Part 74 (2/2)

[Footnote 1700: _Ibid._, vol. i, pp. 245, 246.]

Jeanne before she made this reply can have consulted neither the good Brother Pasquerel nor the good Friar Richard nor indeed any of the churchmen of her company. They would have told her that the true pope was the Pope of Rome, Martin V. They might also have represented to her that she was belittling the authority of the Church by appealing to a revelation from G.o.d concerning popes and anti-popes. Sometimes, they would have told her, G.o.d confides the secrets of his Church to holy persons. But it would be rash to count upon so rare a privilege.

Jeanne exchanged a few words with the messenger who had brought her the missive; but the interview was brief. The messenger was not safe in the town, not that the soldiers would have made him pay for his master's crimes and treasons; but the Sire de la Tremouille was at Compiegne; and he knew that Count Jean, who for the nonce was in alliance with the Constable De Richemont, was meditating something against him. La Tremouille was not so malevolent as the Count of Armagnac: and yet the poor messenger only narrowly escaped being thrown into the Oise.[1701]

[Footnote 1701: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 83.]

On the morrow, Tuesday the 23rd of August, the Maid and the Duke of Alencon took leave of the King and set out from Compiegne with a goodly company of fighting men. Before marching on Saint-Denys in France, they went to Senlis to collect a company of men-at-arms whom the King had sent there.[1702] As was her custom, the Maid rode surrounded by monks. Friar Richard, who predicted the approaching end of the world, had joined the procession. It would seem that he had superseded the others, even Brother Pasquerel, the chaplain. It was to him that the Maid confessed beneath the walls of Senlis. In that same spot, with the Dukes of Clermont and Alencon,[1703] she took the communion on two consecutive days. She must have been in the hands of monks who were in the habit of making a very frequent use of the Eucharist.

[Footnote 1702: Perceval de Cagny, p. 165. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 331. Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 106. Morosini, vol.

iii, pp. 212, 213. The accounts of Hemon Raguier, in the _Trial_, vol.

iv, p. 24.]

[Footnote 1703: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 450.]

The Lord Bishop of Senlis was Jean Fouquerel. Hitherto, he had been on the side of the English and entirely devoted to the Lord Bishop of Beauvais. On the approach of the royal army, Jean Fouquerel, who was a cautious person, had gone off to Paris to hide a large sum of money.

He was careful of his possessions. Some one in the army took his nag and gave it to the Maid. By means of a draft on the receiver of taxes and the _gabelle_ officer of the town, two hundred golden _saluts_[1704] were paid for it. The Lord Bishop did not approve of this transaction and demanded his hackney. Hearing of his displeasure, the Maid caused a letter to be written to him, saying that he might have back his nag if he liked; she did not want it for she found it not sufficiently hardy for men-at-arms. The horse was sent to the Sire de La Tremouille with a request that he would deliver it to the Lord Bishop, who never received it.[1705]

[Footnote 1704: So called because stamped with the picture of the Annunciation and bearing the inscription: _Salus populi suprema lex est_; the coin was worth about 1 of our money (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1705: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 104. Extracts from the 13th account of Hemon Raguier, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 267. E. Dupuis, _Jean Fouquerel, eveque de Senlis_, in _Memoires du comite archeologique de Senlis_, 1875, vol. i, p. 93. Vatin, _Combat sous Senlis entre Charles VII et les Anglais_, in _Comite archeologique de Senlis, Comptes rendus et memoires_, 1866, pp. 41, 54.]

As for the bill on the tax receiver and _gabelle_ officer, it may have been worthless; and probably the Reverend Father in G.o.d, Jean Fouquerel, never had either horse or money. Jeanne was not at fault, and yet the Lord Bishop of Beauvais and the clerks of the university were shortly to bring home to her the gravity of the sacrilege of laying hands on an ecclesiastical hackney.[1706]

[Footnote 1706: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 264.]

To the north of Paris, about five miles distant from the great city, there rose the towers of Saint-Denys. On the 26th of August, the army of the Duke of Alencon arrived there, and entered without resistance, albeit the town was strongly fortified.[1707] The place was famous for its ill.u.s.trious abbey very rich and very ancient. The following is the story of its foundation.

[Footnote 1707: Perceval de Cagny, p. 165. The 25th according to _Le journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 243.]

Dagobert, King of the French, had from childhood been a devout wors.h.i.+pper of Saint Denys. And whenever he trembled before the ire of King Clotaire his father, he would take refuge in the church of the holy martyr. When he died, a pious man dreamed that he saw Dagobert summoned before the tribunal of G.o.d; a great number of saints accused him of having despoiled their churches; and the demons were about to drag him into h.e.l.l when Saint Denys appeared; and by his intercession, the soul of the King was delivered and escaped punishment. The story was held to be true, and it was thought that the King's soul returned to animate his body and that he did penance.[1708]

[Footnote 1708: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys en France, contenant les antiquites d'icelle, les fondations, prerogatives et privileges_, Paris, 1625, 2 vol. in 4to, vol. i, ch.

xx and xxiv. Des Rues, _Les antiquites, fondations et singularites des plus celebres villes_, pp. 84, 85.]

When the Maid with the army occupied Saint-Denys, the three porches, the embattled parapets, the tower of the Abbey Church, erected by the Abbot Suger, were already three centuries old. There were buried the kings of France; and thither they came to take the _oriflamme_.

Fourteen years earlier the late King Charles had fetched it forth, but since then none had borne it.[1709]

[Footnote 1709: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, vol.

i, ch. x.x.xi, x.x.xiv.]

Many were the wonders told touching this royal standard. And with some of those marvels the Maid must needs have been acquainted, since on her coming into France, she was said to have given the Dauphin Charles the surname of _oriflamme_,[1710] as a pledge and promise of victory.[1711] At Saint-Denys was preserved the heart of the Constable Du Guesclin.[1712] Jeanne had heard of his high renown; she had proffered wine to Madame de Laval's eldest son; and to his grandmother, who had been Sire Bertrand's second wife, she had sent a little ring of gold, out of respect for the widow of so valiant a man,[1713] asking her to forgive the poverty of the gift.

[Footnote 1710: Cf. vol. i, p. 182 (W.S.).]

[Footnote 1711: Thoma.s.sin, _Registre Delphinal_, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304. See Du Cange, _Glossaire_ under the word _Auriflamme_.]

[Footnote 1712: J. Doublet, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Saint-Denys_, vol.

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