“Shameless indeed, Bertrand, but take courage. Have you never heard that though a woman should lose France, from the march of Lorraine a Virgin shall
come for its redemption?”
“’Tis Merlin’s prophecy, Louis. ‘A Maid who is to restore France, ruined by a woman, shall come from the Bois Chesnu in the march of Lorraine,’ is the reading. Pouf! What could a maid do in such matters? I believe it not.”
“Nor I,” ejaculated Jacques. He laughed outright suddenly. “Why, the Bois Chesnu is our own wood out there,” and he jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
“Messire, ’tis a prophecy that will fail.”
“Scoff not, ye doubters,” cried Louis. “With God all things are possible. For my part, I would a Maid would come to the healing of France. But there! ’tis long
since I have slept on aught but stones, and fain would I lie upon a bed. Good Jacques, if you have such a thing, show me it, I pray you. I am weary.”
“Then come, messires.” Jacques lighted a candle and led the way to an upper room, while Isabeau opened the doors of the cupboard bed on the far side of the room, and made it ready. Then she drew her children round her to hear their prayers and the Credo. After which the family went to their beds.
But Jeanne lay down upon the floor before the hearth.
[2]
Romée. So called by reason of a pilgrimage achieved either by her or some member of her family to Rome.
[3]
Hucques––Cloaks worn over the armour.
CHAPTER III
THE WAVES OF WAR REACH DOMREMY
“Bright shone the sun, the birds sang cheerfully,
And all the fields seemed joyous in the Spring:
But to Domremy wretched was that day;
For there was lamentation, and the voice
Of anguish, and the deeper agony
That spake not. ”
SOUTHEY. “Joan of Arc. ” Book I.
The condition of France in this year of grace, 1424, was deplorable in the extreme. For more than one hundred years war had raged between England and
France. The kingdom which had been strong and splendid under the great Charlemagne had fallen into disintegration. Unity had no existence. By the treaty of Troyes, signed by the mad King, Charles VI, influenced by his unscrupulous
queen, Isabella of Bavaria, Henry Fifth of England was made Regent of France
during the lifetime of Charles, and assured of the full possession of the French throne after the mad King’s death, thus disinheriting the Dauphin. Of the fourteen provinces left by Charles Fifth to his successor only three remained in the power of the French crown.
It was Henry Fifth’s fond hope that by this treaty and by his marriage with 36 a
French princess the war would cease, and France would lie forever at the foot of England. For a time it seemed as though these hopes were to be justified. Then, in 1422 both he and the French king died, and the war broke out again.
The Duke of Bedford, Henry Fifth’s brother, assumed the regency of France until the young son of Henry Fifth, Henry Sixth, was old enough to be crowned.
Charles, the Dauphin, meantime declared himself king and rightful heir, and many upheld his claim. But there were some, among them the Duke of
Burgundy, the most powerful of the princes of France, who because of private injuries suffered at the hands of the Dauphin, sustained the claim of the English.
Thus the country presented the sad spectacle of French princes warring against
each other and the king more furiously than they did against the invader.
Frenchmen were not Frenchmen; they were Burgundians, Armagnacs, Bretons, or Provencaux. The country was torn in pieces with different causes and cries.
Bands of mercenaries and freebooters ravaged and pillaged the people with a cheerful disregard of the political party to which they belonged.
