Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/450

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JtJKE 4, '98.

Louis XL, accustomed to attribute everything to the king, have falsely attributed the glory of it to Charles VII. Louis of Orleans, born in 1542, and author of the ' Recueil d'lnscriptions en 1'Honneur de la Pucelle,' leaves no doubt existing in this respect;* we can even invoke the unsuspected testimony of a Protestant writer :

'"It is on account of envy and [of] wrong that they wish to do us that none has said, in order to cast them below, that our people and roisters have spoken very ill of [literally, fired with their cannon on] the Maid and the Virgin, who caused the in- habitants [of Orleans] to make [the monument] upon the bridge, from the jewels of their women and girls.'

" It is then justly that the ladies of Orleans claim the honour of having signalized their grati- tude and admiration for the heroine of Domremy, in erecting from their savings a monument upon the theatre of her exploits.

"This monument in bronze, the second which has been founded in France, is raised upon the part up the river of the second pier of the ancient bridge. Upon a calvary in lead, at the foot of a crucifix,f

and in presence of the Virgin Mary, Charles VII. ind the Maid were represented kneeling, their heads bare, the hands put together [in prayer], and armed with long lances. Near to Charles VII. one saw a crowned helmet ; a simple helmet was near Joan of Arc, whose long hair floated upon her shoulders. The crown of thorns was at the foot of the cross, and by a fiction with which policy had already im- bued men, the benefactress and her ungrateful oblige, associated thus in a common thought, pray God in memory of the secret* known only to their two selves: they had executed it by the intercession of the Virgin, whom they thus thanked for it together (Du

"A great number of historians of the highest merit have described this first monument erected by the people of Orleans in honour of Joan of Arc ; the most learned, the most conscientious, report that in the original Christ was not attached to the cross, but rested upon the knees of Mary. We have scrupulously examined all the opinions given upon this subject, and, in slighting strong presumptions resulting from passages of Du Lys which speak: of a bare cross, of La Saussaye,f of Symphorien Guyon,$

century wrote from an eye-witness, Georges Chate- lain, who knew Joan of Arc and all her conduct, and had explained it in a life of Philippe le Bon remaining in manuscript in the Low Countries (p. 129). The most important passages of Pontus Heuterus are mentioned in the work of Hordal entitled ' Heroinae nobilissimse Johannae d'Arc Lotharingse, vulgo Aurelianensis puellae historia, ex variis gravissimae atque incorruptissimae fidei scriptoribus excerpta, ejusdem mavortiae virginis innocentia k calumniis yindicata, authore Jphanne Hordal, serenissimi ducis Lotharingiae consiliario et L. V. doctore ac professore publico in alma uni- versitate Ponti - Mussana. Ponti-Mussi, apud Melchiorem Bernardum M. D. c. xn. ' The f rontis-

Eiece [engraved title] of this work represents the rst monument of Joan of Arc restored. It con- tains, besides, two portraits of the heroine by Leonard Gautier. One represents to us the Maid sword in hand, the other shows us her on horse- back."

matris commendationem, ad Caroli VII. decus, ad laudem Janse[^c] Arxeae et tanti operis sternum monumentum, senatus populusque Aurelianensis, matronaeque et yirgines Aurelianenses, virgini fortissimae, viragini cordatissimae, post annuas decretas supplicationes, hanc crucem hasque statuas, pontemque tanti miraculi testem, autoritate regia poni curaverunt' (Louis d'Orleans). This inscrip- tion was part of the ' Recueil de Plusieurs Inscrip- tions, 3 proposed to fill the tables under the statues of Charles VII. and the Maid of Orleans, which are erected, equally armed and kneeling on the two sides of a cross, the image of the Virgin Mary being at the foot of it, upon the bridge of the city of Orleans since the year 1458, and divers pieces made in commendation of the same Maid, of her brothers, and of posterity; by Charles Du Lys, ' De 1'imprimerie de Edme Martin, rue Saint- Jacques, au Soleil-d'Or, 1628.'"
 * " ' A Dei gloriam incomparabilem, ad virginis

t " ' Sunt qui fabulam quae de Puella Johanna scribimus putant, sed praeterquam quod recentioris sit memoriae, omniumque scriptorum libri qui tune vixerunt mentionem de ea praeclaram faciant ; vidi ego meis oculis in ponte Aureliano, trans Ligerim eedificato, erectam hujus Puella eeneam imaginem,

coma decore per dorsum fluente, utroque genu coram aeneo crucifixi Christi simulacro nixam' (' Joannae Dare Historia, autore Hordal,' p. 122)."

" Sala, a contemporary author, has made clear the secret which had been between the king and the Maid. This secret was revealed to N. Sala by the Seigneur de Boisi, the friend and particular con- fidant of Charles VII. In speaking of the critical situation of the king, enclosed on all sides by his enemies, N. Sala adds : ' The king in this extreme thought entered one morning into his oratory all alone ; and there he made a prayer to our Saviour within his heart, without pronunciation of words, wherein he required Him devoutly, if it might be so, as he was true heir descended from the noble house of France, and as justly the kingdom ought to belong to him, that it might please Him to keep and defend it for him, or, at the worst, to give him grace to escape without death or prison, and that he might be able to escape into Spain or into Scotland, which were both anciently friends and allies of the kings of France ; and for that [reason] had he chosen there his refuge.' The Maid spoke to the king of this secret prayer (' Exemples de Hardiesses de Plusieurs Rois et Empereurs,' by N. Sala, manu- script in the Imperial Library ; De Laverdi, pp. 85 .)."

f'" Gives Aurelianenses Regi Carolo et Puellse liberatrici statuas aeneas in principio pontis collo- carunt, de geniculis Christum in ulnis matris compatientis adorantibus, in secreti quod supra memoravimus argumentis et quotannis octaya maii solemnem processionem celebrant in totius rei gestae gratam sempiternam que memoriam ' (La Saussaye, ? Annales de PEglise d*0rleans,' lib. xiv. 13)."

" The honour of our most worthy Maid having thus been retrieved by the irrefragable authority of the Pope, all good French people rejoiced greatly at it, and particularly the people of Orleans, who, shortly after this celebrated judgment, erected upon the extremity of the bridge at the entrance to their city the image in bronze of Our Lady of Pity represented at the foot of the cross, holding the body

rep of t

of the Saviour in her lap, and on one side the statue of the King Charles VII., and on the other that of the Maid, in like manner of bronze. The king and the Maid were represented kneeling, as suppliants, in