The Life of Joan of Arc | Page 6

La
Rochelle and other contemporary documents, we are now in a position
to realise that if we depended on the French chroniclers for our
knowledge of Jeanne d'Arc we should know just as much about her as
we know of Sakya Muni.
[Footnote 32: Trial, vol. v, pp. 285 et seq.]
[Footnote 33: Relation inédite sur Jeanne d'Arc, extraite du livre noir
de l'hôtel de ville de La Rochelle, ed. J. Quicherat, Orléans, 1879, 8vo,
and La Revue Historique, vol. iv, 1877, pp. 329-344.]
We shall certainly not find her explained by the Burgundian chroniclers.
They, however, furnish certain useful information. The earliest of these
Burgundian chroniclers is a clerk of Picardy, the author of an
anonymous chronicle, called La Chronique des Cordeliers,[34] because
the only copy of it comes from a house of the Cordeliers at Paris. It is a
history of the world from the creation to the year 1431. M. Pierre
Champion[35] has proved that Monstrelet made use of it. This clerk of
Picardy knew divers matters, and was acquainted with sundry state
documents. But facts and dates he curiously confuses. His knowledge
of the Maid's military career is derived from a French and a popular
source. A certain credence has been attached to his story of the leap
from Beaurevoir; but his account if accurate destroys the idea that
Jeanne threw herself from the top of the keep in a fit of frenzy or
despair.[36] And it does not agree with what Jeanne said herself.

[Footnote 34: Bibl. Nat. fr. 23018: J. Quicherat, Supplément aux
témoignages contemporains sur Jeanne d'Arc, in Revue Historique, vol.
xix, May-June, 1882, pp. 72-83.]
[Footnote 35: Pierre Champion, Guillaume de Flavy, Paris, 1906, in
8vo, pp. xi, xii.]
[Footnote 36: Chronique d'Antonio Morosini, introduction and
commentary by Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, text established by Léon
Dorez, vol. iii, 1901, p. 302, and vol. iv, supplement xxi.]
Monstrelet,[37] "more drivelling at the mouth than a mustard-pot,"[38]
is a fountain of wisdom in comparison with Jean Chartier. When he
makes use of La Chronique des Cordeliers he rearranges it and
presents its facts in order. What he knew of Jeanne amounts to very
little. He believed that she was an inn servant. He has but a word to say
of her indecision at Montépilloy, but that word, to be found nowhere
else, is extremely significant. He saw her in the camp at Compiègne;
but unfortunately he either did not realise or did not wish to say what
impression she made upon him.
[Footnote 37: Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Chronique, ed. Doüet-d'Arcq,
Paris, 1857-1861, 6 vols. in 8vo.]
[Footnote 38: Rabelais, Urquhart's Trans., ii-49, in Bohn's edition, 1849
(W.S.). Plus baveux que ung pot de moutarde.--Rabelais, Pantagruel,
bk. iii, chap. xxiv.]
Wavrin du Forestel,[39] who edited additions to Froissart, Monstrelet,
and Mathieu d'Escouchy, was at Patay; he never saw Jeanne there. He
knows her only by hearsay and that but vaguely. We do not therefore
attach great importance to what he relates concerning Robert de
Baudricourt, who, according to him, indoctrinated the Maid and taught
her how to appear "inspired by Divine Providence."[40] On the other
hand, he gives valuable information concerning the war immediately
after the deliverance of Orléans.
[Footnote 39: Jehan de Wavrin, Anchiennes croniques d'Engleterre, ed.

Mademoiselle Dupont, Paris, 1858-1863, 3 vols., 8vo.]
[Footnote 40: Wavrin's additions to Monstrelet in Trial, vol. iv, p. 407.]
Le Fèvre de Saint-Rémy, Counsellor to the Duke of Burgundy and
King-at-arms of the Golden Fleece,[41] was possibly at Compiègne
when Jeanne was taken; and he speaks of her as a brave girl.
[Footnote 41: Chronique de Jean le Fèvre, seigneur de Saint-Rémy, ed.
François Morand, Paris, 1876-1881, 2 vols. in 8vo.]
Georges Chastellain copies Le Fèvre de Saint Remy.[42]
[Footnote 42: Chroniques des ducs de Bourgogne, Paris, 1827, 2 vols.
in 8vo; vols. xlii and xliii of the Collection des Chroniques françaises,
by Buchon. Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove,
Brussels, 1863, 8 vols. in 8vo.]
The author of Le Journal ascribed to un Bourgeois de Paris,[43] whom
we identify as a Cabochien clerk, had only heard Jeanne spoken of by
the doctors and masters of the University of Paris. Moreover he was
very ill-informed, which is regrettable. For the man stands alone in his
day for energy of feeling and language, for passion of wrath and of pity,
and for intense sympathy with the people.
[Footnote 43: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris (1405-1449), ed. A.
Tuetey, Paris, 1881, in 8vo.]
I must mention a document which is neither French nor Burgundian,
but Italian. I refer to the Chronique d'Antonio Morosini, published and
annotated with admirable erudition by M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis.
This chronicle, or to be more precise, the letters it contains, are very
valuable to the historian, but not on account of the veracity of the deeds