The Life of Joan of Arc Part 38

"And when the Lord thy G.o.d hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword:

"But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself." (Deuteronomy xx, 10-14.)

But at least it is certain that on this occasion the Maid is expressing her own sentiments. Afterwards we shall find her saying: "I asked for peace, and when I was refused I was ready to fight."[889]

But, as she dictated the letter and was unable to read it, we may ask whether the clerks who held the pen did not add to it.

[Footnote 889: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 55, 84, 240.]

Two or three pa.s.sages suggest the ecclesiastical touch. Afterwards the Maid did not remember having dictated "body for body," which is quite unimportant. But she declared that she had not said: "I am chief in war" and that she had dictated: "Surrender to the King" and not "Surrender to the Maid."[890] Possibly her memory failed her; it was not always faithful. Nevertheless she appeared very certain of what she said, and twice she repeated that "chief in war" and "surrender to the Maid" were not in the letter. It may have been that the monks who were with her used these expressions. To these wandering priests a dispute over fiefs mattered little, and it was not their first concern to bring King Charles into the possession of his inheritance.

Doubtless they desired the good of the kingdom of France; but certainly they desired much more the good of Christendom; and we shall see that, if those mendicant monks, Brother Pasquerel and later Friar Richard, follow the Maid, it will be in the hope of employing her to the Church's advantage. Thus it would be but natural that they should declare her at the outset commander in war, and even invest her with a spiritual power superior to the temporal power of the King, and implied in the phrase: "Surrender to the Maid ... the keys of the good towns."

[Footnote 890: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 56, 84.]

This very letter indicates one of those hopes which among others she inspired. They expected that after she had fulfilled her mission in France, she would take the cross and go forth to conquer Jerusalem, bringing all the armies of Christian Europe in her train.[891] At this very time a disciple of Bernardino of Siena, Friar Richard, a Franciscan lately come from Syria,[892] and who was shortly to meet the Maid, was preaching at Paris, announcing the approach of the end of the world, and exhorting the faithful to fight against Antichrist.[893] It must be remembered that the Turks, who had conquered the Christian knights at Nicopolis and at s.e.m.e.ndria, were threatening Constantinople and spreading terror throughout Europe.

Popes, emperors, kings felt the necessity of making one great effort against them.

[Footnote 891: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 64, 82 _et seq._ Christine de Pisan, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 16. Concerning the subject of the Crusade, cf. N. Jorga, Philippe de Mezieres, 1896, in 8vo: _Notes et extraits pour servir a l'histoire des Croisades au XV'e siecle_, Paris, 1899-1902, 3 vols. in 8vo (taken from _La revue de l'Orient Latin_).]

[Footnote 892: _Pii Secundi commentarii_, 1614 edition, p. 440.

Wadding, _Annales Minorum_, vol. v, pp. 130 _et seq._]

[Footnote 893: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 233. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xv, ccx.x.xvii. See the pictures in the numerous fifteenth century little popular books concerning Antichrist.

(Brunet, _Manuel du libraire_, vol. i, col. 316.)]

In England it was said that between Saint-Denys and Saint-George there had been born to King Henry V and Madame Catherine of France a boy, half English and half French, who would go to Egypt and pluck the Grand Turk's beard.[894] On his death-bed the conqueror Henry V was listening to the priests repeating the penitential psalms. When he heard the verse: _Benigne fac Domine in bona voluntate tua ut aedificentur muri Jerusalem_, he murmured with his dying breath: "I have always intended to go to Syria and deliver the holy city out of the hand of the infidel."[895] These were his last words. Wise men counselled Christian princes to unite against the Crescent. In France, the Archbishop of Embrun, who had sat in the Dauphin's Council, cursed the insatiable cruelty of the English nation and those wars among Christians which were an occasion of rejoicing to the enemies of the Cross of Christ.[896]

[Footnote 894: Felix Rabbe, _Jeanne d'Arc en Angleterre_, Paris, 1891, p. 12.]

[Footnote 895: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 112. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 340.]

[Footnote 896: Le P. Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes, Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 315 _et seq._]

To summon the English and French to take the cross together, was to proclaim that after ninety-one years of violence and crime the cycle of secular warfare had come to an end. It was to bid Christendom return to the days when Philippe de Valois and Edward Plantagenet promised the Pope to join together against the infidel.

But when the Maid invited the English to unite with the French in a holy and warlike enterprise, it is not difficult to imagine with what kind of a reception the _G.o.dons_ would greet such an angelic summons.

And at the time of the siege of Orleans, the French on their side had good reasons for not taking the cross with the _Coues_.[897]

[Footnote 897: In all extant copies of the Letter to the English, except that of the Trial, at the pa.s.sage "you may come" [_Encore que pourrez venir_] the text is completely illegible.]

The learned did not greatly appreciate the style of this letter. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Orleans thought the words very simple; and a few years later a good French jurist p.r.o.nounced it coa.r.s.e, heavy, and badly arranged.[898] We cannot aspire to judge better than the jurist and the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, both men of erudition. Nevertheless, we wonder whether it were not that her manner of expression seemed bad to them, merely because it differed from the style of legal doc.u.ments. True it is that the letter from Blois indicates the poverty of the French prose of that time when not enriched by an Alain Chartier; but it contains neither term nor expression which is not to be met with in the good authors of the day. The words may not be correctly ordered, but the style is none the less vivacious. There is nothing to suggest that the writer came from the banks of the Meuse; no trace is there of the speech of Lorraine or Champagne.[899] It is clerkly French.

[Footnote 898: _Per unam litteram suo materno idiomate confectam, verbis bene simplicibus_, _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 7, evidence of the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Orleans. Mathieu Thoma.s.sin, _Registre Delphinal_, in the _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 306.]

[Footnote 899: On the contrary it contains forms which would never have been penned by a native of Picardy, Burgundy, Lorraine, or Champagne, such as the participle _envoyee_. Both the grammar and the writing are those of a French clerk. (Contributed by M. E.

Langlois.)]

While Isabelle de Vouthon had gone on a pilgrimage to Puy, her two youngest children, Jean and Pierre, had set out for France to join their sister, with the intention of making their fortunes through her or the King. Likewise, Brother Nicolas of Vouthon, Jeanne's cousin german, a monk in priest's orders in the Abbey of Cheminon, joined the young saint.[900] To have thus attracted her kinsfolk before giving any sign of her power, Jeanne must have had witnesses on the banks of the Meuse; and certain venerable ecclesiastical personages, as well as n.o.ble lords of Lorraine, must have answered for her reputation in France. Such guarantors of the truth of her mission were doubtless those who had instructed her in and accredited her by prophecy.

Perhaps Brother Nicolas of Vouthon was himself of the number.

[Footnote 900: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 252. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. xx, 9, 10. [Doc.u.ment of very doubtful authenticity.]]

In the army she was regarded as a holy maiden. Her company consisted of a chaplain, Brother Jean Pasquerel;[901] two pages, Louis de Coutes and Raymond;[902] her two brethren, Pierre and Jean; two heralds, Ambleville and Guyenne;[903] two squires, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy.

[Footnote 901: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 101.]

[Footnote 902: _Ibid._, pp. 65, 67, 124. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.

277. A. de Villaret, _Louis de Coutes, page de Jeanne d'Arc_, Orleans, 1890, 8vo.]

[Footnote 903: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 26, 27.]

Jean de Metz kept the purse which was filled by the crown.[904] She had also certain valets in her service. A squire, one Jean d'Aulon, whom the King gave her for a steward, joined her at Blois.[905] He was the poorest squire of the realm. He was entirely dependent on the Sire de La Tremouille, who lent him money; but he was well known for his honour and his wisdom.[906] Jeanne attributed the defeats of the French to their riding forth accompanied by bad women and to their taking G.o.d's holy name in vain. And this opinion, far from being held by her alone, prevailed among persons of learning and religion; according to whom the disaster of Nicopolis was occasioned by the presence of prost.i.tutes in the army, and by the cruelty and dissoluteness of the knights.[907]

[Footnote 904: Extracts from the Accounts of Hemon Raguier, _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 257, 258.]

[Footnote 905: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 211. D'Aulon had seen her at Poitiers.]

[Footnote 906: _Ibid._, p. 15. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 292, note 3. The loans mentioned occurred later, but there is no reason to believe that they were the first. Duc de La Tremolle, _Les La Tremouille pendant cinq siecles, Guy VI et Georges_ (1346-1446), Nantes, 1890, pp. 196, 201.]

[Footnote 907: Juvenal des Ursins, year 1396.]

On several occasions, between 1420 and 1425, the Dauphin had forbidden cursing and denying and blaspheming the name of G.o.d, of the Virgin Mary and of the saints under penalty of a fine and of corporal punishment in certain cases. The decrees embodying this prohibition a.s.serted that wars, pestilence, and famine were caused by blasphemy and that the blasphemers were in part responsible for the sufferings of the realm.[908] Wherefore the Maid went among the men-at-arms, exhorting them to turn away the women who followed the army, and to cease taking the Lord's name in vain. She besought them to confess their sins and receive divine grace into their souls, maintaining that their G.o.d would aid them and give them the victory if their souls were right.[909]

[Footnote 908: _Ordonnances des rois de France_, vol. xi, p. 105; vol.

xiii, p. 247. S. de Bouillerie, _La repression du blaspheme dans l'ancienne legislation_, in the _Revue historique et archeologique du Maine_, 1884, pp. 369 _et seq._ De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 370; vol. ii, p. 189. A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise_, Paris, 1878, in 8vo, pp. 11, 56.]

[Footnote 909: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 78, 104, 105. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 283. Very early she was mentioned in connection with La Hire, the most valiant of the French, and it was imagined that she taught him to confess and to cease swearing. These are pretty stories (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 32; vol. iv, p. 327).]

Jeanne took her standard to the Church of Saint-Sauveur and gave it to the priests to bless.[910] The little company formed at Tours was joined at Blois by ecclesiastics and monks, who, on the approach of the English, had fled in crowds from the neighbouring abbeys, and were now suffering from cold and hunger. It was generally thus. Monks were for ever flocking to the armies. Many churches and most abbeys had been reduced to ruin. Those of the mendicants, built outside the towns, had all perished,--plundered and burnt by the English or pulled down by the townsfolk; for, when threatened with siege, the inhabitants always dealt thus with the outlying portions of their town. The homeless monks found no welcome in the cities, which were sparing of their goods; they must needs take the field with the soldiers and follow the army. From such a course their rule suffered and piety gained nothing. Among mercenaries, sumpters and camp followers, these hungry nomad monks lived an edifying life. Those who accompanied the Maid were doubtless neither worse nor better than the rest, and as they were very hungry their first care was to eat.[911]

[Footnote 910: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 103. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 47. L.A. Bosseboeuf, _Jeanne d'Arc en Touraine_, Tours, 1899, pp. 34 _et seq._]

[Footnote 911: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises, monasteres, hopitaux, en France, vers le milieu du XV'e siecle_, Macon, 1897, in 8vo, introduction.]

The men-at-arms were much too accustomed to seeing monks and nuns mingling side by side in the army to feel any surprise at the sight of the holy damsel in the midst of a band so disreputable. It is true that the damsel was said to work wonders. Many believed in them; others mocked and said aloud: "Behold the brave champion and captain who comes to deliver the realm of France."[912]

[Footnote 912: _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 327. Tringant, _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 277, merely says that few soldiers went willingly to the relief of Orleans, which is not strictly accurate.]

The Maid had a banner made for the monks to a.s.semble beneath and summon the men-at-arms to prayer. This banner was white, and on it were represented Jesus on the Cross between Our Lady and Saint John.[913] The Duke of Alencon went back to the King to make known to him the needs of the company at Blois. The King sent the necessary funds; and at length they were ready to set out.[914] At the start there were two roads open, one leading to Orleans along the right bank of the Loire, the other along the left bank. At the end of twelve or fourteen miles the road along the right bank came out on the edge of the Plain of La Beauce, occupied by the English who had garrisons at Marchenoir, Beaugency, Meung, Montpipeau, Saint-Sigismond, and Janville. In that direction lay the risk of meeting the army, which was coming to the aid of the English round Orleans. After the experience of the Battle of the Herrings such a meeting was to be feared. If the road along the left bank were taken, the march would lie through the district of La Sologne, which still belonged to King Charles; and if the river were left well on one side, the army would be out of sight of the English garrisons of Beaugency and of Meung.

True, it would involve crossing the Loire, but by going up the river five miles east of the besieged city a crossing could conveniently be effected between Orleans and Jargeau. On due deliberation it was decided that they should go by the left bank through La Sologne. It was decided to take in the victuals in two separate lots for fear the unloading near the enemy's bastions should take too long.[915] On Wednesday, the 27th of April, they started.[916] The priests in procession, with a banner at their head, led the march, singing the _Veni creator Spiritus_.[917] The Maid rode with them in white armour, bearing her standard. The men-at-arms and the archers followed, escorting six hundred wagons of victuals and ammunition and four hundred head of cattle.[918] The long line of lances, wagons, and herds defiled over the Blois bridge into the vast plain beyond. The first day the army covered twenty miles of rutty road. Then at curfew, when the setting sun, reflected in the Loire, made the river look like a sheet of copper between lines of dark reeds, it halted,[919] and the priests sang _Gabriel angelus_.

[Footnote 913: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 104 (Brother Pasquerel's evidence). _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Morosini, vol. iii, pp.

110, 111; vol. iv, pp. 313-315. G. Martin, _L'etendard de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Notes d'art et d'arch._, 1834, pp. 65-71, 81-88, ill.u.s.trated.]

[Footnote 914: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 93. _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 327.]

[Footnote 915: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 5, 67, 78, 105, 212. Martial d'Auvergne, _ibid._, vol. v, p. 53. _Chronique de la fete_, _ibid._, p. 290. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 281. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 71. Boucher de Molandon, _Premiere expedition de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 38 _et seq._]

[Footnote 916: The 28th of April, according to Eberhard Windecke, p.