第30章 THE CAMPAIGN OF THE LOIRE.JUNE,JULY,(4)

This latter crisis occurred before Beaugency on the 15th of June,when the Comte de Richemont,Constable of France,the brother of the Duc de Bretagne,a great nobleman and famous leader,but in disgrace with the King and exiled from the Court,suddenly appeared with a considerable army to join himself to the royalist forces,probably with the hope of securing the leading place.Richemont was no friend to Jeanne;though he apparently asked her help and influence to reconcile him with the King.He seems indeed to have thought it a disgrace to France that her troops should be led,and victories gained by no properly appointed general,but by a woman,probably a witch,a creature unworthy to stand before armed men.It must not be forgotten that even now this was the general opinion of her out of the range of her immediate influence.The English held it like a religion.Bedford,in his description of the siege of Orleans and its total failure,reports to England that the discomfiture of the hitherto always triumphant army was "caused in great part by the fatal faith and vain fear that the French had,of a disciple and servant of the enemy of man,called the Maid,who uses many false enchantments,and witchcraft,by which not only is the number of our soldiers diminished but their courage marvellously beaten down,and the boldness of our enemies increased."Richemont was a sworn enemy of all such."Never man hated more,all heresies,sorcerers,and sorceresses,than he;for he burned more in France,in Poitou,and Bretagne,than any other of his time."The French generals were divided as to the merits of Richemont and the advantages to be derived from his support.Alen?on,the nominal commander,declared that he would leave the army if Richemont were permitted to join it.The letters of the King were equally hostile to him;but on the other hand there were some who held that the accession of the Constable was of more importance than all the Maids in France.

It was a moment which demanded very wary guidance.Jeanne,it would seem,did not regard his arrival with much pleasure;probably even the increase of her forces did not please her as it would have pleased most commanders,holding so strongly as she did,to the miraculous character of her own mission and that it was not so much the strength of her troops as the help of God that got her the victory.But it was not her part to reject or alienate any champion of France.We have an account of their meeting given by a retainer of Richemont,which is picturesque enough."The Maid alighted from her horse,and the Constable also.'Jeanne,'he said,'they tell me that you are against me.I know not if you are from God (/de la part de Dieu/)or not.If you are from God I do not fear you;if you are of the devil,I fear you still less.''Brave Constable,'said Jeanne,'you have not come here by any will of mine;but since you are here you are welcome.'"Armed neutrality but suspicion on one side,dignified indifference but acceptance on the other,could not be better shown.

These successes,however,had been attended by various /escarmouches/going on behind.The English,who had been driven out of one town after another,had now drawn together under the command of Talbot,and a party of troops under Fastolfe,who came to relieve them,had turned back as Jeanne proceeded,making various unsuccessful attempts to recover what had been lost.Failing in all their efforts they returned across the country to Genville,and were continuing their retreat to Paris when the two enemies came within reach of each other.An encounter in open field was a new experience of which Jeanne as yet had known nothing.She had been successful in assault,in the operations of the siege,but to meet the enemy hand to hand in battle was what she had never been required to do;and every tradition,every experience,was in favour of the English.From Agincourt to the Battle of the Herrings at Rouvray near Orleans,which had taken place in the beginning of the year (a fight so named because the field of battle had been covered with herrings,the conquerors in this case being merely the convoy in charge of provisions for the English,which Fastolfe commanded),such a thing had not been known as that the French should hold their own,much less attain any victory over the invaders.In these circumstances there was much talk of falling back upon the camp near Beaugency and of retreating or avoiding an engagement;anything rather than hazard one of those encounters which had infallibly ended in disaster.But Jeanne was of the same mind as always,to go forward and fear nothing."Fall upon them!Go at them boldly,"she cried."If they were in the clouds we should have them.

The gentle King will now gain the greatest victory he has ever had."It is curious to hear that in that great plain of the Beauce,so flat,so fertile,with nothing but vines and cornfields now against the horizon,the two armies at last almost stumbled upon each other by accident,in the midst of the brushwood by which the country was wildly overgrown.The story is that a stag roused by the French scouts rushed into the midst of the English,who were advantageously placed among the brushwood to arrest the enemy on their march;the wild creature terrified and flying before an army blundered into the midst of the others,was fired at and thus betrayed the vicinity of the foe.