Part 21 (1/2)

These rude comrades did not all preserve an att.i.tude of religious respect in her presence. Certain mocked her and diverted themselves by talking before her as if they belonged to the English party.

Sometimes, as a joke, they got up a false alarm and pretended to turn back. Their jests were wasted. She believed them, but she was not afraid, and would say gravely to those who thought to frighten her with the English: ”Be sure not to flee. I tell you in G.o.d's name, they will not harm you.”[452]

[Footnote 452: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 199.]

Ever at the approach of danger whether real or feigned, there came to her lips the words of encouragement: ”Do not be afraid. You will see how graciously the fair Dauphin will look upon us when we come to Chinon.”[453]

[Footnote 453: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 458.]

Her greatest grief was that she could not pray in church as often as she would like. Every day she repeated: ”If we could, we should do well to hear ma.s.s.”[454]

[Footnote 454: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 438.]

As they avoided high roads they were not often in the way of bridges; and they were frequently forced to ford rivers in flood. They crossed the Aube, near Bar-sur-Aube, the Seine near Bar-sur-Seine, the Yonne opposite Auxerre, where Jeanne heard ma.s.s in the church of Saint-Etienne; then they reached the town of Gien, on the right bank of the Loire.[455]

[Footnote 455: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 54; vol. ii, p. 437.]

At length these Lorrainers beheld a French town loyal to the King of France. They had travelled seventy-five leagues through the enemy's country without being attacked or molested. Afterwards this was considered miraculous. But was it impossible for seven or eight Armagnac hors.e.m.e.n to traverse English and Burgundian lands without misadventure? The Commander of Vaucouleurs frequently sent letters to the Dauphin which reached him, and the Dauphin was in the habit of despatching messengers to the Commander; Colet de Vienne had just borne his message.[456]

[Footnote 456: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 406, 432, 445, 448, 457.]

In point of fact the followers of the Dauphin ran risks well nigh as great in the provinces under his sway as in lands subject to other masters.[457]

[Footnote 457: Monstrelet, vol. v, p. 269. Th. Basin, vol. i, p. 44.

Bueil, _Le jouvencel_, introduction. Royal Pardons, in E. Boutaric, _Inst.i.tutions militaires de la France avant les armees permanentes...._ 1863, in 8vo, p. 266. _Recit du prieur de Droillet_, ed. Quicherat, in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, fourth series, vol. iii, p.

359. Mantellier, _Histoire de la communaute des marchands frequentant la riviere de Loire_, vol. i, p. 195. Le P. H. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises, monasteres, hopitaux en France, vers le milieu du XV'e siecle_, Macon, in 8vo.]

Freebooters in the pay of King Charles, when they pillaged travellers and held them to ransom, did not stay to ask whether they were Armagnacs or Burgundians. Indeed, it was after their pa.s.sage of the Loire that Bertrand de Poulengy and his companions found themselves exposed to the greatest danger.

Informed of their approach, certain men-at-arms of the French party went before and lay in ambush, waiting to surprise them. They intended to capture the damsel, cast her into a pit, and keep her there beneath a great stone, in the hope that the King who had sent for her would give a large sum for her rescue.[458] It was the custom for freebooters and mercenaries thus to cast travellers into pits delivering them on payment of ransom. Eighteen years before, at Corbeil, five men had been kept in a pit on bread and water by Burgundians. Three of them died, being unable to pay the ransom.[459]

Such a fate very nearly befell Jeanne. But the wretches who were lying in wait for her, at the moment when they should have struck did nothing, wherefore is unknown, perhaps because they were afraid of not being the stronger.[460]

[Footnote 458: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203.]

[Footnote 459: Abbe J.-J. Boura.s.se, _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine de Fierboys en Touraine, d'apres un ma.n.u.scrit de la Bibliotheque Imperiale_, Paris, in 12mo, 1858, p. 28.]

[Footnote 460: I have here interwoven the account given by Seguin, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 203, with that of Touroulde, _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 86, 87. It seems to me the same incident reported summarily by the former, inexactly by the latter.]

From Gien, the little company followed the northern boundary of the duchy of Berry, crossed into Blesois, possibly pa.s.sed through Selles-sur-Cher and Saint-Aignan, then, having entered Touraine, reached the green slopes of Fierbois.[461] There one of the two heavenly ladies, who daily discoursed familiarly with the peasant girl, had her most famous sanctuary; there it was that Saint Catherine received mult.i.tudes of pilgrims and worked great miracles. According to popular belief the origin of her wors.h.i.+p in this place was warlike and national and dated back to the beginning of French history. It was known that after his victory over the Saracens at Poitiers Charles Martel had placed his sword in the oratory of the Blessed Catherine.[462] But it must be admitted that since then the sanctuary had long suffered from desertion and neglect. Rather more than forty years before the coming of the damsel from Domremy, its walls in the depths of a wood were overrun by briers and brambles.

[Footnote 461: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 56, 75; vol. iii, pp. 3, 21; vol.

v, p. 378.]

[Footnote 462: That Saint Catherine was known in the west shortly before the Crusades is possible, but not that her wors.h.i.+p should date back to Charles Martel; at any rate it flourished in the days of Jeanne d'Arc. _Cf._ H. Moranville, _Un pelerinage en Terre sainte et au Sinai au XV'e siecle_, in the _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_, vol. lxvi (1905), pp. 70 _et seq._]

In those days it was not uncommon for saints of both s.e.xes, if they had suffered from some unjust neglect, to come and complain to some pious person of the wrong being done them on earth. They appeared possibly to a monk, to a peasant or a citizen, denounced the impiety of the faithful in terms urgent and sometimes violent, and commanded him to reinstate their wors.h.i.+p and restore their sanctuary. And this is what Madame Saint Catherine did. In the year 1375 she entrusted a knight of the neighbourhood of Fierbois, one Jean G.o.defroy, who was blind and paralysed, with the restoration of her oratory to its old brilliance and fame, promising to cure him if he would pray for nine days in the place where Charles Martel had put his sword. Jean G.o.defroy had himself carried to the deserted chapel, but beforehand his servants must perforce hew a way through the thicket with their axes. Madame Saint Catherine restored to Jean G.o.defroy the use of his eyes and his limbs, and it was by this benefit that she recalled to the people of Touraine the glory they had slighted. The oratory was repaired; the faithful again wended their way thither, and miracles abounded. At first the saint healed the sick; then, when the land was ravaged by war, it was her office more especially to deliver from the hands of the English such prisoners as had recourse to her. Sometimes she rendered captives invisible to their guards; sometimes she broke bonds, chains, and locks; to wit, those of a n.o.bleman by name Cazin du Boys, who in 1418 was taken with the garrison of Beaumont-sur-Oise.

Locked in an iron cage, bound with a strong rope on which slept a Burgundian, he thought on Madame Saint Catherine, and dedicated himself to this glorious virgin. Immediately the cage was opened.

Sometimes she even constrained the English to unchain their prisoners themselves and set them free without ransom. That was a great miracle.