The Life of Joan of Arc Part 54

[Footnote 1269: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, J. Chartier, Gruel, Morosini, Berry, Monstrelet, Wavrin, _loc. cit_. _Lettre de Jacques de Bourbon, Comte de la Marche a Guill. de Champeaux, eveque de Laon_, according to a Vienna MS. by Bougenot, in _Bull. du Com. des travaux hist. et scientif. hist. et phil., 1892_, pp. 56-65. (French translation by S. Luce, in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892, pp.

201-204.)]

Informed of the army's approach the French King's men went forth to meet it. The scouts had not far to ride before they descried the standards and pennons of England waving over the plain, about two and a half miles from Patay. Then the French ascended a hill whence they could observe the enemy. Captain La Hire and the young Sire de Termes said to the Maid: "The English are coming. They are in battle array and ready to fight."

As was her wont, she made answer: "Strike boldly and they will flee."

And she added that the battle would not be long.[1270]

[Footnote 1270: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 120. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p.

328. The clerk who wrote down Thibault de Termes' evidence, being ill-informed, described these words as having been uttered at the Battle of Patay. At Patay, Jeanne and La Hire were not near each other.]

Believing that the French were offering them battle, the English took up their position. The archers planted their stakes in the ground, their points inclined towards the enemy. Thus they generally prepared to fight; they had not done otherwise at the Battle of the Herrings.

The sun was already declining on the horizon.[1271]

[Footnote 1271: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

286.]

The Duke of Alencon had by no means decided to descend into the plain.

In presence of the Constable, my Lord the b.a.s.t.a.r.d and the captains, he consulted the holy Maid, who gave him an enigmatical answer: "See to it that you have good spurs."

Taking her to mean the Count of Clermont's spurs, the spurs of Rouvray, the Duke of Alencon exclaimed: "What do you say? Shall we turn our backs on them?"

"Nay," she replied.

On all occasions her Voices counselled unwavering confidence. "Nay. In G.o.d's name, go down against them; for they shall flee and shall not stay and shall be utterly discomfited; and you shall lose scarce any men; wherefore you will need your spurs to pursue them."[1272]

[Footnote 1272: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 11. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 307. It is clear that this pa.s.sage from Dunois' evidence and from _La chronique de la Pucelle_ cannot refer to the battle of June 18th, as has been thought. "All the English divisions," says Dunois, "united into one army. We thought they were going to offer us battle." He is evidently referring to what happened on the 17th of June. The Duke of Alencon's evidence confuses everything. How could the Maid have said of the English: "G.o.d sends them against us," when they were fleeing?]

According to the opinions of doctors and masters it was well to listen to the Maid, but at the same time to follow the course marked out by human wisdom.

The commanders of the army, either because they judged the occasion unfavourable or because, after so many defeats, they feared a pitched battle, did not come down from their hill. The two heralds sent by two English knights to offer single combat received the answer: "For to-day you may go to bed, because it grows late. But to-morrow, if it be G.o.d's will, we will come to closer quarters."[1273]

[Footnote 1273: Those who would attribute this saying to the Maid have misunderstood Wavrin. _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p. 287.]

The English, a.s.sured that they would not be attacked, marched off to pa.s.s the night at Meung.[1274]

[Footnote 1274: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

287. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 326 _et seq._]

On the morrow, Sat.u.r.day, the 18th, Saint Hubert's day, the French went forth against them. They were not there. The _G.o.dons_ had decamped early in the morning and gone off, with cannon, ammunition, and victuals, towards Janville,[1275] where they intended to entrench themselves.

[Footnote 1275: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, _Journal du siege_, Gruel, J. Chartier, Berry, _loc. cit._]

Straightway King Charles's army of twelve thousand men[1276] set out in pursuit of them. Along the Paris road they went, over the plain of Beauce, wooded, full of game, covered with thickets and brushwood, wild, but finely to the taste of English and French riders, who praised it highly.[1277]

[Footnote 1276: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

289. Fauche-Prunelle, _Lettres tirees des archives de l'eveche de Gren.o.ble_, in _Bull. acad. Delph._, vol. ii, 1847, pp. 458 _et seq._ Letter from Charles VII to the town of Tours, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp.

262, 263.]

[Footnote 1277: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

289. The herald Berry, _Le livre de la description des pays_, ed.

Hamy.]

Gazing over the infinite plain, where the earth seems to recede before one's glance, the Maid beheld the sky in front of her, that cloudy sky of plains, suggesting marvellous adventures on the mountains of the air, and she cried: "In G.o.d's name, if they were hanging from the clouds we should have them."[1278]

[Footnote 1278: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 98, 99. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 306. _Chronique normande_, ch. xlviii, ed. Vallet de Viriville. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 325 _et seq._ Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 72-73. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, pp.

289-290. These words are said to have been uttered when the English had been discovered, but then they would have been meaningless.]

Now, as on the previous evening, she prophesied: "To-day our fair King shall win a victory greater than has been his for a long time. My Council has told me that they are all ours."

She foretold that there would be few, or none of the French slain.[1279]

[Footnote 1279: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99 (the Duke of Alencon's evidence).]

Captain Poton and Sire Arnault de Gugem went forth to reconnoitre. The most skilled men-of-war, and among them my Lord the b.a.s.t.a.r.d and the Marshal de Boussac, mounted on the finest of war-steeds, formed the vanguard. Then under the leadership of Captain La Hire, who knew the country, came the horse of the Duke of Alencon, the Count of Vendome, the Constable of France, with archers and cross-bowmen. Last of all came the rear-guard, commanded by the lords of Graville, Laval, Rais, and Saint-Gilles.[1280]

[Footnote 1280: _Ibid._, p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes). Letter from Jacques de Bourbon in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892, pp.

201-204. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 327. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, p. 289.]

The Maid, ever zealous, desired to be in the vanguard; but she was kept back. She did not lead the men-at-arms, rather the men-at-arms led her. They regarded her, not as captain of war but as a bringer of good luck. Greatly saddened, she must needs take her place in the rear, in the company, doubtless, of the Sire de Rais, where she had originally been placed.[1281] The whole army pressed forward for fear the enemy should escape them.

[Footnote 1281: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 71. _Journal du siege_, p. 140.

_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 307. _Deux doc.u.ments sur Jeanne d'Arc_ in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892.]

After they had ridden twelve or thirteen miles in overpowering heat, and pa.s.sed Saint-Sigismond on the left and got beyond Saint-Peravy, Captain Poton's sixty to eighty scouts reached a spot where the ground, which had been level hitherto, descends, and where the road leads down into a hollow called La Retreve. They could not actually see the hollow, but beyond it the ground rose gently; and, dimly visible, scarcely two and a half miles away was the belfry of Lignerolles on the wooded plain known as Climat-du-Camp. A league straight in front of them was the little town of Patay.[1282]

[Footnote 1282: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 11, 71, 98. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 306 _et seq._ _Journal du siege_, pp. 103 _et seq._ Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 85. Le Comte de Va.s.sal, _La bataille de Patay_, Orleans, 1890.]

It is two o'clock in the afternoon. Poton's and Gugem's horse chance to raise a stag, which darts out of a thicket and plunges down into the hollow of La Retreve. Suddenly a clamour of voices ascends from the hollow. It proceeds from the English soldiers loudly disputing over the game which has fallen into their hands. Thus informed of the enemy's presence, the French scouts halt and straightway despatch certain of their company to go and tell the army that they have surprised the _G.o.dons_ and that it is time to set to work.[1283]

[Footnote 1283: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 328.]

Now this is what had been happening among the English. They were retreating in good order on Janville, their vanguard commanded by a knight bearing a white standard.[1284] Then came the artillery and the victuals in waggons driven by merchants; then the main body of the army, commanded by Sir John Talbot and Sir John Fastolf. The rear-guard, which was likely to bear the brunt of the attack, consisted only of Englishmen from England.[1285] It followed at some distance from the rest. Its scouts, having seen the French without being seen by them, informed Sir John Talbot, who was then between the hamlet of Saint-Peravy and the town of Patay. On this information he called a halt and commanded the vanguard with waggons and cannon to take up its position on the edge of the Lignerolles wood. The position was excellent: backed by the forest, the combatants were secure against being attacked in the rear,[1286] while in front they were able to entrench themselves behind their waggons. The main body did not advance so far. It halted some little distance from Lignerolles, in the hollow of La Retreve. On this spot the road was lined with quickset hedges. Sir John Talbot with five hundred picked bowmen stationed himself there to await the French who must perforce pa.s.s that way. His design was to defend the road until the rear-guard had had time to join the main body, and then, keeping close to the hedges, he would fall back upon the army.

[Footnote 1284: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

291.]

[Footnote 1285: _Ibid._, pp. 291-292.]

[Footnote 1286: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 329.]

The archers, as was their wont, were making ready to plant in the ground those pointed stakes, the spikes of which they turned against the chests of the enemy's horses, when the French, led by Poton's scouts, came down upon them like a whirlwind, overthrew them, and cut them to pieces.[1287]

[Footnote 1287: Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p.

292. Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 329, 350.]

At this moment, Sir John Fastolf, at the head of the main body, was preparing to join the vanguard. Feeling the French cavalry at his heels, he gave spur and at full gallop led his men on to Lignerolles.

When those of the white standard saw him arriving thus in rout, they thought he had been defeated. They took fright, abandoned the edge of the wood, rushed into the thickets of Climat-du-Camp and in great disorder came out on the Paris road. With the main body of the army, Sir John Fastolf pushed on in the same direction. There was no battle.

Marching over the bodies of Talbot's archers, the French threw themselves on the English, who were as dazed as a flock of sheep and fell before the foe without resistance. Thus the French slew two thousand of those common folk whom the _G.o.dons_ were accustomed to transport from their own land to be killed in France. When the main body of the French, commanded by La Hire, reached Lignerolles, they found only eight hundred foot whom they soon overthrew. Of the twelve to thirteen thousand French on the march, scarce fifteen hundred took part in the battle or rather in the ma.s.sacre. Sir John Talbot, who had leapt on to his horse without staying to put on his spurs, was taken prisoner by the Captains La Hire and Poton.[1288] The Lords Scales, Hungerford and Falconbridge, Sir Thomas Guerard, Richard Spencer and Fitz Walter were taken and held to ransom. In all, there were between twelve and fifteen hundred prisoners.[1289]