第37章 THE CORONATION.JULY 17,1429.(2)
Early in the morning,a wonderful procession came out of the Archbishop's house.Four splendid peers of France,in full armour with their banners,rode through the streets to the old Abbey of Saint Remy --the old church which Leo IX.consecrated,in the eleventh century,on an equally splendid occasion,and which may still be seen to-day--to fetch from its shrine,where it was strictly guarded by the monks,the Sainte Ampoule,the holy and sacred vial in which the oil of consecration had been sent to Clovis out of Heaven.These noble messengers were the "hostages"of this sacred charge,engaging themselves by an oath never to lose sight of it by night or day,till it was restored to its appointed guardians.This vow having been made,the Abbot of St.Remy,in his richest robes,appeared surrounded by his monks,carrying the treasure in his hands;and under a splendid canopy,blazing in the sunshine with cloth of gold,marched towards the cathedral under the escort of the Knights Hostages,blazing also in the flashes of their armour.This procession was met half-way,before the Church of St.Denis,by another,that of the Archbishop and his train,to whom the holy oil was solemnly confided,and carried by them to the cathedral,already filled by a dazzled and dazzling crowd.
The Maid had her occupations this July morning like the rest.We hear nothing of any interview with her father,or with Durand the good uncle who had helped her in the beginning of her career;though it was Durand who was sent for to the King and questioned as to Jeanne's life in her childhood and early youth;which we may take as proof that Jacques d'Arc still stood aloof,/dour/,as a Scotch peasant father might have been,suspicious of his daughter's intimacy with all these fine people,and in no way cured of his objections to the publicity which is little less than shame to such rugged folk.And there were his two sons who would take him about,and with whom probably in their easier commonplace he was more at home than with Jeanne.What the Maid had to do on the morning of the coronation day was something very different from any home talk with her relations.She who felt herself commissioned not only to lead the armies of France,but to deal with her princes and take part in her councils,occupied the morning in dictating a letter to the Duke of Burgundy.She had summoned the English by letter three times repeated,to withdraw peaceably from the possessions which by God's will were French.It was with still better reason that she summoned Philip of Burgundy to renounce his feud with his cousin,and thus to heal the breach which had torn France in two:
JHESUS,MARIA.
High and redoubtable Prince,Duke of Burgundy.Jeanne the Maid requires on the part of the King of Heaven,my most just sovereign and Lord (/mon droicturier souverain seigneur/),that the King of France and you make peace between yourselves,firm,strong and that will endure.Pardon each other of good heart,entirely,as loyal Christians ought to do,and if you desire to fight let it be against the Saracens.Prince of Burgundy,I pray,supplicate,and require,as humbly as may be,fight no longer against the holy kingdom of France:withdraw,at once and speedily,your people who are in any strongholds or fortresses of the said holy kingdom;and on the part of the gentle King of France,he is ready to make peace with you,having respect to his honour,and upon your life that you never will gain a battle against loyal Frenchmen and that all those who war against the said holy kingdom of France,war against the King Jesus,King of Heaven and of all the world and my just and sovereign Lord.And I pray and require with clasped hands that you fight not,nor make any battle against us,neither your friends nor your subjects;but believe always however great in number may be the men you lead against us,that you will never win,and it would be great pity for the great battle and the blood that would be shed of those who came against us.Three weeks ago Isent you a letter by a herald that you should be present at the consecration of the King,which to-day,Sunday,the seventeenth of the present month of July,is done in the city of Rheims:to which I have had no answer,nor even any news by the said herald.To God I commend you,and may He be your guard if it pleases Him,and Ipray God to make good peace.
Written at the aforesaid Rheims,the seventeenth day of July,1429.
When the letter was finished Jeanne put on her armour and prepared for the great ceremony.We are not told what part she took in it,nor is any more prominent position assigned to her than among the noble crowd of peers and generals who surrounded the altar,where her place would naturally be,upon the broad raised platform of the choir,so excellently adapted for such ceremonies.Her banner we are told was borne into the cathedral,in order,as she proudly explained afterwards,that having been foremost in the danger it should share the honour.