XII. THE MAID AT ORLEANS…

XII. THE MAID AT ORLEANS

On the evening of Thursday, the 28th of April, Jeanne was able to discern from the heights of Olivet the belfries of the town, the towers of Saint-Paul and Saint-Pierre-Empont, whence the watchmen announced her approach. The army descended the slopes towards the Loire and stopped at the Bouchet wharf, while the carts and the cattle continued their way along the bank as far as l'Ile-aux-Bourdons, opposite Checy, two and a half miles further up the river.[922] There the unloading was to take place. At a signal from the watchmen my Lord the Bastard, accompanied by Thibaut de Termes and certain other captains, left the town by the Burgundian Gate, took a boat at Saint-Jean-de-Braye, and came down to hold counsel with the Lords de Rais and de Lore, who commanded the convoy.[923]

[Footnote 922: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 4, 5. Boucher de Molandon, Bulletin de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais, vol. iv, p. 427; vol. ix, p. 73. The same author, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 41 et seq. Mistere du siege, lines 11,480 et seq. Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 289.]

[Footnote 923: Journal du siege, p. 75. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 283.]

Meanwhile the Maid had only just perceived that she was on the Sologne bank,[924] and that she had been deceived concerning the line of march. Sorrow and wrath possessed her. She had been misled, that was certain. But had it been done on purpose? Had they really intended to deceive her? It is said that she had expressed a wish to go through La Beauce and not through La Sologne, and that she had received the answer: "Jeanne, be reassured; we will take you through La Beauce."[925] Is it possible? Why should the barons have thus trifled with the holy damsel, whom the King had confided to their care, and who already inspired most of them with respect? Certain of them, it is true, believing her not to be in earnest, would willingly have turned her to ridicule; but if one of them had played her the trick of representing La Beauce as La Sologne, how was it there was no one to undeceive her? How could Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain, her steward, and the honest squire d'Aulon, have become the accomplices of so clumsy a jest? It is all very mysterious, and, when one comes to think of it, what is most mysterious is that Jeanne should have expressly asked to go to Orleans through La Beauce. Since she was so ignorant of the way that when crossing the Blois bridge she never suspected that she was going into La Sologne, there is not much likelihood of her realising so exactly the lie of Orleans as to choose between entering it from the south or the west. A damsel knowing naught beyond the name of the gate through which she is to enter the city, and who is yet persuaded by malicious captains to take one road rather than another, sounds too much like a Mother Goose's tale.

[Footnote 924: "Et cuidoit bien qu'ils deussent passer par devers les bastides du siege devers la Beausse." Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 281.]

[Footnote 925: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 285 (the Chronicle here amplifies the evidence of Dunois, vol. iii, p. 67).]

Jeanne knew no more of Orleans than she did of Babylon. We may therefore conjecture that there was a misunderstanding. She had spoken neither of Sologne nor of Beauce. Her Voices had told her that the English would not budge. They had not shown her a picture of the town, they had not given her either maps or plans: soldiers did not use them. Doubtless Jeanne had said to the captains and priests what she was soon to repeat to the Bastard: "I must go to Talbot and the English." And the priests and soldiers had replied quite frankly: "Jeanne, we are going to Talbot and the English."[926] They had thought they were speaking the truth, since Talbot, who was conducting the siege, would be before them, so to speak, from whatever side they approached the town. But apparently they had not thoroughly understood what the Maid said, and the Maid had not understood what they had replied. For now she was angry and sad at finding herself separated from the town by the sands and waters of the river. What was there to vex her in this? Those who were with her then did not discover; and perhaps her reasons were misunderstood because they were spiritual and mystic. She certainly could not have judged that a military mistake had been made by the bringing of troops and victuals through La Sologne. As she did not know the roads, it was impossible for her to tell which was the best. She was ignorant alike of the enemy's position, of the outworks of the besiegers, and of the defences of the besieged. She had just learnt on what bank of the river the town was situated, yet she must have thought she had good ground for complaint; for she approached the Lord Bastard and inquired sharply: "Are you the Bastard of Orleans?" "I am he. I rejoice at your coming." "Was it through your counsel that I came hither on this side of the river, and that I did not go straight to where Talbot and the English are?" "It was I and those wiser than I who gave this counsel, believing we acted for the best and for the greatest safety." But Jeanne retorted: "In God's name! Messire's counsel is better and wiser than yours. You thought to deceive me, but you deceive yourselves. For I bring you surer aid than ever came yet to knight or city; it is the aid of the King of Heaven and comes from God himself, who not merely for my sake but at the prayer of Saint Louis and Saint Charlemagne has had pity upon the town of Orleans, and will not suffer the enemy to hold at once both the body and the city of the Duke."[927]

[Footnote 926: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 5, 6.]

[Footnote 927: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 5, 6. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 284. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 49.]

One may conclude that what really vexed her was that she had not been taken straight to Talbot and the English. She had just heard that Talbot with his camp was on the right bank. And when she spoke of Talbot and the English she meant only those English who were with Talbot. For, as she came down into the Loire valley, near the ford of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, she must have seen the bastion of Les Augustins and Les Tourelles at the end of the bridge; and she must have known that there were also English on the left bank. But still, it is not clear why she should have desired to appear first before Talbot and his English, and why she was now so annoyed at being separated from him by the Loire. Did she think that the entrenched camp, Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils, commanded by Scales, Suffolk, and Talbot would be attacked immediately? Such an idea would never of itself have occurred to her, since she did not know the place, and no soldier would ever have put such madness into her head as an attack on an entrenched camp by a convoy of cattle and wagons. Neither, as has so often been asserted, can she have thought of forcing a passage between the bastion Saint-Pouair and the outskirts of the wood, since of the bastions and of the forest she knew as little as of the rest. If such had been her intention she would have announced it plainly to the Bastard; for she knew how to make her meaning clear, and even educated persons considered that she spoke well. Then what was her idea? It is not impossible to discover it if one remembers what must have been in the saint's mind at that time, or if one merely recollects by what words and deeds Jeanne had announced and prepared her mission. She had said to the doctors of Poitiers: "The siege of Orleans shall be raised and the town delivered from the enemy after I have summoned it to surrender in God's name."[928] In the name of the King of Heaven she had called upon Scales, Suffolk, and Talbot to raise the siege. She had written that she was ready to make peace, and had bidden them return to England. Now she asked Talbot, Suffolk, and Scales for an answer. Since the English had not sent back her herald she herself came to their leaders as the herald of Messire. She came to require them to make peace, and if they would not make peace she was ready to fight. It was not until they had refused that she could be certain of conquering, not for any human reason, but because her Council had so promised her. Perhaps even she may have hoped that by appearing to the English captains, her standard in hand, accompanied by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and Saint Michael the Archangel, she would persuade them to leave France. She may have believed that Talbot, falling on his knees, would obey not her, but Him who sent her; that thus she would accomplish that for which she came, without shedding one drop of that French blood which was so dear to her; neither would the English whom she pitied lose their bodies or their souls. In any case God must be obeyed and charity shown: it was only at such a price that victory could be gained. A victory so spiritual, a conquest so angelic, she had come to win; but now it was snatched from her by the false wisdom of the leaders of her party. They were hindering her from fulfilling her mission,--perhaps from giving the promised sign,--and they were involving her with themselves in enterprises less certain of success and less noble in spirit. Hence her sorrow and her wrath.

[Footnote 928: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 273.]

Even after the discomfiture of her arrival, in order that she might please God, she did not consider herself freed from the obligation of offering peace to her enemies.[929] And since she could not go straight to Talbot's camp she wanted to appear before the fort of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc.[930]

[Footnote 929: Opinion of Martin Berruyer, in Lanery d'Arc, Memoires et consultations, ch. vii.]

[Footnote 930: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 78, 214.]

There was no one left behind the palisades. But if she had gone and found any of the enemy there she would first have offered them peace. Of this her subsequent behaviour within the city walls is positive proof. Her mission was not to contribute to the defence of Orleans plans of campaign or stratagems of war; her share in the work of deliverance was higher and nobler. To suffering men, weak, unhappy, and selfish, she brought the invincible forces of love and faith, the virtue of sacrifice.

My Lord the Bastard who regarded Jeanne's mission as purely religious, and who would have been greatly astonished had any one told him that he ought to consult this peasant on military matters,[931] appeared as if he did not understand the reproaches she addressed to him. And he went away to see that operations were carried out according to the plans he had made.

[Footnote 931: Trial, vol. iii, p. 16.]

Everything had been carefully concerted and prepared, but a slight obstacle occurred. The barges that the people of Orleans were to send for the victuals were not yet unmoored.[932] They were sailing vessels, and, as the wind was blowing from the east, they could not set out. No one knew how long they would be delayed, and time was precious. Jeanne said confidently to those who were growing anxious: "Wait a little, for in God's name everything shall enter the town."[933]

[Footnote 932: Ibid., p. 78. Journal du siege, pp. 74, 75. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 290.]

[Footnote 933: Trial, vol. iii, p. 105. Chronique du la Pucelle, p. 284.]

She was right. The wind changed: the sails were unfurled, and the barges were borne up the river by a favourable wind, so strong that one boat was able to tow two or three others.[934] Without hindrance they passed the Saint-Loup bastion. My Lord the Bastard sailed in one of these boats with Nicole de Giresme, Grand Prior of France of the order of Rhodes. And the flotilla came to the port of Checy, where it remained at anchor all night.[935] It was decided that the relieving army should that night encamp at the port of Bouchet and guard the convoy by watching down the river, while one detachment was stationed near the Islands of Checy to watch up the river in the direction of Jargeau. In company with certain captains, and with a body of men-at-arms and archers, the Maid followed the bank as far as l'Ile-aux-Bourdons.[936]

[Footnote 934: Boucher de Molandon, La delivrance d'Orleans et l'institution de la fete du 8 mai, Chronique anonyme du XV'e siecle, Orleans, 1883, in 8vo, pp. 28, 29.]

[Footnote 935: Trial, vol. iii, p. 6. Journal du siege, p. 75.]

[Footnote 936: Chronique de la fete, in the Trial, vol. v, p. 290. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 23, note 5. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 52-56.]

The lords who had brought the convoy decided that they would set out immediately after the unloading. Having accomplished the first part of its task, the army would return to Blois to fetch the remaining victuals and ammunition, for everything had not been brought at once. Hearing that the soldiers, with whom she had come, were going away, Jeanne wished to go with them; and, after having so urgently asked to be taken to Orleans, now that she was before the gates of the city, her one idea was to go back.[937] Thus is the soul of the mystic blown hither and thither by the breath of the Spirit. Now as always Jeanne was guided by impulses purely spiritual. She would not be parted from these soldiers because she believed they had made their peace with God, and she feared that she might not find others as contrite. For her, victory or defeat depended absolutely on whether the combatants were in a state of grace or of sin. To lead them to confession was her only art of war; no other science did she know, whether for fighting behind ramparts or in the open field.[938]

[Footnote 937: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 285. This document very untrustworthy as a whole is in certain passages a better authority than Le journal du siege.]

[Footnote 938: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 104, 105 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

"As for entering the town," she said, "it would hurt me to leave my men, and I ought not to do it. They have all confessed, and in their company I should not fear the uttermost power of the English."[939]

[Footnote 939: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 284, 285.]

In reality, as one may well imagine, whether or no they had confessed, whether they were near or far from her, these mercenaries committed all the sins compatible with the simplicity of their minds. But the innocent damsel did not see them. Sensitive to things invisible, her eyes were closed to things material.

She was confirmed in her resolution to return to Blois by the captains who had brought her and who wanted to take her back, alleging the King's command. They wished to keep her because she brought good luck. My Lord the Bastard, however, saw serious obstacles and even dangers in the way of her return.[940] In the state in which he had left the people of Orleans, if their Maid were not straightway brought before them they would rise in fury and despair, with cries, threats, rioting, and violence; everything was to be feared, even massacres. He entreated the captains, in the King's interest, to agree to Jeanne's entering Orleans; and without great difficulty, he induced them to return to Blois without her. But Jeanne did not give in so quickly. He besought her to decide to cross the Loire. She refused and with such insistence that he must have realised how difficult it is to influence a saint. It was necessary for one of the lords who had brought her, the Sire de Rais or the Sire de Lore, to join his entreaties to those of the Bastard, and to say to her: "Assuredly you must go, for we promise to return to you shortly."[941]

[Footnote 940: "Ex tunc dictus deponens habuit bonam spem de ea et plus quam ante," Trial, vol. iii, p. 6.]

[Footnote 941: Timens ne recedere vellent et quod opus remaneret imperfectum, Trial, vol. iii, p. 78. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 286. Chronique de la fete, in the Trial, vol. v, p. 285. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 61, 62.]

At last, when she heard that Brother Pasquerel would go with them to Blois, accompanied by the priests and bearing her standard, believing that her men would have a good spiritual director, she consented to stay.[942] She crossed the Loire with her brothers, her little company, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, the Captain La Hire, and reached Checy, which was then quite a town, with two churches, an infirmary, and a lepers' hospital.[943] She was received by a rich burgess, one Guy de Cailly, in whose manor of Reuilly she passed the night.[944]

[Footnote 942: Trial, vol. iii, p. 105. Mistere du siege, line 11,616.]

[Footnote 943: Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 62, 99, note xiv, and in Bulletin de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais, vol. iv, p. 429; vol. ix, p. 73.]

[Footnote 944: Journal du siege, p. 75. Ch. du Lys, Traite sommaire tant du nom et des armes que de la naissance et parente de la Pucelle d'Orleans et de ses freres, Paris, 1628, in 4to, p. 50. Abbe Dubois, Histoire du siege, p. 344. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 86. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 65, proofs and illustrations, note xv.]

On the morning of the 29th the barges, which had been anchored at Checy, crossed the Loire, and those who were with the convoy loaded them with victuals, ammunition, and cattle.[945] The river was high.[946] The barges were able to drift down the navigable channel near the left bank. The birches and osiers of l'Ile-aux-Boeufs hid them from the English in the Saint-Loup bastion. Besides, at that moment, the enemy was occupied elsewhere. The town garrison was skirmishing with them in order to distract their attention. The fighting was somewhat hard. There were slain and wounded; prisoners were taken on both sides; and the English lost a banner.[947] Beneath the deserted[948] watch of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc the barges passed unprotected. Between l'Ile-aux-Boeufs and the Islet of Les Martinets they turned starboard, to go down again, following the right bank, under l'Ile-aux-Toiles, as far as La Tour Neuve, the base of which was washed by the Loire, at the south-eastern corner of the town. Then they took shelter in the moat near the Burgundian Gate.[949]

[Footnote 945: Journal du siege, pp. 75, 76.]

[Footnote 946: Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 68.]

[Footnote 947: Chronique de la Fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 290.]

[Footnote 948: Journal du siege, pp. 74, 75. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 69. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 284, 285.]

[Footnote 949: Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 51 et seq.]

The whole day the manor of Reuilly was besieged by a procession of citizens, who could not forbear coming at the risk of their lives to see the promised Maid. It was six o'clock in the evening before she left Checy. The captains wanted her to enter the town at nightfall for fear of disorders and lest the crush around her should be too great.[950] Doubtless they passed along the broad valleys leading from Semoy towards the south, on the borders of the parishes of Saint-Marc and Saint-Jean-de-Braye. On the way she said to those who rode with her: "Fear nothing. No harm shall happen to you."[951] And indeed the only danger was for pedestrians. Horsemen ran little risk of being pursued by the English, who were short of horses in their bastions.

[Footnote 950: Journal du siege, p. 75.]

[Footnote 951: Ibid., p. 76.]

On that Friday, the 29th of April, in the darkness, she entered Orleans, by the Burgundian Gate. She was in full armour and rode a white horse.[952] A white horse was the steed of heralds and archangels.[953] The Bastard had placed her on his right. Before her was borne her standard, on which figured two angels, each holding a flower de luce, and her pennon, painted with the picture of the Annunciation. Then came the Marshal de Boussac, Guy de Cailly, Pierre and Jean d'Arc, Jean de Metz, and Bertrand de Poulengy, the Sire d'Aulon, and those lords, captains, men-of-war, and citizens who had come to meet her at Checy.[954] Bearing torches and rejoicing as heartily as if they had seen God himself descending among them, the townfolk of Orleans pressed around her.[955] They had suffered great privations, they had feared that help would never come; but now they were heartened and felt as if the siege had been raised already by the divine virtue, which they had been told resided in this Maid. They looked at her with love and veneration; elbowing and pushing each other, men, women, and children rushed forward to touch her and her white horse, as folk touch the relics of saints. In the crush a torch set her pennon on fire. The Maid, beholding it, spurred on her horse and galloped to the flame, which she extinguished with a skill apparently miraculous; for everything in her was marvellous.[956] Men-at-arms and citizens, enraptured, accompanied her in crowds to the Church of Sainte-Croix, whither she went first to give thanks, then to the house of Jacques Boucher, where she was to lodge.[957]

[Footnote 952: Journal du siege, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 953: And even now trumpeters ride white horses (Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, by Lebrun de Charmettes, 1817, in 8vo, vol. ii, p. 21).]

[Footnote 954: Trial, vol. iii, p. 7. Journal du siege, p. 76. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 287. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 72. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 28, 30.]

[Footnote 955: "Comme se ilz veissent Dieu descendre entre eulx," says Le journal du siege, p. 76. Luillier (Trial, vol. iii, p. 24) calls her "the angel of the Lord" (l'ange de Dieu).]

[Footnote 956: Journal du siege, pp. 76, 77.]

[Footnote 957: Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, p. 28.]

Jacques or Jacquet Boucher, as he was called, had been the Duke of Orleans' treasurer for several years. He was a very rich man and had married the daughter of one of the most influential burgesses of the city.[958] Having stayed in the town throughout the siege, he contributed to the defence by gifts of wheat, oats, and wine, and by advancing funds for the purchase of ammunition and weapons. As the care of the ramparts fell to the burgesses, it was Jacques' duty to keep in repair and ready for defence the Renard Gate, where he dwelt, which was the most exposed to the English attack. His mansion, one of the finest and largest in the town, once inhabited by Regnart or Renard, the family which had given its name to the gate, was in the Rue des Talmeliers, quite near the fortifications. The captains held their councils of war there, when they did not meet at the house of Chancellor Guillaume Cousinot in the Rue de la Rose.[959] Jacques Boucher's dwelling was doubtless well furnished with silver plate and storied tapestry. It would appear that in one of the rooms there was a picture representing three women and bearing this inscription: Justice, Peace, Union.[960]

[Footnote 958: Trial, vol. i, p. 101; vol. iii, pp. 34, 68, 124 et seq., 211. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 285. Boucher de Molandon, Jacques Boucher, sieur de Guilleville, tresorier general du district d'Orleans.... in Memoires de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais, vol. xxii, 1889, p. 373. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 101, note xvi; proofs and illustrations, p. 108.]

[Footnote 959: Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 73. Chronique de la Pucelle, ed. Vallet de Viriville, p. 20. [Note on G. Cousinot the Chancellor.] Cf. Nouvelle biographie generale. Vallet de Viriville, Essais critiques sur les historiens originaux du regne de Charles VII, in Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1857, fourth series, vol. iii, pp. 11-14, 105-111.]

[Footnote 960: Trial, vol. i, p. 101; vol. iii, pp. 68, 124 et seq.; vol. iv, pp. 153, 219, 227. Journal du siege, pp. 77, 78. Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 69, 107, note xvi.]

Into this house the Maid was received with her two brothers, the two comrades who had brought her to the King, and their valets. She had her armour taken off.[961] Jacques Boucher's wife and daughter passed the night with her. Jeanne shared the child's bed. She was nine years old and was called Charlotte after Duke Charles, who was her father's lord.[962] It was the custom in those days for the host to share his bed with his man guest and the hostess with her woman guest. This was the rule of courtesy; kings observed it as well as burgesses. Children were taught how to behave towards a sleeping companion, to keep to their own part of the bed, not to fidget, and to sleep with their mouths shut.[963]

[Footnote 961: G. Lefevre-Pontalis (Chronique d'Antonio Morosini, vol. iii, p. 101, note) discovers in La chronique de la Pucelle (xliv, p. 285) a wrong use of an incident cited by Dunois in his evidence, which must be allowed to have happened on the 7th of May, as Dunois cited it (Trial, vol. iii, p. 9).]

[Footnote 962: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 34, 68.]

[Footnote 963: Franklin, La vie privee d'autrefois, vols. ii, xix, passim. H. Havard, Dictionnaire de l'ameublement, under the word lit.]

Thus the Duke's treasurer took the Maid into his house and entertained her at the town's expense. Jeanne's horses were stabled by a burgess named Jean Pillas.

As for the D'Arc brothers, they did not stay with their sister, but lodged in the house of Thevenin Villedart. The town paid all their expenses; for example it furnished them with the shoes and gaiters they needed and gave them a few gold crowns. Three of the Maid's comrades, who were very destitute and came to see her at Orleans, received food.[964]

[Footnote 964: Accounts of the fortress in Trial, vol. v, pp. 259, 260.]

On the next day, the 30th of April, the town bands of Orleans were early afoot. From morn till eve everything in the town was topsy-turvy; the rebellion, which had been repressed so long, now broke forth. As early as February the citizens had begun to mistrust and hate the knights;[965] now at last they shook off their yoke and broke it.[966] Henceforth they would recognise no King's lieutenant, no governor, no lords, no generals; there was but one power and one defence: the Maid.[967] The Maid was the people's captain. This damsel, this shepherdess, this nun did the knights the greatest injury they ever experienced: she reduced them to nothing. On the morning of the 30th they must have been convinced that the popular revolution had taken place. The town bands were waiting for the Maid to put herself at their head, and with her to march immediately against the Godons. The captains endeavoured to make them understand that they must wait for the army from Blois and the company of Marshal de Boussac, who that night had set out to meet the army. The citizens in arms would listen to nothing, and with loud cries clamoured for the Maid. She did not appear. My Lord the Bastard, who was honey-tongued, had advised her to keep away.[968] This was the last advantage the leaders gained over her. And now as before, when she appeared to give way to them, she was merely doing as she liked. As for the citizens, with the Maid or without her, they were determined to fight. The Bastard could not hinder them. They sallied forth,[969] accompanied by the Gascons of Captain La Hire and the men of Messire Florent d'Illiers. They bravely attacked the bastion Saint-Pouair, which the English called Paris, and which was about eight hundred yards from the walls. They overcame the outposts and approached so close to the bastion that they were already clamouring for faggots and straw to be brought from the town to set fire to the palisades. But at the cry "Saint George!" the English gathered themselves together, and after a sore and sanguinary fight repulsed the attack of the citizens and free-lances.[970]

[Footnote 965: Journal du siege, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 966: Ibid., pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 967: See the evidence of S. Charles (vol. iii, pp. 116, 117) and certain details in La chronique de la Pucelle.]

[Footnote 968: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 7, 211; vol. iv, pp. 221, 222. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 250, 251, 287. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 74, 75.]

[Footnote 969: Journal du siege, pp. 78, 79.]

[Footnote 970: Ibid., p. 78. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 291, 292. Cf. Letter written from Germany, in Trial, vol. v, p. 349.]

The Maid had known nothing of it. Sent from God, on her white horse, a messenger armed yet peaceful, she held it neither just nor pious to fight the English before they had refused her offers of peace. On that day as before her one wish was to go in true saintly wise straight to Talbot. She asked for tidings of her letter and learnt that the English captains had paid no heed to it, and had detained her herald, Guyenne.[971] This is what had happened:

[Footnote 971: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 27, 108. Journal du siege, p. 79.]

That letter, which the Bastard deemed couched in vulgar phrase, produced a marvellous impression on the English. It filled them with fear and rage. They kept the herald who had brought it; and, although use and custom insisted on the person of such officers being respected, alleging that a sorceress's messenger must be a heretic, they put him in chains, and after some sort of a trial condemned him to be burnt as the accomplice of the seductress.[972]

[Footnote 972: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 284. Trial, vol. iii, pp. 26, 27.]

They even put up the stake to which he was to be bound. And yet, before executing the sentence, they judged it well to consult the University of Paris, as in like manner the Bishop of Beauvais was to consult it eighteen months later.[973] Their evil disposition arose from fear. These unfortunates, who were treated as devils, were afraid of devils. They suspected the subtle French of being necromancers and sorcerers. They said that by repeating magic lines the Armagnacs had compassed the death of the great King, Henry V. Fearing lest their enemies should make use of sorcery and enchantment against them, in order to protect themselves from all evil influences, they wore bands of parchment inscribed with the formulae of conjuration and called periapts.[974] The most efficacious of these amulets was the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John. At this time the stars were unfavourable to them, and astrologers were reading their approaching ruin in the sky. Their late King, Henry V, when he was studying at Oxford, had learnt there the rules of divination by the stars. For his own special use he kept in his coffers two astrolabes, one of silver and one of gold. When his queen, Catherine of France, was about to be confined, he himself cast the horoscope of the expected child. And further, as there was a prophecy in England[975] which said that Windsor would lose what Monmouth had gained, he determined that the Queen should not be confined at Windsor. But destiny cannot be thwarted. The royal child was born at Windsor. His father was in France when he heard the tidings. He held them to be of ill omen, and summoned Jean Halbourd of Troyes, minister general of the Trinitarians or Mathurins, "excellent in astrology," who, having drawn up the scheme of nativity, could only confirm the King in his doleful presentiments.[976] And now the time had come. Windsor reigned; all would be lost. Merlin had predicted that they would be driven out of France and by a Virgin utterly undone. When the Maid appeared they grew pale with fright, and fear fell upon captains and soldiers.[977] Those whom no man could make afraid, trembled before this girl whom they held to be a witch. They could not be expected to regard her as a saint sent of God. The best they could think of her was that she was a very learned sorceress.[978] To those she came to help she appeared a daughter of God, to those she came to destroy she appeared a horrid monster in woman's form. In this double aspect lay all her strength: angelic for the French, devilish for the English, to one and the other she appeared invincible and supernatural.

[Footnote 973: Martial de Paris, called d'Auvergne, Vigiles de Charles VII, ed. Coustelier, 1724, vol. i, p. 98.]

[Footnote 974: La Curne, under the word Periapt. Shakespeare, Henry VI, part i, act v, sc. iii.]

[Footnote 975: Shakespeare, Henry VI, part i, act iii, sc. i.]

[Footnote 976: Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. i, p. 306. Carlier, Histoire du Valois, vol. ii, p. 442.]

[Footnote 977: Jarry, Le compte de l'armee anglaise, p. 61.]

[Footnote 978: Shakespeare, Henry VI, part i, act i, sc. ii.]

In the evening of the 30th she sent her herald, Ambleville, to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils to ask for Guyenne, who had borne the letter from Blois and had not returned. Ambleville was also instructed to tell Sir John Talbot, the Earl of Suffolk, and the Lord Scales that in God's name the Maid required them to depart from France and go to England; otherwise they would suffer hurt. The English sent back Ambleville with an evil message.

"The English," he said to the Maid, "are keeping my comrade to burn him."

She made answer: "In God's name they will do him no harm." And she commanded Ambleville to return.[979]

[Footnote 979: Trial, vol. iii, p. 27. Journal du siege, p. 79. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 285, 286.]

She was indignant, and, no doubt, greatly disappointed. In truth, she had never anticipated that Talbot and the leaders of the siege would give such a welcome to a letter inspired by Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret and Saint Michael; but so broad was her charity that she was still willing to offer peace to the English. In her innocence she may have believed that her proclamations in God's name were misunderstood after all. Besides, whatever happened, she was determined to go through with her duty to the end. At night she sallied forth from the Bridge Gate and went as far as the outwork of La Belle-Croix. It was not unusual for the two sides to address each other. La Belle-Croix was within ear-shot of Les Tourelles. The Maid mounted the rampart and cried to the English: "Surrender in God's name. I will grant you your lives only."

But the garrison and even the Captain, William Glasdale himself, hurled back at her coarse insults and horrible threats.

"Milk-maid! If ever we get you, you shall be burned alive."[980]

[Footnote 980: Journal du siege, p. 79. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 290.]

She answered that it was a lie. But they were in earnest and sincere. They firmly believed that this damsel was arming legions of devils against them.

On Sunday, the 1st of May, my Lord the Bastard went to meet the army from Blois.[981] He knew the country; and, being both energetic and cautious, he was desirous to superintend the entrance of this convoy as he had done that of the other. He set out with a small escort. He did not dare to take with him the Saint herself; but, in order, so to speak, to put himself under her protection and tactfully to flatter the piety and affections of the folk of Orleans, he took a member of her suite, her steward, Sire Jean d'Aulon.[982] Thus he grasped the first opportunity of showing his good will to the Maid, feeling that henceforth nothing could be done except with her or under her patronage.

[Footnote 981: Trial, vol. iii, p. 7. Journal du siege, p. 79.]

[Footnote 982: Trial, vol. iii, p. 211.]

The fervour of the citizens was not abated. That very day, in their passionate desire to see the Saint, they crowded round Jacques Boucher's house as turbulently as the pilgrims from Puy pressed into the sanctuary of La Vierge Noire. There was a danger of the doors being broken in. The cries of the townsfolk reached her. Then she appeared: good, wise, equal to her mission, one born for the salvation of the people. In the absence of captains and men-at-arms, this wild multitude only awaited a sign from her to throw itself in tumult on the bastions and perish there. Notwithstanding the visions of war that haunted her, that sign she did not give. Child as she was, and as ignorant of war as of life, there was that within her which turned away disaster. She led this crowd of men, not to the English bastions, but to the holy places of the city. Down the streets she rode, accompanied by many knights and squires; men and women pressed to see her and could not gaze upon her enough. They marvelled at the manner of her riding and of her behaviour, in every point like a man-at-arms; and they would have hailed her as a veritable Saint George had they not suspected Saint George of turning Englishman.[983]

[Footnote 983: Journal du siege, p. 80. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, pp. 92, 95.]

That Sunday, for the second time, she went forth to offer peace to the enemies of the kingdom. She passed out by the Renard Gate and went along the Blois Road, through the suburbs that had been burnt down, towards the English bastion. Surrounded by a double moat, it was planted on a slope at the crossroads called La Croix Boissee or Buissee, because the townsfolk of Orleans had erected a cross there, which every Palm Sunday they dressed with a branch of box blessed by the priest. Doubtless she intended to reach this bastion, and perhaps to go on to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils situated between La Croix Boissee and the Loire, where, as she had said, were Talbot and the English. For she had not yet given up hope of gaining a hearing from the leaders of the siege. But at the foot of the hill, at a place called La Croix-Morin, she met some Godons who were keeping watch. And there, in tones grave, pious, and noble, she summoned them to retreat before the hosts of the Lord. "Surrender, and your lives shall be spared. In God's name go back to England. If ye will not I will make you suffer for it."[984]

[Footnote 984: 1 May. Journal du siege, p. 80.]

These men-at-arms answered her with insults as those of Les Tourelles had done. One of them, the Bastard of Granville, cried out to her: "Would you have us surrender to a woman?"

The French, who were with her, they dubbed pimps and infidels, to shame them for being in the company of a bad woman and a witch.[985] But whether because they thought her magic rendered her invulnerable, or because they held it dishonourable to strike a messenger, now, as on other occasions, they forbore to fire on her.

[Footnote 985: Trial, vol. iii, p. 68 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]

That Sunday, Jacquet le Prestre, the town varlet, offered the Maid wine.[986] The magistrates and citizens could not have more highly honoured her whom they regarded as their captain. Thus they treated barons, kings and queens when they were entertained in the city. In those days wine was highly valued on account of its beneficent power. Jeanne, when she emphasised a wish, would say: "If I were never to drink wine between now and Easter!..."[987] But in reality she never drank wine except mixed with water, and she ate little.[988]

[Footnote 986: Extracts from fortress accounts, in the Trial, vol. v, p. 259.]

[Footnote 987: Trial, vol. i, p. 64.]

[Footnote 988: Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 9, 15, 18, 22, 60; vol. v, p. 120. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 285. Morosini, p. 101. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 337.]

Throughout this time of waiting the Maid never rested for a moment. On Monday, May 2nd, she mounted her horse and rode out into the country to view the English bastions. The people followed her in crowds; they had no fear and were glad to be near her. And when she had seen all that she wanted, she returned to the city, to the cathedral church, where she heard vespers.[989]

[Footnote 989: Journal du siege, p. 80. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 95.]

On the morrow, the 3rd of May, the day of the Invention of the Holy Cross, which was the Cathedral Festival, she followed in the procession, with the magistrates and the townsfolk. It was then that Maitre Jean de Macon, the precentor of the cathedral,[990] greeted her with these words: "My daughter, are you come to raise the siege?"

[Footnote 990: Charles Cuissard, Notes chronologiques sur Jean de Macon, in Memoires de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais, vol. xi, 1897, pp. 529, 545.]

She replied: "Yea, in God's name."[991]

[Footnote 991: Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 291. Lottin, Recherches, vol. i, p. 30.]

The people of Orleans all believed that the English round the city were as innumerable as the stars in the sky; the notary, Guillaume Girault, expected nothing short of a miracle.[992] Jean Luillier, woollen draper[993] by trade, thought it impossible for the citizens to hold out longer against an enemy so enormously their superior.[994] Messire Jean de Macon was likewise alarmed at the power and the numbers of the Godons.

[Footnote 992: Note by Guill. Girault, notary in the Trial, vol. iv, p. 282. Journal du siege, p. 135.]

[Footnote 993: Trial, vol. v, pp. 112, 113.]

[Footnote 994: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 24. Cf. Ibid., pp. 7, 8 (the evidence of Dunois amounts to much the same).]

"My daughter," he said to the Maid, "their force is great and they are strongly intrenched. It will be a difficult matter to turn them out."[995]

[Footnote 995: Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 291.]

If notary Guillaume Girault, if draper Jean Luillier, if Messire Jean de Macon, instead of fostering these gloomy ideas, had counted the numbers of the besieged and the besieging, they would have found that the former were more numerous than the latter; and that the army of Scales, of Suffolk, of Talbot appeared mean and feeble when compared with the great besieging armies of the reign of King Henry V. Had they looked a little more closely they would have perceived that the bastions, with the formidable names of London and of Paris, were powerless to prevent either corn, cattle, pigs, or men-at-arms being brought into the city; and that these gigantic dolls were being mocked at by the dealers, who, with their beasts, passed by them daily. In short, they would have realised that the people of Orleans were for the moment better off than the English. But they had examined nothing for themselves. They were content to abide by public opinion which is seldom either just or correct. The Maid did not share Messire Jean de Macon's illusions. She knew no more of the English than he did; yet because she was a saint, she replied tranquilly: "With God all things are possible."[996] And Maitre Jean de Macon thought it well that such should be her opinion.

[Footnote 996: Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 291.]

What aggravated the trouble, the danger, and the panic of the situation, was that the citizens believed they were betrayed. They recollected the Count of Clermont at the Battle of the Herrings, and they suspected the King's men of deserting them once again. After having done so much and spent so much they saw themselves given up to the English. This idea made them mad.[997] There was a rumour that the Marshal de Boussac, who had started with my Lord the Bastard to meet the second convoy of supplies, and who was to return on Tuesday the 3rd, would not come back. It was said that the Chancellor of France wanted to disband the army. It was absurd. On the contrary, great efforts for the deliverance of the city were being made by the King's Council and that of the Queen of Sicily. But the people's brains had been turned by their long suffering and their terrible danger. A more reasonable fear was lest any mishap should occur on the road from Blois like that which had overtaken the force at Rouvray. The Maid's comrades were infected with the anxieties of the townsfolk; one of them betrayed his fears to her, but she was not affected by them. With the radiant tranquillity of the illuminated, she said:[998] "The Marshal will come. I am confident that no harm will happen to him."[999]

[Footnote 997: Journal du siege, pp. 51, 52.]

[Footnote 998: Beaucroix, in his evidence, says it was Jean d'Aulon (Trial, vol. iii, p. 79); but, according to his own testimony, d'Aulon was then following the Bastard (Ibid., vol. iii, p. 210).]

[Footnote 999: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 79. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 286. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 85.]

On that day there entered into the city the little garrisons of Gien, of Chateau-Regnard, and of Montargis.[1000] But the Blois army did not come. On the morrow, at daybreak, it was descried in the plain of La Beauce. And, indeed, the Sire de Rais and his company, escorted by the Marshal de Boussac and my Lord the Bastard, were skirting the Forest of Orleans.[1001] At these tidings the citizens must needs exclaim that the Maid had been right in wishing to march straight against Talbot since the captains now followed the very road she had indicated. But in reality it was not just as they thought. Only one part of the Blois army had risked forcing its way between the western bastions; the convoy, with its escort, like the first convoy, was coming through La Sologne and was to enter the town by water. Those arrangements for the entrance of supplies, which, in the first instance, had proved successful, were naturally now repeated.[1002]

[Footnote 1000: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 287.]

[Footnote 1001: Ibid., p. 287. Journal du siege, p. 81. Abbe Dubois, Histoire du siege, dissertation ix. Lottin, Recherches, vol. i, p. 205. Loiseleur, Comptes des depenses, ch. vii.]

[Footnote 1002: On the 4th of May, as on the 29th of April, the corn was brought down the Loire. Indeed there exists a bill which makes mention of "sailors who brought the corn which came from Blois on the 4th day of May," "nottoniers qui amenerent les bles qui furent amenes de Blois le iiij'e jour de may" (Boucher de Molandon, Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 58, 59).]

Captain La Hire and certain other commanders, who had remained in the city with five hundred fighting men, went out to meet the Sire de Rais, the Marshal de Boussac and the Bastard. The Maid mounted her horse and went with them. They passed through the English lines; and, a little further on, having met the army, they returned to the town together. The priests, and among them Brother Pasquerel bearing the banner, were the first to pass beneath the Paris bastion, singing psalms.[1003]

[Footnote 1003: The 4th of May, Trial, vol. iii, pp. 105, 211. Journal du siege, p. 81. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 287.]

Jeanne dined at Jacques Boucher's house with her steward, Jean d'Aulon. When the table was cleared, the Bastard, who had come to the treasurer's house, talked with her for a moment. He was gracious and polite, but spoke with restraint.

"I have heard on good authority," he remarked, "that Fastolf is soon to join the English who are conducting the siege. He brings them supplies and reinforcements and is already at Janville."

At these tidings Jeanne appeared very glad and said, laughing: "Bastard, Bastard, in God's name, I command thee to let me know as soon as thou shalt hear of Fastolf's arrival. For should he come without my knowledge, I warn thee thou shalt lose thy head."[1004]

[Footnote 1004: Trial, vol. iii, p. 212 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

Far from betraying any annoyance at so rude a jest, he replied that she need have no fear, he would let her know.[1005]

[Footnote 1005: Ibid., p. 212.]

The approach of Sir John Fastolf had already been announced on the 26th of April. It was expressly in order to avoid him that the army had come through La Sologne. It is possible that on the 4th of May the tidings of his coming had no surer foundation. But the Bastard knew something else. The corn of the second convoy, like that of the first, was coming down the river. It had been resolved, in a council of war, that in the afternoon the captains should attack the Saint-Loup bastion, and divert the English as had been done on the 29th of April.[1006] The attack had already begun. But of this the Bastard breathed not a word to the Maid. He held her to be the one source of strength in the town. But he believed that in war her part was purely spiritual.[1007]

[Footnote 1006: Ibid., p. 212. Journal du siege, p. 78.]

[Footnote 1007: I have followed the account of Jean Chartier, vol. i, p. 73 (amplified in La chronique de la Pucelle, p. 288), which is more plausible than that of Le journal du siege.]

After he had withdrawn, Jeanne, worn out by her morning's expedition, lay down on her bed with her hostess for a short sleep. Sire Jean d'Aulon, who was very weary, stretched himself on a couch in the same room, thinking to take the rest he so greatly needed. But scarce had he fallen asleep when the Maid leapt from her bed and roused him with a great noise. He asked her what she wanted.

"In God's name," she answered in great agitation, "my Council have told me to go against the English; but I know not whether I am to go against their bastions or against Fastolf, who is bringing them supplies."[1008]

[Footnote 1008: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 212, 213 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

In her dreams she had been present at her Council, that is to say, she had beheld her saints. She had seen Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. There had happened to her what always happens. The saints had told her no more than she herself knew. They had revealed to her nothing of what she needed to know. They had not informed her how, at that very moment, the French were attacking the Saint-Loup bastion and suffering great hurt. And the Blessed Ones had departed leaving her in error and in ignorance of what was going on, and in uncertainty as to what she was to do. The good Sire d'Aulon was not the one to relieve her from her embarrassment. He, too, was excluded from the Councils of War. Now he answered her nothing, and set to arming himself as quickly as possible. He had already begun when they heard a great noise and cries coming up from the street. From the passers-by, they gleaned that there was fighting near Saint-Loup and that the enemy was inflicting great hurt on the French. Without staying to inquire further, Jean d'Aulon went straightway to his squire to have his armour put on. Almost at the same time Jeanne went down and asked: "Where are my armourers? The blood of our folk is flowing."[1009]

[Footnote 1009: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 106.]

In the street she found Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain, with other priests, and Mugot, her page, to whom she cried: "Ha! cruel boy, you did not tell me that the blood of France was being shed!... In God's name, our people are hard put to it."[1010]

[Footnote 1010: Trial, vol. iii, p. 68 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]

She bade him bring her horse and leave the wife and daughter of her host to finish arming her. On his return the page found her fully accoutred. She sent him to fetch her standard from her room. He gave it her through the window. She took it and spurred on her horse into the high street, towards the Burgundian Gate, at such a pace that sparks flashed from the pavement.

"Hasten after her!" cried the treasurer's wife.[1011]

[Footnote 1011: Ibid., p. 69.]

Sire d'Aulon had not seen her start. He imagined, why, it is impossible to say, that she had gone out on foot, and, having met a page on horseback in the street, had made him dismount and give her his horse.[1012] The Renard Gate and the Burgundian Gate were on opposite sides of the town. Jeanne, who for the last three days had been going up and down the streets of Orleans, took the most direct way. Jean d'Aulon and the page, who were hastily pursuing her, did not come up with her until she had reached the gate. There they met a wounded man being brought into the town. The Maid asked his bearers who the man was. He was a Frenchman, they replied. Then she said: "I have never seen the blood of a Frenchman flow without feeling my heart stand still."[1013]

[Footnote 1012: Ibid., p. 212.]

[Footnote 1013: Ibid., pp. 212, 213 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

The Maid and Sire d'Aulon, with a few fighting men of their company, pressed on through the fields to Saint-Loup. On the way they saw certain of their party. The good squire, unaccustomed to great battles, never remembered having seen so many fighting men at once.[1014]

[Footnote 1014: Trial, vol. iii, p. 213.]

For an hour the Sire de Rais' Bretons and the men from Le Mans had been skirmishing before the bastion. As the custom was those who had arrived last were keeping watch.[1015] But if these combatants, who had reached the town only that very morning, had attacked without taking time to breathe, they must have been hard pressed. They were doing what had been done on the 29th of April, and for the same reason:[1016] namely, occupying the English while the barges corn-laden were coming down the river to the moat. On the top of their high hill, in their strong fortress, the English had easily held out albeit they were but few; and the French King's men can hardly have been able to make head against them, since the Maid and Sire d'Aulon found them scattered through the fields. She gathered them together and led them back to the attack. They were her friends: they had journeyed together: they had sung psalms and hymns together: together they had heard mass in the fields. They knew that she brought good luck: they followed her. As she marched at their head her first idea was a religious one. The bastion was built upon the church and convent of the Ladies of Saint-Loup. With the sound of a trumpet she had it proclaimed that nothing should be taken from the church.[1017] She remembered how Salisbury had come to a bad end for having pillaged the Church of Notre Dame de Clery; and she desired to keep her men from an evil death.[1018] This was the first time she had seen fighting; and no sooner had she entered into the battle than she became the leader because she was the best. She did better than others, not because she knew more; she knew less. But her heart was nobler. When every man thought of himself, she alone thought of others: when every man took heed to defend himself, she defended herself not at all, having previously offered up her life. And thus this child,--who feared suffering and death like every human being, who knew by her Voices and her presentiments that she would be wounded,--went straight on and stood beneath showers of arrows and cannon-balls on the edge of the moat, her standard in hand, rallying her men.[1019] Through her what had been merely a diversion became a serious attack. The bastion was stormed.

[Footnote 1015: Gruel, Chronique d'Arthur de Richemont, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1016: Journal du siege, p. 75.]

[Footnote 1017: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 124, 126. Abbe Dubois, Histoire du siege, dissertation vi. Morosini, vol. iv, supplement xiii. Journal du siege, pp. 83, 84. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1018: Robert Blondel, De reductione Normanniae, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 347. Journal du siege, p. 13. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 286 et seq.]

[Footnote 1019: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 109, 127. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 295. Clerk of the Chambre des Comptes de Brabant, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 426. Eberhard Windecke, p. 172.]

When he heard that the fort of Saint-Loup was being attacked, Sir John Talbot sallied forth from the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. In order to reach the threatened bastion he had some distance to go down his lines and along the border of the forest. He set out, and on his way was reinforced by the garrisons of the western bastions. The town watchmen observed his movements and sounded the alarm. Marshal Boussac passing through the Parisis Gate, went out to meet Talbot on the north, towards Fleury. The English captain was preparing to break through the French force when he saw a thick cloud of smoke rising over the fort Saint-Loup. He understood that the French had captured and set fire to it; and sadly he returned to the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils.[1020]

[Footnote 1020: Perceval de Cagny says: "Soon after [the arrival of the Maid on the edge of the entrenchments] those in the fort wished to surrender to her: she would not take them for ransom and said she would capture them in any event, and redoubled the attack. And straightway the fort was taken and almost all put to death." This is hard to believe. The English would sooner have surrendered to the humblest menial in the Armagnac host than to the Maid: and it is not likely that she would have refused to hold them as prisoners for ransom. Besides, Perceval de Cagny has not the remotest idea of what happened on the 4th of May. For example, he believes that the Maid opened the attack. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 144 et seq. Journal du siege, p. 82. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 289. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 294.]

The attack had lasted three hours. After the burning of the bastion the English climbed into the church belfry. The French had difficulty in dislodging them; but they ran no danger thereby. Of prisoners, they took two score, and the rest they slew. The Maid was very sorrowful when she saw so many of the enemy dead. She pitied these poor folk who had died unconfessed.[1021] Certain Godons, wearing the ecclesiastical habit and ornaments, came to meet her. She perceived that they were soldiers disguised in stoles and hoods taken from the sacristy of the Abbaye aux Dames. But she pretended to take them for what they represented themselves to be. She received them and had them conducted to her house without allowing any harm to come to them. With a charitable jest she said: "One should never question priests."[1022]

[Footnote 1021: Trial, vol. iii, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1022: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 289.]

Before leaving the fort she confessed to Brother Pasquerel, her chaplain. And she charged him to make the following announcement to all the men-at-arms: "Confess your sins and thank God for the victory. If you do not, the Maid will never help you more and will not remain in your company."[1023]

[Footnote 1023: Trial, vol. iii, p. 106.]

The Saint-Loup bastion, attacked by fifteen hundred French, had been defended by only three hundred English. That they made no vigorous defence is indicated by the fact that only two or three Frenchmen were slain.[1024] It was not by any severe mental effort or profound calculation that the French King's men had gained this advantage. It had cost them little, and yet it was immense. It meant the cutting off of the besiegers' communications with Jargeau: it meant the opening of the upper Loire: it was the first step towards the raising of the siege. Better still, it afforded positive proof that these devils who had inspired such fear were miserable creatures, who might be entrapped like mice and smoked out like wasps in their nest. Such unhoped-for good fortune was due to the Maid. She had done everything, for without her nothing would have been done. She it was, who, in ignorance wiser than the knowledge of captains and free-lances, had converted an idle skirmish into a serious attack and had won the victory by inspiring confidence.

[Footnote 1024: At the capture of the Saint-Loup bastion:

_Number of Number of French engaged. French slain._

Journal du Siege 1,500 without counting nobles. Letter of Charles VII 2 Morosini's correspondent 3,500 Eberhard Windecke 2

_Number of _Number of English engaged. English slain.

Brother Pasquerel 100 picked men 100 slain or taken Jean d'Aulon all killed or taken G. Girault 120 killed or taken Charles VII's letter all killed or taken Journal du siege 114 killed, 40 taken Relation de la fete du 8 Mai From 120 to 140 all killed or taken Perceval de Cagny 3,000 all killed or taken Chronique de la Pucelle 160 killed Monstrelet From 300 to 400 all killed or taken Eberhard Windecke 170 killed, 1,300 taken Les Vigiles de Charles VII 60 killed, 22 taken]

That very evening the magistrates sent workmen to Saint-Loup to demolish the captured fortifications.[1025]

[Footnote 1025: The accounts of the fortress in Journal du siege, p. 284.]

When at night she returned to her lodging, Jeanne told her chaplain that on the morrow, which was the day of the Ascension of Our Lord, she would keep the Festival by not wearing armour and by abstaining from fighting. She commanded that no one should think of quitting the town, of attacking or making an assault, until he had first confessed. She added that the men-at-arms must pay heed that no dissolute women followed in their train for fear lest God should cause them to be defeated on account of their sins.[1026]

[Footnote 1026: Trial, vol. iii, p. 107. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 289, 290.]

When need was the Maid herself saw that her orders concerning bad women and blasphemers were scrupulously obeyed. More than once she drove away the camp-followers. She rebuked men-at-arms who swore and blasphemed. One day, in the open street, a knight began to swear and take God's name in vain. Jeanne heard him. She seized him by the throat, exclaiming, "Ah, Sir! dare you take in vain the name of Our Lord and Master? In God's name you shall take back those words before I move from this place."

A citizen's wife, passing down the street at that moment, beheld this man, who seemed to her to be a great baron, humbly receiving the Saint's reproaches and testifying his repentance.[1027]

[Footnote 1027: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 34, 35 (evidence of the widow Hure).]

On the morrow, which was Ascension Day, the captains held a council-of-war in the house of Chancellor Cousinot in the Rue de la Rose.[1028] There were present, as well as the Chancellor, my Lord the Bastard, the Sire de Gaucourt, the Sire de Rais, the Sire de Graville, Captain La Hire, my Lord Ambroise de Lore and several others. It was decided that Les Tourelles, the chief stronghold of the besiegers, should be attacked on the morrow. Meanwhile, it would be necessary to hold in check the English of the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. On the previous day, when Talbot set out from Saint-Laurent, he had not been able to reach Saint-Loup in time because he had been obliged to make a long circuit, going round the town from west to east. But, although, on that previous day, the enemy had lost command of the Loire above the town, they still held the lower river. They could cross it between Saint-Laurent and Saint-Prive[1029] as rapidly as the French could cross it by the Ile-aux-Toiles; and thus the English might gather in force at Le Portereau. This, the French must prevent and, if possible, draw off the garrisons from Les Augustins and Les Tourelles to Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils. With this object it was decided that the people of Orleans with the folk from the communes, that is, from the villages, should make a feigned attack on the Saint-Laurent camp, with mantelets, faggots, and ladders. Meanwhile, the nobles would cross the Loire by l'Ile-aux-Toiles, would land at Le Portereau under the watch of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc which had been abandoned by the English, and attack the bastion of Les Augustins; and when that was taken, the fort of Les Tourelles.[1030] Thus there would be one assault made by the citizens, another by the nobles; one real, the other feigned; both useful, but only one glorious and worthy of knights. When the plan was thus drawn up, certain captains were of opinion that it would be well to send for the Maid and tell her what had been decided.[1031] And, indeed, on the previous day, she had done so well that there was no longer need to hold her aloof. Others deemed that it would be imprudent to tell her what was contemplated concerning Les Tourelles. For it was important that the undertaking should be kept secret, and it was feared that the holy damsel might speak of it to her friends among the common people. Finally, it was agreed that she should know those decisions which affected the train-bands of Orleans, since, indeed, she was their captain, but that such matters as could not be safely communicated to the citizens should be concealed from her.

[Footnote 1028: May 5th. Quicherat is mistaken when he says (Trial, vol. iv, p. 57, note) that this council was held at Jacques Boucher's. Cf. Journal du siege, p. 83. Jean Chartier, Chronique, p. 73. Boucher de Molandon in Memoires de la Societe archeologique de l'Orleanais, vol. xxii, p. 373.]

[Footnote 1029: By the little island without a name which is marked on the plan as Petite Ile Charlemagne. The English had fortified it. See plan.]

[Footnote 1030: Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 74.]

[Footnote 1031: Ibid., pp. 74, 75. These statements are very doubtful.]

Jeanne was in another room of the house with the Chancellor's wife. Messire Ambroise de Lore went to fetch her; and, when she had come, the Chancellor told her that the camp of Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils was to be attacked on the morrow. She divined that something was being kept back; for she possessed a certain acuteness. Besides, since they had hitherto concealed everything, it was natural she should suspect that something was still being kept from her. This mistrust annoyed her. Did they think her incapable of keeping a secret? She said bitterly: "Tell me what you have concluded and ordained. I could keep a much greater secret than that."[1032]

[Footnote 1032: Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 74, 75. Very doubtful.]

And refusing to sit down she walked to and fro in the room.

My Lord the Bastard deemed it well to avoid exasperating her by telling her the truth. He pacified her without incriminating anybody: "Jeanne, do not rage. It is impossible to tell you everything at once. What the Chancellor has said has been concluded and ordained. But if those on the other side [of the water, the English of La Sologne] should depart to come and succour the great bastion of Saint-Laurent and the English who are encamped near this part of the city, we have determined that some of us shall cross the river to do what we can against those on the other side [those of Les Augustins and Les Tourelles]. And it seems to us that such a decision is good and profitable."

The Maid replied that she was content, that such a decision seemed to her good, and that it should be carried out in the manner determined.[1033]

[Footnote 1033: Ibid., p. 75. Journal du siege, pp. 82, 83. Cf. the evidence of S. Charles (Trial, vol. iii, pp. 116, 117).]

It will be seen that by this proceeding the secrecy of the deliberations had been violated, and that the nobles had not been able to do what they had determined or at least not in the way they had determined. On that Ascension Day the Maid for the last time sent a message of peace to the English, which she dictated to Brother Pasquerel in the following terms: Ye men of England, who have no right in the realm of France, the King of Heaven enjoins and commands you by me, Jeanne the Maid, to leave your forts and return to your country. If ye will not I will make so great a noise as shall remain for ever in the memory of man: This I write to you for the third and last time, and I will write to you no more.

Signed thus: Jhesus--Maria. Jeanne the Maid.

And below: I should have sent to you with more ceremony. But you keep my heralds. You kept my herald Guyenne. If you will send him back to me, I will send you some of your men taken at the bastion Saint-Loup; they are not all dead.[1034]

[Footnote 1034: May 5th. Trial, vol. iii, p. 107 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

Jeanne went to La Belle Croix, took an arrow, and tied her letter to it with a string, then told an archer to shoot it to the English, crying: "Read! This is the message."

The English received the arrow, untied the letter, and having read it they cried: "This a message from the Armagnac strumpet."

When she heard them, tears came into Jeanne's eyes and she wept. But soon she beheld her saints, who spoke to her of Our Lord, and she was comforted. "I have had a message from my Lord," she said joyfully.[1035]

[Footnote 1035: Ibid., p. 108.]

My Lord the Bastard himself demanded the Maid's herald, threatening that if he were not sent back he would keep the heralds whom the English had sent to treat for the exchange of prisoners. It is asserted that he even threatened to put those prisoners to death. But Ambleville did not return.[1036]

[Footnote 1036: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 286. Journal du siege, p. 79, gives a different account of this episode.]

XIII. THE TAKING OF LES TOURELLES AND THE DELIVERANCE OF ORLEANS

On the morrow, Friday the 6th of May, the Maid rose at daybreak. She confessed to her chaplain and heard mass sung before the priests and fighting men of her company.[1037] The zealous townsfolk were already up and armed. Whether or no she had told them, the citizens, who were strongly determined to cross the Loire and attack Les Tourelles themselves, were pressing in crowds to the Burgundian Gate. They found it shut. The Sire de Gaucourt was guarding it with men-at-arms. The nobles had taken this precaution in case the citizens should discover their enterprise and wish to take part in it. The gate was closed and well defended. Bent on fighting and themselves recovering their precious jewel, Les Tourelles, the citizens had recourse to her before whom gates opened and walls fell; they sent for the Saint. She came, frank and terrible. She went straight to the old Sire de Gaucourt, and, refusing to listen to him, said: "You are a wicked man to try to prevent these people from going out. But whether you will or no, they will go and will do as well as they did the other day."[1038]

[Footnote 1037: Trial, vol. iii, p. 108 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

[Footnote 1038: Ibid., pp. 116, 117. Evidence of S. Charles. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 105.]

Excited by Jeanne's voice and encouraged by her presence, the citizens, crying slaughter, threw themselves on Gaucourt and his men-at-arms. When the old baron perceived that he could do nothing with them, and that it was impossible to bring them to his way of thinking, he himself joined them. He had the gates opened wide and cried out to the townsfolk: "Come, I will be your captain."

And with the Lord of Villars and Sire d'Aulon he went out at the head of the soldiers, who had been keeping the gate, and all the train-bands of the town. At the foot of La Tour-Neuve, at the eastern corner of the ramparts, there were boats at anchor. In them l'Ile-aux-Toiles was reached, and thence on a bridge formed by two boats they crossed over the narrow arm of the river which separates l'Ile-aux-Toiles from the Sologne bank.[1039] Those who arrived first entered the abandoned fort of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc, and, while waiting for the others, amused themselves by demolishing it.[1040] Then, when all had passed over, the townsfolk gayly marched against Les Augustins. The bastion was situated in front of Les Tourelles, on the ruins of the monastery; and the bastion would have to be taken before the fortifications at the end of the bridge could be attacked. But the enemy came out of their entrenchments and advanced within two bow-shots of the French, upon whom from their bows and cross-bows they let fly so thick a shower of arrows that the men of Orleans could not stand against them. They gave way and fled to the bridge of boats: then, afraid of being cast into the river, they crossed over to l'Ile-aux-Toiles.[1041] The fighting men of the Sire de Gaucourt were more accustomed to war. With the Lord of Villars, Sire d'Aulon, and a valiant Spaniard, Don Alonzo de Partada, they took their stand on the slope of Saint-Jean-le-Blanc and resisted the enemy. Although very few in number, they were still holding out when, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Captain La Hire and the Maid crossed the river with the free-lances. Seeing the French hard put to it, and the English in battle array, they mounted their horses, which they had brought over with them, and holding their lances in rest spurred on against the enemy. The townsfolk, taking heart, followed them and drove back the English. But at the foot of the bastion they were again repulsed.[1042] In great agitation the Maid galloped from the bastion to the bank, and from the bank to the bastion, calling for the knights; but the knights did not come. Their plans had been upset, their order of battle reversed, and they needed time to collect themselves. At last she saw floating over the island the banners of my Lord the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, and the Lord de Rais. The artillery came too, and Master Jean de Montesclere with his culverin and his gunners, bringing all the engines needed for the assault. Four thousand men assembled round Les Augustins. But much time had been lost; they were only just beginning, and the sun was going down.[1043]

[Footnote 1039: Journal du siege, pp. 83, 84. Abbe Dubois, Histoire du siege, p. 535. Jollois, Histoire du siege, p. 39.]

[Footnote 1040: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 290.]

[Footnote 1041: Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 76. Journal du siege, pp. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1042: "Et les rebouterent ils par maintes fois et tresbucherent de hault en bas." Journal du siege, p. 85.]

[Footnote 1043: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 214, 215 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

The Sire de Gaucourt's men were ranged behind, to cover the besiegers in case the English from the bridge end should come to the aid of their countrymen in Les Augustins. But a quarrel arose in de Gaucourt's company. Some, like Sire d'Aulon and Don Alonzo, judged it well to stay at their post. Others were ashamed to stand idle. Hence haughty words and bravado. Finally Don Alonzo and a man-at-arms, having challenged each other to see who would do the best, ran towards the bastion hand in hand. At one single volley Maitre Jean's culverin overthrew the palisade. Straightway the two champions forced their way in.[1044]

[Footnote 1044: Trial, vol. iii, p. 215 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence).]

"Enter boldly!" cried the Maid.[1045] And she planted her standard on the rampart. The Sire de Rais followed her closely.

[Footnote 1045: Ibid., p. 78 (evidence of Beaucroix). Journal du siege, p. 86.]

The numbers of the French were increasing. They made a strong attack on the bastion and soon took it by storm. Then one by one they had to assault the buildings of the monastery in which the Godons were entrenched. In the end all the English were slain or taken, except a few, who took refuge in Les Tourelles. In the huts the French found many of their own men imprisoned. After bringing them out, they set fire to the fort, and thus made known to the English their new disaster.[1046] It is said to have been the Maid who ordered the fire in order to put a stop to the pillage in which her men were mercilessly engaging.[1047]

[Footnote 1046: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 291. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 72. Journal du siege, pp. 84, 85. Of doubtful authenticity.]

[Footnote 1047: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 291.]

A great advantage had been won. But the French were slow to regain confidence. When, in the darkness by the light of the fire, they beheld for the first time close to them the bulwarks of Les Tourelles, the men-at-arms were afraid. Certain said: "It would take us more than a month to capture it."[1048]

[Footnote 1048: Perceval de Cagny, p. 146.]

The lords, captains, and men-at-arms went back to the town to pass a quiet night. The archers and most of the townsfolk stayed at Le Portereau. The Maid would have liked to stay too, so as to be sure of beginning again on the morrow.[1049] But, seeing that the captains were leaving their horses and their pages in the fields, she followed them to Orleans.[1050] Wounded in the foot by a caltrop,[1051] overcome with fatigue, she felt weak, and contrary to her custom she broke her fast, although the day was Friday.[1052] According to Brother Pasquerel, who in this matter is not very trustworthy, while she was finishing her supper in her lodging, there came to her a noble whose name is not mentioned and who addressed her thus: "The captains have met in council.[1053] They recognise how few we were in comparison with the English, and that it was by God's great favour that we won the victory. Now that the town is plentifully supplied we may well wait for help from the King. Wherefore, the council deems it inexpedient for the men-at-arms to make a sally to-morrow."

[Footnote 1049: Trial, vol. iii, p. 79 (evidence of Beaucroix).]

[Footnote 1050: Ibid., p. 70. Chronique de la fete, p. 33.]

[Footnote 1051: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 291.]

[Footnote 1052: Trial, vol. iii, p. 108.]

[Footnote 1053: The council is mentioned in La chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292; but this document is a mere echo of Brother Pasquerel's evidence.]

Jeanne replied: "You have been at your council; I have been at mine. Now believe me the counsel of Messire shall be followed and shall hold good, whereas your counsel shall come to nought." And turning to Brother Pasquerel who was with her, she said: "To-morrow rise even earlier than to-day, and do the best you can. Stay always at my side, for to-morrow I shall have much ado--more than I have ever had, and to-morrow blood shall flow from my body."[1054]

[Footnote 1054: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109. Brother Pasquerel, whom I follow here, reports Jeanne's saying in the following terms: Exibit crastina die sanguis a corpore meo supra mammam. I suspect him of having added to the prophecy. He was too fond of miracles and prophecies. On the 28th of April the Maid says that the wind will change, and it changed. Brother Pasquerel is not satisfied with so moderate a marvel. He relates that Jeanne raised the waters of the Loire. We know on other authority that the Loire was high. It cannot be denied that long before this Jeanne had foretold that she would be wounded. This fact, stated in a letter from Lyon, dated the 22nd of April, 1429, was recorded in a register of La Cour des Comptes of Brabant. But she did not specify the day. Dixit ... quod ipsa ante Aureliam in conflictu telo vulnerabitur (Trial, vol. iv, p. 426).]

It was not true that the English outnumbered the French. On the contrary they were far less numerous. There were scarce more than three thousand men round Orleans. The succour from the King having arrived, the captains could not have said that they were waiting for it. True it is that they were hesitating to proceed forthwith to attack Les Tourelles on the morrow; but that was because they feared lest the English under Talbot should enter the deserted town during the assault, since the townsfolk, refusing to march against Saint-Laurent, had all gone to Le Portereau. The Maid's Council troubled about none of these difficulties. No fears beset Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. To doubt is to fear; they never doubted. Whatever may be said to the contrary, of military tactics and strategy they knew nothing. They had not read the treatise of Vegetius, De re militari. Had they read it the town would have been lost. Jeanne's Vegetius was Saint Catherine.

During the night it was cried in the streets of the city that bread, wine, ammunition and all things necessary must be taken to those who had stayed behind at Le Portereau. There was a constant passing to and fro of boats across the river. Men, women and children were carrying supplies to the outposts.[1055]

[Footnote 1055: Journal du siege, p. 84.]

On the morrow, Saturday the 7th of May, Jeanne heard Brother Pasquerel say mass and piously received the holy sacrament.[1056] Jacques Boucher's house was beset with magistrates and notable citizens. After a night of fatigue and anxiety, they had just heard tidings which exasperated them. They had heard tell that the captains wanted to defer the storming of Les Tourelles. With loud cries they appealed to the Maid to help the townsfolk, sold, abandoned, and betrayed.[1057] The truth was that my Lord the Bastard and the captains, having observed during the night a great movement among the English on the upper Loire, were confirmed in their fears that Talbot would attack the walls near the Renard Gate while the French were occupied on the left bank. At sunrise they had perceived that during the night the English had demolished their outwork Saint Prive, south of l'Ile-Charlemagne.[1058] That also caused them to believe firmly that in the evening the English had concentrated in the Saint-Laurent camp and the bastion, London. The townsfolk had long been irritated by the delay of the King's men in raising the siege. And there is no doubt that the captains were not so eager to bring it to an end as they were.[1059] The captains lived by war, while the citizens died of it,--that made all the difference. The magistrates besought the Maid to complete without delay the deliverance she had already begun. They said to her: "We have taken counsel and we entreat you to accomplish the mission you have received from God and likewise from the King."

[Footnote 1056: Trial, vol. iii, p. 109. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 295.]

[Footnote 1057: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292. Trial, vol. iii, p. 215. Journal du siege, pp. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 1058: Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 293.]

[Footnote 1059: "Par l'accord et consentement des bourgeois d'Orleans mais contre l'opinion et volonte de tous les chefs et capitaines," Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292.]

"In God's name, I will," she said. And straightway she mounted her horse, and uttering a very ancient phrase, she cried: "Let who loves me follow me!"[1060]

[Footnote 1060: Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 293. Le Roux de Lincy, Proverbes, vol. ii, p. 395.]

As she was leaving the treasurer's house a shad was brought her. She said to her host, smiling, "In God's name! we will have it for supper. I will bring you back a Godon who shall eat his share." She added: "This evening we shall return by the bridge."[1061] For the last ninety-nine days it had been impossible. But happily her words proved true.

[Footnote 1061: Trial, vol. iii, p. 124 (evidence of the woman P. Milet). Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292.]

The townsfolk had been too quick to take alarm. Notwithstanding their fear of Talbot and the English of the Saint-Laurent camp, the nobles crossed the Loire in the early morning, and at Le Portereau rejoined their horses and pages who had passed the night there with the archers and train-bands. They were all there, the Bastard, the Sire de Gaucourt, and the lords of Rais, Graville, Guitry, Coarraze, Villars, Illiers, Chailly, the Admiral de Culant, the captains La Hire, and Poton.[1062] The Maid was with them. The magistrates sent them great store of engines of war: hurdles, all kinds of arrows, hammers, axes, lead, powder, culverins, cannon, and ladders.[1063] The attack began early. What rendered it difficult was not the number of English entrenched in the bulwark and lodged in the towers: there were barely more than five hundred of them;[1064] true, they were commanded by Lord Moleyns, and under him by Lord Poynings and Captain Glasdale, who in France was called Glassidas, a man of humble birth, but the first among the English for courage.[1065] The assailants, citizens, men-at-arms and archers were ten times more numerous. That so many combatants had been assembled was greatly to the credit of the French nation; but so great an army of men could not be employed at once. Knights were not much use against earthworks; and the townsfolk although very zealous, were not very tenacious.[1066] Finally, the Bastard, who was prudent and thoughtful, was afraid of Talbot.[1067] Indeed if Talbot had known and if he had wanted he might have taken the town while the French were trying to take Les Tourelles. War is always a series of accidents, but on that day no attempt whatever was made to carry out any concerted movement. This vast army was not an irresistible force, since no one, not even the Bastard, knew how to bring it into action. In those days the issue of a battle was in the hands of a very few combatants. On the previous day everything had been decided by two or three men.

[Footnote 1062: Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 1063: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292. Journal du siege, p. 284, passim.]

[Footnote 1064: Journal du siege, p. 87. Letter from Charles VII to the people of Narbonne (10 May, 1429), in Trial, vol. v, pp. 101 et seq. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 294. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 77. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 32, note 1.]

[Footnote 1065: Jarry, Le compte de l'armee anglaise, pp. 94, 95, 136, 206. Boucher de Molandon, L'armee anglaise, pp. 94 et seq.]

[Footnote 1066: They were employed chiefly in carrying munitions of war. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292.]

[Footnote 1067: Trial, vol. iii, p. 5.]

The French assembled before the entrenchments had the air of an immense crowd of idlers looking on while a few men-at-arms attempted an escalade. Notwithstanding the size of the army, for a long while the assault resolved itself into a series of single combats. Twenty times did the most zealous approach the rampart and twenty times they were forced to retreat.[1068] There were some wounded and some slain, but not many. The nobles, who had been making war all their lives, were cautious, while the soldiers of fortune were careful of their men. The townsfolk were novices in war.[1069] The Maid alone threw herself into it with heart and soul. She was continually saying: "Be of good cheer. Do not retreat. The fort will soon be yours."[1070]

[Footnote 1068: Journal du siege, p. 85. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 77. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 31 et seq.]

[Footnote 1069: Accounts of fortresses in Journal du siege, pp. 296, 300. Vergniaud-Romagnesi, Notice historique sur le fort des Tourelles, Paris, in 8vo, 1832, p. 50.]

[Footnote 1070: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293.]

At noon everyone went away to dinner. Then about one o'clock they set to work again.[1071] The Maid carried the first ladder. As she was putting it up against the rampart, she was struck on the shoulder over the right breast, by an arrow shot so straight that half a foot of the shaft pierced her flesh.[1072] She knew that she was to be wounded; she had foretold it to her King, adding that he must employ her all the same. She had announced it to the people of Orleans and spoken of it to her chaplain[1073] on the previous day; and certainly for the last five days she had been doing her best to make the prophecy come true.[1074] When the English saw that the arrow had pierced her flesh they were greatly encouraged: they believed that if blood were drawn from a witch all her power would vanish. It made the French very sad. They carried her apart. Brother Pasquerel and Mugot, the page, were with her. Being in pain, she was afraid and wept.[1075] As was usual when combatants were wounded in battle, a group of soldiers surrounded her; some wanted to charm her. It was a custom with men-at-arms to attempt to close wounds by muttering paternosters over them. Spells were cast by means of incantations and conjurations. Certain paternosters had the power of stopping hemorrhage. Papers covered with magic characters were also used. But it meant having recourse to the power of devils and committing mortal sin. Jeanne did not wish to be charmed.

[Footnote 1071: "Post prandium," says Brother Pasquerel (Trial, vol. iii, p. 108). Cf. the evidence of Dunois (Ibid., p. 8).]

[Footnote 1072: Trial, vol. i, p. 79. Eberhard Windecke, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1073: Trial, vol. iii, p. 109.]

[Footnote 1074: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 292. Clerk of La Chambre des Comptes of Brabant, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 426.]

[Footnote 1075: Trial, vol. iii, p. 109. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 292, 293.]

"I would rather die," she said, "than do anything I knew to be sin or contrary to God's will."

Again she said: "I know that I am to die. But I do not know when or how, neither do I know the hour. If my wound may be healed without sin then am I willing to be made whole."[1076]

[Footnote 1076: Trial, vol. iii, p. 109 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

Her armour was taken off. The wound was anointed with olive oil and fat, and, when it was dressed, she confessed to Brother Pasquerel, weeping and groaning. Soon she beheld coming to her her heavenly counsellors, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. They wore crowns and emitted a sweet fragrance. She was comforted.[1077] She resumed her armour and returned to the attack.[1078]

[Footnote 1077: Ibid., vol. i, p. 79; vol. iii, p. 110.]

[Footnote 1078: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293.]

The sun was going down; and since morning the French had been wearing themselves out in a vain attack upon the palisades of the bulwark. My Lord the Bastard, seeing his men tired and night coming on, and afraid doubtless of the English of the Saint-Laurent-des-Orgerils Camp, resolved to lead the army back to Orleans. He had the retreat sounded. The trumpet was already summoning the combatants to Le Portereau.[1079] The Maid came to him and asked him to wait a little.

[Footnote 1079: Trial, vol. iii, p. 216 (Jean d'Aulon's evidence), p. 25; (evidence of J. Luillier). Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293.]

"In God's name!" she said, "you will enter very soon. Be not afraid and the English shall have no more power over you."

According to some, she added: "Wherefore, rest a little; drink and eat."[1080]

[Footnote 1080: Trial, vol. iii, p. 25. Journal du siege, pp. 85, 86. Eberhard Windecke, p. 173.]

While they were refreshing themselves, she asked for her horse and mounted it. Then, leaving her standard with a man of her company, she went alone up the hill into the vineyards, which it had been impossible to till this April, but where the tiny spring leaves were beginning to open. There, in the calm of evening, among the vine props tied together in sheaves and the lines of low vines drinking in the early warmth of the earth, she began to pray and listened for her heavenly voices.[1081] Too often tumult and noise prevented her from hearing what her angel and her saints had to say to her. She could only understand them well in solitude or when the bells were tinkling in the distance, and evening sounds soft and rhythmic were ascending from field and meadow.[1082]

[Footnote 1081: Trial, vol. iii, p. 8 (evidence of Dunois). I emphatically reject the facts alleged by Charles du Lys, concerning Guy de Cailly, who is said to have accompanied Jeanne into the vineyard and seen the angels coming down to her. Guy de Cailly's patent of nobility is apocryphal. Charles du Lys, Traite sommaire, pp. 50, 52.]

[Footnote 1082: Trial, vol. i, pp. 52, 62, 153, 480; vol. ii, pp. 420, 424.]

During her absence Sire d'Aulon, who could not give up the idea of winning the day, devised one last expedient. He was the least of the nobles in the army; but in the battles of those days every man was a law unto himself. The Maid's standard was still waving in front of the bulwark. The man who bore it was dropping with fatigue and had passed it on to a soldier, surnamed the Basque, of the company of my Lord of Villars.[1083] It occurred to Sire d'Aulon, as he looked upon this standard blessed by priests and held to bring good luck, that if it were borne in front, the fighting men, who loved it dearly, would follow it and in order not to lose it would scale the bulwark. With this idea he went to the Basque and said: "If I were to enter there and go on foot up to the bulwark would you follow me?"

[Footnote 1083: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 216. The Count Couret, Un fragment inedit des anciens registres de la Prevote d'Orleans, Orleans, 1897, pp. 12, 20, 21, passim.]

The Basque promised that he would. Straightway Sire d'Aulon went down into the ditch and protecting himself with his shield, which sheltered him from the stones fired from the cannon, advanced towards the rampart.[1084]

[Footnote 1084: Trial, vol. iii, p. 216.]

After a quarter of an hour, the Maid, having offered a short prayer, returned to the men-at-arms and said to them: "The English are exhausted. Bring up the ladders."[1085]

[Footnote 1085: Journal du siege, p. 86.]

It was true. They had so little powder that their last volley fired in an insufficient charge carried no further than a stone thrown by hand.[1086] Nothing but fragments of weapons remained to them. She went towards the fort. But when she reached the ditch she suddenly beheld the standard so dear to her, a thousand times dearer than her sword, in the hands of a stranger. Thinking it was in danger, she hastened to rescue it and came up with the Basque just as he was going down into the ditch. There she seized her standard by the part known as its tail, that is the end of the flag, and pulled at it with all her might, crying:

"Ha! my standard, my standard!"

[Footnote 1086: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293.]

The Basque stood firm, not knowing who was pulling thus from above. And the Maid would not let it go. The nobles and captains saw the standard shake, took it for a sign and rallied. Meanwhile Sire d'Aulon had reached the rampart. He imagined that the Basque was following close behind. But, when he turned round he perceived that he had stopped on the other side of the ditch, and he cried out to him: "Eh! Basque, what did you promise me?"

At this cry the Basque pulled so hard that the Maid let go, and he bore the standard to the rampart.[1087]

[Footnote 1087: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 216, 217.]

Jeanne understood and was satisfied. To those near her she said: "Look and see when the flag of my standard touches the bulwark."

A knight replied: "Jeanne, the flag touches."

Then she cried: "All is yours. Enter."[1088]

[Footnote 1088: Journal du siege, p. 86. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 293.]

Straightway nobles and citizens, men-at-arms, archers, townsfolk threw themselves wildly into the ditch and climbed up the palisades so quickly and in such numbers that they looked like a flock of birds descending on a hedge.[1089] And the French, who had now entered within the fortifications, saw retreating before them, but with their faces turned proudly towards the enemy, the Lords Moleyns and Poynings, Sir Thomas Giffart, Baillie of Mantes, and Captain Glasdale, who were covering the flight of their men to Les Tourelles.[1090] In his hand Glasdale was holding the standard of Chandos, which, after having waved over eighty years of victories, was now retreating before the standard of a child.[1091] For the Maid was there, standing upon the rampart. And the English, panic-stricken, wondered what kind of a witch this could be whose powers did not depart with the flowing of her blood, and who with charms healed her deep wounds. Meanwhile she was looking at them kindly and sadly and crying out, her voice broken with sobs:

"Glassidas! Glassidas! surrender, surrender to the King of Heaven. Thou hast called me strumpet; but I have great pity on thy soul and on the souls of thy men."[1092]

[Footnote 1089: Chronique de la fete, in the Trial, vol. v, p. 294.]

[Footnote 1090: Journal du siege, p. 87.]

[Footnote 1091: Letter from Charles VII to the inhabitants of Narbonne, 10 May, 1429, in Trial, vol. v, p. 103. Monstrelet, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 365.]

[Footnote 1092: Trial, vol. iii, p. 110 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

At the same time, from the walls of the town and the bulwark of La Belle Croix cannon balls rained down upon Les Tourelles.[1093] Montargis and Rifflart cast forth stones. Maitre Guillaume Duisy's new cannon, from the Chesneau postern, hurled forth balls weighing one hundred and twenty pounds.[1094] Les Tourelles were attacked from the bridge side. Across the arch broken by the English a narrow footway was thrown, and Messire Nicole de Giresme, a knight in holy orders, was the first to pass over.[1095] Those who followed him set fire to the palisade which blocked the approach to the fort on that side. Thus the six hundred English, their strength and their weapons alike exhausted, found themselves assailed both in front and in the rear. In a crafty and terrible manner they were also attacked from beneath. The people of Orleans had loaded a great barge with pitch, tow, faggots, horse-bones, old shoes, resin, sulphur, ninety-eight pounds of olive oil and such other materials as might easily take fire and smoke. They had steered it under the wooden bridge, thrown by the enemy from Les Tourelles to the bulwark: they had anchored the barge there and set fire to its cargo. The fire from the barge had caught the bridge just when the English were retreating. Through smoke and flames the six hundred passed over the burning platform. At length it came to the turn of William Glasdale, Lord Poynings and Lord Moleyns, who with thirty or forty captains, were the last to leave the lost bulwark; but when they set foot on the bridge, its beams, reduced to charcoal, crumbled beneath them, and they all with the Chandos standard were engulfed in the Loire.[1096]

[Footnote 1093: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 293, 294. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 31.]

[Footnote 1094: Journal du siege, p. 17. Jollois, Histoire du siege, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1095: Journal du siege, p. 87. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 294. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 294.]

[Footnote 1096: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 9, 25, 80. Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 294. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 294. Journal du siege, pp. 87, 88. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 78. Perceval de Cagny, p. 145. Eberhard Windecke, p. 173. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 321. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 31 et seq.]

Jeanne moved to pity wept over the soul of Glassidas and over the souls of those drowned with him.[1097] The captains, who were with her, likewise grieved over the death of these valiant men, reflecting that they had done the French a great wrong by being drowned, for their ransom would have brought great riches.[1098]

[Footnote 1097: Trial, vol. iii, p. 110 (Pasquerel's evidence).]

[Footnote 1098: Journal du siege, p. 87.]

Having escaped from the French on the bulwark, across the burning planks the six hundred were set upon by the French on the bridge. Four hundred were slain, the others taken. The day had cost the people of Orleans a hundred men.[1099]

[Footnote 1099: The number of the English who defended Les Tourelles is given in Le journal du siege as 400 or 500; in Charles VII's letter as 600; in La relation de la fete du 8 mai as 800; in La chronique de la Pucelle as 500. It is impossible to fix exactly the number of the French, but they were more than ten times as many as the English.

The English losses, by Guillaume Girault, are said to have been 300 slain and taken; by Berry, 400 or 500 slain and taken; by Jean Chartier, about 400 slain, the rest taken; by La chronique de la Pucelle, 300 slain, 200 taken; by Le journal du siege, 400 or 500 slain besides a few taken. By Monstrelet, in the MSS., 600 or 800 slain or taken; in the printed editions, 1000; by Bower, 600 and more slain.

The losses of the French are said by Perceval de Cagny to have been 16 to 20 slain; by Eberhard Windecke, 5 slain and a few wounded; by Monstrelet, about 100. The Maid estimated that in the various engagements at Orleans in which she took part "one hundred and even more" of the French were wounded.]

When in the black darkness, along the fire-reddened banks of the Loire, the last cries of the vanquished had died away, the French captains, amazed at their victory, looked anxiously towards Saint-Laurent-des Orgerils, for they were still afraid lest Sir John Talbot should sally forth from his camp to avenge those whom he had failed to succour. Throughout that long attack, which had lasted from sunrise to sunset, Talbot, the Earl of Suffolk and the English of Saint-Laurent had not left their entrenchments. Even when Les Tourelles were taken the conquerors remained on the watch, still expecting Talbot.[1100] But this Talbot, with whose name French mothers frightened their children, did not budge. He had been greatly feared that day, and he himself had feared lest,[1101] if he withdrew any of his troops to succour Les Tourelles, the French would capture his camp and his forts on the west.

[Footnote 1100: Journal du siege, p. 88.]

[Footnote 1101: Perceval de Cagny, p. 147. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 295.]

The army prepared to return to the town. In three hours, the bridge, three arches of which had been broken, was rendered passable. Some hours after darkness, the Maid entered the city by the bridge as she had foretold.[1102] In like manner all her prophecies were fulfilled when their fulfilment depended on her own courage and determination. The captains accompanied her, followed by all the men-at-arms, the archers, the citizens and the prisoners who were brought in two by two. The bells of the city were ringing; the clergy and people sang the Te Deum.[1103] After God and his Blessed Mother, they gave thanks in all humility to Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, who had been bishops in their mortal lives and were now the heavenly patrons of the city. The townsfolk believed that both before and during the siege they had given the saints so much wax and had paraded their relics in so many processions that they had deserved their powerful intercession, and that thereby they had won the victory and been delivered out of the enemy's hand. There was no doubt about the intervention of the saints because at the time of assault on Les Tourelles two bishops bright and shining had been seen in the sky, hovering over the fort.[1104]

[Footnote 1102: Journal du siege, p. 88. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 295. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 78.]

[Footnote 1103: Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 294 et seq.]

[Footnote 1104: Trial, vol. iv, p. 163.]

Jeanne was brought back to Jacques Boucher's house, where a surgeon again dressed the wound she had received above the breast. She took four or five slices of bread soaked in wine and water, but neither ate nor drank anything else.[1105]

[Footnote 1105: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 295.]

On the morrow, Sunday, the 8th of May, being the Feast of the Appearance of St. Michael, it was announced in Orleans, in the morning, that the English issuing forth from those western bastions which were all that remained to them, were ranging themselves before the town moat in battle array and with standards flying. The folk of Orleans, both the men-at-arms and the train-bands, greatly desired to fall upon them. At daybreak Marshal de Boussac and a number of captains went out and took up their positions over against the enemy.[1106]

[Footnote 1106: Journal du siege, p. 89. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 296. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 78, 79. Le Jouvencel, vol. i, p. 208. The passage beginning with the words, "The Sire of Rocquencourt said," must be taken as historical.]

The Maid went out into the country with the priests. Being unable to put on her cuirass because of the wound on her shoulder, she merely wore one of those light coats-of-mail called jaserans.[1107]

[Footnote 1107: Trial, vol. iii, p. 9 (evidence of Dunois).]

The men-at-arms inquired of her: "To-day being the Sabbath, is it wrong to fight?"

She replied: "You must hear mass."[1108]

[Footnote 1108: Ibid., p. 29 (evidence of J. de Champeaux).]

She did not think the enemy should be attacked.

"For the sake of the holy Sabbath do not give battle. Do not attack the English, but if the English attack you, defend yourselves stoutly and bravely, and be not afraid, for you will overcome them."[1109]

[Footnote 1109: Journal du siege, p. 89.]

In the country, at the foot of a cross, where four roads met, one of those consecrated stones, square and flat, which priests carried with them on their journeys, was placed upon a table. Very solemnly did the officiating ecclesiastics sing hymns, responses and prayers; and at this altar the Maid with all the priests and all the men-at-arms heard mass.[1110]

[Footnote 1110: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 296.]

After the Deo gratias she recommended them to observe the movements of the English. "Now look whether their faces or their backs be towards you."

She was told that they had turned their backs and were going away.

Three times she had told them: "Depart from Orleans and your lives shall be saved." Now she asked that they should be allowed to go without more being required of them.

"It is not well pleasing to my Lord that they should be engaged to-day," she said. "You will have them another time. Come, let us give thanks to God."[1111]

[Footnote 1111: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 296.]

The Godons were going. During the night they had held a council of war and resolved to depart.[1112] In order to put a bold front on their retreat and to prevent its being cut off, they had faced the folk of Orleans for an hour, now they marched off in good order.[1113] Captain La Hire and Sire de Lore, curious as to which way they would take and desiring to see whether they would leave anything behind them, rode three or four miles in pursuit with a hundred or a hundred and twenty horse. The English were retreating towards Meung.[1114]

[Footnote 1112: Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 294, 295. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 296.]

[Footnote 1113: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 296.]

[Footnote 1114: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. Journal du siege, p. 89. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 297. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 34. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 478, 479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 177.]

A crowd of citizens, villeins and villagers rushed into the abandoned forts. The Godons had left their sick and their prisoners there. The townsfolk discovered also ammunition and even victuals, which were doubtless not very abundant and not very excellent. "But," says a Burgundian, "they made good cheer out of them, for they cost them little."[1115] Weapons, cannons and mortars were carried into the town. The forts were demolished so that they might henceforth be useless to the enemy.[1116]

[Footnote 1115: Charles VII's letter to the people of Narbonne, in the Trial, vol. v, p. 101. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 323.]

[Footnote 1116: Journal du siege, pp. 209 et seq.]

On that day there were grand and solemn processions and a good friar[1117] preached. Clerks, nobles, captains, magistrates, men-at-arms and citizens devoutly went to church and the people cried: "Noel!"[1118]

[Footnote 1117: Ibid., p. 216. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 295.]

[Footnote 1118: Trial, vol. iii, p. 110. Journal du siege, p. 92.]

Thus, on the 8th of May, in the morning, was the town of Orleans delivered, two hundred and nine days after the siege had been laid and nine days after the coming of the Maid.

Chapter XIV

THE MAID AT TOURS AND AT SELLES-EN-BERRY--THE TREATISES OF JACQUES GELU AND OF JEAN GERSON.

On the morning of Sunday the 8th of May, the English departed, retreating towards Meung and Beaugency. In the afternoon of the same day, Messire Florent d'Illiers with his men-at-arms left the town and went straight to his captaincy of Chateaudun to defend it against the Godons who had a garrison at Marchenoir and were about to descend on Le Dunois. On the next day the other captains from La Beauce and Gatinais returned to their towns and strongholds.[1119]

[Footnote 1119: Journal du siege, p. 91. G. Met-Gaubert, Notice sur Florent d'Illiers, Chartres, 1864, in 8vo.]

On the ninth of the same month, the combatants brought by the Sire de Rais, receiving neither pay nor entertainment, went off each man on his own account; and the Maid did not stay longer.[1120] After having taken part in the procession by which the townsfolk rendered thanks to God, she took her leave of those to whom she had come in the hour of distress and affliction and whom she now quitted in the hour of deliverance and rejoicing. They wept with joy and with gratitude and offered themselves to her for her to do with them and their goods whatever she would. And she thanked them kindly.[1121]

[Footnote 1120: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 298.]

[Footnote 1121: Journal du siege, pp. 91, 92. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 71.]

From Chinon the King caused to be sent to the inhabitants of the towns in his dominion and notably to those of La Rochelle and Narbonne, a letter written at three sittings, between the evening of the 9th of May and the morning of the 10th, as the tidings from Orleans were coming in. In this letter he announced the capture of the forts of Saint-Loup, Les Augustins and Les Tourelles and called upon the townsfolk to praise God and do honour to the great feats accomplished there, especially by the Maid, who "had always been present when these deeds were done."[1122] Thus did the royal power describe Jeanne's share in the victory. It was in no wise a captain's share; she held no command of any kind. But, sent by God, at least so it might be believed, her presence was a help and a consolation.

[Footnote 1122: Charles VII's Letter to the Inhabitants of Narbonne, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 101, 104. Arcere, Histoire de La Rochelle, vol. i, p. 271 (1756). Moynes, Inventaire des archives de l'Aude, supplement, p. 390. Procession d'actions de graces a Brignoles (Var) en l'honneur de la delivrance d'Orleans par Jeanne d'Arc (1429). Communication made to the Congress of learned Societies at the Sorbonne (April, 1893) by F. Mireur, Draguignan, 1894, in 8vo, p. 175.]

In company with a few nobles she went to Blois, stayed there two days,[1123] then went on to Tours, where the King was expected.[1124] When, on the Friday before Whitsunday, she entered the town, Charles, who had set out from Chinon, had not yet arrived. Banner in hand, she rode out to meet him and when she came to him, she took off her cap and bowed her head as far as she could over her horse. The King lifted his hood, bade her look up and kissed her. It is said that he felt glad to see her, but in reality we know not what he felt.[1125]

[Footnote 1123: Trial, vol. iii, p. 80. Journal du siege, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1124: Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 72, 76, 80.]

[Footnote 1125: Trial, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles). Eberhard Windecke, p. 177, and Chronique de Tournai, edition Smedt, pp. 407 et seq. (vol. iii of Les chroniques de Flandre).]

In this month of May, 1429, he received from Messire Jacques Gelu a treatise concerning the Maid, which he probably did not read, but which his confessor read for him. Messire Jacques Gelu, sometime Councillor to the Dauphin and now my Lord Archbishop of Embrun,[1126] had at first been afraid that the King's enemies had sent him this shepherdess to poison him, or that she was a witch possessed by demons. In the beginning he had advised her being carefully interrogated, not hastily repulsed, for appearances are deceptive and divine grace moves in a mysterious manner. Now, after having read the conclusions of the doctors of Poitiers, learnt the deliverance of Orleans, and heard the cry of the common folk, Messire Jacques Gelu no longer doubted the damsel's innocence and goodness. Seeing that the doctors were divided in their opinion of her, he drew up a brief treatise, which he sent to the King, with a very ample, a very humble, and a very worthy dedicatory epistle.

[Footnote 1126: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 394, 407; vol. v, p. 413. Le P. Marcellin Fornier, Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes, vol. ii, p. 320. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, pp. 39, 52.]

About that time, on the pavement of the cathedral of Reims a labyrinth had been traced with compass and with square.[1127] Pilgrims who were patient and painstaking followed all its winding ways. The Archbishop of Embrun's treatise is likewise a carefully planned scholastic labyrinth. Herein one advances only to retreat and retreats only to advance, but without entirely losing one's way provided one walks with sufficient patience and attention. Like all scholastics, Gelu begins by giving the reasons against his own opinion and it is not until he has followed his opponent at some length that he returns to his own argument. Into all the intricacies of his labyrinth it would take too long to follow him. But since those who were round the King consulted this theological treatise, since it was addressed to the King and since the King and his Council may have based on it their opinion of Jeanne and their conduct towards her, one is curious to know what, on so singular an occasion, they found taught and recommended therein.

[Footnote 1127: L. Paris, Notice sur le dedale ou labyrinthe de l'eglise de Reims, in Ann. des Inst. provinc., 1857, vol. ix, p. 233.]

Treating first of the Church's weal, Jacques Gelu holds that God raised up the Maid to confound the heretics, the number of whom, according to him, is by no means small. "To turn to confusion those who believe in God as if they believed not," he writes, "the Almighty, who hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was pleased to succour the King of France by the hand of a child of low estate." The Archbishop of Embrun discerns five reasons why the divine succour was granted to the King; to wit: the justice of his cause, the striking merits of his predecessors, the prayers of devout souls and the sighs of the oppressed, the injustice of the enemies of the kingdom and the insatiable cruelty of the English nation.

That God should have chosen a maid to destroy armies in no way surprises him. "He created insects, such as flies and fleas, with which to humble man's pride." So persistently do these tiny creatures worry and weary us that they prevent our studying or acting. However strong his self-control, a man may not rest in a room infested with fleas. By the hand of a young peasant, born of poor and lowly parents, subject to menial labour, ignorant and simple beyond saying, it hath pleased Him to strike down the proud, to humble them and make His Majesty manifest unto them by the deliverance of the perishing.

That to a virgin the Most High should have revealed His designs concerning the Kingdom of the Lilies cannot astonish us; on virgins He readily bestows the gift of prophecy. To the sibyls it pleased Him to reveal mysteries hidden from all the Gentiles. On the authority of Nicanor, of Euripides, of Chrysippus, of Nennius, of Apollodorus, of Eratosthenes, of Heraclides Ponticus, of Marcus Varro and of Lactantius, Messire Jacques Gelu teaches that the sibyls were ten in number: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the Erythrean, the Samian, the Cumaean, the Hellespontine, the Phrygian and the Tiburtine. They prophesied to the Gentiles the glorious incarnation of Our Lord, the resurrection of the dead and the consummation of the ages. This example appears to him worthy of consideration.

As for Jeanne, she is in herself unknowable. Aristotle teaches: there is nothing in the intellect which hath not first been in the senses, and the senses cannot penetrate beyond experience. But what the mind cannot grasp directly it may come to comprehend by a roundabout way. When we consider her works, as far as in our human weakness we can know, we say the Maid is of God. Albeit she hath adopted the profession of arms, she never counsels cruelty; she is merciful to her enemies when they throw themselves upon her mercy and she offers peace. Finally the Archbishop of Embrun believes that this Maid is an angel sent by God, the Lord of Hosts, for the saving of the people; not that she has the nature, but that she does the work of an angel.

Concerning the conduct to be followed in circumstances so marvellous, the doctor is of opinion that in war the King should act according to human wisdom. It is written: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In vain would an active mind have been bestowed on man were he not to make use of it in his undertakings. Long deliberation must precede prompt execution. It is not by a woman's desires or supplications that God's help is obtained. A prosperous issue is the fruit of action and of counsel.

But the inspiration of God must not be rejected. Wherefore the will of the Maid must be accomplished, even should that will appear doubtful and mistaken. If the words of the Maid are found to be stable, then the King must follow her and confide to her as to God the conduct of the enterprise to which she is committed. Should any doubt occur to the King, let him incline rather towards divine than towards human wisdom, for as there is no comparing the finite with the infinite so there is no comparing the wisdom of man with the wisdom of God. Wherefore we must believe that He who sent us this child is able to impart unto her a counsel superior to man's counsel. Then from this Aristotelian reasoning the Archbishop of Embrun draws the following two-headed conclusion: "On the one hand we give it to be understood that the wisdom of this world must be consulted in the ordering of battle, the use of engines, ladders and all other implements of war, the building of bridges, the sufficient despatch of supplies, the raising of funds, and in all matters without which no enterprise can succeed save by miracle.

"But when on the other hand divine wisdom is seen to be acting in some peculiar way, then human reason must be humble and withdraw. Then it is, we observe, that the counsel of the Maid must be asked for, sought after and adopted before all else. He who gives life gives wherewithal to support life. On his workers he bestows the instruments for their work. Wherefore let us hope in the Lord. He makes the King's cause his own. Those who support it he will inspire with the wisdom necessary to make it triumphant. God leaves no work imperfect."

The Archbishop concludes his treatise by commending the Maid to the King because she inspires holy thoughts and makes manifest the works of piety. "This counsel do we give the King that every day he do such things as are well pleasing in the sight of the Lord and that he confer with the Maid concerning them. When he shall have received her advice let him practise it piously and devoutly; then shall not the Lord withdraw His hand from Him but continue His loving kindness unto him."[1128]

[Footnote 1128: Bibl. Nat. Latin Collection, no. 6199, folio 36. Trial, vol. iii, pp. 395-410. Lanery d'Arc, Memoires et consultations, pp. 365 et seq. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, pp. 31-52.]

The great doctor Gerson, former Chancellor of the University, was then ending his days at Lyon in the monastery of Les Celestins, of which his brother was prior. His life had been full of work and weariness.[1129] In 1408 he was priest of Saint-Jean-en-Greve in Paris. In that year he delivered in his parish church the funeral oration of the Duke of Orleans, assassinated by order of the Duke of Burgundy; and he roused the passions of the mob to such a fury that he ran great danger of losing his life. At the Council of Constance, possessed by a so-called "merciful cruelty"[1130] which goaded him to send a heretic to the stake, he urged the condemnation of John Huss, regardless of the safe-conduct which the latter had received from the Emperor; for in common with all the fathers there assembled he held that according to natural law both divine and human, no promise should be kept if it were prejudicial to the Catholic Faith. With a like ardour he prosecuted in the Council the condemnation of the thesis of Jean Petit concerning the lawfulness of tyrannicide. In things temporal as well as spiritual he advocated uniform obedience and the respect of established authority. In one of his sermons he likens the kingdom of France to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, making the merchants and artisans the legs of the statue, "which are partly iron, partly clay, because of their labour and humility in serving and obeying...." Iron signifies labour, and clay humility. All the evil has arisen from the King and the great citizens being held in subjection by those of low estate.[1131]

[Footnote 1129: Launoy, Historia Navarrici Gymasii, book iv, ch. v. J.B. Lecuy, Essai sur la vie de Jean Gerson, chancelier de l'eglise et de l'universite de Paris, sur sa doctrine, sur ses ecrits.... Paris, 1832, 2 vols. in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. ii, p. 94. A.L. Masson, Jean Gerson, sa vie, son temps, ses oeuvres, Lyon, 1894, 8vo.]

[Footnote 1130: Par une cruaute misericordieuse. Du Boulay, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, vol. iv, p. 270.]

[Footnote 1131: Gerson, Opera, vol. iv, pp. 668-678.]

Now, crushed by suffering and sorrow, he was teaching little children. "It is with them that reforms must begin," he said.[1132]

[Footnote 1132: Gerson, Adversus corruptionem Juventutis. A. Lafontaine, De Johanne Gersonio puerorum adulescentiumque institutore.... La Chapelle-Montligeon, 1902, in 8vo.]

The deliverance of the city of Orleans must have gladdened the heart of the old Orleanist partisan. The Dauphin's Councillors, eager to set the Maid to work, had told him of the deliberations at Poitiers, and asked him, as a good servant of the house of France, for his opinion concerning them. In reply he wrote a compendious treatise on the Maid.

In this work he is careful from the first to distinguish between matters of faith and matters of devotion. In questions of faith doubt is forbidden. With regard to questions of devotion the unbeliever, to use a colloquial expression, is not necessarily damned. Three conditions are necessary if a question is to be considered as one of devotion: first, it must be edifying; second, it must be probable and attested by popular report or the testimony of the faithful; third, it must touch on nothing contrary to faith. When these conditions are fulfilled, it is fitting neither persistently to condemn nor to approve, but rather to appeal to the church.

For example, the conception of the very holy Virgin, indulgences, relics, are matters of faith and not of devotion. A relic may be worshipped in one place or another, or in several places at once. Recently the Parlement of Paris disputed concerning the head of Saint Denys, worshipped at Saint-Denys in France and likewise in the cathedral at Paris. This is a matter of devotion.[1133]

[Footnote 1133: Gallia Christiana, vol. vii, col. 142. Jean Juvenal des Ursins, year 1406.]

Whence it may be concluded that it is lawful to consider the question of the Maid as a matter of devotion, especially when one reflects on her motives, which are the restitution of his kingdom to her King and the very righteous expulsion or destruction of her very stubborn enemies.

And if there be those who make various statements concerning her idle talk, her frivolity, her guile, now is the time to quote the saying of Cato: "Common report is not our judge." According to the words of the Apostle, it doth not become us to call in question the servant of God. Much better is it to abstain from judgment, as is permitted, or to submit doubtful points to ecclesiastical superiors. This is the principle followed in the canonisation of saints. The catalogue of the saints is not, strictly speaking, necessarily a matter of faith, but of pious devotion. Nevertheless, it is not to be highly censured by any manner of man.

To come to the present case, the following circumstances are to be noted: First, the royal council and the men-at-arms were induced to believe and to obey; and they faced the risk of being put to shame by defeat under the leadership of a girl. Second, the people rejoice, and their pious faith seems to tend to the glory of God and the confounding of his enemies. Third, the enemy, even his princes, are in hiding and stricken with many terrors. They give way to weakness like a woman with child; they are overthrown like the Egyptians in the song sung by Miriam, sister of Moses, to the sound of the timbrel in the midst of the women who went out with her with timbrels and with dances: "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."[1134] And let us likewise sing the song of Miriam with the devotion which becometh our case.

[Footnote 1134: Exodus, xv, 20, 21 (W.S.).]

Fourth, and in conclusion, this point is worthy of consideration: The Maid and her men-at-arms despise not the wisdom of men; they tempt not God. Wherefore it is plain that the Maid goes no further than what she interprets to be the instruction or inspiration received from God.

Many of the incidents of her life from childhood up have been collected in abundance and might be set forth; but these we shall not relate.

Here may be cited the examples of Deborah and of Saint Catherine who miraculously converted fifty doctors or rhetoricians, of Judith and of Judas Maccabeus. As is usually the case, there were many circumstances in their lives which were purely natural.

A first miracle is not always followed by the other miracles which men expect. Even if the Maid should be disappointed in her expectation and in ours (which God forbid) we ought not to conclude therefrom, that the first manifestation of her miraculous power proceeded from an evil spirit and not from heavenly grace; we should believe rather that our hopes have been disappointed because of our ingratitude and our blasphemy, or by some just and impenetrable judgment of God. We beseech him to turn away his anger from us and vouchsafe unto us his favour.

Herein we perceive lessons, first for the King and the Blood Royal, secondly for the King's forces and the kingdom; thirdly for the clergy and people; fourthly for the Maid. Of all these lessons the object is the same, to wit: a good life, consecrated to God, just towards others, sober, virtuous and temperate. With regard to the Maid's peculiar lesson, it is that God's grace revealed in her be employed not in caring for trifles, not in worldly advantage, nor in party hatred, nor in violent sedition, nor in avenging deeds done, nor in foolish self-glorification, but in meekness, prayer, and thanksgiving. And let every one contribute a liberal supply of temporal goods so that peace be established and justice once more administered, and that delivered out of the hands of our enemies, God being favourable unto us, we may serve him in holiness and righteousness.

At the conclusion of his treatise, Gerson briefly examines one point of canon law which had been neglected by the doctors of Poitiers. He establishes that the Maid is not forbidden to dress as a man.

Firstly. The ancient law forbade a woman to dress as a man, and a man as a woman. This restriction, as far as strict legality is concerned, ceases to be enforced by the new law.

Secondly. In its moral bearing this law remains binding. But in such a case it is merely a matter of decency.

Thirdly. From a legal and moral standpoint this law does not refuse masculine and military attire to the Maid, whom the King of Heaven appoints His standard-bearer, in order that she may trample underfoot the enemies of justice. In the operations of divine power the end justifies the means.

Fourthly. Examples may be quoted from history alike sacred and profane, notably Camilla and the Amazons.

Jean Gerson completed this treatise on Whit-Sunday, a week after the deliverance of Orleans. It was his last work. He died in the July of that year, 1429, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.[1135]

[Footnote 1135: Oeuvres de Gerson, ed. Ellies Dupin, Paris, 1706, in folio, vol. iv, p. 864. Trial, vol. iii, p. 298; vol. v, p. 412. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, p. 24.]

The treatise is the political testament of the great university doctor in exile. The Maid's victory gladdened the last days of his life. With his dying voice he sings the Song of Miriam. But with his rejoicings over this happy event are mingled the sad presentiments of keen-sighted old age. While in the Maid he beholds a subject for the rejoicing and edification of the people, he is afraid that the hopes she inspires may soon be disappointed. And he warns those who now exalt her in the hour of triumph not to forsake her in the day of disaster.

His dry close reasoning does not fundamentally differ from the ampler, more flowery argument of Jacques Gelu. One and the other contain the same reasons, the same proofs; and in their conclusions both doctors agree with the judges of Poitiers.

For the Poitiers doctors, for the Archbishop of Embrun, for the ex-chancellor of the University, for all the theologians of the Armagnac party the Maid's case is not a matter of faith. How could it be so before the Pope and the Council had pronounced judgment concerning it? Men are free to believe in her or not to believe in her. But it is a subject of edification; and it behoves men to meditate upon it, not in a spirit of prejudice, persisting in doubt, but with an open mind and according to the Christian faith. Following the counsel of Gerson, kindly souls will believe that the Maid comes from God, just as they believe that the head of Saint Denys may be venerated by the faithful either in the Cathedral Church of Paris or in the abbey-church of Saint Denys in France. They will think less of literal than of spiritual truths and they will not sin by inquiring too closely.

In short neither the treatise of Jacques Gelu nor that of Jean Gerson brought much light to the King and his Council. Both treatises abounded in exhortations, but they all amounted to saying: "Be good, pious and strong, let your thoughts be humble and prudent," Concerning the most important point, the use to be made of Jeanne in the conduct of war, the Archbishop of Embrun wisely recommended: "Do what the Maid commands and prudence directs; for the rest give yourselves to works of piety and prayers of devotion." Such counsel was somewhat embarrassing to a captain like the Sire de Gaucourt and even to a man of worth like my Lord of Treves. It appears that the clerks left the King perfect liberty of judgment and of action, and that in the end they advised him not to believe in the Maid, but to let the people and the men-at-arms believe in her.

During the ten days he spent at Tours the King kept Jeanne with him. Meanwhile the Council were deliberating as to their line of action.[1136] The royal treasury was empty. Charles could raise enough money to make gifts to the gentlemen of his household, but he had great difficulty in defraying the expenses of war.[1137] Pay was owing to the people of Orleans. They had received little and spent much. Their resources were exhausted and they demanded payment. In May and in June the King distributed among the captains, who had defended the town, sums amounting to forty-one thousand six hundred and thirty-one livres.[1138] He had gained his victory cheaply. The total cost of the defence of Orleans was one hundred and ten thousand livres. The townsfolk did the rest; they gave even their little silver spoons.[1139]

[Footnote 1136: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 12, 72, 76, 80. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 298. Journal du siege, p. 93. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 299. Letter written by the agents of a German town, in Trial, vol. v, p. 349. Chronique de Tournai (Recueil des chroniques de Flandre, vol. iii, p. 412). Eberhard Windecke, p. 177. De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. ii, p. 215.]

[Footnote 1137: De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, pp. 634 et seq.]

[Footnote 1138: Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, pp. 147 et seq.]

[Footnote 1139: Trial, vol. v, pp. 256 et seq., and taken from the Commune and Fortress Accounts in Journal du siege. A. de Villaret, loc. cit. p. 61. Couret, Un fragment inedit des anciens registres de la Prevote d'Orleans.]

It would doubtless have been expedient to attempt to destroy that formidable army of Sir John Fastolf which had lately terrified the good folk of Orleans. But no one knew where to find it. It had disappeared somewhere between Orleans and Paris. It would have been necessary to go forth to seek it; that was impossible, and no one thought of doing such a thing. So scientific a manoeuvre was never dreamed of in the warfare of those days. An expedition to Normandy was suggested; and the idea was so natural that the King was already imagined to be at Rouen.[1140] Finally it was decided to attempt the capture of the chateaux the English held on the Loire, both below and above Orleans, Jargeau, Meung, Beaugency.[1141] A useful undertaking and one which presented no very great difficulties, unless it involved an encounter with Sir John Fastolf's army, and whether it would or no it was impossible to tell.

[Footnote 1140: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 61.]

[Footnote 1141: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 9, 10.]

Without further delay my Lord the Bastard marched on Jargeau with a few knights and some of Poton's soldiers of fortune; but the Loire was high and its waters filled the trenches. Being unprovided with siege train, they retreated after having inflicted some hurt on the English and slain the commander of the town.[1142]

[Footnote 1142: Journal du siege, p. 93. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 300.]

By the reasons of the captains the Maid set little store. She listened to her Voices alone, and they spoke to her words which were infinitely simple. Her one idea was to accomplish her mission. Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret and Saint Michael the Archangel, had sent her into France not to calculate the resources of the royal treasury, not to decree aids and taxes, not to treat with men-at-arms, with merchants and the conductors of convoys, not to draw up plans of campaign and negotiate truces, but to lead the Dauphin to his anointing. Wherefore it was to Reims that she wished to take him, not that she knew how to go there, but she believed that God would guide her. Delay, tardiness, deliberation saddened and irritated her. When with the King she urged him gently.

Many times she said to him: "I shall live a year, barely longer. During that year let as much as possible be done."[1143]

[Footnote 1143: Trial, vol. iii, p. 99.]

Then she enumerated the four charges which she must accomplish during that time. After having delivered Orleans she must drive the Godons out of France, lead the King to be crowned and anointed at Reims and rescue the Duke of Orleans from the hands of the English.[1144] One day she grew impatient and went to the King when he was in one of those closets of carved wainscot constructed in the great castle halls for intimate or family gatherings. She knocked at the door and entered almost immediately. There she found the King conversing with Maitre Gerard Machet, his confessor, my Lord the Bastard, the Sire de Treves and a favourite noble of his household, by name Messire Christophe d'Harcourt. She knelt embracing the King's knees (for she was conversant with the rules of courtesy), and said to him: "Fair Dauphin, do not so long and so frequently deliberate in council, but come straightway to Reims, there to receive your rightful anointing."[1145]

[Footnote 1144: Ibid., p. 99 (evidence of the Duke of Alencon).]

[Footnote 1145: Trial, vol. iii, p. 12. Journal du siege, p. 93. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 299.]

The King looked graciously upon her but answered nothing. The Lord d'Harcourt, having heard that the Maid held converse with angels and saints, was curious to know whether the idea of taking the King to Reims had really been suggested to her by her heavenly visitants. Describing them by the word she herself used, he asked: "Is it your Council who speak to you of such things?"

She replied: "Yes, in this matter I am urged forward." Straightway my Lord d'Harcourt responded: "Will you not here in the King's presence tell us the manner of your Council when they speak to you?"

At this request Jeanne blushed.

Willing to spare her constraint and embarrassment, the King said kindly: "Jeanne, does it please you to answer this question before these persons here present?"

But Jeanne addressing my Lord d'Harcourt said: "I understand what you desire to know and I will tell you willingly."

And straightway she gave the King to understand what agony she endured at not being understood and she told of her inward consolation: "Whenever I am sad because what I say by command of Messire is not readily believed, I go apart and to Messire I make known my complaint, saying that those to whom I speak are not willing to believe me. And when I have finished my prayer, straightway I hear a voice saying unto me: 'Daughter of God, go, I will be thy help.' And this voice fills me with so great a joy, that in this condition I would forever stay."[1146]

[Footnote 1146: Trial, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of Dunois).]

While she was repeating the words spoken by the Voice, Jeanne raised her eyes to heaven. The nobles present were struck by the divine expression on the maiden's face. But those eyes bathed in tears, that air of rapture, which filled my Lord the Bastard with amazement, was not an ecstasy, it was the imitation of an ecstasy.[1147] The scene was at once simple and artificial. It reveals the kindness of the King, who was incapable of wounding the child in any way, and the light-heartedness with which the nobles of the court believed or pretended to believe in the most wonderful marvels. It proves likewise that henceforth the little Saint's dignifying the project of the coronation with the authority of a divine revelation was favourably regarded by the Royal Council.

[Footnote 1147: Ibid., p. 12.]

The Maid accompanied the King to Loches and stayed with him until after the 23rd of May.[1148]

[Footnote 1148: Ibid., p. 116, vol. iv, p. 245.]

The people believed in her. As she passed through the streets of Loches they threw themselves before her horse; they kissed the Saint's hands and feet. Maitre Pierre de Versailles, a monk of Saint-Denys in France, one of her interrogators at Poitiers, seeing her receive these marks of veneration, rebuked her on theological grounds: "You do wrong," he said, "to suffer such things to which you are not entitled. Take heed: you are leading men into idolatry."

Then Jeanne, reflecting on the pride which might creep into her heart, said: "In truth I could not keep from it, were not Messire watching over me."[1149]

[Footnote 1149: Trial, vol. iii, p. 84.]

She was displeased to see certain old wives coming to salute her; that was a kind of adoration which alarmed her. But poor folk who came to her she never repulsed. She would not hurt them, but aided them as far as she could.[1150]

[Footnote 1150: Ibid., vol. i, p. 102.]

With marvellous rapidity the fame of her holiness had been spread abroad throughout the whole of France. Many pious persons were wearing medals of lead or some other metal, stamped with her portrait, according to the customary mode of honouring the memory of saints.[1151] Paintings or sculptured figures of her were placed in chapels. At mass the priest recited as a collect "the Maid's prayer for the realm of France:"

[Footnote 1151: Ibid., pp. 290, 291. A. Forgeais, Collection de plombs histories trouves dans la Seine, Paris, 1869 (5 vol. in 8vo), vol. ii, iv, and passim. Vallet de Viriville, Notes sur deux medailles de plomb relatives a Jeanne d'Arc, Paris, 1861, in 8vo, 30 p. [Taken from La revue archeologique] N. Valois, Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 8, 13. Cf. Appendix iv.]

"O God, author of peace, who without bow or arrow dost destroy those enemies who hope in themselves,[1152] we beseech thee O Lord, to protect us in our adversity; and, as Thou hast delivered Thy people by the hand of a woman, to stretch out to Charles our King, Thy conquering arm, that our enemies, who make their boast in multitudes and glory in bows and arrows, may be overcome by him at this present, and vouchsafe that at the end of his days he with his people may appear gloriously before Thee who art the way, the truth and the life. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc."[1153]

[Footnote 1152: Trial, vol. v, p. 104. I read in se sperantes.]

[Footnote 1153: Trial, vol. v, p. 104. Lanery d'Arc, Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e siecle, 1886, in 8vo.]

In those days the saintly, both men and women, were consulted in all the difficulties of life. The more they were deemed simple and innocent the more counsel was asked of them. For if of themselves they knew nothing then all the surer was it that the voice of God was to be heard in their words. The Maid was believed to have no intelligence of her own, wherefore she was held capable of solving the most difficult questions with infallible wisdom. It was observed that knowing nought of the arts of war, she waged war better than captains, whence it was concluded that everything, which in her holy ignorance she undertook, she would worthily accomplish. Thus at Toulouse it occurred to a capitoul to consult her on a financial question. In that city the indignation of the townsfolk had been aroused because the guardians of the mint had been ordered to issue coins greatly inferior to those which had been previously in circulation. From April till June the capitouls had been endeavouring to get this order revoked. On the 2nd of June, the capitoul, Pierre Flamenc, proposed that the Maid should be written to concerning the evils resulting from the corruption of the coinage and that she should be asked to suggest a remedy. Pierre Flamenc made this proposal at the Capitole because he thought that a saint was a good counsellor in all matters, especially in anything which concerned the coinage, particularly when, like the Maid, she was the friend of the King.[1154]

[Footnote 1154: A. Thomas, Le siege d'Orleans, Jeanne d'Arc et les capitouls de Toulouse, in Annales du Midi, 1889, pp. 235, 236.]

From Loches Jeanne sent a little gold ring to the Dame de Laval, who had doubtless asked for some object she had touched.[1155] Fifty-four years previously Jeanne Dame de Laval had married Sire Bertrand Du Guesclin whose memory the French venerated and who in the House of Orleans was known as the tenth of Les Preux. Dame Jeanne's renown, however, fell short of that of Tiphaine Raguenel, astrologer and fairy,[1156] who had been Sire Bertrand's first wife. Jeanne was a choleric person and a miser. Driven out of her domain of Laval by the English, she lived in retirement at Vitre with her daughter Anne. Thirteen years before, the latter had incurred her mother's displeasure by secretly marrying a landless younger son of a noble house. When Dame Jeanne discovered it she imprisoned her daughter in a dungeon and welcomed the younger son by shooting at him with a cross-bow. After which the two ladies dwelt together in peace.[1157]

[Footnote 1155: Letter from the Lavals, in Trial, vol. v, p. 109. Bertrand de Broussillon, La maison de Laval, les Montfort-Laval, Paris, 1900, in 8vo, vol. iii, p. 75. Quicherat is mistaken when (Trial, vol. v, p. 105) he gives the name of Anne to Du Guesclin's widow and calls the mother of Guy and of Andre Jeanne.]

[Footnote 1156: Cuvelier, Poeme de Duguesclin, line 2325 et seq.]

[Footnote 1157: Bertrand de Broussillon, La maison de Laval in 8vo, 1900, vol. iii, loc. cit.]

From Loches the Maid went to Selles-en-Berry, a considerable town on the Cher. Here, shortly before had met the three estates of the kingdom; and here the troops were now gathering.[1158]

[Footnote 1158: Letter from Gui de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, p. 105. Lucien Jeny and P. Lanery d'Arc, Jeanne d'Arc en Berry, Paris, s.d. in 8vo, p. 53.]

On Saturday, the 4th of June, she received a herald sent by the people of Orleans to bring her tidings of the English.[1159] As commander in war they recognised none but her.

[Footnote 1159: Fortress accounts in Trial, vol. v, p. 262.]

Meanwhile, surrounded by monks, and side by side with men-at-arms, like a nun she lived apart, a saintly life. She ate and drank little.[1160] She communicated once a week and confessed frequently.[1161] During mass at the moment of elevation, at confession and when she received the body of Our Lord she used to weep many tears. Every evening, at the hour of vespers, she would retire into a church and have the bells rung for about half an hour to summon the mendicant friars who followed the army. Then she would begin to pray while the brethren sang an anthem in honour of the Virgin Mary.[1162]

[Footnote 1160: Ibid., vol. iii, pp. 3, 9, 15, 18, 22, 69, 219, passim.]

[Footnote 1161: Ibid., vol. v, under the words Confession and Communion. The Duke of Alencon says twice a week (Ibid., vol. iii, p. 100).]

[Footnote 1162: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 14; vol. ii, pp. 420, 424.]

While practising as far as she was able the austerities required by extreme piety, she appeared magnificently attired, like a lord, for indeed she held her lordship from God. She wore the dress of a knight, a small hat, doublet and hose to match, a fine cloak of silk and cloth of gold well lined and shoes laced on the outer side of the foot.[1163] Such attire in no wise scandalised even the most austere members of the Dauphin's party. They read in holy Scripture that Esther and Judith, inspired by the Lord, loaded themselves with ornaments; true it was for sexual reasons and in order for the salvation of Israel to attract Ahasuerus and Holophernes. Wherefore they held that when Jeanne decked herself with masculine adornments, in order to appear before the men-at-arms as an angel giving victory to the Christian King, far from yielding to the vanities of the world, she, like Esther and Judith, had nothing in her heart but the interest of the holy nation and the glory of God. The English and Burgundian clerks on the other hand converted into scandal what was a subject of edification, and maintained that she was a woman dissolute in dress and in manners.

[Footnote 1163: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 220, 253; vol. ii, pp. 294, 438. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 60. Analysis of a letter from Regnault de Chartres in Rogier (Trial, vol. v, pp. 168-169). Martin le Franc, Le champion des dames, in Trial, vol. v, p. 48.]

For seven years now Saint Michael the Archangel and the Saints Catherine and Margaret, wearing rich and precious crowns, had been visiting and conversing with her. It was when the bells were ringing, at the hour of compline and of matins, that she could best hear their words.[1164] In those days bells of all kinds, large and small, metropolitan, parochial or conventual, sounded in peals, or, chiming harmoniously, in voices grave or gay, spoke to all men and of all things. Their song descended from the sky to mark the ecclesiastical and civic calendar. They called priests and people to church; they mourned for the dead and they praised God; they announced fairs and field work; they clashed portentous tidings through the sky, and in times of war they called to arms and sounded the alarm. Friendly to the husbandman they scattered the tempest, they warded off hail-storms and drove away pestilence. They put to flight those demons that, flying ceaselessly through the air, haunt the children of men; and to their blessed sound was attributed the power of calming violence.[1165] Saint Catharine, she who visited Jeanne every day, was the patron of bells and bell-ringers. Thus many bells bore her name. In the ringing of bells as in the rustling of leaves, Jeanne was wont to hear her Voices. She seldom heard them without seeing a light in the direction whence they came.[1166] Those Voices called her: "Jeanne, daughter of God!"[1167] Often the Archangel and the Saints appeared to her. When they came she did them reverence, bending her knee and bowing her head; she kissed their feet, knowing it to be a greater mark of respect than kissing the countenance. She was conscious of the fragrance and grateful warmth of their glorified bodies.[1168]

[Footnote 1164: Trial, vol. i, pp. 61, 62, 481.]

[Footnote 1165: P. Blavignac, La cloche, Geneva, 1877, in 8vo. L. Morillot, Etude sur l'emploi des clochettes, in Bulletin hist. archeolog. du diocese de Dijon, 1887, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1166: Trial, vol. i, pp. 52, 64, 153, passim.]

[Footnote 1167: Ibid., p. 130.]

[Footnote 1168: Ibid., p. 186.]

Saint Michael the Archangel did not come alone. There accompanied him angels so numerous and so tiny that they danced like sparks in the damsel's dazzled eyes. When the saints and the Archangel went away, she wept with grief because they had not taken her with them.[1169] In like manner an angel visited Judith in the camp of Holofernes.

[Footnote 1169: Ibid., pp. 72, 75.]

One day Jeanne's equerry, Jean d'Aulon, asked her what her Council was, just as my Lord d'Harcourt had done. She replied that she had three councillors, one of whom was always with her. Another was constantly going and coming; the third was the one with whom the other two deliberated.

Sire d'Aulon, more curious than the King, besought and requested her to let him see this Council for once.

She replied: "Your virtues are not great enough and you are not worthy to behold it."[1170]

[Footnote 1170: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 219, 220.]

The good squire never asked again. If he had read the Bible he would have known that Elisha's servant did not see the angels beheld by the prophet (2 Kings VI, 16, 17).

And yet Jeanne imagined that her Council had appeared to the King and his court.

"My King," she said later, "my King and many besides saw and heard the Voices that came to me. The Count of Clermont and two or three others were with him."[1171]

[Footnote 1171: Ibid., vol. i, p. 57.]

She believed it was so. But in reality she never showed her Voices to anyone. Not even, despite what has been said to the contrary, to that Guy de Cailly who had been following her since Checy.[1172]

[Footnote 1172: Ibid., vol. v, p. 342. Guy de Cailly's patent of nobility cannot be regarded as authentic. Vallet de Viriville, Petit traite.... p. 92.]

With Brother Pasquerel Jeanne engaged in pious conversation. To him she often expressed the desire that the Church after her death should pray for her and for all the French slain in the war.

"If I were to depart from this world," she used to say to him, "I should like the King to build chantries, where prayers should be offered to Messire for the salvation of the souls of those who died in war or for the defence of the realm."[1173]

[Footnote 1173: Trial, vol. iii, p. 112.]

Such a wish was common to all devout souls. What Christian in those days did not hold the practice of saying masses for the dead to be good and salutary? Thus, in the matter of devotion, the Maid was in accord with Duke Charles of Orleans, who, in one of his complaints, recommends the saying and singing of masses for the souls of those who had suffered violent death in the service of the realm.[1174]

[Footnote 1174: Trial, vol. iii, p. 112. Poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, p. 174.]

She said one day to the good brother: "There is succour that I am appointed to bring."

And Pasquerel, albeit he had studied the Bible, cried out in amazement: "Such a history as yours there hath never been before in the world. Nought like unto it can be read in any book."

Jeanne answered him even more boldly than the doctors at Poitiers: "Messire has a book in which no clerk, however perfect his learning, has ever read."[1175]

[Footnote 1175: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109.]

She had received her mission from God alone, and she read in a book sealed against all the doctors of the Church.

On the reverse of her standard, sprinkled by mendicants with holy water, she had had a dove painted, holding in its beak a scroll, whereon were written the words "in the name of the King of Heaven."[1176] These were the armorial bearings she had received from her Council. The emblem and the device seemed appropriate to her, since she proclaimed that God had sent her, and since at Orleans she had given the sign promised at Poitiers. The King, notwithstanding, changed this shield for arms representing a crown supported upon a sword between two flowers-de-luce and indicating clearly what was the aid that the Maid of God was bringing to the realm of France. It is said that she regretted having to abandon the arms communicated to her by divine revelation.[1177]

[Footnote 1176: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 78, 117, 182.]

[Footnote 1177: Ibid., pp. 117, 300; vol. v, p. 227.]

She prophesied, and, as happens to all prophets, she did not always foretell what was to come to pass. It was the fate of the prophet Jonah himself. And doctors explain how the prophecies of true prophets cannot be all fulfilled.

She had said: "Before Saint John the Baptist's Day, in 1429, there shall not be one Englishman, howsoever strong and valiant, to be seen throughout France, either in battle or in the open field."[1178]

[Footnote 1178: Letter written from Germany, in Trial, vol. v, p. 351. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 33, 46, 62.]

The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24th of June.

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

On Monday, the 6th of June, the King lodged at Saint-Aignan near Selles-en-Berry.[1179] Among the gentlemen of his company were two sons of that Dame de Laval who, in her widowhood, had made the mistake of loving a landless cadet. Andre, the younger, at the age of twenty, had just passed under the cloud of a disgrace common to nearly all nobles in those days; his grandmother's second husband, Sire Bertrand Du Guesclin, had experienced it several times. Taken prisoner in the chateau of Laval by Sir John Talbot, he had incurred a heavy debt in order to furnish the sixteen thousand golden crowns of his ransom.[1180]

[Footnote 1179: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval to the Ladies de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, p. 106. L. Jeny and Lanery d'Arc, Jeanne D'Arc en Berry, Paris, 1892, in 8vo, p. 54.]

[Footnote 1180: Bertrand de Broussillon, La maison de Laval, vol. iii, p. 21.]

Being in great need of money, the two young nobles offered their services to the King, who received them very well, gave them not a crown, but said he would show them the Maid. And as he was going with them from Saint-Aignan to Selles, he summoned the Saint,[1181] who straightway, armed at all points save her head, and lance in hand, rode out to meet the King. She greeted the two young nobles heartily and returned with them to Selles. The eldest, Lord Guy, she received in the house where she was lodging, opposite the church, and called for wine. Such was the custom among princes. Cups of wine were brought, into which the guests dipped slices of bread called sops.[1182] When offering him the wine cup, the Maid said to Lord Guy: "I will shortly give you to drink at Paris."

[Footnote 1181: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 106 et seq.]

[Footnote 1182: N. Villiaume, Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc, p. 88.]

She told him that, three days before, she had sent a gold ring to Dame Jeanne de Laval.

"It was a small matter," she added graciously. "I should like to have sent her something of greater value, considering her reputation."[1183]

[Footnote 1183: Recommandation in French. The esteem in which she was held. Compare Froissart cited by La Curne, Glossary, ad v. "Six bourgeois de la ville de Calais et de plus grande recommandation." ("Six citizens of Calais and of the highest reputation.")]

That same day, at the hour of vespers, she set out from Selles for Romorantin with a numerous company of men-at-arms and train-bands, commanded by Marshal de Boussac. She was surrounded by mendicant friars and one of her brothers went with her. She wore white armour and a hood. Her horse was brought to her at the door of her house. It was a great black charger which resolutely refused to let her mount him. She had him led to the Cross by the roadside, opposite the church, and there she leapt into the saddle. Whereupon Lord Guy marvelled; for he saw that the charger was as still as if he had been bound. She turned her horse's head towards the church porch, and in her clear woman's voice cried: "Ye priests and churchmen, walk in processions and pray to God."

Then, gaining the highroad: "Go forward, go forward," she said.

In her hand she carried a little axe. Her page bore her standard furled.[1184]

[Footnote 1184: Letter from Gui and Andre de Laval, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 106, 107.]

The meeting-place was Orleans. On Thursday, the 9th of June, in the evening, Jeanne passed over the bridge she had crossed on the 8th of May. Saturday, the 11th, the army set out for Jargeau.[1185] It consisted of horse brought by the Duke of Alencon, the Count of Vendome, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, Captain La Hire, Messire Florent d'Illiers, Messire Jamet du Tillay, Messire Thudal de Kermoisan of Brittany, as well as of contingents furnished by the communes, in all, perhaps eight thousand combatants, many of whom were armed with pikes, axes, cross-bows and leaden mallets.[1186] The young Duke of Alencon was placed in command. He was not remarkable for his intelligence.[1187] But he knew how to ride, and in those days that was the only knowledge indispensable to a general. Again the people of Orleans defrayed the cost of the expedition. For the payment of the fighting men they contributed three thousand livres, for their feeding, seven hogsheads of corn. At their own request, the King imposed on them a new taille of three thousand livres.[1188] At their own expense they despatched workmen of all trades,--masons, carpenters, smiths. They lent their artillery. They sent culverins, cannons, La Bergere, and the large mortar to which four horses were harnessed, with the gunners Megret and Jean Boilleve.[1189] They furnished ammunition, engines, arrows, ladders, pickaxes, spades, mattocks; and all were marked, for they were a methodical folk. Everything for the siege was sent to the Maid. For in this undertaking she was the one commander they recognised, not the Duke of Alencon, not even the Bastard their own lord's noble brother. For the inhabitants of Orleans, Jeanne was the leader of the siege; and to Jeanne, before the besieged town, they despatched two of their citizens,--Jean Leclerc and Francois Joachim.[1190] After the citizens of Orleans, the Sire de Rais contributed most to the expenses of the siege of Jargeau.[1191] This unfortunate noble spent thoughtlessly right and left, while rich burgesses made great profits by lending to him at a high rate of interest. The sorry state of his affairs was shortly to bring him to attempt their readjustment by vowing his soul to the devil.

[Footnote 1185: Trial, vol. iii, p. 94; vol. iv, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1186: Mistere du siege, line 15,761. Journal du siege, p. 95. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 299. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 81. Monstrelet, vol. iii, p. 338.]

[Footnote 1187: See ante, p. 211. A. Duveau, Le jugement du duc d'Alencon, in Bull. soc. archeol. du Vendomois (1874), vol. xiii, pp. 132 et seq.]

[Footnote 1188: Loiseleur, Compte des depenses faites par Charles VII pour secourir Orleans, p. 158.]

[Footnote 1189: Journal du siege, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1190: Taken from the Book of Accounts, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 262, 263. A. de Villaret, Campagnes de Jeanne d'Arc sur la Loire, pp. 77-80. Loiseleur, Compte des depenses, p. 149.]

[Footnote 1191: Trial, vol. v, p. 261.]

The town of Jargeau, which was shortly to be taken after a severe siege, had surrendered to the English without resistance on the 5th of October in the previous year.[1192] The bridge leading to the town from the Beauce bank was furnished with two castlets.[1193] The town itself, surrounded by walls and towers, was not strongly fortified; but its means of defence had been improved by the English. Warned that the army of the French King was coming to besiege it, the Earl of Suffolk and his two brothers threw themselves into the town, with five hundred knights, squires, and other fighting men, as well as two hundred picked bowmen.[1194] The Duke of Alencon with six hundred horse was at the head of the force, and with him, the Maid. The first night they slept in the woods.[1195] On the morrow, at daybreak, my Lord the Bastard, my Lord Florent d'Illiers, and several other captains joined them. They were in a great hurry to reach Jargeau. Suddenly they hear that Sir John Fastolf is at hand, coming from Paris with two thousand combatants, bringing supplies and artillery to Jargeau.[1196]

[Footnote 1192: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 258.]

[Footnote 1193: Berry, in the Trial, vol. iv, p. 45.]

[Footnote 1194: Journal du siege, p. 96. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 299. Chronique de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 295. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 44. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 325.]

[Footnote 1195: Trial, vol. iii, p. 94. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150, 151.]

[Footnote 1196: Journal du siege, Chronique de la Pucelle, Berry, Jean Chartier, loc. cit. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 284. Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 452.]

This was the army which had been the cause of Jeanne's anxiety on the 4th of May, because her saints had not told her where Fastolf was. The captains held a council of war. Many thought the siege ought to be abandoned and that the army should go to meet Fastolf. Some actually went off at once. Jeanne exhorted the men-at-arms to continue their march on Jargeau. Where Sir John Fastolf's army was, she knew no more than the others; her reasons were not of this world.

"Be not afraid of any armed host whatsoever," she said, "and make no difficulty of attacking the English, for Messire leads you."

And again she said: "Were I not assured that Messire leads, I would rather be keeping sheep than running so great a danger."

She gained a better hearing from the Duke of Alencon than from any of the Orleans leaders.[1197] Those who had gone were recalled and the march on Jargeau was continued.[1198]

[Footnote 1197: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148, passim. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 300.]

[Footnote 1198: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The suburbs of the town appeared undefended; but, when the French King's men approached, they found the English posted in front of the outbuildings, wherefore they were compelled to retreat. When the Maid beheld this, she seized her standard and threw herself upon the enemy, calling on the fighting men to take courage. That night, the French King's men were able to encamp in the suburbs.[1199] They kept no watch, and yet from the Duke of Alencon's own avowal they would have been in great danger if the English had made a sally.[1200] The Maid's judgment was even more fully justified than she expected. Everything in her army depended upon the grace of God.

[Footnote 1199: The night of Friday, the 10th to 11th of June.]

[Footnote 1200: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The very next day, in the morning the besiegers brought their siege train and their mortars up to the walls. The Orleans cannon fired upon the town and did great damage. Three of La Bergere's volleys wrecked the greatest tower on the fortifications.[1201]

[Footnote 1201: Ibid. Journal du siege, p. 97.]

The train-bands reached Jargeau on Saturday, the 11th. Straightway, without staying to take counsel, they hastened to the trenches and began the assault. They were too zealous; consequently, they went badly to work, received no aid from the men-at-arms and were driven back in disorder.[1202]

[Footnote 1202: Perceval de Cagny, p. 150.]

On Saturday night, the Maid, who was accustomed to summon the enemy before fighting, approached the entrenchments, and cried out to the English: "Surrender the town to the King of Heaven and to King Charles, and depart, or it will be the worse for you."[1203]

[Footnote 1203: Ibid.]

To this summons the English paid no heed, albeit they had a great desire to come to some understanding. The Earl of Suffolk came to my Lord the Bastard, and told him that if he would refrain from the attack, the town should be surrendered to him. The English asked for a fortnight's respite, after which time, they would undertake to withdraw immediately, they and their horses, provided, doubtless, that by that time they had not been relieved.[1204] On both sides such conditional surrenders were common. The Sire de Baudricourt had signed one at Vaucouleurs just before Jeanne's arrival there.[1205] In this case it was mere trickery to ask the French to enter into such an agreement just when Sir John Fastolf was coming with artillery and supplies.[1206] It has been asserted that the Bastard was taken in this snare; but such a thing is incredible; he was far too wily for that. Nevertheless, on the morrow, which was Sunday and the 12th of the month, the Duke of Alencon and the nobles, who were holding a council concerning the measures for the capture of the town, were told that Captain La Hire was conferring with the Earl of Suffolk. They were highly displeased.[1207] Captain La Hire, who was not a general, could not treat in his own name, and had doubtless received powers from my Lord the Bastard. The latter commanded for the Duke, a prisoner in the hands of the English, while the Duke of Alencon commanded for the King; and hence the disagreement.

[Footnote 1204: Trial, vol. i, pp. 79, 95.]

[Footnote 1205: S. Luce, Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy, p. clxviii.]

[Footnote 1206: Journal du siege, Chronique de la Pucelle, J. Chartier, Monstrelet, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 1207: Trial, vol. iii, p. 95.]

The Maid, who was always ready to show mercy to prisoners when they surrendered and at the same time always ready to fight, said: "If they will, let them in their jackets of mail depart from Jargeau with their lives! If they will not, the town shall be stormed."[1208]

[Footnote 1208: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 79-80, 234.]

The Duke of Alencon, without even inquiring the terms of the capitulation, had Captain La Hire recalled.

He came, and straightway the ladders were brought. The heralds sounded the trumpets and cried: "To the assault."

The Maid unfurled her standard, and fully armed, wearing on her head one of those light helmets known as chapelines,[1209] she went down into the trenches with the King's men and the train-bands, well within reach of arrows and cannon-balls. She kept by the Duke of Alencon's side, saying: "Forward! fair duke, to the assault."

[Footnote 1209: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 97. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150-151.]

The Duke, who was not so courageous as she, thought that she went rather hastily to work; and this he gave her to understand.

Then she encouraged him: "Fear not. God's time is the right time. When He wills it you must open the attack. Go forward, He will prepare the way."

And seeing him lack confidence, she reminded him of the promise she had recently made concerning him in the Abbey of Saint-Florent-les-Saumur. "Oh! Fair Duke, can you be afraid? Do you not remember that I promised your wife to bring you back safe and sound?"[1210]

[Footnote 1210: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 95-96.]

In the thick of the attack, she noticed on the wall one of those long thin mortars, which, from the manner of its charging, was called a breechloader. Seeing it hurl stones on the very spot where the King's fair cousin was standing, she realised the danger, but not for herself. "Move away," she said quickly. "That cannon will kill you."

The Duke had not moved more than a few yards, when a nobleman of Anjou, the Sire Du Lude, having taken the place he had quitted, was killed by a ball from that same cannon.[1211] The Duke of Alencon marvelled at her prophetic gift. Doubtless the Maid had been sent to save him, but she had not been sent to save the Sire Du Lude. The angels of the Lord are sent for the salvation of some, for the destruction of others. When the French King's men reached the wall, the Earl of Suffolk cried out for a parley with the Duke of Alencon. No heed was paid to him and the assault continued.[1212]

[Footnote 1211: Ibid., pp. 96, 97. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 301. Journal du siege, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1212: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97.]

The attack had lasted four hours,[1213] when Jeanne, standard in hand, climbed up a ladder leaning against the rampart. A stone fired from a cannon struck her helmet and knocked it with its escutcheon, bearing her arms, off her head. They thought she was crushed, but she rose quickly and cried to the fighting men: "Up, friends, up! Messire has doomed the English. They are ours at this moment. Be of good cheer."[1214]

[Footnote 1213: Journal du siege, p. 100.]

[Footnote 1214: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97. Journal du siege, p. 98. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 301-302. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 150-151.]

The wall was scaled and the French King's men penetrated into the town. The English fled into La Beauce and the French rushed in pursuit of them. Guillaume Regnault, a squire of Auvergne, came up with the Earl of Suffolk on the bridge and took him prisoner.

"Are you a gentleman?" asked Suffolk.

"Yes."

"Are you a knight?"

"No."

The Earl of Suffolk dubbed him a knight and surrendered to him.[1215]

[Footnote 1215: Journal du siege, p. 99. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 302. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 82. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 65.]

Very soon the rumour ran that the Earl of Suffolk had surrendered on his knees to the Maid.[1216] It was even stated that he had asked to surrender to her as to the bravest lady in the world.[1217] But it is more likely that he would have surrendered to the lowest menial of the army rather than to a woman whom he held to be a witch possessed of the devil.

[Footnote 1216: Fragment of a letter concerning the wonders which happened in Poitou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 122.]

[Footnote 1217: Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 340. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 70. Trial, vol. v, pp. 121-122.]

John Pole, Suffolk's brother, was likewise taken on the bridge. The Duke's third brother, Alexander Pole, was slain in the same place or drowned in the Loire.[1218]

[Footnote 1218: Trial, vol. iii, p. 72. Perceval de Cagny, p. 151. Journal du siege, p. 99. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 128, 129.]

The garrison surrendered at discretion. Now, as always, no great harm was done during the battle, but afterwards the conquerors made up for it. Five hundred English were massacred; the nobles alone were held to ransom. And over them, the French fell to quarrelling. The French nobles kept them all for themselves; the train-bands claimed their share, and, not getting it, began to destroy everything. What the nobles could save was carried off during the night, by water, to Orleans. The town was completely sacked; the old church, which had served the Godons as a magazine, was pillaged.[1219]

[Footnote 1219: Journal du siege, p. 99.]

Including killed and wounded, the French had not lost twenty men.[1220]

[Footnote 1220: Perceval de Cagny, p. 151. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 302. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 82, 83. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 65.]

Without disarming, the Maid and the knights returned to Orleans. To celebrate the taking of Jargeau, the magistrates organised a public procession. An eloquent sermon was preached by a Jacobin monk, Brother Robert Baignart.[1221]

[Footnote 1221: Accounts of the town of Orleans at the end of Le Journal du siege, ed. Charpentier and Cuissard, p. 229. Le R.P. Chapotin, La guerre de cent ans, Jeanne d'Arc et les Dominicains, Paris, 1889, 8vo, p. 82.]

The inhabitants of Orleans presented the Duke of Alencon with six casks of wine, the Maid with four, the Count of Vendome with two.[1222]

[Footnote 1222: A. de Villaret, Campagne des Anglais, proofs and illustrations, p. 51.]

As an acknowledgment of the good and acceptable services rendered by the holy maiden, the councillors of the captive Duke Charles of Orleans, gave her a green cloak and a robe of crimson Flemish cloth or fine Brussels purple. Jean Luillier, who furnished the stuff, asked eight crowns for two ells of fine Brussels at four crowns the ell; two crowns for the lining of the robe; two crowns for an ell of yellowish green cloth, making in all twelve golden crowns.[1223] Jean Luillier was a young woollen draper who adored the Maid and regarded her as an angel of God. He had a good heart; but fear of the English dazzled him, and where they were concerned caused him to see double.[1224] One of his kinsfolk was a member of the council elected in 1429. He himself was to be appointed magistrate a little later.[1225]

[Footnote 1223: Trial, vol. v, pp. 112-113.]

[Footnote 1224: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 23.]

[Footnote 1225: Ibid., vol. v, p. 306.]

Jean Bourgeois, tailor, asked one golden crown for the making of the robe and the cloak, as well as for furnishing white satin, taffeta, and other stuffs.[1226]

[Footnote 1226: Ibid., pp. 112, 114.]

The town had previously given the Maid half an ell of cloth of two shades of green worth thirty-five sous of Paris to make "nettles" for her gown.[1227] Nettles were the Duke of Orleans' device, green or purple or crimson his colours.[1228] This green was no longer the bright colour of earlier days, it had gradually been growing darker as the fortunes of the house declined. It had first been a vivid green, then a brownish shade, and, finally, the tint of the faded leaf with a suggestion of black in it which signified sorrow and mourning. The Maid's colour was feuillemort. She, like the officers of the duchy and the men of the train-bands, wore the Orleans livery; and thus they made of her a kind of herald-at-arms or heraldic angel.

[Footnote 1227: Accounts of the Fortress, in Trial, vol. v, p. 259.]

[Footnote 1228: Trial, vol. v, pp. 106, 259. Catalogue des Arch. de Joursanvault, vol. i, p. 129, nos. 603, 607, 619, 645, 772. Dambreville, Abrege de l'histoire des ordres de chevalerie, p. 167. P. Mantellier, Histoire du siege, p. 92.]

The cloak of yellowish green and the robe embroidered with nettles, she must have been glad to wear for love of Duke Charles, whom the English had treated with such sore despite. Having come to defend the heritage of the captive prince, she said that in Jesus' name, the good Duke of Orleans was on her mind and she was confident that she would deliver him.[1229] Her design was first to summon the English to give him up; then, if they refused, to cross the sea and with an army to seek him in England.[1230] In case such means failed her, she had thought of another course which she would adopt, with the permission of her saints. She would ask the King if he would let her take prisoners, believing that she could take enough to exchange for Duke Charles.[1231] Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had promised her that thus his deliverance would take her less than three years and longer than one.[1232] Such were the pious dreams of a child lulled to sleep by the sound of her village bells! Deeming it just that she should labour and suffer to rescue her princes from trouble and weariness, she used to say, like a good servant: "I know that in matters of bodily ease God loves my King and the Duke of Orleans better than me; and I know it because it hath been revealed unto me."[1233]

[Footnote 1229: Trial, vol. i, p. 55, 258.]

[Footnote 1230: Ibid., p. 254.]

[Footnote 1231: Ibid., p. 133.]

[Footnote 1232: Ibid., pp. 133, 254.]

[Footnote 1233: Ibid., p. 258.]

Then, speaking of the captive duke she would say: "My Voices have revealed much to me concerning him. Duke Charles hath oftener been the subject of my revelations than any man living except my King."[1234]

[Footnote 1234: Ibid., p. 55.]

In reality, all that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had done was to tell her of the well-known misfortunes of the Prince. Valentine of Milan's son and Isabelle Romee's daughter were separated by a gulf broader and deeper than the ocean which stretched between them. They dwelt at the antipodes of the world of souls, and all the saints of Paradise would have been unable to explain one to the other.

All the same Duke Charles was a good prince and a debonair; he was kind and he was pitiful. More than any other he possessed the gift of pleasing. He charmed by his grace, albeit but ill-looking and of weak constitution.[1235] His temperament was so out of harmony with his position that he may be said to have endured his life rather than to have lived it. His father assassinated by night in the Rue Barbette in Paris by order of Duke John; his mother a perennial fount of tears, dying of anger and of grief in a Franciscan nunnery; the two S's, standing for Soupirs (sighs) and Souci (care), the emblems and devices of her mourning, revealing her ingenious mind fancifully elegant even in despair; the Armagnacs, the Burgundians, the Cabochiens, cutting each other's throats around him; these were the sights he had witnessed when little more than a child. Then he had been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Azincourt.

[Footnote 1235: Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr. 966, fol. 1.]

Now, for fourteen years, dragged from castle to castle, from one end to the other of the island of fogs; imprisoned within thick walls, closely guarded, receiving two or three of his countrymen at long intervals, but never permitted to converse with one except before witnesses, he felt old before his time, blighted by misfortune. "Fruit fallen in its greenness, I was put to ripen on prison straw. I am winter fruit,"[1236] he said of himself. In his captivity, he suffered without hope, knowing that on his death-bed Henry V had recommended his brother not to give him up at any price.[1237]

[Footnote 1236: Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. Guichard, 1842, in 12mo, p. 145.]

[Footnote 1237: A. Champollion-Figeac, Louis et Charles, ducs d'Orleans, leur influence sur les arts, la litterature et l'esprit de leur siecle, Paris, 1844, 1 vol. in 8vo, with an atlas, pp. 300-337.]

Kind to others, kind to himself, he took refuge in his own thoughts, which were as bright and clear as his life was dark and sad. In the gloom of the stern castles of Windsor and of Bolingbroke, in the Tower of London, side by side with his gaolers, he lived and moved in the world of phantasy of the Romance of the Rose. Venus, Cupid, Hope, Fair-Welcome, Pleasure, Pity, Danger, Sadness, Care, Melancholy, Sweet-Looks were around the desk, on which, in the deep embrasure of a window, beneath the sun's rays, he wrote his ballads, as delicate and fresh as an illumination on the page of a manuscript. For him it was the world of allegory that really existed. He wandered in the forest of Long Expectation; he embarked on the vessel Good Tidings. He was a poet; Beauty was his lady; and courteously did he sing of her. From his verses one would say that he was but the Captive of Lord Love.[1238]

[Footnote 1238: Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, 8vo. Pierre Champion, Le manuscrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans, Paris, 1907, 8vo.]

He was left in ignorance of the affairs of his duchy; and, if he ever concerned himself about it, it was when he collected the books of King Charles V which had been bought by the Duke of Bedford and resold to London merchants;[1239] or when he commanded that on the approach of the English to Blois, its fine tapestries and his father's library should be carried off to La Rochelle. After Beauty rich hangings and delicate miniatures were what he loved most in the world.[1240] The bright sunshine of France, the lovely month of May, dancing and ladies were what he longed for most. He was cured of prowess and of chivalry.

[Footnote 1239: L. Delisle, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V (1907), vol. i, p. 140.]

[Footnote 1240: Le Roux de Lincy, La bibliotheque de Charles d'Orleans a son chateau de Blois, en 1427, Paris, 1843, 8vo, pp. 5-7. Comte de Laborde, Les ducs de Bourgogne, etudes sur les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XV'e siecle, Paris, 1852, vol. iii, pp. 235 et seq.--Inventaires et documents relatifs aux joyaux et tapisseries des princes d'Orleans-Valois, Paris, 1894, 8vo.]

Some have wished to believe that from his duchy news reached him of the Maid's coming. They have gone so far as to imagine that a faithful servant kept him informed of the happy incidents of May and June, 1429;[1241] but nothing is less certain. On the contrary, the probability is that the English refused to let him receive any message, and that he was totally ignorant of all that was going on in the two kingdoms.[1242]

[Footnote 1241: Chronique de la Pucelle, Introduction by Vallet de Viriville, pp. 8, 19 et seq.]

[Footnote 1242: With regard to the year 1433, this is well established (Poesies completes de Charles d'Orleans, ed. Charles d'Hericault, Paris, 1874, 2 vols. 8vo, introduction).]

Possibly he did not care for news of the war as much as one might expect. He hoped nothing from men-at-arms; and it was not to his fair cousins of France and to feats of prowess and battles that he looked for deliverance. He knew too much about them. It was in peace that he put his trust, both for himself and for his people. Since the fathers were dead, he thought that the sons might forgive and forget. He placed his hope in his cousin of Burgundy; and he was right, for the fortunes of the English were in the hands of Duke Philip. Charles brought himself, or at any rate he was to bring himself later, to recognise the suzerainty of the King of England. It is less important to consider the weakness of men than the force of circumstances. And the prisoner could never do enough to obtain peace: "joy's greatest treasure."[1243]

[Footnote 1243: Poesies de Charles d'Orleans, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, pp. 175-176.]

No, despite her revelations, the picture Jeanne imagined of her fair Duke was not the true one. They were never to meet; but if they had met there would have been serious misunderstandings between them, and they would have remained incomprehensible one to the other. Jeanne's elemental, straight-forward way of thinking could never have accorded with the ideas of so great a noble and so courteous a poet. They could never have understood each other because she was simple, he subtle; because she was a prophetess while he was filled with courtly knowledge and lettered grace; because she believed, and he was as one not believing; because she was a daughter of the common folk and a saint ascribing all sovereignty to God, while for him law consisted in feudal uses and customs, alliances and treaties;[1244] because, in short, they held conflicting ideas concerning life and the world. The Maid's mission, her being sent by Messire to recover his duchy for him, would never have appealed to the good Duke; and Jeanne would never have understood his behaviour towards his English and Burgundian cousins. It was better they should never meet.

[Footnote 1244: For him every treaty of peace was a good treaty, even that of 1420, the Treaty of Troyes (Pierre Champion, Le manuscrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans, Paris, 1907, 8vo, p. 32).]

The capture of Jargeau had given the French control of the upper Loire. In order to free the city of Orleans from all danger, it was necessary to make sure of the banks of the lower river. There the English still held Meung and Beaugency. On Tuesday, the 14th of June, at the hour of vespers, the army took the field.[1245]

[Footnote 1245: Perceval de Cagny, p. 152: "Je veux demain, apres diner, aller voir ceux de Meung." ["To-morrow after dinner I will go to the people of Meung."] The turn of expression which this chronicle attributes to Jeanne is really that of the clerk who wrote it.]

They passed through La Sologne, and that same evening gained the Bridge of Meung, situated above the town and separated from its walls by a broad meadow. Like most bridges, it was defended by a castlet at each end; and the English had provided it with an earthen outwork, as they had done for Les Tourelles at Orleans.[1246] They defended it badly, however, and the French King's men forced their way in before nightfall. They left a garrison there, and went out to encamp in Beauce, almost under the walls. The young Duke of Alencon lodged in a church with a few men-at-arms; and, as was his wont, did not keep watch. He was surprised and ran great danger.[1247]

[Footnote 1246: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 305. Journal du siege, p. 101. Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 44. Walter Bower, Scotichronicon, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 176.]

[Footnote 1247: Trial, vol. iii, p. 97.]

The town garrison, which was a small one, was commanded by Lord Scales, and "the Child of Warwick." The next day, early in the morning, the King's men, passing within a cannon shot of the town of Meung, marched straight on Beaugency, which they reached in the morning.[1248]

[Footnote 1248: Ibid., pp. 97, 98.]

The ancient little town, built on the side of a hill and girt around with vineyards, gardens, and cornfields, sloped before them towards the green valley of the Ru. Straight in front of them rose its square tower of somewhat proud aspect, although it had oftentimes been taken. The suburbs were not fortified; but the French, when they entered them, were riddled by a shower of arrows of every kind, fired by archers concealed in dwellings and outhouses. On both sides there were killed and wounded. Finally, the English retreated into the castle and the bridge bastions.[1249]

[Footnote 1249: Journal du siege, p. 101. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 304. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 83.]

The Duke of Alencon stationed sentinels in front of the castle to watch the English. Just then, he saw coming towards him, two nobles of Brittany, the Lords of Rostrenen and of Kermoisan, who said to him: "The Constable asks the besiegers for entertainment."[1250]

[Footnote 1250: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 97, 98. Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 70.]

Arthur of Brittany, Sire de Richemont, Constable of France, had spent the winter in Poitou waging war against the troops of the Sire de La Tremouille. Now in defiance of the King's prohibition the Constable came to join the King's men.[1251] He had crossed the Loire at Amboise and arrived before Beaugency with six hundred men-at-arms and four hundred archers.[1252] His coming caused the captains great embarrassment. Some esteemed him a man of strong will and great courage. But many were dependent upon the Sire de La Tremouille, as for example the poor squire, Jean d'Aulon. The Duke of Alencon wanted to retreat, alleging that the King had commanded him not to receive the Constable.

[Footnote 1251: E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 93 et seq.]

[Footnote 1252: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 315, 516. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 84. Journal du siege, pp. 101, 102. Perceval de Cagny, p. 153.]

"If the Constable comes, I shall retire," he said to Jeanne.

To the Breton nobles he replied, that if the Constable came into the camp, the Maid, and the besiegers would fight against him.[1253]

[Footnote 1253: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, p. 168.]

So decided was he that he mounted his horse to ride straight up to the Bretons. The Maid, out of respect for him and for the King, was preparing to follow him. But many of the captains restrained the Duke of Alencon[1254] deeming that now was not the time to break a lance with the Constable of France.

[Footnote 1254: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, pp. 70 et seq.]

On the morrow a loud alarm was sounded in the camp. The heralds were crying: "To arms!" The English were said to be approaching in great numbers. The young Duke still wanted to retreat in order to avoid receiving the Constable. This time Jeanne dissuaded him: "We must stand together," she said.[1255]

[Footnote 1255: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98.]

He listened to this counsel and went forth to meet the Constable, followed by the Maid, my Lord the Bastard, and the Lords of Laval. Near the leper's hospital at Beaugency they encountered a fine company. As they approached, a thick-lipped little man, dark and frowning, alighted from his horse.[1256] It was Arthur of Brittany. The Maid embraced his knees as she was accustomed to do when holding converse with the great ones of heaven and earth. Thus did every baron when he met one nobler than himself.[1257]

[Footnote 1256: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 71. Cf. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, pp. 169, 583. See a drawing in the Gaignieres collection reproduced by J. Lair, Essai sur la bataille de Formigny, 1903, 8vo.]

[Footnote 1257: Lors le saluerent et le vinrent accoller par les jambes. (Then they saluted him and embraced his knees.) J. de Bueil, Le Jouvencel, vol. i, p. 191.]

The Constable spoke to her as a good Catholic, a devout servant of God and the Church, saying: "Jeanne, I have heard that you wanted to fight against me. Whether you are sent by God I know not. If you are I do not fear you. For God knows that my heart is right. If you are sent by the devil I fear you still less."[1258]

[Footnote 1258: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, pp. 71-72. I have here followed Gruel, who is not generally very trustworthy, but whose account in this particular seems probable, at least he is no mere hagiographer.]

He was entitled to speak thus, for he made a point of never acknowledging the devil's power over him. His love of God he showed by seeking out wizards and witches with a greater zeal than was displayed by bishops and inquisitors. In France, in Poitou, and in Brittany he had sent more to the stake than any other man living.[1259]

[Footnote 1259: Ibid., p. 228.]

The Duke of Alencon dared not either dismiss him or grant him a lodging for the night. It was the custom for new comers to keep the watch. The Constable with his company kept watch that night in front of the castle.[1260]

[Footnote 1260: Ibid., p. 72. E. Cosneau, Le connetable de Richemont, p. 170.]

Without more ado the young Duke of Alencon proceeded to the attack. Here, again, those who bore the brunt of the attack and provided for the siege were the citizens of Orleans. The magistrates of the town had sent by water from Meung to Beaugency the necessary siege train, ladders, pickaxes, mattocks, and those great pent-houses beneath which the besiegers protected themselves like tortoises under their shells. They had sent also cannons and mortars. The gay gunner, Master Jean de Montesclere, was there.[1261] All these supplies were addressed to the Maid. The magistrate, Jean Boilleve, brought bread and wine in a barge.[1262] Throughout Friday, the 7th, mortars and cannon hurled stones on the besieged. At the same time from the valley and from the river the attack was being made from barges. On the 17th of June, at midnight, Sir Richard Gethyn, Bailie of Evreux, who commanded the garrison, offered to capitulate. It was agreed that the English should surrender the castle and bridge, and depart on the morrow, taking with them horses and harness with each man his property to the value of not more than one silver mark. Further, they were required to swear that they would not take up arms again before the expiration of ten days. On these terms, the next day, at sunrise, to the number of five hundred, they crossed the drawbridge and retreated on Meung, where the castle, but not the bridge, remained in the hands of the English.[1263] The Constable wisely sent a few men to reinforce the garrison on the Meung Bridge.[1264] Sir Richard Gethyn and Captain Matthew Gough were detained as hostages.[1265]

[Footnote 1261: Journal du siege, p. 97. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 301.]

[Footnote 1262: A. de Villaret, Campagne des Anglais, pp. 87-88, and proofs and illustrations, pp. 153, 158.]

[Footnote 1263: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 305. Journal du siege, p. 102. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 84. Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, pp. 279, 282. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 325 et seq.]

[Footnote 1264: Gruel, Chronique de Richemont, p. 72.]

[Footnote 1265: Wavrin du Forestel, Anciennes chroniques, vol. i, p. 279.]

The Beaugency garrison had been in too great haste to surrender. Scarce had it gone when a man-at-arms of Captain La Hire's company came to the Duke of Alencon saying: "The English are marching upon us. We shall have them in front of us directly. They are over there, full one thousand fighting men."

Jeanne heard him speak but did not seize his meaning.

"What is that man-at-arms saying?" she asked.

And when she knew, turning to Arthur of Brittany, who was close by, she said: "Ah! Fair Constable, it was not my will that you should come, but since you are here, I bid you welcome."[1266]

[Footnote 1266: Trial, vol. iii, p. 98.]

The force the French had to face was Sir John Talbot and Sir John Fastolf with the whole English army.