[Footnote 1499: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 322, note 1. C. Leber, Des ceremonies du sacre ou Recherches historiques et antiques sur les moeurs, les coutumes, les institutions et le droit public des Francais dans l'ancienne monarchie, Paris-Reims, 1825, in 8vo. A. Lenoble, Histoire du sacre et du couronnement des rois et des reines de France, Paris, 1825, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1500: "Et si ipse expectasset habuisset unam coronam millesies ditiorem," Trial, vol. i, p. 91. Varin, Archives de Reims, vol. iii, pp. 559 et seq.]

Kings were anointed with oil, because oil signifies renown, glory, and wisdom. In the morning the Sires de Rais, de Boussac, de Graville and de Culant were deputed by the King to go and fetch the Holy Ampulla.[1501]

[Footnote 1501: Journal du siege, p. 113. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 321. Varin, Archives de Reims, vol. ii, p. 569; vol. iii, p. 555.]

It was a crystal flask which the Grand Prior of Saint-Remi kept in the tomb of the Apostle, behind the high altar of the Abbey Church. This flask contained the sacred chrism with which the Blessed Remi had anointed King Clovis. It was enclosed in a reliquary in the form of a dove, because the Holy Ghost in the semblance of a dove had been seen descending with the oil for the anointing of the first Christian King.[1502] Of a truth in ancient books it was written that an angel had come down from heaven with the miraculous ampulla,[1503] but men were not disturbed by such inconsistencies, and among Christian folk no one doubted that the sacred chrism was possessed of miraculous power. For example, it was known that with use the oil became no less, that the flask remained always full, as a premonition and a pledge that the kingdom of France would endure for ever. According to the observation of witnesses, at the time of the coronation of the late King Charles, the oil had not diminished after the anointing.[1504]

[Footnote 1502: Trial, vol. v, p. 129. In 1483, when Louis XI was dying, he had it brought from Reims to Plessis, "and it was upon his sideboard at the very time of his death, and his intent was to receive the same anointing he had received at his coronation, wherefore many believed that he wished to anoint his whole body, which would have been impossible, for the said Ampulla is very small and contains little. I see it at this moment." Commynes, bk. vi, ch. 9.]

[Footnote 1503: Flodoard, Hist. ecclesiae Remensis, in Coll. Guizot, vol. v, pp. 41 et seq. Eustache Deschamps, Ballade 172, vol. i, p. 305; vol. ii, p. 104. Dom Marlot, Histoire de la ville de Reims, vol. ii, p. 48, note 1. Vertot, in Academie des Inscriptions, vol. ii.]

[Footnote 1504: Froissart, book ii, ch. lxxiv.]

At nine o'clock in the morning Charles of Valois entered the church with a numerous retinue. The king-at-arms of France called by name the twelve peers of the realm to come before the high altar. Of the six lay peers not one replied. In their places came the Duke of Alencon, the Counts of Clermont and of Vendome, the Sires de Laval, de La Tremouille, and de Maille.

Of the six ecclesiastical peers, three replied to the summons of the king-at-arms,—the Archbishop Duke of Reims, the Bishop Count of Chalons, the Bishop Duke of Laon. For the missing bishops of Langres and Noyon were substituted those of Seez and Orleans. In the absence of Arthur of Brittany, Constable of France, the sword was held by Charles, Sire d'Albret.[1505]

[Footnote 1505: Letters from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 127, 129. Monstrelet, vol. iv, ch. lxiv. Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 343. Chronique de Tournai (vol. iii of the Recueil des chroniques de Flandre), p. 414. Gallia Christiana, vol. ix, col. 551; vol. xi, col. 698.]

In front of the altar was Charles of Valois, wearing robes open on the chest and shoulders. He swore, first, to maintain the peace and privileges of the Church; second, to preserve his people from exactions and not to burden them too heavily; third, to govern with justice and mercy.[1506]

[Footnote 1506: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 322, note 1.]

From his cousin d'Alencon he received the arms of a knight.[1507] Then the Archbishop anointed him with the holy oil, with which the Holy Ghost makes strong priests, kings, prophets and martyrs. So this new Samuel consecrated the new Saul, making manifest that all power is of God, and that, according to the example set by David, kings are pontiffs, the ministers and the witnesses of the Lord. This pouring out of the oil, with which the Kings of Israel were anointed, had rendered the kings of most Christian France burning and shining lights since the time of Charlemagne, yea, even since the days of Clovis; for though it was baptism and confirmation rather than anointing that Clovis received at the hands of the Blessed Saint Remi, yet he was anointed Christian and King by the blessed bishop, and at the same time and with that same holy oil which God himself had sent to this prince and to his successors.[1508]

[Footnote 1507: Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. Journal du siege, p. 114. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 322. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 97.]

[Footnote 1508: Chifletius, De ampula Remensi nova et acurata disquisitio, Antwerp, 1651, in 4to.]

And Charles received the anointing, the sign of power and victory, for it is written in the Book of Samuel:[1509] "And Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, 'Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance and to deliver his people from their enemies round about. Ecce unxit te Dominus super hereditatem suam in principem, et liberabis populum suum de manibus inimicorum ejus, qui in circuitu ejus sunt.'" (Reg. 1. x. 1. 6.)

[Footnote 1509: The first book of Kings according to the Vulgate (W.S.).]

During the mystery, as it was called in the old parlance,[1510] the Maid stayed by the King's side. Her white banner, before which the ancient standard of Chandos had retreated, she held for a moment unfurled. Then others in their turn held her standard, her page Louis de Coutes, who never left her, and Friar Richard the preacher, who had followed her to Chalons and to Reims.[1511] In one of her dreams she had lately given a crown to the King; she was looking for this crown to be brought into the church by heavenly messengers.[1512] Did not saints commonly receive crowns from angels' hands? To Saint Cecilia an angel offered a crown with garlands of roses and lilies. To Catherine, the Virgin, an angel gave an imperishable crown, which she placed upon the head of the Empress of Rome. But the crown curiously rich and magnificent that Jeanne looked for came not.[1513]

[Footnote 1510: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 129. F. Boyer, Variante inedite d'un document sur le sacre de Charles VII, Clermont and Orleans, 1881.]

[Footnote 1511: Trial, vol. i, pp. 104, 300. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 322. Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 129. Varin, D. Marlot, H. Jadart, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 1512: Trial, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1513: See post, vol. i, p. 476.]

From the altar the Archbishop took the crown of no great value provided by the chapter, and with both hands raised it over the King's head. The twelve peers, in a circle round the prince, stretched forth their arms to hold it. The trumpets blew and the folk cried: "Noel."[1514]

[Footnote 1514: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 129.]

Thus was anointed and crowned Charles of France issue of the royal line of Priam, great Troy's noble King.

Two hours after noon the mystery came to an end.[1515] We are told that then the Maid knelt low before the King, and, weeping said:

[Footnote 1515: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 181. Letter from three noblemen, loc. cit.]

"Fair King, now is God's pleasure accomplished. It was His will that I should raise the siege of Orleans and bring you to this city of Reims to receive your holy anointing, making manifest that you are the true King and he to whom the realm of France should belong."[1516]

[Footnote 1516: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 322, 323. Journal du siege, p. 114.]

The King made the customary gifts. To the Chapter he presented hangings of green satin as well as ornaments of red velvet and white damask. Moreover, he placed upon the altar a silver vase with thirteen golden crowns. Regardless of the claims asserted by the canons, the Lord Archbishop took possession of it, but it profited him little, for he had to give it up.[1517] After the ceremony King Charles put the crown on his head and over his shoulders the royal mantle, blue as the sky, flowered with lilies of gold; and on his charger he passed down the streets of Reims city. The people in great joy cried, "Noel!" as they had cried when my Lord the Duke of Burgundy entered. On that day the Sire de Rais was made marshal of France and the Sire de la Tremouille count. The eldest of Madame de Laval's two sons, he to whom the Maid had offered wine at Selles-en-Berry, was likewise made count. Captain La Hire received the county of Longueville with such parts of Normandy as he could conquer.[1518]

[Footnote 1517: Dom Marlot, Histoire de la ville de Reims, vol. iv, p. 175. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, p. 107.]

[Footnote 1518: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 322. Journal du siege, p. 114. Perceval de Cagny, p. 159. Letter of three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 129. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 97. Vallet de Viriville, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. ii, p. 99, note 2.]

King Charles dined in the archiepiscopal palace in the ancient hall of Tau, and was served by the Duke of Alencon and the Count of Clermont.[1519] As was customary, the royal table extended into the street, and there was feasting throughout the town. It was a day of free drinking and fraternity. In the houses, at the doors, by the wayside, folk made good cheer, and the kitchens were busy; there were that day consumed oxen in dozens, sheep in hundreds, chicken and rabbits in thousands. Folk stuffed themselves with spices, and (for it was a thirsty day) they quaffed full many a beaker of wine of Burgundy, and especially of that wine of delicate flavour that comes from Beaune. At every coronation the ancient stag, made of bronze and hollow, which stood in the courtyard of the archiepiscopal palace was carried into the Rue du Parvis; it was filled with wine and the people drank from it as from a fountain. Finally the burgesses and all the inhabitants of Blessed Saint Remi's city, rich and poor alike, stuffed and satiated with good wine, having howled "Noel!" till they were hoarse, fell asleep over the wine-casks and the victuals, the remains of which were to be a cause of bitter dispute between the grim aldermen and the King's men on the morrow.[1520]

[Footnote 1519: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, p. 32.]

[Footnote 1520: Thirion, Les frais du sacre, in Travaux de l'Academie de Reims, 1894. Dom Marlot, Histoire de la ville de Reims, vol. iv, p. 45, n. 1. Varin, Arch. adm. de la ville de Reims, vol. iii, p. 39.]

Jacques d'Arc had come to see the coronation for which his daughter had so zealously laboured. He lodged at the Sign of L'Ane Raye in the Rue du Parvis in a hostelry kept by Alix, widow of Raulin Morieau. As well as his daughter, he saw once more his son Pierre.[1521] The cousin, whom Jeanne called uncle and who had accompanied her to Vaucouleurs to Sire Robert, had likewise come hither to the coronation. He spoke to the King and told him all he knew of his cousin.[1522] At Reims also Jeanne found her young fellow-countryman, Husson Le Maistre, coppersmith of the village of Varville, about seven miles from Domremy. She did not know him; but he had heard tell of her, and he was very familiar with Jacques and Pierre d'Arc.[1523]

[Footnote 1521: Trial, vol. iii, p. 198; vol. v, pp. 141, 266. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, pp. 47, 48. L'abbe Cerf, Le vieux Reims, 1875, pp. 35 and 110.]

[Footnote 1522: Trial, vol. ii, p. 445.]

[Footnote 1523: Ibid., vol. iii, p. 198.]

Jacques d'Arc was one of the notables and perhaps the best business man of his village.[1524] It was not merely to see his daughter riding through the streets in man's attire that he had come to Reims. He had come doubtless for himself and on behalf of his village to ask the King for an exemption from taxation. This request, presented to the King by the Maid, was granted. On the 31st of the month the King decreed that the inhabitants of Greux and of Domremy should be free from all tailles, aids, subsidies, and subventions.[1525] Out of the public funds the magistrates of the town paid Jacques d'Arc's expenses, and when he was about to depart they gave him a horse to take him home.[1526]

[Footnote 1524: S. Luce, Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy, pp. 1 et seq.; proofs and illustrations no. li, pp. 97, 100; supplement, pp. 359, 362. Boucher de Molandon, Jacques d'Arc, pere de la Pucelle, sa notabilite personnelle, Orleans, 1885, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 1525: Trial, vol. v, pp. 137, 139. In the royal records this privilege is described as having been granted at Jeanne's request; in such a request we cannot fail to discern the influence of her father.]

[Footnote 1526: Ibid., pp. 141, 266, 267.]

During the five or six days she spent at Reims the Maid appeared frequently before the townsfolk. The poor and humble came to her; good wives took her by the hand and touched their rings with hers.[1527] On her finger she wore a little ring made of a kind of brass, sometimes called electrum.[1528] Electrum was said to be the gold of the poor. In place of a stone the ring had a collet inscribed with the words "Jhesus Maria" with three crosses. Oftentimes she reverently fixed her gaze upon it, for once she had had it touched by Saint Catherine.[1529] And that the Saint should have actually touched it was not incredible, seeing that some years before, in 1413, Sister Colette, who was vowed to virginal chastity, had received from the Virgin apostle a rich golden ring, as a sign of her spiritual marriage with the King of Kings. Sister Colette permitted the nuns and monks of her order to touch this ring, and she confided it to the messengers she sent to distant lands to preserve them from perils by the way.[1530] The Maid ascribed great powers to her ring, albeit she never used it to heal the sick.[1531]

[Footnote 1527: Ibid., p. 103.]

[Footnote 1528: Du Cange, Glossarium, under the words Auriacum, electrum, and leto. Vallet de Viriville, Les anneaux de Jeanne d'Arc, in Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de France, vol. xxx, January, 1867.]

[Footnote 1529: Trial, vol. i, pp. 185, 238. Walter Bower, ibid., vol. iv, p. 480.]

[Footnote 1530: Sanctissimae virginis Coletae vita, Paris, in 8vo, black letter, undated, leaf 8 on the reverse side. Bollandistes, Acta sanctorum, March, vol. i, p. 611.]

[Footnote 1531: Trial, vol. i, pp. 86, 87.]

She was expected to render those trifling services which it was usual to ask from holy folk and sometimes from magicians. Before the coronation ceremony the nobles and knights had been given gloves, according to the custom. One of them lost his; he asked the Maid to find them, or others asked her for him. She did not promise to do it; notwithstanding the matter became known, and various interpretations were placed upon it.[1532]

[Footnote 1532: Ibid., p. 104. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, p. 37.]

After the King's coronation, jostled by the crowd in the Rue du Parvis, one can imagine some thoughtful clerk raising his eyes to the glorious facade of the Cathedral, that Bible in stone, already appearing ancient to men, who, knowing naught of the chronicles, measured time by the span of human existence. Such a clerk would have certainly beheld on the left of the pointed arch above the rose window the colossal image of Goliath rising proudly in his coat of mail, and that same figure repeated on the right of the arch in the attitude of a man tottering and ready to fall.[1533] Then this clerk must have remembered what is written in the first book of Kings:[1534]

[Footnote 1533: "These figures (Goliath and David) must have been sculptured at the end of the 13th century." (L. Demaison, Notice historique sur la cathedrale de Reims, s.d. in 4to, p. 44.) The date of the rose window is 1280 (H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, p. 44).]

[Footnote 1534: According to the Vulgate. First book of Samuel according to the Authorized Version (W.S.).]

"And there went out a man base-born from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Geth, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head and he was clothed with a coat of mail with scales; and the weight of his coat of mail was five thousand sicles of brass. And standing he cried out to the bands of Israel and said to them: I bring reproach unto the armies of Israel. Choose out a man of you, and let him come down and fight hand to hand.

"Now David had gone to feed his Father's sheep at Bethlehem. But he arose in the morning and gave the charge of the flock to the keeper. And he came to the place of Magala and to the army which was going out to fight. And, seeing Goliath, he asked: 'Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'

"And the words which David spoke, were rehearsed before Saul; and he sent for him. David said to Saul, 'Let not any man's heart be dismayed in him; I, thy servant, will go and fight against this Philistine.' And Saul said to David 'Thou art not able to withstand this Philistine nor to fight against him; for thou art but a boy, but he is a warrior from his youth.' And David made answer, 'I will go against him and I will take away the reproach from Israel.' Then Saul said to David, 'Go and the Lord be with thee.'

"And David took his staff which he had always in his hands, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and he took a sling in his hand; and went forth against the Philistine.

"And when the Philistine looked and beheld David, he despised him. For he was a young man, and ruddy, and of a comely countenance. And the Philistine said to David: 'Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with a staff?' Then said David to the Philistine: 'Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand that all the earth may know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for it is his battle, and he will deliver you into our hands.'

"And when the Philistine arose and was coming and drew nigh to meet David, David made haste and ran to the fight to meet the Philistine. And he put his hand into his scrip and took a stone, and cast it with the sling and fetching it about struck the Philistine in the forehead, and the stone was fixed in his forehead and he fell on his face upon the earth."[1535]

[Footnote 1535: 1 Samuel xvii. Where the author quotes direct from the Vulgate the translator has followed the Douai version (W.S.).]

Then the clerk, meditating on these words of the Book, would reflect how God, the Unchanging, who saved Israel and struck down Goliath by the sling of a shepherd lad, had raised up the daughter of a husbandman for the deliverance of the most Christian realm and the reproach of the Leopard.[1536]

[Footnote 1536: See the coronation of David and that of Louis XII by an unknown painter, about 1498, in the Cluny Museum. H. Bouchot, L'exposition des primitifs francais. La peinture en France sous les Valois, book ii, figure C.]

From Gien, about June the 27th, the Maid had had a letter written to the Duke of Burgundy, calling upon him to come to the King's anointing. Having received no reply, on the day of the coronation she dictated a second letter to the Duke. Here it is:

[cross symbol] JHESUS MARIA

"High and greatly to be feared Prince, Duke of Burgundy, Jehanne the Maid, in the name of the King of Heaven, her rightful and liege lord, requires you and the King of France to make a good peace which shall long endure. Forgive one another heartily and entirely as becometh good Christians; an if it please you to make war, go ye against the Saracens. Prince of Burgundy, I pray you, I entreat you, I beseech you as humbly as lieth in my power, that ye make war no more against the holy realm of France, and that forthwith and speedily ye withdraw those your men who are in any strongholds and fortresses of the said holy kingdom; and in the name of the fair King of France, he is ready to make peace with you, saving his honour if that be necessary. And in the name of the King of Heaven, my Sovereign liege Lord, for your good, your honour and your life, I make known unto you, that ye will never win in battle against the loyal French and that all they who wage war against the holy realm of France, will be warring against King Jhesus, King of Heaven and of the world, my lawful liege lord. And with clasped hands I beseech and entreat you that ye make no battle nor wage war against us, neither you, nor your people, nor your subjects; and be assured that whatever number of folk ye bring against us, they will gain nothing, and it will be sore pity for the great battle and the blood that shall be shed of those that come against us. And three weeks past, I did write and send you letters by a herald, that ye should come to the anointing of the King, which to-day, Sunday, the 17th day of this present month, is made in the city of Reims: to which letter I have had no answer, neither news of the said herald. To God I commend you; may he keep you, if it be his will; and I pray God to establish good peace. Written from the said place of Reims, on the said seventeenth of July."

Addressed: "to the Duke of Burgundy."[1537]

[Footnote 1537: Trial, vol. v, pp. 126-127. Hennebert, Une lettre de Jeanne d'Arc aux Tournaisiens in Arch. hist. et litt. du nord de la France et du midi de la Belgique, nouv. serie, vol. i, 1837, p. 525. Facsimile in l'Album des archives departementales, no. 123.]

Had Saint Catherine of Sienna been at Reims she would not have written otherwise. Albeit the Maid liked not the Burgundians, in her own way she realized forcibly how desirable was peace with the Duke of Burgundy. With clasped hands she entreats him to cease making war against France. "An it please you to make war then go ye against the Saracens." Already she had counselled the English to join the French and go on a crusade. The destruction of the infidel was then the dream of gentle peace-loving souls; and many pious folk believed that the son of the knight, who had been vanquished at Nicopolis, would make the Turks pay dearly for their former victory.[1538]

[Footnote 1538: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 82, 83. Eberhard Windecke, p. 61, note 9, p. 108. Christine de Pisan, in Trial, vol. v, p. 416. Jorga, Notes et extraits pour servir a l'histoire des croisades au XV'e siecle, Paris, 1889-1902. 3 vols. in 8vo.]

In this letter, the Maid, in the name of the King of Heaven, tells Duke Philip that if he fight against the King, he will be conquered. Her voices had foretold to her the victory of France over Burgundy; they had not revealed to her that at the very moment when she was dictating her letter the ambassadors of Duke Philip were at Reims; that was so, notwithstanding.[1539]

[Footnote 1539: Memoires du Pape Pie II, in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 514, 515. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 190.]

Esteeming King Charles, master of Champagne, to be a prince worthy of consideration, Duke Philip sent to Reims, David de Brimeu, Bailie of Artois, at the head of an embassy, to greet him and open negotiations for peace.[1540] The Burgundians received a hearty welcome from the Chancellor and the Council. It was hoped that peace would be concluded before their departure. The Angevin lords announced it to their queens, Yolande and Marie.[1541] By so doing they showed how little they knew the consummate old fox of Dijon. The French were not strong enough yet, neither were the English weak enough. It was agreed that in August an embassy should be sent to the Duke of Burgundy in the town of Arras. After four days negotiation, a truce for fifteen days was signed and the embassy left Reims.[1542] At the same time, the Duke at Paris solemnly renewed his complaint against Charles of Valois, his father's assassin, and undertook to bring an army to the help of the English.[1543]

[Footnote 1540: Trial, vol. iv, pp. 514, 515. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 340. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, p. 37. Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 130. Third account of Jean Abonnel in De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. ii, p. 404, no. 3.]

[Footnote 1541: Letter from three noblemen of Anjou, in Trial, vol. v, p. 130.]

[Footnote 1542: The 20th or 21st. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 348 et seq. De Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. II, pp. 404 et seq.]

[Footnote 1543: Falconbridge, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 455. Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, pp. 240, 241. Stevenson, Letters and papers, vol. ii, pp. 101 et seq. Rymer, Foedera, vol. iv, part iv, p. 150.]

Leaving Antoine de Hellande, nephew of the Duke-Archbishop[1544] to command Reims, the King of France departed from the city on the 20th of July and went to Saint-Marcoul-de-Corbeny, where on the day after their coronation, the Kings were accustomed to touch for the evil.[1545]

[Footnote 1544: Archives de Reims, Municipal Accounts, vol. i, years 1428-29. Trial, vol. v, p. 141. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, p. 51.]

[Footnote 1545: Trial, vol. iii, p. 199. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 323. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 97. Journal du siege, p. 114. Martial d'Auvergne, Vigiles, vol. i, p. 111.]

Saint Marcoul cured the evil.[1546] He was of royal race, but his power, manifested long after his death, came to him especially from his name, and it was believed that Saint Marcoul was able to cure those afflicted with marks on the neck, as Saint Clare was to give sight to the blind, and Saint Fort to give strength to children. The King of France shared with him the power of healing scrofula; and as the power came to him from the holy oil brought down from heaven by a dove, it was thought that this virtue would be more effectual at the time of the anointing, all the more because by lewdness, disobedience to the Christian Church, and other irregularities, he stood in danger of losing it. That is what had happened to King Philippe I.[1547] The Kings of England touched for the evil; notably King Edward III worked wondrous cures on scrofulous folk who were covered with scars. For these reasons scrofula was called Saint Marcoul's evil or King's evil. Virgins as well as kings could cure this royal malady.

[Footnote 1546: Gallia Christ: ix, pp, 239, 51 [Transcriber's Note: so in original; does not match other citations to this work]. Le Poulle, Notice sur Corbeny, son prieure, et le pelerinage de Saint-Marcoul, Soissons, 1883, 8vo. E. de Barthelemy, Notice historique sur le pelerinage de Saint-Marcoul et Corbeny, in Ann. Soc. Acad. de Saint-Quentin, 1878.]

[Footnote 1547: A. Du Laurent, De mirabili strumas sanandi vi solis regibus Galliarum christianissimis divinitus concessa liber, Paris, 1607, 8vo. Cerf, Du toucher des ecrouelles par le roi de France, in Trav. Acad. de Reims, 1865-1867. Dom Marlot, Histoire de la ville de Reims, vol. iii, pp. 196 et seq.]

King Charles worshipped and presented offerings at the shrine of Saint Marcoul, and there touched for the evil. At Corbeny he received the submission of the town of Laon. Then, on the morrow, the 22nd, he went off to a little stronghold in the valley of the Aisne, called Vailly, which belonged to the Archbishop Duke of Reims. At Vailly he received the submission of the town of Soissons.[1548] In the words of an Armagnac prophet of the time: "the keys of the war gates knew the hands that had forged them."[1549]

[Footnote 1548: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 323, 324. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 98. Journal du siege, p. 115. Chronique des Cordeliers, fol. 486 r'o. Morosini, iii, p. 182, note 3.]

[Footnote 1549: Brehal, in Trial, vol. iii, p. 345.]



CHAPTER XIX

RISE OF THE LEGEND

It is always difficult to ascertain what happens in war. In those days it was quite impossible to form any clear idea of how things came about. At Orleans, doubtless, there were certain who were keen enough to perceive that the numerous and ingenious engines of war, gathered together by the magistrates, had been of great service; but folk generally prefer to ascribe results to miraculous causes, and the merit of their deliverance the people of Orleans attributed first to their Blessed Patrons, Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, and after them to Jeanne, the Divine Maid, believing that there was no easier, simpler, or more natural explanation of the deeds they had witnessed.[1550]

[Footnote 1550: Journal du siege, pp. 16, 88. Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 296. Lottin, Recits historiques sur Orleans, vol. i, p. 279.]

Guillaume Girault, former magistrate of the town and notary at the Chatelet, wrote and signed, with his own hand, a brief account of the deliverance of the city. Herein he states that on Wednesday, Ascension Eve, the bastion of Saint-Loup was stormed and taken as if by miracle, "there being present, and aiding in the fight, Jeanne the Maid, sent of God;" and that, on the following Saturday, the siege laid by the English to Les Tourelles at the end of the bridge was raised by the most obvious miracle since the Passion. And Guillaume Girault testifies that the Maid led the enterprise.[1551] When eye-witnesses, participators in the deeds themselves, had no clear idea of events, what could those more remote from the scene of action think of them?

[Footnote 1551: Trial, vol. iv, pp. 282, 283.]

The tidings of the French victories flew with astonishing rapidity.[1552] The brevity of authentic accounts was amply supplemented by the eloquence of loquacious clerks and the popular imagination. The Loire campaign and the coronation expedition were scarcely known at first save by fabulous reports, and the people only thought of them as supernatural events.

[Footnote 1552: Tidings of the Deliverance of Orleans sent from Bruges to Venice the 10th of May (Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 23, 24).]

In the letters sent by royal secretaries to the towns of the realm and the princes of Christendom, the name of Jeanne the Maid was associated with all the deeds of prowess. Jeanne herself, by her monastic scribe, made known to all the great deeds which, it was her firm belief, she had accomplished.[1553]

[Footnote 1553: Trial, vol. v, pp. 123, 139, 145, 147, 156, 159, 161.]

It was believed that everything had been done through her, that the King had consulted her in all things, when in truth the King's counsellors and the Captains rarely asked her advice, listened to it but seldom, and brought her forth only at convenient seasons. Everything was attributed to her alone. Her personality, associated with deeds attested and seemingly marvellous, became buried in a vast cycle of astonishing fables and disappeared in a forest of heroic stories.[1554]

[Footnote 1554: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 60, 61.]

Contrite souls there were in those days, who, ascribing all the woes of the kingdom to the sins of the people, looked for salvation to humility, repentance, and penance.[1555] They expected the end of iniquity and the kingdom of God on earth. Jeanne, at least in the beginning, was one of those pious folk. Sometimes, speaking as a mystic reformer, she would say that Jesus is King of the holy realm of France, that King Charles is his lieutenant, and does but hold the kingdom "in fief."[1556] She uttered words which would create the impression that her mission was all charity, peace, and love,—these, for example, "I am sent to comfort the poor and needy."[1557] Such gentle penitents as dreamed of a world pure, faithful, and good, made of Jeanne their saint and their prophetess. They ascribed to her edifying words she had never uttered.

[Footnote 1555: Saint Vincent Ferrier; and Saint Bernardino of Siena.]

[Footnote 1556: See ante, p. 64.]

[Footnote 1557: Trial, vol. iii, p. 88.]

"When the Maid came to the King," they said, "she caused him to make three promises: the first was to resign his kingdom, to renounce it and give it back to God, from whom he held it; the second, to pardon all such as had turned against him and afflicted him; the third, to humiliate himself so far as to receive into favour all such as should come to him, poor and rich, friend and foe."[1558]

[Footnote 1558: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 52-53. See ante, p. 184.]

Or again, in apologues, simple and charming, like the following, they represented her accomplishing her mission:

"One day, the Maid asked the King to bestow a present upon her; and when he consented, she claimed as a gift the realm of France. Though astonished, the King did not withdraw his promise. Having received her present, the Maid required a deed of gift to be solemnly drawn up by four of the King's notaries and read aloud. While the King listened to the reading, she pointed him out to those that stood by, saying: 'Behold the poorest knight in the kingdom.' Then, after a short time, disposing of the realm of France, she gave it back to God. Thereafter, acting in God's name, she invested King Charles with it and commanded that this solemn act of transmission should be recorded in writing."[1559]

[Footnote 1559: L. Delisle, Un nouveau temoignage relatif a la mission de Jeanne d'Arc, in Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, vol. xlvi, p. 649. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, pp. 57, 58.]

It was believed that Jeanne had prophesied that on Saint John the Baptist's Day, 1429, not an Englishman should be left in France.[1560] These simple folk expected their saint's promises to be fulfilled on the day she had fixed. They maintained that on the 23rd of June she had entered the city of Rouen, and that on the morrow, Saint John the Baptist's day, the inhabitants of Paris had of their own accord, opened their gates to the King of France. In the month of July these stories were being told in Avignon.[1561] Reformers, numerous it would seem in France and throughout Christendom, believed that the Maid would organise the English and French on monastic lines and make of them one nation of pious beggars, one brotherhood of penitents. According to them, the following were the intentions of the two parties and the clauses of the treaty:

[Footnote 1560: Letter written by the agents of a town or of a prince of Germany, in Trial, vol. v, p. 351.]

[Footnote 1561: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 38, 46, 61.]

"King Charles of Valois bestows universal pardon and is willing to forget all wrongs. The English and French, having turned to contrition and repentance, are endeavouring to conclude a good and binding peace. The Maid herself has imposed conditions upon them. Conforming to her will, the English and French for one year or for two will wear a grey habit, with a little cross sewn upon it; on every Friday they will live on bread and water; they will dwell in unity with their wives and will seek no other women. They promise God not to make war except for the defense of their country."[1562]

[Footnote 1562: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 64, 65.]

During the coronation campaign, nothing being known of the agreement between the King's men and the people of Auxerre, towards the end of July, it was related that the town having been taken by storm, four thousand five hundred citizens had been killed and likewise fifteen hundred men-at-arms, knights as well as squires belonging to the parties of Burgundy and Savoy. Among the nobles slain were mentioned Humbert Marechal, Lord of Varambon, and a very famous warrior, le Viau de Bar. Stories were told of treasons and massacres, horrible adventures in which the Maid was associated with that knave of hearts who was already famous. She was said to have had twelve traitors beheaded.[1563] Such tales were real romances of chivalry. Here is one of them:

[Footnote 1563: Ibid., pp. 144 et seq.]

About two thousand English surrounded the King's camp, watching to see if they could do him some hurt. Then the Maid called Captain La Hire and said to him: "Thou hast in thy time done great prowess, but to-day God prepares for thee a deed greater than any thou hast yet performed. Take thy men and go to such and such a wood two leagues herefrom, and there shalt thou find two thousand English, all lance in hand; them shalt thou take and slay."

La Hire went forth to the English and all were taken and slain as the Maid had said.[1564]

[Footnote 1564: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 150, 153.]

Such were the fairy-stories told of Jeanne to the joy of simple primitive folk, who delighted in the idea of a maid slayer of giants and remover of mountains.

There was a rumour that after the sack of Auxerre, the Duke of Burgundy had been defeated and taken in a great battle, that the Regent was dead and that the Armagnacs had entered Paris.[1565] Prodigies were said to have attended the capitulation of Troyes. On the coming of the French, it was told how the townsfolk beheld from their ramparts a vast multitude of men-at-arms, some five or six thousand, each man holding a white pennon in his hand. On the departure of the French, they beheld them again, ranged but a bow-shot behind King Charles. These knights with white pennons vanished when the King had gone; for they were as miraculous as those white-scarfed knights, whom the Bretons had seen riding in the sky but shortly before.[1566]

[Footnote 1565: Ibid., pp. 166, 167.]

[Footnote 1566: Fragment of a letter on the marvels in Poitou, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 121, 122. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, op. cit., p. 343.]

All that the people of Orleans beheld when their siege was suddenly raised, all that Armagnac mendicants and the Dauphin's clerks related was greedily received, accredited, and amplified. Three months after her coming to Chinon, Jeanne had her legend, which grew and increased and extended into Italy, Flanders, and Germany.[1567] In the summer of 1429, this legend was already formed. All the scattered parts of what may be described as the gospel of her childhood existed.

[Footnote 1567: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 78, note 1. Eberhard Windecke, passim. Fauche-Prunelle, Lettres tirees des archives de Grenoble in Bull. Acad. delph., vol. ii, 1847, 1849, pp. 459, 460. Letter written by deputies, agents of a German town, in Trial, vol. v, p. 347. Letter from Jean Desch, Secretary of the town of Metz, ibid., pp. 352, 355.]

At the age of seven Jeanne kept sheep; the wolves did not molest her flock; the birds of the field, when she called them, came and ate bread from her lap. The wicked had no power over her. No one beneath her roof need fear man's fraud or ill-will.[1568]

[Footnote 1568: Letters from Perceval de Boulainvilliers to the Duke of Milan, in Trial, vol. v, pp. 114, 116.]

When it is a Latin poet who is writing, the miracles attending Jeanne's birth assume a Roman majesty and are clothed with the august dignity of ancient myths. Thus it is curious to find a humanist of 1429 summoning the Italian muse to the cradle of Zabillet Romee's daughter.

"The thunder rolled, the ocean shuddered, the earth shook, the heavens were on fire, the universe rejoiced visibly; a strange transport mingled with fear moved the enraptured nations. They sing sweet verses and dance in harmonious motion at the sign of the salvation prepared for the French people by this celestial birth."[1569]

[Footnote 1569: Anonymous poem on the coming of the Maid and the Deliverance of Orleans, Trial, vol. v, p. 27, line 70 et seq.]

Moreover an attempt was made to represent the wonders that had heralded the nativity of Jesus as having been repeated on the birth of Jeanne. It was imagined that she was born on the night of the Epiphany. The shepherds of her village, moved by an indescribable joy, the cause of which was unknown to them, hastened through the darkness towards the marvellous mystery. The cocks, heralds of this new joy, sing at an unusual season and, flapping their wings, seem to prophesy for two hours. Thus the child in her cradle had her adoration of the shepherds.[1570]

[Footnote 1570: "In nocte Epiphaniarum," says the letter from Perceval de Boulainvilliers (Trial, vol. v, p. 116), that is, Jan. 6. For centuries, even after the fourth century, the birth of our Lord was celebrated on that day. In France it was the Feast of Kings and then was sung the anthem: Magi videntes stellam.]

Of her coming into France there was much to tell. It was related that in the Chateau of Chinon she had recognised the King, whom she had never seen before, and had gone straight to him, although he was but poorly clad and surrounded by his baronage.[1571] It was said that she had given the King a sign, that she had revealed a secret to him; and that on the revelation of the secret, known to him alone, he had been illuminated with a heavenly joy. Concerning this interview at Chinon, while those present had little to say, the stories of many who were not there were interminable.[1572]

[Footnote 1571: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 116, 192. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 273. Journal du siege, p. 47. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 67. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, pp. 336, 337. Martial d'Auvergne, Vigiles, vol. i, p. 96.]

[Footnote 1572: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 103, 116, 209, passim. Journal du siege, p. 48. Th. Basin, Histoire de Charles VII, vol. i, p. 68. Mirouer des femmes vertueuses, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 271. Pierre Sala, ibid., p. 280. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 104. Eberhard Windecke, p. 153.]

On the 7th of May, at four o'clock in the afternoon, a white dove alighted on the Maid's standard; and on the same day, during the assault, two white birds were seen to be flying over her head.[1573] Saints were commonly visited by doves. One day when Saint Catherine of Sienna was kneeling in the fuller's house, a dove as white as snow perched on the child's head.[1574]

[Footnote 1573: Journal du siege, p. 294. Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete, in Trial, vol. v, p. 294.]

[Footnote 1574: AA. SS., April 3rd. Didron, Iconographie chretienne, pp. 438, 439. Alba Mignati, Sainte Catherine de Sienne, p. 16.]

A tale then in circulation is interesting as showing the idea which prevailed concerning the relations of the King and the Maid; it serves, likewise, as an example of the perversions to which the story of an actual fact is subject as it passes from mouth to mouth. Here is the tale as it was gathered by a German merchant.

On a day, in a certain town, the Maid, hearing that the English were near, went into the field; and straightway all the men-at-arms, who were in the town, leapt to their steeds and followed her. Meanwhile, the King, who was at dinner, learning that all were going forth in company with the Maid, had the gates of the town closed.

The Maid was told, and she replied without concern: "Before the hour of nones, the King will have so great need of me, that he will follow me immediately, spurless, and barely staying to throw on his cloak."

And thus it came to pass. For the men-at-arms shut up in the town besought the King to open the gates forthwith or they would break them down. The gates were opened and all the fighting men hastened to the Maid, heedless of the King, who threw on his cloak and followed them.

On that day a great number of the English were slain.[1575]

[Footnote 1575: Eberhard Windecke, p. 103.]

Such is the story which gives a very inaccurate representation of what happened at Orleans on the 6th of May. The citizens hastened in crowds to the Burgundian Gate, resolved to cross the Loire and attack Les Tourelles. Finding the gate closed, they threw themselves furiously on the Sire de Gaucourt who was keeping it. The aged baron had the gate opened wide and said to them, "Come, I will be your captain."[1576] In the story the citizens have become men-at-arms, and it is not the Sire de Gaucourt but the King who maliciously closes the gates. But the King gained nothing by it; and it is astonishing to find that so early there had grown up in the minds of the people the idea that, far from aiding the Maid to drive out the English, the King had put obstacles in her way and was always the last to follow her.

[Footnote 1576: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 116, 117.]

Seen through this chaos of stories more indistinct than the clouds in a stormy sky, Jeanne appeared a wondrous marvel. She prophesied and many of her prophecies had already been fulfilled. She had foretold the deliverance of Orleans and Orleans had been delivered. She had prophesied that she would be wounded, and an arrow had pierced her above the right breast. She had prophesied that she would take the King to Reims, and the King had been crowned in that city. Other prophecies had she uttered touching the realm of France, to wit, the deliverance of the Duke of Orleans, the entering into Paris, the driving of the English from the holy kingdom, and their fulfilment was expected.[1577]

[Footnote 1577: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 55, 84 et seq., 133, 174, 232, 251, 252, 254, 331; vol. iii, pp. 99, 205, 254, 257, passim. Journal du siege, pp. 34, 44, 45, 48. Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 212, 295. Perceval de Cagny, p. 141. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 320. Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 143. The Clerk of the Chamber of Accounts of Brabant, in Trial, vol. iv, p. 426. Chronique de Tournai (vol. iii, du recueil des chroniques de Flandre), p. 411. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 121.]

Every day she prophesied and notably concerning divers persons who had failed in respect towards her and had come to a bad end.[1578]

[Footnote 1578: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 57.]

At Chinon, when she was being taken to the King, a man-at-arms who was riding near the chateau, thinking he recognised her, asked, "Is not that the Maid? By God, an I had my way she should not be a maid long."

Then Jeanne prophesied and said "Ha, thou takest God's name in vain, and thou art so near thy death!"

Less than an hour later the man fell into the water and was drowned.[1579]

[Footnote 1579: Brother Pasquerel's evidence, in Trial, vol. iii, p. 102.]

Straightway this miracle was related in Latin verse. In the poem which records this miraculous history of Jeanne up to the deliverance of Orleans, the lewd blasphemer, who like all blasphemers, came to a bad end, is noble and by name Furtivolus.[1580]

[Footnote 1580: Anonymous poem on the Maid, in Trial, vol. v, p. 38, lines 105 et seq.]

... generoso sanguine natus, Nomine Furtivolus, veneris moderator iniquus.

Captain Glasdale called Jeanne strumpet and blasphemed his Maker. Jeanne prophesied that he would die without shedding blood; and Glasdale was drowned in the Loire.[1581]

[Footnote 1581: Evidence of J. Luillier and Brother Pasquerel, in Trial, vol. iii, pp. 25, 108.]

Many of these tales were obvious imitations of incidents in the lives of the saints, which were widely read in those days. A woman, who was a heretic, pulled the cassock of Saint Ambrose, whereupon the blessed bishop said to her, "Take heed lest one day thou be chastised of God." On the morrow the woman died, and the Blessed Ambrose conducted her to the grave.[1582]

[Footnote 1582: The Golden Legend. Life of Saint Ambrose.]

A nun, who was then alive and who was to die in an odour of sanctity, Sister Colette of Corbie, had met her Furtivolus and had punished him, but less severely. On a day when she was praying in a church of Corbie, a stranger drew near and spoke to her libidinous words: "May it please God," she said, "to bring home to you the hideousness of the words you have just uttered." The stranger in shame went to the door. But an invisible hand arrested him on the threshold. Then he realised the gravity of his sin; he asked pardon of the saint and was free to leave the church.[1583]

[Footnote 1583: Abbe J. Th. Bizouard, Histoire de sainte Colette et des clarisses en Franche-Comte, d'apres des documents inedits et des traditions locales, Paris, 1888, in 8vo.]

After the royal army had departed from Gien, the Maid was said to have prophesied that a great battle would be fought between Auxerre and Reims.[1584] When such predictions were not fulfilled they were forgotten. Besides, it was admitted that true prophets might sometimes utter false prophecies. A subtle theologian distinguished between prophecies of predestination which are always fulfilled and those of condemnation, which being conditioned, may not be fulfilled and that without reflecting untruthfulness on the lips that uttered them.[1585] Folk wondered that a peasant child should be able to forecast the future, and with the Apostle they cried, "I praise thee, O Father, because thou hast hidden those things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes."

[Footnote 1584: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 148, 156. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 103, 105, 187. Noel Valois, Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc, p. 17.]

[Footnote 1585: Lanery d'Arc, Memoires et consultations, pp. 220, 222. Theodore de Leliis, in Trial, vol. ii, pp. 39, 42. Le P. Ayroles, La Pucelle devant l'Eglise de son temps, p. 342. Abbe Hyacinthe Chassagnon, Les voix de Jeanne d'Arc, Lyon 1896, in 8vo, pp. 312, 313.]

The Maid's prophecies were speedily spread abroad throughout the whole of Christendom.[1586] A clerk of Spiers wrote a treatise on her, entitled Sibylla Francica, divided into two parts. The first part was drawn up not later than July, 1429. The second is dated the 17th of September, the same year. This clerk believes that the Maid practised the art of divination by means of astrology. He had heard a French monk of the order of the Premonstratensians[1587] say that Jeanne delighted to study the heavens by night. He observes that all her prophecies concerned the kingdom of France; and he gives the following as having been uttered by the Maid: "After having ruled for twenty years, the Dauphin will sleep with his fathers. After him, his eldest son, now a child of six, will reign more gloriously, more honourably, more powerfully than any King of France since Charlemagne."[1588]

[Footnote 1586: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 138 et seq. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 62-63.]

[Footnote 1587: The monastery of the Premonstratensians, near Laon, was founded in 1122, by St. Norbert (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1588: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 422 et seq., 433, 434, 465; vol. v, pp. 475, 476.]

The Maid possessed the gift of beholding events which were taking place far away.

At Vaucouleurs, on the very day of the Battle of the Herrings, she knew the Dauphin's army had suffered grievous hurt.[1589]

[Footnote 1589: Journal du siege, p. 44. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 272.]

On a day when she was dining, seated near the King, she began to laugh quietly. The King, perceiving, asked her: "My beloved, wherefore laugh ye so merrily?"

She made answer that she would tell him when the repast was over. And, when the ewer was brought her, "Sire," she said, "this day have been drowned in the sea five hundred English, who were crossing to your land to do you hurt. Therefore did I laugh. In three days you will know that it is true."

And so it was.[1590]

[Footnote 1590: Eberhard Windecke, p. 117.]

Another time, when she was in a town some miles distant from the chateau where the King was, as she prayed before going to sleep, it was revealed to her that certain of the King's enemies wished to poison him at dinner. Straightway she called her brothers and sent them to the King to advise him to take no food until she came.

When she appeared before him, he was at table surrounded by eleven persons.

"Sire," she said, "have the dishes brought."

She gave them to the dogs, who ate from them and died forthwith.

Then, pointing to a knight, who was near the King and to two other guests: "Those persons," she said, "wished to poison you."

The knight straightway confessed that it was true; and he was dealt with according to his deserts.[1591]

[Footnote 1591: Ibid., p. 97.]

It was borne in upon her that a certain priest kept a concubine;[1592] and one day, meeting in the camp a woman dressed as a man, it was revealed to her that the woman was pregnant and that having already had one child she had made away with it.[1593]

[Footnote 1592: Trial, vol. i, p. 146.]

[Footnote 1593: Eberhard Windecke, p. 97.]

She was likewise said to possess the power of discovering things hidden. She herself had claimed this power when she was at Tours. It had been revealed to her that a sword was buried in the ground in the chapel of Saint Catherine of Fierbois, and that was the sword she wore. Some deemed it to be the sword with which Charles Martel had defeated the Saracens. Others suspected it of being the sword of Alexander the Great.[1594]

[Footnote 1594: Trial, vol. i, pp. 76, 234. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 277. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 69, 70. Journal du siege, pp. 49, 50. Relation du greffier de La Rochelle, pp. 337, 338. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109. Abbe Bourasse, Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine, Introduction.]

In like manner it was said that before the coronation Jeanne had known of a precious crown, hidden from all eyes. And here is the story told concerning it:

A bishop kept the crown of Saint Louis. No one knew which bishop it was, but it was known that the Maid had sent him a messenger, bearing a letter in which she asked him to give up the crown. The bishop replied that the Maid was dreaming. A second time she demanded the sacred treasure, and the bishop made the same reply. Then she wrote to the citizens of the episcopal city, saying that if the crown were not given up to the King, the Lord would punish the town, and straightway there fell so heavy a storm of hail that all men marvelled. Wizards commonly caused hail storms. But this time the hail was a plague sent by the God who afflicted Egypt with ten plagues. After which the Maid despatched to the citizens a third letter in which she described the form and fashion of the crown the bishop was hiding, and warned them that if it were not given up even worse things would happen to them. The bishop, who believed that the wondrous circlet of gold was known to him alone, marvelled that the form and fashion thereof should be described in this letter. He repented of his wickedness, wept many tears, and commanded the crown to be sent to the King and the Maid.[1595]

[Footnote 1595: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 160, 163.]

It is not difficult to discern the origin of this story. The crown of Charlemagne, which the kings of France wore at the coronation ceremony, was at Saint-Denys in France, in the hands of the English. Jeanne boasted of having given the Dauphin at Chinon a precious crown, brought by angels. She said that this crown had been sent to Reims for the coronation, but that it did not arrive in time.[1596] As for the hiding of the crown by the bishop, that idea arose probably from the well-known cupidity of my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, who had appropriated the silver vase intended for the chapter and placed by the King upon the high altar after the ceremony.[1597]

[Footnote 1596: Trial, vol. i, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1597: Dom Marlot, Histoire de l'Eglise de Reims, vol. iv, p. 175. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, appendix xvii.]

There was likewise talk of gloves lost at Reims and of a cup that Jeanne had found.[1598]

[Footnote 1598: Trial, vol. i, p. 104.]

Maiden, at once a warrior and a lover of peace, beguine, prophetess, sorceress, angel of the Lord, ogress, every man beholds her according to his own fashion, creates her according to his own image. Pious souls clothe her with an invincible charm and the divine gift of charity; simple souls make her simple too; men gross and violent figure her a giantess, burlesque and terrible. Shall we ever discern the true features of her countenance? Behold her, from the first and perhaps for ever enclosed in a flowering thicket of legends!

END OF VOL. I.

* * * * *

THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC

BY ANATOLE FRANCE

A TRANSLATION BY WINIFRED STEPHENS

IN TWO VOLS., VOL. II



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

Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by MANZI, JOYANT ET CIE

Copyright in U.S.A., 1908, by JOHN LANE COMPANY

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



CONTENTS

VOL. II

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE ROYAL ARMY FROM SOISSONS TO COMPIEGNE. POEM AND PROPHECY 1

II. THE MAID'S FIRST VISIT TO COMPIEGNE. THE THREE POPES. SAINT-DENYS. TRUCES 34

III. THE ATTACK ON PARIS 54

IV. THE TAKING OF SAINT-PIERRE-LE-MOUSTIER. FRIAR RICHARD'S SPIRITUAL DAUGHTERS. THE SIEGE OF LA CHARITE 78

V. LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF REIMS. LETTER TO THE HUSSITES. DEPARTURE FROM SULLY 103

VI. THE MAID IN THE TRENCHES OF MELUN. LE SEIGNEUR DE L'OURS. THE CHILD OF LAGNY 122

VII. SOISSONS AND COMPIEGNE. CAPTURE OF THE MAID 138

VIII. THE MAID AT BEAULIEU. THE SHEPHERD OF GEVAUDAN 156

IX. THE MAID AT BEAUREVOIR. CATHERINE DE LA ROCHELLE AT PARIS. EXECUTION OF LA PIERRONNE 170

X. BEAUREVOIR. ARRAS. ROUEN. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE 188

XI. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (continued) 227

XII. THE TRIAL FOR LAPSE (continued) 264

XIII. THE ABJURATION. THE FIRST SENTENCE 299

XIV. THE TRIAL FOR RELAPSE. SECOND SENTENCE. DEATH OF THE MAID 323

XV. AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID. THE END OF THE SHEPHERD. LA DAME DES ARMOISES 343

XVI. AFTER THE DEATH OF THE MAID (continued). THE ROUEN JUDGES AT THE COUNCIL OF BALE AND THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. THE REHABILITATION TRIAL. THE MAID OF SARMAIZE. THE MAID OF LE MANS 378

APPENDICES

I. LETTER FROM DOCTOR G. DUMAS 401

II. THE FARRIER OF SALON 407

III. MARTIN DE GALLARDON 413

IV. ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTE 420



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. II

THE DUKE OF BEDFORD Frontispiece From the Bedford Missal.

To face page

PHILIP, DUKE OF BURGUNDY 140

HENRY VI 194 From a portrait in the "Election Chamber" at Eton, reproduced by permission of the Provost.

THE BASTARD OF ORLEANS 388 From an old engraving.



JOAN OF ARC



CHAPTER I

THE ROYAL ARMY FROM SOISSONS TO COMPIEGNE—POEM AND PROPHECY

On the 22nd of July, King Charles, marching with his army down the valley of the Aisne, in a place called Vailly, received the keys of the town of Soissons.[1599]

[Footnote 1599: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 323, 324. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 160, 161. Journal du siege, p. 115. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 98. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 196.]

This town constituted a part of the Duchy of Valois, held jointly by the Houses of Orleans and of Bar.[1600] Of its dukes, one was a prisoner in the hands of the English; the other was connected with the French party through his brother-in-law, King Charles, and with the Burgundian party through his father-in-law, the Duke of Lorraine. No wonder the fealty of the townsfolk was somewhat vacillating; downtrodden by men-at-arms, forever taken and retaken, red caps and white caps alternately ran the danger of being cast into the river. The Burgundians set fire to the houses, pillaged the churches, chastised the most notable burgesses; then came the Armagnacs, who sacked everything, made great slaughter of men, women, and children, ravished nuns, worthy wives, and honest maids. The Saracens could not have done worse.[1601] City dames had been seen making sacks in which Burgundians were to be sewn up and thrown into the Aisne.[1602]

[Footnote 1600: Ordonnances des rois de France, vol. ix, p. 71. H. Martin and Lacroix, Histoire de la ville de Soissons, Soissons, 1837, in 8vo, ii, pp. 283 et seq.]

[Footnote 1601: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, p. 53, passim.]

[Footnote 1602: Ibid., p. 103.]

King Charles made his entry into the city on Saturday the 23rd, in the morning.[1603] The red caps went into hiding. The bells pealed, the folk cried "Noel," and the burgesses proffered the King two barbels, six sheep and six gallons of "bon suret,"[1604] begging the King to forgive its being so little, but the war had ruined them.[1605] They, like the people of Troyes, refused to open their gates to the men-at-arms, by virtue of their privileges, and because they had not food enough for their support. The army encamped in the plain of Ambleny.[1606]

[Footnote 1603: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 323, 324. Perceval de Cagny, p. 160. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 339.]

[Footnote 1604: Suret is sour wine (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1605: C. Dormay, Histoire de la ville de Soissons, Soissons, 1664, vol. ii, pp. 382 et seq. H. Martin and Lacroix, Histoire de Soissons, vol. ii, p. 319. Pecheur, Annales du diocese de Soissons, vol. iv, p. 513. Felix Brun, Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons en 1430, Soissons, 1904, p. 34.]

[Footnote 1606: Berry, in Trial, vol. iv, pp. 49, 50. Le P. Daniel, Histoire de la milice francaise, vol. i, p. 356. Felix Brun, Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons, pp. 26, 39.]

It would seem that at that time the leaders of the royal army had the intention of marching on Compiegne. Indeed it was important to capture this town from Duke Philip, for it was the key to l'Ile-de-France and ought to be taken before the Duke had time to bring up an army. But throughout this campaign the King of France was resolved to recapture his towns rather by diplomacy and persuasion than by force. Between the 22nd and the 25th of July he three times summoned the inhabitants of Compiegne to surrender. Being desirous to gain time and to have the air of being constrained, they entered into negotiations.[1607]

[Footnote 1607: De l'Epinois, Notes extraites des archives communales de Compiegne, in Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, vol. xxix, p. 483. Sorel, Prise de Jeanne d'Arc, pp. 101, 102.]

Having quitted Soissons, the royal army reached Chateau-Thierry on the 29th. All day it waited for the town to open its gates. In the evening the King entered.[1608] Coulommiers, Crecy-en-Brie, and Provins submitted.[1609]

[Footnote 1608: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 340.]

[Footnote 1609: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 340. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 323. Felix Bourquelot, Histoire de Provins, Provins, vol. iv, pp. 79 et seq. Th. Robillard, Histoire pittoresque topographique et archeologique de Crecy-en-Brie, 1852, p. 42. L'Abbe C. Poquet, Histoire de Chateau-Thierry, 1839, vol. i, pp. 290 et seq.]

On Monday, the 1st of August, the King crossed the Marne, over the Chateau-Thierry Bridge, and that same day took up his quarters at Montmirail. On the morrow he gained Provins and came within a short distance of the passage of the Seine and the high-roads of central France.[1610] The army was sore anhungered, finding nought to eat in these ravaged fields and pillaged cities. Through lack of victuals preparations were being made for retreat into Poitou. But this design was thwarted by the English. While ungarrisoned towns were being reduced, the English Regent had been gathering an army. It was now advancing on Corbeil and Melun. On its approach the French gained La Motte-Nangis, some twelve miles from Provins, where they took up their position on ground flat and level, such as was convenient for the fighting of a battle, as battles were fought in those days. For one whole day they remained in battle array. There was no sign of the English coming to attack them.[1611]

[Footnote 1610: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 160, 161.]

[Footnote 1611: Chronique de la Pucelle, pp. 324, 325. Journal du siege, p. 115. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 98, 99. Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Rymer, Foedera, June to July, 1429. Proceedings, vol. iii, pp. 322 et seq. Morosini, vol. iv, appendix xvii.]

Meanwhile the people of Reims received tidings that King Charles was leaving Chateau-Thierry and was about to cross the Seine. Believing that they had been abandoned, they were afraid lest the English and Burgundians should make them pay dearly for the coronation of the King of the Armagnacs; and in truth they stood in great danger. On the 3rd of August, they resolved to send a message to King Charles to entreat him not to forsake those cities which had submitted to him. The city's herald set out forthwith. On the morrow they sent word to their good friends of Chalons and of Laon, how they had heard that King Charles was wending towards Orleans and Bourges, and how they had sent him a message.[1612]

[Footnote 1612: Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 98. Varin, Archives legislatives de la ville de Reims, Statuts, vol. i (annot. according to doc. no. xxi), p. 741. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, original doc. no. 19, p. 118.]

On the 5th of August, while the King is still at Provins[1613] or in the neighbourhood, Jeanne addresses to the townsfolk of Reims a letter dated from the camp, on the road to Paris. Herein she promises not to desert her friends faithful and beloved. She appears to have no suspicion of the projected retreat on the Loire. Wherefore it is clear that the magistrates of Reims have not written to her and that she is not admitted to the royal counsels. She has been instructed, however, that the King has concluded a fifteen days' truce with the Duke of Burgundy, and thereof she informs the citizens of Reims. This truce is displeasing to her; and she doubts whether she will observe it. If she does observe it, it will be solely on account of the King's honour; and even then she must be persuaded that there is no trickery in it. She will therefore keep the royal army together and in readiness to march at the end of the fifteen days. She closes her letter with a recommendation to the townsfolk to keep good guard and to send her word if they have need of her.

[Footnote 1613: Perceval de Cagny, p. 160.]

Here is the letter:

"Good friends and beloved, ye good and loyal French of the city of Rains, Jehanne the Maid lets you wit of her tidings and prays and requires you not to doubt the good cause she maintains for the Blood Royal; and I promise and assure you that I will never forsake you as long as I shall live. It is true that the King has made truce with the Duke of Burgundy for the space of fifteen days, by which he is to surrender peaceably the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Notwithstanding, marvel ye not if I do not straightway enter into it, for truces thus made are not pleasing unto me, and I know not whether I shall keep them; but if I keep them it will be solely to maintain the King's honour; and further they shall not ensnare the Royal Blood, for I will keep and maintain together the King's army that it be ready at the end of fifteen days, if they make not peace. Wherefore my beloved and perfect friends, I pray ye to be in no disquietude as long as I shall live; but I require you to keep good watch and to defend well the good city of the King; and to make known unto me if there be any traitors who would do you hurt, and, as speedily as I may, I will take them out from among you; and send me of your tidings. To God I commend you. May he have you in his keeping."

Written this Friday, 5th day of August, near Provins,[1614] a camp in the country or on the Paris road. Addressed to: the loyal French of the town of Rains.[1615]

[Footnote 1614: This place name is not to be found in Rogier's copy.]

[Footnote 1615: Trial, vol. v, pp. 139, 140, and Varin, loc. cit. Statuts, vol. i, p. 603, according to Rogier's copy. H. Jadart, Jeanne d'Arc a Reims, proofs and illustrations, vol. xiv, pp. 104, 105, and facsimile of the original copy formerly in the Reims municipal archives, now in the possession of M. le Comte de Maleissye.]

It cannot be doubted that the monk who acted as scribe wrote down faithfully what was dictated to him, and reproduced the Maid's very words, even her Lorraine dialect. She had then attained to the very highest degree of heroic saintliness. Here, in this letter, she takes to herself a supernatural power, to which the King, his Councillors and his Captains must submit. She ascribes to herself alone the right of recognising or denouncing treaties; she disposes entirely of the army. And, because she commands in the name of the King of Heaven, her commands are absolute. There is happening to her what necessarily happens to all those who believe themselves entrusted with a divine mission; they constitute themselves a spiritual and temporal power superior to the established powers and inevitably hostile to them. A dangerous illusion and productive of shocks in which the illuminated are generally the worst sufferers! Every day of her life living and holding converse with saints and angels, moving in the splendour of the Church Triumphant, this young peasant girl came to believe that in her resided all strength, all prudence, all wisdom and all counsel. This does not mean that she was lacking in intelligence; on the contrary she rightly perceived that the Duke of Burgundy, with his embassies, was but playing with the King and that Charles was being tricked by a Prince, who knew how to disguise his craft in magnificence. Not that Duke Philip was an enemy of peace; on the contrary he desired it, but he was desirous not to come to an open quarrel with the English. Jeanne knew little of the affairs of Burgundy and of France, but her judgment was none the less sound. Concerning the relative positions of the Kings of France and England, between whom there could be no agreement, since the matter in dispute was the possession of the kingdom, her ideas were very simple but very correct. Equally accurate were her views of the position of the King of France with regard to his great vassal, the Duke of Burgundy, with whom an understanding was not only possible and desirable, but necessary. She pronounced thereupon in a perfectly straightforward fashion: On the one hand there is peace with the Burgundians and on the other peace with the English; concerning the peace with the Duke of Burgundy, by letters and by ambassadors have I required him to come to terms with the King; as for the English, the only way of making peace with them is for them to go back to their country, to England.[1616]

[Footnote 1616: Trial, vol. i, pp. 233, 234.]

This truce that so highly displeased her we know not when it was concluded, whether at Soissons or Chateau-Thierry, on the 30th or 31st of July, or at Provins between the 2nd and 5th of August.[1617] It would appear that it was to last fifteen days, at the end of which time the Duke was to undertake to surrender Paris to the King of France. The Maid had good reason for her mistrust.

[Footnote 1617: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 202, 203, note 2.]

When the Regent withdrew before him, King Charles eagerly returned to his plan of retreating into Poitou. From La Motte-Nangis he sent his quartermasters to Bray-sur-Seine, which had just submitted. Situated above Montereau and ten miles south of Provins, this town had a bridge over the river, across which the royal army was to pass on the 5th of August or in the morning of the 6th; but the English came by night, overcame the quartermasters and took possession of the bridge; with its retreat cut off, the royal army had to retrace its march.[1618]

[Footnote 1618: Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 325. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, pp. 99, 100. Journal du siege, pp. 119, 120. Gilles de Roye, p. 207.]

Within this army, which had not fought and which was being devoured by hunger, there existed a party of zealots, led by those whom Jeanne fondly called the Royal Blood.[1619] They were the Duke of Alencon, the Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Vendome, and likewise the Duke of Bar, who had just come from the War of the Apple Baskets.[1620] Before he took to painting pictures and writing moralities in rhyme, this young son of the Lady Yolande had been a warrior. Duke of Bar and heir of Lorraine, he had been forced to join the English and Burgundians. Brother-in-law of King Charles, he must needs rejoice when the latter was victorious, because, but for that victory, he would never have been able to range himself on the side of the Queen, his sister, for which he would have been very sorry.[1621] Jeanne knew him; not long before, she had asked the Duke of Lorraine to send him with her into France.[1622] He was said to have been one of those who of their own free will followed her to Paris. Among the others were the two sons of the Lady of Laval, Gui, the eldest to whom she had offered wine at Selles-en-Berry, promising soon to give him to drink at Paris, and Andre, who afterwards became Marshal of Loheac.[1623] This was the army of the Maid: a band of youths, scarcely more than children, who ranged their banners side by side with the banner of a girl younger than they, but more innocent and better.

[Footnote 1619: Trial, vol. iii, p. 91.]

[Footnote 1620: Guerre de la Hottee de Pommes, cf. vol. i, p. 92. (W.S.)]

[Footnote 1621: Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaut de Metz in D. Calmet. Histoire de Lorraine, vol. v, orig. docs., cols, xli-xlvii. Villeneuve-Bargemont, Precis historique de la vie du roi Rene, Aix, 1820, in 8vo. Lecoy de la Marche, Le roi Rene, Paris, 1875, 2 vols. in 8vo. Vallet de Viriville, in Nouvelle biographie generale, 1866, xli, pp. 1009-1015.]

[Footnote 1622: Trial, vol. ii, p. 444. S. Luce, Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy, p. cxcix. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 156, note 3.]

[Footnote 1623: Trial, vol. v, pp. 105-111.]

On learning that the retreat had been cut off, it is said that these youthful princes were well content and glad.[1624] This was valour and zeal; but it was a curious position and a false when the knighthood wished for war while the royal council was desiring to treat, and when the knighthood actually rejoiced at the campaign being prolonged by the enemy and at the royal army being cornered by the Godons. Unhappily this war party could boast of no very able adherents; and the favourable opportunity had been lost, the Regent had been allowed time to collect his forces and to cope with the most pressing dangers.[1625]

[Footnote 1624: Chronique de la Pucelle, Jean Chartier. Journal du siege, loc. cit.]

[Footnote 1625: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 340, 344.]

Its retreat cut off, the royal army fell back on Brie. On the morning of Sunday, the 7th, it was at Coulommiers; it recrossed the Marne at Chateau-Thierry.[1626] King Charles received a message from the inhabitants of Reims, entreating him to draw nearer to them.[1627] He was at La Ferte on the 10th, on the 11th at Crepy in Valois.[1628]

[Footnote 1626: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Jean Chartier, Chronique, vol. i, p. 100. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 325.]

[Footnote 1627: Varin, Archives legislatives de la ville de Reims, Statuts, vol. i, p. 742.]

[Footnote 1628: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161.]

At one stage of the march on La Ferte and Crepy, the Maid was riding in company with the King, between the Archbishop of Reims and my Lord the Bastard. Beholding the people hastening to come before the King and crying "Noel!" she exclaimed: "Good people! Never have I seen folk so glad at the coming of the fair King...."[1629]

[Footnote 1629: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 326.]

These peasants of Valois and of l'Ile de France, who cried "Noel!" on the coming of King Charles, in like manner hailed the Regent and the Duke of Burgundy when they passed. Doubtless they were not so glad as they seemed to Jeanne, and if the little Saint had listened at the doors of their poor homes, this is about what she would have heard: "What shall we do? Let us surrender our all to the devil. It matters not what shall become of us, for, through treason and bad government, we must needs forsake our wives and children and flee into the woods, like wild beasts. And it is not one year or two but fourteen or fifteen since we have been led this unhappy dance. And most of the great nobles of France have died by the sword, or unconfessed have fallen victims to poison or to treachery, or in short have perished by some manner of violent death. Better for us would it have been to serve Saracens than Christians. Whether one lives badly or well it comes to the same thing. Let us do all the evil that lieth in our power. No worse can happen to us than to be slain or taken."[1630]

[Footnote 1630: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, p. 164.]

It was only in the neighbourhood of towns or close to fortresses and castles, within sight of the watchman's eye as he looked from the top of tower or belfry, that land was cultivated. On the approach of men-at-arms, the watchman rang his bell or sounded his horn to warn the vine-dressers or the ploughmen to flee to a place of safety. In many districts the alarm bell was so frequent that oxen, sheep, and pigs, of their own accord went into hiding, as soon as they heard it.[1631]

[Footnote 1631: Thomas Basin, Histoire de Charles VII, chap. vi. A. Tuetey, Les ecorcheurs sous Charles VII, Montbeliard, 1874, 2 vols. in 8vo, passim. H. Lepage, Episodes de l'histoire des routiers en Lorraine (1362-1446), in Journal d'archeologie lorraine, vol. xv, pp. 161 et seq. Le P. Denifle, La desolation des eglises, passim. H. Martin et Lacroix, Histoire de Soissons, p. 318, passim. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, Episodes de l'invasion anglaise. La guerre de partisans dans la Haute Normandie (1424-1429), in Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes, vol. liv, pp. 475-521; vol. lv, pp. 258-305; vol. lvi, pp. 432-508.]

In the plains especially, which were easy of access, the Armagnacs and the English had destroyed everything. For some distance from Beauvais, from Senlis, from Soissons, from Laon, they had caused the fields to lie fallow, and here and there shrubs and underwood were springing up over land once cultivated.—"Noel! Noel!"

Throughout the duchy of Valois, the peasants were abandoning the open country and hiding in woods, rocks, and quarries.[1632]

[Footnote 1632: Pardon issued by King Henry VI to an inhabitant of Noyant, in Stevenson, Letters and Papers, vol. i, pp. 23, 31. F. Brun, Jeanne d'Arc et le capitaine de Soissons, note iii, p. 41.]

Many, in order to gain a livelihood, did like Jean de Bonval, the tailor of Noyant near Soissons, who, despite wife and children, joined a Burgundian band, which went up and down the country thieving, pillaging, and, when occasion offered, smoking out the folk who had taken refuge in churches. On one day Jean and his comrades took two hogsheads of corn, on another six or seven cows; on another a goat and a cow, on another a silver belt, a pair of gloves and a pair of shoes; on another a bale of eighteen ells of cloth to make cloaks withal. And Jean de Bonval said that within his knowledge many a man of worship did as much.[1633]—"Noel! Noel!"

[Footnote 1633: Stevenson, Letters and Papers, vol. i, pp. 23, 31.]

The Armagnacs and Burgundians had torn the coats off the peasants' backs and seized even their pots and pans. It was not far from Crepy to Meaux. Every one in that country had heard of the Tree of Vauru.

At one of the gates of the town of Meaux was a great elm, whereon the Bastard of Vauru, a Gascon noble of the Dauphin's party, used to hang the peasants he had taken, when they could not pay their ransom. When he had no executioner at hand he used to hang them himself. With him there lived a kinsman, my Lord Denis de Vauru, who was called his cousin, not that he was so in fact, but just to show that one was no better than the other.[1634] In the month of March, in the year 1420, my Lord Denis, on one of his expeditions, came across a peasant tilling the ground. He took him prisoner, held him to ransom, and, tying him to his horse's tail, dragged him back to Meaux, where, by threats and torture, he exacted from him a promise to pay three times as much as he possessed. Dragged half dead from his dungeon, the villein sent to the wife he had married that year to ask her to bring the sum demanded by the lord. She was with child, and near the time of her delivery; notwithstanding, she came because she loved her husband and hoped to soften the heart of the Lord of Vauru. She failed; and Messire Denis told her that if by a certain day he did not receive the ransom, he would hang the man from the elm-tree. The poor woman went away in tears, fondly commending her husband to God's keeping. And her husband wept for pity of her. By a great effort, she succeeded in obtaining the sum demanded, but not by the day appointed. When she returned, her husband had been hanged from the Vauru Tree without respite or mercy. With bitter sobs she asked for him, and then fell exhausted by the side of that road, which, on the point of her delivery, she had traversed on foot. Having regained consciousness, a second time she asked for her husband. She was told that she would not see him till the ransom had been paid.

[Footnote 1634: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, pp. 170, 171. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 96. Livre des trahisons, pp. 167, 168.]

While she was before the Gascon, there in sight of her were brought forth several craftsmen, held to ransom, who, unable to pay, were straightway despatched to be hanged or drowned. At this spectacle a great fear for her husband came over her; nevertheless, her love for him gave her heart of courage and she paid the ransom. As soon as the Duke's men had counted the coins, they dismissed her saying that her husband had died like the other villeins.

At those cruel words, wild with sorrow and despair, she broke forth into curses and railing. When she refused to be silent, the Bastard of Vauru had her beaten and taken to the Elm-tree.

There she was stripped to the waist and tied to the Tree, whence hung forty to fifty men, some from the higher, some from the lower branches, so that, when the wind blew, their bodies touched her head. At nightfall she uttered shrieks so piercing that they were heard in the town. But whosoever had dared to go and unloose her would have been a dead man. Fright, fatigue, and exertion brought on her delivery. The wolves, attracted by her cries, came and consumed the fruit of her womb, and then devoured alive the body of the wretched creature.

In 1422, the town of Meaux was taken by the Burgundians. Then were the Bastard of Vauru and his cousin hanged from that Tree on which they had caused so many innocent folk to die so shameful a death.[1635]

[Footnote 1635: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, p. 170. According to Monstrelet (vol. iv, p. 96), Denis de Vauru, the Bastard's cousin, was beheaded in the Market of Paris.]

For the poor peasants of these unhappy lands, whether Armagnac or Burgundian, it was all of a piece; they had nothing to gain by changing masters. Nevertheless, it is possible that, on beholding the King, the descendant of Saint Louis and Charles the Wise, they may have taken heart of courage and of hope, so great was the fame for justice and for mercy of the illustrious house of France.

Thus, riding by the side of the Archbishop of Reims, the Maid looked with a friendly eye on the peasants crying "Noel!" After saying that she had nowhere seen folk so joyful at the coming of the fair King, she sighed: "Would to God I were so fortunate as, when I die, to find burial in this land."[1636]

[Footnote 1636: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. Chronique de la Pucelle, p. 326.]

Peradventure the Lord Archbishop was curious to know whether from her Voices she had received any revelation concerning her approaching death. She often said that she would not last long. Doubtless he was acquainted with a prophecy widely known at that time, that the maid would die in the Holy Land, after having reconquered with King Charles the sepulchre of our Lord. There were those who attributed this prophecy to the Maid herself; for she had told her Confessor that she would die in battle with the Infidel, and that after her God would send a Maid of Rome who would take her place.[1637] And it is obvious that Messire Regnault knew what store to set on such things. At any rate, for that reason or for another, he asked: "Jeanne, in what place look you for to die?"

[Footnote 1637: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 108, 109, 188, 189.]

To which she made answer: "Where it shall please God. For I am sure neither of the time nor of the place, and I know no more thereof than you."

No answer could have been more devout. My Lord the Bastard, who was present at this conversation, many years later thought he remembered that Jeanne had added: "But I would it were now God's pleasure for me to retire, leaving my arms, and to go and serve my father and mother, keeping sheep with my brethren and sister."[1638]

[Footnote 1638: Trial, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. It is Dunois who is giving evidence, and the text runs: In custodiendo oves ipsorum, cum sorore et fratribus meis, qui multum gauderent videre me. But there is reason to believe she had only one sister, whom she had lost before coming into France. As for her brothers, two of them were with her. Dunois' evidence appears to have been written down by a clerk unacquainted with events. The hagiographical character of the passage is obvious.]

If she really spoke thus, it was doubtless because she was haunted by dark forebodings. For some time she had believed herself betrayed.[1639] Possibly she suspected the Lord Archbishop of Reims of wishing her ill. But it is hard to believe that he can have thought of getting rid of her now when he had employed her with such signal success; rather his intention was to make further use of her. Nevertheless he did not like her, and she felt it. He never consulted her and never told her what had been decided in council. And she suffered cruelly from the small account made of the revelations she was always receiving so abundantly. May we not interpret as a subtle and delicate reproach the utterance in his presence of this wish, this complaint? Doubtless she longed for her absent mother. And yet she was mistaken when she thought that henceforth she could endure the tranquil life of a village maiden. In her childhood at Domremy she seldom went to tend the flocks in the field; she preferred to occupy herself in household affairs;[1640] but if, after having waged war beside the King and the nobles, she had had to return to her country and keep sheep, she would not have stayed there six months. Henceforth it was impossible for her to live save with that knighthood, to whose company she believed God had called her. All her heart was there, and she had finished with the distaff.

[Footnote 1639: Trial, vol. ii, p. 423.]

[Footnote 1640: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 51, 66.]

During the march on La Ferte and Crepy, King Charles received a challenge from the Regent, then at Montereau with his baronage, calling upon him to fix a meeting at whatsoever place he should appoint.[1641] "We, who with all our hearts," said the Duke of Bedford, "desire the end of the war, summon and require you, if you have pity and compassion on the poor folk, who in your cause have so long time been cruelly treated, downtrodden, and oppressed, to appoint a place suitable either in this land of Brie, where we both are, or in l'Ile-de-France. There will we meet. And if you have any proposal of peace to make unto us, we will listen to it and as beseemeth a good Catholic prince we will take counsel thereon."[1642]

[Footnote 1641: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 340, 344.]

[Footnote 1642: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 342.]

This arrogant and insulting letter had not been penned by the Regent in any desire or hope of peace, but rather, against all reason, to throw on King Charles's shoulders the responsibility for the miseries and suffering the war was causing the commonalty.

Writing to the King crowned in Reims Cathedral, from the beginning he addresses him in this disdainful manner: "You who were accustomed to call yourself Dauphin of Viennois and who now without reason take unto yourself the title of King." He declares that he wants peace and then adds forthwith: "Not a peace hollow, corrupt, feigned, violated, perjured, like that of Montereau, on which, by your fault and your consent, there followed that terrible and detestable murder, committed contrary to all law and honour of knighthood, on the person of our late dear and greatly loved Father, Jean, Duke of Burgundy."[1643]

[Footnote 1643: Ibid., pp. 342, 343.]

My Lord of Bedford had married one of the daughters of that Duke Jean, who had been treacherously murdered in revenge for the assassination of the Duke of Orleans. But indeed it was not wisely to prepare the way of peace to cast the crime of Montereau in the face of Charles of Valois, who had been dragged there as a child and with whom there had remained ever after a physical trembling and a haunting fear of crossing bridges.[1644]