The Life of Joan of Arc Part 91

Such in good sooth was their firm intent and their unvarying intimation. This does not look as if they would be likely to hand her over to the Church as soon as she was taken. In their own kingdom they burned as many witches and wizards as possible; but they had never suffered the Holy Inquisition to be established in their land, and they were ill acquainted with that form of justice. Informed that Jeanne was in the hands of the Sire de Luxembourg, the Great Council of England were unanimously in favour of her being purchased at any price. Divers lords recommended that as soon as they obtained possession of the Maid she should be sewn in a sack and cast into the river. But one of them (it is said to have been the Earl of Warwick) represented to them that she ought first to be tried, convicted of heresy and witchcraft by an ecclesiastical tribunal, and then solemnly degraded in order that her King might be degraded with her.[2068] What a disgrace for Charles of Valois, calling himself King of France, if the University of Paris, if the French ecclesiastical dignitaries, bishops, abbots, canons, if in short the Church Universal were to declare that a witch had sat in his Council and that a witch led his host, that one possessed had conducted him to his impious, sacrilegious and void anointing! Thus would the trial of the Maid be the trial of Charles VII, the condemnation of the Maid the condemnation of Charles VII. The idea seemed good to them and was adopted.

[Footnote 2067: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol.

v, pp. 393-408. _Monumenta conciliorum generalium seculi decimi quinti_, vol. i, pp. 70 _et seq._ Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le proces de Jeanne d'Arc et l'Universite de Paris_.]

[Footnote 2068: Valeran Varanius, ed. Prarond, Paris, 1889, book iv, p.

100.]

The Lord Bishop of Beauvais was eager to put it into execution. He, a priest and Councillor of State, was consumed with a desire, under the semblance of trying an unfortunate heretic, to sit in judgment on the descendant of Clovis, of Saint Charlemagne and of Saint Louis.

Early in August, the Sire de Luxembourg had the Maid taken from Beaulieu, which was not safe enough, to Beaurevoir, near Cambrai.[2069]

There dwelt Dame Jeanne de Luxembourg and Dame Jeanne de Bethune.

Jeanne de Luxembourg was the aunt of Lord Jean, whom she loved dearly.

Among the great of this world she had lived as a saint, and she had never married. Formerly lady-in-waiting to Queen Ysabeau, King Charles VII's G.o.dmother, one of the most important events of her life had been to solicit from Pope Martin the canonisation of her Brother, the Cardinal of Luxembourg, who had died at Avignon in his ninetieth year.

She was known as the Demoiselle de Luxembourg. She was sixty-seven years of age, infirm and near her end.[2070]

[Footnote 2069: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 109, 110; vol. ii, p. 298; vol.

iii, p. 121. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 389. E. Gomart, _Jeanne d'Arc au chateau de Beaurevoir_, Cambrai, 1865, in 8vo, 47 pages (_Mem. de la Societe d'emulation de Cambrai_, x.x.xviii, 2, pp. 305-348). L. Sambier, _Jeanne d'Arc et la region du Nord_, Lille, 1901, in 8vo, 63 pages.

Cf. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 300, notes 3 and 4, vol. iv, supplement xxi.]

[Footnote 2070: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p.

402. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 2; vol. ii, pp. 72, 73.]

Jeanne de Bethune, widow of Lord Robert de Bar, slain at the Battle of Azincourt, had married Lord Jean in 1418. She was reputed pitiful, because, in 1424, she had obtained from her husband the pardon of a n.o.bleman of Picardy, who had been brought prisoner to Beaurevoir and was in great danger of being beheaded and quartered.[2071]

[Footnote 2071: A. d.u.c.h.ene, _Histoire de la maison de Bethune_, ch.

iii, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, p. 33. Vallet de Viriville, _loc.

cit._, and Morosini, vol. iv, pp. 352, 354.]

These two ladies treated Jeanne kindly. They offered her woman's clothes or cloth with which to make them; and they urged her to abandon a dress which appeared to them unseemly. Jeanne refused, alleging that she had not received permission from Our Lord and that it was not yet time; later she admitted that had she been able to quit man's attire, she would have done so at the request of these two dames rather than for any other dame of France, the Queen excepted.[2072]

[Footnote 2072: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231.]

A n.o.ble of the Burgundian party, one Aimond de Macy, often came to see her and was pleased to converse with her. To him she seemed modest in word and in deed. Still Sire Aimond, who was but thirty, had found her personally attractive.[2073] If certain witnesses of her own party are to be believed, Jeanne, although beautiful, did not inspire men with desire.

[Footnote 2073: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 438, 457; vol. iii, p. 121.]

This singular grace however applied to the Armagnacs only; it was not extended to the Burgundians, and Seigneur Aimond did not experience it, for one day he tried to thrust his hand into her bosom. She resisted and repulsed him with all her strength. Lord Aimond concluded as more than one would have done in his place that this was a damsel of rare virtue. He took warning.[2074]

[Footnote 2074: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 120, 121.]

Confined in the castle keep, Jeanne's mind was for ever running on her return to her friends at Compiegne; her one idea was to escape.

Somehow there reached her evil tidings from France. She got the idea that all the inhabitants of Compiegne over seven years of age were to be ma.s.sacred, "to perish by fire and sword," she said; and indeed such a fate was bound to overtake them if the town were taken.

Confiding her distress and her unconquerable desire to Saint Catherine, she asked: "How can G.o.d abandon to destruction those good folk of Compiegne who have been so loyal to their Lord?"[2075]

[Footnote 2075: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 150.]

And in her dream, surrounded by saints, like the donors in church pictures, kneeling and in rapture, she wrestled with her heavenly counsellors for the poor folk of Compiegne.

What she had heard of their fate caused her infinite distress; she herself would rather die than continue to live after such a destruction of worthy people. For this reason she was strongly tempted to leap from the top of the keep. And because she knew all that could be said against it, she heard her Voices putting her in mind of those arguments.

Nearly every day Saint Catherine said to her: "Do not leap, G.o.d will help both you and those of Compiegne."

And Jeanne replied to her: "Since G.o.d will help those of Compiegne, I want to be there."

And once again Saint Catherine told her the marvellous story of the shepherdess and the King: "To all things must you be resigned. And you will not be delivered until you have seen the King of the English."

To which Jeanne made answer: "But in good sooth I do not desire to see him. I would rather die than fall into the hands of the English."[2076]

[Footnote 2076: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 150, 151.]

One day she heard a rumour that the English had come to fetch her. The arrival of the Lord Bishop of Beauvais who came to offer the blood money at Beaurevoir may have given rise to the report.[2077]

Straightway Jeanne became frantic and beside herself. She ceased to listen to her Voices, who forbade her the fatal leap. The keep was at least seventy feet high; she commended her soul to G.o.d and leapt.

[Footnote 2077: _Ibid._, p. 13; vol. v, p. 194.]

Having fallen to the ground, she heard cries: "She is dead."

The guards hurried to the spot. Finding her still alive, in their amazement they could only ask: "Did you leap?"

She felt sorely shaken; but Saint Catherine spoke to her and said: "Be of good courage. You will recover." At the same time the Saint gave her good tidings of her friends. "You will recover and the people of Compiegne will receive succour." And she added that this succour would come before Saint Martin's Day in the winter.[2078]

[Footnote 2078: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 110, 151, 152.]

Henceforth Jeanne believed that it was her saints who had helped her and guarded her from death. She knew well that she had been wrong in attempting such a leap, despite her Voices.

Saint Catherine said to her: "You must confess and ask G.o.d to forgive you for having leapt."

Jeanne did confess and ask pardon of Our Lord. And after her confession Saint Catherine made known unto her that G.o.d had forgiven her. For three or four days she remained without eating or drinking; then she took some food and was whole.[2079]

[Footnote 2079: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 166. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 268. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 53, 58.]

Another story was told of the leap from Beaurevoir; it was related that she had tried to escape through a window letting herself down by a sheet or something that broke; but we must believe the Maid: she says she leapt; if she had been attached to a cord, she would not have committed sin and would not have confessed. This leap was known and the rumour spread abroad that she had escaped and joined her own party.[2080]

[Footnote 2080: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 507, recto. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 301-303. _Chronique de Tournai_, ed. Smedt, in _Recueil des Chroniques de Flandre_, vol. iii, pp. 416, 417.]

Meanwhile the Lenten sermons at Orleans had been delivered by that good preacher, Friar Richard, who was ill content with Jeanne, and whom Jeanne disliked and had quitted. The townsfolk as a token of regard presented him with the image of Jesus sculptured in copper by a certain Philippe, a metal-worker of the city. And the bookseller, Jean Moreau, bound him a book of hours at the town's expense.[2081]

[Footnote 2081: Lottin, _Recherches sur la ville d'Orleans_, vol. i, p.

252. _Trial_, vol. i, p. 99, note 1. _Journal du siege_, pp. 235-238.

S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. cclxiii, note 2.]

He brought back Queen Marie to Jargeau and succeeded in obtaining her favour. Jeanne was spared the bitterness of learning that while she was languis.h.i.+ng in prison her friends at Orleans, her fair Dauphin and his Queen Marie, were making good cheer for the monk who had turned from her to prefer a dame Catherine whom she considered worthless.[2082] Only lately the idea of employing Dame Catherine had filled Jeanne with alarm; she wrote to her King about it, and as soon as she saw him besought him not to employ her. However the King set no store by what she had said; he agreed to Friar Richard's favourite being allowed to set forth on her mission to obtain money from the good towns and to negotiate peace with the Duke of Burgundy. But perhaps this saintly dame was not possessed of all the wisdom necessary for the performance of man's work and King's service. For immediately she became a cause of embarra.s.sment to her friends.

[Footnote 2082: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 296, 297.]

Being in the town of Tours, she fell to saying: "In this town there be carpenters who work, but not at houses, and if ye have not a care, this town is in the way to a bad end and there be those in the town that know it."[2083]

[Footnote 2083: Register of the Accounts of the town of Tours for the year 1430, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 473, note 1.]