第42章 THE SECOND PERIOD.1429-1430.(2)

She was on the threshold of this second period when she rode out of Rheims all brilliant in the summer weather,her banner faded now,but glorious,her shining armour bearing signs of warfare,her end achieved--yet all the while her heart troubled,uncertain,and full of unrest.And it is impossible not to note that from this time her plans were less defined than before.Up to the coronation she had known exactly what she meant to do,and in spite of all obstructions had done it,keeping her genial humour and her patience,steering her simple way through all the intrigues of the Court,without bitterness and without fear.But now a vague mist seems to fall about the path which was so open and so clear.Paris!Yes,the best policy,the true generalship would have been to march straight upon Paris,to lose no time,to leave as little leisure as possible to the intriguers to resume their old plots.So the generals thought as well as Jeanne:but the courtiers were not of that mind.The weak and foolish notion of falling back upon what they had gained,and of contenting themselves with that,was all they thought of;and the un-French,unpatriotic temper of Paris which wanted no native king,but was content with the foreigner,gave them a certain excuse.We could not even imagine London as being ever,at any time,contented with an alien rule.But Paris evidently was so,and was ready to defend itself to the death against its lawful sovereign.Jeanne had never before been brought face to face with such a complication.It had been a straightforward struggle,each man for his own side,up to this time.But now other things had to be taken into consideration.Here was no faithful Orleans holding out eager arms to its deliverer,but a crafty,self-seeking city,deaf to patriotism,indifferent to freedom,calculating which was most to its profit--and deciding that the stranger,with Philip of Burgundy at his back,was the safer guide.This was enough of itself to make a simple mind pause in astonishment and dismay.

There is no evidence that the supernatural leaders who had shaped the course of the Maid failed her now.She still heard her "voices."She still held communion with the three saints who,she believed devoutly,came out of Heaven to aid her.The whole question of this supernatural guidance is one which is of course open to discussion.There are many in these days who do not believe in it at all,who believe in the exaltation of Jeanne's brain,in the excitement of her nerves,in some strange complication of bodily conditions,which made her believe she saw and heard what she did not really see or hear.For our part,we confess frankly that these explanations are no explanation at all so far as we are concerned;we are far more inclined to believe that the Maid spoke truth,she who never told a lie,she who fulfilled all the promises she made in the name of her guides,than that those people are right who tell us on their own authority that such interpositions of Heaven are impossible.Nobody in Jeanne's day doubted that Heaven did interpose directly in human affairs.The only question was,Was it Heaven in this instance?Was it not rather the evil one?Was it sorcery and witchcraft,or was it the agency of God?The English believed firmly that it was witchcraft;they could not imagine that it was God,the God of battles,who had always been on their side,who now took the courage out of their hearts and taught their feet to fly for the first time.It was the devil,and the Maid herself was a wicked witch.Neither one side nor the other believed that it was from Jeanne's excited nerves that these great things came.There were plenty of women with excited nerves in France,nerves much more excited than those of Jeanne,who was always reasonable at the height of her inspiration;but to none of them did it happen to mount the breach,to take the city,to drive the enemy--up to that moment invincible,--flying from the field.

But it would seem as if these celestial visitants had no longer a clear and definite message for the Maid.Their words,which she quotes,were now promises of support,vague warnings of trouble to come."Fear not,for God will stand by you."She thought they meant that she would be delivered in safety as she had been hitherto,her wounds healing,her sacred person preserved from any profane touch.

But yet such promises have always something enigmatical in them,and it might be,as proved to be the case,that they meant rather consolation and strength to endure than deliverance.For the first time the Maid was often sad;she feared nothing,but the shadow was heavy on her heart.Orleans and Rheims had been clear as daylight,her "voices"had said to her "Do this"and she had done it.Now there was no definite direction.She had to judge for herself what was best,and to walk in darkness,hoping that what she did was what she was meant to do,but with no longer any certainty.This of itself was a great change,and one which no doubt she felt to her heart.M.Fabre tells (alone among the biographers of Jeanne)that there were symptoms of danger to her sound and steady mind,in her words and ways during the moment of triumph.Her chaplain Pasquerel wrote a letter in her name to the Hussites,against whom the Pope was then sending crusades,in which "I,the Maid,"threatened,if they were not converted,to come against them and give them the alternative of death or amendment.