Depositions at Orleans 1455

At that moment, the wind, being contrary, and thereby preventing the boats going up the river and reaching Orleans, turned all at once and became favourable. They stretched the sails; and I ordered the boats to the town, which I entered with Brother Nicolas de Geresme, then Grand Prior in France of the Order of Rhodes. We passed before the Church of Saint Loup in spite of the English. From that time I put good hope in her, even more than before. I had begged her to cross the river and to enter the town, where many were longing for her. She had made a difficulty about it, not wishing, she said, to abandon her army or her followers who were duly confessed, penitent, and of good will; and on their account she refused to come. Thereupon, I went in search of the captains who had charge of the convoy and the army, and besought them, for the welfare of the King, to allow Jeanne to enter Orleans at once, and that they should go up the river—they and the army—to Blois, where they should cross the Loire so as to return to Orleans, for there was no nearer place of crossing. They consented; and Jeanne then came with me. She had in her hand a banner, white in colour, on which was an image of Our Lord holding in His Hand a lily. La Hire crossed the Loire at the same time as she, and entered the city with her and ourselves. All this was much more the work of God than of man: the sudden change of wind immediately Jeanne had announced it; the bringing in of the convoy of supplies in spite of the English, who were in much greater force than all the King’s army; and the statement of Jeanne that she had seen Saint Louis and Saint Charles the Great praying God for the safety of the King and of the City.

Another circumstance made me think these deeds were the work of God. I wished to go towards the army which had turned back on Blois and which was marching to the relief of Orleans; Jeanne would not wait for them nor consent that I should go to meet them: she wished to summon the English to raise the siege at once on pain of being themselves attacked. She did, in fact, summon them by a letter which she wrote to them in French, in which she told them, in very simple terms, that they were to retire from the siege and return to England, or else she would bring against them a great attack, which would force them to retreat. Her letter was sent to Lord Talbot. From that hour, the English—who, up to that time, could, I affirm, with two hundred of their men, have put to rout 800 or 1,000 of ours—were unable, with all their power, to resist 400 or 500 French; they had to be driven into their forts, where they took refuge, and from whence they dared not come forth.

There is another fact which made me believe she was from God. The 27th of May,⁶ very early in the morning, we began the attack on the Boulevard⁷ of the bridge. Jeanne was there wounded by an arrow which penetrated half-a-foot between the neck and the shoulder; but she continued none the less to fight, taking no remedy for her wound. The attack lasted throughout, from the morning until 8 o’clock in the evening, without hope of success for us: for which reason I was anxious that the army should retire into the town. The Maid then came to me, praying me to wait yet a little longer. Thereupon she mounted her horse, retired to a vineyard, all alone by herself, remained in prayer about half an hour, then, returning and seizing her banner by both hands, she placed herself on the edge of the trench. At sight of her the English trembled, and were seized with sudden fear; our people, on the contrary, took courage and began to mount and assail the Boulevard, not meeting any resistance. Thus was the Boulevard taken and the English therein put to flight: all were killed, among them Classidas⁸ and the other principal English captains of the Bastille, who, thinking to gain the Bridge Tower, fell into the river, where they were drowned. This Classidas was he who had spoken of the Maid with the greatest contempt and insult.

The Bastille taken, we re-entered the town of Orleans—the Maid and all the army—where we were received with enthusiasm. Jeanne was taken to her house, to receive the care which her wound required. When the surgeon had dressed it, she began to eat, contenting herself with four or five slices of bread dipped in wine and water, without, on that day, having eaten or drunk anything else.

The next day, early in the morning, the English came out of their camp and placed themselves in order of battle. At this sight, Jeanne got up and put on a light coat of mail; she forbade the English to be attacked or in any way molested but [gave orders] that they should be allowed to depart, which they did, without any pursuit. From that moment the town was delivered.

After the deliverance of Orleans, the Maid, with myself and the other captains, went to seek the King at the Castle of Loches, praying him to attack immediately the towns and the camps on the Loire, Mehun, Beaugency, Jargeau, in order to make his consecration at Rheims more free and sure. This she besought the King often, in the most urgent manner, to hasten, without longer delay. The King used the greatest haste possible, and sent, for this purpose, the Duke d’Alençon, myself and other captains, as well as Jeanne, to reduce these towns and camps. All were reduced in a few days—thanks alone, as I believe, to the intervention of the Maid.

After the deliverance of Orleans, the English assembled together a numerous army, to defend the aforesaid towns, which they occupied. When we had invested the camp and bridge of Beaugency, the English army arrived at the camp of Meung-sur-Loire, which was still under their control. But this army could not come to the help of the English besieged in the camp of Beaugency. At the news of the taking of this camp, all the English divisions joined together into one complete army; and we thought they would offer us battle: we made our dispositions accordingly. In presence of the Constable, myself, and the other captains, the Duke d’Alençon asked Jeanne what was to be done. She answered thus, in a loud voice: “Have all of you good spurs?” “What do you mean?” asked those present of her; “are we, then, to turn our backs?” “Nay,” she replied, “it is the English who will not defend themselves, and will be beaten; and you must have good spurs to pursue them.” And it fell out thus, as she had predicted: the English took to flight, and of killed and prisoners there were more than 4,000.

At Loches, after the raising of the siege of Orleans, I remember that, one day, the King, being in his private room with the Sieur Christopher d’Harcourt, the Bishop of Castres,⁹ his Confessor, and the Sieur de Trèves, who was formerly Chancellor of France,¹⁰ Jeanne and I went to seek him. Before entering, she knocked at the door; as soon as she had entered, she knelt before the King, and, embracing his knees, said these words: “Noble Dauphin! hold no longer these many and long councils, but come quickly to Rheims to take the crown for which you are worthy!” “Is it your Counsel who told you this?” said Christopher d’Harcourt. “Yes,” she answered, “and my Counsel urges me to this most of all.” “Will you not say, here, in presence of the King,” added the Bishop, “what manner of Counsel it is which thus speaks to you?” “I think I understand,” she said, colouring, “what you want to know; and I will tell you willingly.” Then said the King: “Jeanne, will it please you to say, in presence of the persons who are listening to us, what has been asked you?” “Yes, Sire,” she answered. And then she said this, or something approaching it: “When I am vexed that faith is not readily placed in what I wish to say in God’s Name, I retire alone, and pray to God. I complain to Him that those whom I address do not believe me more readily; and, my prayer ended, I hear a Voice which says to me: ‘Daughter of God! go on! go on! go on! I will be thy Help: go on!’ And when I hear this Voice, I have great joy. I would I could always hear it thus.” And, in repeating to us this language of her Voice, she was—strange to say!—in a marvellous rapture, raising her eyes to Heaven.

After the victories of which I have just spoken, the nobles of the Blood Royal and the captains wished the King to go into Normandy, and not to Rheims. But the Maid was always of opinion that it was necessary to go to Rheims, that the King should be consecrated, giving as a reason that, if once the King were consecrated and crowned, the power of his adversaries would decline, and that in the end they would be past the power of doing any injury, either to him or to his kingdom. And all consented to her opinion. The place where the King first halted, with his army, was under the town of Troyes; he there took counsel with the nobles of the Blood, and the other captains, to decide whether they should remain before this town, in order to lay siege to it, or whether it would not better avail to pass on and march straight to Rheims, leaving Troyes alone. The Council were divided in opinion, and no one knew which course to pursue, when Jeanne suddenly arrived, and appeared in the Council. “Noble Dauphin,” she said, “order your people to come and besiege the town of Troyes, and lose no more time in such long councils. In God’s Name, before three days are gone, I will bring you into this town by favour or force, and greatly will the false Burgundy be astounded.” Then Jeanne, putting herself at the head of the army, had the tents placed right against the trenches of the town, and executed many marvellous manœuvres which had not been thought of by two or three accomplished generals working together. And so well did she work during the night, that, the next day, the Bishop¹¹ and citizens came all trembling and quaking to place their submission in the King’s hands. Afterwards, it was known that, at the moment when she had told the King’s Council not to pass by the town, the inhabitants had suddenly lost heart, and had occupied themselves only in seeking refuge in the Churches. The town of Troyes once reduced, the King went to Rheims, where he found complete submission, and where he was consecrated and crowned.

Jeanne was accustomed to repair daily to Church at the time of Vespers, or towards evening; she had the bells rung for half-an-hour, and collected together all the Mendicant Friars who were following the army. Then she began to pray, and had an anthem in honour of the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, sung by the Mendicant Friars.

When the King came to La Ferté and to Crespy-en-Valois, the people ran about him, crying “Noel!” The Maid was then riding between the Archbishop of Rheims and myself: “This is a good people,” she said to us; “I have seen none elsewhere who rejoiced as much at the coming of so noble a King. How happy should I be if, when my days are done, I might be buried here!” “Jeanne,” then said the Archbishop to her, “in what place do you hope to die?” “Where it shall please God,” she answered; “for I am not certain of either the time or the place, any more than you are yourself. Would it might please God, my Creator, that I might retire now, abandon arms and return to serve my father and mother and to take care of their sheep with my sister and my brothers, who would be so happy to see me again!”

There was never any one more sober. I often heard it said by the Sieur Jean d’Aulon, Knight, now Seneschal of Beaucaire, who had been appointed by the King to watch over her, as being the wisest and most worthy in the army, that he did not think there had ever been a more chaste woman. Neither I nor others, when we were with her, had ever an evil thought: there was in her something divine.

Fifteen days after the Earl of Suffolk¹² had been made prisoner at the taking of Jargeau, a writing was sent to him containing four lines, in which it was said that a Maid should come from the Oak-wood who would ride on the backs of the archers and against them.¹³

Although Jeanne sometimes spoke in jest of the affairs of war, and although, to encourage the soldiers, she may have foretold events which were not realized, nevertheless, when she spoke seriously of the war, and of her deeds and her mission, she only affirmed earnestly that she was sent to raise the siege of Orleans, and to succour the oppressed people of that town and the neighbouring places, and to conduct the King to Rheims that he might be consecrated.