Moreover an attempt was made to represent the wonders that had heralded the nativity of Jesus as having been repeated on the birth of Jeanne. It was imagined that she was born on the night of the Epiphany. The shepherds of her village, moved by an indescribable joy, the cause of which was unknown to them, hastened through the darkness towards the marvellous mystery. The cocks, heralds of this new joy, sing at an unusual season and, flapping their wings, seem to prophesy for two hours. Thus the child in her cradle had her adoration of the shepherds.
Of her coming into France there was much to tell. It was related that in the Château of Chinon she had recognised the King, whom she had never seen before, and had gone straight to him, although he was but poorly clad and surrounded by his baronage. It was said that she had given the King a sign, that she had revealed a secret to him; and that on the revelation of the secret, known to him alone, he had been illuminated with a heavenly joy. Concerning this interview at Chinon, while those present had little to say, the stories of many who were not there were interminable.
On the 7th of May, at four o’clock in the afternoon, a white dove alighted on the Maid’s standard; and on the same day, during the assault, two white birds were seen to be flying over her head. Saints were commonly visited by doves. One day when Saint Catherine of Sienna was kneeling in the fuller’s house, a dove as white as snow perched on the child’s head.
A tale then in circulation is interesting as showing the idea which prevailed concerning the relations of the King and the Maid; it serves, likewise, as an example of the perversions to which the story of an actual fact is subject as it passes from mouth to mouth. Here is the tale as it was gathered by a German merchant.
On a day, in a certain town, the Maid, hearing that the English were near, went into the field; and straightway all the men-at-arms, who were in the town, leapt to their steeds and followed her. Meanwhile, the King, who was at dinner, learning that all were going forth in company with the Maid, had the gates of the town closed.
The Maid was told, and she replied without concern: “Before the hour of nones, the King will have so great need of me, that he will follow me immediately, spurless, and barely staying to throw on his cloak.”
And thus it came to pass. For the men-at-arms shut up in the town besought the King to open the gates forthwith or they would break them down. The gates were opened and all the fighting men hastened to the Maid, heedless of the King, who threw on his cloak and followed them.
On that day a great number of the English were slain.
Such is the story which gives a very inaccurate representation of what happened at Orléans on the 6th of May. The citizens hastened in crowds to the Burgundian Gate, resolved to cross the Loire and attack Les Tourelles. Finding the gate closed, they threw themselves furiously on the Sire de Gaucourt who was keeping it. The aged baron had the gate opened wide and said to them, “Come, I will be your captain.” In the story the citizens have become men-at-arms, and it is not the Sire de Gaucourt but the King who maliciously closes the gates. But the King gained nothing by it; and it is astonishing to find that so early there had grown up in the minds of the people the idea that, far from aiding the Maid to drive out the English, the King had put obstacles in her way and was always the last to follow her.
Seen through this chaos of stories more indistinct than the clouds in a stormy sky, Jeanne appeared a wondrous marvel. She prophesied and many of her prophecies had already been fulfilled. She had foretold the deliverance of Orléans and Orléans had been delivered. She had prophesied that she would be wounded, and an arrow had pierced her above the right breast. She had prophesied that she would take the King to Reims, and the King had been crowned in that city. Other prophecies had she uttered touching the realm of France, to wit, the deliverance of the Duke of Orléans, the entering into Paris, the driving of the English from the holy kingdom, and their fulfilment was expected.
Every day she prophesied and notably concerning divers persons who had failed in respect towards her and had come to a bad end.
At Chinon, when she was being taken to the King, a man-at-arms who was riding near the château, thinking he recognised her, asked, “Is not that the Maid? By God, an I had my way she should not be a maid long.”
Then Jeanne prophesied and said “Ha, thou takest God’s name in vain, and thou art so near thy death!”
Less than an hour later the man fell into the water and was drowned.
Straightway this miracle was related in Latin verse. In the poem which records this miraculous history of Jeanne up to the deliverance of Orléans, the lewd blasphemer, who like all blasphemers, came to a bad end, is noble and by name Furtivolus.
... generoso sanguine natus,
Nomine Furtivolus, veneris moderator iniquus.
Captain Glasdale called Jeanne strumpet and blasphemed his Maker. Jeanne prophesied that he would die without shedding blood; and Glasdale was drowned in the Loire.
Many of these tales were obvious imitations of incidents in the lives of the saints, which were widely read in those days. A woman, who was a heretic, pulled the cassock of Saint Ambrose, whereupon the blessed bishop said to her, “Take heed lest one day thou be chastised of God.” On the morrow the woman died, and the Blessed Ambrose conducted her to the grave.
A nun, who was then alive and who was to die in an odour of sanctity, Sister Colette of Corbie, had met her Furtivolus and had punished him, but less severely. On a day when she was praying in a church of Corbie, a stranger drew near and spoke to her libidinous words: “May it please God,” she said, “to bring home to you the hideousness of the words you have just uttered.” The stranger in shame went to the door. But an invisible hand arrested him on the threshold. Then he realised the gravity of his sin; he asked pardon of the saint and was free to leave the church.
After the royal army had departed from Gien, the Maid was said to have prophesied that a great battle would be fought between Auxerre and Reims. When such predictions were not fulfilled they were forgotten. Besides, it was admitted that true prophets might sometimes utter false prophecies. A subtle theologian distinguished between prophecies of predestination which are always fulfilled and those of condemnation, which being conditioned, may not be fulfilled and that without reflecting untruthfulness on the lips that uttered them. Folk wondered that a peasant child should be able to forecast the future, and with the Apostle they cried, “I praise thee, O Father, because thou hast hidden those things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes.”
The Maid’s prophecies were speedily spread abroad throughout the whole of Christendom. A clerk of Spiers wrote a treatise on her, entitled Sibylla Francica, divided into two parts. The first part was drawn up not later than July, 1429. The second is dated the 17th of September, the same year. This clerk believes that the Maid practised the art of divination by means of astrology. He had heard a French monk of the order of the Premonstratensians say that Jeanne delighted to study the heavens by night. He observes that all her prophecies concerned the kingdom of France; and he gives the following as having been uttered by the Maid: “After having ruled for twenty years, the Dauphin will sleep with his fathers. After him, his eldest son, now a child of six, will reign more gloriously, more honourably, more powerfully than any King of France since Charlemagne.”
The Maid possessed the gift of beholding events which were taking place far away.
At Vaucouleurs, on the very day of the Battle of the Herrings, she knew the Dauphin’s army had suffered grievous hurt.
On a day when she was dining, seated near the King, she began to laugh quietly. The King, perceiving, asked her: “My beloved, wherefore laugh ye so merrily?”
She made answer that she would tell him when the repast was over. And, when the ewer was brought her, “Sire,” she said, “this day have been drowned in the sea five hundred English, who were crossing to your land to do you hurt. Therefore did I laugh. In three days you will know that it is true.”
And so it was.
Another time, when she was in a town some miles distant from the château where the King was, as she prayed before going to sleep, it was revealed to her that certain of the King’s enemies wished to poison him at dinner. Straightway she called her brothers and sent them to the King to advise him to take no food until she came.
When she appeared before him, he was at table surrounded by eleven persons.
“Sire,” she said, “have the dishes brought.”
She gave them to the dogs, who ate from them and died forthwith.
Then, pointing to a knight, who was near the King and to two other guests: “Those persons,” she said, “wished to poison you.”
The knight straightway confessed that it was true; and he was dealt with according to his deserts.
It was borne in upon her that a certain priest kept a concubine; and one day, meeting in the camp a woman dressed as a man, it was revealed to her that the woman was pregnant and that having already had one child she had made away with it.
She was likewise said to possess the power of discovering things hidden. She herself had claimed this power when she was at Tours. It had been revealed to her that a sword was buried in the ground in the chapel of Saint Catherine of Fierbois, and that was the sword she wore. Some deemed it to be the sword with which Charles Martel had defeated the Saracens. Others suspected it of being the sword of Alexander the Great.
In like manner it was said that before the coronation Jeanne had known of a precious crown, hidden from all eyes. And here is the story told concerning it:
A bishop kept the crown of Saint Louis. No one knew which bishop it was, but it was known that the Maid had sent him a messenger, bearing a letter in which she asked him to give up the crown. The bishop replied that the Maid was dreaming. A second time she demanded the sacred treasure, and the bishop made the same reply. Then she wrote to the citizens of the episcopal city, saying that if the crown were not given up to the King, the Lord would punish the town, and straightway there fell so heavy a storm of hail that all men marvelled. Wizards commonly caused hail storms. But this time the hail was a plague sent by the God who afflicted Egypt with ten plagues. After which the Maid despatched to the citizens a third letter in which she described the form and fashion of the crown the bishop was hiding, and warned them that if it were not given up even worse things would happen to them. The bishop, who believed that the wondrous circlet of gold was known to him alone, marvelled that the form and fashion thereof should be described in this letter. He repented of his wickedness, wept many tears, and commanded the crown to be sent to the King and the Maid.
It is not difficult to discern the origin of this story. The crown of Charlemagne, which the kings of France wore at the coronation ceremony, was at Saint-Denys in France, in the hands of the English. Jeanne boasted of having given the Dauphin at Chinon a precious crown, brought by angels. She said that this crown had been sent to Reims for the coronation, but that it did not arrive in time. As for the hiding of the crown by the bishop, that idea arose probably from the well-known cupidity of my Lord Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, who had appropriated the silver vase intended for the chapter and placed by the King upon the high altar after the ceremony.
There was likewise talk of gloves lost at Reims and of a cup that Jeanne had found.
Maiden, at once a warrior and a lover of peace, béguine, prophetess, sorceress, angel of the Lord, ogress, every man beholds her according to his own fashion, creates her according to his own image. Pious souls clothe her with an invincible charm and the divine gift of charity; simple souls make her simple too; men gross and violent figure her a giantess, burlesque and terrible. Shall we ever discern the true features of her countenance? Behold her, from the first and perhaps for ever enclosed in a flowering thicket of legends!
VOLUME II.
CHAPTER I
THE ROYAL ARMY FROM SOISSONS TO COMPIÈGNE — POEM AND PROPHECY
ON the 22nd of July, King Charles, marching with his army down the valley of the Aisne, in a place called Vailly, received the keys of the town of Soissons.
This town constituted a part of the Duchy of Valois, held jointly by the Houses of Orléans and of Bar. Of its dukes, one was a prisoner in the hands of the English; the other was connected with the French party through his brother-in-law, King Charles, and with the Burgundian party through his father-in-law, the Duke of Lorraine. No wonder the fealty of the townsfolk was somewhat vacillating; downtrodden by men-at-arms, forever taken and retaken, red caps and white caps alternately ran the danger of being cast into the river. The Burgundians set fire to the houses, pillaged the churches, chastised the most notable burgesses; then came the Armagnacs, who sacked everything, made great slaughter of men, women, and children, ravished nuns, worthy wives, and honest maids. The Saracens could not have done worse. City dames had been seen making sacks in which Burgundians were to be sewn up and thrown into the Aisne.
King Charles made his entry into the city on Saturday the 23rd, in the morning. The red caps went into hiding. The bells pealed, the folk cried “Noël,” and the burgesses proffered the King two barbels, six sheep and six gallons of “bon suret,” begging the King to forgive its being so little, but the war had ruined them. They, like the people of Troyes, refused to open their gates to the men-at-arms, by virtue of their privileges, and because they had not food enough for their support. The army encamped in the plain of Amblény.
It would seem that at that time the leaders of the royal army had the intention of marching on Compiègne. Indeed it was important to capture this town from Duke Philip, for it was the key to l’Île-de-France and ought to be taken before the Duke had time to bring up an army. But throughout this campaign the King of France was resolved to recapture his towns rather by diplomacy and persuasion than by force. Between the 22nd and the 25th of July he three times summoned the inhabitants of Compiègne to surrender. Being desirous to gain time and to have the air of being constrained, they entered into negotiations.
Having quitted Soissons, the royal army reached Château-Thierry on the 29th. All day it waited for the town to open its gates. In the evening the King entered. Coulommiers, Crécy-en-Brie, and Provins submitted.
On Monday, the 1st of August, the King crossed the Marne, over the Château-Thierry Bridge, and that same day took up his quarters at Montmirail. On the morrow he gained Provins and came within a short distance of the passage of the Seine and the high-roads of central France. The army was sore anhungered, finding nought to eat in these ravaged fields and pillaged cities. Through lack of victuals preparations were being made for retreat into Poitou. But this design was thwarted by the English. While ungarrisoned towns were being reduced, the English Regent had been gathering an army. It was now advancing on Corbeil and Melun. On its approach the French gained La Motte-Nangis, some twelve miles from Provins, where they took up their position on ground flat and level, such as was convenient for the fighting of a battle, as battles were fought in those days. For one whole day they remained in battle array. There was no sign of the English coming to attack them.
Meanwhile the people of Reims received tidings that King Charles was leaving Château-Thierry and was about to cross the Seine. Believing that they had been abandoned, they were afraid lest the English and Burgundians should make them pay dearly for the coronation of the King of the Armagnacs; and in truth they stood in great danger. On the 3rd of August, they resolved to send a message to King Charles to entreat him not to forsake those cities which had submitted to him. The city’s herald set out forthwith. On the morrow they sent word to their good friends of Châlons and of Laon, how they had heard that King Charles was wending towards Orléans and Bourges, and how they had sent him a message.
On the 5th of August, while the King is still at Provins or in the neighbourhood, Jeanne addresses to the townsfolk of Reims a letter dated from the camp, on the road to Paris. Herein she promises not to desert her friends faithful and beloved. She appears to have no suspicion of
the projected retreat on the Loire. Wherefore it is clear that the magistrates of Reims have not written to her and that she is not admitted to the royal counsels. She has been instructed, however, that the King has concluded a fifteen days’ truce with the Duke of Burgundy, and thereof she informs the citizens of Reims. This truce is displeasing to her; and she doubts whether she will observe it. If she does observe it, it will be solely on account of the King’s honour; and even then she must be persuaded that there is no trickery in it. She will therefore keep the royal army together and in readiness to march at the end of the fifteen days. She closes her letter with a recommendation to the townsfolk to keep good guard and to send her word if they have need of her.
Here is the letter:
“Good friends and beloved, ye good and loyal French of the city of Rains, Jehanne the Maid lets you wit of her tidings and prays and requires you not to doubt the good cause she maintains for the Blood Royal; and I promise and assure you that I will never forsake you as long as I shall live. It is true that the King has made truce with the Duke of Burgundy for the space of fifteen days, by which he is to surrender peaceably the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Notwithstanding, marvel ye not if I do not straightway enter into it, for truces thus made are not pleasing unto me, and I know not whether I shall keep them; but if I keep them it will be solely to maintain the King’s honour; and further they shall not ensnare the Royal Blood, for I will keep and maintain together the King’s army that it be ready at the end of fifteen days, if they make not peace. Wherefore my beloved and perfect friends, I pray ye to be in no disquietude as long as I shall live; but I require you to keep good watch and to defend well the good city of the King; and to make known unto me if there be any traitors who would do you hurt, and, as speedily as I may, I will take them out from among you; and send me of your tidings. To God I commend you. May he have you in his keeping.”
Complete Works of Anatole France Page 446