Part 17 (2/2)

[Footnote 377: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 456.]

Towards the middle of January occurred the opportunity she was looking for of returning to Burey. At this time Durand La.s.sois' wife, Jeanne le Vauseul, was brought to bed.[378] It was the custom in the country for the young kinswomen and friends of the mother to attend and wait upon her and her babe. A good and kindly custom, followed all the more readily because of the opportunity it gave of pleasant meetings and cheerful gossip.[379] Jeanne urged her uncle to ask her father that she might be sent to tend the sick woman, and La.s.sois consented: he was always ready to do what his niece asked him, and perhaps his complaisance was encouraged by pious persons of some importance.[380]

But how this father, who shortly before had said that he would throw his daughter into the Meuse rather than that she should go off with men-at-arms, should have allowed her to go to the gates of the town, protected by a kinsman of whose weakness he was well aware, is hard to understand. However so he did.[381]

[Footnote 378: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 428, 434. S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, p. clx.x.x. E. de Bouteiller and G. de Braux, _Nouvelles recherches_, p. xxiii.]

[Footnote 379: _Les caquets de l'accouchee_, new edition by E.

Fournier and Le Roux de Lincy, Paris, 1855, in 16mo, introduction.]

[Footnote 380: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 53; vol. ii, p. 443.]

[Footnote 381: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 428, 430, 434.]

Leaving the home of her childhood, which she was never to see again, Jeanne, in company with Durand La.s.sois, pa.s.sed down her native valley in its winter bareness. As she went by the house of the husbandman Gerard Guillemette of Greux, whose children and Jacques d'Arc's were great friends, she cried: ”Good-bye! I am going to Vaucouleurs.”[382]

[Footnote 382: _Ibid._, p. 416.]

A few paces further she saw her friend Mengette: ”Good-bye, Mengette,”

she said. ”G.o.d bless thee.”[383]

[Footnote 383: _Ibid._, p. 431.]

And by the way, on the doorsteps of the houses, whenever she saw faces she knew, she bade them farewell.[384] But she avoided Hauviette with whom she had played and slept in childhood and whom she dearly loved.

If she were to bid her good-bye she feared that her heart would fail her. It was not till later that Hauviette heard of her friend's departure and then she wept bitterly.[385]

[Footnote 384: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 418.]

[Footnote 385: _Ibid._, p. 419: _dixit quod nescivit recessum dictae Johannae; quae testis propter hoc multum flebat, quia eam multum propter suam bonitatem diligebat et quod sua socia erat_.]

On her second arrival at Vaucouleurs, Jeanne imagined that she was setting foot in a town belonging to the Dauphin, and, in the language of the day, entering the royal antechamber.[386] She was mistaken.

Since the beginning of August, 1428, the Commander of Vaucouleurs had yielded the fortress to Antoine de Vergy, but had not yet surrendered it to him.

[Footnote 386: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 436.]

It was one of those promises to capitulate at the end of a given time.

They were not uncommon in those days, and they ceased to be valid if the fortress were relieved before the day fixed for its surrender.[387]

[Footnote 387: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_, pp. clxviii, 222, 234.]

Jeanne went to Sire Robert in his castle just as she had done nine months before; and this was the revelation she made to him: ”My Lord Captain,” she said, ”know that G.o.d has again given me to wit, and commanded me many times to go to the gentle Dauphin, who must be and who is the true King of France, and that he shall grant me men-at-arms with whom I shall raise the siege of Orleans and take him to his anointing at Reims.”[388]

[Footnote 388: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 273; _La Chronique de Lorraine_ in Dom Calmet, _Histoire de Lorraine_, vol. iii, col. vj, gives an amplified version of these words, the authenticity of which is doubtful.]

This time she announces that it is her mission to deliver Orleans. And the anointing is not to come to pa.s.s until this the first part of her task shall have been accomplished. We cannot fail to recognise the readiness and the tact with which the Voices altered their commands previously given, according to the necessities of the moment. Robert's manner towards Jeanne had completely changed. He said nothing about boxing her ears and sending her back to her parents. He no longer treated her roughly; and if he did not believe her announcement at least he listened to it readily.

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