The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories [73]
de Paris. We may glance at examples.
The 'Journal du Siege d'Orleans' is in parts a late document, in parts 'evidently copied from a journal kept in presence of the actual events.'* The 'Journal,' in February 1429, vaguely says that, 'about this time' our Lord used to appear to a maid, as she was guarding her flock, or 'cousant et filant.' A St. Victor MS. has courant et saillant (running and jumping), which curiously agrees with Boulainvilliers. The 'Journal,' after telling of the Battle of the Herrings (February 12th, 1429), in which the Scots and French were cut up in an attack on an English convoy, declares that Jeanne 'knew of it by grace divine,' and that her vue a distance induced Baudricourt to send her to the Dauphin.** This was attested by Baudricourt's letters.***
*Quicherat. In Proces, iv. 95. **Proces, iv. 125. ***Proces, iv. 125.
All this may have been written as late as 1468, but a vague reference to an apparition of our Lord rather suggests contemporary hearsay, before Jeanne came to Orleans. Jeanne never claimed any such visions of our Lord. The story of the clairvoyance as to the Battle of the Herrings is also given in the 'Chronique de la Pucelle.'* M. Quicherat thinks that the passage is amplified from the 'Journal du Siege.' On the other hand, M. Vallet (de Viriville) attributes with assurance the 'Chronique de la Pucelle' to Cousinot de Montreuil, who was the Dauphin's secretary at Poictiers, when the Maid was examined there in April 1429.** If Cousinot was the author, he certainly did not write his chronicle till long after date. However, he avers that the story of clairvoyance was current in the spring of 1429. The dates exactly harmonise; that is to say, between the day of the battle, February 12th, and the setting forth of the Maid from Vaucouleurs, there is just time for the bad news from Rouvray to arrive, confirming her statement, and for a day or two of preparation. But perhaps, after the arrival of the bad news, Baudricourt may have sent Jeanne to the King in a kind of despair. Things could not be worse. If she could do no good, she could do no harm.
*Proces, iv. 206. **Histoire de Charles VII., ii. 62.
The documents, whether contemporary or written later by contemporaries, contain none of the references to visions of St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Michael, which we find in Jeanne's own replies at Rouen. For this omission it is not easy to account, even if we suppose that, except when giving evidence on oath, the Maid was extremely reticent. That she was reticent, we shall prove from evidence of d'Aulon and Dunois. Turning to the Maid's own evidence in court (1431) we must remember that she was most averse to speaking at all, that she often asked leave to wait for advice and permission from her voices before replying, that on one point she constantly declared that, if compelled to speak, she would not speak the truth. This point was the King's secret. There is absolutely contemporary evidence, from Alain Chartier, that, before she was accepted, she told Charles SOMETHING which filled him with surprise, joy, and belief.* The secret was connected with Charles's doubts of his own legitimacy, and Jeanne at her trial was driven to obscure the truth in a mist of allegory, as, indeed, she confessed. Jeanne's extreme reluctance to adopt even this loyal and laudable evasion is the measure of her truthfulness in general. Still, she did say some words which, as they stand, it is difficult to believe, to explain, or to account for. From any other prisoner, so unjustly menaced with a doom so dreadful, from Mary Stuart, for example, at Fotheringay, we do not expect the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Maid is a witness of another kind, and where we cannot understand her, we must say, like herself, passez outre!
*Proces, v. 131. Letter of July 1429. See supra, 'The False Pucelle.'
When she was 'about thirteen,' this is her own account, she had a voice from God, to aid her in governing herself. 'And the first time she was in great fear. And it
The 'Journal du Siege d'Orleans' is in parts a late document, in parts 'evidently copied from a journal kept in presence of the actual events.'* The 'Journal,' in February 1429, vaguely says that, 'about this time' our Lord used to appear to a maid, as she was guarding her flock, or 'cousant et filant.' A St. Victor MS. has courant et saillant (running and jumping), which curiously agrees with Boulainvilliers. The 'Journal,' after telling of the Battle of the Herrings (February 12th, 1429), in which the Scots and French were cut up in an attack on an English convoy, declares that Jeanne 'knew of it by grace divine,' and that her vue a distance induced Baudricourt to send her to the Dauphin.** This was attested by Baudricourt's letters.***
*Quicherat. In Proces, iv. 95. **Proces, iv. 125. ***Proces, iv. 125.
All this may have been written as late as 1468, but a vague reference to an apparition of our Lord rather suggests contemporary hearsay, before Jeanne came to Orleans. Jeanne never claimed any such visions of our Lord. The story of the clairvoyance as to the Battle of the Herrings is also given in the 'Chronique de la Pucelle.'* M. Quicherat thinks that the passage is amplified from the 'Journal du Siege.' On the other hand, M. Vallet (de Viriville) attributes with assurance the 'Chronique de la Pucelle' to Cousinot de Montreuil, who was the Dauphin's secretary at Poictiers, when the Maid was examined there in April 1429.** If Cousinot was the author, he certainly did not write his chronicle till long after date. However, he avers that the story of clairvoyance was current in the spring of 1429. The dates exactly harmonise; that is to say, between the day of the battle, February 12th, and the setting forth of the Maid from Vaucouleurs, there is just time for the bad news from Rouvray to arrive, confirming her statement, and for a day or two of preparation. But perhaps, after the arrival of the bad news, Baudricourt may have sent Jeanne to the King in a kind of despair. Things could not be worse. If she could do no good, she could do no harm.
*Proces, iv. 206. **Histoire de Charles VII., ii. 62.
The documents, whether contemporary or written later by contemporaries, contain none of the references to visions of St. Margaret, St. Catherine, and St. Michael, which we find in Jeanne's own replies at Rouen. For this omission it is not easy to account, even if we suppose that, except when giving evidence on oath, the Maid was extremely reticent. That she was reticent, we shall prove from evidence of d'Aulon and Dunois. Turning to the Maid's own evidence in court (1431) we must remember that she was most averse to speaking at all, that she often asked leave to wait for advice and permission from her voices before replying, that on one point she constantly declared that, if compelled to speak, she would not speak the truth. This point was the King's secret. There is absolutely contemporary evidence, from Alain Chartier, that, before she was accepted, she told Charles SOMETHING which filled him with surprise, joy, and belief.* The secret was connected with Charles's doubts of his own legitimacy, and Jeanne at her trial was driven to obscure the truth in a mist of allegory, as, indeed, she confessed. Jeanne's extreme reluctance to adopt even this loyal and laudable evasion is the measure of her truthfulness in general. Still, she did say some words which, as they stand, it is difficult to believe, to explain, or to account for. From any other prisoner, so unjustly menaced with a doom so dreadful, from Mary Stuart, for example, at Fotheringay, we do not expect the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Maid is a witness of another kind, and where we cannot understand her, we must say, like herself, passez outre!
*Proces, v. 131. Letter of July 1429. See supra, 'The False Pucelle.'
When she was 'about thirteen,' this is her own account, she had a voice from God, to aid her in governing herself. 'And the first time she was in great fear. And it