trand de Poulangies, introduced themselves to Joan and ultimately conducted her to Chinon. During the long and tedious journey through a country full of English and Burgundians, they were filled with the greatest disquietude; but Joan incessantly told them to fear nothing, that she was ordered to proceed, that her brothers in paradise had instructed her what was to be done; and in this manner, after the expiration of eleven days, they arrived at Chinon, where the court then resided. 29 When Louis the Fifteenth was taken dangerously ill at Metz his ghostly confessor, Father Liniere, working upon the monarch's enfeebled mind, insisted that he should send away his mistress, the Duchess of Chateauroux, whom, upon his recovery, he restored to all her former favor. Upon this she gave free vent to her vindictive passions by taking ample vengeance upon all her enemies, who were banished the court, and not without strong suspicion of her having caused many of them to be poisoned. 30 The above lines are a variation, to be found in the edition of 1756, page 38. 31 Joan of Arc was presented to the King by the Count de Vendôme, and without hesitation recognized the monarch at first sight, although there was nothing particular in his attire, or exterior appearance, and he was indiscriminately mingled with the crowd; she immediately made a profound reverence, and thus addressed him: "Gentil dauphin, j'ai nom Jeanne la Pucelle, et vous mande le roi des cieux, par moi, que vous serez sacré et couronné à Rheims; vous serez le lieutenant du roi des cieuxqui est roi de France." Charles, removing from those that surrounded him, conversed with Joan in their presence, but without being overheard; which conference lasted for some time, and all the courtiers perceived that a degree of satisfaction was legibly depicted on the countenance of their sovereign during this parley, who afterwards declared to several personages that a revelation which she had made to him of a secret known only Vol. 40-7 to himself gave birth to the confidence with which she inspired him. Before definitely employing Joan, Charles was determined to put her to the last proof; he was desirous of ascertaining if the purity of her conduct had always answered to appearances; wherefore she was confided to the care of the Queen of Sicily, his mother-in-law, and to the ladies of her suite. She was then visited in secret by proper medical personages, after which a report was made to the King by her Sicilian majesty, in presence of Daulon and many other individuals, purporting that she was "entière et vraie pucelle;" entirely and in every respect a virgin. Daulon, afterwards Seneschal de Beaucaire, and whom the Duke d'Alençon represented as the most upright knight of his court, had the charge of superintending the conduct and preservation of the Pucelle. It was the secret so revealed by Joan to the monarch which afterwards prompted him to erect, in 1458, the bronze effigies of the Virgin with the dead Christ on her lap, together with himself and the Pucelle kneeling, which were placed upon the ancient bridge at Orleans, and taken down upon its reparation in 1745; after which it was completely destroyed, from the effects of revolutionary fanaticism, in 1793. Upon the pedestal which supported these effigies was this inscription: In mysterium simulachri Aureliæ. Ante Deum supplex, quas Carole rebus in arctis Audierat nullus per sacra silentia testis, Conscius oranti nec locus ipse fuit: Has factura fidem, tibi concita numine Virgo Le roy seul d'un costé, mais pourquoi la Pucelle Par le moyen duquel après toute victoire, Le roy veut ce signal donner à sa mémoire. Qu' aussi, avant que la Pucelle d'Orléans arriva á Chinon, où estoit le Roy Charles VII., il luy avoit esté prédit, que luy et son Royaume seroient fort affligés, mais que devers luy il viendroit une pucelle qui le délivreroit.— Gerson, Pasquier, Hordal, Dupleix. Auxquelles révélations estoient jointes les prophéties des Anglois, qui disoient qu'ils avoient une certaine prophétie de Merlin, leur prophéte, qui leur prédisoit qu'ils devoient estre destruits en France par une Pucelle.-Hist. et Antiq. de la Ville d'Orleans, par Francoise le Mair, 1648, fols. 187, 188. 32 Alluding to the writings of Hippocrates, the famous physician of Cos, one of the Cyclades, who died in the ninety-ninth year of his age, three hundred and sixty-one years prior to the Christian era, free from all disorders of mind or body, and who, after death, received with the title of Great the same honors as were conferred upon Hercules. 33 The Oriflame, Oriflamb, Auriflamb, was the famous holy purple standard of Saint Denis, said to have been transported by an angel into the celebrated Abbey church of that saint, and served as the royal banner of the French monarchs in their wars against the Infidels. This flag was formerly committed to the charge of the family of the Counts of Vexin. Joan of Arc caused a banner to be made at Blois conformably to that which she stated to have been indicated to her in her visions. It was her chaplain who conducted this work, which represented our Saviour seated upon clouds and an angel holding in its hand a flower de luce. CANTO III DESCRIPTION OF THE ORLEANS.-AGNES ARGUMENT. PALACE OF FOLLY.-COMBAT NEAR OF JOAN, IN ORDER TO GO IN PURSUIT OF HER LOVER: SHE 'Tis not enough to boast the hero's fire, Beaten has each, and each alike been beat: 4 Of Stanislaus, the virtuous friend I ween, ΤΟΥ |