The Life of Joan of Arc Part 20

[Footnote 429: _Chronique du doyen de Saint-Thibaud_, in Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, vol. ii, col. cxcix.

S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. cxcvii _et seq._]

[Footnote 430: Letter from Jean Desch, Secretary of the town of Metz, in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 355. Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. ii, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, col. cxcix.]

Old and ill, Duke Charles dwelt in his palace with his paramour Alison du Mai, a b.a.s.t.a.r.d and a priest's daughter, who had driven out the lawful wife, Dame Marguerite of Bavaria. Dame Marguerite was pious and high-born, but old and ugly, while Madame Alison was pretty. She had borne Duke Charles several children.[431]

[Footnote 431: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. cc, note.]

The following story appears the most authentic. There were certain worthy persons at Nancy who wanted Duke Charles to take back his good wife. To persuade him to do so they had recourse to the exhortations of a saint, who had revelations from Heaven, and who called herself the Daughter of G.o.d. By these persons the damsel of Domremy was represented to the enfeebled old Duke as being a saint who worked miracles of healing. By their advice he had her summoned in the hope that she possessed secrets which should alleviate his sufferings and keep him alive.

As soon as he saw her he asked whether she could not restore him to his former health and strength.

She replied that "of such things" she knew nothing. But she warned him that his ways were evil, and that he would not be cured until he had amended them. She enjoined upon him to send away Alison, his concubine, and to take back his good wife.[432]

[Footnote 432: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 87. Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. iii, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, col. vj.]

No doubt she had been told to say something of this kind; but it also came from her own heart, for she loathed bad women.

Jeanne had come to the Duke because it was his due, because a little saint must not refuse when a great lord wishes to consult her, and because in short she had been brought to Nancy. But her mind was elsewhere; of nought could she think but of saving the realm of France.

Reflecting that Madame Yolande's son with a goodly company of men-at-arms would be of great aid to the Dauphin, she asked the Duke of Lorraine, as she took her leave, to send this young knight with her into France.

"Give me your son," she said, "with men-at-arms as my escort. In return I will pray to G.o.d for your restoration to health."

The Duke did not give her men-at-arms; neither did he give her the Duke of Bar, the heir of Lorraine, the ally of the English, who was nevertheless to join her soon beneath the standard of King Charles.

But he gave her four francs and a black horse.[433]

[Footnote 433: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 391, 444.]

Perhaps it was on her return from Nancy that she wrote to her parents asking their pardon for having left them. The fact that they received a letter and forgave is all that is known.[434] One cannot forbear surprise that Jacques d'Arc, all through the month that his daughter was at Vaucouleurs, should have remained quietly at home, when previously, after having merely dreamed of her being with men-at-arms, he had threatened that if his sons did not drown her he would with his own hands. For he must have been aware that at Vaucouleurs she was living with men-at-arms. Knowing her temperament, he had displayed great simplicity in letting her go. One cannot help supposing that those pious persons who believed in Jeanne's goodness, and desired her to be taken into France for the saving of the kingdom, must have undertaken to rea.s.sure her father and mother concerning their daughter's manner of life; perhaps they even gave the simple folk to understand that if Jeanne did go to the King her family would derive therefrom honour and advantage.

[Footnote 434: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 129.]

Before or after her journey to Nancy (which is not known), certain of the townsfolk of Vaucouleurs who believed in the young prophetess either had made, or purchased for her ready made, a suit of masculine clothing, a jerkin, cloth doublet, hose laced on to the coat, gaiters, spurs, a whole equipment of war. Sire Robert gave her a sword.[435]

[Footnote 435: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, pp. 438, 445, 447, 457. _Relation du greffier de La Roch.e.l.le_, in the _Revue historique_, vol. iv, p. 336.]

She had her hair cut round like a boy.[436] Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy, with their servants Jean de Honecourt and Julien, were to accompany her as well as the King's messenger, Colet de Vienne, and the bowman Richard.[437] There was still some delay and councils were held, for the soldiers of Antoine de Lorraine, Lord of Joinville, infested the country. Throughout the land there was nothing but pillage, robbery, murder, cruel tyranny, the ravis.h.i.+ng of women, the burning of churches and abbeys, and the perpetration of horrible crimes. Those were the hardest times ever known to man.[438] But the damsel was not afraid, and said: "In G.o.d's name! take me to the gentle Dauphin, and fear not any trouble or hindrance we may meet."[439]

[Footnote 436: _Relation du greffier de La Roch.e.l.le_, in the _Revue historique_, _ibid._]

[Footnote 437: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 406, 432, 442, 457; vol. iii, p.

209. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. xcv, 143 note 3. G. de Braux and E. de Bouteiller, _Nouvelles recherches_, pp. xxix _et seq._]

[Footnote 438: _Les routiers en Lorraine_, in the _Journal de la Societe archeologique de Lorraine_, 1866, p. 161. Dr. A. Lapierre, _La guerre de cent ans dans l'Argonne et le Rethelois_, Sedan, 1900, in 8vo.]

[Footnote 439: _Journal du siege_ (interpolation); _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 272 (a doc.u.ment of doubtful authority owing to its hagiographical character).]

At length, on a day in February, so it is said, the little company issued forth from Vaucouleurs by La Porte de France.[440]

[Footnote 440: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, p. 437. _Chronique du Mont-Saint-Michel_, vol. i, p. 30. De Boismarmin, _Memoire sur la date de l'arrivee de Jeanne d'Arc a Chinon_, in the _Bulletin du comite des travaux historiques et scientifiques_, 1892, pp. 350-359. Ulysse Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 10, note 1. Jeanne had returned to Vaucouleurs about the first Sunday in Lent, the 13th of February, 1429 (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 437). Bertrand de Poulengy says that the journey to Chinon (6th March) lasted eleven days, and that sometimes they travelled by night only (_ibid._). It is difficult to admit that they started from Vaucouleurs on the 23rd of February, and that about 660 kilometres were traversed in eleven days.]

A few friends who had followed her so far watched her go. Among them were her hosts, Henri Leroyer and Catherine, and Messire Jean Colin, canon of Saint-Nicolas, near Vaucouleurs, to whom Jeanne had confessed several times.[441] They trembled for their saint as they thought of the perils of the way and the length of the journey.

[Footnote 441: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 431, 446.]

"How can you," they asked her, "set forth on such a journey when there are men-at-arms on every hand?" But out of the serene peace of her heart she answered them:

"I do not fear men-at-arms; my way has been made plain before me. If there be men-at-arms my Lord G.o.d will make a way for me to go to my Lord Dauphin. For that am I come."[442]

[Footnote 442: _Ibid._, p. 449.]

Sire Robert was present at her departure. According to the customary formula he took an oath from each of the men-at-arms that they would surely and safely conduct her whom he confided to them. Then, being a man of little faith, he said to Jeanne in lieu of farewell: "Go! and come what may."[443] And the little company went off into the mist, which at that season envelops the meadows of the Meuse.

[Footnote 443: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 55.]

They were obliged to avoid frequented roads and to beware especially of pa.s.sing by Joinville, Montiers-en-Saulx and Sailly, where there were soldiers of the hostile party. Sire Bertrand and Jean de Metz were accustomed to such stealthy expeditions; they knew the byways and were acquainted with useful precautions, such as binding up the horses' feet in linen so as to deaden the sound of hoofs on the ground.[444]

[Footnote 444: De Pimodan, _La premiere etape de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1891, in 8vo, with maps.]

At nightfall, having escaped all danger, the company approached the right bank of the Marne and reached the Abbey of Saint-Urbain.[445]

From time immemorial it had been a place of refuge, and in those days its abbot was Arnoult of Aulnoy, a kinsman of Robert of Baudricourt.[446] The gate of the plain edifice opened for the travellers who pa.s.sed beneath the groined vaulting of its roof.[447]

The abbey included a building set apart for strangers. There they found the resting-place of the first stage of their journey.

[Footnote 445: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 54.]

[Footnote 446: Jolibois, _Dictionnaire historique de la Haute-Marne_, p. 492.]

[Footnote 447: De Pimodan, _La premiere etape de Jeanne d'Arc_, _loc.

cit._]

On the right of the outer door was the abbey church wherein were preserved the relics of Pope Saint Urbain. On the 24th of February, in the morning, Jeanne attended conventual ma.s.s there.[448] Then she and her companions took horse again. Crossing the Marne by the bridge opposite Saint-Urbain, they pressed on towards France.

[Footnote 448: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 54, 55.]

They had still one hundred and twenty-five leagues to cover and three rivers to cross, in a country infested with brigands. Through fear of the enemy they journeyed by night.[449] When they lay down on the straw the damsel, keeping her hose laced to her coat, slept in her clothes, under a covering, between Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy in whom she felt confidence. They said afterwards that they never desired the damsel because of the holiness they beheld in her;[450] that may or may not be believed.

[Footnote 449: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 437. According to the somewhat improbable testimony of Bertrand de Poulengy. _See ante_, p. 96, note 6.]

[Footnote 450: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 457.]

Jean de Metz was filled with no such ardent faith in the prophetess, since he inquired of her: "Will you really do what you say?"

To which she replied: "Have no fear. I do what I am commanded to do.

My brethren in Paradise tell me what I have to do. It is now four or five years since my brethren in Paradise and Messire told me that I must go forth to war to deliver the realm of France."[451]

[Footnote 451: _Ibid._, pp. 437, 438.]