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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 7, 2006 [EBook #19488]

Language: English

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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