The Life of Joan of Arc Part 30

In these mysterious words Merlin dimly foretells that a virgin shall perform great and wonderful deeds before peris.h.i.+ng by the hand of the enemy. On one point only is he clear, or so it seems; that is, when he says that this virgin shall come from the town of the Bois-Chenu.

If this prophecy had been traced back to its original source and read in the fourth book of the _Historia Britonum_, where it is to be found under the t.i.tle of _Guyntonia Vaticinium_, it would have been seen to refer to the English city of Winchester, and it would have appeared that in the version then in circulation in France, the original meaning had been garbled, distorted, and completely metamorphosed. But no one thought of verifying the text. Books were rare and minds uncritical. This deliberately falsified prophecy was accepted as the pure word of Merlin and numerous copies of it were spread abroad.

Whence came these copies? Their origin doubtless will remain a mystery for ever; but one point is certain: they referred to La Romee's daughter, to the damsel who, from her father's house, could see the edge of "Le Bois-Chenu." Thus they came from close at hand and were of recent circulation.[694] If this amended prophecy of Merlin be not the one that reached Jeanne in her village, forecasting that a Maid should come from the Lorraine Marches for the saving of the kingdom, then it was closely related to it. The two prognostications have a family likeness.[695] They were uttered in the same spirit and with the same intention; and they indicate that the ecclesiastics of the Meuse valley and those of the Loire had agreed to draw attention to the inspired damsel of Domremy.

[Footnote 694: Morosini, vol. iv, p. 324.]

[Footnote 695: Pierre Migiet weaves the two prophecies into one, which he says he has read in a book, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 133.]

As Merlin had foretold the works of Jeanne, so Bede must also have predicted them, for Bede and Merlin were always together in matters of prophecy.

The Monk of Wearmouth, the Venerable Bede, who had been dead six centuries, had been a veritable mine of knowledge in his lifetime. He had written on theology and chronology; he had discoursed of night and day, of weeks and months, of the signs of the zodiac, of epacts, of the lunar cycle, and of the movable feasts of the Church. In his book _De temporum ratione_ he had treated of the seventh and eighth ages of the world, which were to follow the age in which he lived. He had prophesied. During the siege of Orleans, churchmen were circulating these obscure lines attributed to him, and foretelling the coming of the Maid:

_Bis s.e.x cuculli, bis septem se sociabunt,[696]

Gallorum pulli Tauro nova bella parabunt Ecce beant bella, tunc fert vexilla Puella._

[Footnote 696: Adopting the emendation made by M. Germain Lefevre-Pontalis in his _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, vol. iii, pp.

126, 127; vol. iv, pp. 316 _et seq._]

The first of these lines is a chronogram, that is, it contains a date.

To decipher it you take the numeral letters of the line and add them together; the total gives the date.

bIs s.e.x CVCVLLI, bIs septeM se soCIabVnt.

1 + 10 + 100 + 5 + 100 + 5 + 50 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 1000 + 100 + 1 + 5 = 1429.

Had any one sought these lines in the works of the Venerable Bede they would not have found them, because they are not there; but no one thought of looking for them any more than they thought of looking for the Foret Chenue in Merlin.[697] And it was understood that both Bede and Merlin had foretold the coming of the Maid. In those days prophecies, chronograms, and charms flew like pigeons from the banks of the Loire and spread abroad throughout the realm. Not later than the May or June of this year the pseudo Bede will reach Burgundy.

Earlier still he will be heard of in Paris. The aged Christine de Pisan, living in retirement in a French abbey, before the last day of July, 1429, will write that Bede and Merlin had beheld the Maid in a vision.[698]

[Footnote 697: _The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede_, ed. Giles, London, 1843-1844, 12 vols., in 8vo, in _Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae_.]

[Footnote 698: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12.

Morosini, vol. iii, p. 126. The Dean of Saint Thibaud, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 423. Herman Korner, in Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 279 _et seq._ Walter Bower, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 481.]

The clerks, who were busy forging prophecies for the Maid's benefit, did not stop at a pseudo Bede and a garbled Merlin. They were truly indefatigable, and by a stroke of good luck we possess a piece of their workmans.h.i.+p which has escaped the ravages of time. It is a short Latin poem written in the obscure prophetic style, of which the following is a translation through the old French.

"A virgin clothed in man's attire, with the body of a maid, at G.o.d's behest goes forth to raise the downcast King, who bears the lilies, and to drive out his accursed enemies, even those who now beleaguer the city of Orleans and strike terror into the hearts of its inhabitants. And if the people will take heart and go out to battle, the treacherous English shall be struck down by death, at the hand of the G.o.d of battles who fights for the Maid, and the French shall cause them to fall, and then shall there be an end of the war; and the old covenants and the old friends.h.i.+p shall return. Pity and righteousness shall be restored. There shall be a treaty of peace, and all men shall of their own accord return to the King, which King shall weigh justice and administer it unto all men and preserve his subjects in beautiful peace. Henceforth no English foe with the sign of the leopard shall dare to call himself King of France [added by the translator] and adopt the arms of France, which arms are borne by the holy Maid."[699]

[Footnote 699: Buchon, _Math. d'Escouchy_, etc., p. 537. G.

Lefevre-Pontalis, Eberhard Windecke, pp. 21-31. A Latin text of this prophecy is to be found on the fly-leaf of the Cartulary of Therouanne.]

These false prophecies give some idea of the means employed for the setting to work of the inspired damsel. Such methods may be somewhat too crafty for our liking. These clerks had but one object,--the peace of the realm and of the church. The miraculous deliverance of the people had to be prepared. We must not be too hasty to condemn those pious frauds without which the Maid could not have worked her miracles. Much art and some guile are necessary to contrive for innocence a hearing.

Meanwhile, on a steep rock, on the bank of the Durance, in the remote see of Saint-Marcellin, Jacques Gelu remained faithful to the King he had served and careful for the interests of the house of Orleans and of France. To the two churchmen, Jean Girard and Pierre l'Hermite, he replied that, for the sake of the orphan and the oppressed, G.o.d would doubtless manifest himself, and would frustrate the evil designs of the English; yet one should not easily and lightly believe the words of a peasant girl bred in solitude, for the female s.e.x was frail and easily deceived, and France must not be made ridiculous in the eyes of the foreigner. "The French," he added, "are already famous for the ease with which they are duped." He ended by advising Pierre l'Hermite that it would be well for the King to fast and do penance so that Heaven might enlighten him and preserve him from error.[700]

[Footnote 700: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 393-407; vol. v, p. 473.

Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol.

ii, pp. 313, 314.]

But the mind of the oracle and ex-councillor could not rest. He wrote direct to King Charles and Queen Marie to warn them of the danger. To him it seemed that there could be no good in the damsel. He mistrusted her for three reasons: first, because she came from a country in the possession of the King's enemies, Burgundians and Lorrainers; secondly, she was a shepherdess and easily deceived; thirdly, she was a maid. He cited as an example Alexander of Macedon, whom a Queen endeavoured to poison. She had been fed on venom by the King's enemies and then sent to him in the hope that he would fall a victim to the wench's[701] wiles. But Aristotle dismissed the seductress and thus delivered his prince from death. The Archbishop of Embrun, as wise as Aristotle, warned the King against conversing with the damsel in private. He advised that she should be kept at a distance and examined, but not repulsed.

[Footnote 701: [In the original French _garce_.] The text has _grace_, which is not possible. I have conjectured that the word should be _garce_.]

A prudent answer to those letters rea.s.sured Gelu. In a new epistle he testified to the King his satisfaction at hearing that the damsel was regarded with suspicion and left in uncertainty as to whether she would or would not be believed. Then, with a return to his former misgivings, he added: "It behoves not that she should have frequent access to the King until such time as certainty be established concerning her manner of life and her morals."[702]

[Footnote 702: M. Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313, 314.]

King Charles did indeed keep Jeanne in uncertainty as to what was believed of her. But he did not suspect her of craftiness and he received her willingly. She talked to him with the simplest familiarity. She called him gentle Dauphin, and by that term she implied n.o.bility and royal magnificence.[703] She also called him her _oriflamme_, because he was her _oriflamme_, or, as in modern language she would have expressed it, her standard.[704] The _oriflamme_ was the royal banner. No one at Chinon had seen it, but marvellous things were told of it. The _oriflamme_ was in the form of a gonfanon with two wings, made of a costly silk, fine and light, called _sandal_,[705] and it was edged with ta.s.sels of green silk. It had come down from heaven; it was the banner of Clovis and of Saint Charlemagne. When the King went to war it was carried before him. So great was its virtue that the enemy at its approach became powerless and fled in terror. It was remembered how, when in 1304 Philippe le Bel defeated the Flemings, the knight who bore it was slain. The next day he was found dead, but still clasping the standard in his arms.[706] It had floated in front of King Charles VI before his misfortunes, and since then it had never been unfurled.

[Footnote 703: Clerk of the Town Hall of Albi, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.

300.]

[Footnote 704: Thoma.s.sin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304.]

[Footnote 705: _Sandal_ or _cendal_, a silk bearing some resemblance to taffetas. Cf. G.o.defroy, _Lexique de l'ancien francais_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 706: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _auriflamma_. Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 150, 251, 257, 259. [_Histoire generale de Paris._]]

One day when the Maid and the King were talking together, the Duke of Alencon entered the hall. When he was a child, the English had taken him prisoner at Verneuil and kept him five years in the Crotoy Tower.[707] Only recently set at liberty, he had been shooting quails near Saint-Florent-les-Saumur, when a messenger had brought the tidings that G.o.d had sent a damsel to the King to turn the English out of France.[708] This news interested him as much as any one because he had married the Duke of Orleans' daughter; and straightway he had come to Chinon to see for himself. In the days of his graceful youth the Duke of Alencon appeared to advantage, but he was never renowned for his wisdom. He was weak-minded, violent, vain, jealous, and extremely credulous. He believed that ladies find favour by means of a certain herb, the mountain-heath; and later he thought himself bewitched. He had a disagreeable, harsh voice; he knew it, and the knowledge annoyed him.[709] As soon as she saw him approaching, Jeanne asked who this n.o.ble was. When the King replied that it was his cousin Alencon, she curtsied to the Duke and said: "Be welcome. The more representatives of the blood royal are here the better."[710] In this she was completely mistaken. The Dauphin smiled bitterly at her words. Not much of the royal blood of France ran in the Duke's veins.

[Footnote 707: Perceval de Cagny, p. 136. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 224, 249.]

[Footnote 708: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

[Footnote 709: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.

iii, pp. 408, 409. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 710: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

On the next day Jeanne went to the King's ma.s.s. When she approached her Dauphin she bowed before him. The King took her into a room and sent every one away except the Sire de la Tremouille and the Duke of Alencon.

Then Jeanne addressed to him several requests. More especially did she ask him to give his kingdom to the King of Heaven. "And afterwards,"

she added, "the King of Heaven will do for you what he has done for your predecessors and will restore you to the condition of your fathers."[711]

[Footnote 711: _Ibid._, pp. 91, 92. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 152 _et seq._]

In discoursing thus of things spiritual, in giving utterance to those precepts of reformation and of a new life, she was repeating what the clerks had taught her. Nevertheless she was by no means imbued with this doctrine. It was too subtle for her, and it was shortly to fade from her mind and give place to an ardour less monastic but more chivalrous.

That same day she rode out with the King and threw a lance in the meadow with so fine a grace that the Duke of Alencon, marvelling, made her a present of a horse.[712]

[Footnote 712: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92.]

A few days later this young n.o.ble took her to the Abbey of Saint-Florent-les-Saumur,[713] the church of which was so greatly admired that it was called La Belle d'Anjou. Here in this abbey there dwelt at that time his mother and his wife. It is said that they were glad to see Jeanne. But they had no great faith in the issue of the war. The young Dame of Alencon said to her: "Jeannette, I am full of fear for my husband. He has just come out of prison, and we have had to give so much money for his ransom that gladly would I entreat him to stay at home." To which Jeanne replied: "Madame, have no fear. I will bring him back to you in safety, and either such as he is now or better."[714]

[Footnote 713: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148.]

[Footnote 714: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 96.]