The Life of Joan of Arc Part 17

[Footnote 363: S.M. de Vernon, _Histoire generale et particuliere du tiers-ordre de Saint-Francois_, Paris, 1667, 3 vols. in 8vo. Hilarion de Nolay, _Histoire du tiers-ordre_, Lyon, 1694, in 4to.]

[Footnote 364: Acta Sanctorum, March, vol. i, p. 549.]

[Footnote 365: Wadding, _Annales Minorum_, vol. v, p. 183.]

During the fortnight Jeanne spent in the town of Neufchateau,[366] she frequented the church of the Grey Friars monastery, and two or three times confessed to brethren of the order.[367] It has been stated that she belonged to the third order of St. Francis, and the inference has been drawn that her affiliation dated from her stay at Neufchateau.[368]

[Footnote 366: Jean Morel declares that she was at Neufchateau four days, and he adds: "What I tell you I know, for I was with the others at Neufchateau" (_Trial_, vol. ii, p. 392); Gerard Guillemette speaks of four or five days (_Ibid._, p. 414); Nicolas Bailly of three or four (_Ibid._, p. 451). But Jeanne told her judges at Rouen that she stayed a fortnight at Neufchateau (_Ibid._, vol. i, p. 51). When she gave her evidence, the event was less remote, and doubtless her recollection of it was more accurate.]

[Footnote 367: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 51.]

[Footnote 368: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, chs. ix, x, xi. Abbe V. Mourot, _Jeanne d'Arc et le tiers-ordre de Saint-Francois_, Saint-Die, 1886, in 8vo. L. de Kerval, _Jeanne d'Arc et les Franciscains_, Vanves, 1893, in 18mo. _E iera begina_, says a correspondent of Morosini, edited by Lefevre-Pontalis, vol. iii, p. 92 and note 2.]

Such an inference is very doubtful; and in any case the affiliation cannot have been very ceremonious. It is difficult to see how in so short a time the friars could have instructed her in the practices of Franciscan piety. She was far too imbued with ecclesiastical notions concerning the spiritual and the temporal power, she was too full of mysteries and revelations to imbibe their spirit. Besides, her sojourn at Neufchateau was troubled by anxiety and broken by absences.

In this town she received a summons to appear before the official of Toul, in whose jurisdiction she was, as a native of Domremy-de-Greux.

A young bachelor of Domremy alleged that a promise of marriage had been given him by Jacques d'Arc's daughter. Jeanne denied it. He persisted in his statement, and summoned her to appear before the official.[369] To this ecclesiastical tribunal such cases belonged; it p.r.o.nounced judgment on questions of nullity of marriage or validity of betrothal.

[Footnote 369: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 128, 219. E. Misset, _Jeanne d'Arc Champenoise_, 1895, in 8vo, p. 28.]

The curious part of Jeanne's case is that her parents were against her, and on the side of the young man. It was in defiance of their wishes that she defended the suit and appeared before the official.

Later she declared that in this matter she had disobeyed them, and that it was the only time she had failed in the submission she owed her parents.[370]

[Footnote 370: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 219: _quibus obediebat in omnibus, nisi in processu Tullensi_.]

The journey from Neufchateau to Toul and back involved travelling more than twenty leagues on foot, over roads infested with bands of armed men, through a country desolated by fire and sword, from which the peasants of Domremy had recently fled in a panic. To such a journey, however, she made up her mind against the will of her parents.

Possibly she may have appeared before the judge at Toul, not once but two or three times. And there was a great chance of her having to journey day and night with her so-called betrothed, for he was pa.s.sing over the same road at the same time. Her Voices bade her fear nothing.

Before the judge she swore to speak the truth, and denied having made any promise of marriage.

She had done nothing wrong. But an evil interpretation was set upon conduct which proceeded alone from an innocence both singular and heroic. At Neufchateau it was said that on those journeys she had consumed all her substance. But what was her substance? Alas! she had set out with nothing. She may have been driven to beg her bread from door to door. Saints receive alms as they give them: for the love of G.o.d. There was a story that her betrothed seeing her living during the trial in company with bad women, had abandoned his demand for justice, renouncing a bride of such bad repute.[371] Such calumnies were only too readily believed.

[Footnote 371: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 215. Article 9 of the deed of accusation is drawn up as the result of an inquiry made at Neufchateau.]

After a fortnight's sojourn at Neufchateau, Jacques d'Arc and his family returned to Domremy. The orchard, the house, the monastery, the village, the fields,--in what a state of desolation did they behold them! The soldiers had plundered, ravaged, burnt everything. Unable to exact ransom from the villeins who had taken flight, the men-at-arms had destroyed all their goods. The monastery once as proud as a fortress, with its watchman's tower, was now nothing but a heap of blackened ruins. And now on holy days the folk of Domremy must needs go to hear ma.s.s in the church of Greux.[372]

[Footnote 372: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 396, _pa.s.sim_.]

So full of danger were the times that the villagers were ordered to keep in fortified houses and castles.[373]

[Footnote 373: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clx.x.x, 230.]

Meanwhile the English were laying siege to the town of Orleans, which belonged to their prisoner Duke Charles. By so doing they acted badly, for, having possession of his body, they ought to have respected his property.[374] They built fortified towers round the city of Orleans, the very heart of France; and it was said that they had entrenched themselves there in great strength.[375] Now Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret loved the Land of the Lilies; they were the sworn friends and gentle cousins of the Dauphin Charles. They talked to the shepherd maid of the misfortunes of the kingdom and continued to say: "Leave thy village and go into France."[376]

[Footnote 374: _Mistere du siege_, v, 497.]

[Footnote 375: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, chs. x.x.xiv, x.x.xv. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, chs. x.x.xii, x.x.xv; _Journal du siege_, pp. 2 _et seq._]

[Footnote 376: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 52, 216.]

Jeanne was all the more impatient to set forth because she had herself announced the time of her arrival in France, and that time was drawing near. She had told the Commander of Vaucouleurs that succour should come to the Dauphin before mid Lent. She did not want to make her Voices lie.[377]

[Footnote 377: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 456.]

Towards the middle of January occurred the opportunity she was looking for of returning to Burey. At this time Durand La.s.sois' wife, Jeanne le Vauseul, was brought to bed.[378] It was the custom in the country for the young kinswomen and friends of the mother to attend and wait upon her and her babe. A good and kindly custom, followed all the more readily because of the opportunity it gave of pleasant meetings and cheerful gossip.[379] Jeanne urged her uncle to ask her father that she might be sent to tend the sick woman, and La.s.sois consented: he was always ready to do what his niece asked him, and perhaps his complaisance was encouraged by pious persons of some importance.[380]

But how this father, who shortly before had said that he would throw his daughter into the Meuse rather than that she should go off with men-at-arms, should have allowed her to go to the gates of the town, protected by a kinsman of whose weakness he was well aware, is hard to understand. However so he did.[381]

[Footnote 378: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 428, 434. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clx.x.x. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, p. xxiii.]

[Footnote 379: _Les caquets de l'accouchee_, new edition by E.

Fournier and Le Roux de Lincy, Paris, 1855, in 16mo, introduction.]

[Footnote 380: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53; vol. ii, p. 443.]

[Footnote 381: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 428, 430, 434.]

Leaving the home of her childhood, which she was never to see again, Jeanne, in company with Durand La.s.sois, pa.s.sed down her native valley in its winter bareness. As she went by the house of the husbandman Gerard Guillemette of Greux, whose children and Jacques d'Arc's were great friends, she cried: "Good-bye! I am going to Vaucouleurs."[382]

[Footnote 382: _Ibid._, p. 416.]

A few paces further she saw her friend Mengette: "Good-bye, Mengette,"

she said. "G.o.d bless thee."[383]

[Footnote 383: _Ibid._, p. 431.]

And by the way, on the doorsteps of the houses, whenever she saw faces she knew, she bade them farewell.[384] But she avoided Hauviette with whom she had played and slept in childhood and whom she dearly loved.

If she were to bid her good-bye she feared that her heart would fail her. It was not till later that Hauviette heard of her friend's departure and then she wept bitterly.[385]

[Footnote 384: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 418.]

[Footnote 385: _Ibid._, p. 419: _dixit quod nescivit recessum dictae Johannae; quae testis propter hoc multum flebat, quia eam multum propter suam bonitatem diligebat et quod sua socia erat_.]

On her second arrival at Vaucouleurs, Jeanne imagined that she was setting foot in a town belonging to the Dauphin, and, in the language of the day, entering the royal antechamber.[386] She was mistaken.

Since the beginning of August, 1428, the Commander of Vaucouleurs had yielded the fortress to Antoine de Vergy, but had not yet surrendered it to him.

[Footnote 386: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 436.]

It was one of those promises to capitulate at the end of a given time.

They were not uncommon in those days, and they ceased to be valid if the fortress were relieved before the day fixed for its surrender.[387]

[Footnote 387: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clxviii, 222, 234.]

Jeanne went to Sire Robert in his castle just as she had done nine months before; and this was the revelation she made to him: "My Lord Captain," she said, "know that G.o.d has again given me to wit, and commanded me many times to go to the gentle Dauphin, who must be and who is the true King of France, and that he shall grant me men-at-arms with whom I shall raise the siege of Orleans and take him to his anointing at Reims."[388]

[Footnote 388: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273; _La Chronique de Lorraine_ in Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. iii, col. vj, gives an amplified version of these words, the authenticity of which is doubtful.]

This time she announces that it is her mission to deliver Orleans. And the anointing is not to come to pa.s.s until this the first part of her task shall have been accomplished. We cannot fail to recognise the readiness and the tact with which the Voices altered their commands previously given, according to the necessities of the moment. Robert's manner towards Jeanne had completely changed. He said nothing about boxing her ears and sending her back to her parents. He no longer treated her roughly; and if he did not believe her announcement at least he listened to it readily.