This valley, two or three miles broad, stretches unbroken between low hills, softly undulating, crowned with oaks, maples8, and birches. Although strewn with wild-flowers in the spring, it looks severe, grave, and sometimes even sad. The green grass imparts to it a monotony like that of stagnant9 water. Even on fine days one is conscious of a hard, cold climate.[Pg i.2] The sky seems more genial10 than the earth. It beams upon it with a tearful smile; it constitutes all the movement, the grace, the exquisite11 charm of this delicate tranquil12 landscape. Then when winter comes the sky merges13 with the earth in a kind of chaos14. Fogs come down thick and clinging. The white light mists, which in summer veil the bottom of the valley, give place to thick clouds and dark moving mountains, but slowly scattered15 by a red, cold sun. Wanderers ranging the uplands in the early morning might dream with the mystics in their ecstasy16 that they are walking on clouds.
Thus, after having passed on the left the wooded plateau, from the height of which the chateau1 of Bourlémont dominates the valley of the Saonelle, and on the right Coussey with its old church, the winding17 river flows between le Bois Chesnu on the west and the hill of Julien on the east. Then on it goes, passing the adjacent villages of Domremy and Greux on the west bank and separating Greux from Maxey-sur-Meuse. Among other hamlets nestling in the hollows of the hills or rising on the high ground, it passes Burey-la-C?te, Maxey-sur-Vaise, and Burey-en-Vaux, and flows on to water the beautiful meadows of Vaucouleurs.[147]
In this little village of Domremy, situated18 at least seven and a half miles further down the river than Neufchateau and twelve and a half above Vaucouleurs, there was born, about the year 1410 or 1412,[148][Pg i.3] a girl who was destined19 to live a remarkable20 life. She was born poor. Her father,[149] Jacques or Jacquot d'Arc, a native of the village of Ceffonds in Champagne21,[150] was a small farmer and himself drove his horses at the plough.[151] His neighbours, men and women alike, held him to be a good Christian22 and an industrious23 workman.[152] His wife came from Vouthon, a village nearly four miles northwest of Domremy, beyond the woods of Greux. Her name being Isabelle or Zabillet, she received at some time, exactly when is uncertain, the surname of Romée.[153] That name was given to those who had been to Rome or on some other important pilgrimage;[154] and it is possible that Isabelle may have acquired her name of Romée by[Pg i.4] assuming the pilgrim's shell and staff.[155] One of her brothers was a parish priest, another a tiler; she had a nephew who was a carpenter.[156] She had already borne her husband three children: Jacques or Jacquemin, Catherine, and Jean.[157]
Jacques d'Arc's house was on the verge24 of the precincts of the parish church, dedicated25 to Saint Remi, the apostle of Gaul.[158] There was only the graveyard26 to cross when the child was carried to the font. It is said that in those days and in that country the form of exorcism pronounced by the priest during the baptismal ceremony was much longer for girls than for boys.[159] We do not know whether Messire Jean Minet,[160] the parish priest, pronounced it over the child in all its literal fulness, but we notice the custom as one of the numerous signs of the Church's invincible27 mistrust of woman.
According to the custom then prevailing29 the child[Pg i.5] had several godfathers and godmothers.[161] The men-gossips were Jean Morel, of Greux,[162] husbandman; Jean Barrey, of Neufchateau; Jean Le Langart or Lingui, and Jean Rainguesson; the women, Jeannette, wife of Thévenin le Royer, called Roze, of Domremy; Béatrix, wife of Estellin,[163] husbandman in the same village; Edite, wife of Jean Barrey; Jeanne, wife of Aubrit, called Jannet and described as Maire Aubrit when he was appointed secretary to the lords of Bourlémont; Jeannette, wife of Thiesselin de Vittel, a scholar of Neufchateau. She was the most learned of all, for she had heard stories read out of books. Among the godmothers there are mentioned also the wife of Nicolas d'Arc, Jacques' brother, and two obscure Christians30, one called Agnes, the other Sibylle.[164] Here, as in every group of good Catholics, we have a number of Jeans, Jeannes, and Jeannettes. St. John the Baptist was a saint of high repute; his festival, kept on the 24th of June, was a red-letter day in the calendar, both civil and religious; it marked the customary date for leases, hirings, and contracts of all kinds. In the opinion of certain ecclesiastics31, especially of the mendicant32 orders, St. John the Evangelist, whose head had rested on the Saviour33's breast and who was to return to earth when the ages should have run their course, was the greatest saint in Paradise.[165] Wherefore, in honour of[Pg i.6] the Precursor34 of the Saviour or of his best beloved disciple35, when babes were baptised the name Jean or Jeanne was frequently preferred to all others. To render these holy names more in keeping with the helplessness of childhood and the humble36 destiny awaiting most of us, they were given the diminutive37 forms of Jeannot and Jeannette. On the banks of the Meuse the peasants had a particular liking38 for these diminutives39 at once unpretentious and affectionate: Jacquot, Pierrollot, Zabillet, Mengette, Guillemette.[166] After the wife of the scholar, Thiesselin, the child was named Jeannette. That was the name by which she was known in the village. Later, in France, she was called Jeanne.[167]
She was brought up in her father's house, in Jacques' poor dwelling40.[168] In the front there were two windows admitting but a scanty41 light. The stone roof forming one side of a gable on the garden side sloped almost to the ground. Close by the door, as was usual in that country, were the dung-heap, a pile of firewood, and the farm tools covered with rust28 and mud. But the humble enclosure, which served[Pg i.7] as orchard42 and kitchen-garden, in the spring bloomed in a wealth of pink and white flowers.[169]
These good Christians had one more child, the youngest, Pierre, who was called Pierrelot.[170]
Fed on light wine and brown bread, hardened by a hard life, Jeanne grew up in an unfruitful land, among people who were rough and sober. She lived in perfect liberty. Among hard-working peasants the children are left to themselves. Isabelle's daughter seems to have got on well with the village children.
A little neighbour, Hauviette, three or four years younger than she, was her daily companion. They liked to sleep together in the same bed.[171] Mengette, whose parents lived close by, used to come and spin at Jacques d'Arc's house. She helped Jeanne with her household duties.[172] Taking her distaff with her, Jeanne used often to go and pass the evening at Saint-Amance, at the house of a husbandman Jacquier, who had a young daughter.[173] Boys and girls grew up as a matter of course side by side. Being neighbours, Jeanne and Simonin Musnier's son were brought up together. When Musnier's son was still a child he fell ill, and Jeanne nursed him.[174]
In those days it was not unprecedented43 for village maidens44 to know their letters. A few years earlier Ma?tre Jean Gerson had counselled his sisters, peasants of Champagne, to learn to read, and had promised, if they succeeded, to give them edifying[Pg i.8] books.[175] Albeit45 the niece of a parish priest, Jeanne did not learn her horn-book, thus resembling most of the village children, but not all, for at Maxey there was a school attended by boys from Domremy.[176]
From her mother she learnt the Paternoster, Ave Maria, and the credo.[177] She heard a few beautiful stories of the saints. That was her whole education. On holy days, in the nave46 of the church, beneath the pulpit, while the men stood round the wall, she, in the manner of the peasant women, squatted47 on her toes, listening to the priest's sermon.[178]
As soon as she was old enough she laboured in the fields, weeding, digging, and, like the Lorraine maidens of to-day, doing the work of a man.[179]
The river meadows were the chief source of wealth to the dwellers48 on the banks of the Meuse. When the hay harvest was over, according to his share of the arable49 land, each villager in Domremy had the right to turn so many head of cattle into the meadows of[Pg i.9] the village. Each family took its turn at watching the flocks and herds50 in the meadows. Jacques d'Arc, who had a little grazing land of his own, turned out his oxen and his horses with the others. When his turn came to watch them, he delegated the task to his daughter Jeanne, who went off into the meadow, distaff in hand.[180]
But she would rather do housework or sew or spin. She was pious51. She swore neither by God nor his saints; and to assert the truth of anything she was content to say: "There's no mistake."[181] When the bells rang for the Angelus, she crossed herself and knelt.[182] On Saturday, the Holy Virgin's day, she climbed the hill overgrown with grass, vines, and fruit-trees, with the village of Greux nestling at its foot, and gained the wooded plateau, whence she could see on the east the green valley and the blue hills. On the brow of the hill, barely two and a half miles from the village, in a shaded dale full of murmuring sounds, from beneath beeches52, ash-trees, and oaks gush54 forth55 the clear waters of the Saint-Thiébault spring, which cure fevers and heal wounds. Above the spring rises the chapel56 of Notre-Dame57 de Bermont. In fine weather it is pervaded58 by the scent59 of fields and woods, and winter wraps this high ground in a mantle60 of sadness and silence. In those days, clothed in a royal cloak and wearing a crown, with her divine child in her arms, Notre-Dame de Bermont received the prayers and the offerings of young men and maidens. She worked miracles. Jeanne used to visit her with her sister Catherine and the[Pg i.10] boys and girls of the neighbourhood, or quite alone. And as often as she could she lit a candle in honour of the heavenly lady.[183]
A mile and a quarter west of Domremy was a hill covered with a dense61 wood, which few dared enter for fear of boars and wolves. Wolves were the terror of the countryside. The village mayors gave rewards for every head of a wolf or wolf-cub brought them.[184] This wood, which Jeanne could see from her threshold, was the Bois Chesnu, the wood of oaks, or possibly the hoary62 [chenu] wood, the old forest.[185] We shall see later how this Bois Chesnu was the subject of a prophecy of Merlin the Magician.
At the foot of the hill, towards the village, was a spring[186] on the margin63 of which gooseberry bushes intertwined their branches of greyish green. It was called the Gooseberry Spring or the Blackthorn Spring.[187] If, as was thought by a graduate of the University of Paris,[188] Jeanne described it as La Fontaine-aux-Bonnes-Fées-Notre-Seigneur, it must have been because the village people called it by that name. By making use of such a term it would seem as if those rustic64 souls were trying to Christianise the nymphs of the woods and waters, in whom certain teachers discerned the demons65 which the heathen once worshipped as goddesses.[189] It was quite true.[Pg i.11] Goddesses as much feared and venerated67 as the Parc? had come to be called Fates,[190] and to them had been attributed power over the destinies of men. But, fallen long since from their powerful and high estate, these village fairies had grown as simple as the people among whom they lived. They were invited to baptisms, and a place at table was laid for them in the room next the mother's. At these festivals they ate alone and came and went without any one's knowing; people avoided spying upon their movements for fear of displeasing68 them. It is the custom of divine personages to go and come in secret. They gave gifts to new-born infants. Some were very kind, but most of them, without being malicious69, appeared irritable70, capricious, jealous; and if they were offended even unintentionally, they cast evil spells. Sometimes they betrayed their feminine nature by unaccountable likes and dislikes. More than one found a lover in a knight71 or a churl72; but generally such loves came to a bad end. And, when all is said, gentle or terrible, they remained the Fates, they were always the Destinies.[191]
Near by, on the border of the wood, was an ancient beech53, overhanging the highroad to Neufchateau and casting a grateful shade.[192] The beech was venerated almost as piously73 as had been those trees which were held sacred in the days before apostolic missionaries74 evangelised Gaul.[193] No hand dared[Pg i.12] touch its branches, which swept the ground. "Even the lilies are not more beautiful,"[194] said a rustic. Like the spring the tree had many names. It was called l'Arbre-des-Dames, l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames, l'Arbre-des-Fées, l'Arbre-Charmine-Fée-de-Bourlémont, le Beau-Mai.[195]
Every one at Domremy knew that fairies existed and that they had been seen under l'Arbre-aux-Loges-les-Dames. In the old days, when Berthe was spinning, a lord of Bourlémont, called Pierre Granier,[196] became a fairy's knight, and kept his tryst75 with her at eve under the beech-tree. A romance told of their loves. One of Jeanne's godmothers, who was a scholar at Neufchateau, had heard this story, which closely resembled that tale of Melusina so well known in Lorraine.[197] But a doubt remained as to whether fairies still frequented the beech-tree. Some believed they did, others thought they did not. Béatrix, another of Jeanne's godmothers, used to say: "I have heard tell that fairies came to the tree in the old days. But for their sins they come there no longer."[198]
This simple-minded woman meant that the fairies were the enemies of God and that the priest had driven them away. Jean Morel, Jeanne's godfather, believed the same.[199]
House of Joan of Arc
THE HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMREMY IN 1419
[Pg i.13]
Indeed on Ascension Eve, on Rogation days and Ember days, crosses were carried through the fields and the priest went to l'Arbre-des-Fées and chanted the Gospel of St. John. He chanted it also at the Gooseberry Spring and at the other springs in the parish.[200] For the exorcising of evil spirits there was nothing like the Gospel of St. John.[201]
My Lord Aubert d'Ourches held that there had been no fairies at Domremy for twenty or thirty years.[202] On the other hand there were those in the village who believed that Christians still held converse76 with them and that Thursday was the trysting day.
Yet another of Jeanne's godmothers, the wife of the mayor Aubrit, had with her own eyes seen fairies under the tree. She had told her goddaughter. And Aubrit's wife was known to be no witch or soothsayer but a good woman and a circumspect77.[203]
In all this Jeanne suspected witchcraft78. For her own part she had never met the fairies under the tree. But she would not have said that she had not seen fairies elsewhere.[204] Fairies are not like angels; they do not always appear what they really are.[205]
Every year, on the fourth Sunday in Lent,—called by the Church "L?tare79 Sunday," because during the mass of the day was chanted the passage beginning L?tare Jerusalem,—the peasants of Bar held a rustic festival. This was their well-dressing when they went together to drink from some spring and to[Pg i.14] dance on the grass. The peasants of Greux kept their festival at the Chapel of Notre-Dame de Bermont; those of Domremy at the Gooseberry Spring and at l'Arbre-des-Fées.[206] They used to recall the days when the lord and lady of Bourlémont themselves led the young people of the village. But Jeanne was still a babe in arms when Pierre de Bourlémont, lord of Domremy and Greux, died childless, leaving his lands to his niece Jeanne de Joinville, who lived at Nancy, having married the chamberlain of the Duke of Lorraine.[207]
At the well-dressing the young men and maidens of Domremy went to the old beech-tree together. After they had hung it with garlands of flowers, they spread a cloth on the grass and supped off nuts, hard-boiled eggs, and little rolls of a curious form, which the housewives had kneaded on purpose.[208] Then they drank from the Gooseberry Spring, danced in a ring, and returned to their own homes at nightfall.
Jeanne, like all the other damsels of the countryside, took her part in the well-dressing. Although she came from the quarter of Domremy nearest Greux, she kept her feast, not at Notre-Dame de Bermont, but at the Gooseberry Spring and l'Arbre-des-Fées.[209]
In her early childhood she danced round the tree with her companions. She wove garlands for the image of Notre-Dame de Domremy, whose chapel[Pg i.15] crowned a neighbouring hill. The maidens were wont80 to hang garlands on the branches of l'Arbre-des-Fées. Jeanne, like the others, bewreathed the tree's branches; and, like the others, sometimes she left her wreaths behind and sometimes she carried them away. No one knew what became of them; and it seems their disappearance81 was such as to cause wise and learned persons to wonder. One thing, however, is sure: that the sick who drank from the spring were healed and straightway walked beneath the tree.[210]
Close by l'Arbre-des-Dames, beneath a hazel-tree, there was a mandrake. He promised wealth to whomsoever should dare by night, and according to the prescribed rites83, to tear him from the ground,[212] not fearing to hear him cry or to see blood flow from his little human body and his forked feet.
The tree, the spring, and the mandrake caused the inhabitants of Domremy to be suspected of holding converse with evil spirits. A learned doctor said plainly that the country was famous for the number of persons who practised witchcraft.[213]
When quite a little girl, Jeanne journeyed several times to Sermaize in Champagne, where dwelt certain of her kinsfolk. The village priest, Messire Henri de Vouthon, was her uncle on her mother's[Pg i.16] side. She had a cousin there, Perrinet de Vouthon, by calling a tiler, and his son Henri.[214]
Full thirty-seven and a half miles of forest and heath lie between Domremy and Sermaize. Jeanne, we may believe, travelled on horseback, riding behind her brother on the little mare84 which worked on the farm.[215]
At each visit the child spent several days at her cousin Perrinet's house.[216]
With regard to feudal85 overlordship the village of Domremy was divided into two distinct parts. The southern part, with the chateau on the Meuse and some thirty homesteads, belonged to the lords of Bourlémont and was in the domain86 of the castellany of Grondrecourt, held in fief from the crown of France. It was a part of Lorraine and of Bar. The northern half of the village, in which the monastery87 was situated, was subject to the provost of Montéclaire and Andelot and was in the bailiwick of Chaumont in Champagne.[217] It was sometimes called Domremy de Greux because it seemed to form a part of the village of Greux adjoining it on the highroad in the direction[Pg i.17] of Vaucouleurs.[218] The serfs of Bourlémont were separated from the king's men by a brook88, close by towards the west, flowing from a threefold source and hence called, so it is said, the Brook of the Three Springs. Modestly the stream flowed beneath a flat stone in front of the church, and then rushed down a rapid incline into the Meuse, opposite Jacques d'Arc's house, which it passed on the left, leaving it in the land of Champagne and of France.[219] So far we may be fairly certain; but we must beware of knowing more than was known in that day. In 1429 King Charles' council was uncertain as to whether Jacques d'Arc was a freeman or a serf.[220] And Jacques d'Arc himself doubtless was no better informed. On both banks of the brook, the men of Lorraine and Champagne were alike peasants leading a life of toil89 and hardship. Although they were subject to different masters they formed none the less one community closely united, one single rural family. They shared interests, necessities, feelings—everything. Threatened by the same dangers, they had the same anxieties.
Lying at the extreme south of the castellany of Vaucouleurs, the village of Domremy was between Bar and Champagne on the east, and Lorraine on the west.[221] They were terrible neighbours,[Pg i.18] always warring against each other, those dukes of Lorraine and Bar, that Count of Vaudémont, that Damoiseau of Commercy, those Lord Bishops90 of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. But theirs were the quarrels of princes. The villagers observed them just as the frog in the old fable92 looked on at the bulls fighting in the meadow. Pale and trembling, poor Jacques saw himself trodden underfoot by these fierce warriors93. At a time when the whole of Christendom was given up to pillage94, the men-at-arms of the Lorraine Marches were renowned95 as the greatest plunderers in the world. Unfortunately for the labourers of the castellany of Vaucouleurs, close to this domain, towards the north, there lived Robert de Saarbruck, Damoiseau of Commercy, who, subsisting98 on plunder96, was especially given to the Lorraine custom of marauding. He was of the same way of thinking as that English king who said that warfare99 without burnings was no good, any more than chitterlings without mustard.[222] One day, when he was besieging100 a little stronghold in which the peasants had taken refuge, the Damoiseau set fire to the crops of the neighbourhood and let them burn all night long, so that he might see more clearly how to place his men.[223]
In 1419 this baron101 was making war on the brothers Didier and Durand of Saint-Dié. It matters not for what reason. For this war as for every war the villagers had to pay. As the men-at-arms were fighting throughout the whole castellany of Vau[Pg i.19]couleurs, the inhabitants of Domremy began to devise means of safety, and in this wise. At Domremy there was a castle built in the meadow at the angle of an island formed by two arms of the river, one of which, the eastern arm, has long since been filled up.[224] Belonging to this castle was a chapel of Our Lady, a courtyard provided with means of defence, and a large garden surrounded by a moat wide and deep. This castle, once the dwelling of the Lords of Bourlémont, was commonly called the Fortress102 of the Island. The last of the lords having died without children, his property had been inherited by his niece Jeanne de Joinville. But soon after Jeanne d'Arc's birth she married a Lorraine baron, Henri d'Ogiviller, with whom she went to reside at the castle of Ogiviller and at the ducal court of Nancy. Since her departure the fortress of the island had remained uninhabited. The village folk decided103 to rent it and to put their tools and their cattle therein out of reach of the plunderers. The renting was put up to auction104. A certain Jean Biget of Domremy and Jacques d'Arc, Jeanne's father, being the highest bidders105, and having furnished sufficient security, a lease was drawn106 up between them and the representatives of Dame d'Ogiviller. The fortress, the garden, the courtyard, as well as the meadows belonging to the domain, were let to Jean Biget and Jacques d'Arc for a term of nine years beginning on St. John the Baptist's Day, 1419, and in consideration of a yearly rent of fourteen livres tournois[225] and three imaux of wheat.[226] Besides[Pg i.20] the two tenants107 in chief there were five sub-tenants, of whom the first mentioned was Jacquemin, the eldest108 of Jacques d'Arc's sons.[227]
The precaution proved to be useful. In that very year, 1419, Robert de Saarbruck and his company met the men of the brothers Didier and Durand at the village of Maxey, the thatched roofs of which were to be seen opposite Greux, on the other bank of the Meuse, along the foot of wooded hills. The two sides here engaged in a battle, in which the victorious109 Damoiseau took thirty-five prisoners, whom he afterwards liberated110 after having exacted a high ransom111, as was his wont. Among these prisoners was the Squire112 Thiesselin de Vittel, whose wife had held Jacques d'Arc's second daughter over the baptismal font. From one of the hills of her village, Jeanne, who was then seven or a little older, could see the battle in which her godmother's husband was taken prisoner.[228]
Meanwhile matters grew worse and worse in the kingdom of France. This was well known at Domremy, situated as it was on the highroad, and hearing the news brought by wayfarers113.[229] Thus it was that the villagers heard of the murder of Duke[Pg i.21] John of Burgundy on the Bridge at Montereau, when the Dauphin's Councillors made him pay the price of the blood he had shed in the Rue66 Barbette. These Councillors, however, struck a bad bargain; for the murder on the Bridge brought their young Prince very low. There followed the war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. From this war the English, the obstinate114 enemies of the kingdom, who for two hundred years had held Guyenne and carried on a prosperous trade there,[230] sucked no small advantage. But Guyenne was far away, and perhaps no one at Domremy knew that it had once been a part of the domain of the kings of France. On the other hand every one was aware that during the recent trouble the English had recrossed the sea and had been welcomed by my Lord Philip, son of the late Duke John. They occupied Normandy, Maine, Picardy, l'?le-de-France, and Paris the great city.[231] Now in France the English were bitterly hated and greatly feared on account of their reputation for cruelty. Not that they were really more wicked than other nations.[232] In Normandy, their king, Henry, had caused women and property to be respected in all places under his dominion115. But war is in itself cruel, and whosoever wages war in a country is rightly hated by the people of that country. The English were accused of treachery, and not[Pg i.22] always wrongly accused, for good faith is rare among men. They were ridiculed116 in various ways. Playing upon their name in Latin and in French, they were called angels. Now if they were angels they were assuredly bad angels. They denied God, and their favorite oath Goddam[233] was so often on their lips that they were called Godons. They were devils. They were said to be coués, that is, to have tails behind.[234] There was mourning in many a French household when Queen Ysabeau delivered the kingdom of France to the coués,[235] making of the noble French lilies a litter for the leopard117. Since then, only a few days apart, King Henry V of Lancaster and King Charles VI of Valois, the victorious king and the mad king, had departed to present themselves before God, the Judge of the good and the evil, the just and the unjust, the weak and the powerful. The castellany of Vaucouleurs was French.[236] Dwelling there were clerks and nobles who pitied that later Joash, torn from his enemies in childhood, an orphan118 spoiled of his heritage, in whom centred the hope of the kingdom. But how can we imagine that poor husbandmen had leisure to ponder on these[Pg i.23] things? How can we really believe that the peasants of Domremy were loyal to the Dauphin Charles, their lawful119 lord, while the Lorrainers of Maxey, following their Duke, were on the side of the Burgundians?
Only the river divided Maxey on the right bank from Domremy. The Domremy and Greux children went there to school. There were quarrels between them; the little Burgundians of Maxey fought pitched battles with the little Armagnacs of Domremy. More than once Joan, at the Bridge end in the evening, saw the lads of her village returning covered with blood.[237] It is quite possible that, passionate120 as she was, she may have gravely espoused121 these quarrels and conceived therefrom a bitter hatred122 of the Burgundians. Nevertheless, we must beware of finding an indication of public opinion in these boyish games played by the sons of villeins. For centuries the brats123 of these two parishes were to fight and to insult each other.[238] Insults and stones fly whenever and wherever children gather in bands, and those of one village meet those of another. The peasants of Domremy, Greux, and Maxey, we may be sure, vexed124 themselves little about the affairs of dukes and kings. They had learnt to be as much afraid of the captains of their own side as of the captains of the opposite party, and not to draw any distinction between the men-at-arms who were their friends and those who were their enemies.
In 1429 the English occupied the bailiwick of Chaumont and garrisoned125 several fortresses126 in[Pg i.24] Bassigny. Messire Robert, Lord of Baudricourt and Blaise, son of the late Messire Liébault de Baudricourt, was then captain of Vaucouleurs and bailie of Chaumont for the Dauphin Charles. He might be reckoned a great plunderer97, even in Lorraine. In the spring of this year, 1420, the Duke of Burgundy having sent an embassy to the Lord Bishop91 of Verdun, as the ambassadors were returning they were taken prisoners by Sire Robert in league with the Damoiseau of Commercy. To avenge127 this offence the Duke of Burgundy declared war on the Captain of Vaucouleurs, and the castellany was ravaged128 by bands of English and Burgundians.[239]
In 1423 the Duke of Lorraine was waging war with a terrible man, one étienne de Vignolles, a Gascon soldier of fortune already famous under the dreaded129 name of La Hire,[240] which he was to leave after his death to the knave130 of hearts in those packs of cards marked by the greasy131 fingers of many a mercenary. La Hire was nominally132 on the side of the Dauphin Charles, but in reality he only made war on his own account. At this time he was ravaging133 Bar west and south, burning churches and laying waste villages.
While he was occupying Sermaize, the church of which was fortified134, Jean, Count of Salm, who was governing the Duchy of Bar for the Duke of Lorraine, laid siege to it with two hundred horse. Collot Turlaut, who two years before had married Mengette,[Pg i.25] daughter of Jean de Vouthon and Jeanne's cousin-german,[241] was killed there by a bomb fired from a Lorraine mortar135.
Jacques d'Arc was then the elder (doyen) of the community. Many duties fell to the lot of the village elder, especially in troubled times. It was for him to summon the mayor and the aldermen to the council meetings, to cry the decrees, to command the watch day and night, to guard the prisoners. It was for him also to collect taxes, rents, and feudal dues, an ungrateful office in a ruined country.[242]
Under pretence136 of safeguarding and protecting them, Robert de Saarbruck, Damoiseau of Commercy, who for the moment was Armagnac, was plundering137 and ransoming138 the villages belonging to Bar, on the left bank of the Meuse.[243] On the 7th of October, 1423, Jacques d'Arc, as elder, signed below the mayor and sheriff the act by which the Squire extorted139 from these poor people the annual payment of two gros from each complete household and one from each widow's household, a tax which amounted to no less than two hundred and twenty golden crowns, which the elder was charged to collect before the winter feast of Saint-Martin.[244]
The following year was bad for the Dauphin Charles, for the French and Scottish horsemen of his party met with the worst possible treatment at Verneuil. This year the Damoiseau of Commercy turned Burgundian and was none the better or the[Pg i.26] worse for it.[245] Captain La Hire was still fighting in Bar, but now it was against the young son of Madame Yolande, the Dauphin Charles's brother-in-law, René d'Anjou, who had lately come of age and was now invested with the Duchy of Bar. At the point of the lance Captain La Hire was demanding certain sums of money that the Cardinal140 Duke of Bar owed him.[246]
At the same time Robert, Sire de Baudricourt, was fighting with Jean de Vergy, lord of Saint-Dizier, Seneschal of Burgundy.[247] It was a fine war. On both sides the combatants laid hands on bread, wine, money, silver-plate, clothes, cattle big and little, and what could not be carried off was burnt. Men, women, and children were put to ransom. In most of the villages of Bassigny agriculture was suspended, nearly all the mills were destroyed.[248]
Ten, twenty, thirty bands of Burgundians were ravaging the castellany of Vaucouleurs, laying it waste with fire and sword. The peasants hid their horses by day, and by night got up to take them to graze. At Domremy life was one perpetual alarm.[249] All day and all night there was a watchman stationed on the square tower of the monastery. Every villager, and, if the prevailing custom were observed, even the priest, took his turn as watchman, peering for the glint of lances through the dust and sunlight down the white ribbon of the road, searching the horrid141 depths of the wood, and by night trembling to see the[Pg i.27] villages on the horizon bursting into flame. At the approach of men-at-arms the watchman would ring a noisy peal142 of those bells, which in turn celebrated143 births, mourned for the dead, summoned the people to prayer, dispelled144 storms of thunder and lightning, and warned of danger. Half clothed the awakened145 villagers would rush to stable, to cattle-shed, and pell-mell drive their flocks and herds to the castle between the two arms of the River Meuse.[250]
One day in the summer of 1425, there fell upon the villages of Greux and Domremy a certain chief of these marauding bands, who was murdering and plundering throughout the land, by name Henri d'Orly, known as Henri de Savoie. This time the island fortress was of no use to the villagers. Lord Henri took all the cattle from the two villages and drove them fifteen or twenty leagues[251] away to his chateau of Doulevant. He had also captured much furniture and other property; and the quantity of it was so great that he could not store it all in one place; wherefore he had part of it carried to Dommartin-le-Franc, a neighbouring village, where there was a chateau with so large a court in front that the place was called Dommartin-la-Cour. The peasants cruelly despoiled146 were dying of hunger. Happily for them, at the news of this pillage, Dame d'Ogiviller sent to the Count of Vaudémont in his chateau of Joinville, complaining to him, as her kinsman147, of the wrong done her, since she was lady of Greux and Domremy. The chateau of Doulevant was under the immediate148 suzerainty of the Count of Vaudémont. As soon as he received his kinswoman's message he[Pg i.28] sent a man-at-arms with seven or eight soldiers to recapture the cattle. This man-at-arms, by name Barthélemy de Clefmont, barely twenty years of age, was well skilled in deeds of war. He found the stolen beasts in the chateau of Dommartin-le-Franc, took them and drove them to Joinville. On the way he was pursued and attacked by Lord d'Orly's men and stood in great danger of death. But so valiantly149 did he defend himself that he arrived safe and sound at Joinville, bringing the cattle, which the Count of Vaudémont caused to be driven back to the pastures of Greux and Domremy.[252]
Unexpected good fortune! With tears the husbandman welcomed his restored flocks and herds. But was he not likely to lose them for ever on the morrow?
At that time Jeanne was thirteen or fourteen. War everywhere around her, even in the children's play; the husband of one of her godmothers taken and ransomed150 by men-at-arms; the husband of her cousin-german Mengette killed by a mortar;[253] her native land overrun by marauders, burnt, pillaged151, laid waste, all the cattle carried off; nights of terror, dreams of horror,—such were the surroundings of her childhood.
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1
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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maples
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| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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18
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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ecclesiastics
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| n.神职者，教会，牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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mendicant
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| n.乞丐；adj.行乞的 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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precursor
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| n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆 | |
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disciple
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| n.信徒，门徒，追随者 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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diminutives
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| n.微小( diminutive的名词复数 )；昵称，爱称 | |
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40
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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41
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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42
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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43
unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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44
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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45
albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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46
nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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47
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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48
dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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49
arable
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| adj.可耕的，适合种植的 | |
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50
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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51
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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52
beeches
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| n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 )；山毛榉木材 | |
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53
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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54
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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55
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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57
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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58
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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60
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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61
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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62
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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63
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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64
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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65
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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66
rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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venerated
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| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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68
displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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69
malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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70
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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71
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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72
churl
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| n.吝啬之人；粗鄙之人 | |
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piously
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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75
tryst
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| n.约会；v.与…幽会 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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circumspect
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| adj.慎重的，谨慎的 | |
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78
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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79
tare
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| n.皮重；v.量皮重 | |
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80
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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81
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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82
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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83
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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84
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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85
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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88
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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92
fable
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| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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94
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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96
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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plunderer
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| 掠夺者 | |
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subsisting
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的现在分词 ) | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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101
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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104
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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105
bidders
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| n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 ) | |
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106
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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liberated
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| a.无拘束的，放纵的 | |
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ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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114
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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115
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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117
leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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118
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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119
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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121
espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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123
brats
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| n.调皮捣蛋的孩子( brat的名词复数 ) | |
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124
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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125
garrisoned
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| 卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 )； 派部队驻防 | |
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fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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127
avenge
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| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
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128
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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129
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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130
knave
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| n.流氓；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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ravaging
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| 毁坏( ravage的现在分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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134
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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135
mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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137
plundering
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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ransoming
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| 付赎金救人，赎金( ransom的现在分词 ) | |
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139
extorted
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| v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 )；曲解 | |
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140
cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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141
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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142
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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143
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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144
dispelled
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| v.驱散，赶跑( dispel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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146
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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ransomed
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| 付赎金救人，赎金( ransom的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pillaged
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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