Part 15 (1/2)
Tenant-in-chief of the Castle on the island in 1419, and in 1423 elder of the community, Jacques d'Arc was one of the notables of Domremy.
The village folk held him in high esteem and readily entrusted him with difficult tasks. Towards the end of March, 1427, they sent him to Vaucouleurs as their authorised proxy in a lawsuit they were conducting before Robert de Baudricourt. It was a question of the payment of damages required at once from the lord and the inhabitants of Greux and Domremy by a certain Guyot Poignant, of Montigny-le-Roi.
These damages went back four years to when, as a return for his protection, the Damoiseau of Commercy had extorted from Greux and Domremy a sum amounting to two hundred and twenty golden crowns.
Guyot Poignant had become security for this sum which had not been paid by the time fixed. The Damoiseau seized Poignant's wood, hay, and horses to the value of one hundred and twenty golden crowns, which amount the said Poignant reclaimed from the n.o.bles and villeins of Greux and Domremy. The suit was still pending in 1427, when the community nominated Jacques d'Arc its authorised proxy, and sent him to Vaucouleurs. The result of the dispute is not known; but it is sufficient to note that Jeanne's father saw Sire Robert and had speech with him.[319]
[Footnote 319: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. cliv, clv, clvi, 97, 359 _et seq._; _La France pendant la guerre de cent ans_, p. 287.]
On his return home he must have more than once related these interviews, and told of the manners and words of so great a personage.
And doubtless Jeanne heard many of these things. a.s.suredly she must have p.r.i.c.ked up her ears at the name of Baudricourt. Then it was that her dazzling friend, the Archangel Knight, came once more to awaken the obscure thought slumbering within her: ”Daughter of G.o.d,” he said, ”go thou to the Captain Robert de Baudricourt, in the town of Vaucouleurs, that he may grant unto thee men who shall take thee to the gentle Dauphin.”[320]
[Footnote 320: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53.]
Resolved to obey faithfully the behest of the Archangel which accorded with her own desire, Jeanne foresaw that her mother, albeit pious, would grant her no aid in her design and that her father would strongly oppose it. Therefore she refrained from confiding it to them.[321]
[Footnote 321: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 128.]
She thought that Durand La.s.sois would be the man to give her the succour of which she had need. In consideration of his age she called him uncle,--he was her elder by sixteen years.
Their kins.h.i.+p was by marriage: La.s.sois had married one Jeanne, daughter of one Le Vauseul, husbandman, and of Aveline, sister of Isabelle de Vouthon, and consequently cousin-german of Isabelle's daughter.[322]
[Footnote 322: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 443. Boucher de Molandon, _La famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 146. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, introduction, pp. xxi, xxii.]
With his wife, his father-in-law, and his mother-in-law, La.s.sois dwelt at Burey-en-Vaulx, a hamlet of a few homesteads, lying on the left bank of the Meuse, in the green valley, five miles from Domremy, and less than two and a half miles from Vaucouleurs.[323]
[Footnote 323: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 411, 431, 439. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clxi. Hinzelin, _Chez Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 92.]
Jeanne went to see him, told him of her design, and showed him that she must needs see Sire Robert de Baudricourt. That her kind kinsman might the more readily believe in her, she repeated to him the strange prophecy, of which we have already made mention: ”Was it not known of old,” she said, ”that a woman should ruin the kingdom of France and that a woman should re-establish it?”[324]
[Footnote 324: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 443, 444.]
This prognostication, it appears, caused Durand La.s.sois to reflect.
Of the two facts foretold therein, the first, the evil one, had come to pa.s.s in the town of Troyes, when Madame Ysabeau had given the Kingdom of the Lilies and Madame Catherine of France to the King of England. It only remained to hope that the second, the good, would likewise come to pa.s.s. If in the heart of Durand La.s.sois there were any love for the Dauphin Charles, such must have been his desire; but on this point history is silent.
During this visit to her cousin, Jeanne met with others besides her kinsfolk, the Vouthons and their children. She visited a young n.o.bleman, by name Geoffroy de Foug, who dwelt in the parish of Maxey-sur-Vayse, of which the hamlet of Burey formed part. She confided to him that she wanted to go to France. My Lord Geoffroy did not know much of Jeanne's parents; he was ignorant even of their names. But the damsel seemed to him good, simple, pious, and he encouraged her in her marvellous undertaking.[325] A week after her arrival at Burey she attained her object: Durand La.s.sois consented to take her to Vaucouleurs.[326]
[Footnote 325: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 442.]
[Footnote 326: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 53, 221; vol. ii, p. 443.]
Before starting she asked a favour from her aunt Aveline who was with child; she said to her: ”If the babe you bear is a daughter, call her Catherine in memory of my dead sister.”
Catherine, who had married Colin de Greux, had just died.[327]
[Footnote 327: Genealogical Inquiry made by the Bailie of Chaumont concerning Jehan Royer (8 October, 1555) in E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches sur la famille de Jeanne d'Arc_, p. 62.
[Doc.u.ment of doubtful authenticity.]]
CHAPTER III