The Life of Joan of Arc Part 52

The inhabitants of Orleans presented the Duke of Alencon with six casks of wine, the Maid with four, the Count of Vendome with two.[1222]

[Footnote 1222: A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, p. 51.]

As an acknowledgment of the good and acceptable services rendered by the holy maiden, the councillors of the captive Duke Charles of Orleans, gave her a green cloak and a robe of crimson Flemish cloth or fine Brussels purple. Jean Luillier, who furnished the stuff, asked eight crowns for two ells of fine Brussels at four crowns the ell; two crowns for the lining of the robe; two crowns for an ell of yellowish green cloth, making in all twelve golden crowns.[1223] Jean Luillier was a young woollen draper who adored the Maid and regarded her as an angel of G.o.d. He had a good heart; but fear of the English dazzled him, and where they were concerned caused him to see double.[1224] One of his kinsfolk was a member of the council elected in 1429. He himself was to be appointed magistrate a little later.[1225]

[Footnote 1223: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 112-113.]

[Footnote 1224: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 23.]

[Footnote 1225: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 306.]

Jean Bourgeois, tailor, asked one golden crown for the making of the robe and the cloak, as well as for furnishing white satin, taffeta, and other stuffs.[1226]

[Footnote 1226: _Ibid._, pp. 112, 114.]

The town had previously given the Maid half an ell of cloth of two shades of green worth thirty-five _sous_ of Paris to make "nettles"

for her gown.[1227] Nettles were the Duke of Orleans' device, green or purple or crimson his colours.[1228] This green was no longer the bright colour of earlier days, it had gradually been growing darker as the fortunes of the house declined. It had first been a vivid green, then a brownish shade, and, finally, the tint of the faded leaf with a suggestion of black in it which signified sorrow and mourning. The Maid's colour was _feuillemort_. She, like the officers of the duchy and the men of the train-bands, wore the Orleans livery; and thus they made of her a kind of herald-at-arms or heraldic angel.

[Footnote 1227: _Accounts of the Fortress_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p.

259.]

[Footnote 1228: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 106, 259. _Catalogue des Arch. de Joursanvault_, vol. i, p. 129, nos. 603, 607, 619, 645, 772.

Dambreville, _Abrege de l'histoire des ordres de chevalerie_, p. 167.

P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siege_, p. 92.]

The cloak of yellowish green and the robe embroidered with nettles, she must have been glad to wear for love of Duke Charles, whom the English had treated with such sore despite. Having come to defend the heritage of the captive prince, she said that in Jesus' name, the good Duke of Orleans was on her mind and she was confident that she would deliver him.[1229] Her design was first to summon the English to give him up; then, if they refused, to cross the sea and with an army to seek him in England.[1230] In case such means failed her, she had thought of another course which she would adopt, with the permission of her saints. She would ask the King if he would let her take prisoners, believing that she could take enough to exchange for Duke Charles.[1231] Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had promised her that thus his deliverance would take her less than three years and longer than one.[1232] Such were the pious dreams of a child lulled to sleep by the sound of her village bells! Deeming it just that she should labour and suffer to rescue her princes from trouble and weariness, she used to say, like a good servant: "I know that in matters of bodily ease G.o.d loves my King and the Duke of Orleans better than me; and I know it because it hath been revealed unto me."[1233]

[Footnote 1229: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 55, 258.]

[Footnote 1230: _Ibid._, p. 254.]

[Footnote 1231: _Ibid._, p. 133.]

[Footnote 1232: _Ibid._, pp. 133, 254.]

[Footnote 1233: _Ibid._, p. 258.]

Then, speaking of the captive duke she would say: "My Voices have revealed much to me concerning him. Duke Charles hath oftener been the subject of my revelations than any man living except my King."[1234]

[Footnote 1234: _Ibid._, p. 55.]

In reality, all that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had done was to tell her of the well-known misfortunes of the Prince. Valentine of Milan's son and Isabelle Romee's daughter were separated by a gulf broader and deeper than the ocean which stretched between them. They dwelt at the antipodes of the world of souls, and all the saints of Paradise would have been unable to explain one to the other.

All the same Duke Charles was a good prince and a debonair; he was kind and he was pitiful. More than any other he possessed the gift of pleasing. He charmed by his grace, albeit but ill-looking and of weak const.i.tution.[1235] His temperament was so out of harmony with his position that he may be said to have endured his life rather than to have lived it. His father a.s.sa.s.sinated by night in the Rue Barbette in Paris by order of Duke John; his mother a perennial fount of tears, dying of anger and of grief in a Franciscan nunnery; the two S's, standing for _Soupirs_ (sighs) and _Souci_ (care), the emblems and devices of her mourning, revealing her ingenious mind fancifully elegant even in despair; the Armagnacs, the Burgundians, the Cabochiens, cutting each other's throats around him; these were the sights he had witnessed when little more than a child. Then he had been wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Azincourt.

[Footnote 1235: Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. fr. 966, fol. 1.]

Now, for fourteen years, dragged from castle to castle, from one end to the other of the island of fogs; imprisoned within thick walls, closely guarded, receiving two or three of his countrymen at long intervals, but never permitted to converse with one except before witnesses, he felt old before his time, blighted by misfortune. "Fruit fallen in its greenness, I was put to ripen on prison straw. I am winter fruit,"[1236] he said of himself. In his captivity, he suffered without hope, knowing that on his death-bed Henry V had recommended his brother not to give him up at any price.[1237]

[Footnote 1236: _Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, ed. Guichard, 1842, in 12mo, p. 145.]

[Footnote 1237: A. Champollion-Figeac, _Louis et Charles, ducs d'Orleans, leur influence sur les arts, la litterature et l'esprit de leur siecle_, Paris, 1844, 1 vol. in 8vo, with an atlas, pp. 300-337.]

Kind to others, kind to himself, he took refuge in his own thoughts, which were as bright and clear as his life was dark and sad. In the gloom of the stern castles of Windsor and of Bolingbroke, in the Tower of London, side by side with his gaolers, he lived and moved in the world of phantasy of the _Romance of the Rose_. Venus, Cupid, Hope, Fair-Welcome, Pleasure, Pity, Danger, Sadness, Care, Melancholy, Sweet-Looks were around the desk, on which, in the deep embrasure of a window, beneath the sun's rays, he wrote his ballads, as delicate and fresh as an illumination on the page of a ma.n.u.script. For him it was the world of allegory that really existed. He wandered in the forest of Long Expectation; he embarked on the vessel Good Tidings. He was a poet; Beauty was his lady; and courteously did he sing of her. From his verses one would say that he was but the Captive of Lord Love.[1238]

[Footnote 1238: _Les poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, ed. A.

Champollion-Figeac, Paris, 1842, 8vo. Pierre Champion, _Le ma.n.u.scrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, Paris, 1907, 8vo.]

He was left in ignorance of the affairs of his duchy; and, if he ever concerned himself about it, it was when he collected the books of King Charles V which had been bought by the Duke of Bedford and resold to London merchants;[1239] or when he commanded that on the approach of the English to Blois, its fine tapestries and his father's library should be carried off to La Roch.e.l.le. After Beauty rich hangings and delicate miniatures were what he loved most in the world.[1240] The bright sunshine of France, the lovely month of May, dancing and ladies were what he longed for most. He was cured of prowess and of chivalry.

[Footnote 1239: L. Delisle, _Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V_ (1907), vol. i, p. 140.]

[Footnote 1240: Le Roux de Lincy, _La bibliotheque de Charles d'Orleans a son chateau de Blois, en 1427_, Paris, 1843, 8vo, pp. 5-7.

Comte de Laborde, _Les ducs de Bourgogne, etudes sur les lettres, les arts et l'industrie pendant le XV'e siecle_, Paris, 1852, vol. iii, pp. 235 _et seq._--_Inventaires et doc.u.ments relatifs aux joyaux et tap.i.s.series des princes d'Orleans-Valois_, Paris, 1894, 8vo.]

Some have wished to believe that from his duchy news reached him of the Maid's coming. They have gone so far as to imagine that a faithful servant kept him informed of the happy incidents of May and June, 1429;[1241] but nothing is less certain. On the contrary, the probability is that the English refused to let him receive any message, and that he was totally ignorant of all that was going on in the two kingdoms.[1242]

[Footnote 1241: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, Introduction by Vallet de Viriville, pp. 8, 19 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1242: With regard to the year 1433, this is well established (_Poesies completes de Charles d'Orleans_, ed. Charles d'Hericault, Paris, 1874, 2 vols. 8vo, introduction).]

Possibly he did not care for news of the war as much as one might expect. He hoped nothing from men-at-arms; and it was not to his fair cousins of France and to feats of prowess and battles that he looked for deliverance. He knew too much about them. It was in peace that he put his trust, both for himself and for his people. Since the fathers were dead, he thought that the sons might forgive and forget. He placed his hope in his cousin of Burgundy; and he was right, for the fortunes of the English were in the hands of Duke Philip. Charles brought himself, or at any rate he was to bring himself later, to recognise the suzerainty of the King of England. It is less important to consider the weakness of men than the force of circ.u.mstances. And the prisoner could never do enough to obtain peace: "joy's greatest treasure."[1243]

[Footnote 1243: _Poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, ed. A.

Champollion-Figeac, pp. 175-176.]

No, despite her revelations, the picture Jeanne imagined of her fair Duke was not the true one. They were never to meet; but if they had met there would have been serious misunderstandings between them, and they would have remained incomprehensible one to the other. Jeanne's elemental, straight-forward way of thinking could never have accorded with the ideas of so great a n.o.ble and so courteous a poet. They could never have understood each other because she was simple, he subtle; because she was a prophetess while he was filled with courtly knowledge and lettered grace; because she believed, and he was as one not believing; because she was a daughter of the common folk and a saint ascribing all sovereignty to G.o.d, while for him law consisted in feudal uses and customs, alliances and treaties;[1244] because, in short, they held conflicting ideas concerning life and the world. The Maid's mission, her being sent by Messire to recover his duchy for him, would never have appealed to the good Duke; and Jeanne would never have understood his behaviour towards his English and Burgundian cousins. It was better they should never meet.

[Footnote 1244: For him every treaty of peace was a good treaty, even that of 1420, the Treaty of Troyes (Pierre Champion, _Le ma.n.u.scrit autographe des poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, Paris, 1907, 8vo, p.

32).]

The capture of Jargeau had given the French control of the upper Loire. In order to free the city of Orleans from all danger, it was necessary to make sure of the banks of the lower river. There the English still held Meung and Beaugency. On Tuesday, the 14th of June, at the hour of vespers, the army took the field.[1245]

[Footnote 1245: Perceval de Cagny, p. 152: "_Je veux demain, apres diner, aller voir ceux de Meung_." ["To-morrow after dinner I will go to the people of Meung."] The turn of expression which this chronicle attributes to Jeanne is really that of the clerk who wrote it.]

They pa.s.sed through La Sologne, and that same evening gained the Bridge of Meung, situated above the town and separated from its walls by a broad meadow. Like most bridges, it was defended by a castlet at each end; and the English had provided it with an earthen outwork, as they had done for Les Tourelles at Orleans.[1246] They defended it badly, however, and the French King's men forced their way in before nightfall. They left a garrison there, and went out to encamp in Beauce, almost under the walls. The young Duke of Alencon lodged in a church with a few men-at-arms; and, as was his wont, did not keep watch. He was surprised and ran great danger.[1247]

[Footnote 1246: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 71, 97, 110. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 305. _Journal du siege_, p. 101. Berry, in _Trial_, vol.

iv, p. 44. Walter Bower, _Scotichronicon_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.

479. Eberhard Windecke, p. 176.]

[Footnote 1247: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 97.]

The town garrison, which was a small one, was commanded by Lord Scales, and "the Child of Warwick." The next day, early in the morning, the King's men, pa.s.sing within a cannon shot of the town of Meung, marched straight on Beaugency, which they reached in the morning.[1248]

[Footnote 1248: _Ibid._, pp. 97, 98.]

The ancient little town, built on the side of a hill and girt around with vineyards, gardens, and cornfields, sloped before them towards the green valley of the Ru. Straight in front of them rose its square tower of somewhat proud aspect, although it had oftentimes been taken.

The suburbs were not fortified; but the French, when they entered them, were riddled by a shower of arrows of every kind, fired by archers concealed in dwellings and outhouses. On both sides there were killed and wounded. Finally, the English retreated into the castle and the bridge bastions.[1249]