The Life of Joan of Arc Part 100

Pa.s.sing abruptly from Merlin the Magician, Maitre Jean Beaupere asked: "Jeanne, will you have a woman's dress?"

She answered: "Give me one; and I will accept it and depart. Otherwise I will not have it. I will be content with this one, since G.o.d is pleased for me to wear it."

On this reply, which contained two errors tending to heresy, the Lord Bishop adjourned the court.[2269]

[Footnote 2269: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 68.]

The morrow, the 25th of February, was the first Sunday in Lent. On that day or another, but probably on that day, my Lord Bishop sent Jeanne a shad. Having partaken of this fish she had fever and was seized with vomiting.[2270] Two masters of arts of the Paris University, both doctors of medicine, Jean Tiphaine and Guillaume Delachambre, a.s.sessors in the trial, were summoned by the Earl of Warwick, who said to them:

"According to what has been told me, Jeanne is sick. I have summoned you to devise measures for her recovery. The King would not for the world have her die a natural death. She is dear to him, for he has bought her dearly; his intent is that she die not, save by the hand of justice, and that she should be burned. Do all that may be necessary, therefore, visit her attentively, and endeavour to restore her."[2271]

[Footnote 2270: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 48, 49.]

[Footnote 2271: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 51.]

Conducted to Jeanne by Maitre Jean d'Estivet, the doctors inquired of her the cause of her suffering.

She answered that she had eaten a carp sent her by the Lord Bishop of Beauvais, and that she believed it to be the cause of her sickness.

Did Jeanne suspect the Bishop of designing to poison her? That is what Maitre Jean d'Estivet thought, for he flew into a violent rage:

"Wh.o.r.e!" he cried, "it is thine own doing; thou hast eaten herrings and other things which have made thee ill."

"I have not," she answered.

They exchanged insults, and Jeanne's sickness thereupon grew worse.[2272]

[Footnote 2272: _Ibid._, p. 49.]

The doctors examined her and found that she had fever. Wherefore they decided to bleed her.

They informed the Earl of Warwick, who became anxious:

"A bleeding!" he cried; "take heed! She is artful and might kill herself."

Nevertheless Jeanne was bled and recovered.[2273]

[Footnote 2273: _Ibid._, pp. 51, 52.]

On Monday, the 26th, there was no examination.[2274] On the opening of the fourth sitting, Tuesday, the 27th, Maitre Jean Beaupere asked her how she had been, which inquiry touched her but little. She replied drily:

"You can see for yourself. I am as well as it is possible for me to be."[2275]

[Footnote 2274: What induces me to fix this illness on the 25th of February is Jean Beaupere's question at the sitting of the 27th, "How have you been?" and Jeanne's ironical reply. This indisposition must not be confused, as it generally has been, with Jeanne's serious illness, which occurred after Easter. The shad and the herrings belong naturally to Lent; and Maitre Delachambre says explicitly that Jeanne recovered after the bleeding.]

[Footnote 2275: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 70.]

This sitting was held in the Robing Chamber in the presence of fifty-four a.s.sessors.[2276] Five of them had not been present before, and among them was Maitre Nicolas Loiseleur, canon of Rouen, whose share in the proceedings had been to act the Lorraine shoemaker and Saint Catherine of Alexandria.[2277]

[Footnote 2276: _Ibid._, pp. 68, 69.]

[Footnote 2277: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 332, 362; vol. iii, pp. 60, 133, 141, 156, 162, 173, 181.]

Maitre Jean Beaupere, as on the previous Sat.u.r.day, was curious to know whether Jeanne had heard her Voices. She heard them every day.[2278]

[Footnote 2278: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 70.]

He asked her: "Is it an angel's voice that speaketh unto you, or the voice of a woman saint or of a man saint? Or is it G.o.d speaking without an interpreter?"

Said Jeanne: "This voice is the voice of Saint Catherine and of Saint Margaret; and on their heads are beautiful crowns, right rich and right precious. I am permitted to tell you so by Messire. If you doubt it send to Poitiers, where I was examined."[2279]

[Footnote 2279: _Ibid._, p. 71.]

She was right in appealing to the clerks of France. The Armagnac doctors had no less authority in matters of faith than the English and Burgundian doctors. Were they not all to meet at the Council?

The examiner asked: "How know ye that they are these two saints? Know ye them one from another?"

Said Jeanne: "Well do I know who they are; and I do know one from the other."

"How?"

"By the greeting they give me."[2280]

[Footnote 2280: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]

Let not Jeanne be hastily taxed with error or untruth. Did not the Angel salute Gideon (Judges vi), and Raphael salute Tobias (Tobit xii)?[2281]

[Footnote 2281: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 406.]

Thereafter Jeanne gave another reason: "I know them because they call themselves by name."[2282]

[Footnote 2282: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 72.]

When she was asked whether her saints were both clothed alike, whether they were of the same age, whether they spoke at once, whether one of them appeared before the other, she refused to reply, saying she had not permission to do so.[2283]

[Footnote 2283: _Ibid._, pp. 72, 73.]

Maitre Jean Beaupere inquired which of the apparitions came to her the first when she was about thirteen.

Jeanne said: "It was Saint Michael. I beheld him with my eyes. And he was not alone, but with him were angels from heaven. It was by Messire's command alone that I came into France."

"Did you actually behold Saint Michael and these angels in the body?"

"I saw them with the eyes of my head as plainly as I see you; and when they went away I wept and should have liked them to take me with them."

"In what semblance was Saint Michael?"[2284]

[Footnote 2284: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 73.]