“Glassidas! Glassidas! surrender, surrender to the King of Heaven. Thou hast called me strumpet; but I have great pity on thy soul and on the souls of thy men.”
At the same time, from the walls of the town and the bulwark of La Belle Croix cannon balls rained down upon Les Tourelles. Montargis and Rifflart cast forth stones. Maître Guillaume Duisy’s new cannon, from the Chesneau postern, hurled forth balls weighing one hundred and twenty pounds. Les Tourelles were attacked from the bridge side. Across the arch broken by the English a narrow footway was thrown, and Messire Nicole de Giresme, a knight in holy orders, was the first to pass over. Those who followed him set fire to the palisade which blocked the approach to the fort on that side. Thus the six hundred English, their strength and their weapons alike exhausted, found themselves assailed both in front and in the rear. In a crafty and terrible manner they were also attacked from beneath. The people of Orléans had loaded a great barge with pitch, tow, faggots, horse-bones, old shoes, resin, sulphur, ninety-eight pounds of olive oil and such other materials as might easily take fire and smoke. They had steered it under the wooden bridge, thrown by the enemy from Les Tourelles to the bulwark: they had anchored the barge there and set fire to its cargo. The fire from the barge had caught the bridge just when the English were retreating. Through smoke and flames the six hundred passed over the burning platform. At length it came to the turn of William Glasdale, Lord Poynings and Lord Moleyns, who with thirty or forty captains, were the last to leave the lost bulwark; but when they set foot on the bridge, its beams, reduced to charcoal, crumbled beneath them, and they all with the Chandos standard were engulfed in the Loire.
Jeanne moved to pity wept over the soul of Glassidas and over the souls of those drowned with him. The captains, who were with her, likewise grieved over the death of these valiant men, reflecting that they had done the French a great wrong by being drowned, for their ransom would have brought great riches.
Having escaped from the French on the bulwark, across the burning planks the six hundred were set upon by the French on the bridge. Four hundred were slain, the others taken. The day had cost the people of Orléans a hundred men.
When in the black darkness, along the fire-reddened banks of the Loire, the last cries of the vanquished had died away, the French captains, amazed at their victory, looked anxiously towards Saint-Laurent-des Orgerils, for they were still afraid lest Sir John Talbot should sally forth from his camp to avenge those whom he had failed to succour. Throughout that long attack, which had lasted from sunrise to sunset, Talbot, the Earl of Suffolk and the English of Saint-Laurent had not left their entrenchments. Even when Les Tourelles were taken the conquerors remained on the watch, still expecting Talbot. But this Talbot, with whose name French mothers frightened their children, did not budge. He had been greatly feared that day, and he himself had feared lest, if he withdrew any of his troops to succour Les Tourelles, the French would capture his camp and his forts on the west.
The army prepared to return to the town. In three hours, the bridge, three arches of which had been broken, was rendered passable. Some hours after darkness, the Maid entered the city by the bridge as she had foretold. In like manner all her prophecies were fulfilled when their fulfilment depended on her own courage and determination. The captains accompanied her, followed by all the men-at-arms, the archers, the citizens and the prisoners who were brought in two by two. The bells of the city were ringing; the clergy and people sang the Te Deum. After God and his Blessed Mother, they gave thanks in all humility to Saint Aignan and Saint Euverte, who had been bishops in their mortal lives and were now the heavenly patrons of the city. The townsfolk believed that both before and during the siege they had given the saints so much wax and had paraded their relics in so many processions that they had deserved their powerful intercession, and that thereby they had won the victory and been delivered out of the enemy’s hand. There was no doubt about the intervention of the saints because at the time of assault on Les Tourelles two bishops bright and shining had been seen in the sky, hovering over the fort.
Jeanne was brought back to Jacques Boucher’s house, where a surgeon again dressed the wound she had received above the breast. She took four or five slices of bread soaked in wine and water, but neither ate nor drank anything else.
On the morrow, Sunday, the 8th of May, being the Feast of the Appearance of St. Michael, it was announced in Orléans, in the morning, that the English issuing forth from those western bastions which were all that remained to them, were ranging themselves before the town moat in battle array and with standards flying. The folk of Orléans, both the men-at-arms and the train-bands, greatly desired to fall upon them. At daybreak Marshal de Boussac and a number of captains went out and took up their positions over against the enemy.
The Maid went out into the country with the priests. Being unable to put on her cuirass because of the wound on her shoulder, she merely wore one of those light coats-of-mail called jaserans.
The men-at-arms inquired of her: “To-day being the Sabbath, is it wrong to fight?”
She replied: “You must hear mass.”
She did not think the enemy should be attacked.
“For the sake of the holy Sabbath do not give battle. Do not attack the English, but if the English attack you, defend yourselves stoutly and bravely, and be not afraid, for you will overcome them.”
In the country, at the foot of a cross, where four roads met, one of those consecrated stones, square and flat, which priests carried with them on their journeys, was placed upon a table. Very solemnly did the officiating ecclesiastics sing hymns, responses and prayers; and at this altar the Maid with all the priests and all the men-at-arms heard mass.
After the Deo gratias she recommended them to observe the movements of the English. “Now look whether their faces or their backs be towards you.”
She was told that they had turned their backs and were going away.
Three times she had told them: “Depart from Orléans and your lives shall be saved.” Now she asked that they should be allowed to go without more being required of them.
“It is not well pleasing to my Lord that they should be engaged to-day,” she said. “You will have them another time. Come, let us give thanks to God.”
The Godons were going. During the night they had held a council of war and resolved to depart. In order to put a bold front on their retreat and to prevent its being cut off, they had faced the folk of Orléans for an hour, now they marched off in good order. Captain La Hire and Sire de Loré, curious as to which way they would take and desiring to see whether they would leave anything behind them, rode three or four miles in pursuit with a hundred or a hundred and twenty horse. The English were retreating towards Meung.
A crowd of citizens, villeins and villagers rushed into the abandoned forts. The Godons had left their sick and their prisoners there. The townsfolk discovered also ammunition and even victuals, which were doubtless not very abundant and not very excellent. “But,” says a Burgundian, “they made good cheer out of them, for they cost them little.” Weapons, cannons and mortars were carried into the town. The forts were demolished so that they might henceforth be useless to the enemy.
On that day there were grand and solemn processions and a good friar preached. Clerks, nobles, captains, magistrates, men-at-arms and citizens devoutly went to church and the people cried: “Noël!”
Thus, on the 8th of May, in the morning, was the town of Orléans delivered, two hundred and nine days after the siege had been laid and nine days after the coming of the Maid.
CHAPTER XIV
THE MAID AT TOURS AND AT SELLES-EN-BERRY — THE TREATISES OF JACQUES GÉLU AND OF JEAN GERSON.
ON the morning of Sunday the 8th of May, the English departed, retreating towards Meung and Beaugency. In the afternoon of the same day, Messire Florent d’Illiers with his men-at-arms left the town and went straight to his captaincy of Châteaudun to defend it against the Godons who had a garrison at Marchen
oir and were about to descend on Le Dunois. On the next day the other captains from La Beauce and Gâtinais returned to their towns and strongholds.
On the ninth of the same month, the combatants brought by the Sire de Rais, receiving neither pay nor entertainment, went off each man on his own account; and the Maid did not stay longer. After having taken part in the procession by which the townsfolk rendered thanks to God, she took her leave of those to whom she had come in the hour of distress and affliction and whom she now quitted in the hour of deliverance and rejoicing. They wept with joy and with gratitude and offered themselves to her for her to do with them and their goods whatever she would. And she thanked them kindly.
From Chinon the King caused to be sent to the inhabitants of the towns in his dominion and notably to those of La Rochelle and Narbonne, a letter written at three sittings, between the evening of the 9th of May and the morning of the 10th, as the tidings from Orléans were coming in. In this letter he announced the capture of the forts of Saint-Loup, Les Augustins and Les Tourelles and called upon the townsfolk to praise God and do honour to the great feats accomplished there, especially by the Maid, who “had always been present when these deeds were done.” Thus did the royal power describe Jeanne’s share in the victory. It was in no wise a captain’s share; she held no command of any kind. But, sent by God, at least so it might be believed, her presence was a help and a consolation.
In company with a few nobles she went to Blois, stayed there two days, then went on to Tours, where the King was expected. When, on the Friday before Whitsunday, she entered the town, Charles, who had set out from Chinon, had not yet arrived. Banner in hand, she rode out to meet him and when she came to him, she took off her cap and bowed her head as far as she could over her horse. The King lifted his hood, bade her look up and kissed her. It is said that he felt glad to see her, but in reality we know not what he felt.
In this month of May, 1429, he received from Messire Jacques Gélu a treatise concerning the Maid, which he probably did not read, but which his confessor read for him. Messire Jacques Gélu, sometime Councillor to the Dauphin and now my Lord Archbishop of Embrun, had at first been afraid that the King’s enemies had sent him this shepherdess to poison him, or that she was a witch possessed by demons. In the beginning he had advised her being carefully interrogated, not hastily repulsed, for appearances are deceptive and divine grace moves in a mysterious manner. Now, after having read the conclusions of the doctors of Poitiers, learnt the deliverance of Orléans, and heard the cry of the common folk, Messire Jacques Gélu no longer doubted the damsel’s innocence and goodness. Seeing that the doctors were divided in their opinion of her, he drew up a brief treatise, which he sent to the King, with a very ample, a very humble, and a very worthy dedicatory epistle.
About that time, on the pavement of the cathedral of Reims a labyrinth had been traced with compass and with square. Pilgrims who were patient and painstaking followed all its winding ways. The Archbishop of Embrun’s treatise is likewise a carefully planned scholastic labyrinth. Herein one advances only to retreat and retreats only to advance, but without entirely losing one’s way provided one walks with sufficient patience and attention. Like all scholastics, Gélu begins by giving the reasons against his own opinion and it is not until he has followed his opponent at some length that he returns to his own argument. Into all the intricacies of his labyrinth it would take too long to follow him. But since those who were round the King consulted this theological treatise, since it was addressed to the King and since the King and his Council may have based on it their opinion of Jeanne and their conduct towards her, one is curious to know what, on so singular an occasion, they found taught and recommended therein.
Treating first of the Church’s weal, Jacques Gélu holds that God raised up the Maid to confound the heretics, the number of whom, according to him, is by no means small. “To turn to confusion those who believe in God as if they believed not,” he writes, “the Almighty, who hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was pleased to succour the King of France by the hand of a child of low estate.” The Archbishop of Embrun discerns five reasons why the divine succour was granted to the King; to wit: the justice of his cause, the striking merits of his predecessors, the prayers of devout souls and the sighs of the oppressed, the injustice of the enemies of the kingdom and the insatiable cruelty of the English nation.
That God should have chosen a maid to destroy armies in no way surprises him. “He created insects, such as flies and fleas, with which to humble man’s pride.” So persistently do these tiny creatures worry and weary us that they prevent our studying or acting. However strong his self-control, a man may not rest in a room infested with fleas. By the hand of a young peasant, born of poor and lowly parents, subject to menial labour, ignorant and simple beyond saying, it hath pleased Him to strike down the proud, to humble them and make His Majesty manifest unto them by the deliverance of the perishing.
That to a virgin the Most High should have revealed His designs concerning the Kingdom of the Lilies cannot astonish us; on virgins He readily bestows the gift of prophecy. To the sibyls it pleased Him to reveal mysteries hidden from all the Gentiles. On the authority of Nicanor, of Euripides, of Chrysippus, of Nennius, of Apollodorus, of Eratosthenes, of Heraclides Ponticus, of Marcus Varro and of Lactantius, Messire Jacques Gélu teaches that the sibyls were ten in number: the Persian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the Erythrean, the Samian, the Cumæan, the Hellespontine, the Phrygian and the Tiburtine. They prophesied to the Gentiles the glorious incarnation of Our Lord, the resurrection of the dead and the consummation of the ages. This example appears to him worthy of consideration.
As for Jeanne, she is in herself unknowable. Aristotle teaches: there is nothing in the intellect which hath not first been in the senses, and the senses cannot penetrate beyond experience. But what the mind cannot grasp directly it may come to comprehend by a roundabout way. When we consider her works, as far as in our human weakness we can know, we say the Maid is of God. Albeit she hath adopted the profession of arms, she never counsels cruelty; she is merciful to her enemies when they throw themselves upon her mercy and she offers peace. Finally the Archbishop of Embrun believes that this Maid is an angel sent by God, the Lord of Hosts, for the saving of the people; not that she has the nature, but that she does the work of an angel.
Concerning the conduct to be followed in circumstances so marvellous, the doctor is of opinion that in war the King should act according to human wisdom. It is written: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In vain would an active mind have been bestowed on man were he not to make use of it in his undertakings. Long deliberation must precede prompt execution. It is not by a woman’s desires or supplications that God’s help is obtained. A prosperous issue is the fruit of action and of counsel.
But the inspiration of God must not be rejected. Wherefore the will of the Maid must be accomplished, even should that will appear doubtful and mistaken. If the words of the Maid are found to be stable, then the King must follow her and confide to her as to God the conduct of the enterprise to which she is committed. Should any doubt occur to the King, let him incline rather towards divine than towards human wisdom, for as there is no comparing the finite with the infinite so there is no comparing the wisdom of man with the wisdom of God. Wherefore we must believe that He who sent us this child is able to impart unto her a counsel superior to man’s counsel. Then from this Aristotelian reasoning the Archbishop of Embrun draws the following two-headed conclusion: “On the one hand we give it to be understood that the wisdom of this world must be consulted in the ordering of battle, the use of engines, ladders and all other implements of war, the building of bridges, the sufficient despatch of supplies, the raising of funds, and in all matters without which no enterprise can succeed save by miracle.
“But when on the other hand divine wisdom is seen to be acting in some peculiar way, then human reason must be humble
and withdraw. Then it is, we observe, that the counsel of the Maid must be asked for, sought after and adopted before all else. He who gives life gives wherewithal to support life. On his workers he bestows the instruments for their work. Wherefore let us hope in the Lord. He makes the King’s cause his own. Those who support it he will inspire with the wisdom necessary to make it triumphant. God leaves no work imperfect.”
The Archbishop concludes his treatise by commending the Maid to the King because she inspires holy thoughts and makes manifest the works of piety. “This counsel do we give the King that every day he do such things as are well pleasing in the sight of the Lord and that he confer with the Maid concerning them. When he shall have received her advice let him practise it piously and devoutly; then shall not the Lord withdraw His hand from Him but continue His loving kindness unto him.”
The great doctor Gerson, former Chancellor of the University, was then ending his days at Lyon in the monastery of Les Célestins, of which his brother was prior. His life had been full of work and weariness. In 1408 he was priest of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in Paris. In that year he delivered in his parish church the funeral oration of the Duke of Orléans, assassinated by order of the Duke of Burgundy; and he roused the passions of the mob to such a fury that he ran great danger of losing his life. At the Council of Constance, possessed by a so-called “merciful cruelty” which goaded him to send a heretic to the stake, he urged the condemnation of John Huss, regardless of the safe-conduct which the latter had received from the Emperor; for in common with all the fathers there assembled he held that according to natural law both divine and human, no promise should be kept if it were prejudicial to the Catholic Faith. With a like ardour he prosecuted in the Council the condemnation of the thesis of Jean Petit concerning the lawfulness of tyrannicide. In things temporal as well as spiritual he advocated uniform obedience and the respect of established authority. In one of his sermons he likens the kingdom of France to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, making the merchants and artisans the legs of the statue, “which are partly iron, partly clay, because of their labour and humility in serving and obeying....” Iron signifies labour, and clay humility. All the evil has arisen from the King and the great citizens being held in subjection by those of low estate.
Complete Works of Anatole France Page 435