|WHEN Joan reached Chinon, she was lodged with a lady who was very kind,
and she waited to see the Dauphin. His advisers were not sure that he
ought to see the Maid at all; but probably he was curious, and at last
she was brought to the castle, and led up the stairs to a great hall,
where were many men in splendid dresses. The castle is in ruins now, and
the hall has no roof over it, but you can still go in and see the walls,
and empty windows, and the great fireplace. A man plainly dressed was
in the crowd of magnificent courtiers in silk and gold embroidery. Joan
went straight up, and kneeling on one knee, said, “Fair Sir, you are the
Dauphin to whom I am come.” But the man pointed to a knight, very richly
dressed, and said, “That is the King.”
“No, fair Sir,” said Joan; “it is to you that I am sent.”
[Illustration: 0045]
The Dauphin, for the man was the Dauphin, was surprised at this, for
she had never seen him before. He allowed Jean to come to the castle
and talk to him, but he was not sure that she was not an impostor, or a
silly girl.
One day, however, she took him aside, into a corner where nobody could
hear what they were talking about. When their conversation was ended,
the Dauphin looked very grave, and Jeanne looked very glad. She had told
him something that made him believe in her.
What had Joan told to the King? It was known at the time that she had
told him something that amazed him, for it is mentioned in a letter
written a few weeks later by Alan Chartier, a famous poet. But nobody
knew the secret: Joan would never let any one know. When she was a
prisoner among the English, the French-priests and lawyers tried to make
her speak, but she would not. It was her King’s secret.
Eight year’s after Joan was dead, a very strange thing happened. A woman
who said that Joan had not died, and that she was Joan, came to Orleans
with Joan’s brothers. The people of Orleans, who had known the Maid very
well, believed that this woman was Joan come again, and feasted her
and gave her presents. Then she was taken to the King. He himself was
puzzled, and said, “Maid, my dear, I am glad to see you again. Do you
remember the secret between you and me?”
Then this false pretender to be the Maid confessed that she knew
nothing.
When the King was old, he revealed the secret to a friend.
On that day when they went apart together at Chinon. Joan reminded him
of the secret prayer which, as I told you, the Dauphin had made when
alone, asking that he might know whether he really was the son of the
late King, and himself the rightful King of France.
“You _are_ the rightful King,” Joan said.
When the Dauphin heard her words, he made things go on quicker. Priests
were sent to Joan’s village to find out if she had been a good girl when
she was at home.
Then she was taken to Poitiers, to be examined by many learned men,
priests and lawyers. They tried to perplex her by their questions, but
she was straightforward, and told them how the Voices had come to her.
One man asked her to give a sign by working a miracle.
“I have not come to Poitiers to give signs.” said Joan; “but let me go
to Orleans, and you shall see what I will do.”
She never professed to work miracles. She wanted to lead an army to
Orleans, and the sign to be given was the defeat of the English, and the
rescue of the besieged town.
For six weary weeks the learned men and priests examined Joan, and tried
in every way to find some fault in her answers. At last they drew up a
report and signed it, saying that “to doubt the Maid would be to resist
the Holy Spirit.” What they were afraid of all the time was that Joan
might be advised by spirits, to be sure, but evil spirits or devils. The
English and the French lawyers on the English side, declared that Joan
was possessed by devils. They thought that, because they could not deny
her powers; but, as she was not on their side, her powers could not come
from God, but from Satan. To think in that way is common: people always
believe that their own side is the right side. But nobody ever heard of
evil spirits taking possession of any one who was really good; and no
man could ever find any single bad thing in Joan the Maid.
So now the Dauphin began to collect an army to march with Joan to
Orleans. Of course he ought to have done that before, even if there had
been no Joan. It was a shameful thing that a strong town, full of brave
men, should be taken by four thousand Englishmen, without an effort by
the French to drive the English away. But the French had lost all heart
and courage: the brave Danois himself said that a large force of French
would run away from a little company of English. All that the French of
the Dauphin’s party needed was courage and confidence. As soon as they
believed in Joan they were full of confidence. They could not turn their
backs as long as a girl of sixteen ran forward in front of them, through
the rain of arrows, and bullets, and cannon balls, waving her banner,
and crying “Come on!”
At this time Joan prophesied that she would be wounded by an arrow at
Orleans, but not to death. So a Flemish ambassador at Chinon wrote to
the magistrates of his town at hone, and his letter was copied into the
town council’s book, before the Maid went to the war.
White armour was made for Joan to wear, and a Scottish painter made a
banner with sacred pictures for her to carry: his daughter was a great
friend of Joan.
The Maid said that, as for a sword, if they dug in the ground behind
the altar at the chapel of St. Catherine, in Fierbois, they would find
a buried sword, which she wished to carry; and it was found, old and
rusty, with five crosses on the blade. The Duke of Alençon, a young
cousin of the King’s, who had been a prisoner of the English, saw Joan
riding one day, and was so pleased with her grace and good horsemanship,
that he gave her a very good horse, and became one of her best friends.
“My fair Duke” was what she used to call him. Every one said that
Joan’s manners were as gentle and courteous as those of the greatest
ladies, though she had been brought up in a poor cottage. Everything
that she did was done in the best way and the noblest.