Part 91 (1/2)

Such in good sooth was their firm intent and their unvarying intimation. This does not look as if they would be likely to hand her over to the Church as soon as she was taken. In their own kingdom they burned as many witches and wizards as possible; but they had never suffered the Holy Inquisition to be established in their land, and they were ill acquainted with that form of justice. Informed that Jeanne was in the hands of the Sire de Luxembourg, the Great Council of England were unanimously in favour of her being purchased at any price. Divers lords recommended that as soon as they obtained possession of the Maid she should be sewn in a sack and cast into the river. But one of them (it is said to have been the Earl of Warwick) represented to them that she ought first to be tried, convicted of heresy and witchcraft by an ecclesiastical tribunal, and then solemnly degraded in order that her King might be degraded with her.[2068] What a disgrace for Charles of Valois, calling himself King of France, if the University of Paris, if the French ecclesiastical dignitaries, bishops, abbots, canons, if in short the Church Universal were to declare that a witch had sat in his Council and that a witch led his host, that one possessed had conducted him to his impious, sacrilegious and void anointing! Thus would the trial of the Maid be the trial of Charles VII, the condemnation of the Maid the condemnation of Charles VII. The idea seemed good to them and was adopted.

[Footnote 2067: Du Boulay, _Historia Universitatis Parisiensis_, vol.

v, pp. 393-408. _Monumenta conciliorum generalium seculi decimi quinti_, vol. i, pp. 70 _et seq._ Le P. Denifle and Chatelain, _Le proces de Jeanne d'Arc et l'Universite de Paris_.]

[Footnote 2068: Valeran Varanius, ed. Prarond, Paris, 1889, book iv, p.

100.]

The Lord Bishop of Beauvais was eager to put it into execution. He, a priest and Councillor of State, was consumed with a desire, under the semblance of trying an unfortunate heretic, to sit in judgment on the descendant of Clovis, of Saint Charlemagne and of Saint Louis.

Early in August, the Sire de Luxembourg had the Maid taken from Beaulieu, which was not safe enough, to Beaurevoir, near Cambrai.[2069]

There dwelt Dame Jeanne de Luxembourg and Dame Jeanne de Bethune.

Jeanne de Luxembourg was the aunt of Lord Jean, whom she loved dearly.

Among the great of this world she had lived as a saint, and she had never married. Formerly lady-in-waiting to Queen Ysabeau, King Charles VII's G.o.dmother, one of the most important events of her life had been to solicit from Pope Martin the canonisation of her Brother, the Cardinal of Luxembourg, who had died at Avignon in his ninetieth year.

She was known as the Demoiselle de Luxembourg. She was sixty-seven years of age, infirm and near her end.[2070]

[Footnote 2069: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 109, 110; vol. ii, p. 298; vol.

iii, p. 121. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 389. E. Gomart, _Jeanne d'Arc au chateau de Beaurevoir_, Cambrai, 1865, in 8vo, 47 pages (_Mem. de la Societe d'emulation de Cambrai_, x.x.xviii, 2, pp. 305-348). L. Sambier, _Jeanne d'Arc et la region du Nord_, Lille, 1901, in 8vo, 63 pages.

Cf. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 300, notes 3 and 4, vol. iv, supplement xxi.]

[Footnote 2070: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p.

402. Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. i, p. 2; vol. ii, pp. 72, 73.]

Jeanne de Bethune, widow of Lord Robert de Bar, slain at the Battle of Azincourt, had married Lord Jean in 1418. She was reputed pitiful, because, in 1424, she had obtained from her husband the pardon of a n.o.bleman of Picardy, who had been brought prisoner to Beaurevoir and was in great danger of being beheaded and quartered.[2071]

[Footnote 2071: A. d.u.c.h.ene, _Histoire de la maison de Bethune_, ch.

iii, and proofs and ill.u.s.trations, p. 33. Vallet de Viriville, _loc.

cit._, and Morosini, vol. iv, pp. 352, 354.]

These two ladies treated Jeanne kindly. They offered her woman's clothes or cloth with which to make them; and they urged her to abandon a dress which appeared to them unseemly. Jeanne refused, alleging that she had not received permission from Our Lord and that it was not yet time; later she admitted that had she been able to quit man's attire, she would have done so at the request of these two dames rather than for any other dame of France, the Queen excepted.[2072]

[Footnote 2072: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 95, 231.]

A n.o.ble of the Burgundian party, one Aimond de Macy, often came to see her and was pleased to converse with her. To him she seemed modest in word and in deed. Still Sire Aimond, who was but thirty, had found her personally attractive.[2073] If certain witnesses of her own party are to be believed, Jeanne, although beautiful, did not inspire men with desire.

[Footnote 2073: _Ibid._, vol. ii, pp. 438, 457; vol. iii, p. 121.]

This singular grace however applied to the Armagnacs only; it was not extended to the Burgundians, and Seigneur Aimond did not experience it, for one day he tried to thrust his hand into her bosom. She resisted and repulsed him with all her strength. Lord Aimond concluded as more than one would have done in his place that this was a damsel of rare virtue. He took warning.[2074]

[Footnote 2074: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 120, 121.]

Confined in the castle keep, Jeanne's mind was for ever running on her return to her friends at Compiegne; her one idea was to escape.

Somehow there reached her evil tidings from France. She got the idea that all the inhabitants of Compiegne over seven years of age were to be ma.s.sacred, ”to perish by fire and sword,” she said; and indeed such a fate was bound to overtake them if the town were taken.

Confiding her distress and her unconquerable desire to Saint Catherine, she asked: ”How can G.o.d abandon to destruction those good folk of Compiegne who have been so loyal to their Lord?”[2075]

[Footnote 2075: _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 150.]