The Life of Joan of Arc Part 93

Many Burgundian lords, and among them a knight, one Jean de Pressy, Controller of the Finances of Burgundy, offered her woman's dress, as the Luxembourg dame had done, for her own good and in order to avoid scandal; but for nothing in the world would Jeanne have cast off the garb which she had a.s.sumed according to divine command.

She also received in her prison at Arras a clerk of Tournai, one Jean Naviel, charged by the magistrates of his town to deliver to her the sum of twenty-two golden crowns. This ecclesiastic enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens, who employed him in the town's most urgent affairs. In the May of this year, 1430, he had been sent to Messire Regnault de Chartres, Chancellor of King Charles. He had been taken by the Burgundians at the same time as Jeanne and held to ransom; but out of that predicament he soon escaped and at no great cost.

He acquitted himself well of his mission[2102] to the Maid, and, it would seem, received nothing for his trouble, doubtless because he wanted the reward of this work of mercy to be placed to his account in heaven.[2103]

[Footnote 2102: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 96, 231. Canon Henri Debout, _Jeanne d'Arc prisonniere a Arras_, Arras, 1894, in 16mo; _Jeanne d'Arc et les villes d'Arras et de Tournai_, Paris, 1904, in 8vo; _Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. ii, pp. 394 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2103: On the 7th of November, 1430, a messenger from the town of Arras received forty s.h.i.+llings for having taken two sealed letters to the Duke of Burgundy, one from Jean de Luxembourg, the other from David de Brimeu, Governor of the Bailiwick of Arras; we know nothing of the tenor of these letters written concerning "the case of the Maid." P. Champion, _Notes sur Jeanne d'Arc, II; Jeanne d'Arc a Arras_, in _Le Moyen age_, July-August, 1907, pp. 200, 201.]

Neither the capture of the Maid nor the retreat of the men-at-arms she had brought, put an end to the siege of Compiegne. Guillaume de Flavy and his two brothers, Charles and Louis, and Captain Baretta with his Italians, and the five hundred of the garrison[2104] displayed skill, vigour, and untiring energy. The Burgundians conducted the siege in the same manner as the English had conducted that of Orleans; mines, trenches, bulwarks, cannonades and bastions, those gigantic and absurd erections good for nothing but for burning. The suburbs of the town Guillaume de Flavy had demolished because they were in the way of his firing; boats he had sunk in order to bar the river. To the mortars and huge _couillards_ of the Burgundians he replied with his artillery, and notably with those little copper culverins which did such good service.[2105] If the gay cannoneer of Orleans and Jargeau, Maitre Jean de Montesclere, were absent, there was a shoemaker of Valenciennes, an artilleryman, named Noirouffle, tall, dark, terrible to see, and terrible to hear.[2106] The townsfolk of Compiegne, like those of Orleans, made unsuccessful sallies. One day Louis de Flavy, the governor's brother, was killed by a Burgundian bullet. But none the less on that day Guillaume did as he was wont to do and made the minstrels play to keep his men-at-arms in good cheer.[2107]

[Footnote 2104: H. de Lepinois, _Notes extraites des archives communales de Compiegne_, in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, 1863, vol. xxiv, p. 486. A. Sorel, _Prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 268. P.

Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, pp. 38, 48 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2105: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 500 verso.]

[Footnote 2106: Chastellain, vol. ii, p. 53.]

[Footnote 2107: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 390.]

In the month of June the bulwark, defending the bridge over the Oise, like les Tourelles at Orleans which defended the bridge over the Loire, was captured by the enemy without bringing about the reduction of the town. In like manner, the capture of Les Tourelles had not occasioned the fall of the town of Duke Charles.[2108]

[Footnote 2108: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 390, 391. Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 180. Morosini, vol. iii, pp. 306, 307.

Chastellain, vol. ii, pp. 51, 54. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 233 _et seq._ P. Champion. _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 50.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENRY VI

_From a portrait in the "Election Chamber" at Eton, reproduced by permission of the Provost_]

As for the bastions, they were just as little good on the Oise as they had been on the Loire; everything pa.s.sed by them. The Burgundians were unable to invest Compiegne because its circ.u.mference was too great.[2109] They were short of money; and their men-at-arms, for lack of food and of pay, deserted with that perfect a.s.surance which in those days characterised alike mercenaries of the red cross and of the white.[2110] To complete his misfortunes, Duke Philip was obliged to take away some of the troops engaged in the siege and send them against the inhabitants of Liege who had revolted.[2111] On the 24th of October, a relieving army, commanded by the Count of Vendome and the Marshal de Boussac, approached Compiegne. The English and the Burgundians having turned to encounter them, the garrison and all the inhabitants of the town, even the women, fell upon the rear of the besiegers and routed them.[2112] The relieving army entered Compiegne.

The flaring of the bastions was a fine sight. The Duke of Burgundy lost all his artillery.[2113] The Sire de Luxembourg, who had come to Beaurevoir, where he had received the Count Bishop of Beauvais, now appeared before Compiegne just in time to bear his share in the disaster.[2114] The same causes which had constrained the English to depart, as they put it, from Orleans, now obliged the Burgundians to leave Compiegne. But in those days the most ordinary events must needs have a supernatural cause a.s.signed to them, wherefore the deliverance of the town was attributed to the vow of the Count of Vendome, who, in the cathedral of Senlis, had promised an annual ma.s.s to Notre-Dame-de-la-Pierre if the place were not taken.[2115]

[Footnote 2109: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, pp. 49 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2110: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 502 verso. P.

Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, xli, xlii, xliii.]

[Footnote 2111: _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2112: Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 410-415. Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 185. _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202. A. Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, xiii, p. 341. P.

Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 176.]

[Footnote 2113: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 418. De La Fons-Melicocq, _Doc.u.ments inedits sur le siege de Compiegne_, in _La Picardie_, vol.

iii, 1857, pp. 22, 23. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol. ii, part i, p. 156.]

[Footnote 2114: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 419. P. Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 2115: Sorel, _La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, p. 343.]

The Lord Treasurer of Normandy raised aids to the amount of eighty thousand _livres tournois_, ten thousand of which were to be devoted to the purchase of Jeanne. The Count Bishop of Beauvais, who was taking this matter to heart, urged the Sire de Luxembourg to come to terms, mingled threats with coaxings, and caused the Norman gold to glitter before his eyes. He seemed to fear, and his fear was shared by the masters and doctors of the University, that King Charles would likewise make an offer, that he would promise more than King Henry's ten thousand golden francs and that in the end, by dint of costly gifts, the Armagnacs would succeed in winning back their fairy-G.o.dmother.[2116] The rumour ran that King Charles, hearing that the English were about to gain possession of Jeanne for a sum of money, sent an amba.s.sador to warn the Duke of Burgundy not on any account to consent to such an agreement, adding that if he did, the Burgundians in the hands of the King of France would be made to pay for the fate of the Maid.[2117] Doubtless the rumour was false; albeit the fears of the Lord Bishop and the masters of the Paris University were not entirely groundless; and it is certain that from the banks of the Loire the negotiations were being attentively followed with a view to intervention at a favourable moment.

[Footnote 2116: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 9. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 175.]

[Footnote 2117: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 236. U. Chevalier, _L'abjuration de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 18, note.]

Besides, some sudden descent of the French was always to be feared.

Captain La Hire was ravaging Normandy, the knight Barbazan, la Champagne, and Marshal de Boussac, the country between the Seine, the Marne and the Somme.[2118]

[Footnote 2118: Morosini, vol. iii, p. 276, note.]

At length, about the middle of November, the Sire de Luxembourg consented to the bargain; Jeanne was delivered up to the English. It was decided to take her to Rouen, through Ponthieu, along the sea-sh.o.r.e, through the north of Normandy, where there would be less risk of falling in with the scouts of the various parties.

From Arras she was taken to the Chateau of Drugy, where the monks of Saint-Riquier were said to have visited her in prison.[2119] She was afterwards taken to Crotoy, where the castle walls were washed by the ocean waves. The Duke of Alencon, whom she called her fair Duke, had been imprisoned there after the Battle of Verneuil.[2120] At the time of her arrival, Maitre Nicolas Gueuville, Chancellor of the Cathedral church of Notre Dame d'Amiens, was a prisoner in that castle in the hands of the English. He heard her confess and administered the Communion to her.[2121] And there on that vast Bay of the Somme, grey and monotonous, with its low sky traversed by sea-birds in their long flight, Jeanne beheld coming down to her the visitant of earlier days, the Archangel Saint Michael; and she was comforted. It was said that the damsels and burgesses of Abbeville went to see her in the castle where she was imprisoned.[2122] At the time of the coronation, these burgesses had thought of turning French; and they would have done so if King Charles had come to their town; he did not come; and perhaps it was through Christian charity that the folk of Abbeville visited Jeanne; but those among them who thought well of her did not say so, for fear they too should be suspected of heresy.[2123]

[Footnote 2119: Chronicle of Jean de la Chapelle, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 358-360. Lefils, _Histoire de la ville du Crotoy et de son chateau_, pp. 111-118. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La panique anglaise_, p.

8, note 5. L'Abbe Bouthors, _Histoire de Saint-Riquier_, Abbeville, 1902, pp. 185, 215, 220.]

[Footnote 2120: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 22, 137.]

[Footnote 2121: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 121. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, pp. 63 _et seq._; Lanery d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, p.

521.]

[Footnote 2122: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 89; vol. iii, p. 121. Le P. Ignace de Jesus Maria, _Histoire genealogique des comtes de Ponthieu et maeurs d'Abbeville_, Paris, 1657, p. 490. _Trial_, vol. v, p. 361.]

[Footnote 2123: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 353, 354. _Trial_, vol. v, p.

143.]

The doctors and masters of the University pursued her with a bitterness hardly credible. In November, after they had been informed of the conclusion of the bargain between Jean de Luxembourg and the English, they wrote through their rector to the Lord Bishop of Beauvais reproaching him for his delay in the matter of this woman and exhorting him to be more diligent.

"For you it is no slight matter, holding as you do so high an office in G.o.d's Church," ran this letter, "that the scandals committed against the Christian religion be stamped out, especially when such scandals arise within your actual jurisdiction."[2124]

[Footnote 2124: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 15, 16. M. Fournier, _La Faculte de decret et l'Universite de Paris_, vol. i, p. 353.]

Filled with faith and zeal for the avenging of G.o.d's honour, these clerks were, as they said, always ready to burn witches. They feared the devil; but, perchance, though they may not have admitted it even to themselves, they feared him twenty times more when he was Armagnac.

Jeanne was taken out of Crotoy at high tide and conveyed by boat to Saint-Valery, then to Dieppe, as is supposed, and certainly in the end to Rouen.[2125]

[Footnote 2125: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 21. Le P. Ignace de Jesus Maria, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 363. F. Poulaine, _Jeanne d'Arc a Rouen_, Paris, 1899, in 16mo. Ch. Lemire, _Jeanne d'Arc en Picardie et en Normandie_, Paris, 1903, p. 10, _pa.s.sim_. Lanery d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, pp. 524, 549.]

She was conducted to the old castle, built in the time of Philippe-Auguste on the slope of the Bouvreuil hill.[2126] King Henry VI, who had come to France for his coronation, had been there since the end of August. He was a sad, serious child, harshly treated by the Earl of Warwick, who was governor of the castle.[2127] The castle was strongly fortified;[2128] it had seven towers, including the keep.

Jeanne was placed in a tower looking on to the open country.[2129] Her room was on the middle storey, between the dungeon and the state apartment. Eight steps led up to it.[2130] It extended over the whole of that floor, which was forty-three feet across, including the walls.[2131] A stone staircase approached it at an angle. There was but a dim light, for some of the window slits had been filled in.[2132]

From a locksmith of Rouen, one etienne Castille, the English had ordered an iron cage, in which it was said to be impossible to stand upright. If the reports of the ecclesiastical registrars are to be believed, Jeanne was placed in it and chained by the neck, feet, and hands,[2133] and left there till the opening of the trial. At Jean Salvart's, at _l'ecu de France_, in front of the Official's courtyard,[2134] a mason's apprentice saw the cage weighed. But no one ever found Jeanne in it. If this treatment were inflicted on Jeanne, it was not invented for her; when Captain La Hire, in the February of this same year, 1430, took Chateau Gaillard, near Rouen, he found the good knight Barbazan in an iron cage, from which he would not come out, alleging that he was a prisoner on parole.[2135] Jeanne, on the contrary, had been careful to promise nothing, or rather she had promised to escape as soon as she could.[2136] Therefore the English, who believed that she had magical powers, mistrusted her greatly.[2137]

As she was being prosecuted by the Church, she ought to have been detained in an ecclesiastical prison,[2138] but the _G.o.dons_ were resolved to keep her in their custody. One among them said she was dear to them because they had paid dearly for her. On her feet they put shackles and round her waist a chain padlocked to a beam five or six feet long. At night this chain was carried over the foot of her bed and attached to the princ.i.p.al beam.[2139] In like manner, John Huss, in 1415, when he was delivered up to the Bishop of Constance and transferred to the fortress of Gottlieben, was chained night and day until he was taken to the stake.

[Footnote 2126: A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie au XV'e siecle_, Rouen, 1896, in 4to, ch. v.]

[Footnote 2127: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 136-137. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 198.]