Part 79 (2/2)
[Footnote 1827: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 87. Lanery d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, pp. 73, 74.]
Among other matters, Jeanne told of her visit to the old Duke of Lorraine, and how she had rebuked him for his evil life; she spoke likewise of the interrogatory to which the doctors of Poitiers had subjected her.[1828] She was persuaded that these clerks had questioned her with extreme severity, and she firmly believed that she had triumphed over their ill-will. Alas! she was soon to know clerks even less accommodating.
[Footnote 1828: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 86, 87.]
Mistress Marguerite said to her one day: ”If you are not afraid when you fight, it is because you know you will not be killed.” Whereupon Jeanne answered: ”I am no surer of that than are the other combatants.”
Oftentimes women came to the Bouligny house, bringing paternosters and other trifling objects of devotion for the Maid to touch.
Jeanne used to say laughingly to her hostess: ”Touch them yourself.
Your touch will do them as much good as mine.”[1829]
[Footnote 1829: _Ibid._, pp. 86, 88.]
This ready repartee must have shown Mistress Marguerite that Jeanne, ignorant as she may have been, was none the less capable of displaying a good grace and common sense in her conversation.
While in many matters this good woman found the Maid but a simple creature, in military affairs she deemed her an expert. Whether, when she judged the saintly damsel's skill in wielding arms, she was giving her own opinion or merely speaking from hearsay, as would seem probable, she at any rate declared later that Jeanne rode a horse and handled a lance as well as the best of knights and so well that the army marvelled.[1830] Indeed most captains in those days could do no better.
[Footnote 1830: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 88.]
Probably there were dice and dice-boxes in the Bouligny house, otherwise Jeanne would have had no opportunity of displaying that horror of gaming which struck her hostess. On this matter Jeanne agreed with her comrade, Friar Richard, and indeed with everyone else of good life and good doctrine.[1831]
[Footnote 1831: _Ibid._, p. 87.]
What money she had Jeanne distributed in alms. ”I am come to succour the poor and needy,” she used to say.[1832]
[Footnote 1832: _Ibid._, pp. 87, 88.]
When the mult.i.tude heard such words they were led to believe that this Maid of G.o.d had been raised up for something more than the glorification of the Lilies, and that she was come to dispel such ills as murder, pillage and other sins grievous to G.o.d, from which the realm was suffering. Mystic souls looked to her for the reform of the Church and the reign of Jesus Christ on earth. She was invoked as a saint, and throughout the loyal provinces were to be seen carved and painted images of her which were wors.h.i.+pped by the faithful. Thus, even during her lifetime, she enjoyed certain of the privileges of beatification.[1833]
[Footnote 1833: Noel Valois, _Un nouveau temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, in _Annuaire bulletin de la Societe de l'Histoire de France_, Paris, 1907, in 8vo, pp. 8 and 18 (separate issue).]
North of the Seine meanwhile, English and Burgundians were at their old work. The Duke of Vendome and his company fell back on Senlis, the English descended on the town of Saint-Denys and sacked it once more.
In the Abbey Church they found and carried off the Maid's armour, thus, according to the French clergy, committing undeniable sacrilege and for this reason: because they gave the monks of the Abbey nothing in exchange.
The King was then at Mehun-sur-Yevre, quite close to Bourges, in one of the finest chateaux in the world, rising on a rock and overlooking the town. The late Duke Jean of Berry, a great builder, had erected this chateau with the care that he never failed to exercise in matters of art. Mehun was King Charles's favourite abode.[1834]
[Footnote 1834: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p. 265. A. Buhot de Kersers, _Histoire et statistique du departement du Cher, canton de Mehun_, Bourges, 1891, in 4to, pp. 261 _et seq._ A. de Champeaux and P. Gauchery, _Les travaux d'art executes pour Jean de France, duc de Berry_, Paris, 1894, in 4to, pp. 7, 9, and the miniature in _Les grandes heures_ of Duke Jean of Berry at Chantilly.]
The Duke of Alencon, eager to reconquer his duchy, was waiting for troops to accompany him into Normandy, across the marches of Brittany and Maine. He sent to the King to know if it were his good pleasure to grant him the Maid. ”Many there be,” said the Duke, ”who would willingly come with her, while without her they will not stir from their homes.” Her discomfiture before Paris had not, therefore, entirely ruined her prestige. The Sire de la Tremouille opposed her being sent to the Duke of Alencon, whom he mistrusted, and not without cause. He gave her into the care of his half-brother, the Sire d'Albret, Lieutenant of the King in his own country of Berry.[1835]
[Footnote 1835: Perceval de Cagny, pp. 170, 171. Berry, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 48. Letter from the Sire d'Albret to the people of Riom, in _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 148, 149. Martin Le Franc, _Champion des dames_, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 71.]
The Royal Council deemed it necessary to recover La Charite, left in the hands of Perrinet Gressart at the time of the coronation campaign;[1836]
but it was decided first to attack Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier, which commanded the approaches to Bec-d'Allier.[1837] The garrison of this little town was composed of English and Burgundians, who were constantly plundering the villages and laying waste the fields of Berry and Bourbonnais. The army for this expedition a.s.sembled at Bourges. It was commanded by my Lord d'Albret,[1838] but popular report attributed the command to Jeanne. The common folk, the burgesses of the towns, especially the citizens of Orleans knew no other commander.
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