The Life of Joan of Arc | Page 6

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. Fran?ois 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 fran?aises, 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 here attributed to the Maid, which on the contrary are all imaginary and fabulous. In the Chronique de Morosini,[44] every single fact concerning Jeanne is presented in a wrong character and in a false light. And yet Morosini's correspondents are men of business, thoughtful, subtle Venetians. These letters reveal how there were being circulated throughout Christendom a whole multitude of fictitious stories, imitated some from the Romances of Chivalry, others from the Golden Legend, concerning that Demoiselle as she is called, at once famous and unknown.
[Footnote 44: Chronique d'Antonio Morosini, ed. Léon