The Life of Joan of Arc Part 49

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 G.o.d 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 n.o.ble 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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 ma.s.s 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, _pa.s.sim_.]

[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 G.o.d. 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 s.e.xual 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 G.o.d. 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 Roch.e.l.le_, p. 60. a.n.a.lysis 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 G.o.d; 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 G.o.d!"[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, _pa.s.sim_.]

[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 n.o.bility cannot be regarded as authentic. Vallet de Viriville, _Pet.i.t 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 ma.s.ses 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 ma.s.ses 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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.]