The Life of Joan of Arc Part 55

[Footnote 1288: "In the neighbourhood of Lignerolles there have been found horse-shoes, a javelin-point, the iron pieces of carts, and bullets." P. Mantellier, _Histoire du siege_, Orleans, 1867, 12mo, p.

139.]

[Footnote 1289: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 11. Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, pp. 73-74. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 154 _et seq._ _Chronique normande_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 340. Eberhard Windecke, p. 180.

Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, pp. 144, 145. Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 452. _Commentaires de Pie_ II, in _Trial_, vol.

iv, p. 512. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 72-75. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 306. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 86. Monstrelet, vol.

iv, pp. 330-333. Wavrin du Forestel, _Anciennes chroniques_, vol. i, p. 293. Letter from J. de Bourbon in _La revue bleue_, February 13, 1892. Letter from Charles VII to Tours and the people of Dauphine, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 345, 346.]

Not more than two hundred men-at-arms pursued the fugitives to the gates of Janville. Except for the vanguard, which had been the first to take flight, the English army was entirely destroyed. On the French side, the Sire de Termes, who was present, states that there was only one killed; a man of his own company. Perceval de Boulainvilliers, Councillor and King's Chamberlain, says there were three.[1290]

[Footnote 1290: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 120; vol. v, p. 120.]

The Maid arrived[1291] before the slaughter was ended.[1292] She saw a Frenchman, who was leading some prisoners, strike one of them such a blow on the head that he fell down as if dead. She dismounted and procured the Englishman a confessor. She held his head and comforted him as far as she could. Such was the part she played in the Battle of Patay.[1293] It was the part of a saintly maid.

[Footnote 1291: "Et habuit _l'avant garde La Hire_ de quo ipsa Johanna fuit multum irata, quia ipsa multum affectabat habere onus de _l'avant garde_ La Hire qui conducebat _l'avant garde_ percussit super Anglicos," _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 71 (evidence of Louis de Coutes).]

[Footnote 1292: "Habebat magnam pietatem de tanta occisione," _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 71.]

[Footnote 1293: After an examination of the doc.u.ments I have concluded that Louis de Coutes' narrative refers to Patay.]

The French spent the night in the town. Sir John Talbot, having been brought before the Duke of Alencon and the Constable, was thus addressed by the young Duke: "This morning you little thought what would happen to you."

Talbot replied: "It is the chance of war."[1294]

[Footnote 1294: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 99.]

A few breathless _G.o.dons_ succeeded in reaching Janville.[1295] But the townsfolk, with whom on their departure they had deposited their money and their goods, shut the gates in their faces and swore loyalty to King Charles.

[Footnote 1295: Boucher de Molandon, _Janville, son donjon, son chateau, ses souvenirs du XV'e siecle_, Orleans, 1886, 8vo.]

The English commanders of the two small strongholds in La Beauce, Montpipeau and Saint Sigismond, set fire to them and fled.[1296]

[Footnote 1296: _Journal du siege_, p. 105; _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 307, 308.]

From Patay the victorious army marched to Orleans. The inhabitants were expecting the King. They had hung up tapestries ready for his entrance.[1297] But the King and his Chamberlain, fearing and not without reason, some aggressive movement on the part of the Constable, held themselves secure in the Chateau of Sully.[1298] Thence they started for Chateauneuf on the 22nd of June. That same day the Maid joined the King at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire. He received her with his usual kindness and said: "I pity you because of the suffering you endure." And he urged her to rest.

[Footnote 1297: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 307-308. _Journal du siege_, p. 105.]

[Footnote 1298: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.

222 _et seq._; E. Cosneau, _Le connetable de Richemont_, p. 172.]

At these words she wept. It has been said that her tears flowed because of the indifference and incredulity towards her that the King's urbanity implied.[1299] But we must beware of attributing to the tears of the enraptured and the illuminated a cause intelligible to human reason. To her Charles appeared clothed in an ineffable splendour like that of the holiest of kings. How, since she had shown him her angels, invisible to ordinary folk, could she for one moment have thought that he lacked faith in her?

[Footnote 1299: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles).

"_Et audivit ipse loquens ex ore regis multa bona de ea ... rex habuit pietatem de ea et de poena quam portabat._"]

"Have no doubt," she said to him, confidently, "you shall receive the whole of your kingdom and shortly shall be crowned."[1300]

[Footnote 1300: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 76, 116.]

True, Charles seemed in no great haste to employ his knights in the recovery of his kingdom. But his Council just then had no idea of getting rid of the Maid. On the contrary, they were determined to use her cleverly, so as to put heart into the French, to terrify the English, and to convince the world that G.o.d, Saint Michael, and Saint Catherine, were on the side of the Armagnacs. In announcing the victory of Patay to the good towns, the royal councillors said not one word of the Constable, neither did they mention my Lord the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.[1301] They described as leaders of the army, the Maid, with the two Princes of the Blood Royal, the Duke of Alencon, and the Duke of Vendome. In such wise did they exalt her. And, indeed, she must have been worth as much and more than a great captain, since the Constable attempted to seize her. With this enterprise, he charged one of his men, Andrieu de Beaumont, who had formerly been employed to carry off the Sire de la Tremouille. But, as Andrieu de Beaumont had failed with the Chamberlain, so he failed with the Maid.[1302]

[Footnote 1301: Letter from Charles VII to the people of Dauphine, published by Fauche-Prunelle, in _Bull. de l'Acad. Delphinale_, vol.

ii, p. 459; to the inhabitants of Tours (Archives de Tours, _Registre des comptes XXIV_), in _Cabinet historique_, I, C. p. 109; to those of Poitiers, Redet, in _Les memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de l'Ouest_, vol. iii, p. 406; _Relation du greffier de la Roch.e.l.le_ in _Revue historique_, vol. iv, p. 459.]

[Footnote 1302: _Journal du siege_, pp. 106, 108; Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 89; Gruel, _Chronique de Richemont_, p. 74; Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 344, 347; E. Cosneau, _Le connetable de Richemont_, pp. 181, 182.]

Probably she herself knew nothing of this plot. She besought the King to pardon the Constable,--a request which proves how great was her navete. By royal command Richemont received back his lords.h.i.+p of Parthenay.[1303]

[Footnote 1303: 1431, 8th of May. A decree condemning Andre de Beaumont to suffer capital punishment as being guilty of high treason.

(Arch. nat. J. 366.) For a complete copy of this doc.u.ment I am indebted to Monsieur Pierre Champion.]

Duke John of Brittany, who had married a sister of Charles of Valois, was not always pleased with his brother-in-law's counsellors. In 1420, considering him too Burgundian, they had devised for him a Bridge of Montereau.[1304] In reality, he was neither Armagnac nor Burgundian nor French nor English, but Breton. In 1423 he recognised the Treaty of Troyes; but two years later, when his brother, the Duke of Richemont, had gone over to the French King and received the Constable's sword from him, Duke John went to Charles of Valois, at Saumur, and did homage for his duchy.[1305] In short, he extricated himself cleverly from the most embarra.s.sing situations and succeeded in remaining outside the quarrel of the two kings who were both eager to involve him in it. While France and England were cutting each other's throats, he was raising Brittany from its ruins.[1306]

[Footnote 1304: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 30; De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, pp. 202 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1305: Dom Morice, _Histoire de Bretagne_, vol. ii, col.

1135-6; De Beaucourt, _loc. cit._, vol. ii, chap. vii.]

[Footnote 1306: Bellier-Dumaine, _L'administration du d.u.c.h.e de Bretagne sous le regne de Jean V_ (1399-1442) in _Les annales de Bretagne_, vol. xiv-xvi (1898-99) _pa.s.sim_, and 3rd part, Jean V and commerce, industry, agriculture, public education (vol. xvi, p. 246), and 4th part, chap. iii, Jean V and towns, rural parishes (vol. xvi, p. 495).]

The Maid filled him with curiosity and admiration. Shortly after the Battle of Patay, he sent to her, Hermine, his herald-at-arms, and Brother Yves Milbeau, his confessor, to congratulate her on her victory.[1307] The good Brother was told to question Jeanne.

[Footnote 1307: Eberhard Windecke, p. 179.]

He asked her whether it was G.o.d who had sent her to succour the King.

Jeanne replied that it was.

"If it be so," replied Brother Yves Milbeau, "my Lord the Duke of Brittany, our liege lord, is disposed to proffer his service to the King. He cannot come in person for he is sorely infirm. But he is to send his son with a large army."

The good Brother was speaking lightly and making a promise for his duke which would never be kept. The only truth in it was that many Breton n.o.bles were coming in to take service with King Charles.

On hearing these words, the little Saint made a curious mistake. She thought that Brother Yves had meant that the Duke of Brittany was her liege lord as well as his, which would have been altogether senseless.

Her loyalty revolted: "The Duke of Brittany is not my liege lord," she replied sharply. "The King is my liege lord."

As far as we can tell, the Duke of Brittany's caution had produced no favourable impression in France. He was censured for having set the King's war ban at nought and made a treaty with the English. Jeanne was of that opinion and to Brother Yves she said so plainly: "The Duke should not have tarried so long in sending his men to aid the King."[1308]

[Footnote 1308: Eberhard Windecke, pp. 178, 179.]

A few days later, the Sire de Rostrenen, who had accompanied the Constable to Beaugency and to Patay, came from Duke John to treat of the prospective marriage between his eldest son, Francois, and Bonne de Savoie, daughter of Duke Amedee. With him was Comment-Qu'il-Soit, herald of Richard of Brittany, Count of etampes. The herald was commissioned to present the Maid with a dagger and horses.[1309]

[Footnote 1309: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 264. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 68-70, 179. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 90. Dom Lobineau, _Histoire de Bretagne_, vol. i, p. 587. Dom Morice, _Histoire de Bretagne_, vol. i, pp. 508, 580.]

At Rome, in 1428, there was a French clerk, a compiler of one of those histories of the world so common in those days and so much alike. His cosmography, like all of them, began with the creation and came down to the pontificate of Martin V who was then Pope. "Under this pontificate," wrote the author, "the realm of France, the flower and the lily of the world, opulent among the most opulent, before whom the whole universe bowed, was cast down by its invader, the tyrant Henry, who was not even the lawful lord of the realm of England." Then this churchman vows the Burgundians to eternal infamy and hurls upon them the most terrible maledictions. "May their eyes be torn out: may they perish by an evil death!" Such language indicates a good Armagnac and possibly a clerk despoiled of his goods and driven into exile by the enemies of his country. When he learns the coming of the Maid and the deliverance of Orleans, transported with joy and wonder, he re-opens his history and consigns to its pages arguments in favour of the marvellous Maid, whose deeds appear to him more divine than human, but concerning whom he knows but little. He compares her to Deborah, Judith, Esther, and Penthesilea. "In the books of the Gentiles it is written," he says, "that Penthesilea, and a thousand virgins with her, came to the succour of King Priam and fought so valiantly that they tore the Myrmidons in pieces and slew more than two thousand Greeks."

According to him, both in courage and feats of prowess, the Maid far surpa.s.ses Penthesilea. Her deeds promptly refute those who maintain that she is sent by the Devil.[1310]

[Footnote 1310: L. Delisle, _Un nouveau temoignage relatif a la mission de Jeanne d'Arc_ in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, vol. xlvi, pp. 649, 668. Le P. Ayroles, _La Pucelle devant l'eglise de son temps_, pp. 53, 60.]