Part 21 (2/2)
One no less great was worked by her on Perrot Chapon, of Saint-Sauveur, near Luzarches. For a month Perrot had been in bonds in an English prison, when he dedicated himself to Saint Catherine and fell asleep. He awoke, still bound, in his own house.
Generally she helped those who helped themselves. Such was the case of Jean Ducoudray, citizen of Saumur, a prisoner in the castle of Belleme in 1429. He commended his soul devoutly to Saint Catherine, then leapt forth, throttled the guard, climbed the ramparts, dropped the height of two lances, and went out a free man into the country.[463]
[Footnote 463: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _pa.s.sim_. G.
Launay, Article in _Bull. soc. archeol. du Vendomois_, 1880, vol. xix, pp. 23-25.]
Perhaps these miracles would have been less frequent had the English been in greater force in France; but their men were few: in Normandy they intrenched themselves in towns, abandoning the open country to soldiers of fortune who ranged the district and captured convoys, thus greatly promoting the intervention of Madame Saint Catherine.[464]
[Footnote 464: G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La guerre des partisans dans la Haute Normandie_ (1424-1429), in _Bibliotheque de l'ecole des Chartes_ (1893-1896).]
The prisoners, who had become her votaries and whom she had delivered, discharged their vows by making the pilgrimage to Fierbois. In her chapel there, they hung the cords and chains with which they had been bound, their armour, and sometimes, in special cases, the armour of the enemy.
This had been done nine months before Jeanne's coming to Fierbois by a certain knight, Jean du Chastel. He had escaped from the hands of a captain, who accused him of having committed treason thereby, alleging that du Chastel had given him his word of honour. Du Chastel on the other hand maintained that he had not sworn, and he challenged the captain to meet him in single combat. The issue of the combat proved right to be on the side of the French knight; for with the aid of Madame Saint Catherine he was victorious. In return he came to Fierbois to offer to his holy protectress the armour of the vanquished Englishman, in the presence of my Lord, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of Orleans, of Captain La Hire and several other n.o.bles.[465]
[Footnote 465: _Les miracles de Madame Sainte Katerine_, _pa.s.sim_.]
Jeanne must have delighted to hear tell of such miracles, or others like them, and to see so many weapons hanging from the chapel walls.
She must have been well pleased that the saint who visited her at all hours and gave her counsel should so manifestly appear the friend of poor soldiers and peasants cast into bonds, cages and pits, or hanged on trees by the _G.o.dons_.
She prayed in the chapel and heard two ma.s.ses.[466]
[Footnote 466: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 75.]
CHAPTER V
THE SIEGE OF ORLeANS FROM THE 12TH OF OCTOBER, 1428, TILL THE 6TH OF MARCH, 1429
Since the victory of Verneuil and the conquest of Maine, the English had advanced but little in France and their actual possessions there were becoming less and less secure.[467] If they spared the lands of the Duke of Orleans it was not on account of any scruple. Albeit on the banks of the Loire it was held dishonourable to seize the domains of a n.o.ble when he was a prisoner,[468] everything is fair in war. The Regent had not scrupled to seize the duchy of Alencon when its duke was a prisoner.[469] The truth is that by bribes and entreaties the good Duke Charles dissuaded the English from attacking his duchy. From 1424 until 1426 the citizens of Orleans purchased peace by money payments.[470] The _G.o.dons_, not being in a position to take the field, were all the more ready to enter into such agreements. During the minority of their half English and half French King, the Duke of Gloucester, the brother and deputy of the Regent, and his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of the Kingdom, were tearing out each other's hair, and their disputes were the occasion of bloodshed in the London streets.[471] Towards the end of the year 1425 the Regent returned to England, where he spent seventeen months reconciling uncle and nephew and restoring public peace. By dint of craft and vigour he succeeded so far as to render his fellow countrymen desirous and hopeful of completing the conquest of France. With that object, in 1428, the English Parliament voted subsidies.[472]
[Footnote 467: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 190. Alain Chartier, _L'esperance ou consolation des trois vertus_, in _Oeuvres_, p. 271. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 14.]
[Footnote 468: _Mistere du siege_, line 497.]
[Footnote 469: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 21, 22.]
[Footnote 470: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 255. _Chronique de l'etabliss.e.m.e.nt de la fete_ in the _Trial_, vol. v, p. 286. Le Maire, _Histoire et antiquites de la ville et d.u.c.h.e d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1645, in 4to, pp. 129 _et seq._ Lottin, _Recherches historiques sur la ville d'Orleans_, Orleans, 1836-1845 (7 vols. in 8vo), vol. i, p.
197.]
[Footnote 471: Joseph Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, Introduction, vol. i, p. xlvii. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
17.]
[Footnote 472: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. iv, part iv, p. 135.
Mademoiselle A. de Villaret, _Campagne des Anglais dans l'Orleanais, la Beauce chartraine et le Gatinais_ (1421-1428), Orleans, 1893, in 8vo, original doc.u.ments, p. 134. Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, vol.
i, pp. 403 _et seq._]
[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF ORLeANS, 1428-1429]
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