Royal branch of Orleans, threw themselves | mined to turn the siege into a blockade, to into the place with a large body of followers. surround the city with forts or 'bastilles,' The citizens on their part showed a spirit and to reduce it by famine. The works for that might have done honour to soldiers; not this purpose were continued steadily throughonly did they largely tax themselves for their out the winter. Frequent assaults on the own defence, but many brought to the com- one side, frequent sallies on the other, proved mon stock a larger sum than had been im- the fiery ardour of the besiegers and the unposed on them; they cheerfully consented failing constancy of the besieged. In the unthat their suburb of Portereau, on the southern finished state of the English works, supplies bank, opposite the city, should be razed to and reinforcements could still at intervals be the ground, lest it should afford any shelter brought into Orleans, and as the French to the enemy, and from the same motive all light troops ravaged the open country beyond the vineyards and gardens within two miles it sometimes happened that there was no less from the walls were laid waste by the owners dearth and scarcity in the English camp themselves. The men able to bear arms than in the beleaguered city. But upon the were enrolled in bands, and the rest formed whole, both the stores and the garrison of themselves into processions solemnly to bear Orleans wasted away much faster than they the holy relics from church to church, and could be renewed; they saw tower after to implore with unceasing prayer the mercy tower, and redoubt after redoubt, rising up to and protection of Heaven,* complete the line-each a link in the long The first assault of Salisbury was directed chain which was to bind them; they peragainst the bulwark defending the approaches ceived that, while they declined, the English of the bridge on the southern bank, or, as we were gradually growing in strength and should call it at present, the tête-de-pont. numbers; and it became evident, even to After a stubborn resistance and great blood-themselves, that, unless some great effort shed, he dislodged the townspeople from the could be made for their deliverance, they place. They then took post at two towers must be overpowered in the ensuing spring. which had been built one on each side the It was the news of this siege that kindled passage, some way forward upon the bridge, to the highest pitch the fervent imagination and they took care for the security of the city of Joan of Arc. Her enthusiasm, as we have to break down one of the arches behind seen, was twofold, political and religious. them, and only kept up their communication The former would impel her to free King by planks and beams which could be readily Charles from his present and pressing danger, removed. The next day, however, Sir Wil- the latter to sanctify his claim by his coronaliam Gladsdale, one of the best officers in the tion. For, until his head had been encircled English army, finding the waters of the with the ancient crown and anointed with Loire unusually shallow at that season, the holy oil at Rheims, Charles was not waded with his men nearly up to the towers, truly King to priestly or to popular eyes, but and succeeded in storming them. He pro- only Dauphin, not the real possessor, only ceeded to build a bulwark connecting the the rightful heir. From this time, then, the two towers, and joined them with the tête-de- visions of Joan, hitherto unsettled and waverpont on the shore, thus forming a fort, which ing, steadily fixed on two objects which she he called from them La Bastille des Tour- believed herself commissioned from Heaven nelles, and which enabled him to plant a bat- to achieve-to raise the siege of Orleans, tery full against the city. But his activity and to crown the Dauphin at Rheims. And proved fatal to his chief. A very few days if we compare the greatness and the difficulty afterwards the Earl of Salisbury came to visit of such objects with the sex, the station, and the works. He had ascended one of the towers the years of the person aiming at them, we with Sir William, to survey more clearly cannot but behold with admiration the unthe wide circuit of the enemy's walls, when daunted intrepidity that did not quail from a cannon-ball fired from them (for this, as such a task. Hume observes, is among the first sieges The scheme of Joan was to go to the where cannon were found to be of import- neighbouring town of Vaucouleurs, reveal ance) broke a splinter from the casement and her visions to the governor, Robert de Baudristruck on his face with a mortal wound. At court, a zealous adherent of Charles, and his decease the Earl of Suffolk succeeded to entreat his aid and protection for enabling his command, though not to his full influence her to reach the King's presence. From and authority. Having tried in several attacks the great number of the besieged, as well as their stubborn resolution, he deterp. 254. ⚫ Barante, Ducs de Bourgogne, vol. v., her parents she was well aware that she could expect no encouragement. Her first step, therefore, was, on the plea of a few days' visit, to repair to the house of her uncle Durand Laxart, who lived at the said Jean de Metz. "The King of Heaven," she replied. De Metz declared that her tone of inspiration had convinced him; he gave her his hand, and promised her that he would, on the faith of a gentleman, and under the conduct of God, lead her himself before the King. He asked her when she desired to begin her journey: "To day rather than tomorrow," replied the heroine.'† village of Petit Burey, between Domremy and have to crawl upon my knees. For no and Vaucouleurs. To him she then imparted one upon this earth, neither King, nor Duke, all her inspirations and intentions. The nor daughter of King of Scots,* no one but astonishment of the honest villager may be myself is appointed to recover this realm of easily imagined. But the energy and earn. France. Yet I would more willingly reestness of Joan wrought so powerfully on main to spin by the side of my poor mother, his mind as to convince him of the truth of for war seems no work for me. But go I her mission, and he undertook to go in her must, because the Lord my Master so wills place to Vaucouleurs, and do her bidding it." "And who is the Lord your Master ?" with the Sire de Baudricourt. His promises of divine deliverance by the hands of a peasant-girl were, however, received by the stern old warrior with the utmost contempt and derision Box your niece's ears well,' said he, and send her home to her father.'* Far from being disconcerted at her uncle's ill success, the Maid immediately set out herself for Vaucouleurs in company with Laxart. It was with some difficulty that Another gentleman, Bertrand de Poulengy, she could obtain admission to the Governor, who has also left a deposition on oath to or a patient hearing from him even when these facts, and who had been present at the admitted to his presence. Baudricourt, un- first interview between Joan and Baudrimoved by her eloquence, continued to set at court, became convinced of her divine comnaught her promises and her requests. But mission, and resolved to escort her in her Joan now displayed that energy and strength journey. It does not clearly appear whether of will which so seldom fail to triumph Baudricourt had received any answer from where success is possible. She resolved to the Court of France: but a reluctant assent remain at Vaucouleurs, again and again ap- to the journey was extorted from him by the pealing to the Governor, and conjuring him not to neglect the voice of God, who spoke through her, and passing the rest of her time in fervent prayers at the church. Once she went back for a little time with her uncle to his village, but she soon induced him to return; another time she had determined to begin with him and on foot her journey of one hundred and fifty leagues to the French Court. On further reflection, however, she felt unwilling to proceed without at least a letter from Baudricourt. At length he con- since Baudricourt, even while giving his conThis gift was probably the more welcome, sented to write, and refer the question of her sent to her journey, refused to incur any journey to the decision of King Charles. Upon his own mind she had made little or thing but a sword, and at parting said to her cost on behalf of it; he presented to her nono impression, but several other persons in the town, struck with her piety and persever- only these words: 'Va, et advienne que ance, became converts to her words. One pourra.' Her uncle, assisted by another of these was a gentleman named Jean de countryman, had borrowed money to buy a horse for her use, and the expenses of the Novelompont, and surnamed De Metz, who afterwards deposed on oath to these transac- journey were defrayed by Jean de Metz, for tions:-"Child," said he, as he met her in which, as appears by the Household Books, the street, "what are you doing here? Must he was afterwards reimbursed by the King, we not submit to seeing the King expelled Joan herself, by command of her 'Voices,' his kingdom, and to ourselves becoming as she said, assumed male apparel, and never English?" "I am come here," said the wore any other during the remainder of her Maid, "to ask of the Sire de Baudricourt to expedition. send me before the Dauphin; he has no care for me, or for words of mine; and yet it is needful that before Mid-Lent I should stand in the Dauphin's presence, should I even in reaching him wear through my feet, Collection des Mémoires, vol. viii., p. 246. entreaties of De Metz and Poulengy, and by the rising force of popular opinion. The Duke of Lorraine himself had by this time heard of the fame of Joan; and sent for her as to one endowed with supernatural powers to cure him from a mortal disease. But Joan replied, with her usual simplicity of manner, that her mission was not to that Prince, nor for such an object, and the Duke dismissed her with a gift of four livres. * On négociait alors le mariage du Dauphin Louis, fils de Charles VII., avec la fille du Roi d'Ecosse, qui promettait d'envoyer de nouveaux secours.' (Note to the Collection des Mémoires, vol. viii., p. 249.) + Dépositions de Jean de Metz au Procès de Révision. At the news that their daughter was already at Vaucouleurs and going forward to the wars, Jacques d'Arc and his wife hastened in the utmost consternation from their village, but could not succeed in withholding her. 'I saw them in the town,' says Jean De Metz; they seemed hard-working, honest, God-fearing people.' Joan herself declared in her examinations that they had been almost distracted with grief at her departure, but that she had since sent back letters to them, and that they had forgiven her. It would appear that none of her brothers was amongst her companions on this journey, although one of them, Pierre d'Arc, soon afterwards joined her in Touraine.* Loire at Gien, after which she found herself on friendly ground. There she openly announced to all she met that she was sent from God to crown the King and to free the good city of Orleans. The tidings began to spread, even to Orleans itself, and, as drowning men are said to catch at straws, so the poor besieged, now hard-pressed and well nigh hopeless, eagerly welcomed this last faint gleam for their deliverance. On earthly succour they could indeed no longer rely. While Joan was yet delayed at Vaucouleurs, they had been urging the King in repeated embassies to afford them some assistance. It was with difficulty that Charles could muster an army of 3000 menJoan set forth from Vaucouleurs on the so dispirited were his soldiers, and so unwilfirst Sunday in Lent, the 13th of February, ling to serve!-whose command he intrusted 1429. Her escort consisted of six per- to his kinsman the Count of Clermont. On sons, the Sires de Metz and de Poulengy, these troops approaching Orleans, they were with one attendant of each, Colet de Vienne, joined by Dunois and another thousand men who is styled a King's messenger, and Rich- from the garrison, and they resolved to interard, a King's archer. It was no slight en- cept a large convoy of provisions which Sir terprise to pass through so wide a track of John Fastolf was escorting from Paris. Fashostile country, exposed to fall in every mo- tolf had under his command scarcely more ment with wandering parties of English or than 2000 soldiers; nevertheless, in the action Burgundian soldiery, or obliged, in order to which ensued the French were completely avoid them, to ford large rivers, to thread ex-routed, and left 500 dead upon the field. tensive forests, and to select unfrequented by- This engagement was fought on the 12th of paths at that wintry season. The Maid her- February, the day before Joan commenced self took little heed of toil or danger; her her journey from Vaucouleurs, and was callchief complaint was that her companions ed the Battle of Herrings,' because the prowould not allow her to stop every morning visions brought by Fastolf were chiefly saltto hear Mass. They, on the contrary, felt fish for the use of the English army during from time to time their confidence decline Lent. and strange misgivings arise in their minds; To retrieve a disaster so shameful—to raise more than once the idea occurred to them again spirits sunk so low-seemed to rethat after all they might only be conducting quire the aid either of a hero or a prophet. a mad woman or a sorceress, and they were Charles VII. was certainly not the former. tempted to hurl her down some stone-quarry He was then scarcely twenty-seven years of as they passed, or to leave her alone upon the age, and had never yet evinced either statesroad. Joan, however, happily surmounting these dangers, both from her enemies and from her escort, succeeded in crossing the manlike decision or military ardour. Devoted to pleasure, he shunned the tumult of even his own cities for a residence, and preferred some lonely castle, such as Mehun 'On a dit que Pierre d'Arc, troisième frère de sur Yevre, where he had received the tidings la Pucelle, partit alors avec elle pour la France, et on fondait cette opinion sur ce que Pierre, dans of his accession, or Chinon, where at this une requête présentée en 1444 au Duc d'Orléans, time he held his Court, and willingly devolvexposait être parti de son pays pour servir aux ed the cares of state upon his council or upguerres du Roi et de Monsieur le Duc en la com- on some favourite minister. Such a favourpagnie de Jehanne la Pucelle, sa sœur. D'après la construction de cette phrase on ne saurait décider ite, even when not selected by his own si ce jeune homme est parti avec sa sœur, ou s'il friendship, was always retained by his indoest allé la rejoindre plus tard. Les chroniques ni lence and aversion to change. It had alles interrogatoires ne font aucune mention de lui ready more than once happened, that, on au moment du départ, pendant la route, ni àthe murder of one minion, Charles had quil'époque de l'arrivée à Chinon. Tout porte {ainsi à croire qu'il n'était pas du voyage.' (Suppl. aux etly accepted a new one from the hands of Mémoires, Collection, vol. viii. p. 253.) This the murderer, and shortly become as devotconclusion is confirmed, and indeed placed beyond ed to him as to the last. He appears to doubt, by an original letter from the Sire de Laval, have had the easy and yielding temper of our sion to quote; it mentions Pierre d'Arc as having own Charles the Second-a temper which arrived to join his sister only eight days before, mainly proceeds from dislike of trouble, but in May, 1429, which we shall hereafter have occa which superficial observers ascribe to kind-f Hume-he means Charles VII.-that, as he ness of heart. Yet his affable and graceful lay under the dominion of the fair, the women manners might often, as in the case of Charles whom he consulted had the spirit to support the Second, supply in popular estimation the his sinking resolution in this desperate extremi want of more sterling qualities. Once, when cess of great merit and prudence, vehemently Mary of Anjou, his Queen, a printy. . . giving a splendid festival, he asked the opi- opposed this measure. . . . . His mistress too, nion upon it of La Hire, one of his bravest the fair Agnes Sorel, seconded all her remon captains. 'I never yet,' replied the veteran, strances, and threatened that if he thus pusil'saw a kingdom so merrily lost!' Yet it lanimously threw away the sceptre of France, she would seek in the Court of England a forseldom happened that the state of his extune more correspondent to her wishes.' chequer could admit of such a taunt. On another occasion it is related, that when the same La Hire came with Pothon de Xaintrailles to partake of his good cheer, the trailles to partake of his good cheer, the High Steward could provide nothing for the Royal Banquet beyond two chickens and one small piece of mutton! The story is thus told by a quaint old poet, Martial of Paris, in his 'Vigiles de Charles le Septiesme ;' 'Un jour que La Hire et Pothon Et des mets qu'on a tous les jours, Charles himself was but slightly moved by * At the news of the battle of Herrings, joined to so many previous reverses and discouragements, several of Charles's courtiers were of opinion that he should leave Orleans to its fate-retire with the remains of his forces into the provinces of Dauphiné or Languedoc-and maintain himself to the utmost amidst their mountainous recesses. Happily for France, at this crisis less timid councils prevailed. The main merit of these has been ascribed by some historians, and by every poet, to the far-famed Agnes Sorel. 'It was fortunate for this good prince,' says Histoire des Français, vol. xiii, 344. He calls it 'un phenomene étrange de l'esprit humain. . Charles VII. avait regné dix-sept ans avec une faiblesse degoutante, au point d'être signalé et par les Français et par les etrangers comme l'homme qui perdait la monarchie; il en regna cncore vingt deux comme son restaurateur.' More recently the great dramatist of Germany has considerably improved the story, by suppressing the fact that Charles was alhand and his crown to the lovely Ágnes. ready married, and making him proffer his 'Zieren würde sie Den ersten thron der Welt-doch sie verschmäht ihn; Nur meine liebe will sie seyn und heissen.** We feel reluctant to assist in dispelling an 'Gentille Agnes, plus d'honneur tu merites But even this opinion it would not be easy to confirm from contemporary writers. Any romantic legend or popular tradition may be readily welcomed by a poet to adorn his tale, without any nice inquiry as to its falsehood or its truth. But we may notice, in passing, another departure of Schiller from the facts, without any motive of poetical beauty to explain and to excuse it. He has transferred the position of Chinon to the northern bank of the Loire, and made the pas sage of that river the signal of retreat towards the southern provinces,† evidently conceiv Schiller, Die Jungfrau von Orleans, Act i. scene 4. 'Sey nicht traurig meine Agnes- ing the place to be Chateau Chinon, a town of her words or deeds; she passed whole days some fifty leagues distant, in the ancient Du- in prayers at the church, and everything in chy of Burgundy, in the modern Depart- her demeanour bore the stamp of an earnest ment of Nievre. But no English reader and undoubting conviction, which gradually -no English traveller-will thus lightly impressed itself on those around her. Charles mistake the favourite resort of our own still wavered: after some further delay, howHenry II-of our own Richard Cœur de ever, he appointed an hour to receive her. Lion. Long will they love to trace along The hour came, and the poor peasant girl the valley of the Loire, between Tours and of Domremy was ushered into the stately Saumur, on the last of the bordering hills, hall of Chinon, lighted up with fifty torches, the yet proud though long since forsaken and and filled with hundreds of knights and nobles. mouldering battlements of Chinon. Ascend- The King had resolved to try her; and for ing the still unbroken feudal towers, a glow- that purpose he stood amongst the crowd in ing and glorious prospect spreads before them plain attire, while some of his courtiers mag-a green expanse of groves and vineyards, nificently clad held the upper place. He had all blending into one-the clear mountain not reflected that, considering the enthusiasm stream of Vienne sparkling and glancing of Joan for his cause, she had probably more through the little town at their feet-than once seen a portrait or heard a descripwhile, more in the distance, they survey, tion of his features. Unabashed at the glare winding in ample folds, and gemmed with of the lights, or the gaze of spectators, the many an islet, the wide waters of the Maid came forward with a firm step, singled Loire. They will seek to recognise, amidst the screen of hills which there encircles it, the neighbouring spire of Fontevrault, where lie interred the Second Henry and his lionhearted son. They will gaze with fresh delight on the ever-living landscape, when they remember the departed great who loved to gaze on it before. Nor amidst these scenes of historic glory or of present loveliness, will any national prejudice, or passion, or ill-will, (may God in his goodness dispel it from both nations!) forbid them many a lingering look to that ruined hall,-the very one, as tradition tells us, where the Maid of Orleans was first received by Charles! out the King at the first glance, and bent her knee before him with the words-God give you good life, gentle King.' 'I am not the King; he is there,' said Charles pointing to one of his nobles. In the name of God,' she exclaimed, it is no other but yourself. Most noble Lord Dauphin, I am Joan the Maid, sent on the part of God to aid you and your kingdom; and by his command I announce to you that you shall be crowned in the city of Rheims, and shall become his lieutenant in the realm of France.' 'Gentle Dauphin,' she added shortly afterwards, 'why will you not believe me? I tell you that God has pity upon you, upon your kingdom, and upon It was not, however, to the castle of Chi- your people; for St. Louis and Charlemagne non that Joan in the first instance repaired. are on their knees before him, praying for She stopped short within a few leagues of it, you and for them.' Charles then drew her at the village of St. Catherine de Fierbois, and aside, and after some time passed in earnest sent forward to the King to announce her conversation, declared to his courtiers that the arrival and her object. The permission Maid had spoken of secrets known only to to proceed to an hostelry at Chinon was himself and to God. Several of the ancient readily accorded her; not so admission to chronicles refer mysteriously to this secret the King. Two days were spent in delib- between the Maid and the King, but Charles eration by Charles's counsellors. Some of afterwards revealed it in confidence to the them imagined that Joan might be a sorceress Sire de Boissy, one of his favourites.* Joan and emissary of Satan; by some she was sup- it appears had said to him these words: 'Je posed to be a brain-sick enthusiast; while te dis de la part de Messire que tu es vrai heriothers thought that, in this their utmost need, tier de France. Now the King, when alone no means of deliverance, however slight or un. in his oratory a little time before, had offered promising, should be rashly cast aside. At up a prayer for Divine assistance on condition length, as a compromise between all these only of his being the rightful heir to the views, a commission was appointed to receive crown. Such a coincidence of ideas on so her answers to certain interrogatories. Their obvious a topic seems very far from superreport proved favourable; and meanwhile sev- natural or even surprising. eral other lords of the Court, whom curiosity led to visit her, came back much struck with her natural eloquence, with her high strain of inspiration, and with her unaffected fervour of piety. No sign of imposture appeared in any VOL. LXIX. 21 * De Boissy repeated the story to N. Sala, pannetier du Dauphin,' whose MS. account of it is preserved at the Bibliotheque Royale, and quoted in the Supplement des Mémoires. (Collection, vol. viii., p. 153). |