Chapter VI: The Maid at Chinon--Prophecies (2)

Doubtless the Armagnac preachers were in the habit of speaking of Queen Ysabeau as "_une grande gorre_" and a Herodias of licentiousness; but one would like to know whence her son derived his curious misgiving. He had not manifested it on entering into his inheritance; and, had occasion required, the jurists of his party would have proved to him by reasons derived from laws and customs that he was by birth the true heir and the lawful successor of the late King; for filiation must be proved not by what is hidden, but by what is manifest, otherwise it would be impossible to assign the legal heir to a kingdom or to an acre of land. Nevertheless it must be borne in mind that the King was very unfortunate at this time. Now misfortune agitates the conscience and raises scruples; and he might well doubt the justice of his cause since God was forsaking him. But if he were indeed assailed by painful doubts, how can he have been relieved from them by the words of a damsel who, as far as he then knew, might be mad or sent to him by his enemies? It is hard to reconcile such credulity with what we know of his suspicious nature. The first thought that occurred to him must have been that ecclesiastics had instructed the damsel.

A few moments after he had dismissed her, he assembled the Sire de Gaucourt and certain other members of his Council and repeated to them what he had just heard: "She told me that God had sent her to aid me to recover my kingdom."[679] He did not add that she had revealed to him a secret known to himself alone.[680]

[Footnote 679: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 17, 209. As early as April the promised deliverance of Orleans and coronation at Reims had been heard of at Lyons (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 426).]

[Footnote 680: Pasquerel alone of the witnesses mentions this (_Trial_, vol. iii, p. 103). Cf. the anecdote of the Sire de Boissy related by P. Sala in his collection, _Les hardiesses des grands rois et empereurs_ (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 278).]

The King's Counsellors, knowing little of the damsel, decided that they must have her before them to examine her concerning her life and her belief.[681]

[Footnote 681: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 209.]

The Sire de Gaucourt took her from the inn and lodged her in a tower of that Castle of Coudray, which for the last three days she had seen dominating the town.[682] One of the three castles, Le Coudray was only separated from the middle chateau in which the King dwelt by a moat and fortifications.[683] The Sire de Gaucourt confided her to the care of the lieutenant of the Town of Chinon, Guillaume Bellier, the King's Major Domo.[684] He gave her for her servant one of his own pages, a child of fifteen, Immerguet, sometimes called Minguet, and sometimes Mugot. His real name was Louis de Coutes, and he came of an old warrior family which had been in the service of the house of Orleans for a century. His father, Jean, called Minguet, Lord of Fresnay-le-Gelmert, of la Gadeliere and of Mitry, Chamberlain to the Duke of Orleans, had died in great poverty the year before. He had left a widow and five children, three boys and two girls, one of whom, Jeanne by name, had since 1421 been the wife of Messire Florentin d'Illiers, Governor of Chateaudun. Thus the little page, Louis de Coutes, and his mother, Catherine le Mercier, Dame de Noviant, who came of a noble Scottish family, were both in a state of penury, albeit the Duke of Orleans in acknowledgment of his Chamberlain's faithful services had from his purse granted aid to the Lady of Noviant.[685] Jeanne kept Minguet with her all day, but at night she slept with the women.

[Footnote 682: _Ibid._, p. 66.]

[Footnote 683: G. de Cougny, _Charles VII et Jeanne d'Arc a Chinon_, Tours, 1877, p. 40.]

[Footnote 684: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17.]

[Footnote 685: _Ibid._, pp. 65, 73. Mademoiselle A. de Villaret, _Louis de Coutes, page de Jeanne d'Arc_, Orleans, 1890, in 8vo.]

The wife of Guillaume Bellier, who was good and pious, at least so it was said, watched over her.[686] At Coudray the page saw her many a time on her knees. She prayed and often wept many tears.[687] For several days persons of high estate came to speak with her. They found her dressed as a boy.[688]

[Footnote 686: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 17.]

[Footnote 687: _Ibid._, p. 66.]

[Footnote 688: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 274 _et seq._ Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, p. 68.]

Since she had been with the King, divers persons asked her whether there were not in her country a wood called "Le Bois-Chenu."[689] This question was put to her because a prophecy of Merlin concerning a maid who should come from "Le Bois-Chenu" was then in circulation. And folk were impressed by it; for in those days every one gave heed to prophecies and especially to those of Merlin the Magician.[690]

[Footnote 689: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 68.]

[Footnote 690: _Ibid._, vol. iii, pp. 133, 340. Thomassin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 395. Walter Bower, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 489. Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12. La Borderie, _Les veritables propheties de Merlin, examen des poemes bretons attribues a ce barde_, in the _Revue de Bretagne_, 1883, vol. liii.]

Begotten of a woman by the Devil, it was from him that Merlin derived his profound wisdom. To the science of numbers, which is the key to the future, he added a knowledge of physics, by means of which he worked his enchantments. Thus it was easy for him to transform rocks into giants. And yet he was conquered by a woman; the fairy Vivien enchanted the enchanter and kept him in a hawthorn bush under a spell. This is only one of many examples of the power of women.

Famous doctors and illustrious masters held that Merlin had laid bare many future events and prophesied many things which had not yet happened. To such as were amazed that the son of the Devil should have received the gift of prophecy they replied that the Holy Ghost is able to reveal his secrets to whomsoever he pleases, for had he not caused the Sibyls to speak, and opened the mouth of Balaam's ass?

Merlin had seen in a vision Sire Bertrand du Guesclin in the guise of a warrior bearing an eagle on his shield. This was remembered after the Constable had wrought his great deeds.[691]

[Footnote 691: Cuvelier, _Le poeme de Du Guesclin_, l. 3285. Francisque-Michel and Th. Wright, _Vie de Merlin attribuee a Geoffroy de Monmouth, suivie des propheties de ce barde tirees de l'histoire des Bretons_, Paris, 1837, in 8vo, pp. 67 _et seq._ La Villemarque, _Myrdhin ou Merlin l'Enchanteur, son histoire, ses oeuvres, son influence_, n. ed., Paris, 1862, in 12mo. D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Merlin est-il un personnage reel?_ in the _Revue des questions historiques_, 1868, pp. 559-568. Lefevre-Pontalis, _Morosini_, vol. iv, supplement xvi. "[Geoffrey of Monmouth] represented Merlin as having prophesied all the events of the history of Britain until the year 1135 in which he wrote. The _Historia Regum_ was very popular in the ecclesiastical world. Its legends were held to be facts. The exactness with which its prognostications had been fulfilled down to 1135 was marvelled at, and an attempt was made to interpret the prophecies relating to subsequent times." Gaston Paris, _La litterature francaise au moyen age_, 1890, pp. 86-104.]

In the prophecies of this Wise Man the English believed no less firmly than the French. When Arthur of Brittany, Count of Richemont, was taken prisoner, held to ransom, and brought before King Henry, the latter, when he perceived a boar on the arms of the Duke, broke forth into rejoicing; for he called to mind the words of Merlin who had said, "A Prince of Armorica, called Arthur, with a boar for his crest, shall conquer England, and when he shall have made an end of the English folk he shall re-people the land with a Breton race."[692]

[Footnote 692: Le Baud, _Histoire de Bretagne_, Paris, 1638, in fol., p. 451.]

Now during the Lent of 1429 there was circulated among the Armagnacs this prophecy, taken from a book of the prophecies of Merlin: "From the town of the Bois-Chenu there shall come forth a maid for the healing of the nation. When she hath stormed every citadel, with her breath she shall dry up all the springs. Bitter tears shall she shed and fill the Island with a terrible noise. Then shall she be slain by the stag with ten antlers, of which six branches shall bear crowns of gold, and the other six shall be changed into the horns of oxen; and with a horrible sound they shall shake the Isles of Britain. The forest of Denmark shall rise up and with a human voice say: 'Come, Cambria, and take Cornwall unto thyself.'"[693]

[Footnote 693: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 340-342.]

In these mysterious words Merlin dimly foretells that a virgin shall perform great and wonderful deeds before perishing by the hand of the enemy. On one point only is he clear, or so it seems; that is, when he says that this virgin shall come from the town of the Bois-Chenu.

If this prophecy had been traced back to its original source and read in the fourth book of the _Historia Britonum_, where it is to be found under the title of _Guyntonia Vaticinium_, it would have been seen to refer to the English city of Winchester, and it would have appeared that in the version then in circulation in France, the original meaning had been garbled, distorted, and completely metamorphosed. But no one thought of verifying the text. Books were rare and minds uncritical. This deliberately falsified prophecy was accepted as the pure word of Merlin and numerous copies of it were spread abroad.

Whence came these copies? Their origin doubtless will remain a mystery for ever; but one point is certain: they referred to La Romee's daughter, to the damsel who, from her father's house, could see the edge of "Le Bois-Chenu." Thus they came from close at hand and were of recent circulation.[694] If this amended prophecy of Merlin be not the one that reached Jeanne in her village, forecasting that a Maid should come from the Lorraine Marches for the saving of the kingdom, then it was closely related to it. The two prognostications have a family likeness.[695] They were uttered in the same spirit and with the same intention; and they indicate that the ecclesiastics of the Meuse valley and those of the Loire had agreed to draw attention to the inspired damsel of Domremy.

[Footnote 694: Morosini, vol. iv, p. 324.]

[Footnote 695: Pierre Migiet weaves the two prophecies into one, which he says he has read in a book, _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 133.]

As Merlin had foretold the works of Jeanne, so Bede must also have predicted them, for Bede and Merlin were always together in matters of prophecy.

The Monk of Wearmouth, the Venerable Bede, who had been dead six centuries, had been a veritable mine of knowledge in his lifetime. He had written on theology and chronology; he had discoursed of night and day, of weeks and months, of the signs of the zodiac, of epacts, of the lunar cycle, and of the movable feasts of the Church. In his book _De temporum ratione_ he had treated of the seventh and eighth ages of the world, which were to follow the age in which he lived. He had prophesied. During the siege of Orleans, churchmen were circulating these obscure lines attributed to him, and foretelling the coming of the Maid:

_Bis sex cuculli, bis septem se sociabunt,[696]
Gallorum pulli Tauro nova bella parabunt
Ecce beant bella, tunc fert vexilla Puella._

[Footnote 696: Adopting the emendation made by M. Germain Lefevre-Pontalis in his _Chronique d'Antonio Morosini_, vol. iii, pp. 126, 127; vol. iv, pp. 316 _et seq._]

The first of these lines is a chronogram, that is, it contains a date. To decipher it you take the numeral letters of the line and add them together; the total gives the date.

bIs seX CVCVLLI, bIs septeM se soCIabVnt.

1 + 10 + 100 + 5 + 100 + 5 + 50 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 1000 + 100 +
1 + 5 = 1429.

Had any one sought these lines in the works of the Venerable Bede they would not have found them, because they are not there; but no one thought of looking for them any more than they thought of looking for the Foret Chenue in Merlin.[697] And it was understood that both Bede and Merlin had foretold the coming of the Maid. In those days prophecies, chronograms, and charms flew like pigeons from the banks of the Loire and spread abroad throughout the realm. Not later than the May or June of this year the pseudo Bede will reach Burgundy. Earlier still he will be heard of in Paris. The aged Christine de Pisan, living in retirement in a French abbey, before the last day of July, 1429, will write that Bede and Merlin had beheld the Maid in a vision.[698]

[Footnote 697: _The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede_, ed. Giles, London, 1843-1844, 12 vols., in 8vo, in _Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae_.]

[Footnote 698: Christine de Pisan, in _Trial_, vol. v, p. 12. Morosini, vol. iii, p. 126. The Dean of Saint Thibaud, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 423. Herman Korner, in Le P. Ayroles, _La vraie Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 279 _et seq._ Walter Bower, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 481.]

The clerks, who were busy forging prophecies for the Maid's benefit, did not stop at a pseudo Bede and a garbled Merlin. They were truly indefatigable, and by a stroke of good luck we possess a piece of their workmanship which has escaped the ravages of time. It is a short Latin poem written in the obscure prophetic style, of which the following is a translation through the old French.

"A virgin clothed in man's attire, with the body of a maid, at God's behest goes forth to raise the downcast King, who bears the lilies, and to drive out his accursed enemies, even those who now beleaguer the city of Orleans and strike terror into the hearts of its inhabitants. And if the people will take heart and go out to battle, the treacherous English shall be struck down by death, at the hand of the God of battles who fights for the Maid, and the French shall cause them to fall, and then shall there be an end of the war; and the old covenants and the old friendship shall return. Pity and righteousness shall be restored. There shall be a treaty of peace, and all men shall of their own accord return to the King, which King shall weigh justice and administer it unto all men and preserve his subjects in beautiful peace. Henceforth no English foe with the sign of the leopard shall dare to call himself King of France [added by the translator] and adopt the arms of France, which arms are borne by the holy Maid."[699]

[Footnote 699: Buchon, _Math. d'Escouchy_, etc., p. 537. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, Eberhard Windecke, pp. 21-31. A Latin text of this prophecy is to be found on the fly-leaf of the Cartulary of Therouanne.]

These false prophecies give some idea of the means employed for the setting to work of the inspired damsel. Such methods may be somewhat too crafty for our liking. These clerks had but one object,--the peace of the realm and of the church. The miraculous deliverance of the people had to be prepared. We must not be too hasty to condemn those pious frauds without which the Maid could not have worked her miracles. Much art and some guile are necessary to contrive for innocence a hearing.

Meanwhile, on a steep rock, on the bank of the Durance, in the remote see of Saint-Marcellin, Jacques Gelu remained faithful to the King he had served and careful for the interests of the house of Orleans and of France. To the two churchmen, Jean Girard and Pierre l'Hermite, he replied that, for the sake of the orphan and the oppressed, God would doubtless manifest himself, and would frustrate the evil designs of the English; yet one should not easily and lightly believe the words of a peasant girl bred in solitude, for the female sex was frail and easily deceived, and France must not be made ridiculous in the eyes of the foreigner. "The French," he added, "are already famous for the ease with which they are duped." He ended by advising Pierre l'Hermite that it would be well for the King to fast and do penance so that Heaven might enlighten him and preserve him from error.[700]

[Footnote 700: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 393-407; vol. v, p. 473. Marcellin Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313, 314.]

But the mind of the oracle and ex-councillor could not rest. He wrote direct to King Charles and Queen Marie to warn them of the danger. To him it seemed that there could be no good in the damsel. He mistrusted her for three reasons: first, because she came from a country in the possession of the King's enemies, Burgundians and Lorrainers; secondly, she was a shepherdess and easily deceived; thirdly, she was a maid. He cited as an example Alexander of Macedon, whom a Queen endeavoured to poison. She had been fed on venom by the King's enemies and then sent to him in the hope that he would fall a victim to the wench's[701] wiles. But Aristotle dismissed the seductress and thus delivered his prince from death. The Archbishop of Embrun, as wise as Aristotle, warned the King against conversing with the damsel in private. He advised that she should be kept at a distance and examined, but not repulsed.

[Footnote 701: [In the original French _garce_.] The text has _grace_, which is not possible. I have conjectured that the word should be _garce_.]

A prudent answer to those letters reassured Gelu. In a new epistle he testified to the King his satisfaction at hearing that the damsel was regarded with suspicion and left in uncertainty as to whether she would or would not be believed. Then, with a return to his former misgivings, he added: "It behoves not that she should have frequent access to the King until such time as certainty be established concerning her manner of life and her morals."[702]

[Footnote 702: M. Fornier, _Histoire des Alpes-Maritimes ou Cottiennes_, vol. ii, pp. 313, 314.]

King Charles did indeed keep Jeanne in uncertainty as to what was believed of her. But he did not suspect her of craftiness and he received her willingly. She talked to him with the simplest familiarity. She called him gentle Dauphin, and by that term she implied nobility and royal magnificence.[703] She also called him her _oriflamme_, because he was her _oriflamme_, or, as in modern language she would have expressed it, her standard.[704] The _oriflamme_ was the royal banner. No one at Chinon had seen it, but marvellous things were told of it. The _oriflamme_ was in the form of a gonfanon with two wings, made of a costly silk, fine and light, called _sandal_,[705] and it was edged with tassels of green silk. It had come down from heaven; it was the banner of Clovis and of Saint Charlemagne. When the King went to war it was carried before him. So great was its virtue that the enemy at its approach became powerless and fled in terror. It was remembered how, when in 1304 Philippe le Bel defeated the Flemings, the knight who bore it was slain. The next day he was found dead, but still clasping the standard in his arms.[706] It had floated in front of King Charles VI before his misfortunes, and since then it had never been unfurled.

[Footnote 703: Clerk of the Town Hall of Albi, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 300.]

[Footnote 704: Thomassin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304.]

[Footnote 705: _Sandal_ or _cendal_, a silk bearing some resemblance to taffetas. Cf. Godefroy, _Lexique de l'ancien francais_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 706: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _auriflamma_. Le Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 150, 251, 257, 259. [_Histoire generale de Paris._]]

One day when the Maid and the King were talking together, the Duke of Alencon entered the hall. When he was a child, the English had taken him prisoner at Verneuil and kept him five years in the Crotoy Tower.[707] Only recently set at liberty, he had been shooting quails near Saint-Florent-les-Saumur, when a messenger had brought the tidings that God had sent a damsel to the King to turn the English out of France.[708] This news interested him as much as any one because he had married the Duke of Orleans' daughter; and straightway he had come to Chinon to see for himself. In the days of his graceful youth the Duke of Alencon appeared to advantage, but he was never renowned for his wisdom. He was weak-minded, violent, vain, jealous, and extremely credulous. He believed that ladies find favour by means of a certain herb, the mountain-heath; and later he thought himself bewitched. He had a disagreeable, harsh voice; he knew it, and the knowledge annoyed him.[709] As soon as she saw him approaching, Jeanne asked who this noble was. When the King replied that it was his cousin Alencon, she curtsied to the Duke and said: "Be welcome. The more representatives of the blood royal are here the better."[710] In this she was completely mistaken. The Dauphin smiled bitterly at her words. Not much of the royal blood of France ran in the Duke's veins.

[Footnote 707: Perceval de Cagny, p. 136. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 224, 249.]

[Footnote 708: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

[Footnote 709: Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. iii, pp. 408, 409. De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. vi, pp. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 710: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 91.]

On the next day Jeanne went to the King's mass. When she approached her Dauphin she bowed before him. The King took her into a room and sent every one away except the Sire de la Tremouille and the Duke of Alencon.

Then Jeanne addressed to him several requests. More especially did she ask him to give his kingdom to the King of Heaven. "And afterwards," she added, "the King of Heaven will do for you what he has done for your predecessors and will restore you to the condition of your fathers."[711]

[Footnote 711: _Ibid._, pp. 91, 92. Eberhard Windecke, pp. 152 _et seq._]

In discoursing thus of things spiritual, in giving utterance to those precepts of reformation and of a new life, she was repeating what the clerks had taught her. Nevertheless she was by no means imbued with this doctrine. It was too subtle for her, and it was shortly to fade from her mind and give place to an ardour less monastic but more chivalrous.

That same day she rode out with the King and threw a lance in the meadow with so fine a grace that the Duke of Alencon, marvelling, made her a present of a horse.[712]

[Footnote 712: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 92.]

A few days later this young noble took her to the Abbey of Saint-Florent-les-Saumur,[713] the church of which was so greatly admired that it was called La Belle d'Anjou. Here in this abbey there dwelt at that time his mother and his wife. It is said that they were glad to see Jeanne. But they had no great faith in the issue of the war. The young Dame of Alencon said to her: "Jeannette, I am full of fear for my husband. He has just come out of prison, and we have had to give so much money for his ransom that gladly would I entreat him to stay at home." To which Jeanne replied: "Madame, have no fear. I will bring him back to you in safety, and either such as he is now or better."[714]

[Footnote 713: Perceval de Cagny, p. 148.]

[Footnote 714: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 96.]

She called the Duke of Alencon her fair Duke,[715] and loved him for the sake of the Duke of Orleans, whose daughter he had married. She loved him also because he believed in her when all others doubted or denied, and because the English had done him wrong. She loved him too because she saw he had a good will to fight. It was told how when he was a captive in the hands of the English at Verneuil, and they proposed to give him back his liberty and his goods if he would join their party, he had rejected their offer.[716] He was young like her; she thought that he like her must be sincere and noble. And perhaps in those days he was, for doubtless he was not then seeking to discover powders with which to dry up the King.[717]

[Footnote 715: Perceval de Cagny, p. 151, _passim_.]

[Footnote 716: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 240.]

[Footnote 717: Cf. 1 Kings xiii, 4 (W.S.). P. Dupuy, _Proces de Jean II, duc d'Alencon, 1458-1474_, 1658, in 4to. Michelet, _Histoire de France_, vol. v, p. 382. Docteur Chereau, _Medecins du quinzieme siecle_, in _l'Union Medicale_, vol. xiv, August, 1862. Joseph Guibert, _Jean II duc d'Alencon_, in _Les positions de l'Ecole des Chartes_, 1893.]

It was decided that Jeanne should be taken to Poitiers to be examined by the doctors there.[718] In this town the Parlement met. Here also were gathered together many famous clerks learned in theology, secular as well as regular,[719] and grave doctors and masters were summoned to join them. Jeanne set out under escort. At first she thought she was being taken to Orleans. Her faith was like that of the ignorant but believing folk, who, having taken the cross, went forth and thought every town they approached was Jerusalem. Half way she inquired of her guides where they were taking her. When she heard that it was to Poitiers: "In God's name!" she said, "much ado will be there, I know. But my Lord will help me. Now let us go on in God's strength!"[720]

[Footnote 718: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 116, 209.]

[Footnote 719: Belisaire Ledain, _Jeanne d'Arc a Poitiers_, Saint-Maixent, 1891, in 8vo, 15 pages. Neuville, _Le Parlement royal a Poitiers_, in the _Revue historique_, vol. vi, p. 284.]

[Footnote 720: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, p. 275. _Journal du siege_, p. 48. Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 316.]