The Life of Joan of Arc Part 11

[Footnote 248: S. Luce, Domremy and Vaucouleurs, from 1412 to 1425, in _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, ch. iii.]

Ten, twenty, thirty bands of Burgundians were ravaging the castellany of Vaucouleurs, laying it waste with fire and sword. The peasants hid their horses by day, and by night got up to take them to graze. At Domremy life was one perpetual alarm.[249] All day and all night there was a watchman stationed on the square tower of the monastery. Every villager, and, if the prevailing custom were observed, even the priest, took his turn as watchman, peering for the glint of lances through the dust and sunlight down the white ribbon of the road, searching the horrid depths of the wood, and by night trembling to see the villages on the horizon bursting into flame. At the approach of men-at-arms the watchman would ring a noisy peal of those bells, which in turn celebrated births, mourned for the dead, summoned the people to prayer, dispelled storms of thunder and lightning, and warned of danger. Half clothed the awakened villagers would rush to stable, to cattle-shed, and pell-mell drive their flocks and herds to the castle between the two arms of the River Meuse.[250]

[Footnote 249: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 66.]

[Footnote 250: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 66. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. lx.x.xvi, and appendix, xiv, p. 20.]

One day in the summer of 1425, there fell upon the villages of Greux and Domremy a certain chief of these marauding bands, who was murdering and plundering throughout the land, by name Henri d'Orly, known as Henri de Savoie. This time the island fortress was of no use to the villagers. Lord Henri took all the cattle from the two villages and drove them fifteen or twenty leagues[251] away to his _chateau_ of Doulevant. He had also captured much furniture and other property; and the quant.i.ty of it was so great that he could not store it all in one place; wherefore he had part of it carried to Dommartin-le-Franc, a neighbouring village, where there was a _chateau_ with so large a court in front that the place was called Dommartin-la-Cour. The peasants cruelly despoiled were dying of hunger. Happily for them, at the news of this pillage, Dame d'Ogiviller sent to the Count of Vaudemont in his _chateau_ of Joinville, complaining to him, as her kinsman, of the wrong done her, since she was lady of Greux and Domremy. The _chateau_ of Doulevant was under the immediate suzerainty of the Count of Vaudemont. As soon as he received his kinswoman's message he sent a man-at-arms with seven or eight soldiers to recapture the cattle. This man-at-arms, by name Barthelemy de Clefmont, barely twenty years of age, was well skilled in deeds of war. He found the stolen beasts in the _chateau_ of Dommartin-le-Franc, took them and drove them to Joinville. On the way he was pursued and attacked by Lord d'Orly's men and stood in great danger of death. But so valiantly did he defend himself that he arrived safe and sound at Joinville, bringing the cattle, which the Count of Vaudemont caused to be driven back to the pastures of Greux and Domremy.[252]

[Footnote 251: A league is two and a half English miles (W.S.).]

[Footnote 252: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. 275 _et seq._]

Unexpected good fortune! With tears the husbandman welcomed his restored flocks and herds. But was he not likely to lose them for ever on the morrow?

At that time Jeanne was thirteen or fourteen. War everywhere around her, even in the children's play; the husband of one of her G.o.dmothers taken and ransomed by men-at-arms; the husband of her cousin-german Mengette killed by a mortar;[253] her native land overrun by marauders, burnt, pillaged, laid waste, all the cattle carried off; nights of terror, dreams of horror,--such were the surroundings of her childhood.

[Footnote 253: E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. 4-15.]

CHAPTER II

JEANNE'S VOICES

Now, when she was about thirteen, it befell one summer day, at noon, that while she was in her father's garden she heard a voice that filled her with a great fear. It came from the right, from towards the church, and at the same time in the same direction there appeared a light. The voice said: "I come from G.o.d to help thee to live a good and holy life.[254] Be good, Jeannette, and G.o.d will aid thee."

[Footnote 254: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 72, 73, 89, 170.]

It is well known that fasting conduces to the seeing of visions.

Jeanne was accustomed to fast. Had she abstained from food that morning and if so when had she last partaken of it? We cannot say.[255]

[Footnote 255: The ma.n.u.script runs: _non jejunaverat die praecedenti_.

Quicherat omits _non_. _Trial_, vol. i, p. 52. Cf. _Revue critique_, March, 1908, p. 215.]

On another day the voice spoke again and repeated, "Jeannette, be good."

The child did not know whence the voice came. But the third time, as she listened, she knew it was an angel's voice and she even recognised the angel to be St. Michael. She could not be mistaken, for she knew him well. He was the patron saint of the duchy of Bar.[256] She sometimes saw him on the pillar of church or chapel, in the guise of a handsome knight, with a crown on his helmet, wearing a coat of mail, bearing a shield, and transfixing the devil with his lance.[257]

Sometimes he was represented holding the scales in which he weighed souls, for he was provost of heaven and warden of paradise;[258] at once the leader of the heavenly hosts and the angel of judgment.[259]

He loved high lands.[260] That is why in Lorraine a chapel had been dedicated to him on Mount Sombar, north of the town of Toul. In very remote times he had appeared to the Bishop of Avranches and commanded him to build a church on Mount Tombe, in such a place as he should find a bull hidden by thieves; and the site of the building was to include the whole area overtrodden by the bull. The Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel-au-Peril-de-la-Mer was erected in obedience to this command.[261]

[Footnote 256: V. Servais, _Annales historiques du Barrois_, Bar-le-Duc, 1865, vol. i, engraving 2.]

[Footnote 257: P. Ch. Cahier, _Caracteristique des saints dans l'art populaire_, vol. i, p. 363. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, p. 50. S.

Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xcv, xcvi, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, xxiv, p. 74.]

[Footnote 258: _Mystere de Saint Remi_, the a.r.s.enal Library, ms.

3.364, folios 4 and 108.]

[Footnote 259: "_Sed signifer Sanctus Michael representet eas (animas) in lucem sanctam._" Prayer from the ma.s.s for the dead.]

[Footnote 260: A. Maury, _Croyances et legendes du moyen age_, pp. 171 _et seq._ Barbier de Montault, _Traite d'iconographie chretienne_, vol. i, p. 191.]

[Footnote 261: AA. SS., 1672, vol. iii, i, pp. 85 _et seq._ Dom. J.

Huynes, _Histoire generale de l'abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel_, ed. R.

de Beaurepaire, Rouen, 1872, pp. 61 _et seq._ A. Forgeais, _Collection de plombs_ (seals) _histories trouves dans la Seine_, Paris, 1864, vol. iii, p. 197. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, ch. iv.

_Chronique du Mont-Saint-Michel_ (1343-1468), ed. S. Luce, Paris, 1880-1886 (2 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, pp. 26, 146, 163 _et seq._]

About the time when the child was having these visions, the defenders of Mont-Saint-Michel discomfited the English who were attacking the fortress by land and sea. The French attributed this victory to the all-powerful intercession of the archangel.[262] And why should he not have favoured the French who worshipped him with peculiar devoutness?

Since my Lord St. Denys had permitted his abbey to be taken by the English, my Lord St. Michael, who carefully guarded his, was in a fair way to become the true patron saint of the kingdom.[263] In the year 1419 the Dauphin Charles had had escutcheons painted, representing St.

Michael fully armed, holding a naked sword and in the act of slaying a serpent.[264] The maid of Domremy, however, knew but little of the miracles worked by my Lord St. Michael in Normandy. She recognised the angel by his weapons, his courtesy, and the n.o.ble words that fell from his lips.[265]

[Footnote 262: Lanery d'Arc, _Memoires et consultations en faveur de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 272 (opinion of Jean Bochard, called de Vaucelle, Bishop of Avranches). Dom. J. Huynes, _loc. cit._, ch. viii, p. 105.]

[Footnote 263: Dom Felibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denis...._ Paris, 1706, in folio, p. 341.]

[Footnote 264: Richer, _Histoire ma.n.u.scrite de la Pucelle_, ms. fr.

10,448, fol. 13. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, xxiv.]

[Footnote 265: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 173, 248, 249.]

One day he said to her: "Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret will come to thee. Act according to their advice; for they are appointed to guide thee and counsel thee in all thou hast to do, and thou mayest believe what they shall say unto thee." And these things came to pa.s.s as the Lord had ordained.[266]

[Footnote 266: _Ibid._, p. 170.]

This promise filled her with great joy, for she loved them both.

Madame Sainte Marguerite was highly honoured in the kingdom of France, where she was a great benefactress. She helped women in labour,[267] and protected the peasant at work in the fields. She was the patron saint of flax-spinners, of procurers of wet-nurses, of vellum-dressers, and of bleachers of wool. Her precious relics in a reliquary, carried on a mule's back, were paraded by ecclesiastics through towns and villages. Plenteous alms[268] were showered upon the exhibitors in return for permission to touch the relics. Many times had Jeanne seen Madame Sainte Marguerite at church, painted life-size, a holy-water sprinkler in her hand, her foot on a dragon's head.[269]

She was acquainted with her history as it was related in those days, somewhat on the lines of the following narrative.

[Footnote 267: _La vierge Marguerite subst.i.tuee a la Lucine antique_, a.n.a.lysis of an unpublished poem of the fifteenth century, Paris, 1885, in 8vo, p. 2. Rabelais, _Gargantua_, vol. i, ch. vi. L'Abbe J.B.

Thiers, _Traite des superst.i.tions qui regarde les sacrements selon l'ecriture sainte_, Paris, 1697 (4 vols. in 12mo), vol. i, p. 109.]

[Footnote 268: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, ccx.x.xiv, p. 272.]

[Footnote 269: Abbe Bourgaut, _Guide du pelerin a Domremy_, Nancy, 1878, in 12mo, p. 60. e. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 65-72.]

The blessed Margaret was born at Antioch. Her father, Theodosius, was a priest of the Gentiles. She was put out to nurse and secretly baptised. One day when she was in her fifteenth year, as she was watching the flock belonging to her nurse, the governor Olibrius saw her, and, struck by her great beauty, conceived a great pa.s.sion for her. Wherefore he said to his servants: "Go, bring me that girl, in order that if she be free I may marry her, or if she be a slave I may take her into my service."

And when she was brought he inquired of her her country, her name, and her religion. She replied that she was called Margaret and that she was a Christian.

And Olibrius said unto her: "How comes it that so n.o.ble and beautiful a girl as you can worship Jesus the Crucified?"

And because she replied that Jesus Christ was alive for ever, the governor in wrath had her thrown into prison.

The next day he summoned her to appear before him and said: "Unhappy girl, have pity on your own beauty and for your own sake worship our G.o.ds. If you persist in your blindness I will have your body rent in pieces."