Part 8 (1/2)

[Footnote 157: The order of the births of Jacques d'Arc's children is extremely doubtful (_Trial_, index, under the word _Arc_).]

Jacques d'Arc's house was on the verge of the precincts of the parish church, dedicated to Saint Remi, the apostle of Gaul.[158] There was only the graveyard to cross when the child was carried to the font. It is said that in those days and in that country the form of exorcism p.r.o.nounced by the priest during the baptismal ceremony was much longer for girls than for boys.[159] We do not know whether Messire Jean Minet,[160] the parish priest, p.r.o.nounced it over the child in all its literal fulness, but we notice the custom as one of the numerous signs of the Church's invincible mistrust of woman.

[Footnote 158: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 393, _pa.s.sim_. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, vol. xvi, p. 357.]

[Footnote 159: A. Monteil, _Histoire des Francais_, 1853, in 18mo, vol. ii, p. 194.]

[Footnote 160: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 46. Jean Minet was a native of Neufchateau.]

According to the custom then prevailing the child had several G.o.dfathers and G.o.dmothers.[161] The men-gossips were Jean Morel, of Greux,[162] husbandman; Jean Barrey, of Neufchateau; Jean Le Langart or Lingui, and Jean Rainguesson; the women, Jeannette, wife of Thevenin le Royer, called Roze, of Domremy; Beatrix, wife of Estellin,[163] husbandman in the same village; Edite, wife of Jean Barrey; Jeanne, wife of Aubrit, called Jannet and described as Maire Aubrit when he was appointed secretary to the lords of Bourlemont; Jeannette, wife of Thiesselin de Vittel, a scholar of Neufchateau. She was the most learned of all, for she had heard stories read out of books. Among the G.o.dmothers there are mentioned also the wife of Nicolas d'Arc, Jacques' brother, and two obscure Christians, one called Agnes, the other Sibylle.[164] Here, as in every group of good Catholics, we have a number of Jeans, Jeannes, and Jeannettes. St.

John the Baptist was a saint of high repute; his festival, kept on the 24th of June, was a red-letter day in the calendar, both civil and religious; it marked the customary date for leases, hirings, and contracts of all kinds. In the opinion of certain ecclesiastics, especially of the mendicant orders, St. John the Evangelist, whose head had rested on the Saviour's breast and who was to return to earth when the ages should have run their course, was the greatest saint in Paradise.[165] Wherefore, in honour of the Precursor of the Saviour or of his best beloved disciple, when babes were baptised the name Jean or Jeanne was frequently preferred to all others. To render these holy names more in keeping with the helplessness of childhood and the humble destiny awaiting most of us, they were given the diminutive forms of Jeannot and Jeannette. On the banks of the Meuse the peasants had a particular liking for these diminutives at once unpretentious and affectionate: Jacquot, Pierrollot, Zabillet, Mengette, Guillemette.[166] After the wife of the scholar, Thiesselin, the child was named Jeannette. That was the name by which she was known in the village. Later, in France, she was called Jeanne.[167]

[Footnote 161: J. Corblet, _Parrains et marraines_, in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 1881, vol. xiv, pp. 336 _et seq._]

[Footnote 162: Simeon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, proofs and ill.u.s.trations, li, p. 98.]

[Footnote 163: _Ibid._, p. clxxix, note.]

[Footnote 164: Cf. _Trial_, index, under _parrains_ and _marraines_.

It is not always possible to a.s.sign to these personages the names they bore and the position they occupied at the exact date when they are introduced.]

[Footnote 165: _Relation du greffier de La Roch.e.l.le_, in the _Revue Historique_, vol. iv, p. 342. Cf. Eustache Deschamps, ballad 354, vol.

iii, p. 83, ed. Queux de Saint Hilaire.]

[Footnote 166: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 74-388; vol. v, pp. 151, 220, _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 167: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 46. Henri Lepage, _Jeanne d'Arc est-elle Lorraine?_ Nancy, 1852, pp. 57-79.]

She was brought up in her father's house, in Jacques' poor dwelling.[168] In the front there were two windows admitting but a scanty light. The stone roof forming one side of a gable on the garden side sloped almost to the ground. Close by the door, as was usual in that country, were the dung-heap, a pile of firewood, and the farm tools covered with rust and mud. But the humble enclosure, which served as orchard and kitchen-garden, in the spring bloomed in a wealth of pink and white flowers.[169]

[Footnote 168: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 244 _et seq._ Jacques d'Arc's house doubtless looked on to the road; the Du Lys, or rather the Thiesselins, pulled it down and erected in its place a house no longer existing. The s.h.i.+elds which ornamented its facade have been placed upon the door of the building now shown as Jeanne's house. What is represented as Jeanne's room is the bakehouse (e. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 74). See an article by Henri Arsac in _L'echo de l'Est_, 26 July, 1890. A whole literature has been written on this subject (Lanery d'Arc, _Livre d'or_, pp. 330 _et seq._).]

[Footnote 169: emile Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, _pa.s.sim_.]

These good Christians had one more child, the youngest, Pierre, who was called Pierrelot.[170]

[Footnote 170: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 151, 220.]

Fed on light wine and brown bread, hardened by a hard life, Jeanne grew up in an unfruitful land, among people who were rough and sober.

She lived in perfect liberty. Among hard-working peasants the children are left to themselves. Isabelle's daughter seems to have got on well with the village children.

A little neighbour, Hauviette, three or four years younger than she, was her daily companion. They liked to sleep together in the same bed.[171] Mengette, whose parents lived close by, used to come and spin at Jacques d'Arc's house. She helped Jeanne with her household duties.[172] Taking her distaff with her, Jeanne used often to go and pa.s.s the evening at Saint-Amance, at the house of a husbandman Jacquier, who had a young daughter.[173] Boys and girls grew up as a matter of course side by side. Being neighbours, Jeanne and Simonin Musnier's son were brought up together. When Musnier's son was still a child he fell ill, and Jeanne nursed him.[174]

[Footnote 171: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 417: ”_Jacuit amorose in domo patris sui._”]

[Footnote 172: _Ibid._, p. 429.]

[Footnote 173: _Ibid._, p. 408.]

[Footnote 174: _Ibid._, p. 423.]