Defeat of the English before Montargis-Position of Charles VII.-Commencement of the siege of Orleans-Salisbury killed-Battle of Herrings-Despair of the besieged-Proclamation -The peasant girl of Domremy-Joan of Arc travels to the court of Charles VII.Receives authority to relieve Orleans-Enters the besieged city-English belief in witchcraft-Terrors and defeats of the English-The siege raised-Defeats of Jargeau and Patay-Charles crowned at Rheims-Joan captured at Compiegne-Tried as a sorceress and burnt at Rouen-French war continued-Henry VI. crowned in Paris-The English disgraces and losses-Henry married to Margaret of Anjou-Affairs in England-The duchess of Gloucester accused of witchcraft-Arrest of the duke of Gloucester-Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort.

THE war in France had been conducted without any decided success on either side, after the victory at Verneuil in 1424, till 1427, when the forces of the duke of Bedford sustained a severe defeat, and were compelled to raise the siege of Montargis. But the cause of Charles VII. was little advanced by this partial good fortune. His adherents were quarreling amongst themselves. Many of the nobles who had supported him now deserted a prince whose treasurer declared he had only four crowns in his coffer. Nearly all the fortresses on the right bank of the Loire had been surrendered without defence. The people were enduring famine and disease. Charles, whose character was a little improved by adversity, did not lose hope amidst the evils which surrounded him. He was of an easy nature, and in proportion as his great lords were faithless he addressed himself to the affection of the common people. Gradually a personal as well as a national feeling revived the patriotism which had been almost extinguished. Charles placed his chief reliance upon the possession of Orleans. If that city fell, the provinces beyond the Loire would be open to the English, and he would have to find a shelter in the mountains of Auvergne or the more remote Dauphiné. The English, it was known, were approaching to besiege Orleans. The inhabitants prepared for its defence with unwonted zeal. They received aids of money from other cities; and a tax was voted for the same aid by the three estates assembled at Chinon. The citizens adopted the most effectual means to resist the besiegers. They destroyed their suburbs, with their vines and gardens and houses, that their enemy might have no lodgment; and they

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COMMENCEMENT OF THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS.

[1428.

erected strong forts, particularly that of the Tournelles, which, defending the bridge, secured the communication of the city with the left bank of the Loire. On the 12th of September, 1428, the earl of Salisbury pitched his camp to the south of Orleans, and within a week commenced an attack upon the bulwark of the Tournelles. The assault was resisted with more than usual popular enthusiasm. The experienced warriors discharged their arrows and missiles; and the citizens, male and female, showered down stones upon the assailants. But the fort of the Tournelles was finally taken. The inhabitants

then raised another bulwark on an isle of the river, and cannonaded the English camp. Dunois and La Hire, the bravest of the French chivalry, arrived with reinforcements. The English lost their best commander, Salisbury. He had mounted the ruined tower of the Tournelles to survey the city, when a stone ball struck him, and carried away his eye and a part of his face. He survived eight days. The duke of Suffolk now succeeded to the command; and the siege was pursued with a perseverance as remarkable as the defence. The great extent of Orleans prevented its complete blockade; and supplies were, from time to time, thrown in for the relief of the besieged. Reinforcements, too, continued to arrive. To meet the necessities of the besieging army, the duke of Bedford had despatched an immense convoy with provisions from Paris. It was determined to cut off this supply. The

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DESPAIR OF THE BESIEGED.

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convoy, under the command of Sir John Fastolf, was attacked by a detachment from the garrison of Orleans, and by a body of French and Scots commanded by the count of Clermont. The attack was ill-devised; and was commenced without a proper concert amongst the French leaders. Their force of eight thousand men was defeated by fifteen hundred English. This was called the Battle of Herrings, vast quantities of this lenten food forming part of the supplies. It was fought on the 12th of February, 1429. The line of English forts round the city was gradually extending. Towers and bulwarks were erected on each bank of the Loire by the besiegers. The lines, vigilantly kept, now more effectually prevented the arrival of food or men. Famine was beginning to threaten more misery than the sword. The resolution which still remained to the unhappy people was that of despair. The fame of their gallant resistance had gone through France; and it was felt, even in districts far removed from the scene of warfare, that the time was approaching when it should be decided whether France should be governed by the English Plantagenets or by its own race of Valois.

The feudal lord of Orleans was in captivity in England; and it was proposed by the people, seeing resistance was unavailing, that their city should be placed in the keeping of the duke of Burgundy, till the great contest for the crown of France was decided. Philip of Burgundy was pleased at the proposal, which was communicated to him by ambassadors from Orleans. The duke of Bedford gave no encouragement to the plan, when it was debated between these allied chiefs at Paris. An adviser of Bedford says,"We are not here to champ the morsels for Burgundy to swallow." Bedford rejoins, "No, no, we will not beat the bushes for another to take the birds." Bedford and Burgundy quarreled about the expected prey; and Burgundy withdrew his troops, and left the English to continue the siege alone. The fall of the city was rapidly approaching; when some wonder, not unmixed with contempt, was felt by the leaders of the besieging army, upon receiving a letter dictated in far different terms than those which usually proclaimed the challenges of chivalry: "King of England, and you, duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of the kingdom of France; you, William de la Pole, count of Suffolk; you, John lord Talbot, and you, Thomas lord Scales, who call yourselves lieutenants of the said duke of Bedford, do ye right to the King of Heaven; render to the Pucelle, who is sent hither by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of the good cities you have taken and plundered in France. And you archers, companions in war, gentlemen and others, who are before the city of Orleans, go your ways into your own country, in the name of God. I am sent by the King of Heaven to drive you out of all France." The English captains would have heard the common rumour that from the borders of Champagne a young woman had travelled to the court of Charles, at Chinon, asserting a divine mission; and that her pretensions had been examined before a solemn council of jurists and theologians at Poitiers. The dauphin must indeed be fallen low to depend upon such aid.

In the hamlet of Domremy, near Vaucouleurs, a pastoral country watered by the Meuse, dwelt a little cultivator named Jacques d'Arc, with his wife Isabel. They had a daughter, Joan, who was remarkable for her early piety. Her talents were considerable; but she had received no education, and made the mark of a cross at the beginning of the letters which were written at her

84

THE PEASANT GIRL, JOAN OF ARC.

[1429. dictation. She said of herself, "I feared no woman of Rouen in sewing and spinning." When thirteen years of age, she refused to join in the sports of the young people of her hamlet; and secluded herself in the woods and fields, or was found kneeling before the cross in her parish church. This was after the period when the death of Charles VI. had divided France into two great factions; and the vicinity of Domremy to Burgundy had made the feuds of the Burgundians and the Armagnacs familiar to the peasantry. Joan saw the men of her own village violently disputing as to the merits of these parties; but mostly agreed in hatred of the English. She had herself looked upon the extreme misery of the people; and she attributed it, not without justice, to the invasion which had given the crown to an English king at Paris, whilst the true heir was in danger and difficulty. Her enthusiastic nature was stimulated by these united impulses of religion and patriotism; and in her solitary meditations she began to see visions and to hear voices. The first voice which she heard only exhorted her to be pious and discreet; but then came a figure with wings, and commanded her to go to the succour of the king, for that she should recover his kingdom. From time to time she told what she had seen and heard. "My voices have instructed me”— "My voices have commanded me," were her expressions. She seems to have distinctly separated her own supposed revelations from the local superstitions; for there was near her village a wonderful tree, called the Ladies' tree, growing beside a spring with healing properties; and old people said that fairies frequented the place; but she declared that she never saw fairies, and she never went to the tree to make garlands, as others did, from the time she knew she ought to go to the king. Amongst the ridiculous accusations which were afterwards heaped up against her, she was charged with having attended the witches' sabbath on every Thursday night, at the Fairies' oak of Bourlemont. There was an ancient prophecy, known to the country people, that France should be lost by a woman and saved by a woman. The queen Isabella, who had brought in the English, was the one. The people now added to the prophecy that a virgin from the marches of Lorraine should be the other. Before 1429 Joan was entirely persuaded that she had a power given her to restore the kingdom to Charles VII.

The voices which Joan heard disclosed to her the practical mode of carrying out her strong idea. They told her, what would have been her natural conviction, that she must put herself in communication with some great person. She sought the feudal lord of Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs. He sent her away, as one distraught. She told her story to two gentlemen who dwelt near her. "There is no help for France but in me," she said. "I would rather spin by the side of my poor mother, but I must go. My Lord calls me." Her pretensions were spread abroad. The duke of Lorraine sent for her, to cure him of a malady. She said that she had no heavenly light to remove his disease, and she counselled him to lead a better life than he had been wont to lead. The duke gave her four francs, and bade her depart. At last, the lord of Baudricourt listened to her when she again came before him in her shabby red gown. The people of Vaucouleurs provided her the equipment of a horse and a man's dress; and she went forth on a perilous journey, having received the oaths of John de Novelompont and Bertrand de Poulengi, who had first seriously listened to her pretensions, that they would

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JOAN OF ARC ENTERS ORLEANS.

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conduct her safely to the king. They travelled through a wild country in the winter season, taking the most unfrequented routes, and using every care to avoid the Burgundians and the English. She forwarded a letter, which she dictated, to Charles, and at length received permission to proceed to Chinon, Here she arrived after eleven days' travel. Her fame had gone before her. At last she overcame the difficulties of approaching the king. From that moment when she publicly announced her mission at the court of Charles, many things which she most probably did through her own shrewd sense were accounted miraculous. Thus she is recorded to have selected the prince out of a crowd of attendants; and to have indicated to him an acquaintance with facts only known to himself. It is difficult not to believe that at this stage she had become an instrument in the hands of some persons about the king. Every ostensible precaution, however, appears to have been taken to prevent his cause being committed to an impostor. Her honest life was fully proved; and in the conviction of her sanctity, learned doctors, prudent counsellors, and bold warriors, agreed that the Maid should be confided in. A suit of armour was prepared for her; and she indicated where a sword could be found, behind the altar of a church, at Fierbois. At the head of a large force, she set out for Orleans, having authority for its command over the best knights of France. At Blois she put on her armour. Marching on the right bank of the Loire, she desired to enter Orleans through the English lines on that side. She was overruled by Dunois, of which she bitterly complained. It was at length decided that boats loaded with supplies should proceed up the river. The day was stormy, and the vessels could make no way. "The wind will change," said the confident girl. It did change, and the supplies and the troops were landed safely about six miles below the city. Meanwhile, the garrison of Orleans made a sortie on the north, which diverted the attention of the besiegers. An hour after sunset, Jeanne d'Arc rode into Orleans at the eastern gate, mounted on a white horse, her standard, on which was a figure of the Redeemer, being borne before her. The people by torchlight crowded around her; and she exhorted them to honour God, and to hope in her for their deliverance.

It was the 29th of April when this extraordinary aid, which was firmly believed to be supernatural, arrived to the beleaguered city. In the camp of the English the men would whisper their fears of impending misfortune; for it could not be concealed that a woman, said to be gifted with the spirit of prophecy, was coming to Orleans at the head of a great reinforcement. The shouts that came forth from the populous city on that April night would tell that she was come. The next day a herald from the Pucelle presented himself at the English camp. The respect paid to the messenger of princes was denied to the messenger of a reputed sorceress, and he was threatened to be burnt as a heretic. Another herald came to defy Talbot; and to declare, from the commander of the French, that if the messenger of the Pucelle received any harm, it should be visited upon the English prisoners. These proceedings began to spread alarm amongst the brave yeomen of England, who had fronted so many dangers in the field, but who had a terror of witches and magicians, which was a characteristic of this period. The Church had associated witchcraft and heresy in their proceedings against the early reformers; and, amongst the charges against the Waldenses, they were