Part 48 (2/2)
[Footnote 1144: _Ibid._, p. 99 (evidence of the Duke of Alencon).]
[Footnote 1145: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12. _Journal du siege_, p. 93.
_Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 299.]
The King looked graciously upon her but answered nothing. The Lord d'Harcourt, having heard that the Maid held converse with angels and saints, was curious to know whether the idea of taking the King to Reims had really been suggested to her by her heavenly visitants.
Describing them by the word she herself used, he asked: ”Is it your Council who speak to you of such things?”
She replied: ”Yes, in this matter I am urged forward.” Straightway my Lord d'Harcourt responded: ”Will you not here in the King's presence tell us the manner of your Council when they speak to you?”
At this request Jeanne blushed.
Willing to spare her constraint and embarra.s.sment, the King said kindly: ”Jeanne, does it please you to answer this question before these persons here present?”
But Jeanne addressing my Lord d'Harcourt said: ”I understand what you desire to know and I will tell you willingly.”
And straightway she gave the King to understand what agony she endured at not being understood and she told of her inward consolation: ”Whenever I am sad because what I say by command of Messire is not readily believed, I go apart and to Messire I make known my complaint, saying that those to whom I speak are not willing to believe me. And when I have finished my prayer, straightway I hear a voice saying unto me: 'Daughter of G.o.d, go, I will be thy help.' And this voice fills me with so great a joy, that in this condition I would forever stay.”[1146]
[Footnote 1146: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 12 (evidence of Dunois).]
While she was repeating the words spoken by the Voice, Jeanne raised her eyes to heaven. The n.o.bles present were struck by the divine expression on the maiden's face. But those eyes bathed in tears, that air of rapture, which filled my Lord the b.a.s.t.a.r.d with amazement, was not an ecstasy, it was the imitation of an ecstasy.[1147] The scene was at once simple and artificial. It reveals the kindness of the King, who was incapable of wounding the child in any way, and the light-heartedness with which the n.o.bles of the court believed or pretended to believe in the most wonderful marvels. It proves likewise that henceforth the little Saint's dignifying the project of the coronation with the authority of a divine revelation was favourably regarded by the Royal Council.
[Footnote 1147: _Ibid._, p. 12.]
The Maid accompanied the King to Loches and stayed with him until after the 23rd of May.[1148]
[Footnote 1148: _Ibid._, p. 116, vol. iv, p. 245.]
The people believed in her. As she pa.s.sed through the streets of Loches they threw themselves before her horse; they kissed the Saint's hands and feet. Maitre Pierre de Versailles, a monk of Saint-Denys in France, one of her interrogators at Poitiers, seeing her receive these marks of veneration, rebuked her on theological grounds: ”You do wrong,” he said, ”to suffer such things to which you are not ent.i.tled.
Take heed: you are leading men into idolatry.”
Then Jeanne, reflecting on the pride which might creep into her heart, said: ”In truth I could not keep from it, were not Messire watching over me.”[1149]
[Footnote 1149: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 84.]
She was displeased to see certain old wives coming to salute her; that was a kind of adoration which alarmed her. But poor folk who came to her she never repulsed. She would not hurt them, but aided them as far as she could.[1150]
[Footnote 1150: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 102.]
With marvellous rapidity the fame of her holiness had been spread abroad throughout the whole of France. Many pious persons were wearing medals of lead or some other metal, stamped with her portrait, according to the customary mode of honouring the memory of saints.[1151] Paintings or sculptured figures of her were placed in chapels. At ma.s.s the priest recited as a collect ”the Maid's prayer for the realm of France:”
[Footnote 1151: _Ibid._, pp. 290, 291. A. Forgeais, _Collection de plombs histories trouves dans la Seine_, Paris, 1869 (5 vol. in 8vo), vol. ii, iv, and _pa.s.sim_. Vallet de Viriville, _Notes sur deux medailles de plomb relatives a Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1861, in 8vo, 30 p. [Taken from _La revue archeologique_] N. Valois, _Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 8, 13. Cf. Appendix iv.]
”O G.o.d, author of peace, who without bow or arrow dost destroy those enemies who hope in themselves,[1152] we beseech thee O Lord, to protect us in our adversity; and, as Thou hast delivered Thy people by the hand of a woman, to stretch out to Charles our King, Thy conquering arm, that our enemies, who make their boast in mult.i.tudes and glory in bows and arrows, may be overcome by him at this present, and vouchsafe that at the end of his days he with his people may appear gloriously before Thee who art the way, the truth and the life. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, etc.”[1153]
[Footnote 1152: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. I read _in se sperantes_.]
[Footnote 1153: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 104. Lanery d'Arc, _Le culte de Jeanne d'Arc au XV'e siecle_, 1886, in 8vo.]
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