The Life of Joan of Arc Part 76

_Appendice aux etudes archeologiques sur les anciens plans de Paris et aux dissertations sur les enceintes de Paris_, Paris, 1877, in 4to.

_etude sur Gilles Corrozet, suivie d'une notice sur un ma.n.u.scrit de la Bibliotheque des ducs de Bourgogne, contenant une description de Paris, en 1432_, par Guillebert de Metz, Paris, 1846, in 8vo, 56 pages. Kausler, _Atlas des plus memorables batailles_, Carlsruhe, 1831, pl. 34. H. Legrand, _Paris en 1380_, with plan conjecturally reconstructed, Paris in fol. 1868, p. 58. A. Guilaumot, _Les Portes de l'enceinte de Paris sous Charles V_, Paris, 1879. Rigaud, _Chronique de la Pucelle, campagne de Paris, cartes et plans_, Bergerac, 1886, in 8vo.]

The Parisians did not like the English and were sorely grieved by their occupation of the city. The folk murmured when, after the funeral of the late King, Charles VI, the Duke of Bedford had the sword of the King of France borne before him.[1737] But what cannot be helped must be endured. The Parisians may have disliked the English; they admired Duke Philip, a prince of comely countenance and the richest potentate of Christendom. As for the little King of Bourges, mean-looking and sad-faced, strongly suspected of treason at Montereau, there was nothing pleasing in him; he was despised and his followers were regarded with fear and horror. For ten years they had been ranging round the town, pillaging, taking prisoners and holding them to ransom. The English and Burgundians indeed did likewise. When, in the August of 1423, Duke Philip came to Paris, his men ravaged all the neighbouring fields, albeit they belonged to friends and allies.

But they were only pa.s.sing through,[1738] while the Armagnacs were for ever raiding, eternally stealing all they could lay hands on, setting fire to barns and churches, killing women and children, ravishing maids and nuns, hanging men by the thumbs. In 1420, like devils let loose, they descended upon the village of Champigny and burned at once oats, wheat, sheep, cows, oxen, women and children. Likewise did they and worse still at Croissy.[1739] One ecclesiastic said they had caused more Christians to suffer martyrdom than Maximian and Diocletian.[1740]

[Footnote 1737: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 180.]

[Footnote 1738: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 189.]

[Footnote 1739: _Ibid._, pp. 136, 137.]

[Footnote 1740: _Ibid._, p. 107. _Doc.u.ment inedit relatif a l'etat de Paris en 1430_, in _Revue des societes savantes_, 1863, p. 203.]

And yet, in the year 1429, there might have been discovered in the city of Paris not a few followers of the Dauphin. Christine de Pisan, who was very loyal to the House of Valois, said: "In Paris there are many wicked. Good are there also and faithful to their King. But they dare not lift up their voices."[1741]

[Footnote 1741: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, stanza 56, p.

20. Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, p.

426.]

It was common knowledge that in the Parlement and even in the Chapter of Notre-Dame were to be found those who had dealings with the Armagnacs.[1742]

[Footnote 1742: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 251. A. Longnon, _Paris pendant la domination anglaise (1420-1436), doc.u.ments extraits des registres de la chancellerie de France_, Paris, 1877, in 8vo, introduction, p. xiij. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 116, note 1.]

On the morrow of their victory at Patay, those terrible Armagnacs had only to march straight on the town to take it. They were expected to enter it one day or the other. In the mind of the Regent it was as if they had already taken it. He went off and shut himself in the Castle of Vincennes with the few men who remained to him.[1743] Three days after the discomfiture of the English there was a panic in the town.

"The Armagnacs are coming to-night," they said. Meanwhile the Armagnacs were at Orleans awaiting orders to a.s.semble at Gien and to march on Auxerre. At these tidings the Duke of Bedford must have sighed a deep sigh of relief; and straightway he set to work to provide for the defence of Paris and the safety of Normandy.[1744]

[Footnote 1743: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 248. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 297. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 79, note.]

[Footnote 1744: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 257.

Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 453. Morosini, vol. iii, p.

198.]

When the panic was past, the heart of the great town returned to its allegiance, not to the English cause--it had never been English--but to the Burgundian. Its Provost, Messire Simon Morhier, who had made great slaughter of the French at the Battle of the Herrings, remained loyal to the Leopard.[1745] The aldermen on the contrary were suspected of inclining a favourable ear to King Charles's proposals. On the 12th of July, the Parisians elected a new town council composed of the most zealous Burgundians they could find in commerce and on change. To be provost of the merchants they appointed the treasurer, Guillaume Sanguin, to whom the Duke of Burgundy owed more then seven thousand _livres tournois_[1746] and who had the Regent's jewels in his keeping.[1747] Such an alteration was greatly to the detriment of King Charles, who preferred to win back his good towns by peaceful means rather than by force, and who relied more on negotiations with the citizens than on cannon b.a.l.l.s and stones.

[Footnote 1745: _Journal du siege_, p. 38. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 106, 107. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 454.]

[Footnote 1746: See vol. i, p. 222, note 2 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1747: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 239, note 2. Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 340 _et seq._]

Just in the nick of time the Regent surrendered the town to Duke Philip, not, we may be sure, without many regrets for having recently refused him Orleans. He realised that thus, by returning to its French allegiance, the chief city of the realm would make a more energetic defense against the Dauphin's men. The Parisians' old liking for the magnificent Duke would revive, and so would their old hatred of the disinherited son of Madame Ysabeau. In the Palais de Justice the Duke read the story of his father's death, punctuated with complaints of Armagnac treason and violated treaties; he caused the blood of Montereau[1748] to cry to heaven; those who were present swore to be right loyal to him and to the Regent. On the following days the same oath was taken by the regular and secular clergy.[1749]

[Footnote 1748: 14th July, 1429, _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp.

240, 241. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 240. Morosini, vol.

iii, p. 186.]

[Footnote 1749: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 241.]

But the citizens were strengthened in their resistance more by their remembrance of Armagnac cruelty than by their affection for the fair Duke. A rumour ran and was believed by them that Messire Charles of Valois had abandoned to his mercenaries the city and the citizens of all ranks, high and low, men and women, and that he intended to plough up the very ground on which Paris stood. Such a rumour represented him very falsely; on all occasions he was pitiful and debonair; his Council had prudently converted the coronation campaign into an armed and peaceful procession. But the Parisians were incapable of judging sanely when the intentions of the King of France were concerned; and they knew only too well that once their town was taken there would be nothing to prevent the Armagnacs from laying it waste with fire and sword.[1750]

[Footnote 1750: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 356.]

One other circ.u.mstance intensified their fear and their dislike. When they heard that Friar Richard, to whose sermons they had once listened so devoutly, was riding with the Dauphin's men and with his nimble tongue winning such good towns as Troyes in Champagne, they called down upon him the malediction of G.o.d and his Saints. They tore from their caps the pewter medals engraved with the holy name of Jesus, which the good Brother had given them, and in their bitter hatred towards him they returned straightway to the dice, bowls and draughts which they had renounced at his exhortation. With no less horror did the Maid inspire them. It was said that she was acting the prophetess and uttering such words as: "In very deed this or that shall come to pa.s.s." "With the Armagnacs is a creature in woman's form. What it is G.o.d only knows," they cried. They spoke of her as a woman of ill fame.[1751] Among these enemies, there were those who filled them with even greater horror than pagans and Saracens--to wit: a monk and a maid. They all took the cross of Saint Andrew.[1752]

[Footnote 1751: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 242.]

[Footnote 1752: _Ibid._, p. 243.]

While the Dauphin had been away at his coronation an army had come from England into France. The Regent intended it to overrun Normandy.

In its march on Rouen he commanded it in person. The defence and ward of Paris he left to Louis of Luxembourg, Bishop of Therouanne, Chancellor of France for the English, to the Sire de l'Isle-Adam, Marshal of France, Captain of Paris, to two thousand men-at-arms and to the Parisian train-bands. To the last were entrusted the defence of the ramparts and the management of the artillery. They were commanded by twenty-four burgesses, called _quarteniers_ because they represented the twenty-four quarters of the city. From the end of July all danger of a surprise had been guarded against.[1753]

[Footnote 1753: Rymer, _Foedera_, May. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p.

332. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 355. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 106, 107. Wallon, _Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. i, p. 290, note 1. G.

Lefevre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, p. 9. Morosini, vol. iii, p.

216, note 5; vol. iv, appendix xviii.]

On the 10th of August, on Saint-Laurence's Eve, while the Armagnacs were encamped at La Ferte-Milon, the Saint-Martin Gate, flanked by four towers and a double drawbridge, was closed; and all men were forbidden to go to Saint-Laurent, either to the procession or to the fair, as in previous years.[1754]

[Footnote 1754: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

On the 28th of the same month, the royal army occupied Saint-Denys.

Henceforth no one dared leave the city, neither for the vintage nor for the gathering of anything in the kitchen gardens, which covered the plain north of the town. Prices immediately went up.[1755]

[Footnote 1755: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243. Perceval de Cagny, p. 166. _Chronique des cordeliers_, folio, 486 verso.]

In the early days of September, the _quarteniers_, each one in his own district, had the trenches set in order and the cannons mounted on walls, gates, and towers. At the command of the aldermen, the hewers of stone for the cannon made thousands of b.a.l.l.s.[1756]

[Footnote 1756: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

From My Lord, the Duke of Alencon, the magistrates received letters beginning thus: "To you, Provost of Paris and Provost of the Merchants and Aldermen...." He named them by name and greeted them in eloquent language. These letters were regarded as an artifice intended to render the townsfolk suspicious of the aldermen and to incite one cla.s.s of the populace against the other. The only answer sent to the Duke was a request that he would not spoil any more paper with such malicious endeavours.[1757]

[Footnote 1757: _Ibid._, pp. 243, 244.]

The chapter of Notre-Dame ordered ma.s.ses to be said for the salvation of the people. On the 5th of September, three canons were authorised to make arrangements for the defence of the monastery. Those in charge of the sacristy took measures to hide the relics and the treasure of the cathedral from the Armagnac soldiers. For two hundred golden _saluts_[1758] they sold the body of Saint Denys; but they kept the foot, which was of silver, the head and the crown.[1759]

[Footnote 1758: Cf. _ante_, p. 45, note 2 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1759: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre Dame (Arch. Nat., LL, 716, pp. 173, 174), in _Le journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, _loc. cit._ Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, pp. 530, 531, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, J, p. 639.

Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le proces de Jeanne d'Arc et l'universite de Paris_, Nogent-le-Rotrou, 1898, in 8vo.]

On Wednesday, the 7th of September, the Eve of the Virgin's Nativity, there was a procession to Sainte-Genevieve-du-Mont with the object of counteracting the evil of the times and allaying the animosity of the enemy. In it walked the canons of the Palace, bearing the True Cross.[1760]

[Footnote 1760: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre Dame, in Tuetey, notes to _Le Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p.

241, note 1. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 456. Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, p. 640.]

That very day the army of the Duke of Alencon and of the Maid was skirmishing beneath the walls. It retreated in the evening; and on that night the townsfolk slept in peace, for on the morrow Christians celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.[1761]

[Footnote 1761: Register of the Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc. cit._ _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 332. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 244. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 354. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustelier, vol. i, p. 113. Perceval de Cagny, p. 166. _Chronique des cordeliers_, folio, 486 verso. Le P.

Ayroles, _La vrai Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, p. 531.]