human wisdom. It is written: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
In vain would an active mind have been bestowed on man were he not to
make use of it in his undertakings. Long deliberation must precede
prompt execution. It is not by a woman's desires or supplications that
God's help is obtained. A prosperous issue is the fruit of action and
of counsel.

But the inspiration of God must not be rejected. Wherefore the will of
the Maid must be accomplished, even should that will appear doubtful
and mistaken. If the words of the Maid are found to be stable, then
the King must follow her and confide to her as to God the conduct of
the enterprise to which she is committed. Should any doubt occur to
the King, let him incline rather towards divine than towards human
wisdom, for as there is no comparing the finite with the infinite so
there is no comparing the wisdom of man with the wisdom of God.
Wherefore we must believe that He who sent us this child is able to
impart unto her a counsel superior to man's counsel. Then from this
Aristotelian reasoning the Archbishop of Embrun draws the following
two-headed conclusion: "On the one hand we give it to be understood
that the wisdom of this world must be consulted in the ordering of
battle, the use of engines, ladders and all other implements of war,
the building of bridges, the sufficient despatch of supplies, the
raising of funds, and in all matters without which no enterprise can
succeed save by miracle.

"But when on the other hand divine wisdom is seen to be acting in some
peculiar way, then human reason must be humble and withdraw. Then it
is, we observe, that the counsel of the Maid must be asked for, sought
after and adopted before all else. He who gives life gives wherewithal
to support life. On his workers he bestows the instruments for their
work. Wherefore let us hope in the Lord. He makes the King's cause his
own. Those who support it he will inspire with the wisdom necessary to
make it triumphant. God leaves no work imperfect."

The Archbishop concludes his treatise by commending the Maid to the
King because she inspires holy thoughts and makes manifest the works
of piety. "This counsel do we give the King that every day he do such
things as are well pleasing in the sight of the Lord and that he
confer with the Maid concerning them. When he shall have received her
advice let him practise it piously and devoutly; then shall not the
Lord withdraw His hand from Him but continue His loving kindness unto
him."[1128]

[Footnote 1128: Bibl. Nat. Latin Collection, no. 6199, folio 36.
_Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 395-410. Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et
consultations_, pp. 365 _et seq._ Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant
l'Église de son temps_, pp. 31-52.]

The great doctor Gerson, former Chancellor of the University, was then
ending his days at Lyon in the monastery of Les Célestins, of which
his brother was prior. His life had been full of work and
weariness.[1129] In 1408 he was priest of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in
Paris. In that year he delivered in his parish church the funeral
oration of the Duke of Orléans, assassinated by order of the Duke of
Burgundy; and he roused the passions of the mob to such a fury that he
ran great danger of losing his life. At the Council of Constance,
possessed by a so-called "merciful cruelty"[1130] which goaded him to
send a heretic to the stake, he urged the condemnation of John Huss,
regardless of the safe-conduct which the latter had received from the
Emperor; for in common with all the fathers there assembled he held
that according to natural law both divine and human, no promise should
be kept if it were prejudicial to the Catholic Faith. With a like
ardour he prosecuted in the Council the condemnation of the thesis of
Jean Petit concerning the lawfulness of tyrannicide. In things
temporal as well as spiritual he advocated uniform obedience and the
respect of established authority. In one of his sermons he likens the
kingdom of France to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, making the
merchants and artisans the legs of the statue, "which are partly iron,
partly clay, because of their labour and humility in serving and
obeying...." Iron signifies labour, and clay humility. All the evil
has arisen from the King and the great citizens being held in
subjection by those of low estate.[1131]

[Footnote 1129: Launoy, _Historia Navarrici Gymasii_, book iv, ch. v.
J.B. Lecuy, _Essai sur la vie de Jean Gerson, chancelier de l'église
et de l'université de Paris, sur sa doctrine, sur ses écrits...._
Paris, 1832, 2 vols. in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. ii, p. 94. A.L. Masson, _Jean Gerson, sa vie, son temps,
ses oeuvres_, Lyon, 1894, 8vo.]

[Footnote 1130: _Par une cruauté miséricordieuse._ Du Boulay,
_Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 270.]

[Footnote 1131: Gerson, _Opera_, vol. iv, pp. 668-678.]

Now, crushed by suffering and sorrow, he was teaching little children.
"It is with them that reforms must begin," he said.[1132]

[Footnote 1132: Gerson, _Adversus corruptionem Juventutis_. A.
Lafontaine, _De Johanne Gersonio puerorum adulescentiumque
institutore...._ La Chapelle-Montligeon, 1902, in 8vo.]

The deliverance of the city of Orléans must have gladdened the heart
of the old Orleanist partisan. The Dauphin's Councillors, eager to set
the Maid to work, had told him of the deliberations at Poitiers, and
asked him, as a good servant of the house of France, for his opinion
concerning them. In reply he wrote a compendious treatise on the Maid.

In this work he is careful from the first to distinguish between
matters of faith and matters of devotion. In questions of faith doubt
is forbidden. With regard to questions of devotion the unbeliever, to
use a colloquial expression, is not necessarily damned. Three
conditions are necessary if a question is to be considered as one of
devotion: first, it must be edifying; second, it must be probable and
attested by popular report or the testimony of the faithful; third, it
must touch on nothing contrary to faith. When these conditions are
fulfilled, it is fitting neither persistently to condemn nor to
approve, but rather to appeal to the church.

For example, the conception of the very holy Virgin, indulgences,
relics, are matters of faith and not of devotion. A relic may be
worshipped in one place or another, or in several places at once.
Recently the Parlement of Paris disputed concerning the head of Saint
Denys, worshipped at Saint-Denys in France and likewise in the
cathedral at Paris. This is a matter of devotion.[1133]

[Footnote 1133: Gallia Christiana, vol. vii, col. 142. Jean Juvénal
des Ursins, year 1406.]

Whence it may be concluded that it is lawful to consider the question
of the Maid as a matter of devotion, especially when one reflects on
her motives, which are the restitution of his kingdom to her King and
the very righteous expulsion or destruction of her very stubborn
enemies.

And if there be those who make various statements concerning her idle
talk, her frivolity, her guile, now is the time to quote the saying of
Cato: "Common report is not our judge." According to the words of the
Apostle, it doth not become us to call in question the servant of God.
Much better is it to abstain from judgment, as is permitted, or to
submit doubtful points to ecclesiastical superiors. This is the
principle followed in the canonisation of saints. The catalogue of the
saints is not, strictly speaking, necessarily a matter of faith, but
of pious devotion. Nevertheless, it is not to be highly censured by
any manner of man.

To come to the present case, the following circumstances are to be
noted: First, the royal council and the men-at-arms were induced to
believe and to obey; and they faced the risk of being put to shame by
defeat under the leadership of a girl. Second, the people rejoice, and
their pious faith seems to tend to the glory of God and the
confounding of his enemies. Third, the enemy, even his princes, are in
hiding and stricken with many terrors. They give way to weakness like
a woman with child; they are overthrown like the Egyptians in the song
sung by Miriam, sister of Moses, to the sound of the timbrel in the
midst of the women who went out with her with timbrels and with
dances: "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the
horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."[1134] And let us
likewise sing the song of Miriam with the devotion which becometh our
case.

[Footnote 1134: Exodus, xv, 20, 21 (W.S.).]

Fourth, and in conclusion, this point is worthy of consideration: The
Maid and her men-at-arms despise not the wisdom of men; they tempt
not God. Wherefore it is plain that the Maid goes no further than what
she interprets to be the instruction or inspiration received from God.

Many of the incidents of her life from childhood up have been
collected in abundance and might be set forth; but these we shall not
relate.

Here may be cited the examples of Deborah and of Saint Catherine who
miraculously converted fifty doctors or rhetoricians, of Judith and of
Judas Maccabeus. As is usually the case, there were many circumstances
in their lives which were purely natural.

A first miracle is not always followed by the other miracles which men
expect. Even if the Maid should be disappointed in her expectation and
in ours (which God forbid) we ought not to conclude therefrom, that
the first manifestation of her miraculous power proceeded from an evil
spirit and not from heavenly grace; we should believe rather that our
hopes have been disappointed because of our ingratitude and our
blasphemy, or by some just and impenetrable judgment of God. We
beseech him to turn away his anger from us and vouchsafe unto us his
favour.

Herein we perceive lessons, first for the King and the Blood Royal,
secondly for the King's forces and the kingdom; thirdly for the clergy
and people; fourthly for the Maid. Of all these lessons the object is
the same, to wit: a good life, consecrated to God, just towards
others, sober, virtuous and temperate. With regard to the Maid's
peculiar lesson, it is that God's grace revealed in her be employed
not in caring for trifles, not in worldly advantage, nor in party
hatred, nor in violent sedition, nor in avenging deeds done, nor in
foolish self-glorification, but in meekness, prayer, and thanksgiving.
And let every one contribute a liberal supply of temporal goods so
that peace be established and justice once more administered, and that
delivered out of the hands of our enemies, God being favourable unto
us, we may serve him in holiness and righteousness.

At the conclusion of his treatise, Gerson briefly examines one point
of canon law which had been neglected by the doctors of Poitiers. He
establishes that the Maid is not forbidden to dress as a man.

Firstly. The ancient law forbade a woman to dress as a man, and a man
as a woman. This restriction, as far as strict legality is concerned,
ceases to be enforced by the new law.

Secondly. In its moral bearing this law remains binding. But in such a
case it is merely a matter of decency.

Thirdly. From a legal and moral standpoint this law does not refuse
masculine and military attire to the Maid, whom the King of Heaven
appoints His standard-bearer, in order that she may trample underfoot
the enemies of justice. In the operations of divine power the end
justifies the means.

Fourthly. Examples may be quoted from history alike sacred and
profane, notably Camilla and the Amazons.

Jean Gerson completed this treatise on Whit-Sunday, a week after the
deliverance of Orléans. It was his last work. He died in the July of
that year, 1429, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.[1135]

[Footnote 1135: _Oeuvres de Gerson_, ed. Ellies Dupin, Paris, 1706,
in folio, vol. iv, p. 864. _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 298; vol. v, p. 412.
Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'Église de son temps_, p. 24.]

The treatise is the political testament of the great university doctor
in exile. The Maid's victory gladdened the last days of his life. With
his dying voice he sings the Song of Miriam. But with his rejoicings
over this happy event are mingled the sad presentiments of
keen-sighted old age. While in the Maid he beholds a subject for the
rejoicing and edification of the people, he is afraid that the hopes
she inspires may soon be disappointed. And he warns those who now
exalt her in the hour of triumph not to forsake her in the day of
disaster.

His dry close reasoning does not fundamentally differ from the ampler,
more flowery argument of Jacques Gélu. One and the other contain the
same reasons, the same proofs; and in their conclusions both doctors
agree with the judges of Poitiers.

For the Poitiers doctors, for the Archbishop of Embrun, for the
ex-chancellor of the University, for all the theologians of the
Armagnac party the Maid's case is not a matter of faith. How could it
be so before the Pope and the Council had pronounced judgment
concerning it? Men are free to believe in her or not to believe in
her. But it is a subject of edification; and it behoves men to
meditate upon it, not in a spirit of prejudice, persisting in doubt,
but with an open mind and according to the Christian faith. Following
the counsel of Gerson, kindly souls will believe that the Maid comes
from God, just as they believe that the head of Saint Denys may be
venerated by the faithful either in the Cathedral Church of Paris or
in the abbey-church of Saint Denys in France. They will think less of
literal than of spiritual truths and they will not sin by inquiring
too closely.

In short neither the treatise of Jacques Gélu nor that of Jean Gerson
brought much light to the King and his Council. Both treatises
abounded in exhortations, but they all amounted to saying: "Be good,
pious and strong, let your thoughts be humble and prudent," Concerning
the most important point, the use to be made of Jeanne in the conduct
of war, the Archbishop of Embrun wisely recommended: "Do what the Maid
commands and prudence directs; for the rest give yourselves to works
of piety and prayers of devotion." Such counsel was somewhat
embarrassing to a captain like the Sire de Gaucourt and even to a man
of worth like my Lord of Trèves. It appears that the clerks left the
King perfect liberty of judgment and of action, and that in the end
they advised him not to believe in the Maid, but to let the people and
the men-at-arms believe in her.

During the ten days he spent at Tours the King kept Jeanne with him.
Meanwhile the Council were deliberating as to their line of
action.[1136] The royal treasury was empty. Charles could raise enough
money to make gifts to the gentlemen of his household, but he had
great difficulty in defraying the expenses of war.[1137] Pay was owing
to the people of Orléans. They had received little and spent much.
Their resources were exhausted and they demanded payment. In May and
in June the King distributed among the captains, who had defended the
town, sums amounting to forty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-one
livres.[1138] He had gained his victory cheaply. The total cost of
the defence of Orléans was one hundred and ten thousand livres. The
townsfolk did the rest; they gave even their little silver
spoons.[1139]

[Footnote 1136: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 12, 72, 76, 80. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 298. _Journal du siège_, p. 93. _Chronique de la
fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 299. Letter written by the agents of a
German town, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 349. _Chronique de Tournai_
(_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, p. 412). Eberhard
Windecke, p. 177. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
215.]

[Footnote 1137: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, pp. 634 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1138: Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses_, pp. 147 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1139: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 256 _et seq._, and taken from the
Commune and Fortress Accounts in _Journal du siège_. A. de Villaret,
_loc. cit._ p. 61. Couret, _Un fragment inédit des anciens registres
de la Prévôté d'Orléans_.]

It would doubtless have been expedient to attempt to destroy that
formidable army of Sir John Fastolf which had lately terrified the
good folk of Orléans. But no one knew where to find it. It had
disappeared somewhere between Orléans and Paris. It would have been
necessary to go forth to seek it; that was impossible, and no one
thought of doing such a thing. So scientific a manoeuvre was never
dreamed of in the warfare of those days. An expedition to Normandy was
suggested; and the idea was so natural that the King was already
imagined to be at Rouen.[1140] Finally it was decided to attempt the
capture of the châteaux the English held on the Loire, both below and
above Orléans, Jargeau, Meung, Beaugency.[1141] A useful undertaking
and one which presented no very great difficulties, unless it involved
an encounter with Sir John Fastolf's army, and whether it would or no
it was impossible to tell.

[Footnote 1140: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 61.]

[Footnote 1141: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 9, 10.]

Without further delay my Lord the Bastard marched on Jargeau with a
few knights and some of Poton's soldiers of fortune; but the Loire was
high and its waters filled the trenches. Being unprovided with siege
train, they retreated after having inflicted some hurt on the English
and slain the commander of the town.[1142]

[Footnote 1142: _Journal du siège_, p. 93. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 300.]

By the reasons of the captains the Maid set little store. She listened
to her Voices alone, and they spoke to her words which were infinitely
simple. Her one idea was to accomplish her mission. Saint Catherine,
Saint Margaret and Saint Michael the Archangel, had sent her into
France not to calculate the resources of the royal treasury, not to
decree aids and taxes, not to treat with men-at-arms, with merchants
and the conductors of convoys, not to draw up plans of campaign and
negotiate truces, but to lead the Dauphin to his anointing. Wherefore
it was to Reims that she wished to take him, not that she knew how to
go there, but she believed that God would guide her. Delay, tardiness,
deliberation saddened and irritated her. When with the King she urged
him gently.

Many times she said to him: "I shall live a year, barely longer.
During that year let as much as possible be done."[1143]

[Footnote 1143: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99.]

Then she enumerated the four charges which she must accomplish during
that time. After having delivered Orléans she must drive the _Godons_
out of France, lead the King to be crowned and anointed at Reims and
rescue the Duke of Orléans from the hands of the English.[1144] One
day she grew impatient and went to the King when he was in one of
those closets of carved wainscot constructed in the great castle halls
for intimate or family gatherings. She knocked at the door and entered
almost immediately. There she found the King conversing with Maître
Gérard Machet, his confessor, my Lord the Bastard, the Sire de Trèves
and a favourite noble of his household, by name Messire Christophe
d'Harcourt. She knelt embracing the King's knees (for she was
conversant with the rules of courtesy), and said to him: "Fair
Dauphin, do not so long and so frequently deliberate in council, but
come straightway to Reims, there to receive your rightful
anointing."[1145]

[Footnote 1144: _Ibid._, p. 99 (evidence of the Duke of Alençon).]

[Footnote 1145: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12. _Journal du siège_, p. 93.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 299.]

The King looked graciously upon her but answered nothing. The Lord
d'Harcourt, having heard that the Maid held converse with angels and
saints, was curious to know whether the idea of taking the King to
Reims had really been suggested to her by her heavenly visitants.
Describing them by the word she herself used, he asked: "Is it your
Council who speak to you of such things?"

She replied: "Yes, in this matter I am urged forward." Straightway my
Lord d'Harcourt responded: "Will you not here in the King's presence
tell us the manner of your Council when they speak to you?"

At this request Jeanne blushed.

Willing to spare her constraint and embarrassment, the King said
kindly: "Jeanne, does it please you to answer this question before
these persons here present?"

But Jeanne addressing my Lord d'Harcourt said: "I understand what you
desire to know and I will tell you willingly."

And straightway she gave the King to understand what agony she endured
at not being understood and she told of her inward consolation:
"Whenever I am sad because what I say by command of Messire is not
readily believed, I go apart and to Messire I make known my complaint,
saying that those to whom I speak are not willing to believe me. And
when I have finished my prayer, straightway I hear a voice saying unto
me: 'Daughter of God, go, I will be thy help.' And this voice fills me
with so great a joy, that in this condition I would forever
stay."[1146]

[Footnote 1146: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of Dunois).]

While she was repeating the words spoken by the Voice, Jeanne raised
her eyes to heaven. The nobles present were struck by the divine
expression on the maiden's face. But those eyes bathed in tears, that
air of rapture, which filled my Lord the Bastard with amazement, was
not an ecstasy, it was the imitation of an ecstasy.[1147] The scene
was at once simple and artificial. It reveals the kindness of the
King, who was incapable of wounding the child in any way, and the
light-heartedness with which the nobles of the court believed or
pretended to believe in the most wonderful marvels. It proves likewise
that henceforth the little Saint's dignifying the project of the
coronation with the authority of a divine revelation was favourably
regarded by the Royal Council.

[Footnote 1147: _Ibid._, p. 12.]

The Maid accompanied the King to Loches and stayed with him until
after the 23rd of May.[1148]

[Footnote 1148: _Ibid._, p. 116, vol. iv, p. 245.]

The people believed in her. As she passed through the streets of
Loches they threw themselves before her horse; they kissed the Saint's
hands and feet. Maître Pierre de Versailles, a monk of Saint-Denys in
France, one of her interrogators at Poitiers, seeing her receive these
marks of veneration, rebuked her on theological grounds: "You do
wrong," he said, "to suffer such things to which you are not entitled.
Take heed: you are leading men into idolatry."

Then Jeanne, reflecting on the pride which might creep into her heart,
said: "In truth I could not keep from it, were not Messire watching
over me."[1149]

[Footnote 1149: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 84.]

She was displeased to see certain old wives coming to salute her; that
was a kind of adoration which alarmed her. But poor folk who came to
her she never repulsed. She would not hurt them, but aided them as far
as she could.[1150]

[Footnote 1150: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 102.]

With marvellous rapidity the fame of her holiness had been spread
abroad throughout the whole of France. Many pious persons were wearing
medals of lead or some other metal, stamped with her portrait,
according to the customary mode of honouring the memory of
saints.[1151] Paintings or sculptured figures of her were placed in
chapels. At mass the priest recited as a collect "the Maid's prayer
for the realm of France:"

[Footnote 1151: _Ibid._, pp. 290, 291. A. Forgeais, _Collection de
plombs historiés trouvés dans la Seine_, Paris, 1869 (5 vol. in 8vo),
vol. ii, iv, and _passim_. Vallet de Viriville, _Notes sur deux
médailles de plomb relatives à Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1861, in 8vo, 30
p. [Taken from _La revue archéologique_] N. Valois, _Un nouveau
témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 8, 13. Cf. Appendix iv.]

"O God, author of peace, who without bow or arrow dost destroy those
enemies who hope in themselves,[1152] we beseech thee O Lord, to
protect us in our adversity; and, as Thou hast delivered Thy people by
the hand of a woman, to stretch out to Charles our King, Thy
conquering arm, that our enemies, who make their boast in multitudes
and glory in bows and arrows, may be overcome by him at this present,
and vouchsafe that at the end of his days he with his people may
appear gloriously before Thee who art the way, the truth and the
life. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."[1153]

[Footnote 1152: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. I read _in se sperantes_.]

[Footnote 1153: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. Lanéry d'Arc, _Le culte de
Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e siècle_, 1886, in 8vo.]

In those days the saintly, both men and women, were consulted in all
the difficulties of life. The more they were deemed simple and
innocent the more counsel was asked of them. For if of themselves they
knew nothing then all the surer was it that the voice of God was to be
heard in their words. The Maid was believed to have no intelligence of
her own, wherefore she was held capable of solving the most difficult
questions with infallible wisdom. It was observed that knowing nought
of the arts of war, she waged war better than captains, whence it was
concluded that everything, which in her holy ignorance she undertook,
she would worthily accomplish. Thus at Toulouse it occurred to a
_capitoul_ to consult her on a financial question. In that city the
indignation of the townsfolk had been aroused because the guardians of
the mint had been ordered to issue coins greatly inferior to those
which had been previously in circulation. From April till June the
_capitouls_ had been endeavouring to get this order revoked. On the
2nd of June, the _capitoul_, Pierre Flamenc, proposed that the Maid
should be written to concerning the evils resulting from the
corruption of the coinage and that she should be asked to suggest a
remedy. Pierre Flamenc made this proposal at the Capitole because he
thought that a saint was a good counsellor in all matters, especially
in anything which concerned the coinage, particularly when, like the
Maid, she was the friend of the King.[1154]

[Footnote 1154: A. Thomas, _Le siège d'Orléans, Jeanne d'Arc et les
capitouls de Toulouse_, in _Annales du Midi_, 1889, pp. 235, 236.]

From Loches Jeanne sent a little gold ring to the Dame de Laval, who
had doubtless asked for some object she had touched.[1155] Fifty-four
years previously Jeanne Dame de Laval had married Sire Bertrand Du
Guesclin whose memory the French venerated and who in the House of
Orléans was known as the tenth of _Les Preux_. Dame Jeanne's renown,
however, fell short of that of Tiphaine Raguenel, astrologer and
fairy,[1156] who had been Sire Bertrand's first wife. Jeanne was a
choleric person and a miser. Driven out of her domain of Laval by the
English, she lived in retirement at Vitré with her daughter Anne.
Thirteen years before, the latter had incurred her mother's
displeasure by secretly marrying a landless younger son of a noble
house. When Dame Jeanne discovered it she imprisoned her daughter in a
dungeon and welcomed the younger son by shooting at him with a
cross-bow. After which the two ladies dwelt together in peace.[1157]

[Footnote 1155: Letter from the Lavals, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 109.
Bertrand de Broussillon, _La maison de Laval, les Montfort-Laval_,
Paris, 1900, in 8vo, vol. iii, p. 75. Quicherat is mistaken when
(_Trial_, vol. v, p. 105) he gives the name of Anne to Du Guesclin's
widow and calls the mother of Guy and of André Jeanne.]

[Footnote 1156: Cuvelier, _Poème de Duguesclin_, line 2325 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1157: Bertrand de Broussillon, _La maison de Laval_ in 8vo,
1900, vol. iii, _loc. cit._]

From Loches the Maid went to Selles-en-Berry, a considerable town on
the Cher. Here, shortly before had met the three estates of the
kingdom; and here the troops were now gathering.[1158]

[Footnote 1158: Letter from Gui de Laval, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 105.
Lucien Jeny and P. Lanéry d'Arc, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, Paris, s.d.
in 8vo, p. 53.]

On Saturday, the 4th of June, she received a herald sent by the people
of Orléans to bring her tidings of the English.[1159] As commander in
war they recognised none but her.

[Footnote 1159: Fortress accounts in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 262.]

Meanwhile, surrounded by monks, and side by side with men-at-arms,
like a nun she lived apart, a saintly life. She ate and drank
little.[1160] She communicated once a week and confessed
frequently.[1161] During mass at the moment of elevation, at
confession and when she received the body of Our Lord she used to weep
many tears. Every evening, at the hour of vespers, she would retire
into a church and have the bells rung for about half an hour to summon
the mendicant friars who followed the army. Then she would begin to
pray while the brethren sang an anthem in honour of the Virgin
Mary.[1162]

[Footnote 1160: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 3, 9, 15, 18, 22, 69, 219,
_passim_.]

[Footnote 1161: _Ibid._, vol. v, under the words _Confession_ and
_Communion_. The Duke of Alençon says twice a week (_Ibid._, vol. iii,
p. 100).]

[Footnote 1162: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 14; vol. ii, pp. 420, 424.]

While practising as far as she was able the austerities required by
extreme piety, she appeared magnificently attired, like a lord, for
indeed she held her lordship from God. She wore the dress of a knight,
a small hat, doublet and hose to match, a fine cloak of silk and cloth
of gold well lined and shoes laced on the outer side of the
foot.[1163] Such attire in no wise scandalised even the most austere
members of the Dauphin's party. They read in holy Scripture that
Esther and Judith, inspired by the Lord, loaded themselves with
ornaments; true it was for sexual reasons and in order for the
salvation of Israel to attract Ahasuerus and Holophernes. Wherefore
they held that when Jeanne decked herself with masculine adornments,
in order to appear before the men-at-arms as an angel giving victory
to the Christian King, far from yielding to the vanities of the world,
she, like Esther and Judith, had nothing in her heart but the interest
of the holy nation and the glory of God. The English and Burgundian
clerks on the other hand converted into scandal what was a subject of
edification, and maintained that she was a woman dissolute in dress
and in manners.

[Footnote 1163: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 220, 253; vol. ii, pp. 294, 438.
_Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 60. Analysis of a letter
from Regnault de Chartres in Rogier (_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 168-169).
Martin le Franc, _Le champion des dames_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 48.]

For seven years now Saint Michael the Archangel and the Saints
Catherine and Margaret, wearing rich and precious crowns, had been
visiting and conversing with her. It was when the bells were ringing,
at the hour of compline and of matins, that she could best hear their
words.[1164] In those days bells of all kinds, large and small,
metropolitan, parochial or conventual, sounded in peals, or, chiming
harmoniously, in voices grave or gay, spoke to all men and of all
things. Their song descended from the sky to mark the ecclesiastical
and civic calendar. They called priests and people to church; they
mourned for the dead and they praised God; they announced fairs and
field work; they clashed portentous tidings through the sky, and in
times of war they called to arms and sounded the alarm. Friendly to
the husbandman they scattered the tempest, they warded off hail-storms
and drove away pestilence. They put to flight those demons that,
flying ceaselessly through the air, haunt the children of men; and to
their blessed sound was attributed the power of calming
violence.[1165] Saint Catharine, she who visited Jeanne every day,
was the patron of bells and bell-ringers. Thus many bells bore her
name. In the ringing of bells as in the rustling of leaves, Jeanne was
wont to hear her Voices. She seldom heard them without seeing a light
in the direction whence they came.[1166] Those Voices called her:
"Jeanne, daughter of God!"[1167] Often the Archangel and the Saints
appeared to her. When they came she did them reverence, bending her
knee and bowing her head; she kissed their feet, knowing it to be a
greater mark of respect than kissing the countenance. She was
conscious of the fragrance and grateful warmth of their glorified
bodies.[1168]

[Footnote 1164: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 61, 62, 481.]

[Footnote 1165: P. Blavignac, _La cloche_, Geneva, 1877, in 8vo. L.
Morillot, _Étude sur l'emploi des clochettes_, in _Bulletin hist.
archéolog. du diocèse de Dijon_, 1887, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1166: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 64, 153, _passim_.]

[Footnote 1167: _Ibid._, p. 130.]

[Footnote 1168: _Ibid._, p. 186.]

Saint Michael the Archangel did not come alone. There accompanied him
angels so numerous and so tiny that they danced like sparks in the
damsel's dazzled eyes. When the saints and the Archangel went away,
she wept with grief because they had not taken her with them.[1169] In
like manner an angel visited Judith in the camp of Holofernes.

[Footnote 1169: _Ibid._, pp. 72, 75.]

One day Jeanne's equerry, Jean d'Aulon, asked her what her Council
was, just as my Lord d'Harcourt had done. She replied that she had
three councillors, one of whom was always with her. Another was
constantly going and coming; the third was the one with whom the other
two deliberated.

Sire d'Aulon, more curious than the King, besought and requested her
to let him see this Council for once.

She replied: "Your virtues are not great enough and you are not worthy
to behold it."[1170]

[Footnote 1170: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 219, 220.]

The good squire never asked again. If he had read the Bible he would
have known that Elisha's servant did not see the angels beheld by the
prophet (2 Kings VI, 16, 17).

And yet Jeanne imagined that her Council had appeared to the King and
his court.

"My King," she said later, "my King and many besides saw and heard the
Voices that came to me. The Count of Clermont and two or three others
were with him."[1171]

[Footnote 1171: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 57.]

She believed it was so. But in reality she never showed her Voices to
anyone. Not even, despite what has been said to the contrary, to that
Guy de Cailly who had been following her since Chécy.[1172]

[Footnote 1172: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 342. Guy de Cailly's patent of
nobility cannot be regarded as authentic. Vallet de Viriville, _Petit
traité...._ p. 92.]

With Brother Pasquerel Jeanne engaged in pious conversation. To him
she often expressed the desire that the Church after her death should
pray for her and for all the French slain in the war.

"If I were to depart from this world," she used to say to him, "I
should like the King to build chantries, where prayers should be
offered to Messire for the salvation of the souls of those who died in
war or for the defence of the realm."[1173]

[Footnote 1173: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 112.]

Such a wish was common to all devout souls. What Christian in those
days did not hold the practice of saying masses for the dead to be
good and salutary? Thus, in the matter of devotion, the Maid was in
accord with Duke Charles of Orléans, who, in one of his complaints,
recommends the saying and singing of masses for the souls of those who
had suffered violent death in the service of the realm.[1174]

[Footnote 1174: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 112. _Poésies de Charles
d'Orléans_, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, p. 174.]

She said one day to the good brother: "There is succour that I am
appointed to bring."

And Pasquerel, albeit he had studied the Bible, cried out in
amazement: "Such a history as yours there hath never been before in
the world. Nought like unto it can be read in any book."

Jeanne answered him even more boldly than the doctors at Poitiers:
"Messire has a book in which no clerk, however perfect his learning,
has ever read."[1175]

[Footnote 1175: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109.]

She had received her mission from God alone, and she read in a book
sealed against all the doctors of the Church.

On the reverse of her standard, sprinkled by mendicants with holy
water, she had had a dove painted, holding in its beak a scroll,
whereon were written the words "in the name of the King of
Heaven."[1176] These were the armorial bearings she had received from
her Council. The emblem and the device seemed appropriate to her,
since she proclaimed that God had sent her, and since at Orléans she
had given the sign promised at Poitiers. The King, notwithstanding,
changed this shield for arms representing a crown supported upon a
sword between two flowers-de-luce and indicating clearly what was the
aid that the Maid of God was bringing to the realm of France. It is
said that she regretted having to abandon the arms communicated to her
by divine revelation.[1177]

[Footnote 1176: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 78, 117, 182.]

[Footnote 1177: _Ibid._, pp. 117, 300; vol. v, p. 227.]

She prophesied, and, as happens to all prophets, she did not always
foretell what was to come to pass. It was the fate of the prophet
Jonah himself. And doctors explain how the prophecies of true prophets
cannot be all fulfilled.

She had said: "Before Saint John the Baptist's Day, in 1429, there
shall not be one Englishman, howsoever strong and valiant, to be seen
throughout France, either in battle or in the open field."[1178]

[Footnote 1178: Letter written from Germany, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
351. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 33, 46, 62.]

The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24th of
June.




CHAPTER XV

THE TAKING OF JARGEAU--THE BRIDGE OF MEUNG--BEAUGENCY


On Monday, the 6th of June, the King lodged at Saint-Aignan near
Selles-en-Berry.[1179] Among the gentlemen of his company were two
sons of that Dame de Laval who, in her widowhood, had made the mistake
of loving a landless cadet. André, the younger, at the age of twenty,
had just passed under the cloud of a disgrace common to nearly all
nobles in those days; his grandmother's second husband, Sire Bertrand
Du Guesclin, had experienced it several times. Taken prisoner in the
château of Laval by Sir John Talbot, he had incurred a heavy debt in
order to furnish the sixteen thousand golden crowns of his
ransom.[1180]

[Footnote 1179: Letter from Gui and André de Laval to the Ladies de
Laval, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 106. L. Jeny and Lanéry d'Arc, _Jeanne
D'Arc en Berry_, Paris, 1892, in 8vo, p. 54.]

[Footnote 1180: Bertrand de Broussillon, _La maison de Laval_, vol.
iii, p. 21.]

Being in great need of money, the two young nobles offered their
services to the King, who received them very well, gave them not a
crown, but said he would show them the Maid. And as he was going with
them from Saint-Aignan to Selles, he summoned the Saint,[1181] who
straightway, armed at all points save her head, and lance in hand,
rode out to meet the King. She greeted the two young nobles heartily
and returned with them to Selles. The eldest, Lord Guy, she received
in the house where she was lodging, opposite the church, and called
for wine. Such was the custom among princes. Cups of wine were
brought, into which the guests dipped slices of bread called
sops.[1182] When offering him the wine cup, the Maid said to Lord Guy:
"I will shortly give you to drink at Paris."

[Footnote 1181: Letter from Gui and André de Laval, in _Trial_, vol.
v, pp. 106 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1182: N. Villiaumé, _Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 88.]

She told him that, three days before, she had sent a gold ring to Dame
Jeanne de Laval.

"It was a small matter," she added graciously. "I should like to have
sent her something of greater value, considering her reputation."[1183]

[Footnote 1183: _Recommandation_ in French. The esteem in which she
was held. Compare Froissart cited by La Curne, Glossary, _ad v. "Six
bourgeois de la ville de Calais et de plus grande recommandation."_
("Six citizens of Calais and of the highest reputation.")]

That same day, at the hour of vespers, she set out from Selles for
Romorantin with a numerous company of men-at-arms and train-bands,
commanded by Marshal de Boussac. She was surrounded by mendicant
friars and one of her brothers went with her. She wore white armour
and a hood. Her horse was brought to her at the door of her house. It
was a great black charger which resolutely refused to let her mount
him. She had him led to the Cross by the roadside, opposite the
church, and there she leapt into the saddle. Whereupon Lord Guy
marvelled; for he saw that the charger was as still as if he had been
bound. She turned her horse's head towards the church porch, and in
her clear woman's voice cried: "Ye priests and churchmen, walk in
processions and pray to God."

Then, gaining the highroad: "Go forward, go forward," she said.

In her hand she carried a little axe. Her page bore her standard
furled.[1184]

[Footnote 1184: Letter from Gui and André de Laval, in _Trial_, vol.
v, pp. 106, 107.]

The meeting-place was Orléans. On Thursday, the 9th of June, in the
evening, Jeanne passed over the bridge she had crossed on the 8th of
May. Saturday, the 11th, the army set out for Jargeau.[1185] It
consisted of horse brought by the Duke of Alençon, the Count of
Vendôme, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, Captain La Hire, Messire
Florent d'Illiers, Messire Jamet du Tillay, Messire Thudal de
Kermoisan of Brittany, as well as of contingents furnished by the
communes, in all, perhaps eight thousand combatants, many of whom were
armed with pikes, axes, cross-bows and leaden mallets.[1186] The young
Duke of Alençon was placed in command. He was not remarkable for his
intelligence.[1187] But he knew how to ride, and in those days that
was the only knowledge indispensable to a general. Again the people of
Orléans defrayed the cost of the expedition. For the payment of the
fighting men they contributed three thousand livres, for their
feeding, seven hogsheads of corn. At their own request, the King
imposed on them a new _taille_ of three thousand livres.[1188] At
their own expense they despatched workmen of all trades,--masons,
carpenters, smiths. They lent their artillery. They sent culverins,
cannons, La Bergère, and the large mortar to which four horses were
harnessed, with the gunners Megret and Jean Boillève.[1189] They
furnished ammunition, engines, arrows, ladders, pickaxes, spades,
mattocks; and all were marked, for they were a methodical folk.
Everything for the siege was sent to the Maid. For in this undertaking
she was the one commander they recognised, not the Duke of Alençon,
not even the Bastard their own lord's noble brother. For the
inhabitants of Orléans, Jeanne was the leader of the siege; and to
Jeanne, before the besieged town, they despatched two of their
citizens,--Jean Leclerc and François Joachim.[1190] After the citizens
of Orléans, the Sire de Rais contributed most to the expenses of the
siege of Jargeau.[1191] This unfortunate noble spent thoughtlessly
right and left, while rich burgesses made great profits by lending to
him at a high rate of interest. The sorry state of his affairs was
shortly to bring him to attempt their readjustment by vowing his soul
to the devil.

[Footnote 1185: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 94; vol. iv, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1186: _Mistère du siège_, line 15,761. _Journal du siège_,
p. 95. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 299. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 81. Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 338.]

[Footnote 1187: See _ante_, p. 211. A. Duveau, _Le jugement du duc
d'Alençon_, in _Bull. soc. archéol. du Vendômois_ (1874), vol. xiii,
pp. 132 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1188: Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses faites par Charles VII
pour secourir Orléans_, p. 158.]

[Footnote 1189: _Journal du siège_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1190: Taken from the Book of Accounts, in _Trial_, vol. v,
pp. 262, 263. A. de Villaret, _Campagnes de Jeanne d'Arc sur la
Loire_, pp. 77-80. Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses_, p. 149.]

[Footnote 1191: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 261.]

The town of Jargeau, which was shortly to be taken after a severe
siege, had surrendered to the English without resistance on the 5th of
October in the previous year.[1192] The bridge leading to the town
from the Beauce bank was furnished with two castlets.[1193] The town
itself, surrounded by walls and towers, was not strongly fortified;
but its means of defence had been improved by the English. Warned
that the army of the French King was coming to besiege it, the Earl of
Suffolk and his two brothers threw themselves into the town, with five
hundred knights, squires, and other fighting men, as well as two
hundred picked bowmen.[1194] The Duke of Alençon with six hundred
horse was at the head of the force, and with him, the Maid. The first
night they slept in the woods.[1195] On the morrow, at daybreak, my
Lord the Bastard, my Lord Florent d'Illiers, and several other
captains joined them. They were in a great hurry to reach Jargeau.
Suddenly they hear that Sir John Fastolf is at hand, coming from Paris
with two thousand combatants, bringing supplies and artillery to
Jargeau.[1196]

[Footnote 1192: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 258.]

[Footnote 1193: Berry, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 45.]

[Footnote 1194: _Journal du siège_, p. 96. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 299. _Chronique de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 295. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
44. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 325.]

[Footnote 1195: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 94. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150,
151.]

[Footnote 1196: _Journal du siège_, _Chronique de la Pucelle_, Berry,
Jean Chartier, _loc. cit._ Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_,
vol. i, p. 284. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 452.]

This was the army which had been the cause of Jeanne's anxiety on the
4th of May, because her saints had not told her where Fastolf was. The
captains held a council of war. Many thought the siege ought to be
abandoned and that the army should go to meet Fastolf. Some actually
went off at once. Jeanne exhorted the men-at-arms to continue their
march on Jargeau. Where Sir John Fastolf's army was, she knew no more
than the others; her reasons were not of this world.

"Be not afraid of any armed host whatsoever," she said, "and make no
difficulty of attacking the English, for Messire leads you."

And again she said: "Were I not assured that Messire leads, I would
rather be keeping sheep than running so great a danger."

She gained a better hearing from the Duke of Alençon than from any of
the Orléans leaders.[1197] Those who had gone were recalled and the
march on Jargeau was continued.[1198]

[Footnote 1197: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148, _passim_. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 300.]

[Footnote 1198: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The suburbs of the town appeared undefended; but, when the French
King's men approached, they found the English posted in front of the
outbuildings, wherefore they were compelled to retreat. When the Maid
beheld this, she seized her standard and threw herself upon the enemy,
calling on the fighting men to take courage. That night, the French
King's men were able to encamp in the suburbs.[1199] They kept no
watch, and yet from the Duke of Alençon's own avowal they would have
been in great danger if the English had made a sally.[1200] The Maid's
judgment was even more fully justified than she expected. Everything
in her army depended upon the grace of God.

[Footnote 1199: The night of Friday, the 10th to 11th of June.]

[Footnote 1200: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The very next day, in the morning the besiegers brought their siege
train and their mortars up to the walls. The Orléans cannon fired upon
the town and did great damage. Three of La Bergère's volleys wrecked
the greatest tower on the fortifications.[1201]

[Footnote 1201: _Ibid._ _Journal du siège_, p. 97.]

The train-bands reached Jargeau on Saturday, the 11th. Straightway,
without staying to take counsel, they hastened to the trenches and
began the assault. They were too zealous; consequently, they went
badly to work, received no aid from the men-at-arms and were driven
back in disorder.[1202]

[Footnote 1202: Perceval de Cagny, p. 150.]

On Saturday night, the Maid, who was accustomed to summon the enemy
before fighting, approached the entrenchments, and cried out to the
English: "Surrender the town to the King of Heaven and to King
Charles, and depart, or it will be the worse for you."[1203]

[Footnote 1203: _Ibid._]

To this summons the English paid no heed, albeit they had a great
desire to come to some understanding. The Earl of Suffolk came to my
Lord the Bastard, and told him that if he would refrain from the
attack, the town should be surrendered to him. The English asked for a
fortnight's respite, after which time, they would undertake to
withdraw immediately, they and their horses, provided, doubtless, that
by that time they had not been relieved.[1204] On both sides such
conditional surrenders were common. The Sire de Baudricourt had signed
one at Vaucouleurs just before Jeanne's arrival there.[1205] In this
case it was mere trickery to ask the French to enter into such an
agreement just when Sir John Fastolf was coming with artillery and
supplies.[1206] It has been asserted that the Bastard was taken in
this snare; but such a thing is incredible; he was far too wily for
that. Nevertheless, on the morrow, which was Sunday and the 12th of
the month, the Duke of Alençon and the nobles, who were holding a
council concerning the measures for the capture of the town, were told
that Captain La Hire was conferring with the Earl of Suffolk. They
were highly displeased.[1207] Captain La Hire, who was not a general,
could not treat in his own name, and had doubtless received powers
from my Lord the Bastard. The latter commanded for the Duke, a
prisoner in the hands of the English, while the Duke of Alençon
commanded for the King; and hence the disagreement.

[Footnote 1204: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 79, 95.]

[Footnote 1205: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. clxviii.]

[Footnote 1206: _Journal du siège, Chronique de la Pucelle_, J.
Chartier, Monstrelet, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 1207: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The Maid, who was always ready to show mercy to prisoners when they
surrendered and at the same time always ready to fight, said: "If they
will, let them in their jackets of mail depart from Jargeau with their
lives! If they will not, the town shall be stormed."[1208]

[Footnote 1208: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 79-80, 234.]

The Duke of Alençon, without even inquiring the terms of the
capitulation, had Captain La Hire recalled.

He came, and straightway the ladders were brought. The heralds sounded
the trumpets and cried: "To the assault."

The Maid unfurled her standard, and fully armed, wearing on her head
one of those light helmets known as _chapelines_,[1209] she went down
into the trenches with the King's men and the train-bands, well within
reach of arrows and cannon-balls. She kept by the Duke of Alençon's
side, saying: "Forward! fair duke, to the assault."

[Footnote 1209: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 97. Perceval de Cagny, pp.
150-151.]

The Duke, who was not so courageous as she, thought that she went
rather hastily to work; and this he gave her to understand.

Then she encouraged him: "Fear not. God's time is the right time. When
He wills it you must open the attack. Go forward, He will prepare the
way."

And seeing him lack confidence, she reminded him of the promise she had
recently made concerning him in the Abbey of Saint-Florent-lès-Saumur.
"Oh! Fair Duke, can you be afraid? Do you not remember that I promised
your wife to bring you back safe and sound?"[1210]

[Footnote 1210: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 95-96.]

In the thick of the attack, she noticed on the wall one of those long
thin mortars, which, from the manner of its charging, was called a
breechloader. Seeing it hurl stones on the very spot where the King's
fair cousin was standing, she realised the danger, but not for
herself. "Move away," she said quickly. "That cannon will kill you."

The Duke had not moved more than a few yards, when a nobleman of
Anjou, the Sire Du Lude, having taken the place he had quitted, was
killed by a ball from that same cannon.[1211] The Duke of Alençon
marvelled at her prophetic gift. Doubtless the Maid had been sent to
save him, but she had not been sent to save the Sire Du Lude. The
angels of the Lord are sent for the salvation of some, for the
destruction of others. When the French King's men reached the wall,
the Earl of Suffolk cried out for a parley with the Duke of Alençon.
No heed was paid to him and the assault continued.[1212]

[Footnote 1211: _Ibid._, pp. 96, 97. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
301. _Journal du siège_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1212: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 97.]

The attack had lasted four hours,[1213] when Jeanne, standard in hand,
climbed up a ladder leaning against the rampart. A stone fired from a
cannon struck her helmet and knocked it with its escutcheon, bearing
her arms, off her head. They thought she was crushed, but she rose
quickly and cried to the fighting men: "Up, friends, up! Messire has
doomed the English. They are ours at this moment. Be of good
cheer."[1214]

[Footnote 1213: _Journal du siège_, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1214: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 97. _Journal du siège_, p. 98.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 301-302. Perceval de Cagny, pp.
150-151.]

The wall was scaled and the French King's men penetrated into the
town. The English fled into La Beauce and the French rushed in pursuit
of them. Guillaume Regnault, a squire of Auvergne, came up with the
Earl of Suffolk on the bridge and took him prisoner.

"Are you a gentleman?" asked Suffolk.

"Yes."

"Are you a knight?"

"No."

The Earl of Suffolk dubbed him a knight and surrendered to him.[1215]

[Footnote 1215: _Journal du siège_, p. 99. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 302. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 65.]

Very soon the rumour ran that the Earl of Suffolk had surrendered on
his knees to the Maid.[1216] It was even stated that he had asked to
surrender to her as to the bravest lady in the world.[1217] But it is
more likely that he would have surrendered to the lowest menial of the
army rather than to a woman whom he held to be a witch possessed of
the devil.

[Footnote 1216: Fragment of a letter concerning the wonders which
happened in Poitou, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 122.]

[Footnote 1217: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 340.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 70. _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 121-122.]

John Pole, Suffolk's brother, was likewise taken on the bridge. The
Duke's third brother, Alexander Pole, was slain in the same place or
drowned in the Loire.[1218]

[Footnote 1218: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 72. Perceval de Cagny, p. 151.
_Journal du siège_, p. 99. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328. Morosini, vol.
iii, pp. 128, 129.]

The garrison surrendered at discretion. Now, as always, no great harm
was done during the battle, but afterwards the conquerors made up for
it. Five hundred English were massacred; the nobles alone were held to
ransom. And over them, the French fell to quarrelling. The French
nobles kept them all for themselves; the train-bands claimed their
share, and, not getting it, began to destroy everything. What the
nobles could save was carried off during the night, by water, to
Orléans. The town was completely sacked; the old church, which had
served the _Godons_ as a magazine, was pillaged.[1219]

[Footnote 1219: _Journal du siège_, p. 99.]

Including killed and wounded, the French had not lost twenty
men.[1220]

[Footnote 1220: Perceval de Cagny, p. 151. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 302. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 82, 83. Berry, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 65.]

Without disarming, the Maid and the knights returned to Orléans. To
celebrate the taking of Jargeau, the magistrates organised a public
procession. An eloquent sermon was preached by a Jacobin monk, Brother
Robert Baignart.[1221]

[Footnote 1221: Accounts of the town of Orléans at the end of _Le
Journal du siège_, ed. Charpentier and Cuissard, p. 229. Le R.P.
Chapotin, _La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains_,
Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 82.]

The inhabitants of Orléans presented the Duke of Alençon with six
casks of wine, the Maid with four, the Count of Vendôme with
two.[1222]

[Footnote 1222: A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, proofs and
illustrations, p. 51.]

As an acknowledgment of the good and acceptable services rendered by
the holy maiden, the councillors of the captive Duke Charles of
Orléans, gave her a green cloak and a robe of crimson Flemish cloth
or fine Brussels purple. Jean Luillier, who furnished the stuff,
asked eight crowns for two ells of fine Brussels at four crowns the
ell; two crowns for the lining of the robe; two crowns for an ell of
yellowish green cloth, making in all twelve golden crowns.[1223] Jean
Luillier was a young woollen draper who adored the Maid and regarded
her as an angel of God. He had a good heart; but fear of the English
dazzled him, and where they were concerned caused him to see
double.[1224] One of his kinsfolk was a member of the council elected
in 1429. He himself was to be appointed magistrate a little
later.[1225]

[Footnote 1223: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 112-113.]

[Footnote 1224: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 23.]

[Footnote 1225: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 306.]

Jean Bourgeois, tailor, asked one golden crown for the making of the
robe and the cloak, as well as for furnishing white satin, taffeta,
and other stuffs.[1226]

[Footnote 1226: _Ibid._, pp. 112, 114.]

The town had previously given the Maid half an ell of cloth of two
shades of green worth thirty-five _sous_ of Paris to make "nettles"
for her gown.[1227] Nettles were the Duke of Orléans' device, green or
purple or crimson his colours.[1228] This green was no longer the
bright colour of earlier days, it had gradually been growing darker as
the fortunes of the house declined. It had first been a vivid green,
then a brownish shade, and, finally, the tint of the faded leaf with a
suggestion of black in it which signified sorrow and mourning. The
Maid's colour was _feuillemort_. She, like the officers of the duchy
and the men of the train-bands, wore the Orléans livery; and thus
they made of her a kind of herald-at-arms or heraldic angel.

[Footnote 1227: _Accounts of the Fortress_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
259.]

[Footnote 1228: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 106, 259. _Catalogue des Arch. de
Joursanvault_, vol. i, p. 129, nos. 603, 607, 619, 645, 772.
Dambreville, _Abrégé de l'histoire des ordres de chevalerie_, p. 167.
P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, p. 92.]

The cloak of yellowish green and the robe embroidered with nettles,
she must have been glad to wear for love of Duke Charles, whom the
English had treated with such sore despite. Having come to defend the
heritage of the captive prince, she said that in Jesus' name, the good
Duke of Orléans was on her mind and she was confident that she would
deliver him.[1229] Her design was first to summon the English to give
him up; then, if they refused, to cross the sea and with an army to
seek him in England.[1230] In case such means failed her, she had
thought of another course which she would adopt, with the permission
of her saints. She would ask the King if he would let her take
prisoners, believing that she could take enough to exchange for Duke
Charles.[1231] Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had promised her
that thus his deliverance would take her less than three years and
longer than one.[1232] Such were the pious dreams of a child lulled to
sleep by the sound of her village bells! Deeming it just that she
should labour and suffer to rescue her princes from trouble and
weariness, she used to say, like a good servant: "I know that in
matters of bodily ease God loves my King and the Duke of Orléans
better than me; and I know it because it hath been revealed unto
me."[1233]

[Footnote 1229: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 55, 258.]

[Footnote 1230: _Ibid._, p. 254.]

[Footnote 1231: _Ibid._, p. 133.]

[Footnote 1232: _Ibid._, pp. 133, 254.]

[Footnote 1233: _Ibid._, p. 258.]

Then, speaking of the captive duke she would say: "My Voices have
revealed much to me concerning him. Duke Charles hath oftener been the
subject of my revelations than any man living except my King."[1234]

[Footnote 1234: _Ibid._, p. 55.]

In reality, all that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had done was
to tell her of the well-known misfortunes of the Prince. Valentine of
Milan's son and Isabelle Romée's daughter were separated by a gulf
broader and deeper than the ocean which stretched between them. They
dwelt at the antipodes of the world of souls, and all the saints of
Paradise would have been unable to explain one to the other.

All the same Duke Charles was a good prince and a debonair; he was
kind and he was pitiful. More than any other he possessed the gift of
pleasing. He charmed by his grace, albeit but ill-looking and of weak
constitution.[1235] His temperament was so out of harmony with his
position that he may be said to have endured his life rather than to
have lived it. His father assassinated by night in the Rue Barbette in
Paris by order of Duke John; his mother a perennial fount of tears,
dying of anger and of grief in a Franciscan nunnery; the two S's,
standing for _Soupirs_ (sighs) and _Souci_ (care), the emblems and
devices of her mourning, revealing her ingenious mind fancifully
elegant even in despair; the Armagnacs, the Burgundians, the
Cabochiens, cutting each other's throats around him; these were the
sights he had witnessed when little more than a child. Then he had
been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Azincourt.

[Footnote 1235: Bibliothèque Nationale, ms. fr. 966, fol. 1.]

Now, for fourteen years, dragged from castle to castle, from one end
to the other of the island of fogs; imprisoned within thick walls,
closely guarded, receiving two or three of his countrymen at long
intervals, but never permitted to converse with one except before
witnesses, he felt old before his time, blighted by misfortune. "Fruit
fallen in its greenness, I was put to ripen on prison straw. I am
winter fruit,"[1236] he said of himself. In his captivity, he suffered
without hope, knowing that on his death-bed Henry V had recommended
his brother not to give him up at any price.[1237]

[Footnote 1236: _Les poésies de Charles d'Orléans_, ed. Guichard,
1842, in 12mo, p. 145.]

[Footnote 1237: A. Champollion-Figeac, _Louis et Charles, ducs
d'Orléans, leur influence sur les arts, la littérature et l'ésprit de
leur siècle_, Paris, 1844, 1 vol. in 8vo, with an atlas, pp. 300-337.]

Kind to others, kind to himself, he took refuge in his own thoughts,
which were as bright and clear as his life was dark and sad. In the
gloom of the stern castles of Windsor and of Bolingbroke, in the Tower
of London, side by side with his gaolers, he lived and moved in the
world of phantasy of the _Romance of the Rose_. Venus, Cupid, Hope,
Fair-Welcome, Pleasure, Pity, Danger, Sadness, Care, Melancholy,
Sweet-Looks were around the desk, on which, in the deep embrasure of a
window, beneath the sun's rays, he wrote his ballads, as delicate and
fresh as an illumination on the page of a manuscript. For him it was
the world of allegory that really existed. He wandered in the forest
of Long Expectation; he embarked on the vessel Good Tidings. He was a
poet; Beauty was his lady; and courteously did he sing of her. From
his verses one would say that he was but the Captive of Lord
Love.[1238]

[Footnote 1238: _Les poésies de Charles d'Orléans_, ed. A.
Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, 8vo. Pierre Champion, _Le manuscrit
autographe des poésies de Charles d'Orléans_, Paris, 1907, 8vo.]

He was left in ignorance of the affairs of his duchy; and, if he ever
concerned himself about it, it was when he collected the books of King
Charles V which had been bought by the Duke of Bedford and resold to
London merchants;[1239] or when he commanded that on the approach of
the English to Blois, its fine tapestries and his father's library
should be carried off to La Rochelle. After Beauty rich hangings and
delicate miniatures were what he loved most in the world.[1240] The
bright sunshine of France, the lovely month of May, dancing and ladies
were what he longed for most. He was cured of prowess and of chivalry.

[Footnote 1239: L. Delisle, _Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V_
(1907), vol. i, p. 140.]

[Footnote 1240: Le Roux de Lincy, _La bibliothèque de Charles
d'Orléans à son château de Blois, en 1427_, Paris, 1843, 8vo, pp. 5-7.
Comte de Laborde, _Les ducs de Bourgogne, études sur les lettres, les
arts et l'industrie pendant le XV'e siècle_, Paris, 1852, vol. iii,
pp. 235 _et seq._--_Inventaires et documents relatifs aux joyaux et
tapisseries des princes d'Orléans-Valois_, Paris, 1894, 8vo.]

Some have wished to believe that from his duchy news reached him of
the Maid's coming. They have gone so far as to imagine that a faithful
servant kept him informed of the happy incidents of May and June,
1429;[1241] but nothing is less certain. On the contrary, the
probability is that the English refused to let him receive any
message, and that he was totally ignorant of all that was going on in
the two kingdoms.[1242]

[Footnote 1241: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, Introduction by Vallet de
Viriville, pp. 8, 19 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1242: With regard to the year 1433, this is well established
(_Poésies complètes de Charles d'Orléans_, ed. Charles d'Héricault,
Paris, 1874, 2 vols. 8vo, introduction).]

Possibly he did not care for news of the war as much as one might
expect. He hoped nothing from men-at-arms; and it was not to his fair
cousins of France and to feats of prowess and battles that he looked
for deliverance. He knew too much about them. It was in peace that he
put his trust, both for himself and for his people. Since the fathers
were dead, he thought that the sons might forgive and forget. He
placed his hope in his cousin of Burgundy; and he was right, for the
fortunes of the English were in the hands of Duke Philip. Charles
brought himself, or at any rate he was to bring himself later, to
recognise the suzerainty of the King of England. It is less important
to consider the weakness of men than the force of circumstances. And
the prisoner could never do enough to obtain peace: "joy's greatest
treasure."[1243]

[Footnote 1243: _Poésies de Charles d'Orléans_, ed. A.
Champollion-Figeac, pp. 175-176.]

No, despite her revelations, the picture Jeanne imagined of her fair
Duke was not the true one. They were never to meet; but if they had
met there would have been serious misunderstandings between them, and
they would have remained incomprehensible one to the other. Jeanne's
elemental, straight-forward way of thinking could never have accorded
with the ideas of so great a noble and so courteous a poet. They could
never have understood each other because she was simple, he subtle;
because she was a prophetess while he was filled with courtly
knowledge and lettered grace; because she believed, and he was as one
not believing; because she was a daughter of the common folk and a
saint ascribing all sovereignty to God, while for him law consisted in
feudal uses and customs, alliances and treaties;[1244] because, in
short, they held conflicting ideas concerning life and the world. The
Maid's mission, her being sent by Messire to recover his duchy for
him, would never have appealed to the good Duke; and Jeanne would
never have understood his behaviour towards his English and Burgundian
cousins. It was better they should never meet.

[Footnote 1244: For him every treaty of peace was a good treaty, even
that of 1420, the Treaty of Troyes (Pierre Champion, _Le manuscrit
autographe des poésies de Charles d'Orléans_, Paris, 1907, 8vo, p.
32).]

The capture of Jargeau had given the French control of the upper
Loire. In order to free the city of Orléans from all danger, it was
necessary to make sure of the banks of the lower river. There the
English still held Meung and Beaugency. On Tuesday, the 14th of June,
at the hour of vespers, the army took the field.[1245]

[Footnote 1245: Perceval de Cagny, p. 152: "_Je veux demain, après
dîner, aller voir ceux de Meung_." ["To-morrow after dinner I will go
to the people of Meung."] The turn of expression which this chronicle
attributes to Jeanne is really that of the clerk who wrote it.]

They passed through La Sologne, and that same evening gained the
Bridge of Meung, situated above the town and separated from its walls
by a broad meadow. Like most bridges, it was defended by a castlet at
each end; and the English had provided it with an earthen outwork, as
they had done for Les Tourelles at Orléans.[1246] They defended it
badly, however, and the French King's men forced their way in before
nightfall. They left a garrison there, and went out to encamp in
Beauce, almost under the walls. The young Duke of Alençon lodged in a
church with a few men-at-arms; and, as was his wont, did not keep
watch. He was surprised and ran great danger.[1247]

[Footnote 1246: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 305. _Journal du siège_, p. 101. Berry, in _Trial_, vol.
iv, p. 44. Walter Bower, _Scotichronicon_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 176.]

[Footnote 1247: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 97.]

The town garrison, which was a small one, was commanded by Lord
Scales, and "the Child of Warwick." The next day, early in the
morning, the King's men, passing within a cannon shot of the town of
Meung, marched straight on Beaugency, which they reached in the
morning.[1248]

[Footnote 1248: _Ibid._, pp. 97, 98.]

The ancient little town, built on the side of a hill and girt around
with vineyards, gardens, and cornfields, sloped before them towards
the green valley of the Ru. Straight in front of them rose its square
tower of somewhat proud aspect, although it had oftentimes been taken.
The suburbs were not fortified; but the French, when they entered
them, were riddled by a shower of arrows of every kind, fired by
archers concealed in dwellings and outhouses. On both sides there were
killed and wounded. Finally, the English retreated into the castle and
the bridge bastions.[1249]

[Footnote 1249: _Journal du siège_, p. 101. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 304. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 83.]

The Duke of Alençon stationed sentinels in front of the castle to
watch the English. Just then, he saw coming towards him, two nobles of
Brittany, the Lords of Rostrenen and of Kermoisan, who said to him:
"The Constable asks the besiegers for entertainment."[1250]

[Footnote 1250: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 97, 98. Gruel, _Chronique de
Richemont_, p. 70.]

Arthur of Brittany, Sire de Richemont, Constable of France, had spent
the winter in Poitou waging war against the troops of the Sire de La
Trémouille. Now in defiance of the King's prohibition the Constable
came to join the King's men.[1251] He had crossed the Loire at Amboise
and arrived before Beaugency with six hundred men-at-arms and four
hundred archers.[1252] His coming caused the captains great
embarrassment. Some esteemed him a man of strong will and great
courage. But many were dependent upon the Sire de La Trémouille, as
for example the poor squire, Jean d'Aulon. The Duke of Alençon wanted
to retreat, alleging that the King had commanded him not to receive
the Constable.

[Footnote 1251: E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de Richemont_, pp. 93 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1252: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 315, 516. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 84. _Journal du siège_, pp. 101, 102. Perceval
de Cagny, p. 153.]

"If the Constable comes, I shall retire," he said to Jeanne.

To the Breton nobles he replied, that if the Constable came into the
camp, the Maid, and the besiegers would fight against him.[1253]

[Footnote 1253: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 98. E. Cosneau, _Le connétable
de Richemont_, p. 168.]

So decided was he that he mounted his horse to ride straight up to the
Bretons. The Maid, out of respect for him and for the King, was
preparing to follow him. But many of the captains restrained the Duke
of Alençon[1254] deeming that now was not the time to break a lance
with the Constable of France.

[Footnote 1254: Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, pp. 70 _et seq._]

On the morrow a loud alarm was sounded in the camp. The heralds were
crying: "To arms!" The English were said to be approaching in great
numbers. The young Duke still wanted to retreat in order to avoid
receiving the Constable. This time Jeanne dissuaded him: "We must
stand together," she said.[1255]

[Footnote 1255: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 98.]

He listened to this counsel and went forth to meet the Constable,
followed by the Maid, my Lord the Bastard, and the Lords of Laval.
Near the leper's hospital at Beaugency they encountered a fine
company. As they approached, a thick-lipped little man, dark and
frowning, alighted from his horse.[1256] It was Arthur of Brittany.
The Maid embraced his knees as she was accustomed to do when holding
converse with the great ones of heaven and earth. Thus did every baron
when he met one nobler than himself.[1257]

[Footnote 1256: Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, p. 71. Cf. E.
Cosneau, _Le connétable de Richemont_, pp. 169, 583. See a drawing in
the Gaignières collection reproduced by J. Lair, _Essai sur la
bataille de Formigny_, 1903, 8vo.]

[Footnote 1257: _Lors le saluèrent et le vinrent accoller par les
jambes._ (Then they saluted him and embraced his knees.) J. de Bueil,
_Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 191.]

The Constable spoke to her as a good Catholic, a devout servant of God
and the Church, saying: "Jeanne, I have heard that you wanted to fight
against me. Whether you are sent by God I know not. If you are I do
not fear you. For God knows that my heart is right. If you are sent by
the devil I fear you still less."[1258]

[Footnote 1258: Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, pp. 71-72. I have
here followed Gruel, who is not generally very trustworthy, but whose
account in this particular seems probable, at least he is no mere
hagiographer.]

He was entitled to speak thus, for he made a point of never
acknowledging the devil's power over him. His love of God he showed by
seeking out wizards and witches with a greater zeal than was displayed
by bishops and inquisitors. In France, in Poitou, and in Brittany he
had sent more to the stake than any other man living.[1259]

[Footnote 1259: _Ibid._, p. 228.]

The Duke of Alençon dared not either dismiss him or grant him a
lodging for the night. It was the custom for new comers to keep the
watch. The Constable with his company kept watch that night in front
of the castle.[1260]

[Footnote 1260: _Ibid._, p. 72. E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de
Richemont_, p. 170.]

Without more ado the young Duke of Alençon proceeded to the attack.
Here, again, those who bore the brunt of the attack and provided for
the siege were the citizens of Orléans. The magistrates of the town
had sent by water from Meung to Beaugency the necessary siege train,
ladders, pickaxes, mattocks, and those great pent-houses beneath which
the besiegers protected themselves like tortoises under their shells.
They had sent also cannons and mortars. The gay gunner, Master Jean de
Montesclère, was there.[1261] All these supplies were addressed to the
Maid. The magistrate, Jean Boillève, brought bread and wine in a
barge.[1262] Throughout Friday, the 7th, mortars and cannon hurled
stones on the besieged. At the same time from the valley and from the
river the attack was being made from barges. On the 17th of June, at
midnight, Sir Richard Gethyn, Bailie of Évreux, who commanded the
garrison, offered to capitulate. It was agreed that the English should
surrender the castle and bridge, and depart on the morrow, taking with
them horses and harness with each man his property to the value of not
more than one silver mark. Further, they were required to swear that
they would not take up arms again before the expiration of ten days.
On these terms, the next day, at sunrise, to the number of five
hundred, they crossed the drawbridge and retreated on Meung, where the
castle, but not the bridge, remained in the hands of the
English.[1263] The Constable wisely sent a few men to reinforce the
garrison on the Meung Bridge.[1264] Sir Richard Gethyn and Captain
Matthew Gough were detained as hostages.[1265]

[Footnote 1261: _Journal du siège_, p. 97. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 301.]

[Footnote 1262: A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, pp. 87-88, and
proofs and illustrations, pp. 153, 158.]

[Footnote 1263: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 305. _Journal du siège_,
p. 102. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 84. Wavrin du Forestel,
_Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, pp. 279, 282. Monstrelet, vol. iii,
pp. 325 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1264: Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1265: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
279.]

The Beaugency garrison had been in too great haste to surrender.
Scarce had it gone when a man-at-arms of Captain La Hire's company
came to the Duke of Alençon saying: "The English are marching upon us.
We shall have them in front of us directly. They are over there, full
one thousand fighting men."

Jeanne heard him speak but did not seize his meaning.

"What is that man-at-arms saying?" she asked.

And when she knew, turning to Arthur of Brittany, who was close by,
she said: "Ah! Fair Constable, it was not my will that you should
come, but since you are here, I bid you welcome."[1266]

[Footnote 1266: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 98.]

The force the French had to face was Sir John Talbot and Sir John
Fastolf with the whole English army.




CHAPTER XVI

THE BATTLE OF PATAY--OPINIONS OF ITALIAN AND GERMAN ECCLESIASTICS--THE
GIEN ARMY


Having left Paris on the 9th of June, Sir John Fastolf was coming
through La Beauce with five thousand fighting men. To the English at
Jargeau he was bringing victuals and arrows in abundance. Learning by
the way that the town had surrendered, he left his stores at Étampes
and marched on to Janville, where Sir John Talbot joined him with
forty lances and two hundred bowmen.[1267]

[Footnote 1267: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, ed.
Dupont, vol. i, p. 281. Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 44. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 85. _Journal du siège_, pp. 102,
103. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 306. Gruel, _Chronique de
Richemont_, p. 72. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 452.
Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 71-73.]

There they heard that the French had taken the Meung bridge and laid
siege to Beaugency. Sir John Talbot wished to march to the relief of
the inhabitants of Beaugency and deliver them with the aid of God and
Saint George. Sir John Fastolf counselled abandoning Sir Richard
Gethyn and his garrison to their fate; for the moment he deemed it
wiser not to fight. Finding his own men fearful and the French full of
courage, he thought the best thing the English could do would be to
establish themselves in the towns, castles, and strongholds remaining
to them, there to await the reinforcements promised by the Regent.

"In comparison with the French we are but a handfull," he said. "If
luck should turn against us, then we should be in a fair way to lose
all those conquests won by our late King Henry after strenuous effort
and long delay."[1268]

[Footnote 1268: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 331. Wavrin du Forestel,
_Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, pp. 283 _et seq._]

His advice was disregarded and the army marched on Beaugency. The
force was not far from the town on Friday, the 17th of June, just when
the garrison was issuing forth with horses, armour, and baggage to the
amount of one silver mark's worth for each man.[1269]

[Footnote 1269: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, J. Chartier, Gruel,
Morosini, Berry, Monstrelet, Wavrin, _loc. cit_. _Lettre de Jacques de
Bourbon, Comte de la Marche à Guill. de Champeaux, évêque de Laon_,
according to a Vienna MS. by Bougenot, in _Bull. du Com. des travaux
hist. et scientif. hist. et phil., 1892_, pp. 56-65. (French
translation by S. Luce, in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892, pp.
201-204.)]

Informed of the army's approach the French King's men went forth to
meet it. The scouts had not far to ride before they descried the
standards and pennons of England waving over the plain, about two and
a half miles from Patay. Then the French ascended a hill whence they
could observe the enemy. Captain La Hire and the young Sire de Termes
said to the Maid: "The English are coming. They are in battle array
and ready to fight."

As was her wont, she made answer: "Strike boldly and they will flee."

And she added that the battle would not be long.[1270]

[Footnote 1270: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 120. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p.
328. The clerk who wrote down Thibault de Termes' evidence, being
ill-informed, described these words as having been uttered at the
Battle of Patay. At Patay, Jeanne and La Hire were not near each
other.]

Believing that the French were offering them battle, the English took
up their position. The archers planted their stakes in the ground,
their points inclined towards the enemy. Thus they generally prepared
to fight; they had not done otherwise at the Battle of the Herrings.
The sun was already declining on the horizon.[1271]

[Footnote 1271: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
286.]

The Duke of Alençon had by no means decided to descend into the plain.
In presence of the Constable, my Lord the Bastard and the captains, he
consulted the holy Maid, who gave him an enigmatical answer: "See to
it that you have good spurs."

Taking her to mean the Count of Clermont's spurs, the spurs of
Rouvray, the Duke of Alençon exclaimed: "What do you say? Shall we
turn our backs on them?"

"Nay," she replied.

On all occasions her Voices counselled unwavering confidence. "Nay. In
God's name, go down against them; for they shall flee and shall not
stay and shall be utterly discomfited; and you shall lose scarce any
men; wherefore you will need your spurs to pursue them."[1272]

[Footnote 1272: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 11. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 307. It is clear that this passage from Dunois' evidence and from
_La chronique de la Pucelle_ cannot refer to the battle of June 18th,
as has been thought. "All the English divisions," says Dunois, "united
into one army. We thought they were going to offer us battle." He is
evidently referring to what happened on the 17th of June. The Duke of
Alençon's evidence confuses everything. How could the Maid have said
of the English: "God sends them against us," when they were fleeing?]

According to the opinions of doctors and masters it was well to listen
to the Maid, but at the same time to follow the course marked out by
human wisdom.

The commanders of the army, either because they judged the occasion
unfavourable or because, after so many defeats, they feared a pitched
battle, did not come down from their hill. The two heralds sent by two
English knights to offer single combat received the answer: "For
to-day you may go to bed, because it grows late. But to-morrow, if it
be God's will, we will come to closer quarters."[1273]

[Footnote 1273: Those who would attribute this saying to the Maid have
misunderstood Wavrin. _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p. 287.]

The English, assured that they would not be attacked, marched off to
pass the night at Meung.[1274]

[Footnote 1274: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
287. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 326 _et seq._]

On the morrow, Saturday, the 18th, Saint Hubert's day, the French went
forth against them. They were not there. The _Godons_ had decamped
early in the morning and gone off, with cannon, ammunition, and
victuals, towards Janville,[1275] where they intended to entrench
themselves.

[Footnote 1275: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, _Journal du siège_, Gruel,
J. Chartier, Berry, _loc. cit._]

Straightway King Charles's army of twelve thousand men[1276] set out
in pursuit of them. Along the Paris road they went, over the plain of
Beauce, wooded, full of game, covered with thickets and brushwood,
wild, but finely to the taste of English and French riders, who
praised it highly.[1277]

[Footnote 1276: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
289. Fauché-Prunelle, _Lettres tirées des archives de l'évêché de
Grenoble_, in _Bull. acad. Delph._, vol. ii, 1847, pp. 458 _et seq._
Letter from Charles VII to the town of Tours, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp.
262, 263.]

[Footnote 1277: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
289. The herald Berry, _Le livre de la description des pays_, ed.
Hamy.]

Gazing over the infinite plain, where the earth seems to recede
before one's glance, the Maid beheld the sky in front of her, that
cloudy sky of plains, suggesting marvellous adventures on the
mountains of the air, and she cried: "In God's name, if they were
hanging from the clouds we should have them."[1278]

[Footnote 1278: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 98, 99. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 306. _Chronique normande_, ch. xlviii, ed. Vallet de
Viriville. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 325 _et seq._ Morosini, vol. iii,
pp. 72-73. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, pp.
289-290. These words are said to have been uttered when the English
had been discovered, but then they would have been meaningless.]

Now, as on the previous evening, she prophesied: "To-day our fair King
shall win a victory greater than has been his for a long time. My
Council has told me that they are all ours."

She foretold that there would be few, or none of the French
slain.[1279]

[Footnote 1279: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99 (the Duke of Alençon's
evidence).]

Captain Poton and Sire Arnault de Gugem went forth to reconnoitre. The
most skilled men-of-war, and among them my Lord the Bastard and the
Marshal de Boussac, mounted on the finest of war-steeds, formed the
vanguard. Then under the leadership of Captain La Hire, who knew the
country, came the horse of the Duke of Alençon, the Count of Vendôme,
the Constable of France, with archers and cross-bowmen. Last of all
came the rear-guard, commanded by the lords of Graville, Laval, Rais,
and Saint-Gilles.[1280]

[Footnote 1280: _Ibid._, p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes). Letter
from Jacques de Bourbon in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892, pp.
201-204. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 327. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes
chroniques_, p. 289.]

The Maid, ever zealous, desired to be in the vanguard; but she was
kept back. She did not lead the men-at-arms, rather the men-at-arms
led her. They regarded her, not as captain of war but as a bringer of
good luck. Greatly saddened, she must needs take her place in the
rear, in the company, doubtless, of the Sire de Rais, where she had
originally been placed.[1281] The whole army pressed forward for fear
the enemy should escape them.

[Footnote 1281: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 71. _Journal du siège_, p. 140.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 307. _Deux documents sur Jeanne d'Arc_
in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892.]

After they had ridden twelve or thirteen miles in overpowering heat,
and passed Saint-Sigismond on the left and got beyond Saint-Péravy,
Captain Poton's sixty to eighty scouts reached a spot where the
ground, which had been level hitherto, descends, and where the road
leads down into a hollow called La Retrève. They could not actually
see the hollow, but beyond it the ground rose gently; and, dimly
visible, scarcely two and a half miles away was the belfry of
Lignerolles on the wooded plain known as Climat-du-Camp. A league
straight in front of them was the little town of Patay.[1282]

[Footnote 1282: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 11, 71, 98. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, pp. 306 _et seq._ _Journal du siège_, pp. 103 _et seq._ Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 85. Le Comte de Vassal, _La bataille
de Patay_, Orléans, 1890.]

It is two o'clock in the afternoon. Poton's and Gugem's horse chance
to raise a stag, which darts out of a thicket and plunges down into
the hollow of La Retrève. Suddenly a clamour of voices ascends from
the hollow. It proceeds from the English soldiers loudly disputing
over the game which has fallen into their hands. Thus informed of the
enemy's presence, the French scouts halt and straightway despatch
certain of their company to go and tell the army that they have
surprised the _Godons_ and that it is time to set to work.[1283]

[Footnote 1283: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328.]

Now this is what had been happening among the English. They were
retreating in good order on Janville, their vanguard commanded by a
knight bearing a white standard.[1284] Then came the artillery and the
victuals in waggons driven by merchants; then the main body of the
army, commanded by Sir John Talbot and Sir John Fastolf. The
rear-guard, which was likely to bear the brunt of the attack,
consisted only of Englishmen from England.[1285] It followed at some
distance from the rest. Its scouts, having seen the French without
being seen by them, informed Sir John Talbot, who was then between the
hamlet of Saint-Péravy and the town of Patay. On this information he
called a halt and commanded the vanguard with waggons and cannon to
take up its position on the edge of the Lignerolles wood. The position
was excellent: backed by the forest, the combatants were secure
against being attacked in the rear,[1286] while in front they were
able to entrench themselves behind their waggons. The main body did
not advance so far. It halted some little distance from Lignerolles,
in the hollow of La Retrève. On this spot the road was lined with
quickset hedges. Sir John Talbot with five hundred picked bowmen
stationed himself there to await the French who must perforce pass
that way. His design was to defend the road until the rear-guard had
had time to join the main body, and then, keeping close to the hedges,
he would fall back upon the army.

[Footnote 1284: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
291.]

[Footnote 1285: _Ibid._, pp. 291-292.]

[Footnote 1286: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 329.]

The archers, as was their wont, were making ready to plant in the
ground those pointed stakes, the spikes of which they turned against
the chests of the enemy's horses, when the French, led by Poton's
scouts, came down upon them like a whirlwind, overthrew them, and cut
them to pieces.[1287]

[Footnote 1287: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.
292. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 329, 350.]

At this moment, Sir John Fastolf, at the head of the main body, was
preparing to join the vanguard. Feeling the French cavalry at his
heels, he gave spur and at full gallop led his men on to Lignerolles.
When those of the white standard saw him arriving thus in rout, they
thought he had been defeated. They took fright, abandoned the edge of
the wood, rushed into the thickets of Climat-du-Camp and in great
disorder came out on the Paris road. With the main body of the army,
Sir John Fastolf pushed on in the same direction. There was no battle.
Marching over the bodies of Talbot's archers, the French threw
themselves on the English, who were as dazed as a flock of sheep and
fell before the foe without resistance. Thus the French slew two
thousand of those common folk whom the _Godons_ were accustomed to
transport from their own land to be killed in France. When the main
body of the French, commanded by La Hire, reached Lignerolles, they
found only eight hundred foot whom they soon overthrew. Of the twelve
to thirteen thousand French on the march, scarce fifteen hundred took
part in the battle or rather in the massacre. Sir John Talbot, who had
leapt on to his horse without staying to put on his spurs, was taken
prisoner by the Captains La Hire and Poton.[1288] The Lords Scales,
Hungerford and Falconbridge, Sir Thomas Guérard, Richard Spencer and
Fitz Walter were taken and held to ransom. In all, there were between
twelve and fifteen hundred prisoners.[1289]

[Footnote 1288: "In the neighbourhood of Lignerolles there have been
found horse-shoes, a javelin-point, the iron pieces of carts, and
bullets." P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siège_, Orléans, 1867, 12mo, p.
139.]

[Footnote 1289: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 11. Gruel, _Chronique de
Richemont_, pp. 73-74. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 154 _et seq._ _Chronique
normande_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 340. Eberhard Windecke, p. 180.
Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, pp. 144, 145. Falconbridge, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 452. _Commentaires de Pie_ II, in _Trial_, vol.
iv, p. 512. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 72-75. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 306. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 86. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, pp. 330-333. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i,
p. 293. Letter from J. de Bourbon in _La revue bleue_, February 13,
1892. Letter from Charles VII to Tours and the people of Dauphiné, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 345, 346.]

Not more than two hundred men-at-arms pursued the fugitives to the
gates of Janville. Except for the vanguard, which had been the first
to take flight, the English army was entirely destroyed. On the French
side, the Sire de Termes, who was present, states that there was only
one killed; a man of his own company. Perceval de Boulainvilliers,
Councillor and King's Chamberlain, says there were three.[1290]

[Footnote 1290: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 120; vol. v, p. 120.]

The Maid arrived[1291] before the slaughter was ended.[1292] She saw a
Frenchman, who was leading some prisoners, strike one of them such a
blow on the head that he fell down as if dead. She dismounted and
procured the Englishman a confessor. She held his head and comforted
him as far as she could. Such was the part she played in the Battle of
Patay.[1293] It was the part of a saintly maid.

[Footnote 1291: "Et habuit _l'avant garde La Hire_ de quo ipsa Johanna
fuit multum irata, quia ipsa multum affectabat habere onus de _l'avant
garde_ La Hire qui conducebat _l'avant garde_ percussit super
Anglicos," _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]

[Footnote 1292: "Habebat magnam pietatem de tanta occisione," _Trial_,
vol. iii, p. 71.]

[Footnote 1293: After an examination of the documents I have concluded
that Louis de Coutes' narrative refers to Patay.]

The French spent the night in the town. Sir John Talbot, having been
brought before the Duke of Alençon and the Constable, was thus
addressed by the young Duke: "This morning you little thought what
would happen to you."

Talbot replied: "It is the chance of war."[1294]

[Footnote 1294: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99.]

A few breathless _Godons_ succeeded in reaching Janville.[1295] But
the townsfolk, with whom on their departure they had deposited their
money and their goods, shut the gates in their faces and swore loyalty
to King Charles.

[Footnote 1295: Boucher de Molandon, _Janville, son donjon, son
château, ses souvenirs du XV'e siècle_, Orléans, 1886, 8vo.]

The English commanders of the two small strongholds in La Beauce,
Montpipeau and Saint Sigismond, set fire to them and fled.[1296]

[Footnote 1296: _Journal du siège_, p. 105; _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 307, 308.]

From Patay the victorious army marched to Orléans. The inhabitants
were expecting the King. They had hung up tapestries ready for his
entrance.[1297] But the King and his Chamberlain, fearing and not
without reason, some aggressive movement on the part of the Constable,
held themselves secure in the Château of Sully.[1298] Thence they
started for Châteauneuf on the 22nd of June. That same day the Maid
joined the King at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire. He received her with his
usual kindness and said: "I pity you because of the suffering you
endure." And he urged her to rest.

[Footnote 1297: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 307-308. _Journal du
siège_, p. 105.]

[Footnote 1298: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
222 _et seq._; E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de Richemont_, p. 172.]

At these words she wept. It has been said that her tears flowed
because of the indifference and incredulity towards her that the
King's urbanity implied.[1299] But we must beware of attributing to
the tears of the enraptured and the illuminated a cause intelligible
to human reason. To her Charles appeared clothed in an ineffable
splendour like that of the holiest of kings. How, since she had shown
him her angels, invisible to ordinary folk, could she for one moment
have thought that he lacked faith in her?

[Footnote 1299: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles).
"_Et audivit ipse loquens ex ore regis multa bona de ea ... rex habuit
pietatem de ea et de poena quam portabat._"]

"Have no doubt," she said to him, confidently, "you shall receive the
whole of your kingdom and shortly shall be crowned."[1300]

[Footnote 1300: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 76, 116.]

True, Charles seemed in no great haste to employ his knights in the
recovery of his kingdom. But his Council just then had no idea of
getting rid of the Maid. On the contrary, they were determined to use
her cleverly, so as to put heart into the French, to terrify the
English, and to convince the world that God, Saint Michael, and Saint
Catherine, were on the side of the Armagnacs. In announcing the
victory of Patay to the good towns, the royal councillors said not one
word of the Constable, neither did they mention my Lord the
Bastard.[1301] They described as leaders of the army, the Maid, with
the two Princes of the Blood Royal, the Duke of Alençon, and the Duke
of Vendôme. In such wise did they exalt her. And, indeed, she must
have been worth as much and more than a great captain, since the
Constable attempted to seize her. With this enterprise, he charged one
of his men, Andrieu de Beaumont, who had formerly been employed to
carry off the Sire de la Trémouille. But, as Andrieu de Beaumont had
failed with the Chamberlain, so he failed with the Maid.[1302]

[Footnote 1301: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphiné,
published by Fauché-Prunelle, in _Bull. de l'Acad. Delphinale_, vol.
ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours (Archives de Tours, _Registre
des comptes XXIV_), in _Cabinet historique_, I, C. p. 109; to those of
Poitiers, Redet, in _Les mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de
l'Ouest_, vol. iii, p. 406; _Relation du greffier de la Rochelle_ in
_Revue historique_, vol. iv, p. 459.]

[Footnote 1302: _Journal du siège_, pp. 106, 108; Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 89; Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, p. 74;
Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 344, 347; E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de
Richemont_, pp. 181, 182.]

Probably she herself knew nothing of this plot. She besought the King
to pardon the Constable,--a request which proves how great was her
naïveté. By royal command Richemont received back his lordship of
Parthenay.[1303]

[Footnote 1303: 1431, 8th of May. A decree condemning André de
Beaumont to suffer capital punishment as being guilty of high treason.
(Arch. nat. J. 366.) For a complete copy of this document I am
indebted to Monsieur Pierre Champion.]

Duke John of Brittany, who had married a sister of Charles of Valois,
was not always pleased with his brother-in-law's counsellors. In 1420,
considering him too Burgundian, they had devised for him a Bridge of
Montereau.[1304] In reality, he was neither Armagnac nor Burgundian
nor French nor English, but Breton. In 1423 he recognised the Treaty
of Troyes; but two years later, when his brother, the Duke of
Richemont, had gone over to the French King and received the
Constable's sword from him, Duke John went to Charles of Valois, at
Saumur, and did homage for his duchy.[1305] In short, he extricated
himself cleverly from the most embarrassing situations and succeeded
in remaining outside the quarrel of the two kings who were both eager
to involve him in it. While France and England were cutting each
other's throats, he was raising Brittany from its ruins.[1306]

[Footnote 1304: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 30; De Beaucourt, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. i, pp. 202 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1305: Dom Morice, _Histoire de Bretagne_, vol. ii, col.
1135-6; De Beaucourt, _loc. cit._, vol. ii, chap. vii.]

[Footnote 1306: Bellier-Dumaine, _L'administration du duché de
Bretagne sous le règne de Jean V_ (1399-1442) in _Les annales de
Bretagne_, vol. xiv-xvi (1898-99) _passim_, and 3rd part, Jean V and
commerce, industry, agriculture, public education (vol. xvi, p. 246),
and 4th part, chap. iii, Jean V and towns, rural parishes (vol. xvi,
p. 495).]

The Maid filled him with curiosity and admiration. Shortly after the
Battle of Patay, he sent to her, Hermine, his herald-at-arms, and
Brother Yves Milbeau, his confessor, to congratulate her on her
victory.[1307] The good Brother was told to question Jeanne.

[Footnote 1307: Eberhard Windecke, p. 179.]

He asked her whether it was God who had sent her to succour the King.

Jeanne replied that it was.

"If it be so," replied Brother Yves Milbeau, "my Lord the Duke of
Brittany, our liege lord, is disposed to proffer his service to the
King. He cannot come in person for he is sorely infirm. But he is to
send his son with a large army."

The good Brother was speaking lightly and making a promise for his
duke which would never be kept. The only truth in it was that many
Breton nobles were coming in to take service with King Charles.

On hearing these words, the little Saint made a curious mistake. She
thought that Brother Yves had meant that the Duke of Brittany was her
liege lord as well as his, which would have been altogether senseless.
Her loyalty revolted: "The Duke of Brittany is not my liege lord," she
replied sharply. "The King is my liege lord."

As far as we can tell, the Duke of Brittany's caution had produced no
favourable impression in France. He was censured for having set the
King's war ban at nought and made a treaty with the English. Jeanne
was of that opinion and to Brother Yves she said so plainly: "The Duke
should not have tarried so long in sending his men to aid the
King."[1308]

[Footnote 1308: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 178, 179.]

A few days later, the Sire de Rostrenen, who had accompanied the
Constable to Beaugency and to Patay, came from Duke John to treat of
the prospective marriage between his eldest son, François, and Bonne
de Savoie, daughter of Duke Amédée. With him was Comment-Qu'il-Soit,
herald of Richard of Brittany, Count of Étampes. The herald was
commissioned to present the Maid with a dagger and horses.[1309]

[Footnote 1309: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 264. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 68-70,
179. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 90. Dom Lobineau, _Histoire de Bretagne_,
vol. i, p. 587. Dom Morice, _Histoire de Bretagne_, vol. i, pp. 508,
580.]

At Rome, in 1428, there was a French clerk, a compiler of one of those
histories of the world so common in those days and so much alike. His
cosmography, like all of them, began with the creation and came down
to the pontificate of Martin V who was then Pope. "Under this
pontificate," wrote the author, "the realm of France, the flower and
the lily of the world, opulent among the most opulent, before whom the
whole universe bowed, was cast down by its invader, the tyrant Henry,
who was not even the lawful lord of the realm of England." Then this
churchman vows the Burgundians to eternal infamy and hurls upon them
the most terrible maledictions. "May their eyes be torn out: may they
perish by an evil death!" Such language indicates a good Armagnac and
possibly a clerk despoiled of his goods and driven into exile by the
enemies of his country. When he learns the coming of the Maid and the
deliverance of Orléans, transported with joy and wonder, he re-opens
his history and consigns to its pages arguments in favour of the
marvellous Maid, whose deeds appear to him more divine than human, but
concerning whom he knows but little. He compares her to Deborah,
Judith, Esther, and Penthesilea. "In the books of the Gentiles it is
written," he says, "that Penthesilea, and a thousand virgins with her,
came to the succour of King Priam and fought so valiantly that they
tore the Myrmidons in pieces and slew more than two thousand Greeks."
According to him, both in courage and feats of prowess, the Maid far
surpasses Penthesilea. Her deeds promptly refute those who maintain
that she is sent by the Devil.[1310]

[Footnote 1310: L. Delisle, _Un nouveau témoignage relatif à la
mission de Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_,
vol. xlvi, pp. 649, 668. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'Église de
son temps_, pp. 53, 60.]

In a moment the fame of the French King's prophetess had been spread
abroad throughout Christendom. While in temporal affairs the people
were rending each other, in spiritual matters obedience to one common
head made Europe one spiritual republic with one language and one
doctrine, governed by councils. The spirit of the Church was
all-pervading. In Italy, in Germany, the talk was all of the Sibyl of
France and her prowess which was so intimately associated with the
Christian faith. In those days it was sometimes the custom of those
who painted on the walls of monasteries to depict the Liberal Arts as
three noble dames. Between her two sisters, Logic would be painted,
seated on a lofty throne, wearing an antique turban, clothed in a
sparkling robe, and bearing in one hand a scorpion, in the other a
lizard, as a sign that her knowledge winds its way into the heart of
the adversary's argument, and saves her from being herself entrapped.
At her feet, looking up to her, would be Aristotle, disputing and
reckoning up his arguments on his fingers.[1311] This austere lady
formed all her disciples in the same mould. In those days nothing was
more despicable than singularity. Originality of mind did not then
exist. The clerks who treated of the Maid all followed the same
method, advanced the same arguments, and based them on the same texts,
sacred and profane. Conformity could go no further. Their minds were
identical, but not their hearts; it is the mind that argues, but the
heart that decides. These scholastics, dryer than their parchment,
were men, notwithstanding; they were swayed by sentiment, by passion,
by interests spiritual or temporal. While the Armagnac doctors were
demonstrating that in the Maid's case reasons for belief were stronger
than reasons for disbelief, the German or Italian masters, caring
nought for the quarrel of the Dauphin of Viennois,[1312] remained in
doubt, unmoved by either love or hatred.

[Footnote 1311: Cathédrale du Puy. E.F. Corpet, _Portraits des arts
libéraux d'après les écrivains du moyen âge_, in _Annales
archéologiques_, 1857, vol. xvii, pp. 89, 103. Em. Male, _Les Arts
libéraux dans la statuaire du moyen âge_, in _Revue archéologique_,
1891.]

[Footnote 1312: Another name for Dauphiné (W.S.).]

There was a doctor of theology, one Heinrich von Gorcum, a professor
at Cologne. As early as the month of June, 1429, he drew up a memorial
concerning the Maid. In Germany, minds were divided as to whether the
nature of the damsel were human or whether she were not rather a
celestial being clothed in woman's form; as to whether her deeds
proceeded from a human origin or had a supernatural source; and, if
the latter, whether that source were good or bad. Meister Heinrich von
Gorcum wrote his treatise to present arguments from Holy Scripture on
both sides, and he abstained from drawing any conclusion.[1313]

[Footnote 1313: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 411-421. Le P. Ayroles, _La
Pucelle devant l'Église de son temps_, vol. i, pp. 61-68.]

In Italy, the same doubts and the same uncertainty prevailed
concerning the deeds of the Maid. Those there were who maintained that
they were mere inventions. At Milan, it was disputed whether any
credence could be placed in tidings from France. To discover the truth
about them, the notables of the city resolved to despatch a Franciscan
friar, Brother Antonio de Rho, a good humanist and a zealous preacher
of moral purity.

And Giovanni Corsini, Senator of the duchy of Arezzo, impelled by a
like curiosity, consulted a learned clerk of Milan, one Cosmo Raimondi
of Cremona. The following is the gist of the learned Ciceronian's
reply:

"Most noble lord, they say that God's choice of a shepherdess for the
restoration of a kingdom to a prince, is a new thing. And yet we know
that the shepherd David was anointed king. It is told how the Maid, at
the head of a small company, defied a great army. The victory may be
explained by an advantageous position and an unexpected attack. But
supposing we refrain from saying that the enemy was surprised and that
his courage forsook him, matters which are none the less possible,
supposing we admit that there was a miracle: what is there astonishing
in that? Is it not still more wonderful that Samson should have slain
so many Philistines with the jaw-bone of an ass?

"The Maid is said to possess the power of revealing the future.
Remember the Sibyls, notably the Erythræan and the Cumæan. They were
heathens. Why should not a like power be granted to a Christian? This
woman is a shepherdess. Jacob, when he kept Laban's flocks, conversed
familiarly with God. To such examples and to such reasons, which
incline me to give credence to the rumour, I add another reason
derived from physical science. In treatises on astrology I have often
read that by the favourable influence of the stars, certain men of
lowly birth have become the equals of the highest princes and been
regarded as men divine charged with a celestial mission. Guido da
Forli, a clever astronomer, quotes a great number of such instances.
Wherefore I should not deem myself to be incurring any reproach if I
believed that through the influence of the stars, the Maid has
undertaken what is reported of her."

At the conclusion of his arguments the clerk of Cremona says that,
while not absolutely rejecting the reports concerning her, he does not
consider them to be sufficiently proved.[1314]

[Footnote 1314: Le P. Ayroles, vol. iv, _La vierge guerrière_, pp. 240
_et seq._]

Jeanne maintained her resolution to go to Reims and take the King to
his anointing.[1315] She did not stay to consider whether it would be
better to wage war in Champagne than in Normandy. She did not know
enough of the configuration of the country to decide such a question,
and it is not likely that her saints and angels knew more of geography
than she did. She was in haste to take the King to Reims for his
anointing, because she believed it impossible for him to be king
until he had been anointed.[1316] The idea of leading him to be
anointed with the holy oil had come to her in her native village, long
before the siege of Orléans.[1317] This inspiration was wholly of the
spirit, and had nothing to do with the state of affairs created by the
deliverance of Orléans and the victory of Patay.

[Footnote 1315: "_Sed dicta puella semper fuit opinionis quod
opportebat ire Remis._" _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of
Dunois).]

[Footnote 1316: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 20. _Journal du siège_, pp. 93,
94.]

[Footnote 1317: See _ante_, pp. 53 _et seq._]

The best course would have been to march straight on Paris after the
18th of June. The French were then only ninety miles from the great
city, which at that juncture would not have thought of defending
itself. Considering it as good as lost, the Regent shut himself up in
the Fort of Vincennes.[1318] They had missed their opportunity. The
French King's Councillors, Princes of the Blood, were deliberating,
surprised by victory, not knowing what to do with it. Certain it is
that not one of them thought of conquering, and that speedily, the
whole inheritance of King Charles. The forces at their disposal, and
the very conditions of the society in which they lived, rendered it
impossible for them to conceive of such an undertaking. The lords of
the Great Council were not like the poverty stricken monks, dreaming
in their ruined cloisters[1319] of an age of peace and concord. The
King's Councillors were no dreamers; they did not believe in the end
of the war, neither did they desire it. But they intended to conduct
it with the least possible risk and expenditure. There would always be
folk enough to don the hauberk and go a-plundering they said to
themselves; the taking and re-taking of towns must continue;
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof; to fight long one must
fight gently; nine times out of ten more is gained by negotiations and
treaties than by feats of prowess; truces must be concluded craftily
and broken cautiously; some defeats must be expected, and some work
must be left for the young. Such were the opinions of the good
servants of King Charles.[1320]

[Footnote 1318: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 451. _Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 239. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 291.
De Barante, _Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne_, vol. iii, p. 323.]

[Footnote 1319: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_,
introduction.]

[Footnote 1320: Those of Louis XI were of a like mind: "One should
fear risking a great battle if one be not constrained to it." Philippe
de Comynes, ed. Mdlle. Dupont, vol. i, p. 146.]

Certain among them wished the war to be carried on in Normandy.[1321]
The idea had occurred to them as early as the month of May, before the
Loire campaign, and indeed there was much to be said for it. In
Normandy they would cut the English tree at its root. It was quite
possible that they might immediately recover a part of that province
where the English had but few fighting men. In 1424 the Norman
garrisons consisted of not more than four hundred lances and twelve
hundred bowmen.[1322] Since then they had received but few
reinforcements. The Regent was recruiting men everywhere and
displaying marvellous activity, but he lacked money, and his soldiers
were always deserting.[1323] In the conquered province, as soon as the
_Coués_ came out of their strongholds they found themselves in the
enemy's territory. From the borders of Brittany, Maine, Perche as far
as Ponthieu and Picardy, on the banks of the Mayenne, Orne, the Dive,
the Touque, the Eure, the Seine, the partisans of the various factions
held the country, watching the roads, robbing, ravaging, and
murdering.[1324] Everywhere the French would have found these brave
fellows ready to espouse their cause; the peasants and the village
priests would likewise have wished them well. But the campaign would
involve long sieges of towns, strongly defended, albeit held by but
small garrisons. Now the men-at-arms dreaded the delays of sieges, and
the royal treasury was not sufficient for such costly undertakings.[1325]
Normandy was ruined, stripped of its crops, and robbed of its cattle.
Were the captains and their men to go into this famine-stricken land?
And why should the King reconquer so poor a province?

[Footnote 1321: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 12, 13. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 300. Perceval de Cagny, p. 170. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, p. 87. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 63, note 2.]

[Footnote 1322: Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, 1875, vol. i, p. 213.]

[Footnote 1323: Rymer, _Foedera_, 18 June, 1429. Morosini, vol. iii,
pp. 132-133; vol. iv, supplement, xvii. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La
panique anglaise en mai 1429_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1324: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La guerre des partisans dans la
Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in the _Bibliothèque de l'École des
Chartes_ since 1893.]

[Footnote 1325: "The King had no great sums of money with which to pay
his army." Perceval de Cagny, pp. 149, 157.]

And these freebooters, who were willing to stretch out a hand to the
French, were not very attractive. It was well known that brigands they
were, and brigands would remain, and that Normandy once reconquered,
they would have to be got rid of, to the last man, without honour and
without profit. In which case would it not be better to leave them to
be dealt with by the _Godons_?

Other nobles clamoured for an expedition into Champagne.[1326] And in
spite of all that has been said to the contrary, the Maid's visions
had no influence whatever on this determination. The King's
Councillors led Jeanne and were far from being led by her. Once
before they had diverted her from the road to Reims by providing her
with work on the Loire. Once again they might divert her into
Normandy, without her even perceiving it, so ignorant was she of the
roads and of the lie of the land. If there were certain who
recommended a campaign in Champagne, it was not on the faith of saints
and angels, but for purely human reasons. Is it possible to discover
these reasons? There were doubtless certain lords and captains who
considered the interest of the King and the kingdom, but every one
found it so difficult not to confound it with his own interest, that
the best way to discover who was responsible for the march on Reims is
to find out who was to profit by it. It was certainly not the Duke of
Alençon, who would have greatly preferred to take advantage of the
Maid's help for the conquest of his own duchy.[1327] Neither was it my
Lord the Bastard, nor the Sire de Gaucourt, nor the King himself, for
they must have desired the securing of Berry and the Orléanais by the
capture of La Charité held by the terrible Perrinet Gressart.[1328] On
the other hand we may conclude that the Queen of Sicily would not be
unfavourable to the march of the King, her son-in-law, in a north
easterly direction. This Spanish lady was possessed by the Angevin
mania. Reassured for the moment concerning the fate of her duchy of
Anjou, she was pursuing eagerly, and to the great hurt of the realm of
France, the establishment of her son René in the duchy of Bar and in
the inheritance of Lorraine. She cannot have been displeased,
therefore, when she saw the King keeping her an open road between Gien
and Troyes and Châlons. But since the Constable's exile she had lost
all influence over her son-in-law, and it is difficult to discover who
could have watched her interests in the Council of May, 1429.[1329]
Besides, without seeking further, it is obvious that there was one
person, who above all others must have desired the anointing of the
King, and who more than any was in a position to make his opinion
prevail. That person was the man on whom devolved the duty of holding
in his consecrated hands the Sacred Ampulla, my Lord Regnault de
Chartres, Archbishop Duke of Reims, Chancellor of the Kingdom.[1330]

[Footnote 1326: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 1327: Perceval de Cagny, p. 170.]

[Footnote 1328: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 310.]

[Footnote 1329: E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de Richemont_, pp. 179 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1330: Even after the coronation Regnault de Chartres would
not "suffer the Maid and the Duke of Alençon to be together nor that
he should recover her." Perceval de Cagny, p. 171.]

He was a man of rare intelligence, skilled in business, a very clever
diplomatist, greedy of wealth, caring less for empty honours than for
solid advantage, avaricious, unscrupulous, one who at the age of about
fifty had lost nothing of his consuming energy; he had recently
displayed it by spending himself nobly in the defence of Orléans. Thus
gifted, how could he fail to exercise a powerful control over the
government?

Fifteen years had passed since his elevation to the archiepiscopal see
of Reims; and of his enormous revenue he had not yet received one
penny. Albeit the possessor of great wealth from other sources, he
pleaded poverty. To the Pope he addressed heart-rending
supplications.[1331] If the Maid had found favour in the eyes of the
Poitiers doctors, Monseigneur Regnault had had something to do with
it. Had it not been for him, the doctors at court would never have
proposed her examination. And we shall not be making too bold a
hypothesis if we conclude, that when the march on Reims was decided in
the royal council, it was because the Archbishop, on grounds suggested
by human reason, approved of what the Maid proposed by divine
inspiration.[1332]

[Footnote 1331: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_,
introduction.]

[Footnote 1332: See _ante_, pp. 153-159.]

While the coronation campaign was attended with grave drawbacks and
met with serious obstacles, it nevertheless brought great gain and a
certain subtle advantage to the royal cause. Unfortunately it left
free from attack the rest of France occupied by the English, and it
gave the latter time to recover themselves and procure aid from over
sea. We shall shortly see what good use they made of their
opportunities.[1333] As to the advantages of the expedition, they were
many and various. First, Jeanne truly expressed the sentiments of the
poor priests and the common folk when she said that the Dauphin would
reap great profit from his anointing.[1334] From the oil of the holy
Ampulla the King would derive a splendour, a majesty which would
impress the whole of France, yea, even the whole of Christendom. In
those days royalty was alike spiritual and temporal; and multitudes of
men believed with Jeanne that kings only became kings by being
anointed with the holy oil. Thus it would not be wrong to say that
Charles of Valois would receive greater power from one drop of oil
than from ten thousand lances. On a consideration like this the King's
Councillors must needs set great store. They had also to take into
account the time and the place. Might not the ceremony be performed in
some other town than Reims? Might not the so-called "mystery" take
place in that city which had been delivered by the intercession of its
blessed patrons, Saint-Aignan and Saint Euverte? Two kings descended
from Hugh Capet, Robert the Wise and Louis the Fat, had been crowned
at Orléans.[1335] But the memory of their royal coronation was lost in
the mists of antiquity, while folk still retained the memory of a long
procession of most Christian kings anointed in the town where the holy
oil had been brought down to Clovis by the celestial dove.[1336]
Besides, the lord Archbishop and Duke of Reims would never have
suffered the King to receive his anointing save at his hand and in his
cathedral.

[Footnote 1333: Morosini, vol. iv, supplement, xvii.]

[Footnote 1334: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 20, 300. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, pp. 322, 323. _Journal du siège_, pp. 93, 114. "And although
the King had not money wherewith to pay his army, all knights,
squires, men-at-arms, and the commonalty refused not to serve the King
in this journey in company with the Maid." Perceval de Cagny, p. 157.]

[Footnote 1335: Le Maire, _Antiquités d'Orléans_, ch. xxv, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1336: Pius II, _Commentarii_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp.
513-514. Pierre des Gros, _Jardin des nobles_ in P. Paris, _Manuscrits
français de la bibliothèque du roi_, vol. ii, p. 149, and _Trial_,
vol. iv, pp. 533, 534.]

Therefore it was necessary to go to Reims. It was necessary also to
anticipate the English who had resolved to conduct thither their
infant King that he might receive consecration according to the
ancient ceremonial.[1337] But if the French had invaded Normandy they
would have closed the young Henry's road to Paris and to Reims, a road
which was already insecure for him; and it would be childish to
maintain that the coronation could not have been postponed for a few
weeks. If the conquest of Norman lands and Norman towns was renounced
therefore, it was not merely for the sake of capturing the holy
Ampulla. The Lord Archbishop of Reims had other objects at heart. He
believed, for example, that, by pressing in between the Duke of
Burgundy and his English allies, an excellent impression would be
produced on the mind of that Prince and the edifying object-lesson
presented to his consideration of Charles, son of Charles, King of
France, riding at the head of a powerful army.

[Footnote 1337: William of Worcester [1415-1482, or Botoner,
chronicler and traveller, secretary to Sir John Fastolf, disputed with
John Paston concerning some land near Norwich, and frequently referred
to in the Paston Letters. W.S.] in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 475. In 1430
it was the intention of the English to take their King to Reims "for
which cause all the subjects of the kingdom would be more inclined to
him" (advice given by Philippe le Bon to Henry VI, as cited by H. de
Lannoy, in P. Champion, _G. de Flavy_, p. 156). There was an English
project for carrying off the holy Ampulla from Reims. Pius II,
_Commentarii_ in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 513.]

To attain the city of the Blessed Saint Remi two hundred and fifty
miles of hostile country must be traversed. But for some time the army
would be in no danger of meeting the enemy on the road. The English
and Burgundians were engaged in using every means both fair and foul
for the raising of troops. For the moment the French need fear no foe.
The rich country of Champagne, sparsely wooded, well cultivated,
teemed with corn and wine, and abounded in fat cattle.[1338] Champagne
had not been devastated like Normandy. There was a likelihood of
obtaining food for the men-at-arms, especially if, as was hoped, the
good towns supplied victuals. They were very wealthy; their barns
overflowed with corn. While owing allegiance to King Henry, no bonds
of affection united them to the English or to the Burgundians. They
governed themselves. They were rich merchants, who only longed for
peace and who did their best to bring it about. Just now they were
beginning to suspect that the Armagnacs were growing the stronger
party. These folk of Champagne had a clergy and a _bourgeoisie_ who
might be appealed to. It was not a question of storming their towns
with artillery, mines, and trenches, but of getting round them with
amnesties, concessions to the merchants and elaborate engagements to
respect the privileges of the clergy. In this country there was no
risk of rotting in hovels or burning in bastions. The townsfolk were
expected to throw open their gates and partly from love, partly from
fear, to give money to their lord the King.

[Footnote 1338: _Voyages du héraut Berry_, Bibl. Nat. ms. fr. 5873,
fol. 7.]

The campaign was already arranged, and that very skilfully.
Communications had been opened with Troyes and Châlons. By letters and
messages from a few notables of Reims it was made known to King
Charles that if he came they would open to him the gates of their
town. He even received three or four citizens, who said to him, "Go
forth in confidence to our city of Reims. It shall not be our fault if
you do not enter therein."[1339]

[Footnote 1339: Jean Rogier in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 284-285.]

Such assurances emboldened the Royal Council; and the march into
Champagne was resolved upon.

The army assembled at Gien; it increased daily. The nobles of Brittany
and Poitou came in in great numbers, most of them mounted on sorry
steeds[1340] and commanding but small companies of men. The poorest
equipped themselves as archers, and in default of better service were
ready to act as bowmen. Villeins and tradesmen came likewise.[1341]
From the Loire to the Seine and from the Seine to the Somme the only
cultivated land was round _châteaux_ and fortresses. Most of the
fields lay fallow. In many places fairs and markets had been
suspended. Labourers were everywhere out of work. War, after having
ruined all trades, was now the only trade. Says Eustache Deschamps,
"All men will become squires. Scarce any artisans are left."[1342] At
the place of meeting there assembled thirty thousand men, of whom many
were on foot and many came from the villages, giving their services in
return for food. There were likewise monks, valets, women and other
camp-followers. And all this multitude was an hungered. The King went
to Gien and summoned the Queen who was at Bourges.[1343]

[Footnote 1340: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 312. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, pp. 93-94. _Journal du siège_, p. 108. Cagny, p. 157.
Morosini, pp. 84-85. Loiseleur, _Compte des dépenses_, pp. 90, 91.]

[Footnote 1341: "_Gens de guerre et de commun_," says Perceval de
Cagny, p. 157.]

[Footnote 1342: Eustache Deschamps ed. Queux de Saint-Hilaire and G.
Raynaud, vol. i, p. 159, _passim_. Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII
et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 44. Letter from Nicholas de Clamanges to
Gerson, LIV.]

[Footnote 1343: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 308. Perceval de Cagny,
p. 157. _Journal du siège_, p. 180. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 85.]

His idea was to take her to Reims and have her crowned with him,
following the example of Queen Blanche of Castille, of Jeanne de
Valois, and of Queen Jeanne, wife of King John. But queens had not
usually been crowned at Reims; Queen Ysabeau, mother of the present
King, had received the crown from the hands of the Archbishop of Rouen
in the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris.[1344] Before her time, the wives of
the kings, following the example set by Berthe, wife of Pepin the
Short, generally came to Saint-Denys to receive the crown of gold, of
sapphire and of pearls given by Jeanne of Évreux to the monks of the
Abbey.[1345] Sometimes the queens were crowned with their husbands,
sometimes alone and in a different place; many had never been crowned
at all.

[Footnote 1344: S.J. Morand, _Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle royale du
Palais_, Paris, 1790, in 4to, p. 77, and _passim_.]

[Footnote 1345: Le P. J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys
en France_, Paris, 1625, in fol., ch. 1, pp. 373 _et seq._ Dom
Félibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denis_, 1706, in fol.,
pp. 203, 275, 543.]

That King Charles should have thought of taking Queen Marie on this
expedition proves that he did not anticipate great fatigue or great
danger. Nevertheless, at the last moment the plan was changed. The
Queen, who had come to Gien, was sent back to Bourges. The King set
out without her.[1346]

[Footnote 1346: _Journal du siège_, p. 107. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 310.]

    Quand le roy s'en vint en France,
    Il feit oindre ses houssiaulx,
    Et la royne lui demande:
    Ou veult aller cest damoiseaulx?[1347]

[Footnote 1347: When the King set out in France, he had his gaiters
greased; and the Queen asked him: whither will wend these damoiseaux?
Quoted according to _La Chronique Messine_ by Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 424, note 1.]

In reality the Queen asked nothing. She was ill-favoured and weak of
will.[1348] But the song says that the King on his departure had his
old gaiters greased because he had no new ones. Those old jokes about
the poverty of the King of Bourges still held good.[1349] The King had
not grown rich. It was customary to pay the men-at-arms a part of
their wages in advance. At Gien each fighting man received three
francs. It did not seem much, but they hoped to gain more on the
way.[1350]

[Footnote 1348: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iv, p.
88.]

[Footnote 1349: See _ante_, pp. 148-152.]

[Footnote 1350: Perceval de Cagny, p. 157. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 87. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 313.]

On Friday, the 24th of June, the Maid set out from Orléans for Gien.
On the morrow she dictated from Gien a letter to the inhabitants of
Tournai, telling them how the English had been driven from all their
strongholds on the Loire and discomfited in battle. In this letter she
invited them to come to the anointing of King Charles at Reims and
called upon them to continue loyal Frenchmen. Here is the letter:

     [cross symbol] JHESUS [cross symbol] MARIA.

     Fair Frenchmen and loyal, of the town of Tournay, from this
     place the Maid maketh known unto you these tidings: that in
     eight days, by assault or otherwise, she hath driven the
     English from all the strongholds they held on the River
     Loire. Know ye that the Earl of Suffort, Lapoulle his
     brother, the Sire of Tallebord, the Sire of Scallez and my
     lords Jean Falscof and many knights and captains have been
     taken, and the brother of the Earl of Suffort and Glasdas
     slain. I beseech you to remain good and loyal Frenchmen; and
     I beseech and entreat you that ye make yourselves ready to
     come to the anointing of the fair King Charles at Rains,
     where we shall shortly be, and come ye to meet us when ye
     know that we draw nigh. To God I commend you. God keep you
     and give you his grace that ye may worthily maintain the
     good cause of the realm of France. Written at Gien the xxvth
     day of June.

     Addressed "to the loyal Frenchmen of the town of
     Tournay."[1351]

[Footnote 1351: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 125. _Registre des consaux,
extraits analytiques des anciens consaux de la ville de Tournay_, ed.
H. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, p. 329. F. Hennebert, _Une lettre de Jeanne
d'Arc aux Tournaisiens_ in _Arch. hist. et littéraires du nord de la
France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 525. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles
VII_, vol. iii, p. 516.]

An epistle in the same tenor must have been sent by the Maid's monkish
scribes to all the towns which had remained true to King Charles, and
the priests themselves must have drawn up the list of them.[1352]
They would certainly not have forgotten that town of the royal domain,
which, situated in Flanders,[1353] in the heart of Burgundian
territory, still remained loyal to its liege lord. The town of
Tournai, ceded to Philip the Good by the English government, in 1423,
had not recognised its new master. Jean de Thoisy, its bishop, resided
at Duke Philip's court;[1354] but it remained the King's town,[1355]
and the well-known attachment of its townsfolk to the Dauphin's
fortunes was exemplary and famous.[1356] The Consuls of Albi, in a
short note concerning the marvels of 1429, were careful to remark that
this northern city, so remote that they did not exactly know where it
was, still held out for France, though surrounded by France's enemies.
"The truth is that the English occupy the whole land of Normandy, and
of Picardy, except Tournay,"[1357] they wrote.

[Footnote 1352: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphiné,
published by Fauché-Prunelle, in _Bulletin de l'Académie Delphinale_,
vol. ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours, in _Le Cabinet
historique_, vol. i, C. p. 109; to those of Poitiers, by Redet, in
_Les mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest_, vol. iii, p.
106. _Relation du greffier de la Rochelle_ in _Revue historique_, vol.
iv, p. 341.]

[Footnote 1353: This is a mere form of speech. Le Tournésis has always
been territory separate from the County of Flanders, the Bishops of
which were the former Lords of Tournai. As early as 1187 the King of
France nominally held sovereign sway there. In reality the town was
divided into two factions: the rich and the merchants were for the
Burgundian party, the common folk for the French (De La Grange,
_Troubles à Tournai_, 1422-1430).]

[Footnote 1354: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 352.]

[Footnote 1355: _Chambre du Roi._]

[Footnote 1356: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 184-185. _Chronique de
Tournai_, ed. Smedt (_Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii,
_passim_); _Troubles à Tournai_ (1422-1430) in _Mémoires de la Société
historique et littéraire de Tournai_, vol. xvii (1882). _Extraits des
anciens registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _passim_.
Monstrelet, ch. lxvii, lxix. A. Longnon, _Paris sous la domination
anglaise_, pp. 143, 144.]

[Footnote 1357: The Town Clerk of Albi in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 301.]

Indeed the inhabitants of the bailiwick of Tournai, jealously guarding
the liberties and privileges accorded to them by the King of France,
would not have separated themselves from the Crown on any
consideration. They protested their loyalty, and in honour of the King
and in the hope of his recovering his kingdom they had grand
processions; but their devotion stopped there; and, when their liege
Lord, King Charles, urgently demanded the arrears of their
contribution, of which he said he stood in great need, their
magistrates deliberated and decided to ask leave to postpone payment
again, and for as long as possible.[1358]

[Footnote 1358: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits analytiques des anciens
registres des consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii, pp. 328-330.]

There is no doubt that the Maid herself dictated this letter. It will
be noticed that therein she takes to herself the credit and the whole
credit for the victory. Her candour obliged her to do so. In her
opinion God had done everything, but he had done everything through
her. "The Maid hath driven the English out of all their strongholds."
She alone could reveal so naïve a faith in herself. Brother Pasquerel
would not have written with such saintly simplicity.

It is remarkable that in this letter Sir John Fastolf should be
reckoned among the prisoners. This mistake is not peculiar to Jeanne.
The King announces to his good towns that three English captains have
been taken, Talbot, the Lord of Scales and Fastolf. Perceval de
Boulainvilliers, in his Latin epistle to the Duke of Milan, includes
Fastolf, whom he calls _Fastechat_, among the thousand prisoners taken
by the folk of Dauphiné. Finally, a missive despatched about the 25th
of June, from one of the towns of the diocese of Luçon, shows great
uncertainty concerning the fate of Talbot, Fastolf and Scales, "who
are said to be either prisoners or dead."[1359] Possibly the French
had laid hands on some noble who resembled Fastolf in appearance or in
name; or perhaps some man-at-arms in order to be held to ransom had
given himself out to be Fastolf. The Maid's letter reached Tournai on
the 7th of July. On the morrow the town council resolved to send an
embassy to King Charles of France.[1360]

[Footnote 1359: Letter from Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 120. Fragment of a letter concerning the marvels which have
occurred in Poitou, _ibid._, p. 122. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 74-76.]

[Footnote 1360: Hennebert, _Archives historiques et littéraires du
nord de la France_, 1837, vol. i, p. 520. _Extraits des anciens
registres des consaux_, ed. Vandenbroeck, vol. ii, _loc. cit._]

On the 27th of June, or about then, the Maid caused letters to be
despatched to the Duke of Burgundy, inviting him to come to the King's
coronation. She received no reply.[1361] Duke Philip was the last man
in the world to correspond with the Maid. And that she should have
written to him courteously was a sign of her goodness of heart. As a
child in her village she had been the enemy of the Burgundians before
being the enemy of the English, but none the less she desired the good
of the kingdom and a reconciliation between Burgundians and French.

[Footnote 1361: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 127. These letters are now lost.
Jeanne alludes to them in her letter of the 17th of July, 1429. "_Et à
trois sepmaines que je vous avoye escript et envoie bonnes lettres par
un héraut...._"]

The Duke of Burgundy could not lightly pardon the ambush of Montereau;
but at no time of his life had he vowed an irreconcilable hatred of
the French. An understanding had become possible after the year 1425,
when his brother-in-law, the Constable of France, had excluded Duke
John's murderers from the Royal Council. As for the Dauphin Charles,
he maintained that he had had nothing to do with the crime; but among
the Burgundians he passed for an idiot.[1362] In the depths of his
heart Duke Philip disliked the English. After King Henry V's death he
had refused to act as their regent in France. Then there was the
affair of the Countess Jacqueline which very nearly brought about an
open rupture.[1363] For many years the House of Burgundy had been
endeavouring to gain control over the Low Countries. At last Duke
Philip attained his object by marrying his second cousin, John, Duke
of Brabant to Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess of Hainault, Holland and
Zealand, and Lady of Friesland. Jacqueline, finding her husband
intolerable, fled to England, and there, having had her marriage
annulled by the Antipope, Benedict XIII, married the Duke of
Gloucester, the Regent's brother.

[Footnote 1362: Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, pp.
lvi, lvii. E. Cosneau, _Le connétable de Richemont_, pp. 114 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1363: Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, proofs
and illustrations, p. lv.]

Bedford, as prudent as Gloucester was headstrong, made every effort to
retain the great Duke in the English alliance; but the secret hatred
he felt for the Burgundians burst forth occasionally in sudden acts of
rage. Whether he planned the assassination of the Duke and the Duke
knew it, is uncertain. But at any rate it is alleged that one day the
courteous Bedford forgot himself so far as to say that Duke Philip
might well go to England and drink more beer than was good for
him.[1364] The Regent had just tactlessly offended him by refusing to
let him take possession of the town of Orléans.[1365] Now Bedford was
biting his fingers with rage. Regretting that he had refused the Duke
the key to the Loire and the heart of France, he was at present eager
to offer him the province of Champagne which the French were preparing
to conquer: this was indeed just the time to present some rich gift to
his powerful ally.[1366]

[Footnote 1364: De Barante, _Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne_, vol. v,
p. 270. Desplanques, _Projet d'assassinat de Philippe le Bon par les
Anglais_ (1424-1426), in _Les mémoires couronnées par l'Académie de
Bruxelles_, xxxiii (1867).]

[Footnote 1365: _Journal du siège_, p. 70. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 270. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 20 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1366: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 332, 333. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 36, note 7.]

Meanwhile the great Duke could think of nothing but the Low Countries.
Pope Martin had declared the marriage of the Countess Jacqueline and
Gloucester to be invalid; and Gloucester was marrying another wife.
Now the Gargantua of Dijon could once more lay hands on the broad
lands of the fair Jacqueline. He remained the ally of the English,
intending to make use of them but not to play into their hands, and
prepared, should he find it to his advantage, to make war on the
French before being reconciled to them; he saw no harm in that. After
the Low Countries what he cared most about were ladies and beautiful
paintings, like those of the brothers Van Eyck. He would not be likely
therefore to pay much attention to a letter from the Maid of the
Armagnacs.[1367]

[Footnote 1367: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 308-309. Quenson, _Notice sur
Philippe le Bon, la Flandre et ses fêtes_, Douai, 1840, in 8vo. De
Reiffenberg, _Les enfants naturels du duc Philippe le Bon_, in
_Bulletin de l'Académie de Bruxelles_, vol. xiii (1846).]




CHAPTER XVII

THE CONVENTION OF AUXERRE--FRIAR RICHARD--THE SURRENDER OF TROYES


On the 27th of June,[1368] the vanguard, commanded by Marshal de
Boussac, the Sire de Rais, the Captains La Hire and Poton, set out
from Gien in the direction of Montargis with the design of pressing on
to Sens, which, so they had been wrongly informed, was deemed likely
to open its gates to the Dauphin. But, at the news that the town had
hoisted the flag of St. Andrew, as a sign of fidelity to the English
and Burgundians, the army changed its route, so little did it desire
to take towns by force. The march was now directed towards Auxerre,
where a more favourable reception was expected.[1369] The Maid in her
impatience had not waited for the King. She rode with the company
which had started first. Had she been its leader she would not have
turned from a town when its cannon were directed against her.

[Footnote 1368: According to Perceval de Cagny, p. 157; the 28th of
June, according to Chartier, p. 90.]

[Footnote 1369: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 286.]

The King set forth two days later, with the Princes of the Blood, many
knights, the main battle, as it was called, and the Sire de la
Trémouille, who commanded the expedition.[1370] All these troops
arrived before Auxerre on the 1st of July.[1371] There on the
hill-slope, encircled with vineyards and cornfields, rose the
ramparts, towers, roofs, and belfries of the blessed Bishop Germain's
city. That town towards which in the summer sunshine, in the company
of gallant knighthood, she was now riding, fully armed like a handsome
Saint Maurice, Jeanne had seen only three months before, under a dark
and cloudy sky; then, clad like a stable-boy, in the company of two or
three poor soldiers of fortune, she was travelling over a bad road, on
her way to the Dauphin Charles.[1372]

[Footnote 1370: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, pp. 309, 310. Perceval de Cagny, p. 157. Morosini,
vol. iii, pp. 142, 143.]

[Footnote 1371: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 314. _Journal du siège_,
pp. 108, 109. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 330. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 92. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 142, note 2.]

[Footnote 1372: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 54, 222.]

Since 1424 the County of Auxerre had belonged to the Duke of Burgundy,
upon whom it had been bestowed by the Regent. The Duke governed it
through a bailie and a captain.[1373]

[Footnote 1373: Abbé Lebeuf, _Histoire ecclésiastique et civile
d'Auxerre_, vol. ii, p. 251; vol. iii, pp. 302, 506.]

The lord Bishop, Messire Jean de Corbie, formerly Bishop of Mende, was
thought to be on the Dauphin's side.[1374] The Chapter of the
Cathedral on the other hand held to Burgundy.[1375] Twelve jurors,
elected by the burgesses and other townsfolk, administered the affairs
of the city. One can easily imagine that fear must have been the
dominant sentiment in their hearts when they saw the royal army
approaching. Men-at-arms, no matter whether they wore the white cross
or the red, inspired all town dwellers with a well-grounded terror.
And, in order to turn from their gates these violent and murderous
thieves, the townsfolk were capable of resorting to the strongest
measures, even to that of putting their hands in their purses.

[Footnote 1374: Chardon, _Histoire de la ville d'Auxerre_, Auxerre,
1834 (2 vols. in 8vo), vol. ii, p. 258.]

[Footnote 1375: Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, p. 76.
Chardon, _Histoire de la ville d'Auxerre_, vol. ii, pp. 257 _et seq._
Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 383.]

The royal heralds summoned the people of Auxerre to receive the King
as their natural and lawful lord. Such a summons, backed by lances,
placed them in a very embarrassing position. Alike by refusing and by
consenting these good folk ran great risk. To transfer their
allegiance was no light matter; their lives and their goods were
involved. Foreseeing this danger, and conscious of their weakness,
they had entered into a league with the cities of Champagne. The
object of the league was to relieve its members from the burden of
receiving men-at-arms and the peril of having two hostile masters.
Certain of the townsfolk therefore presented themselves before King
Charles and promised him such submission as should be accorded by the
towns of Troyes, Châlons, and Reims.[1376]

[Footnote 1376: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90. _Journal du
siège_, p. 108. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 313. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, p. 436. Abbé Lebeuf, _Histoire ecclésiastique d'Auxerre_, vol. ii,
p. 51. Chardon, _Histoire de la ville d'Auxerre_, vol. ii, p. 259.]

This was not obedience, neither was it rebellion. Negotiations were
begun; ambassadors went from the town to the camp and from the camp to
the town. Finally the confederates, who were not lacking in
intelligence, proposed an acceptable compromise,--one that princes
were constantly concluding with each other, to wit, a truce.

They said to the King: "We entreat and request you to pass on, and we
ask you to agree to refrain from fighting." And, in order to secure
their request being granted, they gave two thousand crowns to the
Sire de la Trémouille, who, it is said, kept them without a blush.
Further, the townsfolk undertook to revictual the army in return for
money down; and that was worth considering, for there was famine in
the camp.[1377] This truce by no means pleased the men-at-arms, who
thereby lost a fine opportunity for robbery and pillage. Murmurs
arose; many lords and captains said that it would not be difficult to
take the town, and that its capture should have been attempted. The
Maid, who was always receiving promises of victory from her Voices,
never ceased calling the soldiers to arms.[1378] Unaffected by any of
these things, the King concluded the proposed truce; for he cared not
by force of arms to obtain more than could be compassed by peaceful
methods. Had he attacked the town he might have taken it and held it
in his mercy; but it would have meant certain pillage, murder,
burning, and ravishing. On his heels would have come the Burgundians,
and there would have been plundering, burning, ravishing, massacring
over again. How many examples had there not been already of unhappy
towns captured and then lost almost immediately, devastated by the
French, devastated by the English and the Burgundians, when each
citizen kept in his coffer a red cap and a white cap, which he wore in
turns! Was there to be no end to these massacres and abominations,
resentment against which caused the Armagnacs to be cursed throughout
l'Île de France, and which made it so hard for the lawful King to
recover his town of Paris. The royal Council thought the time had come
to put an end to these things. It was of opinion that Charles of
Valois would the more easily reconquer his inheritance if, while
manifesting his power, he showed himself lenient and exercised royal
clemency, as in arms and yet pursuing peace, he continued his march to
Reims.[1379]

[Footnote 1377: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, p. 313. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 149. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, p. 336. Gilles de Roye, in _Collection des chroniques belges_, pp.
206, 207. Chardon, _Histoire de la ville d'Auxerre_, vol. ii, p. 260.]

[Footnote 1378: "_De laquelle chose furent bien mal coutans aucuns
seigneurs et cappitaines d'icellui ost et en parloient bien fort._"
Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1379: In the following manner this march is described by a
contemporary: "On the said day (29th of June, 1429), after much
discussion, the King set out and took his way for to go straight to
the city of Troye in Champaigne, and, as he passed, all the fortresses
on the one hand and the other, rendered him allegiance." Perceval de
Cagny, p. 157.]

After having spent three days under the walls of the town, the army
being refreshed, crossed the Yonne and came to the town of
Saint-Florentin, which straightway submitted to the King.[1380] On the
4th of July, they reached the village of Saint-Phal, four hours'
journey from Troyes.[1381]

[Footnote 1380: Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1381: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 287. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 336. _Journal du siège_, p. 109. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 314. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 91. _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 264-265.]

In this strong town there was a garrison of between five and six
hundred men at the most.[1382] A bailie, Messire Jean de Dinteville,
two captains, the Sires de Rochefort and de Plancy, commanded in the
town for King Henry and for the Duke of Burgundy.[1383] Troyes was a
manufacturing town; the source of its wealth was the cloth
manufacture. True, this industry had long been declining through
competition and the removal of markets; its ruin was being
precipitated by the general poverty and the insecurity of the roads.
Nevertheless the cloth workers' guild maintained its importance and
sent a number of magistrates to the Council.[1384]

[Footnote 1382: Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1383: Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes et de la
Champagne méridionale_, Paris, 1872 (5 vols. in 8vo), vol. ii, p. 482.
For the members of this Council see the most ancient register of its
deliberations by A. Roserot, in _Collection des documents inédits
relatifs à la ville de Troyes_ (1886).]

[Footnote 1384: F. Bourquelot, _Les foires de Champagne_, Paris, 1865,
vol. i, p. 65. Louis Batiffol, _Jean Jouvenel, prévôt des marchands_,
Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]

In 1420, these merchants had sworn to the treaty which promised the
French crown to the House of Lancaster; they were then at the mercy of
English and Burgundians. For the holding of those great fairs, to
which they took their cloth, they must needs live at peace with their
Burgundian neighbours, and if the _Godons_ had closed the ports of the
Seine against their bales, they would have died of hunger. Wherefore
the notables of the town had turned English, which did not mean that
they would always remain English. Within the last few weeks great
changes had taken place in the kingdom; and the Gilles Laiguisés, the
Hennequins, the Jouvenels did not pride themselves on remaining
unchanged amidst vicissitudes of fortune which were transferring the
power from one side to the other. The French victories gave them food
for reflection. Along the banks of the streams, which wound through
the city, there were weavers, dyers, curriers who were Burgundian at
heart.[1385] As for the Churchmen, if they were thrilled by no love
for the Armagnacs, they felt none the less that King Charles was sent
to them by a special dispensation of divine providence.

[Footnote 1385: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 292.]

The Bishop of Troyes was my lord Jean Laiguisé, son of Master Huet
Laiguisé, one of the first to swear to the treaty of 1420.[1386] The
Chapter had elected him without waiting for the permission of the
Regent, who declared against the election, not that he disliked the
new pontiff; Messire Jean Laiguisé had sucked hatred of the Armagnacs
and respect for the Rose of Lancaster from his _alma mater_ of Paris.
But my Lord of Bedford could not forgive any slighting of his
sovereign rights.

[Footnote 1386: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. xiii, cols. 514-516.
Courtalon-Delaistre, _Topographie historique du diocèse de Troyes_
(Troyes, 1783, 3 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, p. 384. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire
de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, pp. 477, 478. De Pange, _Le pays de
Jeanne d'Arc, le fief et l'arrière-fief_, Paris, 1902, in 8vo, p. 33.]

Shortly afterwards he incurred the censure of the whole Church of
France and was judged by the bishops worse than the cruellest tyrants
of Scripture--Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Artaxerxes[1387]--who, when
they chastised Israel had spared the Levites. More wicked than they
and more sacrilegious, my Lord of Bedford threatened the privileges of
the Gallican Church, when, on behalf of the Holy See, he robbed the
bishops of their patronage, levied a double tithe on the French
clergy, and commanded churchmen to surrender to him the contributions
they had been receiving for forty years. That he was acting with the
Pope's consent made his conduct none the less execrable in the eyes of
the French bishops. The episcopal lords resolved to appeal from a Pope
ill informed to one with wider knowledge; for they held the authority
of the Bishop of Rome to be insignificant in comparison with the
authority of the Council. They groaned: the abomination of desolation
was laying waste Christian Gaul. In order to pacify the Church of
France thus roused against him, my lord of Bedford convoked at Paris
the bishops of the ecclesiastical province of Sens, which included the
dioceses of Paris, Troyes, Auxerre, Nevers, Meaux, Chartres, and
Orléans.[1388]

[Footnote 1387: Siméon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. ccxxii,
according to Labbe and Cossart, _Sacro-Sancta-Consilia_, vol. xii,
col. 390.]

[Footnote 1388: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. ccxx and proofs
and illustrations, ccix, pp. 238-239. Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Les
états de Normandie sous la domination anglaise_, Évreux, 1859, in
8vo.]

Messire Jean Laiguisé attended this Convocation. The Synod was held at
Paris, in the Priory of Saint-Eloi, under the presidency of the
Archbishop, from the 1st of March till the 23rd of April, 1429.[1389]
The assembled bishops represented to my Lord the Regent the sorry
plight of the ecclesiastical lords: the peasants, pillaged by
soldiers, no longer paid their dues; the lands of the Church were
lying waste; divine service had ceased to be held because there was no
money with which to support public worship. Unanimously they refused
to pay the Pope and the Regent the double tithe; and they threatened
to appeal from the Pope to the Council. As for despoiling the clergy
of all the contributions they had received during the last forty
years, that, they declared, would be impious; and with great charity
they reminded my Lord of Bedford of the fate reserved by God's
judgment for the impious even in this world. "The Prince," they said,
"should beware of the miseries and sorrows already fallen upon a
multitude of princes, who with such demands had oppressed the Church
which God redeemed with his own precious blood: some had perished by
the sword, some had been driven into exile, others had been despoiled
of their illustrious sovereignties. Wherefore such as set themselves
to enslave the Church, the Bride of God, may not hope to deserve the
grace of his divine Majesty."[1390]

[Footnote 1389: Labbe and Cossart, _Sacro-Sancta-Consilia_, vol. xii,
col. 392.]

[Footnote 1390: Labbe and Cossart, _Sacro-Sancta-Consilia_, vol. xii,
col. 390, 399.]

Jean Laiguisé's sentiments towards the English Regent were those of
the Synod. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that the Bishop of
Troyes desired the death of the sinner, or even that he was hostile to
the English.[1391] The Church is usually capable of temporising with
the powers of this world. Wide is her mercy, and great her
longsuffering. She threatens oft before striking and receives the
repentance of the sinner at the first sign of contrition. But we may
believe that if Charles of Valois were to win the power and show the
will to protect the Church of France, the Lord Bishop and the Chapter
of Troyes would fear lest if they resisted him they might be resisting
God himself, since all power comes from God who _deposuit potentes_.

[Footnote 1391: De Pange, _Le pays de Jeanne d'Arc, le fief et
l'arrière-fief_, p. 33.]

King Charles had not ventured to enter Champagne without taking
measures for his safety; he knew on what he could rely in the town of
Troyes. He had received information and promises; he maintained secret
relations with several burgesses of the city, and those none of the
least.[1392] During the first fortnight of May, a royal notary, ten
clerks and leading merchants, on their way to the king, were arrested
just outside the walls, on the Paris road, by the Sire de
Chateauvillain,[1393] a captain in the English service. This mission
was probably fulfilled by others more fortunate. It is easy to divine
what questions were discussed at these audiences. The merchants would
ask whether Charles, if he became their Lord, would guarantee absolute
freedom to their trade; the clerks would ask his promise to respect
the goods of the Church. And the King doubtless was not sparing of his
pledges.

[Footnote 1392: J. Rogier in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 285.]

[Footnote 1393: Th. Boutiot in _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol.
ii, pp. 316 _et seq._]

The Maid, with one division of the army, halted before the stronghold
of Saint-Phal, belonging to Philibert de Vaudrey, commander of the
town of Tonnerre, in the service of the Duke of Burgundy.[1394] In
that place of Saint-Phal, Jeanne beheld approaching her a Franciscan
friar, who was crossing himself and sprinkling holy water, for he
feared lest she were the devil, and dared not draw near without having
first exorcised the evil spirit. It was Friar Richard who was coming
from Troyes.[1395] It will be interesting to see who this monk was as
far as we can tell.

[Footnote 1394: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 288. Th. Boutiot,
_Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 490. A. Assier, _Une
cité champenoise au xv'e siècle_, Troyes, 1875, in 12mo.]

[Footnote 1395: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 99, 100. _Relation du Greffier de
La Rochelle_, p. 338. _Journal du siège_, pp. 109-110. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 315.]

The place of his birth is unknown.[1396] A disciple of Brother Vincent
Ferrier and of Brother Bernardino of Sienna, like them, he taught the
imminent coming of Antichrist and the salvation of the faithful by the
adoration of the holy name of Jesus.[1397] After having been on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he returned to France, and preached at
Troyes, during the Advent of 1428. Advent, sometimes called Saint
Martin's Lent, begins on the Sunday which falls between the 27th of
November and the 3rd of December. It lasts four weeks, which
Christians spend in making themselves ready to celebrate the mystery
of the Nativity.

[Footnote 1396: Ed. Richer says his name was Roch Richard and that he
was licentiate in theology. _Histoire manuscrite de la Pucelle_ (Bibl.
Nat. fr. 10448), book 1, folios 50 _et seq._ Siméon Luce, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Domremy_ (chap. x, Jeanne d'Arc et frère Richard).]

[Footnote 1397: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 235. Th. Basin,
_Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 104. Vallet de
Viriville, _Procès de condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, 1867.
Introduction, _Notes sur deux médailles de plomb relatives à Jeanne
d'Arc_, Paris, 1861, p. 22. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p.
ccxxxix.]

"Sow, sow your seed, my good folk," he said. "Sow beans ready for the
harvest, for He who is to come will come quickly."[1398]

[Footnote 1398: _Journal du siège_, p. 110. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 315.]

By beans he meant the good works to be performed before Our Lord
should come in the clouds to judge the quick and the dead. Now it was
important to sow those good works quickly, for the harvest-tide was
drawing nigh. The coming of Antichrist was but shortly to precede the
end of the world and the consummation of the ages. In the month of
April, 1429, Friar Richard went to Paris; the Synod of the Province of
Sens was then holding its final session. It is possible that the good
Friar was summoned to the great city by the Bishop of Troyes who was
present at the Synod; but at any rate it would appear that it was not
the rights of the Gallican Church the wandering monk went there to
defend.[1399]

[Footnote 1399: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 233. Labbe,
Boutiot.]

On the 16th of April, he preached his first sermon at
Sainte-Geneviève; on the next and the following days, until Sunday,
the 24th, he preached every morning, from five until ten or eleven
o'clock, in the open air, on a platform, erected against the
charnel-house of the Innocents, on the spot whereon was celebrated the
dance of death. Around the platform, about nine feet high, there
crowded five or six thousand persons, to whom he announced the speedy
coming of Antichrist and the end of the world.[1400] "In Syria," he
said, "I met bands of Jews; I asked them whither they were going, and
they replied: 'We are wending in a multitude towards Babylon, for of a
truth the Messiah is born among men, and he will restore unto us our
inheritance, and he will bring us again to the land of promise.' Thus
spake those Syrian Jews. Now Scripture teaches us that He, whom they
call the Messiah, is in truth that Antichrist, of whom it is said he
shall be born in Babylon, capital of the kingdom of Persia, he shall
be brought up at Bethsaida and in his youth he shall dwell at
Chorazin. Wherefore our Lord said: 'Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto
thee, Bethsaida.' The year 1430," added Friar Richard, "shall witness
greater marvels than have ever been seen before.[1401] The time
draweth nigh. He is born, the man of sin, the child of perdition, the
wicked one, the beast vomited forth from the abyss, the abomination of
desolation; he came out of the tribe of Dan, of whom it is written:
'Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path.' Soon shall
return to the earth the prophets Elijah and Enoch, Moses, Jeremiah and
Saint John the Evangelist; and soon shall dawn that day of wrath which
shall grind the age in a mill and beat it in a mortar, according to
the testimony of David and the Sibyl."[1402] Then the good Brother
concluded by calling upon them to repent, to do penance and to
renounce empty riches. In short, in the opinion of the clerks, he was
a man of worship and an orator. His sermons produced more devoutness
among the people, it was thought, than those of all the sermonizers
who for the last century had been preaching in the town. And it was
time that he came, for in those days the folk of Paris were greatly
addicted to games of chance; yea, even priests unblushingly indulged
in them, and seven years before, a canon of Saint-Merry, a great lover
of dice was known to have gamed in his own house.[1403] Despite war
and famine, the women of Paris loaded themselves with ornaments. They
troubled more about their beauty than about the salvation of their
souls.

[Footnote 1400: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 234.]

[Footnote 1401: _Ibid._, p. 235.]

[Footnote 1402: Th. Basin, _Histoire des règnes de Charles VII et de
Louis XI_, vol. iv, pp. 103, 104.]

[Footnote 1403: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 236.]

Friar Richard thundered most loudly against the draught boards of the
men and the ornaments of the women. One day notably, when he was
preaching at Boulogne-la-Petite, he cried down dice and
_hennins_,[1404] and spoke with such power that the hearts of those
who listened were changed. On returning to their homes, the citizens
threw into the streets gaming-tables, draught-boards, cards, billiard
cues and balls, dice and dice-boxes, and made great fires before their
doors. More than one hundred of these fires continued burning in the
streets for three or four hours. Women followed the good example set
by the men that day, and the next they burnt in public their
head-dresses, pads, ornaments, and the pieces of leather or whalebone
on which they mounted the fronts of their hoods. Young misses threw
off their horns[1405] and their tails,[1406] ashamed to clothe
themselves in the devil's garb.[1407]

[Footnote 1404: A very high head-dress, fashionable in the fifteenth
century (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1405: _Cornes_, the high-horned head-dress (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1406: _Queues_, trains (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1407: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 234, 235.]

The good Brother likewise caused to be burnt the mandrake roots which
many folk kept in their houses.[1408] Those roots are sometimes in
the form of an ugly little man, of a curious and devilish aspect. On
that account possibly, singular virtues are attributed to them. These
mannikins were dressed in fine linen and silk and were kept in the
belief that they would bring good luck and procure wealth. Witches
made much of them; and those who believed that the Maid was a witch
accused her of carrying a mandrake on her person. Friar Richard hated
these magic roots all the more strongly because he believed in their
power of attracting wealth, the root of all evil. Once again his word
was obeyed; and many a Parisian threw away his mandrake in horror,
albeit he had bought it dear from some old wife who knew more than was
good for her.[1409] Friar Richard caused the Parisians to replace
these evil treasures by objects of greater edification,--pewter
medals, on which was stamped the name of Jesus, to the worship of whom
he was especially devoted.[1410]

[Footnote 1408: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 236.]

[Footnote 1409: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 89, 213. _Journal d'un bourgeois
de Paris_, p. 236.]

[Footnote 1410: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 242, 243.
Vallet de Viriville, _Notes sur deux médailles de plomb relatives à
Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue archéologique_, 1861, pp. 429, 433.]

Having preached ten times in the town and once in the village of
Boulogne, the good Brother announced his return to Burgundy and took
his leave of the Parisians.

"I will pray for you," he said; "pray for me. Amen."

Whereupon all the folk, high and lowly, wept bitterly and copiously,
as if each one were bearing to the grave his dearest friend. He wept
with them and consented to delay his departure for a little.[1411]

[Footnote 1411: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 236.]

On Sunday, the 1st of May, he was to preach to the devout Parisians
for the last time. Montmartre, the very spot where Saint Denis had
suffered martyrdom, was the place chosen for the meeting of the
faithful. In those unhappy days the hill was well-nigh uninhabited.
But on the evening before that day more than six thousand people
flocked to the mount to be certain of having good places; and there
they passed the night, some in deserted hovels, but the majority in
the open, under the stars. When the morning came no Friar Richard
appeared, and in vain they waited for him. Disappointed and sad, at
length they learnt that the Friar had been forbidden to preach.[1412]
He had said nothing in his sermons to offend the English. The
Parisians who had heard him believed him to be a good friend to the
Regent and to the Duke of Burgundy. Perhaps he had taken flight owing
to a report that the theologians of the University intended to proceed
against him. His views concerning the end of the world were indeed
both singular and dangerous.[1413]

[Footnote 1412: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 1413: It is yet to be explained how the author of the diary
called _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_ avoided being scandalised by
them, orthodox university professor as he was; on the contrary he
seems to have found the views of the good father edifying. Th. Basin,
_Histoire des règnes de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. iv, p. 104.]

Friar Richard had gone off to Auxerre. Thence he went preaching
through Burgundy and Champagne. If he was on the King's side he did
not let it appear. For in the month of June the folk of Champagne, and
the inhabitants of Châlons especially, deemed him a worthy man and
attached to the Duke of Burgundy.[1414] And we have seen that on the
4th of July he suspected the Maid of being either the devil or
possessed by a devil.[1415]

[Footnote 1414: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 290.]

[Footnote 1415: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100, see _ante_, p. 412.]

She understood. When she saw the good Brother crossing himself and
sprinkling holy water she knew that he took her for something
evil,--for a phantom fashioned by the spirit of wickedness, or at
least for a witch.[1416] However, she was by no means offended as she
had been by the suspicions of Messire Jean Fournier. The priest, to
whom she had confessed, could not be forgiven for having doubted
whether she were a good Christian.[1417] But Friar Richard did not
know her, had never seen her. Besides, she was growing accustomed to
such treatment. The Constable, Brother Yves Milbeau, and many others
who came to her asked whether she were from God or the devil.[1418] It
was without a trace of anger, although in a slightly ironical tone,
that she said to the preacher: "Approach boldly, I shall not fly
away."[1419]

[Footnote 1416: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1417: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 446.]

[Footnote 1418: Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, p. 71. Eberhard
Windecke, pp. 178, 179.]

[Footnote 1419: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100.]

Meanwhile Friar Richard, by the ordeal of holy water and by the sign
of the cross, had proved that the damsel was not a devil and that
there was no devil in her. And when she said she had come from God he
believed her with all his heart and esteemed her an angel of the
Lord.[1420]

[Footnote 1420: _Ibid._, pp. 99, 100.]

He confided to her the reason for his coming.[1421] The inhabitants of
Troyes doubted whether she were of God; to resolve their doubts he had
come to Saint-Phal. Now he knew she was of God, and he was not
amazed; for he knew that the year 1430 would witness greater marvels
than had ever been seen before, and one day or other he was expecting
to behold the Prophet Elias walking and conversing with men.[1422]
From that moment he threw in his lot with the party of the Maid and
the Dauphin. It was not the Maid's prophecies concerning the realm of
France that attracted him to her. The world was too near its end for
him to take any interest in the re-establishment of the madman's son
in his inheritance. But he expected that once the kingdom of Jesus
Christ had been established in the Land of the Lilies, Jeanne, the
prophetess, and Charles, the temporal vicar of Jesus Christ, would
lead the people of Christendom to deliver the Holy Sepulchre. That
would be a meritorious work and one which must be accomplished before
the consummation of the ages.

[Footnote 1421: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 342.]

[Footnote 1422: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 235.]

To the burgesses and inhabitants of the town of Troyes Jeanne dictated
a letter. Herein, calling herself the servant of the King of Heaven
and speaking in the name of God Himself, in terms gentle yet urgent,
she called upon them to render obedience to King Charles of France,
and warned them that whether they would or no she with the King would
enter into all the towns of the holy kingdom and bring them peace.
Here is the letter:[1423]

[Footnote 1423: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 287-288.]

     JHESUS [cross symbol] MARIA

     Good friends and beloved, an it please you, ye lords,
     burgesses and inhabitants of the town of Troies, Jehanne the
     Maid doth call upon and make known unto you on behalf of the
     King of Heaven, her sovereign and liege Lord, in whose
     service royal she is every day, that ye render true
     obedience and fealty to the Fair King of France. Whosoever
     may come against him, he shall shortly be in Reins
     [Transcriber's Note: so in original] and in Paris, and in
     his good towns of his holy kingdom, with the aid of King
     Jhesus. Ye loyal Frenchmen, come forth to King Charles and
     fail him not. And if ye come have no fear for your bodies
     nor for your goods. An if ye come not, I promise you and on
     your lives I maintain it, that with God's help we shall
     enter into all the towns of the holy kingdom and shall there
     establish peace, whosoever may oppose us. To God I commend
     you. God keep you if it be his will. Answer speedily. Before
     the city of Troyes, written at Saint-Fale, Tuesday the
     fourth day of July.[1424]

[Footnote 1424: It should be Monday, 4th July.]

On the back:

     "To the lords and burgesses of the city of Troyes."

The Maid gave this letter to Friar Richard, who undertook to carry it
to the townsfolk.[1425]

[Footnote 1425: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 290.]

From Saint-Phal the army advanced towards Troyes along the Roman
road.[1426] When they heard of the army's approach, the Council of the
town assembled on Tuesday, the 5th, early in the morning, and sent the
people of Reims a missive of which the following is the purport:

[Footnote 1426: Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol.
ii, p. 493.]

     "This day do we expect the enemies of King Henry and the
     Duke of Burgundy who come to besiege us. In view of the
     design of these our foes and having considered the just
     cause we support and the aid of our princes promised unto
     us, we have resolved in council, no matter what may be the
     strength of our enemies, to continue in our obedience waxing
     ever greater to King Henry and to the Duke of Burgundy,
     even until death. And this have we sworn on the precious
     body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore we pray the
     citizens of Reims to take thought for us as brethren and
     loyal friends, and to send to my Lord the Regent and the
     Duke of Burgundy to beseech and entreat them to take pity on
     their poor subjects and come to their succour."[1427]

[Footnote 1427: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 288, 289.]

On that same day, in the morning, from his lodging at
Brinion-l'Archevêque, King Charles despatched his heralds bearing
closed letters, signed by his hand, sealed with his seal, addressed to
the members of the Council of the town of Troyes. Therein he made
known unto them that by the advice of his Council, he had undertaken
to go to Reims, there to receive his anointing, that his intention was
to enter the city of Troyes on the morrow, wherefore he summoned and
commanded them to render the obedience they owed him and prepare to
receive him. He wisely made a point of reassuring them as to his
intentions, which were not to avenge the past. Such was not his will,
he said, but let them comport themselves towards their sovereign as
they ought, and he would forget all and maintain them in his
favour.[1428]

[Footnote 1428: _Ibid._, p. 287. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de
Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 494.]

The Council refused to admit King Charles' heralds within the town;
but they received his letters, read them, deliberated over them, and
made known to the heralds the result of their deliberations which was
the following:

     "The lords, knights and squires who are in the town, on
     behalf of King Henry and the Duke of Burgundy, have sworn
     with us, inhabitants of the city, that we will not receive
     into the town any who are stronger than we, without the
     express command of the Duke of Burgundy. Having regard to
     their oath, those who are in the town would not dare to
     admit King Charles."

And the councillors added for their excuse:

     "Whatever we the citizens may wish we must consider the men
     of war in the city who are stronger than we."[1429]

[Footnote 1429: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 289.]

The councillors had King Charles' letter posted up and below it their
reply.

In council they read the letter the Maid had dictated at Saint-Phal
and entrusted to Friar Richard. The monk had not prepared them to give
it a favourable reception, for they laughed at it heartily. "There is
no rhyme or reason in it," they said. "'Tis but a jest."[1430] They
threw it in the fire without sending a reply. Jeanne was a
braggart,[1431] they said. And they added: "We certify her to be mad
and possessed of the devil."[1432]

[Footnote 1430: _Ibid._, p. 290.]

[Footnote 1431: In the _Mystery of the siege of Orléans_, the
Englishman Falconbridge likewise treats Jeanne as a boaster, lines
12689-90:

    _'Y nous fault prandre la coquarde,
    Qui veult les François gouverner._

"We must capture that braggart who desires to govern the French."]

[Footnote 1432: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 289.]

That same day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the army began to march
by the walls and take up its position round the town.[1433]

[Footnote 1433: _Ibid._ Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_,
vol. ii, p. 492.]

Those who encamped to the south west could thence admire the long
walls, the strong gates, the high towers and the belfry of the city
rising in the midst of a vast plain. On their right they would see
above the roofs the church of Saint-Pierre, the huge structure of
which was devoid of tower and steeple.[1434] It was there that eight
years before had been celebrated the betrothal of King Henry V of
England to the Lady Catherine of France. For in that town of Troyes,
Queen Ysabeau and Duke Jean had made King Charles VI, bereft of sense
and memory, sign away the Kingdom of the Lilies to the King of England
and put his name to the ruin of Charles of Valois. At her daughter's
betrothal, Madame Ysabeau was present wearing a robe of blue silk
damask and a coat of black velvet lined with the skins of fifteen
hundred minevers.[1435] After the ceremony she caused to be brought
for her entertainment her singing birds, goldfinches, chaffinches,
siskins and linnets.[1436]

[Footnote 1434: L. Pigeotte, _Étude sur les travaux d'achèvement de la
cathédrale de Troyes_, p. 9. A. Babeau, _Les vues d'ensemble de
Troyes_, Troyes, 1892, in 8vo, p. 13. A. Assier, _Une cité champenoise
au XV'e siècle_, Paris, 1875, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1435: Ermine (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1436: _Comptes de l'argenterie de la reine_, in Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii, pp. 236, 237. De Barante, _Histoire
des ducs de Bourgogne_, vol. iii, pp. 122, 125. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 216. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de
la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, pp. 418, 419.]

When the French arrived, most of the townsfolk were on the ramparts
looking more curious than hostile and apparently fearing nothing. They
desired above all things to see the King.[1437]

[Footnote 1437: It is impossible to take seriously those protestations
of loyalty to the English, addressed to the people of Reims by the
townsfolk of Troyes, when the latter were on the point of surrendering
to the French King, and especially after the reply they had just sent
to King Charles's letters. See J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 289.
"Which reply having been made each of them had gone up on to the
walls, and assumed his guard with the intent and in the firm
resolution that if any attack were made on them, they would resist to
the death."]

The town was strongly defended. The Duke of Burgundy had long been
keeping up the fortifications. In 1417 and 1419 the people of Troyes,
like those of Orléans in 1428, had pulled down their suburbs and
destroyed all the houses outside the town for two or three hundred
paces from the ramparts. The arsenal was well furnished; the stores
overflowed with victuals; but the Anglo-Burgundian garrison amounted
only to between five and six hundred men.[1438]

[Footnote 1438: J. Chartier, vol. i, p. 92. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de
la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, pp. 391, 418, 419. A. Assier, _Une cité
champenoise au XV'e siècle_, p. 8.]

On that day also, at five o'clock in the afternoon, the Councillors of
the town of Troyes sent to inform the people of Reims of the arrival
of the Armagnacs, and despatched to them copies of the letter from
Charles of Valois, of their reply to it and of the Maid's letter,
which they cannot therefore have burned immediately. They likewise
communicated to them their resolution to resist to the death in case
they should receive succour. In like manner they wrote to the people
of Châlons to tell them of the Dauphin's coming; and to them they made
known that the letter of Jeanne the Maid had been brought to Troyes by
Friar Richard the preacher.[1439]

[Footnote 1439: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 289, 290.]

These writings amounted to saying: like all citizens in such
circumstances, we are in danger of being hanged either by the
Burgundians or by the Armagnacs, which would be very grievous. To
avoid this calamity as far as in us lies, we give King Charles of
Valois to understand that we do not open our gates to him because the
garrison prevents us and that we are the weaker, which is true. And
we make known to our Lords, the Regent and the Duke of Burgundy, that
the garrison being too weak to defend us, which is true, we ask for
succour, which is loyal; and we trust that the succour will not be
sent, for if it were we should have to endure a siege, and risk being
taken by assault which for us merchants would be grievous. But, having
asked for succour and not receiving it, we may then surrender without
reproach. The important point is to cause the garrison, fortunately a
small one, to make off. Five hundred men are too few for defence, but
too many for surrender. As for enjoining the citizens of Reims to
demand succour for themselves and for us, that is merely to prove our
good-will to the Duke of Burgundy; and we risk nothing by it, for we
know that our trusty comrades of Reims will take care that when they
ask for succour they do not receive it, and that they will await a
favourable opportunity for opening their gates to King Charles, who
comes with a strong army. And now to conclude, we will resist to the
death if we are succoured, which God forbid!

Such were the crafty thoughts of those dwellers in Champagne. The
citizens fired a few stone bullets on to the French. The garrison
skirmished awhile and returned into the town.[1440]

[Footnote 1440: _Journal du siège_, p. 109. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 314, 315. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 91. Th. Boutiot,
_Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 497.]

Meanwhile King Charles' army was stricken with famine.[1441] The
Archbishop of Embrun's counsel to provide the army with victuals by
means of human wisdom was easier to give than to follow. There were
between six and seven thousand men in camp who had not broken bread
for a week. The men-at-arms were reduced to feeding on pounded ears of
corn still green and on the new beans they found in abundance. Then
they called to mind how during Saint Martin's Lent Friar Richard had
said to the folk of Troyes: "Sow beans broadcast: He who is to come
shall come shortly." What the good brother had said of the spiritual
seed-time was interpreted literally: by a curious misunderstanding,
what had been uttered concerning the coming of the Messiah was applied
to the coming of King Charles. Friar Richard was held to be the
prophet of the Armagnacs and the men-at-arms really believed that this
evangelical preacher had caused the beans they gathered to grow; thus
had he provided for their nourishment by his excellence, his wisdom
and his penetration into the counsels of God, who gave manna unto the
people of Israel in the desert.[1442]

[Footnote 1441: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 92.]

[Footnote 1442: _Journal du siège_, pp. 109, 110. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 315.]

The King, who had been lodging at Brinion since the 4th of July,
arrived before Troyes in the afternoon of Friday the 8th.[1443] That
very day he held council of war with the commanders and princes of the
blood to decide whether they should remain before the town until by
dint of promises[1444] or threats they obtained its submission, or
whether they should pass on, leaving it to itself, as they had done at
Auxerre.[1445]

[Footnote 1443: Perceval de Cagny, p. 157. Nevertheless see also
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 143, note.]

[Footnote 1444: "And always desiring and discussing the submission of
this city." Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1445: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 13. Evidence of Dunois. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 92. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
315. Chartier and the _Chronique de la Pucelle_ put words into the
mouths of Regnault de Chartres and Robert le Maçon which are very
improbable.]

The discussion had lasted long when the Maid arrived and prophesied:

"Fair Dauphin," said she, "command your men to attack the town of
Troyes and delay no further in councils too prolonged, for, in God's
name, before three days, I will cause you to enter the town, which
shall be yours by love or by force and courage. And false Burgundy
shall look right foolish."[1446]

[Footnote 1446: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 13. Evidence of Dunois.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 317. _Journal du siège_, p. 110. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 94.]

Wherefore had they contrary to their custom summoned her to the
Council? It was merely a question of firing a few cannon balls and
pretending to scale the walls, in short, of making a false attack.
Such a feigned assault was due to the people of Troyes, who could not
decently surrender save to some display of force; and besides the
lower orders must be frightened, for they remained at heart
Burgundian. Probably my Lord of Trèves[1447] or another judged that
the little Saint by appearing beneath the ramparts of Troyes would
strike a religious terror into the weavers of the city.

[Footnote 1447: Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 95.]

They had only to leave her to go her own way. The Council over, she
mounted her horse, and lance in hand hurried to the moat, followed by
a crowd of knights, squires, and craftsmen.[1448] The point of attack
was to be the north west wall, between the Madeleine and the Comporté
Gates.[1449] Jeanne, who firmly believed that the town would be taken
by her, spent the night inciting her people to bring faggots and put
the artillery in position. "To the assault," she cried, and signed to
them to throw hurdles into the trenches.[1450]

[Footnote 1448: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 13, 14, 117. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 96. _Journal du siège_, p. 111. _Chronique de
la Pucelle_, p. 78. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii,
p. 225.]

[Footnote 1449: Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol.
ii, p. 497, note. A. Assier, _Une cité champenoise au XV'e siècle_,
Paris, 1875, in 8vo, p. 26.]

[Footnote 1450: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 117. (De Gaucourt's evidence.)]

This threat had the desired effect. The lower orders, imagining the
town already taken, and expecting the French to come to pillage,
massacre and ravish, as was the custom, took refuge in the churches.
As for the clerics and notables, this was just what they wanted.[1451]

[Footnote 1451: _Ibid._, p. 117. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
p. 96. J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 296.]

Being assured by Charles of Valois that they might come to him in
safety, the Lord Bishop Jean Laiguisé, my Lord Guillaume Andouillette,
Master of the Hospital, the Dean of the Chapter, the clergy and the
notables went to the King.[1452]

[Footnote 1452: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 295. _Trial_, pp.
13, 14, 17. Chartier, _Journal du siège_, _Chronique de la Pucelle_.
Camusat, _Mél. hist._, part ii, fol. 214.]

Jean Laiguisé was the spokesman. He came to do homage to the King and
to offer excuse for the townsfolk.

It is not their fault, he said, if the King enter not according to his
good pleasure. The Bailie and those of the garrison, some three or
four hundred, guard the gates, and forbid their being opened. Let it
please the King to have patience until I have spoken to those of the
town. I trust that as soon as I have spoken to them, they will open
the gates and render the King such obedience as he shall be pleased
withal.[1453]

[Footnote 1453: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in _Revue
historique_, vol. iv, p. 342. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, _Journal du
siège_, Chartier, _loc. cit._ Gilles de Roye in Chartier, vol. iii, p.
205.]

In replying to the Bishop, the King set forth the reasons for the
expedition and the rights he held over the town of Troyes.

Without exception, he said, I will forgive all the deeds of past
times, and, according to the example of Saint Louis,[1454] I will
maintain the people of Troyes in peace and liberty.

[Footnote 1454: J. Rogier in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 296.]

Jean Laiguisé demanded that such revenues and patronage as had been
bestowed on churchmen by the late King, Charles VI, should be retained
by them, and that those who had received the same from King Henry of
England should be given charters by King Charles authorizing them to
keep their benefices, even in cases where the King had bestowed them
on others.

The King consented and the Lord Bishop beheld in him a new Cyrus. This
conference he reported to the Council of the Town. Thereupon it
deliberated and resolved to render allegiance to the King, in
consideration of his legal right and provided he would grant an
amnesty for all offences, would leave no garrison in the city and
would abolish all aids, save the _gabelle_.[1455] Whereupon the
Council sent letters to the citizens of Reims making known to them
this resolution and exhorting them to take a similar one:

[Footnote 1455: _Gabelle_, word of German origin (_gabe_), originally
applied to all taxes, came to signify only the tax on salt. This tax
was first rendered oppressive by Philippe de Valois (1328-1350) who
created a monopoly of salt in favour of the crown. He obliged each
family to pay a tax on a certain quantity whether they consumed it or
not. The _Gabelle_, which led to several rebellions, was not abolished
until the Revolution (1790). (W.S.) _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 296.
_Ordonnances des rois de France_, vol. xiii, p. 142. Th. Boutiot,
_Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 500. A. Roserot, _Le
plus ancien registre des délibérations du conseil de la ville de
Troyes_ in _Coll. de Doc. inédits sur la ville de Troyes_, vol. iii,
p. 175.]

"Thus," they said, "we shall have the same lord over us. You will keep
your lives and your goods, as we have done. For otherwise we should
all be lost. We do not regret our submission. Our only grief is that
we delayed so long. You will be right glad to follow our example; for
King Charles is a prince of greater discretion, understanding and
valour than any who for many a long year have arisen in the noble
house of France."[1456]

[Footnote 1456: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 295, 296.]

Friar Richard went to find the Maid. As soon as he saw her, and when
he was still afar off, he knelt before her. When she saw him, she
likewise knelt before him, and they bowed low to each other. When he
returned to the town, the good Friar preached to the folks at length
and exhorted them to obey King Charles. "God is preparing his way," he
said. "To accompany him and to lead him to his anointing God hath sent
him a holy Maid, who, as I firmly believe, is as able to penetrate the
mysteries of God as any saint in Paradise, save Saint John the
Evangelist."[1457] The good Brother found himself obliged to recognise
as superior to Jeanne at least one saint,--one who was the first of
saints, the apostle who had lain with his head on Jesus' breast, the
prophet who was ere long to return to earth, when the ages should have
been consummated.

[Footnote 1457: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in _Revue
historique_, vol. iv, p. 342.]

"If she wished," continued Friar Richard, "she could bring in all the
King's men-at-arms, over the walls or in any other manner that pleased
her. And many other things can she do."

The townsfolk had great faith and confidence in this good Brother who
spoke so eloquently. What he said of the Maid appeared to them
admirable, and won their obedience to a king so powerfully
accompanied. With one voice they all cried aloud, "Long live King
Charles of France!"[1458]

[Footnote 1458: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, in _Revue
historique_, vol. iv, p. 342.]

But now it was necessary to treat with the Bailie. He was not
unapproachable, seeing that he had suffered this going and coming from
the town to the camp and the camp to the town; and with him must be
devised some honest means of getting rid of the garrison. With this
object the commonalty, preceded by the Lord Bishop, went in great
numbers to the Bailie and the Captains, and called upon them to
provide for the safety of the town.[1459] This demand they were
incapable of granting, for to safeguard a city against its will and to
drive out thirty thousand French was beyond their power.

[Footnote 1459: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 296, 297.]

As the townsfolk had anticipated, the Bailie was greatly embarrassed.
Beholding his perplexity, the Councillors of the town said to him, "If
you will not keep the treaty you have made for the public weal, then
will we bring the King's men into the city, whether you will or no."

The Bailie and the Captains refused to betray their English and
Burgundian masters, but they consented to go. That was all that was
required of them.[1460]

[Footnote 1460: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 13, 117; vol. iv, pp. 296, 297.
Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. iii, p. 205. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire
de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, pp. 499, 500. M. Poinsignon,
_Histoire générale de la Champagne et de la Brie_, Châlons, 1885, vol.
i, pp. 352 _et seq._ A. Assier, _Une cité champenoise au XV'e
siècle_, Paris, 1875, in 12mo, pp. 16, 17.]

The town opened its gates to Charles. On Sunday, the 10th of July,
very early in the morning, the Maid entered first into Troyes and
with her the common folk whom she so dearly loved. Friar Richard
accompanied her. She posted archers along the streets which the
procession was to follow, so that the King of France should pass
through the town between a double row of those foot soldiers of his
army who had so nobly aided him.[1461]

[Footnote 1461: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
319.]

While Charles of Valois was entering by one gate, the Burgundian
garrison was going out by the other.[1462] As had been agreed, the men
of King Henry and Duke Philip bore away their arms and other
possessions. Now, in their possessions they included such French
prisoners as they were holding to ransom. And, according to the use
and custom of war, it would seem that they were not altogether wrong;
but pitiful it was to see King Charles's men led away captive just as
their lord was arriving. The Maid heard of it, and her kind heart was
touched. She hurried to the gate of the town, where with arms and
baggage the fighting men were assembled. She found there the lords of
Rochefort and Philibert de Moslant. She challenged them and called to
them to leave the Dauphin's men. But the Captains thought otherwise.

[Footnote 1462: Chartier, _Journal du siège_. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 319.]

"Thus to proceed against the treaty is fraudulent and wicked," they
said to her.

Meanwhile the prisoners on their knees were entreating the Saint to
keep them.

"In God's name," she cried, "they shall not go."[1463]

[Footnote 1463: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 95, 96.
_Journal du siège_, p. 112. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319.]

During this altercation there was standing apart a certain Burgundian
squire, and through his mind were passing concerning the Maid of the
Armagnacs certain reflections to which he was to give utterance
later. "By my faith," he was thinking, "it is the simplest creature
that ever I saw. There is neither rhyme nor reason in her, no more
than in the greatest stupid. To so valiant a woman as Madame d'Or, I
will not compare her, and the Burgundians do but jest when they appear
afraid of her."[1464]

[Footnote 1464: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 296, 297.]

To taste the full flavour of this joke it must be explained that
Madame d'Or, about as high as one's boot, held the office of fool to
my Lord Philip.[1465]

[Footnote 1465: Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 168. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. clxxiii, clxxiv. P. Champion, _Notes sur
Jeanne d'Arc_, I. _Madame d'Or et Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Le moyen âge_,
July to August, 1907, pp. 193-199.]

The Maid failed to come to an understanding with the Lords de
Rochefort and de Moslant concerning the prisoners. They had right on
their side. She had only the promptings of her kind heart. This
discussion afforded great entertainment to the men-at-arms of both
parties. When King Charles was informed of it, he smiled and said that
to settle the dispute he would pay the prisoners' ransom, which was
fixed at one silver mark per head. On receiving this sum the
Burgundians extolled the generosity of the King of France.[1466]

[Footnote 1466: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 96. _Journal du siège_, p. 112. _Un prince de
façon_, Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, pp. 106, 107.]

On that same Sunday, about nine o'clock in the morning, King Charles
entered the city. He had put on his festive robes, gleaming with
velvet, with gold, and with precious stones. The Duke of Alençon and
the Maid, holding her banner in her hand, rode at his side. He was
followed by all the knighthood. The townsfolk lit bonfires and danced
in rings. The little children cried, "Noël!" Friar Richard
preached.[1467]

[Footnote 1467: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102. Letter from three noblemen of
Anjou, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 130. _Relation du greffier de La
Rochelle_, p. 342. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. Morosini, vol.
iii, p. 176. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii,
pp. 504 _et seq._]

The Maid prayed in the churches. In one church she held a babe over
the baptismal font. Like a princess or a holy woman, she was
frequently asked to be godmother to children she did not know and was
never to see again. She generally named the children Charles in honour
of the King, and to the girls she gave her own name of Jeanne.
Sometimes she called the children by names chosen by their
mothers.[1468]

[Footnote 1468: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 103.]

On the morrow, the 11th of July, the army, which had remained outside
the walls, under the command of Messire Ambroise de Loré, passed
through the town. The entrance of men-at-arms was a scourge, of which
the citizens were as much afraid as of the Black Death.[1469] King
Charles, being careful to spare the citizens, took measures to control
this scourge. By his command the heralds cried that under pain of
hanging no soldier must enter the houses or take anything against the
will of the townsfolk.[1470]

[Footnote 1469: T. Babeau, _Le guet et la milice bourgeoise à Troyes_,
pp. 4 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1470: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 342.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. _Journal du siège_, p. 112. Th.
Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 505. A.
Roserot, _Le plus ancien registre des délibérations du conseil de
Troyes_ in _Coll. des documents inédits de la ville de Troyes_, vol.
iii, pp. 175 _et seq._]




CHAPTER XVIII

THE SURRENDER OF CHÂLONS AND OF REIMS--THE CORONATION


Leaving Troyes, the royal army entered into the poorer part of
Champagne, crossed the Aube near Arcis, and took up its quarters at
Lettrée, twelve and a half miles from Châlons. From Lettrée the King
sent his herald Montjoie to the people of Châlons to ask them to
receive him and render him obedience.[1471]

[Footnote 1471: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 298. Morosini, vol.
iii, p. 179. Edition Barthélémy of _L'histoire de la ville de
Châlons-sur-Marne_, proofs and illustrations no. 25, pp. 334, 335.]

The towns of Champagne were as closely related as the fingers of one
hand. When the Dauphin was at Brinion-l'Archevêque, the people of
Châlons had heard of it from their friends of Troyes. The latter had
even told them that Friar Richard, the preacher, had brought them a
letter from Jeanne the Maid. Whereupon the folk of Châlons wrote to
those of Reims:

"We are amazed at Friar Richard. We esteemed him a man right worthy.
But he has turned sorcerer. We announce unto you that the citizens of
Troyes are making war against the Dauphin's men. We are resolved to
resist the enemy with all our strength."[1472]

[Footnote 1472: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 290, 291. Varin,
_Archives législatives de la ville de Reims, Statuts_, vol. 1, pp. 596
_et seq._ (_Coll. des documents inédits sur l'histoire de France_,
1845).]

They thought not one word of what they wrote, and they knew that the
citizens of Reims would believe none of it. But it was important to
display great loyalty to the Duke of Burgundy before receiving another
master.

The Count Bishop of Châlons came out to Lettrée to meet the King and
gave up to him the keys of the town. He was Jean de Montbéliard-Saarbrück,
one of the Sires of Commercy.[1473]

[Footnote 1473: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. v, col. 891-895. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, pp. 319-320. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p.
96. L. Barbat, _Histoire de la ville de Châlons_, 1855 (2 vols. in
4to), vol. i, p. 350. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, proofs and
illustrations no. 33. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 182, note 2.]

On the 14th of July the King and his army entered the town of
Châlons.[1474] There the Maid found four or five peasants from her
village come to see her, and with them Jean Morel, who was her
kinsman. By calling a husbandman, and about forty-three years of age,
he had fled with the d'Arc family to Neufchâteau on the passing of the
men-at-arms. Jeanne gave him a red gown which she had worn.[1475] At
Châlons also she met another husbandman, younger than Morel by about
ten years, Gérardin from Épinal, whom she called her _compeer_,[1476]
just as she called Gérardin's wife Isabellette her _commère_[1477]
because she had held their son Nicolas over the baptismal font and
because a godmother is a mother in the spirit. At home in the village
Jeanne mistrusted Gérardin because he was a Burgundian. At Châlons she
showed more confidence in him and talked to him of the progress of the
army, saying that she feared nothing except treason.[1478] Already she
had dark forebodings; doubtless she felt that henceforth the frankness
of her soul and the simplicity of her mind would be hardly assailed by
the wickedness of men and the confusing forces of circumstance.
Already the words of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret
had lost some of their primitive clearness, for they had come to treat
of those French and Burgundian state secrets which were not heavenly
matters.

[Footnote 1474: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 298. Letter from
three noblemen of Anjou in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 130. Perceval de Cagny,
p. 158. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 96, 97. _Chronique des
Cordeliers_, fol. 85, v. E. de Barthélémy, _Châlons pendant l'invasion
anglaise_, Châlons, 1851, p. 16.]

[Footnote 1475: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 391, 392 (Jean Morel's
evidence).]

[Footnote 1476: French _compère_, gossip or fellow godfather,
sometimes a close friend. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales:

    "With hym ther was a gentil Pardoner
    Of Rouncivale, his freend and his compeer" (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1477: _Commère_, fellow godmother (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1478: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 423 (evidence of Gérardin of
Épinal).]

The people of Châlons, following the example of their friends of
Troyes, wrote to the inhabitants of Reims that they had received the
King of France and that they counselled them to do likewise. In this
letter they said they had found King Charles kind, gracious, pitiful,
and merciful; and of a truth the King was dealing leniently with the
towns of Champagne. The people of Châlons added that he had a great
mind and a fine bearing.[1479] That was saying much.

[Footnote 1479: "In as much as he is the prince of the greatest
discretion, understanding, and valour that has long been seen in the
noble house of France." J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 296. Varin,
_Archives de Reims, Statuts_, vol. i, p. 601. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc
à Reims_, pp. 13 _et seq._]

The citizens of Reims acted with extreme caution. On the arrival of
the King of France in the neighbourhood of the town, while they sent
informing him that their gates should be opened to him, to their Lord
Philip and likewise to the Burgundians and English captains, they sent
word of the progress of the royal army as far as they knew it, and
called upon them to oppose the enemy's march.[1480] But they were in
no hurry to obtain succour, reckoning that, should they receive none,
they could surrender to King Charles without incurring any censure
from the Burgundians, and that thus they would have nothing to fear
from either party. For the moment they preserved their loyalty to the
two sides, which was wise in circumstances so difficult and so
dangerous. While observing the craft with which these towns of
Champagne practised the art of changing masters, it is well to
remember that their lives and possessions depended on their knowledge
of that art.

[Footnote 1480: J. Rogier, _loc. cit._ Varin, p. 599.]

As early as the 1st of July Captain Philibert de Moslant wrote to them
from Nogent-sur-Seine, where he was with his Burgundian company, that
if they needed him he would come to their help like a good
Christian.[1481] They feigned not to understand. After all, the Lord
Philibert was not their captain. What he proposed to do was, as he
said, only out of Christian charity. The notables of Reims, who did
not wish for deliverance, had to beware, above all, of their natural
deliverer, the Sire de Chastillon, Grand Steward of France, the
commander of the town.[1482] And they must needs request help in such
a manner as not to obtain their request, for fear of being like the
Israelites, of whom it is written: _Et tribuit eis petitionem eorum_.

[Footnote 1481: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 286 _et seq._
Varin, pp. 600 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1482: H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 18. Dom Marlot,
_Hist. metrop. Remensis_, vol. ii, pp. 709 _et seq._]

When the royal army was yet before the walls of Troyes, a herald
appeared at the gates of Reims, bearing a letter given by the King, at
Brinion-l'Archevêque, on Monday, the 4th of July. This letter was
delivered to the Council. "You may have heard tidings," said the King
to his good people of Reims, "of the success and victory it hath
pleased God to vouchsafe unto us over our ancient enemies, the
English, before the town of Orléans and since then at Jargeau,
Beaugency, and Meung-sur-Loire, in each of which places our enemies
have received grievous hurt; all their leaders and others to the
number of four thousand have been slain or taken prisoners. Such
things having happened, more by divine grace than human skill, we,
according to the advice of our Princes of the Blood and the members of
our Great Council, are coming to the town of Reims to receive our
anointing and coronation. Wherefore we summon you, on the loyalty and
obedience you owe us, to dispose yourselves to receive us in the
accustomed manner as you have done for our predecessors."[1483]

[Footnote 1483: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 291-292.]

And King Charles, adopting towards the citizens of Reims that same
wise benignity he had shown to the citizens of Troyes, promised them
full pardon and oblivion.

"Be not deterred," he said, "by matters that are past and the fear
that we may remember them. Be assured that if now ye act towards us as
ye ought, ye shall be dealt with as becometh good and loyal subjects."

He even asked them to send notables to treat with him. "If, in order
to be better informed concerning our intentions, certain citizens of
Reims would come to us with the herald, whom we send, we should be
well pleased. They may come in safety and in such numbers as shall
seem good to them."[1484]

[Footnote 1484: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 291.]

On the delivery of this letter the Council was convoked, but it so
befell that there were not enough aldermen to deliberate; hence the
Council was relieved from a serious embarrassment. Whereupon the
common folk were assembled in the various quarters of the city, and
from the citizens thus consulted was obtained the following crafty
declaration: "It is our intention to live and die with the Council and
the Notables. According to their advice we shall act in concord and in
peace, without murmuring or making answer, unless it be by the counsel
and decree of the Commander of Reims and his Lieutenant."[1485]

[Footnote 1485: _Ibid._, p. 292. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_,
pp. 17 _et seq._]

The Sire de Chastillon, Commander of the town, was then at
Château-Thierry with his lieutenants, Jean Cauchon and Thomas de
Bazoches, both of them knights. The citizens of Reims deemed it wise
that he should see King Charles's letter. Their Bailie, Guillaume
Hodierne, went to the Lord Captain and showed it to him. Most
faithfully did the Bailie express the sentiments of the people of
Reims: he asked the Sire de Chastillon to come to their deliverance,
but he asked in such a manner that he did not come. That was the
all-important point; for by not appealing to him they laid themselves
open to a charge of treason, while if he did come they risked having
to endure a siege grievous and dangerous.

With this object the Bailie declared that the citizens of Reims,
desirous to communicate with their captains, were willing to receive
him if he were accompanied by no more than fifty horse. Herein they
displayed their good will, being entitled to refuse to receive a
garrison within their walls; this privilege notwithstanding, they
consented to admit fifty horse, which meant about two hundred fighting
men. As the citizens had foreseen, the Sire de Chastillon judged such
a number insufficient for his safety. He demanded as the conditions of
his coming, that the town should be victualled and put in a state of
defence, that he should enter it with three or four hundred
combatants, that the defence of the city as well as of the castle
should be entrusted to him, and that there should be delivered up to
him five or six notables as hostages. On these conditions he declared
himself ready to live and die for them.[1486]

[Footnote 1486: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 292, 293. Varin,
_Archives de Reims_, pp. 910, 912. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_,
p. 18.]

He marched with his company to within a short distance of the town,
and then made known to the townsfolk that he had come to succour
them.[1487]

[Footnote 1487: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 295. H. Jadart,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, pp. 18, 19.]

The English were indeed recruiting troops wherever they could and
pressing all manner of folk into their service. They were said to be
arming even priests; and the Regent was certainly pressing into his
service the crusaders disembarked in France, whom the Cardinal of
Winchester was intending to lead against the Hussites.[1488] As we may
imagine, King Henry's Council did not fail to inform the inhabitants
of Reims of the armaments which were being assembled. On the 3rd of
July they were told that the troops were crossing the sea, and on the
10th Colard de Mailly, Bailie of Vermandois, announced that they had
landed. But these tidings failed to inspire the folk of Champagne with
any great confidence in the power of the English. While the Sire de
Chastillon was promising that in forty days they should have a fine
large army from beyond the seas, King Charles with thirty thousand
combatants was but a few miles from their gates. The Sire de
Chastillon perceived, what he had previously suspected, that he was
tricked. The citizens of Reims refused to admit him. Nothing remained
for him but to turn round and join the English.[1489]

[Footnote 1488: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 451. Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 101, 102. _Journal du siège_, p.
118. Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. x, p. 424. S. Bougenot, _Notices et
extraits des manuscrits intéressants l'histoire de France conservés à
la Bibliothèque impériale de Vienne_, p. 62. Raynaldi, _Annales
ecclesiastici_, vol. ix, pp. 77, 78. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement,
xvii.]

[Footnote 1489: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 295, 298.]

On the 12th of July, from my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop and
Duke of Reims, the townsfolk received a letter requesting them to make
ready for the King's coming.[1490]

[Footnote 1490: _Ibid._, p. 297. L. Paris, _Cabinet historique_, 1865,
p. 77.]

The Council of the city having assembled on that day, the clerk
proceeded to draw up an official report of its deliberations:

"... After having represented to my Lord of Chastillon that he is the
Commander and that the lords and the mass of the people who...."[1491]

[Footnote 1491: H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 19.]

He wrote no more. Finding it difficult to protest their loyalty to the
English while making ready King Charles's coronation, and considering
it imprudent to recognize a new prince without being forced to it, the
citizens abruptly renounced the silver of speech and took refuge in
the gold of silence.

On Saturday, the 16th, King Charles took up his quarters in the
Castle of Sept-Saulx, ten miles from the city where he was to be
crowned. This fortress had been erected two hundred years before by
the warlike predecessors of my Lord Regnault. Its proud keep commanded
the crossing of the Vesle.[1492] There the King received the citizens
of Reims, who came in great numbers to do him homage.[1493] Then, with
the Maid and his whole army, he resumed his march. Having traversed
the last stage of the highroad which wound along the bank of the
Vesle, he entered the great city of Champagne at nightfall. The
southern gate, called Dieulimire, lowered its drawbridge and raised
its two portcullises to let him pass.[1494]

[Footnote 1492: Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
p. 97; _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 320. _Chronique des Cordeliers_,
fol. 85, v'o. _Journal du siège_, p. 112. Bergier, _Poème sur la
tapisserie de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 112. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Reims_, pp. 20, 21. F. Pinon, _Notice sur Sept-Saulx_, in _Travaux de
l'académie de Reims_, vol. vi, p. 328.]

[Footnote 1493: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, pp. 298 _et seq._ Dom Marlot,
_Histoire de la ville de Reims_, vol. iv, Reims, 1846 (4 vol. in 4to),
vol. iii, p. 174.]

[Footnote 1494: H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 23.]

According to tradition the coronation should take place on a Sunday.
This rule was found mentioned in a ceremonial which was believed to
have served for the coronation of Louis VIII and was considered
authoritative.[1495] The citizens of Reims worked all night in order
that everything might be ready on the morrow.[1496] They were urged
on by their sudden affection for the King of France and likewise by
their fear lest he and his army[1497] should spend many days in their
city. Their horror of receiving and maintaining men-at-arms within
their gates they shared with the citizens of all towns, who in their
panic were incapable of distinguishing Armagnac soldiers from English
and Burgundians. Wherefore in all things were they diligent, but with
the firm intention of paying as little as possible. Seeing that to
them the coronation brought neither profit nor honour, the aldermen
were accustomed to throw the burden of it on the Archbishop, who, they
said, as peer of France,[1498] would receive the emoluments.

[Footnote 1495: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 322, 323, note. "This
ritual dates back certainly as far as the 13th century. It is
preserved in the library at Reims in a MS. which appears to have been
written about 1274." Communicated by M. H. Jadart. Varin, _Archives de
Reims_, vol. i, p. 522. Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville de Reims_,
vol. iii, p. 566, and vol. iv, proofs and illustrations no. 142. H.
Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 7.]

[Footnote 1496: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 321. Perceval de Cagny,
p. 159. Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
128.]

[Footnote 1497: _Pro evitando onus armatorum_, _Trial_, vol. i, p.
91.]

[Footnote 1498: Thirion, _Les frais du sacre_ in _Travaux de
l'académie de Reims_, 1894. See Varin, _Archives de Reims_, table of
contents under the word, _Sacre_. Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville de
Reims_, vol. iii, pp. 461, 566, 640, 651, 819; vol. iv, pp. 25, 31,
45.]

[Illustration: CHARLES VII, KING OF FRANCE

_From an old engraving_]

The royal ornaments, which, after the coronation of the late King, had
been deposited in the sacristy of Saint-Denys, were in the hands of
the English. The crown of Charlemagne, brilliant with rubies,
sapphires and emeralds, adorned with four flowers-de-luce, which the
Kings of France received on their coronation, the English wished to
place on the head of their King Henry. This child King they were
preparing to gird with the sword of Charlemagne, the illustrious
Joyeuse, which in its sheath of violet velvet slept in the keeping of
the Burgundian Abbot of Saint-Denys. In English hands likewise were
the sceptre surmounted by a golden Charlemagne in imperial robes, the
rod of justice terminated by a hand in horn of unicorn, the golden
clasp of Saint Louis' mantle, and the golden spurs and the Pontifical,
containing within its enamelled binding of silver-gilt the ceremonial
of the coronation.[1499] The French must needs make shift with a crown
kept in the sacristy of the cathedral.[1500] The other signs of
royalty handed down from Clovis, from Saint Charlemagne and Saint
Louis must be represented as well as could be. After all, it was not
unfitting that this coronation, won by a single expedition, should be
expressive of the labour and suffering it had cost. It was well that
the ceremony should suggest something of the heroic poverty of the
men-at-arms and the common folk who had brought the Dauphin thither.

[Footnote 1499: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 322, note 1. C. Leber,
_Des cérémonies du sacre ou Recherches historiques et antiques sur les
moeurs, les coutumes, les institutions et le droit public des
Français dans l'ancienne monarchie_, Paris-Reims, 1825, in 8vo. A.
Lenoble, _Histoire du sacre et du couronnement des rois et des reines
de France_, Paris, 1825, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1500: "Et si ipse expectasset habuisset unam coronam
millesies ditiorem," _Trial_, vol. i, p. 91. Varin, _Archives de
Reims_, vol. iii, pp. 559 _et seq._]

Kings were anointed with oil, because oil signifies renown, glory, and
wisdom. In the morning the Sires de Rais, de Boussac, de Graville and
de Culant were deputed by the King to go and fetch the Holy
Ampulla.[1501]

[Footnote 1501: _Journal du siège_, p. 113. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 321. Varin, _Archives de Reims_, vol. ii, p. 569; vol. iii, p.
555.]

It was a crystal flask which the Grand Prior of Saint-Remi kept in the
tomb of the Apostle, behind the high altar of the Abbey Church. This
flask contained the sacred chrism with which the Blessed Remi had
anointed King Clovis. It was enclosed in a reliquary in the form of a
dove, because the Holy Ghost in the semblance of a dove had been seen
descending with the oil for the anointing of the first Christian
King.[1502] Of a truth in ancient books it was written that an angel
had come down from heaven with the miraculous ampulla,[1503] but men
were not disturbed by such inconsistencies, and among Christian folk
no one doubted that the sacred chrism was possessed of miraculous
power. For example, it was known that with use the oil became no less,
that the flask remained always full, as a premonition and a pledge
that the kingdom of France would endure for ever. According to the
observation of witnesses, at the time of the coronation of the late
King Charles, the oil had not diminished after the anointing.[1504]

[Footnote 1502: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 129. In 1483, when Louis XI was
dying, he had it brought from Reims to Plessis, "and it was upon his
sideboard at the very time of his death, and his intent was to receive
the same anointing he had received at his coronation, wherefore many
believed that he wished to anoint his whole body, which would have
been impossible, for the said Ampulla is very small and contains
little. I see it at this moment." Commynes, bk. vi, ch. 9.]

[Footnote 1503: Flodoard, _Hist. ecclesiae Remensis_, in _Coll.
Guizot_, vol. v, pp. 41 _et seq._ Eustache Deschamps, Ballade 172,
vol. i, p. 305; vol. ii, p. 104. Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville de
Reims_, vol. ii, p. 48, note 1. Vertot, in _Académie des
Inscriptions_, vol. ii.]

[Footnote 1504: Froissart, book ii, ch. lxxiv.]

At nine o'clock in the morning Charles of Valois entered the church
with a numerous retinue. The king-at-arms of France called by name the
twelve peers of the realm to come before the high altar. Of the six
lay peers not one replied. In their places came the Duke of Alençon,
the Counts of Clermont and of Vendôme, the Sires de Laval, de La
Trémouille, and de Maillé.

Of the six ecclesiastical peers, three replied to the summons of the
king-at-arms,--the Archbishop Duke of Reims, the Bishop Count of
Châlons, the Bishop Duke of Laon. For the missing bishops of Langres
and Noyon were substituted those of Seez and Orléans. In the absence
of Arthur of Brittany, Constable of France, the sword was held by
Charles, Sire d'Albret.[1505]

[Footnote 1505: Letters from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol.
v, pp. 127, 129. Monstrelet, vol. iv, ch. lxiv. Perceval de Cagny, p.
159. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 343. _Chronique de
Tournai_ (vol. iii of the _Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_), p.
414. _Gallia Christiana_, vol. ix, col. 551; vol. xi, col. 698.]

In front of the altar was Charles of Valois, wearing robes open on the
chest and shoulders. He swore, first, to maintain the peace and
privileges of the Church; second, to preserve his people from
exactions and not to burden them too heavily; third, to govern with
justice and mercy.[1506]

[Footnote 1506: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 322, note 1.]

From his cousin d'Alençon he received the arms of a knight.[1507] Then
the Archbishop anointed him with the holy oil, with which the Holy
Ghost makes strong priests, kings, prophets and martyrs. So this new
Samuel consecrated the new Saul, making manifest that all power is of
God, and that, according to the example set by David, kings are
pontiffs, the ministers and the witnesses of the Lord. This pouring
out of the oil, with which the Kings of Israel were anointed, had
rendered the kings of most Christian France burning and shining lights
since the time of Charlemagne, yea, even since the days of Clovis; for
though it was baptism and confirmation rather than anointing that
Clovis received at the hands of the Blessed Saint Remi, yet he was
anointed Christian and King by the blessed bishop, and at the same
time and with that same holy oil which God himself had sent to this
prince and to his successors.[1508]

[Footnote 1507: Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. _Journal du siège_, p. 114.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 322. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
p. 97.]

[Footnote 1508: Chifletius, _De ampula Remensi nova et acurata
disquisitio_, Antwerp, 1651, in 4to.]

And Charles received the anointing, the sign of power and victory, for
it is written in the Book of Samuel:[1509] "And Samuel took a vial of
oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, 'Is it not
because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance
and to deliver his people from their enemies round about. _Ecce unxit
te Dominus super hereditatem suam in principem, et liberabis populum
suum de manibus inimicorum ejus, qui in circuitu ejus sunt._'" (Reg.
1. x. 1. 6.)

[Footnote 1509: The first book of Kings according to the Vulgate
(W.S.).]

During the mystery, as it was called in the old parlance,[1510] the
Maid stayed by the King's side. Her white banner, before which the
ancient standard of Chandos had retreated, she held for a moment
unfurled. Then others in their turn held her standard, her page Louis
de Coutes, who never left her, and Friar Richard the preacher, who had
followed her to Châlons and to Reims.[1511] In one of her dreams she
had lately given a crown to the King; she was looking for this crown
to be brought into the church by heavenly messengers.[1512] Did not
saints commonly receive crowns from angels' hands? To Saint Cecilia an
angel offered a crown with garlands of roses and lilies. To
Catherine, the Virgin, an angel gave an imperishable crown, which she
placed upon the head of the Empress of Rome. But the crown curiously
rich and magnificent that Jeanne looked for came not.[1513]

[Footnote 1510: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 129. F. Boyer, _Variante inédite d'un document sur le sacre de
Charles VII_, Clermont and Orléans, 1881.]

[Footnote 1511: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 104, 300. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 322. Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 129. Varin, D. Marlot, H. Jadart, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 1512: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1513: See _post_, vol. i, p. 476.]

From the altar the Archbishop took the crown of no great value
provided by the chapter, and with both hands raised it over the King's
head. The twelve peers, in a circle round the prince, stretched forth
their arms to hold it. The trumpets blew and the folk cried:
"Noël."[1514]

[Footnote 1514: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 129.]

Thus was anointed and crowned Charles of France issue of the royal
line of Priam, great Troy's noble King.

Two hours after noon the mystery came to an end.[1515] We are told
that then the Maid knelt low before the King, and, weeping said:

[Footnote 1515: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 181. Letter from three
noblemen, _loc. cit._]

"Fair King, now is God's pleasure accomplished. It was His will that I
should raise the siege of Orléans and bring you to this city of Reims
to receive your holy anointing, making manifest that you are the true
King and he to whom the realm of France should belong."[1516]

[Footnote 1516: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 322, 323. _Journal du
siège_, p. 114.]

The King made the customary gifts. To the Chapter he presented
hangings of green satin as well as ornaments of red velvet and white
damask. Moreover, he placed upon the altar a silver vase with thirteen
golden crowns. Regardless of the claims asserted by the canons, the
Lord Archbishop took possession of it, but it profited him little,
for he had to give it up.[1517] After the ceremony King Charles put
the crown on his head and over his shoulders the royal mantle, blue as
the sky, flowered with lilies of gold; and on his charger he passed
down the streets of Reims city. The people in great joy cried, "Noël!"
as they had cried when my Lord the Duke of Burgundy entered. On that
day the Sire de Rais was made marshal of France and the Sire de la
Trémouille count. The eldest of Madame de Laval's two sons, he to whom
the Maid had offered wine at Selles-en-Berry, was likewise made count.
Captain La Hire received the county of Longueville with such parts of
Normandy as he could conquer.[1518]

[Footnote 1517: Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville de Reims_, vol. iv,
p. 175. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 107.]

[Footnote 1518: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 322. _Journal du siège_,
p. 114. Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. Letter of three noblemen of Anjou,
in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 129. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 97.
Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 99, note
2.]

King Charles dined in the archiepiscopal palace in the ancient hall of
Tau, and was served by the Duke of Alençon and the Count of
Clermont.[1519] As was customary, the royal table extended into the
street, and there was feasting throughout the town. It was a day of
free drinking and fraternity. In the houses, at the doors, by the
wayside, folk made good cheer, and the kitchens were busy; there were
that day consumed oxen in dozens, sheep in hundreds, chicken and
rabbits in thousands. Folk stuffed themselves with spices, and (for it
was a thirsty day) they quaffed full many a beaker of wine of
Burgundy, and especially of that wine of delicate flavour that comes
from Beaune. At every coronation the ancient stag, made of bronze and
hollow, which stood in the courtyard of the archiepiscopal palace was
carried into the Rue du Parvis; it was filled with wine and the people
drank from it as from a fountain. Finally the burgesses and all the
inhabitants of Blessed Saint Remi's city, rich and poor alike, stuffed
and satiated with good wine, having howled "Noël!" till they were
hoarse, fell asleep over the wine-casks and the victuals, the remains
of which were to be a cause of bitter dispute between the grim
aldermen and the King's men on the morrow.[1520]

[Footnote 1519: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc
à Reims_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 1520: Thirion, _Les frais du sacre_, in _Travaux de
l'Académie de Reims_, 1894. Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville de
Reims_, vol. iv, p. 45, n. 1. Varin, _Arch. adm. de la ville de
Reims_, vol. iii, p. 39.]

Jacques d'Arc had come to see the coronation for which his daughter
had so zealously laboured. He lodged at the Sign of _L'Ane Rayé_ in
the Rue du Parvis in a hostelry kept by Alix, widow of Raulin Morieau.
As well as his daughter, he saw once more his son Pierre.[1521] The
cousin, whom Jeanne called uncle and who had accompanied her to
Vaucouleurs to Sire Robert, had likewise come hither to the
coronation. He spoke to the King and told him all he knew of his
cousin.[1522] At Reims also Jeanne found her young fellow-countryman,
Husson Le Maistre, coppersmith of the village of Varville, about seven
miles from Domremy. She did not know him; but he had heard tell of
her, and he was very familiar with Jacques and Pierre d'Arc.[1523]

[Footnote 1521: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 198; vol. v, pp. 141, 266. H.
Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, pp. 47, 48. L'abbé Cerf, _Le vieux
Reims_, 1875, pp. 35 and 110.]

[Footnote 1522: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 445.]

[Footnote 1523: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 198.]

Jacques d'Arc was one of the notables and perhaps the best business
man of his village.[1524] It was not merely to see his daughter riding
through the streets in man's attire that he had come to Reims. He had
come doubtless for himself and on behalf of his village to ask the
King for an exemption from taxation. This request, presented to the
King by the Maid, was granted. On the 31st of the month the King
decreed that the inhabitants of Greux and of Domremy should be free
from all _tailles_, aids, subsidies, and subventions.[1525] Out of the
public funds the magistrates of the town paid Jacques d'Arc's
expenses, and when he was about to depart they gave him a horse to
take him home.[1526]

[Footnote 1524: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. 1 _et seq._;
proofs and illustrations no. li, pp. 97, 100; supplement, pp. 359,
362. Boucher de Molandon, _Jacques d'Arc, père de la Pucelle, sa
notabilité personnelle_, Orléans, 1885, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1525: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 137, 139. In the royal records
this privilege is described as having been granted at Jeanne's
request; in such a request we cannot fail to discern the influence of
her father.]

[Footnote 1526: _Ibid._, pp. 141, 266, 267.]

During the five or six days she spent at Reims the Maid appeared
frequently before the townsfolk. The poor and humble came to her; good
wives took her by the hand and touched their rings with hers.[1527] On
her finger she wore a little ring made of a kind of brass, sometimes
called electrum.[1528] Electrum was said to be the gold of the poor.
In place of a stone the ring had a collet inscribed with the words
"Jhesus Maria" with three crosses. Oftentimes she reverently fixed her
gaze upon it, for once she had had it touched by Saint Catherine.[1529]
And that the Saint should have actually touched it was not incredible,
seeing that some years before, in 1413, Sister Colette, who was vowed
to virginal chastity, had received from the Virgin apostle a rich
golden ring, as a sign of her spiritual marriage with the King of
Kings. Sister Colette permitted the nuns and monks of her order to
touch this ring, and she confided it to the messengers she sent to
distant lands to preserve them from perils by the way.[1530] The Maid
ascribed great powers to her ring, albeit she never used it to heal
the sick.[1531]

[Footnote 1527: _Ibid._, p. 103.]

[Footnote 1528: Du Cange, _Glossarium_, under the words _Auriacum_,
_electrum_, and _leto_. Vallet de Viriville, _Les anneaux de Jeanne
d'Arc_, in _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France_, vol.
xxx, January, 1867.]

[Footnote 1529: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 185, 238. Walter Bower, _ibid._,
vol. iv, p. 480.]

[Footnote 1530: _Sanctissimæ virginis Coletæ vita_, Paris, in 8vo,
black letter, undated, leaf 8 on the reverse side. Bollandistes, _Acta
sanctorum_, March, vol. i, p. 611.]

[Footnote 1531: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 86, 87.]

She was expected to render those trifling services which it was usual
to ask from holy folk and sometimes from magicians. Before the
coronation ceremony the nobles and knights had been given gloves,
according to the custom. One of them lost his; he asked the Maid to
find them, or others asked her for him. She did not promise to do it;
notwithstanding the matter became known, and various interpretations
were placed upon it.[1532]

[Footnote 1532: _Ibid._, p. 104. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p.
37.]

After the King's coronation, jostled by the crowd in the Rue du
Parvis, one can imagine some thoughtful clerk raising his eyes to the
glorious façade of the Cathedral, that Bible in stone, already
appearing ancient to men, who, knowing naught of the chronicles,
measured time by the span of human existence. Such a clerk would have
certainly beheld on the left of the pointed arch above the rose
window the colossal image of Goliath rising proudly in his coat of
mail, and that same figure repeated on the right of the arch in the
attitude of a man tottering and ready to fall.[1533] Then this clerk
must have remembered what is written in the first book of Kings:[1534]

[Footnote 1533: "These figures (Goliath and David) must have been
sculptured at the end of the 13th century." (L. Demaison, _Notice
historique sur la cathédrale de Reims_, s.d. in 4to, p. 44.) The date
of the rose window is 1280 (H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p.
44).]

[Footnote 1534: According to the Vulgate. First book of Samuel
according to the Authorized Version (W.S.).]

"And there went out a man base-born from the camp of the Philistines,
named Goliath, of Geth, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he
had a helmet of brass upon his head and he was clothed with a coat of
mail with scales; and the weight of his coat of mail was five thousand
sicles of brass. And standing he cried out to the bands of Israel and
said to them: I bring reproach unto the armies of Israel. Choose out a
man of you, and let him come down and fight hand to hand.

"Now David had gone to feed his Father's sheep at Bethlehem. But he
arose in the morning and gave the charge of the flock to the keeper.
And he came to the place of Magala and to the army which was going out
to fight. And, seeing Goliath, he asked: 'Who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'

"And the words which David spoke, were rehearsed before Saul; and he
sent for him. David said to Saul, 'Let not any man's heart be dismayed
in him; I, thy servant, will go and fight against this Philistine.'
And Saul said to David 'Thou art not able to withstand this Philistine
nor to fight against him; for thou art but a boy, but he is a warrior
from his youth.' And David made answer, 'I will go against him and I
will take away the reproach from Israel.' Then Saul said to David, 'Go
and the Lord be with thee.'

"And David took his staff which he had always in his hands, and chose
him five smooth stones out of the brook, and he took a sling in his
hand; and went forth against the Philistine.

"And when the Philistine looked and beheld David, he despised him. For
he was a young man, and ruddy, and of a comely countenance. And the
Philistine said to David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a
staff?' Then said David to the Philistine: 'Thou comest to me with a
sword, and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the
name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which thou
hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand that
all the earth may know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear:
for it is his battle, and he will deliver you into our hands.'

"And when the Philistine arose and was coming and drew nigh to meet
David, David made haste and ran to the fight to meet the Philistine.
And he put his hand into his scrip and took a stone, and cast it with
the sling and fetching it about struck the Philistine in the forehead,
and the stone was fixed in his forehead and he fell on his face upon
the earth."[1535]

[Footnote 1535: 1 Samuel xvii. Where the author quotes direct from the
Vulgate the translator has followed the Douai version (W.S.).]

Then the clerk, meditating on these words of the Book, would reflect
how God, the Unchanging, who saved Israel and struck down Goliath by
the sling of a shepherd lad, had raised up the daughter of a
husbandman for the deliverance of the most Christian realm and the
reproach of the Leopard.[1536]

[Footnote 1536: See the coronation of David and that of Louis XII by
an unknown painter, about 1498, in the Cluny Museum. H. Bouchot,
_L'exposition des primitifs français. La peinture en France sous les
Valois_, book ii, figure C.]

From Gien, about June the 27th, the Maid had had a letter written to
the Duke of Burgundy, calling upon him to come to the King's
anointing. Having received no reply, on the day of the coronation she
dictated a second letter to the Duke. Here it is:

     [cross symbol] JHESUS MARIA

     "High and greatly to be feared Prince, Duke of Burgundy,
     Jehanne the Maid, in the name of the King of Heaven, her
     rightful and liege lord, requires you and the King of France
     to make a good peace which shall long endure. Forgive one
     another heartily and entirely as becometh good Christians;
     an if it please you to make war, go ye against the Saracens.
     Prince of Burgundy, I pray you, I entreat you, I beseech you
     as humbly as lieth in my power, that ye make war no more
     against the holy realm of France, and that forthwith and
     speedily ye withdraw those your men who are in any
     strongholds and fortresses of the said holy kingdom; and in
     the name of the fair King of France, he is ready to make
     peace with you, saving his honour if that be necessary. And
     in the name of the King of Heaven, my Sovereign liege Lord,
     for your good, your honour and your life, I make known unto
     you, that ye will never win in battle against the loyal
     French and that all they who wage war against the holy realm
     of France, will be warring against King Jhesus, King of
     Heaven and of the world, my lawful liege lord. And with
     clasped hands I beseech and entreat you that ye make no
     battle nor wage war against us, neither you, nor your
     people, nor your subjects; and be assured that whatever
     number of folk ye bring against us, they will gain nothing,
     and it will be sore pity for the great battle and the blood
     that shall be shed of those that come against us. And three
     weeks past, I did write and send you letters by a herald,
     that ye should come to the anointing of the King, which
     to-day, Sunday, the 17th day of this present month, is made
     in the city of Reims: to which letter I have had no answer,
     neither news of the said herald. To God I commend you; may
     he keep you, if it be his will; and I pray God to establish
     good peace. Written from the said place of Reims, on the
     said seventeenth of July."

     Addressed: "to the Duke of Burgundy."[1537]

[Footnote 1537: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 126-127. Hennebert, _Une lettre
de Jeanne d'Arc aux Tournaisiens_ in _Arch. hist. et litt. du nord de
la France et du midi de la Belgique_, nouv. série, vol. i, 1837, p.
525. Facsimile in _l'Album des archives départementales_, no. 123.]

Had Saint Catherine of Sienna been at Reims she would not have written
otherwise. Albeit the Maid liked not the Burgundians, in her own way
she realized forcibly how desirable was peace with the Duke of
Burgundy. With clasped hands she entreats him to cease making war
against France. "An it please you to make war then go ye against the
Saracens." Already she had counselled the English to join the French
and go on a crusade. The destruction of the infidel was then the dream
of gentle peace-loving souls; and many pious folk believed that the
son of the knight, who had been vanquished at Nicopolis, would make
the Turks pay dearly for their former victory.[1538]

[Footnote 1538: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 82, 83. Eberhard Windecke, p.
61, note 9, p. 108. Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 416.
Jorga, _Notes et extraits pour servir à l'histoire des croisades au
XV'e siècle_, Paris, 1889-1902. 3 vols. in 8vo.]

In this letter, the Maid, in the name of the King of Heaven, tells
Duke Philip that if he fight against the King, he will be conquered.
Her voices had foretold to her the victory of France over Burgundy;
they had not revealed to her that at the very moment when she was
dictating her letter the ambassadors of Duke Philip were at Reims;
that was so, notwithstanding.[1539]

[Footnote 1539: _Mémoires du Pape Pie II_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp.
514, 515. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 190.]

Esteeming King Charles, master of Champagne, to be a prince worthy of
consideration, Duke Philip sent to Reims, David de Brimeu, Bailie of
Artois, at the head of an embassy, to greet him and open negotiations
for peace.[1540] The Burgundians received a hearty welcome from the
Chancellor and the Council. It was hoped that peace would be concluded
before their departure. The Angevin lords announced it to their
queens, Yolande and Marie.[1541] By so doing they showed how little
they knew the consummate old fox of Dijon. The French were not strong
enough yet, neither were the English weak enough. It was agreed that
in August an embassy should be sent to the Duke of Burgundy in the
town of Arras. After four days negotiation, a truce for fifteen days
was signed and the embassy left Reims.[1542] At the same time, the
Duke at Paris solemnly renewed his complaint against Charles of
Valois, his father's assassin, and undertook to bring an army to the
help of the English.[1543]

[Footnote 1540: _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 514, 515. Monstrelet, vol. iv,
p. 340. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 37. Letter from
three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 130. Third account of
Jean Abonnel in De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
404, no. 3.]

[Footnote 1541: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 130.]

[Footnote 1542: The 20th or 21st. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 348 _et
seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. II, pp. 404 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 1543: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 455. _Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 240, 241. Stevenson, _Letters and
papers_, vol. ii, pp. 101 _et seq._ Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. iv, part
iv, p. 150.]

Leaving Antoine de Hellande, nephew of the Duke-Archbishop[1544] to
command Reims, the King of France departed from the city on the 20th
of July and went to Saint-Marcoul-de-Corbeny, where on the day after
their coronation, the Kings were accustomed to touch for the
evil.[1545]

[Footnote 1544: Archives de Reims, Municipal Accounts, vol. i, years
1428-29. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 141. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339. H.
Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 1545: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 199. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 323. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 97. _Journal du siège_,
p. 114. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, p. 111.]

Saint Marcoul cured the evil.[1546] He was of royal race, but his
power, manifested long after his death, came to him especially from
his name, and it was believed that Saint Marcoul was able to cure
those afflicted with marks on the neck, as Saint Clare was to give
sight to the blind, and Saint Fort to give strength to children. The
King of France shared with him the power of healing scrofula; and as
the power came to him from the holy oil brought down from heaven by a
dove, it was thought that this virtue would be more effectual at the
time of the anointing, all the more because by lewdness, disobedience
to the Christian Church, and other irregularities, he stood in danger
of losing it. That is what had happened to King Philippe I.[1547] The
Kings of England touched for the evil; notably King Edward III worked
wondrous cures on scrofulous folk who were covered with scars. For
these reasons scrofula was called Saint Marcoul's evil or King's evil.
Virgins as well as kings could cure this royal malady.

[Footnote 1546: _Gallia Christ_: ix, pp, 239, 51 [Transcriber's Note:
so in original; does not match other citations to this work]. Le
Poulle, _Notice sur Corbeny, son prieuré, et le pèlerinage de
Saint-Marcoul_, Soissons, 1883, 8vo. E. de Barthélèmy, _Notice
historique sur le pèlerinage de Saint-Marcoul et Corbeny_, in _Ann.
Soc. Acad. de Saint-Quentin_, 1878.]

[Footnote 1547: A. Du Laurent, _De mirabili strumas sanandi vi solis
regibus Galliarum christianissimis divinitus concessa liber_, Paris,
1607, 8vo. Cerf, _Du toucher des écrouelles par le roi de France_, in
_Trav. Acad. de Reims_, 1865-1867. Dom Marlot, _Histoire de la ville
de Reims_, vol. iii, pp. 196 _et seq._]

King Charles worshipped and presented offerings at the shrine of Saint
Marcoul, and there touched for the evil. At Corbeny he received the
submission of the town of Laon. Then, on the morrow, the 22nd, he went
off to a little stronghold in the valley of the Aisne, called Vailly,
which belonged to the Archbishop Duke of Reims. At Vailly he received
the submission of the town of Soissons.[1548] In the words of an
Armagnac prophet of the time: "the keys of the war gates knew the
hands that had forged them."[1549]

[Footnote 1548: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 323, 324. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 98. _Journal du
siège_, p. 115. _Chronique des Cordeliers_, fol. 486 r'o. Morosini,
iii, p. 182, note 3.]

[Footnote 1549: Bréhal, in _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 345.]




CHAPTER XIX

RISE OF THE LEGEND


It is always difficult to ascertain what happens in war. In those days
it was quite impossible to form any clear idea of how things came
about. At Orléans, doubtless, there were certain who were keen enough
to perceive that the numerous and ingenious engines of war, gathered
together by the magistrates, had been of great service; but folk
generally prefer to ascribe results to miraculous causes, and the
merit of their deliverance the people of Orléans attributed first to
their Blessed Patrons, Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, and after them
to Jeanne, the Divine Maid, believing that there was no easier,
simpler, or more natural explanation of the deeds they had
witnessed.[1550]

[Footnote 1550: _Journal du siège_, pp. 16, 88. _Chronique de
l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 296. Lottin,
_Récits historiques sur Orléans_, vol. i, p. 279.]

Guillaume Girault, former magistrate of the town and notary at the
Châtelet, wrote and signed, with his own hand, a brief account of the
deliverance of the city. Herein he states that on Wednesday, Ascension
Eve, the bastion of Saint-Loup was stormed and taken as if by miracle,
"there being present, and aiding in the fight, Jeanne the Maid, sent
of God;" and that, on the following Saturday, the siege laid by the
English to Les Tourelles at the end of the bridge was raised by the
most obvious miracle since the Passion. And Guillaume Girault
testifies that the Maid led the enterprise.[1551] When eye-witnesses,
participators in the deeds themselves, had no clear idea of events,
what could those more remote from the scene of action think of them?

[Footnote 1551: _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 282, 283.]

The tidings of the French victories flew with astonishing
rapidity.[1552] The brevity of authentic accounts was amply
supplemented by the eloquence of loquacious clerks and the popular
imagination. The Loire campaign and the coronation expedition were
scarcely known at first save by fabulous reports, and the people only
thought of them as supernatural events.

[Footnote 1552: Tidings of the Deliverance of Orléans sent from Bruges
to Venice the 10th of May (Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 23, 24).]

In the letters sent by royal secretaries to the towns of the realm and
the princes of Christendom, the name of Jeanne the Maid was associated
with all the deeds of prowess. Jeanne herself, by her monastic scribe,
made known to all the great deeds which, it was her firm belief, she
had accomplished.[1553]

[Footnote 1553: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 123, 139, 145, 147, 156, 159,
161.]

It was believed that everything had been done through her, that the
King had consulted her in all things, when in truth the King's
counsellors and the Captains rarely asked her advice, listened to it
but seldom, and brought her forth only at convenient seasons.
Everything was attributed to her alone. Her personality, associated
with deeds attested and seemingly marvellous, became buried in a vast
cycle of astonishing fables and disappeared in a forest of heroic
stories.[1554]

[Footnote 1554: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 60, 61.]

Contrite souls there were in those days, who, ascribing all the woes
of the kingdom to the sins of the people, looked for salvation to
humility, repentance, and penance.[1555] They expected the end of
iniquity and the kingdom of God on earth. Jeanne, at least in the
beginning, was one of those pious folk. Sometimes, speaking as a
mystic reformer, she would say that Jesus is King of the holy realm of
France, that King Charles is his lieutenant, and does but hold the
kingdom "in fief."[1556] She uttered words which would create the
impression that her mission was all charity, peace, and love,--these,
for example, "I am sent to comfort the poor and needy."[1557] Such
gentle penitents as dreamed of a world pure, faithful, and good, made
of Jeanne their saint and their prophetess. They ascribed to her
edifying words she had never uttered.

[Footnote 1555: Saint Vincent Ferrier; and Saint Bernardino of Siena.]

[Footnote 1556: See _ante_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 1557: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 88.]

"When the Maid came to the King," they said, "she caused him to make
three promises: the first was to resign his kingdom, to renounce it
and give it back to God, from whom he held it; the second, to pardon
all such as had turned against him and afflicted him; the third, to
humiliate himself so far as to receive into favour all such as should
come to him, poor and rich, friend and foe."[1558]

[Footnote 1558: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 52-53. See _ante_, p. 184.]

Or again, in apologues, simple and charming, like the following, they
represented her accomplishing her mission:

"One day, the Maid asked the King to bestow a present upon her; and
when he consented, she claimed as a gift the realm of France. Though
astonished, the King did not withdraw his promise. Having received
her present, the Maid required a deed of gift to be solemnly drawn up
by four of the King's notaries and read aloud. While the King listened
to the reading, she pointed him out to those that stood by, saying:
'Behold the poorest knight in the kingdom.' Then, after a short time,
disposing of the realm of France, she gave it back to God. Thereafter,
acting in God's name, she invested King Charles with it and commanded
that this solemn act of transmission should be recorded in
writing."[1559]

[Footnote 1559: L. Delisle, _Un nouveau témoignage relatif à la
mission de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_,
vol. xlvi, p. 649. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'Église de son
temps_, pp. 57, 58.]

It was believed that Jeanne had prophesied that on Saint John the
Baptist's Day, 1429, not an Englishman should be left in France.[1560]
These simple folk expected their saint's promises to be fulfilled on
the day she had fixed. They maintained that on the 23rd of June she
had entered the city of Rouen, and that on the morrow, Saint John the
Baptist's day, the inhabitants of Paris had of their own accord,
opened their gates to the King of France. In the month of July these
stories were being told in Avignon.[1561] Reformers, numerous it would
seem in France and throughout Christendom, believed that the Maid
would organise the English and French on monastic lines and make of
them one nation of pious beggars, one brotherhood of penitents.
According to them, the following were the intentions of the two
parties and the clauses of the treaty:

[Footnote 1560: Letter written by the agents of a town or of a prince
of Germany, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 351.]

[Footnote 1561: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 38, 46, 61.]

"King Charles of Valois bestows universal pardon and is willing to
forget all wrongs. The English and French, having turned to
contrition and repentance, are endeavouring to conclude a good and
binding peace. The Maid herself has imposed conditions upon them.
Conforming to her will, the English and French for one year or for two
will wear a grey habit, with a little cross sewn upon it; on every
Friday they will live on bread and water; they will dwell in unity
with their wives and will seek no other women. They promise God not to
make war except for the defense of their country."[1562]

[Footnote 1562: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 64, 65.]

During the coronation campaign, nothing being known of the agreement
between the King's men and the people of Auxerre, towards the end of
July, it was related that the town having been taken by storm, four
thousand five hundred citizens had been killed and likewise fifteen
hundred men-at-arms, knights as well as squires belonging to the
parties of Burgundy and Savoy. Among the nobles slain were mentioned
Humbert Maréchal, Lord of Varambon, and a very famous warrior, le Viau
de Bar. Stories were told of treasons and massacres, horrible
adventures in which the Maid was associated with that knave of hearts
who was already famous. She was said to have had twelve traitors
beheaded.[1563] Such tales were real romances of chivalry. Here is one
of them:

[Footnote 1563: _Ibid._, pp. 144 _et seq._]

About two thousand English surrounded the King's camp, watching to see
if they could do him some hurt. Then the Maid called Captain La Hire
and said to him: "Thou hast in thy time done great prowess, but to-day
God prepares for thee a deed greater than any thou hast yet performed.
Take thy men and go to such and such a wood two leagues herefrom, and
there shalt thou find two thousand English, all lance in hand; them
shalt thou take and slay."

La Hire went forth to the English and all were taken and slain as the
Maid had said.[1564]

[Footnote 1564: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 150, 153.]

Such were the fairy-stories told of Jeanne to the joy of simple
primitive folk, who delighted in the idea of a maid slayer of giants
and remover of mountains.

There was a rumour that after the sack of Auxerre, the Duke of
Burgundy had been defeated and taken in a great battle, that the
Regent was dead and that the Armagnacs had entered Paris.[1565]
Prodigies were said to have attended the capitulation of Troyes. On
the coming of the French, it was told how the townsfolk beheld from
their ramparts a vast multitude of men-at-arms, some five or six
thousand, each man holding a white pennon in his hand. On the
departure of the French, they beheld them again, ranged but a bow-shot
behind King Charles. These knights with white pennons vanished when
the King had gone; for they were as miraculous as those white-scarfed
knights, whom the Bretons had seen riding in the sky but shortly
before.[1566]

[Footnote 1565: _Ibid._, pp. 166, 167.]

[Footnote 1566: Fragment of a letter on the marvels in Poitou, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 121, 122. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_,
_op. cit._, p. 343.]

All that the people of Orléans beheld when their siege was suddenly
raised, all that Armagnac mendicants and the Dauphin's clerks related
was greedily received, accredited, and amplified. Three months after
her coming to Chinon, Jeanne had her legend, which grew and increased
and extended into Italy, Flanders, and Germany.[1567] In the summer of
1429, this legend was already formed. All the scattered parts of what
may be described as the gospel of her childhood existed.

[Footnote 1567: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 78, note 1. Eberhard Windecke,
_passim_. Fauché-Prunelle, _Lettres tirées des archives de Grenoble_
in _Bull. Acad. delph._, vol. ii, 1847, 1849, pp. 459, 460. Letter
written by deputies, agents of a German town, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
347. Letter from Jean Desch, Secretary of the town of Metz, _ibid._,
pp. 352, 355.]

At the age of seven Jeanne kept sheep; the wolves did not molest her
flock; the birds of the field, when she called them, came and ate
bread from her lap. The wicked had no power over her. No one beneath
her roof need fear man's fraud or ill-will.[1568]

[Footnote 1568: Letters from Perceval de Boulainvilliers to the Duke
of Milan, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 114, 116.]

When it is a Latin poet who is writing, the miracles attending
Jeanne's birth assume a Roman majesty and are clothed with the august
dignity of ancient myths. Thus it is curious to find a humanist of
1429 summoning the Italian muse to the cradle of Zabillet Romée's
daughter.

"The thunder rolled, the ocean shuddered, the earth shook, the heavens
were on fire, the universe rejoiced visibly; a strange transport
mingled with fear moved the enraptured nations. They sing sweet verses
and dance in harmonious motion at the sign of the salvation prepared
for the French people by this celestial birth."[1569]

[Footnote 1569: Anonymous poem on the coming of the Maid and the
Deliverance of Orléans, _Trial_, vol. v, p. 27, line 70 _et seq._]

Moreover an attempt was made to represent the wonders that had
heralded the nativity of Jesus as having been repeated on the birth of
Jeanne. It was imagined that she was born on the night of the
Epiphany. The shepherds of her village, moved by an indescribable joy,
the cause of which was unknown to them, hastened through the darkness
towards the marvellous mystery. The cocks, heralds of this new joy,
sing at an unusual season and, flapping their wings, seem to prophesy
for two hours. Thus the child in her cradle had her adoration of the
shepherds.[1570]

[Footnote 1570: "_In nocte Epiphaniarum_," says the letter from
Perceval de Boulainvilliers (_Trial_, vol. v, p. 116), that is, Jan.
6. For centuries, even after the fourth century, the birth of our Lord
was celebrated on that day. In France it was the Feast of Kings and
then was sung the anthem: _Magi videntes stellam_.]

Of her coming into France there was much to tell. It was related that
in the Château of Chinon she had recognised the King, whom she had
never seen before, and had gone straight to him, although he was but
poorly clad and surrounded by his baronage.[1571] It was said that she
had given the King a sign, that she had revealed a secret to him; and
that on the revelation of the secret, known to him alone, he had been
illuminated with a heavenly joy. Concerning this interview at Chinon,
while those present had little to say, the stories of many who were
not there were interminable.[1572]

[Footnote 1571: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 192. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 273. _Journal du siège_, p. 47. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 67. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, pp.
336, 337. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, p. 96.]

[Footnote 1572: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 103, 116, 209, _passim_.
_Journal du siège_, p. 48. Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
i, p. 68. _Mirouer des femmes vertueuses_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
271. Pierre Sala, _ibid._, p. 280. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 104.
Eberhard Windecke, p. 153.]

On the 7th of May, at four o'clock in the afternoon, a white dove
alighted on the Maid's standard; and on the same day, during the
assault, two white birds were seen to be flying over her head.[1573]
Saints were commonly visited by doves. One day when Saint Catherine
of Sienna was kneeling in the fuller's house, a dove as white as snow
perched on the child's head.[1574]

[Footnote 1573: _Journal du siège_, p. 294. _Chronique de
l'établissement de la fête_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 294.]

[Footnote 1574: AA. SS., April 3rd. Didron, _Iconographie chrétienne_,
pp. 438, 439. Alba Mignati, _Sainte Catherine de Sienne_, p. 16.]

A tale then in circulation is interesting as showing the idea which
prevailed concerning the relations of the King and the Maid; it
serves, likewise, as an example of the perversions to which the story
of an actual fact is subject as it passes from mouth to mouth. Here is
the tale as it was gathered by a German merchant.

On a day, in a certain town, the Maid, hearing that the English were
near, went into the field; and straightway all the men-at-arms, who
were in the town, leapt to their steeds and followed her. Meanwhile,
the King, who was at dinner, learning that all were going forth in
company with the Maid, had the gates of the town closed.

The Maid was told, and she replied without concern: "Before the hour
of nones, the King will have so great need of me, that he will follow
me immediately, spurless, and barely staying to throw on his cloak."

And thus it came to pass. For the men-at-arms shut up in the town
besought the King to open the gates forthwith or they would break them
down. The gates were opened and all the fighting men hastened to the
Maid, heedless of the King, who threw on his cloak and followed them.

On that day a great number of the English were slain.[1575]

[Footnote 1575: Eberhard Windecke, p. 103.]

Such is the story which gives a very inaccurate representation of what
happened at Orléans on the 6th of May. The citizens hastened in crowds
to the Burgundian Gate, resolved to cross the Loire and attack Les
Tourelles. Finding the gate closed, they threw themselves furiously on
the Sire de Gaucourt who was keeping it. The aged baron had the gate
opened wide and said to them, "Come, I will be your captain."[1576] In
the story the citizens have become men-at-arms, and it is not the Sire
de Gaucourt but the King who maliciously closes the gates. But the
King gained nothing by it; and it is astonishing to find that so early
there had grown up in the minds of the people the idea that, far from
aiding the Maid to drive out the English, the King had put obstacles
in her way and was always the last to follow her.

[Footnote 1576: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 117.]

Seen through this chaos of stories more indistinct than the clouds in
a stormy sky, Jeanne appeared a wondrous marvel. She prophesied and
many of her prophecies had already been fulfilled. She had foretold
the deliverance of Orléans and Orléans had been delivered. She had
prophesied that she would be wounded, and an arrow had pierced her
above the right breast. She had prophesied that she would take the
King to Reims, and the King had been crowned in that city. Other
prophecies had she uttered touching the realm of France, to wit, the
deliverance of the Duke of Orléans, the entering into Paris, the
driving of the English from the holy kingdom, and their fulfilment was
expected.[1577]

[Footnote 1577: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 55, 84 _et seq._, 133, 174, 232,
251, 252, 254, 331; vol. iii, pp. 99, 205, 254, 257, _passim_.
_Journal du siège_, pp. 34, 44, 45, 48. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp.
212, 295. Perceval de Cagny, p. 141. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 320.
Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 143. The Clerk of the Chamber of
Accounts of Brabant, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426. _Chronique de
Tournai_ (vol. iii, _du recueil des chroniques de Flandre_), p. 411.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 121.]

Every day she prophesied and notably concerning divers persons who had
failed in respect towards her and had come to a bad end.[1578]

[Footnote 1578: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 57.]

At Chinon, when she was being taken to the King, a man-at-arms who was
riding near the château, thinking he recognised her, asked, "Is not
that the Maid? By God, an I had my way she should not be a maid long."

Then Jeanne prophesied and said "Ha, thou takest God's name in vain,
and thou art so near thy death!"

Less than an hour later the man fell into the water and was
drowned.[1579]

[Footnote 1579: Brother Pasquerel's evidence, in _Trial_, vol. iii, p.
102.]

Straightway this miracle was related in Latin verse. In the poem which
records this miraculous history of Jeanne up to the deliverance of
Orléans, the lewd blasphemer, who like all blasphemers, came to a bad
end, is noble and by name Furtivolus.[1580]

[Footnote 1580: Anonymous poem on the Maid, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 38,
lines 105 _et seq._]

    _... generoso sanguine natus,
    Nomine Furtivolus, veneris moderator iniquus._

Captain Glasdale called Jeanne strumpet and blasphemed his Maker.
Jeanne prophesied that he would die without shedding blood; and
Glasdale was drowned in the Loire.[1581]

[Footnote 1581: Evidence of J. Luillier and Brother Pasquerel, in
_Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 25, 108.]

Many of these tales were obvious imitations of incidents in the lives
of the saints, which were widely read in those days. A woman, who was
a heretic, pulled the cassock of Saint Ambrose, whereupon the blessed
bishop said to her, "Take heed lest one day thou be chastised of God."
On the morrow the woman died, and the Blessed Ambrose conducted her to
the grave.[1582]

[Footnote 1582: The _Golden Legend_. Life of Saint Ambrose.]

A nun, who was then alive and who was to die in an odour of sanctity,
Sister Colette of Corbie, had met her Furtivolus and had punished him,
but less severely. On a day when she was praying in a church of
Corbie, a stranger drew near and spoke to her libidinous words: "May
it please God," she said, "to bring home to you the hideousness of the
words you have just uttered." The stranger in shame went to the door.
But an invisible hand arrested him on the threshold. Then he realised
the gravity of his sin; he asked pardon of the saint and was free to
leave the church.[1583]

[Footnote 1583: Abbé J. Th. Bizouard, _Histoire de sainte Colette et
des clarisses en Franche-Comté, d'après des documents inédits et des
traditions locales_, Paris, 1888, in 8vo.]

After the royal army had departed from Gien, the Maid was said to have
prophesied that a great battle would be fought between Auxerre and
Reims.[1584] When such predictions were not fulfilled they were
forgotten. Besides, it was admitted that true prophets might sometimes
utter false prophecies. A subtle theologian distinguished between
prophecies of predestination which are always fulfilled and those of
condemnation, which being conditioned, may not be fulfilled and that
without reflecting untruthfulness on the lips that uttered them.[1585]
Folk wondered that a peasant child should be able to forecast the
future, and with the Apostle they cried, "I praise thee, O Father,
because thou hast hidden those things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto babes."

[Footnote 1584: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 148, 156. Eberhard Windecke,
pp. 103, 105, 187. Noël Valois, _Un nouveau témoignage sur Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 17.]

[Footnote 1585: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations_, pp. 220,
222. Théodore de Leliis, in _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 39, 42. Le P.
Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'Église de son temps_, p. 342. Abbé
Hyacinthe Chassagnon, _Les voix de Jeanne d'Arc_, Lyon 1896, in 8vo,
pp. 312, 313.]

The Maid's prophecies were speedily spread abroad throughout the whole
of Christendom.[1586] A clerk of Spiers wrote a treatise on her,
entitled _Sibylla Francica_, divided into two parts. The first part
was drawn up not later than July, 1429. The second is dated the 17th
of September, the same year. This clerk believes that the Maid
practised the art of divination by means of astrology. He had heard a
French monk of the order of the Premonstratensians[1587] say that
Jeanne delighted to study the heavens by night. He observes that all
her prophecies concerned the kingdom of France; and he gives the
following as having been uttered by the Maid: "After having ruled for
twenty years, the Dauphin will sleep with his fathers. After him, his
eldest son, now a child of six, will reign more gloriously, more
honourably, more powerfully than any King of France since
Charlemagne."[1588]

[Footnote 1586: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 138 _et seq._ Morosini, vol.
iii, pp. 62-63.]

[Footnote 1587: The monastery of the Premonstratensians, near Laon,
was founded in 1122, by St. Norbert (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1588: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 422 _et seq._, 433, 434, 465;
vol. v, pp. 475, 476.]

The Maid possessed the gift of beholding events which were taking
place far away.

At Vaucouleurs, on the very day of the Battle of the Herrings, she
knew the Dauphin's army had suffered grievous hurt.[1589]

[Footnote 1589: _Journal du siège_, p. 44. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 272.]

On a day when she was dining, seated near the King, she began to laugh
quietly. The King, perceiving, asked her: "My beloved, wherefore laugh
ye so merrily?"

She made answer that she would tell him when the repast was over. And,
when the ewer was brought her, "Sire," she said, "this day have been
drowned in the sea five hundred English, who were crossing to your
land to do you hurt. Therefore did I laugh. In three days you will
know that it is true."

And so it was.[1590]

[Footnote 1590: Eberhard Windecke, p. 117.]

Another time, when she was in a town some miles distant from the
château where the King was, as she prayed before going to sleep, it
was revealed to her that certain of the King's enemies wished to
poison him at dinner. Straightway she called her brothers and sent
them to the King to advise him to take no food until she came.

When she appeared before him, he was at table surrounded by eleven
persons.

"Sire," she said, "have the dishes brought."

She gave them to the dogs, who ate from them and died forthwith.

Then, pointing to a knight, who was near the King and to two other
guests: "Those persons," she said, "wished to poison you."

The knight straightway confessed that it was true; and he was dealt
with according to his deserts.[1591]

[Footnote 1591: _Ibid._, p. 97.]

It was borne in upon her that a certain priest kept a concubine;[1592]
and one day, meeting in the camp a woman dressed as a man, it was
revealed to her that the woman was pregnant and that having already
had one child she had made away with it.[1593]

[Footnote 1592: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 146.]

[Footnote 1593: Eberhard Windecke, p. 97.]

She was likewise said to possess the power of discovering things
hidden. She herself had claimed this power when she was at Tours. It
had been revealed to her that a sword was buried in the ground in the
chapel of Saint Catherine of Fierbois, and that was the sword she
wore. Some deemed it to be the sword with which Charles Martel had
defeated the Saracens. Others suspected it of being the sword of
Alexander the Great.[1594]

[Footnote 1594: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 76, 234. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 277. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 69, 70.
_Journal du siège_, pp. 49, 50. _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_,
pp. 337, 338. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109. Abbé Bourassé, _Les
miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, Introduction.]

In like manner it was said that before the coronation Jeanne had known
of a precious crown, hidden from all eyes. And here is the story told
concerning it:

A bishop kept the crown of Saint Louis. No one knew which bishop it
was, but it was known that the Maid had sent him a messenger, bearing
a letter in which she asked him to give up the crown. The bishop
replied that the Maid was dreaming. A second time she demanded the
sacred treasure, and the bishop made the same reply. Then she wrote to
the citizens of the episcopal city, saying that if the crown were not
given up to the King, the Lord would punish the town, and straightway
there fell so heavy a storm of hail that all men marvelled. Wizards
commonly caused hail storms. But this time the hail was a plague sent
by the God who afflicted Egypt with ten plagues. After which the Maid
despatched to the citizens a third letter in which she described the
form and fashion of the crown the bishop was hiding, and warned them
that if it were not given up even worse things would happen to them.
The bishop, who believed that the wondrous circlet of gold was known
to him alone, marvelled that the form and fashion thereof should be
described in this letter. He repented of his wickedness, wept many
tears, and commanded the crown to be sent to the King and the
Maid.[1595]

[Footnote 1595: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 160, 163.]

It is not difficult to discern the origin of this story. The crown of
Charlemagne, which the kings of France wore at the coronation
ceremony, was at Saint-Denys in France, in the hands of the English.
Jeanne boasted of having given the Dauphin at Chinon a precious crown,
brought by angels. She said that this crown had been sent to Reims for
the coronation, but that it did not arrive in time.[1596] As for the
hiding of the crown by the bishop, that idea arose probably from the
well-known cupidity of my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of
Reims, who had appropriated the silver vase intended for the chapter
and placed by the King upon the high altar after the ceremony.[1597]

[Footnote 1596: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1597: Dom Marlot, _Histoire de l'Église de Reims_, vol. iv,
p. 175. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, appendix xvii.]

There was likewise talk of gloves lost at Reims and of a cup that
Jeanne had found.[1598]

[Footnote 1598: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 104.]

Maiden, at once a warrior and a lover of peace, _béguine_, prophetess,
sorceress, angel of the Lord, ogress, every man beholds her according
to his own fashion, creates her according to his own image. Pious
souls clothe her with an invincible charm and the divine gift of
charity; simple souls make her simple too; men gross and violent
figure her a giantess, burlesque and terrible. Shall we ever discern
the true features of her countenance? Behold her, from the first and
perhaps for ever enclosed in a flowering thicket of legends!


END OF VOL. I.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC


BY ANATOLE FRANCE


A TRANSLATION BY WINIFRED STEPHENS

IN TWO VOLS., VOL. II

[Illustration]

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY: MCMIX

_Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by_
MANZI, JOYANT ET CIE

_Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by_
JOHN LANE COMPANY

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

[Illustration: The Duke of Bedford

from The Bedford Missal]




CONTENTS

VOL. II


CHAP.                                                   PAGE

I. THE ROYAL ARMY FROM SOISSONS TO COMPIÈGNE.
POEM AND PROPHECY                                          1

II. THE MAID'S FIRST VISIT TO COMPIÈGNE. THE
THREE POPES. SAINT-DENYS. TRUCES                          34

III. THE ATTACK ON PARIS                                  54

IV. THE TAKING OF SAINT-PIERRE-LE-MOUSTIER.
FRIAR RICHARD'S SPIRITUAL DAUGHTERS. THE
SIEGE OF LA CHARITÉ                                       78

V. LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF REIMS. LETTER TO
THE HUSSITES. DEPARTURE FROM SULLY                       103

VI. THE MAID IN THE TRENCHES OF MELUN. LE
SEIGNEUR DE L'OURS. THE CHILD OF LAGNY                   122

VII. SOISSONS AND COMPIÈGNE. CAPTURE OF THE MAID         138

VIII. THE MAID AT BEAULIEU. THE SHEPHERD OF GÉVAUDAN     156

IX. THE MAID AT BEAUREVOIR. CATHERINE DE LA
ROCHELLE AT PARIS. EXECUTION OF LA PIERRONNE             170

X. BEAUREVOIR. ARRAS. ROUEN. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE         188

XI. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (_continued_)                    227

XII. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (_continued_)                   264

XIII. THE ABJURATION. THE FIRST SENTENCE                 299

XIV. THE TRIAL FOR RELAPSE. SECOND SENTENCE.
DEATH OF THE MAID                                        323

XV. AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID. THE END OF
THE SHEPHERD. LA DAME DES ARMOISES                       343

XVI. AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID (_continued_). THE
ROUEN JUDGES AT THE COUNCIL OF BÂLE AND
THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. THE REHABILITATION
TRIAL. THE MAID OF SARMAIZE. THE MAID OF LE MANS         378


APPENDICES

I. LETTER FROM DOCTOR G. DUMAS                           401

II. THE FARRIER OF SALON                                 407

III. MARTIN DE GALLARDON                                 413

IV. ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTE                                  420




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. II


THE DUKE OF BEDFORD                            _Frontispiece_
  From the Bedford Missal.

                                               _To face page_

PHILIP, DUKE OF BURGUNDY                                 140

HENRY VI                                                 194
  From a portrait in the "Election Chamber" at Eton,
  reproduced by permission of the Provost.

THE BASTARD OF ORLÉANS                                   388
  From an old engraving.




JOAN OF ARC




CHAPTER I

THE ROYAL ARMY FROM SOISSONS TO COMPIÈGNE--POEM AND PROPHECY


On the 22nd of July, King Charles, marching with his army down the
valley of the Aisne, in a place called Vailly, received the keys of
the town of Soissons.[1599]

[Footnote 1599: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 323, 324. Perceval de
Cagny, pp. 160, 161. _Journal du siège_, p. 115. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 98. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 196.]

This town constituted a part of the Duchy of Valois, held jointly by
the Houses of Orléans and of Bar.[1600] Of its dukes, one was a prisoner
in the hands of the English; the other was connected with the French
party through his brother-in-law, King Charles, and with the
Burgundian party through his father-in-law, the Duke of Lorraine. No
wonder the fealty of the townsfolk was somewhat vacillating;
downtrodden by men-at-arms, forever taken and retaken, red caps and
white caps alternately ran the danger of being cast into the river.
The Burgundians set fire to the houses, pillaged the churches,
chastised the most notable burgesses; then came the Armagnacs, who
sacked everything, made great slaughter of men, women, and children,
ravished nuns, worthy wives, and honest maids. The Saracens could not
have done worse.[1601] City dames had been seen making sacks in which
Burgundians were to be sewn up and thrown into the Aisne.[1602]

[Footnote 1600: _Ordonnances des rois de France_, vol. ix, p. 71. H.
Martin and Lacroix, _Histoire de la ville de Soissons_, Soissons,
1837, in 8vo, ii, pp. 283 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1601: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 53, _passim_.]

[Footnote 1602: _Ibid._, p. 103.]

King Charles made his entry into the city on Saturday the 23rd, in the
morning.[1603] The red caps went into hiding. The bells pealed, the folk
cried "Noël," and the burgesses proffered the King two barbels, six
sheep and six gallons of "_bon suret_,"[1604] begging the King to forgive
its being so little, but the war had ruined them.[1605] They, like the
people of Troyes, refused to open their gates to the men-at-arms, by
virtue of their privileges, and because they had not food enough for
their support. The army encamped in the plain of Amblény.[1606]

[Footnote 1603: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 323, 324. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 160. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339.]

[Footnote 1604: _Suret_ is sour wine (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1605: C. Dormay, _Histoire de la ville de Soissons_, Soissons,
1664, vol. ii, pp. 382 _et seq._ H. Martin and Lacroix, _Histoire de
Soissons_, vol. ii, p. 319. Pécheur, _Annales du diocèse de Soissons_,
vol. iv, p. 513. Félix Brun, _Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons
en 1430_, Soissons, 1904, p. 34.]

[Footnote 1606: Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 49, 50. Le P. Daniel,
_Histoire de la milice française_, vol. i, p. 356. Félix Brun, _Jeanne
d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons_, pp. 26, 39.]

It would seem that at that time the leaders of the royal army had the
intention of marching on Compiègne. Indeed it was important to capture
this town from Duke Philip, for it was the key to l'Île-de-France and
ought to be taken before the Duke had time to bring up an army. But
throughout this campaign the King of France was resolved to recapture
his towns rather by diplomacy and persuasion than by force. Between
the 22nd and the 25th of July he three times summoned the inhabitants
of Compiègne to surrender. Being desirous to gain time and to have the
air of being constrained, they entered into negotiations.[1607]

[Footnote 1607: De l'Epinois, _Notes extraites des archives communales de
Compiègne_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, vol. xxix, p.
483. Sorel, _Prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 101, 102.]

Having quitted Soissons, the royal army reached Château-Thierry on the
29th. All day it waited for the town to open its gates. In the evening
the King entered.[1608] Coulommiers, Crécy-en-Brie, and Provins
submitted.[1609]

[Footnote 1608: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 340.]

[Footnote 1609: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 340. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 323. Félix Bourquelot, _Histoire de Provins_, Provins, vol. iv, pp.
79 _et seq._ Th. Robillard, _Histoire pittoresque topographique et
archéologique de Crécy-en-Brie_, 1852, p. 42. L'Abbé C. Poquet,
_Histoire de Château-Thierry_, 1839, vol. i, pp. 290 _et seq._]

On Monday, the 1st of August, the King crossed the Marne, over the
Château-Thierry Bridge, and that same day took up his quarters at
Montmirail. On the morrow he gained Provins and came within a short
distance of the passage of the Seine and the high-roads of central
France.[1610] The army was sore anhungered, finding nought to eat in
these ravaged fields and pillaged cities. Through lack of victuals
preparations were being made for retreat into Poitou. But this design
was thwarted by the English. While ungarrisoned towns were being
reduced, the English Regent had been gathering an army. It was now
advancing on Corbeil and Melun. On its approach the French gained La
Motte-Nangis, some twelve miles from Provins, where they took up their
position on ground flat and level, such as was convenient for the
fighting of a battle, as battles were fought in those days. For one
whole day they remained in battle array. There was no sign of the
English coming to attack them.[1611]

[Footnote 1610: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 160, 161.]

[Footnote 1611: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 324, 325. _Journal du
siège_, p. 115. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 98, 99.
Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Rymer, _Foedera_, June to July, 1429.
_Proceedings_, vol. iii, pp. 322 _et seq._ Morosini, vol. iv, appendix
xvii.]

Meanwhile the people of Reims received tidings that King Charles was
leaving Château-Thierry and was about to cross the Seine. Believing
that they had been abandoned, they were afraid lest the English and
Burgundians should make them pay dearly for the coronation of the King
of the Armagnacs; and in truth they stood in great danger. On the 3rd
of August, they resolved to send a message to King Charles to entreat
him not to forsake those cities which had submitted to him. The city's
herald set out forthwith. On the morrow they sent word to their good
friends of Châlons and of Laon, how they had heard that King Charles
was wending towards Orléans and Bourges, and how they had sent him a
message.[1612]

[Footnote 1612: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 98. Varin,
_Archives législatives de la ville de Reims_, Statuts, vol. i (annot.
according to doc. no. xxi), p. 741. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_,
original doc. no. 19, p. 118.]

On the 5th of August, while the King is still at Provins[1613] or in the
neighbourhood, Jeanne addresses to the townsfolk of Reims a letter
dated from the camp, on the road to Paris. Herein she promises not to
desert her friends faithful and beloved. She appears to have no
suspicion of the projected retreat on the Loire. Wherefore it is clear
that the magistrates of Reims have not written to her and that she is
not admitted to the royal counsels. She has been instructed, however,
that the King has concluded a fifteen days' truce with the Duke of
Burgundy, and thereof she informs the citizens of Reims. This truce is
displeasing to her; and she doubts whether she will observe it. If she
does observe it, it will be solely on account of the King's honour;
and even then she must be persuaded that there is no trickery in it.
She will therefore keep the royal army together and in readiness to
march at the end of the fifteen days. She closes her letter with a
recommendation to the townsfolk to keep good guard and to send her
word if they have need of her.

[Footnote 1613: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160.]

Here is the letter:

     "Good friends and beloved, ye good and loyal French of the
     city of Rains, Jehanne the Maid lets you wit of her tidings
     and prays and requires you not to doubt the good cause she
     maintains for the Blood Royal; and I promise and assure you
     that I will never forsake you as long as I shall live. It is
     true that the King has made truce with the Duke of Burgundy
     for the space of fifteen days, by which he is to surrender
     peaceably the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days.
     Notwithstanding, marvel ye not if I do not straightway enter
     into it, for truces thus made are not pleasing unto me, and
     I know not whether I shall keep them; but if I keep them it
     will be solely to maintain the King's honour; and further
     they shall not ensnare the Royal Blood, for I will keep and
     maintain together the King's army that it be ready at the
     end of fifteen days, if they make not peace. Wherefore my
     beloved and perfect friends, I pray ye to be in no
     disquietude as long as I shall live; but I require you to
     keep good watch and to defend well the good city of the
     King; and to make known unto me if there be any traitors who
     would do you hurt, and, as speedily as I may, I will take
     them out from among you; and send me of your tidings. To
     God I commend you. May he have you in his keeping."

     Written this Friday, 5th day of August, near Provins,[1614] a
     camp in the country or on the Paris road. Addressed to: the
     loyal French of the town of Rains.[1615]

[Footnote 1614: This place name is not to be found in Rogier's copy.]

[Footnote 1615: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 139, 140, and Varin, _loc. cit._
_Statuts_, vol. i, p. 603, according to Rogier's copy. H. Jadart,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, proofs and illustrations, vol. xiv, pp. 104,
105, and facsimile of the original copy formerly in the Reims
municipal archives, now in the possession of M. le Comte de
Maleissye.]

It cannot be doubted that the monk who acted as scribe wrote down
faithfully what was dictated to him, and reproduced the Maid's very
words, even her Lorraine dialect. She had then attained to the very
highest degree of heroic saintliness. Here, in this letter, she takes
to herself a supernatural power, to which the King, his Councillors
and his Captains must submit. She ascribes to herself alone the right
of recognising or denouncing treaties; she disposes entirely of the
army. And, because she commands in the name of the King of Heaven, her
commands are absolute. There is happening to her what necessarily
happens to all those who believe themselves entrusted with a divine
mission; they constitute themselves a spiritual and temporal power
superior to the established powers and inevitably hostile to them. A
dangerous illusion and productive of shocks in which the illuminated
are generally the worst sufferers! Every day of her life living and
holding converse with saints and angels, moving in the splendour of
the Church Triumphant, this young peasant girl came to believe that in
her resided all strength, all prudence, all wisdom and all counsel.
This does not mean that she was lacking in intelligence; on the
contrary she rightly perceived that the Duke of Burgundy, with his
embassies, was but playing with the King and that Charles was being
tricked by a Prince, who knew how to disguise his craft in
magnificence. Not that Duke Philip was an enemy of peace; on the
contrary he desired it, but he was desirous not to come to an open
quarrel with the English. Jeanne knew little of the affairs of
Burgundy and of France, but her judgment was none the less sound.
Concerning the relative positions of the Kings of France and England,
between whom there could be no agreement, since the matter in dispute
was the possession of the kingdom, her ideas were very simple but very
correct. Equally accurate were her views of the position of the King
of France with regard to his great vassal, the Duke of Burgundy, with
whom an understanding was not only possible and desirable, but
necessary. She pronounced thereupon in a perfectly straightforward
fashion: On the one hand there is peace with the Burgundians and on
the other peace with the English; concerning the peace with the Duke
of Burgundy, by letters and by ambassadors have I required him to come
to terms with the King; as for the English, the only way of making
peace with them is for them to go back to their country, to
England.[1616]

[Footnote 1616: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 233, 234.]

This truce that so highly displeased her we know not when it was
concluded, whether at Soissons or Château-Thierry, on the 30th or 31st
of July, or at Provins between the 2nd and 5th of August.[1617] It would
appear that it was to last fifteen days, at the end of which time the
Duke was to undertake to surrender Paris to the King of France. The
Maid had good reason for her mistrust.

[Footnote 1617: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 202, 203, note 2.]

When the Regent withdrew before him, King Charles eagerly returned to
his plan of retreating into Poitou. From La Motte-Nangis he sent his
quartermasters to Bray-sur-Seine, which had just submitted. Situated
above Montereau and ten miles south of Provins, this town had a bridge
over the river, across which the royal army was to pass on the 5th of
August or in the morning of the 6th; but the English came by night,
overcame the quartermasters and took possession of the bridge; with
its retreat cut off, the royal army had to retrace its march.[1618]

[Footnote 1618: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 325. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 99, 100. _Journal du siège_, pp. 119, 120.
Gilles de Roye, p. 207.]

Within this army, which had not fought and which was being devoured by
hunger, there existed a party of zealots, led by those whom Jeanne
fondly called the Royal Blood.[1619] They were the Duke of Alençon, the
Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Vendôme, and likewise the Duke of Bar,
who had just come from the War of the Apple Baskets.[1620] Before he
took to painting pictures and writing moralities in rhyme, this young
son of the Lady Yolande had been a warrior. Duke of Bar and heir of
Lorraine, he had been forced to join the English and Burgundians.
Brother-in-law of King Charles, he must needs rejoice when the latter
was victorious, because, but for that victory, he would never have
been able to range himself on the side of the Queen, his sister, for
which he would have been very sorry.[1621] Jeanne knew him; not long
before, she had asked the Duke of Lorraine to send him with her into
France.[1622] He was said to have been one of those who of their own
free will followed her to Paris. Among the others were the two sons of
the Lady of Laval, Gui, the eldest to whom she had offered wine at
Selles-en-Berry, promising soon to give him to drink at Paris, and
André, who afterwards became Marshal of Lohéac.[1623] This was the army
of the Maid: a band of youths, scarcely more than children, who ranged
their banners side by side with the banner of a girl younger than
they, but more innocent and better.

[Footnote 1619: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1620: _Guerre de la Hottée de Pommes_, cf. vol. i, p. 92.
(W.S.)]

[Footnote 1621: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaut de Metz_ in D.
Calmet. _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. v, orig. docs., cols, xli-xlvii.
Villeneuve-Bargemont, _Précis historique de la vie du roi René_, Aix,
1820, in 8vo. Lecoy de la Marche, _Le roi René_, Paris, 1875, 2 vols.
in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie générale_, 1866,
xli, pp. 1009-1015.]

[Footnote 1622: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 444. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à
Domremy_, p. cxcix. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 156, note 3.]

[Footnote 1623: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 105-111.]

On learning that the retreat had been cut off, it is said that these
youthful princes were well content and glad.[1624] This was valour and
zeal; but it was a curious position and a false when the knighthood
wished for war while the royal council was desiring to treat, and when
the knighthood actually rejoiced at the campaign being prolonged by
the enemy and at the royal army being cornered by the _Godons_.
Unhappily this war party could boast of no very able adherents; and
the favourable opportunity had been lost, the Regent had been allowed
time to collect his forces and to cope with the most pressing
dangers.[1625]

[Footnote 1624: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, Jean Chartier. _Journal du
siège_, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 1625: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 340, 344.]

Its retreat cut off, the royal army fell back on Brie. On the morning
of Sunday, the 7th, it was at Coulommiers; it recrossed the Marne at
Château-Thierry.[1626] King Charles received a message from the
inhabitants of Reims, entreating him to draw nearer to them.[1627] He
was at La Ferté on the 10th, on the 11th at Crépy in Valois.[1628]

[Footnote 1626: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 100. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 325.]

[Footnote 1627: Varin, _Archives législatives de la ville de Reims_,
Statuts, vol. i, p. 742.]

[Footnote 1628: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161.]

At one stage of the march on La Ferté and Crépy, the Maid was riding
in company with the King, between the Archbishop of Reims and my Lord
the Bastard. Beholding the people hastening to come before the King
and crying "Noël!" she exclaimed: "Good people! Never have I seen folk
so glad at the coming of the fair King...."[1629]

[Footnote 1629: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 326.]

These peasants of Valois and of l'Île de France, who cried "Noël!" on
the coming of King Charles, in like manner hailed the Regent and the
Duke of Burgundy when they passed. Doubtless they were not so glad as
they seemed to Jeanne, and if the little Saint had listened at the
doors of their poor homes, this is about what she would have heard:
"What shall we do? Let us surrender our all to the devil. It matters
not what shall become of us, for, through treason and bad government,
we must needs forsake our wives and children and flee into the woods,
like wild beasts. And it is not one year or two but fourteen or
fifteen since we have been led this unhappy dance. And most of the
great nobles of France have died by the sword, or unconfessed have
fallen victims to poison or to treachery, or in short have perished by
some manner of violent death. Better for us would it have been to
serve Saracens than Christians. Whether one lives badly or well it
comes to the same thing. Let us do all the evil that lieth in our
power. No worse can happen to us than to be slain or taken."[1630]

[Footnote 1630: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 164.]

It was only in the neighbourhood of towns or close to fortresses and
castles, within sight of the watchman's eye as he looked from the top
of tower or belfry, that land was cultivated. On the approach of
men-at-arms, the watchman rang his bell or sounded his horn to warn
the vine-dressers or the ploughmen to flee to a place of safety. In
many districts the alarm bell was so frequent that oxen, sheep, and
pigs, of their own accord went into hiding, as soon as they heard
it.[1631]

[Footnote 1631: Thomas Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII_, chap. vi. A.
Tuetey, _Les écorcheurs sous Charles VII_, Montbéliard, 1874, 2 vols.
in 8vo, _passim_. H. Lepage, _Épisodes de l'histoire des routiers en
Lorraine_ (1362-1446), in _Journal d'archéologie lorraine_, vol. xv,
pp. 161 _et seq._ Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises_,
_passim_. H. Martin et Lacroix, _Histoire de Soissons_, p. 318,
_passim_. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Épisodes de l'invasion anglaise. La
guerre de partisans dans la Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, vol. liv, pp. 475-521; vol. lv,
pp. 258-305; vol. lvi, pp. 432-508.]

In the plains especially, which were easy of access, the Armagnacs and
the English had destroyed everything. For some distance from Beauvais,
from Senlis, from Soissons, from Laon, they had caused the fields to
lie fallow, and here and there shrubs and underwood were springing up
over land once cultivated.--"Noël! Noël!"

Throughout the duchy of Valois, the peasants were abandoning the open
country and hiding in woods, rocks, and quarries.[1632]

[Footnote 1632: Pardon issued by King Henry VI to an inhabitant of
Noyant, in Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. i, pp. 23, 31. F.
Brun, _Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons_, note iii, p. 41.]

Many, in order to gain a livelihood, did like Jean de Bonval, the
tailor of Noyant near Soissons, who, despite wife and children, joined
a Burgundian band, which went up and down the country thieving,
pillaging, and, when occasion offered, smoking out the folk who had
taken refuge in churches. On one day Jean and his comrades took two
hogsheads of corn, on another six or seven cows; on another a goat and
a cow, on another a silver belt, a pair of gloves and a pair of shoes;
on another a bale of eighteen ells of cloth to make cloaks withal. And
Jean de Bonval said that within his knowledge many a man of worship
did as much.[1633]--"Noël! Noël!"

[Footnote 1633: Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. i, pp. 23, 31.]

The Armagnacs and Burgundians had torn the coats off the peasants'
backs and seized even their pots and pans. It was not far from Crépy
to Meaux. Every one in that country had heard of the Tree of Vauru.

At one of the gates of the town of Meaux was a great elm, whereon the
Bastard of Vauru, a Gascon noble of the Dauphin's party, used to hang
the peasants he had taken, when they could not pay their ransom. When
he had no executioner at hand he used to hang them himself. With him
there lived a kinsman, my Lord Denis de Vauru, who was called his
cousin, not that he was so in fact, but just to show that one was no
better than the other.[1634] In the month of March, in the year 1420, my
Lord Denis, on one of his expeditions, came across a peasant tilling
the ground. He took him prisoner, held him to ransom, and, tying him
to his horse's tail, dragged him back to Meaux, where, by threats and
torture, he exacted from him a promise to pay three times as much as
he possessed. Dragged half dead from his dungeon, the villein sent to
the wife he had married that year to ask her to bring the sum demanded
by the lord. She was with child, and near the time of her delivery;
notwithstanding, she came because she loved her husband and hoped to
soften the heart of the Lord of Vauru. She failed; and Messire Denis
told her that if by a certain day he did not receive the ransom, he
would hang the man from the elm-tree. The poor woman went away in
tears, fondly commending her husband to God's keeping. And her husband
wept for pity of her. By a great effort, she succeeded in obtaining
the sum demanded, but not by the day appointed. When she returned, her
husband had been hanged from the Vauru Tree without respite or mercy.
With bitter sobs she asked for him, and then fell exhausted by the
side of that road, which, on the point of her delivery, she had
traversed on foot. Having regained consciousness, a second time she
asked for her husband. She was told that she would not see him till
the ransom had been paid.

[Footnote 1634: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 170, 171.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 96. _Livre des trahisons_, pp. 167, 168.]

While she was before the Gascon, there in sight of her were brought
forth several craftsmen, held to ransom, who, unable to pay, were
straightway despatched to be hanged or drowned. At this spectacle a
great fear for her husband came over her; nevertheless, her love for
him gave her heart of courage and she paid the ransom. As soon as the
Duke's men had counted the coins, they dismissed her saying that her
husband had died like the other villeins.

At those cruel words, wild with sorrow and despair, she broke forth
into curses and railing. When she refused to be silent, the Bastard
of Vauru had her beaten and taken to the Elm-tree.

There she was stripped to the waist and tied to the Tree, whence hung
forty to fifty men, some from the higher, some from the lower
branches, so that, when the wind blew, their bodies touched her head.
At nightfall she uttered shrieks so piercing that they were heard in
the town. But whosoever had dared to go and unloose her would have
been a dead man. Fright, fatigue, and exertion brought on her
delivery. The wolves, attracted by her cries, came and consumed the
fruit of her womb, and then devoured alive the body of the wretched
creature.

In 1422, the town of Meaux was taken by the Burgundians. Then were the
Bastard of Vauru and his cousin hanged from that Tree on which they
had caused so many innocent folk to die so shameful a death.[1635]

[Footnote 1635: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 170. According to
Monstrelet (vol. iv, p. 96), Denis de Vauru, the Bastard's cousin, was
beheaded in the Market of Paris.]

For the poor peasants of these unhappy lands, whether Armagnac or
Burgundian, it was all of a piece; they had nothing to gain by
changing masters. Nevertheless, it is possible that, on beholding the
King, the descendant of Saint Louis and Charles the Wise, they may
have taken heart of courage and of hope, so great was the fame for
justice and for mercy of the illustrious house of France.

Thus, riding by the side of the Archbishop of Reims, the Maid looked
with a friendly eye on the peasants crying "Noël!" After saying that
she had nowhere seen folk so joyful at the coming of the fair King,
she sighed: "Would to God I were so fortunate as, when I die, to find
burial in this land."[1636]

[Footnote 1636: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 326.]

Peradventure the Lord Archbishop was curious to know whether from her
Voices she had received any revelation concerning her approaching
death. She often said that she would not last long. Doubtless he was
acquainted with a prophecy widely known at that time, that the maid
would die in the Holy Land, after having reconquered with King Charles
the sepulchre of our Lord. There were those who attributed this
prophecy to the Maid herself; for she had told her Confessor that she
would die in battle with the Infidel, and that after her God would
send a Maid of Rome who would take her place.[1637] And it is obvious
that Messire Regnault knew what store to set on such things. At any
rate, for that reason or for another, he asked: "Jeanne, in what place
look you for to die?"

[Footnote 1637: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 108, 109, 188, 189.]

To which she made answer: "Where it shall please God. For I am sure
neither of the time nor of the place, and I know no more thereof than
you."

No answer could have been more devout. My Lord the Bastard, who was
present at this conversation, many years later thought he remembered
that Jeanne had added: "But I would it were now God's pleasure for me
to retire, leaving my arms, and to go and serve my father and mother,
keeping sheep with my brethren and sister."[1638]

[Footnote 1638: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. It is Dunois who is
giving evidence, and the text runs: _In custodiendo oves ipsorum, cum
sorore et fratribus meis, qui multum gauderent videre me_. But there
is reason to believe she had only one sister, whom she had lost before
coming into France. As for her brothers, two of them were with her.
Dunois' evidence appears to have been written down by a clerk
unacquainted with events. The hagiographical character of the passage
is obvious.]

If she really spoke thus, it was doubtless because she was haunted by
dark forebodings. For some time she had believed herself betrayed.[1639]
Possibly she suspected the Lord Archbishop of Reims of wishing her
ill. But it is hard to believe that he can have thought of getting rid
of her now when he had employed her with such signal success; rather
his intention was to make further use of her. Nevertheless he did not
like her, and she felt it. He never consulted her and never told her
what had been decided in council. And she suffered cruelly from the
small account made of the revelations she was always receiving so
abundantly. May we not interpret as a subtle and delicate reproach the
utterance in his presence of this wish, this complaint? Doubtless she
longed for her absent mother. And yet she was mistaken when she
thought that henceforth she could endure the tranquil life of a
village maiden. In her childhood at Domremy she seldom went to tend
the flocks in the field; she preferred to occupy herself in household
affairs;[1640] but if, after having waged war beside the King and the
nobles, she had had to return to her country and keep sheep, she would
not have stayed there six months. Henceforth it was impossible for her
to live save with that knighthood, to whose company she believed God
had called her. All her heart was there, and she had finished with the
distaff.

[Footnote 1639: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 423.]

[Footnote 1640: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 51, 66.]

During the march on La Ferté and Crépy, King Charles received a
challenge from the Regent, then at Montereau with his baronage,
calling upon him to fix a meeting at whatsoever place he should
appoint.[1641] "We, who with all our hearts," said the Duke of Bedford,
"desire the end of the war, summon and require you, if you have pity
and compassion on the poor folk, who in your cause have so long time
been cruelly treated, downtrodden, and oppressed, to appoint a place
suitable either in this land of Brie, where we both are, or in
l'Île-de-France. There will we meet. And if you have any proposal of
peace to make unto us, we will listen to it and as beseemeth a good
Catholic prince we will take counsel thereon."[1642]

[Footnote 1641: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 340, 344.]

[Footnote 1642: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 342.]

This arrogant and insulting letter had not been penned by the Regent
in any desire or hope of peace, but rather, against all reason, to
throw on King Charles's shoulders the responsibility for the miseries
and suffering the war was causing the commonalty.

Writing to the King crowned in Reims Cathedral, from the beginning he
addresses him in this disdainful manner: "You who were accustomed to
call yourself Dauphin of Viennois and who now without reason take unto
yourself the title of King." He declares that he wants peace and then
adds forthwith: "Not a peace hollow, corrupt, feigned, violated,
perjured, like that of Montereau, on which, by your fault and your
consent, there followed that terrible and detestable murder, committed
contrary to all law and honour of knighthood, on the person of our
late dear and greatly loved Father, Jean, Duke of Burgundy."[1643]

[Footnote 1643: _Ibid._, pp. 342, 343.]

My Lord of Bedford had married one of the daughters of that Duke Jean,
who had been treacherously murdered in revenge for the assassination
of the Duke of Orléans. But indeed it was not wisely to prepare the
way of peace to cast the crime of Montereau in the face of Charles of
Valois, who had been dragged there as a child and with whom there had
remained ever after a physical trembling and a haunting fear of
crossing bridges.[1644]

[Footnote 1644: Georges Chastellain, fragments published by J. Quicherat
in _La Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, 1st series, vol. iv, p.
78.]

For the moment the Duke of Bedford's most serious grievance against
Charles was that he was accompanied by the Maid and Friar Richard.
"You cause the ignorant folk to be seduced and deceived," he said,
"for you are supported by superstitious and reprobate persons, such as
this woman of ill fame and disorderly life, wearing man's attire and
dissolute in manners, and likewise by that apostate and seditious
mendicant friar, they both alike being, according to Holy Scripture,
abominable in the sight of God."

To strike still greater shame into the heart of the enemy, the Duke of
Bedford proceeds to a second attack on the maiden and the monk. And in
the most eloquent passage of the letter, when he is citing Charles of
Valois to appear before him, he says ironically that he expects to see
him come led by this woman of ill fame and this apostate monk.[1645]

[Footnote 1645: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 341, 342.]

Thus wrote the Regent of England; albeit he had a mind, subtle,
moderate, and graceful, he was moreover a good Catholic and a believer
in all manner of devilry and witchcraft.

His horror at the army of Charles of Valois being commanded by a witch
and a heretic monk was certainly sincere, and he deemed it wise to
publish the scandal. There were doubtless only too many, who, like
him, were ready to believe that the Maid of the Armagnacs was a
heretic, a worshipper of idols and given to the practice of magic. In
the opinion of many worthy and wise Burgundians a prince must forfeit
his honour by keeping such company. And if Jeanne were in very deed a
witch, what a disgrace! What an abomination! The Flowers de Luce
reinstated by the devil! The Dauphin's whole camp was tainted by it.
And yet when my Lord of Bedford spread abroad those ideas he was not
so adroit as he thought.

Jeanne, as we know, was good-hearted and in energy untiring. By
inspiring the men of her party with the idea that she brought them
good luck, she gave them courage.[1646] Nevertheless King Charles's
counsellors knew what she could do for them and avoided consulting
her. She herself felt that she would not last long.[1647] Then who
represented her as a great war leader? Who exalted her as a
supernatural power? The enemy.

[Footnote 1646: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 324; vol. iii, p. 130. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 388.]

[Footnote 1647: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99.]

This letter shows how the English had transformed an innocent child
into a being unnatural, terrible, redoubtable, into a spectre of hell
causing the bravest to grow pale. In a voice of lamentation the Regent
cries: The devil! the witch! And then he marvels that his fighting men
tremble before the Maid, and desert rather than face her.[1648]

[Footnote 1648: _Ibid._, vol. iv, pp. 206, 406, 444, 470, 472. Rymer,
_Foedera_, vol. iv, p. 141. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La panique
anglaise_.]

From Montereau, the English army had fallen back on Paris. Now it once
again came forth to meet the French. On Saturday, the 13th of August,
King Charles held the country between Crépy and Paris. Now the Maid
from the heights of Dammartin could espy the summit of Montmartre
with its windmills, and the light mists from the Seine veiling that
great city of Paris, promised to her by those Voices which alas! she
had heeded too well.[1649] On the morrow, Sunday, the King and his army
encamped in a village, by name Barron, on the River Nonnette on which,
five miles lower down, stands Senlis.[1650]

[Footnote 1649: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 246, 298. Letter from Alain
Chartier in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 131 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1650: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 344, 345. Perceval de Cagny,
pp. 161, 162.]

Senlis was subject to the English.[1651] It was said that the Regent was
approaching with a great company of men-at-arms, commanded by the Earl
of Suffolk, the Lord Talbot and the Bastard Saint Pol. With him were
the crusaders of the Cardinal of Winchester, the late King's uncle,
between three thousand five hundred and four thousand men, paid with
the Pope's money to go and fight against the Hussites in Bohemia. The
Cardinal judged it well to use them against the King of France, a very
Christian King forsooth, but one whose hosts were commanded by a witch
and an apostate.[1652] It was reported that, in the English camp, was a
captain with fifteen hundred men-at-arms, clothed in white, bearing a
white standard, on which was embroidered a distaff whence was
suspended a spindle; and on the streamer of the banner was worked in
fine letters of gold: "_Ores, vienne la Belle!_"[1653] By these words
the men-at-arms wished to proclaim that if they were to meet the Maid
of the Armagnacs she would find her work cut out.

[Footnote 1651: Flammermont, _Histoire de Senlis pendant la seconds
partie de la guerre de cent ans_ (1405-1441), in _Mémoires de la
Société de l'Histoire de Paris_.]

[Footnote 1652: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 101, 102.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 328. _Journal du siège_, p. 118.
Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 453. Morosini, vol. iii, pp.
188, 189; vol. iv, appendix xvii. Rymer, _Foedera_, July, 1429.
Raynaldi, _Annales ecclesiastici_, pp. 77, 88. S. Bougenot, _Notices
et extraits de manuscrits intéressant l'histoire de France conservés a
la Bibliothèque impérial de Vienne_, p. 62.]

[Footnote 1653: Now, come forth Beauty (W.S.). _Le Livre des trahisons
de France_, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, in _La collection des chroniques
belges_, 1873, p. 198.]

Captain Jean de Saintrailles, the Brother of Poton, observed the
English first when, marching towards Senlis, they were crossing La
Nonnette by a ford so narrow that two horses could barely pass
abreast. But King Charles's army, which was coming down the Nonnette
valley, did not arrive in time to surprise them.[1654] It passed the
night opposite them, near Montepilloy.

[Footnote 1654: Perceval de Cagny, p. 162. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, p. 102. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 329. _Journal du siège_,
pp. 119, 120.]

On the morrow, Monday, the 15th of August, at daybreak, the
men-at-arms heard mass in camp and, as far as might be, cleared their
consciences; for great plunderers and whoremongers as they were, they
had not given up hope of winning Paradise when this life should be
over. That day was a solemn feast, when the Church, on the authority
of St. Grégoire de Tours, commemorates the physical and spiritual
exaltation to heaven of the Virgin Mary. Churchmen taught that it
behoves men to keep the feasts of Our Lord and the Holy Virgin, and
that to wage battle on days consecrated to them is to sin grievously
against the glorious Mother of God. No one in King Charles's camp
could maintain a contrary opinion, since all were Christians as they
were in the camp of the Regent. And yet, immediately after the _Deo
Gratias_, every man took up his post ready for battle.[1655]

[Footnote 1655: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161.]

According to the established rule, the army was in several divisions:
the van-guard, the archers, the main body, the rear-guard and the
three wings.[1656] Further, and according to the same rule, there had
been formed a skirmishing company, destined if need were to succour
and reinforce the other divisions. It was commanded by Captain La
Hire, my Lord the Bastard, and the Sire d'Albret, La Trémouille's
half-brother. With this company was the Maid. At the Battle of Patay,
despite her entreaties, she had been forced to keep with the
rear-guard; now she rode with the bravest and ablest, with those
skirmishers or scouts, whose duty it was, says Jean de Bueil,[1657] to
repulse the scouts of the opposite party and to observe the number and
the ordering of the enemy.[1658] At length justice was done her; at
length she was assigned the place which her skill in horsemanship and
her courage in battle merited; and yet she hesitated to follow her
comrades. According to the report of a Burgundian knight chronicler,
there she was, "swayed to and fro, at one moment wishing to fight, at
another not."[1659]

[Footnote 1656: _Le Jouvencel_, _passim_.]

[Footnote 1657: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 329. _Journal du siège_,
p. 121.]

[Footnote 1658: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 35.]

[Footnote 1659: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 346.]

Her perplexity is easily comprehensible. The little Saint could not
bring herself to decide whether to ride forth to battle on the day of
our Lady's Feast or to fold her arms while fighting was going on
around her. Her Voices intensified her indecision. They never
instructed her what to do save when she knew herself. In the end she
went with the men-at-arms, not one of whom appears to have shared her
scruples. The two armies were but the space of a culverin shot
apart.[1660] She, with certain of her company, went right up to the
dykes and to the carts, behind which the English were entrenched.
Sundry _Godons_ and men of Picardy came forth from their camp and
fought, some on foot, others on horseback against an equal number of
French. On both sides there were wounded, and prisoners were taken.
This hand to hand fighting continued the whole day; at sunset the most
serious skirmish happened, and so much dust was raised that it was
impossible to see anything.[1661] On that day there befell what had
happened on the 17th of June, between Beaugency and Meung. With the
armaments and the customs of warfare of those days, it was very
difficult to force an army to come out of its entrenched camp.
Generally, if a battle was to be fought, it was necessary for the two
sides to be in accord, and, after the pledge of battle had been sent
and accepted, for each to level his own half of the field where the
engagement was to take place.

[Footnote 1660: Perceval de Cagny, p. 162.]

[Footnote 1661: Jean Chartier, _Chronique de la Pucelle_. _Journal du
siège._ Monstrelet, _loc. cit._]

At nightfall the skirmishing ceased, and the two armies slept at a
crossbow-shot from each other. Then King Charles went off to Crépy,
leaving the English free to go and relieve the town of Évreux, which
had agreed to surrender on the 27th of August. With this town the
Regent made sure of Normandy.[1662]

[Footnote 1662: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 332. Perceval de Cagny, p.
165. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. Cochon, p. 457. G.
Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo, pp. 10,
11. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 215, note 3. Ch. de Beaurepaire, _De
l'administration de la Normandie sous la domination anglaise aux
années 1424, 1425, 1429_, p. 62 (_Mémoires de la Société des
Antiquaires de Normandie_, vol. xxiv).]

Their loss of the opportunity of conquering Normandy was the price the
French had to pay for the royal coronation procession, for that march
to Reims, which was at once military, civil and religious. If, after
the victory of Patay, they had hastened at once to Rouen, Normandy
would have been reconquered and the English cast into the sea; if,
from Patay they had pushed on to Paris they would have entered the
city without resistance. Yet we must not too hastily condemn that
ceremonious promenading of the Lilies through Champagne. By the march
to Reims the French party, those Armagnacs reviled for their cruelty
and felony, that little King of Bourges compromised in an infamous
ambuscade, may have won advantages greater and more solid than the
conquest of the county of Maine and the duchy of Normandy and than a
victorious assault on the first city of the realm. By retaking his
towns of Champagne and of France without bloodshed, King Charles
appeared to advantage as a good and pacific lord, as a prince wise and
debonair, as the friend of the townsfolk, as the true king of cities.
In short, by concluding that campaign of honest and successful
negotiations and by the august ceremonial of the coronation, he came
forth at once as the lawful and very holy King of France.

An illustrious lady, a descendant of Bolognese nobles and the widow of
a knight of Picardy, well versed in the liberal arts, was the author
of a number of lays, virelays,[1663] and ballads. Christine de Pisan,
noble and high-minded, wrote with distinction in prose and verse.
Loyal to France and a champion of her sex, there was nothing she more
fervently desired than to see the French prosperous and their ladies
honoured. In her old age she was cloistered in the Abbey of Poissy,
where her daughter was a nun. There, on the 31st of July, 1429, she
completed a poem of sixty-one stanzas, each containing eight lines of
eight syllables, in praise of the Maid. In halting measures and
affected language, these verses expressed the thoughts of the finest,
the most cultured and the most pious souls touching the angel of war
sent of God to the Dauphin Charles.[1664]

[Footnote 1663: A virelay was a later variation of the lay, differing
from it chiefly in the arrangement of the rhymes (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1664: Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses
historiens_, pp. 426 _et seq._]

In this work she begins by saying that for eleven years she has spent
her cloistered life in weeping. And in very truth, this noble-hearted
woman wept over the misfortunes of the realm, into which she had been
born, wherein she had grown up, where kings and princes had received
her and learned poets had done her honour, and the language of which
she spoke with the precision of a purist. After eleven years of
mourning, the victories of the Dauphin were her first joy.

"At length," she says, "the sun begins to shine once more and the fine
days to bloom again. That royal child so long despised and offended,
behold him coming, wearing on his head a crown and accoutred with
spurs of gold. Let us cry: 'Noël! Charles, the seventh of that great
name, King of the French, thou hast recovered thy kingdom, with the
help of a Maid.'"

Christine recalls a prophecy concerning a King, Charles, son of
Charles, surnamed The Flying Hart,[1665] who was to be emperor. Of this
prophecy we know nothing save that the escutcheon of King Charles VII
was borne by two winged stags and that a letter to an Italian
merchant, written in 1429, contains an obscure announcement of the
coronation of the Dauphin at Rome.[1666]

[Footnote 1665: A winged stag (_le cerf-volant_) is the symbol of a
king. Froissart thus explains its origin. Before setting out for
Flanders, in 1382, Charles VI dreamed that his falcon had flown away.
"Th[=e] [Transcriber's Note: e with macron] apered sodenly before hym
a great hart with wynges whereof he had great joye." And the hart bore
him to his lost bird. Froissart, Bk. II, ch. clxiv. [The Chronycle of
Syr John Froissart translated by Lord Berners, vol. iii, p. 339, Tudor
Translation, 1901.] (W.S.) According to Juvénal des Ursins, Charles
VI, in 1380, met in the Forest of Senlis a stag with a golden collar
bearing this inscription: _Hoc me Cæsar donavit_ (Paillot, _Parfaite
science des armoiries_, Paris, 1660, in fo., p. 595). In the works of
Eustache Deschamps this same allegory is frequently employed to
designate the king. (Eustache Deschamps, _OEuvres_, ed. G. Raynaud,
vol. ii, p. 57.)]

[Footnote 1666: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 66, 67.]

"I pray God," continued Christine, "that thou mayest be that one, that
God will grant thee life to see thy children grow up, that through
thee and through them, France may have joy, that serving God, thou
wage not war to the utterance. My hope is that thou shalt be good,
upright, a friend of justice, greater than any other, that pride sully
not thy prowess, that thou be gentle, favourable to thy people and
fearing God who hath chosen thee to serve him.

"And thou, Maid most happy, most honoured of God, thou hast loosened
the cord with which France was bound. Canst thou be praised enough,
thou who hast brought peace to this land laid low by war?

"Jeanne, born in a propitious hour, blessed be thy creator! Maid, sent
of God, in whom the Holy Ghost shed abroad a ray of his grace, who
hast from him received and dost keep gifts in abundance; never did he
refuse thy request. Who can ever be thankful enough unto thee?"

The Maid, saviour of the realm, Dame Christine compares to Moses who
delivered Israel out of the Land of Egypt.

"That a Maid should proffer her breast, whence France may suck the
sweet milk of peace, behold a matter which is above nature!

"Joshua was a mighty conqueror. What is there strange in that, since
he was a strong man? But now behold, a woman, a shepherdess doth
appear, of greater worship than any man. But with God all things are
easy.

"By Esther, Judith and Deborah, women of high esteem, he delivered his
oppressed people. And well I know there have been women of great
worship. But Jeanne is above all. Through her God hath worked many
miracles.

"By a miracle was she sent; the angel of the Lord led her to the
King."

"Before she could be believed, to clerks and to scholars was she taken
and thoroughly examined. She said she was come from God, and history
proved her saying to be true, for Merlin, the Sibyl and Bede had seen
her in the spirit. In their books they point to her as the saviour of
France, and in their prophecies they let wit of her, saying: 'In the
French wars she shall bear the banner.' And indeed they relate all the
manner of her history."

We are not astonished that Dame Christine should have been acquainted
with the Sibylline poems; for it is known that she was well versed in
the writings of the ancients. But we perceive that the obviously
mutilated prophecy of Merlin the Magician and the apocryphal
chronogram of the Venerable Bede had come under her notice. The
predictions and verses of the Armagnac ecclesiastics were spread
abroad everywhere with amazing rapidity.[1667]

[Footnote 1667: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 133, 338, 340 _et seq._; vol. iv,
pp. 305, 480; vol. v, p. 12.]

Dame Christine's views concerning the Maid accord with those of the
doctors of the French party; and the poem she wrote in her convent in
many passages bears resemblance to the treatise of the Archbishop of
Embrun.

There it is said:

"The goodness of her life proves that Jeanne possesses the grace of
God.

"It was made manifest, when at the siege of Orléans her might revealed
itself. Never was miracle plainer. God did so succour his own people,
that the strength of the enemy was but as that of a dead dog. They
were taken or slain.

"Honour to the feminine sex, God loves it. A damsel of sixteen, who is
not weighed down by armour and weapons, even though she be bred to
endure hardness, is not that a matter beyond nature? The enemy flees
before her. Many eyes behold it.

"She goeth forth capturing towns and castles. She is the first captain
of our host. Such power had not Hector or Achilles. But God, who leads
her, does all.

"And you, ye men-at-arms, who suffer durance vile and risk your lives
for the right, be ye faithful: in heaven shall ye have reward and
glory, for whosoever fighteth for the just cause, winneth Paradise.

"Know ye that by her the English shall be cast down, for it is the
will of God, who inclineth his ear to the voice of the good folk, whom
they desired to overthrow. The blood of the slain crieth against
them."

In the shadow of her convent Dame Christine shares the hope common to
every noble soul; from the Maid she expects all the good things she
longs for. She believes that Jeanne will restore concord to the
Christian Church. The gentlest spirits of those days looked to fire
and sword for the bringing in of unity and obedience; they never
dreamed that Christian charity could mean charity towards the whole
human race. Wherefore, on the strength of prophecy, the poetess
expects the Maid to destroy the infidel and the heretic, or in other
words the Turk and the Hussite.

"In her conquest of the Holy Land, she will tear up the Saracens like
weeds. Thither will she lead King Charles, whom God defend! Before he
dies he shall make that journey. He it is who shall conquer the land.
There shall she end her life. There shall the thing come to pass."

The good Christine would appear to have brought her poem to this
conclusion when she received tidings of the King's coronation. She
then added thirteen stanzas to celebrate the mystery of Reims and to
foretell the taking of Paris.[1668]

[Footnote 1668: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 3 _et seq._ R. Thomassy, _Essai sur
les écrits politiques de Christine de Pisan, suivi d'une notice
littéraire et de pièces inédites_, Paris, 1838, in 8vo.]

Thus in the gloom and silence of one of those convents where even the
hushed noises of the world penetrated but seldom, this virtuous lady
collected and expressed in rhyme all those dreams of church and state
which centred round a child.

In a fairly good ballad written at the time of the coronation, in love
and honour "of the beautiful garden of the noble flowers de luce,"[1669]
and for the elevation of the white cross, King Charles VII is
described by that mysterious name "the noble stag," which we have
first discovered in Christine's poem. The unknown author of the ballad
says that the Sibyl, daughter of King Priam, prophesied the
misfortunes of this royal stag; but such a prediction need not
surprise us, when we remember that Charles of Valois was of Priam's
royal line, wherefore Cassandra, when she revealed the destiny of the
Flying Hart, did but prolong down the centuries the vicissitudes of
her own family.[1670]

[Footnote 1669: _Du beau jardin des nobles fleurs de lis._]

[Footnote 1670: M. Pierre Champion has kindly communicated to me the
text of this unpublished ballad, which he discovered in a French MS.
at Stockholm, LIII, fol. 238. This is the title which the copyist
affixed to it about 1472: _Ballade faicte quant le Roy Charles
VII'eme fut couronne a Rains du temps de Jehanne daiz dicte la
Pucelle_.]

Rhymers on the French side celebrated the unexpected victories of
Charles and the Maid as best they knew how, in a commonplace fashion,
by some stiff poem but scantily clothing a thin and meagre muse.

Nevertheless there is a ballad,[1671] by a Dauphinois poet, beginning
with this line; "Back, English _coués_, back!"[1672] which is powerful
through the genuine religious spirit which prevails throughout. The
author, some poor ecclesiastic, points piously to the English banner
cast down, "by the will of King Jesus and of Jeanne the sweet
Maid."[1673]

[Footnote 1671: P. Meyer, _Ballade contre les Anglais_ (1429), in
_Romania_, xxi (1892), pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 1672: _Arrière, Englois coués, arrière!_ For Coués see vol. i,
p. 22, note 2.]

[Footnote 1673:

    _Par le vouloir dou roy Jésus
    Et Jeanne la douce Pucelle._]

The Maid had derived her influence over the common folk from the
prophecies of Merlin the Magician and the Venerable Bede.[1674] As
Jeanne's deeds became known, predictions foretelling them came to be
discovered. For example it was found that Engélide, daughter of an old
King of Hungary,[1675] had known long before of the coronation at Reims.
Indeed to this royal virgin was attributed a prophecy recorded in
Latin, of which the following is a literal translation:

[Footnote 1674: For the legend cf. _Merlin, roman en prose du XIII'e
siècle_, ed. G. Paris and J. Ulrich, 1886, 2 vols. in 8vo,
introduction. _Premier volume de Merlin_, Paris, Vérard, 1498, in fol.
Hersart de la Villemarqué, _Myrdhin ou l'enchanteur Merlin, son
histoire, ses oeuvres, son influence_, Paris, 1862, in 12mo. La
Borderie, _Les véritables prophéties de Merlin; examen des poèmes
bretons attribués à ce barde_, in _Revue de Bretagne_, vol. liii
(1883). D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Merlin est il un personnage réel ou
les origines de la légende de Merlin_, in _Revue des questions
historiques_, vol. v (1868), pp. 559, 568.]

[Footnote 1675: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 340. Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et
consultations_, p. 402.]

"O Lily illustrious, watered by princes, by the sower planted in the
open, in an orchard delectable, by flowers and sweet-smelling roses
surrounded. But, alas! dismay of the Lily, terror of the orchard!
Sundry beasts, some coming from without, others nourished within the
orchard, hurtling horns against horns, have well nigh crushed the
Lily, which fades for lack of water. Long do they trample upon it,
destroying nearly all its roots and assaying to wither it with their
poisoned breath.

"But the beasts shall be driven forth in shame from the orchard, by a
virgin coming from the land whence flows the cruel venom. Behind her
right ear the Virgin bears a little scarlet sign; she speaks softly,
and her neck is short. To the Lily shall she give fountains of living
water, and shall drive out the serpent, to all men revealing its
venom. With a laurel wreath woven by no mortal hand shall she at Reims
engarland happily the gardener of the Lily, named Charles, son of
Charles. All around the turbulent neighbours shall submit, the waters
shall surge, the folk shall cry: 'Long live the Lily! Away with the
beast! Let the orchard flower!' He shall approach the fields of the
Island, adding fleet to fleet, and there a multitude of beasts shall
perish in the rout. Peace for many shall be established. The keys of a
great number shall recognise the hand that had forged them. The
citizens of a noble city shall be punished for perjury by defeat,
groaning with many groans, and at the entrance [of Charles?] high
walls shall fall low. Then the orchard of the Lily shall be ... (?)
and long shall it flower."[1676]

[Footnote 1676: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 344, 345.]

This prophecy attributed to the unknown daughter of a distant king
would seem to us to proceed from a French ecclesiastic and an
Armagnac. French royalty is portrayed in the figure of the delectable
orchard, around which contend beasts nourished in the orchard as well
as foreign beasts, that is Burgundians and English. King Charles of
Valois is mentioned by his own name and that of his father, and the
name of the coronation town occurs in full.

The reduction of certain towns by their liege lord is stated most
clearly. Doubtless the prediction was made at the very time of the
coronation. It explicitly mentions deeds already accomplished and
dimly hints at events looked for, fulfilment of which was delayed, or
happened in a manner other than what was expected, or never happened
at all, such as the taking of Paris after a terrible assault, the
invasion of England by the French, the conclusion of peace.

It is highly probable that when announcing that the deliverer of the
orchard might be recognised by her short neck, her sweet voice and a
little scarlet mark, the pseudo Engélide was carefully depicting
characteristics noticeable in Jeanne herself. Moreover we know that
Isabelle Romée's daughter had a sweet woman's voice.[1677] That her neck
was broad and firmly set on her shoulders accords with what is known
concerning her robust appearance.[1678] And doubtless the so-called
daughter of the King of Hungary did not imagine the birth-mark behind
her right ear.[1679]

[Footnote 1677: Philippe de Bergame, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 523; vol.
v, pp. 108, 120.]

[Footnote 1678: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 100. Philippe de Bergame, _De
claris mulieribus_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 323. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 271. Perceval de Boulainvilliers, _Lettre au duc de
Milan_, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 119, 120.]

[Footnote 1679: J. Bréhal, in _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 345.]




CHAPTER II

THE MAID'S FIRST VISIT TO COMPIÈGNE--THE THREE POPES--SAINT
DENYS--TRUCES


After the English army had departed for Normandy, King Charles sent
from Crépy to Senlis the Count of Vendôme, the Maréchal de Rais and
the Maréchal de Boussac with their men-at-arms. The inhabitants gave
them to wit that they inclined to favour the Flowers de Luce.[1680]
Henceforth the submission of Compiègne was sure. The King summoned the
citizens to receive him; on Wednesday the 18th, the keys of the town
were brought to him; on the next day he entered.[1681] The Attorneys[1682]
(for by that name the aldermen of the town were called) presented to
him Messire Guillaume de Flavy, whom they had elected governor of
their town, as being their most experienced and most faithful citizen.
On his being presented they asked the King, according to their
privilege, to confirm and ratify his appointment. But the sire de la
Trémouille took for himself the governorship of Compiègne and
appointed as his lieutenant Messire Guillaume de Flavy, whom,
notwithstanding, the inhabitants regarded as their captain.[1683]

[Footnote 1680: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 328. _Journal du siège_,
p. 18. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. Perceval de Cagny,
pp. 163, 164. Morosini, pp. 212, 213. Flammermont, _Senlis pendant la
seconde période de la guerre cent ans_, in _Mémoires de la Société de
l'Histoire de Paris_, vol. v, 1878, p. 241.]

[Footnote 1681: Perceval de Cagny, p. 164. Monstrelet, p. 352. De
l'Epinois, _Notes extraites des archives communales de Compiègne_, pp.
483, 484. A. Sorel, _Séjours de Jeanne d'Arc à Compiègne, maisons ou
elle a logé en 1429 et 1430_, Paris, 1889, in 8vo, 20 pages.]

[Footnote 1682: French _attournés_, cf. La Curne, _attournés_, Godefroi,
_atornés_, magistrates at Compiègne, elected on St. John the Baptist's
Day for three years (W.S.). _Procès_, vol. v, p. 174.]

[Footnote 1683: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 331. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc
devant Compiègne_, Paris, 1889, in 8vo, pp. 117, 118. Duc de la
Trémoïlle, _Les La Trémoïlle pendant cinq siècles_, Nantes, 1890, in
4to, vol. i, pp. 185, 212. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy, capitaine
de Compiègne_, Paris, 1906, in 8vo, proofs and illustrations, vol.
xiii, p. 137.]

One by one, the King was recovering his good towns. He charged the
folk of Beauvais to acknowledge him as their lord. When they saw the
flowers-de-luce borne by the heralds, the citizens cried: "Long live
Charles of France!" The clergy chanted a _Te Deum_ and there was great
rejoicing. Those who refused fealty to King Charles were put out of
the town with permission to take away their possessions.[1684] The
Bishop and Vidame of Beauvais, Messire Pierre Cauchon, who was Grand
Almoner of France to King Henry, and a negotiator of important
ecclesiastical business, grieved to see his city returning to the
French;[1685] it was to the city's hurt, but he could not help it. He
failed not to realise that part of this disgrace he owed to the Maid
of the Armagnacs, who was influential with her party and had the
reputation of being all powerful. As he was a good theologian he must
have suspected that the devil was leading her and he wished her all
possible harm.

[Footnote 1684: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 327. _Journal du siège_,
p. 118. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, pp. 353, 354. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 214, 215.]

[Footnote 1685: A. Sarrazin, _Pierre Cauchon, juge de Jeanne d'Arc_,
Paris, 1901, in 8vo, pp. 49 _et seq._]

At this time Artois, Picardy, all the Burgundian territory in the
north, was slipping away from Burgundy. Had King Charles gone there
the majority of the dwellers in the strong towers and castles of
Picardy would have received him as their sovereign.[1686] But meanwhile
his enemies would have recaptured what he had just won in Valois and
the Île de France.

[Footnote 1686: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 354.]

Having entered Compiègne with the King, Jeanne lodged at the Hôtel du
Boeuf, the house of the King's proctor. She slept with the proctor's
wife, Marie Le Boucher, who was a kinswoman of Jacques Boucher,
Treasurer of Orléans.[1687]

[Footnote 1687: A. Sorel, _Séjours de Jeanne d'Arc à Compiègne_, p. 6.]

She longed to march on Paris, which she was sure of taking since her
Voices had promised it to her. It is related that at the end of two or
three days she grew impatient, and, calling the Duke of Alençon, said
to him: "My fair Duke, command your men and likewise those of the
other captains to equip themselves," then she is said to have cried:
"By my staff! I must to Paris."[1688] But this could not have happened:
the Maid never gave orders to the men-at-arms. The truth of the matter
is that the Duke of Alençon, with a goodly company of fighting men,
took his leave of the King and that Jeanne was to accompany him. She
was ready to mount her horse when on Monday the 22nd of August, a
messenger from the Count of Armagnac brought her a letter which she
caused to be read to her.[1689] The following are the contents of the
missive:

[Footnote 1688: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 164, 165. _Chronique de Tournai_,
vol. iii, in the _Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, ed. Smedt, p.
414.]

[Footnote 1689: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 82, 83.]

     "My very dear Lady, I commend myself humbly to you, and I
     entreat you, for God's sake, that seeing the divisions which
     are at present in the holy Church Universal, concerning the
     question of the popes (for there are three contending for
     the papacy: one dwells at Rome and calls himself Martin V,
     whom all Christian kings obey: the other dwells at
     Peñiscola, in the kingdom of Valentia, and calls himself
     Clement VIII; the third dwells no man knows where, unless it
     be the Cardinal de Saint-Estienne and a few folk with him,
     and calls himself Pope Benedict XIV; the first, who is
     called Pope Martin, was elected at Constance by consent of
     all Christian nations; he who is called Clement was elected
     at Peñiscola, after the death of Pope Benedict XIII, by
     three of his cardinals; the third who is called Pope
     Benedict XIV was elected secretly at Peñiscola, by that same
     Cardinal Saint-Estienne himself): I pray you beseech Our
     Lord Jesus Christ that in his infinite mercy, he declare
     unto us through you, which of the three aforesaid is the
     true pope and whom it shall be his pleasure that henceforth
     we obey, him who is called Martin, or him who is called
     Clement or him who is called Benedict; and in whom we should
     believe, either in secret or under reservation or by public
     pronouncement: for we shall all be ready to work the will
     and the pleasure of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Yours in all things,

     COUNT D'ARMAGNAC."[1690]

[Footnote 1690: _Ibid._, pp. 245, 246.]

He who wrote thus, calling Jeanne his very dear lady, recommending
himself humbly to her, not in self-abasement, but merely, as we should
say to-day, out of courtesy, was one of the greater vassals of the
crown.

She had never seen this baron, and doubtless she had never heard of
him. Jean IV, son of that Constable of France who had been killed in
1418, was the cruellest man in the kingdom. At that time he was
between thirty-three and thirty-four years of age. He held both
Armagnacs, the Black and the White, the country of the Four Valleys,
the counties of Pardiac, of Fesenzac, Astarac, La Lomagne, and
l'Île-Jourdain. After the Count of Foix he was the most powerful noble
of Gascony.[1691]

[Footnote 1691: A. Longnon, _Les limites de la France et l'étendue de la
domination anglaise à l'époque de la mission de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris,
1875, in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie générale_,
iii, col. 255, 257.]

While his name was among those of the adherents of the King and while
it was used to designate those who were hostile to the English and
Burgundians, Jean IV himself was neither French nor English, but
simply Gascon. He called himself count by the grace of God, but he was
ever ready to acknowledge himself the King's vassal when it was a
question of receiving gifts from that suzerain, who might not always
be able to afford himself new gaiters, but who must perforce spend
large sums on his great vassals. Meanwhile Jean IV showed
consideration to the English, protected an adventurer in the Regent's
pay, and gave appointments in his household to men wearing the red
cross. He was as violent and treacherous as any of his retainers.
Having unlawfully seized the Marshal de Séverac, he exacted from him
the cession of all his goods and then had him strangled.[1692]

[Footnote 1692: _Chronique de Mathieu d'Escouchy_, vol. i, p. 68, and
proofs and illustrations, pp. 126, 128, 139, 140. Dom Vaissette,
_Histoire générale du Languedoc_, vol. iv, pp. 469, 470. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 151. Vallet de Viriville, in
_Nouvelle biographie générale_, 1861, vol. iii, pp. 255-257. Le P.
Ayroles, _La vierge guerrière_, p. 66.]

This murder was quite recent. And now we have the docile son of Holy
Church appearing eager to discover who is his true spiritual father.
It would seem, however, that his mind was already made up on the
subject and that he already knew the answer to his question. In verity
the long schism, which had rent Christendom asunder, had terminated
twelve years earlier. It had ended when the Conclave, which had
assembled at Constance in the House of the Merchants on the 8th of
November, 1417, on the 11th of that month, Saint Martin's Day,
proclaimed Pope, the Cardinal Deacon Otto Colonna, who assumed the
title of Martin V. In the Eternal City Martin V wore that tiara which
Lorenzo Ghiberti had adorned with eight figures in gold;[1693] and the
wily Roman had contrived to obtain his recognition by England and even
by France, who thenceforward renounced all hope of a French pontiff.
While Charles VII's advisers may not have agreed with Martin V on the
question of a General Council, all the rights of the Pope of Rome in
the Kingdom of France had been restored to him by an edict, in 1425.
Martin V was the one and only pope. Nevertheless, Alphonso of Aragon,
highly incensed because Martin V supported against him the rights of
Louis d'Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples, determined to oppose to the
Pope of Rome a pontiff of his own making. And just ready to hand he
had a canon who called himself pope, and on the following grounds:
the Anti-pope, Benedict XIII, having fled to Peñiscola, had on his
death-bed nominated four cardinals, three of whom appointed to succeed
him a canon of Barcelona, one Gil Muñoz, who assumed the title of
Clement VIII. Imprisoned in the château of Peñiscola on a barren neck
of land on three sides washed by the sea, this was the Clement whom
the King of Aragon had chosen to be the rival of Martin V.[1694]

[Footnote 1693: _Annales juris pontificis_ (1872-1875), vii, 385. E.
Muntz, _La tiare pontificale du VIII'e au XVI'e siècle_ in _Mem.
Acad. Inscript. et Belles Lettres_, vol. xxvi, I, pp. 235-324, fig.
_Les arts à la cour des papes pendant les XV'e et XVI'e siècles_,
in _Bibl. des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et Rome_, vol. iv.]

[Footnote 1694: Baluze, _Vitæ paparum Avenionensium_, 1693, I, pp. 1182
_et seq._ Fabricius, _Bibliotheca medii ævi_, 1734, I, p. 1109.]

The Pope excommunicated the King of Aragon and then opened
negotiations with him. The Count of Armagnac joined the King's party.
For the baptism of his children the Count had holy water blessed by
Benedict XIII brought from Peñiscola. He likewise was excommunicated.
The blow had fallen upon him in this very year, 1429. Thus for some
months he had been deprived of the sacraments and excluded from public
worship. Hence arose all manner of secular difficulties, in addition
to which he was probably afraid of the devil.

Moreover his position was becoming impossible. His powerful ally, King
Alfonso, gave in, and himself called upon Clement VIII to resign. When
he addressed his inquiry to the Maid of France, the Armagnac was
evidently meditating the withdrawal of his allegiance from an
unfortunate anti-pope, who was himself renouncing or about to renounce
the tiara; for Clement VIII abdicated at Peñiscola on the 26th of
July. The dictation of the Count's letter cannot have occurred long
before that date and may have been after. At any rate whenever he
dictated it he must have been aware of the position of the Sovereign
Pontiff Clement VIII.

As for the third Pope mentioned in his missive, Benedict XIV, he had
no tidings of him, and indeed he was keeping very quiet. His election
to the Holy See had been singular in that it had been made by one
cardinal alone. Benedict XIV's right to the papacy had been
communicated to him by a cardinal created by the Anti-pope, Benedict
XIII, at the time of his promotion in 1409. That Cardinal was Jean
Barrère, a Frenchman, Bachelor of laws, priest and Cardinal of
Saint-Étienne _in Coelio monte_. It was not to Benedict XIV that the
Armagnac was thinking of giving his allegiance; obviously he was eager
to submit to Martin V.

It is not easy therefore to discover why he should have asked Jeanne
to indicate the true pope. Doubtless it was customary in those days to
consult on all manner of questions those holy maids to whom God
vouchsafed illumination. Such an one the Maid appeared, and her fame
as a prophetess had been spread abroad in a very short time. She
revealed hidden things, she drew the curtain from the future. We are
reminded of that _capitoul_[1695] of Toulouse, who about three weeks
after the deliverance of Orléans, advised her being consulted as to a
remedy for the corruption of the coinage. Bona of Milan, married to a
poor gentleman in the train of her cousin, Queen Ysabeau, besought the
Maid's help in her endeavour to regain the duchy which she claimed
through her descent from the Visconti.[1696] It was just as appropriate
to question the Maid concerning the Pope and the Anti-pope. But the
most difficult point in this question is to discover what were the
Count of Armagnac's reasons for consulting the Holy Maid on a matter
concerning which he appears to have been sufficiently informed. The
following seems the most probable.

[Footnote 1695: Cf. vol. i, p. 337 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1696: According to Le Maire, _Histoire et antiquités de la
ville et duché d'Orléans_, p. 197, this request is addressed to
"Jeanne the Maid, greatly to be honoured and most devout, sent by the
King of Heaven for the restoration, and for the extirpation of the
English who tyrannize over France." _Trial_, vol. v, p. 253. Vallet de
Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 131.]

Jean IV was prepared to recognise Martin V as Pope; but he desired his
submission to appear honourable and reasonable. Wherefore he conceived
the idea of ascribing his conduct to the command of Jesus Christ,
speaking through the Holy Maid. But it was necessary for the command
to be in accordance with his wishes. The letter provides for that. He
is careful to indicate to Jeanne, and consequently to God, what reply
would be suitable. He lays stress on the fact that Martin V, who had
recently excommunicated him, was elected at Constance by the consent
of all Christian nations, that he dwells at Rome and that he is obeyed
by all Christian kings. He points out on the other hand the
circumstances which invalidate the election of Clement VIII by only
three cardinals, and the still more ridiculous election of that
Benedict, who was chosen by a conclave consisting of only one
cardinal.[1697]

[Footnote 1697: Noël Valois, _La France et le grand schisme d'Occident_,
vol. iv (1902), in 8vo, _passim_.]

After such a setting forth could there possibly remain a single doubt
as to whether Pope Martin was the true pope? But such guile was lost
on Jeanne; it escaped her entirely. The Count of Armagnac's letter,
which she had read to her as she was mounting her horse, must have
struck her as very obscure.[1698] The names of Benedict, of Clement and
of Martin she had never heard. The Saints, Catherine and Margaret,
with whom she was constantly holding converse, revealed to her nothing
concerning the Pope. They spoke to her of nought save of the realm of
France; and Jeanne's prudence generally led her to confine her
prophecies to the subject of the war. This circumstance was pointed
out by a German clerk as a matter extraordinary and worthy of
note.[1699] But for this once she consented to reply to Jean IV, in
order to maintain her reputation as a prophet and because the title of
Armagnac strongly appealed to her. She told him that at that moment
she was unable to instruct him concerning the true pope, but that
later she would inform him in which of the three he must believe,
according as God should reveal it unto her. In short, she in a measure
followed the example of such soothsayers as postpone the announcement
of the oracle to a future day.

[Footnote 1698: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 82.]

[Footnote 1699: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 466, 467.]

     Jhesus [cross symbol] Maria

     Count of Armagnac, my good friend and beloved, Jehanne the
     Maid lets you to wit that your message hath come before me,
     the which hath told me that you have sent from where you are
     to know from me in which of the three popes, whom you
     mention in your memorial, you ought to believe. This thing
     in sooth I cannot tell you truly for the present, until I be
     in Paris or at rest elsewhere, because for the present I am
     too much hindered by affairs of war; but when you hear that
     I am in Paris send a message to me, and I will give you to
     understand what you shall rightfully believe, and what I
     shall know by the counsel of my Righteous and Sovereign
     Lord, the King of all the world, and what you should do, as
     far as I may. To God I commend you; God keep you. Written at
     Compiengne, the 22nd day of August.[1700]

[Footnote 1700: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 245, 246.]

Jeanne before she made this reply can have consulted neither the good
Brother Pasquerel nor the good Friar Richard nor indeed any of the
churchmen of her company. They would have told her that the true pope
was the Pope of Rome, Martin V. They might also have represented to
her that she was belittling the authority of the Church by appealing
to a revelation from God concerning popes and anti-popes. Sometimes,
they would have told her, God confides the secrets of his Church to
holy persons. But it would be rash to count upon so rare a privilege.

Jeanne exchanged a few words with the messenger who had brought her
the missive; but the interview was brief. The messenger was not safe
in the town, not that the soldiers would have made him pay for his
master's crimes and treasons; but the Sire de la Trémouille was at
Compiègne; and he knew that Count Jean, who for the nonce was in
alliance with the Constable De Richemont, was meditating something
against him. La Trémouille was not so malevolent as the Count of
Armagnac: and yet the poor messenger only narrowly escaped being
thrown into the Oise.[1701]

[Footnote 1701: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 83.]

On the morrow, Tuesday the 23rd of August, the Maid and the Duke of
Alençon took leave of the King and set out from Compiègne with a
goodly company of fighting men. Before marching on Saint-Denys in
France, they went to Senlis to collect a company of men-at-arms whom
the King had sent there.[1702] As was her custom, the Maid rode
surrounded by monks. Friar Richard, who predicted the approaching end
of the world, had joined the procession. It would seem that he had
superseded the others, even Brother Pasquerel, the chaplain. It was to
him that the Maid confessed beneath the walls of Senlis. In that same
spot, with the Dukes of Clermont and Alençon,[1703] she took the
communion on two consecutive days. She must have been in the hands of
monks who were in the habit of making a very frequent use of the
Eucharist.

[Footnote 1702: Perceval de Cagny, p. 165. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 331. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. Morosini, vol.
iii, pp. 212, 213. The accounts of Hémon Raguier, in the _Trial_, vol.
iv, p. 24.]

[Footnote 1703: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 450.]

The Lord Bishop of Senlis was Jean Fouquerel. Hitherto, he had been on
the side of the English and entirely devoted to the Lord Bishop of
Beauvais. On the approach of the royal army, Jean Fouquerel, who was a
cautious person, had gone off to Paris to hide a large sum of money.
He was careful of his possessions. Some one in the army took his nag
and gave it to the Maid. By means of a draft on the receiver of taxes
and the _gabelle_ officer of the town, two hundred golden
_saluts_[1704] were paid for it. The Lord Bishop did not approve of
this transaction and demanded his hackney. Hearing of his displeasure,
the Maid caused a letter to be written to him, saying that he might
have back his nag if he liked; she did not want it for she found it
not sufficiently hardy for men-at-arms. The horse was sent to the Sire
de La Trémouille with a request that he would deliver it to the Lord
Bishop, who never received it.[1705]

[Footnote 1704: So called because stamped with the picture of the
Annunciation and bearing the inscription: _Salus populi suprema lex
est_; the coin was worth about £1 of our money (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1705: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 104. Extracts from the 13th account
of Hémon Raguier, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 267. E. Dupuis, _Jean
Fouquerel, évêque de Senlis_, in _Mémoires du comité archéologique de
Senlis_, 1875, vol. i, p. 93. Vatin, _Combat sous Senlis entre Charles
VII et les Anglais_, in _Comité archéologique de Senlis, Comptes
rendus et mémoires_, 1866, pp. 41, 54.]

As for the bill on the tax receiver and _gabelle_ officer, it may
have been worthless; and probably the Reverend Father in God, Jean
Fouquerel, never had either horse or money. Jeanne was not at fault,
and yet the Lord Bishop of Beauvais and the clerks of the university
were shortly to bring home to her the gravity of the sacrilege of
laying hands on an ecclesiastical hackney.[1706]

[Footnote 1706: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 264.]

To the north of Paris, about five miles distant from the great city,
there rose the towers of Saint-Denys. On the 26th of August, the army
of the Duke of Alençon arrived there, and entered without resistance,
albeit the town was strongly fortified.[1707] The place was famous for
its illustrious abbey very rich and very ancient. The following is the
story of its foundation.

[Footnote 1707: Perceval de Cagny, p. 165. The 25th according to _Le
journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

Dagobert, King of the French, had from childhood been a devout
worshipper of Saint Denys. And whenever he trembled before the ire of
King Clotaire his father, he would take refuge in the church of the
holy martyr. When he died, a pious man dreamed that he saw Dagobert
summoned before the tribunal of God; a great number of saints accused
him of having despoiled their churches; and the demons were about to
drag him into hell when Saint Denys appeared; and by his intercession,
the soul of the King was delivered and escaped punishment. The story
was held to be true, and it was thought that the King's soul returned
to animate his body and that he did penance.[1708]

[Footnote 1708: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys en
France, contenant les antiquités d'icelle, les fondations,
prérogatives et privileges_, Paris, 1625, 2 vol. in 4to, vol. i, ch.
xx and xxiv. Des Rues, _Les antiquités, fondations et singularités des
plus célèbres villes_, pp. 84, 85.]

When the Maid with the army occupied Saint-Denys, the three porches,
the embattled parapets, the tower of the Abbey Church, erected by the
Abbot Suger, were already three centuries old. There were buried the
kings of France; and thither they came to take the _oriflamme_.
Fourteen years earlier the late King Charles had fetched it forth, but
since then none had borne it.[1709]

[Footnote 1709: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, vol.
i, ch. xxxi, xxxiv.]

Many were the wonders told touching this royal standard. And with some
of those marvels the Maid must needs have been acquainted, since on
her coming into France, she was said to have given the Dauphin Charles
the surname of _oriflamme_,[1710] as a pledge and promise of
victory.[1711] At Saint-Denys was preserved the heart of the Constable
Du Guesclin.[1712] Jeanne had heard of his high renown; she had
proffered wine to Madame de Laval's eldest son; and to his
grandmother, who had been Sire Bertrand's second wife, she had sent a
little ring of gold, out of respect for the widow of so valiant a
man,[1713] asking her to forgive the poverty of the gift.

[Footnote 1710: Cf. vol. i, p. 182 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1711: Thomassin, _Registre Delphinal_, in _Trial_, vol. iv,
p. 304. See Du Cange, _Glossaire_ under the word _Auriflamme_.]

[Footnote 1712: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, vol.
i, ch. xxii. D. Michel Félibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de
Saint-Denys en France_, Paris, in folio, 1706, pp. 229, 320. Vallet de
Viriville, _Notice du manuscrit de P. Cochon_, at the end of _La
chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 360. _Chronique de Du Guesclin_, ed.
Francisque-Michel, pp. 452 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1713: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 107, 109.]

The monks of Saint-Denys preserved precious relics, notably a piece of
the wood of the true cross, the linen in which the Child Jesus had
been wrapped, a fragment of the pitcher wherein the water had been
changed to wine at the Cana marriage feast, a bar of Saint Lawrence's
gridiron, the chin of Saint Mary Magdalen, a cup of tamarisk wood used
by Saint Louis as a charm against the spleen. There likewise was to be
seen the head of Saint Denys. True, at the same time one was being
shown in the Cathedral church of Paris. The Chancellor, Jean Gerson,
treating of Jeanne the Maid, a few days before his death, wrote that
of her it might be said as of the head of Saint Denys, that belief in
her was a matter of edification and not of faith, albeit in both
places alike the head ought to be worshipped in order that edification
should not be turned into scandal.[1714]

[Footnote 1714: D. M. Félibien, _op. cit._, ch. ii, pp. 528 _et seq._
Illustrations. J. Doublet, _op. cit._, vol. i, ch. xliii, xlvi.
_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 301. _Gallia Christiana_, vol. vii, col. 142.]

In this abbey everything proclaimed the dignity, the prerogatives and
the high worship of the house of France. Jeanne must joyously have
wondered at the insignia, the symbols and signs of the royalty of the
Lilies gathered together in this spot,[1715] if indeed those eyes,
occupied with celestial visions, had leisure to perceive the things of
earth, and if her Voices, endlessly whispering in her ear, left her
one moment's respite.

[Footnote 1715: _Religieux de Saint-Denis_, pp. 154, 156, 226.]

Saint Denys was a great saint, since there was no doubt of his being
in very deed the Areopagite himself.[1716] But since he had permitted
his abbey to be taken he was no longer invoked as the patron saint of
the Kings of France. The Dauphin's followers had replaced him by the
Blessed Archangel Michael, whose abbey, near the city of Avranches,
had victoriously held out against the English. It was Saint Michael
not Saint Denys who had appeared to Jeanne in the garden at Domremy;
but she knew that Saint Denys was the war cry of France.[1717]

[Footnote 1716: Estienne Binet, _La vie apostolique de saint Denys
l'Aréopagite, patron et apostre de la France_, Paris, 1624, in 12mo.
J. Doublet, _Histoire chronologique pour la vérité de Saint Denys
l'Aréopagite, apôtre de France et premier évêque de Paris_, Paris,
1646, in 4to, and _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys en France_, p.
95. J. Havet, _Les origines de Saint-Denis_, in _Les Questions
mérovingiennes_.]

[Footnote 1717: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 179.]

The monks of that rich abbey wasted by war lived there in poverty and
in disorder.[1718] Armagnacs and Burgundians in turn descended upon the
neighbouring fields and villages, plundering and ravaging, leaving
nought that it was possible to carry off. At Saint-Denys was held the
Fair of Le Lendit, one of the greatest in Christendom. But now
Merchants had ceased to attend it. At the Lendit of 1418, there were
but three booths, and those for the selling of shoes from Brabant, in
the high street of Saint-Denys, near the Convent of Les Filles-Dieu.
Since 1426, there had been no fair at all.[1719]

[Footnote 1718: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 179, note 5.]

[Footnote 1719: _Ibid._, pp. 101, 209, note 1.]

At the tidings that the Armagnacs were approaching Troyes, the
peasants had cut their corn before it was ripe and brought it into
Paris. On entering Saint-Denys, the Duke of Alençon's men-at-arms
found the town deserted. The chief burgesses had taken refuge in
Paris.[1720] Only a few of the poorer families were left. The Maid
held two newly born infants over the baptismal font.[1721]

[Footnote 1720: _Ibid._, pp. 241, 242. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 354.]

[Footnote 1721: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 103.]

Hearing of these Saint-Denys baptisms, her enemies accused her of
having lit candles and held them inclined over the infant's heads, in
order that she might read their destinies in the melted wax. It was
not the first time, it appeared, that she indulged in such practices.
When she entered a town, little children were said to offer her
candles kneeling, and she received them as an agreeable sacrifice.
Then upon the heads of these innocents she would let fall three drops
of burning wax, proclaiming that by virtue of this ceremony they could
not fail to be good. In such acts Burgundian ecclesiastics discerned
idolatry and witchcraft, in which was likewise involved heresy.[1722]

[Footnote 1722: _Ibid._, p. 304. Noël Valois, _Un nouveau témoignage
sur Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire
de France_, Paris, 1907, in 8vo, separate issue, pp. 17, 18.]

Here again, at Saint-Denys, she distributed banners to the
men-at-arms. Churchmen on the English side strongly suspected her of
charming those banners. And as everyone in those days believed in
magic, such a suspicion was not without its danger.[1723]

[Footnote 1723: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 236.]

The Maid and the Duke of Alençon lost no time. Immediately after their
arrival at Saint-Denys they went forth to skirmish before the gates of
Paris. Two or three times a day they engaged in this desultory
warfare, notably by the wind-mill at the Saint-Denys Gate and in the
village of La Chapelle. "Every day there was booty taken," says
Messire Jean de Bueil.[1724] It seems hardly credible that in a country
which had been plundered and ravaged over and over again, there
should have been anything left to be taken; and yet the statement is
made and attested by one of the nobles in the army.

[Footnote 1724: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 281.]

Out of respect for the seventh commandment, the Maid forbade the men
of her company to commit any theft whatsoever. And she always refused
victuals offered her when she knew they had been stolen. In reality
she, like the others, lived on pillage, but she did not know it. One
day when a Scotsman gave her to wit that she had just partaken of some
stolen veal, she flew into a fury and would have beaten him: saintly
women are subject to such fits of passion.[1725]

[Footnote 1725: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 81.]

Jeanne is said to have observed the walls of Paris carefully, seeking
the spot most favourable for attack.[1726] The truth is that in this
matter as in all others she depended on her Voices. For the rest she
was far superior to all the men-at-arms in courage and in good will.
From Saint-Denys she sent the King message after message, urging him
to come and take Paris.[1727] But at Compiègne the King and his Council
were negotiating with the ambassadors of the Duke of Burgundy, to wit:
Jean de Luxembourg, Lord of Beaurevoir, Hugues de Cayeux, Bishop of
Arras, David de Brimeu and my Lord of Charny.[1728]

[Footnote 1726: Perceval de Cagny, p. 166.]

[Footnote 1727: _Ibid._, p. 166.]

[Footnote 1728: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 112. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 404,
408. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 192; vol. iv, appendix xviii.]

The fifteen days' truce had expired. Our only information concerning
it is contained in Jeanne's letter to the citizens of Reims. According
to Jeanne, the Duke of Burgundy had undertaken to surrender the city
to the King of France on the fifteenth day.[1729] If he had so agreed
it was on conditions of which we know nothing; we are not therefore in
a position to say whether or no those conditions had been carried out.
The Maid placed no trust in this promise, and she was quite right; but
she did not know everything; and on the very day when she was
complaining of the truce to the citizens of Reims, Duke Philip was
receiving the command of Paris at the hands of the Regent, and was
henceforth in a position to dispose of the city as he liked.[1730] Duke
Philip could not bear the sight of Charles of Valois, who had been
present at the murder on the Bridge of Montereau, but he detested the
English and wished they would go to the devil or return to their
island. The vineyards and the cloth looms of his dominions were too
numerous and too important for him not to wish for peace. He had no
desire to be King of France; therefore he could be treated with,
despite his avarice and dissimulation. Nevertheless the fifteenth day
had gone by and the city of Paris remained in the hands of the English
and the Burgundians, who were not friends but allies.

[Footnote 1729: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 140.]

[Footnote 1730: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 332. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. P. Cochon, p. 457. Perceval de Cagny, p.
165.]

On the 28th of August a truce was concluded. It was to last till
Christmas and was to extend over the whole country north of the Seine,
from Nogent to Harfleur, with the exception of such towns as were
situated where there was a passage over the river. Concerning the city
of Paris it was expressly stated that "Our Cousin of Burgundy, he and
his men, may engage in the defence of the town and in resisting such
as shall make war upon it or do it hurt."[1731] The Chancellor
Regnault de Chartres, the Sire de la Trémouille, Christophe
d'Harcourt, the Bastard of Orléans, the Bishop of Séez, and likewise
certain young nobles very eager for war, such as the Counts of
Clermont and of Vendôme and the Duke of Bar, in short all the
Counsellors of the King and the Princes of the Blood who signed this
article, were apparently giving the enemy a weapon against them and
renouncing any attempt upon Paris. But they were not all fools; the
Bastard of Orléans was keen witted and the Lord Archbishop of Reims
was anything but an Olibrius.[1732] They doubtless knew what they were
about when they recognised the Duke of Burgundy's rights over Paris.
Duke Philip, as we know, had been governor of the great town since the
13th of August. The Regent had ceded it with the idea that Burgundy
would keep the Parisians in order better than England, for the English
were few in number and were disliked as foreigners. What did it profit
King Charles to recognise his cousin's rights over Paris? We fail to
see precisely; but after all this truce was no better and no worse
than others. In sooth it did not give Paris to the King, but neither
did it prevent the King from taking it. Did truces ever hinder
Armagnacs and Burgundians from fighting when they had a mind to fight?
Was one of those frequent truces ever kept?[1733] After having signed
this one, the King advanced to Senlis. The Duke of Alençon came to him
there twice. Charles reached Saint-Denys on Wednesday the 7th of
September.[1734]

[Footnote 1731: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 352, 353. _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 247, 248. D. Félibien, _Histoire de Paris_,
vol. ii, p. 813, and proofs and illustrations, vol. iv, p. 591.
Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 208, 209, 224, note 2; vol. iv, appendix
xviii, pp. 343, 344.]

[Footnote 1732: Cf. vol. i, p. 34, note 3 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1733: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, ch.
vii. _La diplomatie de Charles VII jusqu'au traité d'Arras_.]

[Footnote 1734: Perceval de Cagny, p. 166.]




CHAPTER III

THE ATTACK ON PARIS


In the days when King John was a prisoner in the hands of the English,
the townsfolk of Paris, beholding the enemy in the heart of the land,
feared lest their city should be besieged. In all haste therefore they
proceeded to put it in a state of defence; they surrounded it with
trenches and counter trenches. On the side of the University the
suburbs were left defenceless; small and remote, they were burned
down. But on the right bank the more extensive suburbs well nigh
touched the city. One part of them was enclosed by the trenches. When
peace was concluded, Charles, Regent of the Realm, undertook to
surround the town on the north with an embattled wall, flanked with
square towers, with terraces and parapets, with a road round and steps
leading up to the ramparts.

In certain places the trench was single, in others double. The work
was superintended by Hugues Aubriot, Provost of Paris, to whom was
entrusted also the building of the Saint-Antoine bastion, completed
under King Charles VI.[1735] This new fortification began on the east,
near the river, on the rising ground of Les Célestins. Within its
circle it enclosed the district of Saint Paul, the Culture
Sainte-Catherine, the Temple, Saint-Martin, Les Filles-Dieu, Saint
Sauveur, Saint Honoré, Les Quinze Vingts, which hitherto had been in
the suburbs and undefended; and it reached the river below the Louvre,
which was thus united to the town. There were six gates in the
circumvallation, to wit: beginning on the east, the Baudet Gate or
Saint-Antoine Gate, the Saint-Avoye or Temple Gate, the Gate of the
Painters or of Saint-Denis, the Saint-Martin or Montmartre Gate, the
Saint-Honoré Gate and the Gate of the Seine.[1736]

[Footnote 1735: Le Roux de Lincy, _Hugues Aubriot, prévôt de Paris sous
Charles V_, Paris, 1862, in 8vo, _passim_. _Paris et ses historiens au
XIV'e et XV'e siècle_ by Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, Paris, in
fol. [_Histoire générale de Paris._]]

[Footnote 1736: Delamare, _Traité de la police_, Paris, 1710, in folio,
vol. i, p. 79. A. Bonnardot, _Dissertation archéologique sur les
enceintes de Paris, suivie de recherches sur les portes fortifiées qui
dépendaient des enceintes de Paris_, 1851, in 4to, with plan. _Études
archéologiques sur les anciens plans de Paris_, 1853, in 4to.
_Appendice aux études archéologiques sur les anciens plans de Paris et
aux dissertations sur les enceintes de Paris_, Paris, 1877, in 4to.
_Étude sur Gilles Corrozet, suivie d'une notice sur un manuscrit de la
Bibliothèque des ducs de Bourgogne, contenant une description de
Paris, en 1432_, par Guillebert de Metz, Paris, 1846, in 8vo, 56
pages. Kausler, _Atlas des plus mémorables batailles_, Carlsruhe,
1831, pl. 34. H. Legrand, _Paris en 1380_, with plan conjecturally
reconstructed, Paris in fol. 1868, p. 58. A. Guilaumot, _Les Portes de
l'enceinte de Paris sous Charles V_, Paris, 1879. Rigaud, _Chronique
de la Pucelle, campagne de Paris, cartes et plans_, Bergerac, 1886, in
8vo.]

The Parisians did not like the English and were sorely grieved by
their occupation of the city. The folk murmured when, after the
funeral of the late King, Charles VI, the Duke of Bedford had the
sword of the King of France borne before him.[1737] But what cannot be
helped must be endured. The Parisians may have disliked the English;
they admired Duke Philip, a prince of comely countenance and the
richest potentate of Christendom. As for the little King of Bourges,
mean-looking and sad-faced, strongly suspected of treason at
Montereau, there was nothing pleasing in him; he was despised and his
followers were regarded with fear and horror. For ten years they had
been ranging round the town, pillaging, taking prisoners and holding
them to ransom. The English and Burgundians indeed did likewise. When,
in the August of 1423, Duke Philip came to Paris, his men ravaged all
the neighbouring fields, albeit they belonged to friends and allies.
But they were only passing through,[1738] while the Armagnacs were for
ever raiding, eternally stealing all they could lay hands on, setting
fire to barns and churches, killing women and children, ravishing
maids and nuns, hanging men by the thumbs. In 1420, like devils let
loose, they descended upon the village of Champigny and burned at once
oats, wheat, sheep, cows, oxen, women and children. Likewise did they
and worse still at Croissy.[1739] One ecclesiastic said they had caused
more Christians to suffer martyrdom than Maximian and Diocletian.[1740]

[Footnote 1737: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 180.]

[Footnote 1738: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 1739: _Ibid._, pp. 136, 137.]

[Footnote 1740: _Ibid._, p. 107. _Document inédit relatif à l'état de
Paris en 1430_, in _Revue des sociétés savantes_, 1863, p. 203.]

And yet, in the year 1429, there might have been discovered in the
city of Paris not a few followers of the Dauphin. Christine de Pisan,
who was very loyal to the House of Valois, said: "In Paris there are
many wicked. Good are there also and faithful to their King. But they
dare not lift up their voices."[1741]

[Footnote 1741: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, stanza 56, p.
20. Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, p.
426.]

It was common knowledge that in the Parlement and even in the Chapter
of Notre-Dame were to be found those who had dealings with the
Armagnacs.[1742]

[Footnote 1742: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 251. A. Longnon,
_Paris pendant la domination anglaise (1420-1436), documents extraits
des registres de la chancellerie de France_, Paris, 1877, in 8vo,
introduction, p. xiij. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_,
vol. ii, p. 116, note 1.]

On the morrow of their victory at Patay, those terrible Armagnacs had
only to march straight on the town to take it. They were expected to
enter it one day or the other. In the mind of the Regent it was as if
they had already taken it. He went off and shut himself in the Castle
of Vincennes with the few men who remained to him.[1743] Three days
after the discomfiture of the English there was a panic in the town.
"The Armagnacs are coming to-night," they said. Meanwhile the
Armagnacs were at Orléans awaiting orders to assemble at Gien and to
march on Auxerre. At these tidings the Duke of Bedford must have
sighed a deep sigh of relief; and straightway he set to work to
provide for the defence of Paris and the safety of Normandy.[1744]

[Footnote 1743: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 248. _Chronique
de la Pucelle_, p. 297. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 79, note.]

[Footnote 1744: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 257.
Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 453. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
198.]

When the panic was past, the heart of the great town returned to its
allegiance, not to the English cause--it had never been English--but
to the Burgundian. Its Provost, Messire Simon Morhier, who had made
great slaughter of the French at the Battle of the Herrings, remained
loyal to the Leopard.[1745] The aldermen on the contrary were suspected
of inclining a favourable ear to King Charles's proposals. On the
12th of July, the Parisians elected a new town council composed of the
most zealous Burgundians they could find in commerce and on change. To
be provost of the merchants they appointed the treasurer, Guillaume
Sanguin, to whom the Duke of Burgundy owed more then seven thousand
_livres tournois_[1746] and who had the Regent's jewels in his
keeping.[1747] Such an alteration was greatly to the detriment of King
Charles, who preferred to win back his good towns by peaceful means
rather than by force, and who relied more on negotiations with the
citizens than on cannon balls and stones.

[Footnote 1745: _Journal du siège_, p. 38. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. i, pp. 106, 107. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 454.]

[Footnote 1746: See vol. i, p. 222, note 2 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1747: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 239, note 2. Le
Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 340 _et
seq._]

Just in the nick of time the Regent surrendered the town to Duke
Philip, not, we may be sure, without many regrets for having recently
refused him Orléans. He realised that thus, by returning to its French
allegiance, the chief city of the realm would make a more energetic
defense against the Dauphin's men. The Parisians' old liking for the
magnificent Duke would revive, and so would their old hatred of the
disinherited son of Madame Ysabeau. In the Palais de Justice the Duke
read the story of his father's death, punctuated with complaints of
Armagnac treason and violated treaties; he caused the blood of
Montereau[1748] to cry to heaven; those who were present swore to be
right loyal to him and to the Regent. On the following days the same
oath was taken by the regular and secular clergy.[1749]

[Footnote 1748: 14th July, 1429, _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp.
240, 241. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 240. Morosini, vol.
iii, p. 186.]

[Footnote 1749: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 241.]

But the citizens were strengthened in their resistance more by their
remembrance of Armagnac cruelty than by their affection for the fair
Duke. A rumour ran and was believed by them that Messire Charles of
Valois had abandoned to his mercenaries the city and the citizens of
all ranks, high and low, men and women, and that he intended to plough
up the very ground on which Paris stood. Such a rumour represented him
very falsely; on all occasions he was pitiful and debonair; his
Council had prudently converted the coronation campaign into an armed
and peaceful procession. But the Parisians were incapable of judging
sanely when the intentions of the King of France were concerned; and
they knew only too well that once their town was taken there would be
nothing to prevent the Armagnacs from laying it waste with fire and
sword.[1750]

[Footnote 1750: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 356.]

One other circumstance intensified their fear and their dislike. When
they heard that Friar Richard, to whose sermons they had once listened
so devoutly, was riding with the Dauphin's men and with his nimble
tongue winning such good towns as Troyes in Champagne, they called
down upon him the malediction of God and his Saints. They tore from
their caps the pewter medals engraved with the holy name of Jesus,
which the good Brother had given them, and in their bitter hatred
towards him they returned straightway to the dice, bowls and draughts
which they had renounced at his exhortation. With no less horror did
the Maid inspire them. It was said that she was acting the prophetess
and uttering such words as: "In very deed this or that shall come to
pass." "With the Armagnacs is a creature in woman's form. What it is
God only knows," they cried. They spoke of her as a woman of ill
fame.[1751] Among these enemies, there were those who filled them with
even greater horror than pagans and Saracens--to wit: a monk and a
maid. They all took the cross of Saint Andrew.[1752]

[Footnote 1751: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 242.]

[Footnote 1752: _Ibid._, p. 243.]

While the Dauphin had been away at his coronation an army had come
from England into France. The Regent intended it to overrun Normandy.
In its march on Rouen he commanded it in person. The defence and ward
of Paris he left to Louis of Luxembourg, Bishop of Thérouanne,
Chancellor of France for the English, to the Sire de l'Isle-Adam,
Marshal of France, Captain of Paris, to two thousand men-at-arms and
to the Parisian train-bands. To the last were entrusted the defence of
the ramparts and the management of the artillery. They were commanded
by twenty-four burgesses, called _quarteniers_ because they
represented the twenty-four quarters of the city. From the end of July
all danger of a surprise had been guarded against.[1753]

[Footnote 1753: Rymer, _Foedera_, May. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.
332. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 355. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i,
pp. 106, 107. Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 290, note 1. G.
Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, p. 9. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
216, note 5; vol. iv, appendix xviii.]

On the 10th of August, on Saint-Laurence's Eve, while the Armagnacs
were encamped at La Ferté-Milon, the Saint-Martin Gate, flanked by
four towers and a double drawbridge, was closed; and all men were
forbidden to go to Saint-Laurent, either to the procession or to the
fair, as in previous years.[1754]

[Footnote 1754: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

On the 28th of the same month, the royal army occupied Saint-Denys.
Henceforth no one dared leave the city, neither for the vintage nor
for the gathering of anything in the kitchen gardens, which covered
the plain north of the town. Prices immediately went up.[1755]

[Footnote 1755: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 166. _Chronique des cordeliers_, folio, 486 verso.]

In the early days of September, the _quarteniers_, each one in his own
district, had the trenches set in order and the cannons mounted on
walls, gates, and towers. At the command of the aldermen, the hewers
of stone for the cannon made thousands of balls.[1756]

[Footnote 1756: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

From My Lord, the Duke of Alençon, the magistrates received letters
beginning thus: "To you, Provost of Paris and Provost of the Merchants
and Aldermen...." He named them by name and greeted them in eloquent
language. These letters were regarded as an artifice intended to
render the townsfolk suspicious of the aldermen and to incite one
class of the populace against the other. The only answer sent to the
Duke was a request that he would not spoil any more paper with such
malicious endeavours.[1757]

[Footnote 1757: _Ibid._, pp. 243, 244.]

The chapter of Notre-Dame ordered masses to be said for the salvation
of the people. On the 5th of September, three canons were authorised
to make arrangements for the defence of the monastery. Those in charge
of the sacristy took measures to hide the relics and the treasure of
the cathedral from the Armagnac soldiers. For two hundred golden
_saluts_[1758] they sold the body of Saint Denys; but they kept the
foot, which was of silver, the head and the crown.[1759]

[Footnote 1758: Cf. _ante_, p. 45, note 2 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1759: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre
Dame (Arch. Nat., LL, 716, pp. 173, 174), in _Le journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, _loc. cit._ Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne
d'Arc_, vol. iii, pp. 530, 531, proofs and illustrations, J, p. 639.
Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le procès de Jeanne d'Arc et
l'université de Paris_, Nogent-le-Rotrou, 1898, in 8vo.]

On Wednesday, the 7th of September, the Eve of the Virgin's Nativity,
there was a procession to Sainte-Geneviève-du-Mont with the object of
counteracting the evil of the times and allaying the animosity of the
enemy. In it walked the canons of the Palace, bearing the True
Cross.[1760]

[Footnote 1760: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre
Dame, in Tuetey, notes to _Le Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p.
241, note 1. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 456. Le P. Ayroles,
_La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, proofs and illustrations, p. 640.]

That very day the army of the Duke of Alençon and of the Maid was
skirmishing beneath the walls. It retreated in the evening; and on
that night the townsfolk slept in peace, for on the morrow Christians
celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.[1761]

[Footnote 1761: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre
Dame, _loc. cit._ _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 332. _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, p. 244. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 354. Martial
d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustelier, vol. i, p. 113. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 166. _Chronique des cordeliers_, folio, 486 verso. Le P.
Ayroles, _La vrai Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, p. 531.]

It was a great festival and a very ancient one. Its origin is
described in the following manner. There was a certain holy man, who
passed his life in meditation. On a day he called to mind that for
many years, on the 8th of September, he had heard marvellous angelic
music in the air, and he prayed to God to reveal to him the reason for
this concert of instruments and of celestial voices. He was vouchsafed
the answer that it was the anniversary of the birth of the glorious
Virgin Mary; and he received the command to instruct the faithful in
order that they on that solemn day might join their voices to the
angelic chorus. The matter was reported to the Sovereign Pontiff and
the other heads of the Church, who, after having prayed, fasted and
consulted the witnesses and traditions of the Church, decreed that
henceforth that day, the 8th of September, should be universally
consecrated to the celebration of the birth of the Virgin Mary.[1762]

[Footnote 1762: Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_. Anquetil, _La nativité,
miracle extrait de la légende dorée_, in _Mem. Soc. Agr. de Bayeux_,
1883, vol. x, p. 286. Douhet, _Dictionnaire des mystères_, 1854, p.
545.]

That day were read at mass the words of the prophet Isaiah: "And there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall
grow out of his roots."

The people of Paris thought that even the Armagnacs would do no work
on so high a festival and would keep the third commandment.

On this Thursday, the 8th of September, about eight o'clock in the
morning, the Maid, the Dukes of Alençon and of Bourbon, the Marshals
of Boussac and of Rais, the Count of Vendôme, the Lords of Laval, of
Albret and of Gaucourt, who with their men, to the number of ten
thousand and more, had encamped in the village of La Chapelle,
half-way along the road from Saint-Denys to Paris, set out on the
march. At the hour of high mass, between eleven and twelve o'clock,
they reached the height of Les Moulins, at the foot of which the Swine
Market was held.[1763] Here there was a gibbet. Fifty-six years
earlier, a woman of saintly life according to the people, but
according to the holy inquisitors, a heretic and _a Turlupine_, had
been burned alive on that very market-place.[1764]

[Footnote 1763: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 166, 168. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, pp. 333, 334. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 107,
109. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 456, 458. _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 244, 245. _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol.
486 verso. P. Cochon, ed. Beaurepaire, p. 307. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
210.]

[Footnote 1764: Gaguin, _Hist. Francorum_, Frankfort, 1577, book viii,
chap. ii, p. 158. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en
France_, p. 121. Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Age,
vol. ii, p. 126. (The Turlupins were a German sect who called
themselves "the Brethren of the Free Spirit." W.S.)]

Wherefore did the King's men appear first before the northern walls,
those of Charles V, which were the strongest? It is impossible to
tell. A few days earlier they had thrown a bridge across the River
above Paris,[1765] which looks as if they intended to attack the old
fortification and get into the city from the University side. Did they
mean to carry out the two attacks simultaneously? It is probable. Did
they renounce the project of their own accord or against their will?
We cannot tell.

[Footnote 1765: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 120, note 1. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis,
_Un détail du siège de Paris, par Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliothèque de
l'École des Chartes_, vol. xlvi, 1885, pp. 5 _et seq._]

Beneath the walls of Charles V they assembled a quantity of artillery,
cannons, culverins, mortars; and in hand-carts they brought fagots to
fill up the trenches, hurdles to bridge them over and seven hundred
ladders: very elaborate material for the siege, despite their having,
as we shall see, forgotten what was most necessary.[1766] They came not
therefore to skirmish nor to do great feats of arms. They came to
attempt in broad daylight the escalading and the storming of the
greatest, the most illustrious, and the most populous town of the
realm; an undertaking of vast importance, proposed doubtless and
decided in the royal council and with the knowledge of the King, who
can have been neither indifferent nor hostile to it.[1767] Charles of
Valois wanted to retake Paris. It remains to be seen whether for the
accomplishment of his desire he depended merely on men-at-arms and
ladders.

[Footnote 1766: Deliberation of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc. cit._
_Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245. Falconbridge, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 457.]

[Footnote 1767: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 240, 246, 298; vol. iii, pp. 425,
427; vol. v, pp. 97, 107, 130, 140.]

It would seem that the Maid had not been told of the resolutions
taken.[1768] She was never consulted and was seldom informed of what
had been decided. But she was as sure of entering the town that day as
of going to Paradise when she died. For more than three years her
Voices had been drumming the attack on Paris in her ears.[1769] But the
astonishing point is that, saint as she was, she should have consented
to arm and fight on the day of the Nativity. It was contrary to her
action on the 5th of May, Ascension Day, and inconsistent with what
she had said on the 8th of the same month: "As ye love and honour the
Sacred Sabbath do not begin the battle."[1770]

[Footnote 1768: _Ibid._, pp. 57, 146, 168, 250.]

[Footnote 1769: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 130 (letter of the 17th of July,
1429), vol. i, p. 298. "Et hoc sciebar per revelationem." Cf. vol. i,
pp. 57, 260, 288 in contradiction.]

[Footnote 1770: _Journal du siège_, p. 89.]

True it is that afterwards, at Montepilloy, she had engaged in a
skirmish on the Day of the Assumption, and thus scandalized the
masters of the University. She acted according to the counsel of her
Voices and her decisions depended on the vaguest murmurings in her
ear. Nothing is more inconstant and more contradictory than the
inspirations of such visionaries, who are but the playthings of their
dreams. What is certain at least is that Jeanne now as always was
convinced that she was doing right and committing no sin.[1771] Arrayed
on the height of Les Moulins, in front of Paris with its grey
fortifications, the French had immediately before them the outermost
of the trenches, dry and narrow, some sixteen or seventeen feet deep,
separated by a mound from the second trench, nearly one hundred feet
broad, deep and filled with water which lapped the walls of the city.
Quite close, on their right, the road to Roule led up to the Saint
Honoré Gate, also called the Gate of the Blind because it was near the
Hospital of Les Quinze Vingts.[1772] It opened beneath a castlet
flanked by turrets, and for an advanced defence it had a bulwark
surrounded by wooden barriers, like those of Orléans.[1773]

[Footnote 1771: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 147, 148.]

[Footnote 1772: In 1254 Saint Louis founded this hospital for three
hundred blind knights whose eyes had been put out by the Saracens.
(W.S.)]

[Footnote 1773: Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses
historiens_, pp. 205 and 231, note 4. Adolphe Berty, _Topographie
historique du vieux Paris, région du Louvre et des Tuileries_, p. 180,
and app. vi, p. ix. E. Eude, _L'attaque de Jeanne d'Arc contre Paris,
1429_, in _Cosmos_, nouv. série, xxix (1894), pp. 241, 244.]

The Parisians did not expect to be attacked on a feast day.[1774] And
yet the ramparts were by no means deserted, and on the walls standards
could be seen waving, and especially a great white banner with a Saint
Andrew's cross in silver gilt.[1775]

[Footnote 1774: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 246.]

[Footnote 1775: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 332, 333. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 108.]

The French arrayed themselves slightly behind the Moulin hill, which
was to protect them from the stream of lead and stones beginning to be
discharged from the artillery on the ramparts. There they ranged their
mortars, their culverins and their cannon, ready to fire on the city
walls. In this position, which commanded the widest stretch of the
fortifications, was the main body of the army. Led by Messire de
Saint-Vallier a knight of Dauphiné, several captains and men-at-arms
approached the Saint Honoré Gate and set fire to the barriers. As the
garrison of the gate had withdrawn within the fortification, and as
the enemy was not seen to be coming out by any other exit, the
Maréchal de Rais' company advanced with fagots, bundles and ladders
right up to the ramparts. The Maid rode at the head of her company.
They halted between the Saint-Denys and the Saint-Honoré Gates, but
nearer the latter, and went down into the first trench, which was not
difficult to cross. But on the mound they found themselves exposed to
bolts and arrows which rained straight down from the walls.[1776] As at
Orléans, and at Les Tourelles, Jeanne had given her banner to a man of
valour to hold.

[Footnote 1776: Perceval de Cagny, p. 167.]

When she reached the top of the mound, she cried out to the folk in
Paris: "Surrender the town to the King of France."[1777]

[Footnote 1777: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 148.]

The Burgundians heard her saying also: "In Jesus' name surrender to us
speedily. For if ye yield not before nightfall, we shall enter by
force, whether ye will or no, and ye shall all be put to death without
mercy."[1778]

[Footnote 1778: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245.]

On the mound she remained, sounding the great dyke with her lance and
marvelling to find it so full and so deep. And yet for eleven days she
and her men-at-arms had been reconnoitring round the walls and seeking
the most favourable point of attack. That she should not have known
how to plan an attack was quite natural. But what is to be thought of
the men-at-arms, who were there on the mound, taken by surprise, as
baffled as she, and all aghast at finding so much water close to the
Seine when the River was in flood? To be able to reconnoitre the
defences of a fortress was surely the _a b c_ of the trade of war.
Captains and soldiers of fortune never risked advancing against a
fortification without knowing first whether there were water, morass
or briars, and arming themselves accordingly with siege train suitable
to the occasion. When the water of the moat was deep they launched
leather boats carried on horses' backs.[1779] The men-at-arms of the
Maréchal de Rais and my Lord of Alençon were more ignorant than the
meanest adventurers. What would the doughty La Hire have thought of
them? Such gross ineptitude and ignorance appeared so incredible that
it was supposed that those fighting men knew the depth of the moat but
concealed it from the Maid, desiring her discomfiture.[1780] In such a
case, while entrapping the damsel they were themselves entrapped, for
there they stayed moving neither backwards nor forwards.

[Footnote 1779: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 67.]

[Footnote 1780: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 333. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 109. _Journal du siège_, p. 127. Martial
d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustelier, 1724, vol. i, p. 113.]

Certain among them idly threw fagots into the moat. Meanwhile the
defenders assailed by flights of arrows, disappeared one after the
other.[1781] But towards four o'clock in the afternoon, the citizens
arrived in crowds. The cannon of the Saint-Denys Gate thundered.
Arrows and abuse flew between those above and those below. The hours
passed, the sun was sinking. The Maid never ceased sounding the moat
with the staff of her lance and crying out to the Parisians to
surrender.

[Footnote 1781: Perceval de Cagny, p. 167. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp.
355, 356. Morosini, vol. iii, note 3. E. Eude, _L'attaque de Jeanne
d'Arc contre Paris_, in _Cosmos_, 22 Sept., 1894, vol. xxix. P. Marin,
_Le génie militaire de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Grande revue de Paris et de
Saint-Pétersbourg_, 2nd year, vol. i, 1889, p. 142.]

"There, wanton! There, minx!" cried a Burgundian.

And planting his cross-bow in the ground with his foot, he shot an
arrow which split one of her greaves and wounded her in the thigh.
Another Burgundian took aim at the Maid's standard-bearer and wounded
him in the foot. The wounded man raised his visor to see whence the
arrow came and straightway received another between the eyes. The Maid
and the Duke of Alençon sorely regretted the loss of this
man-at-arms.[1782]

[Footnote 1782: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 57, 246. _Journal d'un bourgeois
de Paris_, p. 245. Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc.
cit._ Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 457. Perceval de Cagny,
Jean Chartier, _Journal du siège_, Monstrelet, Morosini, _loc. cit._]

After she had been wounded, Jeanne cried all the more loudly that the
walls must be reached and the city taken. She was placed out of reach
of the arrows in the shelter of a breast-work. There she urged the
men-at-arms to throw fagots into the water and make a bridge. About
ten or eleven o'clock in the evening, the Sire de la Trémouille
charged the combatants to retreat. The Maid would not leave the place.
She was doubtless listening to her Saints and beholding celestial
hosts around her. The Duke of Alençon sent for her. The aged Sire de
Gaucourt[1783] carried her off with the aid of a captain of Picardy,
one Guichard Bournel, who did not please her on that day, and who by
his treachery six months later, was to please her still less.[1784] Had
she not been wounded she would have resisted more strongly.[1785] She
yielded regretfully, saying: "In God's name! the city might have been
taken."[1786]

[Footnote 1783: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 298.]

[Footnote 1784: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 111, 273. Berry, in _Trial_, vol.
iv, p. 50. F. Brun, _Jeanne d Arc et le capitaine de Soissons_, pp. 31
_et seq._]

[Footnote 1785: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 57.]

[Footnote 1786: The oath "_Par mon martin_" (by my staff) is an
invention of the scribe who wrote the _Chronicle_ which is attributed
to Perceval de Cagny, p. 168.]

They put her on horseback; and thus she was able to follow the army.
The rumour ran that she had been shot in both thighs; in sooth her
wound was but slight.[1787]

[Footnote 1787: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 334. _Journal du siège_,
p. 128. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 109. Monstrelet, vol.
iv, pp. 355, 356.]

The French returned to La Chapelle, whence they had set out in the
morning. They carried their wounded on some of the carts which they
had used for the transport of fagots and ladders. In the hands of the
enemy they left three hundred hand-carts, six hundred and sixty
ladders, four thousand hurdles and large fagots, of which they had
used but a small number.[1788] Their retreat must have been somewhat
hurried, seeing that, when they came to the Barn of Les Mathurins,
near The Swine Market, they forsook their baggage and set fire to it.
With horror it was related that, like pagans of Rome, they had cast
their dead into the flames.[1789] Nevertheless the Parisians dared not
pursue them. In those days men-at-arms who knew their trade never
retreated without laying some snare for the enemy. Consequently the
King's men posted a considerable company in ambush by the roadside, to
lie in wait for the light troops who should come in pursuit of the
retreating army.[1790] It was precisely such an ambuscade that the
Parisians feared; wherefore they permitted the Armagnacs to regain
their camp at La Chapelle-Saint-Denys unmolested.[1791]

[Footnote 1788: Deliberation of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 1789: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245.]

[Footnote 1790: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 142.]

[Footnote 1791: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 245, 246.]

If we regard only the military tactics of the day, there is no doubt
that the French had blundered and had lacked energy. But it was not on
military tactics that the greatest reliance had been placed. Those who
conducted the war, the King and his council, certainly expected to
enter Paris that day. But how? As they had entered Châlons, as they
had entered Reims, as they had entered all the King's good towns from
Troyes to Compiègne. King Charles had shown himself determined to
recover his towns by means of the townsfolk; towards Paris he acted as
he had acted towards his other towns.

During the coronation march, he had entered into communication with
the bishops and burgesses of the cities of Champagne; and like
communications he had entered into in Paris.[1792] He had dealings with
the monks and notably with the Carmelites of Melun, whose Prior,
Brother Pierre d'Allée, was working in his interest.[1793] For some
time paid agents had been watching for an opportunity of throwing the
city into disorder and of bringing in the enemy in a moment of panic
and confusion. During the assault they were working for him in the
streets. In the afternoon, on both sides of the bridges, were heard
cries of "Let every man look to his own safety! The enemy has entered!
All is lost!" Such of the citizens as were listening to the sermon
hastened to shut themselves in their houses. And others who were out
of doors sought refuge in the churches. But the tumult was quelled.
Wise men, like the clerk of the Parlement, believed that it was but a
feigned attack, and that Charles of Valois looked to recover the town
not so much by force of arms as by a movement of the populace.[1794]

[Footnote 1792: For the opinions of the townsfolk of Paris, see various
acts of Henry VI of the 18th and 25th of Sept., 1429 (MS. Fontanieu,
115). Sauval, _Antiquités de Paris_, vol. iii, p. 586 and _circ._]

[Footnote 1793: A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_, p.
302.]

[Footnote 1794: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 456, 458.]

Certain monks who were acting in Paris as the King's spies, went out
to him at Saint-Denys and informed him that the attempt had failed.
According to them it had very nearly succeeded.[1795]

[Footnote 1795: _Relation du greffier de La Rochelle_, p. 344.]

The Sire de la Trémouille is said to have commanded the retreat, for
fear of a massacre. Indeed, once the French had entered they were
quite capable of slaughtering the townsfolk and razing the city to the
ground.[1796]

[Footnote 1796: _Chronique de Normandie_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 342,
343.]

On the morrow, Friday the 9th, the Maid, rising with the dawn, despite
her wound, asked the Duke of Alençon to have the call to arms sounded;
for she was strongly determined to return to the walls of Paris,
swearing not to leave them until the city should be taken.[1797]
Meanwhile the French captains sent a herald to Paris, charged to ask
for a safe conduct for the removing of the bodies of the dead left
behind in great numbers.[1798]

[Footnote 1797: Perceval de Cagny, p. 168.]

[Footnote 1798: _Ibid._ _Chronique normande_, in _La chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 465. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 120, note 1.]

Notwithstanding that they had suffered cruel hurt, after a retreat
unmolested it is true, but none the less disastrous and involving the
loss of all their siege train, several of the leaders were, like the
Maid, inclined to attempt a new assault. Others would not hear of it.
While they were disputing, they beheld a baron coming towards them and
with him fifty nobles; it was the Sire de Montmorency, the first
Christian peer of France, that is the first among the ancient vassals
of the bishop of Paris. He was transferring his allegiance from the
Cross of St. Andrew to the Flowers-de-luce.[1799] His coming filled the
King's men with courage and a desire to return to the city. The army
was on its way back, when the Count of Clermont and the Duke of Bar
were sent to arrest the march by order of the King, and to take the
Maid back to Saint-Denys.[1800]

[Footnote 1799: Duchesne, _Histoire de la maison de Montmorency_, p.
232. Perceval de Cagny, p. 168. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 118, 119.]

[Footnote 1800: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Un détail du siège de Paris_, in
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, vol. xlvi, 1885, p. 12.]

On Saturday the 10th, at daybreak, the Duke of Alençon, with a few
knights, appeared on the bank above the city, where a bridge had been
thrown over the Seine some days earlier. The Maid, always eager for
danger, accompanied the venturesome warriors. But the night before,
the King had prudently caused the bridge to be taken down, and the
little band had to retrace its steps.[1801] It was not that the King
had renounced the idea of taking Paris. He was thinking more than ever
of the recovery of his great town; but he intended to regain it
without an assault, by means of the compliance of certain burgesses.

[Footnote 1801: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 168, 169. Morosini, vol. iii, p.
219, note 4. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii,
p. 120, note 1. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Un détail du siège de Paris_,
_loc. cit._]

At this same place of Saint-Denys there happened to Jeanne a
misadventure, which would seem to have impressed her comrades and
possibly to have lessened their faith in her good luck in war. As was
customary, women of ill-fame followed the army in great numbers; each
man had his own; they were called _amiètes_.[1802] Jeanne could not
tolerate them because they caused disorder, but more especially
because their sinful lives filled her with horror. At that very time,
stories like the following were circulated far and wide, and spread
even into Germany.

[Footnote 1802: Diminutive of _amie_ (W.S.).]

There was a certain man in the camp, who had with him his _amiète_.
She rode in armour in order not to be recognised. Now the Maid said to
the nobles and captains: "There is a woman with our men." They replied
that they knew of none. Whereupon the Maid assembled the army, and,
approaching the woman said: "This is she."

Then addressing the wench: "Thou art of Gien and thou art big with
child. Were it not so I would put thee to death. Thou hast already let
one child die and thou shalt not do the same for this one."

When the Maid had thus spoken, servants took the wench and conveyed
her to her own home. There they kept her under watch and ward until
she was delivered of her child. And she confessed that what the Maid
had said was true.

After which, the Maid again said: "There are women in the camp."
Whereupon two wantons, who did not belong to the army, and had already
been dismissed from it, hearing these words, rode off on horseback.
But the Maid hastened after them crying: "Ye foolish women, I have
forbidden you to come into my company." And she drew her sword and
struck one of them on the head, so sore that she died.[1803]

[Footnote 1803: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 184, 186.]

The tale was true; Jeanne could not suffer these wenches. Every time
she met one she gave chase to her. This was precisely what she did at
Gien, when she saw women of ill-fame awaiting the King's men.[1804] At
Château-Thierry, she espied an _amiète_ riding behind a man-at-arms,
and, running after her, sword in hand, she came up with her, and
without striking, bade her henceforth avoid the society of
men-at-arms. "If thou wilt not," she added, "I shall do thee
hurt."[1805]

[Footnote 1804: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90.]

[Footnote 1805: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 73.]

At Saint-Denys, being accompanied by the Duke of Alençon, Jeanne
pursued another of these wantons. This time she was not content with
remonstrances and threats. She broke her sword over her.[1806] Was it
Saint Catherine's sword? So it was believed, and doubtless not without
reason.[1807] In those days men's minds were full of the romantic
stories of Joyeuse and Durandal. It would appear that Jeanne, when she
lost her sword, lost her power. A slight variation of the story was
told afterwards, and it was related how the King, when he was
acquainted with the matter of the broken sword, was displeased and
said to the Maid: "You should have taken a stick to strike withal and
should not have risked the sword you received from divine hands."[1808]
It was told likewise how the sword had been given to an armourer for
him to join the pieces together, and that he could not, wherein lay a
proof that the sword was enchanted.[1809]

[Footnote 1806: _Ibid._, p. 99.]

[Footnote 1807: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 76.]

[Footnote 1808: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 90.]

[Footnote 1809: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 122, 123.]

Before his departure, the King appointed the Count of Clermont
commander of the district with several lieutenants: the Lords of
Culant, Boussac, Loré, and Foucault. He constituted joint
lieutenants-general the Counts of Clermont and of Vendôme, the lords
Regnault de Chartres, Christophe d'Harcourt and Jean Tudert. Regnault
de Chartres established himself in the town of Senlis, the
lieutenant's headquarters. Having thus disposed, the King quitted
Saint-Denys on the 13th of September.[1810] The Maid followed him
against her will notwithstanding that she had the permission of her
Voices to do so.[1811] She offered her armour to the image of Our Lady
and to the precious body of Saint Denys.[1812] This armour was white,
that is to say devoid of armorial bearings.[1813] She was thus
following the custom of men-at-arms, who, after they had received a
wound, if they did not die of it, offered their armour to Our Lady and
the Saints as a token of thanksgiving. Wherefore, in those warlike
days, chapels, like that of Notre-Dame de Fierbois, often presented
the appearance of arsenals. To her armour the Maid added a sword which
she had won before Paris.[1814]

[Footnote 1810: Perceval de Cagny, p. 169. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
pp. 335 _et seq._ Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 112 _et
seq._ Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 356. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_,
p. 246. Berry in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 48. Gilles de Roye, p. 208.]

[Footnote 1811: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 260.]

[Footnote 1812: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 109. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 170. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, p. 114. Jacques
Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, pp. 13, 14.]

[Footnote 1813: La Curne, at the word _Blanc_: white armour was worn by
squires, gilded armour by knights. Bouteiller, in his _Somme Rurale_,
refers to the "_harnais doré_" (gilded armour) of the knights. Cf. Du
Tillet, _Recueil des rois de France_, ch. _Des chevaliers_, p. 431. Du
Cange, _Observations sur les établissements de la France_, p. 373.]

[Footnote 1814: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 179.]




CHAPTER IV

THE TAKING OF SAINT-PIERRE-LE-MOUSTIER--FRIAR RICHARD'S SPIRITUAL
DAUGHTERS--THE SIEGE OF LA CHARITÉ


The King slept at Lagny-sur-Marne on the 14th of September, then
crossed the Seine at Bray, forded the Yonne near Sens and went on
through Courtenay, Châteaurenard and Montargis. On the 21st of
September he reached Gien. There he disbanded the army he could no
longer pay, and each man went to his own home. The Duke of Alençon
withdrew into his viscounty of Beaumont-sur-Oise.[1815]

[Footnote 1815: _Journal du siège_, p. 130. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 170,
171. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 246, 247. Berry, in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 79. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 219.]

Learning that the Queen was coming to meet the King, Jeanne went
before her and greeted her at Selles-en-Berry.[1816] She was afterwards
taken to Bourges, where my Lord d'Albret, half-brother of the Sire de
la Trémouille, lodged her with Messire Régnier de Bouligny. Régnier
was then Receiver General. He had been one of those whose dismissal
the University had requested in 1408, as being worse than useless,
for they held him responsible for many of the disorders in the
kingdom. He had entered the Dauphin's service, passed from the
administration of the royal domain to that of taxes and attained the
highest rank in the control of the finances.[1817] His wife, who had
accompanied the Queen to Selles, beheld the Maid and wondered. Jeanne
seemed to her a creature sent by God for the relief of the King and
those of France who were loyal to him. She remembered the days not so
very long ago when she had seen the Dauphin and her Husband not
knowing where to turn for money. Her name was Marguerite La Touroulde;
she was damiselle, not dame; a comfortable _bourgeoise_ and that was
all.[1818]

[Footnote 1816: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 86. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 265. P. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne
d'Arc en Berry, avec des documents et des éclaircissements inédits_,
Paris, 1892, in 12mo, chap. vi.]

[Footnote 1817: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 85, note 1. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 418, note 7.]

[Footnote 1818: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 85.]

Three weeks Jeanne sojourned in the Receiver General's house. She
slept there, drank there, ate there. Nearly every night, Damiselle
Marguerite La Touroulde slept with her; the etiquette of those days
required it. No night-gowns were worn; folk slept naked in those vast
beds. It would seem that Jeanne disliked sleeping with old women.[1819]
Damiselle La Touroulde, although not so very old, was of matronly
age;[1820] she had moreover a matron's experience, and further she
claimed, as we shall see directly, to know more than most matrons
knew. Several times she took Jeanne to the bath and to the
sweating-room.[1821] That also was one of the rules of etiquette; a
host was not considered to be making his guests good cheer unless he
took them to the bath. In this point of courtesy princes set an
example; when the King and Queen supped in the house of one of their
retainers or ministers, fine baths richly ornamented were prepared for
them before they came to table.[1822] Mistress Marguerite doubtless did
not possess what was necessary in her own house; wherefore she took
Jeanne out to the bath and the sweating-room. Such are her own
expressions; and they probably indicate a vapour bath[1823] not a bath
of hot water.

[Footnote 1819: _Ibid._, pp. 81, 86.]

[Footnote 1820: Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, pp.
72, 73.]

[Footnote 1821: "_In balneo et stuphis._" _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 88.]

[Footnote 1822: _L'amant rendu cordelier à l'observance d'amour_; poem
attributed to Martial d'Auvergne, A. de Montaiglon, Paris, 1881, in
8vo, lines 1761-1776 and note p. 184. A. Franklin, _La vie privée
d'autrefois_, vol. ii, _Les soins de la toilette_, Paris, 1887, in
18mo, pp. 20 _et seq._ A. Lecoy de la Marche, _Le bain au moyen âge_,
in _Revue du monde catholique_, vol. xiv, pp. 870-881.]

[Footnote 1823: _Livre des métiers_, by Étienne Boileau, edited by De
Lespinasse and F. Bonnardot, Paris, 1879, pp. 154, 155, and note. G.
Bayle, _Notes pour servir à l'histoire de la prostitution au moyen
âge_, in _Mémoires de l'Académie de Vauctuse_, 1887, pp. 241, 242. Dr.
P. Pansier, _Histoire des prétendus statuts de la reine Jeanne_, in
_Le Janus_, 1902, p. 14.]

At Bourges the sweating-rooms were in the Auron quarter, in the lower
town, near the river.[1824] Jeanne was strictly devout, but she did not
observe conventual rule; she, like chaste Suzannah therefore, might
permit herself to bathe and she must have had great need to do so
after having slept on straw.[1825] What is more remarkable is that,
after having seen Jeanne in the bath, Mistress Marguerite judged her a
virgin according to all appearances.[1826]

[Footnote 1824: Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, pp.
76, 77.]

[Footnote 1825: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1826: _Ibid._, p. 88.]

In Messire Régnier de Bouligny's house and likewise wherever she
lodged, she led the life of a _béguine_ but did not practise
excessive austerity. She confessed frequently. Many a time she asked
her hostess to come with her to matins. In the cathedral and in
collegiate churches there were matins every day, between four and six,
at the hour of sunset. The two women often talked together; the
Receiver General's wife found Jeanne very simple and very ignorant.
She was amazed to discover that the maiden knew absolutely
nothing.[1827]

[Footnote 1827: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 87. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny,
_Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, pp. 73, 74.]

Among other matters, Jeanne told of her visit to the old Duke of
Lorraine, and how she had rebuked him for his evil life; she spoke
likewise of the interrogatory to which the doctors of Poitiers had
subjected her.[1828] She was persuaded that these clerks had questioned
her with extreme severity, and she firmly believed that she had
triumphed over their ill-will. Alas! she was soon to know clerks even
less accommodating.

[Footnote 1828: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 86, 87.]

Mistress Marguerite said to her one day: "If you are not afraid when
you fight, it is because you know you will not be killed." Whereupon
Jeanne answered: "I am no surer of that than are the other
combatants."

Oftentimes women came to the Bouligny house, bringing paternosters and
other trifling objects of devotion for the Maid to touch.

Jeanne used to say laughingly to her hostess: "Touch them yourself.
Your touch will do them as much good as mine."[1829]

[Footnote 1829: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 88.]

This ready repartee must have shown Mistress Marguerite that Jeanne,
ignorant as she may have been, was none the less capable of
displaying a good grace and common sense in her conversation.

While in many matters this good woman found the Maid but a simple
creature, in military affairs she deemed her an expert. Whether, when
she judged the saintly damsel's skill in wielding arms, she was giving
her own opinion or merely speaking from hearsay, as would seem
probable, she at any rate declared later that Jeanne rode a horse and
handled a lance as well as the best of knights and so well that the
army marvelled.[1830] Indeed most captains in those days could do no
better.

[Footnote 1830: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 88.]

Probably there were dice and dice-boxes in the Bouligny house,
otherwise Jeanne would have had no opportunity of displaying that
horror of gaming which struck her hostess. On this matter Jeanne
agreed with her comrade, Friar Richard, and indeed with everyone else
of good life and good doctrine.[1831]

[Footnote 1831: _Ibid._, p. 87.]

What money she had Jeanne distributed in alms. "I am come to succour
the poor and needy," she used to say.[1832]

[Footnote 1832: _Ibid._, pp. 87, 88.]

When the multitude heard such words they were led to believe that this
Maid of God had been raised up for something more than the
glorification of the Lilies, and that she was come to dispel such ills
as murder, pillage and other sins grievous to God, from which the
realm was suffering. Mystic souls looked to her for the reform of the
Church and the reign of Jesus Christ on earth. She was invoked as a
saint, and throughout the loyal provinces were to be seen carved and
painted images of her which were worshipped by the faithful. Thus,
even during her lifetime, she enjoyed certain of the privileges of
beatification.[1833]

[Footnote 1833: Noël Valois, _Un nouveau témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_,
in _Annuaire bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France_, Paris,
1907, in 8vo, pp. 8 and 18 (separate issue).]

North of the Seine meanwhile, English and Burgundians were at their
old work. The Duke of Vendôme and his company fell back on Senlis, the
English descended on the town of Saint-Denys and sacked it once more.
In the Abbey Church they found and carried off the Maid's armour,
thus, according to the French clergy, committing undeniable sacrilege
and for this reason: because they gave the monks of the Abbey nothing
in exchange.

The King was then at Mehun-sur-Yèvre, quite close to Bourges, in one
of the finest châteaux in the world, rising on a rock and overlooking
the town. The late Duke Jean of Berry, a great builder, had erected
this château with the care that he never failed to exercise in matters
of art. Mehun was King Charles's favourite abode.[1834]

[Footnote 1834: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 265. A. Buhot de Kersers, _Histoire et
statistique du département du Cher, canton de Mehun_, Bourges, 1891,
in 4to, pp. 261 _et seq._ A. de Champeaux and P. Gauchery, _Les
travaux d'art exécutés pour Jean de France, duc de Berry_, Paris,
1894, in 4to, pp. 7, 9, and the miniature in _Les grandes heures_ of
Duke Jean of Berry at Chantilly.]

The Duke of Alençon, eager to reconquer his duchy, was waiting for
troops to accompany him into Normandy, across the marches of Brittany
and Maine. He sent to the King to know if it were his good pleasure to
grant him the Maid. "Many there be," said the Duke, "who would
willingly come with her, while without her they will not stir from
their homes." Her discomfiture before Paris had not, therefore,
entirely ruined her prestige. The Sire de la Trémouille opposed her
being sent to the Duke of Alençon, whom he mistrusted, and not without
cause. He gave her into the care of his half-brother, the Sire
d'Albret, Lieutenant of the King in his own country of Berry.[1835]

[Footnote 1835: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 170, 171. Berry, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 48. Letter from the Sire d'Albret to the people of Riom,
in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 148, 149. Martin Le Franc, _Champion des
dames_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 71.]

The Royal Council deemed it necessary to recover La Charité, left in
the hands of Perrinet Gressart at the time of the coronation campaign;[1836]
but it was decided first to attack Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier, which
commanded the approaches to Bec-d'Allier.[1837] The garrison of this
little town was composed of English and Burgundians, who were
constantly plundering the villages and laying waste the fields of
Berry and Bourbonnais. The army for this expedition assembled at
Bourges. It was commanded by my Lord d'Albret,[1838] but popular report
attributed the command to Jeanne. The common folk, the burgesses of
the towns, especially the citizens of Orléans knew no other commander.

[Footnote 1836: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 310. _Journal du siège_,
p. 107. Morosini, vol. ii, p. 229, note 4. Perceval de Cagny, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1837: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217. Jaladon de la Barre, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier et deux juges nivernais à Rouen_,
Nevers, 1868, in 8vo, chaps. ix _et seq._]

[Footnote 1838: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 356. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny,
_Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, p. 89.]

After two or three days' siege, the King's men stormed the town. But
they were repulsed. Squire Jean d'Aulon, the Maid's steward, who some
time before had been wounded in the heel and consequently walked on
crutches, had retreated with the rest.[1839] He went back and found
Jeanne who had stayed almost alone by the side of the moat. Fearing
lest harm should come to her, he leapt on to his horse, spurred
towards her and cried: "What are you doing, all alone? Wherefore do
you not retreat like the others?"

[Footnote 1839: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217.]

Jeanne doffed her sallet and replied: "I am not alone. With me are
fifty thousand of my folk. I will not quit this spot till I have taken
the town."

Casting his eyes around, Messire Jean d'Aulon saw the Maid surrounded
by but four or five men.

More loudly he cried out to her: "Depart hence and retreat like the
others."

Her only reply was a request for fagots and hurdles to fill up the
moat. And straightway in a loud voice she called: "To the fagots and
the hurdles all of ye, and make a bridge!"

The men-at-arms rushed to the spot, the bridge was constructed
forthwith and the town taken by storm with no great difficulty. At any
rate that is how the good Squire, Jean d'Aulon, told the story.[1840]
He was almost persuaded that the Maid's fifty thousand shadows had
taken Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier.

[Footnote 1840: _Ibid._, p. 218.]

With the little army on the Loire at that time were certain holy women
who like Jeanne led a singular life and held communion with the Church
Triumphant. They constituted, so to speak, a kind of flying squadron
of _béguines_, which followed the men-at-arms. One of these women was
called Catherine de La Rochelle; two others came from Lower
Brittany.[1841]

[Footnote 1841: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 106. _Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris_, pp. 259, 260, 271, 272. Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol.
iv, pp. 503, 504. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 74 _et seq._
N. Quellien, _Perrinaïc, une compagne de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1891,
in 8vo. Mme. Pascal-Estienne, _Perrinaïk_, Paris, 1893, in 8vo. J.
Trévedy, _Histoire du roman de Perrinaïc_, Saint-Brieuc, 1894, in 8vo.
_Le roman de Perrinaïc_, Vannes, 1894, in 8vo. A. de la Borderie,
_Pierronne et Perrinaïc_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]

They all had miraculous visions; Jeanne saw my Lord Saint Michael in
arms and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret wearing crowns;[1842]
Pierronne beheld God in a long white robe and a purple cloak;[1843]
Catherine de La Rochelle saw a white lady, clothed in cloth of gold;
and, at the moment of the consecration of the host all manner of
marvels of the high mystery of Our Lord were revealed unto her.[1844]

[Footnote 1842: _Trial_, vol. v, index at the words _Catherine_,
_Michel_, _Marguerite_.]

[Footnote 1843: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1844: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 271, 272.]

Jean Pasquerel was still with Jeanne in the capacity of chaplain.[1845]
He hoped to take his penitent to fight in the Crusade against the
Hussites, for it was against these heretics that he felt most
bitterly. But he had been entirely supplanted by the Franciscan, Friar
Richard, who, after Troyes, had joined the mendicants of Jeanne's
earlier days. Friar Richard dominated this little band of the
illuminated. He was called their good Father. He it was who instructed
them.[1846] His designs for these women did not greatly differ from
those of Jean Pasquerel: he intended to conduct them to those wars of
the Cross, which he thought were bound to precede the impending end of
the world.[1847]

[Footnote 1845: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 104 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1846: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 450. _Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris_, pp. 271, 272.]

[Footnote 1847: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 235.]

Meanwhile, it was his endeavour to foster a good understanding
between them, which, eloquent preacher though he was, he found very
difficult. Within the sisterhood there were constant suspicions and
disputes. Jeanne had been on friendly terms with Catherine de la
Rochelle at Montfaucon in Brie and at Jargeau; but now she began to
suspect her of being a rival, and immediately she assumed an attitude
of mistrust.[1848] Possibly she was right. At any moment either
Catherine or the Breton women might be made use of as she had
been.[1849] In those days a prophetess was useful in so many ways: in
the edification of the people, the reformation of the Church, the
leading of men-at-arms, the circulation of money, in war, in peace; no
sooner did one appear than each party tried to get hold of her. It
seems as if, after having employed the Maid Jeanne to deliver Orléans,
the King's Councillors were now thinking of employing Dame Catherine
to make peace with the Duke of Burgundy. Such a task was deemed
fitting for a saint less chivalrous than Jeanne. Catherine was married
and the mother of a family. In this circumstance there need be no
cause for astonishment; for if the gift of prophecy be more especially
reserved for virgins, the example of Judith proves that the Lord may
raise up strong matrons for the serving of his people.

[Footnote 1848: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1849: _Ibid._, p. 107.]

If we believe that, as her surname indicates, she came from La
Rochelle, her origin must have inspired the Armagnacs with confidence.
The inhabitants of La Rochelle, all pirates more or less, were too
profitably engaged in preying upon English vessels to forsake the
Dauphin's party. Moreover, he rewarded their loyalty by granting them
valuable commercial privileges.[1850] They had sent gifts of money to
the people of Orléans; and when, in the month of May, they learned the
deliverance of Duke Charles's city, they instituted a public festival
to commemorate so happy an event.

[Footnote 1850: Arcère, _Histoire de La Rochelle_, 1756, in 4to, vol.
i, p. 271. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104, note. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 24, 75 _et seq._, 219, 279.]

The first duty of a saint in the army, it would appear, was to collect
money. Jeanne was always sending letters asking the good towns for
money or for munitions of war; the burgesses always promised to grant
her request and sometimes they kept their promise. Catherine de la
Rochelle appears to have had special revelations concerning the funds
of the party; her mission, therefore, was financial, while Jeanne's
was martial. She announced that she was going to the Duke of Burgundy
to conclude peace.[1851] If one may judge from the little that is known
of her, the inspirations of this holy dame were not very elevated, not
very orderly, not very profound.

[Footnote 1851: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 107, 108.]

Meeting Jeanne at Montfaucon in Berry (or at Jargeau) she addressed
her thus:

"There came unto me a white lady, attired in cloth of gold, who said
to me: 'Go thou through the good towns and let the King give unto thee
heralds and trumpets to cry: "Whosoever has gold, silver or hidden
treasure, let him bring it forth instantly."'"

Dame Catherine added: "Such as have hidden treasure and do not thus, I
shall know their treasure, and I shall go and find it."

She deemed it necessary to fight against the English and seemed to
believe that Jeanne's mission was to drive them out of the land, since
she obligingly offered her the whole of her miraculous takings.

"Wherewithal to pay your men-at-arms," she said. But the Maid answered
disdainfully:

"Go back to your husband, look after your household, and feed your
children."[1852]

[Footnote 1852: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 107.]

Disputes between saints are usually bitter. In her rival's missions
Jeanne refused to see anything but folly and futility. Nevertheless it
was not for her to deny the possibility of the white lady's
visitations; for to Jeanne herself did there not descend every day as
many saints, angels and archangels as were ever painted on the pages
of books or the walls of monasteries? In order to make up her mind on
the subject, she adopted the most effectual measures. A learned doctor
may reason concerning matter and substance, the origin and the form of
ideas, the dawn of impressions in the intellect, but a shepherdess
will resort to a surer method; she will appeal to her own eyesight.

Jeanne asked Catherine if the white lady came every night, and
learning that she did: "I will sleep with you," she said.

When night came, she went to bed with Catherine, watched till
midnight, saw nothing and fell asleep, for she was young, and she had
great need of sleep. In the morning, when she awoke, she asked: "Did
she come?"

"She did," replied Catherine; "you were asleep, so I did not like to
wake you."

"Will she not come to-morrow?"

Catherine assured her that she would come without fail.

This time Jeanne slept in the day in order that she might keep awake
at night; so she lay down at night in the bed with Catherine and kept
her eyes open. Often she asked: "Will she not come?"

And Catherine replied: "Yes, directly."

But Jeanne saw nothing.[1853] She held the test to be a good one.
Nevertheless she could not get the white lady attired in cloth of gold
out of her head. When Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret came to her,
as they delayed not to do, she spoke to them concerning this white
lady and asked them what she was to think of her. The reply was such
as Jeanne expected:

"This Catherine," they said, "is naught but futility and folly."[1854]

[Footnote 1853: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 108, 109.]

[Footnote 1854: _Ibid._, p. 107.]

Then was Jeanne constrained to cry: "That is just what I thought."

The strife between these two prophetesses was brief but bitter. Jeanne
always maintained the opposite of what Catherine said. When the latter
was going to make peace with the Duke of Burgundy, Jeanne said to her:

"Me seemeth that you will never find peace save at the lance's
point."[1855]

[Footnote 1855: _Ibid._, p. 108.]

There was one matter at any rate wherein the White Lady proved a
better prophetess than the Maid's Council, to wit, the siege of La
Charité. When Jeanne wished to go and deliver that town, Catherine
tried to dissuade her.

"It is too cold," she said; "I would not go."[1856]

[Footnote 1856: _Ibid._]

Catherine's reason was not a high one; and yet it is true Jeanne would
have done better not to go to the siege of La Charité.

Taken from the Duke of Burgundy by the Dauphin in 1422, La Charité had
been retaken in 1424, by Perrinet Gressart,[1857] a successful
captain, who had risen from the rank of mason's apprentice to that of
pantler to the Duke of Burgundy and had been created Lord of Laigny by
the King of England.[1858] On the 30th of December, 1425, Perrinet's
men arrested the Sire de La Trémouille, when he was on his way to the
Duke of Burgundy, having been appointed ambassador in one of those
eternal negotiations, forever in process between the King and the
Duke. He was for several months kept a prisoner in the fortress which
his captor commanded. He must needs pay a ransom of fourteen thousand
golden crowns; and, albeit he took this sum from the royal
treasury,[1859] he never ceased to bear Perrinet a grudge. Wherefore it
may be concluded that when he sent men-at-arms to La Charité it was in
good sooth to capture the town and not with any evil design against
the Maid.

[Footnote 1857: "Perrinet Crasset, mason and captain of men-at-arms."
_Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 446 verso. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, p. 117. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 174. Vallet de
Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 328.]

[Footnote 1858: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cclxxviii. A. de
Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, p. 109. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie
Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, pp. 20, 21, 373 _et seq._ J. de Fréminville,
_Les écorcheurs en Bourgogne_ (1435-1445); _Étude sur les compagnies
franches au XV'e siècle_, Dijon, 1888, in 8vo. P. Champion,
_Guillaume de Flavy_. Proofs and illustrations, xxx.]

[Footnote 1859: Sainte-Marthe, _Histoire généalogique de la maison de
la Trémoïlle_, 1668, in 12mo, pp. 149 _et seq._ L. de La Trémoïlle,
_Les La Trémoïlle pendant cinq siècles_, Nantes, 1890, vol. i, p.
165.]

The army despatched against this Burgundian captain and this great
plunder of pilgrims was composed of no mean folk. Its leaders were
Louis of Bourbon, Count of Montpensier, and Charles II, Sire d'Albret,
La Trémouille's half-brother and Jeanne's companion in arms during the
coronation campaign. The army was doubtless but scantily supplied
with stores and with money.[1860] That was the normal condition of
armies in those days. When the King wanted to attack a stronghold of
the enemy, he must needs apply to his good towns for the necessary
material. The Maid, at once saint and warrior, could beg for arms with
a good grace; but possibly she overrated the resources of the towns
which had already given so much.

[Footnote 1860: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 149. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_,
vol. iii. _Journal du siège_, p. 129. Monstrelet, vol. v, chap, lxxii.
A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, p. 108.]

On the 7th of November, she and my Lord d'Alençon signed a letter
asking the folk of Clermont in Auvergne for powder, arrows and
artillery. Churchmen, magistrates, and townsfolk sent two
hundredweight of saltpetre, one hundredweight of sulphur, two cases of
arrows; to these they added a sword, two poniards and a battle-axe for
the Maid; and they charged Messire Robert Andrieu to present this
contribution to Jeanne and to my Lord d'Albret.[1861]

[Footnote 1861: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 146. F. Perot, _Un document inédit
sur Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bulletin de la Société archéologique de
l'Orléanais_, vol. xii, 1898-1901, p. 231.]

On the 9th of November, the Maid was at Moulins in Bourbonnais.[1862]
What was she doing there? No one knows. There was at that time in the
town an abbess very holy and very greatly venerated. Her name was
Colette Boilet. She had won the highest praise and incurred the
grossest insults by attempting to reform the order of Saint Clare.
Colette lived in the convent of the Sisters of Saint Clare, which she
had recently founded in this town. It has been thought that the Maid
went to Moulins on purpose to meet her.[1863] But we ought first to
ascertain whether these two saints had any liking for each other. They
both worked miracles and miracles which were occasionally somewhat
similar;[1864] but that was no reason why they should take the
slightest pleasure in each other's society. One was called _La
Pucelle_,[1865] the other _La Petite Ancelle_.[1866] But these names,
both equally humble, described persons widely different in fashion of
attire and in manner of life. _La Petite Ancelle_ wended her way on
foot, clothed in rags like a beggar-woman; _La Pucelle_, wrapped in
cloth of gold, rode forth with lords on horseback. That Jeanne,
surrounded by Franciscans who observed no rule, felt any veneration
for the reformer of the Sisters of Saint Clare, there is no reason to
believe; neither is there anything to indicate that the pacific
Colette, strongly attached to the Burgundian house,[1867] had any
desire to hold converse with one whom the English regarded as a
destroying angel.[1868]

[Footnote 1862: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 147-150. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny,
_Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, ch. viii.]

[Footnote 1863: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cclxxix.]

[Footnote 1864: Acta Sanctorum, March, i, 554, col. 2, no. 61. Abbé
Bizouard, _Histoire de sainte Colette_, pp. 35, 37. S[ilvere],
_Histoire chronologique de la bienheureuse Colette_, Paris, 1628, in
8vo.]

[Footnote 1865: _The Maid_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1866: _Servant._ Cf. Godefroy, _Lexique de l'ancien Français_
(W.S.).]

[Footnote 1867: _Histoire chronologique de la bienheureuse Colette_,
pp. 168-200.]

[Footnote 1868: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc et les ordres mendiants_, in
_Revue des deux mondes_, 1881, vol. xlv, p. 90. L. de Kerval, _Jeanne
d'Arc et les Franciscains_, Vanves, 1893, pp. 49, 51. S. Luce, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. cclxxviii _et seq._ F. Perot, _Jeanne d'Arc en
Bourbonnais_, Orléans, in 8vo, 26 pp., 1889. F. André, _La vérité sur
Jeanne d'Arc_, in 8vo, 1895, pp. 308 _et seq._]

From this town of Moulins, Jeanne dictated a letter by which she
informed the inhabitants of Riom that Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier was
taken, and asked them for materials of war as she had asked the folk
of Clermont.[1869]

[Footnote 1869: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 146-148.]

Here is the letter:

     Good friends and beloved, ye wit how that the town of Saint
     Père le Moustier hath been taken by storm; and with God's
     help it is our intention to cause to be evacuated the other
     places contrary to the King; but for this there hath been
     great expending of powder, arrows and other munition of war
     before the said town, and the lords who are in this town are
     but scantily provided for to go and lay siege to La Charité,
     whither we wend presently; I pray you as ye love the welfare
     and honour of the King and likewise of all others here, that
     ye will straightway help and send for the said siege powder,
     saltpetre, sulphur, arrows, strong cross-bows and other
     munition of war. And do this lest by failure of the said
     powder and other habiliments of war, the siege should be
     long and ye should be called in this matter negligent or
     unwilling. Good friends and beloved, may our Lord keep you.
     Written at Molins, the ninth day of November.

     Jehanne.

     Addressed to: My good friends and beloved, the churchmen,
     burgesses and townsfolk of the town of Rion.[1870]

[Footnote 1870: _Ibid._, pp. 146, 148. Facsimile in _Le Musée des
archives départementales_, p. 124.]

The magistrates of Riom, in letters sealed with their own seal,
undertook to give Jeanne the Maid and my Lord d'Albret the sum of
sixty crowns; but when the masters of the siege-artillery came to
demand this sum, the magistrates would not give a farthing.[1871]

[Footnote 1871: F. Perot (_Bulletin de la Société archéologique de
l'Orléanais_, vol. xii, p. 231).]

The folk of Orléans, on the other hand, once more appeared both
zealous and munificent; for they eagerly desired the reduction of a
town commanding the Loire for seventy-five miles above their own city.
They deserve to be considered the true deliverers of the kingdom; had
it not been for them neither Jargeau nor Beaugency would have been
taken in June. Quite in the beginning of July, when they thought the
Loire campaign was to be continued, they had sent their great mortar,
La Bougue, to Gien. With it they had despatched ammunition and
victuals; and now, in the early days of December, at the request of
the King addressed to the magistrates, they sent to La Charité all the
artillery brought back from Gien; likewise eighty-nine soldiers of the
municipal troops, wearing the cloak with the Duke of Orléans' colours,
the white cross on the breast; with their trumpeter at their head and
commanded by Captain Boiau; craftsmen of all conditions, master-masons
and journeymen, carpenters, smiths; the cannoneers Fauveau, Gervaise
Lefèvre and Brother Jacques, monk of the Gray friars monastery, at
Orléans.[1872] What became of all this artillery and of these brave
folk?

[Footnote 1872: A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, p. 107, proofs
and illustrations, xvii, pp. 159, 168. _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 268, 270,
according to the original documents in the Orléans Library.]

On the 24th of November, the Sire d'Albret and the Maid, being hard
put to it before the walls of La Charité, likewise solicited the town
of Bourges. On receipt of their letter, the burgesses decided to
contribute thirteen hundred golden crowns. To raise this sum they had
recourse to a measure by no means unusual; it had been employed
notably by the townsfolk of Orléans when, some time previously, to
furnish forth Jeanne with munition of war, they had bought from a
certain citizen a quantity of salt which they had put up to auction
in the city barn. The townsfolk of Bourges sold by auction the annual
revenue of a thirteenth part of the wine sold retail in the town. But
the money thus raised never reached its destination.[1873]

[Footnote 1873: La Thaumassière, _Histoire du Berry_, p. 161. _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 356, 357. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en
Berry_, pp. 105 _et seq._ A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, pp.
111, 112.]

A right goodly knighthood was gathered beneath the walls of La
Charité; besides Louis de Bourbon and the Sire d'Albret, there was the
Maréchal de Broussac, Jean de Bouray, Seneschal of Toulouse, and
Raymon de Montremur, a Baron of Dauphiné, who was slain there.[1874] It
was bitterly cold and the besiegers succeeded in nothing. At the end
of a month Perrinet Gressart, who was full of craft, caused them to
fall into an ambush. They raised the siege, abandoning the artillery
furnished by the good towns, those fine cannon bought with the savings
of thrifty citizens.[1875] Their action was the less excusable because
the town which had not been relieved and could not well expect to be,
must have surrendered sooner or later. They pleaded that the King had
sent them no victuals and no money;[1876] but that was not considered
an excuse and their action was deemed dishonourable. According to a
knight well acquainted with points of honour in war: "One ought never
to besiege a place without being sure of victuals and of pay
beforehand. For to besiege a stronghold and then to withdraw is great
disgrace for an army, especially when there is present with it a king
or a king's lieutenant."[1877]

[Footnote 1874: _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires du Centre_,
vol. iv, 1870-1872, pp. 211, 239.]

[Footnote 1875: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 126. Lanéry d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, p. 89.]

[Footnote 1876: Perceval de Cagny, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1877: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, pp. 216, 217.]

On the 13th of December there preached to the people of Périgueux a
Dominican friar, Brother Hélie Boudant, Pope Martin's Penitentiary in
that town. He took as his text the great miracles worked in France by
the intervention of a Maid, whom God had sent to the King. On this
occasion the Mayor and the magistrates heard mass sung and presented
two candles. Now for two months Brother Hélie had been under order to
appear before the Parlement of Poitiers.[1878] On what charge we do not
know. Mendicant monks of those days were for the most part irregular
in faith and in morals. The doctrine of Friar Richard himself was not
altogether beyond suspicion.

[Footnote 1878: Extract from the Book of Accounts of the town of
Périgueux, in _Bulletin de la Société historique et archéologique du
Périgord_, vol. xiv, January to February, 1887. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc
à Domremy_, proofs and illustrations, ccxvii, p. 252. Le P. Chapotin,
_La guerre de cent ans et les dominicains_, pp. 74 _et seq._]

At Christmas, in the year 1429, the flying squadron of _béguines_
being assembled at Jargeau,[1879] this good Brother said mass and
administered the communion thrice to Jeanne the Maid and twice to that
Pierronne of Lower Brittany, with whom our Lord conversed as friend
with friend. Such an action might well be regarded, if not as a formal
violation of the Church's laws, at any rate as an unjustifiable abuse
of the sacrament.[1880] A menacing theological tempest was then
gathering and was about to break over the heads of Friar Richard's
daughters in the spirit. A few days after the attack on Paris, the
venerable University had had composed or rather transcribed a
treatise, _De bono et maligno spiritu_, with a view probably to
finding therein arguments against Friar Richard and his prophetess
Jeanne, who had both appeared before the city with the Armagnacs.[1881]

[Footnote 1879: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1880: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 271.]

[Footnote 1881: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 232, 233. Le P. Denifle and
Chatelain, _Cartularium Univ. Paris_, vol. iv, p. 515.]

About the same time, a clerk of the faculty of law had published a
summary reply to Chancellor Gerson's memorial concerning the Maid. "It
sufficeth not," he wrote, "that one simply affirm that he is sent of
God; every heretic maketh such a claim; but he must prove the truth of
that mysterious mission by some miraculous work or by some special
testimony in the Bible." This Paris clerk denies that the Maid has
presented any such proof, and to judge her by her acts, he believes
her rather to have been sent by the Devil than by God. He reproaches
her with wearing a dress forbidden to women under penalty of anathema,
and he refutes the excuses for her conduct in this matter urged by
Gerson. He accuses her of having excited between princes and Christian
people a greater war than there had ever been before. He holds her to
be an idolatress using enchantments and making false prophecies. He
charges her with having induced men to slay their fellows on the two
high festivals of the Holy Virgin, the Assumption and the Nativity.
"Sins committed by the Enemy of Mankind, through this woman, against
the Creator and his most glorious Mother. And albeit there ensued
certain murders, thanks be to God they were not so many as the Enemy
had intended."

"All these things do manifestly prove error and heresy," adds this
devout son of the University. Whence he concludes that the Maid
should be taken before the Bishop and the Inquisitor; and he ends by
quoting this text from Saint Jérôme: "The unhealthy flesh must be cut
off; the diseased sheep must be driven from the fold."[1882]

[Footnote 1882: Noël Valois, _Un nouveau témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_,
Paris, 1907, in 8vo, 19 pages.]

Such was the unanimous opinion of the University of Paris concerning
her in whom the French clerks beheld an Angel of the Lord. At Bruges,
in November, a rumour ran and was eagerly welcomed by ecclesiastics
that the University of Paris had sent an embassy to the Pope at Rome
to denounce the Maid as a false prophetess and a deceiver, and
likewise those who believed in her. We do not know the veritable
object of this mission.[1883] But there is no doubt whatever that the
doctors and masters of Paris were henceforward firmly resolved that if
ever they obtained possession of the damsel they would not let her go
out of their hands, and certainly would not send her to be tried at
Rome, where she might escape with a mere penance, and even be enlisted
as one of the Pope's mercenaries.[1884]

[Footnote 1883: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 232.]

[Footnote 1884: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 354, 355.]

In English and Burgundian lands, not only by clerks but by folk of all
conditions, she was regarded as a heretic; in those countries the few
who thought well of her had to conceal their opinions carefully. After
the retreat from Saint-Denys, there may have remained some in Picardy,
and notably at Abbeville, who were favourable to the prophetess of the
French; but such persons must not be spoken of in public.

Colin Gouye, surnamed Le Sourd, and Jehannin Daix, surnamed Le Petit,
a man of Abbeville, learned this to their cost. In this town about
the middle of September, Le Sourd and Le Petit were near the
blacksmith's forge with divers of the burgesses and other townsfolk,
among whom was a herald. They fell to talking of the Maid who was
making so great a stir throughout Christendom. To certain words the
herald uttered concerning her, Le Petit replied eagerly:

"Well! well! Everything that woman does and says is nought but
deception."

Le Sourd spoke likewise: "That woman," he said, "is not to be trusted.
Those who believe in her are mad, and there is a smell of burning
about them."[1885]

[Footnote 1885: _Sentent la persinée_: literally, smell of roast
parsley. Cf. Godefroy, _Lexique de l'ancien français_ at the word
_persinée_. _Sentir la persinée_: to be suspected of heresy (W.S.).]

By that he meant that their destiny was obvious, and that they were
sure to be burned at the stake as heretics.

Then he had the misfortune to add: "In this town there be many with a
smell of burning about them."

Such words were for the dwellers in Abbeville a slander and a cause of
suspicion. When the Mayor and the aldermen heard of this speech they
ordered Le Sourd to be thrown into prison. Le Petit must have said
something similar, for he too was imprisoned.[1886]

[Footnote 1886: Pardon granted to Le Sourd and Jehannin Daix, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 142-145.]

By saying that divers of his fellow-citizens were suspect of heresy,
Le Sourd put them in danger of being sought out by the Bishop and the
Inquisitor as heretics and sorcerers of notoriously evil repute. As
for the Maid, she must have been suspect indeed, for a smell of
burning to be caused by the mere fact of being her partisan.

While Friar Richard and his spiritual daughters were thus threatened
with a bad end should they fall into the hands of the English or
Burgundians, serious troubles were agitating the sisterhood. On the
subject of Catherine, Jeanne entered into an open dispute with her
spiritual father. Friar Richard wanted the holy dame of La Rochelle to
be set to work. Fearing lest his advice should be adopted, Jeanne
wrote to her King to tell him what to do with the woman, to wit that
he should send her home to her husband and children.

When she came to the King the first thing she had to say to him was:
"Catherine's doings are nought but folly and futility."

Friar Richard made no attempt to hide from the Maid his profound
displeasure.[1887] He was thought much of at court, and it was
doubtless with the consent of the Royal Council that he was
endeavouring to compass the employment of Dame Catherine. The Maid had
succeeded. Why should not another of the illuminated succeed?

[Footnote 1887: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 107.]

Meanwhile the Council had by no means renounced the services Jeanne
was rendering to the French cause. Even after the misfortunes of Paris
and of La Charité, there were many who now as before held her power to
be supernatural; and there is reason to believe that there was a party
at Court intending still to employ her.[1888] And even if they had
wished to discard her she was now too intimately associated with the
royal lilies for her rejection not to involve them too in dishonour.
On the 29th of December, 1429, at Mehun-sur-Yèvre, the King gave her a
charter of nobility sealed with the great seal in green wax, with a
double pendant, on a strip of red and green silk.[1889]

[Footnote 1888: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 84; vol. iv, pp. 312 _et passim_.
A. de Villaret, _loc. cit._ Proofs and illustrations.]

[Footnote 1889: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 150-153. J. Hordal, _Heroinae
nobilissimae Joannae Darc, lotharingæ, vulgo aurelianensis puellae
historia...._ Ponti-Mussi, 1612, small 4to. C. du Lys, _Traité
sommaire tant du nom et des armes que de la naissance et parenté de la
Pucelle, justifié par plusieurs patentes et arrêts, enquêtes et
informations...._ Paris, 1633, in 4to. De la Roque, _Traité de la
noblesse_, Paris, 1678, in 4to, ch. xliii. Lanéry d'Arc, _Jeanne d'Arc
en Berry_, ch. x.]

The grant of nobility was to Jeanne, her father, mother, brothers even
if they were not free, and to all their posterity, male and female. It
was a singular grant corresponding to the singular services rendered
by a woman.

In the title she is described as Johanna d'Ay, doubtless because her
father's name was given to the King's scribes by Lorrainers who would
speak with a soft drawl; but whether her name were Ay or Arc, she was
seldom called by it, and was commonly spoken of as Jeanne the
Maid.[1890]

[Footnote 1890: See analytical index, in _Trial_, vol. v, at the word
_Pucelle_.]




CHAPTER V

LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF REIMS--LETTER TO THE HUSSITES--DEPARTURE
FROM SULLY


The folk of Orléans were grateful to the Maid for what she had done
for them. Far from reproaching her with the unfortunate conclusion of
the siege of La Charité, they welcomed her into their city with the
same rejoicing and with as good cheer as before. On the 19th of
January, 1430, they honoured her and likewise Maître Jean de Velly and
Maître Jean Rabateau with a banquet, at which there was abundance of
capons, partridges, hares, and even a pheasant.[1891] Who that Jean de
Velly was, who was feasted with her, we do not know. As for Jean
Rabateau, he was none other than the King's Councillor, who had been
Attorney-General at the Parlement of Poitiers since 1427.[1892] He had
been the Maid's host at Orléans. His wife had often seen Jeanne
kneeling in her private oratory.[1893] The citizens of Orléans offered
wine to the Attorney-General, to Jean de Velly, and to the Maid. In
good sooth, 'twas a fine feast and a ceremonious. The burgesses loved
and honoured Jeanne, but they cannot have observed her very closely
during the repast or they would not eight years later, when an
adventuress gave herself out to be the Maid, have mistaken her for
Jeanne, and offered her wine in the same manner and at the hands of
the same city servant, Jacques Leprestre, as now presented it.[1894]

[Footnote 1891: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 270.]

[Footnote 1892: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 19, 74, 203. H. Daniel Lacombe,
_L'hôte de Jeanne d'Arc à Poitiers, Maître Jean Rabateau, président du
parlement de Paris_, in _Revue du Bas-Poitou_, 1891, pp. 48, 66.]

[Footnote 1893: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 88 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1894: Extract from the Accounts of the town of Orléans, in
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 331.]

The standard that Jeanne loved even more than her Saint Catherine's
sword had been painted at Tours by one Hamish Power. He was now
marrying his daughter Héliote; and when Jeanne heard of it, she sent a
letter to the magistrates of Tours, asking them to give a sum of one
hundred crowns for the bride's trousseau. The nuptials were fixed for
the 9th of February, 1430. The magistrates assembled twice to
deliberate on Jeanne's request. They described her honourably and yet
not without a certain caution as "the Maid who hath come into this
realm to the King, concerning the matter of the war, announcing that
she is sent by the King of Heaven against the English." In the end
they refused to pay anything, because, they said, it behoved them to
expend municipal funds on municipal matters and not otherwise; but
they decided that for the affection and honour they bore the Maid, the
churchmen, burgesses, and other townsfolk should be present in the
church at the wedding, and should offer prayers for the bride and
present her with bread and wine. This cost them four _livres_, ten
_sous_.[1895]

[Footnote 1895: Vallet de Viriville, _Un épisode de la vie de Jeanne
d'Arc_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, vol. iv (1st
series), p. 488. _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 154-156.]

At a time which it is impossible to fix exactly the Maid bought a
house at Orléans. To be more precise she took it on lease.[1896] A
lease (_bail à vente_) was an agreement by which the proprietor of a
house or other property transferred the ownership to the lessee in
return for an annual payment in kind or in money. The duration of such
leases was usually fifty-nine years. The house that Jeanne acquired in
this manner belonged to the Chapter of the Cathedral. It was in the
centre of the town, in the parish of Saint-Malo, close to the
Saint-Maclou Chapel, next door to the shop of an oil-seller, one Jean
Feu, in the Rue des Petits-Souliers. It was in this street that,
during the siege, there had fallen into the midst of five guests
seated at table a stone cannon-ball weighing one hundred and
sixty-four pounds, which had done no one any harm.[1897] What price did
the Maid give for this house? Apparently six crowns of fine gold (at
sixty crowns to the mark), due half-yearly at Midsummer and Christmas,
for fifty-nine years. In addition, she must according to custom have
undertaken to keep the house in good condition and to pay out of her
own purse the ecclesiastical dues as well as rates for wells and
paving and all other taxes. Being obliged to have some one as surety,
she chose as her guarantor a certain Guillot de Guyenne, of whom we
know nothing further.[1898]

[Footnote 1896: Jules Doinel, _Note sur une maison de Jeanne d'Arc_, in
_Mémoires de la Société archéologique et historique de l'Orléanais_,
vol. xv, pp. 491-500.]

[Footnote 1897: _Journal du siège_, pp. 15, 16.]

[Footnote 1898: Jules Doinel, _Note sur une maison de Jeanne d'Arc_,
_loc. cit._]

There is no reason to believe that the Maid did not herself negotiate
this agreement. Saint as she was, she knew well what it was to possess
property. Such knowledge ran in her family; her father was the best
business man in his village.[1899] She herself was domesticated and
thrifty; for she kept her old clothes, and even in the field she knew
where to find them when she wanted to make presents of them to her
friends. She counted up her possessions in arms and horses, valued
them at twelve thousand crowns, and, apparently made a pretty accurate
reckoning.[1900] But what was her idea in taking this house? Did she
think of living in it? Did she intend when the war was over to return
to Orléans and pass a peaceful old age in a house of her own? Or was
she planning for her parents to dwell there, or some Vouthon uncle, or
her brothers, one of whom was in great poverty and had got a doublet
out of the citizens of Orléans?[1901]

[Footnote 1899: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. 360.]

[Footnote 1900: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 295.]

[Footnote 1901: Accounts of the fortress, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 259,
260.]

On the third of March she followed King Charles to Sully.[1902] The
château, in which she lodged near the King, belonged to the Sire de la
Trémouille, who had inherited it from his mother, Marie de Sully, the
daughter of Louis I of Bourbon. It had been recaptured from the
English after the deliverance of Orléans.[1903] A stronghold on the
Loire, on the highroad from Paris to Autun, and commanding the plain
between Orléans and Briare and the ancient bridge with twenty arches,
the château of Sully linked together central France and those northern
provinces which Jeanne had so regretfully quitted, and whither with
all her heart she longed to return to engage in fresh expeditions and
fresh sieges.

[Footnote 1902: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 159.]

[Footnote 1903: Perceval de Cagny, p. 173. _Chronique de la Pucelle_,
p. 258. _Berry_, in Godefroy, p. 376. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 294,
notes 4, 5. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i,
pp. 139, 163. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
144.]

During the first fortnight of March, from the townsfolk of Reims she
received a message in which they confided to her fears only too well
grounded.[1904] On the 8th of March the Regent had granted to the Duke
of Burgundy the counties of Champagne and of Brie on condition of his
reconquering them.[1905] Armagnacs and English vied with each other in
offering the biggest and most tempting morsels to this Gargantuan
Duke. Not being able to keep their promise and deliver to him
Compiègne which refused to be delivered, the French offered him in its
place Pont-Sainte-Maxence.[1906] But it was Compiègne that he wanted.
The truces, which had been very imperfectly kept, were to have expired
at Christmas, but first they had been prolonged till the 15th of March
and then till Easter. In the year 1430 Easter fell on the 16th of
April; and Duke Philip was only waiting for that date to put an army
in the field.[1907]

[Footnote 1904: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 378. D. Plancher, _Histoire de
Bourgogne_, vol. iv, p. 137. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 268.]

[Footnote 1905: Du Tillet, _Recueil des rois de France_, vol. ii, p. 39
(ed. 1601-1602). Rymer, _Foedera_, March, 1430.]

[Footnote 1906: P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, pp. 35, 152.]

[Footnote 1907: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp.
351, 389.]

In a manner concise and vivacious the Maid replied to the townsfolk of
Reims:

     "Dear friends and beloved and mightily desired. Jehenne the
     Maid hath received your letters making mention that ye fear
     a siege. Know ye that it shall not so betide, and I may but
     encounter them shortly. And if I do not encounter them and
     they do not come to you, if you shut your gates firmly, I
     shall shortly be with you: and if they be there, I shall
     make them put on their spurs so hastily that they will not
     know where to take them and so quickly that it shall be very
     soon. Other things I will not write unto you now, save that
     ye be always good and loyal. I pray God to have you in his
     keeping. Written at Sully, the 16th day of March.

     I would announce unto you other tidings at which ye would
     mightily rejoice; but I fear lest the letters be taken on
     the road, and the said tidings be seen.

     Signed. Jehanne.

     _Addressed_ to my dear friends and beloved, churchmen,
     burgesses and other citizens of the town of Rains."[1908]

[Footnote 1908: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 160, according to Rogier's copy. H.
Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, proofs and illustrations xv. Facsimile
in Wallon, 1876 edition, p. 200. The original of this letter exists,
likewise the original of the letter addressed on the 9th of November,
1429, to the citizens of Riom. These two letters, about one hundred
and twenty-six days apart, are not written by the same scribe. The
signature of neither one nor the other can be attributed to the hand
which indited the rest of the letter. The seven letters of the name
_Jehanne_ seem to have been written by some one whose hand was being
held, which is not surprising, seeing that the Maid did not know how
to write. But a comparison of the two signatures reveals their close
similarity. In both the stem of the J slopes in the same direction and
is of identical length; the first _n_ through one letter being written
on the top of another has three pothooks instead of two; the second
pothook of the second _n_ obviously written in two strokes is too
long, in short the two signatures correspond exactly. We must conclude
therefore that having once obtained the Maid's signature by guiding
her hand, an impression was taken to serve as a model for all her
other letters. To judge from the two missives of the 9th of November,
1429 and the 16th of March, 1430, this impression was most faithfully
reproduced. Cf. _post_, p. 117, note 2.]

There can be no doubt that the scribe wrote this letter faithfully as
it was dictated by the Maid, and that he wrote her words as they fell
from her lips. In her haste she now and again forgot words and
sometimes whole phrases; but the sense is clear all the same. And what
confidence! "You will have no siege if I encounter the enemy." How
completely is this the language of chivalry! On the eve of Patay she
had asked: "Have you good spurs?"[1909] Here she cries: "I will make
them put on their spurs." She says that soon she will be in Champagne,
that she is about to start. Surely we can no longer think of her shut
up in the Castle of La Trémouille as in a kind of gilded cage.[1910] In
conclusion, she tells her friends at Reims that she does not write
unto them all that she would like for fear lest her letter should be
captured on the road. She knew what it was to be cautious. Sometimes
she affixed a cross to her letters to warn her followers to pay no
heed to what she wrote, in the hope that the missive would be
intercepted and the enemy deceived.[1911]

[Footnote 1909: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 11.]

[Footnote 1910: Perceval de Cagny, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1911: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 83.]

It was from Sully that on the 23rd of March Brother Pasquerel sent the
Emperor Sigismund a letter intended for the Hussites of Bohemia.[1912]

[Footnote 1912: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 156.]

The Hussites of those days were abhorred and execrated throughout
Christendom. They demanded the free preaching of God's word, communion
in both kinds, and the return of the Church to that evangelical life
which allowed neither the wealth of priests nor the temporal power of
popes. They desired the punishment of sin by the civil magistrates, a
custom which could prevail only in very holy society. They were saints
indeed and heretics too on every possible point. Pope Martin held the
destruction of these wicked persons to be salutary, and such was the
opinion of every good Catholic. But how could this armed heresy be
dealt with when it routed all the forces of the Empire and the Holy
See? The Hussites were too much for that worn-out ancient chivalry of
Christendom, for the knighthood of France and of Germany, which was
good for nothing but to be thrown on to the refuse heaps like so much
old iron. And this was precisely what the towns of the realm of France
did when over these knights of chivalry they placed a peasant
girl.[1913]

[Footnote 1913: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 24, 86, 87. J. Zeller,
_Histoire d'Allemagne_, vol. vii, _La réforme_, Paris, 1891, pp. 78
_et seq._ E. Denis, _Jean Hus et la guerre des Hussites_ (1879); _Les
origines de l'Unité des Frères Bohêmes_, Angers, 1885, in 8vo, pp. 5
_et seq._]

At Tachov, in 1427, the Crusaders, blessed by the Holy Father, had
fled at the mere sound of the chariot wheels of the Procops.[1914] Pope
Martin knew not where to turn for defenders of Holy Church, one and
indivisible. He had paid for the armament of five thousand English
crusaders, which the Cardinal of Winchester was to lead against these
accursed Bohemians; but in this force the Holy Father was cruelly
disappointed; hardly had his five thousand crusaders landed in France,
than the Regent of England diverted them from their route and sent
them to Brie to occupy the attention of the Maid of the
Armagnacs.[1915]

[Footnote 1914: Two of the great leaders of the Hussites who held large
parts of central Germany in terror from 1419-1434 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1915: L. Paris, _Cabinet historique_, vol. i, 1855, pp. 74,
76. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 294. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 132,
133, 136, 137, 168, 169, 188, 189; vol. iv, supplement, xvii.]

Since her coming into France Jeanne had spoken of the crusade as a
work good and meritorious. In the letter dictated before the
expedition to Orléans, she summoned the English to join the French and
go together to fight against the Church's foe. And later, writing to
the Duke of Burgundy, she invited the son of the Duke vanquished at
Nicopolis to make war against the Turks.[1916] Who but the mendicants
directing her can have put these crusading ideas into Jeanne's head?
Immediately after the deliverance of Orléans it was said that she
would lead King Charles to the conquest of the Holy Sepulchre and that
she would die in the Holy Land.[1917] At the same time it was rumoured
that she would make war on the Hussites. In the month of July, 1429,
when the coronation campaign had barely begun, it was proclaimed in
Germany, on the faith of a prophetess of Rome, that by a prophetess of
France the Bohemian kingdom should be recovered.[1918]

[Footnote 1916: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 240; vol. v, p. 126.]

[Footnote 1917: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 82-85. Christine de Pisan, in
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 416. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 60-63.]

[Footnote 1918: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 108, 115, 188.]

Already zealous for the Crusade against the Turks, the Maid was now
equally eager for the Crusade against the Hussites. Turks or
Bohemians, it was all alike to her. Of one and the other her only
knowledge lay in the stories full of witchcraft related to her by the
mendicants of her company. Touching the Hussites, stories were told,
not all true, but which Jeanne must have believed; and they cannot
have pleased her. It was said that they worshipped the devil, and that
they called him "the wronged one." It was told that as works of piety
they committed all manner of fornication. Every Bohemian was said to
be possessed by a hundred demons. They were accused of killing
thousands of churchmen. Again, and this time with truth, they were
charged with burning churches and monasteries. The Maid believed in
the God who commanded Israel to wipe out the Philistines from the face
of the earth. But recently there had arisen Cathari who held the God
of the Old Testament to be none other than Lucifer or Luciabelus,
author of evil, liar and murderer. The Cathari abhorred war; they
refused to shed blood; they were heretics; they had been massacred,
and none remained. The Maid believed in good faith that the
extirpation of the Hussites was a work pleasing to God. Men more
learned than she, not like her addicted to chivalry, but of gentle
life, clerks like the Chancellor Jean Gerson, believed it
likewise.[1919] Of these Bohemian heretics she thought what every one
thought: her opinions were those of the multitude; her views were
modelled on public opinion. Wherefore in all the simplicity of her
heart she hated the Hussites, but she feared them not, because she
feared nothing and because she believed, God helping her, that she was
able to overcome all the English, all the Turks, and all the Bohemians
in the world. At the first trumpet call she was ready to sally forth
against them. On the 23rd of March, 1430, Brother Pasquerel sent the
Emperor Sigismund a letter written in the name of the Maid and
intended for the Hussites of Bohemia. This letter was indited in
Latin. The following is the purport of it:

[Footnote 1919: Lea, _A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages_,
vol. ii, p. 481 (1906).]

     JESUS [cross symbol] MARIE

     Long ago there reached me the tidings that ye from the true
     Christians that ye once were have become heretics, like unto
     the Saracens, that ye have abolished true religion and
     worship and have turned to a superstition corrupt and fatal,
     the which in your zeal to maintain and to spread abroad
     there be no shame nor cruelty ye do not dare to perpetrate.
     You defile the sacraments of the Church, tear to pieces the
     articles of her faith, overthrow her temples. The images
     which were made for similitudes you break and throw into the
     fire. Finally such Christians as embrace not your faith you
     massacre. What fury, what folly, what rage possesses you?
     That religion which God the All Powerful, which the Son,
     which the Holy Ghost raised up, instituted, exalted and
     revealed in a thousand manners, by a thousand miracles, ye
     persecute, ye employ all arts to overturn and to
     exterminate.

     It is you, you who are blind and not those who have not eyes
     nor sight. Think ye that ye will go unpunished? Do ye not
     know that if God prevent not your impious violence, if he
     suffer you to grope on in darkness and in error, it is that
     he is preparing for you a greater sorrow and a greater
     punishment? As for me, in good sooth, were I not occupied
     with the English wars, I would have already come against
     you. But in very deed if I learn not that ye have turned
     from your wicked ways, I will peradventure leave the English
     and hasten against you, in order that I may destroy by the
     sword your vain and violent superstition, if I can do so in
     no other manner, and that I may rid you either of heresy or
     of life. Notwithstanding, if you prefer to return to the
     Catholic faith and to the light of primitive days, send unto
     me your ambassadors and I will tell them what ye must do. If
     on the other hand ye will be stiff-necked and kick against
     the pricks, then remember all the crimes and offences ye
     have perpetrated and look for to see me coming unto you with
     all strength divine and human to render unto you again all
     the evil ye have done unto others.

     Given at Sully, on the 23rd of March, to the Bohemian
     heretics.

     Signed. Pasquerel.[1920]

[Footnote 1920: Th. de Sickel, _Lettre de Jeanne d'Arc aux Hussites_,
in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, 3rd series, vol. ii, p. 81.
A wrong date is given in the German translation used by Quicherat,
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 156-159.]

This was the letter sent to the Emperor. How had Jeanne really
expressed herself in her dialect savouring alike of the speech of
Champagne and of that of l'Île de France? There can be no doubt but
that her letter had been sadly embellished by the good Brother. Such
Ciceronian language cannot have proceeded from the Maid. It is all
very well to say that a saint of those days could do everything, could
prophesy on any subject and in any tongue, so fine an epistle remains
far too rhetorical to have been composed by a damsel whom even the
Armagnac captains considered simple. Nevertheless, a careful
examination will reveal in this missive, at any rate in the second
half of it, certain of those bluntly naive passages and some of that
childish assurance which are noticeable in Jeanne's genuine letters,
especially in her reply to the Count of Armagnac;[1921] and more than
once there occurs an expression characteristic of a village sibyl. The
following, for example, is quite in Jeanne's own manner: "If you will
return to the bosom of the Catholic Church, send me your ambassadors;
I will tell you what you have to do." And her usual threat: "Expect me
with all strength human and divine."[1922] As for the phrase: "If I
hear not shortly of your conversion, of your return to the bosom of
the Church, I will peradventure leave the English and come against
you," here we may suspect the mendicant friar, less interested in the
affairs of Charles VII than in those of the Church, of having ascribed
to the Maid greater eagerness to set forth on the Crusade than she
really felt. Good and salutary as she deemed the taking of the Cross,
as far as we know her, she would never have consented to take it until
she had driven the English out of the realm of France. She believed
this to be her mission, and the persistence, the consistency, the
strength of will she evinced in its fulfilment, are truly admirable.
It is quite probable that she dictated to the good Brother some phrase
like: "When I have put the English out of the kingdom, I will turn
against you." This would explain and excuse Brother Pasquerel's error.
It is very likely that Jeanne believed she would dispose of the
English in a trice and that she already saw herself distributing good
buffets and sound clouts to the renegade and infidel Bohemians. The
Maid's simplicity makes itself felt through the clerk's Latin. This
epistle to the Bohemians recalls, alas! that fagot placed upon the
stake whereon John Huss was burning, by the pious zeal of the good
wife whose saintly simplicity John Huss himself teaches us to admire.

[Footnote 1921: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 246.]

[Footnote 1922: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 95.]

One cannot help reflecting that Jeanne and those very men against whom
she hurled menace and invective had much in common; alike they were
impelled by faith, chastity, simple ignorance, pious duty, resignation
to God's will, and a tendency to magnify the minor matters of
devotion. Zizka[1923] had established in his camp that purity of morals
which the Maid was endeavouring to introduce among the Armagnacs. The
peasant soldiers of Bohemia and the peasant Maid of France bearing her
sword amidst mendicant monks had much in common. On the one hand and
on the other, we have the religious spirit in the place of the
political spirit, the fear of sin in the place of obedience to the
civil law, the spiritual introduced into the temporal. Here is indeed
a woeful sight and a piteous; the devout set one against the other,
the innocent against the innocent, the simple against the simple, the
heretic against heretics; and it is painful to think that when she is
threatening with extermination the disciples of that John Huss, who
had been treacherously taken and burned as a heretic, she herself is
on the point of being sold to her enemies and condemned to suffer as a
witch. It would have been different if this letter, at which the
accomplished wits and humorists of the day looked askance, had won the
approval of theologians. But they also found fault with it, an
illustrious canonist, a zealous inquisitor deemed highly presumptuous
this threatening of a multitude of men by a Maid.[1924]

[Footnote 1923: Another of the Hussite leaders (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1924: J. Nider, _Formicarium_ in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp.
502-504.]

We were right in saying that she was not prepared to leave the English
immediately and hasten against the Bohemians. Five days after her
appeal to the Hussites she wrote to her friends at Reims and in
mysterious words gave them to understand that she would come to them
shortly.[1925]

[Footnote 1925: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162.]

The partisans of Duke Philip were at that time hatching plots in the
towns of Champagne, notably at Troyes and at Reims. On the 22nd of
February, 1430, a canon and a chaplain were arrested and brought
before the chapter for having conspired to deliver the city to the
English. It was well for them that they belonged to the Church, for
having been condemned to perpetual imprisonment, they obtained from
the King a mitigation of their sentence, and the canon a complete
remittance.[1926] The aldermen and ecclesiastics of the city, fearing
they would be thought badly of on the other side of the Loire, wrote
to the Maid entreating her to speak well of them to the King. The
following is her reply to their request:[1927]

[Footnote 1926: _Ibid._, vol. iv, p. 299, and H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc
à Reims_, pp. 60 _et seq._ Mémoires de Pierre Coquault, _ibid._, pp.
109 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1927: This letter was published by J. Quicherat, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 161, 162, and by M. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, pp.
106, 107 and document XVI, according to Rogier's inaccurate copy. The
original which had disappeared from the municipal archives at Reims
was considered to be lost; but it has been found in the possession of
the Count de Maleissye. Cf. the reproduction by A. Marty and M. Lepet,
_L'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc.... Cent facsimilés de manuscrits, de
miniatures_, Paris, 1907, in large 4to. Here for the first time is to
be found a text correct according to the original document.]

     "Very good friends and beloved, may it please you to wit
     that I have received your letters, the which make mention
     how it hath been reported to the King that within the city
     of Reims there be many wicked persons. Therefore I give you
     to wit that it is indeed true that even such things have
     been reported to him and that he grieves much that there be
     folk in alliance with the Burgundians; that they would
     betray the town and bring the Burgundians into it. But since
     then the King has known the contrary by means of the
     assurance ye have sent him, and he is well pleased with you.
     And ye may believe that ye stand well in his favour; and if
     ye have need, he would help you with regard to the siege;
     and he knows well that ye have much to suffer from the
     hardness of those treacherous Burgundians, your adversaries:
     thus may God in his pleasure deliver you shortly, that is as
     soon as may be. So I pray and entreat you my friends dearly
     beloved that ye hold well the said city for the King and
     that ye keep good watch. Ye will soon have good tidings of
     me at greater length. Other things for the present I write
     not unto you save that the whole of Brittany is French and
     that the Duke is to send to the King three thousand
     combatants paid for two months. To God I commend you, may he
     keep you.

     Written at Sully, the 28th of March.

     Jehanne.[1928]

     Addressed to: My good friends and dearly beloved, the
     churchmen, aldermen, burgesses and inhabitants and masters
     of the good town of Reyms."[1929]

[Footnote 1928: The signature appears to be autograph. It differs from
the two identical signatures of the letters from Riom and Reims (see
_ante_, p. 108, note 1); and it bears trace of the resistance of a
hand which was being guided.]

[Footnote 1929: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162. Varin, _Archives
législatives de la ville de Reims_, vol. i, p. 596. H. Jadart, _Jeanne
d'Arc à Reims_, pp. 106, 107.]

Touching the succour to be expected from the Duke of Brittany, the
Maid was labouring under a delusion. Like all other prophetesses she
was ignorant of what was passing around her. Despite her failures, she
believed in her good fortune; she doubted herself no more than she
doubted God; and she was eager to pursue the fulfilment of her
mission. "Ye shall soon have tidings of me," she said to the townsfolk
of Reims. A few days after, and she left Sully to go into France and
fight, on the expiration of the truces.

It has been said that she feigned an expedition of pleasure and set
out without taking leave of the King, that it was a kind of innocent
stratagem, an honourable flight.[1930] But it was nothing of the
sort.[1931] The Maid gathered a company of some hundred horse,
sixty-eight archers and cross-bowmen, and two trumpeters, commanded by
a Lombard captain, Bartolomeo Baretta.[1932] In this company were
Italian men-at-arms, bearing broad shields, like some who had come to
Orléans at the time of the siege; possibly they were the same.[1933]
She set out at the head of this company, with her brothers and her
steward, the Sire Jean d'Aulon. She was in the hands of Jean d'Aulon,
and Jean d'Aulon was in the hands of the Sire de la Trémouille, to
whom he owed money.[1934] The good squire would not have followed the
Maid against the King's will.

[Footnote 1930: Perceval de Cagny, who was in the pay of the Duke of
Alençon, is the only chronicler to suggest it, p. 173.]

[Footnote 1931: "In the year 1430, Jeanne the Maid started from the
country of Berry accompanied by divers fighting men...." Jean
Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120.]

[Footnote 1932: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120. Martial
d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustellier, vol. i, p. 117. Note
concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 177. P. Champion,
_Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 36, note 2.]

[Footnote 1933: _Journal du siège_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1934: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
293, note 3. True, the loan was made later; none the less the
dependence of Jean d'Aulon on the Sire de la Trémouille existed at
this time.]

The flying squadron of _béguines_ had recently been divided by a
schism. Friar Richard, who was then in high favour with Queen Marie,
and who had preached the Lenten sermons of 1430[1935] at Orléans,
stayed behind, on the Loire, with Catherine de la Rochelle. Jeanne
took with her Pierronne and the younger Breton prophetess.[1936] If she
went into France, it was not without the knowledge or against the will
of the King and his Council. Very probably the Chancellor of the
kingdom had asked La Trémouille to send her in order that he might
employ her in the approaching campaign against the Burgundians, who
were threatening his government of Beauvais and his city of
Reims.[1937] He was not very kindly disposed towards her, but already
he had made use of her and he intended to do so again. Possibly his
intention was to employ her in a fresh attack on Paris.

[Footnote 1935: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 99, note. _Journal du siège_, pp.
235, 238.]

[Footnote 1936: This comes from the _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_,
p. 271.]

[Footnote 1937: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 159, 160.]

The King had not abandoned the idea of taking his great city by the
peaceful methods he always preferred. Throughout Lent, between Sully
and Paris, there had been a constant passing to and fro of certain
Carmelite monks of Melun, disguised as artisans. These were the
churchmen who, during the attack on the Porte Saint Honoré, on the Day
of the Festival of Our Lady, had stirred up the popular rising which
had spread from one bank of the Seine to the other. Now they were
negotiating with certain influential citizens the entrance of the
King's men into the rebel city. The Prior of the Melun Carmelites was
directing the conspiracy.[1938] There is reason to believe that Jeanne
had herself seen him or one of his monks. True it is that since the
22nd or the 23rd of March it was known at Sully that the conspiracy
had been discovered;[1939] but perhaps the hope of success still
lingered. It was to Melun that Jeanne went with her company; and it is
difficult to believe that there was no connection between the
conspiracy of the Carmelites and the expedition of the Maid.

[Footnote 1938: The Pardon of Jean de Calais in A. Longnon, _Paris sous
la domination anglaise_, pp. 301-309. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_,
vol. i, pp. 34-50.]

[Footnote 1939: So it appears from Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 274-275.]

Why should Charles VII's Councillors have ceased to employ her? It
cannot be said that she appeared less divine to the French or less
evil to the English. Her failures, either unknown, or partially known,
rendered unimportant by the fame of her victories, had not dispelled
the idea that within her resided invincible power. At the time when
the hapless damsel with the flower of French knighthood was receiving
sore treatment under the walls of La Charité at the hands of an
ex-mason's apprentice, in Burgundian lands it was rumoured that she
was carrying by storm a castle twelve miles from Paris.[1940] She was
still considered miraculous; the burgesses, the men-at-arms of her
party still believed in her. And as for the _Godons_, from the Regent
to the humblest swordsman of the army, they all regarded her with a
terror as great as that which had possessed them at Orléans and Patay.
At this time so many English soldiers and captains refused to go to
France, that a special edict was issued obliging them to do so.[1941]
But they doubtless discovered reasons enough for not going into a
country where henceforth they could hope only for hard knocks and
nothing tempting; so that many declined, terrified by the enchantments
of the Maid.[1942]

[Footnote 1940: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 228-231. Concerning Perrinet
Gressart see vol. i, p. 389.]

[Footnote 1941: May 3, 1430.]

[Footnote 1942: G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_. Le P.
Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, pp. 572-574.]




CHAPTER VI

THE MAID IN THE TRENCHES OF MELUN--LE SEIGNEUR DE L'OURS--THE CHILD OF
LAGNY


In Easter week, Jeanne, at the head of a band of mercenaries, is
before the walls of Melun.[1943] She arrives just in time to fight. The
truces have expired.[1944] Is it possible that the town which was
subject to King Charles[1945] can have refused to admit the Maid with
her company when she came to it so generously? Apparently it was so.
Was Jeanne able to communicate with the Carmelites of Melun? Probably.
What misfortune befell her at the gates of the town? Did she suffer
ill treatment at the hands of a Burgundian band? We know not. But when
she was in the trenches she heard Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret
saying unto her: "Thou wilt be taken before Saint John's Day."

[Footnote 1943: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 115, 253, April 17-23. Perceval de
Cagny, p. 173. _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 502 recto. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 158, note 2.]

[Footnote 1944: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 363 (April 16).]

[Footnote 1945: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 125. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 378. Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 28. Melun certainly belonged
to the French on the 23rd of April, 1430.]

And she entreated them: "When I am taken, let me die immediately
without suffering long." And the Voices repeated that she would be
taken and thus it must be.

And they added gently: "Be not troubled, be resigned. God will help
thee."[1946]

[Footnote 1946: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 114-116. G. Leroy, _Histoire de
Melun_, Melun, 1887, in 8vo, ch. xvi ... x ... [Transcriber's Note:
ellipses in original] _Jeanne d'Arc à Melun, mi-avril_, 1430, Melun,
1896, 32 pp.]

Saint John's Day was the 24th of June, in less than ten weeks. Many a
time after that, Jeanne asked her saints at what hour she would be
taken; but they did not tell her; and thus doubting she ceased to
follow her own ideas and consulted the captains.[1947]

[Footnote 1947: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 147.]

On her way from Melun to Lagny-sur-Marne, in the month of May, she had
to pass Corbeil. It was probably then, and in her company, that the
two devout women from Lower Brittany, Pierronne and her younger sister
in the spirit, were taken at Corbeil by the English.[1948]

[Footnote 1948: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 259.]

For eight months the town of Lagny had been subject to King Charles
and governed by Messire Ambroise de Loré, who was energetically waging
war against the English of Paris and elsewhere.[1949] For the nonce
Messire Ambroise de Loré was absent; but his lieutenant, Messire Jean
Foucault, commanded the garrison. Shortly after Jeanne's coming to
this town, tidings were brought that a company of between three and
four hundred men of Picardy and of Champagne, fighting for the Duke of
Burgundy, after having ranged through l'Île de France, were now on
their way back to Picardy with much booty. Their captain was a valiant
man-at-arms, one Franquet d'Arras.[1950] The French determined to cut
off their retreat. Under the command of Messire Jean Foucault, Messire
Geoffroy de Saint-Bellin, Lord Hugh Kennedy, a Scotchman, and Captain
Baretta, they sallied forth from the town.[1951]

[Footnote 1949: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 334, 335. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 110, 111. F.A. Denis, _Le séjour de Jeanne
d'Arc à Lagny_, Lagny, 1894, in 8vo, pp. 3 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1950: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 384. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 120, 121. Perceval de Cagny, p. 173.]

[Footnote 1951: Jean Chartier, _loc. cit._ Martial d'Auvergne,
_Vigiles_, vol. i, p. 117. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 38,
note.]

The Maid went with them. They encountered the Burgundians near Lagny,
but failed to surprise them. Messire Franquet's archers had had time
to take up their position with their backs to a hedge, in the English
manner. King Charles's men barely outnumbered the enemy. A certain
clerk of that time, a Frenchman, writes of the engagement. His innate
ingeniousness was invincible. With candid common sense he states that
this very slight numerical superiority rendered the enterprise very
arduous and difficult for his party.[1952] And the battle was strong
indeed. The Burgundians were mightily afraid of the Maid because they
believed her to be a witch and in command of armies of devils;
notwithstanding, they fought right valiantly. Twice the French were
repulsed; but they returned to the attack, and finally the Burgundians
were all slain or taken.[1953]

[Footnote 1952: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 121.]

[Footnote 1953: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 384.]

The conquerers returned to Lagny, loaded with booty and taking with
them their prisoners, among whom was Messire Franquet d'Arras. Of
noble birth and the lord of a manor, he was entitled to expect that he
would be held to ransom, according to custom. Both Jean de Troissy,
Bailie of Senlis,[1954] and the Maid demanded him from the soldier who
was his captor. It was to the Maid that he was finally delivered.[1955]
Did she obtain him in return for money? Probably, for soldiers were
not accustomed to give up noble and profitable prisoners for nothing.
Nevertheless, the Maid, when questioned on this subject, replied, that
being neither mistress nor steward of France, it was not for her to
give out money. We must suppose, therefore, that some one paid for
her. However that may be, Captain Franquet d'Arras was given up to
her, and she endeavoured to exchange him for a prisoner in the hands
of the English. The man whom she thus desired to deliver was a
Parisian who was called Le Seigneur de l'Ours.[1956]

[Footnote 1954: H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc à Reims_, p. 61.]

[Footnote 1955: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 158.]

[Footnote 1956: _Ibid._, pp. 158, 159.]

He was not of gentle birth and his arms were the sign of his hostelry.
It was the custom in those days to give the title of Seigneur to the
masters of the great Paris inns. Thus Colin, who kept the inn at the
Temple Gate, was known as Seigneur du Boisseau. The hôtel de l'Ours
stood in the Rue Saint-Antoine, near the Gate properly called La Porte
Baudoyer, but commonly known as Porte Baudet, Baudet possessing the
double advantage over Baudoyer of being shorter and more
comprehensible.[1957] It was an ancient and famous inn, equal in renown
to the most famous, to the inn of L'Arbre Sec, in the street of that
name, to the Fleur de Lis near the Pont Neuf, to the Epée in the Rue
Saint-Denis, and to the Chapeau Fétu of the Rue Croix-du-Tirouer. As
early as King Charles V's reign the inn was much frequented. Before
huge fires the spits were turning all day long, and there were hot
bread, fresh herrings, and wine of Auxerre in plenty. But since then
the plunderings of men-at-arms had laid waste the countryside, and
travellers no longer ventured forth for fear of being robbed and
slain. Knights and pilgrims had ceased coming into the town. Only
wolves came by night and devoured little children in the streets.
There were no fagots in the grate, no dough in the kneading-trough.
Armagnacs and Burgundians had drunk all the wine, laid waste all the
vineyards, and nought was left in the cellar save a poor piquette of
apples and of plums.[1958]

[Footnote 1957: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 71, 72. Sauval,
_Antiquités de Paris_, vol. i, p. 104. A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la
domination anglaise_, p. 118. H. Legrand, _Paris en 1380_, Paris,
1868, in 4to, p. 65.]

[Footnote 1958: _Piquette_, a sour wine or cider, made from the residue
of grapes or apples. A kind of second brewing (W.S.). _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 150, 154, 156, 187. Francisque-Michel and
Edouard Fournier, _Histoire des hôtelleries, cabarets, hôtels garnis_,
Paris, 1851 (2 vols. in 8vo), vol. ii, p. 5.]

The Seigneur de l'Ours, whom the Maid demanded, was called Jaquet
Guillaume.[1959] Although Jeanne, like other folk, called him Seigneur,
it is not certain that he personally directed his inn, nor even that
the inn was open through these years of disaster and desolation. The
only ascertainable fact is that he was the proprietor of the house
with the sign of the Bear (_l'Ours_). He held it by right of his wife
Jeannette, and had come into possession of it in the following manner.

[Footnote 1959: A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_, p.
117.]

Fourteen years before, when King Henry with his knighthood had not yet
landed in France, the host of the Bear Inn had been the King's
sergeant-at-arms, one Jean Roche, a man of wealth and fair fame. He
was a devoted follower of the Duke of Burgundy, and that was what
ruined him. Paris was then occupied by the Armagnacs. In the year
1416, in order to turn them out of the city, Jean Roche concerted with
divers burgesses. The plot was to be carried out on Easter Day, which
that year fell on the 29th of April. But the Armagnacs discovered it.
They threw the conspirators into prison and brought them to trial. On
the first Saturday in May the Seigneur de l'Ours was carried to the
market place in a tumbrel with Durand de Brie, a dyer, master of the
sixty cross-bowmen of Paris, and Jean Perquin, pin-maker and brasier.
All three were beheaded, and the body of the Seigneur de l'Ours was
hanged at Montfaucon where it remained until the entrance of the
Burgundians. Six weeks after their coming, in July, 1418, his body was
taken down from gibbet and buried in consecrated ground.[1960]

[Footnote 1960: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 71, 72. A.
Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_, p. 118, note 1.]

Now the widow of Jean Roche had a daughter by a first marriage. Her
name was Jeannette; she took for her first husband a certain Bernard
le Breton; for her second, Jaquet Guillaume, who was not rich. He owed
money to Maître Jean Fleury, a clerk at law and the King's secretary.
His wife's affairs were not more prosperous; her father's goods had
been confiscated and she had been obliged to redeem a part of her
maternal inheritance. In 1424, the couple were short of money, and
they sold a house, concealing the fact that it was mortgaged. Being
charged by the purchaser, they were thrown into prison, where they
aggravated their offence by suborning two witnesses, one a priest, the
other a chambermaid. Fortunately for them, they procured a
pardon.[1961]

[Footnote 1961: A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_, pp.
119-123.]

The Jaquet Guillaume couple, therefore, were in a sorry plight. There
remained to them, however, the inheritance of Jean Roche, the inn near
the Place Baudet, at the sign of the Bear, the title of which Jaquet
Guillaume bore. This second Seigneur de l'Ours was to be as strongly
Armagnac as the other had been Burgundian, and was to pay the same
price for his opinions.

Six years had passed since his release from prison, when, in the March
of 1430, there was plotted by the Carmelites of Melun and certain
burgesses of Paris that conspiracy which we mentioned on the occasion
of Jeanne's departure for l'Île de France. It was not the first plot
into which the Carmelites had entered; they had plotted that rising
which had been on the point of breaking out on the Day of the
Nativity, when the Maid was leading the attack near La Porte
Saint-Honoré; but never before had so many burgesses and so many
notables entered into a conspiracy. A clerk of the Treasury, Maître
Jean de la Chapelle, two magistrates of the Châtelet, Maître Renaud
Savin and Maître Pierre Morant, a very wealthy man, named Jean de
Calais, burgesses, merchants, artisans, more than one hundred and
fifty persons, held the threads of this vast web, and among them,
Jaquet Guillaume, Seigneur de l'Ours.

The Carmelites of Melun directed the whole. Clad as artisans, they
went from King to burgesses, from burgesses to King; they kept up the
communications between those within and those without, and regulated
all the details of the enterprise. One of them asked the conspirators
for a written undertaking to bring the King's men into the city. Such
a demand looks as if the majority of the conspirators were in the pay
of the Royal Council.

In exchange for this undertaking these monks brought acts of oblivion
signed by the King. For the people of Paris to be induced to receive
the Prince, whom they still called Dauphin, they must needs be assured
of a full and complete amnesty. For more than ten years, while the
English and Burgundians had been holding the town, no one had felt
altogether free from the reproach of their lawful sovereign and the
men of his party. And all the more desirous were they for Charles of
Valois to forget the past when they recalled the cruel vengeance taken
by the Armagnacs after the suppression of the Butchers.

One of the conspirators, Jaquet Perdriel, advocated the sounding of a
trumpet and the reading of the acts of oblivion on Sunday at the Porte
Baudet.

"I have no doubt," he said, "but that we shall be joined by the
craftsmen, who, in great numbers will flock to hear the reading."

He intended leading them to the Saint Antoine Gate and opening it to
the King's men who were lying in ambush close by.

Some eighty or a hundred Scotchmen, dressed as Englishmen, wearing the
Saint Andrew's cross, were then to enter the town, bringing in fish
and cattle.

"They will enter boldly by the Saint-Denys Gate," said Perdriel, "and
take possession of it. Whereupon the King's men will enter in force by
the Porte Saint Antoine."

The plan was deemed good, except that it was considered better for the
King's men to come in by the Saint-Denys Gate.

On Sunday, the 12th of March, the second Sunday in Lent, Maître Jean
de la Chapelle invited the magistrate Renaud Savin to come to the
tavern of _La Pomme de Pin_ and meet divers other conspirators in
order to arrive at an understanding touching what was best to be done.
They decided that on a certain day, under pretext of going to see his
vines at Chapelle-Saint-Denys, Jean de Calais should join the King's
men outside the walls, make himself known to them by unfurling a white
standard and bring them into the town. It was further determined that
Maître Morant and a goodly company of citizens with him, should hold
themselves in readiness in the taverns of the Rue Saint-Denys to
support the French when they came in. In one of the taverns of this
street must have been the Seigneur de l'Ours, who, dwelling near by,
had undertaken to bring together divers folk of the neighbourhood.

The conspirators were acting in perfect agreement. All they now
awaited was to be informed of the day chosen by the Royal Council; and
they believed the attempt was to be made on the following Sunday. But
on the 21st of March Brother Pierre d'Allée, Prior of the Carmelites
of Melun, was taken by the English. Put to the torture, he confessed
the plot and named his accomplices. On the information he gave, more
than one hundred and fifty persons were arrested and tried. On the 8th
of April, the Eve of Palm Sunday, seven of the most important were
taken to the market-place on a tumbrel. They were: Jean de la
Chapelle, clerk of the Treasury; Renaud Savin and Pierre Morant,
magistrates at the Châtelet; Guillaume Perdriau; Jean le François,
called Baudrin; Jean le Rigueur, baker, and Jaquet Guillaume, Seigneur
de l'Ours. All seven were beheaded by the executioner, who afterwards
quartered the bodies of Jean de la Chapelle and of Baudrin.

Jaquet Perdriel was merely deprived of his possessions. Jean de Calais
soon procured a pardon. Jeannette, the wife of Jaquet Guillaume, was
banished from the kingdom and her goods confiscated.[1962]

[Footnote 1962: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 251, 253.
Falconbridge, in A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_,
p. 302, note 1. Sauval, _Antiquités de Paris_, vol. iii, p. 536.
Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 140.
Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 274 _et seq._]

How can the Maid have known the Seigneur de l'Ours? Possibly the
Carmelites of Melun had recommended him to her, and perhaps it was on
their advice that she demanded his surrender. She may have seen him in
the September of 1429, at Saint-Denys or before the walls of Paris,
and he may have then undertaken to work for the Dauphin and his party.
Why were attempts made at Lagny to save this man alone of the one
hundred and fifty Parisians arrested on the information of Brother
Pierre d'Allée? Rather than Renaud Savin and Pierre Morant,
magistrates at the Châtelet, rather than Jean de la Chapelle, clerk of
the Treasury, why choose the meanest of the band? And how could they
look to exchange a man accused of treachery for a prisoner of war? All
this seems to us mysterious and inexplicable.

In the early days of May, Jeanne did not know what had become of
Jaquet Guillaume. When she heard that he had been tried and put to
death she was sore grieved and vexed. None the less, she looked upon
Franquet as a captive held to ransom. But the Bailie of Senlis, who
for some unknown reason was determined on the captain's ruin, took
advantage of the Maid's vexation at Jaquet Guillaume's execution, and
persuaded her to give up her prisoner.

He represented to her that this man had committed many a murder, many
a theft, that he was a traitor, and that consequently he ought to be
brought to trial.

"You will be neglecting to execute justice," he said, "if you set this
Franquet free."

These reasons decided her, or rather she yielded to the Bailie's
entreaty.

"Since the man I wished to have is dead," she said, "do with Franquet
as justice shall require you."[1963]

[Footnote 1963: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 158, 159.]

Thus she surrendered her prisoner. Was she right or wrong? Before
deciding we must ask whether it were possible for her to do otherwise
than she did. She was the Maid of God, the angel of the Lord of Hosts,
that is clear. But the leaders of war, the captains, paid no great
heed to what she said. As for the Bailie, he was the King's man, of
noble birth and passing powerful.

Assisted by the judges of Lagny, he himself conducted the trial. The
accused confessed that he was a murderer, a thief, and a traitor. We
must believe him; and yet we cannot forbear a doubt as to whether he
really was, any more than the majority of Armagnac or Burgundian
men-at-arms, any more than a Damoiseau de Commercy or a Guillaume de
Flavy, for example. He was condemned to death.

Jeanne consented that he should die, if he had deserved death, and
seeing that he had confessed his crimes[1964] he was beheaded.

[Footnote 1964: _Ibid._, p. 159.]

When they heard of the scandalous treatment of Messire Franquet, the
Burgundians were loud in their sorrow and indignation.[1965] It would
seem that in this matter the Bailie of Senlis and the judges of Lagny
did not act according to custom. We, however, are not sufficiently
acquainted with the circumstances to form an opinion. There may have
been some reason, of which we are ignorant, why the King of France
should have demanded this prisoner. He had a right to do so on
condition that he paid the Maid the amount of the ransom. A soldier of
those days, well informed in all things touching honour in war, was
the author of _Le Jouvencel_. In his chivalrous romances he writes
approvingly of the wise Amydas, King of Amydoine, who, learning that
one of his enemies, the Sire de Morcellet, has been taken in battle
and held to ransom, cries out that he is the vilest of traitors,
ransoms him with good coins of the realm, and hands him over to the
provost of the town and the officers of his council that they may
execute justice upon him.[1966] Such was the royal prerogative.

[Footnote 1965: _Ibid._, p. 254. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 385. E.
Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de la Pucelle_, book i, folio 82.]

[Footnote 1966: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, pp. 210, 211.]

Whether it was that camp life was hardening her, or whether, like all
mystics, she was subject to violent changes of mood, Jeanne showed at
Lagny none of that gentleness she had displayed on the evening of
Patay. The virgin who once had no other arm in battle than her
standard, now wielded a sword found there, at Lagny, a Burgundian
sword and a trusty. Those who regarded her as an angel of the Lord,
good Brother Pasquerel, for example, might justify her by saying that
the Archangel Saint Michael, the standard-bearer of celestial hosts,
bore a flaming sword. And indeed Jeanne remained a saint.

While she was at Lagny, folk came and told her that a child had died
at birth, unbaptized.[1967] Having entered into the mother at the time
of her conception, the devil held the soul of this child, who, for
lack of water, had died the enemy of its Creator. The greatest anxiety
was felt concerning the fate of this soul. Some thought it was in
limbo, banished forever from God's sight, but the more general and
better founded opinion was that it was seething in hell; for has not
Saint Augustine demonstrated that souls, little as well as great, are
damned because of original sin. And how could it be otherwise, seeing
that Eve's fall had effaced the divine likeness in this child? He was
destined to eternal death. And to think that with a few drops of water
this death might have been avoided! So terrible a disaster afflicted
not only the poor creature's kinsfolk, but likewise the neighbours and
all good Christians in the town of Lagny. The body was carried to the
Church of Saint-Pierre and placed before the image of Our Lady, which
had been highly venerated ever since the plague of 1128. It was called
Notre-Dame-des-Ardents because it cured burns, and when there were no
burns to be cured it was called Notre-Dame-des-Aidants, or rather Des
Aidances, that is, Our Lady the Helper, because she granted succour to
those in dire necessity.[1968]

[Footnote 1967: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 105.]

[Footnote 1968: A. Denis, _Jeanne d'Arc à Lagny_, Lagny, 1896, in 8vo,
pp. 4 _et seq._ J.A. Lepaire, _Jeanne d'Arc à Lagny_, Lagny, 1880, in
8vo, 38 pages.]

The maidens of the town knelt before her, the little body in their
midst, beseeching her to intercede with her divine Son so that this
little child might have his share in the Redemption brought by our
Saviour.[1969] In such cases the Holy Virgin did not always deny her
powerful intervention. Here it may not be inappropriate to relate a
miracle she had worked thirty-seven years before.

[Footnote 1969: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 105.]

At Paris, in 1393, a sinful creature, finding herself with child,
concealed her pregnancy, and, when her time was come, was without aid
delivered. Then, having stuffed linen into the throat of the girl she
had brought forth, she went and threw her on to the dust-heap outside
La Porte Saint-Martin-des-Champs. But a dog scented the body, and
scratching away the other refuse, discovered it. A devout woman, who
happened to be passing by, took this poor little lifeless creature,
and, followed by more than four hundred people, bore it to the Church
of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, there placed it on the altar of Our Lady,
and kneeling down with the multitude of folk and the monks of the
Abbey, with all her heart prayed the Holy Virgin not to suffer this
innocent babe to be condemned eternally. The child stirred a little,
opened her eyes, loosened the linen, which gagged her, and cried
aloud. A priest baptized her on the altar of Our Lady, and gave her
the name of Marie. A nurse was found, and she was fed from the breast.
She lived three hours, then died and was carried to consecrated
ground.[1970]

[Footnote 1970: _Religieux de Saint-Denis_, vol. ii, p. 82. Jean
Juvénal des Ursins, in _Coll. Michaud et Poujoulat_, p. 395, col. 2.]

In those days resurrections of unbaptized children were frequent. That
saintly Abbess, Colette of Corbie, who, when Jeanne was at Lagny,
dwelt at Moulins with the reformed Sisters of Saint Clare, had brought
back to life two of these poor creatures: a girl, who received the
name of Colette at the font and afterwards became nun, then abbess at
Pont-à-Mousson; a boy, who was said to have been two days buried and
whom the servant of the poor declared to be one of the elect. He died
at six months, thus fulfilling the prophecy made by the saint.[1971]

[Footnote 1971: _Acta Sanctorum_, 6th of March, pp. 381 and 617. Abbé
Bizouard, _Histoire de Sainte Colette_, pp. 35, 37. Abbé Douillet,
_Sainte Colette, sa vie, ses oeuvres_, 1884, pp. 150-154.]

With this kind of miracle Jeanne was doubtless acquainted. About
twenty-five miles from Domremy, in the duchy of Lorraine, near
Lunéville, was the sanctuary of Notre-Dame-des-Aviots, of which she
had probably heard. Notre-Dame-des-Aviots, or Our Lady of those
brought back to life, was famed for restoring life to unbaptized
children. By means of her intervention they lived again long enough to
be made Christians.[1972]

[Footnote 1972: Le Curé de Saint-Sulpice, _Notre-Dame de France_,
Paris, in 8vo, vol. vi, 1860, p. 57.]

In the duchy of Luxembourg, near Montmédy, on the hill of Avioth,[1973]
multitudes of pilgrims worshipped an image of Our Lady brought there
by angels. On this hill a church had been built for her, with slim
pillars and elaborate stonework in trefoils, roses and light foliage.
This statue worked all manner of miracles. At its feet were placed
children born dead; they were restored to life and straightway
baptized.[1974]

[Footnote 1973: For the etymology of Avioth see C. Bonnabelle, _Petite
étude sur Avioth et son église_, in _Annuaire de la Meuse_, 1883, in
18mo, p. 14.]

[Footnote 1974: Le Curé de Saint-Sulpice, _loc. cit._, vol. v, pp. 107
_et seq._ Bonnabelle, _loc. cit._, pp. 13 _et seq._ Jacquemain,
_Notre-Dame d'Avioth et son église monumentale_, Sedan, 1876, in 8vo.]

The folk, gathered in the Church of Saint-Pierre de Lagny, around the
statue of Notre-Dame-des-Aidances, hoped for a like grace. The damsels
of the town prayed round the child's lifeless body. The Maid was asked
to come and join them in praying to Our Lord and Our Lady. She went to
the church, and knelt down with the maidens and prayed. The child was
black, "as black as my coat," said Jeanne. When the Maid and the
damsels had prayed, it yawned three times and its colour came back. It
was baptized and straightway it died; it was buried in consecrated
ground. Throughout the town this resurrection was said to be the work
of the Maid. According to the tales in circulation, during the three
days since its birth the child had given no sign of life;[1975] but the
gossips of Lagny had doubtless extended the period of its comatose
condition, like those good wives who of a single egg laid by the
husband of one of them, made a hundred before the day was out.

[Footnote 1975: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 105, 106.]




CHAPTER VII

SOISSONS AND COMPIÈGNE--CAPTURE OF THE MAID


Leaving Lagny, the Maid presented herself before Senlis, with her own
company and with the fighting men of the French nobles whom she had
joined, in all some thousand horse. And for this force she demanded
entrance into the town. No misfortune was more feared by burgesses
than that of receiving men-at-arms, and no privilege more jealously
guarded than that of keeping them outside the walls. King Charles had
experienced it during the peaceful coronation campaign. The folk of
Senlis made answer to the Maid that, seeing the poverty of the town in
forage, corn, oats, victuals and wine, they offered her an entrance
with thirty or forty of the most notable of her company and no
more.[1976]

[Footnote 1976: Arch. mun. of Senlis in _Musé des archives
départementales_, pp. 304, 305. J. Flammermont, _Histoire de Senlis
pendant la seconds partie de la guerre de cent ans_, p. 245. Perceval
de Cagny, p. 173. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 294, note 5.]

It is said that from Senlis Jeanne went to the Castle of Borenglise in
the parish of Elincourt, between Compiègne and Ressons; and, in
ignorance as to what can have taken her there, it is supposed that she
made a pilgrimage to the Church of Elincourt, which was dedicated to
Saint Margaret; and it is possible that she wished to worship Saint
Margaret there as she had worshipped Saint Catherine at Fierbois, in
order to do honour to one of those heavenly ladies who visited her
every day and every hour.[1977]

[Footnote 1977: Manuscript History of Beauvais by Hermant, in _Trial_, vol.
v, p. 165. G. Lecocq, _Étude historique sur le séjour de Jeanne d'Arc à
Elincourt-Sainte-Marguerite_, Amiens, 1879, in 8vo, 13 pages. A. Peyrecave,
_Notes sur le séjour de Jeanne d'Arc à Elincourt-Sainte-Marguerite_,
Paris, 1875, in 8vo. _Elincourt-Sainte-Marguerite, notice historique et
archéologique_, Compiègne, 1888. Ch. vii, pp. 113, 123.]

In those days, in the town of Angers, was a licentiate of laws, canon
of the churches of Tours and Angers and Dean of Saint-Jean d'Angers.
Less than ten days before Jeanne's coming to Sainte-Marguerite
d'Elincourt, on April 18, about nine o'clock in the evening, he felt a
pain in the head, which lasted until four o'clock in the morning, and
was so severe that he thought he must die. He prayed to Saint
Catherine, for whom he professed a special devotion, and straightway
was cured. In thankfulness for so great a grace, he wended on foot to
the sanctuary of Saint Catherine of Fierbois; and there, on Friday,
the 5th of May, in a loud voice, said a mass for the King, for "the
Maid divinely worthy," and for the peace and prosperity of the
realm.[1978]

[Footnote 1978: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 164, 165. _Les miracles de Madame
Sainte Katerine de Fierboys_, pp. 16, 62, 63.]

The Council of King Charles had made over Pont-Sainte-Maxence to the
Duke of Burgundy, in lieu of Compiègne, which they were unable to
deliver to him since that town absolutely refused to be delivered, and
remained the King's despite the King. The Duke of Burgundy kept
Pont-Sainte-Maxence which had been granted him and resolved to take
Compiègne.[1979]

[Footnote 1979: P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_. Proofs and
illustrations, pp. 150, 154. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 276, note 3. Note
concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 176.]

On the 17th of April, when the truce had expired, he took the field
with a goodly knighthood and a powerful army, four thousand
Burgundians, Picards and Flemings, and fifteen hundred English,
commanded by Jean de Luxembourg, Count of Ligny.[1980]

[Footnote 1980: Monstrelet, ch. xxx. Note concerning G. de Flavy, in
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 175. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_. Proofs and
illustrations, xliv, xlv.]

Noble pieces of artillery did the Duke bring to that siege; notably,
Remeswelle, Rouge Bombarde and Houppembière, from all three of which
were fired stone balls of enormous size. Mortars, which the Duke had
brought and paid ready money for to Messire Jean de Luxembourg, were
brought likewise; Beaurevoir and Bourgogne, also a great "_coullard_"
and a movable engine of war. The vast states of Burgundy sent their
archers and cross-bowmen to Compiègne. The Duke provided himself with
bows from Prussia and from Caffa in Georgia,[1981] and with arrows
barbed and unbarbed. He engaged sappers and miners to lay powder mines
round the town and to throw Greek fire into it. In short my Lord
Philip, richer than a king, the most magnificent lord in Christendom
and skilled in all the arts of knighthood, was resolved to make a
gallant siege.[1982]

[Footnote 1981: "In this country the Emperor [of Constantinople] has a
city called Capha, which is a seaport belonging to the Genoese and
whence is obtained wood for the making of bows and cross-bows,
likewise wine called Rommenie." _Le Livre de description des pays de
Gilles le Bouvier._ Ed. E.T. Hamy, Paris, 1908, p. 90.]

[Footnote 1982: De La Fons-Mélicocq, _Documents inédits sur le siège de
Compiègne de 1430_ in _La Picardie_, vol. iii, 1857, pp. 22, 23. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_. Proofs and illustrations, p. 176.]

[Illustration: PHILIP, DUKE OF BURGUNDY]

The town, then one of the largest and strongest in France, was
defended by a garrison of between four and five hundred men,[1983]
commanded by Guillaume de Flavy. Scion of a noble house of that
province, forever in dispute with the nobles his neighbours, and
perpetually picking quarrels with the poor folk, he was as wicked and
cruel as any Armagnac baron.[1984] The citizens would have no other
captain, and in that office they maintained him in defiance of King
Charles and his chamberlains. They did wisely, for none was better
able to defend the town than my Lord Guillaume, none was more set on
doing his duty. When the King of France had commanded him to deliver
the place he had refused point-blank; and when later the Duke promised
him a good round sum and a rich inheritance in exchange for Compiègne,
he made answer that the town was not his, but the King's.[1985]

[Footnote 1983: Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 178. H. de Lépinois,
_Notes extraites des archives communales de Compiègne_, in
_Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, 1863, vol. xxiv, p. 486. A.
Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc devant Compiègne et l'histoire des
sièges de la même ville sous Charles VI et Charles VII, d'après des
documents inédits avec vues et plans_, Paris, 1889, in 8vo, p. 268.]

[Footnote 1984: Jacques Duclercq, _Mémoires_, ed. Reiffenberg, vol. i,
p. 419. _Le Temple de Bocace_ in _Les oeuvres de Georges
Chastellain_, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. vii, p. 95. P. Champion,
_Guillaume de Flavy, capitaine de Compiègne, contribution à l'histoire
de Jeanne d'Arc et à l'étude de la vie militaire et privée au
XV'ième siècle_, Paris, 1906, in 8vo, _passim_.]

[Footnote 1985: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 125. _Chronique
des cordeliers_, fol. 495 recto. Rogier, in Varin, _Arch. de la ville
de Reims_, 11th part, Statuts, vol. i, p. 604. A. Sorel, _loc. cit._,
p. 167. P. Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 33.]

The Duke of Burgundy easily took Gournay-sur-Aronde, and then laid
siege to Choisy-sur-Aisne, also called Choisy-au-Bac, at the junction
of the Aisne and the Oise.[1986]

[Footnote 1986: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 379, 381. _Chronique des
cordeliers_, fol. 495 recto. _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202.]

The Gascon squire, Poton de Saintrailles and the men of his company
crossed the Aisne between Soissons and Choisy, surprised the
besiegers, and retired immediately, taking with them sundry
prisoners.[1987]

[Footnote 1987: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 382, 383. Berry, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 49.]

On the 13th of May, the Maid entered Compiègne, where she lodged in
the Rue de l'Etoile.[1988] On the morrow, the Attorneys[1989] offered
her four pots of wine.[1990] They thereby intended to do her great
honour, for they did no more for the Lord Archbishop of Reims,
Chancellor of the realm, who was then in the town with the Count of
Vendôme, the King's lieutenant and divers other leaders of war. These
noble lords resolved to send artillery and other munitions to the
Castle of Choisy, which could not hold out much longer;[1991] and now,
as before, the Maid was made use of.

[Footnote 1988: According to a note by Dom Bertheau, in A. Sorel,
_Séjours de Jeanne d'Arc à Compiègne, maisons où elle a logé en 1429
et 1430_, with view and plans, Paris, 1888, in 8vo, pp. 11, 12.]

[Footnote 1989: Magistrates of the town. Cf. _ante_, p. 34, note 3.]

[Footnote 1990: _Accounts of the town of Compiègne_, CC 13, folio 291.
Dom Gillesson, _Antiquités de Compiègne_, vol. v, p. 95. A. Sorel, _La
prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 145, note 3.]

[Footnote 1991: Choisy surrendered on the 16th of May. _Chronique des
cordeliers_, fol. 497, verso. _Livre des trahisons_, p. 201.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 382. Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 49. A.
Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 145, 146. P. Champion,
_Guillaume de Flavy_, pp. 40-41, 162-163.]

The army marched towards Soissons in order to cross the Aisne.[1992]
The captain of the town was a squire of Picardy, called by the French
Guichard Bournel, by the Burgundians Guichard de Thiembronne; he had
served on both sides. Jeanne knew him well; he reminded her of a
painful incident. He had been one of those, who finding her wounded in
the trenches before Paris, had insisted on putting her on her horse
against her will. On the approach of King Charles's barons and
men-at-arms, Captain Guichard made the folk of Soissons believe that
the whole army was coming to encamp in their town. Wherefore they
resolved not to receive them. Then happened what had already befallen
at Senlis: Captain Bournel received the Lord Archbishop of Reims, the
Count of Vendôme and the Maid, with a small company, and the rest of
the army abode that night outside the walls.[1993] On the morrow,
failing to obtain command of the bridge, they endeavoured to ford the
river, but without success; for it was spring and the waters were
high. The army had to turn back. When it was gone, Captain Bournel
sold to the Duke of Burgundy the city he was charged to hold for the
King of France; and he delivered it into the hand of Messire Jean de
Luxembourg for four thousand golden _saluts_.[1994]

[Footnote 1992: Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 49, 50.]

[Footnote 1993: F. Brun, _Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons en
1430_, Soissons, 1904, p. 5 (extract from _l'Argus Soissonnais_). P.
Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 41.]

[Footnote 1994: Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 50. P. Champion, _loc.
cit._, p. 168. Proofs and illustrations, xxxv, p. 168. F. Brun,
_Nouvelles recherches sur le fait de Soissons (Jeanne d'Arc et Bournel
en 1430) à propos d'un livre récent_, Meulan, 1907, in 8vo.]

At the tidings of this treacherous and dishonourable action on the
part of the Captain of Soissons, Jeanne cried out that if she had him,
she would cut his body into four pieces, which was no empty imagining
of her wrath. As the penalty of certain crimes it was the custom for
the executioner, after he had beheaded the condemned, to cut his body
in four pieces, which was called quartering. So that it was as if
Jeanne had said that the traitor deserved quartering. The words
sounded hard to Burgundian ears; certain even believed that they heard
Jeanne in her wrath taking God's name in vain. They did not hear
correctly. Never had Jeanne taken the name of God or of any of his
saints in vain. Far from swearing when she was angered, she used to
exclaim: "God's good will!" or "Saint John!" or "By Our Lady!"[1995]

[Footnote 1995: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 273.]

Before Soissons, Jeanne and the generals separated. The latter with
their men-at-arms went to Senlis and the banks of the Marne. The
country between the Aisne and the Oise was no longer capable of
supporting so large a number of men or such important personages.
Jeanne and her company wended their way back to Compiègne.[1996]
Scarcely had she entered the town when she sallied forth to ravage the
neighbourhood.

[Footnote 1996: I have rejected the story told by Alain Bouchard of
Jeanne's meeting with the little children in the Church of Saint
Jacques. (_Les grandes croniques de Bretaigne_, Paris, Galliot Du Pré,
1514, fol. cclxxxi.) M. Pierre Champion (_Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 283)
has irrefutably demonstrated its unauthenticity.]

For example, she took part in an expedition against Pont-l'Evêque, a
stronghold, some distance from Noyon, occupied by a small English
garrison, commanded by Lord Montgomery.

The Burgundians, who were besieging Compiègne, made Pont-l'Evêque
their base. In the middle of May, the French numbering about a
thousand, commanded by Captain Poton, by Messire Jacques de Chabannes
and divers others, and accompanied by the Maid, attacked the English
under Lord Montgomery, and the battle was passing fierce. But the
enemy, being relieved by the Burgundians of Noyon, the French must
needs beat a retreat. They had slain thirty of their adversaries and
had lost as many, wherefore the combat was held to have been right
sanguinary.[1997] There was no longer any question of crossing the
Aisne and saving Choisy.

[Footnote 1997: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 382. Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy,
vol. ii, p. 178. _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 498 verso.]

After returning to Compiègne, Jeanne, who never rested for a moment,
hastened to Crépy-en-Valois, where were gathering the troops intended
for the defence of Compiègne. Then, with these troops, she marched
through the Forest of Guise, to the besieged town and entered it on
the 23rd, at daybreak, without having encountered any Burgundians.
There were none in the neighbourhood of the Forest, on the left bank
of the Oise.[1998]

[Footnote 1998: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 114. Perceval de Cagny, p. 174.
Extract from a note concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
176. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 296, note 1.]

They were all on the other side of the river. There meadowland extends
for some three-quarters of a mile, while beyond rises the slope of
Picardy. Because this meadow was low, damp and frequently flooded, a
causeway had been built leading from the bridge to the village of
Margny, which rose on the steep slope of the hill. Some two miles up
the river there towered the belfry of Clairoix, at the junction of the
Aronde and the Oise. On the opposite bank rose the belfry of Venette,
about a mile and a quarter lower down, towards Pont-Sainte-Maxence.[1999]

[Footnote 1999: Manuscript map of Compiègne in 1509, in Debout, _Jeanne
d'Arc_, vol. ii, p. 293. Plan of the town of Compiègne, engraved by
Aveline in the 17th century, reduction published by _La Société
historique de Compiègne_, May, 1877. Lambert de Ballyhier, _Compiègne
historique et monumental_, 1842, 2 vols. in 8vo, engravings. Plan of
the restitution of the town of Compiègne in 1430, in A. Sorel, _La
prise de Jeanne d'Arc_. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 43.]

A little band of Burgundians commanded by a knight, Messire Baudot de
Noyelles, occupied the high ground of the village of Margny. Most
renowned among the men of war of the Burgundian party was Messire Jean
de Luxembourg. He with his Picards was posted at Clairoix, on the
banks of the Aronde, at the foot of Mount Ganelon. The five hundred
English of Lord Montgomery watched the Oise at Venette. Duke Philip
occupied Coudun, a good two and a half miles from the town, towards
Picardy.[2000] Such dispositions were in accordance with the precepts
of the most experienced captains. It was their rule that when
besieging a fortified town a large number of men-at-arms should never
be concentrated in one spot, in one camp, as they said. In case of a
sudden attack, it was thought that a large company, if it has but one
base, will be surprised and routed just as easily as a lesser number,
and the disaster will be grievous. Wherefore it is better to divide
the besiegers into small companies and to place them not far apart, in
order that they may aid one another. In this wise, when those of one
body are discomfited those of another have time to put themselves in
battle array for their succour. While the assailants are sore aghast
at seeing fresh troops come down upon them, those who are being
attacked take heart of grace. At any rate such was the opinion of
Messire Jean de Bueil.[2001]

[Footnote 2000: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 383, 384.]

[Footnote 2001: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 196.]

That same day, the 23rd of May, towards five o'clock in the
evening[2002] riding a fine dapple-grey horse, Jeanne sallied forth,
across the bridge, on to the causeway over the meadow. With her were
her standard-bearer and her company of Lombards, Captain Baretta and
his three or four hundred men, both horse and foot, who had entered
Compiègne by night. She was girt with the Burgundian sword, found at
Lagny, and over her armour she wore a surcoat of cloth of gold.[2003]
Such attire would have better beseemed a parade than a sortie; but in
the simplicity of her rustic and religious soul she loved all the
pompous show of chivalry.

[Footnote 2002: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 116. Letter from Philippe le Bon to
the inhabitants of Saint-Quentin, _Trial_, vol. v, p. 166. Letter from
Philippe le Bon to Amédée, Duke of Savoy in P. Champion, _loc. cit._
Proofs and illustrations, xxxvii. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv,
p. 458. William Worcester, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 475, and _Le
Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 255.]

[Footnote 2003: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 78, 223, 224. Chastellain, vol.
ii, p. 49. The Clerk of the Brabant _Chambre des Comptes_, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 428.]

The enterprise had been concerted between Captain Baretta, the other
leaders of the party and Messire Guillaume de Flavy. The last-named,
in order to protect the line of retreat for the French, had posted
archers, cross-bowmen, and cannoneers at the head of the bridge, while
on the river he launched a number of small covered boats, intended if
need were to bring back as many men as possible.[2004] Jeanne was not
consulted in the matter; her advice was never asked. Without being
told anything she was taken with the army as a bringer of good luck;
she was exhibited to the enemy as a powerful enchantress, and they,
especially if they were in mortal sin, feared lest she should cast a
spell over them. Certain there were doubtless on both sides, who
perceived that she did not greatly differ from other women;[2005] but
they were folk who believed in nothing, and that manner of person is
always outside public opinion.

[Footnote 2004: Notes concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
177. _Chronique de Tournai_, in _Recueil des Chroniques de Flandre_,
1856, vol. iii, pp. 415, 416.]

[Footnote 2005: Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 49.]

This time she had not the remotest idea of what was to be done. With
her head full of dreams, she imagined she was setting forth for some
great and noble emprise. It is said that she had promised to discomfit
the Burgundians and bring back Duke Philip prisoner. But there was no
question of that; Captain Baretta and those who commanded the soldiers
of fortune proposed to surprise and plunder the little Burgundian
outpost, which was nearest the town and most accessible. That was
Margny, and there on a steep hill, which might be reached in twenty or
twenty-five minutes along the causeway, was stationed Messire Baudot
de Noyelles. The attempt was worth making. The taking of outposts
constituted the perquisites of men-at-arms. And, albeit the enemy's
positions were very wisely chosen, the assailants if they proceeded
with extreme swiftness had a chance of success. The Burgundians at
Margny were very few. Having but lately arrived, they had erected
neither bastion nor bulwark, and their only defences were the
outbuildings of the village.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the French set out on the
march. The days being at their longest, they did not depend on the
darkness for success. In those times indeed, men-at-arms were chary of
venturing much in the darkness. They deemed the night treacherous,
capable of serving the fool's turn as well as the wise man's, and thus
ran the saw: "Night never blushes at her deed."[2006]

[Footnote 2006: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 91.]

Having climbed up to Margny, the assailants found the Burgundians
scattered and unarmed. They took them by surprise; and the French set
to work to strike here and there haphazard. The Maid, for her part,
overthrew everything before her.

Now just at this time Sire Jean de Luxembourg and the Sire de Créquy
had ridden over from their camp at Clairoix.[2007] Wearing no armour,
and accompanied by eight or ten gentlemen-at-arms, they were climbing
the Margny hill. They were on their way to visit Messire Baudot de
Noyelles, and all unsuspecting, they were thinking to reconnoitre the
defences of the town from this elevated spot, as the Earl of Salisbury
had formerly done from Les Tourelles at Orléans. Having fallen into a
regular skirmish, they sent to Clairoix in all haste for their arms
and to summon their company, which would take a good half hour to
reach the scene of battle. Meanwhile, all unarmed as they were, they
joined Messire Baudot's little band, to help it to hold out against
the enemy.[2008] Thus to surprise my Lord of Luxembourg might be a
stroke of good luck and certainly could not be bad; for in any event
the Margny men would have straightway summoned their comrades of
Clairoix to their aid, as they did in very deed summon the English
from Venette and the Burgundians from Coudun.

[Footnote 2007: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 387. Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy,
vol. ii, p. 179. Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 48. Note concerning G. de
Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 176.]

[Footnote 2008: Letter from the Duke of Burgundy to the inhabitants of
Saint-Quentin, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 166. Monstrelet, Lefèvre de
Saint-Rémy, Chastellain. Notes concerning G. de Flavy, _loc. cit._]

Having stormed the camp and pillaged it, the assailants should in all
haste have fallen back on the town with their booty; but they dallied
at Margny, for what reason is not difficult to guess: that reason
which so often transformed the robber into the robbed. The wearers of
the white cross as well as those of the red, no matter what danger
threatened them, never quitted a place as long as anything remained to
be carried away.

If the mercenaries of Compiègne incurred peril by their greed, the
Maid on her side by her valour and prowess ran much greater risk;
never would she consent to leave a battle; she must be wounded,
pierced with bolts and arrows, before she would give in.

Meanwhile, having recovered from so sudden an alarm, Messire Baudot's
men armed as best they might and endeavoured to win back the village.
Now they drove out the French, now they themselves were forced to
retreat with great loss. The Seigneur de Créquy, among others, was
sorely wounded in the face. But the hope of being reinforced gave them
courage. The men of Clairoix appeared. Duke Philip himself came up
with the band from Coudun. The French, outnumbered, abandoned Margny,
and retreated slowly. It may be that their booty impeded their march.
But suddenly espying the _Godons_ from Venette advancing over the
meadowland, they were seized with panic; to the cry of "_Sauve qui
peut!_" they broke into one mad rush and in utter rout reached the
bank of the Oise. Some threw themselves into boats, others crowded
round the bulwark of the Bridge. Thus they attracted the very
misfortune they feared. For the English followed so hard on the
fugitives that the defenders on the ramparts dared not fire their
cannon for fear of striking the French.[2009]

[Footnote 2009: Perceval de Cagny, p. 176. Falconbridge, in _Trial_,
vol. iv, p. 458. Monstrelet. Note concerning G. de Flavy; Lefèvre de
Saint-Rémy, Chastellain, _loc. cit._]

The latter having forced the barrier of the bulwark, the English were
about to enter on their heels, cross the bridge and pass into the
town. The captain of Compiègne saw the danger and gave the command to
close the town gate. The bridge was raised and the portcullis
lowered.[2010]

[Footnote 2010: Note concerning G. de Flavy, _loc. cit._ Du Fresne de
Beaucourt, _Jeanne d'Arc et Guillaume de Flavy_ in _Bulletin de la
Société de l'Histoire de France_, vol. iii, 1861, pp. 173 _et seq._ Z.
Rendu, _Jeanne d'Arc et G. de Flavy_, Compiègne, 1865, in 8vo, 32 pp.
A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 209. P. Champion, _Guillaume
de Flavy_, appendix i, pp. 282, 286.]

In the meadow, Jeanne still laboured under the heroic delusion of
victory. Surrounded by a little band of kinsmen and personal
retainers, she was withstanding the Burgundians, and imagining that
she would overthrow everything before her.

Her comrades shouted to her: "Strive to regain the town or we are
lost."

But her eyes were dazzled by the splendour of angels and archangels,
and she made answer: "Hold your peace; it will be your fault if we are
discomfited. Think of nought but of attacking them."

And once again she uttered those words which were forever in her
mouth: "Go forward! They are ours!"[2011]

[Footnote 2011: Perceval de Cagny, p. 175.]

Her men took her horse by the bridle and forced her to turn towards
the town. It was too late; the bulwarks commanding the bridge could
not be entered: the English held the head of the causeway. The Maid
with her little band was penned into the corner between the side of
the bulwark and the embankment of the road. Her assailants were men of
Picardy, who, striking hard and driving away her protectors, succeeded
in reaching her.[2012] A bowman pulled her by her cloak of cloth of
gold and threw her to the ground. They all surrounded her and together
cried:

"Surrender!"

[Footnote 2012: Perceval de Cagny, p. 175. Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 49.
Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 122; vol. iii, p. 207.
Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 87.]

Urged to give her parole, she replied: "I have plighted my word to
another, and I shall keep my oath."[2013]

[Footnote 2013: Perceval de Cagny, p. 176.]

One of those who pressed her said that he was of gentle birth. She
surrendered to him.

He was an archer, by name Lyonnel, in the company of the Bastard of
Wandomme. Deeming that his fortune was made, he appeared more joyful
than if he had taken a king.[2014]

[Footnote 2014: Letter from the Duke of Burgundy in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
166. Perceval de Cagny, p. 175. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 400. Lefèvre
de Saint-Rémy, p. 175. Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 49. Note concerning G.
de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 174. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_,
vol. i, p. 118. P. Champion, _loc. cit._, pp. 46, 49. Lanéry d'Arc,
_Livre d'Or_, pp. 513-518.]

With the Maid was taken her brother, Pierre d'Arc, Jean d'Aulon, her
steward, and Jean d'Aulon's brother, Poton, surnamed the
Burgundian.[2015] According to the Burgundians, the French in this
engagement lost four hundred fighting men, killed or drowned;[2016] but
according to the French most of the foot soldiers were taken up by the
boats which were moored near the bank of the Oise.[2017]

[Footnote 2015: Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de la Pucelle_, book iv,
fol. 188 _et seq._ P. Champion, _loc. cit._ Proofs and illustrations,
xxxiii. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 388. Note concerning G. de Flavy,
_loc. cit._ Letter from the Duke of Burgundy to the inhabitants of
Saint-Quentin, _loc. cit._ _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 255.
Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459.]

[Footnote 2016: According to _Le Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p.
255, four hundred French were killed or drowned.]

[Footnote 2017: Note concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
176. Perceval de Cagny, p. 175.]

Had it not been for the archers, cross-bowmen and cannoneers posted at
the bridge end by the Sire de Flavy, the bulwark would have been
captured. The Burgundians had but twenty wounded and not one
slain.[2018] The Maid had not been very vigorously defended.

[Footnote 2018: Letter from the Duke of Burgundy to the inhabitants of
Saint-Quentin, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 166.]

She was disarmed and taken to Margny.[2019] At the tidings that the
witch of the Armagnacs had been taken, cries and rejoicings resounded
throughout the Burgundian camp. Duke Philip wished to see her. When he
drew near to her, there were certain of his clergy and his knighthood
who praised his piety, extolled his courage, and wondered that this
mighty Duke was not afraid of the spawn of Hell.[2020]

[Footnote 2019: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 388. Chastellain, vol. ii, p.
50. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 253 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2020: Jean Jouffroy, in d'Achery, _Spicilegium_, iii, pp. 823
_et seq._]

In this respect, his knighthood were as valiant as he, for many
knights and squires flocked to satisfy this same curiosity. Among them
was Messire Enguerrand de Monstrelet, a native of the County of
Boulogne, a retainer of the House of Luxembourg, the author of the
Chronicles. He heard the words the Duke addressed to the prisoner,
and, albeit his calling required a good memory, he forgot them.
Possibly he did not consider them chivalrous enough to be written in
his book.[2021]

[Footnote 2021: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 388.]

Jeanne remained in the custody of Messire Jean de Luxembourg, to whom
she belonged henceforward. The bowman, her captor, had given her up to
his captain, the Bastard of Wandomme, who, in his turn, had yielded
her to his Master, Messire Jean.[2022]

[Footnote 2022: _Ibid._, p. 389. P. Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 168.]

Branches of the Luxembourg tree extended from the west to the east of
Christendom, as far as Bohemia and Hungary; and it had produced six
queens, an empress, four kings, and four emperors. A scion of a
younger branch of this illustrious house and himself a but poorly
landed cadet, Jean de Luxembourg, had with great labour won his spurs
in the service of the Duke of Burgundy. When he held the Maid to
ransom, he was thirty-nine years of age, covered with wounds and
one-eyed.[2023]

[Footnote 2023: _La Chronique des cordeliers_, and Monstrelet,
_passim_. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp.
165, 166.]

That very evening from his quarters at Coudun the Duke of Burgundy
caused letters to be written to the towns of his dominions telling of
the capture of the Maid. "Of this capture shall the fame spread far
and wide," is written in the letter to the people of Saint-Quentin;
"and there shall be bruited abroad the error and misbelief of all such
as have approved and favoured the deeds of this woman."[2024]

[Footnote 2024: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 167. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, p. 95.]

In like manner did the Duke send the tidings to the Duke of Brittany
by his herald Lorraine; to the Duke of Savoy and to his good town of
Ghent.[2025]

[Footnote 2025: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 358. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie
Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, p. 534. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_,
pp. 169-171.]

The survivors of the company the Maid had taken to Compiègne abandoned
the siege, and on the morrow returned to their garrisons. The Lombard
Captain, Bartolomeo Baretta, Jeanne's lieutenant, remained in the town
with thirty-two men-at-arms, two trumpeters, two pages, forty-eight
cross bowmen, and twenty archers or targeteers.[2026]

[Footnote 2026: Note concerning Guillaume de Flavy in _Trial_, vol. v,
p. 177. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 333.]




CHAPTER VIII

THE MAID AT BEAULIEU--THE SHEPHERD OF GÉVAUDAN


The tidings that Jeanne was in the hands of the Burgundians reached
Paris on the morning of May the 25th.[2027] On the morrow, the 26th,
the University sent a summons to Duke Philip requiring him to give up
his prisoner to the Vicar-General of the Grand Inquisitor of France.
At the same time, the Vicar-General himself by letter required the
redoubtable Duke to bring prisoner before him the young woman
suspected of divers crimes savouring of heresy.[2028]

[Footnote 2027: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 458. _Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 255. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p.
96. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc au cimetière de
Saint-Ouen et l'authenticité de sa formule_, Paris, 1902, in 8vo, p.
18.]

[Footnote 2028: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 8-10. E. O'Reilly, _Les deux
procès_, vol. ii, pp. 13, 14. P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium
Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 516, no. 2372.]

"... We beseech you in all good affection, O powerful Prince," he
said, "and we entreat your noble vassals that by them and by you
Jeanne be sent unto us surely and shortly, and we hope that thus ye
will do as being the true protector of the faith and the defender of
God's honour...."[2029]

[Footnote 2029: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 12. E. O'Reilly, _Les deux
procès_.]

The Vicar-General of the Grand Inquisitor of France, Brother Martin
Billoray,[2030] Master of theology, belonged to the order of friars
preachers, the members of which exercised the principal functions of
the Holy office. In the days of Innocent III, when the Inquisition was
exterminating Cathari and Albigenses, the sons of Dominic figured in
paintings in monasteries and chapels as great white hounds spotted
with black, biting at the throats of the wolves of heresy.[2031] In
France in the fifteenth century the Dominicans were always the dogs of
the Lord; they, jointly with the bishops, drove out the heretic. The
Grand Inquisitor or his Vicar was unable of his own initiative to set
on foot and prosecute any judicial action; the bishops maintained
their right to judge crimes committed against the Church. In matters
of faith trials were conducted by two judges, the Ordinary, who might
be the bishop himself or the Official, and the Inquisitor or his
Vicar. Inquisitorial forms were observed.[2032]

[Footnote 2030: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 3, 12; vol. iii, p. 378; vol. v,
p. 392.]

[Footnote 2031: _Domini canes._ Thus they are represented in the
frescoes of the Capella degli Spagnuoli in Santa-Maria-Novella at
Florence.]

[Footnote 2032: Tanon, _Histoire des tribuneaux de l'inquisition en
France_, ch. ii.]

In the Maid's case it was not the Bishop only who was prompting the
Holy Inquisition, but the Daughter of Kings, the Mother of Learning,
the Bright and Shining Sun of France and of Christendom, the
University of Paris. She arrogated to herself a peculiar jurisdiction
in cases of heresy or other matters of doctrine occurring in the city
or its neighbourhood; her advice was asked on every hand and regarded
as authoritative over the face of the whole world, wheresoever the
Cross had been set up. For a year her masters and doctors, many in
number and filled with sound learning, had been clamouring for the
Maid to be delivered up to the Inquisition, as being good for the
welfare of the Church and conducive to the interests of the faith; for
they had a deep-rooted suspicion that the damsel came not from God,
but was deceived and seduced by the machinations of the Devil; that
she acted not by divine power but by the aid of demons; that she was
addicted to witchcraft and practised idolatry.[2033]

[Footnote 2033: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium
universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 510; _Le procès de Jeanne
d'Arc et l'université de Paris_, Paris, 1897, in 8vo, 32 pp.]

Such knowledge as they possessed of things divine and methods of
reasoning corroborated this grave suspicion. They were Burgundians and
English by necessity and by inclination; they observed faithfully the
Treaty of Troyes to which they had sworn; they were devoted to the
Regent who showed them great consideration; they abhorred the
Armagnacs, who desolated and laid waste their city, the most beautiful
in the world;[2034] they held that the Dauphin Charles had forfeited
his rights to the Kingdom of the Lilies. Wherefore they inclined to
believe that the Maid of the Armagnacs, the woman knight of the
Dauphin Charles, was inspired by a company of loathsome demons. These
scholars of the University were human; they believed what it was to
their interest to believe; they were priests and they beheld the Devil
everywhere, but especially in a woman. Without having devoted
themselves to any profound examination of the deeds and sayings of
this damsel, they knew enough to cause them to demand an immediate
inquiry. She called herself the emissary of God, the daughter of God;
and she appeared loquacious, vain, crafty, gorgeous in her attire. She
had threatened the English that if they did not quit France she would
have them all slain. She commanded armies, wherefore she was a slayer
of her fellow-creatures and foolhardy. She was seditious, for are not
all those seditious who support the opposite party? But recently
having appeared before Paris in company with Friar Richard, a heretic,
and a rebel,[2035] she had threatened to put the Parisians to death
without mercy and committed the mortal sin of storming the city on the
Anniversary of the Nativity of Our Lady. It was important to examine
whether in all this she had been inspired by a good spirit or a
bad.[2036]

[Footnote 2034: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, _passim_.
Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 450.]

[Footnote 2035: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 237. T. Basin,
_Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. iv, pp. 103, 104.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, ch. lxiii. Bougenot, _Deux documents inédits
relatifs à Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue bleue_, 13 Feb., 1892, pp. 203,
204.]

[Footnote 2036: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Chartularium
Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 515, no. 2370; _Le procès de
Jeanne d'Arc et l'université de Paris_.]

Despite his strong attachment to the interests of the Church, the Duke
of Burgundy did not respond to the urgent demand of the University;
and Messire Jean de Luxembourg, after having kept the Maid three or
four days in his quarters before Compiègne, had her taken to the
Castle of Beaulieu in Vermandois, a few leagues from the camp.[2037]
Like his master, he ever appeared the obedient son of Mother Church;
but prudence counselled him to await the approach of English and
French and to see what each of them would offer.

[Footnote 2037: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 389. Perceval de Cagny, p. 176.
Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 300-302; vol. iv, pp. 254-355. De La
Fons-Mélicocq, _Une cité picarde au moyen âge ou Noyon et les
Noyonnais aux XIV'e et XV'e siècles_, Noyon, 1841, vol. ii, pp.
100-105. In 1441 Lyonnel de Wandomme, who was governor of this town,
was driven out by the inhabitants on the death of Jean de Luxembourg
(Monstrelet, vol. v, p. 456).]

At Beaulieu, Jeanne was treated courteously and ceremoniously. Her
steward, Messire Jean d'Aulon, waited on her in her prison; one day he
said to her pitifully:

"That poor town of Compiègne, which you so dearly loved, will now be
delivered into the hands of the enemies of France, whom it must needs
obey."

She made answer: "No, that shall not come to pass. For not one of
those places, which the King of Heaven hath conquered through me and
restored to their allegiance to the fair King Charles, shall be
recaptured by the enemy, so diligently will he guard them."[2038]

[Footnote 2038: Perceval de Cagny, p. 177, very doubtful.]

One day she tried to escape by slipping between two planks. She had
intended to shut up her guards in the tower and take to the fields,
but the porter saw and stopped her. She concluded that it was not
God's will that she should escape this time.[2039] Notwithstanding she
had far too much self-reliance to despair. Her Voices, like her
enamoured of marvellous encounters and knightly adventures, told her
that she must see the King of England.[2040] Thus did her dreams
encourage and console her in her misfortune.

[Footnote 2039: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 163-164, 249.]

[Footnote 2040: _Ibid._, p. 151.]

Great was the mourning on the Loire when the inhabitants of the towns
loyal to King Charles learnt the disaster which had befallen the Maid.
The people, who venerated her as a saint, who went so far as to say
that she was the greatest of all God's saints after the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who erected images of her in the chapels of saints, who ordered
masses to be said for her, and collects in the churches, who wore
leaden medals on which she was represented as if the Church had
already canonized her,[2041] did not withdraw their trust, but
continued to believe in her.[2042] Such faithfulness scandalized the
doctors and masters of the University, who reproached the hapless Maid
herself with it. "Jeanne," they said, "hath so seduced the Catholic
people, that many have adored her as a saint in her presence, and now
in her absence they adore her still."[2043]

[Footnote 2041: Vallet de Viriville, _Note sur deux médailles de plomb
relatives à Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1861, in 8vo, 30 pages. Forgeais,
_Notice sur les plombs historiés trouvés dans la Seine_, Paris, 1860,
in 8vo. J. Quicherat, _Médaille frappée en l'honneur de la Pucelle,
Six dessins sur Jeanne d'Arc tirés d'un manuscrit du XV'e siècle_,
in _L'autographe_, No. 24, 15 Nov., 1864.]

[Footnote 2042: P. Lanéry d'Arc, _Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e
siècle_, Paris, 1887, in 8vo, 29 pages.]

[Footnote 2043: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 290.]

This was indeed true of many folk and many places. The councillors of
the town of Tours ordered public prayers to be offered for the
deliverance of the Maid. There was a public procession in which took
part the canons of the cathedral church, the clergy of the town,
secular and regular, all walking barefoot.[2044]

[Footnote 2044: Carreau, _Histoire manuscrite de Touraine_, in
_Procès_, vol. v, pp. 253, 254.]

In the towns of Dauphiné prayers for the Maid were said at mass.

"_Collect._ O God, all powerful and eternal, who, in thy holy and
ineffable mercy, hast commanded the Maid to restore and deliver the
realm of France, and to repulse, confound and annihilate her enemies,
and who hast permitted her, in the accomplishment of this holy work,
ordained by thee, to fall into the hands and into the bonds of her
enemies, we beseech thee, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin
Mary and of all the saints to deliver her out of their hands, without
her having suffered any hurt, in order that she may finish the work
whereto thou hast sent her."

"For the sake of Jesus Christ, etc."

"_Secret._ O God all powerful, Father of virtues, let thy holy
benediction descend upon this sacrifice; let thy wondrous power be
made manifest, that by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
of all the saints, it may deliver the Maid from the prisons of the
enemy so that she may finish the work whereto thou hast sent her.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."

"_Post Communion._ O God all powerful, incline thine ear and listen
unto the prayers of thy people: by the virtue of the Sacrament we have
just received, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of
all the saints, burst the bonds of the Maid, who, in the fulfilment of
thy commands, hath been and is still confined in the prisons of our
enemy; through thy divine compassion and thy mercy, permit her, freed
from peril, to accomplish the work whereto thou hast sent her. Through
our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."[2045]

[Footnote 2045: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. E. Maignien, _Oraisons latines
pour la délivrance de Jeanne d'Arc_. Grenoble, 1867, in 8vo (_Revue
des Sociétés savantes_, vol. iv, pp. 412-414). G. de Braux, _Trois
oraisons pour la délivrance de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Journal de la
Société d'Archéologie Lorraine_, June, 1887, pp. 125, 127.]

Learning that the Maid, whom he had once suspected of evil intentions
and then recognised to be wholly good, had just fallen into the hands
of the enemy of the realm, Messire Jacques Gélu, my Lord Archbishop of
Embrun, despatched to King Charles a messenger bearing a letter
touching the line of conduct to be adopted in such an unhappy
conjuncture.[2046]

[Footnote 2046: _Vita Jacobi Gelu ab ipso conscripta_, in _Bulletin de
la Société archéologique de Touraine_, iii, 1867, pp. 266 _et seq._
The Rev. Father Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes Maritimes ou
Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313 _et seq._]

Addressing the Prince, whom in childhood he had directed, Messire
Jacques begins by recalling what the Maid had wrought for him by God's
help and her own great courage. He beseeches him to examine his
conscience and see whether he has in any wise sinned against the grace
of God. For it may be that in wrath against the King the Lord hath
permitted this virgin to be taken. For his own honour he urges him to
strain every effort for her deliverance.

"I commend unto you," he said, "that for the recovery of this damsel
and for her ransom, ye spare neither measures nor money, nor any cost,
unless ye be ready to incur the ineffaceable disgrace of an
ingratitude right unworthy."

Further he advises that prayers be ordered to be said everywhere for
the deliverance of the Maid, so that if this disaster should have
befallen through any misdoing of the King or of his people, it might
please God to pardon it.[2047]

[Footnote 2047: _Ibid._, pp. 319, 320.]

Such were the words, lacking neither in strength nor in charity, of
this aged prelate, who was more of a hermit than of a bishop. He
remembered having been the Dauphin's Councillor in evil days and he
dearly loved the King and the kingdom.

The Sire de la Trémouille and the Lord Archbishop of Reims have been
suspected of desiring to get rid of the Maid and of having promoted
her discomfiture. There are those who think they have discovered the
treacherous methods employed to compass her defeat at Paris, at La
Charité and at Compiègne.[2048] But in good sooth such methods were
unnecessary. At Paris there was but little chance of her being able to
cross the moat, since neither she nor her companions in arms had
ascertained its depth; besides, it was not the fault of the King and
his Council that the Carmelites, on whom they relied, failed to open
the gates. The siege of La Charité was conducted not by the Maid, but
by the Sire d'Albret and divers valiant captains. In the sortie from
Compiègne, it was certain that any dallying at Margny would cause the
French to be cut off by the English from Venette and by the
Burgundians from Clairoix and to be promptly overcome by the
Burgundians from Coudun. They forgot themselves in the delights of
pillage; and the inevitable result followed.

[Footnote 2048: Thomassin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 312. _Chronique du
doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 323. _Chronique de
Tournai_, in _Recueil des chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, p. 415.
_Chronique de Normandie_, ed. A. Hellot, Rouen, 1881, in 8vo, pp. 77,
78. _Chronique de Lorraine_, ed. Abbé Marchal (_Recueil de documents
sur l'histoire de Lorraine_, vol. v).]

And why should the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Archbishop have
wanted to get rid of the Maid? She did not trouble them; on the
contrary they found her useful and employed her. By her prophecy that
she would cause the King to be anointed at Reims, she rendered an
immense service to my Lord Regnault, who more than any other profited
from the Champagne expedition, more even than the King, who, while he
succeeded in being crowned, failed to recover Paris and Normandy.
Notwithstanding this great advantage, the Lord Archbishop felt no
gratitude towards the Maid; he was a hard man and an egoist. But did
he wish her harm? Had he not need of her? At Senlis he was maintaining
the King's cause; and he was maintaining it well, we may be sure,
since, with the towns that had returned to their liege lord, he was
defending his own episcopal and ducal city, his benefices and his
canonries. Did he not intend to use her against the Burgundians? We
have already noted reasons for believing that towards the end of
March, he had asked the Sire de la Trémouille to send her from Sully
with a goodly company to wage war in l'Île-de-France. And our
hypothesis is confirmed when, after they had been unhappily deprived
of Jeanne's services, we find the bishop and the Chamberlain driven to
replace her by someone likewise favoured with visions and claiming to
be sent of God. Unable to discover a maid they had to make shift with
a youth. This resolution they took a few days after Jeanne's capture
and this is how it came about.

Some time before, a shepherd lad of Gévaudan, by name Guillaume, while
tending his flocks at the foot of the Lozère Mountains and guarding
them from wolf and lynx, had a revelation concerning the realm of
France. This shepherd, like John, Our Lord's favourite disciple, was
virgin. In one of the caves of the Mende Mountain, where the holy
apostle Privat had prayed and fasted, his ear was struck by a heavenly
voice, and thus he knew that God was sending him to the King of
France. He went to Mende, just as Jeanne had gone to Vaucouleurs in
order that he might be taken to the King. There he found pious folk,
who, touched by his holiness and persuaded that there was power in
him, provided for his equipment and for his journey, which provisions,
in sooth, amounted to very little. The words he addressed to the King
were much the same as those uttered by the Maid.

"Sire," he said, "I am commanded to go with your people; and without
fail the English and Burgundians shall be discomfited."[2049]

[Footnote 2049: Summary of a letter from Regnault de Chartres to the
inhabitants of Reims, _Trial_, vol. v, p. 168.]

The King received him kindly. The clerks who had examined the Maid
must have feared lest if they repulsed this shepherd lad they might be
rejecting the aid of the Holy Ghost. Amos was a shepherd, and to him
God granted the gift of prophecy: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." MATT. xi, 25.

But before this shepherd could be believed he must give a sign. The
clerks of Poitiers, who in those evil days languished in dire penury,
did not appear exacting in their demand for proofs; they had
counselled the King to employ the Maid merely on the promise that as a
token of her mission she would deliver Orléans. The Gévaudan shepherd
had more than promises to allege; he showed wondrous marks on his
body. Like Saint Francis he had received the stigmata; and on his
hands, his feet and in his side were bleeding wounds.[2050]

[Footnote 2050: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 272. Lefèvre de
Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 263. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, p.
124.]

The mendicant monks rejoiced that their spiritual father had thus
participated in the Passion of Our Lord. A like grace had been granted
to the Blessed Catherine of Sienna, of the order of Saint Dominic.
But if there were miraculous stigmata imprinted by Jesus Christ
himself, there were also the stigmata of enchantment, which were the
work of the Devil, and very important was it to distinguish between
the two.[2051] It could only be done by great knowledge and great
piety. It would appear that Guillaume's stigmata were not the work of
the devil; for it was resolved to employ him in the same manner as
Jeanne, as Catherine de la Rochelle, and as the two Breton women, the
spiritual daughters of Friar Richard.

[Footnote 2051: A. Maury, _La stigmatisation et les stigmates_, in
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, 1854, ch. viii, pp. 454-482. Dr. Subled, _Les
stigmates selon la science_, in _Science catholique_, 1894, vol. viii,
pp. 1073 _et seq._; vol. ix, pp. 2 _et seq._]

When the Maid fell into the hands of the Burgundians, the Sire de la
Trémouille was with the King, on the Loire, where fighting had ceased
since the disastrous siege of La Charité. He sent the shepherd youth
to the banks of the Oise, to the Lord Archbishop of Reims, who was
there opposing the Burgundians, commanded by Duke Philip, himself.
Messire Regnault had probably asked for the boy. In any case he
welcomed him willingly and kept him at Beauvais, supervising and
interrogating him, ready to use him at an auspicious moment. One day,
either to try him or because the rumour was really in circulation,
young Guillaume was told that the English had put Jeanne to death.

"Then," said he, "it will be the worse for them."[2052]

[Footnote 2052: Letter from Regnault de Chartres, in _Trial_, vol. v,
p. 168.]

By this time, after all the rivalries and jealousies which had torn
asunder this company of the King's _béguines_, there remained to Friar
Richard one only of his penitents, Dame Catherine of La Rochelle, who
had the gift of discovering hidden treasure.[2053] The young shepherd
approved of the Maid as little as Dame Catherine had done.

[Footnote 2053: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 295 _et seq._]

"God suffered Jeanne to be taken," he said, "because she was puffed up
with pride and because of the rich clothes she wore and because she
had not done as God commanded her but according to her own will."[2054]

[Footnote 2054: Letter from Regnault de Chartres, in _Ibid._, vol. v,
p. 168.]

Were these words suggested to him by the enemies of the Maid? That may
be: but it is also possible that he derived them from inspiration.
Saints are not always kind to one another.

Meanwhile Messire Regnault de Chartres believed himself possessed of a
marvel far surpassing the marvel he had lost. He wrote a letter to the
inhabitants of his town of Reims telling them that the Maid had been
taken at Compiègne.

This misfortune had befallen her through her own fault, he added. "She
would not take advice, but would follow her own will." In her stead
God had sent a shepherd, "who says neither more nor less than Jeanne."
God has strictly commanded him to discomfit the English and the
Burgundians. And the Lord Archbishop neglects not to repeat the words
by which the prophet of Gévaudan had represented Jeanne as proud,
gorgeous in attire, rebellious of heart.[2055] The Reverend Father in
God, my Lord Regnault, would never have consented to employ a heretic
and a sorcerer; he believed in Guillaume as he had believed in Jeanne;
he held both one and the other to have been divinely sent, in the
sense that all which is not of the devil is of God. It was sufficient
for him that no evil had been found in the child, and he intended to
essay him, hoping that Guillaume would do what Jeanne had done.
Whether the Archbishop thus acted rightly or wrongly the issue was to
decide, but he might have exalted the shepherd without denying the
Saint who was so near her martyrdom. Doubtless he deemed it necessary
to distinguish between the fortune of the kingdom and the fortune of
Jeanne. And he had the courage to do it.

[Footnote 2055: _Ibid._, p. 168.]




CHAPTER IX

THE MAID AT BEAUREVOIR--CATHERINE DE LA ROCHELLE AT PARIS--EXECUTION
OF LA PIERRONNE


The Maid had been taken captive in the diocese of Beauvais.[2056] At
that time the Bishop Count of Beauvais was Pierre Cauchon of Reims, a
great and pompous clerk of the University of Paris, which had elected
him rector in 1403. Messire Pierre Cauchon was not a moderate man;
with great ardour he had thrown himself into the Cabochien riots.[2057]
In 1414, the Duke of Burgundy had sent him on an embassy to the
Council of Constance to defend the doctrines of Jean Petit;[2058] then
he had appointed him Master of Requests in 1418, and finally raised
him to the episcopal see of Beauvais.[2059] Standing equally high in
the favour of the English, Messire Pierre was Councillor of King Henry
VI, Almoner of France and Chancellor to the Queen of England. Since
1423, his usual residence had been at Rouen. By their submission to
King Charles the people of Beauvais had deprived him of his episcopal
revenue.[2060] And, as the English said and believed that the army of
the King of France was at that time commanded by Friar Richard and the
Maid, Messire Pierre Cauchon, the impoverished Bishop of Beauvais, had
a personal grievance against Jeanne. It would have been better for his
own reputation that he should have abstained from avenging the
Church's honour on a damsel who was possibly an idolatress, a
soothsayer and the invoker of devils, but who had certainly incurred
his personal ill-will. He was in the Regent's pay;[2061] and the Regent
was filled with bitter hatred of the Maid.[2062] Again for his
reputation's sake, my Lord Bishop of Beauvais should have reflected
that in prosecuting Jeanne for a matter of faith he was serving his
master's wrath and furthering the temporal interests of the great of
this world. On these things he did not reflect; on the contrary, this
case at once temporal and spiritual, as ambiguous as his own position,
excited his worst passions. He flung himself into it with all the
thoughtlessness of the violent. A maiden to be denounced, a heretic
and an Armagnac to boot, what a feast for the prelate, the Councillor
of King Henry! After having concerted with the doctors and masters of
the University of Paris, on the 14th of July, he presented himself
before the camp of Compiègne and demanded the Maid as subject to his
jurisdiction.[2063]

[Footnote 2056: This point was not called in question at the time; but
what might be discussed is whether the Bishop of Beauvais could
exercise ordinary jurisdiction over the Maid. On this subject see:
Abbé Ph. H. Dunand, _Histoire complète de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1899,
vol. ii, pp. 412, 413.]

[Footnote 2057: Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges et
assesseurs du procès de Jeanne d'Arc_, Rouen, 1890, p. 12. Douet
d'Arcq, _Choix de pièces inédites relatives au règne de Charles VI_,
vol. i, pp. 356, 357. Chanoine Cerf, _Pierre Cauchon de Sommièvre,
chanoine de Reims et de Beauvais, évêque de Beauvais et de Lisieux;
son origine, ses dignités, sa mort et ses sépultures_, in _Travaux de
l'Académie de Reims_, CI (1898), pp. 363 _et seq._, A. Sarrazin,
_Pierre Cauchon, juge de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1901, in 8vo, pp. 26
_et seq._]

[Footnote 2058: Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 116.
A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, pp. 36, 37.]

[Footnote 2059: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, 1670,
vol. v, p. 912. The Abbé Delettre, _Histoire du diocèse de Beauvais_,
Beauvais, 1842, vol. ii, p. 348.]

[Footnote 2060: Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p.
13.]

[Footnote 2061: A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, pp. 58 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2062: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. x, p. 408, _passim_.]

[Footnote 2063: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 13. Vallet de Viriville, _Procès de
condamnation_, pp. 10 _et seq._ A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, pp. 108 _et
seq._]

He supported his demand by letters from the _Alma Mater_ to the Duke
of Burgundy and the Lord Jean de Luxembourg.

The University made known to the most illustrious Prince, the Duke of
Burgundy, that once before it had claimed this woman, called the Maid,
and had received no reply.

"We greatly fear," continued the doctors and masters, "that by the
false and seductive power of the Hellish Enemy and by the malice and
subtlety of wicked persons, your enemies and adversaries who, it is
said, are making every effort to deliver this woman by crooked means,
will in some manner remove her out of your power.

"Wherefore, the University hopes that so great a dishonour may be
spared to the most Christian name of the house of France, and again it
supplicates your Highness, the Duke of Burgundy, to deliver over this
woman either to the Inquisitor of the evil of heresy or to my Lord
Bishop of Beauvais within whose spiritual jurisdiction she was
captured."

Here follows the letter which the doctors and masters of the
University entrusted to the Lord Bishop of Beauvais for the Lord Jean
de Luxembourg:

     Most noble, honoured and powerful lord, to your high
     nobility we very affectionately commend us. Your noble
     wisdom doth well know and recognise that all good Catholic
     knights should employ their strength and their power first
     in God's service and then for the common weal. Above all,
     the first oath of the order of knighthood is to defend and
     keep the honour of God, the Catholic Faith and holy Church.
     This sacred oath was present to your mind when you employed
     your noble power and your person in the taking of the woman
     who calleth herself the Maid, by whom the glory of God hath
     been infinitely offended, the Faith deeply wounded and the
     Church greatly dishonoured: for through her there have
     arisen in this kingdom, idolatries, errors, false doctrines
     and other evils and misfortunes without end. And in truth
     all loyal Christians must give unto you hearty thanks for
     having rendered so great service to our holy Faith and to
     all the kingdom. As for us, we thank God with all our
     hearts, and you we thank for your noble prowess as
     affectionately as we may. But such a capture alone would be
     but a small thing were it not followed by a worthy issue
     whereby this woman may answer for the offences she hath
     committed against our merciful Creator, his faith and his
     holy Church, as well as for her other evil deeds which are
     said to be without number. The mischief would be greater
     than ever, the people would be wrapped in yet grosser error
     than before and his Divine Majesty too insufferably
     offended, if matters continued in their present state, or if
     it befell that this woman were delivered or retaken, as we
     are told, is wished, plotted and endeavoured by divers of
     our enemies, by all secret ways and by what is even worse by
     bribe or by ransom. But it is our hope that God will not
     permit so great an evil to betide his people, and that your
     great and high wisdom will not suffer it so to befall but
     will provide against it as becometh your nobility.

     For if without the retribution that behoveth she were to be
     delivered, irreparable would be the dishonour which should
     fall on your great nobility and on all those who have dealt
     in this matter. But your good and noble wisdom will know how
     to devise means whereby such scandal shall cease as soon as
     may be, whereof there is great need. And because all delay
     in this matter is very perilous and very injurious to this
     kingdom, very kindly and with a cordial affection do we
     beseech your powerful and honoured nobility to grant that
     for the glory of God, for the maintenance of the Holy
     Catholic Faith, for the good and honour of the kingdom, this
     woman be delivered up to justice and given over here to the
     Inquisitor of the Faith, who hath demanded her and doth now
     demand her urgently, in order that he may examine the
     grievous charges under which she labours, so that God may be
     satisfied and the folk duly edified in good and holy
     doctrine. Or, an it please you better, hand over this woman
     to the reverend Father in God, our highly honoured Lord
     Bishop of Beauvais, who it is said hath likewise claimed
     her, because she was taken within his jurisdiction. This
     prelate and this inquisitor are judges of this woman in
     matters of faith; and every Christian of whatsoever estate
     owes them obedience in this case under heavy penalty of the
     law. By so doing you will attain to the love and grace of
     the most High and you will be the means of exalting the holy
     Faith, and likewise will you glorify your own high and noble
     name and also that of the most high and most powerful
     Prince, our redoubtable Lord and yours, my Lord of Burgundy.
     Every man shall be required to pray God for the prosperity
     of your most noble worship, whom may it please God our
     Saviour in his grace, to guide and keep in all his affairs
     and finally to grant eternal joy.

     Given at Paris, the 14th day of July, 1430.[2064]

[Footnote 2064: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 10, 11. M. Fournier, _La faculté
de décret_, vol. i, p. 353, note.]

At the same time that he bore these letters, the Reverend Father in
God, the Bishop of Beauvais was charged to offer money.[2065] To us it
seems strange indeed that just at the very time when, by the mouth of
the University, he was representing to the Lord of Luxembourg that he
could not sell his prisoner without committing a crime, the Bishop
should himself offer to purchase her. According to these
ecclesiastics, Jean would incur terrible penalties in this world and
in the next, if in conformity with the laws and customs of war he
surrendered a prisoner held to ransom in return for money, and he
would win praise and blessing if he treacherously sold his captive to
those who wished to put her to death. But at least we might expect
that this Lord Bishop who had come to buy this woman for the Church,
would purchase her with the Church's money. Not at all! The purchase
money is furnished by the English. In the end therefore she is
delivered not to the Church but to the English. And it is a priest,
acting in the interests of God and of his Church, by virtue of his
episcopal jurisdiction, who concludes the bargain. He offers ten
thousand golden francs, a sum in return for which, he says, according
to the custom prevailing in France, the King has the right to claim
any prisoner even were he of the blood royal.[2066]

[Footnote 2065: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 13, 14.]

[Footnote 2066: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 14.]

There can be no doubt whatever that the high and solemn ecclesiastic,
Pierre Cauchon, suspected Jeanne of witchcraft. Wishing to bring her
to trial, he exercised his ecclesiastical functions. But he knew her
to be the enemy of the English as well as of himself; there is no
doubt on that point. So when he wished to bring her to trial he acted
as the Councillor of King Henry. Was it a witch or the enemy of the
English he was buying with his ten thousand gold francs? And if it
were merely a witch and an idolatress that the Holy Inquisitor, that
the University, that the Ordinary demanded for the glory of God, and
at the price of gold, wherefore so much ado, wherefore so great an
expenditure of money? Would it not be better in this matter to act in
concert with the ecclesiastics of King Charles's party? The Armagnacs
were neither infidels nor heretics; they were neither Turks nor
Hussites; they were Catholics; they acknowledged the Pope of Rome to
be the true head of Christendom. The Dauphin Charles and his clergy
had not been excommunicated. Neither those who regarded the Treaty of
Troyes as invalid nor those who had sworn to it had been pronounced
anathema by the Pope. This was not a question of faith. In the
provinces ruled over by King Charles the Holy Inquisition prosecuted
heresy in a curious manner and the secular arm saw to it that the
sentences pronounced by the Church did not remain a dead letter. The
Armagnacs burned witches just as much as the French and the
Burgundians. For the present doubtless they did not believe the Maid
to be possessed by devils; most of them on the contrary were inclined
to regard her as a saint. But might they not be undeceived? Would it
not be good Christian charity to present them with fine canonical
arguments? If the Maid's case were really a case for the
ecclesiastical court why not join with Churchmen of both parties and
take her before the Pope and the Council? And just at that time a
Council for the reformation of the Church and the establishment of
peace in the kingdom was sitting in the town of Bâle; the University
was sending its delegates, who would there meet the ecclesiastics of
King Charles, also Gallicans and firmly attached to the privileges of
the Church of France.[2067] Why not have this Armagnac prophetess
tried by the assembled Fathers? But for the sake of Henry of Lancaster
and the glory of Old England matters had to take another turn. The
Regent's Councillors were already accusing Jeanne of witchcraft when
she summoned them in the name of the King of Heaven to depart out of
France. During the siege of Orléans, they wanted to burn her heralds
and said that if they had her they would burn her also at the stake.
Such in good sooth was their firm intent and their unvarying
intimation. This does not look as if they would be likely to hand her
over to the Church as soon as she was taken. In their own kingdom they
burned as many witches and wizards as possible; but they had never
suffered the Holy Inquisition to be established in their land, and
they were ill acquainted with that form of justice. Informed that
Jeanne was in the hands of the Sire de Luxembourg, the Great Council
of England were unanimously in favour of her being purchased at any
price. Divers lords recommended that as soon as they obtained
possession of the Maid she should be sewn in a sack and cast into the
river. But one of them (it is said to have been the Earl of Warwick)
represented to them that she ought first to be tried, convicted of
heresy and witchcraft by an ecclesiastical tribunal, and then solemnly
degraded in order that her King might be degraded with her.[2068] What
a disgrace for Charles of Valois, calling himself King of France, if
the University of Paris, if the French ecclesiastical dignitaries,
bishops, abbots, canons, if in short the Church Universal were to
declare that a witch had sat in his Council and that a witch led his
host, that one possessed had conducted him to his impious,
sacrilegious and void anointing! Thus would the trial of the Maid be
the trial of Charles VII, the condemnation of the Maid the
condemnation of Charles VII. The idea seemed good to them and was
adopted.

[Footnote 2067: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol.
v, pp. 393-408. _Monumenta conciliorum generalium seculi decimi
quinti_, vol. i, pp. 70 _et seq._ Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le
procès de Jeanne d'Arc et l'Université de Paris_.]

[Footnote 2068: Valeran Varanius, ed. Prarond, Paris, 1889, book iv, p.
100.]

The Lord Bishop of Beauvais was eager to put it into execution. He, a
priest and Councillor of State, was consumed with a desire, under the
semblance of trying an unfortunate heretic, to sit in judgment on the
descendant of Clovis, of Saint Charlemagne and of Saint Louis.

Early in August, the Sire de Luxembourg had the Maid taken from
Beaulieu, which was not safe enough, to Beaurevoir, near Cambrai.[2069]
There dwelt Dame Jeanne de Luxembourg and Dame Jeanne de Béthune.
Jeanne de Luxembourg was the aunt of Lord Jean, whom she loved dearly.
Among the great of this world she had lived as a saint, and she had
never married. Formerly lady-in-waiting to Queen Ysabeau, King Charles
VII's godmother, one of the most important events of her life had been
to solicit from Pope Martin the canonisation of her Brother, the
Cardinal of Luxembourg, who had died at Avignon in his ninetieth year.
She was known as the Demoiselle de Luxembourg. She was sixty-seven
years of age, infirm and near her end.[2070]

[Footnote 2069: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 109, 110; vol. ii, p. 298; vol.
iii, p. 121. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 389. E. Gomart, _Jeanne d'Arc au
château de Beaurevoir_, Cambrai, 1865, in 8vo, 47 pages (_Mem. de la
Société d'émulation de Cambrai_, xxxviii, 2, pp. 305-348). L. Sambier,
_Jeanne d'Arc et la région du Nord_, Lille, 1901, in 8vo, 63 pages.
Cf. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 300, notes 3 and 4, vol. iv, supplement
xxi.]

[Footnote 2070: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p.
402. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 2;
vol. ii, pp. 72, 73.]

Jeanne de Béthune, widow of Lord Robert de Bar, slain at the Battle
of Azincourt, had married Lord Jean in 1418. She was reputed pitiful,
because, in 1424, she had obtained from her husband the pardon of a
nobleman of Picardy, who had been brought prisoner to Beaurevoir and
was in great danger of being beheaded and quartered.[2071]

[Footnote 2071: A. Duchêne, _Histoire de la maison de Béthune_, ch.
iii, and proofs and illustrations, p. 33. Vallet de Viriville, _loc.
cit._, and Morosini, vol. iv, pp. 352, 354.]

These two ladies treated Jeanne kindly. They offered her woman's
clothes or cloth with which to make them; and they urged her to
abandon a dress which appeared to them unseemly. Jeanne refused,
alleging that she had not received permission from Our Lord and that
it was not yet time; later she admitted that had she been able to quit
man's attire, she would have done so at the request of these two dames
rather than for any other dame of France, the Queen excepted.[2072]

[Footnote 2072: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231.]

A noble of the Burgundian party, one Aimond de Macy, often came to see
her and was pleased to converse with her. To him she seemed modest in
word and in deed. Still Sire Aimond, who was but thirty, had found her
personally attractive.[2073] If certain witnesses of her own party are
to be believed, Jeanne, although beautiful, did not inspire men with
desire.

[Footnote 2073: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 438, 457; vol. iii, p. 121.]

This singular grace however applied to the Armagnacs only; it was not
extended to the Burgundians, and Seigneur Aimond did not experience
it, for one day he tried to thrust his hand into her bosom. She
resisted and repulsed him with all her strength. Lord Aimond concluded
as more than one would have done in his place that this was a damsel
of rare virtue. He took warning.[2074]

[Footnote 2074: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 120, 121.]

Confined in the castle keep, Jeanne's mind was for ever running on her
return to her friends at Compiègne; her one idea was to escape.
Somehow there reached her evil tidings from France. She got the idea
that all the inhabitants of Compiègne over seven years of age were to
be massacred, "to perish by fire and sword," she said; and indeed such
a fate was bound to overtake them if the town were taken.

Confiding her distress and her unconquerable desire to Saint
Catherine, she asked: "How can God abandon to destruction those good
folk of Compiègne who have been so loyal to their Lord?"[2075]

[Footnote 2075: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 150.]

And in her dream, surrounded by saints, like the donors in church
pictures, kneeling and in rapture, she wrestled with her heavenly
counsellors for the poor folk of Compiègne.

What she had heard of their fate caused her infinite distress; she
herself would rather die than continue to live after such a
destruction of worthy people. For this reason she was strongly tempted
to leap from the top of the keep. And because she knew all that could
be said against it, she heard her Voices putting her in mind of those
arguments.

Nearly every day Saint Catherine said to her: "Do not leap, God will
help both you and those of Compiègne."

And Jeanne replied to her: "Since God will help those of Compiègne, I
want to be there."

And once again Saint Catherine told her the marvellous story of the
shepherdess and the King: "To all things must you be resigned. And you
will not be delivered until you have seen the King of the English."

To which Jeanne made answer: "But in good sooth I do not desire to see
him. I would rather die than fall into the hands of the English."[2076]

[Footnote 2076: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 150, 151.]

One day she heard a rumour that the English had come to fetch her. The
arrival of the Lord Bishop of Beauvais who came to offer the blood
money at Beaurevoir may have given rise to the report.[2077]
Straightway Jeanne became frantic and beside herself. She ceased to
listen to her Voices, who forbade her the fatal leap. The keep was at
least seventy feet high; she commended her soul to God and leapt.

[Footnote 2077: _Ibid._, p. 13; vol. v, p. 194.]

Having fallen to the ground, she heard cries: "She is dead."

The guards hurried to the spot. Finding her still alive, in their
amazement they could only ask: "Did you leap?"

She felt sorely shaken; but Saint Catherine spoke to her and said: "Be
of good courage. You will recover." At the same time the Saint gave
her good tidings of her friends. "You will recover and the people of
Compiègne will receive succour." And she added that this succour would
come before Saint Martin's Day in the winter.[2078]

[Footnote 2078: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 110, 151, 152.]

Henceforth Jeanne believed that it was her saints who had helped her
and guarded her from death. She knew well that she had been wrong in
attempting such a leap, despite her Voices.

Saint Catherine said to her: "You must confess and ask God to forgive
you for having leapt."

Jeanne did confess and ask pardon of Our Lord. And after her
confession Saint Catherine made known unto her that God had forgiven
her. For three or four days she remained without eating or drinking;
then she took some food and was whole.[2079]

[Footnote 2079: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 166. _Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris_, p. 268. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 53, 58.]

Another story was told of the leap from Beaurevoir; it was related
that she had tried to escape through a window letting herself down by
a sheet or something that broke; but we must believe the Maid: she
says she leapt; if she had been attached to a cord, she would not have
committed sin and would not have confessed. This leap was known and
the rumour spread abroad that she had escaped and joined her own
party.[2080]

[Footnote 2080: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 507, recto. Morosini,
vol. iii, pp. 301-303. _Chronique de Tournai_, ed. Smedt, in _Recueil
des Chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, pp. 416, 417.]

Meanwhile the Lenten sermons at Orléans had been delivered by that
good preacher, Friar Richard, who was ill content with Jeanne, and
whom Jeanne disliked and had quitted. The townsfolk as a token of
regard presented him with the image of Jesus sculptured in copper by a
certain Philippe, a metal-worker of the city. And the bookseller, Jean
Moreau, bound him a book of hours at the town's expense.[2081]

[Footnote 2081: Lottin, _Recherches sur la ville d'Orléans_, vol. i, p.
252. _Trial_, vol. i, p. 99, note 1. _Journal du siège_, pp. 235-238.
S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. cclxiii, note 2.]

He brought back Queen Marie to Jargeau and succeeded in obtaining her
favour. Jeanne was spared the bitterness of learning that while she
was languishing in prison her friends at Orléans, her fair Dauphin and
his Queen Marie, were making good cheer for the monk who had turned
from her to prefer a dame Catherine whom she considered
worthless.[2082] Only lately the idea of employing Dame Catherine had
filled Jeanne with alarm; she wrote to her King about it, and as soon
as she saw him besought him not to employ her. However the King set no
store by what she had said; he agreed to Friar Richard's favourite
being allowed to set forth on her mission to obtain money from the
good towns and to negotiate peace with the Duke of Burgundy. But
perhaps this saintly dame was not possessed of all the wisdom
necessary for the performance of man's work and King's service. For
immediately she became a cause of embarrassment to her friends.

[Footnote 2082: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 296, 297.]

Being in the town of Tours, she fell to saying: "In this town there be
carpenters who work, but not at houses, and if ye have not a care,
this town is in the way to a bad end and there be those in the town
that know it."[2083]

[Footnote 2083: Register of the Accounts of the town of Tours for the
year 1430, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 473, note 1.]

This was a denunciation in the form of a parable. Dame Catherine was
thereby accusing the churchmen and burgesses of Tours of working
against Charles of Valois, their lord. The woman must have been held
to have influence with the King, his kinsmen and his Council; for the
inhabitants of Tours took fright and sent an Augustinian monk, Brother
Jean Bourget, to King Charles, to the Queen of Sicily, to the Bishop
of Séez, and to the Lord of Trèves, to inquire whether the words of
this holy woman had been believed by them. The Queen of Sicily and the
Councillors of King Charles gave the monk letters wherein they
announced to the townsfolk of Tours that they had never heard of such
things, and King Charles declared that he had every confidence in the
churchmen, the burgesses and the other citizens of his town of
Tours.[2084]

[Footnote 2084: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 473.]

Dame Catherine had in like manner slandered the inhabitants of
Angers.[2085]

[Footnote 2085: _Ibid._, p. 473.]

Whether, following the example of the Blessed Colette of Corbie, this
devout person wished to pass from one party to the other, or whether
she had chanced to be taken captive by Burgundian men-at-arms, she was
brought before the Official at Paris. In their interrogation of her
the ecclesiastics appear to have been concerned less about her than
about the Maid Jeanne, whose prosecution was then being instituted.

On the subject of the Maid, Catherine said: "Jeanne has two
counsellors, whom she calls Counsellors of the Spring."[2086]

[Footnote 2086: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 295.]

Such was the confused recollection of the conversations she had had at
Jargeau and at Montfaucon. The term Council was the one Jeanne usually
employed when speaking of her Voices; but Dame Catherine was confusing
Jeanne's heavenly visitants with what the Maid had told her of the
Gooseberry Spring at Domremy.

If Jeanne felt unkindly towards Catherine, Catherine did not feel
kindly towards Jeanne. She did not assert Jeanne's mission to be
nought; but she let it be clearly understood that the hapless damsel,
then a prisoner in the hands of the Burgundians, was addicted to
invoking evil spirits.

"If Jeanne be not well guarded," Catherine told the Official, "she
will escape from prison with the aid of the devil."[2087]

[Footnote 2087: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 106, note. _Journal d'un bourgeois
de Paris_, p. 271. Vallet de Viriville, _Procès de condamnation de
Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. lxi-lxv.]

Whether Jeanne was or was not aided by the devil was a matter to be
decided between herself and the doctors of the church. But it is
certain that her one thought was to burst her bonds, and that she was
ceaselessly imagining means of escape. Catherine de la Rochelle knew
her well and wished her ill.

Catherine was released. Her ecclesiastical judges would not have
treated her so leniently had she spoken well of the Maid. The La
Rochelle Dame returned to King Charles.[2088]

[Footnote 2088: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 271.]

The two religious women who had followed Jeanne on her departure from
Sully and had been taken at Corbeil, Pierronne of Lower Brittany and
her companion, had been confined in ecclesiastical prisons at Paris
since the spring. They openly said that God had sent them to succour
the Maid Jeanne. Friar Richard had been their spiritual father and
they had been in the Maid's company. Wherefore they were strongly
suspected of having offended against God and his Holy Religion. The
Grand Inquisitor of France, Brother Jean Graverent, Prior of the
Jacobins at Paris, prosecuted them according to the forms usual in
that country. He proceeded in concurrence with the Ordinary,
represented by the official.

Pierronne maintained and believed it to be true that Jeanne was good,
and that what she did was well done and according to God's will. She
admitted that on the Christmas night of that year, at Jargeau, Friar
Richard had twice given her the body of Jesus Christ and had given it
three times to Jeanne.[2089] Besides, the fact had been well proved by
information gathered from eye-witnesses. The judges, who were
authorities on this subject, held that the monk should not thus have
lavished the bread of angels on such women. However, since frequent
communion was not formally forbidden by canon law, Pierronne could not
be censured for having received it. The informers, who were then
giving evidence against Jeanne, did not remember the three communions
at Jargeau.[2090]

[Footnote 2089: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 271, 272.]

[Footnote 2090: Voltaire, _Dictionnaire philosophique_, article, Arc.]

Heavier charges weighed upon the two Breton women. They were labouring
under the accusation of witchcraft and sorcery.

Pierronne stated and took her oath that God often appeared to her in
human form and spoke to her as friend to friend, and that the last
time she had seen him he was clothed in a purple cloak and a long
white robe.[2091]

[Footnote 2091: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 259, 260.]

The illustrious masters who were trying her, represented to her that
to speak thus of such apparitions was to blaspheme. And these women
were convicted of being possessed by evil spirits, who caused them to
err in word and in deed.

On Sunday, the 3rd of September, 1430, they were taken to the Parvis
Notre Dame to hear a sermon. Platforms had been erected as usual, and
Sunday had been chosen as the day in order that folk might benefit
from this edifying spectacle. A famous doctor addressed a charitable
exhortation to both women. One of them, the youngest, as she listened
to him and looked at the stake that had been erected, was filled with
repentance. She confessed that she had been seduced by an angel of the
devil and duly renounced her error.

Pierronne, on the contrary, refused to retract. She obstinately
persisted in the belief that she saw God often, clothed as she had
said. The Church could do nothing for her. Given over to the secular
arm, she was straightway conducted to the stake which had been
prepared for her, and burned alive by the executioner.[2092]

[Footnote 2092: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 259-260,
271-272. Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 504. A. de
la Borderie, _Pierronne et Perrinaïc_, pp. 7 _et seq._]

Thus did the Grand Inquisitor of France and the Bishop of Paris
cruelly cause to perish by an ignominious death one of those women who
had followed Friar Richard, one of the saints of the Dauphin Charles.
But the most famous of these women and the most abounding in works was
in their hands. The death of La Pierronne was an earnest of the fate
reserved for the Maid.




CHAPTER X

BEAUREVOIR--ARRAS--ROUEN--THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE


In the month of September, 1430, two inhabitants of Tournai, the chief
alderman, Bietremieu Carlier, and the chief Councillor, Henri Romain,
were returning from the banks of the Loire, whither their town had
despatched them on a mission to the King of France. They stopped at
Beaurevoir. Albeit this place lay upon their direct route and afforded
them a halt between two stages of their journey, one cannot help
supposing some connection to have existed between their mission to
Charles of Valois and their arrival in the domain of the Sire de
Luxembourg. The existence of such a connection seems all the more
probable when we remember the attachment of their fellow-citizens to
the Fleurs-de-Lis, and when we know the relations already existing
between the Maid and these emissaries.[2093]

[Footnote 2093: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits des anciens registres des
consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii (1422-1430), and Morosini,
vol. iii, pp. 185, 186.]

It has been said that the district of the provost of Tournai was loyal
to the King of France, who had granted it freedom and privileges.
Message after message it sent him; it organised public processions in
his honour, and it was ready to grant him anything, so long as he
demanded neither men nor money. The alderman, Carlier, and the
Councillor, Romain, had both previously gone to Reims as
representatives of their town to witness the anointing and the
coronation of King Charles. There they had doubtless seen the Maid in
her glory and had held her to be a very great saint. In those days,
their town, attentively watching the progress of the royal army, was
in regular correspondence with the warlike _béguine_, and with her
confessor, Friar Richard, or more probably Friar Pasquerel. To-day
they wended to the castle, wherein she was imprisoned in the hands of
her cruel enemies. We know not what it was they came to say to the
Sire de Luxembourg, nor even whether he received them. He cannot have
refused to hear them if he thought they came to make secret offers on
the part of King Charles for the ransom of the Maid, who had fought in
his battles. We know not, either, whether they were able to see the
prisoner. The idea that they did enter her presence is quite tenable;
for in those days it was generally easy to approach captives, and
passers by when they visited them were given every facility for the
performance of one of the seven works of mercy.

One thing, however, is certain; that when they left Beaurevoir, they
carried with them a letter which Jeanne had given them, charging them
to deliver it to the magistrates of their town. In this letter she
asked the folk of Tournai, for the sake of her Lord the King and in
view of the good services she had rendered him, to send unto her
twenty or thirty crowns, that she might employ them for her
necessities.[2094]

[Footnote 2094: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits analytiques des anciens
registres des consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii, pp. 338,
371-373. Canon H. Debout, _Jeanne d'Arc et les villes d'Arras et de
Tournai_, Paris, n.d., p. 24.]

It was the custom in those days thus to permit prisoners to beg their
bread.

It is said that the Demoiselle de Luxembourg, who had just made her
will, and had but a few days longer to live,[2095] entreated her noble
nephew not to give the Maid up to the English.[2096] But what power had
this good dame against the Norman gold of the King of England and
against the anathemas of Holy Church? For if my Lord Jean had refused
to give up this damsel suspected of enchantments, of idolatries, of
invoking devils and committing other crimes against religion, he would
have been excommunicated. The venerable University of Paris had not
neglected to make him aware that a refusal would expose him to heavy
legal penalties.[2097]

[Footnote 2095: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire généalogique de la maison de
France_, vol. iii, pp. 723, 724. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 175, 176. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement
xix.]

[Footnote 2096: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231.]

[Footnote 2097: _Ibid._, pp. 13, 14.]

The Sire de Luxembourg, meanwhile, was ill at ease; he feared that in
his castle of Beaurevoir, a prisoner worth ten thousand golden livres
was not sufficiently secure in case of a descent on the part of the
French or of the English or of the Burgundians, or of any of those
folk, who, caring nought for Burgundy or England or France, might wish
to carry her off, cast her into a pit, and hold her to ransom,
according to the custom of brigands in those days.[2098]

[Footnote 2098: _Les miracles de madame Sainte Katerine_, Bourassé,
_passim_.]

Towards the end of September, he asked his lord, the Duke of Burgundy,
who ruled over fine towns and strong cities, if he would undertake
the safe custody of the Maid. My Lord Philip consented and, by his
command, Jeanne was taken to Arras. This town was encircled by high
walls; it had two castles, one of which, La Cour-le-Comte, was in the
centre of the town. It was probably in the cells of Cour-le-Comte that
Jeanne was confined, under the watch and ward of my Lord David de
Brimeu, Lord of Ligny, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Governor of Arras.

At that time it was rare for prisoners to be kept in isolation.[2099]
At Arras, Jeanne received visitors; and among others, a Scotsman, who
showed her her portrait, in which she was represented kneeling on one
knee and presenting a letter to her King.[2100] This letter might be
supposed to have been from the Sire de Baudricourt, or from any other
clerk or captain by whom the painter may have thought Jeanne to have
been sent to the Dauphin; it might have been a letter announcing to
the King the deliverance of Orléans or the victory of Patay.

[Footnote 2099: "Was waited on in prison like a lady," says _Le Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 271, concerning the Rouen prison.]

[Footnote 2100: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100.]

This was the only portrait of herself Jeanne ever saw and, for her own
part, she never had any painted; but during the brief duration of her
power, the inhabitants of the French towns placed images of her,
carved and painted, in the chapels of the saints, and wore leaden
medals on which she was represented; thus in her case following a
custom established in honour of the saints canonised by the
Church.[2101]

[Footnote 2101: _Ibid._, pp. 101, 206, 291; vol. iii, p. 87; vol. v,
pp. 104, 305. Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. ii, p. 46.
P. Lanéry d'Arc, _Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e siècle_, Orléans,
1887, in 8vo. Noël Valois, _Un nouveau témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_,
pp. 8, 13, 18.]

Many Burgundian lords, and among them a knight, one Jean de Pressy,
Controller of the Finances of Burgundy, offered her woman's dress, as
the Luxembourg dame had done, for her own good and in order to avoid
scandal; but for nothing in the world would Jeanne have cast off the
garb which she had assumed according to divine command.

She also received in her prison at Arras a clerk of Tournai, one Jean
Naviel, charged by the magistrates of his town to deliver to her the
sum of twenty-two golden crowns. This ecclesiastic enjoyed the
confidence of his fellow citizens, who employed him in the town's most
urgent affairs. In the May of this year, 1430, he had been sent to
Messire Regnault de Chartres, Chancellor of King Charles. He had been
taken by the Burgundians at the same time as Jeanne and held to
ransom; but out of that predicament he soon escaped and at no great
cost.

He acquitted himself well of his mission[2102] to the Maid, and, it
would seem, received nothing for his trouble, doubtless because he
wanted the reward of this work of mercy to be placed to his account in
heaven.[2103]

[Footnote 2102: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 96, 231. Canon Henri Debout,
_Jeanne d'Arc prisonnière à Arras_, Arras, 1894, in 16mo; _Jeanne
d'Arc et les villes d'Arras et de Tournai_, Paris, 1904, in 8vo;
_Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. ii, pp. 394 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2103: On the 7th of November, 1430, a messenger from the town
of Arras received forty shillings for having taken two sealed letters
to the Duke of Burgundy, one from Jean de Luxembourg, the other from
David de Brimeu, Governor of the Bailiwick of Arras; we know nothing
of the tenor of these letters written concerning "the case of the
Maid." P. Champion, _Notes sur Jeanne d'Arc, II; Jeanne d'Arc à
Arras_, in _Le Moyen Âge_, July-August, 1907, pp. 200, 201.]

Neither the capture of the Maid nor the retreat of the men-at-arms she
had brought, put an end to the siege of Compiègne. Guillaume de Flavy
and his two brothers, Charles and Louis, and Captain Baretta with his
Italians, and the five hundred of the garrison[2104] displayed skill,
vigour, and untiring energy. The Burgundians conducted the siege in
the same manner as the English had conducted that of Orléans; mines,
trenches, bulwarks, cannonades and bastions, those gigantic and absurd
erections good for nothing but for burning. The suburbs of the town
Guillaume de Flavy had demolished because they were in the way of his
firing; boats he had sunk in order to bar the river. To the mortars
and huge _couillards_ of the Burgundians he replied with his
artillery, and notably with those little copper culverins which did
such good service.[2105] If the gay cannoneer of Orléans and Jargeau,
Maître Jean de Montesclère, were absent, there was a shoemaker of
Valenciennes, an artilleryman, named Noirouffle, tall, dark, terrible
to see, and terrible to hear.[2106] The townsfolk of Compiègne, like
those of Orléans, made unsuccessful sallies. One day Louis de Flavy,
the governor's brother, was killed by a Burgundian bullet. But none
the less on that day Guillaume did as he was wont to do and made the
minstrels play to keep his men-at-arms in good cheer.[2107]

[Footnote 2104: H. de Lépinois, _Notes extraites des archives
communales de Compiègne_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_,
1863, vol. xxiv, p. 486. A. Sorel, _Prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 268. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, pp. 38, 48 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2105: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 500 verso.]

[Footnote 2106: Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 53.]

[Footnote 2107: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 390.]

In the month of June the bulwark, defending the bridge over the Oise,
like les Tourelles at Orléans which defended the bridge over the
Loire, was captured by the enemy without bringing about the reduction
of the town. In like manner, the capture of Les Tourelles had not
occasioned the fall of the town of Duke Charles.[2108]

[Footnote 2108: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 390, 391. Lefèvre de
Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 180. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 306, 307.
Chastellain, vol. ii, pp. 51, 54. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 233 _et seq._ P. Champion. _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 50.]

[Illustration: HENRY VI

_From a portrait in the "Election Chamber" at Eton, reproduced by
permission of the Provost_]

As for the bastions, they were just as little good on the Oise as they
had been on the Loire; everything passed by them. The Burgundians were
unable to invest Compiègne because its circumference was too
great.[2109] They were short of money; and their men-at-arms, for lack
of food and of pay, deserted with that perfect assurance which in
those days characterised alike mercenaries of the red cross and of the
white.[2110] To complete his misfortunes, Duke Philip was obliged to
take away some of the troops engaged in the siege and send them
against the inhabitants of Liège who had revolted.[2111] On the 24th of
October, a relieving army, commanded by the Count of Vendôme and the
Marshal de Boussac, approached Compiègne. The English and the
Burgundians having turned to encounter them, the garrison and all the
inhabitants of the town, even the women, fell upon the rear of the
besiegers and routed them.[2112] The relieving army entered Compiègne.
The flaring of the bastions was a fine sight. The Duke of Burgundy
lost all his artillery.[2113] The Sire de Luxembourg, who had come to
Beaurevoir, where he had received the Count Bishop of Beauvais, now
appeared before Compiègne just in time to bear his share in the
disaster.[2114] The same causes which had constrained the English to
depart, as they put it, from Orléans, now obliged the Burgundians to
leave Compiègne. But in those days the most ordinary events must needs
have a supernatural cause assigned to them, wherefore the deliverance
of the town was attributed to the vow of the Count of Vendôme, who, in
the cathedral of Senlis, had promised an annual mass to
Notre-Dame-de-la-Pierre if the place were not taken.[2115]

[Footnote 2109: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, pp. 49 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2110: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 502 verso. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, proofs and illustrations, xli, xlii,
xliii.]

[Footnote 2111: _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2112: Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 410-415. Lefèvre de
Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 185. _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202. A. Sorel,
_La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, proofs and illustrations, xiii, p. 341. P.
Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 176.]

[Footnote 2113: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 418. De La Fons-Mélicocq,
_Documents inédits sur le siège de Compiègne_, in _La Picardie_, vol.
iii, 1857, pp. 22, 23. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. ii, part
i, p. 156.]

[Footnote 2114: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 419. P. Champion, _Guillaume de
Flavy_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 2115: Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, proofs and
illustrations, p. 343.]

The Lord Treasurer of Normandy raised aids to the amount of eighty
thousand _livres tournois_, ten thousand of which were to be devoted
to the purchase of Jeanne. The Count Bishop of Beauvais, who was
taking this matter to heart, urged the Sire de Luxembourg to come to
terms, mingled threats with coaxings, and caused the Norman gold to
glitter before his eyes. He seemed to fear, and his fear was shared by
the masters and doctors of the University, that King Charles would
likewise make an offer, that he would promise more than King Henry's
ten thousand golden francs and that in the end, by dint of costly
gifts, the Armagnacs would succeed in winning back their
fairy-godmother.[2116] The rumour ran that King Charles, hearing that
the English were about to gain possession of Jeanne for a sum of
money, sent an ambassador to warn the Duke of Burgundy not on any
account to consent to such an agreement, adding that if he did, the
Burgundians in the hands of the King of France would be made to pay
for the fate of the Maid.[2117] Doubtless the rumour was false; albeit
the fears of the Lord Bishop and the masters of the Paris University
were not entirely groundless; and it is certain that from the banks of
the Loire the negotiations were being attentively followed with a view
to intervention at a favourable moment.

[Footnote 2116: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 9. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire
de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 175.]

[Footnote 2117: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 236. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration
de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 18, note.]

Besides, some sudden descent of the French was always to be feared.
Captain La Hire was ravaging Normandy, the knight Barbazan, la
Champagne, and Marshal de Boussac, the country between the Seine, the
Marne and the Somme.[2118]

[Footnote 2118: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 276, note.]

At length, about the middle of November, the Sire de Luxembourg
consented to the bargain; Jeanne was delivered up to the English. It
was decided to take her to Rouen, through Ponthieu, along the
sea-shore, through the north of Normandy, where there would be less
risk of falling in with the scouts of the various parties.

From Arras she was taken to the Château of Drugy, where the monks of
Saint-Riquier were said to have visited her in prison.[2119] She was
afterwards taken to Crotoy, where the castle walls were washed by the
ocean waves. The Duke of Alençon, whom she called her fair Duke, had
been imprisoned there after the Battle of Verneuil.[2120] At the time
of her arrival, Maître Nicolas Gueuville, Chancellor of the Cathedral
church of Notre Dame d'Amiens, was a prisoner in that castle in the
hands of the English. He heard her confess and administered the
Communion to her.[2121] And there on that vast Bay of the Somme, grey
and monotonous, with its low sky traversed by sea-birds in their long
flight, Jeanne beheld coming down to her the visitant of earlier days,
the Archangel Saint Michael; and she was comforted. It was said that
the damsels and burgesses of Abbeville went to see her in the castle
where she was imprisoned.[2122] At the time of the coronation, these
burgesses had thought of turning French; and they would have done so
if King Charles had come to their town; he did not come; and perhaps
it was through Christian charity that the folk of Abbeville visited
Jeanne; but those among them who thought well of her did not say so,
for fear they too should be suspected of heresy.[2123]

[Footnote 2119: Chronicle of Jean de la Chapelle, in _Trial_, vol. v,
pp. 358-360. Lefils, _Histoire de la ville du Crotoy et de son
château_, pp. 111-118. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, p.
8, note 5. L'Abbé Bouthors, _Histoire de Saint-Riquier_, Abbeville,
1902, pp. 185, 215, 220.]

[Footnote 2120: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 22, 137.]

[Footnote 2121: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 121. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc
et la Normandie_, pp. 63 _et seq._; Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, p.
521.]

[Footnote 2122: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 89; vol. iii, p. 121. Le P. Ignace
de Jésus Maria, _Histoire généalogique des comtes de Ponthieu et
maïeurs d'Abbeville_, Paris, 1657, p. 490. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 361.]

[Footnote 2123: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 353, 354. _Trial_, vol. v, p.
143.]

The doctors and masters of the University pursued her with a
bitterness hardly credible. In November, after they had been informed
of the conclusion of the bargain between Jean de Luxembourg and the
English, they wrote through their rector to the Lord Bishop of
Beauvais reproaching him for his delay in the matter of this woman and
exhorting him to be more diligent.

"For you it is no slight matter, holding as you do so high an office
in God's Church," ran this letter, "that the scandals committed
against the Christian religion be stamped out, especially when such
scandals arise within your actual jurisdiction."[2124]

[Footnote 2124: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 15, 16. M. Fournier, _La Faculté
de décret et l'Université de Paris_, vol. i, p. 353.]

Filled with faith and zeal for the avenging of God's honour, these
clerks were, as they said, always ready to burn witches. They feared
the devil; but, perchance, though they may not have admitted it even
to themselves, they feared him twenty times more when he was Armagnac.

Jeanne was taken out of Crotoy at high tide and conveyed by boat to
Saint-Valery, then to Dieppe, as is supposed, and certainly in the end
to Rouen.[2125]

[Footnote 2125: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 21. Le P. Ignace de Jésus Maria, in
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 363. F. Poulaine, _Jeanne d'Arc à Rouen_, Paris,
1899, in 16mo. Ch. Lemire, _Jeanne d'Arc en Picardie et en Normandie_,
Paris, 1903, p. 10, _passim_. Lanéry d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, pp. 524,
549.]

She was conducted to the old castle, built in the time of
Philippe-Auguste on the slope of the Bouvreuil hill.[2126] King Henry
VI, who had come to France for his coronation, had been there since
the end of August. He was a sad, serious child, harshly treated by the
Earl of Warwick, who was governor of the castle.[2127] The castle was
strongly fortified;[2128] it had seven towers, including the keep.
Jeanne was placed in a tower looking on to the open country.[2129] Her
room was on the middle storey, between the dungeon and the state
apartment. Eight steps led up to it.[2130] It extended over the whole
of that floor, which was forty-three feet across, including the
walls.[2131] A stone staircase approached it at an angle. There was but
a dim light, for some of the window slits had been filled in.[2132]
From a locksmith of Rouen, one Étienne Castille, the English had
ordered an iron cage, in which it was said to be impossible to stand
upright. If the reports of the ecclesiastical registrars are to be
believed, Jeanne was placed in it and chained by the neck, feet, and
hands,[2133] and left there till the opening of the trial. At Jean
Salvart's, at _l'Écu de France_, in front of the Official's
courtyard,[2134] a mason's apprentice saw the cage weighed. But no one
ever found Jeanne in it. If this treatment were inflicted on Jeanne,
it was not invented for her; when Captain La Hire, in the February of
this same year, 1430, took Château Gaillard, near Rouen, he found the
good knight Barbazan in an iron cage, from which he would not come
out, alleging that he was a prisoner on parole.[2135] Jeanne, on the
contrary, had been careful to promise nothing, or rather she had
promised to escape as soon as she could.[2136] Therefore the English,
who believed that she had magical powers, mistrusted her greatly.[2137]
As she was being prosecuted by the Church, she ought to have been
detained in an ecclesiastical prison,[2138] but the _Godons_ were
resolved to keep her in their custody. One among them said she was
dear to them because they had paid dearly for her. On her feet they
put shackles and round her waist a chain padlocked to a beam five or
six feet long. At night this chain was carried over the foot of her
bed and attached to the principal beam.[2139] In like manner, John
Huss, in 1415, when he was delivered up to the Bishop of Constance and
transferred to the fortress of Gottlieben, was chained night and day
until he was taken to the stake.

[Footnote 2126: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie au XV'e
siècle_, Rouen, 1896, in 4to, ch. v.]

[Footnote 2127: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 136-137. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 198.]

[Footnote 2128: L. de Duranville, _Le château de Bouvreuil_, in _La
Revue de Rouen_, 1852, p. 387. A. Deville, _La tour de la Pucelle du
château de Rouen_, in _Précis des travaux de l'Académie de Rouen_,
1865-1866, pp. 236-268. Bouquet, _Notice sur le donjon du château de
Philippe-Auguste_, Rouen, 1877, pp. 7 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2129: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 317, 345; vol. iii, p. 121.]

[Footnote 2130: _Ibid._, p. 154. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la
Normandie_, p. 190, note 1. L. Delisle, _Revue des Sociétés savantes_,
1867, 4th series, vol. v, p. 440. F. Bouquet, _Jeanne d'Arc au donjon
de Rouen_, in _Revue de Normandie_, 1867, vol. vi, pp. 873-883. L.
Delisle, _Revue des Sociétés savantes_, vol. v (1867). Lanéry d'Arc,
pp. 528-533.]

[Footnote 2131: Ballin, _Renseignements sur le Vieux-Château de Rouen_,
in _Revue de Rouen_, 1842, p. 35. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la
Normandie_, p. 188.]

[Footnote 2132: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 7.]

[Footnote 2133: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 155.]

[Footnote 2134: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 180. A. Sarrazin, pp. 191, 192.]

[Footnote 2135: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, pp. 240, 241.]

[Footnote 2136: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 47.]

[Footnote 2137: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 322.]

[Footnote 2138: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 216, 217. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, p. 112.]

[Footnote 2139: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 18.]

Five English men-at-arms,[2140] common soldiers (_houspilleurs_),
guarded the prisoner;[2141] they were not the flower of chivalry. They
mocked her and she rebuked them, a circumstance they must have found
consolatory. At night two of them stayed behind the door; three
remained with her, and constantly troubled her by saying first that
she would die, then that she would be delivered. No one could speak to
her without their consent.[2142]

[Footnote 2140: Lea, _A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages_
(1906), vol. iii, p. 359.]

[Footnote 2141: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 154.]

[Footnote 2142: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 318, 319; vol. iii, pp. 131, 140,
148, 161. A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, p. 200.]

Nevertheless folk entered the prison as if it were a fair (_comme au
moulin_); people of all ranks came to see Jeanne as they pleased. Thus
Maître Laurent Guesdon, Lieutenant of the Bailie of Rouen, came,[2143]
and Maître Pierre Manuel, Advocate of the King of England, who was
accompanied by Maître Pierre Daron, magistrate of the city of Rouen.
They found her with her feet in shackles, guarded by soldiers.[2144]

[Footnote 2143: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 186, 187.]

[Footnote 2144: _Ibid._, pp. 199, 200.]

Maître Pierre Manuel felt called upon to tell her that for certain she
would never have come there if she had not been brought. Sensible
persons were always surprised when they saw witches and soothsayers
falling into a trap like any ordinary Christian. The King's Advocate
must have been a sensible person, since his surprise appeared in the
questions he put to Jeanne.

"Did you know you were to be taken?" he asked her.

"I thought it likely," she replied.

"Then why," asked Maître Pierre again, "if you thought it likely, did
you not take better care on the day you were captured?"

"I knew neither the day nor the hour when I should be taken, nor when
it should happen."[2145]

[Footnote 2145: _Ibid._, p. 200.]

A young fellow, one Pierre Cusquel, who worked for Jean Salvart, also
called Jeanson, the master-mason of the castle, through the influence
of his employer, was permitted to enter the tower. He also found
Jeanne bound with a long chain attached to a beam, and with her feet
in shackles. Much later, he claimed to have warned her to be careful
of what she said, because her life was involved in it. It is true that
she talked volubly to her guards and that all she said was reported
to her judges. And it may have happened that the young Pierre, whose
master was on the English side, wished to advise her and even did so.
There is a suspicion, however, that like so many others he was merely
boasting.[2146]

[Footnote 2146: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 179.]

The Sire Jean de Luxembourg came to Rouen. He went to the Maid's tower
accompanied by his brother, the Lord Bishop of Thérouanne, Chancellor
of England; and also by Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, Constable of
France for King Henry; and the Earl of Warwick, Governor of the Castle
of Rouen. At this interview there was also present the young Seigneur
de Macy, who held Jeanne to be of very modest bearing, since she had
repulsed his attempted familiarity.

"Jeanne," said the Sire de Luxembourg, "I have come to ransom you if
you will promise never again to bear arms against us."

These words do not accord with our knowledge of the negotiation for
the purchase of the Maid. They seem to indicate that even then the
contract was not complete, or at any rate that the vendor thought he
could break it if he chose. But the most remarkable point about the
Sire de Luxembourg's speech is the condition on which he says he will
ransom the Maid. He asks her to promise never again to fight against
England and Burgundy. From these words it would seem to have been his
intention to sell her to the King of France or to his representative.[2147]

[Footnote 2147: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 236.]

There is no evidence, however, of this speech having made any
impression on the English. Jeanne set no store by it.

"In God's name, you do but jest," she replied; "for I know well that
it lieth neither within your will nor within your power."

It is related that when he persisted in his statement, she replied:

"I know that these English will put me to death, believing that
afterwards they will conquer France."

Since she certainly did not believe it, it seems highly improbable
that she should have said that the English would have put her to
death. Throughout the trial she was expecting, on the faith of her
Voices, to be delivered. She knew not how or when that deliverance
would come to pass, but she was as certain of it as of the presence of
Our Lord in the Holy Sacrament. She may have said to the Sire de
Luxembourg: "I know that the English want to put me to death." Then
she repeated courageously what she had already said a thousand times:

"But were there one hundred thousand _Godons_ more than at present,
they would not conquer the kingdom."

On hearing these words, the Earl of Stafford unsheathed his sword and
the Earl of Warwick had to restrain his hand.[2148] That the English
Constable of France should have raised his sword against a woman in
chains would be incredible, did we not know that about this time this
Earl of Stafford, hearing some one speak well of Jeanne, straightway
wished to transfix him.[2149]

[Footnote 2148: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 121, 123.]

[Footnote 2149: _Ibid._, p. 140.]

In order that the Bishop and Vidame of Beauvais might exercise
jurisdiction at Rouen it was necessary that a concession of territory
should be granted him. The archiepiscopal see of Rouen was
vacant.[2150] For this concession, therefore, the Bishop of Beauvais
applied to the chapter, with whom he had had misunderstandings.[2151]
The canons of Rouen lacked neither firmness nor independence; more of
them were honest than dishonest; some were highly educated,
well-lettered and even kind-hearted. None of them nourished any ill
will toward the English. The Regent Bedford himself was a canon of
Rouen, as Charles VII was a canon of Puy.[2152] On the 20th of October,
in that same year 1430, the Regent, donning surplice and amice, had
distributed the dole of bread and wine for the chapter.[2153] The
canons of Rouen were not prejudiced in favour of the Maid of the
Armagnacs; they agreed to the demand of the Bishop of Beauvais and
granted him the formal concession of territory.[2154]

[Footnote 2150: C. de Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès de
condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Précis des travaux de l'Académie de
Rouen_, 1867-1868, pp. 470-479. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 29.]

[Footnote 2151: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2152: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. ii, p. 732. Vallet de
Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 213, 214. S. Luce,
_Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, p. ccxcv.]

[Footnote 2153: C. de Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès de
condamnation de Jeanne d'Arc_, _loc. cit._ A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc
et la Normandie_, pp. 168, 171.]

[Footnote 2154: 28 December, 1430. _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 20, 23. De
Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 46.]

On the 3rd of January, 1431, by royal decree, King Henry ordered the
Maid to be given up to the Bishop and Count of Beauvais, reserving to
himself the right to bring her before him, if she should be acquitted
by the ecclesiastical tribunal.[2155]

[Footnote 2155: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 18, 19.]

Nevertheless she was not placed in the Church prison, in one of those
dungeons near the Booksellers' Porch, where in the shadow of the
gigantic cathedral there rotted unhappy wretches who had erred in
matters of faith.[2156] There she would have endured sufferings far
more terrible than even the horrors of her military tower. The wrong
the Great Council of England inflicted on Jeanne by not handing her
over to the ecclesiastical powers of Rouen was far less than the
indignity they thereby inflicted on her judges.

[Footnote 2156: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, pp. 1771,
1778.]

With the way thus opened before him, the Bishop of Beauvais proceeded
with all the violence one might expect from a Cabochien, albeit that
violence was qualified by worldly arts and canonical knowledge.[2157]
As promoter in the case, that is, as the magistrate who was to conduct
the prosecution, he selected one Jean d'Estivet, called Bénédicité,
canon of Bayeux and of Beauvais, Promoter-General of the diocese of
Beauvais. Jean d'Estivet was a friend of the Lord Bishop, and had been
driven out of the diocese by the French at the same time. He was
suspected of hostility to the Maid.[2158] The Lord Bishop appointed
Jean de la Fontaine, master of arts, licentiate of canon law, to be
"councillor commissary" of the trial.[2159] One of the clerks of the
ecclesiastical court of Rouen, Guillaume Manchon, priest, he appointed
first registrar.

[Footnote 2157: J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 147. De
Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2158: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 24; vol. iii, p. 162. De
Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 26. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc
et la Normandie_, p. 220.]

[Footnote 2159: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 25.]

In the course of instructing this official as to what would be
expected of him, the Lord Bishop said to Messire Guillaume:

"You must do the King good service. It is our intention to institute
an elaborate prosecution (_un beau procès_) against this Jeanne."[2160]

[Footnote 2160: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 25; vol. iii, p. 137. A. Sarrazin,
_loc. cit._, pp. 221, 222.]

As to the King's service, the Lord Bishop did not mean that it should
be rendered at the expense of justice; he was a man of some priestly
pride and was not likely to reveal his own evil designs. If he spoke
thus, it was because in France, for a century at least, the
jurisdiction of the Inquisition had been regarded as the jurisdiction
of the King.[2161] And as for the expression "an elaborate prosecution"
(_un beau procès_), that meant a trial in which legal forms were
observed and irregularities avoided, for it was a case in which were
interested the doctors and masters of the realm of France and indeed
the whole of Christendom. Messire Guillaume Manchon, well skilled in
legal procedure, was not likely to err in a matter of legal language.
An elaborate trial was a strictly regular trial. It was said, for
example, that "N---- and N---- had by elaborate judicial procedure
found such an one to be guilty."[2162]

[Footnote 2161: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en
France_, pp. 550, 551.]

[Footnote 2162: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès de
condamnation_, p. 320.]

Charged by the Bishop to choose another registrar to assist him,
Guillaume Manchon selected as his colleague Guillaume Colles, surnamed
Boisguillaume, who like him was a notary of the Church.[2163]

[Footnote 2163: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 25; vol. iii, p. 137. De
Beaurepaire, _Recherches...._ p. 103. A. Sarrazin, _loc. cit._, pp.
222, 223.]

Jean Massieu, priest, ecclesiastical dean of Rouen, was appointed
usher of the court.[2164]

[Footnote 2164: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 26. De Beaurepaire,
_Recherches...._ p. 115. A. Sarrazin, _loc. cit._, pp. 223, 224.]

In that kind of trial, which was very common in those days, there were
strictly only two judges, the Ordinary and the Inquisitor. But it was
the custom for the Bishop to summon as councillors and assessors
persons learned in both canon and civil law. The number and the rank
of those councillors varied according to the case. And it is clear
that the obstinate upholder of a very pestilent heresy must needs be
more particularly and more ceremoniously tried than an old wife, who
had sold herself to some insignificant demon, and whose spells could
harm nothing more important than cabbages. For the common wizard, for
the multitude of those females, or _mulierculæ_, as they were
described by one inquisitor who boasted of having burnt many, the
judges were content with three or four ecclesiastical advocates and as
many canons.[2165] When it was a question of a very notable personage
who had set a highly pernicious example, of a king's advocate, for
instance like Master Jean Segueut, who that very year, in Normandy,
had spoken against the temporal power of the Church, a large assembly
of doctors and prelates, English and French, were convoked, and the
doctors and masters of the University of Paris were consulted in
writing.[2166] Now it was fitting that the Maid of the Armagnacs should
be yet more elaborately and more solemnly tried, with a yet greater
concourse of doctors and of prelates; and thus it was ordained by the
Lord Bishop of Beauvais. As councillors and assessors he summoned the
canons of Rouen in as great a number as possible. Among those who
answered his summons we may mention Raoul Roussel, treasurer of the
chapter; Gilles Deschamps, who had been chaplain to the late King, Charles
VI, in 1415; Pierre Maurice, doctor in theology, rector of the University
of Paris in 1428; Jean Alespée, one of the sixteen who during the siege of
1418 had gone robed in black and with cheerful countenance to place at the
feet of King Henry V the life and honour of the city; Pasquier de Vaux,
apostolic notary at the Council of Constance, President of the Norman
_Chambre des Comptes_; Nicolas de Vendères, whose candidature for the
vacant see of Rouen was being advocated by a powerful party; and, lastly,
Nicolas Loiseleur. For the same purpose, the Lord Bishop summoned the
abbots of the great Norman abbeys, Mont Saint-Michel-au-Péril-de-la-Mer,
Fécamp, Jumièges, Préaux, Mortemer, Saint-Georges de Boscherville, la
Trinité-du-mont-Sainte-Catherine, Saint-Ouen, Bec, Cormeilles, the
priors of Saint-Lô, of Rouen, of Sigy, of Longueville, and the abbot
of Saint Corneille of Compiègne. He summoned twelve ecclesiastical
advocates; likewise famous doctors and masters of the University of
Paris, Jean Beaupère, rector in 1412; Thomas Fiefvé, rector in 1427;
Guillaume Erart, Nicolas Midi,[2167] and that young doctor, abounding
in knowledge and in modesty, the brightest star in the Christian
firmament of the day, Thomas de Courcelles.[2168] The Lord Bishop is
bent upon turning the tribunal, which is to try Jeanne, into a
veritable synod; it is indeed a provincial council, before which she
is cited. Moreover, in effect, it is not only Jeanne the Maid, but
Charles of Valois, calling himself King of France, and lawful
successor of Charles VI who is to be brought to justice. Wherefore are
assembled so many croziered and mitred abbots, so many renowned
doctors and masters.

[Footnote 2165: Eymeric, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, quest. 85. J.
Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 109. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les
juges_, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2166: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches...._ pp. 321 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2167: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27-114. J.
Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 103, 104. Boucher de Molandon,
_Guillaume Erard l'un des juges de la Pucelle_, in _Bulletin du comité
hist. and phil._, 1892, pp. 3-10.]

[Footnote 2168: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 30, note. Du Boulay, _Historia
Universitatis, Paris_, vol. v, pp. 912, 920. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, p. 105. De Beaurepaire, _Notes_, pp. 30, 31. A. Sarrazin,
_loc. cit._, pp. 226, 227.]

Nevertheless, there were other bright and shining lights of the
Church, whom the Bishop of Beauvais neglected to summon. He consulted
the two bishops of Coutances and Lisieux; he did not consult the
senior bishop of Normandy, the Bishop of Avranches, Messire Jean de
Saint-Avit, whom the chapter of the cathedral had charged with the
duty of ordination throughout the diocese during the vacancy of the
see of Rouen. But Messire Jean de Saint-Avit was considered and
rightly considered to favour King Charles.[2169] On the other hand
those English doctors and masters, residing at Rouen, who had been
consulted in Segueut's trial, were not consulted in that of
Jeanne.[2170] The doctors and masters of the University of Paris, the
abbots of Normandy, the chapter of Rouen, held firmly to the Treaty of
Troyes; they were as prejudiced as the English clerks against the Maid
and the Dauphin Charles, and they were less suspected; it was all to
the good.[2171]

[Footnote 2169: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 5, 6. De Beaurepaire, _Notes_,
pp. 121-125. A. Sarrazin, _loc. cit._, pp. 308-310.]

[Footnote 2170: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches_, pp. 321 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2171: J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 101.]

On Tuesday, the 9th of January, my Lord of Beauvais summoned eight
councillors to his house: the abbots of Fécamp and of Jumièges, the
prior of Longueville, the canons Roussel, Venderès, Barbier,
Coppequesne and Loiseleur.

"Before entering upon the prosecution of this woman," he said to them,
"we have judged it good, maturely and fully to confer with men learned
and skilled in law, human and divine, of whom, thank God, there be
great number in this city of Rouen."

The opinion of the doctors and masters was that information should be
collected concerning the deeds and sayings publicly imputed to this
woman.

The Lord Bishop informed them that already certain information had
been obtained by his command, and that he had decided to order more to
be collected, which would be ultimately presented to the Council.[2172]

[Footnote 2172: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 5-8.]

It is certain that a tabellion[2173] of Andelot in Champagne, Nicolas
Bailly, requisitioned by Messire Jean de Torcenay, Bailie of Chaumont
for King Henry, went to Domremy, and with Gérard Petit, provost of
Andelot, and divers mendicant monks, made inquiry touching Jeanne's
life and reputation. The interrogators heard twelve or fifteen
witnesses and among others Jean Hannequin[2174] of Greux and Jean
Bégot, with whom they lodged.[2175] We know from Nicolas Bailly himself
that they gathered not a single fact derogatory to Jeanne. And if we
may believe Jean Moreau, a citizen of Rouen, Maître Nicolas, having
brought my Lord of Beauvais the result of his researches, was treated
as a wicked man and a traitor; and obtained no reward for his
expenditure or his labour.[2176] This is possible, but it seems
strange. It can in no wise be true, however, that neither at
Vaucouleurs nor at Domremy, nor in the neighbouring villages was
anything discovered against Jeanne. Quite on the contrary, numbers of
accusations were collected against the inhabitants in general, who
were addicted to evil practices, and in particular against Jeanne, who
held intercourse with fairies,[2177] carried a mandrake in her bosom,
and disobeyed her father and mother.[2178]

[Footnote 2173: A notary or secretary in France under the old monarchy
(W.S.).]

[Footnote 2174: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 463.]

[Footnote 2175: _Ibid._, p. 453.]

[Footnote 2176: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 192, 193.]

[Footnote 2177: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 105, 146, 234.]

[Footnote 2178: _Ibid._, pp. 208, 209, 213.]

Abundant information was forthcoming, not only from Lorraine and from
Paris, but from the districts loyal to King Charles, from Lagny,
Beauvais, Reims, and even from so far as Touraine and Berry;[2179]
which was information enough to burn ten heretics and twenty witches.
Devilries were discovered which filled the priests with horror: the
finding of a lost cup and gloves, the exposure of an immoral priest,
the sword of Saint Catherine, the restoration of a child to life.
There was also a report of a rash letter concerning the Pope and there
were many other indications of witchcraft, heresy, and religious
error.[2180] Such information was not to be included among the
documents of the trial.[2181] It was the custom of the Holy Inquisition
to keep secret the evidence and even the names of the witnesses.[2182]
In this case the Bishop of Beauvais might have pleaded as an excuse
for so doing the safety of the deponents, who might have suffered had
he published information gathered in provinces subject to the Dauphin
Charles. Even if their names were concealed, they would be identified
by their evidence. For the purposes of the trial, Jeanne's own
conversation in prison was the best source of information: she spoke
much and without any of the reserve which prudence might have
dictated.

[Footnote 2179: J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 117.]

[Footnote 2180: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 245, 246.]

[Footnote 2181: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 200.]

[Footnote 2182: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches_, _loc. cit._ J. Quicherat,
_Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 122-124. L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de
l'inquisition_, pp. 389-395.]

A painter, whose name is unknown, came to see her in her tower. He
asked her aloud and before her guards what arms she bore, as if he
wished to represent her with her escutcheon. In those days portraits
were very seldom painted from life, except of persons of very high
rank, and they were generally represented kneeling and with clasped
hands in an attitude of prayer. Though in Flanders and in Burgundy
there may have been a few portraits bearing no signs of devotion, they
were very rare. A portrait naturally suggested a person praying to
God, to the Holy Virgin, or to some saint. Wherefore the idea of
painting the Maid's picture doubtless must have met with the stern
disapproval of her ecclesiastical judges. All the more so because they
must have feared that the painter would represent this excommunicated
woman in the guise of a saint, canonised by the Church, as the
Armagnacs were wont to do.

A careful consideration of this incident inclines us to think that
this man was no painter but a spy. Jeanne told him of the arms which
the King had granted to her brothers: an azure shield bearing a sword
between two golden _fleurs de lis_. And our suspicion is confirmed
when at the trial she is reproached with pomp and vanity for having
caused her arms to be painted.[2183]

[Footnote 2183: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 117, 300.]

Sundry clerks introduced into her prison gave her to believe that they
were men-at-arms of the party of Charles of Valois.[2184] In order to
deceive her, the Promoter himself, Maître Jean d'Estivet, disguised
himself as a poor prisoner.[2185] One of the canons of Rouen, who was
summoned to the trial, by name Maître Nicolas Loiseleur, would seem to
have been especially inventive of devices for the discovery of
Jeanne's heresies. A native of Chartres, he was not only a master of
arts, but was greatly renowned for astuteness. In 1427 and 1428 he
carried through difficult negotiations, which detained him long months
in Paris. In 1430 he was one of those deputed by the chapter to go to
the Cardinal of Winchester in order to obtain an audience of King
Henry and commend to him the church of Rouen. Maître Nicolas Loiseleur
was therefore a _persona grata_ with the Great Council.[2186]

[Footnote 2184: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 362.]

[Footnote 2185: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 63.]

[Footnote 2186: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 72-82. A.
Sorel, _loc. cit._, pp. 243, 247.]

Having concerted with the Bishop of Beauvais and the Earl of Warwick,
he entered Jeanne's prison, wearing a short jacket like a layman. The
guards had been instructed to withdraw; and Maître Nicolas, left alone
with his prisoner, confided to her that he, like herself, was a native
of the Lorraine Marches, a shoemaker by trade, one who held to the
French party and had been taken prisoner by the English. From King
Charles he brought her tidings which were the fruit of his own
imagination. No one was dearer to Jeanne than her King. Thus having
won her confidence, the pseudo-shoemaker asked her sundry questions
concerning the angels and saints who visited her. She answered him
confidingly, speaking as friend to friend, as countryman to
countryman. He gave her counsel, advising her not to believe all these
churchmen and not to do all that they asked her; "For," he said, "if
thou believest in them thou shalt be destroyed."

Many a time, we are told, did Maître Nicolas Loiseleur act the part of
the Lorraine shoemaker. Afterwards he dictated to the registrars all
that Jeanne had said, providing thus a valuable source of information
of which a memorandum was made to be used during the examination. It
would even appear that during certain of these visits the registrars
were stationed at a peep-hole in an adjoining room.[2187] If we may
believe the rumours current in the town, Maître Nicolas also disguised
himself as Saint Catherine, and by this means brought Jeanne to say
all that he wanted.

[Footnote 2187: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 342; vol. iii, pp. 140, 141,
156, 160 _et seq._]

He may not have been proud of such deceptions, but at any rate he made
no secret of them.[2188] Many famous masters approved him; others
censured him.[2189]

[Footnote 2188: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 181.]

[Footnote 2189: _Ibid._, p. 141.]

The angel of the schools, Thomas de Courcelles, when Nicolas told him
of his disguises, counselled him to abandon them.

Afterwards the registrars pretended that it had been extremely
repugnant to them thus to overhear in hiding a conversation so
craftily contrived. The golden age of inquisitorial justice must have
been well over when so strict a doctor as Maître Thomas was willing
thus to criticise the most solemn forms of that justice. Inquisitorial
proceedings must indeed have fallen into decay when two notaries of
the Church dream of eluding its most common prescriptions. The clerks
who disguised themselves as soldiers, the Promoter who took on the
semblance of a poor prisoner, were exercising the most regular
functions of the judicial system instituted by Innocent III.

In acting the shoemaker and Saint Catherine, if he were seeking the
salvation and not the destruction of the sinner, if, contrary to
public report, far from inciting her to rebellion, he was reducing her
to obedience, if, in short, he were but deceiving her for her own
temporal and spiritual good, Maître Nicolas Loiseleur was proceeding
in conformity with established rules. In the _Tractatus de Hæresi_ it
is written: "Let no man approach the heretic, save from time to time
two persons of faith and tact, who may warn him with precaution and as
having compassion upon him, to eschew death by confessing his errors,
and who may promise him that by so doing he shall escape death by
fire; for the fear of death, and the hope of life may peradventure
soften a heart which could be touched in no other wise."[2190]

[Footnote 2190: _Tractatus de hæresi pauperum de Lugduno_, apud
Martene, _Thesaurus anecd._, vol. v, col. 1787. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, pp. 131, 132.]

The duty of registrars was laid down in the following manner:

"Matters shall be ordained thus, that certain persons shall be
stationed in a suitable place so as to surprise the confidences of
heretics and to overhear their words."[2191]

[Footnote 2191: Eymeric, _Directorium_, part iii, _Cautelæ inquisitorum
contra hæreticorum cavilationes et fraudes_.]

As for the Bishop of Beauvais, who had ordained and permitted such
procedure, he found his justification and approbation in the words of
the Apostle Saint Paul to the Corinthians: "I did not burden you:
nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile." "_Ego vos non
gravavi; sed cum essem astutus, dolo vos cepi_" (II Corinthians xii,
16).[2192]

[Footnote 2192: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en
France_, p. 394.]

Meanwhile, when Jeanne saw the Promoter, Jean d'Estivet, in his
churchman's habit she did not recognise him. And Maître Nicolas
Loiseleur also often came to her in monkish dress. In this guise he
inspired her with great confidence; she confessed to him devoutly and
had no other confessor.[2193] She saw him sometimes as a shoemaker and
sometimes as a canon and never perceived that he was the same person.
Wherefore we must indeed believe her to have been incredibly simple in
certain respects; and these great theologians must have realised that
it was not difficult to deceive her.

[Footnote 2193: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 342.]

It was well known to all men versed in science, divine and human, that
the Enemy never entered into dealings with a maid without depriving
her of her virginity.[2194] At Poitiers the French clerks had thought
of it, and when Queen Yolande assured them that Jeanne was a virgin,
they ceased to fear that she was sent by the devil.[2195] The Lord
Bishop of Beauvais in a different hope awaited a similar examination.
The Duchess of Bedford herself went to the prison. She was assisted by
Lady Anna Bavon and another matron. It has been said that the Regent
was hidden meanwhile in an adjoining room and looking through a hole
in the wall.[2196] This is by no means certain, but it is not
impossible; he was at Rouen a fortnight after Jeanne had been brought
there.[2197] Whether the charge were groundless or well founded he was
seriously reproached for this curiosity. If there were many who in his
place would have been equally curious, every one must judge for
himself; but we must bear in mind that my Lord of Bedford believed
Jeanne a witch, and that it was not the custom in those days to treat
witches with the respect due to ladies. We must remember also that
this was a matter in which Old England was greatly concerned, and the
Regent loved his country with all his heart and all his strength.

[Footnote 2194: Vallet de Viriville, _Nouvelles recherches sur Agnès
Sorel_, pp. 33 _et seq._ Du Cange, _Glossaire_, at the word
_Matrimonium_.]

[Footnote 2195: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 102, 209.]

[Footnote 2196: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 155, 163.]

[Footnote 2197: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 40.]

Upon the examination of the Duchess of Bedford as upon that of the
Queen of Sicily Jeanne appeared a virgin. The matrons knew various
signs of virginity; but for us a more certain sign is Jeanne's own
word. When she was asked wherefore she called herself the Maid,
whether she were one in reality, she replied: "I may tell you that
such I am."[2198] The judges, as far as we know, set no store by this
favourable result of the examination. Did they believe with the wise
King Solomon that in such matters all inquiry is vain, and did they
reject the matrons' verdict by virtue of the saying: _Virginitatis
probatio non minus difficilis quam custodia_? No, they knew well that
she was indeed a virgin. They allowed it to be understood when they
did not assert the contrary.[2199] And since they persisted in
believing her a witch, it must have been because they imagined her to
have given herself to devils who had left her as they found her. The
morals of devils abounded in such inconsistencies, which were the
despair of the most learned doctors; every day new inconsistencies
were being discovered.

[Footnote 2198: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 175.]

[Footnote 2199: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 217, 218.]

On Saturday, the 13th of January, the Lord Abbot of Fécamp, the
doctors and masters, Nicolas de Venderès, Guillaume Haiton, Nicolas
Coppequesne, Jean de la Fontaine, and Nicolas Loiseleur, met in the
house of the Lord Bishop. There was read to them the information
concerning the Maid gathered in Lorraine and elsewhere. And it was
decided that according to this information a certain number of
articles should be drawn up in due form; which was done.[2200]

[Footnote 2200: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 27, 28.]

On Tuesday, the 23rd of January, the doctors and masters above named
considered the terms of these articles, and, finding them sufficient,
they decided that they might be used for the examination. Then they
resolved that the Bishop of Beauvais should order a preliminary
inquiry as to the deeds and sayings of Jeanne.[2201]

[Footnote 2201: _Ibid._, pp. 28, 29.]

On Tuesday, the 13th of February, Jean d'Estivet, called Bénédicité,
Promoter, Jean de la Fontaine, Commissioner, Boisguillaume and
Manchon, Registrars, and Jean Massieu, Usher, took the oath faithfully
to discharge their various offices. Then straightway Maître Jean de la
Fontaine, assisted by two registrars, proceeded to the preliminary
inquiry.[2202]

[Footnote 2202: _Ibid._, pp. 29, 31.]

On Monday, the 19th of February, at eight o'clock in the morning, the
doctors and masters assembled, to the number of eleven, in the house
of the Bishop of Beauvais; there they heard the reading of the
articles and the preliminary information. Whereupon they gave it as
their opinion, and, in conformity with this opinion, the Bishop
decided that there was matter sufficient to justify the woman called
the Maid being cited and charged touching a question of faith.[2203]

[Footnote 2203: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 31-33.]

But now a fresh difficulty arose. In such a trial it was necessary for
the accused to appear at once before the Ordinary and before the
Inquisitor. The two judges were equally necessary for the validity of
the trial. Now the Grand Inquisitor for the realm of France, Brother
Jean Graverent, was then at Saint-Lô, prosecuting on a religious
charge a citizen of the town, one Jean Le Couvreur.[2204] In the
absence of Brother Jean Graverent, the Bishop of Beauvais had invited
the Vice-Inquisitor for the diocese of Rouen to proceed against Jeanne
conjointly with himself. Meanwhile the Vice-Inquisitor seemed not to
understand; he made no response; and the Bishop was left in
embarrassment with his lawsuit on his hands.

[Footnote 2204: _Ibid._, p. 32. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p.
102. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 24-27. Le P. Chapotin,
_La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les dominicains_, pp. 141-143.
A. Sarrazin, _P. Cauchon_, p. 124.]

This Vice-Inquisitor was Brother Jean Lemaistre, Prior of the
Dominicans of Rouen, bachelor of theology, a monk right prudent and
scrupulous.[2205] At length in answer to a summons from the Usher, at
four o'clock on the 19th of February, 1413, he appeared in the house
of the Bishop of Beauvais. He declared himself ready to intervene
provided that he had the right to do so, which he doubted. As the
reason for his uncertainty he alleged that he was the Inquisitor of
Rouen; now the Bishop of Beauvais was exercising his jurisdiction as
bishop of the diocese of Beauvais, but on borrowed territory;
wherefore was it not rather for the Inquisitor of Beauvais not for the
Inquisitor of Rouen, to sit on the judgment seat side by side with the
Bishop?[2206] He declared that he would ask the Grand Inquisitor of
France for an authorisation which should hold good for the diocese of
Beauvais. Meanwhile he consented to act in order to satisfy his own
conscience and to prevent the proceedings from lapsing, which, in the
opinion of all, must have ensued had the trial been instituted without
the concurrence of the Holy Inquisition.[2207] All preliminary
difficulties were now removed. The Maid was cited to appear on
Wednesday, the 21st of February,[2208] 1431.

[Footnote 2205: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 33.]

[Footnote 2206: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 35. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les
juges_, p. 394. Doinel, _Mémoire de la Société archéologique-historique
de l'Orléanais_, 1892, vol. xxiv, p. 403. Le P. Chapotin, _La guerre de
cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les dominicains_, p. 141. U. Chevalier,
_L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 2207: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 35.]

[Footnote 2208: _Ibid._, pp. 40-42.]

On that day, at eight o'clock in the morning, the Bishop of Beauvais,
the Vicar of the Inquisitor, and forty-one Councillors and Assessors
assembled in the castle chapel. Fifteen of them were doctors in
theology, five doctors in civil and canon law, six bachelors in
theology, eleven bachelors in canon law, four licentiates in civil
law. The Bishop sat as judge. At his side were the Councillors and
Assessors, clothed either in the fine camlet of canons or in the
coarse cloth of mendicants, expressive, the one of sacerdotal
solemnity, the other of evangelical meekness. Some glared fiercely,
others cast down their eyes. Brother Jean Lemaistre, Vice-Inquisitor
of the faith, was among them, silent, in the black and white livery of
poverty and obedience.[2209]

[Footnote 2209: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 38, 39.]

Before bringing in the accused, the usher informed the Bishop that
Jeanne, to whom the citation had been delivered, had replied that she
would be willing to appear, but she demanded that an equal number of
ecclesiastics of the French party should be added to those of the
English party. She requested also the permission to hear mass.[2210]
The Bishop refused both demands;[2211] and Jeanne was brought in,
dressed as a man, with her feet in shackles. She was made to sit down
at the table of the registrars.

[Footnote 2210: _Ibid._, pp. 42-43.]

[Footnote 2211: _Ibid._, p. 43.]

And now from the very outset these theologians and this damsel
regarded each other with mutual horror and hatred. Contrary to the
custom of her sex, a custom which even loose women did not dare to
infringe, she displayed her hair, which was brown and cut short over
the ears. It was possibly the first time that some of those young
monks seated behind their elders had ever seen a woman's hair. She
wore hose like a youth. To them her dress appeared immodest and
abominable.[2212] She exasperated and irritated them. Had the Bishop of
Beauvais insisted on her appearing in hood and gown their anger
against her would have been less violent. This man's attire brought
before their minds the works performed by the Maid in the camp of the
Dauphin Charles, calling himself king. By the stroke of a magic wand
she had deprived the English men-at-arms of all their strength, and
thereby she had inflicted sore hurt on the majority of the churchmen
who were to judge her. Some among them were thinking of the benefices
of which she had despoiled them; others, doctors and masters of the
University, recalled how she had been about to lay Paris waste with
fire and sword;[2213] others again, canons and abbots, could not
forgive her perchance for having struck fear into their hearts even in
remote Normandy. Was it possible for them to pardon the havoc she had
thus wrought in a great part of the Church of France, when they knew
she had done it by sorcery, by divination and by invoking devils? "A
man must be very ignorant if he will deny the reality of magic," said
Sprenger. As they were very learned, they saw magicians and wizards
where others would never have suspected them; they held that to doubt
the power of demons over men and things was not only heretical and
impious, but tending to subvert the whole natural and social order.
These doctors, seated in the castle chapel, had burned each one of
them ten, twenty, fifty witches, all of whom had confessed their
crimes. Would it not have been madness after that to doubt the
existence of witches?

[Footnote 2212: _Ibid._, p. 43.]

[Footnote 2213: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le procès de Jeanne d'Arc
et l'Université de Paris_.]

To us it seems curious that beings capable of causing hail-storms and
casting spells over men and animals should allow themselves to be
taken, judged, tortured, and burned without making any defence; but it
was constantly occurring; every ecclesiastical judge must have
observed it. Very learned men were able to account for it: they
explained that wizards and witches lost their power as soon as they
fell into the hands of churchmen. This explanation was deemed
sufficient. The hapless Maid had lost her power like the others; they
feared her no longer.

At least Jeanne hated them as bitterly as they hated her. It was
natural for unlettered saints, for the fair inspired, frank of mind,
capricious, and enthusiastic to feel an antipathy towards doctors all
inflated with knowledge and stiffened with scholasticism. Such an
antipathy Jeanne had recently felt towards clerks, even when as at
Poitiers they had been on the French side, and had not wished her evil
and had not greatly troubled her. Wherefore we may easily imagine how
intense was the repulsion with which the clerks of Rouen now inspired
her. She knew that they sought to compass her death. But she feared
them not; confidently she awaited from her saints and angels the
fulfilment of their promise, their coming for her deliverance. She
knew not when nor how her deliverance should come; but that come it
would she never once doubted. To doubt it would indeed have been to
doubt Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and even Our Lord; it would have
been to believe evil of her Voices. They had told her to fear nothing,
and of nothing was she afeard.[2214] Fearless simplicity; whence came
her confidence in her Voices if not from her own heart?

[Footnote 2214: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 88, 94, 151, 155, _passim_.]

The Bishop required her to swear, according to the prescribed form
with both hands on the holy Gospels, that she would reply truly to all
that should be asked her.

She could not. Her Voices forbade her telling any one of the
revelations they had so abundantly vouchsafed to her.

She answered: "I do not know on what you wish to question me. You
might ask me things that I would not tell you."

And when the Bishop insisted on her swearing to tell the whole truth:

"Touching my father and mother and what I did after my coming into
France I will willingly swear," she said; "but touching God's
revelations to me, those I have neither told nor communicated to any
man, save to Charles my King. And nought of them will I reveal, were I
to lose my head for it."

Then, either because she wished to gain time or because she counted on
receiving some new directions from her _Council_, she added that in a
week she would know whether she might so reveal those things.

At length she took the oath, according to the prescribed form, on her
knees, with both hands on the missal.[2215] Then she answered
concerning her name, her country, her parents, her baptism, her
godfathers and godmothers. She said that to the best of her knowledge
she was about nineteen years of age.[2216]

[Footnote 2215: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 45.]

[Footnote 2216: _Ibid._, p. 46.]

Questioned concerning her education, she replied: "From my mother I
learnt my Paternoster, my Ave Maria and my Credo."

But, asked to repeat her Paternoster, she refused, for, she said, she
would only say it in confession. This was because she wanted the
Bishop to hear her confess.[2217]

[Footnote 2217: _Ibid._, pp. 46-47.]

The assembly was profoundly agitated; all spoke at once. Jeanne with
her soft voice had scandalised the doctors.

The Bishop forbade her to leave her prison, under pain of being
convicted of the crime of heresy.

She refused to submit to this prohibition. "If I did escape," she
said, "none could reproach me with having broken faith, for I never
gave my word to any one."

Afterwards she complained of her chains.

The Bishop told her they were on account of her attempt to escape.

She agreed: "It is true that I wanted to escape, and I still want to,
just like every other prisoner."[2218]

[Footnote 2218: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 47.]

Such a confession was very bold, if she had rightly understood the
judge when he said that by flight from prison she would incur the
punishment of a heretic. To escape from an ecclesiastical prison was
to commit a crime against the Church, but it was folly as well as
crime; for the prisons of the Church are penitentiaries, and the
prisoner who refuses salutary penance is as foolish as he is guilty;
for he is like a sick man who refuses to be cured. But Jeanne was not,
strictly speaking, in an ecclesiastical prison; she was in the castle
of Rouen, a prisoner of war in the hands of the English. Could it be
said that if she escaped she would incur excommunication and the
spiritual and temporal penalties inflicted on the enemies of religion?
There lay the difficulty. The Lord Bishop removed it forthwith by an
elaborate legal fiction. Three English men-at-arms, John Grey, John
Berwoist, and William Talbot, were appointed by the King to be
Jeanne's custodians. The Bishop, acting as an ecclesiastical judge,
himself delivered to them their charge, and made them swear on the
holy Gospels to bind the damsel and confine her.[2219] In this wise
the Maid became the prisoner of our holy Mother, the Church; and she
could not burst her bonds without falling into heresy. The second
sitting was appointed for the next day, the 22nd of February.[2220]

[Footnote 2219: _Ibid._, pp. 47, 48.]

[Footnote 2220: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 48.]




CHAPTER XI

THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (_continued_)


When a record of the proceedings came to be written down after the
first sitting, a dispute arose between the ecclesiastical notaries and
the two or three royal registrars who had likewise taken down the
replies of the accused. As might be expected, the two records differed
in several places. It was decided that on the contested points Jeanne
should be further examined.[2221] The notaries of the Church complained
also that they experienced great difficulty in seizing Jeanne's words
on account of the constant interruptions of the bystanders.

[Footnote 2221: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 131-136.]

In a trial by the Inquisition there was no place fixed for the
examination any more than for the other acts of the procedure. The
judges might examine the accused in a chapel, in a chapter-house, or
even in a prison or a torture-chamber. According to Messire Guillaume
Manchon it was in order to escape from the tumult of the first
sitting,[2222] and because there was no longer any reason for
proceeding with such solemn ceremony as at the opening of the trial,
that the judge and his councillors met in the Robing Room, a little
chamber at one end of the castle hall;[2223] and two English guards
were stationed at the door. According to the rules of inquisitorial
procedure, the assessors were not bound to be present at all the
deliberations.[2224] This time forty-two were present, twenty-six of
the original ones and six newly appointed. Among these high clerics
was Brother Jean Lemaistre, Vice Inquisitor of the Faith, a humble
preaching friar. No longer as in the days of Saint Dominic was the
Vice Inquisitor the hunting hound of the Lord, now he was but the dog
of the Bishop, a poor monk, who dared neither to do nor to abstain
from doing. Such was the result of the assertion of Gallican
independence against papal supremacy. Dumb and timid, Brother Jean
Lemaistre was the last and the least of all the brethren in that
assembly, but he was ever looking for the day when he should be
sovereign judge and without appeal.[2225]

[Footnote 2222: _Ibid._, p. 135.]

[Footnote 2223: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 48. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et
la Normandie_, pp. 323, 324.]

[Footnote 2224: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p.
420.]

[Footnote 2225: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 48-50.]

Jeanne was brought in by the Usher, Messire Jean Massieu. Again she
endeavoured to avoid taking the oath to tell everything; but she had
to swear on the Gospel.[2226]

[Footnote 2226: _Ibid._, p. 50.]

She was examined by Maître Jean Beaupère, doctor in theology. In his
University of Paris he was regarded as a scholar of light and leading;
it had twice appointed him rector. It had charged him with the
functions of chancellor in the absence of Gerson, and, in 1419, had
sent him with Messire Pierre Cauchon to the town of Troyes, to give
aid and counsel to King Charles VI. Three years later it had
despatched him to the Queen of England and the Duke of Gloucester to
enlist their support in its endeavour to obtain the confirmation of
its privileges. King Henry VI had just appointed him canon of
Rouen.[2227]

[Footnote 2227: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Paris._, vol. v, p.
919. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27-30.]

Maître Jean's first question to Jeanne was what was her age when she
left her father's house. She was unable to say, although on the
previous day she had stated her present age to be about nineteen.[2228]

[Footnote 2228: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 51.]

Interrogated as to the occupations of her childhood, she replied that
she was busy with household duties and seldom went into the fields
with the cattle.

"For spinning and sewing," she said, "I am as good as any woman in
Rouen."[2229]

[Footnote 2229: _Ibid._]

Thus even in things domestic she displayed her ardour and her
chivalrous zeal; at the spinning-wheel and with the needle she
challenged all the women in a town, without knowing one of them.

Questioned as to her confessions and her communions, she answered that
she confessed to her parish priest or to another priest when the
former was not able to hear her. But she refused to say whether she
had received the communion on other feast-days than Easter.[2230]

[Footnote 2230: _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52.]

In order to take her unawares, Maître Jean Beaupère proceeded without
method, passing abruptly from one subject to another. Suddenly he
spoke of her Voices. She gave him the following reply:

"Being thirteen years of age, I heard the Voice of God, bidding me
lead a good life. And the first time I was sore afeard. And the Voice
came almost at the hour of noon, in summer, in my father's garden...."

She heard the Voice on the right towards the church. Rarely did she
hear it without seeing a light. This light was in the direction whence
the Voice came.[2231]

[Footnote 2231: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52.]

When Jeanne said that her Voice spoke to her from the right, a doctor
more learned and more kindly disposed than Maître Jean would have
interpreted this circumstance favourably; for do we not read in
Ezekiel that the angels were upon the right hand of the dwelling; do
we not find in the last chapter of Saint Mark, that the women beheld
the Angel seated on the right, and finally does not Saint Luke
expressly state that the Angel appeared unto Zacharias on the right of
the altar burning with incense; whereupon the Venerable Bede observes:
"he appeared on the right as a sign that he was the bringer of divine
mercy."[2232] But such things never occurred to the examiner. Thinking
to embarrass Jeanne, he asked how she came to see the light if it
appeared at her side.[2233] Jeanne made no reply, and as if distraught,
she said:

"If I were in a wood I should easily hear the Voices coming towards
me.... It seems to me to be a Voice right worthy. I believe that this
Voice was sent to me by God. After having heard it three times I knew
it to be the voice of an angel."

[Footnote 2232: Bréhal, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne
d'Arc_, ed. Lanéry d'Arc, p. 409.]

[Footnote 2233: See Appendix I, Letter from Doctor G. Dumas.]

"What instruction did this Voice give you for the salvation of your
soul?"

"It taught me to live well, to go to church, and it told me to fare
forth into France."[2234]

[Footnote 2234: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52.]

Then Jeanne related how, by the command of her Voice, she had gone to
Vaucouleurs, to Sire Robert de Baudricourt, whom she had recognised
without ever having seen him before, how the Duke of Lorraine had
summoned her to cure him, and how she had come into France.[2235]

[Footnote 2235: _Ibid._, pp. 53, 54.]

Thereafter she was brought to say that she knew well that God loved
the Duke of Orléans and that concerning him she had had more
revelations than concerning any man living, save the King; that she
had been obliged to change her woman's dress for man's attire and that
her _Council_ had advised her well.[2236]

[Footnote 2236: _Ibid._, p. 54.]

The letter to the English was read before her. She admitted having
dictated it in those terms, with the exception of three passages. She
had not said _body for body_ nor _chieftain of war_; and she had said
_surrender to the King_ in the place _of surrender to the Maid_. That
the judges had not tampered with the text of the letter we may assure
ourselves by comparing it with other texts, which did not pass through
their hands, and which contain the expressions challenged by
Jeanne.[2237]

[Footnote 2237: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 56; vol. v, p. 95.]

In the beginning of her career, she believed that Our Lord, the true
King of France, had ordained her to deliver the government of the
realm to Charles of Valois, as His deputy. The words in which she gave
utterance to this idea are reported by too many persons strangers one
to another for us to doubt her having spoken them. "The King shall
hold the kingdom as a fief (_en commande_); the King of France is the
lieutenant of the King of Heaven." These are her own words and she did
actually say to the Dauphin: "Make a gift of your realm to the King of
Heaven."[2238] But we are bound to admit that at Rouen not one of these
mystic ideas persists, indeed there they seem altogether beyond her.
In all her replies to her examiners, she seems incapable of any
abstract reasoning whatsoever and of any speculation however simple,
so that it is hard to understand how she should ever have conceived
the idea of the temporal rule of Jesus Christ over the Land of the
Lilies. There is nothing in her speech or in her thoughts to suggest
such meditations, wherefore we are led to believe that this
politico-theology had been taught her in her tender, teachable years
by ecclesiastics desiring to remove the woes of Church and kingdom,
but that she had failed to seize its spirit or grasp its inner
meaning. Now, in the midst of a hard life lived with men-at-arms,
whose simple souls accorded better with her own than the more
cultivated minds of the early directors of her meditations, she had
forgotten even the phraseology in which those suggested meditations
were expressed. Interrogated concerning her coming to Chinon, she
replied:

"Without let or hindrance I went to my King. When I reached the town
of Sainte-Catherine de Fierbois, I sent first to the town of
Château-Chinon, where my King was. I arrived there about the hour of
noon and lodged in an inn, and, after dinner, I went to my King who
was in his castle."

[Footnote 2238: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 456; vol. iii, pp. 91, 92.
Morosini, vol. iii, p. 104. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 152, 153. J.
Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 131-133. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie
Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iv, p. 440, ch. i, _La royauté de Jésus Christ_.]

If we may believe the registrars, they never ceased wondering at her
memory. They were amazed that she should recollect exactly what she
had said a week before.[2239] Nevertheless her memory was sometimes
curiously uncertain, and we have reason for thinking with the Bastard
that she waited two days at the inn before being received by the
King.[2240]

[Footnote 2239: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 89, 142, 161, 176, 178, 201.]

[Footnote 2240: _Ibid._, p. 4.]

With regard to this audience in the castle of Chinon, she told her
judges she had recognised the King as she had recognised the Sire de
Baudricourt, by revelation.[2241]

[Footnote 2241: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 56.]

The interrogator asked her: "When the Voice revealed your King to you,
was there any light?"[2242]

[Footnote 2242: _Ibid._, p. 56.]

This question bore upon matters which were of great moment to her
judges; for they suspected the Maid of having committed a sacrilegious
fraud, or rather witchcraft, with the complicity of the King of
France. Indeed, they had learnt from their informers that Jeanne
boasted of having given the King a sign in the form of a precious
crown.[2243] The following is the actual truth of the matter:

[Footnote 2243: We find it impossible to agree with Quicherat (_Aperçus
nouveaux_) and admit that Jeanne gradually invented the fable of the
crown during her examination and while her judges were questioning her
as to "the sign." The manner in which the judges conducted this part
of their examination proves that they were acquainted with the whole
of the extraordinary story.]

The legend of Saint Catherine relates that on a day she received from
the hand of an angel a resplendent crown and placed it on the head of
the Empress of the Romans. This crown was the symbol of eternal
blessedness.[2244] Jeanne, who had been brought up on this legend,
said that the same thing had happened to her. In France she had told
sundry marvellous stories of crowns, and in one of these stories she
imagined herself to be in the great hall of the castle at Chinon, in
the midst of the barons, receiving a crown from the hand of an angel
to give it to her King.[2245] This was true in a spiritual sense, for
she had taken Charles to his anointing and to his coronation. Jeanne
was not quick to grasp the distinction between two kinds of truth. She
may, nevertheless, have doubted the material reality of this vision.
She may even have held it to be true in a spiritual sense only. In any
case, she had of her own accord promised Saint Catherine and Saint
Margaret not to speak of it to her judges.[2246]

[Footnote 2244: _Legenda Aurea_, ed. 1846, pp. 789 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2245: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 120-122.]

[Footnote 2246: _Ibid._, p. 90.]

"Saw you any angel above the King?"

She refused to reply.[2247]

[Footnote 2247: _Ibid._, p. 56.]

This time nothing more was said of the crown. Maître Jean Beaupère
asked Jeanne if she often heard the Voice.

"Not a day passes without my hearing it. And it is my stay in great
need."[2248]

[Footnote 2248: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 57.]

She never spoke of her Voices without describing them as her refuge
and relief, her consolation and her joy. Now all theologians agreed in
believing that good spirits when they depart leave the soul filled
with joy, with peace, and with comfort, and as proof they cited the
angel's words to Zacharias and Mary: "Be not afraid."[2249] This
reason, however, was not strong enough to persuade clerks of the
English party that Voices hostile to the English were of God.

[Footnote 2249: Jean Bréhal, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, ed. Lanéry d'Arc, p. 409.]

And the Maid added: "Never have I required of them any other final
reward than the salvation of my soul."[2250]

[Footnote 2250: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 57.]

The examination ended with a capital charge: the attack on Paris on a
feast day. It was in this connection possibly that Brother Jacques of
Touraine, a friar of the Franciscan order, who from time to time put a
question, asked Jeanne whether she had ever been in a place where
Englishmen were being slain.

"In God's name, was I ever in such a place?" Jeanne responded
vehemently. "How glibly you speak. Why did they not depart from France
and go into their own country?"

A nobleman of England, who was in the chamber, on hearing these words,
said to his neighbours: "By my troth she is a good woman. Why is she
not English?"[2251]

[Footnote 2251: _Ibid._, p. 48.]

The third public sitting was appointed for two days thence, Saturday,
the 24th of February.[2252]

[Footnote 2252: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 57.]

It was Lent. Jeanne observed the fast very strictly.[2253]

[Footnote 2253: _Ibid._, pp. 61, 70.]

On Friday, the 23rd, in the morning, she was awakened by her Voices
themselves. She arose from her bed and remained seated, her hands
clasped, giving thanks. Then she asked what she should reply to her
judges, beseeching the Voices thereupon to take counsel of Our Lord.
First the Voices uttered words she could not understand. That happened
sometimes, in difficult circumstances especially. Then they
said:[2254] "Reply boldly, God will aid thee."

[Footnote 2254: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 62.]

That day she heard them a second time at the hour of vespers and a
third time when the bells were ringing the _Ave Maria_ in the evening.
In the night of Friday and Saturday they came and revealed to her many
secrets for the weal of the King of France. Thereupon she received
great consolation.[2255] Very probably they repeated the assurance that
she would be delivered from the hands of her enemies, and that on the
other hand her judges stood in great danger.

[Footnote 2255: _Ibid._, pp. 61-64.]

She depended absolutely on her Voices for direction. When she was in
difficulty as to what to say to her judges, she prayed to Our Lord;
she addressed him devoutly, saying: "Good God, for the sake of thy
holy Passion, I beseech thee if thou lovest me to reveal unto me what
I should reply to these churchmen. Touching my dress I know well how I
was commanded to put it on; but as to leaving it I know nothing. In
this may it please thee to teach me."

Then straightway the Voices came.[2256]

[Footnote 2256: _Ibid._, p. 279.]

At the third sitting, held in the Robing Chamber, there were present
sixty-two assessors, of whom twenty were new.[2257]

[Footnote 2257: _Ibid._, pp. 58-60.]

Jeanne showed a greater repugnance than before to swearing on the holy
Gospels to reply to all that should be asked her. In charity the
Bishop warned her that this obstinate refusal caused her to be
suspected, and he required her to swear, under pain of being convicted
upon all the charges.[2258] Such was indeed the rule in a trial by the
Inquisition. In 1310 a _béguine_, one La Porète, refused to take the
oath as required by the Holy Inquisitor of the Faith, Brother
Guillaume of Paris. She was excommunicated forthwith, and without
being further examined, after lengthy proceedings, she was handed over
to the Provost of Paris, who caused her to be burned alive. Her piety
at the stake drew tears from all the bystanders.[2259]

[Footnote 2258: _Ibid._, pp. 60, 61.]

[Footnote 2259: _Grandes chroniques_, ed. P. Paris, vol. v, p. 188.]

Still the Bishop failed to force an unconditional oath from the Maid;
she swore to tell the truth on all she knew concerning the trial,
reserving to herself the right to be silent on everything which in her
opinion did not concern it. She spoke freely of the Voices she had
heard the previous day, but not of the revelations touching the King.
When, however, Maître Jean Beaupère appeared desirous to know them,
she asked for a fortnight's delay before replying, sure that before
then she would be delivered; and straightway she fell to boasting of
the secrets her Voices had confided to her for the King's weal.

"I would wish him to know them at this moment," she said; "even if as
the result I were to drink no wine from now till Easter."[2260]

[Footnote 2260: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 64.]

"Drink no wine from now till Easter!" Did she thus casually use an
expression common in that land of the rose-tinted wine (_vin gris_), a
drop or two of which with a slice of bread sufficed the Domremy women
for a meal?[2261] Or had she caught this manner of speech with the
habit of dealing hard clouts and good blows from the men-at-arms of
her company? Alas! what hypocras was she to drink during the five
weeks before Easter! She was merely making use of a current phrase, as
was frequently her custom, and attributing no precise meaning to it,
unless it were that wine vaguely suggested to her mind the idea of
cordiality and the hope that after her deliverance she would see the
Lords of France filling a cup in her honour.

[Footnote 2261: E. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 37, 177.]

Maître Jean Beaupère asked her whether she saw anything when she heard
her Voices.

She replied: "I cannot tell you everything. I am not permitted. The
Voice is good and worthy.... To this question I am not bound to
reply."

And she asked them to give her in writing the points concerning which
she had not given an immediate reply.[2262]

[Footnote 2262: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 64, 65.]

What use did she intend to make of this writing? She did not know how
to read; she had no counsel. Did she want to show the document to some
false friend, like Loiseleur, who was deceiving her? Or was it her
intent to present it to her saints?

Maître Beaupère asked whether her Voice had a face and eyes.

She refused to answer and quoted a saying frequently on the lips of
children: "One is often hanged for having spoken the truth."[2263]

[Footnote 2263: _Ibid._, p. 65. "_Souvent on est blâmé de trop
parler_," a proverb common in the 15th century. Cf. Le Roux de Lincy,
_Les proverbes français_, vol. ii, p. 417.]

Maître Beaupère asked: "Do you know whether you stand in God's grace?"

This was an extremely insidious question; it placed Jeanne in the
dilemma of having to avow herself sinful or of appearing unpardonably
bold. One of the assessors, Maître Jean Lefèvre of the Order of the
Hermit Friars, observed that she was not bound to reply. There was
murmuring throughout the chamber.

But Jeanne said: "If I be not, then may God bring me into it; if I be,
then may God keep me in it."[2264]

[Footnote 2264: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 65.]

The assessors were astonished at so ready an answer. And yet no
improvement ensued in their disposition towards her. They admitted
that touching her King she spoke well, but for the rest she was too
subtle, and with a subtlety peculiar to women.[2265]

[Footnote 2265: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 21, 358.]

Thereafter, Maître Jean Beaupère examined Jeanne concerning her
childhood in her village. He essayed to show that she had been cruel,
had displayed a homicidal tendency from her earliest years, and had
been addicted to those idolatrous practices which had given the folk
of Domremy a bad name.[2266]

[Footnote 2266: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 65-68.]

Then he touched on a point of prime importance in elucidating the
obscure origin of Jeanne's mission:

"Were you not regarded as the one who was sent from the Oak Wood?"

In this direction he might have succeeded in obtaining important
revelations. False prophecies had indeed established Jeanne's
reputation in France; but these clerks were incapable of
discriminating amongst all these pseudo-Bedes and pseudo-Merlins.[2267]

[Footnote 2267: _Ibid._, p. 68.]

Jeanne replied: "When I came to the King, certain asked me whether
there were in my country a wood called the Oak Wood; because of
prophecies saying that from the neighbourhood of this wood should
come a damsel who would work wonders. But to such things I paid no
heed."

This statement we must needs believe; but if she denied credence to
the prophecy of Merlin touching the Virgin of the Oak Wood, she paid
good heed to the prophecy foretelling the appearance of a Deliverer in
the person of a Maid coming from the Lorraine Marches, since she
repeated that prophecy to the two Leroyers and to her Uncle Lassois,
with an emphasis which filled them with astonishment. Now we must
admit that the two prophecies are as alike as two peas.[2268]

[Footnote 2268: The French expression runs, "_se resemblent comme deux
soeurs_."]

Passing abruptly from Merlin the Magician, Maître Jean Beaupère asked:
"Jeanne, will you have a woman's dress?"

She answered: "Give me one; and I will accept it and depart. Otherwise
I will not have it. I will be content with this one, since God is
pleased for me to wear it."

On this reply, which contained two errors tending to heresy, the Lord
Bishop adjourned the court.[2269]

[Footnote 2269: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 68.]

The morrow, the 25th of February, was the first Sunday in Lent. On
that day or another, but probably on that day, my Lord Bishop sent
Jeanne a shad. Having partaken of this fish she had fever and was
seized with vomiting.[2270] Two masters of arts of the Paris
University, both doctors of medicine, Jean Tiphaine and Guillaume
Delachambre, assessors in the trial, were summoned by the Earl of
Warwick, who said to them:

"According to what has been told me, Jeanne is sick. I have summoned
you to devise measures for her recovery. The King would not for the
world have her die a natural death. She is dear to him, for he has
bought her dearly; his intent is that she die not, save by the hand of
justice, and that she should be burned. Do all that may be necessary,
therefore, visit her attentively, and endeavour to restore her."[2271]

[Footnote 2270: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 48, 49.]

[Footnote 2271: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 51.]

Conducted to Jeanne by Maître Jean d'Estivet, the doctors inquired of
her the cause of her suffering.

She answered that she had eaten a carp sent her by the Lord Bishop of
Beauvais, and that she believed it to be the cause of her sickness.

Did Jeanne suspect the Bishop of designing to poison her? That is what
Maître Jean d'Estivet thought, for he flew into a violent rage:

"Whore!" he cried, "it is thine own doing; thou hast eaten herrings
and other things which have made thee ill."

"I have not," she answered.

They exchanged insults, and Jeanne's sickness thereupon grew
worse.[2272]

[Footnote 2272: _Ibid._, p. 49.]

The doctors examined her and found that she had fever. Wherefore they
decided to bleed her.

They informed the Earl of Warwick, who became anxious:

"A bleeding!" he cried; "take heed! She is artful and might kill
herself."

Nevertheless Jeanne was bled and recovered.[2273]

[Footnote 2273: _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52.]

On Monday, the 26th, there was no examination.[2274] On the opening of
the fourth sitting, Tuesday, the 27th, Maître Jean Beaupère asked her
how she had been, which inquiry touched her but little. She replied
drily:

"You can see for yourself. I am as well as it is possible for me to
be."[2275]

[Footnote 2274: What induces me to fix this illness on the 25th of
February is Jean Beaupère's question at the sitting of the 27th, "How
have you been?" and Jeanne's ironical reply. This indisposition must
not be confused, as it generally has been, with Jeanne's serious
illness, which occurred after Easter. The shad and the herrings belong
naturally to Lent; and Maître Delachambre says explicitly that Jeanne
recovered after the bleeding.]

[Footnote 2275: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 70.]

This sitting was held in the Robing Chamber in the presence of
fifty-four assessors.[2276] Five of them had not been present before,
and among them was Maître Nicolas Loiseleur, canon of Rouen, whose
share in the proceedings had been to act the Lorraine shoemaker and
Saint Catherine of Alexandria.[2277]

[Footnote 2276: _Ibid._, pp. 68, 69.]

[Footnote 2277: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 332, 362; vol. iii, pp. 60, 133,
141, 156, 162, 173, 181.]

Maître Jean Beaupère, as on the previous Saturday, was curious to know
whether Jeanne had heard her Voices. She heard them every day.[2278]

[Footnote 2278: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 70.]

He asked her: "Is it an angel's voice that speaketh unto you, or the
voice of a woman saint or of a man saint? Or is it God speaking
without an interpreter?"

Said Jeanne: "This voice is the voice of Saint Catherine and of Saint
Margaret; and on their heads are beautiful crowns, right rich and
right precious. I am permitted to tell you so by Messire. If you doubt
it send to Poitiers, where I was examined."[2279]

[Footnote 2279: _Ibid._, p. 71.]

She was right in appealing to the clerks of France. The Armagnac
doctors had no less authority in matters of faith than the English
and Burgundian doctors. Were they not all to meet at the Council?

The examiner asked: "How know ye that they are these two saints? Know
ye them one from another?"

Said Jeanne: "Well do I know who they are; and I do know one from the
other."

"How?"

"By the greeting they give me."[2280]

[Footnote 2280: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]

Let not Jeanne be hastily taxed with error or untruth. Did not the
Angel salute Gideon (Judges vi), and Raphaël salute Tobias (Tobit
xii)?[2281]

[Footnote 2281: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 406.]

Thereafter Jeanne gave another reason: "I know them because they call
themselves by name."[2282]

[Footnote 2282: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]

When she was asked whether her saints were both clothed alike, whether
they were of the same age, whether they spoke at once, whether one of
them appeared before the other, she refused to reply, saying she had
not permission to do so.[2283]

[Footnote 2283: _Ibid._, pp. 72, 73.]

Maître Jean Beaupère inquired which of the apparitions came to her the
first when she was about thirteen.

Jeanne said: "It was Saint Michael. I beheld him with my eyes. And he
was not alone, but with him were angels from heaven. It was by
Messire's command alone that I came into France."

"Did you actually behold Saint Michael and these angels in the body?"

"I saw them with the eyes of my head as plainly as I see you; and when
they went away I wept and should have liked them to take me with
them."

"In what semblance was Saint Michael?"[2284]

[Footnote 2284: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 73.]

She was not permitted to say.

She was asked whether she had received permission from God to go into
France and whether God had commanded her to put on man's dress.

By keeping silence on this point she became liable to be suspected of
heresy, and however she replied she laid herself open to serious
charges,--she either took upon herself homicide and abomination, or
she attributed it to God, which manifestly was to blaspheme.

Concerning her coming into France, she said: "I would rather have been
dragged by the hair of my head than have come into France without
permission from Messire." Concerning her dress she added: "Dress is
but a little thing, less than nothing. It was not according to the
counsel of any man of this world that I put on man's clothing. I
neither wore this attire nor did anything save by the command of
Messire and his angels."[2285]

[Footnote 2285: _Ibid._, pp. 74, 75.]

Maître Jean Beaupère asked: "When you behold this Voice coming towards
you, is there any light?"

Then she replied with a jest, as at Poitiers: "Every light cometh not
to you, my fair lord."[2286]

[Footnote 2286: _Ibid._, p. 75. I have re-inserted "my fine lord"
according to _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 80.]

After all it was virtually against the King of France that these
doctors of Rouen were proceeding with craft and with cunning.

Maître Jean Beaupère threw out the question: "How did your King come
to have faith in your sayings?"

"Because they were proved good to him by signs and also because of his
clerks."

"What revelations were made unto your King?"

"That you will not hear from me this year."

As he listened to the damsel's words, must not my Lord of Beauvais,
who was in the counsels of King Henry, have reflected on that verse in
the Book of Tobias (xii, 7): "It is good to keep close the secret of a
king"?

Thereafter Jeanne was called upon to reply at length concerning the
sword of Saint Catherine. The clerks suspected her of having found it
by the art of divination, and by invoking the aid of demons, and of
having cast a spell over it. All that she was able to say did not
remove their suspicions.[2287]

[Footnote 2287: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 75-77.]

Then they passed on to the sword she had captured from a Burgundian.

"I wore it at Compiègne," she said, "because it was good for dealing
sound clouts and good buffets."[2288] The buffet was a flat blow, the
clout was a side stroke. Some moments later, on the subject of her
banner, she said that, in order to avoid killing any one, she bore it
herself when they charged the enemy. And she added: "I have never
slain any one."[2289]

[Footnote 2288: _Ibid._, pp. 77, 78.]

[Footnote 2289: _Ibid._, p. 78.]

The doctors found that her replies varied.[2290] Of course they varied.
But if like her every hour of the day and night the doctors had been
seeing the heavens descending, if all their thoughts, all their
instincts, good and bad, all their desires barely formulated, had
been undergoing instant transformation into divine commands, their
replies would likewise have varied, and they would have doubtless been
in such a state of illusion that in their words and in their actions
they would have displayed less good sense, less gentleness and less
courage.

[Footnote 2290: _Ibid._, p. 34; vol. ii, p. 318.]

The examinations were long; they lasted between three and four
hours.[2291] Before closing this one, Maître Jean Beaupère wished to
know whether Jeanne had been wounded at Orléans. This was an
interesting point. It was generally admitted that witches lost their
power when they shed blood. Finally, the doctors quibbled over the
capitulation of Jargeau, and the court adjourned.[2292]

[Footnote 2291: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 350, 365.]

[Footnote 2292: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 79, 80.]

A famous Norman clerk, Maître Jean Lohier, having come to Rouen, the Count
Bishop of Beauvais commanded that he should be informed concerning the
trial. On the first Saturday in Lent, the 24th of February, the Bishop
summoned him to his house near Saint-Nicolas-le-Painteur, and invited
him to give his opinion of the proceedings. The views of Maître Jean
Lohier greatly disturbed the Bishop. Off he rushed to the doctors and
masters, Jean Beaupère, Jacques de Touraine, Nicolas Midi, Pierre
Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, Nicolas Loiseleur, and said to them:

"Here's Lohier, who holds fine views concerning our trial! He wants to
object to everything, and says that our proceedings are invalid. If we
were to take his advice we should begin everything over again, and all
we have done would be worthless! It is easy to see what he is aiming
at. By Saint John, we will do nothing of the kind; we will go on with
our trial now it is begun."

The next day, in the Church of Notre Dame, Guillaume Manchon met
Maître Jean Lohier and asked him:

"Have you seen anything of the records of the trial?"

"I have," replied Maître Jean. "This trial is void. It is impossible
to support it on many grounds: firstly, it is not in regular
form."[2293]

[Footnote 2293: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 11, 341.]

By that he meant that proceedings should not have been taken against
Jeanne without preliminary inquiries concerning the probability of her
guilt; either he did not know of the inquiries instituted by my Lord
of Beauvais, or he deemed them insufficient.[2294]

[Footnote 2294: See the evidence of Thomas de Courcelles in _Trial_,
vol. iii, p. 38.]

"Secondly," continued Maître Jean Lohier, "the judges and assessors
when they are trying this case are shut up in the castle, where they
are not free to utter their opinions frankly. Thirdly, the trial
involves divers persons who are not called, notably it touches the
reputation of the King of France, to whose party Jeanne belonged, yet
neither he nor his representative is cited. Fourthly, neither
documents nor definite written charges have been produced, wherefore
this woman, this simple girl, is left to reply without guidance to so
many masters, to such great doctors and on such grave matters,
especially those concerning her revelations. For all these reasons the
trial appears to me to be invalid." Then he added: "You see how they
proceed. They will catch her if they can in her words. They take
advantage of the statements in which she says, 'I know for certain,'
concerning her apparitions. But if she were to say, 'It seems to me,'
instead of 'I know for certain,' it is my opinion that no man could
convict her. I perceive that the dominant sentiment which actuates
them is one of hatred. Their intention is to bring her to her death.
Wherefore I shall stay here no longer. I cannot witness it. What I say
gives offence."[2295]

[Footnote 2295: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 12, 300, 341; vol. iii, p. 138.]

That same day Maître Jean left Rouen.[2296]

[Footnote 2296: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 12, 203, 252, 300; vol. iii, pp.
50, 138.]

A somewhat similar incident occurred with regard to Maître Nicolas de
Houppeville, a famous cleric. In conference with certain churchmen, he
expressed the opinion that to appoint as Jeanne's judges members of
the party hostile to her was not a correct method of procedure; and he
added that Jeanne had already been examined by the clerks of Poitiers
and by the Archbishop of Reims, the metropolitan of this very Bishop
of Beauvais. Hearing of this expression of opinion, my Lord of
Beauvais flew into a violent rage, and summoned Maître Nicolas to
appear before him. The latter replied that the Official of Rouen was
his superior, and that the Bishop of Beauvais was not his judge. If it
be true, as is related, that Maître Nicolas was thereafter cast into
the King's prison, it was doubtless for a reason more strictly
judicial than that of having offended the Lord Bishop of Beauvais. It
is more probable, however, that this famous cleric did not wish to act
as assessor, and that he left Rouen in order to avoid being summoned
to take part in the trial.[2297]

[Footnote 2297: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 252, 326, 354, 356; vol. iii, pp.
171, 172.]

Certain ecclesiastics, among others Maître Jean Pigache, Maître Pierre
Minier, and Maître Richard de Grouchet, discovered long afterwards
that being threatened they had given their opinions under the
influence of fear. "We were present at that trial," they said, "but
throughout the proceedings we were always contemplating flight."[2298]
As a matter of fact, no violence was done to any man's opinions, and
such as refused to attend the trial were in no way molested. Threats!
But why should there be any? Was it difficult to convict a witch in
those days? Jeanne was no witch. But, then, neither were the others.
Still, between Jeanne and the other alleged witches there was this
difference, that Jeanne had cast her spells in favour of the
Armagnacs, and to convict her was to render a service to the English,
who were the masters. This was a point to be taken into consideration;
but there was something else which ought also to be borne in mind by
thoughtful folk: such a conviction would at the same time offend the
French, who were in a fair way to become the masters once more in the
place of the English. These matters were very perplexing to the
doctors; but the second consideration had less weight with them than
the first; they had no idea that the French were so near reconquering
Normandy.

[Footnote 2298: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 356, 359.]

The fifth session of the court took place in the usual chamber on the
1st of March, in the presence of fifty-eight assessors, of whom nine
had not sat previously.[2299]

[Footnote 2299: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 80, 81.]

The first question the examiner put Jeanne was:

"What say you of our Lord the Pope, and whom think you to be the true
pope?"

She adroitly made answer by asking another question: "Are there
two?"[2300]

[Footnote 2300: _Ibid._, p. 82.]

No, there were not two; Clement VIII's abdication had put an end to
the schism; the great rift in the Church had been closed for thirteen
years and all Christian nations recognized the Pope of Rome; even
France who had become resigned to the disappearance of her Avignon
popes. There was something, however, which neither the accused nor her
judges knew; on that 1st of March, 1431, far from there being two
popes, there was not even one; the Holy See had fallen vacant by the
death of Martin V on the 20th of February, and the vacancy was only to
be filled on the 3rd of March, by the election of Eugenius IV.[2301]

[Footnote 2301: _Analecta juris Pontif._, vol. xiv, p. 117.]

The examiner in questioning Jeanne concerning the Holy See was not
without a motive. That motive became obvious when he asked her whether
she had not received a letter from the Count of Armagnac. She admitted
having received the letter and having replied to it.

Copies of these two letters were included in the evidence to be used
at the trial. They were read to Jeanne.

It appeared that the Count of Armagnac had asked the Maid by letter
which of the three popes was the true one, and that Jeanne had replied
to him, likewise by letter, that for the moment she had not time to
answer, but that she would do so at her leisure when she should come
to Paris.

Having heard these two letters read, Jeanne declared that the one
attributed to her was only partially hers. And since she always
dictated and could never read what had been taken down, it is
conceivable that hasty words, uttered with her foot in the stirrup,
may not have been accurately transcribed; but in a series of involved
and contradictory replies she was unable to demonstrate how that which
she had dictated differed from the written text;[2302] and in itself
the letter appears much more likely to have proceeded from an ignorant
visionary than from a clerk who would have some knowledge, however
little, of church affairs.

[Footnote 2302: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 82, 84.]

It contains certain words and turns of expression which are to be
found in Jeanne's other letters. There can hardly be any doubt that
this letter is by her; she had forgotten it. There is nothing
surprising in that; her memory, as we have seen, was curiously liable
to fail her.[2303]

[Footnote 2303: The expression, "_À Dieu vous recommande, Dieu soit
garde de vous_," occurs in the letters to the people of Tournai, to
those of Troyes and of Reims, and in the letter to the Duke of
Burgundy. And what is still more significant, in two of these letters,
one to the people of Troyes, the other to the Duke of Burgundy, are
the words: "_Le Roi du ciel, mon droiturier et souverain seigneur_."
_Trial_, vol. i, p. 246.]

On this document the judges based the most serious of charges; they
regarded it as furnishing proof of a most blamable temerity. What
arrogance on the part of this woman, so it seemed to them, to claim to
have been told by God himself that which the Church alone is entitled
to teach! And to undertake by means of an inner illumination to point
out the true pope, was that not to commit grave sin against the Bride
of Christ, and with sacrilegious hand to rend the seamless robe of our
Lord?

For once Jeanne saw clearly how her judges were endeavouring to entrap
her, wherefore she twice declared her belief in the Sovereign Pontiff
of Rome.[2304] How bitterly she would have smiled had she known that
the lights of the University of Paris, these famous doctors who held
it mortal sin to believe in the wrong pope, themselves believed in his
Holiness about as much as they disbelieved in him; that at that very
time certain of their number, Maître Thomas de Courcelles, so great a
doctor, Maître Jean Beaupère, the examiner, Maître Nicolas Loiseleur,
who acted the part of Saint Catherine, were hastening to despatch her,
in order that they might bestride their mules and amble away to Bâle,
there in the Synagogue of Satan to hurl thunderbolts against the Holy
Apostolic See, and diabolically to decree the subjection of the Pope
to the Council, the confiscation of his annates, dearer to him than
the apple of his eye, and finally his own deposition.[2305] Now would
have been the time for her to have cried, with the voice of a simple
soul, to the priests so keen to avenge upon her the Church's honour:
"I am more of a Catholic than you!" And the words in her mouth would
have been even more appropriate than on the lips of the Limousin clerk
of old. Yet we must not reproach these clerics for having been good
Gallicans at Bâle, but rather for having been cruel and hypocritical
at Rouen.

[Footnote 2304: _Ibid._, pp. 82, 83.]

[Footnote 2305: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 27, 32, 75,
82.]

In her prison the Maid prophesied before her guard, John Grey.
Informed of these prophecies, the judges wished to hear them from
Jeanne's own mouth.

"Before seven years have passed," she said to them, "the English shall
lose a greater wager than any they lost at Orléans. They shall lose
everything in France. They shall suffer greater loss than ever they
have suffered in France, and that shall come to pass because God shall
vouchsafe unto the French great victory."

"How do you know this?"

"I know it by revelation made unto me and that this shall befall
within seven years. And greatly should I sorrow were it further
delayed. I know it by revelation as surely as I know that you are
before my eyes at this moment."

"When shall this come to pass?"

"I know neither the day nor the hour."

"But the year?"

"That ye shall not know for the present. But I should wish it to be
before Saint John's Day."

"Did you not say that it should come to pass before Saint Martin in
the winter?"

"I said that before Saint Martin in the winter many things should
befall and it might be that the English would be discomfited."

Whereupon the examiner asked Jeanne whether when Saint Michael came to
her he was accompanied by Saint Gabriel.

Jeanne replied: "I do not remember."[2306]

[Footnote 2306: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 84, 85.]

She did not remember whether, in the multitude of angels who visited
her, was the Angel Gabriel who had saluted Our Lady and announced unto
her the salvation of mankind. So many angels and archangels had she
seen that this one had not particularly impressed her.

After an answer of such perfect simplicity how could these priests
proceed to question her on her visions? Were they not sufficiently
edified? But no! These innocent answers whetted the examiner's zeal.
With intense ardour and copious amplification, passing from angels to
saints, he multiplied petty and insidious questions. Did you see the
hair on their heads? Had they rings in their ears? Was there anything
between their crowns and their hair? Was their hair long and hanging?
Had they arms? How did they speak? What kind of voices had they?[2307]

[Footnote 2307: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

This last question touched on an important theological point. Demons,
whose voices are as rasping as a cart wheel or a winepress screw,
cannot imitate the sweet tones of saints.[2308]

[Footnote 2308: Le Loyer, iv, _Livres des Spectres_, Angers, 1605, in
4to.]

Jeanne replied that the Voice was beautiful, sweet, and soft, and
spoke in French.

Whereupon she was asked craftily wherefore Saint Margaret did not
speak English.

She replied: "How should she speak English, since she is not on the
side of the English?"[2309]

[Footnote 2309: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

Two hundred years before, a poet of Champagne had said that the French
language, which Our Lord created beautiful and graceful, was the
language of Paradise.

She was afterwards asked concerning her rings. This was a hard matter;
in those days there were many magic rings or rings bearing amulets.
They were fashioned by magicians under the influence of planets; and,
by means of wonder-working herbs and stones, these rings had spells
cast upon them and received miraculous virtues. Constellation rings
worked miracles. Jeanne, alas! had possessed but two poor rings, one
of brass, inscribed with the names Jésus and Marie, which she received
from her father and mother, the other her brother had given her. The
Bishop kept the latter; the other had been taken from her by the
Burgundians.[2310]

[Footnote 2310: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 87. Vallet de Viriville, _Les anneaux
de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de
France_, vol. xxx, 1868, pp. 82, 97.]

An attempt was made to incriminate her in a pact made with the Devil
near the Fairy Tree. She was not to be caught thus, but retorted by
prophesying her deliverance and the destruction of her enemies. "Those
who wish to banish me from this world may very likely leave it before
me.... I know that my King will win the realm of France."

She was asked what she had done with her mandrake. She said she had
never had one.[2311]

[Footnote 2311: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 86.]

Then the examiner appeared to be seized with curiosity concerning
Saint Michael. "Was he clothed?"

She replied: "Doubt ye that Messire lacks wherewithal to clothe
himself?"

"Had he hair?"

"Wherefore should he have cut it off?"

"Did he hold scales?"

"I don't know."[2312]

[Footnote 2312: _Ibid._, p. 89.]

Their object was to ascertain whether she saw Saint Michael as he was
represented in the churches, with scales for weighing souls.[2313]

[Footnote 2313: A. Maury, _Croyances et légendes du moyen âge_, pp. 171
_et seq._]

When she said that at the sight of the Archangel it seemed to her she
was not in a state of mortal sin, the examiner fell to arguing on the
subject of her conscience. She replied like a true Christian.[2314]
Then he returned to the miracle of the sign, which had not been
referred to since the first sitting, to the mystery of Chinon, to that
wondrous crown, which Jeanne, following Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
believed she had received from the hand of an angel. But she had
promised Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret to say nothing about it.

[Footnote 2314: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 90.]

"When you showed the King the sign was there any one with him?"

"I think there was no other person, albeit there were many folk not
far off."

"Did you see a crown on the King's head when you gave him this sign?"

"I cannot say without committing perjury."

"Had your King a crown at Reims?"

"My King, methinketh, took with pleasure the crown he found at Reims.
But afterwards a very rich crown was brought him. He did not wait for
it, because he wished to hurry on the ceremony according to the
request of the inhabitants of Reims who desired to rid their town of
the burden of men-at-arms. If he had waited he would have had a crown
a thousand times more rich."

"Have you seen that richer crown?"

"I cannot tell you without committing perjury. If I have not seen it I
have heard tell how rich and how magnificent it is."[2315]

[Footnote 2315: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 90, 91.]

Jeanne suffered intensely from being deprived of the sacraments. One
day when Messire Jean Massieu, performing the office of ecclesiastical
usher, was taking her before her judges, she asked him whether there
were not on the way some church or chapel in which was the body of Our
Lord Jesus Christ.[2316]

[Footnote 2316: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 16.]

Messire Jean Massieu, dean of Rouen, was a cleric of manners
dissolute; his inveterate lewdness had involved him in difficulties
with the Chapter and with the Official.[2317] He may have been neither
as brave nor as frank as he wished to make out, but he was not hard
or pitiless.

[Footnote 2317: De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès de
condamnation_, p. 115.]

He told his prisoner that there was a chapel on the way. And he
pointed out to her the chapel of the castle.

Then she besought him urgently to take her into the chapel in order
that she might worship Messire and pray.

Readily did Messire Jean Massieu consent; and he permitted her to
kneel before the sanctuary. Devoutly bending, Jeanne offered her
prayer.

The Lord Bishop, being informed of this incident, was highly
displeased. He instructed the Usher that in the future such devotions
must not be tolerated.

And the Promoter, Maître Jean d'Estivet, on his part, addressed many a
reprimand to Messire Jean Massieu.

"Rascal," he said, "what possesses thee to allow an excommunicated
whore to approach a church without permission? If ever thou doest the
like again I will imprison thee in that tower, where for a month thou
wilt see neither sun nor moon."

Messire Jean Massieu heeded not this threat. And the Promoter,
perceiving this, himself took up his post at the chapel door when
Jeanne went that way. Thus he prevented the hapless damsel from
engaging in her devotions.[2318]

[Footnote 2318: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 16.]

The sixth sitting was held in the same court as before, in the
presence of forty-one assessors, of whom six or seven were new, and
among them was Maître Guillaume Erart, doctor in theology.[2319]

[Footnote 2319: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 91, 92.]

In the beginning, the examiner asked Jeanne whether she had seen Saint
Michael and the saints, and whether she had seen anything but their
faces. He insisted: "You must say what you know."

"Rather than say all that I know, I would have my head cut off."[2320]

[Footnote 2320: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 93.]

They puzzled her with questions touching the nature of angelic bodies.
She was simple; with her own eyes she had seen Saint Michael; she said
so and could not say otherwise.

The examiner, now as always, informed of the words she had let fall in
prison, asked her whether she had heard her Voices.

"Yes, in good sooth. They told me that I should be delivered. But I
know neither the day nor the hour. And they told me to have good
courage, and to be of good cheer."[2321]

[Footnote 2321: _Ibid._, p. 94.]

Of all this the judges believed nothing, because demonologists teach
that witches lose their power when an officer of Holy Church lays
hands upon them.

The examiner recurred to her man's dress. Then he endeavoured to find
out whether she had cast spells over the banners of her companions in
arms.

He sought out by what secret power she led the soldiers.

This power she was willing to reveal: "I said to them: 'Go on boldly
against the English;' and at the same time I went myself."[2322]

[Footnote 2322: _Ibid._, pp. 95-97.]

In this examination, which was the most diffuse and the most captious
of all, the following curious question was put to the accused: "When
you were before Jargeau, what was it you were wearing behind your
helmet? Was there not something round?"[2323]

[Footnote 2323: _Ibid._, p. 99.]

At the siege of Jargeau she had been struck on the head by a huge
stone which had not hurt her; and this her own party deemed
miraculous.[2324] Did the judges of Rouen imagine that she wore a
golden halo, like the saints, and that this halo had protected her?

[Footnote 2324: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 301. _Journal du siège_,
pp. 98, 99.]

Later she was examined on a more ordinary subject, concerning a
picture in the house of her host at Orléans, representing three women:
Justice, Peace, Union.

Jeanne knew nothing about it;[2325] she was no connoisseur in tapestry
and in paintings, like the Duke of Bar and the Duke of Orléans;
neither were her judges, not on this occasion at any rate. And if they
were concerned about a picture in the house of Maître Boucher, it was
not so much on account of the painting as of the doctrine. These three
women that the wealthy Maître Boucher kept in his house were doubtless
nude. The painters of those days depicted on small panels allegories
and bathing scenes, and they painted nude women. Full foreheads, round
heads, golden hair, short figures of small build but with embonpoint,
their nudity minutely represented and but thinly veiled; many such
were produced in Flanders and in Italy. The illustrious masters, to
whom those pictures appeared corrupt and indecent, doubtless wished to
reproach Jeanne with having looked at them in the house of the
treasurer of the Duke of Orléans. It is not difficult to divine what
were the doctors' suspicions when they are found asking Jeanne whether
Saint Michael wore clothes, in what manner she greeted her saints, and
how she gave them her rings to touch.[2326]

[Footnote 2325: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 101.]

[Footnote 2326: _Ibid._, p. 89.]

They also wanted to make her admit that she had caused herself to be
honoured as a saint. She disconcerted them by the following reply:
"The poor folk came to me readily, because I did them no hurt, but
aided them to the best of my power."[2327]

[Footnote 2327: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102.]

Then the examination ranged over many and various subjects: Friar
Richard; the children Jeanne had held over the baptismal fonts; the
good wives of the town of Reims who touched rings with her; the
butterflies caught in a standard at Château Thierry.[2328]

[Footnote 2328: _Ibid._, p. 103.]

In this town, certain of the Maid's followers were said to have caught
butterflies in her standard. Now doctors in theology knew for a
certainty that necromancers sacrificed butterflies to the devil. A
century before, at Pamiers, the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition had
condemned the Carmelite Pierre Recordi, who was accused of having
celebrated such a sacrifice. He had killed a butterfly and the devil
had revealed his presence by a breath of wind.[2329] Jeanne's judges
may have wished to involve her in similar fashion, or their design may
have been quite different. In war a butterfly in the cap was a sign
either of unconditional surrender or of the possession of a safe
conduct.[2330] Were the judges accusing her or her followers of having
feigned to surrender in order treacherously to attack the enemy? They
were quite capable of making such a charge. However that may be, the
examiner passed on to inquire concerning a lost glove found by Jeanne
in the town of Reims.[2331] It was important to know whether it had
been discovered by magic art. Then the magistrate returned to several
of the capital charges of the trial: communion received in man's
dress; the hackney of the Bishop of Senlis, which Jeanne had taken,
thus committing a kind of sacrilege; the discoloured child she had
brought back to life at Lagny; Catherine de La Rochelle, who had
recently borne witness against her before the Official at Paris; the
siege of La Charité which she had been obliged to raise; the leap
which she had made in her despair from the keep of Beaurevoir, and,
finally, certain blasphemy she was falsely accused of having uttered
at Soissons concerning Captain Bournel.[2332]

[Footnote 2329: Lea (1906), vol. iii, p. 456.]

[Footnote 2330: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 237.]

[Footnote 2331: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 104.]

[Footnote 2332: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 111.]

Then the Lord Bishop declared the examination concluded. He added,
however, that should it appear expedient to interrogate Jeanne more
fully, certain doctors and masters would be appointed for that
purpose.[2333]

[Footnote 2333: _Ibid._, pp. 111, 112.]

Accordingly, on Saturday, March the 10th, Maître Jean de la Fontaine,
the Bishop's commissioner, went to the prison. He was accompanied by
Nicolas Midi, Gérard Feuillet, Jean Fécard, and Jean Massieu.[2334] The
first point touched upon at this inquiry was the sortie from
Compiègne. The priests took great pains to prove to Jeanne that her
Voices must be bad or that she must have failed to understand them
since her obedience to them had brought about her destruction. Jacques
Gélu[2335] and Jean Gerson had foreseen this dilemma and had met it in
anticipation with elaborate theological arguments.[2336] She was
examined concerning the paintings on her standard, and she replied:

"Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret bade me take the standard and bear
it boldly, and have painted upon it the King of Heaven. And this, much
against my will, I told to my King. Touching its meaning I know nought
else."[2337]

[Footnote 2334: _Ibid._, p. 113.]

[Footnote 2335: Gélu, _Questio quinta_, in _Mémoires et consultations
en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, ed. Lanéry d'Arc, pp. 593 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2336: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 299 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2337: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 117.]

They tried to make her out avaricious, proud, and ostentatious because
she possessed a shield and arms, a stable, chargers, demi-chargers,
and hackneys, and because she had money with which to pay her
household, some ten to twelve thousand livres.[2338] But the point on
which they questioned her most closely was the sign which had already
been twice discussed in the public examinations. On this subject the
doctors displayed an insatiable curiosity. For the sign was the exact
reverse of the coronation at Reims; it was an anointing, not with
divine unction but with magic charm, the crowning of the King of
France by a witch. Maître Jean de la Fontaine had this advantage over
Jeanne, he knew what she was going to say and what she wished to
conceal. "What is the sign that was given to your King?"

[Footnote 2338: _Ibid._, pp. 117, 119.]

"It is beautiful and honourable and very credible; it is the best and
the richest in the world...."

"Does it still last?"

"It is well to know that it lasts and will last for a thousand years.
My sign is in the King's treasury."

"Is it of gold or silver, or of precious stones, or is it a crown?"

"Nothing more will I tell unto you and no man can devise anything so
rich as is this sign. Nevertheless, the sign that you need is that God
should deliver me out of your hands and no surer sign can he send
you...."

"When the sign came to your King what reverence did you make to it?"

"I thanked Our Lord for having delivered me from the troubles caused
me by the clerks of our party, who were arguing against me. And I
knelt down several times. An angel from God and from none other gave
the sign to my King. And many times did I give thanks to Our Lord. The
clerks ceased to attack me when they had seen the said sign."[2339]

[Footnote 2339: On the contrary it was then that they began to argue
against her or that they began to argue most effectively. She seems to
forget that the interview at Chinon preceded the examination at
Poitiers. It is interesting to notice that Brother Pasquerel, who was
informed of these matters by her, makes the same error in his
evidence.]

"Did the churchmen of your party behold the sign?"

"When my King and such as were with him had seen the sign and also the
angel who gave it, I asked my King whether he were pleased, and he
replied that he was. Then I departed and went into a little chapel
near by. I have since heard that after my departure more than three
hundred persons saw the sign. For love of me and in order that I
should be questioned no further, God was pleased to permit this sign
to be seen by all those of my party who did see it."

"Did your King and you make any reverence to the angel when he brought
the sign?"

"Yes, for my part, I did. I knelt and took off my hood."[2340]

[Footnote 2340: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 120, 122.]




CHAPTER XII

THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (_continued_)


On Monday, the 12th of March, Brother Jean Lemaistre received from
Brother Jean Graverent, Inquisitor of France, an order to proceed
against and to pronounce the final sentence on a certain woman, named
Jeanne, commonly called the Maid.[2341] On that same day, in the
morning, Maître Jean de la Fontaine, in presence of the Bishop, for
the second time examined Jeanne in her prison.[2342]

[Footnote 2341: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 122-124.]

[Footnote 2342: _Ibid._, p. 125.]

He first returned to the sign. "Did not the angel who brought the sign
speak?"

"Yes, he told my King that he must set me to work in order that the
country might soon be relieved."

"Was the angel, who brought the sign, the angel who first appeared
unto you or another?"

"It was always the same and never did he fail me."

"But inasmuch as you have been taken hath not the angel failed you
with regard to the good things of this life?"

"Since it is Our Lord's good pleasure, I believe it was best for me to
be taken."

"In the good things of grace hath not your angel failed you?"

"How can he have failed me when he comforteth me every day?"[2343]

[Footnote 2343: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 126.]

Maître Jean de la Fontaine then put her a subtle question and one as
nearly approaching humour as was permissible in an ecclesiastical
trial.

"Did Saint Denys ever appear to you?"[2344]

[Footnote 2344: _Ibid._]

Saint Denys, patron of the most Christian kings, Saint Denys, the war
cry of France, had allowed the English to take his abbey, that rich
church, to which queens came to receive their crowns, and wherein
kings had their burying. He had turned English and Burgundian, and it
was not likely he would come to hold converse with the Maid of the
Armagnacs.

To the question: "Were you addressing God himself when you promised to
remain a virgin?" she replied:

"It sufficed to give the promise to the messengers of God, to wit,
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret."[2345]

[Footnote 2345: _Ibid._]

They had sought to entrap her, for a vow must be made directly to God.
However, it might be argued, that it is lawful to promise a good thing
to an angel or to a man; and that this good thing, thus promised, may
form the substance of a vow. One vows to God what one has promised to
the saints. Pierre of Tarentaise (iv, dist: xxviii, a. 1) teaches that
all vows should be made to God: either to himself directly or through
the mediation of his saints.[2346]

[Footnote 2346: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations_, pp. 224,
434, 435. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, pp. 351 _et
seq._, 481 _et seq._]

According to a statement made during the inquiry, Jeanne had given a
promise of marriage to a young peasant. Now the examiner endeavoured
to prove that she had been at liberty to break her vow of virginity
made in an irregular form; but Jeanne maintained that she had not
promised marriage, and she added:

"The first time I heard my Voices, I vowed to remain a virgin as long
as it should please God."

But this time it was Saint Michael and not the saints who had appeared
to her.[2347] She herself found it difficult to unravel the tangled web
of her dreams and her ecstasies. And from these vague visions of a
child the doctors were laboriously essaying to elaborate a capital
charge.

[Footnote 2347: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128.]

Then a very grave and serious question was asked her by the examiner:
"Did you speak to your priest or to any other churchman of those
visions which you say were vouchsafed to you?"

"No, I spoke of them only to Robert de Baudricourt and to my
King."[2348]

[Footnote 2348: _Ibid._]

The vavasour of Champagne, a man of mature years and sound sense, when
in the days of King John, he, like the Maid, had heard a Voice in the
fields bidding him go to his King, went straightway and told his
priest. The latter commanded him to fast for three days, to do
penance, and then to return to the field where the Voice had spoken to
him.

The vavasour obeyed. Again the Voice was heard repeating the command
it had previously given. The peasant again told his priest, who said
to him: "My brother, thou and I will abstain and fast for three days,
and I will pray for thee to Our Lord Jesus Christ." This they did, and
on the fourth day the good man returned to the field. After the Voice
had spoken for the third time, the priest enjoined his parishioner to
go forthwith and fulfil his mission, since such was the will of
God.[2349]

[Footnote 2349: _Chronique des quatre premiers Valois_, p. 47.]

There is no doubt that, according to all appearances, this vavasour
had acted with greater wisdom than La Romée's daughter. By concealing
her visions from the priest the latter had slighted the authority of
the Church Militant. Still there might be urged in her defence the
words of the Apostle Paul, that where the spirit of God is there is
liberty.[2350] If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the
law.[2351] Was she a heretic or was she a saint? Therein lay the whole
trial.

[Footnote 2350: II Corinthians, iv.]

[Footnote 2351: Galatians v, 18. Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et
consultations_, p. 275.]

Then came this remarkable question: "Have you received letters from
Saint Michael or from your Voices?"

She replied: "I have not permission to tell you; but in a week I will
willingly say all I know."[2352]

[Footnote 2352: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 130.]

Such was her manner of speaking when there was something she wanted to
conceal but not to deny. The question must have been embarrassing
therefore. Moreover, these interrogatories were based on a good store
of facts either true or false; and in the questions addressed to the
Maid we may generally discern a certain anticipation of her replies.
What were those letters from Saint Michael and her other saints, the
existence of which she did not deny, but which were never produced by
her judges? Did certain of her party send them in the hope that she
would carry out their intentions, while under the impression that she
was obeying divine commands?

Without insisting further for the present, the examiner passed on to
another grievance:

"Have not your Voices called you _daughter of God_, _daughter of the
Church_, _great-hearted damsel_?"

"Before the siege of Orléans and since, every day when they speak to
me, many times have they called me _Jeanne the Maid, daughter of
God_."[2353]

[Footnote 2353: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 130, 131.]

The examination was suspended and resumed in the afternoon.

Maître Jean de la Fontaine questioned Jeanne concerning a dream of her
father, of which the judges had been informed in the preliminary
inquiry.[2354]

[Footnote 2354: _Ibid._, pp. 131, 132.]

Sad it is to reflect that when Jeanne was accused of the sin of having
broken God's commandment, "Thou shalt honour thy father and thy
mother," neither her mother nor any of her kin asked to be heard as
witnesses. And yet there were churchmen in her family;[2355] but a
trial on a question of faith struck terror into all hearts.

[Footnote 2355: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de
Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 14,
15. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_, pp. xlvi _et seq._]

Again her man's dress was reverted to, and not for the last time.[2356]
We marvel at the profound meditations into which the Maid's doublet
and hose plunged these clerics. They contemplated them with gloomy
terror and in the light of the precepts of Deuteronomy.

[Footnote 2356: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 133.]

Thereafter they questioned her touching the Duke of Orléans. Their
object was to show from her own replies that her Voices had deceived
her when they promised the prisoner's deliverance. Here they easily
succeeded. Then she pleaded that she had not had sufficient time.

"Had I continued for three years without let or hindrance I should
have delivered him."

In her revelations there had been mentioned a term shorter than three
years and longer than one.[2357]

[Footnote 2357: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 134.]

Questioned again touching the sign vouchsafed to her King, she replied
that she would take counsel with Saint Catherine.

On the morrow, Tuesday, the 13th of March, the Bishop and the
Vice-Inquisitor went to her prison. For the first time the
Vice-Inquisitor opened his mouth:[2358] "Have you promised and sworn to
Saint Catherine that you will not tell this sign?"

[Footnote 2358: _Ibid._, pp. 134, 138.]

He spoke of the sign given to the King. Jeanne replied:

"I have sworn and I have promised that I will not myself reveal this
sign, because I was too urgently pressed to tell it. I vow that never
again will I speak of it to living man."[2359]

[Footnote 2359: _Ibid._, p. 139.]

Then she continued forthwith: "The sign was that the Angel assured my
King, when bringing him the crown, that he should have the whole realm
of France, with God's help and my labours, and that he should set me
to work. That is to say, he should grant me men-at-arms. Otherwise he
would not be so soon crowned and anointed."

"In what manner did the Angel bring the crown? Did he place it on your
King's head?"

"It was given to an archbishop, to the Archbishop of Reims, meseemeth
in the King's presence. The said Archbishop received it and gave it
to the King; and I myself was present; and it is put in the King's
treasury."

"To what place was the crown brought?"

"To the King's chamber in the castle of Chinon."

"On what day and at what hour?"

"The day I know not, the hour was full day. No further recollection
have I of the hour or of the month. But meseemeth it was the month of
April or March; it will be two years this month or next April. It was
after Easter."[2360]

[Footnote 2360: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 140, 141.]

"On the first day that you saw the sign did your King see it?"

"Yes. He had it the same day."

"Of what was the crown made?"

"It is well to know that it was of fine gold, and so rich that I
cannot count its riches; and the crown meant that he would hold the
realm of France."

"Were there jewels in it?"

"I have told you that I do not know."

"Did you touch it or kiss it?"

"No."

"Did the Angel who bore it come from above, or did he come from the
earth?"

"He came from above. I understand that he came by Our Lord's command,
and he came in by the door of the chamber."

"Did the Angel come along the ground, walking from the door of the
room?"

"When he was come before the King he did him reverence, bowing low
before him and uttering the words concerning the sign which I have
already repeated; and thereupon the Angel recalled to the King's mind
the great patience he had had in the midst of the long tribulation
that had befallen him; and as he came towards the King the Angel
walked and touched the ground."

"How far was it from the door to the King?"

"Methinketh it was a full lance's length;[2361] and as he had come so
he returned. When the Angel came, I accompanied him and went with him
up the steps into the King's chamber; and the Angel went in first. And
I said to the King: 'Sire, behold your sign; take it.'"[2362]

[Footnote 2361: About ten feet (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2362: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 141-142.]

In a spiritual sense we may say that this fable is true. This crown,
which "flowers sweetly and will flower sweetly if it be well
guarded,"[2363] is the crown of victory. When the Maid beholds the
Angel who brought it, it is her own image that appears before her. Had
not a theologian of her own party said that she might be called an
angel? Not that she had the nature of an angel, but she did the work
of one.[2364]

[Footnote 2363: "_Fleure bon et fleurera bon, pourvu qu'elle soit bien
gardée._"]

[Footnote 2364: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations_, p. 212. Le
P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 346.]

She began to describe the angels who had come with her to the King:

"So far as I saw, certain among them were very like, the others
different. Some had wings. Some wore crowns, others did not. And they
were with Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, and they accompanied the
Angel of whom I have spoken and the other angels also into the chamber
of the King."[2365]

[Footnote 2365: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 144.]

And thus for a long time, as she was pressed by her interrogator, she
continued to tell these marvellous stories one after another.

When she was asked for the second time whether the Angel had written
her letters, she denied it.[2366] But now it was the Angel who bore the
crown and not Saint Michael who was in question. And despite her
having said they were one and the same, she may have distinguished
between them. Therefore we shall never know whether she did receive
letters from Saint Michael the Archangel, or from Saint Catherine and
from Saint Margaret.

[Footnote 2366: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 145.]

Thereafter the examiner inquired touching a cup lost at Reims and
found by Jeanne as well as the gloves.[2367] Saints sometimes
condescended to find things that had been lost, as is proved by the
example of Saint Antony of Padua. It was always with the help of God.
Necromancers imitated their powers by invoking the aid of demons and
by profaning sacred things.

[Footnote 2367: _Ibid._, p. 146.]

She was also questioned concerning the priest who had a concubine.
Here again she was reproached with being possessed of a magic gift of
clairvoyance. It was by magic she had known that this priest had a
concubine. Many other such things were reported of her. For example,
it was said that at the sight of a certain loose woman she knew that
this woman had killed her child.[2368]

[Footnote 2368: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 184, 186.]

Then recurred the same old questions: "When you went to the attack on
Paris did you receive a revelation from your Voices? Was it revealed
to you that you should go against La Charité? Was it a revelation that
caused you to go to Pont-l'Evêque?"

She denied that she had then received any revelation from her Voices.

The last question was: "Did you not say before Paris, 'Surrender the
town in the name of Jesus'?"

She answered that she had not spoken those words, but had said,
"Surrender the town to the King of France."[2369]

[Footnote 2369: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 147, 148.]

The Parisians who were engaged in repelling the attack had heard her
saying, "Surrender to us speedily in the name of Jesus." These words
are consistent with all we know of Jeanne in the early years of her
career. She believed it to be the will of Messire that the towns of
the realm should surrender to her, whom he had sent to reconquer them.
We have noticed already that at the time of her trial Jeanne had
completely lost touch with her early illuminations and that she spoke
in quite another language.

On the morrow, Wednesday, the 14th of March, there were two more
examinations in the prison. The morning interrogatory turned on the
leap from Beaurevoir. She confessed to having leapt without permission
from her Voices, preferring to die rather than to fall into the hands
of the English.[2370]

[Footnote 2370: _Ibid._, pp. 150, 152.]

She was accused of blasphemy against God; but that was false.[2371]

[Footnote 2371: _Ibid._, p. 157.]

The Bishop intervened: "You have said that we, the Lord Bishop, run
great danger by bringing you to trial. Of what danger were you
speaking? In what peril do we stand, we, your judges, and others?"

"I said to my Lord of Beauvais: 'You declare that you are my judge, I
know not if you be. But take heed that ye judge not wrongly, for thus
would ye run great danger; and I warn you, so that if Our Lord
chastise you for it, I have done my duty by warning you.'"

"What is this peril or this danger?"

"Saint Catherine has told me that I shall have succour. I know not
whether it will be my deliverance from prison, or whether, during the
trial, some tumult shall arise whereby I shall be delivered. I think
it will be either one or the other. My Voices most often tell me I
shall be delivered by a great victory. And afterwards they say to me:
'Be thou resigned, grieve not at thy martyrdom; thou shalt come in the
end to the kingdom of Paradise.' This do my Voices say unto me simply
and absolutely. I mean to say without fail. And I call my martyrdom
the trouble and anguish I suffer in prison. I know not whether still
greater sufferings are before me, but I wait on the Lord."[2372]

[Footnote 2372: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 154, 156.]

It would seem that thus her Voices promised the Maid at once a
spiritual and a material deliverance, but the two could hardly occur
together. This reply, expressive alike of fear and of illusion, was
one to call forth pity from the hardest; and yet her judges regarded
it merely as a means whereby they might entrap her. Feigning to
understand that from her revelations she derived a heretical
confidence in her eternal salvation, the examiner put to her an old
question in a new form. She had already given it a saintly answer. He
inquired whether her Voices had told her that she would finally come
to the kingdom of Paradise if she continued in the assurance that she
would be saved and not condemned in Hell. To this she replied with
that perfect faith with which her Voices inspired her: "I believe what
my Voices have told me touching my salvation as strongly as if I were
already in Paradise."

Such a reply was heretical. The examiner, albeit he was not accustomed
to discuss the Maid's replies, could not forbear remarking that this
one was of great importance.[2373]

[Footnote 2373: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 156.]

Accordingly in the afternoon of that same day, she was shown a
consequence of her error; to wit, that if she received from her Voices
the assurance of eternal salvation she needed not to confess.[2374]

[Footnote 2374: _Ibid._, p. 157.]

On this occasion Jeanne was questioned touching the affair of Franquet
d'Arras. The Bailie of Senlis had done wrong in asking the Maid for
her prisoner,[2375] the Lord Franquet,[2376] in order to put him to
death, and Jeanne's judges now incriminated her.

[Footnote 2375: See _ante_, pp. 124 _et seq._ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 158, 159.]

The examiner pointed out the mortal sins with which the accused might
be charged: first, having attacked Paris on a feast-day; second,
having stolen the hackney of the Lord Bishop of Senlis; third, having
leapt from Beaurevoir; fourth, having worn man's dress; fifth, having
consented to the death of a prisoner of war. Touching all these
matters, Jeanne did not believe that she had committed mortal sin; but
with regard to the leap from Beaurevoir she acknowledged that she was
wrong, and that she had asked God to forgive her.[2377]

[Footnote 2377: _Ibid._, pp. 159, 161.]

It was sufficiently established that the accused had fallen into
religious error. The tribunal of the Inquisition, out of its abounding
mercy, desired the salvation of the sinner. Wherefore on the morning
of the very next day, Thursday, the 15th of March, my Lord of Beauvais
exhorted Jeanne to submit to the Church, and essayed to make her
understand that she ought to obey the Church Militant, for the Church
Militant was one thing and the Church Triumphant another. Jeanne
listened to him dubiously.[2378] On that day she was again questioned
touching her flight from the château of Beaulieu and her intention to
leave the tower without the permission of my Lord of Beauvais. As to
the latter she was firmly resolute.

[Footnote 2378: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 162.]

"Were I to see the door open, I would go, and it would be with the
permission of Our Lord. I firmly believe that if I were to see the
door open and if my guards and the other English were beyond power of
resistance, I should regard it as my permission and as succour sent
unto me by Our Lord. But without permission I would not go, save that
I might essay to go, in order to know whether it were Our Lord's will.
The proverb says: 'Help thyself and God will help thee.'[2379] This I
say so that, if I were to go, it should not be said I went without
permission."[2380]

[Footnote 2379: _Ayde-toy, Dieu te aidera._ _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p.
33.]

[Footnote 2380: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 163, 164.]

Then they reverted to the question of her wearing man's dress.

"Which would you prefer, to wear a woman's dress and hear mass, or to
continue in man's dress and not to hear mass?"

"Promise me that I shall hear mass if I am in woman's dress, and then
I will answer you."

"I promise you that you shall hear mass when you are in woman's
dress."

"And what do you say if I have promised and sworn to our King not to
put off these clothes? Nevertheless, I say unto you: 'Have me a robe
made, long enough to touch the ground, but without a train. I will go
to mass in it; then, when I come back, I will return to my present
clothes.'"

"You must wear woman's dress altogether and without conditions."

"Send me a dress like that worn by your burgess's daughters, to wit, a
long _houppelande_; and I will take it and even a woman's hood to go
and hear mass. But with all my heart I entreat you to leave me these
clothes I am now wearing, and let me hear mass without changing
anything."[2381]

[Footnote 2381: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 165, 166.]

Her aversion to putting off man's dress is not to be explained solely
by the fact that this dress preserved her best against the violence of
the men-at-arms; it is possible that no such objection existed. She
was averse to wearing woman's dress because she had not received
permission from her Voices; and we may easily divine why not. Was she
not a chieftain of war? How humiliating for such an one to wear
petticoats like a townsman's wife! And above all things just now, when
at any moment the French might come and deliver her by some great feat
of arms. Ought they not to find their Maid in man's attire, ready to
put on her armour and fight with them?

Thereafter the examiner asked her whether she would submit to the
Church, whether she made a reverence to her Voices, whether she
believed the saints, whether she offered them lighted candles, whether
she obeyed them, whether in war she had ever done anything without
their permission or contrary to their command.[2382]

[Footnote 2382: _Ibid._, pp. 166-169.]

Then they came to the question which they held to be the most
difficult of all:

"If the devil were to take upon himself the form of an angel, how
would you know whether he were a good angel or a bad?"

She replied with a simplicity which appeared presumptuous: "I should
easily discern whether it were Saint Michael or an imitation of
him."[2383]

[Footnote 2383: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 170, 171.]

Two days later, on Saturday, the 17th of March, Jeanne was examined in
her prison both morning and evening.[2384]

[Footnote 2384: _Ibid._, p. 173.]

Hitherto she had been very loath to describe the countenance and the
dress of the angel and the saints who had visited her in the village.
Maître Jean de la Fontaine endeavoured to obtain some light on this
subject.

"In what form and semblance did Saint Michael come to you? Was he tall
and how was he clothed?"

"He came in the form of a true _prud'homme_."[2385]

[Footnote 2385: _Ibid._]

Jeanne was not one to believe she saw the Archangel in a long doctor's
robe or wearing a cope of gold. Moreover it was not thus that he
figured in the churches. There he was represented in painting and in
sculpture, clothed in glittering armour, with a golden crown on his
helmet.[2386] In such guise did he appear to her "in the form of a
right true _prud'homme_," to take a word from the _Chanson de Roland_,
where a great sword thrust is called the thrust of a _prud'homme_. He
came to her in the garb of a great knight, like Arthur and
Charlemagne, wearing full armour.

[Footnote 2386: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc à Domremy_. Proofs and
illustrations, pp. 74, 75.]

Once again the examiner put to Jeanne that question on which her life
or death depended:

"Will you submit all your deeds and sayings, good or bad, to the
judgment of our mother, Holy Church?"

"As for the Church, I love her and would maintain her with all my
power, for religion's sake," the Maid replied; "and I am not one to be
kept from church and from hearing mass. But as for the good works
which I have wrought, and touching my coming, for them I must give an
account to the King of Heaven, who has sent me to Charles, son of
Charles, King of France. And you will see that the French will shortly
accomplish a great work, to which God will appoint them, in which they
will shake nearly all France. I say it in order that when it shall
come to pass, it may be remembered that I have said it."[2387]

[Footnote 2387: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 174.]

But she was unable to name the time when this great work should be
accomplished; and Maître Jean de la Fontaine returned to the point on
which Jeanne's fate depended.

"Will you submit to the judgment of the Church?"

"I appeal to Our Lord, who hath sent me, to Our Lady and to all the
blessed saints in Paradise. To my mind Our Lord and his Church are
one, and no distinction should be made. Wherefore do you essay to make
out that they are not one?"

In justice to Maître Jean de la Fontaine we are bound to admit the
lucidity of his reply. "There is the Church Triumphant, in which are
God, his saints, the angels and the souls that are saved," he said.
"There is also the Church Militant, which is our Holy Father, the
Pope, the Vicar of God on earth; the cardinals, the prelates of the
Church and the clergy, with all good Christians and Catholics; and
this Church in its assembly cannot err, for it is moved by the Holy
Ghost. Will you appeal to the Church Militant?"

"I am come to the King of France from God, from the Virgin Mary and
all the blessed saints in Paradise and from the Church Victorious
above and by their command. To this Church I submit all the good deeds
I have done and shall do. As to replying whether I will submit to the
Church Militant, for the present, I will make no further answer."[2388]

[Footnote 2388: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 174, 176.]

Again she was offered a woman's dress in which to hear mass; she
refused it.

"As for a woman's dress, I will not take it yet, not until it be Our
Lord's will. And if it should come to pass that I be taken to judgment
and there divested of my clothes, I beg my lords of the Church the
favour of a woman's smock and covering for my head. I would rather die
than deny what Our Lord hath caused me to do. I believe firmly that
Our Lord will not let it come to pass that I should be cast so low,
and that soon I shall have help from God, and that by a miracle."

Thereafter the following questions were put to her: "Do you not
believe to-day that fairies are evil spirits?"

"I do not know."

"Do you know whether Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret hate the
English?"

"They love what Our Lord loves and hate what God hates."

"Does God hate the English?"

"Touching the love or hatred of God for the English and what he will
do for their souls I know nothing. But I do know that they will all
be driven out of France, save those who die there, and that God will
send victory to the French and defeat to the English."

"Was God on the side of the English when they prospered in France?"

"I know not whether God hated the French. But I believe that he
permitted them to be beaten for their sins, if they were in sin."[2389]

[Footnote 2389: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 178.]

Jeanne was asked certain questions touching the banner on which she
had caused angels to be painted.

She replied that she had had angels painted as she had seen them
represented in churches.[2390]

[Footnote 2390: _Ibid._, p. 180.]

At this point the examination was adjourned. The last interrogation in
the prison[2391] took place after dinner. She had now endured fifteen
in twenty-five days, but her courage never flagged. This last time the
subjects were more than usually diverse and confused. First, the
examiner essayed to discover by what charms and evil practices good
fortune and victory had attended the standard painted with angelic
figures. Then he wanted to know wherefore the clerks put on Jeanne's
letters the sacred names of Jésus and Marie.[2392]

[Footnote 2391: _Ibid._, p. 181.]

[Footnote 2392: _Ibid._, pp. 182-183.]

Then came the following subtle question: "Do you believe that if you
were married your Voices would come to you?"

It was well known that she dearly cherished her virginity. Certain of
her words might be interpreted to mean that she considered this
virginity to be the cause of her good fortune; wherefore her examiners
were curious to know whether if she were adroitly approached she
might not be brought to cast scorn on the married state and to condemn
intercourse between husbands and wives. Such a condemnation would have
been a grievous error, savouring of the heresy of the Cathari.[2393]

[Footnote 2393: Martène and Durand, _Thesaurus novus anecdotorum_, vol.
v, col. 1760 _et seq._]

She replied: "I know not and I appeal to Our Lord."[2394] Then there
followed another question much more dangerous for one who like Jeanne
loved her King with all her heart.

[Footnote 2394: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 183.]

"Do you think and firmly believe that your King did right to kill or
cause to be killed my Lord of Burgundy?"

"It was sore pity for the realm of France."[2395]

[Footnote 2395: _Ibid._, p. 184.]

Then did the examiner put to her this grave question: "Do you hold
yourself bound to answer the whole truth to the Pope, God's Vicar, on
all that may be asked you touching religion and your conscience?"

"I demand to be taken before him. Then will I make unto him such
answer as behoveth."[2396]

[Footnote 2396: _Ibid._, pp. 184, 185.]

These words involved an appeal to the Pope, and such an appeal was
lawful. "In doubtful matters touching on religion," said St. Thomas,
"there ought always to be an appeal to the Pope or to the General
Council." If Jeanne's appeal were not in regular judicial form, it was
not her fault. She was ignorant of legal matters and neither guide nor
counsel had been granted to her. To the best of her knowledge, and
according to wont and justice, she appealed to the common father of
the faithful.

The doctors and masters were silent. And thus was closed against the
accused the one way of deliverance remaining to her. She was now
hopelessly lost. It is not surprising that Jeanne's judges, who were
partisans of England, ignored her right of appeal; but it is
surprising that the doctors and masters of the French party, the
clerks of the provinces loyal to King Charles, did not all and with
one voice sign an appeal and demand that the Maid, who had been judged
worthy by her examiners at Poitiers, should be taken before the Pope
and the Council.

Instead of replying to Jeanne's request, the examiners inquired
further concerning those much discussed magic rings and apparitions of
demons.[2397]

[Footnote 2397: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 185.]

"Did you ever kiss and embrace the Saints, Catherine and Margaret?"

"I embraced them both."

"Were they of a sweet savour?"

"It is well to know. Yea, their savour was sweet."

"When embracing them did you feel heat or anything else?"

"I could not have embraced them without feeling and touching them."

"What part did you kiss, face or feet?"

"It is more fitting to kiss their feet than their faces."

"Did you not give them chaplets of flowers?"

"I have often done them honour by crowning with flowers their images
in churches. But to those who appeared to me never have I given
flowers as far as I can remember."

"Know you aught of those who consort with fairies?"

"I have never done so nor have I known anything about them. Yet I have
heard of them and that they were seen on Thursdays; but I do not
believe it, and to me it seems sorcery."[2398]

[Footnote 2398: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 187.]

Then came a question touching her standard, deemed enchanted by her
judges. It elicited one of those epigrammatic replies she loved.

"Wherefore was your standard rather than those of the other captains
carried into the church of Reims?"

"It had been in the contest, wherefore should it not share the
prize?"[2399]

[Footnote 2399: _Ibid._]

Now that the inquiries and examinations were concluded, it was
announced that the preliminary trial was at an end. The so-called
trial in ordinary opened on the Tuesday after Palm Sunday, the 27th of
March, in a room near the great hall of the castle.[2400]

[Footnote 2400: _Ibid._, p. 194.]

Before ordering the deed of accusation to be read, my Lord of Beauvais
offered Jeanne the aid of an advocate.[2401] If this offer had been
postponed till then, it was doubtless because in his opinion Jeanne
had not previously needed such aid. It is well known that a heretic's
advocate, if he would himself escape falling into heresy, must
strictly limit his methods of defence. During the preliminary inquiry
he must confine himself to discovering the names of the witnesses for
the prosecution and to making them known to the accused. If the
heretic pleaded guilty then it was useless to grant him an
advocate.[2402] Now my Lord maintained that the accusation was founded
not on the evidence of witnesses but on the avowals of the accused.
And this was doubtless his reason for not offering Jeanne an advocate
before the opening of the trial in ordinary, which bore upon matters
of doctrine.

[Footnote 2401: _Ibid._, p. 195.]

[Footnote 2402: J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, pp. 130, 131. E.
Méru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, Romæ, 1578, p. 295.]

The Lord Bishop thus addressed the Maid: "Jeanne," said he, "all
persons here present are churchmen of consummate knowledge, whose will
and intention it is to proceed against you in all piety and kindness,
seeking neither vengeance nor corporal chastisement, but your
instruction and your return into the way of truth and salvation. As
you are neither learned nor sufficiently instructed in letters or in
the difficult matters which are to be discussed, to take counsel of
yourself, touching what you should do or reply, we offer you to choose
as your advocate one or more of those present, as you will. If you
will not choose, then one shall be appointed for you by us, in order
that he may advise you touching what you may do or say...."[2403]

[Footnote 2403: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 200, 201. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, pp. 129, 130.]

Considering what the method of procedure was, this was a gracious
offer. And even though my Lord of Beauvais obliged the accused to
choose from among the counsellors and assessors, whom he had himself
summoned to the trial, he did more than he was bound to do. The choice
of a counsel did not belong to the accused; it belonged to the judge,
whose duty it was to appoint an honest, upright person. Moreover, it
was permissible for an ecclesiastical judge to refuse to the end to
grant the accused any counsel whatsoever. Nicolas Eymeric, in his
_Directorium_, decides that the Bishop and the Inquisitor, acting
conjointly, may constitute authority sufficient for the interpretation
of the law and may proceed informally, _de plano_, dispensing with the
ceremony of appointing counsel and all the paraphernalia of a
trial.[2404]

[Footnote 2404: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_,
pp. 400 _et seq._ U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p.
34.]

We may notice that my Lord of Beauvais offered the accused an advocate
on the ground of her ignorance of things divine and human, but without
taking her youthfulness into account. In other courts of law
proceedings against a minor--that is, a person under twenty-five--who
was not assisted by an advocate, were legally void.[2405] If this rule
had been binding in Inquisitorial procedure the Bishop, by his offer
of legal aid, would have avoided any breach of this rule; and as the
choice of an advocate lay with him, he might well have done so without
running any risk. "Our justice is not like theirs," Bernard Gui
rightly said, when he was comparing inquisitorial procedure with that
of the other ecclesiastical courts which conformed to the Roman law.

[Footnote 2405: Méru, _Directorium Inquisitorium_, p. 147.]

Jeanne did not accept the judge's offer: "First," she said, "touching
what you admonish me for my good and in matters of religion, I thank
you and the company here assembled. As for the advocate you offer me,
I also thank you, but it is not my intent to depart from the counsel
of Our Lord. As for the oath you wish me to take, I am ready to swear
to speak the truth in all that concerns your suit."[2406]

[Footnote 2406: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 201.]

Thereupon Maître Thomas de Courcelles began to read in French the
indictment which the Promoter had drawn up in seventy articles.[2407]
This text set forth in order the deeds with which Jeanne had already
been reproached and which were groundlessly held to have been
confessed by her and duly proved. There were no less than seventy
distinct charges of horrible crimes committed against religion and
Holy Mother Church. Questioned on each article, Jeanne with heroic
candour repeated her previous replies. The tedious reading of this
long accusation was continued and completed on the 28th of March, the
Wednesday after Palm Sunday.[2408] As was her wont, she asked for delay
in order to reply on certain points. On Easter Eve, the 31st of March,
the time granted having expired, my Lord of Beauvais went to the
prison, and, in the presence of the doctors and masters of the
University, demanded the promised replies. They nearly all touched on
the one accusation which included all the rest, the heresy in which
all heresies were comprehended,--the refusal to obey the Church
Militant. Jeanne finally declared her resolve to appeal to Our Lord
rather than to any man; this was to set at naught the authority of the
Pope and the Council.[2409]

[Footnote 2407: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 202-323.]

[Footnote 2408: _Ibid._, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2409: _Ibid._, pp. 324, 325.]

The doctors and masters of the University of Paris advised that an
epitome should be made of the Promoter's voluminous indictment, its
chief points selected, and the seventy charges considerably
reduced.[2410] Maître Nicolas Midi, doctor in theology, performed this
task and submitted it when done to the judges and assessors.[2411] One
of them proposed emendations. Brother Jacques of Touraine, a friar of
the Franciscan order, who was charged to draw up the document in its
final stage, admitted most of the corrections requested.[2412] In this
wise the incriminating propositions,[2413] which the judges claimed,
but claimed falsely, to have derived from the replies of the accused,
were resolved into twelve articles.[2414]

[Footnote 2410: _Ibid._, p. 327; vol. iii, p. 143.]

[Footnote 2411: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 60. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration
de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 38.]

[Footnote 2412: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 232. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, pp. 124, 129.]

[Footnote 2413: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 22, 212; vol. iii, p. 306; vol.
v, p. 461.]

[Footnote 2414: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 328, 336.]

These twelve articles were not communicated to Jeanne. On Thursday,
the 12th of April, twenty-one masters and doctors met in the chapel of
the Bishop's Palace, and, after having examined the articles, engaged
in a conference, the result of which was unfavourable to the
accused.[2415]

[Footnote 2415: _Ibid._, p. 337.]

According to them, the apparitions and revelations of which she
boasted came not from God. They were human inventions, or the work of
an evil spirit. She had not received signs sufficient to warrant her
believing in them. In the case of this woman these doctors and masters
discovered lies; a lack of verisimilitude; faith lightly given;
superstitious divinings; deeds scandalous and irreligious; sayings
rash, presumptuous, full of boasting; blasphemies against God and his
saints. They found her to have lacked piety in her behaviour towards
father and mother; to have come short in love towards her neighbour;
to have been addicted to idolatry, or at any rate to the invention of
lying tales and to schismatic conversation destructive of the unity,
the authority and the power of the Church; and, finally, to have been
skilled in the black art and to have strongly inclined to heresy.[2416]

[Footnote 2416: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 337, 374.]

Had she not been sustained and comforted by her heavenly Voices, the
Voices of her own heart, Jeanne would never have endured to the end of
this terrible trial. Not only was she being tortured at once by the
princes of the Church and the rascals of the army, but her sufferings
of body and mind were such as could never have been borne by any
ordinary human being. Yet she suffered them without her constancy, her
faith, her divine hope, one might almost say her cheerfulness, ever
being diminished. Finally she gave way; her physical strength, but not
her courage, was exhausted; she fell a victim to an illness which was
expected to be fatal. She seemed near her end, or rather, alas! near
her release.[2417]

[Footnote 2417: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 51.]

On Wednesday, the 18th of April, my Lord of Beauvais and the
Vice-Inquisitor of the Faith went to her with divers doctors and
masters to exhort her in all charity; she was still very seriously
sick.[2418] My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that when on certain
difficult matters she had been examined before persons of great
wisdom, many things she had said had been noted as contrary to
religion. Wherefore, considering that she was but an unlettered woman,
he offered to provide her with men learned and upright who would
instruct her. He requested the doctors present to give her salutary
counsel, and he invited her herself, if any other such persons were
known to her, to indicate them, promising to summon them without fail.

[Footnote 2418: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 374-375.]

"The Church," he added, "never closes her heart against those who will
return to her."

Jeanne answered that she thanked him for what he had said for her
salvation, and she added: "Meseemeth, that seeing the sickness in
which I lie, I am in great danger of death. If it be thus, then may
God do with me according to his good pleasure. I demand that ye permit
me to confess, that ye also give me the body of my Saviour and bury me
in holy ground."

My Lord of Beauvais represented to her that if she would receive the
sacraments she must submit to the Church.

"If my body die in prison," she replied, "I depend on you to have it
put in holy ground; if you do not, then I appeal to Our Lord."[2419]

[Footnote 2419: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 376, 378.]

Then she vehemently maintained the truth of the revelations she had
received from God, Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret.

And when she was asked yet again whether she would submit herself and
her acts to Holy Mother Church, she replied: "Whatever happens to me,
I will never do or say aught save what I have already said at the
trial."[2420]

[Footnote 2420: _Ibid._, p. 379.]

The doctors and masters one after the other exhorted her to submit to
Holy Mother Church. They quoted numerous passages from Holy Writ. They
promised her the body of Our Lord if she would obey; but she remained
resolute.

"Touching this submission," she said, "I will reply naught save what I
have said already. I love God, I serve him, I am a good Christian, and
I wish with all my power to aid and support Holy Church."[2421]

[Footnote 2421: _Ibid._, pp. 380, 381.]

In times of great need recourse was had to processions. "Do you not
wish," she was asked, "that a fine and famous procession be ordained
to restore you to a good estate if you be not therein?"

She replied, "I desire the Church and all Catholics to pray for
me."[2422]

[Footnote 2422: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 381.]

Among the doctors consulted there were many who recommended that she
should be again instructed and charitably admonished. On Wednesday,
the 2nd of May, sixty-three reverend doctors and masters met in the
Robing Room of the castle.[2423] She was brought in, and Maître Jean de
Castillon, doctor in theology, Archdeacon of Évreux,[2424] read a
document in French, in which the deeds and sayings with which Jeanne
was reproached were summed up in six articles. Then many doctors and
masters addressed to her in turn admonitions and charitable counsels.
They exhorted her to submit to the Church Militant Universal, to the
Holy Father the Pope and to the General Council. They warned her that
if the Church abandoned her, her soul would stand in great peril of
the penalty of eternal fire, whilst her body might be burned in an
earthly fire, and that by the sentence of other judges.

[Footnote 2423: _Ibid._, pp. 381, 382.]

[Footnote 2424: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 114, 117.]

Jeanne replied as before.[2425] On the morrow, Thursday, the 3rd of
May, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, the Archangel Gabriel
appeared to her. She was not sure whether she had seen him before. But
this time she had no doubt. Her Voices told her that it was he, and
she was greatly comforted.

[Footnote 2425: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 383, 399.]

That same day she asked her Voices whether she should submit to the
Church and obey the exhortation of the clerics.

Her Voices replied: "If thou desirest help from Our Lord, then submit
to him all thy doings."

Jeanne wanted to know from her Voices whether she would be burned.

Her Voices told her to wait upon the Lord and he would help her.[2426]
This mystic aid strengthened Jeanne's heart.

[Footnote 2426: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 400, 401.]

Among heretics and those possessed, such obstinacy as hers was not
unparalleled. Ecclesiastical judges were well acquainted with the
stiff-neckedness of women who had been deceived by the Devil. In order
to force them to tell the truth, when admonitions and exhortations
failed, recourse was had to torture. And even such a measure did not
always succeed. Many of these wicked females (_mulierculæ_) endured
the cruellest suffering with a constancy passing the ordinary strength
of human nature. The doctors would not believe such constancy to be
natural; they attributed it to the machinations of the Evil One. The
devil was capable of protecting his servants even when they had fallen
into the hands of judges of the Church; he granted them strength to
bear the torture in silence. This strength was called the gift of
taciturnity.[2427]

[Footnote 2427: Nicolas Eymeric, _Directorium inquisitorium...._ Rome,
1586, in fol. p. 24, col. 1. Ludovicus a Paramo, _De origine et
progressu officii sanctæ inquisitionis_, MDXCIIX, in fol., lib. III,
questio 5, p. 709.]

On Wednesday, the 9th of May, Jeanne was taken to the great tower of
the castle, into the torture-chamber. There my Lord of Beauvais, in
the presence of the Vice Inquisitor and nine doctors and masters,
read her the articles, to which she had hitherto refused to reply; and
he threatened her that if she did not confess the whole truth she
would be put to the torture.[2428]

[Footnote 2428: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 399.]

The instruments were prepared; the two executioners, Mauger
Leparmentier, a married clerk, and his companion, were in readiness
close by her, awaiting the Bishop's orders.

Six days before Jeanne had received great comfort from her Voices. Now
she replied resolutely: "Verily, if you were to tear my limbs asunder
and drive my soul out of my body, naught else would I tell you, and if
I did say anything unto you, I would always maintain afterwards that
you had dragged it from me by force."[2429]

[Footnote 2429: _Ibid._, pp. 399, 400.]

My Lord of Beauvais decided to defer the torture, fearing that it
would do no good to so hardened a subject.[2430] On the following
Saturday, he deliberated in his house, with the Vice-Inquisitor and
thirteen doctors and masters; opinion was divided. Maître Raoul
Roussel advised that Jeanne should not be tortured lest ground for
complaint should be given against a trial so carefully conducted. It
would seem that he anticipated the Devil's granting Jeanne the gift of
taciturnity, whereby in diabolical silence she would be able to brave
the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. On the other hand Maître Aubert
Morel, licentiate in canon law, counsellor to the Official of Rouen,
Canon of the Cathedral, and Maître Thomas de Courcelles, deemed it
expedient to apply torture. Maître Nicolas Loiseleur, master of arts,
Canon of Rouen, whose share in the proceedings had been to act Saint
Catherine and the Lorraine shoemaker, had no very decided opinion on
the subject, still it seemed to him by no means unprofitable that
Jeanne for her soul's welfare should be tortured. The majority of
doctors and masters agreed that for the present there was no need to
subject her to this trial. Some gave no reasons, others alleged that
it behoved them yet once again to warn her charitably. Maître
Guillaume Erard, doctor in theology, held that sufficient material for
the pronouncing of a sentence existed already.[2431] Thus among those,
who spared Jeanne the torture, were to be found the least merciful;
for the spirit of ecclesiastical tribunals was such that to refuse to
torture an accused was in certain cases to refuse him mercy.

[Footnote 2430: _Ibid._, pp. 401, 402.]

[Footnote 2431: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 402, 404.]

To the trial of Marguerite la Porète, the judges summoned no
experts.[2432] Touching the charges held as proven, they submitted a
written report to the University of Paris. The University gave its
opinion on everything but the truth of the charges. This reservation
was merely formal, and the decision of the University had the force of
a sentence. In Jeanne's trial this precedent was cited. On the 21st of
April, Maître Jean Beaupère, Maître Jacques de Touraine and Maître
Nicolas Midi left Rouen, and, at the risk of being attacked on the
road by men-at-arms, journeyed to Paris in order to present the twelve
articles to their colleagues of the University.

[Footnote 2432: _Recueil des historiens de la France_, vol. xx, p. 601;
vol. xxi, p. 34. _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. xxvii, p.
70.]

On the 28th of April, the University, meeting in its general assembly
at Saint-Bernard, charged the Holy Faculty of Theology and the
Venerable Faculty of Decrees with the examination of the twelve
articles.[2433]

[Footnote 2433: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 407, 413, 420. M. Fournier, _La
faculté de décret de l'Université de Paris_, p. 353. Le P. Denifle and
Chatelain, _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol. iv, pp. 510
_et seq._]

On the 14th of May, the deliberations of the two Faculties were
submitted to all the Faculties in solemn assembly, who ratified them
and made them their own. The University then sent them to King Henry,
beseeching his Royal Majesty to execute justice promptly, in order
that the people, so greatly scandalised by this woman, be brought back
to good doctrine and holy faith.[2434] It is worthy of notice that in a
trial, in which the Pope, represented by the Vice-Inquisitor, was one
judge, and the King, represented by the Bishop, another, the Eldest
Daughter of Kings[2435] should have communicated directly with the King
of France, the guardian of her privileges.

[Footnote 2434: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 407, 408. U. Chevalier,
_L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 42.]

[Footnote 2435: The University of Paris (W.S.).]

According to the Sacred Faculty of Theology, Jeanne's apparitions were
fictitious, lying, deceptive, inspired by devils. The sign given to
the King was a presumptuous and pernicious lie, derogatory to the
dignity of angels. Jeanne's belief in the visitations of Saint
Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret was an error rash and
injurious because Jeanne placed it on the same plane as the truths of
religion. Jeanne's predictions were but superstitions, idle
divinations and vain boasting. Her statement that she wore man's dress
by the command of God was blasphemy, a violation of divine law and
ecclesiastical sanction, a contemning of the sacraments and tainted
with idolatry. In the letters she had dictated, Jeanne appeared
treacherous, perfidious, cruel, sanguinary, seditious, blasphemous and
in favour of tyranny. In setting out for France she had broken the
commandment to honour father and mother, she had given an occasion for
scandal, she had committed blasphemy and had fallen from the faith. In
the leap from Beaurevoir, she had displayed a pusillanimity bordering
on despair and homicide; and, moreover, it had caused her to utter
rash statements touching the remission of her sin and erroneous
pronouncements concerning free will. By proclaiming her confidence in
her salvation, she uttered presumptuous and pernicious lies; by saying
that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret did not speak English, she
blasphemed these saints and violated the precept: "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour." The honours she rendered these saints were nought but
idolatry and the worship of devils. Her refusal to submit her doings
to the Church tended to schism, to the denial of the unity and
authority of the Church and to apostasy.[2436]

[Footnote 2436: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 414, 419.]

The doctors of the Faculty of Theology were very learned. They knew
who the three evil spirits were whom Jeanne in her delusion took for
Saint Michael, Saint Catherine, and Saint Margaret. They were Belial,
Satan, and Behemoth. Belial, worshipped by the people of Sidon, was
sometimes represented as an angel of great beauty; he is the demon of
disobedience. Satan is the Lord of Hell; and Behemoth is a dull, heavy
creature, who feeds on hay like an ox.[2437]

[Footnote 2437: _Ibid._, p. 414. Migne, _Dictionnaire des sciences
occultes_.]

The venerable Faculty of Decrees decided that this schismatic, this
erring woman, this apostate, this liar, this soothsayer, be charitably
exhorted and duly warned by competent judges, and that if
notwithstanding she persisted in refusing to abjure her error, she
must be given up to the secular arm to receive due chastisement.[2438]
Such were the deliberations and decisions which the Venerable
University of Paris submitted to the examination and to the verdict of
the Holy Apostolic See and of the sacrosanct General Council.

[Footnote 2438: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 417, 420.]

Meanwhile, where were the clerks of France? Had they nothing to say in
this matter? Had they no decision to submit to the Pope and to the
Council? Why did they not urge their opinions in opposition to those
of the Faculties of Paris? Why did they keep silence? Jeanne demanded
the record of the Poitiers trial. Wherefore did those Poitiers
doctors, who had recommended the King to employ the Maid lest, by
rejecting her, he should refuse the gift of the Holy Spirit, fail to
send the record to Rouen?[2439] Before the Maid espoused their waning
cause, these Poitiers doctors, these magistrates, these University
professors banished from Paris, advocates and counsellors of an exiled
Parlement, had not a robe to their backs nor shoes for their children.
Now, thanks to the Maid, they were every day regaining new hope and
vigour. And yet they left her, who had so nobly served their King, to
be treated as a heretic and a reprobate. Where were Brother Pasquerel,
Friar Richard, and all those churchmen who but lately surrounded her
in France and who looked to go with her to the Crusade against the
Bohemians and the Turks? Why did they not demand a safe-conduct and
come and give evidence at the trial? Or at least why did they not send
their evidence? Why did not the Archbishop of Embrun, who but recently
gave such noble counsels to the King, send some written statement in
favour of the Maid to the judges at Rouen? My Lord of Reims,
Chancellor of the Kingdom, had said that she was proud but not
heretical. Wherefore now, acting contrary to his own interests and
honour, did he refrain from testifying in favour of her through whom
he had recovered his episcopal city? Wherefore did he not assert his
right and do his duty as metropolitan and censure and suspend his
suffragan, the Bishop of Beauvais, who was guilty of prevarication in
the administration of justice? Why did not the illustrious clerics,
whom King Charles had appointed deputies at the Council of Bâle,
undertake to bring the cause of the Maid before the Council? And
finally, why did not the priests, the ecclesiastics of the realm, with
one voice demand an appeal to the Holy Father?

[Footnote 2439: From a theological point of view the record of the
Poitiers trial may have been insignificant; but at any rate it
contained the arguments presented to the King and the memoranda of
Gélu and of Gerson.]

They all with one accord, as if struck dumb with astonishment,
remained passive and silent. Can they have feared that too searching a
light would be cast on Jeanne's cause by that illustrious University,
that Sun of the Church, which was consulted on religious matters by
all Christian states? Can they have suspected that this woman, who in
France had been considered a saint, might after all have been inspired
by the devil? But if what they had once believed they still held to be
true, if they believed that the Maid had come from God to lead their
King to his glorious coronation, then what are we to think of those
clerks, those ecclesiastics who denied the Daughter of God, on the eve
of her passion?




CHAPTER XIII

THE ABJURATION--THE FIRST SENTENCE


On Saturday, the 19th of May, the doctors and masters, to the number
of fifty, assembled in the archiepiscopal chapel of Rouen. There they
unanimously declared their agreement with the decision of the
University of Paris; and my Lord of Beauvais ordained that a new
charitable admonition be addressed to Jeanne.[2440] Accordingly, on
Wednesday the 23rd, the Bishop, the Vice-Inquisitor, and the Promoter
went to a room in the castle, near Jeanne's cell. They were
accompanied by seven doctors and masters, by the Lord Bishop of Noyon
and by the Lord Bishop of Thérouanne.[2441] The latter, brother to
Messire Jean de Luxembourg who had sold the Maid, was held one of the
most notable personages of the Great Council of England; he was
Chancellor of France for King Henry, as Messire Regnault de Chartres
was for King Charles.[2442]

[Footnote 2440: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 404, 429.]

[Footnote 2441: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 429, 430.]

[Footnote 2442: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 126-127.]

The accused was brought in, and Maître Pierre Maurice, doctor in
theology, read to her the twelve articles as they had been abridged
and commented upon, in conformity with the deliberations of the
University; the whole was drawn up as a discourse addressed to Jeanne
directly:[2443]

[Footnote 2443: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 430.]

     ARTICLE I

     First, Jeanne, thou saidst that at about the age of
     thirteen, thou didst receive revelations and behold
     apparitions of angels and of the Saints, Catherine and
     Margaret, that thou didst behold them frequently with thy
     bodily eyes, that they spoke unto thee and do still
     oftentimes speak unto thee, and that they have said unto
     thee many things that thou hast fully declared in thy trial.

     The clerks of the University of Paris and others have
     considered the manner of these revelations and apparitions,
     their object, the substance of the things revealed, the
     person to whom they were revealed; all points touching them
     have they considered. And now they pronounce these
     revelations and apparitions to be either lying fictions,
     deceptive and dangerous, or superstitions, proceeding from
     spirits evil and devilish.

     ARTICLE II

     Item, thou hast said that thy King received a sign, by which
     he knew that thou wast sent of God: to wit that Saint
     Michael, accompanied by a multitude of angels, certain of
     whom had wings, others crowns, and with whom were Saint
     Catherine and Saint Margaret, came to thee in the town of
     Château-Chinon; and that they all entered with thee and went
     up the staircase of the castle, into the chamber of thy
     King, before whom the angel who wore the crown made
     obeisance. And once didst thou say that this crown which
     thou callest a sign, was delivered to the Archbishop of
     Reims who gave it to thy King, in the presence of a
     multitude of princes and lords whom thou didst call by name.

     Now concerning this sign, the aforesaid clerks declare it to
     lack verisimilitude, to be a presumptuous lie, deceptive,
     pernicious, a thing counterfeited and attacking the dignity
     of angels.

     ARTICLE III

     Item, thou hast said that thou knewest the angels and the
     saints by the good counsel, the comfort and the instruction
     they gave thee, because they told thee their names and
     because the saints saluted thee. Thou didst believe also
     that it was Saint Michael who appeared unto thee; and that
     the deeds and sayings of this angel and these saints are
     good thou didst believe as firmly as thou believest in
     Christ.

     Now the clerks declare such signs to be insufficient for the
     recognition of the said saints and angels. The clerks
     maintain that thou hast lightly believed and rashly
     affirmed, and further that when thou sayst thou dost believe
     as firmly etc., thou dost err from the faith.

     ARTICLE IV

     Item, thou hast said thou art assured of certain things
     which are to come, that thou hast known hidden things, that
     thou hast also recognized men whom thou hadst never seen
     before, and this by the Voices of Saint Catherine and Saint
     Margaret.

     Thereupon the clerks declare that in these sayings are
     superstition, divination, presumptuous assertion and vain
     boasting.

     ARTICLE V

     Item, thou hast said that by God's command and according to
     his will, thou hast worn and dost still wear man's apparel.
     Because thou hast God's commandment to wear this dress thou
     hast donned a short tunic, jerkin, and hose with many
     points. Thou dost even wear thy hair cut short above the
     ears, without keeping about thee anything to denote the
     feminine sex, save what nature hath given thee. And
     oftentimes hast thou in this garb received the Sacrament of
     the Eucharist. And albeit thou hast been many times
     admonished to leave it, thou wouldest not, saying that thou
     wouldst liefer die than quit this apparel, unless it were by
     God's command; and that if thou wert still in this dress and
     with those of thine own party it would be for the great weal
     of France. Thou sayest also that for nothing wouldst thou
     take an oath not to wear this dress and bear these arms; and
     for all this that thou doest thou dost plead divine command.

     In such matters the clerks declare that thou blasphemest
     against God, despising him and his Sacraments, that thou
     dost transgress divine law, Holy Scripture and the canons of
     the Church, that thou thinkest evil and dost err from the
     faith, that thou art full of vain boasting, that thou art
     addicted to idolatry and worship of thyself and thy clothes,
     according to the customs of the heathen.

     ARTICLE VI

     Item, thou hast often said, that in thy letters thou hast
     put these names, _Jhesus Maria_, and the sign of the cross,
     to warn those to whom thou didst write not to do what was
     indicated in the letter. In other letters thou hast boasted
     that thou wouldst slay all those who did not obey thee, and
     that by thy blows thou wouldst prove who had God on his
     side. Also hast thou oftentimes said that all thy deeds were
     by revelation and according to divine command.

     Touching such affirmations the clerks declare thee to be a
     traitor, perfidious, cruel, desiring human bloodshed,
     seditious, an instigator of tyranny, a blasphemer of God's
     commandments and revelations.

     ARTICLE VII

     Item, thou sayest that according to revelations vouchsafed
     unto thee at the age of seventeen, thou didst leave thy
     parents' house against their will, driving them almost mad.
     Thou didst go to Robert de Baudricourt, who, at thy
     request, gave thee man's apparel and a sword, also
     men-at-arms to take thee to thy King. And being come to the
     King, thou didst say unto him that his enemies should be
     driven away, thou didst promise to bring him into a great
     kingdom, to make him victorious over his foes, and that for
     this God had sent thee. These things thou sayest thou didst
     accomplish in obedience to God and according to revelation.

     In such things the clerks declare thee to have been
     irreverent to thy father and mother, thus disobeying God's
     command; to have given occasion for scandal, to have
     blasphemed, to have erred from the faith and to have made a
     rash and presumptuous promise.

     ARTICLE VIII

     Item, thou hast said, that voluntarily thou didst leap from
     the Tower of Beaurevoir, preferring rather to die than to be
     delivered into the hands of the English and to live after
     the destruction of Compiègne. And albeit Saint Catherine and
     Saint Margaret forbade thee to leap, thou couldst not
     restrain thyself. And despite the great sin thou hast
     committed in offending these saints, thou didst know by thy
     Voices, that after thy confession, thy sin was forgiven
     thee.

     This deed the clerks declare thee to have committed through
     cowardice turning to despair and probably to suicide. In
     this matter likewise thou didst utter a rash and
     presumptuous statement in asserting that thy sin is
     forgiven, and thou dost err from the faith touching the
     doctrine of free will.

     ARTICLE IX

     Item, thou hast said that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret
     promised to lead thee to Paradise provided thou didst remain
     a virgin; and that thou hadst vowed and promised them to
     cherish thy virginity, and of that thou art as well assured
     as if already thou hadst entered into the glory of the
     Blessed. Thou believest that thou hast not committed mortal
     sin. And it seemeth to thee that if thou wert in mortal sin
     the saints would not visit thee daily as they do.

     Such an assertion the clerks pronounce to be a pernicious
     lie, presumptuous and rash, that therein lieth a
     contradiction of what thou hadst previously said, and that
     finally thy beliefs do err from the true Christian faith.

     ARTICLE X

     Item, thou hast declared it to be within thy knowledge that
     God loveth certain living persons better than thee, and that
     this thou hast learnt by revelation from Saint Catherine and
     Saint Margaret: also that those saints speak French, not
     English, since they are not on the side of the English. And
     when thou knewest that thy Voices were for thy King, you
     didst fall to disliking the Burgundians.

     Such matters the clerks pronounce to be a rash and
     presumptuous assertion, a superstitious divination, a
     blasphemy uttered against Saint Catherine and Saint
     Margaret, and a transgression of the commandment to love our
     neighbours.

     ARTICLE XI

     Item, thou hast said that to those whom thou callest Saint
     Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, thou didst do
     reverence, bending the knee, taking off thy cap, kissing the
     ground on which they trod, vowing to them thy virginity:
     that in the instruction of these saints, whom thou didst
     invoke and kiss and embrace, thou didst believe as soon as
     they appeared unto thee, and without seeking counsel from
     thy priest or from any other ecclesiastic. And,
     notwithstanding, thou believest that these Voices came from
     God as firmly as thou believest in the Christian religion
     and the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover thou hast
     said that did any evil spirit appear to thee in the form of
     Saint Michael thou wouldest know such a spirit and
     distinguish him from the saint. And again hast thou said,
     that of thine own accord, thou hast sworn not to reveal the
     sign thou gavest to thy King. And finally thou didst add:
     "Save at God's command."

     Now touching these matters, the clerks affirm that supposing
     thou hast had the revelations and beheld the apparitions of
     which thou boastest and in such a manner as thou dost say,
     then art thou an idolatress, an invoker of demons, an
     apostate from the faith, a maker of rash statements, a
     swearer of an unlawful oath.

     ARTICLE XII

     Item, thou hast said that if the Church wished thee to
     disobey the orders thou sayest God gave thee, nothing would
     induce thee to do it; that thou knowest that all the deeds
     of which thou hast been accused in thy trial were wrought
     according to the command of God and that it was impossible
     for thee to do otherwise. Touching these deeds, thou dost
     refuse to submit to the judgment of the Church on earth or
     of any living man, and will submit therein to God alone. And
     moreover thou didst declare this reply itself not to be made
     of thine own accord but by God's command; despite the
     article of faith: _Unam sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam_,
     having been many times declared unto thee, and
     notwithstanding that it behoveth all Christians to submit
     their deeds and sayings to the Church militant especially
     concerning revelations and such like matters.

     Wherefore the clerks declare thee to be schismatic,
     disbelieving in the unity and authority of the Church,
     apostate and obstinately erring from the faith.[2444]

[Footnote 2444: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 430, 437.]

Having completed the reading of the articles, Maître Pierre Maurice,
on the invitation of the Bishop, proceeded to exhort Jeanne. He had
been rector of the University of Paris in 1428.[2445] He was esteemed
an orator. He it was who, on the 5th of June, had discoursed in the
name of the chapter, before King Henry VI on the occasion of his
entering Rouen. He would seem to have been distinguished by some
knowledge of and taste for ancient letters, and to have been possessed
of precious manuscripts, amongst which were the comedies of Terence
and the _Æneid_ of Virgil.[2446]

[Footnote 2445: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol.
v, p. 929.]

[Footnote 2446: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 88.]

In terms of calculated simplicity did this illustrious doctor call
upon Jeanne to reflect on the effects of her words and sayings, and
tenderly did he exhort her to submit to the Church. After the wormwood
he offered her the honey; he spoke to her in words kind and familiar.
With remarkable adroitness he entered into the feelings and
inclinations of the maiden's heart. Seeing her filled with knightly
enthusiasm and loyalty to King Charles, whose coronation was her
doing, he drew his comparisons from chivalry, thereby essaying to
prove to her that she ought rather to believe in the Church Militant
than in her Voices and apparitions.

"If your King," he said to her, "had appointed you to defend a
fortress, forbidding you to let any one enter it, would you not refuse
to admit whomsoever claiming to come from him did not present letters
and some other token. Likewise, when Our Lord Jesus Christ, on his
ascension into heaven, committed to the Blessed Apostle Peter and to
his successors the government of his Church, he forbade them to
receive such as claimed to come in his name but brought no
credentials."

And, to bring home to her how grievous a sin it was to disobey the
Church, he recalled the time when she waged war, and put the case of a
knight who should disobey his king:

"When you were in your King's dominion," he said to her, "if a knight
or some other owing fealty to him had arisen, saying, 'I will not obey
the King; I will not submit either to him or to his officers,' would
you not have said, 'He is a man to be censured'? What say you then of
yourself, you who, engendered in Christ's religion, having become by
baptism the daughter of the Church and the bride of Christ, dost now
refuse obedience to the officers of Christ, that is, to the prelates
of the Church?"[2447]

[Footnote 2447: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 437, 441.]

Thus did Maître Pierre Maurice endeavour to make Jeanne understand
him. He did not succeed. Against the courage of this child all the
reasons and all the eloquence of the world would have availed nothing.
When Maître Pierre had finished speaking, Jeanne, being asked whether
she did not hold herself bound to submit her deeds and sayings to the
Church, replied:

"What I have always held and said in the trial that will I
maintain.... If I were condemned and saw the fagots lighted, and the
executioner ready to stir the fire, and I in the fire, I would say and
maintain till I died nought other than what I said during the trial."

At these words the Bishop declared the discussion at an end, and
deferred the pronouncing of the sentence till the morrow.[2448]

[Footnote 2448: _Ibid._, pp. 441, 442.]

The next day, the Thursday after Whitsuntide and the 24th day of May,
early in the morning, Maître Jean Beaupère visited Jeanne in her
prison and warned her that she would be shortly taken to the scaffold
to hear a sermon.

"If you are a good Christian," he said, "you will agree to submit all
your deeds and sayings to Holy Mother Church, and especially to the
ecclesiastical judges."

Maître Jean Beaupère thought he heard her reply, "So I will."[2449]

[Footnote 2449: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 21.]

If such were her answer, then it must have been because, worn out by a
flight of agony, her physical courage quailed at the thought of death
by burning.

Just when he was leaving her, as she stood near a door, Maître Nicolas
Loiseleur gave her the same advice, and in order to induce her to
follow it, he made her a false promise:

"Jeanne, believe me," he said. "You have your deliverance in your own
hands. Wear the apparel of your sex, and do what shall be required of
you. Otherwise you stand in danger of death. If you do as I tell you,
good will come to you and no harm. You will be delivered into the
hands of the Church."[2450]

[Footnote 2450: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 146. De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur
les juges_, pp. 445 _et seq._]

She was taken in a cart and with an armed guard to that part of the
town called Bourg-l'Abbé, lying beneath the castle walls. And but a
short distance away the cart was stopped, in the cemetery of
Saint-Ouen, also called _les aitres[2451] Saint-Ouen_. Here a highly
popular fair was held every year on the feast day of the patron saint
of the Abbey.[2452] Here it was that Jeanne was to hear the sermon, as
so many other unhappy creatures had done before her. Places like this,
to which the folk could flock in crowds, were generally chosen for
these edifying spectacles. On the border of this vast charnel-house
for a hundred years there had towered a parish church, and on the
south there rose the nave of the abbey. Against the magnificent
edifice of the church two scaffolds had been erected,[2453] one large,
the other smaller. They were west of the porch which was called
_portail des Marmousets_, because of the multitudes of tiny figures
carved upon it.[2454]

[Footnote 2451: Old name for a cemetery close to a church. Godefroy,
_Lexique de l'ancien français_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2452: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 351.]

[Footnote 2453: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 54.]

[Footnote 2454: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur le cimetière de Saint-Ouen
de Rouen_, in _Précis analytique des travaux de l'Académie de Rouen_
1875-1876, pp. 211, 230, plan. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne
d'Arc et l'authenticité de sa formule_, p. 44. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne
d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 351.]

On the great scaffold the two judges, the Lord Bishop and the
Vice-Inquisitor, took their places. They were assisted by the most
reverend Cardinal of Winchester, the Lord Bishops of Thérouanne, of
Noyon, and of Norwich, the Lord Abbots of Fécamp, of Jumièges, of Bec,
of Corneilles, of Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Péril-de-la-Mer, of Mortemart,
of Préaux, and of Saint-Ouen of Rouen, where the assembly was held,
the Priors of Longueville and of Saint-Lô, also many doctors and
bachelors in theology, doctors and licentiates in canon and civil
law.[2455] Likewise were there many high personages of the English
party. The other scaffold was a kind of pulpit. To it ascended the
doctor who, according to the use and custom of the Holy Inquisition
was to preach the sermon against Jeanne. He was Maître Guillaume
Erard, doctor in theology, canon of the churches of Langres and of
Beauvais.[2456] At this time he was very eager to go to Flanders, where
he was urgently needed; and he confided to his young servitor,
Brother Jean de Lenisoles, that the preaching of this sermon caused
him great inconvenience. "I want to be in Flanders," he said. "This
affair is very annoying for me."[2457]

[Footnote 2455: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 442, 444. O'Reilly, _Les deux
procès_, vol. i, pp. 70-93.]

[Footnote 2456: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 402, 408.]

[Footnote 2457: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 113.]

From one point of view, however, he must have been pleased to perform
this duty, since it afforded him the opportunity of attacking the King
of France, Charles VII, and of thereby showing his devotion to the
English cause, to which he was strongly attached.

Jeanne, dressed as a man, was brought up and placed at his side,
before all the people.[2458]

[Footnote 2458: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 469, 470.]

Maître Guillaume Erard began his sermon in the following manner:

"I take as my text the words of God in the Gospel of Saint John,
chapter xv: 'The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide
in the vine.'[2459] Thus it behoveth all Catholics to remain abiding in
Holy Mother Church, the true vine, which the hand of Our Lord Jesus
Christ hath planted. Now this Jeanne, whom you see before you, falling
from error into error, and from crime into crime, hath become separate
from the unity of Holy Mother Church and in a thousand manners hath
scandalised Christian people."

[Footnote 2459: _Ibid._, p. 444. E. Richer, _Histoire manuscrite de la
Pucelle d'Orléans_, bk. i, fol. 8; bk. ii, fol. 198, v'o.]

Then he reproached her with having failed, with having sinned against
royal Majesty and against God and the Catholic Faith; and all these
things must she henceforth eschew under pain of death by burning.

He declaimed vehemently against the pride of this woman. He said that
never had there appeared in France a monster so great as that which
was manifest in Jeanne; that she was a witch, a heretic, a schismatic,
and that the King, who protected her, risked the same reproach from
the moment that he became willing to recover his throne with the help
of such a heretic.[2460]

[Footnote 2460: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 61.]

Towards the middle of his sermon, he cried out with a loud voice:

"Ah! right terribly hast thou been deceived, noble house of France,
once the most Christian of houses! Charles, who calls himself thy head
and assumes the title of King hath, like a heretic and schismatic,
received the words of an infamous woman, abounding in evil works and
in all dishonour. And not he alone, but all the clergy in his lordship
and dominion, by whom this woman, so she sayeth, hath been examined
and not rejected. Full sore is the pity of it."[2461]

[Footnote 2461: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 15, 17.]

Two or three times did Maître Guillaume repeat these words concerning
King Charles. Then pointing at Jeanne with his finger he said:

"It is to you, Jeanne, that I speak; and I say unto you that your King
is a heretic and a schismatic."

At these words Jeanne was deeply wounded in her love for the Lilies of
France and for King Charles. She was moved with great feeling, and she
heard her Voices saying unto her:

"Reply boldly to the preacher who is preaching to you."[2462]

[Footnote 2462: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 456, 457. U. Chevalier,
_L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 46, 47.]

Then obeying them heartily, she interrupted Maître Jean:

"By my troth, Messire," she said to him, "saving your reverence, I
dare say unto you and swear at the risk of my life, that he is the
noblest Christian of all Christians, that none loveth better religion
and the Church, and that he is not at all what you say."[2463]

[Footnote 2463: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 15, 17, 335, 345, 353, 367.]

Maître Guillaume ordered the Usher, Jean Massieu, to silence her.[2464]
Then he went on with his sermon, and concluded with these words:
"Jeanne, behold my Lords the Judges, who oftentimes have summoned you
and required you to submit all your acts and sayings to Mother Church.
In these acts and sayings were many things which, so it seemed to
these clerics, were good neither to say nor to maintain."[2465]

[Footnote 2464: _Ibid._, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2465: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 444, 445.]

"I will answer you," said Jeanne. Touching the article of submission
to the Church, she recalled how she had asked for all the deeds she
had wrought and the words she had uttered to be reported to Rome, to
Our Holy Father the Pope, to whom, after God, she appealed. Then she
added: "And as for the sayings I have uttered and the deeds I have
done, they have all been by God's command."[2466]

[Footnote 2466: _Ibid._, p. 445.]

She declared that she had not understood that the record of her trial
was being sent to Rome to be judged by the Pope.

"I will not have it thus," she said. "I know not what you will insert
in the record of these proceedings. I demand to be taken to the Pope
and questioned by him."[2467]

[Footnote 2467: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 358.]

They urged her to incriminate her King. But they wasted their breath.

"For my deeds and sayings I hold no man responsible, neither my King
nor another."[2468]

[Footnote 2468: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 445.]

"Will you abjure all your deeds and sayings? Will you abjure such of
your deeds and sayings as have been condemned by the clerks?"

"I appeal to God and to Our Holy Father, the Pope."

"But that is not sufficient. We cannot go so far to seek the Pope.
Each Ordinary is judge in his own diocese. Wherefore it is needful for
you to appeal to Our Holy Mother Church, and to hold as true all that
clerks and folks well learned in the matter say and determine touching
your actions and your sayings."[2469]

[Footnote 2469: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 445, 446.]

Admonished with yet a third admonition, Jeanne refused to recant.[2470]
With confidence she awaited the deliverance promised by her Voices,
certain that of a sudden there would come men-at-arms from France and
that in one great tumult of fighting-men and angels she would be
liberated. That was why she had insisted on retaining man's attire.

[Footnote 2470: _Ibid._, p. 446.]

Two sentences had been prepared: one for the case in which the accused
should abjure her error, the other for the case in which she should
persevere. By the first there was removed from Jeanne the ban of
excommunication. By the second, the tribunal, declaring that it could
do nothing more for her, abandoned her to the secular arm. The Lord
Bishop had them both with him.[2471]

[Footnote 2471: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 146.]

He took the second and began to read: "In the name of the Lord, Amen.
All the pastors of the Church who have it in their hearts faithfully
to tend their flocks...."[2472]

[Footnote 2472: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 473.]

Meanwhile, as he read, the clerks who were round Jeanne urged her to
recant, while there was yet time. Maître Nicolas Loiseleur exhorted
her to do as he had recommended, and to put on woman's dress.[2473]

[Footnote 2473: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 146.]

Maître Guillaume Erard was saying: "Do as you are advised and you will
be delivered from prison."[2474]

[Footnote 2474: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 17, 331; vol. iii, pp. 52, 156.]

Then straightway came the Voices unto her and said: "Jeanne, passing
sore is our pity for you! You must recant what you have said, or we
abandon you to secular justice.... Jeanne, do as you are advised.
Jeanne, will you bring death upon yourself!"[2475]

[Footnote 2475: _Ibid._, p. 123.]

The sentence was long and the Lord Bishop read slowly:

     "We judges, having Christ before our eyes and also the
     honour of the true faith, in order that our judgment may
     proceed from the Lord himself, do say and decree that thou
     hast been a liar, an inventor of revelations and apparitions
     said to be divine; a deceiver, pernicious, presumptuous,
     light of faith, rash, superstitious, a soothsayer, a
     blasphemer against God and his saints. We declare thee to be
     a contemner of God even in his sacraments, a prevaricator of
     divine law, of sacred doctrine and of ecclesiastical
     sanction, seditious, cruel, apostate, schismatic, having
     committed a thousand errors against religion, and by all
     these tokens rashly guilty towards God and Holy
     Church.[2476]"

[Footnote 2476: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 474, 475.]

Time was passing. Already the Lord Bishop had uttered the greater part
of the sentence.[2477] The executioner was there, ready to take off the
condemned in his cart.[2478]

[Footnote 2477: _Ibid._, p. 473 note.]

[Footnote 2478: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 65, 147, 149, 273. De
Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur le procès_, p. 358.]

Then suddenly, with hands clasped, Jeanne cried that she was willing
to obey the Church.[2479]

[Footnote 2479: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 323.]

The judge paused in the reading of the sentence.

An uproar arose in the crowd, consisting largely of English
men-at-arms and officers of King Henry. Ignorant of the customs of the
Inquisition, which had not been introduced into their country, these
_Godons_ could not understand what was going on; all they knew was
that the witch was saved. Now they held Jeanne's death to be necessary
for the welfare of England; wherefore the unaccountable actions of
these doctors and the Lord Bishop threw them into a fury. In their
Island witches were not treated thus; no mercy was shown them, and
they were burned speedily. Angry murmurs arose; stones were thrown at
the registrars of the trial.[2480] Maître Pierre Maurice, who was doing
his best to strengthen Jeanne in the resolution she had taken, was
threatened and the _coués_ very nearly made short work with him.[2481]
Neither did Maître Jean Beaupère and the delegates from the University
of Paris escape their share of the insults. They were accused of
favouring Jeanne's errors.[2482] Who better than they knew the
injustice of these reproaches?

[Footnote 2480: _Ibid._, pp. 137, 376.]

[Footnote 2481: _Ibid._, p. 356; vol. iii, pp. 157, 178.]

[Footnote 2482: _Ibid._, p. 55.]

Certain of the high personages sitting on the platform at the side of
the judge complained to the Lord Bishop that he had not gone on to the
end of the sentence but had admitted Jeanne to repentance.

He was even reproached with insults, for one was heard to cry: "You
shall pay for this."

He threatened to suspend the trial.

"I have been insulted," he said. "I will proceed no further until
honourable amends have been done me."[2483]

[Footnote 2483: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 90, 147, 156.]

In the tumult, Maître Guillaume Erard unfolded a double sheet of
paper, and read Jeanne the form of abjuration, written down according
to the opinion of the masters. It was no longer than the Lord's Prayer
and consisted of six or seven lines of writing. It was in French and
began with these words: "I, Jeanne...." The Maid submitted therein to
the sentence, the judgment, and the commandment of the Church; she
acknowledged having committed the crime of high treason and having
deceived the people. She undertook never again to bear arms or to wear
man's dress or her hair cut round her ears.[2484]

[Footnote 2484: _Ibid._, pp. 52, 65, 132, 156, 197. U. Chevalier,
_L'Abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_.]

When Maître Guillaume had read the document, Jeanne declared she did
not understand it, and wished to be advised thereupon.[2485] She was
heard to ask counsel of Saint Michael.[2486] She still believed firmly
in her Voices, albeit they had not aided her in her dire necessity,
neither had spared her the shame of denying them. For, simple as she
was, at the bottom of her heart she knew well what the clerks were
asking of her; she realised that they would not let her go until she
had pronounced a great recantation. All that she said was merely in
order to gain time and because she was afraid of death; yet she could
not bring herself to lie.

[Footnote 2485: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 156, 157 (evidence of Jean
Massieu, Usher of the court).]

[Footnote 2486: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 323.]

Without losing a moment Maître Guillaume said to Messire Jean
Massieu, the Usher: "Advise her touching this abjuration."

And he passed him the document.[2487]

[Footnote 2487: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 157.]

Messire Jean Massieu at first made excuse, but afterwards he complied
and warned Jeanne of the danger she was running by her refusal to
recant.

"You must know," he said, "that if you oppose any of these articles
you will be burned. I counsel you to appeal to the Church Universal as
to whether you should abjure these articles or not."

Maître Guillaume Erard asked Jean Massieu: "Well, what are you saying
to her?"

Jean Massieu replied: "I make known unto Jeanne the text of the deed
of abjuration and I urge her to sign it. But she declares that she
knoweth not whether she will."

At this juncture, Jeanne, who was still being pressed to sign, said
aloud: "I wish the Church to deliberate on the articles. I appeal to
the Church Universal as to whether I should abjure them. Let the
document be read by the Church and the clerks into whose hands I am to
be delivered. If it be their counsel that I ought to sign it and do
what I am told, then willingly will I do it."[2488]

[Footnote 2488: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 331; vol. iii, p. 157. This deed,
written in a large hand and containing but a few lines, appears to be
an abridgment of that contained in the _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 447, 448
(cf. vol. iii, pp. 156, 197).]

Maître Guillaume Erard replied: "Do it now, or you will be burned this
very day."

And he forbade Jean Massieu to confer with her any longer.

Whereupon Jeanne said that she would liefer sign than be burned.[2489]

[Footnote 2489: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 156, 197.]

Then straightway Messire Jean Massieu gave her a second reading of the
deed of abjuration. And she repeated the words after the Usher. As she
spoke her countenance seemed to express a kind of sneer. It may have
been that her features were contracted by the violent emotions which
swayed her and that the horrors and tortures of an ecclesiastical
trial may have overclouded her reason, subject at all times to strange
vagaries, and that after such bitter suffering there may have come
upon her the actual paroxysm of madness. On the other hand it may have
been that with sound sense and calm mind she was mocking at the clerks
of Rouen; she was quite capable of it, for she had mocked at the
clerks of Poitiers. At any rate she had a jesting air, and the
bystanders noticed that she pronounced the words of her abjuration
with a smile.[2490] And her gaiety, whether real or apparent, roused
the wrath of those burgesses, priests, artisans, and men-at-arms who
desired her death.

[Footnote 2490: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 338; vol. iii, p. 147.]

"'Tis all a mockery. Jeanne doth but jest,"[2491] they cried.

[Footnote 2491: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 143.]

Among the most irate was Master Lawrence Calot, Secretary to the King
of England. He was seen to be in a violent rage and to approach first
the judge and then the accused. A noble of Picardy who was present,
the very same who had essayed familiarities with Jeanne in the Castle
of Beaurevoir, thought he saw this Englishman forcing Jeanne to sign a
paper.[2492] He was mistaken. In every crowd there are those who see
things that never happen. The Bishop would not have permitted such a
thing; he was devoted to the Regent, but on a question of form he
would never have given way. Meanwhile, under this storm of insults,
amidst the throwing of stones and the clashing of swords, these
illustrious masters, these worthy doctors grew pale. The Prior of
Longueville was awaiting an opportunity to make an apology to the
Cardinal of Winchester.[2493]

[Footnote 2492: _Ibid._, p. 123.]

[Footnote 2493: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 361. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, p. 135.]

On the platform a chaplain of the Cardinal violently accused the Lord
Bishop. "You do wrong to accept such an abjuration. 'Tis a mere
mockery," he said.

"You lie," retorted my Lord Pierre. "I, the judge of a religious suit,
ought to seek the salvation of this woman rather than her death."

The Cardinal silenced his chaplain.[2494]

[Footnote 2494: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 147, 156.]

It is said that the Earl of Warwick came up to the judges and
complained of what they had done, adding: "The King is not well
served, since Jeanne escapes."

And it is stated that one of them replied: "Have no fear, my Lord. She
will not escape us long."[2495]

[Footnote 2495: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 376.]

It is hardly credible that any one should have actually said so, but
doubtless there were many at that time who thought it.

With what scorn must the Bishop of Beauvais have regarded those dull
minds, incapable of understanding the service he was rendering to Old
England by forcing this damsel to acknowledge that all she had
declared and maintained in honour of her King was but lying and
illusion.

With a pen that Massieu gave her Jeanne made a cross at the bottom of
the deed.[2496]

[Footnote 2496: _Ibid._, p. 17; vol. iii, p. 164.]

In the midst of howls and oaths from the English, my Lord of Beauvais
read the more merciful of the sentences. It relieved Jeanne from
excommunication and reconciled her to Holy Mother Church.[2497] Further
the sentence ran:

     "... Because thou hast rashly sinned against God and Holy
     Church, we, thy judges, that thou mayest do salutary
     penance, out of our Grace and moderation, do condemn thee
     finally and definitely to perpetual prison, with the bread
     of sorrow and the water of affliction, so that there thou
     mayest weep over thy offences and commit no other that may
     be an occasion of weeping."[2498]

[Footnote 2497: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 450, 452.]

[Footnote 2498: _Ibid._, p. 452.]

This penalty, like all other penalties, save death and mutilation, lay
within the power of ecclesiastical judges. They inflicted it so
frequently that in the early days of the Holy Inquisition, the Fathers
of the Council of Narbonne said that stones and mortar would become as
scarce as money.[2499] It was a penalty doubtless, but one which in
character and significance differed from the penalties inflicted by
secular courts; it was a penance. According to the mercy of
ecclesiastical law, prison was a place suitable for repentance, where,
in one perpetual penance, the condemned might eat the bread of sorrow
and drink the waters of affliction.

[Footnote 2499: L. Tanon, _Tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p. 454.]

How foolish was he, who by refusing to enter that prison or by
escaping from it, should reject the salutary healing of his soul! By
so doing he was fleeing from the gentle tribunal of penance, and the
Church in sadness cut him off from the communion of the faithful. By
inflicting this penalty, which a good Catholic must needs regard
rather as a favour than a punishment, my Lord the Bishop and my Lord
the Holy Vicar of the Inquisition were conforming to the custom,
whereby our Holy Mother Church became reconciled to heretics. But had
they power to execute their sentence? The prison to which they
condemned Jeanne, the expiatory prison, the salutary confinement, must
be in a dungeon of the Church. Could they send her there?

Jeanne, turning towards them, said: "Now, you Churchmen, take me to
your prison. Let me be no longer in the hands of the English."[2500]

[Footnote 2500: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 14.]

Many of those clerics had promised it to her.[2501] They had deceived
her. They knew it was not possible; for it had been stipulated that
the King of England's men should resume possession of Jeanne after the
trial.[2502]

[Footnote 2501: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 52, 149.]

[Footnote 2502: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 19.]

The Lord Bishop gave the order: "Take her back to the place whence you
brought her."[2503]

[Footnote 2503: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 14.]

He, a judge of the Church, committed the crime of surrendering the
Church's daughter reconciled and penitent, to laymen. Among them she
could not mourn over her sins; and they, hating her body and caring
nought for her soul, were to tempt her and cause her to fall back into
error.

While Jeanne was being taken back in the cart to her tower in the
fields, the soldiers insulted her and their captains did not rebuke
them.[2504]

[Footnote 2504: _Ibid._, p. 376.]

Thereafter, the Vice-Inquisitor and with him divers doctors and
masters, went to her prison and charitably exhorted her. She promised
to wear woman's apparel, and to let her head be shaved.[2505]

[Footnote 2505: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 452-453.]

The Duchess of Bedford, knowing that she was a virgin, saw to it that
she was treated with respect.[2506] As the ladies of Luxembourg had
done formerly, she essayed to persuade her to wear the clothing of her
sex. By a certain tailor, one Jeannotin Simon, she had had made for
Jeanne a gown which she had hitherto refused to wear. Jeannotin
brought the garment to the prisoner, who this time did not refuse it.
In putting it on, Jeannotin touched her bosom, which she resented. She
boxed his ears;[2507] but she consented to wear the gown provided by
the Duchess.

[Footnote 2506: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 155.]

[Footnote 2507: _Ibid._, p. 89.]




CHAPTER XIV

THE TRIAL FOR RELAPSE--SECOND SENTENCE--DEATH OF THE MAID


On the following Sunday, which was Trinity Sunday, there arose a
rumour that Jeanne had resumed man's apparel. The report spread
rapidly from the castle down the narrow streets where lived the clerks
in the shadow of the cathedral. Straightway notaries and assessors
hastened to the tower which looked on the fields.

In the outer court of the castle they found some hundred men-at-arms,
who welcomed them with threats and curses.[2508] These fellows did not
yet understand that the judges had conducted the trial so as to bring
honour to old England and dishonour to the French. They did not
realise what it meant when the Maid of the Armagnacs, who hitherto had
obstinately persisted in her utterances, was at length brought to
confess her impostures. They did not see how great was the advantage
to their country when it was published abroad throughout the world
that Charles of Valois had been conducted to his coronation by a
heretic. But no, the only idea these brutes were capable of grasping
was the burning of the girl prisoner who had struck terror into their
hearts. The doctors and masters they treated as traitors, false
counsellors and Armagnacs.[2509]

[Footnote 2508: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 148.]

[Footnote 2509: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 14; vol. iii, p. 148.]

In the castle yard is Maître André Marguerie, bachelor in decrees,
archdeacon of Petit-Caux, King's Counsellor,[2510] who is inquiring
what has happened. He had displayed great assiduity in the trial. The
Maid he held to be a crafty damsel.[2511] Now again he desired to give
an expert's judgment touching what had just occurred.

[Footnote 2510: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, pp. 82 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 2511: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 354.]

"That Jeanne is to be seen dressed as a man is not everything," he
said. "We must know what motives induced her to resume masculine
attire."

Maître André Marguerie was an eloquent orator, one of the shining
lights of the Council of Constance. But, when a man-at-arms raised his
axe against him and called out "Traitor! Armagnac!" Maître Marguerie
asked no further questions, but speedily departed, and went to bed
very sick.[2512]

[Footnote 2512: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 158, 180.]

The next day, Monday the 25th, there came to the castle the
Vice-Inquisitor, accompanied by divers doctors and masters. The
Registrar, Messire Guillaume Manchon, was summoned. He was such a
coward that he dared not come save under the escort of one of the Earl
of Warwick's men-at-arms.[2513] They found Jeanne wearing man's
apparel, jerkin and short tunic, with a hood covering her shaved head.
Her face was in tears and disfigured by terrible suffering.[2514]

[Footnote 2513: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 454; vol. iii, p. 148.]

[Footnote 2514: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 5. Isambart's evidence refers to
this day, the 28th.]

She was asked when and why she had assumed this attire.

She replied: "'Tis but now that I have donned man's dress and put off
woman's."

"Wherefore did you put it on and who made you?"

"I put it on of my own will and without constraint. I had liefer wear
man's dress than woman's."

"You promised and swore not to wear man's dress."

"I never meant to take an oath not to wear it."

"Wherefore did you return to it?"

"Because it is more seemly to take it and wear man's dress, being
amongst men, than to wear woman's dress.... I returned to it because
the promise made me was not kept, to wit, that I should go to mass and
should receive my Saviour and be loosed from my bonds."

"Did you not abjure, and promise not to return to this dress?"

"I had liefer die than be in bonds. But if I be allowed to go to mass
and taken out of my bonds and put in a prison of grace, and given a
woman to be with me, I will be good and do as the Church shall
command."

"Have you heard your Voices since Thursday?"

"Yes."

"What did they say unto you?"

"They told me that through Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret God gave
me to wit his sore pity for the treachery, to which I consented in
abjuring and recanting to save my life, and that in saving my life I
was losing my soul. Before Thursday my Voices had told me what I
should do and what I did do on that day. On the scaffold my Voices
told me to reply boldly to the preacher. He is a false preacher....
Many things did he say that I have never done. If I were to say that
God has not sent me I should be damned. It is true that God has sent
me. My Voices have since told me that by confessing I committed a
great wickedness which I ought never to have done. All that I said I
uttered through fear of the fire."[2515]

[Footnote 2515: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 455-457.]

Thus spake Jeanne in sore sorrow. And now what becomes of those
monkish tales of attempted violence related long afterwards by a
registrar and two churchmen?[2516] And how can Messire Massieu make us
believe that Jeanne, unable to find her petticoats, put on her hose in
order not to appear before her guards unclothed?[2517] The truth is
very different. It is Jeanne herself who confesses bravely and simply.
She repented of her abjuration, as of the greatest sin she had ever
committed. She could not forgive herself for having lied through fear
of death. Her Voices, who, before the sermon at Saint-Ouen had
foretold that she would deny them, now came to her and spoke of "the
sore pity of her treachery." Could they say otherwise since they were
the voices of her own heart? And could Jeanne fail to listen to them
since she had always listened to them whenever they had counselled her
to sacrifice and self-abnegation?

[Footnote 2516: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 5, 8, 365; vol. iii, pp. 148,
149.]

[Footnote 2517: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 18.]

It was out of obedience to her heavenly _Council_ that Jeanne had
returned to man's apparel, because she would not purchase her life at
the price of denying the Angel and the Saints, and because with her
whole heart and soul she rebelled against her recantation.

Still the English were seriously to blame for having left her man's
clothes. It would have been more humane to have taken them from her,
since if she wore them she must needs die. They had been put in a
bag.[2518] Her guards may even be suspected of having tempted her by
placing under her very eyes those garments which recalled to her days
of happiness. They had taken away all her few possessions, even her
poor brass ring, everything save that suit which meant death to her.

[Footnote 2518: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 18.]

To blame also were her ecclesiastical judges who should not have
sentenced her to imprisonment if they foresaw that they could not
place her in an ecclesiastical prison, nor have commanded her a
penance which they knew they were unable to enforce. Likewise to blame
were the Bishop of Beauvais and the Vice-Inquisitor; because after
having, for the good of her sinful soul, prescribed the bread of
bitterness and the water of affliction, they gave her not this bread
and this water, but delivered her in disgrace into the hands of her
cruel enemies.

When she uttered the words, "God by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret
hath given me to wit the sore pity of the treason to which I
consented," Jeanne consummated the sacrifice of her life.[2519]

[Footnote 2519: "_Responsio mortifera_," wrote the notary Boisguillaume
in the margin of his minutes. _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 456, 457.]

The Bishop and the Inquisitor had now to proceed in conformity with
the law. The interrogatory however lasted a few moments longer.

"Do you believe that your Voices are Saint Margaret and Saint
Catherine?"

"Yes, and they come from God."

"Tell us the truth touching the crown."

"To the best of my knowledge I told you the truth of everything at the
trial."

"On the scaffold, at the time of your abjuration, you did acknowledge
before us your judges and before many others, and in the presence of
the people, that you had falsely boasted your Voices to be those of
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret."

"I did not mean thus to do or to say. I did not deny, neither did I
intend to deny, my apparitions and to say that they were not Saint
Margaret and Saint Catherine. All that I have said was through fear of
the fire, and I recanted nothing that was not contrary to the truth. I
had liefer do my penance once and for all, to wit by dying, than
endure further anguish in prison. Whatsoever abjuration I have been
forced to make, I never did anything against God and religion. I did
not understand what was in the deed of abjuration, wherefore I did not
mean to abjure anything unless it were Our Lord's will. If the judges
wish I will resume my woman's dress. But nothing else will I do."[2520]

[Footnote 2520: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 456-458.]

Coming out of the prison, my Lord of Beauvais met the Earl of Warwick
accompanied by many persons. He said to him: "Farewell. _Faites bonne
chère._" It is said that he added, laughing: "It is done! We have
caught her."[2521] The words are his, doubtless, but we are not certain
that he laughed.

[Footnote 2521: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 5, 8, 305.]

On the morrow, Tuesday the 29th, he assembled the tribunal in the
chapel of the Archbishop's house. The forty-two assessors present were
informed of what had happened on the previous day and invited to state
their opinions, the nature of which might easily be anticipated.[2522]
Every heretic who retracted his confession was held a perjurer, not
only impenitent but relapsed. And the relapsed were given up to the
secular arm.[2523]

[Footnote 2522: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 459, 467.]

[Footnote 2523: Bernard Gui, _Pratique_, part iii, p. 144. L. Tanon,
_Tribunaux de l'inquisition_, pp. 464 _et seq._]

Maître Nicholas de Venderès, canon, archdeacon, was the first to state
his opinion.

"Jeanne is and must be held a heretic. She must be delivered to the
secular authority."[2524]

[Footnote 2524: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 462, 463.]

The Lord Abbot of Fécamp expressed his opinion in the following terms:
"Jeanne has relapsed. Nevertheless it is well that the terms of her
abjuration once read to her, be read a second time and explained, and
that at the same time she be reminded of God's word. This done, it is
for us, her judges, to declare her a heretic and to abandon her to the
secular authority, entreating it to deal leniently with her."[2525]

[Footnote 2525: _Ibid._, p. 463.]

This plea for leniency was a mere matter of form. If the Provost of
Rouen had taken it into consideration he also would have been
excommunicated, with a further possibility of temporal punishment.[2526]
And yet there were certain counsellors who even wished to dispense with
this empty show of pity, urging that there was no need for such a
supplication.

[Footnote 2526: L. Tanon, _Tribunaux de l'inquisition_, pp. 472, 473.]

Maître Guillaume Erard and sundry other assessors, among whom were
Maîtres Marguerie, Loiseleur, Pierre Maurice, and Brother Martin
Ladvenu, were of the opinion of my Lord Abbot of Fécamp.[2527]

[Footnote 2527: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 463, 467.]

Maître Thomas de Courcelles advised the woman being again charitably
admonished touching the salvation of her soul.

Such likewise was the opinion of Brother Isambart de la Pierre.[2528]

[Footnote 2528: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 466.]

The Lord Bishop, having listened to these opinions, concluded that
Jeanne must be proceeded against as one having relapsed. Accordingly
he summoned her to appear on the morrow, the 30th of May, in the old
Market Square.[2529]

[Footnote 2529: _Ibid._, pp. 467, 469.]

On the morning of that Wednesday, the 30th of May, by the command of
my Lord of Beauvais, the two young friars preachers, bachelors in
theology, Brother Martin Ladvenu and Brother Isambart de la Pierre,
went to Jeanne in her prison. Brother Martin told her that she was to
die that day.

At the approach of this cruel death, amidst the silence of her Voices,
she understood at length that she would not be delivered. Cruelly
awakened from her dream, she felt heaven and earth failing her, and
fell into a deep despair.

"Alas!" she cried, "shall so terrible a fate betide me as that my body
ever pure and intact shall to-day be burned and reduced to ashes? Ah
me! Ah me! Liefer would I be seven times beheaded than thus be burned.
Alas! had I been in the prison of the Church, to which I submitted,
and guarded by ecclesiastics and not by my foes and adversaries, so
woeful a misfortune as this would not have befallen me. Oh! I appeal
to God, the great judge, against this violence and these sore wrongs
with which I am afflicted."[2530]

[Footnote 2530: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 3, 4 (evidence of Brother
Isambart de la Pierre). _Ibid._, p. 8 (evidence of Brother Martin
Ladvenu).]

While she was lamenting, the doctors and masters, Nicolas de
Venderès, Pierre Maurice and Nicolas Loiseleur, entered the prison;
they came by order of my Lord of Beauvais.[2531] On the previous day
thirty-nine counsellers out of forty-two, declaring that Jeanne had
relapsed, had added that they deemed it well she should be reminded of
the terms of her abjuration.[2532] Wherefore, according to the counsel
of these clerics, the Lord Bishop had sent certain learned doctors to
the relapsed heretic and had resolved to come to her himself.

[Footnote 2531: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 481. (In the Introduction I have
given my reasons for regarding the information given after the death
of the Maid as possessing great historical significance.)]

[Footnote 2532: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 462-467.]

She must needs submit to one last examination.

"Do you believe that your Voices and apparitions come from good or
from evil spirits?"

"I know not; but I appeal to my Mother the Church."[2533]

[Footnote 2533: _Ibid._, p. 479. Or "to such of you as are churchmen."
_Ibid._, p. 482 (information furnished after her death).]

Maître Pierre Maurice, a reader of Terence and Virgil, was filled with
pity for this hapless Maid.[2534] On the previous day he had declared
her to have relapsed because his knowledge of theology forced him to
it; and now he was concerned for the salvation of this soul in peril,
which could not be saved except by recognising the falseness of its
Voices.

[Footnote 2534: Robillard de Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_.]

"Are they indeed real?" he asked her.

She replied, "Whether they be good or bad, they appeared to me."

She affirmed that with her eyes she had seen, with her ears heard, the
Voices and apparitions which had been spoken of at the trial.

She heard them most frequently, she said, at the hour of compline and
of matins, when the bells were ringing.[2535]

[Footnote 2535: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 480.]

Maître Pierre Maurice, being the Pope's secretary, was debarred from
openly professing the Pyrrhonic philosophy. He inclined, however, to a
rational interpretation of natural phenomena, if we may judge from his
remarking to Jeanne that the ringing of bells often sounded like
voices.

Without describing the exact form of her apparitions, Jeanne said they
came to her in a great multitude and were very tiny. She believed in
them no longer, being fully persuaded that they had deceived her.

Maître Pierre Maurice asked about the Angel who had brought the crown.

She replied that there had never been a crown save that promised by
her to her King, and that the Angel was herself.[2536]

[Footnote 2536: _Ibid._, pp. 480, 481 (information furnished after her
death).]

At that moment the Lord Bishop of Beauvais and the Vice-Inquisitor
entered the prison, accompanied by Maître Thomas de Courcelles and
Maître Jacques Lecamus.[2537]

[Footnote 2537: _Ibid._, pp. 482, 483.]

At the sight of the Judge who had brought her to such a pass she
cried, "Bishop, I die through you."

He replied by piously admonishing her. "Ah! Jeanne, bear all in
patience. You die because you have not kept your promise and have
returned to evil-doing.[2538] Now, Jeanne," he asked her, "you have
always said that your Voices promised you deliverance; you behold how
they have deceived you, wherefore tell us the truth."

[Footnote 2538: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 114 (evidence of Brother Jehan
Toutmouillé).]

She replied, "Verily, I see that they have deceived me."[2539]

[Footnote 2539: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 481, 482 (information given after
Jeanne's death).]

The Bishop and the Vice-Inquisitor withdrew. They had triumphed over a
poor girl of twenty.

"If after their condemnation heretics repent, and if the signs of
their repentance are manifest, the sacraments of confession and the
eucharist may not be denied them, provided they demand them with
humility."[2540] Thus ran the sacred decretals. But no recantation, no
assurance of conformity, could save the relapsed heretic. He was
permitted confession, absolution, and communion; which means that at
the bar of the Sacrament the sincerity of his repentance and
conversion was believed in. But at the same time it was declared
judicially that his repentance was not believed in and that
consequently he must die.[2541]

[Footnote 2540: _Textus decretalium_, lib. v, ch. iv.]

[Footnote 2541: Ignace de Doellinger, _La Papauté_, traduit par A.
Giraud-Teulon, Paris, 1904, in 8vo, p. 105.]

Brother Martin Ladvenu heard Jeanne's confession. Then he sent Messire
Massieu, the Usher, to my Lord of Beauvais, to inform him that she
asked to be given the body of Jesus Christ.

The Bishop assembled certain doctors to confer on this subject; and
after they had deliberated, he replied to the Usher: "Tell Brother
Martin to give her the communion and all that she shall ask."[2542]

[Footnote 2542: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 158.]

Messire Massieu returned to the castle to bear this reply to Brother
Martin. For a second time Brother Martin heard Jeanne in confession
and gave her absolution.[2543]

[Footnote 2543: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 334.]

A cleric, one Pierre, brought the body of Our Lord in an unceremonious
fashion, on a paten covered with the cloth used to put over the
chalice, without lights or procession, without surplice or stole.[2544]

[Footnote 2544: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 334. De Beaurepaire,
_Recherches sur le procès_, pp. 116, 117.]

This did not please Brother Martin, who sent to fetch a stole and
candles.

Then, taking the consecrated host in his fingers and presenting it to
Jeanne, he said: "Do you believe this to be the body of Christ?"

"Yes, and it alone is able to deliver me."

And she entreated that it should be given to her.

"Do you still believe in your Voices?" asked the officiating priest.

"I believe in God alone, and will place no trust in the Voices who
have thus deceived me."[2545]

[Footnote 2545: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 482, 483 (information procured
after Jeanne's death).]

And shedding many tears she received the body of Our Lord very
devoutly. Then to God, to the Virgin Mary and to the saints she
offered prayers beautiful and reverent and gave such signs of
repentance that those present were moved to tears.[2546]

[Footnote 2546: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 308, 320; vol. iii, pp. 114,
158, 183, 197.]

Contrite and sorrowful she said to Maître Pierre Maurice:[2547] "Maître
Pierre, where shall I be this evening?"

[Footnote 2547: For Jeanne's communion see also De Beaurepaire,
_Recherches sur le procès_, pp. 116-117.]

"Do you not trust in the Lord?" asked the canon.

"Yea, God helping me, I shall be in Paradise."[2548]

[Footnote 2548: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 191.]

Maître Nicolas Loiseleur exhorted her to correct the error she had
caused to grow up among the people.

"To this end you must openly declare that you have been deceived and
have deceived the folk and that you humbly ask pardon."

Then, fearing lest she might forget when the time came for her to be
publicly judged, she asked Brother Martin to put her in mind of this
matter and of others touching her salvation.[2549]

[Footnote 2549: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 485. Maître N. Taquel would lead us
to believe that the interrogatories took place after Jeanne's
communion, but this can hardly be admitted.]

Maître Loiseleur went away giving signs of violent grief. Walking
through the streets like a madman, he was howled at by the
_Godons_.[2550]

[Footnote 2550: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 320; vol. iii, p. 162.]

It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Brother Martin and
Messire Massieu took Jeanne out of the prison, wherein she had been in
bonds one hundred and seventy-eight days. She was placed in a cart,
and, escorted by eighty men-at-arms, was driven along the narrow
streets to the Old Market Square, close to the River.[2551] This square
was bordered on the east by a wooden market-house, the butcher's
market, on the west by the cemetery of Saint-Sauveur, on the edge of
which, towards the square, stood the church of Saint-Sauveur.[2552] In
this place three scaffolds had been raised, one against the northern
gable of the market-house; and in its erection several tiles of the
roof had been broken.[2553] On this scaffold Jeanne was to be
stationed, there to listen to the sermon. Another and a larger
scaffold had been erected adjoining the cemetery. There the judges and
the prelates were to sit.[2554] The pronouncing of sentence in a
religious trial was an act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. For the
place of its pronouncement the Inquisitor and the Ordinary preferred
consecrated territory, holy ground. True it is that a bull of Pope
Lucius forbade such sentences to be given in churches and cemeteries;
but the judges eluded this rule by recommending the secular arm to
modify its sentence. The third scaffold, opposite the second, was of
plaster, and stood in the middle of the square, on the spot whereon
executions usually took place. On it was piled the wood for the
burning. On the stake which surmounted it was a scroll bearing the
words:

"Jehanne, who hath caused herself to be called the Maid, a liar,
pernicious, deceiver of the people, soothsayer, superstitious, a
blasphemer against God, presumptuous, miscreant, boaster, idolatress,
cruel, dissolute, an invoker of devils, apostate, schismatic, and
heretic."[2555]

[Footnote 2551: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 369.]

[Footnote 2552: Bouquet, _Rouen aux différentes époques de son
histoire_, pp. 25 _et seq._ A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la
Normandie_, pp. 374, 375. De Beaurepaire, _Mémoires sur le lieu du
supplice de Jeanne d'Arc_, with plan of the Old Market Square of Rouen
according to the _Livre de fontaine de 1525_, Rouen, 1867, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 2553: De Beaurepaire, _Note sur la prise du château de Rouen,
par Ricarville_, Rouen, 1857, in 8vo, p. 5.]

[Footnote 2554: Bouquet, _Jeanne d'Arc au château de Rouen_, p. 25. De
Beaurepaire, _Mémoire sur le lieu du supplice de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 32.
A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, pp. 376 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2555: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459.]

The square was guarded by one hundred and sixty men-at-arms. A crowd
of curious folk pressed behind the guards, the windows were filled and
the roofs covered with onlookers. Jeanne was brought on to the
scaffold which had its back to the market-house gable. She wore a long
gown and hood.[2556] Maître Nicolas Midi, doctor in theology, came up
on to the same platform and began to preach to her.[2557] As the text
of his sermon he took the words of the Apostle in the first Epistle to
the Corinthians:[2558] "And whether one member suffer, all the members
suffer with it." Jeanne patiently listened to the sermon.[2559]

[Footnote 2556: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 470; vol. ii, pp. 14, 303, 328;
vol. iii, pp. 159, 173.]

[Footnote 2557: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 470; vol. ii, p. 334; vol. iii, pp.
53, 114, 159.]

[Footnote 2558: Chapter xii, 26 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2559: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 194.]

Then my Lord of Beauvais, in his own name and that of the
Vice-Inquisitor, pronounced the sentence.

He declared Jeanne to be a relapsed heretic.

"We declare that thou, Jeanne, art a corrupt member, and in order that
thou mayest not infect the other members, we are resolved to sever
thee from the unity of the Church, to tear thee from its body, and to
deliver thee to the secular power. And we reject thee, we tear thee
out, we abandon thee, beseeching this same secular power, that
touching death and the mutilation of the limbs, it may be pleased to
moderate its sentence...."[2560]

[Footnote 2560: _Ibid._, p. 159.]

By this formula, the ecclesiastical judge withdrew from any share in
the violent death of a fellow creature: _Ecclesia abhorret a
sanguine_.[2561] But every one knew how much such an entreaty was
worth; and all were aware that if the impossible had happened and the
magistrate had granted it, he would have been subject to the same
penalties as the heretic. Things had now come to such a pass that had
the city of Rouen belonged to King Charles, he himself could not have
saved the Maid from the stake.

[Footnote 2561: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p.
374.]

When the sentence was announced Jeanne breathed heart-rending sighs.
Weeping bitterly, she fell on her knees, commended her soul to God, to
Our Lady, to the blessed saints of Paradise, many of whom she
mentioned by name. Very humbly did she ask for mercy from all manner
of folk, of whatsoever rank or condition, of her own party and of the
enemy's, entreating them to forgive the wrong she had done them and to
pray for her. She asked pardon of her judges, of the English, of King
Henry, of the English princes of the realm. Addressing all the priests
there present she besought each one to say a mass for the salvation of
her soul.[2562]

[Footnote 2562: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 19; vol. iii, p. 177.]

Thus for one half hour did she continue with sighs and tears to give
expression to the sentiments of humiliation and contrition with which
the clerics had inspired her.[2563]

[Footnote 2563: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 19, 351.]

And even now she did not neglect to defend the honour of the fair
Dauphin, whom she had so greatly loved.

She was heard to say: "It was never my King who induced me to do
anything I have done, either good or evil."[2564]

[Footnote 2564: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 56.]

Many of the bystanders wept. A few English laughed. Certain of the
captains, who could make nothing of the edifying ceremonial of
ecclesiastical justice, grew impatient. Seeing Messire Massieu in the
pulpit and hearing him exhort Jeanne to make a good end, they cried:

"What now, priest! Art thou going to keep us here to dinner?"[2565]

[Footnote 2565: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20; vol. iii, pp. 53, 177,
186.]

At Rouen, when a heretic was given up to the secular arm, it was
customary to take him to the town hall, where the town council made
known unto him his sentence.[2566] In Jeanne's case these forms were
not observed. The Bailie, Messire le Bouteiller, who was present,
waved his hand and said: "Take her, take her."[2567] Straightway, two
of the King's sergeants dragged her to the base of the scaffold and
placed her in a cart which was waiting. On her head was set a great
fool's cap made of paper, on which were written the words:
"_Hérétique, relapse, apostate, idolâtre_"; and she was handed over to
the executioner.[2568]

[Footnote 2566: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 188. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc
et la Normandie_, p. 386. Guedon and Ladvenu added to their evidence
that not long afterwards a certain Georges Folenfant was also given up
to the secular arm. But the Archbishop and the Inquisitor sent Ladvenu
to the Bailie "in order to warn him that the said Georges was not to
be treated like the Maid who was burned without the pronouncement of
any definite and final sentence." _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2567: _Ibid._, p. 344.]

[Footnote 2568: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459. Yet Martin
Ladvenu says "until the last hour," etc., which is obviously false.]

A bystander heard her saying: "Ah! Rouen, sorely do I fear that thou
mayest have to suffer for my death."[2569]

[Footnote 2569: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 53.]

She evidently still regarded herself as the messenger from Heaven, the
angel of the realm of France. Possibly the illusion, so cruelly reft
from her, returned at last to enfold her in its beneficent veil. At
any rate, she appears to have been crushed; all that remained to her
was an infinite horror of death and a childlike piety.

The ecclesiastical judges had barely time to descend and flee from a
spectacle which they could not have witnessed without violating the
laws of clerical procedure. They were all weeping: the Lord Bishop of
Thérouanne, Chancellor of England, had his eyes full of tears. The
Cardinal of Winchester, who was said never to enter a church save to
pray for the death of an enemy,[2570] had pity on this damsel so woeful
and so contrite. Brother Pierre Maurice, the canon who was a reader of
the Æneid, could not keep back his tears. All the priests who had
delivered her to the executioner were edified to see her make so holy
an end. That is what Maître Jean Alespée meant when he sighed: "I
would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman to
be."[2571] To himself and the hapless sufferer he applied the following
lines from the _Dies iræ_:

    _Qui Mariam absolvisti,
    Mihi quoque spem dedisti._[2572]

[Footnote 2570: Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 1, act i, scene 1.]

[Footnote 2571: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 6; vol. iii, pp. 53, 191, 375.]

[Footnote 2572: _Missel Romain, Office des morts._ Cf. Le P. C. Clair,
_Le Dies iræ, histoire, traduction et commentaire_, Paris, in 8vo,
1881, pp. 38-142.]

But none the less he must have believed that by her heresies and her
obstinacy she had brought death on herself.

The two young friars preachers and the Usher Massieu accompanied
Jeanne to the stake.

She asked for a cross. An Englishman made a tiny one out of two pieces
of wood, and gave it to her. She took it devoutly and put it in her
bosom, on her breast. Then she besought Brother Isambart to go to the
neighbouring church to fetch a cross, to bring it to her and hold it
before her, so that as long as she lived, the cross on which God was
crucified should be ever in her sight.

Massieu asked a priest of Saint-Sauveur for one, and it was brought.
Jeanne weeping kissed it long and tenderly, and her hands held it
while they were free.[2573]

[Footnote 2573: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20.]

As she was being bound to the stake she invoked the aid of Saint
Michael; and now at length no examiner was present to ask her whether
it were really he she saw in her father's garden. She prayed also to
Saint Catherine.[2574]

[Footnote 2574: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 170.]

When she saw a light put to the stake, she cried loudly, "Jesus!" This
name she repeated six times.[2575] She was also heard asking for holy
water.[2576]

[Footnote 2575: _Ibid._, p. 186.]

[Footnote 2576: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 8; vol. iii, pp. 169, 194.]

It was usual for the executioner, in order to cut short the sufferings
of the victim, to stifle him in dense smoke before the flames had had
time to ascend; but the Rouen executioner was too terrified of the
prodigies worked by the Maid to do thus; and besides he would have
found it difficult to reach her, because the Bailie had had the
plaster scaffold made unusually high. Wherefore the executioner
himself, hardened man that he was, judged her death to have been a
terribly cruel one.[2577]

[Footnote 2577: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 7.]

Once again Jeanne uttered the name of Jesus; then she bowed her head
and gave up her spirit.[2578]

[Footnote 2578: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 186.]

As soon as she was dead the Bailie commanded the executioner to
scatter the flames in order to see that the prophetess of the
Armagnacs had not escaped with the aid of the devil or in some other
manner.[2579] Then, after the poor blackened body had been shown to the
people, the executioner, in order to reduce it to ashes, threw on to
the fire coal, oil and sulphur.

[Footnote 2579: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 191. _Journal d'un bourgeois de
Paris_, pp. 269, 270.]

In such an execution the combustion of the corpse was rarely
complete.[2580] Among the ashes, when the fire was extinguished, the
heart and entrails were found intact. For fear lest Jeanne's remains
should be taken and used for witchcraft or other evil practices,[2581]
the Bailie had them thrown into the Seine.[2582]

[Footnote 2580: L. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition_, p.
478.]

[Footnote 2581: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 507 verso. _Journal
d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 269.]

[Footnote 2582: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 159, 160, 185; vol. iv, p. 518.
Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_, vol. i, p. 83.
Th. Cochard, _Existe-t-il des reliques de Jeanne d'Arc?_ Orléans,
1891, in 8vo.]




CHAPTER XV

AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID--THE END OF THE SHEPHERD--LA DAME DES
ARMOISES


In the evening, after the burning, the executioner, as was his wont,
went whining and begging to the monastery of the preaching friars. The
creature complained that he had found it very difficult to make an end
of Jeanne. According to a legend invented afterwards, he told the
monks that he feared damnation for having burned a saint.[2583] Had he
actually spoken thus in the house of the Vice-Inquisitor he would have
been straightway cast into the lowest dungeon, there to await a trial
for heresy, which would have probably resulted in his being sentenced
to suffer the death he had inflicted on her whom he had called a
saint. And what could have led him to suppose that the woman condemned
by good Father Lemaistre and my Lord of Beauvais was not a bad woman?
The truth is that in the presence of these friars he arrogated to
himself merit for having executed a witch and taken pains therein,
wherefore he came to ask for his pot of wine. One of the monks, who
happened to be a friar preacher, Brother Pierre Bosquier, forgot
himself so far as to say that it was wrong to have condemned the
Maid. These words, albeit they were heard by only a few persons, were
carried to the Inquisitor General. When he was summoned to answer for
them, Brother Pierre Bosquier declared very humbly that his words were
altogether wrong and tainted with heresy, and that indeed he had only
uttered them when he was full of wine. On his knees and with clasped
hands he entreated Holy Mother Church, his judges and the most
redoubtable lords to pardon him. Having regard to his repentance and
in consideration of his cloth and of his having spoken in a state of
intoxication, my Lord of Beauvais and the Vice-Inquisitor showed
indulgence to Brother Pierre Bosquier. By a sentence pronounced on the
8th of August, 1431, they condemned him to be imprisoned in the house
of the friars preachers and fed on bread and water until Easter.[2584]

[Footnote 2583: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 7, 352, 366.]

[Footnote 2584: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 493, 495.]

On the 12th of June the judges and counsellors, who had sat in
judgment on Jeanne, received letters of indemnity from the Great
Council. What was the object of these letters? Was it in case the
holders of them should be proceeded against by the French? But in that
event the letters would have done them more harm than good.[2585]

[Footnote 2585: Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Cartularium Universitatis
Parisiensis_, vol. iv, p. 527.]

The Lord Chancellor of England sent to the Emperor, to the Kings and
to the princes of Christendom, letters in Latin; to the prelates,
dukes, counts, lords, and all the towns of France, letters in
French.[2586] Herein he made known unto them that King Henry and his
Counsellors had had sore pity on the Maid, and that if they had caused
her death it was through their zeal for the faith and their
solicitude Christian folk.[2587]

[Footnote 2586: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 240, 243.]

[Footnote 2587: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 485, 496; vol. iv, p. 403.
Monstrelet, vol. iv, ch. cv.]

In like tenor did the University of Paris write to the Holy Father,
the Emperor and the College of Cardinals.[2588]

[Footnote 2588: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 496, 500.]

On the 4th of July, the day of Saint-Martin-le-Bouillant, Master Jean
Graverent, Prior of the Jacobins, Inquisitor of the Faith, preached at
Saint-Martin-des-Champs. In his sermon he related the deeds of Jeanne,
and told how for her errors and shortcomings she had been delivered to
the secular judges and burned alive.

Then he added: "There were four, three of whom have been taken, to
wit, this Maid, Pierronne, and her companion. One, Catherine de la
Rochelle, still remaineth with the Armagnacs. Friar Richard, the
Franciscan, who attracted so great a multitude of folk when he
preached in Paris at the Innocents and elsewhere, directed these
women; he was their spiritual father."[2589]

[Footnote 2589: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 270, 272. This
sermon contains curious inaccuracies. Are they the fault of the
Inquisitor or of the author of _Le Journal_?]

With Pierronne burned in Paris, her companion eating the bread of
bitterness and drinking the water of affliction in the prison of the
Church, and Jeanne burned at Rouen, the royal company of _béguines_
was now almost entirely annihilated. There only remained to the King
the holy dame of La Rochelle, who had escaped from the hands of the
Paris Official; but her indiscreet talk had rendered her
troublesome.[2590] While his penitents were being discredited, good
Friar Richard himself had fallen on evil days. The Vicars in the
diocese of Poitiers and the Inquisitor of the Faith had forbidden him
to preach. The great orator, who had converted so many Christian folk,
could no longer thunder against gaming-tables and dice, against
women's finery, and mandrakes arrayed in magnificent attire. No longer
could he declare the coming of Antichrist nor prepare souls for the
terrible trials which were to herald the imminent end of the world. He
was ordered to lie under arrest in the Franciscan monastery at
Poitiers. And doubtless it was with no great docility that he
submitted to the sentence of his superiors; for on Friday, the 23rd of
March, 1431, we find the Ordinary and the Inquisitor, asking aid in
the execution of the sentence from the Parliament of Poitiers, which
did not refuse it. Why did Holy Church exercise such severity towards
a preacher endowed with so wondrous a power of moving sinful souls? We
may at any rate suspect the reason. For some time the English and
Burgundian clergy had been accusing him of apostasy and magic. Now,
owing to the unity of the Church in general and to that of the
Gallican Church in particular, owing also to the authority of that
bright sun of Christendom, the University of Paris, when a clerk was
suspected of error and heresy by the doctors of the English and
Burgundian party he came to be looked at askance by the clergy who
were loyal to King Charles. Especially was this so when in a matter
touching the Catholic faith, the University had pronounced against him
and in favour of the English. It is quite likely that the clerks of
Poitiers had been prejudiced against Friar Richard by Pierronne's
conviction and even by the Maid's trial. The good brother, who
persisted in preaching the end of the world, was strongly suspected of
dealing in the black art. Wherefore, realising the fate which was
threatening him, he fled, and was never heard of again.[2591]

[Footnote 2590: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 473.]

[Footnote 2591: Th. Basin, _Histoire de Charles VII et de Louis XI_,
vol. iv, pp. 103, 104. Monstrelet, ch. lxiii. Bougenot, _Deux
documents inédits relatifs à Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue bleue_, 13 Feb.,
1892, pp. 203, 204.]

None the less, however, did the counsellors of King Charles continue
to employ the devout in the army. At the time of the disappearance of
Friar Richard and his penitents, they were making use of a young
shepherd whom my Lord the Archbishop, Duke of Reims and Chancellor of
the kingdom, had proclaimed to be Jeanne's miraculous successor. And
it was in the following circumstance that the shepherd was permitted
to display his power.

The war continued. Twenty days after Jeanne's death the English in
great force marched to recapture the town of Louviers. They had
delayed till then, not, as some have stated, because they despaired of
succeeding in anything as long as the Maid lived, but because they
needed time to collect money and engines for the siege.[2592] In the
July and August of this same year, at Senlis and at Beauvais, my Lord
of Reims, Chancellor of France and the Maréchal de Boussac, were
upholding the French cause. And we may be sure that my Lord of Reims
was upholding it with no little vigour since at the same time he was
defending the benefices which were so dear to him.[2593] A Maid had
reconquered them, now he intended a lad to hold them. With this object
he employed the little shepherd, Guillaume, from the Lozère Mountains,
who, like Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine of Sienna, had
received stigmata. A party of French surprised the Regent at Mantes
and were on the point of taking him prisoner. The alarm was given to
the army besieging Louviers; and two or three companies of men-at-arms
were despatched. They hastened to Mantes, where they learnt that the
Regent had succeeded in reaching Paris. Thereupon, having been
reinforced by troops from Gournay and certain other English garrisons,
being some two thousand strong and commanded by the Earls of Warwick,
Arundel, Salisbury, and Suffolk, and by Lord Talbot and Sir Thomas
Kiriel, the English made bold to march upon Beauvais. The French,
informed of their approach, left the town at daybreak, and marched out
to meet them in the direction of Savignies. King Charles's men,
numbering between eight hundred and one thousand combatants, were
commanded by the Maréchal de Boussac, the Captains La Hire, Poton, and
others.[2594]

[Footnote 2592: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 3, 344, 348, 373; vol. iii, p.
189; vol. v, pp. 169, 179, 181. Dibon, _Essai sur Louviers_, Rouen,
1836, in 8vo, pp. 33 _et seq._ Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 246 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2593: Le P. Denifle, _La désolation des églises de France
vers le milieu du XV'e siècle_, vol. i, p. xvi.]

[Footnote 2594: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 132. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 433. Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 265.]

The shepherd Guillaume, whom they believed to be sent of God, was at
their head, riding side-saddle and displaying the miraculous wounds in
his hands, his feet, and his left side.[2595]

[Footnote 2595: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 272.]

When they were about two and a half miles from the town, just when
they least expected it, a shower of arrows came down upon them. The
English, informed by their scouts of the French approach, had lain in
wait for them in a hollow of the road. Now they attacked them closely
both in the van and in the rear. Each side fought valiantly. A
considerable number were slain, which was not the case in most of the
battles of those days, when few but the fugitives were killed. But the
French, feeling themselves surrounded, were seized with panic, and
thus brought about their own destruction. Most of them, with the
Maréchal de Boussac and Captain La Hire, fled to the town of Beauvais.
Captain Poton and the shepherd, Guillaume, remained in the hands of
the English, who returned to Rouen in triumph.[2596]

[Footnote 2596: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 272.]

Poton made sure of being ransomed in the usual manner. But the little
shepherd could not hope for such a fate; he was suspected of heresy
and magic; he had deceived Christian folk and accepted from them
idolatrous veneration. The signs of our Saviour's passion that he bore
upon him helped him not a whit; on the contrary the wounds, by the
French held to have been divinely imprinted, to the English seemed the
marks of the devil.

Guillaume, like the Maid, had been taken in the diocese of Beauvais.
The Lord Bishop of this town, Messire Pierre Cauchon, who had claimed
the right to try Jeanne, made a similar claim for Guillaume; and the
shepherd was granted what the Maid had been refused, he was cast into
an ecclesiastical prison.[2597] He would seem to have been less
difficult to guard than Jeanne and also less important. But the
English had recently learnt what was involved in a trial by the
Inquisition; they now knew how lengthy and how punctilious it was.
Moreover, they did not see how it would profit them if this shepherd
were convicted of heresy. If the French had set their hope of success
in war[2598] in Guillaume as they had done in Jeanne, then that hope
was but short-lived. To put the Armagnacs to shame by proving that
their shepherd lad came from the devil, that game was not worth the
candle. The youth was taken to Rouen and thence to Paris.[2599]

[Footnote 2597: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
ii, p. 248. De Beaurepaire, _Recherches sur les juges_, p. 43.]

[Footnote 2598: Lea, _History of the Inquisition_, vol. iii, 377 (ed.
1905).]

[Footnote 2599: Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, pp. 263, 264.]

He had been a prisoner for four months when King Henry VI, who was
nine years old, came to Paris to be crowned in the church of Notre
Dame with the two crowns of France and England. With high pomp and
great rejoicing he made his entrance into the city on Sunday, the 16th
of December. Along the route of the procession, in the Rue du
Ponceau-Saint-Denys, had been constructed a fountain adorned with
three sirens; and from their midst rose a tall lily stalk, from the
buds and blossoms of which flowed streams of wine and milk. Folk
flocked to drink of the fountain; and around its basin men disguised
as savages entertained them with games and sham fights.

From the Porte Saint-Denys to the Hôtel Saint-Paul in the Marais, the
child King rode beneath a great azure canopy, embroidered with
flowers-de-luce in gold, borne first by the four aldermen hooded and
clothed in purple, then by the corporations, drapers, grocers,
money-changers, goldsmiths and hosiers. Before him went twenty-five
heralds and twenty-five trumpeters; followed by nine handsome men and
nine beautiful ladies, wearing magnificent armour and bearing great
shields, representing the nine _preux_ and the nine _preuses_, also by
a number of knights and squires. In this brilliant procession
appeared the little shepherd Guillaume; he no longer stretched out his
arms to show the wounds of the passion, for he was strongly
bound.[2600]

[Footnote 2600: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 274.]

After the ceremony he was conducted back to prison, whence he was
taken later to be sewn in a sack and thrown into the Seine.[2601] Even
the French admitted that Guillaume was but a simpleton and that his
mission was not of God.[2602]

[Footnote 2601: Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol. ii, p. 264.]

[Footnote 2602: Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustelier, vol.
i.]

In 1433, the Constable, with the assistance of the Queen of Sicily,
caused the capture and planned the assassination of La Trémouille. It
was the custom of the nobles of that day to appoint counsellors for
King Charles and afterwards to kill them. However, the sword which was
to have caused the death of La Trémouille, owing to his corpulence,
failed to inflict a mortal wound. His life was saved, but his
influence was dead. King Charles tolerated the Constable as he had
tolerated the Sire de la Trémouille.[2603]

[Footnote 2603: Gruel, _Chronique d'Arthur de Richemont_, p. 81.
Vallet de Viriville, in _Nouvelle biographie générale_. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 297. E. Cosneau, _Le connétable
de Richemont_, pp. 200, 201.]

The latter left behind him the reputation of having been grasping and
indifferent to the welfare of the kingdom. Perhaps his greatest fault
was that he governed in a time of war and pillage, when friends and
foes alike were devouring the realm. He was charged with the
destruction of the Maid, of whom he was said to have been jealous.
This accusation proceeds from the House of Alençon, with whom the Lord
Chamberlain was not popular.[2604] On the contrary, it must be
admitted, that after the Lord Chancellor, La Trémouille was the
boldest in employing the Maid, and if later she did thwart his plans
there is nothing to prove that it was his intention to have her
destroyed by the English. She destroyed herself and was consumed by
her own zeal.

[Footnote 2604: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 170, 173, _passim_.]

Rightly or wrongly, the Lord Chamberlain was held to be a bad man;
and, although his successor in the King's favour, the Duc de
Richemont, was avaricious, hard, violent, incredibly stupid, surly,
malicious, always beaten and always discontented, the exchange
appeared to be no loss. The Constable came in a fortunate hour, when
the Duke of Burgundy was making peace with the King of France.

In the words of a Carthusian friar, the English who had entered the
kingdom by the hole made in Duke John's head on the Bridge of
Montereau, only retained their hold on the kingdom by the hand of Duke
Philip. They were but few in number, and if the giant were to withdraw
his hand a breath of wind would suffice to blow them away. The Regent
died of sorrow and wrath, beholding the fulfilment of the horoscope of
King Henry VI: "Exeter shall lose what Monmouth hath won."[2605]

[Footnote 2605: Carlier, _Histoire des Valois_, 1764, in 4to, vol. ii,
p. 442. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p.
307. The Regent also believed in astrology (B.N. MS. 1352).]

On the 13th of April, 1436, the Count of Richemont entered Paris. The
nursing mother of Burgundian clerks and _Cabochien_ doctors, the
University herself, had helped to mediate peace.[2606]

[Footnote 2606: Gruel, _Chronique d'Arthur de Richemont_, pp. 120,
121. Dom Félibien, _Histoire de Paris_, vol. iv, p. 597.]

Now, one month after Paris had returned to her allegiance to King
Charles, there appeared in Lorraine a certain damsel. She was about
twenty-five years old. Hitherto she had been called Claude; but she
now made herself known to divers lords of the town of Metz as being
Jeanne the Maid.[2607]

[Footnote 2607: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud de Metz_, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 321, 324. Jacomin Husson, _Chronique de Metz_,
ed. Michelant, Metz, 1870, pp. 64, 65. Cf. Lecoy de la Marche, _Une
fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue des questions historiques_, October,
1871, pp. 562 _et seq._ Vergniaud-Romagnési, _Des portraits de Jeanne
d'Arc et de la fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Mémoires de la Société
d'Agriculture d'Orléans_, vol. i (1853), pp. 250, 253. De Puymaigre,
_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Revue nouvelle d'Alsace-Lorraine_, vol.
v (1885), pp. 533 _et seq._ A. France, _Une fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, in
_Revue des familles_, 15 February, 1891.]

At this time, Jeanne's father and eldest brother were dead.[2608]
Isabelle Romée was alive. Her two youngest sons were in the service of
the King of France, who had raised them to the rank of nobility and
given them the name of Du Lys. Jean, the eldest, called
Petit-Jean,[2609] had been appointed Bailie of Vermandois, then
Captain of Chartres. About this year, 1436, he was provost and captain
of Vaucouleurs.[2610]

[Footnote 2608: Varanius alone says that Jacques d'Arc died of sorrow
at the loss of his daughter. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 85.]

[Footnote 2609: _Ibid._, p. 280.]

[Footnote 2610: _Ibid._, pp. 279, 280. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La fausse
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 6, note 1.]

The youngest, Pierre, or Pierrelot, who had fallen into the hands of
the Burgundians before Compiègne at the same time as Jeanne, had just
been liberated from the prison of the Bastard of Vergy.[2611]

[Footnote 2611: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 210. Lefèvre de Saint-Rémy, vol.
ii, p. 176.]

Both brothers believed that their sister had been burned at Rouen. But
when they were told that she was living and wished to see them, they
appointed a meeting at La-Grange-aux-Ormes, a village in the meadows
of the Sablon, between the Seille and the Moselle, about two and a
half miles south of Metz. They reached this place on the 20th of May.
There they saw her and recognised her immediately to be their sister;
and she recognised them to be her brothers.[2612]

[Footnote 2612: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 321, 324.]

She was accompanied by certain lords of Metz, among whom was a man
right noble, Messire Nicole Lowe, who was chamberlain to Charles
VII.[2613] By divers tokens these nobles recognised her to be the Maid
Jeanne who had taken King Charles to be crowned at Reims. These tokens
were certain signs on the skin.[2614] Now there was a prophecy
concerning Jeanne which stated her to have a little red mark beneath
the ear.[2615] But this prophecy was invented after the events to
which it referred. Consequently we may believe the Maid to have been
thus marked. Was this the token by which the nobles of Metz recognised
her?

[Footnote 2613: _Le Metz ancien_ (Metz, 1856, 2 vol. in folio) by the
Baron d'Hannoncelles, which contains the genealogy of Nicole Lowe.]

[Footnote 2614: "And was recognised by divers tokens" (_enseignes_)
(_Trial_, vol. v, p. 322). M. Lecoy de la Marche (_Une fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, in _Revue des questions historiques_, October, 1871, p. 565),
and M. Gaston Save (_Jehanne des Armoises, Pucelle d'Orléans_, Nancy,
1893, p. 11) understand that she was recognised by several officers or
ensigns (_enseignes_). I have interpreted _enseignes_ in the ordinary
sense of marks on the skin, birth-marks. (Cf. La Curne.)]

[Footnote 2615: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 322.]

We do not know by what means she claimed to have escaped death; but
there is reason to think[2616] that she attributed her deliverance to
her holiness. Did she say that an angel had saved her from the fire?
It might be read in books how in the ancient amphitheatres lions
licked the bare feet of virgins, how boiling oil was as soothing as
balm to the bodies of holy martyrs; and how according to many of the
old stories nothing short of the sword could take the life of God's
maidens. These ancient histories rested on a sure foundation. But if
such tales had been related of the fifteenth century they might have
appeared less credible. And this damsel does not seem to have employed
them to adorn her adventure. She was probably content to say that
another woman had been burned in her place.

[Footnote 2616: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 354.]

According to a confession she made afterwards, she came from Rome,
where, accoutred in harness of war, she had fought valiantly in the
service of Pope Eugenius. She may even have told the Lorrainers of the
feats of prowess she had there accomplished.

Now Jeanne had prophesied (at least so it was believed) that she would
die in battle against the infidel and that her mantle would fall upon
a maid of Rome. But such a saying, if it were known to these nobles of
Metz, would be more likely to denounce this so-called Jeanne as an
imposture than witness to the truth of her mission.[2617] However this
might be, they believed what this woman told them.

[Footnote 2617: Nevertheless see on this subject M. Germain
Lefèvre-Pontalis, who is our authority for this prophecy (Eberhard
Windecke, pp. 108-111).]

Perhaps, like many a noble of the republic,[2618] they were more
inclined to King Charles than to the Duke of Burgundy. And we may be
sure that, chivalrous knights as they were, they esteemed chivalry
wherever they found it; wherefore, because of her valour they admired
the Maid; and they made her good cheer.

[Footnote 2618: The republic of Metz (W.S.)]

Messire Nicole Lowe gave her a charger and a pair of hose. The charger
was worth thirty francs--a sum wellnigh royal--for of the two horses
which at Soissons and at Senlis the King gave the Maid Jeanne, one was
worth thirty-eight livres ten sous, and the other thirty-seven livres
ten sous.[2619] Not more than sixteen francs had been paid for the
horse with which she had been provided at Vaucouleurs.[2620]

[Footnote 2619: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 322. Chronique de Philippe de Vigneulles, in _Les
chroniques Messines_ of Huguenin, p. 198.]

[Footnote 2620: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 457. L. Champion, _Jeanne d'Arc
écuyère_, ch. ii, ch. vi.]

Nicole Grognot, governor of the town,[2621] offered a sword to the
sister of the Du Lys brothers; Aubert Boullay presented her with a
hood.[2622]

[Footnote 2621: Variant of _La chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_
sent from Metz to Pierre du Puy, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 322, 324.]

[Footnote 2622: _Ibid._, pp. 322, 324.]

She rode her horse with the same skill which seven years earlier, if
we may believe some rather mythical stories, had filled with wonder
the old Duke of Lorraine.[2623] And she spoke certain words to Messire
Nicole Lowe which confirmed him in his belief that she was indeed that
same Maid Jeanne who had fared forth into France. She had the ready
tongue of a prophetess, and spoke in symbols and parables, revealing
nought of her intent.

[Footnote 2623: D. Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. vii. Proofs
and illustrations, col. vi.]

Her power would not come to her before Saint John the Baptist's Day,
she said. Now this was the very time which the Maid, after the Battle
of Patay, in 1429, had fixed for the extermination of the English in
France.[2624]

[Footnote 2624: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 322, 324. Eberhard Windecke, p.
108. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 62, note.]

This prophecy had not been fulfilled and consequently had not been
mentioned again. Jeanne, if she ever uttered it, and it is quite
possible that she did, must have been the first to forget it.
Moreover, Saint John's Day was a term commonly cited in leases, fairs,
contracts, hirings, etc., and it is quite conceivable that the
calendar of a prophetess may have been the same as that of a labourer.

The day after their arrival at La Grange-aux-Ormes, Monday, the 21st
of May, the Du Lys brothers took her, whom they held to be their
sister, to that town of Vaucouleurs[2625] whither Isabelle Romée's
daughter had gone to see Sire Robert de Baudricourt. In this town, in
the year 1436, there were still living many persons of different
conditions, such as the Leroyer couple and the Seigneur Aubert
d'Ourches,[2626] who had seen Jeanne in February, 1429.

[Footnote 2625: M. le Baron de Braux was kind enough to write to me
from Boucq near Foug, Meurthe-et-Moselle, on the 28th of June, 1896,
explaining that Bacquillon (_Trial_, vol. v, p. 322) is an erroneous
reading of one of the manuscripts of the Doyen of Saint-Thibaud. "By
comparing," he added, "the various versions (V. Quicherat and _Les
chroniques Messines_) we may ascertain that it is really Vaucouleurs,
Valquelou," mistaken for Bacquillon.]

[Footnote 2626: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 406, 408, 445, 449.]

After a week at Vaucouleurs she went to Marville, a small town between
Corny and Pont-á-Mousson. There she spent Whitsuntide and abode for
three weeks in the house of one Jean Quenat.[2627] On her departure
she was visited by sundry inhabitants of Metz, who gave her jewels,
recognising her to be the Maid of France.[2628] Jeanne, it will be
remembered, had been seen by divers knights of Metz at the time of
King Charles's coronation at Reims. At Marville, Geoffroy Desch,
following the example of Nicole Lowe, presented the so-called Jeanne
with a horse. Geoffroy Desch belonged to one of the most influential
families of the Republic of Metz. He was related to Jean Desch,
municipal secretary in 1429.[2629]

[Footnote 2627: The _Chronique de Tournai_ says of the true Jeanne
that she came from Mareville, a small town between Metz and
Pont-à-Mousson. "This Jeanne had long dwelt and served in a _métairie_
[a kind of farm] of this place."]

[Footnote 2628: _Chronique du doyen Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol.
v, pp. 322, 324. Lecoy de la Marche, _Jeanne des Armoises_, p. 566. G.
Save, _Jehanne des Armoises, pucelle d'Orléans_, p. 14.]

[Footnote 2629: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 352 _et seq._]

From Marville, she went on a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de Liance,
called Lienche by the Picards and known later as Notre Dame de Liesse.
At Liance was worshipped a black image of the Virgin, which, according
to tradition, had been brought by the crusaders from the Holy Land.
The chapel containing this image was situated between Laon and Reims.
It was said, by the priests who officiated there, to be one of the
halting places on the route of the coronation procession, where the
kings and their retinues were accustomed to stop on their return from
Reims; but this is very likely not to be true. Whether it were such a
halting place or no, there is no doubt that the folk of Metz displayed
a particular devotion to Our Lady of Liance; and it seemed fitting
that Jeanne, who had escaped from an English prison, should go and
give thanks for her marvellous deliverance to the Black Virgin of
Picardy.[2630]

[Footnote 2630: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 322, 324. Dom Lelong, _Histoire du diocèse de Laon_, 1783,
p. 371. Abbé Ledouble, _Les origines de Liesse et du pèlerinage de
Notre-Dame_, Soissons, 1885, pp. 6 _et seq._]

Thence she went on her way to Arlon, to Elisabeth of Gorlitz, Duchess
of Luxembourg, an aunt by marriage of the Duke of Burgundy.[2631] She
was an old woman, who had been twice a widow. By extortion and
oppression she had made herself detested by her vassals. By this
princess Jeanne was well received. There was nothing strange in that.
Persons living holy lives and working miracles were much sought after
by princes and nobles who desired to discover secrets or to obtain the
fulfilment of some wish. And the Duchess of Luxembourg might well
believe this damsel to be the Maid Jeanne herself, since the brothers
Du Lys, the nobles of Metz and the folk of Vaucouleurs were of that
opinion.

[Footnote 2631: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 322, note 2. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis,
_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 21, note 1.]

For the generality of men, Jeanne's life and death were surrounded by
marvels and mysteries. Many had from the first doubted her having
perished by the hand of the executioner. Certain were curiously
reticent on this point; they said: "the English had her publicly burnt
at Rouen, or some other woman like her."[2632] Others confessed that
they did not know what had become of her.[2633]

[Footnote 2632: _Chronique normande_ (MS. in the British Museum), in
_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 344. Symphorien Champier, _Nef des Dames_, Lyon,
1503, _ibid._]

[Footnote 2633: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 272. _Chronique
normande_, in _Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes_, second series,
vol. iii, p. 116. D. Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, p. vi, proofs and
illustrations. G. Save, _Jehanne des Armoises_, pp. 6, 7. It is well
known that Gabriel Naudé maintained the paradox that Jeanne was only
burned in effigy. _Considérations politiques sur les coups d'état_,
Rome, 1639, in 4to. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p.
8.]

Thus, when throughout Germany and France the rumour spread that the
Maid was alive and had been seen near Metz, the tidings were variously
received. Some believed them, others did not. An ardent dispute, which
arose between two citizens of Arles, gives some idea of the emotion
aroused by such tidings. One maintained that the Maid was still alive;
the other asserted that she was dead; each one wagered that what he
said was true. This was no light wager, for it was made and registered
in the presence of a notary, on the 27th of June, 1436, only five
weeks after the interview at La Grange-aux-Ormes.[2634]

[Footnote 2634: Lanéry d'Arc, _Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc_, Orléans,
1887, in 8vo. _Revue du Midi._]

Meanwhile, in the beginning of August, the Maid's eldest brother, Jean
du Lys, called Petit-Jean, had gone to Orléans to announce that his
sister was alive. As a reward for these good tidings, he received for
himself and his followers ten pints of wine, twelve hens, two
goslings, and two leverets.[2635]

[Footnote 2635: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 275. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol.
ii, p. 286.]

The birds had been purchased by two magistrates; the name of one,
Pierre Baratin, is to be found in the account books of the fortress,
in 1429,[2636] at the time of the expedition to Jargeau; the other was
an old man of sixty-six, a burgess passing rich, Aignan de
Saint-Mesmin.[2637]

[Footnote 2636: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 262. Lecoy de la Marche, _Jeanne
des Armoises_, p. 568.]

[Footnote 2637: He died at the age of one hundred and eighteen.
_Trial_, iii, p. 29.]

Messengers were passing to and fro between the town of Duke Charles
and the town of the Duchess of Luxembourg. On the 9th of August a
letter from Arlon reached Orléans. About the middle of the month a
pursuivant arrived at Arlon. He was called Coeur-de-Lis, in honour
of the heraldic symbol of the city of Orléans, which was a lily-bud, a
kind of trefoil. The magistrates of Orléans had sent him to Jeanne
with a letter, the contents of which are unknown. Jeanne gave him a
letter for the King, in which she probably requested an audience. He
took it straight to Loches, where King Charles was negotiating the
betrothal of his daughter Yolande to Prince Amedée of Savoie.[2638]

[Footnote 2638: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 326. Vallet de Viriville,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 376, note. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis,
_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 23, note 5.]

After forty-one days' journey the pursuivant returned to the
magistrates, who had despatched him on the 2nd of September. The
messenger complained of a great thirst, wherefore the magistrates,
according to their wont, had him served in the chamber of the
town-hall with bread, wine, pears, and green walnuts. This repast cost
the town two _sous_ four _deniers_ of Paris, while the pursuivant's
travelling expenses amounted to six _livres_ which were paid in the
following month. The town varlet who provided the walnuts was that
same Jacquet Leprestre who had served during the siege. Another letter
from the Maid had been received by the magistrates on the 25th of
August.[2639]

[Footnote 2639: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 327.]

Jean du Lys proceeded just as if his miracle-working sister had in
very deed been restored to him. He went to the King, to whom he
announced the wonderful tidings. Charles cannot have entirely
disbelieved them since he ordered Jean du Lys to be given a gratuity
of one hundred francs. Whereupon Jean promptly demanded these hundred
francs from the King's treasurer, who gave him twenty. The coffers of
the victorious King were not full even then.

Having returned to Orléans, Jean appeared before the town-council. He
gave the magistrates to wit that he had only eight francs, a sum by no
means sufficient to enable him and four retainers to return to
Lorraine. The magistrates gave him twelve francs.[2640]

[Footnote 2640: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 326. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i,
pp. 284-285.]

Every year until then the anniversary of the Maid had been celebrated
in the church of Saint-Sanxon[2641] on the eve of Corpus Christi and
on the previous day. In 1435, eight ecclesiastics of the four
mendicant orders sang a mass for the repose of Jeanne's soul. In this
year, 1436, the magistrates had four candles burnt, weighing together
nine and a half pounds, and pendent therefrom the Maid's escutcheon, a
silver shield bearing the crown of France. But when they heard the
Maid was alive they cancelled the arrangements for a funeral service
in her memory.[2642]

[Footnote 2641: Since 1432. But there is no evidence of any
anniversary service having been held in 1433 and 1434. It was
reinstituted in 1439.]

[Footnote 2642: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 274, 275. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, p. 286.]

While these things were occurring in France, Jeanne was still with the
Duchess of Luxembourg. There she met the young Count Ulrich of
Wurtemberg, who refused to leave her. He had a handsome cuirasse made
for her and took her to Cologne. She still called herself the Maid of
France sent by God.[2643]

[Footnote 2643: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 323. Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
325. Lecoy de la Marche, _loc. cit._, p. 566.]

Since the 24th of June, Saint John the Baptist's Day, her power had
returned to her. Count Ulrich, recognising her supernatural gifts,
entreated her to employ them on behalf of himself and his friends.
Being very contentious, he had become seriously involved in the schism
which was then rending asunder the diocese of Trèves. Two prelates
were contending for the see; one, Udalric of Manderscheit, appointed
by the chapter, the other Raban of Helmstat, Bishop of Speyer,
appointed by the Pope.[2644] Udalric took the field with a small force
and twice besieged and bombarded the town of which he called himself
the true shepherd. These proceedings brought the greater part of the
diocese on to his side.[2645] But although aged and infirm, Raban too
had weapons; they were spiritual but powerful: he pronounced an
interdict against all such as should espouse the cause of his rival.

[Footnote 2644: _Art de vérifier les dates_, vol. xv, pp. 236 _et
seq._ _Gallia Christiana_, vol. xiii, pp. 970 _et seq._; Gams, _Series
Episcoporum_ (1873), pp. 317, 319.]

[Footnote 2645: Quicherat, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 502, note,
erroneously states that the contest for the Archbishopric of Trèves
was between Raban of Helmstat and Jacques of Syrck. Concerning Jacques
of Syrck or Sierck, see de Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.
iv, p. 264.]

Count Ulrich of Wurtemberg, who was among the most zealous of
Udalric's supporters, questioned the Maid of God concerning him.[2646]
Similar cases had been submitted to the first Jeanne when she was in
France. She had been asked, for example, which of the three popes,
Benedict, Martin, or Clement, was the true father of the faithful, and
without immediately pronouncing on the subject she had promised to
designate the Pope to whom obedience was due, after she had reached
Paris and rested there.[2647] The second Jeanne replied with even more
assurance; she declared that she knew who was the true archbishop and
boasted that she would enthrone him.

[Footnote 2646: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, book v, ch. viii. D.
Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. ii, p. 906.]

[Footnote 2647: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 245-246.]

According to her, it was Udalric of Manderscheit, he whom the Chapter
had appointed. But when Udalric was summoned before the Council of
Bâle, he was declared an usurper; and the fathers did what it was by
no means their unvarying rule to do,--they confirmed the nomination of
the Pope.

Unfortunately the Maid's intervention in this dispute attracted the
attention of the Inquisitor General of the city of Cologne, Heinrich
Kalt Eysen, an illustrious professor of theology. He inquired into the
rumours which were being circulated in the city touching the young
prince's protégée; and he learnt that she wore unseemly apparel,
danced with men, ate and drank more than she ought, and practised
magic. He was informed notably that in a certain assembly the Maid
tore a table-cloth and straightway restored it to its original
condition, and that having broken a glass against the wall she with
marvellous skill put all its pieces together again. Such deeds caused
Kalt Eysen to suspect her strongly of heresy and witchcraft. He
summoned her before his tribunal; she refused to appear. This
disobedience displeased the Inquisitor General, and he sent to fetch
the defaulter. But the young Count of Wurtemberg hid his Maid in his
house, and afterwards contrived to get her secretly out of the town.
Thus she escaped the fate of her whom she was willing only partially
to imitate. As he could do nothing else, the Inquisitor excommunicated
her.[2648] She took refuge at Arlon with her protectress, the Duchess
of Luxembourg. There she met Robert des Armoises, Lord of Tichemont.
She may have seen him before, in the spring, at Marville, where he
usually resided. This nobleman was probably the son of Lord Richard,
Governor of the Duchy of Bar in 1416. Nothing is known of him, save
that he surrendered this territory to the foreigner without the Duke
of Bar's consent, and then beheld it confiscated and granted to the
Lord of Apremont on condition that he should conquer it.

[Footnote 2648: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
502; vol. v, p. 324.]

It was not extraordinary that Lord Robert should be at Arlon, seeing
that his château of Tichemont was near this town. He was poor, albeit
of noble birth.[2649]

[Footnote 2649: H. Vincent, _La maison des Armoises, originaire de
Champagne_, in _Mémoires de la Société d'Archéologie Lorraine_, 3rd
series, vol. v (1877), p. 324. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 2, note 4.]

The so-called Maid married him,[2650] apparently with the approval of
the Duchess of Luxembourg. According to the opinion of the Holy
Inquisitor of Cologne, this marriage was contracted merely to protect
the woman against the interdict and to save her from the sword of the
Church.[2651]

[Footnote 2650: In his _Histoire de Lorraine_ (vol. v, pp. clxiv _et
seq._), Dom Calmet says that the contract of marriage between Robert
des Armoises and the Maid of France, which had long been preserved in
the family, was lost in his day. There is no need to regret it, for it
is now known that this contract was forged by Father Jérôme Vignier.
Le Comte de Marsy (_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc, Claude des Armoises; du
degré de confiance à accorder aux découvertes de Jérôme Vignier_,
Compiègne, 1890) and M. Tamizey de Larroque (_Revue critique_, the
20th October, 1890). For Vignier's other forgeries cf. Julien Havet,
_Questions Mérovingiennes_, ii.]

[Footnote 2651: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, bk. v, ch. viii. _Trial_,
vol. iv, pp. 503, 504.]

Soon after her marriage she went to live at Metz in her husband's
house, opposite the church of Sainte-Ségolène, over the Sainte-Barbe
Gate. Henceforth she was Jeanne du Lys, the Maid of France, the Lady
of Tichemont. By these names she is described in a contract dated the
7th of November, 1436, by which Robert des Armoises and his wife,
authorised by him, sell to Collard de Failly, squire, dwelling at
Marville, and to Poinsette, his wife, one quarter of the lordship of
Haraucourt. At the request of their dear friends, Messire Robert and
Dame Jeanne, Jean de Thoneletil, Lord of Villette, and Saubelet de
Dun, Provost of Marville, as well as the vendors, put their seals to
the contract to testify to its validity.[2652]

[Footnote 2652: The preceding deed, by which "_Robert des Harmoises et
la Pucelle Jehanne d'Arc, sa femme_," acquired the estate of Fléville,
is very doubtful (D. Calmet, 2nd edition, vol. v, p. clxiv, note).]

In her dwelling, opposite the Sainte-Ségolène Church, la Dame des
Armoises gave birth to two children.[2653] Somewhere in
Languedoc[2654] there was an honest squire who, when he heard of these
births, seriously doubted whether Jeanne the Maid and la Dame des
Armoises could be one and the same person. This was Jean d'Aulon, who
had once been Jeanne's steward. From information he had received from
women who knew, he did not believe her to be the kind of woman likely
to have children.[2655]

[Footnote 2653: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, p. 323. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 354-355.]

[Footnote 2654: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 206, note 2.]

[Footnote 2655: _Ibid._, p. 219.]

According to Brother Jean Nider, doctor in theology of the University
of Vienne, this fruitful union turned out badly. A priest, and, as he
says, a priest who might more appropriately be called a pander,
seduced this witch with words of love and carried her off. But Brother
Jean Nider adds that the priest secretly took la Dame des Armoises to
Metz and there lived with her as his concubine.[2656] Now it is proved
that her own home was in that very town; hence we may conclude that
this friar preacher does not know what he is talking about.[2657]

[Footnote 2656: Jean Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
325.]

[Footnote 2657: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_,
vol. v, pp. 323-324.]

The fact of the matter is that she did not remain longer than two
years in the shadow of Sainte-Ségolène.

Although she had married, it was by no means her intention to forswear
prophesying and chivalry. During her trial Jeanne had been asked by
the examiner: "Jeanne, was it not revealed to you that if you lost
your virginity your good fortune would cease and your Voices desert
you?" She denied that such things had been revealed to her. And when
he insisted, asking her whether she believed that if she were married
her Voices would still come to her, she answered like a good
Christian: "I know not, and I appeal to God."[2658] Jeanne des
Armoises likewise held that good fortune had not forsaken her on
account of her marriage. Moreover, in those days of prophecy there
were both widows and married women who, like Judith of Bethulia, acted
by divine inspiration. Such had been Dame Catherine de la Rochelle,
although perhaps after all she had not done anything so very
great.[2659]

[Footnote 2658: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 183.]

[Footnote 2659: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 106, 108, 119, 296. _Journal d'un
bourgeois de Paris._]

In the summer of 1439, la Dame des Armoises went to Orléans. The
magistrates offered her wine and meat as a token of gladness and
devotion. On the first of August they gave her a dinner and presented
her with two hundred and ten livres of Paris as an acknowledgment of
the service she had rendered to the town during the siege. These are
the very terms in which this expenditure is entered in the account
books of that city.[2660]

[Footnote 2660: Extracts from the accounts of the town of Orléans, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 331-332. Lecoy de la Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, pp. 570-571.]

If the folk of Orléans did actually take her for the real Maid,
Jeanne, then it must have been more on account of the evidence of the
Du Lys brothers, than on that of their own eyes. For, when one comes
to think of it, they had seen her but very seldom. During that week in
May, she had only appeared before them armed and on horseback.
Afterwards in June, 1429, and January, 1430, she had merely passed
through the town. True it was she had been offered wine and the
magistrates had sat at table with her;[2661] but that was nine years
ago. And the lapse of nine years works many a change in a woman's
face. They had seen her last as a young girl, now they found her a
woman and the mother of two children. Moreover they were guided by the
opinion of her kinsfolk. Their attitude provokes some astonishment,
however, when one thinks of the conversation at the banquet, and of
the awkward and inconsistent remarks the dame must have uttered. If
they were not then undeceived, these burgesses must have been passing
simple and strongly prejudiced in favour of their guest.

[Footnote 2661: Original documents of Orléans, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.
270.]

And who can say that they were not? Who can say that, after having
given credence to the tidings brought by Jean du Lys, the townsfolk
did not begin to discover the imposture? That the belief in the
survival of Jeanne was by no means general in the city, during the
visit of la Dame des Armoises, is proved by the entries in the
municipal accounts of sums expended on the funeral services, which we
have already mentioned. Supposing we abstract the years 1437 and 1438,
the anniversary service had at any rate been held in 1439, two days
before Corpus-Christi, and only about three months before the banquet
on the 1st of August.[2662] Thus these grateful burgesses of Orléans
were at one and the same time entertaining their benefactress at
banquets and saying masses in memory of her death.

[Footnote 2662: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 274. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i,
p. 286.]

La Dame des Armoises only spent a fortnight with them. She left the
city towards the end of July. Her departure would seem to have been
hasty and sudden. She was invited to a supper, at which she was to
have been presented with eight pints of wine, but when the wine was
served she had gone, and the banquet had to be held without her.[2663]
Jean Quillier and Thévanon of Bourges were present. This Thévanon may
have been that Thévenin Villedart, with whom Jeanne's brothers dwelt
during the siege.[2664] In Jean Quillier we recognise the young draper
who, in June, 1429, had furnished fine Brussels cloth of purple,
wherewith to make a gown for the Maid.[2665]

[Footnote 2663: Extracts from the accounts of the town of Orléans, in
_Trial_, vol. v, pp. 331-332. Lottin, _Recherches_, vol. i, p. 287.]

[Footnote 2664: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 260.]

[Footnote 2665: _Ibid._, pp. 112-113.]

La Dame des Armoises had gone to Tours, where she gave herself out to
be the true Jeanne. She gave the Bailie of Touraine a letter for the
King; and the Bailie undertook to see that it was delivered to the
Prince, who was then at Orléans, having arrived there but shortly
after Jeanne's departure. The Bailie of Touraine in 1439 was none
other than that Guillaume Bellier who ten years before as lieutenant
of Chinon had received the Maid into his house and committed her to
the care of his devout wife.[2666]

[Footnote 2666: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17; vol. v, p. 327.]

To the messenger, who bore this letter, Guillaume Bellier also gave a
note for the King written by himself, and "touching the deeds of la
Dame des Armoises."[2667] We know nothing of its purport.[2668]

[Footnote 2667: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 332. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La
fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 23-24.]

[Footnote 2668: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 332.]

Shortly afterwards the Dame went off into Poitou. There she placed
herself at the service of Seigneur Gille de Rais, Marshal of
France.[2669] He it was who in his early youth had conducted the Maid
to Orléans, had been with her throughout the coronation campaign, had
fought at her side before the walls of Paris. During Jeanne's
captivity he had occupied Louviers and pushed on boldly to Rouen. Now
throughout the length and breadth of his vast domains he was
kidnapping children, mingling magic with debauchery, and offering to
demons the blood and the limbs of his countless victims. His monstrous
doings spread terror round his castles of Tiffauges and Machecoul, and
already the hand of the Church was upon him.

[Footnote 2669: Vallet de Viriville, _Notices et extraits de chartes
et de manuscrits appartenant au British Museum_, in _Bibliothèque de
l'École des Chartes_, vol. viii, 1846, p. 116.]

According to the Holy Inquisitor of Cologne, la Dame des Armoises
practised magic; but it was not as an invoker of demons that the
Maréchal de Rais employed her; he placed her in authority over the
men-at-arms,[2670] in somewhat the same position as Jeanne had
occupied at Lagny and Compiègne. Did she do great prowess? We do not
know. At any rate she did not hold her office long; and after her it
was bestowed on a Gascon squire, one Jean de Siquemville.[2671] In the
spring of 1440 she was near Paris.[2672]

[Footnote 2670: Abbé Bossard, _Gille de Rais_, p. 174.]

[Footnote 2671: Pardon, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 332-334.]

[Footnote 2672: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 335. Lecoy de la
Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 574.]

For nearly two years and a half the great town had been loyal to King
Charles. He had entered the city, but had failed to restore it to
prosperity. Deserted houses were everywhere falling into ruins; wolves
penetrated into the suburbs and devoured little children.[2673] The
townsfolk, who had so recently been Burgundian, could not all forget
how the Maid in company with Friar Richard and the Armagnacs had
attacked the city on the day of the Nativity of Our Lady. There were
many, doubtless, who bore her ill will and believed she had been
burned for her sins; but her name no longer excited universal
reprobation as in 1429. Certain even among her former enemies regarded
her as a martyr to the cause of her liege lord.[2674] Even in Rouen
such an opinion was not unknown, and it was much more likely to be
held in the city of Paris which had lately turned French. At the
rumour that Jeanne was not dead, that she had been recognised by the
people of Orléans and was coming to Paris, the lower orders in the
city grew excited and disturbances were threatening.

[Footnote 2673: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 338 _et seq._
De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, pp. 384 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2674: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 270.]

Under Charles of Valois in 1440, the spirit of the University was just
the same as it had been under Henry of Lancaster in 1431. It honoured
and respected the King of France, the guardian of its privileges and
the defender of the liberties of the Gallican Church. The illustrious
masters felt no remorse at having demanded and obtained the
chastisement of the rebel and heretic, Jeanne the Maid. Whosoever
persists in error is a heretic; whosoever essays and fails to
overthrow the powers that be is a rebel. It was God's will that in
1440 Charles of Valois should possess the city of Paris; it had not
been God's will in 1429; wherefore the Maid had striven against God.
With equal bitterness would the University, in 1440, have proceeded
against a Maid of the English.

The magistrates who had returned to their Paris homes from their long
dreary exile at Poitiers sat in the Parlement side by side with the
converted Burgundians.[2675] In the days of adversity these faithful
servants of King Charles had set the Maid to work, but now in 1440 it
was none of their business to maintain publicly the truth of her
mission and the purity of her faith. Burned by the English, that was
all very well. But a trial conducted by a bishop and a vice-inquisitor
with the concurrence of the University is not an English trial; it is
a trial at once essentially Gallican and essentially Catholic.
Jeanne's name was forever branded throughout Christendom. That
ecclesiastical sentence could be reversed by the Pope alone. But the
Pope had no intention of doing this. He was too much afraid of
displeasing the King of Catholic England; and moreover were he once to
admit that an inquisitor of the faith had pronounced a wrong sentence
he would undermine all human authority. The French clerks submit and
are silent. In the assemblies of the clergy no one dares to utter
Jeanne's name.

[Footnote 2675: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, ch.
xvi.]

Fortunately for them neither the doctors and masters of the University
nor the sometime members of the Parlement of Poitiers share the
popular delusion touching la Dame des Armoises. They have no doubt
that the Maid was burned at Rouen. And they fear lest this woman, who
gives herself out to be the deliverer of Orléans, may arouse a tumult
by her entrance into the city. Wherefore the Parlement and the
University send out men-at-arms to meet her. She is arrested and
brought to the Palais.[2676]

[Footnote 2676: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 354, 355. Lecoy
de la Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 574.]

She was examined, tried and sentenced to be publicly exhibited. In the
Palais de Justice, leading up from the court called the Cour-de-Mai,
there was a marble slab on which malefactors were exhibited. La Dame
des Armoises was put up there and shown to the people whom she had
deceived. The usual sermon was preached at her and she was forced to
confess publicly.[2677]

[Footnote 2677: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, _loc. cit._]

She declared that she was not the Maid, that she was married to a
knight and had two sons. She told how one day, in her mother's
presence, she heard a woman speak slightingly of her; whereupon she
proceeded to attack the slanderer, and, when her mother restrained
her, she turned her blows against her parent. Had she not been in a
passion she would never have struck her mother. Notwithstanding this
provocation, here was a special case and one reserved for the papal
jurisdiction. Whosoever had raised his hand against his father or his
mother, as likewise against a priest or a clerk, must go and ask
forgiveness of the Holy Father, to whom alone belonged the power of
convicting or acquitting the sinner. This was what she had done. "I
went to Rome," she said, "attired in man's apparel. I engaged as a
soldier in the war of the Holy Father Eugenius, and in this war I
twice committed homicide."

When had she journeyed to Rome? Probably before the exile of Pope
Eugenius to Florence, about the year 1433, when the condottieri of the
Duke of Milan were advancing to the gates of the Eternal City.[2678]

[Footnote 2678: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 354, 355. Lecoy
de la Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 574. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis,
_La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 27.]

We do not find either the University, or the Ordinary, or the Grand
Inquisitor demanding the trial of this woman, who was suspected of
witchcraft and of homicide, and who was attired in unseemly garments.
She was not prosecuted as a heretic, doubtless because she was not
obstinate, and obstinacy alone constitutes heresy.

Henceforth she attracted no further attention. It is believed, but on
no very trustworthy evidence, that she ended by returning to Metz, to
her husband, le Chevalier des Armoises, and that she lived quietly and
respectably to a good old age, dwelling in the house over the door of
which were her armorial bearings, or rather those of Jeanne the Maid,
the sword, the crown and the Lilies.[2679]

[Footnote 2679: Vergnaud-Romagnési, _Des portraits de Jeanne d'Arc et
de la fausse Jeanne d'Arc_ and _Mémoire sur les fausses Jeanne d'Arc_,
in _Les Mémoires de la Société d'Agriculture d'Orléans_, 1854, in
8vo.]

The success of this fraud had endured four years. After all it is not
so very surprising. In every age people have been loath to believe in
the final end of existences which have touched their imagination; they
will not admit that great personalities can be struck down by death
like ordinary folk; such an end to a noble career is repugnant to
them. Impostors, like la Dame des Armoises, never fail to find some
who will believe in them. And the Dame appeared at a time which was
singularly favourable to such a delusion; intellects had been dulled
by long suffering; communication between one district and another was
rendered impossible or difficult, and what was happening in one place
was unknown quite near at hand; in the minds of men there reigned
dimness, ignorance, confusion.

But even then folk would not have been imposed upon so long by this
pseudo-Jeanne had it not been for the support given her by the Du Lys
brothers. Were they her dupes or her accomplices? Dull-witted as they
may have been, it seems hardly credible that the adventuress could
have imposed upon them. Admitting that she very closely resembled La
Romée's daughter, the woman from La Grange-aux-Ormes cannot possibly
for any length of time have deceived two men who knew Jeanne
intimately, having been brought up with her and come with her into
France.

If they were not imposed upon, then how can we account for their
conduct? They had lost much when they lost their sister. When he
arrived at La Grange-aux-Ormes, Pierre du Lys had just quitted a
Burgundian prison; his ransom had been paid with his wife's dowry, and
he was then absolutely destitute.[2680] Jean, Bailie of Vermandois,
afterwards Governor of Chartres and about 1436 Bailie of Vaucouleurs,
was hardly more prosperous.[2681] Such circumstances explained much.
And yet it is unlikely that they of themselves alone and unsupported
would have played a game so difficult, so risky, and so dangerous.
From the little we know of their lives we should conclude that they
were both too simple, too naïf, too placid, to carry on such an
intrigue.

[Footnote 2680: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 210, 213.]

[Footnote 2681: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 279.]

We are tempted to believe that they were urged on by some higher and
greater power. Who knows? Perhaps by certain indiscreet persons in the
service of the King of France. The condemnation and death of Jeanne
was a serious attack upon the prestige of Charles VII. May he not have
had in his household or among his counsellors certain subjects who
were rashly jealous enough to invent this appearance, in order to
spread abroad the belief that Jeanne the Maid had not died the death
of a witch, but that by virtue of her innocence and her holiness she
had escaped the flames? If this were so, then we may regard the
imposture of the pseudo-Jeanne, invented at a time when it seemed
impossible ever to obtain a papal revision of the trial of 1431, as an
attempt, surreptitious and fraudulent and speedily abandoned, to bring
about her rehabilitation.

Such a hypothesis would explain why the Du Lys brothers were not
punished or even disgraced, when they had put themselves in the wrong,
had deceived King and people and committed the crime of high treason.
Jean continued provost of Vaucouleurs for many a long year, and then,
when relieved of his office, received a sum of money in lieu of it.
Pierre, as well as his mother, La Romée, was living at Orléans. In 1443
he received from Duke Charles, who had returned to France three years
before, the grant of an island in the Loire, l'Île-aux-Boeufs,[2682]
which was fair grazing land. Nevertheless, he remained poor, and was
constantly receiving help from the Duke and the townsfolk of Orléans.[2683]

[Footnote 2682: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 212, 214. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, p. 287. Duleau, _Vidimus d'une charte de Charles VII,
concédant à Pierre du Lys la possession de l'Isle-aux-Boeufs_,
Orléans, 1860, in 8vo. 6. G. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 28, note 1.]

[Footnote 2683: I have not made use of the very late evidence given by
Pierre Sala (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 281). It is vague and somewhat
legendary, and cannot possibly be introduced into the Life of La Dame
des Armoises. For the bibliography of this interesting subject, see
Lanéry d'Arc, _Le livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 573, 580, and G.
Lefèvre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 8vo,
concerning the account given by M. Gaston Save.

There are those who have supposed, without adducing any proof, that
this pseudo-Jeanne was a sister of the Maid (Lebrun de Charmettes,
_Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iv, pp. 291 _et seq._). Francis
André, _La vérité sur Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 18mo, pp. 75 _et
seq._]




CHAPTER XVI

AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID (_continued_)--THE ROUEN JUDGES AT THE
COUNCIL OF BÂLE AND THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION--THE REHABILITATION
TRIAL--THE MAID OF SARMAIZE--THE MAID OF LE MANS


From year to year the Council of Bâle drew out its deliberations in a
series of sessions well nigh as lengthy as the tail of the dragon in
the Apocalypse. Its manner of reforming at once the Church, its
members, and its head struck terror into the hearts of the sovereign
Pontiff and the Sacred College. Sorrowfully did Æneus Sylvius exclaim,
"There is assembled at Bâle, not the Church of God indeed, but the
synagogue of Satan."[2684] But though uttered by a Roman cardinal,
even such an expression can hardly be termed violent when applied to
the synod which established free elections to bishoprics, suppressed
the right of bestowing the pallium, of exacting annates and payments
to the papal chancery, and which was endeavouring to restore the
papacy to evangelical poverty. The King of France and the Emperor, on
the other hand, looked favourably on the Council when it essayed to
bridle the ambition and greed of the Bishop of Rome.

[Footnote 2684: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p.
335.]

Now among the Fathers who displayed the greatest zeal in the
reformation of the Church were the masters and doctors of the
University of Paris, those who had sat in judgment on Jeanne the Maid,
and notably Maître Nicolas Loiseleur and Maître Thomas de Courcelles.
Charles VII convoked an assembly of the clergy of the realm in order
to examine the canons of Bâle. The assembly met in the Sainte-Chapelle
at Bourges, on the 1st of May, 1438. Master Thomas de Courcelles,
appointed delegate by the Council, there conferred with the Lord
Bishop of Castres. Now in 1438 the Bishop of Castres was that elegant
humanist, that zealous counsellor of the crown, who, in style truly
Ciceronian, complained in his letters that so closely was he bound to
his glebe, the court, that no time remained to him to visit his
spouse.[2685] He was none other than that Gérard Machet, the King's
confessor, who had, in 1429, along with the clerks at Poitiers,
pleaded the authority of prophecy in favour of the Maid, in whom he
found nought but sincerity and goodness.[2686] Maître Thomas de
Courcelles at Rouen had urged the Maid's being tortured and delivered
to the secular arm.[2687] At the Bourges assembly the two churchmen
agreed touching the supremacy of General Councils, the freedom of
episcopal elections, the suppression of annates and the rights of the
Gallican Church. At that moment it was not likely that either one or
the other remembered the poor Maid. From the deliberations of this
assembly, in which Maître Thomas played an important part, there
issued the solemn edict promulgated by the King on the 7th of July,
1438; the Pragmatic Sanction. By this edict the canons of Bâle became
the constitution of the Church of France.[2688]

[Footnote 2685: Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'église de son
temps_, p. 10.]

[Footnote 2686: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 565.]

[Footnote 2687: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 403.]

[Footnote 2688: _Ordonnances_, vol. xiii, pp. 267, 291. _Preuves des
libertés de l'église gallicane_, edited by Lenglet-Dufresnoy, second
part, p. 6. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, pp.
353, 361. N. Arlos, _Histoire de la pragmatique sanction, etc._]

The Emperor also agreed to the reforms of Bâle. So audacious did the
Fathers become that they summoned Pope Eugenius to appear before their
tribunal. When he refused to obey their summons, they deposed him,
declaring him to be disobedient, obstinate, rebellious, a breaker of
rules, a perturber of ecclesiastical unity, a perjurer, a schismatic,
a hardened heretic, a squanderer of the treasures of the Church,
scandalous, simoniacal, pernicious and damnable.[2689] Such was the
condemnation of the Holy Fathers pronounced among other doctors by
Maître Jean Beaupère, Maître Thomas de Courcelles and Maître Nicolas
Loiseleur, who had all three so sternly reproached Jeanne with having
refused to submit to the Pope.[2690] Maître Nicolas had been extremely
energetic throughout the Maid's trial, playing alternately the parts
of the Lorraine prisoner and Saint Catherine; when she was led to the
stake he had run after her like a madman.[2691] This same Maître
Nicolas now displayed great activity in the Council wherein he
attained to some eminence. He upheld the view that the General Council
canonically convoked, was superior to the Pope and in a position to
depose him. And albeit this canon was a mere master of arts, he made
such an impression on the Fathers at Bâle that in 1439, they
despatched him to act as juris-consult at the Diet of Mainz. Meanwhile
his attitude was strongly displeasing to the chapter which had sent
him as deputy to the Council. The canons of Rouen sided with the
Sovereign Pontiff and against the Fathers, on this point joining issue
with the University of Paris. They disowned their delegate and sent to
recall him on the 28th of July, 1438.[2692]

[Footnote 2689: Hefelé, _Histoire de l'Église gallicane_, vol. xx, p.
357. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p. 363. De
Beaurepaire, _Les états de Normandie sous la domination anglaise_, pp.
66, 67, 185, 188.]

[Footnote 2690: Du Boulay, _Hist. Universitatis_, vol. v, p. 431. De
Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_, p. 28.]

[Footnote 2691: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 10, 12, 332, 362; vol. iii, pp.
60, 133, 141, 145, 156, 162, 173, 181.]

[Footnote 2692: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges et assesseurs du
procès de condamnation_, pp. 78, 82.]

Maître Thomas de Courcelles, one of those who had declared the Pope
disobedient, obstinate, rebellious and the rest, was nominated one of
the commissioners to preside over the election of a new pope, and,
like Loiseleur, a delegate to the Diet of Mainz. But, unlike
Loiseleur, he was not disowned by those who had appointed him, for he
was the deputy of the University of Paris who recognised the Pope of
the Council, Felix, to be the true Father of the Faithful.[2693] In
the assembly of the French clergy held at Bourges in the August of
1440, Maître Thomas spoke in the name of the Fathers of Bâle. He
discoursed for two hours to the complete satisfaction of the
King.[2694] Charles VII, while remaining loyal to Pope Eugenius,
maintained the Pragmatic Sanction. Maître Thomas de Courcelles was
henceforth one of the pillars of the French Church.

[Footnote 2693: J. Quicherat, _Aperçus nouveaux_, p. 106.]

[Footnote 2694: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, p.
372.]

Meanwhile the English government had declared for the Pope and against
the Council.[2695] My Lord Pierre Cauchon, who had become Bishop of
Lisieux, was Henry VI's ambassador at the Council. And at Bâle a
somewhat unpleasant experience befell him. By reason of his
translation to the see of Lisieux he owed Rome annates to the amount
of 400 golden florins. In Germany he was informed by the Pope's
Treasurer that by his failure to pay this sum, despite the long delays
granted to him, he had incurred excommunication, and that being
excommunicate, by presuming to celebrate divine service he had
committed irregularity.[2696] Such accusations must have caused him
considerable annoyance. But after all, such occurrences were frequent
and of no great consequence. On churchmen these thunderbolts fell but
lightly, doing them no great hurt.

[Footnote 2695: De Beaurepaire, _Les états de Normandie sous la
domination anglaise_, pp. 66, 67, 185, 188. De Beaucourt, _loc. cit._
p. 362.]

[Footnote 2696: De Beaurepaire, _loc. cit._, p. 17. _Notes sur les
juges et assesseurs du procès de condamnation_, p. 117. _Recherches
sur le procès_, p. 124.]

From 1444, the realm of France, disembarrassed alike of adversaries
and of defenders, was free to labour, to work at various trades, to
engage in commerce and to grow rich. In the intervals between wars and
during truces, King Charles's government, by the interchange of
natural products and of merchandise, also, we may add, by the
abolition of tolls and dues on the Rivers Seine, Oise, and Loire,
effected the actual conquest of Normandy. Thus, when the time for
nominal conquest came, the French had only to take possession of the
province. So easy had this become, that in the rapid campaign of
1449,[2697] even the Constable was not beaten, neither was the Duke of
Alençon. In his royal and peaceful manner Charles VII resumed
possession of his town of Rouen, just as twenty years before he had
taken Troyes and Reims, as the result of an understanding with the
townsfolk and in return for an amnesty and the grant of rights and
privileges to the burghers. He entered the city on Monday, the 10th of
November, 1449.

[Footnote 2697: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. v, ch.
i.]

The French government felt itself strong enough even to attempt the
reconquest of that essentially English province, Aquitaine. In 1451,
my Lord the Bastard, now Count of Dunois, took possession of the
fortress of Blaye. Bordeaux and Bayonne surrendered in the same year.
In the following manner did the Lord Bishop of Le Mans celebrate these
conquests, worthy of the majesty of the most Christian King.

"Maine, Normandy, Aquitaine, these goodly provinces have returned to
their allegiance to the King. Almost without the shedding of French
blood hath this been accomplished. It hath not been necessary to
overthrow the ramparts of many strongly walled towns, or to demolish
their fortifications or for the inhabitants to suffer either pillage
or murder."[2698]

[Footnote 2698: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 249.]

Indeed Normandy and Maine were quite content at being French once
more. The town of Bordeaux was alone in regretting the English, whose
departure spelt its ruin. It revolted in 1452; and then after
considerable difficulty was reconquered once and for all.

King Charles, henceforth rich and victorious, now desired to efface
the stain inflicted on his reputation by the sentence of 1431. He
wanted to prove to the whole world that it was no witch who had
conducted him to his coronation. He was now eager to appeal against
the condemnation of the Maid. But this condemnation had been
pronounced by the church, and the Pope alone could order it to be
cancelled. The King hoped to bring the Pope to do this, although he
knew it would not be easy. In the March of 1450, he proceeded to a
preliminary inquiry;[2699] and matters remained in that position until
the arrival in France of Cardinal d'Estouteville, the legate of the
Holy See. Pope Nicolas had sent him to negotiate with the King of
France a peace with England and a crusade against the Turks. Cardinal
d'Estouteville, who belonged to a Norman family, was just the man to
discover the weak points in Jeanne's trial. In order to curry favour
with Charles, he, as legate, set on foot a new inquiry at Rouen, with
the assistance of Jean Bréhal, of the order of preaching friars, the
Inquisitor of the Faith in the kingdom of France. But the Pope did not
approve of the legate's intervention;[2700] and for three years the
revision was not proceeded with. Nicolas V would not allow it to be
thought that the sacred tribunal of the most holy Inquisition was
fallible and had even once pronounced an unjust sentence. And there
existed at Rome a stronger reason for not interfering with the trial
of 1431: the French demanded revision; the English were opposed to it;
and the Pope did not wish to annoy the English, for they were then
just as good and even better Catholics than the French.[2701]

[Footnote 2699: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 1, 22.]

[Footnote 2700: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. iii, col. 1129 and vol. xi,
col. 90. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. v, p. 219. Le
P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'église de son temps_, ch. vi.]

[Footnote 2701: De Beaurepaire, _Les états de Normandie sous la
domination anglaise_, pp. 185, 188.]

In order to relieve the Pope from embarrassment and set him at his
ease, the government of Charles VII invented an expedient: the King
was not to appear in the suit; his place was to be taken by the family
of the Maid. Jeanne's mother, Isabelle Romée de Vouthon, who lived in
retirement at Orléans,[2702] and her two sons, Pierre and Jean du Lys,
demanded the revision.[2703] By this legal artifice the case was
converted from a political into a private suit. At this juncture
Nicolas V died, on the 24th of March, 1455. His successor, Calixtus
III, a Borgia, an old man of seventy-eight, by a rescript dated the
11th of June, 1455, authorised the institution of proceedings. To this
end he appointed Jean Jouvenel des Ursins, Archbishop of Reims,
Guillaume Chartier, Bishop of Paris, and Richard Olivier, Bishop of
Coutances, who were to act conjointly with the Grand Inquisitor of
France.[2704]

[Footnote 2702: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 276.]

[Footnote 2703: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 108, 112.]

[Footnote 2704: _Ibid._, p. 95. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant
l'église de son temps_, p. 607. J. Belon and F. Balme, _Jean Bréhal,
grand inquisiteur de France et la réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc_,
Paris, 1893, in 4to.]

From the first it was agreed that certain of those concerned in the
original trial were not now to be involved, "for they had been
deceived." Notably it was admitted that the Daughter of Kings, the
Mother of Learning, the University of Paris, had been led into error
by a fraudulent indictment consisting of twelve articles. It was
agreed that the whole responsibility should be thrown on to the Bishop
of Beauvais and the Promoter, Guillaume d'Estivet, who were both
deceased. The precaution was necessary. Had it not been taken, certain
doctors very influential with the King and very dear to the Church of
France would have been greatly embarrassed.

On the 7th of November, 1455, Isabelle Romée and her two sons,
followed by a long procession of innumerable ecclesiasties, laymen,
and worthy women, approached the church of Notre Dame in Paris to
demand justice from the prelates and papal commissioners.[2705]

[Footnote 2705: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 82, 92.]

Informers and accusers in the trial of the late Jeanne were summoned
to appear at Rouen on the 12th of December. Not one came.[2706] The
heirs of the late Messire Pierre Cauchon declined all liability for
the deeds of their deceased kinsman, and touching the civil
responsibility, they pleaded the amnesty granted by the King on the
reconquest of Normandy.[2707] As had been expected, the proceedings
went forward without any obstacle or even any discussion.

[Footnote 2706: _Ibid._, pp. 92, 112.]

[Footnote 2707: _Ibid._, pp. 193, 196.]

Inquiries were instituted at Domremy, at Orléans, at Paris, at
Rouen.[2708] The friends of Jeannette's childhood, Hauviette,
Mengette, either married or grown old; Jeannette, the wife of
Thévenin; Jeannette, the widow of Estellin; Jean Morel of Greux;
Gérardin of Épinal, the Burgundian, and his wife Isabellette, who had
been godmother to Jacques d'Arc's daughter; Perrin, the bell-ringer;
Jeanne's uncle Lassois; the Leroyer couple and a score of peasants
from Domremy all appeared. Bertrand de Poulengy, then sixty-three and
gentleman of the horse to the King of France, was heard; likewise Jean
de Novelompont, called Jean de Metz, who had been raised to noble rank
and was now living at Vaucouleurs, where he held some military office.
Gentlemen and ecclesiasties of Lorraine and Champagne were
examined.[2709] Burgesses of Orléans were also called, and notably
Jean Luillier, the draper, who in June, 1429, had furnished fine
Brussels cloth of purple for Jeanne's gown and ten years later had
been present at the banquet given by the magistrates of Orléans in
honour of the Maid who, as it was believed, had escaped burning.[2710]
Jean Luillier was the most intelligent of the witnesses; as for the
others, of whom there were about two dozen townsmen and townswomen, of
between fifty and sixty years of age, they did little but repeat his
evidence.[2711] He spoke well; but the fear of the English dazzled him
and he saw many more of them than there had ever been.

[Footnote 2708: _Ibid._, pp. 291, 463; vol. iii, pp. 1, 202.]

[Footnote 2709: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 378, 463.]

[Footnote 2710: _Ibid._, vol. v, pp. 112, 113, 331.]

[Footnote 2711: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 23, 35.]

Touching the examination at Poitiers there were called an advocate, a
squire, a man of business, François Garivel, who was fifteen at the
time of Jeanne's interrogation.[2712] The only cleric summoned was
Brother Seguin of Limousin.[2713] The clerics of Poitiers were first
as disinclined to risk themselves in this matter as were those of
Rouen; a burnt child dreads the fire. La Hire and Poton of
Saintrailles were dead. The survivors of Orléans and of Patay were
called; the Bastard Jean, now Count of Dunois and Longueville, who
gave his evidence like a clerk;[2714] the old Sire de Gaucourt, who in
his eighty-fifth year made some effort of memory, and for the rest
gave the same evidence as the Count of Dunois;[2715] the Duke of
Alençon, on the point of making an alliance with the English and of
procuring a powder with which to dry up the King,[2716] but who was
none the less talkative and vain-glorious;[2717] Jeanne's steward,
Messire Jean d'Aulon, who had become a knight, a King's Counsellor and
Seneschal of Beaucaire,[2718] and the little page Louis de Coutes, now
a noble of forty-two.[2719] Brother Pasquerel too was called; even in
his old-age he remained superficial and credulous.[2720] And there was
heard also the widow of Maître René de Bouligny, Demoiselle Marguerite
la Toroulde, who delicately and with a good grace related what she
remembered.[2721]

[Footnote 2712: _Ibid._, pp. 1, 19.]

[Footnote 2713: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2714: _Ibid._, pp. 2 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2715: _Ibid._, p. 16.]

[Footnote 2716: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p.
43. P. Dupuy, _Histoire des Templiers_, 1658, in 4to. Cimber and
Danjou, _Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France_, vol. i, pp.
137-157. (See also, Michelet, History of France, translated by G.H.
Smith, vol. ii, p. 206.) Note--Alençon says to his English valet: "If
I could have a powder that I wot of and put it in the vessel in which
the King's sheets are washed, he should sleep sound enough [_dormir
tout sec_]." _Trial of Alençon_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 2717: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 90.]

[Footnote 2718: _Ibid._, p. 209.]

[Footnote 2719: _Ibid._, p. 65.]

[Footnote 2720: _Ibid._, p. 100.]

[Footnote 2721: _Ibid._, p. 85.]

Care was taken not to summon the Lord Archbishop of Rouen, Messire
Raoul Roussel, as a witness of the actual incidents of the trial,
albeit he had sat in judgment on the Maid, side by side with my Lord
of Beauvais. As for the Vice Inquisitor of Religion, Brother Jean
Lemaistre, he might have been dead, so completely was he ignored.
Nevertheless, certain of the assessors were called: Jean Beaupère,
canon of Paris, of Besançon and of Rouen; Jean de Mailly, Lord Bishop
of Noyon; Jean Lefèvre, Bishop of Démétriade; divers canons of Rouen,
sundry ecclesiastics who appeared some unctuous, others stern and
frowning;[2722] and, finally, the most illustrious Thomas de
Courcelles, who, after having been the most laborious and assiduous
collaborator of the Bishop of Beauvais, recalled nothing when he came
before the commissioners for the revision.[2723]

[Footnote 2722: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 20, 21, 161; vol. iii, pp. 43,
53, _passim_.]

[Footnote 2723: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 44, 56. J. Quicherat, _Aperçus
nouveaux_, p. 106.]

[Illustration: THE BASTARD OF ORLEANS

_From an old engraving_]

Among those who had been most zealous to procure Jeanne's condemnation
were those who were now most eagerly labouring for her rehabilitation.
The registrars of the Lord Bishop of Beauvais, the Boisguillaumes, the
Manchons, the Taquels, all those ink-pots of the Church who had been
used for her death sentence, worked wonders when that sentence had to
be annulled; all the zeal they had displayed in the institution of the
trial they now displayed in its revision; they were prepared to
discover in it every possible flaw.[2724]

[Footnote 2724: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 161; vol. iii, pp. 41, 42, 195.]

And in what a poor and paltry tone did these benign fabricators of
legal artifices denounce the cruel iniquity which they had themselves
perpetrated in due form! Among them was the Usher, Jean Massieu, a
dissolute priest,[2725] of scandalous morals, but a kindly fellow for
all that, albeit somewhat crafty and the inventor of a thousand
ridiculous stories against Cauchon, as if the old Bishop were not
black enough already.[2726] The revision commissioners produced a
couple of sorry monks, Friar Martin Ladvenu and Friar Isambart de la
Pierre, from the monastery of the preaching friars at Rouen. They wept
in a heart-rending manner as they told of the pious end of that poor
Maid, whom they had declared a heretic, then a relapsed heretic, and
had finally burned alive. There was not one of the clerks charged
with the examination of Jeanne but was touched to the heart at the
memory of so saintly a damsel.[2727]

[Footnote 2725: De Beaurepaire, _Notes sur les juges_.]

[Footnote 2726: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 329 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2727: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 363 _et seq._, 434 _et seq._]

Huge piles of memoranda drawn up by doctors of high repute, canonists,
theologians and jurists, both French and foreign, were furnished for
the trial. Their chief object was to establish by scholastic reasoning
that Jeanne had submitted her deeds and sayings to the judgment of the
Church and of the Holy Father. These doctors proved that the judges of
1431 had been very subtle and Jeanne very simple. Doubtless, it was
the best way to make out that she had submitted to the Church; but
they over-reached themselves and made her too simple. According to
them she was absolutely ignorant, almost an idiot, understanding
nothing, imagining that the clerics who examined her in themselves
alone constituted the Church Militant. This had been the impression of
the doctors on the French side in 1429. _La Pucelle_, "_une puce_,"
said the Lord Archbishop of Embrun.[2728]

[Footnote 2728: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations en faveur de
Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 576.]

But there was another reason for making her appear as weak and
imbecile as possible. Such a representation exalted the power of God,
who through her had restored the King of France to his inheritance.

Declarations confirming this view of the Maid were obtained by the
commissioners from most of the witnesses. She was simple, she was very
simple, she was absolutely simple, they repeated one after the other.
And they all in the same words added: "Yes, she was simple, save in
deeds of war, wherein she was well skilled."[2729] Then the captains
said how clever she was in placing cannon, albeit they knew well to
the contrary. But how could she have failed to be well versed in deeds
of war, since God himself led her against the English? And in this
possession of the art of war by an unskilled girl lay the miracle.

[Footnote 2729: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 32, 87, 100, 116, 119, 120,
126, 128 _et passim_.]

The Grand Inquisitor of France, Jean Bréhal, in his reminiscence
enumerates the reasons for believing that Jeanne came from God. One of
the proofs which seems to have struck him most forcibly is that her
coming is foretold in the prophecies of Merlin, the Magician.[2730]

[Footnote 2730: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations_, p. 402.]

Believing that he could prove from one of Jeanne's answers that her
first apparitions were in her thirteenth year, Brother Jean Bréhal
argues that the fact is all the more credible seeing that this number
13, composed of 3, which indicates the Blessed Trinity, and of 10,
which expresses the perfect observation of the Decalogue, is
marvellously favourable to divine visitations.[2731]

[Footnote 2731: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 398.]

On the 16th of June, 1455, the sentence of 1431 was declared unjust,
unfounded, iniquitous. It was nullified and pronounced invalid.

Thus was honour restored to the messenger of the coronation, thus was
her memory reconciled with the Church. But that abundant source whence
on the appearance of this child there had flowed so many pious legends
and heroic fables was henceforth dried up. The rehabilitation trial
added little to the popular legend. It rendered it possible to connect
with Jeanne's death the usual incidents narrated of the martyrdom of
virgins, such as the dove taking flight from the stake, the name of
Jesus written in letters of flame, the heart intact in the
ashes.[2732] The miserable deaths of the wicked judges were insisted
upon. True it is that Jean d'Estivet, the Promoter, was found dead in
a dove-cot,[2733] that Nicolas Midi was attacked by leprosy, that
Pierre Cauchon died when he was being shaved.[2734] But, among those
who aided and accompanied the Maid, more than one came to a bad end.
Sire Robert de Baudricourt, who had sent Jeanne to the King, died in
prison, excommunicated for having laid waste the lands of the chapter
of Toul.[2735] The Maréchal de Rais was sentenced to death.[2736] The
Duke of Alençon, convicted of high treason, was pardoned only to fall
under a new condemnation and to die in captivity.[2737]

[Footnote 2732: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 355.]

[Footnote 2733: _Ibid._, p. 162.]

[Footnote 2734: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. xi, col. 793.]

[Footnote 2735: _Histoire ecclésiastique et politique de la ville et
du diocèse de Toul_, 1707, p. 529.]

[Footnote 2736: Abbé Bossard, _Gilles de Rais_, pp. 333 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2737: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p.
197.]

Two years after Charles VII had ordered the preliminary inquiry into
the trial of 1431, a woman, following the example of la Dame des
Armoises, passed herself off as the Maid Jeanne.

At this time there lived in the little town of Sarmaize, between the
Marne and the Meuse, two cousins german of the Maid, Poiresson and
Périnet, both sons of the late Jean de Vouthon, Isabelle Romée's
brother, who in his lifetime had been a thatcher by trade. Now, on a
day in 1452, it befell that the curé of Notre Dame de Sarmaize, Simon
Fauchard, being in the market-house of the town, there came to him a
woman dressed as a youth who asked him to play at tennis with her.

He consented, and when they had begun their game the woman said to
him, "Say boldly that you have played tennis with the Maid." And at
these words Simon Fauchard was right joyful.

The woman afterwards went to the house of Périnet, the carpenter, and
said, "I am the Maid; I come to visit my Cousin Henri."

Périnet, Poiresson, and Henri de Vouthon made her good cheer and kept
her in their house, where she ate and drank as she pleased.[2738]

[Footnote 2738: Inquiry of 1476, in G. de Braux and E. de Bouteiller,
_Nouvelles recherches_, p. 10.]

Then, when she had had enough, she went away.

Whence came she? No one knows. Whither did she go? She may probably be
recognised in an adventuress, who not long afterwards, with her hair
cut short and a hood on her head, wearing doublet and hose, wandered
through Anjou, calling herself Jeanne the Maid. While the doctors and
masters, engaged in the revision of the trial, were gathering evidence
of Jeanne's life and death from all parts of the kingdom, this false
Jeanne was finding credence with many folk. But she became involved in
difficulties with a certain Dame of Saumoussay,[2739] and was cast
into the prison of Saumur, where she lay for three months. At the end
of this time, having been banished from the dominions of the good King
René, she married one Jean Douillet; and, by a document dated the 3rd
day of February, 1456, she received permission to return to Saumur, on
condition of living there respectably and ceasing to wear man's
apparel.[2740]

[Footnote 2739: Or Chaumussay. Lecoy de la Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, Paris, 1871, in 8vo, p. 19.]

[Footnote 2740: Lecoy de la Marche, _Une fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, in
_Revue des questions historiques_, October, 1871, p. 576. _Le roi
René_, Paris, 1875, vol. i, pp. 308-327; vol. ii, pp. 281-283.]

About this time there came to Laval in the diocese of Le Mans, a
damsel between eighteen and twenty-two, who was a native of a
neighbouring place called Chassé-les-Usson. Her father's name was Jean
Féron and she was commonly called Jeanne la Férone.

She was inspired from heaven, and the names Jesus and Mary were for
ever on her lips; yet the devil cruelly tormented her. The Dame de
Laval, mother of the Lords André and Guy, being now very aged,
marvelled at the piety and the sufferings of the holy damsel; and she
sent her to Le Mans, to the Bishop.

Since 1449, the see of Le Mans had been held by Messire Martin
Berruyer of Touraine. In his youth he had been professor of philosophy
and rhetoric at the University of Paris. Later he had devoted himself
to theology and had become one of the directors of the College of
Navarre. Although he was infirm with age, his learning was such that
he was consulted by the commissioners for the rehabilitation
trial,[2741] whereupon he drew up a memorandum touching the Maid.
Herein he believes her to have been verily sent of God because she was
abject and very poor and appeared well nigh imbecile in everything
that did not concern her mission. Messire Martin argues that it was by
reason of the King's virtues that God had vouchsafed to him the help
of the Maid.[2742] Such an idea found favour with the theologians of
the French party.

[Footnote 2741: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 314, note 1. _Gallia
Christiana_, vol. ii, fol. 518. Du Boulay, _Hist. Univ. Paris_, vol.
v, p. 905. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'église de son temps_,
pp. 403, 404.]

[Footnote 2742: Lanéry d'Arc, _Mémoires et consultations_, p. 247.]

The Lord Bishop, Martin Berruyer, heard Jeanne la Férone in
confession, renewed her baptism, confirmed her in the faith and gave
her the name of Marie, in gratitude for the abounding grace which the
most Holy Virgin, Mother of God, had granted to his servant.

This maid was subject to the violent attacks of evil spirits. Many a
time did my Lord of Mans behold her covered with bleeding wounds,
struggling in the grasp of the enemy, and on several occasions he
delivered her by means of exorcisms. Greatly was he edified by this
holy damsel, who made known unto him marvellous secrets, who abounded
in pious revelations and noble Christian utterances. Wherefore in
praise of La Férone he wrote many letters[2743] to princes and
communities of the realm.

[Footnote 2743: Du Clercq, _Mémoires_, ed. Reiffenberg, Brussels,
1823, vol. iii, pp. 98 _et seq._ Jean de Roye, _Chronique
scandaleuse_, ed. Bernard de Mandrot, 1894, vol. i, pp. 13, 14.
_Chronique de Bourdigné_, ed. Quatrebarbes, vol. ii, p. 212. Dom
Piolin, _Histoire de l'église du Mans_, vol. v, p. 163.]

The Queen of France, who was then very old and whose husband had long
ago deserted her, heard tell of the Maid of Le Mans, and wrote to
Messire Martin Berruyer, requesting him to make the damsel known unto
her.

Thus there befel, what we have seen happening over and over again in
this history, that when a devout person, leading a contemplative life
uttered prophecies, those in places of authority grew curious
concerning her and desired to submit her to the judgment of the Church
that they might know whether the goodness that appeared in her were
true or false. Certain officers of the King visited La Férone at Le
Mans.

As revelations touching the realm of France had been vouchsafed to
her, she spoke to them the following words:

"Commend me very humbly to the King and bid him recognise the grace
which God granteth unto him, and lighten the burdens of his people."

In the December of 1460, she was summoned before the Royal Council,
which was then sitting at Tours, while the King, who was sick of an
ulcer in the leg, was residing in the Château of Les Montils.[2744]
The Maid of Le Mans was examined in like manner as the Maid Jeanne had
been, but the result was unfavourable; she was found wanting in
everything. Brought before the ecclesiastical court she was convicted
of imposture. It appeared that she was no maid, but was living in
concubinage with a cleric, that certain persons in the service of my
Lord of Le Mans instructed her in what she was to say, and that such
was the origin of the revelations she made to the Reverend Father in
God, Messire Martin Berruyer, under the seal of the confession.
Convicted of being a hypocrite, an idolatress, an invoker of demons, a
witch, a magician, lascivious, dissolute, an enchantress, a mine of
falsehood, she was condemned to have a fool's cap put on her head and
to be preached at in public, in the towns of Le Mans, Tours and Laval.
On the 2nd of May, 1461, she was exhibited to the folk at Tours,
wearing a paper cap and over her head a scroll on which her deeds were
set forth in lines of Latin and of French. Maître Guillaume de
Châteaufort, Grand Master of the Royal College of Navarre, preached to
her. Then she was cast into close confinement in a prison, there to
weep over her sins for the space of seven years, eating the bread of
sorrow and drinking the water of affliction;[2745] at the end of which
time she rented a house of ill fame.[2746]

[Footnote 2744: Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. iii, p.
444.]

[Footnote 2745: Jacques du Clercq, _Mémoires_, vol. iii, pp. 107 _et
seq._]

[Footnote 2746: Antoine du Faur, _Livre des femmes célèbres_, in
_Trial_, vol. v, p. 336.]

On Wednesday, the 22nd of July, 1461, covered with ulcers internal and
external, believing himself poisoned and perhaps not without reason,
Charles VII died, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, in his Château
of Mehun-sur-Yèvre.[2747]

[Footnote 2747: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, pp.
442, 451. _Chronique Martiniane_, ed. P. Champion, p. 110.]

On Thursday, the 6th of August, his body was borne to the Church of
Saint-Denys in France and placed in a chapel hung with velvet; the
nave was draped with black satin, the vault was covered with blue
cloth embroidered with flowers-de-luce.[2748] During the ceremony,
which took place on the following day, a funeral oration was delivered
on Charles VII. The preacher was no less a personage than the most
highly renowned professor at the University of Paris, the doctor, who
according to the Princes of the Roman Church was ever aimable and
modest, he who had been the stoutest defender of the liberties of the
Gallican Church, the ecclesiastic who, having declined a Cardinal's
hat, bore to the threshold of an illustrious old age none other title
than that of Dean of the Canons of Notre Dame de Paris, Maître Thomas
de Courcelles.[2749] Thus it befell that the assessor of Rouen, who
had been the most bitterly bent on procuring Jeanne's cruel
condemnation, celebrated the memory of the victorious King whom the
Maid had conducted to his solemn coronation.

[Footnote 2748: Mathieu d'Escouchy, vol. ii, p. 422. Jean Chartier,
_Chronique_, vol. iii, pp. 114-121.]

[Footnote 2749: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. vii, col. 151 and 214.
Hardouin, _Acta Conciliorum_, vol. ix, col. 1423. De Beaucourt,
_Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, p. 444.]




APPENDICES




APPENDIX I

LETTER FROM DOCTOR G. DUMAS


My Dear Master,--You ask for my medical opinion in the case of Jeanne
d'Arc. Had I been able to examine it at my leisure with the Doctors
Tiphaine and Delachambre, who were summoned before the tribunal at
Rouen, I might have found it difficult to come to any definite
conclusion. And even more difficult do I find it now, when my
diagnosis must necessarily be retrospective and based upon
examinations conducted by persons who never dreamed of attempting to
discover the existence of any nervous disease. However since they
ascribed what we now call disease to the influence of the devil, their
questions are not without significance for us. Therefore with many
reservations I will endeavour to answer your question.

Of Jeanne's inherited constitution we know nothing; and of her
personal antecedents we are almost entirely ignorant. Our only
information concerning such matters comes from Jean d'Aulon, who, on
the evidence of several women, states[2750] that she was never fully
developed, a condition which frequently occurs in neurotic subjects.

[Footnote 2750: _Trial_, vol. iii. p. 219.]

We should, however, be unable to arrive at any conclusion concerning
Jeanne's nervous constitution had not her judges, and in particular
Maître Jean Beaupère, in the numerous examinations to which they
subjected her, elicited certain significant details on the subject of
her hallucinations.

Maître Beaupère begins by inquiring very judiciously whether Jeanne
had fasted the day before she first heard her voices. Whence we infer
that the interdependence of inanition and hallucinations was
recognised by this illustrious professor of theology. Before
condemning Jeanne as a witch he wanted to make sure that she was not
merely suffering from weakness. Some time later we find Saint Theresa
suspecting that the visions said to have been seen by a certain nun
were merely the result of long fasting. Saint Theresa insisted on the
nun's partaking of food, and the visions ceased.

Jeanne replies that she had only fasted since the morning, and Maître
Beaupère proceeds to ask:

_Q._ "In what direction did you hear the voice?"

_A._ "I heard it on the right, towards the church."

_Q._ "Was the voice accompanied by any light?"

_A._ "I seldom heard it without there being a light. This light
appeared in the direction whence the voice came."[2751]

[Footnote 2751: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52 and _passim_.]

We might wonder whether by the expression "_à droite_" (_a latere
dextro_) Jeanne meant her own right side or the position of the church
in relation to her; and in the latter case, the information would have
no clinical significance; but the context leaves no doubt as to the
veritable meaning of her words.

"How can you," urges Jean Beaupère, "see this light which you say
appears to you, if it is on your right?"

If it had been merely a question of the situation of the church and
not of Jeanne's own right side, she would only have had to turn her
face to see the light in front of her, and Jean Beaupère's objection
would have been pointless.

Consequently at about the age of thirteen, at the period of puberty,
which for her never came, Jeanne would appear to have been subject on
her right side to unilateral hallucinations of sight and hearing. Now
Charcot[2752] considered unilateral hallucinations of sight to be
common in cases of hysteria.[2753] He even thought that in hysterical
subjects they are allied to a hemianæsthesia situated on the same side
of the body, and which in Jeanne would be on the right side. Jeanne's
trial might have proved the existence of this hemianæsthesia, an
extremely significant symptom in the diagnosis of hysteria, if the
judges had applied torture or merely had examined the skin of the
subject in order to discover anæsthesia patches which were called
marks of the devil.[2754] But from the merely oral examination which
took place we can only draw inferences concerning Jeanne's general
physical condition. In case excessive importance should be attached to
such inferences I should add that in the diagnosis of hysteria
contemporary neurologists pay less attention than did Charcot to
unilateral hallucinations of sight.

[Footnote 2752: A famous French alienist (1825-1893).--W.S.]

[Footnote 2753: _Progrès medical_, January 19, 1878.]

[Footnote 2754: The existence of patches devoid of feeling was
considered in the Middle Ages to prove that the subject was a witch.
Hence needles were run into the supposed witch. And if she felt them
in every part of her body she was acquitted.--W.S.]

The other characteristics of Jeanne's hallucinations revealed by her
examinations during the trial are no less interesting than these,
although they do not lead to any more certain conclusions.

Those visions and voices, which the subject refers to an external
source and which are so characteristic of hysterical hallucinations,
proceed suddenly from the subconscious self. Jeanne's conscious self
was so far from being prepared for her voices that she declares she
was very much afraid when she first heard them: "I was thirteen when I
heard a voice coming from God telling me to lead a good life. And the
first time I was very much afraid. This voice came to me about noon;
it was in the summer, in my father's garden."[2755]

[Footnote 2755: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52.]

And then straightway the voice becomes imperative. It demands an
obedience which is not refused: "It said to me: 'Go forth into
France,' and I could no longer stay where I was."[2756]

[Footnote 2756: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]

Her visions all occur in the same manner. They appeal to the senses in
exactly the same way and are received by the Maid with equal
credulity.

Finally, these hallucinations of hearing and of sight are soon
associated with similar hallucinations of smell and touch, which serve
to confirm Jeanne's belief in their reality.

_Q._ "Which part of Saint Catherine did you touch?"

_A._ "You will hear nothing more."

_Q._ "Did you kiss or embrace Saint Catherine or Saint Margaret?"

_A._ "I embraced them both."

_Q._ "In embracing them did you feel heat or anything?"

_A._ "I could not embrace them without feeling and touching
them."[2757]

[Footnote 2757: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 186.]

Because they thus appeal to the senses and seem to possess a certain
material reality, hysterical hallucinations make a profound and
ineffaceable impression on those who experience them. The subjects
speak of them as being actual and very striking facts. When they
become accusers, as so many women do who claim to have been the
victims of imaginary assaults, they support their assertions in the
most energetic fashion.

Not only does Jeanne see, hear, smell and touch her saints, she joins
the procession of angels they bring in their train. With them she
performs actual deeds, as if there were perfect unity between her life
and her hallucinations.

"I was in my lodging, in the house of a good woman, near the _château_
of Chinon, when the angel came. And then he and I went together to the
King."

_Q._ "Was this angel alone?"

_A._ "This angel was with a goodly company of other angels.[2758]
They were with him, but not every one saw them.... Some were very much
alike; others were not, or at any rate not as I saw them. Some had
wings. Certain even wore crowns, and in their company were Saint
Catherine and Saint Margaret. With the angel aforesaid and with the
other angels they went right into the King's chamber."

[Footnote 2758: According to the evidence of Maître Pierre Maurice, at
the condemnation trial (vol. i. p. 480), Jeanne must have seen the
angels "in the form of certain infinitesimal things" (_sub specie
quarumdam rerum minimarum_). This was also the character of the
hallucinations experienced by Saint Rose of Lima ("Vie de Sainte Rose
de Lima," by P. Léonard Hansen, p. 179).]

_Q._ "Tell us how the angel left you."

_A._ "He left me in a little chapel, and at his departure I was very
sorrowful, and I even wept. Willingly would I have gone away with him;
I mean my soul would have gone."[2759]

[Footnote 2759: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 144.]

In all these hallucinations there is the same objective clearness, the
same subjective certitude as in toxic hallucinations; and this
clearness, this certitude, may in Jeanne's case suggest hysteria.

But if in certain respects Jeanne resembles hysterical subjects, in
others she differs from them. She seems early to have acquired an
independence of her visions and an authority over them.

Without ever doubting their reality, she resists them and sometimes
disobeys them, when, for example, in defiance of Saint Catherine, she
leaps from her prison of Beaurevoir: "Well nigh every day Saint
Catherine told me not to leap and that God would come to my aid, and
also would succour those of Compiègne. And I said to Saint Catherine:
'Since God is to help those of Compiègne, I want to be with
them.'"[2760]

[Footnote 2760: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 110.]

On another occasion she assumes such authority over her visions that
she can make the two saints come at her bidding when they do not come
of themselves.

_Q._ "Do you call these saints, or do they come without being called?"

_A._ "They often come without being called, and sometimes when they
did not come I asked God to send them speedily."[2761]

[Footnote 2761: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 279 and _passim_.]

All this is not in the accepted manner of the hysterical, who are
usually somewhat passive with regard to their nervous fits and
hallucinations. But Jeanne's dominance over her visions is a
characteristic I have noted in many of the higher mystics and in those
who have attained notoriety. This kind of subject, after having at
first passively submitted to his hysteria, afterwards uses it rather
than submits to it, and finally by means of it attains in his ecstasy
to that divine union after which he strives.

If Jeanne were hysterical, such a characteristic would help us to
determine the part played by the neurotic side of her nature in the
development of her character and in her life.

If there were any hysterical strain in her nature, then it was by
means of this hysterical strain that the most secret sentiments of her
heart took shape in the form of visions and celestial voices. Her
hysteria became the open door by which the divine--or what Jeanne
deemed the divine--entered into her life. It strengthened her faith
and consecrated her mission; but in her intellect and in her will
Jeanne remains healthy and normal. Nervous pathology can therefore
cast but a feeble light on Jeanne's nature. It can reveal only one
part of that spirit which your book resuscitates in its entirety. With
the expression of my respectful admiration, believe me, my dear
master,

DOCTOR G. DUMAS.




APPENDIX II

THE FARRIER OF SALON


Towards the end of the seventeenth century, there lived at
Salon-en-Crau, near Aix, a farrier, one François Michel. He came of a
respectable family. He himself had served in the cavalry regiment of
the Chevalier de Grignan. He was held to be a sensible man, honest and
devout. He was close on forty when, in February, 1697, he had a
vision.

Returning to his home one evening, he beheld a spectre, holding a
torch in its hand. This spectre said to him:

"Fear nothing. Go to Paris and speak to the King. If thou dost not
obey this command thou shalt die. When thou shalt approach to within a
league of Versailles, I will not fail to make known unto thee what
things thou shalt say to his Majesty. Go to the Governor of thy
province, who will order all that is necessary for thy journey."

The figure which thus addressed him was in the form of a woman. She
wore a royal crown and a mantle embroidered with flowers-de-luce of
gold, like the late Queen, Marie-Thérèse, who had died a holy death
full fourteen years before.

The poor farrier was greatly afraid. He fell down at the foot of a
tree, knowing not whether he dreamed or was awake. Then he went back
to his house, and told no man of what he had seen.

Two days afterwards he passed the same spot. There again he beheld
the same spectre, who repeated the same orders and the same threats.
The farrier could no longer doubt the reality of what he saw; but as
yet he could not make up his mind what to do.

A third apparition, more imperious and more importunate than the
first, reduced him to obedience. He went to Aix, to the Governor of
the province; he saw him and told him how he had been given a mission
to speak to the King. The Governor at first paid no great heed to him.
But the visionary's patient persistence could not fail to impress him.
Moreover, since the King was personally concerned in the matter, it
ought not to be entirely neglected. These considerations led the
Governor to inquire from the magistrates of Salon touching the
farrier's family and manner of life. The result of these inquiries was
very favourable. Accordingly the Governor deemed it fitting to proceed
forthwith to action. In those days no one was quite sure whether
advice, very useful to the most Christian of Kings, might not be sent
by some member of the Church Triumphant through the medium of a common
artisan. Still less were they sure that some plot in which the welfare
of the State was concerned might not be hatched under colour of an
apparition. In both contingencies, the second of which was quite
probable, it would be advisable to send François Michel to Versailles.
And this was the decision arrived at by the Governor.

For the transport of François Michel he adopted measures at once sure
and inexpensive. He confided him to an officer who was taking recruits
in that direction. After having received the communion in the church
of the Franciscans, who were edified by his pious bearing, the farrier
set out on February 25 with his Majesty's young soldiers, with whom he
travelled as far as La Ferté-sous-Jouarre. On his arrival at
Versailles, he asked to see the King or at least one of his Ministers
of State. He was directed to M. de Barbezieux, who, when he was still
very young, had succeeded his father, M. de Louvois, and in that
position had displayed some talent. But the good farrier declined to
tell him anything, because he was not a Minister of State.

And it was true that Barbezieux, although a Minister, was not a
Minister of State. But that a farrier from Provence should be capable
of drawing such a distinction occasioned considerable surprise.

M. de Barbezieux doubtless did not evince such scorn for this
compatriot of Nostradamus as would have been shown in his place by a
man of broader mind. For he, like his father, was addicted to the
practice of astrology, and he was always inquiring concerning his
horoscope of a certain Franciscan friar who had predicted the hour of
his death.

We do not know whether he gave the King a favourable report of the
farrier, or whether the latter was admitted to the presence of M. de
Pomponne, who was then at the head of the administration of Provence.
But we do know that Louis XIV consented to see the man. He had him
brought up the steps leading to the marble courtyard, and then granted
him a lengthy audience in his private apartments.

On the morrow, as the King was coming down his private staircase on
his way out hunting, he met Marshal de Duras, who was Captain of the
King's bodyguard for the day. With his usual freedom of speech the
Marshal spoke to the King of the farrier, using a common saying:

"Either the man is mad, or the King is not noble."

At these words the King, contrary to his usual habit, paused and
turned to the Marshal de Duras:

"Then I am not noble," he said, "for I talked to him for a long time,
and he spoke very sensibly; I assure you he is far from being mad."

The last words he uttered with so solemn a gravity that those who were
present were astonished.

Persons who claim to be inspired are expected to show some sign of
their mission. In a second interview, François Michel showed the King
a sign in fulfilment of a promise he had given. He reminded him of an
extraordinary circumstance which the son of Anne of Austria believed
known to himself alone. Louis XIV himself admitted it, but for the
rest preserved a profound silence touching this interview.

Saint Simon, always eager to collect every court rumour, believed it
was a question of some phantom, which more than twenty years before
had appeared to Louis XIV in the Forest of Saint-Germain.

For the third and last time the King received the farrier of Salon.

The courtiers displayed so much curiosity in this visionary that he
had to be shut up in the monastery of Des Rècollets. There the little
Princess of Savoy, who was shortly to marry the Duke of Burgundy, came
to see him with several lords and ladies of the court.

He appeared slow to speak, good, simple, and humble. The King ordered
him to be furnished with a fine horse, clothes, and money; then he
sent him back to Provence.

Public opinion was divided on the subject of the apparition which had
appeared to the farrier and the mission he had received from it. Most
people believed that he had seen the spirit of Marie-Thérèse; but some
said it was Nostradamus.[2762]

[Footnote 2762: Michel de Nostre-Dame, called Nostradamus (1503-1566),
a Provençal astrologer, whose prophecies were published under the
title of "Centuries." He was invited to the French court by Catherine
de' Medici, and became the doctor of Charles IX.--W.S.]

It was only at Salon, where he slept in the church of the Franciscans,
that this astrologer was absolutely believed in. His "Centuries,"
which appeared at Paris and at Lyon in no less than ten editions in
the course of one century, entertained the credulous throughout the
kingdom. In 1693, there had just been published a book of the
prophecies of Nostradamus showing how they had been fulfilled in
history from the reign of Henry II down to that of Louis the Great.

It came to be believed that in the following mysterious quatrain the
farrier's coming had been prophesied:

    "Le penultiesme du surnom du Prophète,
    Prendra Diane pour son iour et repos:
    Loing vaguera par frénétique teste,
    En délivrant un grand peuple d'impos."[2763]

[Footnote 2763: The last syllable but one of the surname of the
Prophet will Diane take for her day and her rest. Far shall wander
that inspired one delivering a great nation from the burden of taxes.]

An attempt was made to apply these obscure lines to the poor prophet
of Salon. In the first line he is said to figure as one of the twelve
minor prophets, Micah, which name is closely allied to Michel. In the
second line Diane was said to be the mother of the farrier, who was
certainly called by that name. But if the line means anything at all,
it is more likely to refer to the day of the moon, Monday. It was
carefully pointed out that in the third line _frénétique_ means not
_mad_ but _inspired_. The fourth and only intelligible line would
suggest that the spectre bade Michel ask the King to lessen the taxes
and dues which then weighed so heavily on the good folk of town and
country:

_En délivrant un grand peuple d'impos._ This was enough to make the
farrier popular and to cause those unhappy sufferers to centre in this
poor windbag their hopes for a better future. His portrait was
engraved in copper-plate, and below it was written the quatrain of
Nostradamus. M. d'Argenson,[2764] who was at the head of the police
department, had these portraits seized. They were suppressed, so says
the _Gazette d'Amsterdam_, on account of the last line of the quatrain
written beneath the portrait, the line which runs: _En délivrant un
grand peuple d'impos_. Such an expression was hardly likely to please
the court.

[Footnote 2764: Marc René Marquis d'Argenson (1652-1721), after being
Lieutenant Général de la Police at Paris, became, from 1718-1720,
Président du Conseil des Finances and Garde des Sceaux.--W.S.]

No one ever knew exactly what was the mission the farrier received
from his spectre. Subtle folk suspected one of Madame de Maintenon's
intrigues. She had a friend at Marseille, a Madame Arnoul, who was as
ugly as sin, it was said, and yet who managed to make men fall in love
with her. They thought that this Madame Arnoul had shown Marie-Thérèse
to the good man of Salon in order to induce the King to live
honourably with widow Scarron. But in 1697 widow Scarron had been
married to Louis for twelve years at least; and one cannot see why
ghostly aid should have been necessary to attach the old King to her.

On his return to his native town, François Michel shoed horses as
before.

He died at Lançon, near Salon, on December 10, 1726.[2765]

[Footnote 2765: _Gazette d'Amsterdam_, March-May, 1697; _Annales de la
cour et de Paris_ (vol. ii. pp. 204, 219); _Theatrum Europæum_ (vol.
xv. pp. 359-360); _Mémoires de Sourches_ (vol. v. pp. 260, 263);
_Lettres de Madame Dunoyer_ (Letter xxvi); _Saint Simon, Mémoires_,
ed. Régnier (_Collection des Grands Ecrivains de la France_), vol. vi.
pp. 222, 228, 231; Appendix X, p. 545; _Mémoires du duc de Luynes_,
vol. x. pp. 410, 412--Abbé Proyart, _Vie du duc de Bourgogne_ (ed.
1782), vol. i. pp. 978, 981.]




APPENDIX III

MARTIN DE GALLARDON


Ignace Thomas Martin was by calling a husbandman. A native of
Gallardon in Eure-et-Loir, he dwelt there with his wife and four
children in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Those who knew
him tell us that he was of average height, with brown straight hair, a
calm glance, a thin countenance and an air of quiet and assurance. A
pencil portrait, which his son, M. le Docteur Martin, has kindly sent
me, gives a more exact idea of the visionary. The portrait, which is
in profile, presents a forehead curiously high and straight, a long
narrow head, round eyes, broad nostrils, a compressed mouth, a
protruding chin, hollow cheeks and an air of austerity. He is dressed
as a _bourgeois_, with a collar and white cravat.

According to the evidence of his brother, a man both physically and
mentally sound, his was the gentlest of natures; he never sought to
attract attention; in his regular piety there was nothing ecstatic.
Both the mayor and the priest of Gallardon confirmed this description.
They agreed in representing him to have been a good simple creature,
with an intellect well-balanced although not very active.

In 1816 he was thirty-three. On January 15 in this year he was alone
in his field, over which he was spreading manure, when in his ear he
heard a voice which had not been preceded by footsteps. Then he
turned his head in the direction of the voice and saw a figure which
alarmed him. In comparison with human size it was but slight; its
countenance, which was very thin, dazzled by its unnatural whiteness.
It was wearing a high hat and a frock-coat of a light colour, with
laced shoes.

It said in a kindly tone: "You must go to the King; you must warn him
that his person is in danger, that wicked people are seeking to
overthrow his Government."

It added further recommendations to Louis XVIII touching the
necessity of having an efficient police, of keeping holy the Sabbath,
of ordering public prayers and of suppressing the disorders of the
Carnival. If such measures be neglected, it said, "France will fall
into yet greater misfortunes." All this was doubtless nothing more or
less than what M. La Perruque, Priest of Gallardon, had a hundred
times repeated from the pulpit on Sunday.

Martin replied:

"Since you know so much about it, why don't you perform your errand
yourself? Why do you appeal to a poor man like me who knows not how to
express himself?"

Then the unknown replied to Martin:

"It is not I who will go, but you; do as I command you."

As soon as he had uttered these words, his feet rose from the ground,
his body bent, and with this double movement he vanished.

From this time onwards, Martin was haunted by the mysterious being.
One day, having gone down into his cellar, he found him there. On
another occasion, during vespers, he saw him in church, near the holy
water stoup, in a devout attitude. When the service was over, the
unknown accompanied Martin on his way home and again commanded him to
go and see the King. The farmer told his relatives who were with him,
but neither of them had seen or heard anything.

Tormented by these apparitions, Martin communicated them to his
priest, M. La Perruque. He, being certain of the good faith of his
parishioner and deeming that the case ought to be submitted to the
diocesan authority, sent the visionary to the Bishop of Versailles.
The Bishop was then M. Louis Charrier de la Roche, a priest who in the
days of the Revolution had taken the oath to the Republic. He resolved
to subject Martin to a thorough examination; and from the first he
told him to ask the unknown what was his name, and who it was who sent
him.

But when the messenger in the light-coloured frock-coat appeared
again, he declared that his name must remain unknown.

"I come," he added, "from him who has sent me, and he who has sent me
is above me."

He may have wished to conceal his name; but at least he did not
conceal his views; the vexation he displayed on the escape of La
Valette[2766] proved that in politics he was an ultra Royalist of the
most violent type.

[Footnote 2766: Antoine Marie Chamans, Comte de La Valette
(1769-1830), was a French general during the first empire. Having been
arrested in 1815 and condemned to death, he was saved by his
wife.--W.S.]

Meanwhile the Comte de Bréteuil, Prefect of Eure-et-Loir, had been
told of the visionary at the same time as the Bishop. He also
questioned Martin. He expected to find him a nervous, agitated person;
but when he found him tranquil, speaking simply, but with logical
sequence and precision, he was very astonished.

Like M. l'Abbé La Perruque he deemed the matter sufficiently important
to bring before the higher authorities. Accordingly he sent Martin,
under the escort of a lieutenant of _gendarmerie_, to the Ministre de
la Police Générale.

Having reached Paris on March 8, Martin lodged with the _gendarme_ at
the Hôtel de Calais, in the Rue Montmartre. They occupied a
double-bedded room. One morning, when Martin was in bed, he beheld an
apparition and told Lieutenant André, who could see nothing, although
it was broad daylight. Indeed, Martin's visitations became so
frequent that they ceased to cause him either surprise or concern. It
was only to the abrupt disappearance of the unknown that he could
never grow accustomed. The voice continued to give the same command.
One day it told him that if it were not obeyed France would not know
peace until 1840.

In 1816 the Ministre de la Police Générale was the Comte Decazes who
was afterwards created a duke. He was in the King's confidence. But he
knew that the extreme Royalists were hatching plots against his royal
master. Decazes wished to see the good man from Gallardon, suspecting
doubtless, that he was but a tool in the hands of the Extremists.
Martin was brought to the Minister, who questioned him and at once
perceived that the poor creature was in no way dangerous. He spoke to
him as he would to a madman, endeavouring to regard the subject of his
mania as if it were real, and so he said:

"Don't be agitated; the man who has been troubling you is arrested;
you will have nothing more to fear from him."

But these words did not produce the desired effect. Three or four
hours after this interview, Martin again beheld the unknown, who,
after speaking to him in his usual manner, said: "When you were told
that I had been arrested, you were told a lie; he who said so has no
power over me."

On Sunday, March 10, the unknown returned; and on that day he
disclosed the matter concerning which the Bishop of Versailles had
inquired, and which he had said at first he would never reveal.

"I am," he declared, "the Archangel Raphaël, an angel of great renown
in the presence of God, and I have received power to afflict France
with all manner of suffering."

Three days later, Martin was shut up in Charenton on the certificate
of Doctor Pinel, who stated him to be suffering from intermittent
mania with alienation of mind.

He was treated in the kindest manner and was even permitted to enjoy
some appearance of liberty. Pinel himself originated the humane
treatment of the insane. Martin in the asylum was not forsaken by the
blessed Raphaël. On Friday, the 15th, as the peasant was tying his
shoe laces, the Archangel in his frock-coat of a light colour, spoke
to him these words:

"Have faith in God. If France persists in her incredulity, the
misfortunes I have predicted will happen. Moreover, if they doubt the
truth of your visions, they have but to cause you to be examined by
doctors in theology."

These words Martin repeated to M. Legros; Director of the Royal
Institution of Charenton, and asked him what a doctor in theology was.
He did not know the meaning of the term. In the same manner, when he
was at Gallardon he had asked the priest, M. La Perruque, the meaning
of certain expressions the voice had used. For example, he did not
understand the wild frenzy of France [_le délvie de la France_] nor
the evils to which she would fall a victim [_elle serait en proie_].
But there is nothing that need puzzle us in such ignorance, if it
really existed. Martin may well have remembered the words he did not
understand and which he afterwards attributed to his Archangel still
without understanding them.

The visions recurred at brief intervals. On Sunday, March 31, the
Archangel appeared to him in the garden, took his hand, which he
pressed affectionately, opened his coat and displayed a bosom of so
dazzling a whiteness that Martin could not bear to gaze on it. Then he
took off his hat.

"Behold my forehead," he said, "and give heed that it beareth not the
mark of the beast whereby the fallen angels were sealed."

Louis XVIII expressed a desire to see Martin and to question him. The
King, like his favourite Minister, believed the visionary to be a tool
in the hands of the extreme party.

On Tuesday, April 2, Martin was taken to the Tuileries and brought
into the King's closet, where was also M. Decazes. As soon as the King
saw the farmer, he said to him: "Martin, I salute you."

Then he signed to his Minister to withdraw. Thereupon Martin,
according to his own telling, repeated to the King all that the
Archangel had revealed to him, and disclosed to Louis XVIII sundry
secret matters concerning the years he had spent in exile; finally he
made known to him certain plots which had been formed against his
person. Then the King, profoundly agitated and in tears, raised his
hands and his eyes to heaven and said to Martin:

"Martin, these are things which must never be known save to you and to
me."

The visionary promised him absolute secrecy.

Such was the interview of April 2, according to the account given of
it by Martin, who then, under the influence of M. La Perruque's
sermons, was an infatuated Royalist. It would be interesting to know
more of this priest whose inspiration is obvious throughout the whole
story. Louis XVIII agreed with M. Decazes that the man was quite
harmless; and he was sent back to his plough.

Later, the agents of one of those false dauphins so numerous under the
Restoration, got hold of Martin and made use of him in their own
interest. After Louis XVIII's death, under the influence of these
adventurers, the poor man, reconstituting the story of his interview
with the late King, introduced into it other revelations he claimed to
have received and completely changed the whole character of the
incident. In this second version the passionate Royalist of 1816 was
transformed into an accusing prophet, who came to the King's own
palace to denounce him as a usurper and a regicide, forbidding him in
God's name to be crowned at Reims.

Such ramblings I cannot relate at length. They are to be found fully
detailed in the book of M. Paul Marin. The author of this work would
have done well to indicate that these follies were suggested to the
unhappy man by the partisans of Naundorf, who was passing himself off
as the Duke of Normandy, who had escaped from the Temple.

Thomas Ignace Martin died at Chartres in 1834. It is alleged, but it
has never been proved, that he was poisoned.[2767]

[Footnote 2767: _Rapport adressé à S. Ex. le Ministre de la Police
Générale sur l'état du nommé Martin, envoyé par son ordre à la maison
royale de Charenton, le 13 Mars, 1816, par MM. Pinel, médecin en chef
de l'hôpital de la Salpêtriere, et Royer-Collard, médecin en chef de
la maison royale de Charenton, et l'un et l'autre professeurs à la
faculté de médecine de Paris._ Inscribed at the end with the
date--Paris, 6 May, 1816--39 pages in 4'o MS. in the library of the
author. Le Capitaine Paul Marin, _Thomas Martin de Gallardon Les
Médecins et les thaumaturges du XIX'e siècle_, Paris, s.d. in
18'o. _Mémoires de la Comtesse de Boignes_, edited by Charles
Nicoullaud, Paris, 1907, vol. iii. pp. 355 and _passim_.]




APPENDIX IV

ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTE


There is no authentic picture of Jeanne. From her we know that at
Arras she saw in the hands of a Scotsman a picture in which she was
represented on her knees presenting a letter to her King. From her we
know also that she never caused to be made either image or painting of
herself, and that she was not aware of the existence of any such image
or painting. The portrait painted by the Scotsman, which was doubtless
very small, is unfortunately lost and no copy of it is known.[2768]
The slight pen-and-ink figure, drawn on a register of May 10, 1429, by
a clerk of the Parlement of Paris, who had never seen the Maid, must
be regarded as the mere scribbling of a scribe who was incapable of
even designing a good initial letter.[2769] I shall not attempt to
reconstruct the iconography of the Maid.[2770] The bronze equestrian
statue in the Cluny Museum produces a grotesque effect that one is
tempted to believe deliberate, if one may ascribe such an intention to
an old sculptor. It dates from the reign of Charles VIII. It is a
Saint George or a Saint Maurice, which, at a time doubtless quite
recent, was taken to represent the Maid. Between the legs of the
miserable jade, on which the figure is mounted, was engraved the
inscription: _La pucelle dorlians_, a description which would not
have been employed in the fifteenth century.[2771] About 1875, the
Cluny Museum exhibited another statuette, slightly larger, in painted
wood, which was also believed to be fifteenth century, and to
represent Jeanne d'Arc. It was relegated to the store-room, when it
turned out to be a bad seventeenth-century Saint Maurice from a church
at Montargis.[2772] Any saint in armour is frequently described as a
Jeanne d'Arc. This is what happened to a small fifteenth-century head
wearing a helmet, found buried in the ground at Orléans, broken off
from a statue and still bearing traces of painting: a work in good
style and with a charming expression.[2773] I have not patience to
relate how many initial letters of antiphonaries and sixteenth-,
seventeenth- and even eighteenth-century miniatures have been touched
up or repainted and passed off as true and ancient representations of
Jeanne. Many of them I have had the opportunity of seeing.[2774] On
the other hand, if they were not so well known, it would give me
pleasure to recall certain manuscripts of the fifteenth century,
which, like _Le Champion des Dames_ and _Les Vigiles de Charles VII_,
contain miniatures in which the Maid is portrayed according to the
fancy of the illuminator. Such pictures are interesting because they
reveal her as she was imagined by those who lived during her lifetime
or shortly afterwards. It is not their merit that appeals to us; they
possess none; and in no way do they suggest Jean Foucquet.[2775]

[Footnote 2768: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 100, 292.]

[Footnote 2769: There is a wood engraving of this figure in Wallon,
_Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 95.]

[Footnote 2770: E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Notes
iconographiques sur Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris and Orléans, 1879, in 18'o
royal paper.]

[Footnote 2771: Reproduced in many works, notably opposite p. 17 in
the book of E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, referred to above.]

[Footnote 2772: _Ibid._, see woodcut opposite p. 8.]

[Footnote 2773: In the Orléans Museum. A copper-plate engraving by M.
Georges Lavalley, in the _Jeanne d'Arc_, of M. Raoul Bergot, Tours,
s.d. large 8'o.]

[Footnote 2774: Of this class of so-called portrait, I will merely
mention the miniature which serves as frontispiece to vol. iv. of _La
Vrai Jeanne d'Arc_, of P. Ayroles, Paris, 1898, in large 8'o, and
the miniature of the Spetz Collection, reproduced in the _Jeanne
d'Arc_ of Canon Henri Debout, vol. ii. p. 103 (also in _The Maid of
France_ by Andrew Lang, 1908. W.S.).]

[Footnote 2775: _Le champion des dames_, MS. of the fifteenth century;
_Bibl. nat._, fonds français, No. 841; Martial d'Auvergne, MS. of the
end of the fifteenth century, fonds français, No. 5054. An initial of
a fifteenth-century Latin MS., _Bibl. nat._, No. 14665.]

While the Maid lived, and especially while she was in captivity, the
French hung her picture in churches.[2776] In the Museum of Versailles
there is a little painting on wood which is said to be one of those
votive pictures. It represents the Virgin with the Child Jesus, having
Saint Michael on her right and Jeanne d'Arc on her left.[2777] It is
of Italian workmanship and very roughly executed. Jeanne's head, which
has disappeared beneath the blows of some hard-pointed instrument,
must have been execrably drawn, if we may judge from the others
remaining on this panel. All four figures are represented with a
scrolled and beaded nimbus, which would have certainly been condemned
by the clerics of Paris and Rouen. And indeed others less strict might
accuse the painter of idolatry when he exalted to the left hand of the
Virgin, to be equal with the Prince of Heavenly Hosts, a mere creature
of the Church Militant.

[Footnote 2776: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100. N. Valois, _Un nouveau
témoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 8, 13.]

[Footnote 2777: Reproduced in chromo in Wallon's _Jeanne d'Arc_.]

Standing, her head, neck, and shoulders covered with a kind of furred
hood and tippet fringed with black, her gauntlets and shoes of mail,
girt above her red tunic with a belt of gold, Jeanne may be recognised
by her name inscribed over her head, and also by the white banner,
embroidered with _fleurs-de-lis_, which she raises in her right hand,
and by her silver shield, embossed in the German style; on the shield
is a sword bearing on its point a crown. A three-lined inscription in
French is on the steps of the throne, whereon sits the Virgin Mary.
Although the inscription is three parts effaced and almost
unintelligible, with the aid of my learned friend, M. Pierre de
Nolhac, Director of the Museum of Versailles, I have succeeded in
deciphering a few words. These would convey the idea that the
inscription consisted of prayers and wishes for the salvation of
Jeanne, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy. It would appear
therefore that we have here one of those _ex voto_ hung in the
churches of France during the captivity of the Maid. In such a case
the nimbus round the head of a living person and the isolated
position of Jeanne would be easily explained; it is possible that
certain excellent Frenchmen, thinking no evil, adapted to their own
use some picture which originally represented the Virgin between two
personages of the Church Triumphant. By a few touches they transformed
one of these personages into the Maid of God. In so small a panel they
could find no place more suitable to her mortal state, none like those
generally occupied at the feet of the Virgin and saints by the
kneeling donors of pictures. This too might explain perhaps why Saint
Michael, the Virgin and the Maid have their names inscribed above
them. Over the head of the Maid we read _ane darc_. This form _Darc_
may have been used in 1430.[2778] In the inscription on the steps of
the throne I discern _Jehane dArc_, with a small _d_ and a capital _A_
for _dArc_, which is very curious. This causes me to doubt the
genuineness of the inscription.

[Footnote 2778: The form _Darc_ occurs in the condemnation trial
(_Trial_, vol. i, p. 191, vol. ii, p. 82). But side by side we find
also _Dars_ (document dated March 31, 1427), _Day_ (patent of
nobility), _Daiz_ (communicated to me by M. Pierre Champion) and
_Daix_ (_Chronique de la Pucelle_).]

The _bestion_ tapestry[2779] in the Orléans Museum,[2780] which
represents Jeanne's arrival before the King at Chinon, is of German
fifteenth-century workmanship. Coarse of tissue, barbarous in design,
and monotonous in colour, it evinces a certain taste for sumptuous
adornment but also an absolute disregard for literal truth.

[Footnote 2779: Tapestry representing small animals.--W.S.]

[Footnote 2780: Reproduced in chromo in Wallon's _Jeanne d'Arc_, _cf._
J. Quicherat, _Histoire du costume en France depuis les temps les plus
reculés, jusqu' la fin du XVIII'e siècle_, Paris, 1875, large
octavo, p. 271.]

Another German work was exhibited at Ratisbonne in 1429. It
represented the Maid fighting in France. But this painting is
lost.[2781]

[Footnote 2781: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 270.]




INDEX


AARON, i. 207

Arras, Bishop of, ii. 51

Abbeville, ii. 99, 197

Absalom, i. 138

Achilles, ii. 28

Ænius Sylvius, ii. 378

Aëtius, i. 119

Ahasuerus, i. 339

Ahaz, i. 213

Aimery, Guillaume, examines Jeanne, i. 189, 193, 194

Aisne, The, i. 460; ii. 1, 142

Aix, ii. 407

Alain du Bey, i. 235

Alain, Jacques, i. 88, 89

Albi, Consuls of, i. 240, 398

Albigenses, The, ii. 157

Albret, Charles, Sire d', i. 137, 447; ii. 22, 63, 78, 164
  Jeanne in charge of ii. 84, 94, 96

Alençon, Bailie of, i. 124
  Dame of, i. 185
  Duchy of, i. 106
  Duke of, i. ix, xii, 255, 389; ii. 78
    and Jeanne, i. 183, 186, 190, 195; ii. 92
    at Beaugency, i. 363-367
    at Blois, i. 243
    at Reims, i. 446, 447, 450
    career of, i. 183
    commands the army, i. 347-355, 362; ii. 8, 36, 44, 49, 53, 63
    consults Jeanne before Patay, i. 370, 378
    evidence of, i. xxviii, xxix, xliv, xlix; ii. 382, 387, 392
    heads attack on Paris, ii. 63, 70, 73
    skirmishes round Paris, ii. 49, 53, 61
    uses Jeanne as a mascotte, ii. 83
    imprisoned, ii. 197

Alespée, Jean, ii. 208, 340

Alexander the Great, i. 181, 226, 475

Alexandria, i. 36, 40, 198, 239

Alison du Mai, i. 93, 94

Allée, Pierre d', ii. 71, 130

Alphonso of Aragon, ii. 39, 40

Amazons, The, i. 191, 329

Amblény, plain of, ii. 2

Ambleville, i. 252, 276
  detained by English, i. 295

Amboise, i. 363

Amedée of Savoie, Prince, i. 381; ii. 155, 361

Amiens, ii. 197

_Amiète_, ii. 74

Amos, ii. 166

Ampulla, the Sacred, i. liv, 390, 391, 393, 445-448, 459

Amydas, King, ii. 133

Ananias, a hermit, i. 36

Andelot, i. 16; ii. 210

Andouillette, Lord Guillaume, i. 428

André, Lieutenant, ii. 415

Andrieu, Robert, ii. 92

Angers, i. 63, 108, 132, 240; ii. 139, 184

Angerville, i. 138

Anis, i. 219

Anjou, i. 149, 150, 218, 389
  Duchess of, i. 147

Anne of Austria, ii. 410

Annunciation, The, i. 219

Antichrist, coming of, i. 412

Antoine de Lorraine, Lord of Joinville, i. 96

Antonio de Rho, i. 384

Apollodorus, i. 322

Appleby, William, i. 124

Apples, cause of war, i. 92

Apremont, Lord of, ii. 365

Aquitaine, ii. 383

Aragon, i. 121

_Arbre-des-Dames_, or _Arbre-des-Fées_, romance of, i. 12

Arc, Catherine d', i. 4, 9, 35, 60
  family ennobled, i. xvii; ii. 102, 212
  Isabelle d', i. 68, 218, 358; ii. 353
    origin of mother of Jeanne, i. 3
    at Puy, i. 218, 220, 252
    demands rehabilitation, ii. 385
  Jacques d', i. xvii, 3, 9
    home of, i. 6
    freeman or serf, i. 17
    rents fortress of Domremy, i. 19
    his duties as village elder, i. 25
    visits Vaucouleurs, i. 57
    his anxiety about Jeanne, i. 68
    simplicity of, i. 95
    at Reims, i. 451
  Jacques or Jacquemin d', brother of Jeanne, i. 4, 20
  Jean d', i. 4; ii. 353
    joins Jeanne, i. 252
    enters Orléans, i. 267, 269, 272
    believes Jeanne to be alive, ii. 353-376
    demands rehabilitation, ii. 385
  M. Lanéry d', i. vii, xxii
  Nicolas d', i. 5
  Pierre d', i. 7, 451; ii. 353, 375, 376
    joins Jeanne, i. 252
    enters Orléans, i. 267, 269, 272
    taken prisoner, ii. 152
    demands rehabilitation, ii. 385

Archambaud of Villars, i. 121, 144, 169

Arcis, i. 435

Areopagite, The, ii. 48

Arezzo, i. 384

Argenson, M. d', ii. 411

Aristotle, i. 181, 322, 383

Arles, i. 119; ii. 360

Arlon, ii. 359, 365

Armagnac Conspiracy to enter Paris, ii. 128-130
  Count of, _see_ Jean IV

Armagnacs and Burgundians, war between, i. 21 _et passim_

Armoises, Robert des, Lord of Tichemont, ii. 365, 374

Arnaud of Corraze, Raimond, i. 121

Arnolin, Messire, i. 65

Arnoul, Madame, ii. 412

Arnoult of Aulnoy, i. 98

Aronde, The, ii. 145

Arras, i. 458
  Jeanne at, ii. 191-196, 420
  Franquet d', ii. 275

Artaxerxes, i. 409

Arthur of Brittany, _see_ Count of Richemont

Artois, Bailie of, i. 458

Arundel, Earl of, ii. 348

Ascension Day, i. 291-294; ii. 65

Astarac, ii. 38

Astrologers, i. 166, 473; ii. 409
  foretell the death of Salisbury, i. 127
    _see_ Nostradamus

Attila, i. 119, 208, 238

Aube, The, i. 100, 435

Aubriot, Hugues, ii. 54

Aubrit, Jannet, i. 5
  Jeanne, i. 5, 13

Augsburg, i. 221

Augustinians, i. 109, 220

Aulnoy, i. 98

Aulon, Jean d', Squire to Jeanne, i. xiv, xxix, xxx, xxxiv, 252, 259,
  269, 277, 283, 284, 364; ii. 119, 160, 366, 388, 401
  at St.-Loup, i. 285, 287
  at Les Tourelles, i. 297, 299, 308
  questions Jeanne as to her Council, i. 341
  at St. Pierre-le-Moustier, ii. 84, 85
  taken prisoner, ii. 152

Aunoy, Jean d', i. 61
  Marguerite d', i. 61

Autun, i. 113; ii. 106

Auvergne, i. 137, 139, 149, 240

Aurelian, the Emperor, i. 109

Auxerre, i. 100, 410, 465, 472
  Bishop of, i. 404
  Charles VII at, i. 403-407

Avignon, i. 161, 464; ii. 178

Avioth, hill of, ii. 136

Avranches, ii. 49
  Bishop of, i. 30; ii. 209

Ayroles, Le Père, i. xxxvii

Azincourt, i. 145, 154, 229, 358; ii. 178


BABYLON, i. 260, 414

Baignart, Robert, i. 355

Bailiet, i. lvii

Balaam's Ass, i. 175

Bâle, Council of, ii. 176, 252, 364, 378

Bar, i. 13, 389
  ravaged by La Hire, i. 24
  Cardinal, Duke of, i. 92; ii. 1, 8, 53, 73, 178

Bar-sur-Aube, i. 100

Bar-sur-Seine, i. 100

Baratin, Pierre, ii. 360

Barbazan, ii. 196, 199

Barbezieux, M. de, ii. 408

Barbier, Canon, ii. 210

Barbin, Guillaume, i. 167

Barcelona, i. 40

Baretta, Bartolomeo, ii. 118, 124, 147, 148, 155, 193

Barrère, Jean, i. xlvi, ii. 41

Barrey, Edite, i. 5
  Jean, godfather of Jeanne, i. 5

Barrois, i. 81

Barron, ii. 20

Basque, The, upholds the standard, i. 308-310

Bassigny, i. 24, 26

Bastard of Granville, i. 279
  of Orléans, i. xiii, lvi, 105, 190, 251, 258, 333, 347, 349, 389;
  ii. 10, 15, 22
    evidence of, i. xxv, xxix, xxxii
    becomes Count of Dunois, i. xvi; ii. 383, 387
    obtains supplies, i. 117
    parentage of, i. 128
    enters Orléans, i. 129, 264-269
    achievements of, i. 129
    lends musicians to the English, i. 133
    leaves Orléans, i. 137
    attacks Fastolf's convoy, i. 139
    sends to inquire of Jeanne, i. 144
    regards Jeanne's mission as religious, i. 264, 266, 284
    advises Jeanne to hold aloof, i. 272
    meets the army from Blois, i. 277, 282
    speaks with Jeanne of Falstolf, i. 283
    pacifies Jeanne, i. 294
    demands Jeanne's heralds, i. 295
    at Les Tourelles, i. 298, 304
    attacks Jargeau, i. 332, 351-355
    marvels at Jeanne, i. 335
    at Patay, i. 370, 372
    policy of, ii. 53
  of Poitiers, _see_ Guillaume
  of Vauru, ii. 12-14
  of Vergy, ii. 353
  of Wandomme, ii. 152, 154

Bastardy, i. 128

Battle of the Herrings, i. 138-140, 213, 230, 236, 256, 281, 370, 473;
  ii. 57

Baudot de Noyelles, ii. 146, 149

Baudricourt, Lord of, _see_ Robert de Baudricourt

Baudrin, Jean, ii. 130

Bavon, Lady Anna, ii. 216

Bayeux, ii. 205

Bayonne, ii. 383

Bazoches, Thomas de, i. 440

Beans sown at Troyes, i. 413, 426

Béarn, i. 121

Beaucaire, ii. 388

Beaugency, i. xli, 255, 256, 439; ii. 23, 95
  English at, i. 318, 332
  French take, i. 362-368

Beaulieu, Castle of, Jeanne at, ii. 159, 178, 276

Beaumont, Andrieu de, i. 379

Beaumont-sur-Oise, i. 103; ii. 78

Beaune, i. 450

Beaupère, Jean, ii. 208, 294, 307, 315, 380, 388
  questions Jeanne, ii. 228-234, 237-240, 242, 401-406

Beaurepaire, M. Robillard de, i. vii, xxxii

Beaurevoir, i. xix; ii. 51, 140, 195
  Jeanne at, ii. 178-191, 261, 273, 318, 405

Beauvais, i. 70; ii. 11, 119, 211, 309
  archdeacon of, i. 153
  bishop of, _see_ Cauchon
  surrenders to Charles VII, ii. 35
  English march on, ii. 348

Bec, Abbot of, ii. 208, 309

Bec-d'Allier, ii. 84

Bede, the Venerable, prophecies of, i. 178; ii. 27, 30, 230

Bedford, Duchess of, ii. 216, 217, 321
  Duke of, i. 69, 359; ii. 60, 348
    seizes Alençon, i. 106
    returns to England, i. 107
    addressed by Jeanne, i. 245, 247
    policy towards Burgundy, i. 401
    robs the bishops, i. 409
    challenges Charles, ii. 16-19
    believes Jeanne a witch, ii. 18, 217
    cedes Paris to Philip, ii. 57, 58
    keeps the crusaders in France, ii. 110
    canon of Rouen, ii. 204
    death of, ii. 352

Bégot, Jean, ii. 210

_Beguines_, ii. 119

Behemoth, ii. 296

Belial, ii. 296

Bellême, Château de, i. 103

Belles, Dames, i. 125

Bellier, Guillaume, i. 174; ii. 370

Bellona, i. lxxii

Bells and St. Catherine, i. 341

Bénédicité, _see_ Estivet

Benedict XIII, pope, i. 40, 161; ii. 37, 40, 41, 363

Benedict XIV, pope, ii. 37, 41, 42

Bennade, Bishop, i. 50

Bernard le Breton, ii. 127

Bernardino of Siena, i. 249, 412

Berne, i. lxxi

Berruyer, Martin, ii. 394, 396

Berry, Duc de, Jean, ii. 83
  duchy of, i. xiv, 101, 108, 389; ii. 211

Berthe, Queen, i. 12, 395

Bertrand de Poulengy, i. xxix, xxx, 65, 82, 87, 220, 269
  accompanies Jeanne, i. 96-105
  at Blois, i. 252

Berwoist, John, ii. 225

Besançon, ii. 388

Bethlehem, i. 454

Bethsaida, i. 414

Bethulia, i. 191; ii. 366

Béthune, Jeanne de, ii. 178

Biget, Jean, i. 19

Billoray, Martin, Grand Inquisitor, ii. 157

Blackfriars, i. 109

Black Prince, i. 164

Blaise, i. 24

Blanche of Castile, Queen, i. 395

Blasphemy forbidden, i. 253

Blaye, ii. 383

Blésois, i. 101, 108

Bloch, M. Camille, i. lxxiv

Blois, i. 92, 111, 114, 134, 137, 239, 240
  Jeanne at, i. xiii, 243, 319
  St. Sauveur, i. 253
  army returns to, i. 265, 272, 277, 282
  English at, i. 360

Boian, Captain, ii. 95

Boilet, Colette, ii. 92, 93

Boillève, Jean, i. 348, 366

Bois-Chênu, i. 2, 10, 175; ii. 239

Boisguillaume, _see_ Colles

Bolingbroke, i. 359

Bona of Milan, ii. 41

Bonne de Savoie, i. 381

Bonnet, M. Raoul, i. lxxiv
  Simon, i. 189

Bonval, Jean de, ii. 12

Bordeaux, ii. 383

Borenglise, Castle of, ii. 138

Bosquier, Pierre, ii. 343

Bossuet, i. lvi

Boucher, Charlotte, i. xxiv, 271
  Jacques, i. 110, 283, 302, 314; ii. 36
  Jeanne lodges with, i. xxiv, 270; ii. 259

Bouchet, i. 265

Boudant, Hélie, ii. 97

Boulainvilliers, Percevalde, i. 376, 399

Bouligny, René de, ii. 388

Boullay, Aubert, ii. 356

Boulogne, ii. 153

Boulogne-la-Petite, i. 415

Bouray, Jean de, ii. 96

Bourbon, Duke of, i. xii, lxiv; ii. 8, 63

Bourbonnais, i. 117, 129, 137

Bourgeois, Jean, i. 356

Bourges, i. 240, 395, 396; ii. 4
  chapter of, i. 152; ii. 379
  Jeanne at, ii. 78
  defray costs of war, ii. 95

Bourget, Jean, ii. 183

Bourgogne, ii. 140

Bourlémont, Château of, i. 2, 16
  Pierre de, i. 14, 16

Bournel, Guichard, ii. 70, 143, 261

Boussac, Marshal de, i. 141, 147, 267, 281
  in command, i. 129, 133, 136, 137, 140, 272, 282, 315, 346, 347, 445;
  ii. 34, 63, 76, 96, 194, 347, 348
  at Blois, i. 244
  enters Orléans with Jeanne, i. 269
  goes to meet Talbot, i. 288
  at Les Tourelles, i. 298, 304
  at Patay, i. 372
  leads army towards Reims, i. 403

Bouteiller, Sire le, ii. 339

Bouvier, Gilles le, i. x

Brabant, ii. 49

Bray-sur-Seine, ii. 8, 78

Bréhal, Jean, i. 167; ii. 384, 391

Bréteuil, Comte de, ii. 415

Bretigny, Treaty of, i. lxiv

Bretons, The, i. 287

Briare, ii. 106

Brie, i. 187; ii. 9, 17, 110

Brimeu, David de, _see_ Lord of Ligny

Brinion-l'Archevêque, i. 421, 426, 435, 439

Brittany, i. 154, 387
  restored by Duke John, i. 380

Brook of the Three Springs, i. 17

Brousson, M. Jean, i. lxxiv

Bruges, ii. 99

Buchon, i. vii

Bueil, Jean de, i. 129, 218, 232; ii. 22, 50, 147

Builhon, Jean de, i. 127, 166

Burey-en-Vaux, i. 2, 59, 67, 75

Burey-la-Côte, i. 2

Burgundy, i. 154
  Duke of, _see_ Philip

Butchers of Paris, i. 154; ii. 129

Butterflies, significance of, ii. 260


CABASSE, Raymond, i. 210

Cabochiens, The, i. xxi, 154, 358; ii. 170, 352

Caffa, ii. 140

Cagny, Perceval de, i. ix, x

Cailly, Guy de, i. xxxii, 267, 269, 342

Calais, Jean de, ii. 128, 130

_Calendrier des Vieillards_, i. 211

Calixtus III, ii. 385

Calot, Lawrence, ii. 318

Cambrai, ii. 178

Camilla, i. 191, 222, 329

Cana, ii. 48

Cany, Dame de, i. 128

_Capitouls_ of Toulouse, i. 337; ii. 41

Carlier, Bietremieu, ii. 188

Carmelites, The, i. 109, 189; ii. 71, 120, 164
  plots of, ii. 128-131

Cartesianism, i. lviii

Cassandra, i. 204; ii. 30

Castille, Étienne, ii. 199

Castillon, Jean de, ii. 291

Castres, Bishop of, ii. 379

Cathari, The, i. 209, 210; ii. 111, 157, 282

Catherine de la Rochelle, ii. 85-88, 101, 119, 167
  and Jeanne, ii. 88-90, 184
  employed by Friar Richard, ii. 183-185, 261, 345, 367

Cato, i. 327

Catherine, Queen, i. 60, 250, 275, 423

Cauchon, Pierre, Bishop of Beauvais, i. xxvii, li, lii, 440; ii. 35,
  46, 299
  consults the University of Paris, i. 274
  claims Jeanne, ii. 170-178, 181, 195, 197, 203, 204
  conducts her trial, ii. 205-284
  reads the sentence on Jeanne, ii. 314, 320, 337
  hears her retract, ii. 324-328
  claims Guillaume the shepherd, ii. 349
  at Bâle, ii. 382
  responsibility thrown on, deceased, ii. 385
  death of, ii. 392

Cayeux, Hugues de, ii. 51

Cazin du Boys, i. 103

Ceffonds, i. 3

Cerquenceaux, Abbot of, i. 121

Chabannes, Jacques de, i. 129; ii. 145

Chabot, Jean, i. 139

Chailly, Denis de, i. 136
  Lord de, i. 304

Châlons, i. xxxii, 389, 394, 405, 417, 424; ii. 4, 71
  Count of, i. 447
  surrenders to Charles VII, i. 435-437

Chambley, Alarde de, i. 61

_Chambre des Comptes_, ii. 208

Champagne, i. lxix, 3, 187
  war in, i. 385, 388
  route through, i. 393

Champigny, ii. 56

Champion, M. Pierre, i. xix, lxxiv

Chandos, standard of, i. 310, 448

_Chanson de Roland_, ii. 278

Chapelain, i. lv, lxv

Chapelle, Jean de la, ii. 128-130

Chapelle-St.-Denys, ii. 130

Chapon, Perrot, i. 103

Charavay, M. Noël, i. lxxiv

Charcot, Dr., ii. 403

Charenton, ii. 416

Charlemagne, crown and sword of, i. 444, 476

Charles II, Duke of Lorraine, _see_ Lorraine
  Sire d'Albret, _see_ Albret

Charles V, i. 148, 224, 359; ii. 64
  piety of, i. 160

Charles VI, i. 22, 146, 161, 183, 423, 429; ii. 54, 208, 228
  believer in prophecy, i. 196
  death of, i. 198

Charles VII, i. lxxi, 24, 82, 137, 209; ii. 361
  attacked through Jeanne, i. xii; ii. 177, 209, 233, 244, 310, 376
  escutcheons of, i. 31; ii. 26
  Jeanne's prophecies concerning, i. 64, 67, 77, 81
  prisoner of the English, i. 75
  sends for Jeanne, i. 89
  character of, i. 145-149, 160, 166
  resources of, i. 149-155, 331, 396
  _Le Bien Servi_, i. 153
  examines reports of Jeanne, i. 160, 162, 168, 323, 328
  interviews Jeanne, i. 168-173, 183
  personal appearance of, i. 170
  legitimacy of, i. 172
  warned against Jeanne, i. 181
  seeks a sign, i. 213, 214
  has Jeanne armed and mounted, i. 221-223
  announces the relief of Orléans, i. 319
  urged by Jeanne to Reims, i. 333, 385
  Voices not heard by, i. 342
  receives Jeanne after Patay, i. 377
  coronation of; moral value of, i. 391
  innocent of death of Duke John, i. 401
  starts for Reims, i. 403
  at Troyes, i. 421-434
  at Châlons, i. 436
  summons Reims to surrender, i. 439
  crowned at Reims, i. 443-449
  progress to Compiègne, ii. 1-24, 34, 51
  challenged by Bedford, ii. 16-19
  makes truce with Burgundy, ii. 51-53
  hated in Paris, ii. 58, 59
  orders army back from Paris, ii. 73
  leaves St. Denys, ii. 76
  disbands the army, ii. 78
  peaceful policy of, ii. 120
  schemes to win Paris, ii. 128
  maintains the Pragmatic Sanction, ii. 381
  enters Rouen, ii. 383
  urges trial for rehabilitation, ii. 383-385
  death of, ii. 397

Charles VIII, i. lxxi

Charles, Duke of Orléans, i. 91, 142, 243; ii. 1, 269
  bribes the English, i. 106
  raises supplies, i. 117
  ballad by, i. 235
  to be rescued by Jeanne, i. 333, 357
  piety of, i. 342, 358
  colours of, i. 356
  captivity of, i. 359

Charles Martel, i. 102, 223, 226, 475
  Simon, i. 169

Charles the Wise, ii. 14

Charny, Lord of, ii. 51

Charpaigne, i. 155

Charpentier, P., i. xiii

Chartier, Alain, i. xlv, lxiii, 251
  Jean, i. xi-xiii, xx, xxxii, xlv

Chartiers, Guillaume, ii. 385

Chartres, i. 410; ii. 213, 353, 419

Chassé-les-Usson, ii. 394

Chastel, Jean du, i. 104

Chastellain, Georges, i. xxi

Chastillon, Sire de, commander of Reims, i. 438-442

Châteaubriand, i. lix

Châteaubrun, Lord of, i. 139, 141

Châteaudun, i. 114, 240, 318
  Governor of, i. 174, 241

Châteaufort, Guillaume de, ii. 396

Châteauneuf, i. 377

Château-of-Sully, i. 377

Châteaurenard, i. 282; ii. 78

Château-Thierry, i. 440; ii. 3, 4, 7, 10, 260
  Jeanne at, ii. 75

Châteauvillain, Sire de, i. 411

Chatterton, Thomas, i. lxix

Chaumont, i. 16, 61, 121, 129
  occupied by the English, i. 23
  Lord of, i. 129, 210

Chécy, i. 112, 113, 258, 341
  army reaches, i. 264
  Jeanne at, i. 267

Cheminon, Abbey of, i. 47, 252

Chénier, Marie-Joseph, i. xlvi, lxv

Cher, The, i. 338

Chinon, i. xxxviii, 87, 89, 99, 117, 143, 144, 151, 217, 238, 466, 476;
  ii. 300, 370
  Jeanne at, i. xiii, xxv, 145, 156-185, 468; ii. 232, 404
  castles of, i. 158
  Grand Carroy, i. 167
  La Vieille Porte, i. 168
  Castle of Coudray, i. 173
  Charles VII at, i. 319

Choisy-au-Bac, ii. 142

Choisy-sur-Aisne, ii. 142

Chorazin, i. 414

Christine de Pisan, i. 179; ii. 56
  poems of, ii. 24-30

Chroniclers of the period, i. ix

_Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, i. xxi

_Chronique de la Pucelle_, _La_, i. xiv

_Chronique de l'Etablissement de la fête_, _Le_, i. xviii

_Chronique des Cordeliers_, _Le_, i. xix, xx

Chrysippus, i. 322

Chursates, i. 40

Cilinia, i. 50

_City of God_, _The_, i. 205

Clain, The, i. 147

Clairoix, ii. 145, 147, 164

Claude de Metz, ii. 353

Clefmont, Barthélemy de, i. 28

Clement VIII, pope, ii. 37, 40, 42, 250, 363

Clement of Alexandria, i. 205

Clermont, i. 240; ii. 92
  bishop of, i. 155
  Count of, i. 137, 147, 169, 281, 342, 446, 450; ii. 45, 53, 73, 76
    cowardice of, i. 138, 140, 370

Climat-du-Camp, i. 373, 375

Clopinel, i. 143

Clorinda, i. lxxii

Clotaire, King, ii. 46

Clotilde, Queen, i. 51-53

Clovis, King, i. 49-53, 55, 182, 392, 445, 447; ii. 178

Coarraze, Lord de, i. 304

Coeur-de-Lis, i. 118; ii. 361

Coinage, the Maid an authority on, i. 337

Colard de Mailly, i. 442

Colet de Vienne, i. 88, 96, 100, 157, 160

Colette of Corbie, i. xxxv, lxxii, 72, 453, 472; ii. 135, 184

Colin, Jean, i. 48, 97

Colles, Guillaume, ii. 206, 218

Cologne, i. 383; ii. 362, 364, 365, 370

Colonna, Otto, ii. 39

Comberel, Hugues de, i. 150

Combleux, i. 113

Comment-Qu'il-Soit, i. 381

Commercy, i. 436
  Damoiseau de, _see_ Robert de Saarbruck

Compiègne, i. xx, xxxi, 198; ii. 2, 71, 107, 138, 160, 168, 180, 261, 353
  surrenders to Charles VII, ii. 34, 51
  Jeanne at, ii. 36, 142, 405
  siege of, ii. 140, 151, 155, 193-196
  St. Corneille, ii. 208

Conches, Governor of, i. 124

Confessor, The King's, i. 189

Constable of France, i. 400, 447; ii. 44, 382
  feared by the King, i. 377
  plots to seize Jeanne, i. 379
  succeeds as favourite, ii. 351, 352

Constable of Scotland, i. 135, 137, 139

Constance, Bishop of, ii. 200
  Council of, i. 325; ii. 37, 39, 42, 208

Constantinople, i. 249

Coppequesne, Nicolas, ii. 210, 218

Corbeil, i. 101; ii. 3, 123, 185

Corbie, Jean de, i. 404, 472

Cordeliers, the, i. xix, 113

Cormeilles, ii. 208

Corneille, Abbot of, ii. 309

Corny, ii. 357

Coronation, moral value of, i. 391
  at Orléans, i. 392
  at Reims, i. 392
  of queens, i. 395

Corraze, i. 121

Corsini, Giovanni, i. 384

Costus, King, i. 35

Coudray, i. 158

Coudun, ii. 146, 150, 164

Coulommiers, ii. 3, 9

Council, Jeanne's, _see_ Voices, &c.
  of Charles VII, makes use of the Maid as a mascotte, i. 378; ii. 101
  plans of, regarding the coronation, i. 386-394
  ceases to employ Jeanne, ii. 120

Courcelles, Thomas de, during the trial, ii. 208, 214, 246, 252, 286,
  293, 329, 332, 389
  at Bâle, ii. 379
  delivers the funeral oration on Charles VII, ii. 397

Courtenay, ii. 78

Cousinot, Guillaume, Chronicle of, i. xiv, 270, 292

Coussey, i. 2, 67

Coutances, ii. 209
  bishop of, ii. 385

Coutes, Jean de, i. 174
  Jeanne de, i. 174
  Louis de, i. 174, 252, 448; ii. 388

Couvreur, Jean le, ii. 219

Crécy-en-Brie, i. xlvii, 229; ii. 3

Cremona, i. 384

Crépy-en-Valois, ii. 10, 12, 16, 19, 23, 34, 145

Créquy, Sire de, ii. 149, 150

Croissy, ii. 56

Crotoy, ii. 196

Crusades, The, i. 250, 419, 457; ii. 15, 29, 110

Cuissart, C., i. xiii

Culant, Admiral de, i. 134, 141, 243, 304; ii. 76

Currency of the period, i. 19

Cusquel, Pierre, ii. 201

Cyrus, i. 429


DAGOBERT, King, ii. 46

Daix, Jehannin, ii. 99

Dammartin, ii. 19

Daniel, i. 207

Dante Alighieri, i. lxviii

Darnley, i. 137

Daron, Pierre, ii. 201

Dauphin, The, _see_ Charles VII
  Jeanne's use of title explained, i. 198

Dauphiné, i. 149

David, King, i. 204, 237, 384, 414, 447, 454

Deborah, i. 165, 191, 328, 382; ii. 27

Decazes, Comte, ii. 415, 418

Delachambre, Guillaume, ii. 240, 401

Démétriade, ii. 388

Denmark, i. 177

Desch, Geoffroy, ii. 358
  Jean, ii. 358

Deschamps, Eustache, i. 395
  Gilles, ii. 208

Devils, entrance of, i. 85

Didier of Saint Dié, i. 18, 20

Dieppe, i. 140; ii. 198

_Dies Iræ_, i. 204; ii. 340

Dijon, i. 402, 458

Diminutives, origin of, i. 6

Dinteville, Jean de, i. 407

Diocletian, ii. 56

_Directorium_, ii. 285

Dive, The, i. 388

Dominicans, The, ii. 157

Dommartin-la-Cour, i. 27

Dommartin-le-Franc, i. 27, 28

Domremy, i. xxiii, xxxi, 58, 73, 212
  situation of, i. 2, 16, 17
  inhabitants of suspected of witchcraft, i. 15
  feudal overlordship of, i. 16
  fortress of the island let, i. 19
  precautions against pillage, i. 26
  pillaged by Henri of Savoy, i. 27
  pillaged by Antoine de Vergy, i. 70, 74
  inquiries at, ii. 386
  freed from _tailles_, i. 452

Douillet, Jean, ii. 393

Doulevant, i. 27

Drapier, Perrin le, i. 43

Drugy, Château of, ii. 196

Ducoudray, Jean, i. 103

Duisy, Guillaume, i. 132, 311

Dumas, Dr. Georges, i. xxxiv; ii. 401-406

Dun, Saubelet de, ii. 366

Dunand, Canon, i. lxii

Dunois, Count of, _see_ Bastard of Orléans

Durance, The, i. 180

Durand de Brie, ii. 127
  of Saint-Dié, i. 18, 20

Durandal, ii. 75

Duras, Marshal de, ii. 409

Dutaillis, M. Petit, i. lxxiii


EDWARD III, i. 460

Elijah, i. 191, 414, 419

Elincourt, ii. 138

Elisha, i. 342

Embrun, archbishop of, _see_ Jacques Gélu

Emilius, i. 50

Engélide, ii. 31

English, hatred of the, i. 21, 22
  occupation of France, i. 21, 23
  army driven from France, i. xlvii-xlix
    hesitates between Angers and Orléans, i. 63
    lays siege to Orléans, i. 75
    position in France, i. 106
  composition of, i. 123, 124
  deserters from, i. 124
  disorganised by Salisbury's death, i. 130
  celebrates Noël, i. 133
  plight of, outside Orléans, i. 135
  appears in Le Portereau, i. 123, 124
  occupies St.-Loup, i. 231
  erects worthless bastions, i. 232, 281
  privations of, i. 232, 233, 241
  summoned by Jeanne to surrender, i. 245, 278, 295, 351
  receives Jeanne's letter, i. 273-277
  regards Jeanne as a witch, i. 274-277, 310; ii. 121
  defends Les Tourelles, i. 296-313
  defends Les Augustins, i. 297
  leaves Orléans, i. 316
  in Jargeau, i. 348, 351, 353
  at the battle of Patay, i. 369-376
  at Bray-sur-Seine, ii. 8
  skirmishes with French, ii. 23
  at Jeanne's capture, ii. 152
  buys Jeanne, ii. 175, 196
  gives her up to the Bishop of Beauvais, ii. 204
  tumult at the recantation, ii. 315, 318

Enoch, i. 414

Epictetus, i. lxvii

Épinal, Gérardin d', i. 48, 67, 436; ii. 386
  Isabellette d', i. 48, 436
  Nicholas d', i. 48, 437

Erard, Guillaume, ii. 208, 257, 294, 329
  preaches against Jeanne, ii. 309-314
  reads the abjuration, ii. 316

Eratosthenes, i. 322

Érault, Jean, i. 189
  examines Jeanne, i. 194
  writes at her dictation, i. 196

Escouchy, Mathieu d', i. xx

Estellin, Beatrix, i. 5, 12
  Jeannette, ii. 386

Esther, i. xxvi, 339, 382; ii. 27

Estivet, Jean d', ii. 205, 213, 216, 240, 385, 392

Estouteville, Cardinal d', ii. 384

Étampes, i. 137, 368
  Count of, i. 381

Eugenius IV, pope, ii. 250, 355, 374, 380

Eure, The, i. 388

Euripides, i. 322

Eve, i. 206

Évreux, i. 124, 139, 366; ii. 23
  Bailie of, i. 123

Eymerie, Nicolas, ii. 285

Ezekiel, ii. 230


FABRE, M. Joseph, i. lxii

Failly, Collard, ii. 366

Fair of le Lendit, ii. 49

Fairy lore of Domremy, i. 11

Falconbridge, Baron, i. 123, 375

Fastolf, Sir John, i. 332
  convoys victuals, i. 137
  at Janville, i. 283
  approaches Jargeau, i. 349, 351, 367
  plans of, i. 368, 349
  at Patay, i. 375
  uncertainty of fate of, i. 397, 399

Fauchard, Simon, ii. 392

Fauveau, ii. 95

Fécamp, abbot of, ii. 208, 209, 218, 309, 329

Fécard, Jean, ii. 261

Felix, pope, ii. 381

Féron, Jean, ii. 394

Férone, Jeanne la, ii. 394, 396

Ferrier, Vincent, i. 412

Fesenzac, i. 38

Feuillet, Gérard, ii. 261

Fiefvé, Thomas, ii. 208

Fierbois, i. 102, 475; ii. 139
  St. Catherine's Chapel, i. 223-226

Fitz Walter, i. 375

Flamenc, Pierre, i. 337

Flavy, Guillaume de, ii. 34, 132, 141, 147, 193
  Louis de, ii. 193

Fleury, i. 114, 288
  Jean, ii. 127

Florence, i. 130; ii. 374

Flyeng Hart, The, ii. 26

Foix, Count of, ii. 38

_Fontaine-auz-Bonnes-Fées-Notre-Seigneur_, romance of, i. 10, 13, 14

Fontaine, Jean de la, ii. 205, 218, 261, 264, 268, 278

Forest of Guise, ii. 145

Forestel, Wavrin du, i. xx

Fort St. George, i. 159

Fossé, Guion du, i. 142

Foucault, Jean, ii. 123
  Lord of, ii. 76

Foucquet, Jean, ii. 421

Foug, Geoffrey de, i. 60

Fouquerel, Jean, ii. 45

Fournier, Jean, i. 80, 418
  exorcises Jeanne, i. 84-86

France, kingdom of, distressful state of, i. 20, 151

Franciscans, The, i. 220

Franquet d'Arras, prisoner of Jeanne, ii. 124

French army, ii. 21
  famine in, i. 425; ii. 3

Fresnay-le-Gelmert, Lord of, i. 174

Fresnoy, Abbé Longlet du, i. lviii

Freycinet, M. de, i. xl

Friar Richard, Jeanne's chaplain, i. 249, 448; ii. 18, 44, 82, 97, 101,
  119, 189, 260, 345-347
  history of, i. 412
  preaches in Paris, i. 413-417; ii. 59
  suspects Jeanne of witchcraft, i. 412, 418
  at Troyes, i. 422, 424, 430, 434, 435
  designs of, ii. 86
  at Orléans, ii. 182

Fribourg, i. 70

Friesland, Lady of, i. 401

Froissart, i. xx

Frontey, Guillaume, Vicar of Domremy, i. 47, 48

Furtivolus, i. 471


GABRIEL, Archangel appears to Jeanne, ii. 291

Gaillard, Château, ii. 199

Galelière, la, lord of, i. 174

Gallardon, i. xxxvi; ii. 413

Gamaliel, i. 214

Gambetta, i. xl

Gangres, Council of, i. 197

Garivel, François, ii. 387

Gascon's plan to fall on Fastolf's
  convoy, i. 138

Gascony, i. 149

Gasque of Avignon, la, i. 161, 196

Gath, i. 454

Gâtinais, i. 241, 318

Gaucourt, Sire de, Governor of Orléans, i. xxx, 130, 153, 169, 211, 292,
  331, 389; ii. 63, 69, 387
  obtains supplies, i. 117
  lodges Jeanne at Coudray, i. 173
  at Blois, i. 243
  leads the attack on Les Tourelles, i. 296, 297, 304, 470

_Gazette d'Amsterdam_, ii. 411

Gélu, Jacques, bishop of Embrun, i. 165, 181, 250, 425; ii. 28, 261
  his treatise on Jeanne, i. 165, 180, 320-325
  mistrusts Jeanne, i. 181
  on Jeanne's captivity, ii. 162

Geneva, i. 167

Germain, Bishop, i. 404

Gerson, Jean, i. lvii, 7, 204; ii. 112, 228, 261
  career of, i. 324
  his treatise on Jeanne, i. xlix, 326-331; ii. 48, 98

Gervais, Canon, i. 209

_Geste des nobles François_, i. xiv

Gethyn, Sir Richard, i. 123, 139, 366-368

Gévaudan, ii. 165

Ghent, ii. 155

Ghiberti, Lorenzo, ii. 39

Giac, Lord de, i. 146, 150

Gibeaumex, i. 61

Gideon, i. 207, 213; ii. 243
  story of, i. 202

Gien, i. 100, 101, 231, 240, 282, 389, 472; ii. 78, 95
  French army at, i. xii, xxvi, 394, 396
  Jeanne at, i. 143; ii. 75

Giffart, Sir Thomas, i. 310

Girard, Jean, i. 165, 181

Girault, Guillaume, i. 280, 461

Giresme, Nicole de, i. 311

Glacidas, i. 124

Glasdale, William, i. 124, 126, 130, 132, 304, 310
  answers Jeanne, i. 276
  summoned to surrender, i. 311
  death of, i. 312, 471

Gloucester, Duke of, i. 107; ii. 229
  marriage of, i. 401, 402

Godefroy, Jean, i. 102, 103

_Godons_, The, i. 22

Golden Legend, The, i. 207

Goliath, i. 238, 454

Gondrecourt, Castellany of, i. 16
  le-Château, i. 65

Good Friday, coinciding with the Annunciation, i. 219

Gooseberry Spring, _see_ Fontaine-aux-Bonnes-Fées

Gorcum, Heinrich von, i. xxii, 383, 384

Gorlitz, Elizabeth of, ii. 359

Gottlieben, ii. 200

Gouges, Lord Martin, i. 155

Gough, Matthew, i. 367

Gournay-sur-Aronde, ii. 141, 348

Gouye, Colin, ii. 99

Granier, Pierre, i. 12

Graverent, Jean, Grand Inquisitor, ii. 185, 219, 264, 345

Graville, Lord of, i. 137, 140, 292, 304, 372, 445

Gray, Lord Richard, i. 123, 143

Great Friday, i. 219

Grenoble, Parliament of, i. 165

Gressart, Perrinet, i. 389; ii. 84, 91, 96

Greux, i. 5, 16, 58, 70; ii. 210, 386
  situation of, i. 2, 9
  freed from _tallies_, i. 452
  Colin de, i. 60

Grey Friars, Neufchâteau, monastery of, i. 71, 72, 109

Grey, John, ii. 225, 252

Grignan, Chevalier de, ii. 407

Grognot, Nicolas, ii. 356

Grouchet, Richard de, ii. 249

Gubbio, i. 213

Guérard, Sir Thomas, i. 123, 375

Guesclin, Bertrand du, i. 175, 338, 345; ii. 47

Guesdon, Laurent, ii. 201

Gueuville, Nicolas, ii. 197

Gugen, Arnault de, i. 372, 373

Gui, Bernard, ii. 286

Guido da Forli, i. 385

Guillaume, Jaquet, ii. 126, 127
  of Chaumont, i. 121
  of Gévaudan, ii. 165-169, 348-351
  the Bastard of Poitiers, i. 61
  with the White Hands, i. 209

Guillemette de la Rochelle, i. 160
  Gérard, i. 76

Guillot de Guyenne, ii. 105

Guitry, i. 121
  Lord de, i. 304

Guyenne, held by England, i. 21, 149
  a herald, i. 252
  detained by the English, i. 273-276, 295

_Guyntonia Vaticinium_, i. 177

Guyon du Fossé, i. 233


HAINAULT, Countess of, i. 401

Haiton, Guillaume, ii. 218

Halbourd, Jean, i. 275

Halsall, Gilbert, i. 123

Hannequin, Jean, ii. 210

Harancourt, ii. 366

Harcourt, Christophe d', ii. 53, 76
  questions Jeanne, i. 333, 334

Harfleur, i. lxiv; ii. 52

Hauviette, i. 77; ii. 386

Hector de Chartres, i. 153, 154; ii. 28

Hellande, Antoine de, i. 459

Hennequins, The, i. 408

Hennins, i. 415

Henri de Savoie, pillages Domremy, i. 27, 28

Henry II of England, i. 159

Henry II of France, ii. 410

Henry V of England, i. lxiv, 21, 22, 60, 162, 176, 281, 359, 401; ii. 208
  death of, i. 250, 274
  betrothal of, i. 423

Henry VI of England, i. li, 69, 82, 123, 432; ii. 171, 306, 382
  minority of, i. 107
  resources of, i. 233
  summoned to surrender, i. 244-247
  to be crowned at Reims, i. 392
  at Rouen, ii. 198
  coronation of, ii. 350

_Henry VI_, i. 233

Heraclides Ponticus, i. 322

Heresy, Church's treatment of, i. 190

Heretics burnt at the stake, ii. 100, 237

Hermine, i. 380

Hermit Friars, The, ii. 239

Hermite, Pierre l', i. 165, 181

Herodias, i. 172

_Historia Britonum_, i. 177

History, art of writing, i. lxviii

Hodierne, Guillaume, i. 440

Holophernes, i. 238, 339, 341

Honecourt, Jean de, i. 96

Hordal, Jean, i. lv

Hospitality, rules of, i. 271; ii. 79

Houppembière, ii. 140

Houppeville, Nicolas de, ii. 248

Hovecourt, i. 81

Hugh Capet, i. 392

Hungerford, Lord, i. 375

Huns invade Gaul, i. 119

Huss, John, i. 325; ii. 115, 200

Hussites, The, i. xxx, 441; ii. 20, 86
  campaign against, ii. 109


ÎLE-AUX-BOEUFS, i. 112, 113, 267; ii. 377

Île-aux-Bourdons, i. 112, 258, 265

Île-aux-Toiles, i. 112, 268, 292, 297

Île Biche-d'Orge, i. 112

Île-Charlemagne, i. 112, 302

Île-de-France, i. lxix, 187, 233; ii. 2, 10, 123, 165
  held by England, i. 21

Île-Jourdain, ii. 38

Île Martinet, i. 112

Île Saint-Loup, i. 112

Illiers, Florent d', i. 174, 241, 273, 304, 318, 347, 349

Immerguet, i. 174

Innocent III, pope, ii. 157, 215

Inquisition, The, ii. 157, 176
  secrecy of, ii. 211

Invention of the Holy Cross, i. 280

Isabeau of Bavaria, i. 146

Isabella of Lorraine, i. 91

Isle-Adam, Sire de l', ii. 60


JACOB, i. 385
  Dominique, i. 65

Jacobins, The, i. 113; ii. 185

Jacqueline of Bavaria, Countess, i. 401, 402

Jacques de Chabannes, i. 129, 136
  of Touraine, ii. 95, 235, 246, 288, 294

Jacquier, i. 7

Jadart, M. Henri, i. vii, lxxiv

Jahel, i. 191

Janville, i. 122, 256, 283, 368
  English at, i. 371, 376, 377

Jargeau, i. xli, 130, 256, 265, 290-439; ii. 87, 88, 95, 182, 184, 246, 360
  French attack on, i. xiv, 332, 349, 355, 362
  English occupy, i. 348
  Jeanne at, ii. 97, 259

Jarry, M. L., i. vii

Jean IV, Count d'Armagnac asks Jeanne to indicate true pope, ii. 37-43
  cruelty of, ii. 38
  excommunicated, ii. 40

Jean, Count of Neufchâtel, i. 70
  Count of Salm, i. 24
  de Gand, i. 162
  de Metz, i. 81, 87, 222; ii. 386
    questions Jeanne, i. 82, 83, 99
    accompanies Jeanne, i. 89, 96, 105
    at Blois, i. 252
    enters Orléans, i. 269
  of Saintrailles, i. 121; ii. 21
  le Bon, i. 148
  warned by the vavasour, i. 163

Jean-Sans-Peur, i. 128

Jeanne d'Arc, authorities for life of, i. vii-xxxiii, lxi
  mission of, i. xii, xxxix, lx; ii. 231, 279
  its political aspect, i. 190, 333; ii. 164
  simplicity of, i. xxvii, lx
  military skill of, i. xxviii, xliii; ii. 82, 391
  visionary nature of, i. xxxiii-xxxvii
  priests' influence on, i. xxxviii, 44-47, 64, 66
  virginity of, i. xxviii, 211; ii. 80, 216, 265, 281
  character of, i. xxxiii
  historical reputation of, i. liv
  portraits of, i. liii, lxii, lxxi, 336; ii. 191, 212, 420-423
  birth of, i. 2, 467
  parentage of, i. 3
  baptism of, i. 4-6
  early childhood of, i. 6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 23
  education of, i. 8
  piety of, i. 9, 48, 80, 339, 463
  shares the village rites, i. 14, 15
  childhood of, i. 28
  first hears Voices, i. 29
  recognises St. Michael, i. 29
  visited at Domremy by SS. Catherine and Marguerite, i. 43, 47, 57, 75
  vows to preserve her virginity, i. 42
  her love of bells, i. 43
  visited by St. Michael, i. 56, 58
  visits Robert de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs, i. 61-66
  prophesies concerning the Dauphin, i. 64, 67, 77, 81
  ridiculed, i. 67, 69, 99
  suspected of witchcraft, i. 69, 320, 412, 418; ii. 19, 20, 36, 50,
  121, 175, 177
  at Neufchâteau, i. 71-74
  summoned to appear at Toul, i. 73
  visits Robert de Baudricourt again, i. 77
  her second visit to Vaucouleurs, i. 77-89
  announces her mission to relieve Orléans, i. 77
  declares her mission to the Dauphin, i. 77, 81-84
  prophesies her death, i. 78, 333; ii. 15, 203
  sent for by the Dauphin, i. 88, 96-105
  adopts man's attire, i. 84, 88, 89, 96
  exorcised by Jean Fournier, i. 84-86
  sent for by Duke of Lorraine, i. 89-95
  writes to her parents, i. 95
  dictates a letter to the King, i. 145
  at Chinon, i. xiii, 156, 185, 423
  questioned as to her mission, i. 163, 165
  her interviews with Charles, and the Sign, i. 167-173, 183; ii. 262,
  264, 269, 295
  dress of, i. 169, 197, 329, 339, 356; ii. 147, 179, 192, 221, 240,
  244, 258, 268, 276, 280, 295
  and the Duke of Alençon, i. 183-186, 195
  is taken to Poitiers, i. 185
  examined at Poitiers, i. 191-203
  her aversion to theologians, i. 194; ii. 221, 223
  dictates a manifesto to the English, i. 196
  prophesies the coronation at Reims, i. 198, 200
  retorts on Seguin, i. 200
  foretells the raising of the siege, i. 201
  her sign victory itself, i. 202, 214
  result of examination at Poitiers, i. 213
  miracles attributed to, i. 215, 461-477; ii. 137, 261
  sets out for Orléans, i. 216
  armour of, i. 216, 221; ii. 76, 83
  her chaplain, i. 221
  horses of, i. 222, 346; ii. 356
  sword of, i. xii, 223, 475; ii. 75-77, 133, 245
  standard of, i. 227; ii. 104, 262, 281, 284
  at Blois, i. 243
  dictates manifestoes to the English from Poitiers and Blois, i. 244
  exhorts the French soldiers to repentance, i. 254
  her banner, i. 255
  leaves Blois for Orléans, i. xiii, 256
  misled as to route, i. 258-263
  approaches the Bastard, i. 260
  her ignorance of Orléans, i. 260
  her mission at Orléans, i. 263
  prophesies change of wind, i. 264
  asks to return to Blois, i. 265
  at Chécy, i. 267
  summons the English to surrender, i. 262, 273, 276, 278, 295, 311,
  316, 351
  enters Orléans, i. 264-269
  leads the Orléannais to the holy places, i. 277
  surveys the bastions, i. 279
  is offered wine, i. 279
  her belief in herself, i. 282, 343; ii. 6, 66, 112
  meets the army from Blois, i. 283
  jests with the Bastard, i. 283
  roused from sleep by her Council, i. 284
  at St.-Loup, i. 285-291
  her influence in Orléans, i. 291, 319
  plans kept from, i. 293
  receives counsel in Orléans, i. 295
  at Les Tourelles, i. xiii, 296-313
  wounded in the foot, i. 300
  prophesies her wound, i. 301, 306
  prophesies success in Orléans, i. 303
  is wounded in the shoulder, i. 306, 314; ii. 246
  hears Mass on the Sabbath, i. 315
  leaves Orléans for Blois and Tours, i. 318
  approved by Gélu, i. 320
  approved by Gerson, i. 326-331
  urges the King to Reims, i. 333
  questioned as to her Voices, i. 334, 341; ii. 229-235, 238, 242, 253,
  258, 261, 268, 272, 274, 277, 283, 327, 331-334, 402-406
  at Loches, i. 335-338
  fame of, i. 336, 381-385; ii. 160-163, 461-477
  her prayer for France, i. 336
  consulted as a saint, i. 337, 434, 452, 453; ii. 41-43, 81-83, 260, 272
  at Selles-en-Berry, i. 338
  wishes for prayers for her soul, i. 342
  prophesies the English evacuation, i. 344
  prophesies to Guy de Laval, i. 346
  marches on Jargeau, i. 349-355
  receives gifts at Orléans, i. 355, 356
  hopes to rescue the captive Duke, i. 357
  meets the Constable, i. 364
  at Beaugency, i. 364-367
  at Patay, i. 369, 376
  prophesies victory at Patay, i. 370, 372
  at Orléans, i. 377, 396
  prophesies the coronation of Charles, i. 378
  Constable's plot to seize, i. 379
  her loyalty to Charles VII, i. 380
  her progress to Reims, i. 385, 403
  led by the King's Council, i. 388
  at Gien, i. 396
  dictates a letter to Tournai, i. 396-400
  invites Burgundy to the coronation, i. 400
  dictates a letter to Troyes, i. 419, 422
  at Troyes, i. 424, 427, 430, 432-434
  prophesies victory at Troyes, i. 427
  at Châlons, i. 436
  at Reims, i. 448-458
  dreams of a crown, i. 448, 475; ii. 233, 234, 255, 269
  ring of, i. 453; ii. 254
  writes to the Duke of Burgundy, i. 456
  legends of, i. 463-476
  prophecies by, i. 470-477; ii. 355, 356
    _re_ the English, i. xvi; ii. 252, 281
  writes to Reims, ii. 4-6, 51, 107, 116
  political judgment of, ii. 7
  betrayed, ii. 16
  rides with the scouts, ii. 22
  poems in honour of, ii. 25
  prophecies relating to, ii. 29-32
  personal appearance of, ii. 32
  at Compiègne, ii. 36
  marches towards Paris, ii. 36-77
  replies to the Count d'Armagnac, ii. 43
  stands as godmother, ii. 50, 260
  Parisian opinion of, ii. 59, 98, 99, 158
  summons Paris to surrender, ii. 67, 273
  is wounded in the thigh, ii. 69, 72
  turned from Paris, ii. 72
  drives prostitutes from the army, ii. 74, 75
  at Selles-en-Berry, ii. 78-82
  at the attack on St.-Pierre-le-Moustier, ii. 85
  and Catherine de la Rochelle, ii. 87-90, 101, 183
  collects money for the army, ii. 88, 92, 94, 95
  at Moulins, ii. 92
  writes to Riom, ii. 93, 94
  grant of nobility, ii. 102, 212
  fêted at Orléans, ii. 103
  writes to Tours, ii. 104
  leases a house in Orléans, ii. 105
  at Sully, ii. 106-118
  on crusading, ii. 110
  her letter to Sigismund, ii. 112
  in the trenches of Melun, ii. 122
  attempts to exchange prisoners, ii. 124-132
  at Senlis, ii. 138
  used as a mascotte, ii. 148
  at Margny, ii. 148-150
  is taken prisoner, ii. 152
  attempts escape from Beaulieu, ii. 160
  prayers for deliverance of, ii. 161-163
  claimed by Cauchon, ii. 170-178, 181, 195, 197, 204
  at Beaurevoir, ii. 178
  leaps from the Tower, i. xix; ii. 181, 261, 273, 275, 295, 405
  writes to Tournai, ii. 189
  at Arras, ii. 191-196, 420
  taken to Rouen, ii. 196-198
  in prison at Rouen, ii. 198-204, 212-217
  information against, ii. 210-212, 239
  her wish to escape, ii. 225, 276
  becomes a prisoner of the Church, ii. 225
  preliminary trial, i. viii, xxiii, lii; ii. 221-284
  place of trial of, ii. 227, 247
  her letter to the English, ii. 231
  illness of, ii. 220-242, 289
  refuses to reveal the King's secret, ii. 245, 262, 264, 295
  trial of, pronounced illegal, ii. 246-248
  her letter to the Count d'Armagnac, ii. 250
  does not speak to the priests of her visions, ii. 266
  charges against, ii. 275, 287-289, 291, 295, 300-305
  would appeal to the pope, ii. 282, 312
  is offered an advocate, ii. 284-286
  trial in ordinary, ii. 284-322
  sustained by her Voices, ii. 289, 291
  her desire for the sacraments, ii. 290
  in the torture chamber, ii. 292
  deserted by her friends, i. liv; ii. 297
  exhorted by Maurice, ii. 305-307
  refuses to recant, ii. 307, 313
  preached at by Erard, ii. 308-314
  sentence against, ii. 314
  recants, ii. 315-319
  English resume possession of, ii. 321
  resumes woman's attire, ii. 322
  resumes man's attire, ii. 324
  retracts her recantation, ii. 325-328
  is told of her death, ii. 380
  second recantation of, i. ix, xxvii; ii. 331
  confesses and receives the Sacrament, ii. 333
  is burnt at the stake, ii. 335-342
  trial for rehabilitation, i. xxvi-xxxii, xlii; ii. 384-392
  medical opinion on, ii. 401-406

Jeanne of Évreux, i. 395
  de Valois, Queen, i. 395
  du Lys, Claude de Metz, impersonates Jeanne d'Arc, ii. 353-376
  the Maid of Sermaize, ii. 392, 393

Jeremiah, i. 414
  image carved by, i. 219

Jerusalem, i. 186, 249
  Queen of, _see_ Yolande

Jesus Christ, i. 207

Jhesus-Maria on the standard, i. 227
  on letters, i. 245, 295, 397, 419, 456; ii. 43, 281
  on Jeanne's ring, i. 452

Joachim, François, i. 348

Joash, i. xl, 202

John, Count of Porcien, _see_ the Bastard of Orléans
  Duke of Brittany, caution of, i. 379-381
  Duke of Burgundy, murder of, i. 21, 400, 422; ii. 17
  King of France, i. xxxvi, 63; ii. 54
  XXIII, Pope, i. 153

Joinville, Jeanne de, inherits Bourlémont, i. 14, 19, 27
  Château de, i. 27, 98

Jonah, i. 344

Joshua, ii. 27

_Journal du Siège, Le_, i. xiii

Jouvenel des Ursins, Jean, i. lxiv, 187, 192, 408; ii. 385

Judas Maccabæus, i. 328

Judith, i. 165, 191, 238, 328, 339, 341, 382; ii. 27, 87, 367

Julien, hill of, i. 2

Jumièges, Abbot of, ii. 208, 209, 309

Justin, i. 205


KALT EYSEN, Heinrich, ii. 364

Kennedy, Lord Hugh, i. 218; ii. 124

Kermoisan, Thudal de, i. 347, 363

Kernanna, i. xxxv

King's Evil, i. 459

Kiriel, Sir Thomas, ii. 348

Kyrthrizian, Richard, i. 224


L'AVERDY, i. vii, lix

La Beauce, i. lxix, 108, 112, 121, 131, 134, 318, 233, 241, 255, 354
  plain of, i. 163
  route through, i. 259, 282, 371

La Belle d'Anjou, i. 184

La Bergère, i. 348, 350

La Bougue, ii. 95

La Chapelle, ii. 50, 63, 70

La Charité, i. 389; ii. 84, 164, 167, 272
  siege of, ii. 90, 94, 96, 103, 261

La Croix-Boissée, i. 134, 143

La Croix-Morin, i. 278

La Ferté-Milon, ii. 10, 16, 60

La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, ii. 408

La Grange-aux-Ormes, ii. 353, 357, 375

La Hire, i. 105, 115, 137, 139, 141, 149, 267, 273, 347, 450, 465;
  ii. 22, 68, 196, 199, 348, 387
  ravages Bar, i. 24, 26
  comes to Orléans, i. 129
  bribed by Tours, i. 218
  at Blois, i. 244
  meets the army from Blois, i. 283
  in Orléans, i. 292, 298, 304
  pursues the English, i. 316
  at Jargeau, i. 351
  at Patay, i. 369, 372
  on the way to Reims, i. 403

La Joyeuse, i. 75

La Lomagne, ii. 38

La Motte-Nangis, ii. 38

La Perruque, M., ii. 414, 415

_La Petite Ancelle_, ii. 93

La Porète, ii. 237, 294

_La Pucelle_, ii. 93, 390

La Retrève, i. 373, 374

La Roche-St.-Quentin, i. 217

La Rochelle, i. xviii, 240, 319, 360; ii. 87

La Romée, i. 177

La Rousse, i. 70

La Sologne, i. 108, 113, 123, 131
  route through, i. 256, 259, 283, 284

La Trémouille, Sire de, i. x, xlix, 146, 363, 379, 446, 450; ii. 53,
  84, 106
  King's favourite, i. 147, 152, 155, 169, 253
  at Chinon, i. 184
  starts for Reims, i. 403
  bribed by Auxerre, i. 406
  governs Compiègne, ii. 35, 44, 45
  before Paris, ii. 69, 72
  held to ransom, ii. 91
  Jeanne in charge of, ii. 109, 119
  tries a substitute for Jeanne, ii. 163-169
  taken prisoner, ii. 351

La Tour-d'Auvergne, Baron, i. 137, 140

La Valette, Comte de, ii. 415

Laban, i. 385

Labrousse, Suzette, i. xxxv

Lactantius, i. 205, 322

Ladvenu, Martin, i. xxvi; ii. 329, 330, 333, 389

Lagny-sur-Marne, i. xxxi, xlvi; ii. 78, 147, 211, 261, 371
  Jeanne at, ii. 123, 133-137

Laiguisé, Gille, i. 408
  Huet, i. 408
  Jean, policy of, i. 408-411, 428

Lançon, ii. 412

Lang, Mr. Andrew, i. v

Langeais, i. 150

Langres, Bishop of, i. 447; ii. 309

Langlois, Jean, i. 240
  M. E., i. lxxiv

Languedoc, i. 117, 154

Laon, i. 50, 189, 460; ii. 4, 11, 358
  Duke of, i. 447

Lapau, i. 217

Laplace, i. lxviii

Lassois, Durand, i. 59, 60, 66, 75, 76, 88, 89; ii. 240, 386

Lattes, i. 210

Launoy, Jean de, i. lv

Laval, André de, i. 345, 364; ii. 9, 394
  Anne de, i. 338
  château of, i. 345; ii. 393, 396
  family, The, i. 243
  Dame Jeanne de, i. 338, 346; ii. 47, 394
  Guy de, i. 346, 364, 372, 446, 450; ii. 9, 47, 63, 394

Lavisse, M. Ernest, i. lxxiii

Le Boucher, Marie, ii. 36

Le Brun de Charmettes, i. lxi

Le Dunois, i. 318

Le Fèvre de St.-Remy, i. xx

_Le Jouvencel_, i. 241; ii. 133

Le Langart, Jean, i. 5

Le Lendit, Fair of, ii. 49

Le Maçon, Robert, i. xlii, 153, 211

Le Maistre, Husson, i. 451

Le Mans, i. 115, 134, 231, 240, 287
  Bishop of, ii. 383, 394
  Maid of, ii. 394-396

Les Martinets, i. 26

Les Montils, Château of, ii. 396

Le Petit, ii. 99

Le Portereau, i. 292, 300
  Orléannais at, i. 301, 302, 307

Le Sourd, ii. 99

Le Vauseul, Aveline, i. 59, 60
  Jeanne, i. 59

Les Augustins, Battle of, i. xiv

Les-Douze-Pierres, i. 134

Lebuin, Michel, i. 67

Lecamus de Beaulieu, i. 147; ii. 332

Leclerc, Jean, i. 348

Lecourt, Gille, i. 224

Lefèvre, Gervaise, ii. 95
  Jean, ii. 238, 388

Lefèvre-Pontalis, M. Germain, i. v, vii, xxi, xxii, lxii

Legends of Jeanne, i. xxii, liv

Legros, M., ii. 417

Leliis, Théodore de, i. xxiii

Lemaistre, Jean, ii. 219, 221, 228, 264, 343, 388

Lenisoles, Jean de, ii. 310

Lenten observances, i. 156-158

Leparmentier, Mauger, ii. 293

Leprestre, Jacques, i. 279; ii. 104, 361

Leroyer, Catherine, i. 79, 80, 84, 86, 97
  Henri, i. 79, 97; ii. 240, 357, 386

Lettrée, i. 435

Lévy, MM. Calmann, i. lxxiv

Liébault de Baudricourt, i. 24, 61

Liège, ii. 194

Lignerolles, i. 373, 374, 375

Ligny, David de Brimeu, Lord of, i. 458; ii. 51, 91, 140
  Jeanne in charge of, ii. 191

Lille, i. lxxiv

Limousin, i. 200

Lingui, Jean, i. 5

Lisieux, ii. 209
  Bishop of, ii. 382

Loches, ii. 361
  Jeanne at, i. 335-338

_Lætare_ Sunday, i. 13, 156

Logic, picture of, i. 382

Lohéac, Marshal of, ii. 98

Lohier, Jean, ii. 246-248

Loire, The, i. 100, 112; ii. 4

Loiret, The, i. lxxiv, 111-113

Loiseleur, Nicolas, at the trial of Jeanne, ii. 208, 210, 213, 238,
  242, 246, 252, 293, 308, 314, 329, 331, 334
  at Bâle, ii. 379-381

Lombard, Jean, examines Jeanne, i. 189, 193

London, fort, i. 134, 231
  Tower of, i. 359

Longueville, i. 450; ii. 208, 387
  Duc de, i. lvi
  Prior of, ii. 309, 319

Loré, Lord Ambrose de, i. 243, 258, 267, 292, 316, 434; ii. 76, 123

Lorraine, i. 389
  a herald, ii. 155
  Charles II, Duke of, i. 14, 18; ii. 1, 9, 81, 231
  makes war on La Hire, i. 24
  sends for Jeanne, i. 89-95

Louis I of Bourbon, ii. 91, 96, 106

Louis VIII, i. 443

Louis XI, i. xviii, lxxi

Louis XIV, i. xxxvi; ii. 409-412

Louis XVIII, i. xxxvi; ii. 414-419

Louis, Dauphin, i. 221; ii. 39
  betrothed to Margaret of Scotland, i. 83

Louis, Duke of Orléans, i. 128, 144, 161, 325
  death of, i. 358

Louis of Luxembourg, ii. 60

Louis the Fat, i. 392

Louvet, President, i. 155

Louviers, ii. 348, 370

Louvois, M. de, ii. 408

Lowe, Nicole, ii. 354, 356

Lozère Mountains, ii. 165, 348

Luce, Siméon, i. vii, xxxi, lxii

Luciabelus, ii. 111

Lucifer, ii. 111

Lucius, Pope, ii. 336

Luçon, i. 399

Lude, Sire du, i. 353

Luillier, Jean, i. xxvi, 280, 356; ii. 386

Lunéville, ii. 136

Luxembourg, Dame Jeanne de, ii. 178, 190, 359, 362, 365
  Jean de, i. xi; ii. 51, 299
  Count of Ligny, ii. 140, 143, 149
  Jeanne in charge of, ii. 154, 159, 172, 177, 188-191, 196
  visits her at Rouen, ii. 202

Luys, Doctor, i. xxvi

Luzarches, i. 103

Lyon, i. xxiii; ii. 410
  Les Célestins, i. 324

Lyonnais, i. 149

Lyonnel, ii. 152

Lys, Du, i. xvii; _see_ Jean and Pierre d'Arc


MACHECOUL, i. xvi; ii. 370

Machet, Gérard, i. xlii, 1, 9, 204, 333; ii. 379
  circulates prophecies of Jeanne, i. 196, 197

Maçon, Jean de, i. 189, 280, 281

Macy, Aimond de, ii. 179, 202

Magala, i. 454

Maguelonne, Bishop of, i. 163
  examines Jeanne, i. 188

Maillé, Sire de, i. 446

Mailly, Jean de, ii. 388

Maine, i. 21, 106, 387; ii. 383

Maintenon, Mme. de, ii. 412

Mainz, Diet of, ii. 381

Maire, Guillaume le, i. 189
  examines Jeanne, i. 193

Manchon, Guillaume, ii. 205, 218, 227, 247, 257, 324, 389

Mandrakes, i. 415; ii. 255

Mantes, i. 310; ii. 348

Manuel, Nicolas, i. lxxi
  Pierre, ii. 201

Marchenoir, i. 255, 318

Maréchal, Humbert, i. 465

Margaret of Scotland, i. 83, 167

Margny, ii. 164, 145, 146, 153
  attack on, ii. 148-150

Marguerie, André, ii. 324, 329

Marguerite of Bavaria, i. 93

Marie de Maillé, i. 161

Marie de Sully, ii. 106

Marie, Queen, i. 181, 217, 395, 396, 458; ii. 78, 119, 182, 395

Marie-Thérèse, Queen, ii. 407

Marne, The, i. 98; ii. 3, 9

Marseilles, ii. 412

Martin V, Pope, i. 381, 402; ii. 37, 175, 250, 363
  policy of, ii. 39
  crusaders of, ii. 109, 110

Martin, Henri, i. l

Martin, Ignace Thomas, i. xxxvi
  mission of, ii. 413-419

Martin, M. le Dr., ii. 413

Martin, M. Paul, ii. 418

Marville, ii. 357, 358, 368

Massieu, Jean, i. xxvi; ii. 206, 218, 228, 256, 261, 312, 317, 319,
  326, 333, 338, 340, 389

Mathieu II, of Lorraine, i. 71

Mathurins, The, i. 109, 275; ii. 70

Matthias, Don, i. 121

Maupertuis, i. 229

Maurice, Pierre, ii. 280, 246, 299, 329, 331, 334, 340
  exhorts Jeanne, ii. 305-307, 315

Maxentius, the Emperor, i. 36-41

Maxey-sur-Meuse, i. 2, 8, 20, 23, 35

Maxey-sur-Vaise, i. 2, 60

Maximian, ii. 56

Mayenne, The, i. 388

Meaux, i. 410
  tree of Vauru, ii. 12

Megret, i. 348

Mehun-sur-Yèvre, i. 150, 198; ii. 83, 102, 397

Meledon, Jacques, i. 189, 193

Melun, ii. 3, 71, 120
  defenders of, i. 114
  Jeanne at, ii. 122

Melusina, i. 12

Mende, Bishop of, i. 404
  Mountain, ii. 165

Mengette, ii. 386

Mennot, Robert le, i. 161

Merari, i. 191

Mercier, Catherine le, i. 174

Mercury, i. 166

Merlin, prophecies of, i. 10, 175-177, 275; ii. 27, 30, 240, 391
  story of, i. 175

Mesnage, Mathieu, i. 189

_Messire_, Jeanne's use of, i. 64
  Jeanne as the herald of, i. 261, 262

Metz, ii. 354, 357, 365, 374
  Bishop of, i. 18
  war against, i. 92

Meung-sur-Loire, i. xli, 127, 130, 255, 256, 366, 439; ii. 23
  English retreat to, i. 316, 318, 332, 362, 366, 371
  French take, i. 368

Meurthe, The, i. 89

Meuse, course of the, i. 1, 2

Meyer, M. Paul, i. lxxiii

Micah, ii. 411

Michel, François, farrier, mission of, i. xxxvi; ii. 407-412

Michelet, i. lxi

Midi, Nicolas, ii. 208, 246, 261, 287, 294, 337, 392

Midianites, i. 202

Miélot, Jean, i. 35

Milan, i. 221, 384
  Duke of, i. 399; ii. 374

Milbeau, Yves, questions Jeanne, i. 380, 418

Minerva, i. lxxii

Minet, Jean, Vicar of Domremy, i. 4

Minguet, i. 174

Minier, Pierre, ii. 248

Miriam, i. 327, 330

Mitry, Lord of, i. 174

Molandon, Boucher, de, i. vii

Moleyns, Lord, i. 304, 310, 312

Molyns, William, i. 124, 130

_Moniteur_, _Le_, i. lx

Monks spread legends of Jeanne, i. 212
  join the armies, i. 254

Monmouth, i. 275

Monod, M. Gabriel, i. v

Monstrelet, Enguerrand de, i. xix; ii. 153

Montacute, Thomas, _see_ Salisbury, Earl of

Montaing, i. 128

Montalcin, Jean de, i. 167

Montan, the hermit, i. 50

Montargis, i. 121, 282, 311, 403; ii. 8, 421
  siege of, i. 129, 132
  Governor of, i. 144, 169

Montbéliard-Saarbruck, Jean de, i. 436

Montéclaire, i. 16

Montendre, i. 144

Montepilloy, i. xx; ii. 21, 65

Montereau, Bridge of, i. 21, 146, 166, 379, 400; ii. 8, 16, 17, 19, 52,
  58, 352

Montesclère, Jean de, i. xiv, 132, 143, 298, 299, 366; ii. 193

Montfaucon, ii. 87, 88, 127, 184

Montgomery, Lord, ii. 144

Montier-en-Saulx, i. 65, 98

Montigny-le-Roi, i. 58

Montjoie, i. 435

Montmaillard, i. 116

Montmédy, ii. 136

Montmirail, ii. 3

Montmorency, Sire de, ii. 73

Montpellier, i. 163, 210, 240

Montpensier, Count of, ii. 91

Montpipeau, i. 256
  burnt by the English, i. 377

Montremur, Raymon de, ii. 96

Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Péril-de-la-Mer, Abbey of, i. 30; ii. 208, 309

Morant, Pierre, ii. 128, 130

Morcellet, Sire de, ii. 133

Morel, Aubert, ii. 293
  Jean, godfather of Jeanne, i. 5, 12, 436; ii. 386

Moreau, Jean, ii. 182, 210

Morhier, Sir Simon, i. 139; ii. 57

Morieau, Raulin, i. 451

Morin, Jourdain, i. 189

Mortemart, Abbot of, ii. 309

Mortemer, ii. 208
  Jeanne de, i. 211

Moselle, The, ii. 353

Moses, i. 207, 327, 414; ii. 27

Moslant, Philibert de, i. 124, 432, 433, 438

Moulins, i. 240; ii. 13
  Jeanne at, ii. 92

Mount Ganelon, ii. 146
  Sombar, i. 30
  Tombe, i. 30

Mousque, Maître, i. 166

Mugot, i. 174, 285, 306

Muñoz, Gil, ii. 40

Musnier, Simonin, i. 7

Myrmidons, The, i. 382

_Mystère du Siège_, _Le_, i. xiv


NOTRE Dame d'Amiens, ii. 197
  d'Ancis, i. 137
  des Ardents, ii. 134
  des-Aviots, ii. 136
  de Bermont, i. 9, 14, 48
  de Clèry, i. 127, 288
  de Fierbois, ii. 76
  de Liance or Liesse, ii. 358
  de-la-Pierre, ii. 195
  de-la-Voûte, i. 80

Nancy, i. 14, 68, 89, 93, 95

Nantes Bridge, i. xvi

Napoleon Bonaparte, i. lix

Narbonne, Council of, i. 318; ii. 320

Nations, union of, i. lxvii

Nativity of the B.V.M., ii. 62

Naundorf, ii. 419

Navarre, College of, ii. 394

Naviel, Jean, ii. 192

Nebuchadnezzar, i. 325, 409

Nennius, i. 322

Nettles, i. 356

Neufchâteau, i. 5, 11, 163, 436
  situation of, i. 1, 2
  people of Domremy shelter at, i. 70

Neufchâtel, i. 70

Nevers, i. 410

Neville, William, i. 123

Nicanor, i. 322

Nicolas V, Pope, ii. 384

Nicolazic, Yves, i. xxxv

Nicole de Giresme, i. 264

Nicopolis, i. 249, 253, 457; ii. 110

Nider, Jean, ii. 366

Noël, feast of, i. 133

Nogent-sur-Seine, i. 438; ii. 52

Noirouffle, ii. 193

Nolhac, M. Pierre de, ii. 422

Nonnette, ii. 20

Normandy, held by England, i. 21, 233
  war in, i. 385, 387
  French lose, ii. 23, 24
  French conquest of, ii. 382

Norwich, Bishop of, ii. 309

Nostradamus, i. xxxvi; ii. 409, 410

Novelompont, Jean de, i. xxix, xxx, 81; ii. 386

Noviant, Dame de, i. 174

Noyon, Bishop of, i. 447; ii. 144, 299, 309, 388

Nucelles, Lord of, i. 123

Nuremberg, i. 221

Nyssa, i. 206


OGIVILLER, Château d', i. 19
  Henri d', i. 19

Oise, The, ii. 44, 142, 145

Olet Stone, i. 115

Olibrius, Governor, i. 32-34; ii. 53

Olivet, i. 111, 113, 258

Olivier, Richard, ii. 385

Or, Mme. d', i. 433

_Oriflamme_, i. 182

Origen, i. 205

Orléans, i. xxii, 63, 410; ii. 4, 360, 386
  administration of, prior to siege, i. 115
  Bishop of, i. 447
  citizens and garrison of, i. 122
  description of, i. 108-114
  Jeanne's house in, ii. 105
  citizens of, buy off the English, i. 106
    prepare for war, i. 116-121
    refuse to surrender, i. 122
    destroy their suburbs, i. 131
    celebrate Noël, i. 133
    send to the Duke of Burgundy, i. 142
    hear of the Maid, i. 144
    lose faith in their defenders, i. 230, 242, 281
    pillage St.-Laurent, i. 234
    penitence of, i. 236
    their belief in Jeanne, i. 239, 461
    welcome Jeanne, i. 268-273, 277; ii. 103
    rebel against the knights, i. 272
    overestimate the English forces, i. 280-282, 301
    attack St.-Loup, i. 284-291
    attack Les Tourelles, i. 296-313
    poverty of, i. 331
    recognise Jeanne as their commander, i. 339, 348, 366; ii. 84
    defray expedition to Jargeau, i. 347; and to Beaugency, i. 366
    their gifts to Jeanne, i. 355
    defray costs, ii. 94
    welcome Jeanne's impersonator, ii. 360, 367
  City of:
   Aumône, i. 230
   Bouchet Wharf, i. 258
   Chesneau, i. 109, 125, 132, 311
   Écu St.-Georges, i. 241
   Field of St.-Privé, i. 134
  Hôtel de la Pomme, i. 122
  Île de Charlemagne, i. 134
  Île Motte des Poissonniers, i. 111, 112
  Île Motte S.-Antoine, i. 111, 112
  La Belle Croix, i. 111, 126, 295, 311
    Jeanne at, i. 276
  La Croix Boissée, i. 278
  Le Portereau, i. 111, 112, 123, 131
  Les Augustins, i. 261, 292
    capture of, i. 297, 319
  Les Tourelles, i. xviii, xxx, xli, 111, 124, 261, 362; ii. 149, 194
    attack on, i. 125, 292, 296-313, 319, 461, 470
    abandoned by French, i. 126
    English garrison in, i. 130
  London, i. 231, 281, 303
  Olivet, i. 123
  Paris, i. 231, 281, 283
    attacked, i. 273
  Pont Jacquemin-Rousselet, i. 111
  Porte Bernier or Bannier, i. 110, 113, 122, 136
  Porte de Bourgogne, i. 113, 120, 135, 258, 286, 296, 470
    Jeanne enters by, i. 268, 269
  Porte Paris, i. 110, 288
  Porte du Pont, i. 110, 111, 276
  Porte Renard, i. 114, 270, 278, 286, 302
    stormed, i. 135, 136
  Porte S.-Aignan, i. 110
  Rouen, i. 231
  Rue Aux-Petits-Souliers, i. 132; ii. 105
  Rue de la Rose, i. 270, 294
  Rue des Hôtelleries, i. 130
  Rue des Talmeliers, i. 270
  S.-Aignan, i. 113, 120, 131
  Ste.-Croix, i. 236, 270
  S.-Euverte, i. 131
  S.-Jean-de-Bray, i. 113
  S.-Jean-le-Blanc, i. 113, 124
  S.-Ladre, Chapel of, i. 113
  S.-Laurent-des-Orgerils, _see_ under St.-Laurent
  St.-Loup, _see_ under St.-Loup
  S.-Michel, Church of, i. 113
  St.-Paul, i. 258
  St.-Pierre-Empont, i. 258
  S.-Pierre-Ensentelée, i. 113
  St.-Pouair, i. 262; attacked, i. 273
  S.-Sulpice, i. 115
  Tour de l'Abreuvoir, i. 110
  Tour de la Barre-Flambert, i. 110
  Tour Croiche-Meuffroy, i. 110
  Tour Neuve, i. 109, 111, 125, 268, 297
  Tour de Notre Dame, i. 110, 126
  Tour Regnard, i. 110
  Tour St.-Antoine, i. 111
  Tour S. Samson, i. 110, 115
  University of, i. 121
  Siege of, i. xli
    journal of, i. xiii
    defences of, i. xli
    surrounded by English, i. 75
    victuals sent by Mme. Yolande, i. 92
    procession in, i. 123
    first attack, i. 125
    attack by Talbot, i. 132
    semi-investment of, i. 134
    sally from, i. 137
    victuals enter, i. 232
    Burgundians leave, i. 234
    raised, i. 316
    cost of, i. 332

Orléans, a herald, i. 118

Orléans, Duke of, _see_ Charles

Orly, Henri d', _see_ Henri of Savoy

Orne, The, i. 3

Ourches, Aubert d', i. 13, 81; ii. 357

Ours, Seigneur de l', ii. 125-133

Oxford, i. 274


PALM Sunday, i. 278

Pamiers, ii. 260

Panyngel, Richard, i. 123

Paradise, mediæval conception of, i. 236, 237

Pardiac, ii. 38
  Count of, i. 147

Paris, i. xxiii, 137, 154, 368, 386; ii. 9, 19
  English occupation of, i. 21, 108; ii. 55, 57
  Jeanne prophesies concerning, i. 201
  Charles VII to enter, i. 247
  Parliament of, i. 326
  synod at, i. 410, 413
  Jeanne outside, ii. 50-77
  governed by Duke Philip, ii. 52, 53, 58
  defences of, ii. 54, 55, 60, 66
  Burgundian allegiance of, ii. 57, 58
  citizens of, their dislike of Charles VII, ii. 58-60
    their horror of Jeanne, ii. 59
  attack on, ii. 64-70, 97
  Armagnac Conspiracy in, ii. 128-131
  examinations for witchcraft in, ii. 1, 185-187
  Bishop of, ii. 187
  Henry VI crowned in, ii. 350
  returns to Charles VII, ii. 352
  under Charles VII, ii. 371
  Jeanne's impersonator in, ii. 371-374
  City of:
    Hôtel de l'Arbre-See, ii. 125
    Hôtel de l'Ours, ii. 125
    Hôtel de la Pomme de Pin, ii. 129
  Inns of, ii. 125
    Les Célestins, ii. 55
    Les Moulins, ii. 63, 66
    Montmartre, i. 417; ii. 20, 415
    Pont Neuf, ii. 125
    Porte St.-Antoine, ii. 129
    Porte St.-Denys, ii. 55, 350
    Porte St.-Martin, ii. 53, 60
    Rue Barbette, i. 358
    Rue St.-Antoine, ii. 125
    St.-Antoine, ii. 54
    Ste.-Chapelle, i. 395
    St.-Denys, i. 326, 330
    St.-Eloi, i. 410
    Ste.-Geneviève, i. 413; ii. 62
    St.-Honoré, i. xxx; ii. 66
    St.-Jean-en-Grève, i. 325
    St.-Laurent, i. 60
    St.-Merry, i. 415
    University of, i. 166, 189, 409; ii. 54, 371
      consulted, by the English, i. 274
      opinion of Jeanne, ii. 98, 99, 294-297
      rectors of, ii. 208
      claim Jeanne for the inquisition, ii. 156, 172, 177, 190
      decision of, ii. 299
      mediates peace, ii. 352
      error of, ii. 385
      of Troy, i. 138

Parlament at Poitiers, i. 186

Partada, Alonzo de, i. 298, 299

Parthenay, i. 379

Pasquerel, Jean, i. xxiv, xxx, 249, 252, 259, 267, 283, 285, 300, 302,
  306, 399; ii. 41, 109, 133, 189, 388
  becomes Jeanne's chaplain, i. 218, 220, 221
  Jeanne confesses to, i. 290, 307
  writes at Jeanne's dictation, i. 295
  Jeanne talks with, i. 342, 343
  superseded, ii. 86
  writes to Sigismund, ii. 112

Patay, Battle of, i. xii, xx, xlii, 369-376; ii. 22, 57, 109, 356
  Town of, i. 373

_Patrie, la_, idea of, i. lx, lxiii-lxviii

Paul, Eléonore de, i. 217

Peñiscola, ii. 37, 40

Penthesilea, Queen, i. 191, 222, 382

Pepin the Short, i. 395

Perceval de Cagny, i. 227

Perche, i. 387
  Earl of, _see_ Salisbury

Perdriau, Guillaume, ii. 130

Perdriel, Jaquet, ii. 129, 130

_Periapts_, i. 274

Périgueux, ii. 97

Périnet, ii. 392

Perquin, Jean, ii. 127

Perrin, ii. 386

Petit, Gérard, ii. 210
  Jean, i. 325; ii. 170

Pharaoh, i. 409

Philip, Duke of Burgundy, i. 91, 92, 325, 358, 361, 432, 438
  welcomes the English, i. 21
  ravages Vaucouleurs, i. 24
  is offered Orléans as a pledge, i. 142, 233
  invited to the coronation, i. 400, 456
  the truce with, i. 458; ii. 7, 51-53, 107
  commands Paris, ii. 52
  his designs on Compiègne, ii. 139-151
  exults over Jeanne, ii. 153
  refuses to give her up, ii. 156, 159
  makes peace with Charles, ii. 352

Philip the Good, i. 398

Philippe I, i. 459

Philippe VI, i. 79

Philippe le Bel, i. 183

Philippe of Valois, i. 148, 209, 250

Picardy, i. 388
  held by England, i. 21

Pierre de Beauvau, i. 223
  de la Chapelle, i. 121
  de St.-Valerien, i. 167

Pierre de Versailles, i. 189
  examines Jeanne, i. 194
  rebukes Jeanne, i. 335
  Isambard de la, i. xxvi; ii. 330, 341, 389

Pierronne of Brittany, ii. 86, 97, 119, 123, 185-187, 345

Pigache, Jean, ii. 248

Pillas, Jean, i. 271

Pinel, Dr., ii. 416

Pithiviers, i. 231

Plancy, Sire de, i. 407

Plutarch, i. xlvi

Poignant, Guyot, i. 58

Poiresson, ii. 392

Poissy, Abbey of, ii. 25

Poitiers, i. xlvii, 117, 164, 240, 326, 329, 343; ii. 81, 297, 318, 346
  Battle of, i. 63, 102
  Bishop of, i. 150
  charged with examination of Jeanne, i. 188
  Hôtel de la Rose, i. 192
  Parliament of, i. xvii, xxv, 187; ii. 103
    examines Jeanne, i. xli, 185, 223, 239, 242; ii. 387
    examines Guillaume the shepherd, ii. 166
  poverty of, i. 188
  Rue St.-Étienne, i. 216

Poitou, i. 148, 363; ii. 3

Pole, Alexander, i. 354
  John, i. 123, 231
  Sir John, i. 354
  William, _see_ Suffolk, Earl of

Pomponne, M. de, ii. 409

Pont-à-Mousson, i. 61; ii. 135, 357

Pontanus, Paul, i. xxiii

Ponthieu, i. 388; ii. 196

Pont-l'Evêque, ii. 144, 272

Pontorson, Governor of, i. 123

Pont-Ste.-Maxence, ii. 107, 139, 146

Porcien, i. 128

Porète, Marguerite la, ii. 237, 294

Porphyrius, i. 39, 41

Port de Lates, i. 163

Poton de Saintrailles, i. 115, 121, 137, 139, 142, 149, 233, 304;
  ii. 142, 145, 348, 357
  at Blois, i. 244
  attacks Jargean, i. 332
  at Patay, i. 372
  on the way to Reims, i. 403
  taken prisoner, ii. 349

Poulengy, _see_ Bertrand

Power, Hamish, i. 227; ii. 104
  Héliote, i. 228; ii. 104

Poynings, Lord, i. 304, 310, 312

Pragmatic Sanction, ii. 379

Préaux, ii. 208
  Abbot of, ii. 309

Premonstratensians, the, i. 473

Pressy, Jean de, ii. 192

Prestre, Jacquet le, i. 279

Preuilly, Jeanne de, i. 211

_Preux_, _Les_, i. 338

Priam of Troy, i. xiv, lxviii, 49, 382, 448; ii. 30

Priests, influence on Jeanne, i. xxxviii, 45-47, 64, 66, 79
  adapt the prophecy of Merlin, i. 178-180
  their view of her mission, i. 190
  spread legends, ii. 28

Privat, ii. 165

Procops, The, ii. 110

Prophecies, adaptation of, i. 178-180
  by Bede, i. 178
  by Jeanne, i. 64, 67, 78, 143, 470-477; _see also_ under Jeanne d'Arc
    two distinct sources of, i. 78
  by Merlin, i. 175-177
  concerning Jeanne, i. 166, 196; ii. 29-32, 111, 239
  literal interpretation of, i. 413, 426
  of our Lord by Sibyls, i. 204, 205
  of the Maiden Redemptress, revised, i. 45, 59, 80
  royal heed of, i. 160-162

Prostitutes in the French army, i. 253, 291; ii. 74

Provins, ii. 3, 7, 8

Pucelle, i. 143

Puy-en-Velay, i. 218, 252; ii. 204
  La Vierge Noire, i. 277

Puy, Jean du, i. 217


QUENAT, Jean, ii. 357

Quicherat, Jules, i. vii, x, xxxvii, l, lxi

Quillier, Jean, ii. 369


RABAN of Helmstat, ii. 363

Rabateau, Jean, Lay Attorney-General,
  Jeanne in the house of, i. 191-203; ii. 103

Rabelais, i. lxv

Raguenel, Tiphaine, i. 338

Raimondi, Cosmo, i. 384

Rainguesson, Jean, i. 5

Rais, Maréchal de, Marshal of France, i. xv, xvi, 243, 258, 266, 282,
  287, 292, 318, 372, 445, 450; ii. 34, 63, 67, 370, 392
  at Les Tourelles, i. 298, 299, 304
  resources of, i. 348
  leads to Reims, i. 403

Rampston, Thomas, i. 124

Raphaël, ii. 243, 416

Ratisbonne, ii. 423

Raymond, i. 252

Récollets, Des, ii. 410

Recordi, Pierre, ii. 260

Regent, _see_ Bedford

Regnart family, The, i. 270

Régnier de Bouligny, ii. 78

Regnault de Chartres, Chancellor of France, Archbishop of Reims, i. xli,
  xliii, xlix, 141, 169; ii. 10, 76, 142, 192, 299
  held to ransom, i. 148
  finds the coronation at Reims politic, i. 199, 392, 393, 442
  at Blois, i. 243
  career of, i. 153-156
  gathers an army, i. 240
  character of, i. 390, 476
  approves of Jeanne, i. 390
  crowns Charles VII, i. 447-449
  questions Jeanne as to her death, ii. 15
  policy of, ii. 53
  tries a substitute for Jeanne, ii. 163-169, 347-351

Regnault, Guillaume, i. 354

Reims, i. 77, 143, 163, 209, 405; ii. 71, 116, 119, 211, 358, 383
  Archbishop of, _see_ Regnault de Chartres
  ampulla of, i. 52, 56
  Cathedral of, i. 445, 453
    labyrinth in, i. 320
  Charles VII, crowned at, i. 443-449
  citizens of, welcome Charles VII, i. 394
    surrender to Charles VII, i. 437-443
    invoke help of Charles VII, ii. 4, 10
  coronation at, prophesied, i. 198
  Jeanne's letter to, ii. 107
  Jeanne's progress to, i. 333, 385
  Porte Dieulimire, i. 443
  Remi, Bishop of, i. 50-53
  route to, i. 393
  Rue du Parvis, i. 451
  St.-Denys, i. 444
  Tau, i. 450

Reinach, M. Solomon, i. v

_Relation, La_, i. xviii

Remeswelle, ii. 140

Réné d'Anjou, Duke of Bar, Count of Vaudémont, i. 18, 26, 96, 389; ii. 393
  restores cattle to Domremy, i. 27
  character of, i. 91
  succession of, disputed, i. 92

Requests, master of, i. 169

Ressons, ii. 138

Resurrections of unbaptized children, ii. 135-137, 261

Reuilly, i. 267

Rhodes, order of, i. 264

Richemont, Arthur, Duke of Brittany, Constable of France, Count of, i. 146,
  147, 155, 370, 372
  held to ransom, i. 176
  at Beaugency, i. 363-367

Richer, Edmond, i. lv, viii

_Rifflart_, i. 132, 311

Rigueur, Jean le, ii. 130

Riom, ii. 93

Robert de Baudricourt, Captain of Vaucouleurs, i. xx, 61, 77, 81, 160,
  351, 451; ii. 231, 266, 357
  offends the Duke of Burgundy, i. 24
  seen by Jacques d'Arc, i. 58
  character of, i. 61
  his opinion of Jeanne, i. 66, 78, 84, 87, 97
  his letters concerning Jeanne, i. 87, 160, 162, 168
  death of, ii. 392

Robert de Saarbruck, makes war against Didier et Durand de Saint-Dié,
  i. 18, 20
  a formidable neighbour, i. 22, 24, 58
  taxes Domremy, i. 25

Robert, Duke of Bar, i. 61
  the Wise, i. 392

Robine, Marie, i. 161

Roche, Jean, ii. 126

Roche, M. Louis Charrier de la, ii. 415

Rochechouart, Lord of, i. 139

Rochefort, Sire de, i. 407, 432, 433

Rogier, i. xxxii

Rolland the Scrivener, i. 166

Romain, Henri, ii. 188

_Romance of the Rose_, i. 359

Rome, i. 381; ii. 26, 99, 111, 374
  Empress of, i. 449

Romée, Isabelle, mother of Jeanne, _see_ Isabelle
  origin of surname, i. 3

Romorantin, Jeanne at, i. 346

Rosier family, The, i. 192

Rostrenen, François de, i. 363, 381

Rouge Bombarde, ii. 140

Roule, ii. 66

Roussel, Raoul, ii. 208, 210, 293, 388

Rouvray-St.-Denis, i. 138, 139, 213, 229, 282
  Battle of, i. 370

Rouen, i. xxiii, xxxii, li, 124, 332; ii. 24, 60, 171, 196, 386
  Archbishop of, i. 395
  Bourg-l'Abbé, ii. 308
  Jeanne at, i. 464; ii. 198
  Old Market Square, Jeanne is burnt in, ii. 335-342

Royer, Thévenin le, i. 5

Roze, Jeannette, i. 5

Ru, The, i. 363

Rude, i. lxiii


SAARBRUCK, Robert de, _see_ Robert

Sabbat, i. 150

Sabbath, fighting on the, i. 315

Sabinella, Queen, i. 35

Sablon, The, ii. 353

Sailly, i. 98

St.-Agnes, i. 208

St.-Aignan, i. 101, 392
  story of, i. 118-120
  shrine of, i. 236
  intercedes for Orléans, i. 236, 314, 461
  Charles VII at, i. 345

St.-Amance, i. 7

St.-Ambrose, i. 471

St.-Andrew, Cross of, i. 403; ii. 60, 66, 129

St.-Anthony of Padua, i. xxxix; ii. 272

St.-Augustine, i. 205

St.-Avy, Jean de, i. 142, 233; ii. 209

St.-Barbara, i. 208

St.-Bellin, Geoffroy de, ii. 124

St.-Benedict, order of, i. 189

St.-Benoit-sur-Loire, Jeanne at, i. 377

St.-Catherine, i. xxxix; ii. 139
  history and martyrdom of, i. 34-41, 159, 328
  her shrine and miracles at Fierbois, i. 102-105, 475
  sword of, i. 223; ii. 75, 245
  language of, i. 200
  touches rings, i. 453
  comforts Jeanne at Beaurevoir, ii. 180, 182
  crown of, ii. 233
  comforts Jeanne in prison, ii. 274
  of Siena, i. xxxv, lxxii, 457, 469; ii. 167, 348

St. Catherine and St. Margaret, i. lvi, 194, 215, 239, 263, 333, 378,
  437, 449; ii. 43
  appear to Jeanne at Domremy, i. 42, 49, 57, 75
  reassure Jeanne at Poitiers, i. 193
  appear to Jeanne at Chinon and Tours, i. 224
  bid Jeanne take the standard, i. 227
  appear to Jeanne at Orléans, i. 285, 301, 340, 357
  comfort Jeanne wounded, i. 307
  appear at Rouen, ii. 325, 327
  speak of Catherine de la Rochelle, ii. 90
  foretell Jeanne's death, ii. 122
  Jeanne's testimony concerning, ii. 242, 295, 296, 403-406
  embraced by Jeanne, i. xxxiii; ii. 283, 404

Ste.-Catherine-de-Fierbois, i. 145; ii. 232

St.-Cecilia, i. 448

St.-Charlemagne, i. 182, 261; ii. 178

St.-Christina, i. 207

St.-Claire, Convent of Neufchâteau, i. 71

St.-Clare, i. 459
  order of, ii. 92

St.-Claude, i. 162

St.-Cyr, i. xxxvii

St.-Denys, i. xlv, 31, 57, 160, 189, 250, 335, 395, 417, 476; ii. 44,
  46-49, 63, 265
  head of, i. 326, 330; ii. 48, 61
  story of, ii. 46-49
  Jeanne at, ii. 46-53, 75
  English sack, ii. 83
  burial of Charles VII at, ii. 397

St.-Dizier, i. 26

St.-Dominic, i. xxxix
  order of, i. 189

St.-Dorothea, i. 207

St.-Etienne, i. 100; ii. 41
  Cardinal, ii. 37

St.-Euphemia, i. 207

St.-Euphrosyne, i. 198

St.-Euverte, i. 118, 120, 392
  intercedes for Orléans, i. 236, 314, 461

St.-Florentin, i. 407

St.-Florent-les-Saumur, i. 183, 353
  Abbey of, i. 184

St.-Fort, i. 459

St.-Francis of Assisi, i. xxxix, 213, 220; ii. 166, 348
  order of, i. 71-73

St.-Gabriel, ii. 253

St.-Geneviève, i. 208

St.-George, i. 250, 278; ii. 420
  shield of, i. 130
  story of, i. 159
  English cry of, i. 273

St.-Georges de Boscherville, ii. 208

St.-Gilles, Lord, i. 372

St.-Grégoire de Tours, ii. 21

St.-Gregory, Pope, i. 85
  of Nyssa, i. 206

St.-Hubert's Day, i. 371

St.-Jean-d'-Angers, ii. 139

St.-Jean-de-Braye, i. 258, 268

St.-Jean-de-la Ruelle, i. 136

St.-Jean-des-Bois, i. 198

St.-Jean-le-Blanc, i. 231, 261, 263, 268, 293, 297, 298

St.-Jerome, i. 205

St.-John the Baptist, high repute of, i. 5
  day of, i. 344, 464; ii. 123, 253, 356, 362

St.-John the Evangelist, i. 206, 414, 430; ii. 165, 310

St.-Julien, i. 157

St.-Ladre, i. 136, 143

St.-Laurent-des-Orgerils, i. 112, 114, 119
  English camp at, i. 131, 134, 244, 261, 276, 278, 288, 292, 303, 307, 313
  pillaged by citizens of Orléans, i. 234

St.-Laurence's Eve, ii. 60

St.-Lawrence, i. 157; ii. 48

St.-Lô, ii. 208, 219
  prior of, ii. 309

St.-Louis, i. 57, 159, 219, 261, 445; ii. 14, 48, 178
  crown of, i. 475

St.-Loup, i. xli, 113, 134, 264
  Abbaye aux Dames, i. 289
  attack on, i. 284-291, 319, 461
  Convent of the Ladies of, i. 287
  English occupy, i. 231, 268

St.-Luke, ii. 230

St.-Marc, i. 268

St.-Marcellin, i. 180

St.-Marcoul, i. 459

St.-Marcoul-de-Corberry, i. 459

St.-Marie-de-Vaucouleurs, i. 79

St.-Margaret, i. liv, 194, 263
  history and martyrdom of, i. 32-34
  honoured in France, i. 31
  language of, i. 200; ii. 254
  Church of, at Elincourt, ii. 139
  _see_ St. Catherine and St. Margaret

St.-Mark, ii. 230

St.-Martha, i. xxix

St.-Martin-de-Tours, i. 165

St.-Martin-le-Bouillant, ii. 345

St.-Martin's Day, i. lxix; ii. 181, 253

St.-Mary Magdalen, ii. 48

St.-Maurice, i. 404; ii. 420

St.-Mesmin, Aignan de, ii. 360

St.-Michael, i. lxxiv, 118, 141, 160, 194, 263, 333, 378, 437; ii. 316, 341
  patron saint of France, i. 29, 30; ii. 49
  appears to St. Catherine, i. 37, 193
  visits Jeanne, i. 29, 44, 56, 57, 58, 340; ii. 197, 243
  Feast of, i. 314
  personal appearance of, i. xxxiii; ii. 255, 278
  letters from, i. xliii; ii. 267, 272

St.-Nicholas, Chapel of, i. 88

St.-Nicholas-du-Port, i. 90, 97

St.-Nicolas-le-Painteur, ii. 246

St.-Ouen, ii. 208, 308

St.-Paul, i. 55, 213; ii. 216, 267

St.-Péravy, i. 373, 374

St.-Peter, i. 51, 55, 162, 206

St.-Phal, i. 407, 412, 418, 422

St.-Pierre de Chaumont, Priory of, i. 189

St.-Pierre-le-Moustier, attack on, ii. 84, 85, 93

St.-Pol, Bastard, i. 20

St.-Privé, i. 292, 302

St.-Quentin, ii. 154

St.-Remi, i. 4, 198, 445, 447
  history of, i. 49-53
  miracles of, i. 54, 55

St.-Riquier, ii. 196

St.-Sanxon, ii. 362

St.-Sauveur, i. 103

Ste.-Ségolène, ii. 366

St.-Sigismond, i. 256, 373, 377

St.-Sixtus, i. 51

St.-Thecla, i. 207

St.-Theresa, ii. 402

St.-Thiébault Spring, i. 9

St.-Thomas, i. lxviii

St.-Urbain, Abbey of, i. 98

St.-Urbain, Pope, i. 98

St.-Valery, ii. 198

St.-Vallier, Sire de, ii. 67

Saint Simon, ii. 410

Saints consulted, i. 337

Sakya Muni, i. xix

Salisbury, Earl of, i. 116, 151, 287; 149, 348
  invades France, i. 108
  reaches Janville, i. 122
  death of, i. 126, 127

Salm, Count of, _see_ Jean

Salon-en-Crau, i. xxxvi; ii. 407

Salvart, Jean, ii. 199, 201

Samoy, i. 113

Samson, i. 384

Samuel, i. 447, 448

Sanguin, Guillaume, ii. 58

Saonelle, The, i. 2

Sarmaize, Maid of, ii. 392, 393

Satan, ii. 296

Saul, i. 447, 454

Saulcy, i. 88

Saumoussay, ii. 393

Saumur, i. 103, 379; ii. 393

Sauve, Catherine, i. 210

Savignies, ii. 348

Savin Renaud, ii. 128-130

Savoy, Duke of, _see_ Amédée

Scales, Thomas, Lord of, i. 123, 135, 231, 245, 261
  summoned by Jeanne to surrender, i. 276
  at Meung, i. 362
  taken prisoner at Patay, i. 375, 397, 399

Scarron, i. lv; ii. 412

Scotland, i. 154

Secret, the King's, i. 172

Seguent, Jean, ii. 207

Seguin, Brother, examines Jeanne, i. 189, 200; ii. 387

Séez, Bishop of, i. 447; ii. 53, 183

Seille, The, ii. 353

Sein, Island of, i. 204

Seine, The, i. 100, 388; ii. 4, 78

Selles-en-Berry, i. 450; ii. 9
  Jeanne at, i. 338-346; ii. 78

Selles-sur-Cher, i. 101

Semendria, i. 249

Semoy, i. 268

Seneca, i. lxvii

Senlis, ii. 11, 20, 34, 44, 53, 76, 83, 144
  Jeanne at, ii. 138, 165, 195, 356

Senlis, Bailie of, ii. 131
  horse of bishop of, ii. 45, 261

Sens, i. 403, 410, 413; ii. 78

Sepet, Marius, i. lxi

Septfonds, i. 88

Sept-Saulx, Castle of, i. 443

Sermaize, i. 15, 16
  siege of, i. 24

Séverac, Marshal de, ii. 38

Seville, i. 167

Shakespeare, quoted, i. 233

_Sibylla Francica_, i. xxii, 473

Sibyls, The, i. 165, 175, 204, 205, 322, 385, 414; ii. 27, 30

Sicily, Queen of, _see_ Yolande

Sidon, ii. 296

Siena, i. 249, 412

Sigismund, Emperor, i. 215; ii. 109, 112, 380

Sigy, ii. 208

Simon, Jeannotin, ii. 322
  Magus, i. 162

Siquemville, Jean de, ii. 371

Soissons, i. 460; ii. 7, 11, 142, 261, 356
  Charles III at, ii. 1-3

Solomon, King, i. 128, 212; ii. 187, 217

Somme, The, i. 394; ii. 197

Songs, by a Norman Clerk, i. 128

Sorel, M. Alexandre, i. vii

Spencer, Richard, i. 375

Speyer, Bishop of, ii. 363

Spiers, i. 473

Sprenger, ii. 222

Stafford, Humphrey, Earl of, ii. 202, 203

Standard, Jeanne's, i. 227, 343, 448; ii. 67
  at Les Tourelles, i. 308-310

States General, The, i. 149-151

Stenay, i. 81

Stuart, John, i. 137
  Lord William, i. 135, 137, 139

Suave, Catherine, i. 163

Suffolk, Earl of, i. 123, 245, 261; ii. 20, 348
  summoned by, Jeanne, i. 276
  in Jargeau, i. 349-354
  William Pole, Earl of, i. 115, 135

Suger, Abbot, ii. 47

Sully, i. xxxi, xlix; ii. 120, 185
  Jeanne at, ii. 106-118

Suzannah, ii. 80


TACHOV, ii. 110

_Taille_, i. 150

Talbot, Sir John, i. xvi, 115, 135, 231, 245, 345, 368; ii. 20, 348
  approaches Les Tourelles, i. 132
  conducts the siege, i. 260
  summoned by Jeanne to surrender, i. 262, 276
  sallies from St.-Laurent, i. 288
  plans of, i. 301-305, 313
  advance of, i. 367
  taken prisoner at Patay, i. 374, 375, 377, 397, 399
  William, ii. 225

Talmont, Abbot of, i. 189

Taquel, ii. 389

Tarascon, beast of, i. xxix

Tarentaise, Pierre of, ii. 265

Terence, ii. 306, 331

Termes, Sire de, i. 369, 376

Théaulde de Valpergue, i. 129

Theodosius, i. 32, 198

Thérouanne, Bishop of, defends Paris, ii. 60, 202, 299, 309, 340

Thévanon of Bourges, ii. 369

Thévenin, Jeannette, ii. 386

Thibault, Gobert, i. xxix, 194, 196, 258

Thibonville, Germain de, i. 166

Thiembronne, Guichard de, ii. 143

Thoisy, Jean de, i. 398

Thoneletil, Jean de, ii. 366

Thons, i. 163

Thouars, Baron de, i. 137, 140

Tichemont, ii. 365

Tiffanges, ii. 370

Tiphaine, Jean, ii. 240, 401

Tillay, Jamet du, i. 140, 144, 169, 347
  reports of Jeanne, i. 238

Tillemonts, i. lvii

Titivillus, i. lxxiv

Tobias, ii. 243

Tonnerre, i. 412

Torcenay, Jean de, ii. 210

Toul, i. xxiii, 30, 68, 73 89
  Bishop of, i. 18

Toulouse, i. 111, 189, 190, 240, 337
  seneschal of, ii. 96

Touque, The, i. 388

Touraine, i. 101, 108, 149, 150, 217; ii. 211

Tournai, citizens of, invited to Reims, i. 397
  their loyalty to France, i. 398, 399; ii. 188, 192

Touroulde, Marguerite de la, i. xxviii; ii. 79-82, 388

Tours, i. 151, 161, 240, 254, 475; ii. 104, 139, 369
  Jeanne at, i. 216-229, 319
  resists pillage, i. 217
  trades of, i. 221
  Charles VII at, i. 331
  Council at, ii. 396
  prays for deliverance of Jeanne, ii. 161
  loyal to Charles VII, ii. 183, 184

_Tractatus_, _de Hæresi_ ii. 215

Tree of Vauru, ii. 12-14

Trent, Council of, i. xxxvii

Trèves, ii. 363
  Lord of, i. l, 153, 211, 331, 333, 427; ii. 183

Trie, Pierre de, i. 70

Tringant, i. ix

Trinitarians, The, i. 275

Trinte-du-mont-St.-Catherine, ii. 208

Troissy, Jean de, ii. 124, 131, 132

Troyes, i. xxvi, xxxii, 275, 389, 394, 405, 410; ii. 2, 49, 59, 71, 86,
  116, 228, 383
  English disposition of, i. 407
  manufactures of, i. 407
  Bishop of, i. 408
  Charles VII at, i. 411, 421-434
  Jeanne's letter to, i. 419
  Council of, write to Reims, i. 420, 424, 429
  treat with Charles, i. 421-431
  opinion of Jeanne, i. 422
  St.-Pierre, i. 423
  fortifications of, i. 424
  Comporté Gates, i. 427
  the Madeleine, i. 427
  surrender of, i. 466
  Treaty of, i. xxxix, xlviii, 60, 82, 379, 408, 409, 423; ii. 158,
  176, 209

Truce, with Burgundy, ii. 51-53

Tudert, Jean, ii. 76

Turelure, Pierre, i. 189, 190
  examines Jeanne, i. 193

Turks, threaten Constantinople, i. 249

Turlaut, Collot, i. 24

Turlupines, The, ii. 64


UDALRIC OF MANDERSCHEIT, ii. 363

Ulrich, Count of Wurtemberg, ii. 362

Unicorn and the Maid, i. 208

Ursins, Jean Jouvenel des, ii. 385

Uruffe, i. 60


VAILLY, i. 460; ii. 1

Valenciennes, ii. 193

Valens, the Emperor, i. 197

Valentia, ii. 37

Valentine of Milan, i. 358

Valois, peasants of, ii. 10

Valpergue, i. 129

Van Eyck, Brothers, i. 402

Varambon, Lord of, i. 465

Varro, i. 205, 322

Varville, i. 451

Vaucouleurs, situation of, i. 1, 2
  castellany of, i. 19, 22, 24, 26
  besieged by de Vergy, i. 69, 77
  Jeanne at, i. xxiii, xxxviii, 57, 61, 67, 95, 161, 211, 212, 351, 451,
  473; ii. 231, 353, 357, 386

Vaudémont, Count of, _see_ Réné d'Anjou

Vaudrey, Philibert de, i. 412

Vauru, Lord Denis de, ii. 12-14

Vauseul, Jeanne le, i. 76

Vaux, Pasquier de, ii. 208

Vavasour warns King John, i. xxxvi, 63, 163; ii. 266

Vegetius, i. 302

Velleda, i. 204

Velly, Jean de, ii. 103

Venderès, Nicolas de, ii. 208, 210, 218, 329, 331

Vendôme, Count of, i. xii, 347, 355, 446; ii. 8, 34, 53, 63, 76, 83,
  142, 194
  presents Jeanne to Charles, i. 169
  at Patay, i. 372, 379

Venette, ii. 145, 150, 164

Venice, i. 130

Venus, i. 166

Verdun, Bishop of, i. 18, 24

Verduzan, Lord of, i. 137, 139

Vergy, Antoine de, i. 69, 70, 77
  lays siege to Vaucouleurs, i. 87

Vergy Jean de, Seneschal of Burgundy, i. 26, 69

Vermandois, i. 442; ii. 159
  bailie of, ii. 353

Verneuil, i. xlvii, 25, 63, 106, 123, 229, 145, 146; ii. 197
  Crotoy Tower, i. 183, 185

Versailles, ii. 407
  bishop of, ii. 415

Vesle, The, i. 443

Vian de Bar, i. 465

Vienne, The, i. 158
  University of, ii. 366

Vierzon, i. 155

Vignolles, Etienne de, _see_ La Hire

Vigny, Alfred de, i. lxix

Villars, i. 121
  Lord of, i. 296, 304
    reports of Jeanne, i. 238

Villedart, Thévenin, i. 272; ii. 369

Villette, Lord of, ii. 366

Villon, François, i. lxv

Vincennes, Castle of, ii. 57
  Fort of, i. 386

Virgil's _Æneid_, ii. 306, 331

Virgin Mary, The, position of, i. 206
  image of, at Tours, i. 219
  intercedes for Orléans, i. 327

Virginity, special virtues of, i. 204-211, 322; ii. 367

Virgo, i. 166

Viriville, Vallet de, i. vii, lxi

Visconti, The, ii. 41

Vittel, Jeannette de, i. 5, 12
  Thiesselin, de, i. 5, 20

Vivien, i. 175

Vitré, i. 338

Voices, hallucinatory, i. xxxiii; ii. 22, 401-406
  first heard by Jeanne, i. 29
  reveal her mission, i. 44, 47, 56
    at Vaucouleurs, i. 62, 78
    at Neufchâteau, i. 74
    at Chinon and Tours, i. 224
    at Orléans, i. 295
    at Les Tourelles, i. 308
    at St.-Denys, ii. 76
  Jeanne questioned concerning, i. 193, 197; ii. 229-235, 238, 242, 253,
  258, 261, 268, 272, 277, 283
  instruct Jeanne as to the English, i. 260
  visit Jeanne daily, i. 340
  counsel Jeanne before Patay, i. 370
  foretell French victory, i. 457
  speak of Paris, ii. 65
  forbid escape, ii. 181
  instruct Jeanne that she must see Henry VI, ii. 160
  forbid her revelations, ii. 223, 234, 237, 255, 269
  Jeanne in prison sustained by, ii. 235, 258, 289, 291, 293
  bid Jeanne protest against Erard, ii. 311, 325
  bid her recant, ii. 314
  _see also_ under Ste.-Catherine, St.-Michael, _and_ Jeanne d'Arc

Voltaire, i. lvii

Vouthon, Henri de, i. 3, 15, 16, 47; ii. 393
  Isabella de, i. 59
    at Puy, i. 252
  Jean de, i. 25; ii. 392
  Mengette de, i. 7, 24, 48, 76
  Nicolas de, i. 252
  Perrinet de, i. 16


WALDAIRES, Jean, i. 70

Wallon, H., i. lxi

Wals, Jean de, i. 81

Walter, Richard, i. 124

War of the Apple Baskets, i. 92; ii. 8
  a punishment for sin, i. 235
  a trade, i. 395

Warwick, Earl of, i. li, 129; ii. 177, 198, 202, 213, 240, 319, 324,
  328, 348

Wearmouth, i. 178

Well-dressings, i. 156

Wells, Mr. H.G., i. lxix

William, Duke of Normandy, i. 123

Winchester, i. 177
  Bishop of, i. 107
  Cardinal of, i. 441; ii. 20, 110, 213, 309, 319, 340

Windecke, Eberhard de, i. xxii

Windsor, i. 275, 359

Wine, valued, i. 279

Witchcraft, i. 190
  suspected at Domremy, i. 13, 15
  Jeanne suspected of, i. 69, 274; _see_ Jeanne
  and wounds, i. 306
  trials for, ii. 207, 222

Witches, burnt, i. 163; ii. 187

Wurtemberg, Count Ulrich of, ii. 362


YOLANDE of Aragon, Queen of Sicily, Duchess of Anjou, i. 26, 91, 92,
  147, 152, 211, 217, 240, 389, 458; ii. 8, 183, 216, 351
  sends victuals to Orléans, i. 92, 240
  at Blois, i. 243

Yonne, The, i. 100, 407; ii. 78

Ysabeau, Queen, i. 22, 60, 80, 172, 395, 423; ii. 41, 58, 178


ZABILLET, Romée, i. 3

Zacharias, ii. 230

Zizka, ii. 115








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