The Life of Joan of Arc Part 84

We were right in saying that she was not prepared to leave the English immediately and hasten against the Bohemians. Five days after her appeal to the Hussites she wrote to her friends at Reims and in mysterious words gave them to understand that she would come to them shortly.[1925]

[Footnote 1925: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162.]

The partisans of Duke Philip were at that time hatching plots in the towns of Champagne, notably at Troyes and at Reims. On the 22nd of February, 1430, a canon and a chaplain were arrested and brought before the chapter for having conspired to deliver the city to the English. It was well for them that they belonged to the Church, for having been condemned to perpetual imprisonment, they obtained from the King a mitigation of their sentence, and the canon a complete remittance.[1926] The aldermen and ecclesiastics of the city, fearing they would be thought badly of on the other side of the Loire, wrote to the Maid entreating her to speak well of them to the King. The following is her reply to their request:[1927]

[Footnote 1926: _Ibid._, vol. iv, p. 299, and H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_, pp. 60 _et seq._ Memoires de Pierre Coquault, _ibid._, pp.

109 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1927: This letter was published by J. Quicherat, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162, and by M. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_, pp.

106, 107 and doc.u.ment XVI, according to Rogier's inaccurate copy. The original which had disappeared from the munic.i.p.al archives at Reims was considered to be lost; but it has been found in the possession of the Count de Maleissye. Cf. the reproduction by A. Marty and M. Lepet, _L'histoire de Jeanne d'Arc.... Cent facsimiles de ma.n.u.scrits, de miniatures_, Paris, 1907, in large 4to. Here for the first time is to be found a text correct according to the original doc.u.ment.]

"Very good friends and beloved, may it please you to wit that I have received your letters, the which make mention how it hath been reported to the King that within the city of Reims there be many wicked persons. Therefore I give you to wit that it is indeed true that even such things have been reported to him and that he grieves much that there be folk in alliance with the Burgundians; that they would betray the town and bring the Burgundians into it. But since then the King has known the contrary by means of the a.s.surance ye have sent him, and he is well pleased with you.

And ye may believe that ye stand well in his favour; and if ye have need, he would help you with regard to the siege; and he knows well that ye have much to suffer from the hardness of those treacherous Burgundians, your adversaries: thus may G.o.d in his pleasure deliver you shortly, that is as soon as may be. So I pray and entreat you my friends dearly beloved that ye hold well the said city for the King and that ye keep good watch. Ye will soon have good tidings of me at greater length. Other things for the present I write not unto you save that the whole of Brittany is French and that the Duke is to send to the King three thousand combatants paid for two months. To G.o.d I commend you, may he keep you.

Written at Sully, the 28th of March.

Jehanne.[1928]

Addressed to: My good friends and dearly beloved, the churchmen, aldermen, burgesses and inhabitants and masters of the good town of Reyms."[1929]

[Footnote 1928: The signature appears to be autograph. It differs from the two identical signatures of the letters from Riom and Reims (see _ante_, p. 108, note 1); and it bears trace of the resistance of a hand which was being guided.]

[Footnote 1929: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 161, 162. Varin, _Archives legislatives de la ville de Reims_, vol. i, p. 596. H. Jadart, _Jeanne d'Arc a Reims_, pp. 106, 107.]

Touching the succour to be expected from the Duke of Brittany, the Maid was labouring under a delusion. Like all other prophetesses she was ignorant of what was pa.s.sing around her. Despite her failures, she believed in her good fortune; she doubted herself no more than she doubted G.o.d; and she was eager to pursue the fulfilment of her mission. "Ye shall soon have tidings of me," she said to the townsfolk of Reims. A few days after, and she left Sully to go into France and fight, on the expiration of the truces.

It has been said that she feigned an expedition of pleasure and set out without taking leave of the King, that it was a kind of innocent stratagem, an honourable flight.[1930] But it was nothing of the sort.[1931] The Maid gathered a company of some hundred horse, sixty-eight archers and cross-bowmen, and two trumpeters, commanded by a Lombard captain, Bartolomeo Baretta.[1932] In this company were Italian men-at-arms, bearing broad s.h.i.+elds, like some who had come to Orleans at the time of the siege; possibly they were the same.[1933]

She set out at the head of this company, with her brothers and her steward, the Sire Jean d'Aulon. She was in the hands of Jean d'Aulon, and Jean d'Aulon was in the hands of the Sire de la Tremouille, to whom he owed money.[1934] The good squire would not have followed the Maid against the King's will.

[Footnote 1930: Perceval de Cagny, who was in the pay of the Duke of Alencon, is the only chronicler to suggest it, p. 173.]

[Footnote 1931: "In the year 1430, Jeanne the Maid started from the country of Berry accompanied by divers fighting men...." Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120.]

[Footnote 1932: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 120. Martial d'Auvergne, _Vigiles_, ed. Coustellier, vol. i, p. 117. Note concerning G. de Flavy, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 177. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 36, note 2.]

[Footnote 1933: _Journal du siege_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 1934: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

293, note 3. True, the loan was made later; none the less the dependence of Jean d'Aulon on the Sire de la Tremouille existed at this time.]

The flying squadron of _beguines_ had recently been divided by a schism. Friar Richard, who was then in high favour with Queen Marie, and who had preached the Lenten sermons of 1430[1935] at Orleans, stayed behind, on the Loire, with Catherine de la Roch.e.l.le. Jeanne took with her Pierronne and the younger Breton prophetess.[1936] If she went into France, it was not without the knowledge or against the will of the King and his Council. Very probably the Chancellor of the kingdom had asked La Tremouille to send her in order that he might employ her in the approaching campaign against the Burgundians, who were threatening his government of Beauvais and his city of Reims.[1937] He was not very kindly disposed towards her, but already he had made use of her and he intended to do so again. Possibly his intention was to employ her in a fresh attack on Paris.

[Footnote 1935: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 99, note. _Journal du siege_, pp.

235, 238.]

[Footnote 1936: This comes from the _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 271.]

[Footnote 1937: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 159, 160.]

The King had not abandoned the idea of taking his great city by the peaceful methods he always preferred. Throughout Lent, between Sully and Paris, there had been a constant pa.s.sing to and fro of certain Carmelite monks of Melun, disguised as artisans. These were the churchmen who, during the attack on the Porte Saint Honore, on the Day of the Festival of Our Lady, had stirred up the popular rising which had spread from one bank of the Seine to the other. Now they were negotiating with certain influential citizens the entrance of the King's men into the rebel city. The Prior of the Melun Carmelites was directing the conspiracy.[1938] There is reason to believe that Jeanne had herself seen him or one of his monks. True it is that since the 22nd or the 23rd of March it was known at Sully that the conspiracy had been discovered;[1939] but perhaps the hope of success still lingered. It was to Melun that Jeanne went with her company; and it is difficult to believe that there was no connection between the conspiracy of the Carmelites and the expedition of the Maid.

[Footnote 1938: The Pardon of Jean de Calais in A. Longnon, _Paris sous la domination anglaise_, pp. 301-309. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. i, pp. 34-50.]

[Footnote 1939: So it appears from Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 274-275.]

Why should Charles VII's Councillors have ceased to employ her? It cannot be said that she appeared less divine to the French or less evil to the English. Her failures, either unknown, or partially known, rendered unimportant by the fame of her victories, had not dispelled the idea that within her resided invincible power. At the time when the hapless damsel with the flower of French knighthood was receiving sore treatment under the walls of La Charite at the hands of an ex-mason's apprentice, in Burgundian lands it was rumoured that she was carrying by storm a castle twelve miles from Paris.[1940] She was still considered miraculous; the burgesses, the men-at-arms of her party still believed in her. And as for the _G.o.dons_, from the Regent to the humblest swordsman of the army, they all regarded her with a terror as great as that which had possessed them at Orleans and Patay.

At this time so many English soldiers and captains refused to go to France, that a special edict was issued obliging them to do so.[1941]

But they doubtless discovered reasons enough for not going into a country where henceforth they could hope only for hard knocks and nothing tempting; so that many declined, terrified by the enchantments of the Maid.[1942]

[Footnote 1940: Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 228-231. Concerning Perrinet Gressart see vol. i, p. 389.]

[Footnote 1941: May 3, 1430.]

[Footnote 1942: G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_. Le P.

Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iii, pp. 572-574.]

CHAPTER VI

THE MAID IN THE TRENCHES OF MELUN--LE SEIGNEUR DE L'OURS--THE CHILD OF LAGNY

In Easter week, Jeanne, at the head of a band of mercenaries, is before the walls of Melun.[1943] She arrives just in time to fight. The truces have expired.[1944] Is it possible that the town which was subject to King Charles[1945] can have refused to admit the Maid with her company when she came to it so generously? Apparently it was so.

Was Jeanne able to communicate with the Carmelites of Melun? Probably.

What misfortune befell her at the gates of the town? Did she suffer ill treatment at the hands of a Burgundian band? We know not. But when she was in the trenches she heard Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret saying unto her: "Thou wilt be taken before Saint John's Day."

[Footnote 1943: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 115, 253, April 17-23. Perceval de Cagny, p. 173. _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 502 recto. P.

Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 158, note 2.]

[Footnote 1944: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 363 (April 16).]

[Footnote 1945: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 125. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 378. Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 28. Melun certainly belonged to the French on the 23rd of April, 1430.]

And she entreated them: "When I am taken, let me die immediately without suffering long." And the Voices repeated that she would be taken and thus it must be.

And they added gently: "Be not troubled, be resigned. G.o.d will help thee."[1946]

[Footnote 1946: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 114-116. G. Leroy, _Histoire de Melun_, Melun, 1887, in 8vo, ch. xvi ... x ... [Transcriber's Note: ellipses in original] _Jeanne d'Arc a Melun, mi-avril_, 1430, Melun, 1896, 32 pp.]

Saint John's Day was the 24th of June, in less than ten weeks. Many a time after that, Jeanne asked her saints at what hour she would be taken; but they did not tell her; and thus doubting she ceased to follow her own ideas and consulted the captains.[1947]

[Footnote 1947: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 147.]

On her way from Melun to Lagny-sur-Marne, in the month of May, she had to pa.s.s Corbeil. It was probably then, and in her company, that the two devout women from Lower Brittany, Pierronne and her younger sister in the spirit, were taken at Corbeil by the English.[1948]

[Footnote 1948: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 259.]