The Life of Joan of Arc Part 62

[Footnote 1461: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.

319.]

While Charles of Valois was entering by one gate, the Burgundian garrison was going out by the other.[1462] As had been agreed, the men of King Henry and Duke Philip bore away their arms and other possessions. Now, in their possessions they included such French prisoners as they were holding to ransom. And, according to the use and custom of war, it would seem that they were not altogether wrong; but pitiful it was to see King Charles's men led away captive just as their lord was arriving. The Maid heard of it, and her kind heart was touched. She hurried to the gate of the town, where with arms and baggage the fighting men were a.s.sembled. She found there the lords of Rochefort and Philibert de Moslant. She challenged them and called to them to leave the Dauphin's men. But the Captains thought otherwise.

[Footnote 1462: Chartier, _Journal du siege_. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319.]

"Thus to proceed against the treaty is fraudulent and wicked," they said to her.

Meanwhile the prisoners on their knees were entreating the Saint to keep them.

"In G.o.d's name," she cried, "they shall not go."[1463]

[Footnote 1463: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 95, 96.

_Journal du siege_, p. 112. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319.]

During this altercation there was standing apart a certain Burgundian squire, and through his mind were pa.s.sing concerning the Maid of the Armagnacs certain reflections to which he was to give utterance later. "By my faith," he was thinking, "it is the simplest creature that ever I saw. There is neither rhyme nor reason in her, no more than in the greatest stupid. To so valiant a woman as Madame d'Or, I will not compare her, and the Burgundians do but jest when they appear afraid of her."[1464]

[Footnote 1464: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 296, 297.]

To taste the full flavour of this joke it must be explained that Madame d'Or, about as high as one's boot, held the office of fool to my Lord Philip.[1465]

[Footnote 1465: Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 168. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clxxiii, clxxiv. P. Champion, _Notes sur Jeanne d'Arc_, I. _Madame d'Or et Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Le moyen age_, July to August, 1907, pp. 193-199.]

The Maid failed to come to an understanding with the Lords de Rochefort and de Moslant concerning the prisoners. They had right on their side. She had only the promptings of her kind heart. This discussion afforded great entertainment to the men-at-arms of both parties. When King Charles was informed of it, he smiled and said that to settle the dispute he would pay the prisoners' ransom, which was fixed at one silver mark per head. On receiving this sum the Burgundians extolled the generosity of the King of France.[1466]

[Footnote 1466: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 96. _Journal du siege_, p. 112. _Un prince de facon_, Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, vol. i, pp. 106, 107.]

On that same Sunday, about nine o'clock in the morning, King Charles entered the city. He had put on his festive robes, gleaming with velvet, with gold, and with precious stones. The Duke of Alencon and the Maid, holding her banner in her hand, rode at his side. He was followed by all the knighthood. The townsfolk lit bonfires and danced in rings. The little children cried, "Noel!" Friar Richard preached.[1467]

[Footnote 1467: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 102. Letter from three n.o.blemen of Anjou, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 130. _Relation du greffier de La Roch.e.l.le_, p. 342. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. Morosini, vol.

iii, p. 176. Th. Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, pp. 504 _et seq._]

The Maid prayed in the churches. In one church she held a babe over the baptismal font. Like a princess or a holy woman, she was frequently asked to be G.o.dmother to children she did not know and was never to see again. She generally named the children Charles in honour of the King, and to the girls she gave her own name of Jeanne.

Sometimes she called the children by names chosen by their mothers.[1468]

[Footnote 1468: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 103.]

On the morrow, the 11th of July, the army, which had remained outside the walls, under the command of Messire Ambroise de Lore, pa.s.sed through the town. The entrance of men-at-arms was a scourge, of which the citizens were as much afraid as of the Black Death.[1469] King Charles, being careful to spare the citizens, took measures to control this scourge. By his command the heralds cried that under pain of hanging no soldier must enter the houses or take anything against the will of the townsfolk.[1470]

[Footnote 1469: T. Babeau, _Le guet et la milice bourgeoise a Troyes_, pp. 4 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1470: _Relation du greffier de La Roch.e.l.le_, p. 342.

_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 319. _Journal du siege_, p. 112. Th.

Boutiot, _Histoire de la ville de Troyes_, vol. ii, p. 505. A.

Roserot, _Le plus ancien registre des deliberations du conseil de Troyes_ in _Coll. des doc.u.ments inedits de la ville de Troyes_, vol.

iii, pp. 175 _et seq._]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE SURRENDER OF CHaLONS AND OF REIMS--THE CORONATION

Leaving Troyes, the royal army entered into the poorer part of Champagne, crossed the Aube near Arcis, and took up its quarters at Lettree, twelve and a half miles from Chalons. From Lettree the King sent his herald Montjoie to the people of Chalons to ask them to receive him and render him obedience.[1471]

[Footnote 1471: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 298. Morosini, vol.

iii, p. 179. Edition Barthelemy of _L'histoire de la ville de Chalons-sur-Marne_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations no. 25, pp. 334, 335.]

The towns of Champagne were as closely related as the fingers of one hand. When the Dauphin was at Brinion-l'Archeveque, the people of Chalons had heard of it from their friends of Troyes. The latter had even told them that Friar Richard, the preacher, had brought them a letter from Jeanne the Maid. Whereupon the folk of Chalons wrote to those of Reims:

"We are amazed at Friar Richard. We esteemed him a man right worthy.

But he has turned sorcerer. We announce unto you that the citizens of Troyes are making war against the Dauphin's men. We are resolved to resist the enemy with all our strength."[1472]

[Footnote 1472: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 290, 291. Varin, _Archives legislatives de la ville de Reims, Statuts_, vol. 1, pp. 596 _et seq._ (_Coll. des doc.u.ments inedits sur l'histoire de France_, 1845).]

They thought not one word of what they wrote, and they knew that the citizens of Reims would believe none of it. But it was important to display great loyalty to the Duke of Burgundy before receiving another master.

The Count Bishop of Chalons came out to Lettree to meet the King and gave up to him the keys of the town. He was Jean de Montbeliard-Saarbruck, one of the Sires of Commercy.[1473]

[Footnote 1473: _Gallia Christiana_, vol. v, col. 891-895. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 319-320. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p.

96. L. Barbat, _Histoire de la ville de Chalons_, 1855 (2 vols. in 4to), vol. i, p. 350. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations no. 33. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 182, note 2.]

On the 14th of July the King and his army entered the town of Chalons.[1474] There the Maid found four or five peasants from her village come to see her, and with them Jean Morel, who was her kinsman. By calling a husbandman, and about forty-three years of age, he had fled with the d'Arc family to Neufchateau on the pa.s.sing of the men-at-arms. Jeanne gave him a red gown which she had worn.[1475] At Chalons also she met another husbandman, younger than Morel by about ten years, Gerardin from epinal, whom she called her _compeer_,[1476]

just as she called Gerardin's wife Isabellette her _commere_[1477]

because she had held their son Nicolas over the baptismal font and because a G.o.dmother is a mother in the spirit. At home in the village Jeanne mistrusted Gerardin because he was a Burgundian. At Chalons she showed more confidence in him and talked to him of the progress of the army, saying that she feared nothing except treason.[1478] Already she had dark forebodings; doubtless she felt that henceforth the frankness of her soul and the simplicity of her mind would be hardly a.s.sailed by the wickedness of men and the confusing forces of circ.u.mstance.

Already the words of Saint Michael, Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had lost some of their primitive clearness, for they had come to treat of those French and Burgundian state secrets which were not heavenly matters.

[Footnote 1474: J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 298. Letter from three n.o.blemen of Anjou in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 130. Perceval de Cagny, p. 158. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 96, 97. _Chronique des Cordeliers_, fol. 85, v. E. de Barthelemy, _Chalons pendant l'invasion anglaise_, Chalons, 1851, p. 16.]

[Footnote 1475: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 391, 392 (Jean Morel's evidence).]

[Footnote 1476: French _compere_, gossip or fellow G.o.dfather, sometimes a close friend. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue to Canterbury Tales:

"With hym ther was a gentil Pardoner Of Rouncivale, his freend and his compeer" (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1477: _Commere_, fellow G.o.dmother (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1478: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 423 (evidence of Gerardin of epinal).]

The people of Chalons, following the example of their friends of Troyes, wrote to the inhabitants of Reims that they had received the King of France and that they counselled them to do likewise. In this letter they said they had found King Charles kind, gracious, pitiful, and merciful; and of a truth the King was dealing leniently with the towns of Champagne. The people of Chalons added that he had a great mind and a fine bearing.[1479] That was saying much.

[Footnote 1479: "In as much as he is the prince of the greatest discretion, understanding, and valour that has long been seen in the n.o.ble house of France." J. Rogier, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 296. Varin, _Archives de Reims, Statuts_, vol. i, p. 601. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_, pp. 13 _et seq._]

The citizens of Reims acted with extreme caution. On the arrival of the King of France in the neighbourhood of the town, while they sent informing him that their gates should be opened to him, to their Lord Philip and likewise to the Burgundians and English captains, they sent word of the progress of the royal army as far as they knew it, and called upon them to oppose the enemy's march.[1480] But they were in no hurry to obtain succour, reckoning that, should they receive none, they could surrender to King Charles without incurring any censure from the Burgundians, and that thus they would have nothing to fear from either party. For the moment they preserved their loyalty to the two sides, which was wise in circ.u.mstances so difficult and so dangerous. While observing the craft with which these towns of Champagne practised the art of changing masters, it is well to remember that their lives and possessions depended on their knowledge of that art.

[Footnote 1480: J. Rogier, _loc. cit._ Varin, p. 599.]