Part 80 (1/2)

[Footnote 1836: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 310. _Journal du siege_, p. 107. Morosini, vol. ii, p. 229, note 4. Perceval de Cagny, p. 172.]

[Footnote 1837: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217. Jaladon de la Barre, _Jeanne d'Arc a Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier et deux juges nivernais a Rouen_, Nevers, 1868, in 8vo, chaps. ix _et seq._]

[Footnote 1838: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 356. Lanery d'Arc and L. Jeny, _Jeanne d'Arc en Berry_, p. 89.]

After two or three days' siege, the King's men stormed the town. But they were repulsed. Squire Jean d'Aulon, the Maid's steward, who some time before had been wounded in the heel and consequently walked on crutches, had retreated with the rest.[1839] He went back and found Jeanne who had stayed almost alone by the side of the moat. Fearing lest harm should come to her, he leapt on to his horse, spurred towards her and cried: ”What are you doing, all alone? Wherefore do you not retreat like the others?”

[Footnote 1839: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 217.]

Jeanne doffed her sallet and replied: ”I am not alone. With me are fifty thousand of my folk. I will not quit this spot till I have taken the town.”

Casting his eyes around, Messire Jean d'Aulon saw the Maid surrounded by but four or five men.

More loudly he cried out to her: ”Depart hence and retreat like the others.”

Her only reply was a request for f.a.gots and hurdles to fill up the moat. And straightway in a loud voice she called: ”To the f.a.gots and the hurdles all of ye, and make a bridge!”

The men-at-arms rushed to the spot, the bridge was constructed forthwith and the town taken by storm with no great difficulty. At any rate that is how the good Squire, Jean d'Aulon, told the story.[1840]

He was almost persuaded that the Maid's fifty thousand shadows had taken Saint-Pierre-le-Moustier.

[Footnote 1840: _Ibid._, p. 218.]

With the little army on the Loire at that time were certain holy women who like Jeanne led a singular life and held communion with the Church Triumphant. They const.i.tuted, so to speak, a kind of flying squadron of _beguines_, which followed the men-at-arms. One of these women was called Catherine de La Roch.e.l.le; two others came from Lower Brittany.[1841]

[Footnote 1841: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 106. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 259, 260, 271, 272. Nider, _Formicarium_, in _Trial_, vol.

iv, pp. 503, 504. J. Quicherat, _Apercus nouveaux_, pp. 74 _et seq._ N. Quellien, _Perrinac, une compagne de Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1891, in 8vo. Mme. Pascal-Estienne, _Perrinak_, Paris, 1893, in 8vo. J.

Trevedy, _Histoire du roman de Perrinac_, Saint-Brieuc, 1894, in 8vo.

_Le roman de Perrinac_, Vannes, 1894, in 8vo. A. de la Borderie, _Pierronne et Perrinac_, Paris, 1894, in 8vo.]

They all had miraculous visions; Jeanne saw my Lord Saint Michael in arms and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret wearing crowns;[1842]

Pierronne beheld G.o.d in a long white robe and a purple cloak;[1843]

Catherine de La Roch.e.l.le saw a white lady, clothed in cloth of gold; and, at the moment of the consecration of the host all manner of marvels of the high mystery of Our Lord were revealed unto her.[1844]

[Footnote 1842: _Trial_, vol. v, index at the words _Catherine_, _Michel_, _Marguerite_.]

[Footnote 1843: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 106.]

[Footnote 1844: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 271, 272.]

Jean Pasquerel was still with Jeanne in the capacity of chaplain.[1845]

He hoped to take his penitent to fight in the Crusade against the Hussites, for it was against these heretics that he felt most bitterly. But he had been entirely supplanted by the Franciscan, Friar Richard, who, after Troyes, had joined the mendicants of Jeanne's earlier days. Friar Richard dominated this little band of the illuminated. He was called their good Father. He it was who instructed them.[1846] His designs for these women did not greatly differ from those of Jean Pasquerel: he intended to conduct them to those wars of the Cross, which he thought were bound to precede the impending end of the world.[1847]

[Footnote 1845: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 104 _et seq._]

[Footnote 1846: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 450. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, pp. 271, 272.]

[Footnote 1847: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 235.]