Part 49 (2/2)
[Footnote 1167: _Ibid._, p. 130.]
[Footnote 1168: _Ibid._, p. 186.]
Saint Michael the Archangel did not come alone. There accompanied him angels so numerous and so tiny that they danced like sparks in the damsel's dazzled eyes. When the saints and the Archangel went away, she wept with grief because they had not taken her with them.[1169] In like manner an angel visited Judith in the camp of Holofernes.
[Footnote 1169: _Ibid._, pp. 72, 75.]
One day Jeanne's equerry, Jean d'Aulon, asked her what her Council was, just as my Lord d'Harcourt had done. She replied that she had three councillors, one of whom was always with her. Another was constantly going and coming; the third was the one with whom the other two deliberated.
Sire d'Aulon, more curious than the King, besought and requested her to let him see this Council for once.
She replied: ”Your virtues are not great enough and you are not worthy to behold it.”[1170]
[Footnote 1170: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 219, 220.]
The good squire never asked again. If he had read the Bible he would have known that Elisha's servant did not see the angels beheld by the prophet (2 Kings VI, 16, 17).
And yet Jeanne imagined that her Council had appeared to the King and his court.
”My King,” she said later, ”my King and many besides saw and heard the Voices that came to me. The Count of Clermont and two or three others were with him.”[1171]
[Footnote 1171: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 57.]
She believed it was so. But in reality she never showed her Voices to anyone. Not even, despite what has been said to the contrary, to that Guy de Cailly who had been following her since Checy.[1172]
[Footnote 1172: _Ibid._, vol. v, p. 342. Guy de Cailly's patent of n.o.bility cannot be regarded as authentic. Vallet de Viriville, _Pet.i.t traite...._ p. 92.]
With Brother Pasquerel Jeanne engaged in pious conversation. To him she often expressed the desire that the Church after her death should pray for her and for all the French slain in the war.
”If I were to depart from this world,” she used to say to him, ”I should like the King to build chantries, where prayers should be offered to Messire for the salvation of the souls of those who died in war or for the defence of the realm.”[1173]
[Footnote 1173: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 112.]
Such a wish was common to all devout souls. What Christian in those days did not hold the practice of saying ma.s.ses for the dead to be good and salutary? Thus, in the matter of devotion, the Maid was in accord with Duke Charles of Orleans, who, in one of his complaints, recommends the saying and singing of ma.s.ses for the souls of those who had suffered violent death in the service of the realm.[1174]
[Footnote 1174: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 112. _Poesies de Charles d'Orleans_, ed. A. Champollion-Figeac, p. 174.]
She said one day to the good brother: ”There is succour that I am appointed to bring.”
And Pasquerel, albeit he had studied the Bible, cried out in amazement: ”Such a history as yours there hath never been before in the world. Nought like unto it can be read in any book.”
Jeanne answered him even more boldly than the doctors at Poitiers: ”Messire has a book in which no clerk, however perfect his learning, has ever read.”[1175]
[Footnote 1175: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 108, 109.]
She had received her mission from G.o.d alone, and she read in a book sealed against all the doctors of the Church.
On the reverse of her standard, sprinkled by mendicants with holy water, she had had a dove painted, holding in its beak a scroll, whereon were written the words ”in the name of the King of Heaven.”[1176] These were the armorial bearings she had received from her Council. The emblem and the device seemed appropriate to her, since she proclaimed that G.o.d had sent her, and since at Orleans she had given the sign promised at Poitiers. The King, notwithstanding, changed this s.h.i.+eld for arms representing a crown supported upon a sword between two flowers-de-luce and indicating clearly what was the aid that the Maid of G.o.d was bringing to the realm of France. It is said that she regretted having to abandon the arms communicated to her by divine revelation.[1177]
[Footnote 1176: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 78, 117, 182.]
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