in France for the growth of the grape. The space occupied by the vineyards extends from ten to eleven leagues, upwards of thirty miles, comprising an extent of nearly thirty parishes, between the towns of Jargeau and Beaugenci, of which places mention is made in the course of the Diary. According to the common computation, an ordinary year's growth will produce an hundred thousand tuns of wine. It is scarcely possible to picture a more gratifying spectacle than the numerous villages scattered through such an extent of vine-land, while the countless country residences of private individuals equally tend to diversify the rich prospect. The environs of Orleans give two species of wines, the white and the red, the former of which being the produce of St. Mesmin, and called Génetin, is peculiar to that country. Page 22. Bar, or Barrois, a considerable territory of France, situated on either bank of the river Meuse, between Lorraine and Champaigne, is the country that gave birth to the Pucelle of Orleans. Domremy, a small village near Vaucouleurs, in Lorraine, is situated in a barren soil, and was the natal place of Jeanne d'Arc, who was the daughter of Jacques d'Arc and his wife Elizabeth, or rather Isabella Romée. Vaucouleurs, a small city, and formerly a provostship, is very agreeably situated on the slope of a hill, at the base of which is a meadow, watered by the river Meuse, which stretches itself till lost in the distance. This place belonged to the dukes of Lorraine, until Philip of Valois purchased so important a key to the empire in 1335. Jeanne d'Arc being born in this provostship, the territory was, in consequence, highly favoured by Charles VII., who bestowed upon it great immunities and exemptions. Page 23. Narrated to him her visions. Numerous attempts have been made by French writers to prove that the mission of Jeanne d'Arc was the effect of celestial agency, which assertion is combated by Robertson, in his introduction to the history of Charles V. He therein examines the mission of the Pucelle in a political point of view, and while rendering justice to her wisdom and courage, deploring her untimely fate, and most eloquently inveighing against the superstition to which she was sacrificed, he nevertheless considers her as a mere instrument and a victim of party. This writer, however, is not the only one who has started objections against the heavenly mission of Jeanne; for we find that one Doctor Beaupere, who acted as an assessor during her trial, entertained an opinion, "That her alleged visions and apparitions were rather the effects of human invention, than due to divine inspiration:" and in the Histoire Générale des Rois de France depuis Pharamond jusqu'à Charles Sept, written by Bernard de Girard, lord de Haillan, first historian of France, and established genealogist of the Order of the Holy Ghost, by Henry III., appears the following statement, translated, as nearly as possible, verbatim : "Some say that Jeanne was the mistress of John Bastard of Orleans; others of the lord de Baudricourt, who L being wary and cunning, and seeing that the king knew no longer what to do or to say, and the people, on account of continual wars, so much oppressed as not to be able to raise their courage, betook themselves to have recourse to a miracle fabricated in false religion, being that which, of all things, most elevates the heart; and makes men believe, even the most simple, that which is not; and the people were very proper to imbibe such superstitions. Those who believe she was a maid sent by God are not damned, neither are those who did not believe. Many esteem this last assertion an heresy, but we will not dwell too much upon it, neither too much on the contrary belief. Wherefore these lords, for the space of some days, instructed her in all she was to answer to the demands which should be made of her by the king and themselves when in his presence; for they were to interrogate her, and in order that she might recognise the monarch when conducted into his presence, they caused her every day to see, at various times, his picture. The day appointed on which she was to be led to him in his chamber, which they had already arranged, they did not fail to be present. Being entered, the first who asked her what she wanted, were the Bastard of Orleans and Baudricourt, who demanded of her, her business. She replied she wanted to speak to the king. They presented to her another of the lords who was there, saying to her that he was the king; but she, instructed in all which should be done and said, as well as what she was to do and say, said, that it was not the king, and that he was hid in the alcove, containing the bed. This feigned invention and appearance of religion, was of such profit to the kingdom, that it raised the courage lost and beaten down by despair Wherefore the king caused to be given to her horses and arms, and an army with a good number of great captains, in company of whom she carried succour to those of Orleans." Du Haillan, our informant, being first historiographer of France, and living but one hundred and forty years after the death of Jeanne, must, from the post he occupied, have possessed ample means of ascertaining the above facts, which, if true, set the matter at rest concerning any supernatural interposition in her favour; a circumstance that tends to exalt still more the noble disinterestedness of the heroic but unfortunate Maid of Orleans. When speaking of the tree under which Jeanne is stated to have received her celestial commands, Dubreton says, at page 114, "That which the people of the country assert is greatly to be admired, namely, that the tree (it was a pear tree) beneath which she was seated, the first time that the voice from heaven commanded her to repair to the king, is neither subject to be worm-eaten, nor to the effects of age, neither to thunder, to hail, nor to any other injuries of time or the air." In order to proceed to Blois. Blois, capital of the department of Loire and Cher, is a very old but beautiful city, on the banks of the Loire, and is so renowned for the fertility of its soil, as to be surnamed The Granary of France. As the French court formerly resided in this place, it is highly reputed for having the best French spoken by its inhabitants. Page 25. Messire John Fascot, &c. conducted about "In the Lent season, vittels and artillerie began to waxe scant in the English campe, wherefore the earle of Suffolke appointed Sir John Fastolfe, Sir Thomas Rampston, and Sir Philip Hall, with their retinues, to ride to Paris, to the lord regent, to informe him of their lacke, who incontinentlie upon that information provided vittels, artillerie, and munitions necessarie, and loded therewith many chariots, carts, and horsses: and for the sure conveieng of the same, he appointed Sir Simon Morhier, provost of Paris, with the gard of the citie, and diverse of his owne houshold-servants, to accompanie Sir John Fastolfe and his complices to the armie lieng at the siege of Orleance. They were in all to the number of fifteene hundred men, of the which there were not past five or six hundred Englishmen." — Holinshed, page 599. Page 27. That no one should dismount. From this particular order, so strictly issued by the count de Clermont, one might be led to infer, that the armour worn at that period by the knights on horseback, was particularly cumbersome; and that, consequently, danger was to be apprehended in the event of the riders quitting their steeds. Shakspeare makes Richard the Third, in his soliloquy, on the night prior to the battle of Bosworth, use the following expression: "The armourers accomplishing the knights and closing rivets up," &c. by which it should appear that the warriors were literally |