[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.



CHAPTER XV

THE TAKING OF JARGEAU—THE BRIDGE OF MEUNG—BEAUGENCY

On Monday, the 6th of June, the King lodged at Saint-Aignan near Selles-en-Berry.[1179] Among the gentlemen of his company were two sons of that Dame de Laval who, in her widowhood, had made the mistake of loving a landless cadet. 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."