The Life of Joan of Arc Part 77

It was a great festival and a very ancient one. Its origin is described in the following manner. There was a certain holy man, who pa.s.sed his life in meditation. On a day he called to mind that for many years, on the 8th of September, he had heard marvellous angelic music in the air, and he prayed to G.o.d to reveal to him the reason for this concert of instruments and of celestial voices. He was vouchsafed the answer that it was the anniversary of the birth of the glorious Virgin Mary; and he received the command to instruct the faithful in order that they on that solemn day might join their voices to the angelic chorus. The matter was reported to the Sovereign Pontiff and the other heads of the Church, who, after having prayed, fasted and consulted the witnesses and traditions of the Church, decreed that henceforth that day, the 8th of September, should be universally consecrated to the celebration of the birth of the Virgin Mary.[1762]

[Footnote 1762: Voragine, _Legenda Aurea_. Anquetil, _La nativite, miracle extrait de la legende doree_, in _Mem. Soc. Agr. de Bayeux_, 1883, vol. x, p. 286. Douhet, _Dictionnaire des mysteres_, 1854, p.

545.]

That day were read at ma.s.s the words of the prophet Isaiah: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots."

The people of Paris thought that even the Armagnacs would do no work on so high a festival and would keep the third commandment.

On this Thursday, the 8th of September, about eight o'clock in the morning, the Maid, the Dukes of Alencon and of Bourbon, the Marshals of Boussac and of Rais, the Count of Vendome, the Lords of Laval, of Albret and of Gaucourt, who with their men, to the number of ten thousand and more, had encamped in the village of La Chapelle, half-way along the road from Saint-Denys to Paris, set out on the march. At the hour of high ma.s.s, between eleven and twelve o'clock, they reached the height of Les Moulins, at the foot of which the Swine Market was held.[1763] Here there was a gibbet. Fifty-six years earlier, a woman of saintly life according to the people, but according to the holy inquisitors, a heretic and _a Turlupine_, had been burned alive on that very market-place.[1764]

[Footnote 1763: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 166, 168. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 333, 334. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, pp. 107, 109. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, pp. 456, 458. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 244, 245. _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol.

486 verso. P. Cochon, ed. Beaurepaire, p. 307. Morosini, vol. iii, p.

210.]

[Footnote 1764: Gaguin, _Hist. Francorum_, Frankfort, 1577, book viii, chap. ii, p. 158. Tanon, _Histoire des tribunaux de l'inquisition en France_, p. 121. Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Age, vol. ii, p. 126. (The Turlupins were a German sect who called themselves "the Brethren of the Free Spirit." W.S.)]

Wherefore did the King's men appear first before the northern walls, those of Charles V, which were the strongest? It is impossible to tell. A few days earlier they had thrown a bridge across the River above Paris,[1765] which looks as if they intended to attack the old fortification and get into the city from the University side. Did they mean to carry out the two attacks simultaneously? It is probable. Did they renounce the project of their own accord or against their will?

We cannot tell.

[Footnote 1765: Perceval de Cagny, p. 161. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 120, note 1. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _Un detail du siege de Paris, par Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, vol. xlvi, 1885, pp. 5 _et seq._]

Beneath the walls of Charles V they a.s.sembled a quant.i.ty of artillery, cannons, culverins, mortars; and in hand-carts they brought f.a.gots to fill up the trenches, hurdles to bridge them over and seven hundred ladders: very elaborate material for the siege, despite their having, as we shall see, forgotten what was most necessary.[1766] They came not therefore to skirmish nor to do great feats of arms. They came to attempt in broad daylight the escalading and the storming of the greatest, the most ill.u.s.trious, and the most populous town of the realm; an undertaking of vast importance, proposed doubtless and decided in the royal council and with the knowledge of the King, who can have been neither indifferent nor hostile to it.[1767] Charles of Valois wanted to retake Paris. It remains to be seen whether for the accomplishment of his desire he depended merely on men-at-arms and ladders.

[Footnote 1766: Deliberation of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc. cit._ _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 457.]

[Footnote 1767: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 240, 246, 298; vol. iii, pp. 425, 427; vol. v, pp. 97, 107, 130, 140.]

It would seem that the Maid had not been told of the resolutions taken.[1768] She was never consulted and was seldom informed of what had been decided. But she was as sure of entering the town that day as of going to Paradise when she died. For more than three years her Voices had been drumming the attack on Paris in her ears.[1769] But the astonishing point is that, saint as she was, she should have consented to arm and fight on the day of the Nativity. It was contrary to her action on the 5th of May, Ascension Day, and inconsistent with what she had said on the 8th of the same month: "As ye love and honour the Sacred Sabbath do not begin the battle."[1770]

[Footnote 1768: _Ibid._, pp. 57, 146, 168, 250.]

[Footnote 1769: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 130 (letter of the 17th of July, 1429), vol. i, p. 298. "Et hoc sciebar per revelationem." Cf. vol. i, pp. 57, 260, 288 in contradiction.]

[Footnote 1770: _Journal du siege_, p. 89.]

True it is that afterwards, at Montepilloy, she had engaged in a skirmish on the Day of the a.s.sumption, and thus scandalized the masters of the University. She acted according to the counsel of her Voices and her decisions depended on the vaguest murmurings in her ear. Nothing is more inconstant and more contradictory than the inspirations of such visionaries, who are but the playthings of their dreams. What is certain at least is that Jeanne now as always was convinced that she was doing right and committing no sin.[1771] Arrayed on the height of Les Moulins, in front of Paris with its grey fortifications, the French had immediately before them the outermost of the trenches, dry and narrow, some sixteen or seventeen feet deep, separated by a mound from the second trench, nearly one hundred feet broad, deep and filled with water which lapped the walls of the city.

Quite close, on their right, the road to Roule led up to the Saint Honore Gate, also called the Gate of the Blind because it was near the Hospital of Les Quinze Vingts.[1772] It opened beneath a castlet flanked by turrets, and for an advanced defence it had a bulwark surrounded by wooden barriers, like those of Orleans.[1773]

[Footnote 1771: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 147, 148.]

[Footnote 1772: In 1254 Saint Louis founded this hospital for three hundred blind knights whose eyes had been put out by the Saracens.

(W.S.)]

[Footnote 1773: Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 205 and 231, note 4. Adolphe Berty, _Topographie historique du vieux Paris, region du Louvre et des Tuileries_, p. 180, and app. vi, p. ix. E. Eude, _L'attaque de Jeanne d'Arc contre Paris, 1429_, in _Cosmos_, nouv. serie, xxix (1894), pp. 241, 244.]

The Parisians did not expect to be attacked on a feast day.[1774] And yet the ramparts were by no means deserted, and on the walls standards could be seen waving, and especially a great white banner with a Saint Andrew's cross in silver gilt.[1775]

[Footnote 1774: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 246.]

[Footnote 1775: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 332, 333. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 108.]

The French arrayed themselves slightly behind the Moulin hill, which was to protect them from the stream of lead and stones beginning to be discharged from the artillery on the ramparts. There they ranged their mortars, their culverins and their cannon, ready to fire on the city walls. In this position, which commanded the widest stretch of the fortifications, was the main body of the army. Led by Messire de Saint-Vallier a knight of Dauphine, several captains and men-at-arms approached the Saint Honore Gate and set fire to the barriers. As the garrison of the gate had withdrawn within the fortification, and as the enemy was not seen to be coming out by any other exit, the Marechal de Rais' company advanced with f.a.gots, bundles and ladders right up to the ramparts. The Maid rode at the head of her company.

They halted between the Saint-Denys and the Saint-Honore Gates, but nearer the latter, and went down into the first trench, which was not difficult to cross. But on the mound they found themselves exposed to bolts and arrows which rained straight down from the walls.[1776] As at Orleans, and at Les Tourelles, Jeanne had given her banner to a man of valour to hold.

[Footnote 1776: Perceval de Cagny, p. 167.]

When she reached the top of the mound, she cried out to the folk in Paris: "Surrender the town to the King of France."[1777]

[Footnote 1777: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 148.]

The Burgundians heard her saying also: "In Jesus' name surrender to us speedily. For if ye yield not before nightfall, we shall enter by force, whether ye will or no, and ye shall all be put to death without mercy."[1778]

[Footnote 1778: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245.]

On the mound she remained, sounding the great d.y.k.e with her lance and marvelling to find it so full and so deep. And yet for eleven days she and her men-at-arms had been reconnoitring round the walls and seeking the most favourable point of attack. That she should not have known how to plan an attack was quite natural. But what is to be thought of the men-at-arms, who were there on the mound, taken by surprise, as baffled as she, and all aghast at finding so much water close to the Seine when the River was in flood? To be able to reconnoitre the defences of a fortress was surely the _a b c_ of the trade of war.

Captains and soldiers of fortune never risked advancing against a fortification without knowing first whether there were water, mora.s.s or briars, and arming themselves accordingly with siege train suitable to the occasion. When the water of the moat was deep they launched leather boats carried on horses' backs.[1779] The men-at-arms of the Marechal de Rais and my Lord of Alencon were more ignorant than the meanest adventurers. What would the doughty La Hire have thought of them? Such gross inept.i.tude and ignorance appeared so incredible that it was supposed that those fighting men knew the depth of the moat but concealed it from the Maid, desiring her discomfiture.[1780] In such a case, while entrapping the damsel they were themselves entrapped, for there they stayed moving neither backwards nor forwards.

[Footnote 1779: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, p. 67.]

[Footnote 1780: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 333. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 109. _Journal du siege_, p. 127. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustelier, 1724, vol. i, p. 113.]

Certain among them idly threw f.a.gots into the moat. Meanwhile the defenders a.s.sailed by flights of arrows, disappeared one after the other.[1781] But towards four o'clock in the afternoon, the citizens arrived in crowds. The cannon of the Saint-Denys Gate thundered.

Arrows and abuse flew between those above and those below. The hours pa.s.sed, the sun was sinking. The Maid never ceased sounding the moat with the staff of her lance and crying out to the Parisians to surrender.

[Footnote 1781: Perceval de Cagny, p. 167. Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp.

355, 356. Morosini, vol. iii, note 3. E. Eude, _L'attaque de Jeanne d'Arc contre Paris_, in _Cosmos_, 22 Sept., 1894, vol. xxix. P. Marin, _Le genie militaire de Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Grande revue de Paris et de Saint-Petersbourg_, 2nd year, vol. i, 1889, p. 142.]

"There, wanton! There, minx!" cried a Burgundian.

And planting his cross-bow in the ground with his foot, he shot an arrow which split one of her greaves and wounded her in the thigh.

Another Burgundian took aim at the Maid's standard-bearer and wounded him in the foot. The wounded man raised his visor to see whence the arrow came and straightway received another between the eyes. The Maid and the Duke of Alencon sorely regretted the loss of this man-at-arms.[1782]

[Footnote 1782: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 57, 246. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 245. Deliberations of the Chapter of Notre Dame, _loc.

cit._ Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 457. Perceval de Cagny, Jean Chartier, _Journal du siege_, Monstrelet, Morosini, _loc. cit._]

After she had been wounded, Jeanne cried all the more loudly that the walls must be reached and the city taken. She was placed out of reach of the arrows in the shelter of a breast-work. There she urged the men-at-arms to throw f.a.gots into the water and make a bridge. About ten or eleven o'clock in the evening, the Sire de la Tremouille charged the combatants to retreat. The Maid would not leave the place.

She was doubtless listening to her Saints and beholding celestial hosts around her. The Duke of Alencon sent for her. The aged Sire de Gaucourt[1783] carried her off with the aid of a captain of Picardy, one Guichard Bournel, who did not please her on that day, and who by his treachery six months later, was to please her still less.[1784] Had she not been wounded she would have resisted more strongly.[1785] She yielded regretfully, saying: "In G.o.d's name! the city might have been taken."[1786]

[Footnote 1783: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 298.]

[Footnote 1784: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 111, 273. Berry, in _Trial_, vol.

iv, p. 50. F. Brun, _Jeanne d Arc et le capitaine de Soissons_, pp. 31 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1785: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 57.]

[Footnote 1786: The oath "_Par mon martin_" (by my staff) is an invention of the scribe who wrote the _Chronicle_ which is attributed to Perceval de Cagny, p. 168.]

They put her on horseback; and thus she was able to follow the army.