The Life of Joan of Arc Part 75

i, ch. xxii. D. Michel Felibien, _Histoire de l'abbaye royale de Saint-Denys en France_, Paris, in folio, 1706, pp. 229, 320. Vallet de Viriville, _Notice du ma.n.u.scrit de P. Cochon_, at the end of _La chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 360. _Chronique de Du Guesclin_, ed.

Francisque-Michel, pp. 452 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1713: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 107, 109.]

The monks of Saint-Denys preserved precious relics, notably a piece of the wood of the true cross, the linen in which the Child Jesus had been wrapped, a fragment of the pitcher wherein the water had been changed to wine at the Cana marriage feast, a bar of Saint Lawrence's gridiron, the chin of Saint Mary Magdalen, a cup of tamarisk wood used by Saint Louis as a charm against the spleen. There likewise was to be seen the head of Saint Denys. True, at the same time one was being shown in the Cathedral church of Paris. The Chancellor, Jean Gerson, treating of Jeanne the Maid, a few days before his death, wrote that of her it might be said as of the head of Saint Denys, that belief in her was a matter of edification and not of faith, albeit in both places alike the head ought to be wors.h.i.+pped in order that edification should not be turned into scandal.[1714]

[Footnote 1714: D. M. Felibien, _op. cit._, ch. ii, pp. 528 _et seq._ Ill.u.s.trations. J. Doublet, _op. cit._, vol. i, ch. xliii, xlvi.

_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 301. _Gallia Christiana_, vol. vii, col. 142.]

In this abbey everything proclaimed the dignity, the prerogatives and the high wors.h.i.+p of the house of France. Jeanne must joyously have wondered at the insignia, the symbols and signs of the royalty of the Lilies gathered together in this spot,[1715] if indeed those eyes, occupied with celestial visions, had leisure to perceive the things of earth, and if her Voices, endlessly whispering in her ear, left her one moment's respite.

[Footnote 1715: _Religieux de Saint-Denis_, pp. 154, 156, 226.]

Saint Denys was a great saint, since there was no doubt of his being in very deed the Areopagite himself.[1716] But since he had permitted his abbey to be taken he was no longer invoked as the patron saint of the Kings of France. The Dauphin's followers had replaced him by the Blessed Archangel Michael, whose abbey, near the city of Avranches, had victoriously held out against the English. It was Saint Michael not Saint Denys who had appeared to Jeanne in the garden at Domremy; but she knew that Saint Denys was the war cry of France.[1717]

[Footnote 1716: Estienne Binet, _La vie apostolique de saint Denys l'Areopagite, patron et apostre de la France_, Paris, 1624, in 12mo.

J. Doublet, _Histoire chronologique pour la verite de Saint Denys l'Areopagite, apotre de France et premier eveque de Paris_, Paris, 1646, in 4to, and _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys en France_, p.

95. J. Havet, _Les origines de Saint-Denis_, in _Les Questions merovingiennes_.]

[Footnote 1717: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 179.]

The monks of that rich abbey wasted by war lived there in poverty and in disorder.[1718] Armagnacs and Burgundians in turn descended upon the neighbouring fields and villages, plundering and ravaging, leaving nought that it was possible to carry off. At Saint-Denys was held the Fair of Le Lendit, one of the greatest in Christendom. But now Merchants had ceased to attend it. At the Lendit of 1418, there were but three booths, and those for the selling of shoes from Brabant, in the high street of Saint-Denys, near the Convent of Les Filles-Dieu.

Since 1426, there had been no fair at all.[1719]

[Footnote 1718: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 179, note 5.]

[Footnote 1719: _Ibid._, pp. 101, 209, note 1.]

At the tidings that the Armagnacs were approaching Troyes, the peasants had cut their corn before it was ripe and brought it into Paris. On entering Saint-Denys, the Duke of Alencon's men-at-arms found the town deserted. The chief burgesses had taken refuge in Paris.[1720] Only a few of the poorer families were left. The Maid held two newly born infants over the baptismal font.[1721]

[Footnote 1720: _Ibid._, pp. 241, 242. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 354.]

[Footnote 1721: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 103.]

Hearing of these Saint-Denys baptisms, her enemies accused her of having lit candles and held them inclined over the infant's heads, in order that she might read their destinies in the melted wax. It was not the first time, it appeared, that she indulged in such practices.

When she entered a town, little children were said to offer her candles kneeling, and she received them as an agreeable sacrifice.

Then upon the heads of these innocents she would let fall three drops of burning wax, proclaiming that by virtue of this ceremony they could not fail to be good. In such acts Burgundian ecclesiastics discerned idolatry and witchcraft, in which was likewise involved heresy.[1722]

[Footnote 1722: _Ibid._, p. 304. Noel Valois, _Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Annuaire-bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire de France_, Paris, 1907, in 8vo, separate issue, pp. 17, 18.]

Here again, at Saint-Denys, she distributed banners to the men-at-arms. Churchmen on the English side strongly suspected her of charming those banners. And as everyone in those days believed in magic, such a suspicion was not without its danger.[1723]

[Footnote 1723: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 236.]

The Maid and the Duke of Alencon lost no time. Immediately after their arrival at Saint-Denys they went forth to skirmish before the gates of Paris. Two or three times a day they engaged in this desultory warfare, notably by the wind-mill at the Saint-Denys Gate and in the village of La Chapelle. "Every day there was booty taken," says Messire Jean de Bueil.[1724] It seems hardly credible that in a country which had been plundered and ravaged over and over again, there should have been anything left to be taken; and yet the statement is made and attested by one of the n.o.bles in the army.

[Footnote 1724: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p. 281.]

Out of respect for the seventh commandment, the Maid forbade the men of her company to commit any theft whatsoever. And she always refused victuals offered her when she knew they had been stolen. In reality she, like the others, lived on pillage, but she did not know it. One day when a Scotsman gave her to wit that she had just partaken of some stolen veal, she flew into a fury and would have beaten him: saintly women are subject to such fits of pa.s.sion.[1725]

[Footnote 1725: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 81.]

Jeanne is said to have observed the walls of Paris carefully, seeking the spot most favourable for attack.[1726] The truth is that in this matter as in all others she depended on her Voices. For the rest she was far superior to all the men-at-arms in courage and in good will.

From Saint-Denys she sent the King message after message, urging him to come and take Paris.[1727] But at Compiegne the King and his Council were negotiating with the amba.s.sadors of the Duke of Burgundy, to wit: Jean de Luxembourg, Lord of Beaurevoir, Hugues de Cayeux, Bishop of Arras, David de Brimeu and my Lord of Charny.[1728]

[Footnote 1726: Perceval de Cagny, p. 166.]

[Footnote 1727: _Ibid._, p. 166.]

[Footnote 1728: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol.

ii, p. 112. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 404, 408. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 192; vol. iv, appendix xviii.]

The fifteen days' truce had expired. Our only information concerning it is contained in Jeanne's letter to the citizens of Reims. According to Jeanne, the Duke of Burgundy had undertaken to surrender the city to the King of France on the fifteenth day.[1729] If he had so agreed it was on conditions of which we know nothing; we are not therefore in a position to say whether or no those conditions had been carried out.

The Maid placed no trust in this promise, and she was quite right; but she did not know everything; and on the very day when she was complaining of the truce to the citizens of Reims, Duke Philip was receiving the command of Paris at the hands of the Regent, and was henceforth in a position to dispose of the city as he liked.[1730] Duke Philip could not bear the sight of Charles of Valois, who had been present at the murder on the Bridge of Montereau, but he detested the English and wished they would go to the devil or return to their island. The vineyards and the cloth looms of his dominions were too numerous and too important for him not to wish for peace. He had no desire to be King of France; therefore he could be treated with, despite his avarice and dissimulation. Nevertheless the fifteenth day had gone by and the city of Paris remained in the hands of the English and the Burgundians, who were not friends but allies.

[Footnote 1729: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 140.]

[Footnote 1730: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 332. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. P. Cochon, p. 457. Perceval de Cagny, p.

165.]

On the 28th of August a truce was concluded. It was to last till Christmas and was to extend over the whole country north of the Seine, from Nogent to Harfleur, with the exception of such towns as were situated where there was a pa.s.sage over the river. Concerning the city of Paris it was expressly stated that "Our Cousin of Burgundy, he and his men, may engage in the defence of the town and in resisting such as shall make war upon it or do it hurt."[1731] The Chancellor Regnault de Chartres, the Sire de la Tremouille, Christophe d'Harcourt, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Orleans, the Bishop of Seez, and likewise certain young n.o.bles very eager for war, such as the Counts of Clermont and of Vendome and the Duke of Bar, in short all the Counsellors of the King and the Princes of the Blood who signed this article, were apparently giving the enemy a weapon against them and renouncing any attempt upon Paris. But they were not all fools; the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Orleans was keen witted and the Lord Archbishop of Reims was anything but an Olibrius.[1732] They doubtless knew what they were about when they recognised the Duke of Burgundy's rights over Paris.

Duke Philip, as we know, had been governor of the great town since the 13th of August. The Regent had ceded it with the idea that Burgundy would keep the Parisians in order better than England, for the English were few in number and were disliked as foreigners. What did it profit King Charles to recognise his cousin's rights over Paris? We fail to see precisely; but after all this truce was no better and no worse than others. In sooth it did not give Paris to the King, but neither did it prevent the King from taking it. Did truces ever hinder Armagnacs and Burgundians from fighting when they had a mind to fight?

Was one of those frequent truces ever kept?[1733] After having signed this one, the King advanced to Senlis. The Duke of Alencon came to him there twice. Charles reached Saint-Denys on Wednesday the 7th of September.[1734]

[Footnote 1731: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 352, 353. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 247, 248. D. Felibien, _Histoire de Paris_, vol. ii, p. 813, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, vol. iv, p. 591.

Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 208, 209, 224, note 2; vol. iv, appendix xviii, pp. 343, 344.]

[Footnote 1732: Cf. vol. i, p. 34, note 3 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1733: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, ch.

vii. _La diplomatie de Charles VII jusqu'au traite d'Arras_.]

[Footnote 1734: Perceval de Cagny, p. 166.]

CHAPTER III

THE ATTACK ON PARIS

In the days when King John was a prisoner in the hands of the English, the townsfolk of Paris, beholding the enemy in the heart of the land, feared lest their city should be besieged. In all haste therefore they proceeded to put it in a state of defence; they surrounded it with trenches and counter trenches. On the side of the University the suburbs were left defenceless; small and remote, they were burned down. But on the right bank the more extensive suburbs well nigh touched the city. One part of them was enclosed by the trenches. When peace was concluded, Charles, Regent of the Realm, undertook to surround the town on the north with an embattled wall, flanked with square towers, with terraces and parapets, with a road round and steps leading up to the ramparts.

In certain places the trench was single, in others double. The work was superintended by Hugues Aubriot, Provost of Paris, to whom was entrusted also the building of the Saint-Antoine bastion, completed under King Charles VI.[1735] This new fortification began on the east, near the river, on the rising ground of Les Celestins. Within its circle it enclosed the district of Saint Paul, the Culture Sainte-Catherine, the Temple, Saint-Martin, Les Filles-Dieu, Saint Sauveur, Saint Honore, Les Quinze Vingts, which hitherto had been in the suburbs and undefended; and it reached the river below the Louvre, which was thus united to the town. There were six gates in the circ.u.mvallation, to wit: beginning on the east, the Baudet Gate or Saint-Antoine Gate, the Saint-Avoye or Temple Gate, the Gate of the Painters or of Saint-Denis, the Saint-Martin or Montmartre Gate, the Saint-Honore Gate and the Gate of the Seine.[1736]

[Footnote 1735: Le Roux de Lincy, _Hugues Aubriot, prevot de Paris sous Charles V_, Paris, 1862, in 8vo, _pa.s.sim_. _Paris et ses historiens au XIV'e et XV'e siecle_ by Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, Paris, in fol. [_Histoire generale de Paris._]]

[Footnote 1736: Delamare, _Traite de la police_, Paris, 1710, in folio, vol. i, p. 79. A. Bonnardot, _Dissertation archeologique sur les enceintes de Paris, suivie de recherches sur les portes fortifiees qui dependaient des enceintes de Paris_, 1851, in 4to, with plan. _etudes archeologiques sur les anciens plans de Paris_, 1853, in 4to.