From Loches Jeanne sent a little gold ring to the Dame de Laval, who had doubtless asked for some object she had touched. Fifty-four years previously Jeanne Dame de Laval had married Sire Bertrand Du Guesclin whose memory the French venerated and who in the House of Orléans was known as the tenth of Les Preux. Dame Jeanne’s renown, however, fell short of that of Tiphaine Raguenel, astrologer and fairy, who had been Sire Bertrand’s first wife. Jeanne was a choleric person and a miser. Driven out of her domain of Laval by the English, she lived in retirement at Vitré with her daughter Anne. Thirteen years before, the latter had incurred her mother’s displeasure by secretly marrying a landless younger son of a noble house. When Dame Jeanne discovered it she imprisoned her daughter in a dungeon and welcomed the younger son by shooting at him with a cross-bow. After which the two ladies dwelt together in peace.
From Loches the Maid went to Selles-en-Berry, a considerable town on the Cher. Here, shortly before had met the three estates of the kingdom; and here the troops were now gathering.
On Saturday, the 4th of June, she received a herald sent by the people of Orléans to bring her tidings of the English. As commander in war they recognised none but her.
Meanwhile, surrounded by monks, and side by side with men-at-arms, like a nun she lived apart, a saintly life. She ate and drank little. She communicated once a week and confessed frequently. During mass at the moment of elevation, at confession and when she received the body of Our Lord she used to weep many tears. Every evening, at the hour of vespers, she would retire into a church and have the bells rung for about half an hour to summon the mendicant friars who followed the army. Then she would begin to pray while the brethren sang an anthem in honour of the Virgin Mary.
While practising as far as she was able the austerities required by extreme piety, she appeared magnificently attired, like a lord, for indeed she held her lordship from God. She wore the dress of a knight, a small hat, doublet and hose to match, a fine cloak of silk and cloth of gold well lined and shoes laced on the outer side of the foot. Such attire in no wise scandalised even the most austere members of the Dauphin’s party. They read in holy Scripture that Esther and Judith, inspired by the Lord, loaded themselves with ornaments; true it was for sexual reasons and in order for the salvation of Israel to attract Ahasuerus and Holophernes. Wherefore they held that when Jeanne decked herself with masculine adornments, in order to appear before the men-at-arms as an angel giving victory to the Christian King, far from yielding to the vanities of the world, she, like Esther and Judith, had nothing in her heart but the interest of the holy nation and the glory of God. The English and Burgundian clerks on the other hand converted into scandal what was a subject of edification, and maintained that she was a woman dissolute in dress and in manners.
For seven years now Saint Michael the Archangel and the Saints Catherine and Margaret, wearing rich and precious crowns, had been visiting and conversing with her. It was when the bells were ringing, at the hour of compline and of matins, that she could best hear their words. In those days bells of all kinds, large and small, metropolitan, parochial or conventual, sounded in peals, or, chiming harmoniously, in voices grave or gay, spoke to all men and of all things. Their song descended from the sky to mark the ecclesiastical and civic calendar. They called priests and people to church; they mourned for the dead and they praised God; they announced fairs and field work; they clashed portentous tidings through the sky, and in times of war they called to arms and sounded the alarm. Friendly to the husbandman they scattered the tempest, they warded off hail-storms and drove away pestilence. They put to flight those demons that, flying ceaselessly through the air, haunt the children of men; and to their blessed sound was attributed the power of calming violence. Saint Catharine, she who visited Jeanne every day, was the patron of bells and bell-ringers. Thus many bells bore her name. In the ringing of bells as in the rustling of leaves, Jeanne was wont to hear her Voices. She seldom heard them without seeing a light in the direction whence they came. Those Voices called her: “Jeanne, daughter of God!” Often the Archangel and the Saints appeared to her. When they came she did them reverence, bending her knee and bowing her head; she kissed their feet, knowing it to be a greater mark of respect than kissing the countenance. She was conscious of the fragrance and grateful warmth of their glorified bodies.
Saint Michael the Archangel did not come alone. There accompanied him angels so numerous and so tiny that they danced like sparks in the damsel’s dazzled eyes. When the saints and the Archangel went away, she wept with grief because they had not taken her with them. In like manner an angel visited Judith in the camp of Holofernes.
One day Jeanne’s equerry, Jean d’Aulon, asked her what her Council was, just as my Lord d’Harcourt had done. She replied that she had three councillors, one of whom was always with her. Another was constantly going and coming; the third was the one with whom the other two deliberated.
Sire d’Aulon, more curious than the King, besought and requested her to let him see this Council for once.
She replied: “Your virtues are not great enough and you are not worthy to behold it.”
The good squire never asked again. If he had read the Bible he would have known that Elisha’s servant did not see the angels beheld by the prophet (2 Kings VI, 16, 17).
And yet Jeanne imagined that her Council had appeared to the King and his court.
“My King,” she said later, “my King and many besides saw and heard the Voices that came to me. The Count of Clermont and two or three others were with him.”
She believed it was so. But in reality she never showed her Voices to anyone. Not even, despite what has been said to the contrary, to that Guy de Cailly who had been following her since Chécy.
With Brother Pasquerel Jeanne engaged in pious conversation. To him she often expressed the desire that the Church after her death should pray for her and for all the French slain in the war.
“If I were to depart from this world,” she used to say to him, “I should like the King to build chantries, where prayers should be offered to Messire for the salvation of the souls of those who died in war or for the defence of the realm.”
Such a wish was common to all devout souls. What Christian in those days did not hold the practice of saying masses for the dead to be good and salutary? Thus, in the matter of devotion, the Maid was in accord with Duke Charles of Orléans, who, in one of his complaints, recommends the saying and singing of masses for the souls of those who had suffered violent death in the service of the realm.
She said one day to the good brother: “There is succour that I am appointed to bring.”
And Pasquerel, albeit he had studied the Bible, cried out in amazement: “Such a history as yours there hath never been before in the world. Nought like unto it can be read in any book.”
Jeanne answered him even more boldly than the doctors at Poitiers: “Messire has a book in which no clerk, however perfect his learning, has ever read.”
She had received her mission from God alone, and she read in a book sealed against all the doctors of the Church.
On the reverse of her standard, sprinkled by mendicants with holy water, she had had a dove painted, holding in its beak a scroll, whereon were written the words “in the name of the King of Heaven.” These were the armorial bearings she had received from her Council. The emblem and the device seemed appropriate to her, since she proclaimed that God had sent her, and since at Orléans she had given the sign promised at Poitiers. The King, notwithstanding, changed this shield for arms representing a crown supported upon a sword between two flowers-de-luce and indicating clearly what was the aid that the Maid of God was bringing to the realm of France. It is said that she regretted having to abandon the arms communicated to her by divine revelation.
She prophesied, and, as happens to all prophets, she did not always foretell what was to come to pass. It was the fate of the prophet Jonah himself. And doctors explain how the prophecies of true prophets cannot be
all fulfilled.
She had said: “Before Saint John the Baptist’s Day, in 1429, there shall not be one Englishman, howsoever strong and valiant, to be seen throughout France, either in battle or in the open field.”
The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated on the 24th of June.
CHAPTER XV
THE TAKING OF JARGEAU — THE BRIDGE OF MEUNG — BEAUGENCY
ON Monday, the 6th of June, the King lodged at Saint-Aignan near Selles-en-Berry. Among the gentlemen of his company were two sons of that Dame de Laval who, in her widowhood, had made the mistake of loving a landless cadet. André, the younger, at the age of twenty, had just passed under the cloud of a disgrace common to nearly all nobles in those days; his grandmother’s second husband, Sire Bertrand Du Guesclin, had experienced it several times. Taken prisoner in the château of Laval by Sir John Talbot, he had incurred a heavy debt in order to furnish the sixteen thousand golden crowns of his ransom.
Being in great need of money, the two young nobles offered their services to the King, who received them very well, gave them not a crown, but said he would show them the Maid. And as he was going with them from Saint-Aignan to Selles, he summoned the Saint, who straightway, armed at all points save her head, and lance in hand, rode out to meet the King. She greeted the two young nobles heartily and returned with them to Selles. The eldest, Lord Guy, she received in the house where she was lodging, opposite the church, and called for wine. Such was the custom among princes. Cups of wine were brought, into which the guests dipped slices of bread called sops. When offering him the wine cup, the Maid said to Lord Guy: “I will shortly give you to drink at Paris.”
She told him that, three days before, she had sent a gold ring to Dame Jeanne de Laval.
“It was a small matter,” she added graciously. “I should like to have sent her something of greater value, considering her reputation.”
That same day, at the hour of vespers, she set out from Selles for Romorantin with a numerous company of men-at-arms and train-bands, commanded by Marshal de Boussac. She was surrounded by mendicant friars and one of her brothers went with her. She wore white armour and a hood. Her horse was brought to her at the door of her house. It was a great black charger which resolutely refused to let her mount him. She had him led to the Cross by the roadside, opposite the church, and there she leapt into the saddle. Whereupon Lord Guy marvelled; for he saw that the charger was as still as if he had been bound. She turned her horse’s head towards the church porch, and in her clear woman’s voice cried: “Ye priests and churchmen, walk in processions and pray to God.”
Then, gaining the highroad: “Go forward, go forward,” she said.
In her hand she carried a little axe. Her page bore her standard furled.
The meeting-place was Orléans. On Thursday, the 9th of June, in the evening, Jeanne passed over the bridge she had crossed on the 8th of May. Saturday, the 11th, the army set out for Jargeau. It consisted of horse brought by the Duke of Alençon, the Count of Vendôme, the Bastard, the Marshal de Boussac, Captain La Hire, Messire Florent d’Illiers, Messire Jamet du Tillay, Messire Thudal de Kermoisan of Brittany, as well as of contingents furnished by the communes, in all, perhaps eight thousand combatants, many of whom were armed with pikes, axes, cross-bows and leaden mallets. The young Duke of Alençon was placed in command. He was not remarkable for his intelligence. But he knew how to ride, and in those days that was the only knowledge indispensable to a general. Again the people of Orléans defrayed the cost of the expedition. For the payment of the fighting men they contributed three thousand livres, for their feeding, seven hogsheads of corn. At their own request, the King imposed on them a new taille of three thousand livres. At their own expense they despatched workmen of all trades, — masons, carpenters, smiths. They lent their artillery. They sent culverins, cannons, La Bergère, and the large mortar to which four horses were harnessed, with the gunners Megret and Jean Boillève. They furnished ammunition, engines, arrows, ladders, pickaxes, spades, mattocks; and all were marked, for they were a methodical folk. Everything for the siege was sent to the Maid. For in this undertaking she was the one commander they recognised, not the Duke of Alençon, not even the Bastard their own lord’s noble brother. For the inhabitants of Orléans, Jeanne was the leader of the siege; and to Jeanne, before the besieged town, they despatched two of their citizens, — Jean Leclerc and François Joachim. After the citizens of Orléans, the Sire de Rais contributed most to the expenses of the siege of Jargeau. This unfortunate noble spent thoughtlessly right and left, while rich burgesses made great profits by lending to him at a high rate of interest. The sorry state of his affairs was shortly to bring him to attempt their readjustment by vowing his soul to the devil.
The town of Jargeau, which was shortly to be taken after a severe siege, had surrendered to the English without resistance on the 5th of October in the previous year. The bridge leading to the town from the Beauce bank was furnished with two castlets. The town itself, surrounded by walls and towers, was not strongly fortified; but its means of defence had been improved by the English. Warned that the army of the French King was coming to besiege it, the Earl of Suffolk and his two brothers threw themselves into the town, with five hundred knights, squires, and other fighting men, as well as two hundred picked bowmen. The Duke of Alençon with six hundred horse was at the head of the force, and with him, the Maid. The first night they slept in the woods. On the morrow, at daybreak, my Lord the Bastard, my Lord Florent d’Illiers, and several other captains joined them. They were in a great hurry to reach Jargeau. Suddenly they hear that Sir John Fastolf is at hand, coming from Paris with two thousand combatants, bringing supplies and artillery to Jargeau.
This was the army which had been the cause of Jeanne’s anxiety on the 4th of May, because her saints had not told her where Fastolf was. The captains held a council of war. Many thought the siege ought to be abandoned and that the army should go to meet Fastolf. Some actually went off at once. Jeanne exhorted the men-at-arms to continue their march on Jargeau. Where Sir John Fastolf’s army was, she knew no more than the others; her reasons were not of this world.
“Be not afraid of any armed host whatsoever,” she said, “and make no difficulty of attacking the English, for Messire leads you.”
And again she said: “Were I not assured that Messire leads, I would rather be keeping sheep than running so great a danger.”
She gained a better hearing from the Duke of Alençon than from any of the Orléans leaders. Those who had gone were recalled and the march on Jargeau was continued.
The suburbs of the town appeared undefended; but, when the French King’s men approached, they found the English posted in front of the outbuildings, wherefore they were compelled to retreat. When the Maid beheld this, she seized her standard and threw herself upon the enemy, calling on the fighting men to take courage. That night, the French King’s men were able to encamp in the suburbs. They kept no watch, and yet from the Duke of Alençon’s own avowal they would have been in great danger if the English had made a sally. The Maid’s judgment was even more fully justified than she expected. Everything in her army depended upon the grace of God.
The very next day, in the morning the besiegers brought their siege train and their mortars up to the walls. The Orléans cannon fired upon the town and did great damage. Three of La Bergère’s volleys wrecked the greatest tower on the fortifications.
The train-bands reached Jargeau on Saturday, the 11th. Straightway, without staying to take counsel, they hastened to the trenches and began the assault. They were too zealous; consequently, they went badly to work, received no aid from the men-at-arms and were driven back in disorder.
On Saturday night, the Maid, who was accustomed to summon the enemy before fighting, approached the entrenchments, and cried out to the English: “Surrender the town to the King of Heaven and to King Charles, and depart, or it will be the worse for you.”
To this summons the English paid no heed,
albeit they had a great desire to come to some understanding. The Earl of Suffolk came to my Lord the Bastard, and told him that if he would refrain from the attack, the town should be surrendered to him. The English asked for a fortnight’s respite, after which time, they would undertake to withdraw immediately, they and their horses, provided, doubtless, that by that time they had not been relieved. On both sides such conditional surrenders were common. The Sire de Baudricourt had signed one at Vaucouleurs just before Jeanne’s arrival there. In this case it was mere trickery to ask the French to enter into such an agreement just when Sir John Fastolf was coming with artillery and supplies. It has been asserted that the Bastard was taken in this snare; but such a thing is incredible; he was far too wily for that. Nevertheless, on the morrow, which was Sunday and the 12th of the month, the Duke of Alençon and the nobles, who were holding a council concerning the measures for the capture of the town, were told that Captain La Hire was conferring with the Earl of Suffolk. They were highly displeased. Captain La Hire, who was not a general, could not treat in his own name, and had doubtless received powers from my Lord the Bastard. The latter commanded for the Duke, a prisoner in the hands of the English, while the Duke of Alençon commanded for the King; and hence the disagreement.
The Maid, who was always ready to show mercy to prisoners when they surrendered and at the same time always ready to fight, said: “If they will, let them in their jackets of mail depart from Jargeau with their lives! If they will not, the town shall be stormed.”
The Duke of Alençon, without even inquiring the terms of the capitulation, had Captain La Hire recalled.
Complete Works of Anatole France Page 437