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fHE UBRARy 
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ISee page 14. 
 
Stoi[1ES feom Frei(ch History 
 
 BY 
 
 EMMA LESLIE 
 
 AUTHOR OF “dearer THAN LIFE “ AT THE SIGN OF THE 
 BLUE BOAR ETC., ETC. 
 
 3Loni)ion 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul’s Churchyard 
 AND 164, Piccadilly 
 
Butler &• Tanner, 
 
 The Sel-w»od Printing- Ji'crhs, 
 Freme, and London. 
 
U5Co s 
 
 TNthe compilation of the following stories, 
 iL I have consulted some of the best authors 
 T on French History. Those of which I 
 have made the most use are Kitchin’s 
 ‘History of France’ (Clarendon Press series) ; 
 Guizot’s ‘History of France’; Froissart’s 
 ‘Chronicles’; Smith’s (Student’s) ‘History 
 of F ranee ’ ; and the ‘ Lives ’ of Bayard 
 and St. Louis, by various authors; so that 
 the historical data can be easily and fully 
 verified. 
 
 469193 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 <“hap. pack 
 
 I. Saint Louis— Early Life .... 7 
 
 II. Saint Louis.— The Crusades . . .21 
 
 III. The Maid of Orleans.— Early Life. . 35 
 
 IV. The Maid of Orleans.— Conflict and 
 
 Death 49 
 
 V. The Stainless Knight.— Early Life . 70 
 
 VI. The Stainless Knight.— Knighthood . 87 
 
 VII. Marguerite of Navarre. — The New Day 97 
 
 VIII. Marguerite of Navarre.— A Haven of 
 
 Refuge 
 
 1 10 
 
STORIES FROM FRENCH HISTORY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SAINT LOUIS. EARLY LIFE. 
 
 "rT does not always follow that because a 
 (I man has been canonized he deserves to 
 ^ be called a saint. In fact, there are 
 many cases recorded in history in which 
 the life and character of a so-called saint 
 are anything but saintly. Louis IX., the 
 saint-king of France, cannot be reckoned 
 in this category. He was only twelve years 
 old when his father died, in 1227, and he 
 was proclaimed king, under the regency of 
 his mother. Queen Blanche. He was a 
 gentle, sensitive, delicate lad, obedient and 
 dutiful to his noble, prudent mother, who 
 had undertaken the most difficult task, per- 
 haps, that ever fell to the lot of any woman. 
 
 Her husband had died in the midst of 
 
8 
 
 Saint Louts, 
 
 what was then considered a holy war, under- 
 taken against the Albigenses and the south- 
 ern provinces of France; but previous to this 
 he had begun to curtail the powers and 
 privileges of the great nobles, who had ruled 
 over provinces almost independent of any 
 but royal control. For generations France 
 had been divided into petty kingdoms or 
 dukedoms, the king exercising a very shadowy 
 authority over these great feudal lords, who 
 lived in their strong castles, surrounded by 
 the huts of their vassals. They held their 
 own courts of justice, and even had their own 
 mints for coining money. 
 
 But King Philip, Louis’ grandfather, who 
 had died only three years before, was wise 
 enough to see that France could never become 
 a great country until it was more united ; for 
 these great barons could oppress their vassals, 
 and wage war with each other as they pleased, 
 and so he set himself to the task of restrain- 
 ing them. 
 
 To find their power restricted was by no 
 means pleasing to them ; but the king was 
 strong, and they had to submit. During the 
 short time his son reigned, they had no 
 
Early Life. 
 
 9 
 
 opportunity of recovering their power ; but 
 when he died, and there was only a boy- 
 king, with his mother to act for him, and she 
 a foreigner, they thought it would be easy 
 enough to regain more than all their lately 
 vanished power. 
 
 So when Louis was crowned king at 
 Rheims, only two or three of the great 
 barons came to swear fealty to him and 
 his widowed mother ; and they did it in such 
 a sullen, half-hearted way, that it must have 
 made the watchful lady very anxious for 
 her boy’s future. The actual domain under 
 royal control at this time was little more 
 than a barony ; and if these great lords 
 banded together against her, the very throne 
 itself might be imperilled. 
 
 Her great love for her boy made her 
 wise and cautious ; and although her heart 
 must have been heavy with grief and 
 anxiety, she put these aside, and entered 
 into all the festivities of the coronation, 
 bearing herself most graciously and plea- 
 santly to the sulky barons, her guests ; but 
 at the same time convincing them that 
 Queen Blanche, though gracious and amiable 
 
£0 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 to her friends, could be dangerous to her 
 foes. They were won over to her side, and 
 soon persuaded others to take the customary 
 oath of allegiance to the young king ; but 
 some held aloof, watching the course of 
 events, and it was several years before they 
 all finally gave in. 
 
 Meanwhile the young king and his brave 
 mother had given proof that they were not 
 to be trifled with, and that they meant to 
 carry out faithfully King Philip’s policy of 
 curtailing the despotic power of the great 
 nobles, by using the royal authority in a 
 way in which it had scarcely ever been 
 exercised before. Three Flemish students 
 went rabbit-hunting in the warren of En- 
 guerrand, the lord of Courcy. Had they 
 been peasants, their fate would probably 
 never have been heard of beyond their native 
 village ; but when, to vindicate his game 
 laws, the baron hung these three lads, he 
 found, to his amazement, that he was called 
 to account for it. Flanders at this time had 
 flourishing cities, and the citizens were 
 beginning to make their power felt ; and so 
 the friends of these lads contrived to have 
 
Early Life. 
 
 1 1 
 
 their complaint carried to King Louis. He 
 sent a summons for the murderer to appear 
 before his court of justice. Such a thing 
 was unheard of, and the angry baron re- 
 fused to appear ; but, nothing daunted, the 
 king had him arrested and thrown into 
 prison. 
 
 Then Enguerrand offered wager of battle, 
 but this the king sternly refused, saying it 
 was not the path of justice. And so the 
 proud baron was tried and condemned to 
 death; and although this was afterwards com- 
 muted to a heavy fine, and the loss of his 
 private court of justice and rights of warren, 
 we may be sure neighbouring barons did not 
 forget the lesson of stern justice exercised 
 upon one of their order. 
 
 By this act the king declared his resolu- 
 tion to protect and raise the burgher class ; 
 for under the feudal system there could be 
 but two classes of society — the great barons 
 and their families, and the serfs, or peasants. 
 The growth of towns and commerce, and 
 the progress of the arts of civilization, made 
 it impossible for this state of things to con- 
 tinue. Either the power of the burgher 
 
I 2 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 class must be strangled in its birth, or the 
 feudal oppression must give way before its 
 advance ; and so this incident of the Flemish 
 students was an important event for France 
 at that time. 
 
 The struggle between the king and the 
 barons lasted some time; but when that was 
 over, he proceeded to attack another and 
 even more powerful class of offenders. This 
 mnst have been painful indeed, for both King 
 Louis and his mother were truly pious, 
 and had been brought up to yield the most 
 slavish obedience to the Pope and clergy 
 of the Church of Rome. But amid all the 
 darkness and superstition by which they 
 were surrounded, the Spirit of God had 
 taught them His truth, and they knew that 
 cruelty and oppression were as evil under 
 cope and mitre as under shirt of mail. 
 Hence the feudal bishops were next brought 
 to book. 
 
 The following story will illustrate the 
 high-handed injustice with which the clergy 
 often treated their dependants. Some vil- 
 lagers who were serfs to the canons of Notre 
 Dame refused to pay some contribution 
 
Early Life. 
 
 13 
 
 which was demanded of them. The priests, 
 in great wrath that their supremacy should 
 thus be disputed, put them into a prison so 
 small that they could scarcely move in it, 
 and the poor fellows were almost suffocated 
 for want of air. 
 
 When the queen heard of it, she was 
 greatly shocked, and sent to desire the canons 
 to liberate the men, offering to be security 
 herself for the taxes until they were paid. 
 This interference of the queen made the 
 canons still more angry ; and instead of 
 setting the men at liberty, they seized their 
 wives and families, and crowded them into 
 the same place, where many of them died 
 of suffocation. 
 
 On hearing how her request had been 
 received by the haughty priests, the queen 
 summoned a few attendants, and went at 
 once to the prison and ordered them to force 
 open the doors ; but so great was the dread 
 inspired by the Church against those who 
 disobeyed her, that every one drew back ; 
 and although they knew men and women 
 were dying within, they were afraid to obey 
 the queen, and force the doors open. 
 
Saint Louis, 
 
 H 
 
 At last the queen herself seized a hatchet, 
 and struck at the door with all her might. 
 This so encouraged her servants that they 
 soon followed her example, and the doors 
 were at last forced open, and the prisoners 
 carried out ; for most of them were by this 
 time so exhausted that they could not walk, 
 and many of them fainted as they were 
 brought into the open air. Those who were 
 able fell on their knees at the queen’s feet, 
 and blessed her as their deliverer from a 
 horrible death. Her kindness did not end 
 here, for she at once proceeded to enfranchise 
 them, so that the canons should not have 
 the power of wreaking vengeance upon them 
 afterwards. 
 
 Thus commenced the struggle with the 
 great bishops and clergy, who were by no 
 means disposed to yield their absolute power 
 over the lives and property of their depend- 
 ants at the bidding of the king. They 
 appealed to the Pope, who of course took 
 their side of the question, and threatened to 
 excommunicate Louis. But the brave young 
 king and his heroic mother would not yield, 
 much as it pained them to displease one 
 
Early Life. 
 
 15 
 
 whom they had been taught to reverence ; 
 and so at last the clergy, like the barons, had 
 to submit to a curtailment of their power. 
 
 Louis and his mother were thus inaugu- 
 rating a wise and humane policy in the 
 northern part of their dominion ; but no 
 considerations of mercy were allowed to 
 interfere with their determination to root out 
 heresy in the south. Louis’ father had died 
 in the midst of his crusade against the 
 harmless Albigenses ; and at the close of the 
 war, two years later, the infamous Inquisition 
 was set up at Toulouse, in the interest of the 
 French king and the Pope. 
 
 The office of inquisitor was entrusted to 
 the order of Dominican friars, and this 
 tribunal became the most formidable engine 
 of religious tyranny and domestic persecution 
 the world has ever seen. Its proceedings 
 took place in secret ; no advocates were 
 permitted to plead, no witnesses were pro- 
 duced. Strange that this system of cruelty 
 should be sanctioned by such a king as Saint 
 Louis, or that he should not see that by the 
 establishment of this secret tribunal his own 
 monarchy was lapsing into the very tyranny 
 
i6 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 which he was struggling to overthrow in the 
 barons and bishops. 
 
 Queen Blanche, like a prudent, careful 
 mother, began to look round early for a lady 
 suitable to become the wife of her beloved 
 son ; and in this matter she shows to less 
 advantage than in the conduct of public 
 business. She chose Margaret, the eldest 
 daughter of Count Raymond of Provence, 
 doubtless with an eye to the enlargement of 
 the French monarchy; for the little lady was 
 only in her thirteenth year when she was 
 married to Louis, and he was but nineteen. 
 But having secured this pledge of future 
 possessions in the south, the queen regent 
 seems to have suddenly grown jealous of 
 pretty, gentle Margaret, and treated her in 
 anything but a kindly fashion. 
 
 The youthful couple were married at 
 Sens, in May, 1234, and during the wedding 
 festivities they saw enough of each other to 
 make them wish to spend much time in each 
 other’s company. This was not the plan of 
 Queen Blanche. She still wanted to keep 
 her son to herself, and so she took care that 
 little Queen Margaret’s apartments were far 
 
Early Life. 
 
 17 
 
 away from her husband’s. Very lonely must 
 the little Provence queen have felt in the 
 cold, rough northern court of Queen Blanche. 
 Language, occupation, and climate were all 
 so different from her own gay, sunny land of 
 flowers and poetry and song. 
 
 One can fancy her watching her husband, 
 as he went under the grim portcullis to fly 
 his falcon in the neighbouring wood, and 
 vainly wishing she might go with him, instead 
 of being shut up with the court ladies, who 
 always seemed to be finding fault with her. 
 But sometimes, when Queen Blanche was 
 very busy with the papal legate or other 
 State affairs, Louis would come bounding up 
 to the gallery where she walked, and they 
 would have a happy half-hour together ; 
 a faithful servant meanwhile watching the 
 council chamber door, so that the lover- 
 husband and wife might separate before the 
 stately queen saw them. They sometimes 
 would contrive to meet and walk together 
 in the castle gardens ; and so they learned to 
 love each other very dearly — more so, per- 
 haps, than if they had been allowed to meet 
 without any hindrance. The little lady seems 
 
i8 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 to have caught much of her husband’s spirit 
 during these stolen interviews, for we read of 
 her that she was sweet and gentle, brave and 
 loving, and her conduct in after-years proved 
 her to be a most suitable wife for Saint 
 Louis. 
 
 At this time the affairs of England and 
 France were almost inextricably mixed up 
 together, and some of the French barons 
 owed allegiance to the King of England for 
 parts of their possessions, while for other 
 portions they had to swear fealty to the King 
 of France. This was a very unsatisfactory 
 state of things ; and as soon as Louis was 
 old enough, and felt his throne to be strong 
 enough, he said it must end. No man could 
 serve two masters, and his barons must 
 choose whom they would serve — himself or 
 the King of England ; for it had already 
 brought about a war between the two nations 
 in the following manner. 
 
 In 1241 the king had invested his brother 
 Alphonso with the government of Poitou 
 and Auvergne, according to the provisions 
 of his father’s will. The young prince called 
 his barons to meet him at Poitiers, and 
 
Early Life. 
 
 19 
 
 demanded of them the oath of homage. Few 
 responded to the summons, and it soon 
 appeared that there was an organized opposi- 
 tion to the claims of Louis and his family, 
 based on the ancient connection of Poitou 
 with the royal house of England, 
 
 At the head of this confederacy was Count 
 de la Marche, who had married the widow 
 of King John ; and urged on by her, he had 
 helped to form a league to reinstate her son, 
 Henry III, of England, in the possessions 
 of his ancestors ; and so successful was the 
 attempt that Louis suddenly found himself in 
 open hostility with the Kings of England and 
 Aragon, Castile and Navarre, the Counts of 
 Toulouse and La Marche, and most of the 
 great lords of Poitou and Gascony. La 
 Marche went to Poitiers and accused Alphonso 
 to his face of usurping the domains of the 
 Earl of Cornwall. Then, vowing in terms of 
 insolent defiance that he would never become 
 his liegeman, he set fire to the house in 
 which he had passed the night, and rode at 
 full speed out of the city. 
 
 Henry HI. came over to help his allies, 
 and a battle was fought at Sens in 1242, 
 
20 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 between the English and French armies, in 
 which the English and the barons were 
 defeated, and this one engagement decided 
 the campaign. The barons laid down their 
 arms, and returned to their allegiance, and 
 Louis acquired all the north of Aquitaine as 
 far as the Gironde. 
 
 This war established the supremacy of the 
 Crown over the feudal barons, and Louis 
 somewhat unravelled the tangled skein of 
 politics, by insisting that his nobles should 
 renounce their fealty to the crown of England, 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ST. LOUIS. — THE CRUSADES. 
 
 ^AiNT Louis was never a strong, robust 
 ^ man, and the care, fatigue, and anxiety 
 of the war with the English king and 
 his rebel barons brought on a very serious 
 illness. To the grief of all his subjects, it was 
 at last made known that their monarch was 
 not expected to live. While lying in this 
 desperate condition at the chateau of Pon- 
 toise, and expecting each moment to be his 
 last, he motioned for a crucifix to be brought 
 to him, which he placed upon his breast, and 
 then sank into a deathlike sleep. 
 
 His wife and mother, and anxious friends, 
 were gathered round his bed, to watch for 
 the last breath to be drawn ; but he slept 
 on, and the deathlike pallor of his face began 
 to look less ashy, his breathing grew more 
 regular, his sleep more natural, and at last, 
 to the joy and astonishment of all, the 
 
 2T 
 
22 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 physicians said the danger was passing away, 
 and the king might yet recover. What re- 
 joicing there was in the royal home when he 
 at last woke up, and the doctors declared 
 him out of danger ! 
 
 The queen regent, in her joy over her son’s 
 recovery, could forget her jealousy of Queen 
 Margaret, and let the husband and wife 
 spend a few happy hours together at the bed- 
 side ; but the joy of this was soon dimmed 
 for the young queen, when her husband told 
 her of the vow he had made when he took 
 the crucifix, and thought he was dying. One 
 can imagine the young queen’s consternation 
 when she heard that her delicate husband 
 had vowed to go on a crusade to the Holy 
 Land. Her cheek must have paled, and her 
 hands trembled, as she saw the passionate 
 earnestness, the eager joy, with which her 
 husband spoke of this, when he told her how 
 he had long desired to go and rescue the 
 Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the 
 paynim, but his duty to France had kept him 
 at home hitherto. 
 
 Now his life had been given back to him 
 by God, that he might engage in this blessed, 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 23 
 
 holy work, and henceforth all his energies 
 must be given to prepare for it. If the king 
 had only recalled something of what he had 
 doubtless read concerning the Christian 
 philosophy taught by St. Anselm, who was 
 at one time Abbot of Bee, he would have 
 known that God did not desire such service 
 as this. 
 
 To do justly, to love mercy, to walk 
 humbly before God, trusting in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ for help and guidance in ruling 
 the people of France, should have been the 
 aim of his life; and the doing this — the duty 
 that was nearest to him — would have been a 
 truer fulfilment of the vow he had made to 
 dedicate his life to God than by following 
 his own will, and going off on a crusade, 
 while others were left to do the work he 
 ought to have done himself. 
 
 Brave as Queen Margaret was, she could 
 not restrain her tears, or refrain from begging 
 him not to attempt this ; but the most that 
 she could gain was a promise that she should 
 go with him, and share in the danger of the 
 enterprise, whatever it might be ; and with 
 this she had to be content. 
 
24 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 His mother, however, and his friends and 
 counsellors, remonstrated with him in a differ- 
 ent fashion, using every argument they could 
 think of to turn him from his purpose. But 
 Louis was not to be dissuaded. To his 
 mistaken piety, no enterprise seemed so 
 honourable ; and the more danger, the more 
 hardship to himself, the more necessary was 
 it that he should undertake it. 
 
 So when Saint Louis rose from his sick 
 bed, he wore the cross on his shoulder, and 
 messengers were sent round to his nobles, 
 commanding them to prepare for the crusade. 
 Such an expedition could not then be fitted 
 out so quickly as in these days, and for the 
 next three years the king and his servants 
 were busy making ready for it. In every 
 peasant’s hut, as well as in every lady’s bower, 
 women’s fingers spun and sewed at clothes; 
 while the stouter arms of fathers and brothers 
 stitched at leather jerkins, or hammered plates 
 of iron into helmets and corslets, while horses 
 were bought and trained, as well as men-at- 
 arms. The bustle and activity would have 
 been pleasant and even joyous, but for that 
 dread future that lay beyond ; but mothers. 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 25 
 
 as they sewed, could not help casting wistful 
 glances at the children playing round, and 
 wondering whether they would ever again 
 see the father for whom these things were 
 being prepared. Many were as eager to 
 join in this crusade as the king himself ; but 
 women’s hearts will ache and bleed, however 
 brave they may be. 
 
 At last the extensive preparations were 
 complete, and in June, 1 248, the king received 
 at St. Denis the oriflamme, or sacred banner, 
 blessed by the Pope, that was to go before the 
 crusaders. Having committed the govern- 
 ment of his kingdom to his mother during 
 hi.s absence. Saint Louis, with Queen Mar- 
 garet, two of his brothers, and a host of 
 nobles and ladies, set out from Paris — the 
 rhost splendidly equipped army that France 
 had ever seen. At every |^halting-place along 
 the route fresh contingents joined the main 
 body of steel-clad warriors, and all France 
 watched them and bade them God speed. 
 
 Amid the joyous singing of hymns they 
 set sail for Cyprus in August. The island 
 of Cyprus was then held by Henry de 
 Lusignan, the grandson of a former cru- 
 
26 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 sader, to whom it had been given at the 
 time it was taken in the third crusade, and 
 here the final arrangements for the campaign 
 had to be settled. Fresh contingents joined 
 the army, and then the first blunder was 
 made. It was resolved that instead of pro- 
 ceeding at once to Palestine, an attack upon 
 the Sultan of Egypt should be made, as a 
 decisive success there would at once ensure 
 the possession of the Holy Land. The 
 plan was a wise one, and, if it had been at 
 once carried out, the crusade might have 
 proved a success ; but they lingered at 
 Cyprus for eight months, giving the Sarace ns 
 time to prepare for defence. 
 
 In May, 1249, sixteen hundred vessels 
 sailed from Cyprus, conveying about three 
 thousand knights and a hundred thousand' 
 infantry, and landed at Damietta early in 
 June. Such was the terror inspired by the 
 mighty hosts of assailants that the Saracens 
 abandoned Damietta the next day, and the 
 Kings of France and Cyprus, at the head of 
 the crusading army, made their triumphal 
 entry into the city. 
 
 If they had now pressed on after the dis- 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 27 
 
 heartened enemy, the former blunder might 
 have been retrieved ; but Louis, though a 
 good man, was a bad general, and committed 
 the fatal mistake of lingering again when he 
 should have pressed forward. Five months 
 were wasted here — worse than wasted; for 
 the soldiers of the cross gave themselves 
 up to every kind of excess and riot, and the 
 whole army grew demoralized. Not until 
 November did they attempt to march forward 
 again, and it is pitiful to read of the splendid 
 bravery, the heroic deeds wasted on both 
 sides, and the fearful slaughter each army 
 committed. Louis was taken prisoner, most 
 of his knights killed, while the queen was ill 
 at Damietta, where her third little boy was 
 born in the midst of all this terrible sorrow 
 and suffering, and utterly at the mercy of her 
 foes. 
 
 Louis displayed, in his adversity, calm, 
 unshaken firmness and magnanimity. His 
 first care always was for his poor soldiers, 
 and he scarcely heeded his own share in the 
 general misery. The hearts even of his 
 captors were touched, and the Sultan soon 
 offered to treat for his release. The price 
 
28 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 demanded was the restitution of Damietta, 
 and the payment of a million gold bezants, or 
 about ^380,000. These terms were accepted 
 by Louis, and so nobly did he act throughout 
 the conduct of this bargain that the Sultan, 
 not to be outdone in magnanimity, remitted 
 two hundred thousand bezants, and sent the 
 queen splendid presents in honour of the 
 birth of her son. 
 
 But this was poor consolation for Louis, 
 when he had to sign a truce for ten years, 
 and all hope of rescuing the Holy Places had 
 to be given up. 
 
 As soon as he was released, messengers 
 arrived from his mother, pressing him to 
 return to France at once; but a mistaken 
 sense of duty made him refuse to do this. 
 His vow Avas still unaccomplished ; and 
 although he could not now do what he had 
 hoped, he yet thought he might help the 
 poor Christians who were still scattered 
 about in the half-ruined cities of the Holy 
 Land. 
 
 It was in the character of a pilgrim rather 
 than a crusading king that Louis, with a 
 small and grief-stricken remnant of his noble 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 29 
 
 friends, went to Palestine. Here he spent 
 four years, helping the Christians to rebuild 
 the fortifications of the maritime cities, and 
 using all his influence to bring about a better 
 state of feeling between them and the native 
 princes. Doubtless it was some consolation 
 to him, in his disappointment, to be able to do 
 even the smallest service for the followers of 
 that Master he so truly longed to serve. 
 
 In 1253 Queen Blanche died, and, as soon 
 as her son heard of it, he hastened to leave 
 Palestine. Travelling was very slow in those 
 days, and it was not until September, 1254, 
 that Louis made his public entry into Paris 
 again, having been absent six years on his 
 disastrous errand. Resuming the labours of 
 his ordinary government, Louis exemplified 
 more and more his characteristic virtues ot 
 moderation, forbearance, self-denial, and 
 scrupulous love of justice. On his way 
 home from morning mass it was his custom 
 to seat himself under a tree, and any of his 
 subjects having a cause of complaint to make 
 could here lay it before the king, and Louis 
 would most patiently listen, and then, if pos- 
 sible, set right the wrong. 
 
30 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 And not only his own subjects went to 
 him to settle difficult disputes, but neigh- 
 bouring princes and nobles took their quarrels 
 to him, and among these was the King of 
 England and his revolted barons, who, after 
 years of sanguinary strife, agreed to submit 
 the question to Louis, each confident that 
 his justice would allow no party feeling to 
 sway his verdict. 
 
 So scrupulously just was he, that he offered 
 to restore to the English king some of the 
 possessions taken by his grandfather, and an 
 exchange of provinces was made, much to 
 his own disadvantage. He also refused the 
 crown of Sicily when it was offered him by 
 the Pope. 
 
 Personal aggrandizement and worldly am- 
 bition offered no temptations to Louis ; but 
 when he saw a certain thing to be his duty, 
 no matter what sacrifice or personal suffering 
 it cost, it was done, and in this light he 
 viewed his unaccomplished vow. The last 
 crusade had laden his years with sorrow, and 
 he was scarcely ever seen to smile after it ; 
 yet he was cherishing the hope and deter- 
 mination to engage in another so soon as 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 31 
 
 the ten years’ truce with the Sultan was at 
 an end. 
 
 It was customary to give every courtier a 
 new robe at Christmas-tide, and the courtiers 
 were invited to attend the king to early mass 
 that morning. It was a strange time to 
 bestow a gift ; but one Christmas morning, 
 every knight, as he entered the dusky chapel, 
 had a cloak thrown over his shoulder. 
 They laughed at first at the curious way the 
 customary gift had been bestowed ; but when 
 daylight shone in upon them, they saw that 
 every one had a cross upon his shoulder, and 
 then they knew that the king had decided 
 upon another crusade, and they were expected 
 to join him. 
 
 Brave men wept at the madness of the 
 project. A crusader — why, their beloved king 
 was now so weak and frail that he actually 
 had to be carried in the arms of his sturdy 
 seneschal, Joinville, for the clumsy carriages 
 of the time shook him so much he could not 
 endure the jolting. 
 
 His blunt but faithful friend, this same 
 seneschal, told him he might go crusading 
 by himself, for he would not go with him this 
 
32 
 
 Saint Louis. 
 
 time ; and it would have been well had all his 
 barons used the same plainness of speech as 
 this old soldier. But in spite of sage counsels 
 the fire of enthusiasm proved all too infectious, 
 and very soon Louis had gathered round him 
 a numerous body of princes and nobles from 
 all quarters, notwithstanding the dangerous 
 nature of the enterprise. 
 
 Three of his own sons assumed the cross, 
 the youngest being the baby born at Damietta 
 amid the horrors of the last crusade. He 
 was also joined by his two brothers, Charles 
 and Alphonso, and his nephew Robert, and 
 with a host of knights and men-at-arms he 
 set sail in J uly, 1 2 70, and stopped at Sardinia. 
 Here some vague report of the King of Tunis 
 desiring to become a Christian was brought 
 to him, and he formed the singular plan of 
 making Tunis his first step towards the Holy 
 Land. Little did he dream that this first 
 stage of his journey would indeed prove the 
 ante-chamber of that ‘ sweet and blessed 
 country,’ holier, lovelier than any land on 
 earth ; but so it was. Pestilence broke out 
 in his camp as he lay before the ancient 
 citadel of Carthage, and among the first to 
 
The Crusades. 
 
 33 
 
 fall a victim to its ravages was the king’s 
 youngest son. Hundreds followed this young 
 prince, and at last King Louis himself was 
 attacked by the epidemic. 
 
 Although so weak and frail, he seems to 
 have lingered for twenty-two days, spending 
 the time in devotion, giving counsel to his 
 sons, and speaking words of comfort and 
 cheer to his friends. Feeling his end to be 
 near, he asked to be lifted from his bed to 
 some ashes spread on the floor, then raising 
 his eyes to heaven, he murmured, ‘ I will 
 enter into Thy house, O Lord ; I will wor- 
 ship in Thy holy tabernacle ; ’ and so entered 
 the heavenly kingdom. 
 
 He had reached the age of fifty-six, and 
 his reign had lasted forty-four years. France 
 may well be proud of such a man and such 
 a monarch, for no sovereign ever exercised 
 a more widespread influence over his age, 
 and none ever promoted more effectually the 
 advancement, happiness, and true greatness 
 of his kingdom. 
 
 Among other means by which King Louis 
 endeavoured to help the poor was a charity 
 for blind people. He also built several 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 Samt Louis. 
 
 churches and monasteries at Paris ; but he 
 used to say, when speaking of this, ‘that 
 living men were the stones of God’s temple, 
 and that the church was more beautified by 
 good manners than rich walls.’ 
 
 Prince Edward of England placed himself 
 at the head of the crusading army after the 
 death of Saint Louis, and led them to the 
 Holy Land ; but very little good was effected, 
 and this was the last effort made to rescue 
 Palestine from the hands of its Saracen 
 conquerors. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. — EARLY LIFE. 
 
 Tt was a cold night in January, 1393, but 
 (1 the dark, ill-kept streets of Paris were 
 ^ illuminated by the numerous torch-bearers, 
 lighting their masters and mistresses to the 
 Palace of the Louvre. A grand masked ball 
 was to take place there, in honour of the 
 marriage of one of the queen’s ladies. 
 
 The elder noblemen for the most part wore 
 long robes, but the younger portion of the 
 company were dressed in close-fitting gar- 
 ments of gay and costly material, while 
 their shoes were fashioned to imitate a bird, 
 the toes being lengthened and bent like a 
 beak, and the heels drawn out to imitate a 
 claw. This was the usual shape for fashion- 
 able shoes in those days ; but being a masked 
 ball, other and even more quaint devices 
 were followed by many of the guests. 
 
 35 
 
36 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 Of all the masques, perhaps those chosen 
 by the king and five young noblemen were 
 the most grotesque. They were disguised as 
 savages, in close-fitting dresses, covered with 
 pitch and tow, to resemble hair. Those were 
 rough times, and rude play was enjoyed by 
 everybody, and no doubt the king and his 
 fellow -savages promised themselves some 
 fine fun among their gaily dressed compan- 
 ions, in their sticky, inflammable dresses. 
 
 The danger of being daubed with pitch 
 and tow, and romping in a room lighted with 
 flaring torches, never occurred to the gay 
 masquers. Orders had been given that the 
 flambeaux-bearers should stand close to the 
 wall ; but the young Duke of Orleans, not 
 knowing this, and never thinking of the con- 
 sequences that might follow, took one of 
 these from the bearer, and holding it close to 
 one of the savages, to find out who he was, 
 set fire to the flax. 
 
 Five of them were instantly in flames. 
 The sixth, who was the king, stood a little 
 apart, talking to the Duchess of Berri, and 
 she had the presence of mind to envelop 
 him in her mantle, and so saved his life. Of 
 
Early Life. 
 
 37 
 
 the others, four were burnt to death in the 
 ball room ; but one remembered that he had 
 seen a large tub of water in the buttery, 
 placed there to rinse the drinking-cups, and 
 he ran thither and plunged in, and so saved 
 his life. 
 
 The noise and confusion in the palace that 
 followed upon this terrible accident was ex- 
 treme, and a report went abroad that the 
 king himself was dead. Meanwhile he was 
 carried to bed, but could get no sleep until 
 morning dawned, and by that time the excit- 
 able mob well-nigh filled the streets, and 
 would not believe that the king had been 
 saved, unless they saw him. So the king, 
 who had just dropped into a doze, had to be 
 roused, and paraded through the streets of 
 Paris to pacify his excited subjects. 
 
 Better would it have been had he perished 
 — a thousand times better for France would 
 it have been if her king had died that 
 night. That ball inaugurated one of the 
 most woeful periods in French history. 
 Charles VI. had never been mentally strong, 
 and a few months before, a shock had com- 
 pletely overturned his reason for a time ; and 
 
38 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 now this dreadful catastrophe, and the ex- 
 citement of walking about the streets after- 
 wards, brought on a return of his delirium. 
 
 From that time until his death, nearly 
 thirty years afterwards, he was never entirely 
 restored to reason. If he had lucid intervals, 
 they were very short, and only made him feel 
 more the misery of his situation. He took 
 a strong dislike to the queen, he failed to 
 recognise his children, and the only person 
 who had any influence with him was his 
 gentle and amiable sister-in-law, the Duchess 
 of Orleans. Jealousy and superstition 
 ascribed this to sorcery, and the lady was 
 banished from court. This increased ten- 
 fold the growing animosity of the king’s 
 brother and uncle, the Dukes of Orleans 
 and Burgundy. 
 
 No regent had been appointed to act for 
 the king, no one had the supreme authority 
 in the State, and so both dukes struggled for 
 it, and France might at this time be compared 
 to a prostrate lion over whose body the 
 jackal and panther were fighting. Some- 
 times the Burgundians and sometimes the 
 Armagnacs were in the ascendency, but they 
 
Early Life. 
 
 39 
 
 were alike in their cruel oppression of the 
 people. Hence it mattered little to them 
 whether the white scarf and St, George’s 
 cross, the badge of the Armagnacs, imposed 
 the taxes, or whether the red scarf and St. 
 Andrew’s cross robbed them of nearly all 
 they possessed. If the Burgundians were 
 in power, every one who chanced to offend 
 them, or failed to wear their badge, was 
 plundered, persecuted, and murdered without 
 remorse, until the streets of Paris ran down 
 with the blood of the Armagnacs, and the 
 prisons were full to overflowing. 
 
 Thus driven to desperation, the Orleanist 
 party at last determined to invite the King of 
 England to seize all his former possessions 
 in France; and although this was never 
 carried out, one can well imagine that the 
 news of it reached the English court, and 
 had some share in moving Henry V. to the 
 invasion of France a year or two after- 
 wards. 
 
 He laid siege to Harfleur first, which was 
 soon obliged to surrender, as it received no 
 help from the Government. The English 
 then marched along the coast, almost to 
 
40 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 Calais, without meeting any opposition. But 
 at Agincourt the French army came up ; and 
 although the English were wasted by death 
 and disease, the French suffered a most dis- 
 astrous defeat. When the battle was over, 
 Henry found himself too weak to improve 
 his victory ; he therefore led his tired soldiers 
 to Calais, and embarked for England, with a 
 great number of noble prisoners. 
 
 One would have thought that in the face 
 of a common foe, the two French parties 
 would have united ; but so far from this 
 being the case, it proved a fresh source of 
 contention as to who should obtain the 
 vacant office of Constable of France. The 
 Count of Armagnac obtained it, and with it 
 the control of Paris and the king’s three 
 sons. 
 
 In the course of the next year, the two 
 eldest of these died, and the younger, Charles, 
 though only about sixteen when he became 
 Dauphin, took an active part in affairs, and 
 joined the Armagnac party. Meanwhile 
 Henry of England had landed in France 
 again, and made himself master of Rouen 
 and the whole of Normandy before the con- 
 
Early Life. 
 
 41 
 
 tending parties seemed aware of his presence. 
 They now saw that it was too late to use 
 force against him ; they therefore resolved 
 to try what could be done by treaty. 
 
 The Dauphin and the Duke of Burgundy, 
 at a friendly meeting near Melun, at last 
 agreed to forget their mutual jealousy, and 
 use their utmost efforts conjointly to expel 
 the foreigner from France. A second inter- 
 view was arranged to take place on the bridge 
 of Montereau ; and as a proof how much these 
 royal cousins trusted each other, a barrier of 
 wood-work was erected in the centre of the 
 bridge, and this wooden railing kept the two 
 princes and their attendants apart. 
 
 Twelve years before, the Duke of Burgundy 
 had murdered the Duke of Orleans, and an 
 attached servant, now in the Dauphin’s em- 
 ploy, had sworn to revenge his master’s death. 
 Whether the Dauphin knew of this or not, he 
 brought the man with him ; and when the 
 duke doffed his plumed cap, and knelt to 
 kiss the Dauphin’s hand, this old servant 
 struck him on the head with a hatchet, then 
 leaped over the barrier, and killed him with 
 his sword. 
 
42 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 This revengeful murder brought fresh 
 misery to France, for the young Duke of 
 Burgundy, in retaliation for the murder of 
 his father, threw himself into the arms of the 
 English, and the wicked queen, out of hatred 
 to her son and the Armagnac party, did the 
 same. It was soon arranged that Henry of 
 England should marry the young Princess 
 Catherine, and should at once be invested 
 with the regency and administration of the 
 kingdom, and further, that he should be 
 declared heir to the crown of France at the 
 death of Charles VI. These terms being 
 finally settled, the marriage of Henry and 
 the Princess Catherine took place at Troyes, 
 in June, 1420. 
 
 Such was the misery and horror that the 
 country had endured for the last twenty-five 
 years, that this marriage and treaty of Troyes 
 was hailed with universal satisfaction, and 
 few regarded it in its true light, as the most 
 deplorable act of national humiliation to be 
 found in the annals of their history. 
 
 The Dauphin Charles and his party now 
 retired to the provinces beyond the Loire, 
 utterly vanquished for the time by the all- 
 
Early Life. 
 
 43 
 
 victorious Duke of Burgundy and the hated 
 English. 
 
 Henry of England did not long enjoy his 
 new honour ; he died two years after his 
 marriage, at Vincennes, leaving a baby heir 
 only nine months old. Two months after- 
 wards, the poor crazy King of France died, 
 and the little year-old baby was proclaimed 
 King of France and England with regal 
 pomp at Paris as Henry VI. At the same 
 time the Dauphin claimed the crown of 
 France as the rightful heir, at the modest 
 little chapel of the castle of Melun, and he 
 was known henceforth as Charles VII. of 
 F ranee. 
 
 The Duke of Bedford now assumed the 
 government of France in the name of his 
 infant nephew, and of course supported by 
 the powerful Duke of Burgundy, while 
 Charles caused himself to be crowned at 
 Poitiers and fixed his government at Bourges. 
 Indolent though he was, he was not disposed 
 to yield his kingdom without a struggle, and 
 so another civil war began. It went on in 
 a desultory fashion for the next six years, 
 bringing infinite misery to the French peo- 
 
44 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 pie, and bringing to the contending parties 
 very little gain. 
 
 From king to peasant, everybody was in 
 a state of despairing misery. The open land 
 from the Loire to the Somme, instead of 
 being cultivated, was a desert of woods and 
 thickets ; while the few inhabitants of the 
 villages were forced to become beggars or 
 brigands. Highways ceased, churches were 
 polluted and sacked, castles burnt to a heap 
 of blackened ruins, commerce was at a stand- 
 still, for the towns were distracted and half 
 in ruins, while the villages were destroyed 
 and agriculture was almost unknown. Even 
 in Paris wolves fought over the bodies in 
 the burial grounds. 
 
 No wonder was it, therefore, that the 
 people, half crazed with misery, should be 
 ready to listen and give credence to the 
 wildest stories of portents and prodigies and 
 superstitious miracles. There was no outlet 
 for their energies but in wild imaginings, and 
 they knelt before the defaced images of the 
 saints in their half-ruined churches, and im- 
 plored that Saint Louis, or some one amongst 
 the host of heaven, would send them a de- 
 
Early Life. 
 
 45 
 
 liverer, with a yearning and desperation born 
 of despair concerning all reasonable hope of 
 help. 
 
 Among those who often went thus to pray 
 for her oppressed country and rightful king 
 was a peasant girl, now about seventeen 
 years of age, Jeanne Dare. The little village 
 of Domremy, on the borders of Burgundy 
 and Lorraine, suffered like the rest in the 
 general misery, and yet it must have been 
 somewhat sheltered from the worst woes of 
 the time, for the peasant-farmer Dare seems 
 to have been able to keep his cattle, and 
 Jeanne, a healthy, rosy girl, spent a good deal 
 of time in the fields, where there was plenty 
 of opportunity for musing and dreaming as 
 she kept the beasts from straying. 
 
 Here she often saw gaunt, half-starved 
 beggars, who told her tales of the usurping 
 English, who held half fair France in their 
 cruel grip ; and after sharing with them her 
 little store of dry rye bread, she turned to 
 pray to her favourite saint, Catherine, whose 
 image stood in the village church, where she 
 never failed to kneel every morning before 
 ascending the hill to look after her cattle. 
 
46 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 As true and devout a saint as Saint Louis 
 himself was this peasant girl of Domremy. 
 Pure-minded, single-hearted, simple, and un- 
 selfish was sweet Jeanne Dare, with a 
 passion of loyalty and love for her king and 
 country that none but great souls know. 
 
 What wonder was it that, brooding and 
 dreaming over her country’s woes all day 
 long in the lonely fields, and hearing at last 
 that there was a tradition now being talked 
 of, derived from the prophecies of Merlin, to 
 the effect that France should be saved by a 
 virgin from the borders of Lorraine — what 
 more natural to an enthusiastic soul, utterly 
 self-forgetful, than to imagine herself the 
 destined instrument of Heaven for her coun- 
 try’s deliverance ? 
 
 With this belief at length firmly rooted in 
 her mind, and her whole soul’s energies bent 
 in one long passionate prayer to God and 
 His saints for help, was it wonderful that, in 
 this state of nervous excitement and spiritual 
 exaltation, she should see ‘ visions ’ and hear 
 ‘ voices ’ which to everyday mortals, wrapped 
 up in their own small affairs, seem quite 
 absurd ? 
 
Early Life. 
 
 47 
 
 Very real were they to Jeanne — more real 
 than the small concerns of her father’s farm, 
 where she did her mother’s bidding dutifully 
 enough, and took her share of the work that 
 was going on with the rest of her brothers 
 and sisters, living the outward life of a simple 
 peasant maiden, going to the village church 
 on Sundays in her best gown of thick red 
 stuff like that of her companions — a little 
 more grave perhaps, a little less disposed to 
 join in any boisterous fun, but with a depth 
 of happiness shining in her clear dark eyes. 
 
 I think Jeanne must have been very happy 
 at this period of her life, with a sweet, sacred 
 happiness that nothing could ruffle or disturb. 
 Her secret was her own as yet, and she was 
 waiting for the call to go forth and deliver 
 her beloved country and crown her rightful 
 king. 
 
 What the deliverance of the Holy Land 
 was to Saint Louis, the crowning of Charles 
 VII. at Rheims was to Jeanne Dare, and she 
 waited as calmly and as fearlessly and con- 
 fidently for the call to come to her as Louis 
 laboured patiently to prepare for his great 
 crusade. Her beloved France was to her 
 
48 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 ‘ the realm of J esus,’ the earthly rightful 
 monarch, Charles, the divinely appointed 
 lieutenant of the King of kings ; while the 
 English and their allies were the embodi- 
 ment of evil which she was destined to fight 
 and conquer. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MAID OF ORLEANS. CONFLICT AND DEATH. 
 
 HE Regent of France, the Duke of 
 Bedford, governing in the name of 
 his little seven-year-old nephew, Henry 
 VI., after carrying on a long, fruitless 
 war with the French king and his party 
 beyond the Loire, at length decided to use 
 more energetic measures. To crush out the 
 rebellion, as he chose to consider it, in 
 October, 1428, the English army, under the 
 Earl of Salisbury, laid siege to Orleans. 
 
 This city was the key to the provinces 
 beyond the Loire, and both parties were 
 aware of its importance. If the English 
 succeeded in taking Orleans, the cause of 
 Charles was well-nigh hopeless. The brave 
 garrison of two thousand men did all they 
 could to put the city into a state of defence, 
 for it was fully understood that the final 
 
50 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 fate of Charles and his kingdom was to be 
 decided under the walls of Orleans. 
 
 The English general surrounded the town 
 by a number of towers, and put a good 
 garrison in each ; but military tactics were 
 very imperfect in those days, and there were 
 so many unguarded places between the 
 towers, that the Count of Dunois, who com- 
 manded Charles’ troops, found little difficulty 
 in bringing succour to the town at first. 
 
 Soon after the siege began, the English 
 general, the Earl of Salisbury, was killed ; 
 but his place was soon taken by the Earl of 
 Suffolk, and the siege went on. A belt of 
 ruin had been made round the city — farm- 
 houses burned, and vineyards uprooted — all 
 that had escaped the long civil war was 
 destroyed now, and so provisions for be- 
 siegers and besieged had to be brought from 
 a distance. The besieged were worse off in 
 this particular than their enemies, and had 
 to get their supplies at greater risk. At last 
 the English had so closely invested the city 
 that famine was feared more than the swords 
 of the English. 
 
 Things were at this pass in February, 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 51 
 
 1429, when it somehow came to be known 
 in the city that a large convoy of provisions, 
 mostly salted herrings for Lent, was on its 
 way to the English camp. So reduced was 
 the garrison of Orleans by this time, that its 
 commander, Dunois, formed the desperate 
 plan of going out to intercept and capture 
 the convoy, A hundred cartloads of food, 
 even if it did consist mainly of salt herrings, 
 was worth its weight in gold to Orleans, for 
 their last hope had almost failed them. 
 There had already been some talk of sur- 
 rendering to the Duke of Burgundy, when 
 the news of this convoy came ; and the 
 besieged clutched at the hope it offered like 
 drowning men at a straw. 
 
 But, alas ! their veryea gerness betrayed 
 them into disaster. Six thousand brave 
 F renchmen, led by Dunois, advanced to meet 
 the tempting prize ; but the attack was so 
 hasty, and managed with so little judgment, 
 that they were driven back, with the loss of 
 many killed and wounded. 
 
 News of the ‘ Battle of the Herrings,’ as 
 it was called, and the desperate straits to 
 which the garrison of Orleans was reduced. 
 
52 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 was soon noised abroad, and proved the 
 trumpet call to the peasant girl at Domremy. 
 Orleans must be saved, and there was no 
 time to lose now. Jeanne had asked her 
 uncle to go to the great man of the neigh- 
 bourhood, the lord of Baudricourt, to beg him 
 to help her get to the king at Chinon, before 
 this. 
 
 If the count had heard of the prophecy 
 that France was to be lost by a wicked 
 woman — as indeed it was, through Isabel, 
 the queen — and saved by a pure maiden, he 
 could not believe that a poor peasant girl, 
 from an insignificant place like Domremy, 
 was likely to do it. So he told her kindly 
 uncle that she ought to be slapped, and 
 dismissed him. 
 
 But now Jeanne went herself, and her 
 simple, straightforward earnestness, and the 
 strange tale she told of her ecstatic ‘ visions ’ 
 and ‘voices,’ made the governor of Vaucou- 
 leurs, the lord of Baudricourt, decide to 
 send a messenger to the king, and ask what 
 he would have done. 
 
 Meanwhile, one had offered to lend Jeanne 
 a horse, and another little man had given her 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 53 
 
 a suit of his clothes, and all Vaucouleurs 
 heard that the Maid for whom they had been 
 waiting had appeared at last. The people, 
 worn out with the miserable state of things, 
 and earnestly longing for the triumph of the 
 national party, as represented by Charles, 
 were ready to seize upon any wild scheme 
 that offered a hope of succour to the besieged 
 in Orleans. So all eyes and all hopes were 
 fixed upon Jeanne, the Maid. When the 
 governor’s messenger returned, bringing word 
 from the king that she was to be sent with 
 all speed to the court at Chinon, the people 
 followed her with their prayers, and upborne 
 by a nation’s hope and supplications, Jeanne 
 reached Chinon early in March. There 
 she heard that a messenger had arrived from 
 the besieged^ advising the king to retreat, 
 and he was considering which country would 
 afford him the best asylum, Spain or Scotland. 
 
 It was not until the fourth day after her 
 arrival that she was admitted to the presence 
 of Charles, and, by way of testing her, the 
 king placed himself among a crowd of nobles, 
 dressed exactly as they were. But Jeanne, 
 looking round, advanced at once towards him. 
 
54 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 and bending the knee, addressed him as her 
 king, and with simple dignity announced her 
 errand. The king was impressed at once, 
 and took her apart for some private conver- 
 sation ; and when this was over he no longer 
 doubted ; but, in order to dispel all suspicion 
 that might arise in the minds of others 
 afterwards, the personal character of J eanne, 
 both as to religious and moral purity, was 
 subjected to strict investigation, and pro- 
 nounced on all points unimpeachable. 
 
 The news that the longed-for Maid had 
 arisen at last spread like wildfire through the 
 town, and was rapidly carried to other parts 
 of the oppressed country. All hopes and 
 prayers and longings were centred in her 
 now ; she became the object of reverence, 
 admiration, and confidence to the king’s party, 
 and of dread and suspicion to the English. 
 Rumour of course exaggerated her sudden 
 appearance into a miracle in the eyes of her 
 friends, while foes were seized with an 
 equally unreasonable fear of her magic spells ; 
 for witchcraft and sorcery entered largely 
 into the popular belief of the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
55 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 57 
 
 It was speedily decided by the king to 
 send her, according to her own earnest desire, 
 to the relief of Orleans, She was furnished 
 with a complete suit of steel armour, mounted 
 on a white war-horse, and girt with a sword 
 brought from the church of St. Catherine de 
 Fierbois, A page bore her banner, a white 
 field fleur-de-lis, blazoned with a figure of 
 the Saviour, and the motto ‘ Jesu Maria.’ 
 
 Thus equipped, on the 27th of April, 1429,. 
 the Maid advanced from Blois towards 
 Orleans, attended by a little company of 
 officers and friends. Before starting, she 
 despatched a messenger to Paris, calling 
 upon the Duke of Bedford to surrender all 
 his fortresses, and quit F' ranee with his army. 
 It was delivered in the name of ‘ the Maid 
 sent hither by the King of heaven,’ and 
 doubtless formed the theme of many a jest 
 at the court of Paris, where, if they had 
 heard of Jeanne, they chose to call her a mad 
 woman. 
 
 The wealthy and noble might suspect 
 and despise her, but the common people on 
 both sides — the archers and bowmen of the 
 English host, and the brave defenders and 
 
58 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 half-starved citizens of Orleans — regarded 
 her with widely different feelings. The fear 
 of the Maid had disheartened the English 
 before she came near the city. At her 
 presence wind and water seemed to help 
 the besieged, for on the evening of the 29th 
 of April she crossed the Loire with her 
 little company and some provisions she had 
 brought from Blois,and the people went almost 
 wild with rejoicing as, like a ray of sunlight, 
 she entered the doomed city without oppo- 
 sition from the enemy. A few days longer, 
 and the helpless women and children, and 
 old men, too feeble to man the walls and 
 citadel, but not too feeble to eat the small 
 store of bread left, would have been driven 
 forth to perish between besiegers and be- 
 sieged, according to the cruel custom of war 
 in those days. The coming of the Maid 
 had saved them from sharing the fate of 
 the citizens of Rouen a few years before, 
 and little wonder was it that they pressed 
 forward with rapture to touch the trappings 
 of her white horse, and thank God that their 
 deliverer had come. 
 
 Modest and quiet, as in her own fields 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 59 
 
 at Domremy, the Maid sought a church first, 
 where she could thank God for bringing her 
 here in safety, and sought His guidance as 
 to what she should do next. For this was 
 the secret of her power — that she believed 
 in God utterly ; she calculated no chances, 
 had no doubts, but firmly believing that 
 she was sent on a Divine mission, that it 
 was not her work, but God’s, she was to per- 
 form, she moved on serenely to its accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 The next morning she sent a message 
 to the English commander to surrender to 
 her king, which of course was refused with 
 scorn. But a sortie made soon afterwards 
 against one of the newly erected towers was 
 so successful that its English defenders were 
 slain to a man, and the place demolished. 
 At daybreak, on the 8th of May, Jeanne 
 headed a concentrated attack on the fort 
 of the Tournelles, the strongest point of the 
 English position. Here, in the hottest of 
 the fight, the heroine received a severe 
 wound in the bosom, and cried out with the 
 pain, as any other girl of seventeen would 
 have done. But only for a moment were 
 
6o 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 the tears allowed to run down her cheeks, 
 then bravely conquering the fear and the pain, 
 she drew out the dart that still quivered in 
 the wound, and then went aside, the tears 
 still in her eyes, to have it dressed. 
 
 That was a critical moment in the history 
 of France — aye, and of England too ; for the 
 soldiers who had seen her fall took heart, 
 and were driving back the French towards 
 the beleaguered city. Jeanne saw it, and 
 forgetful of her pain and weakness, and the 
 tears still wet on her cheek, seized her white 
 banner, and hurried to the front again. 
 
 The sight of the Maid, whom they thought 
 they had killed, struck panic into the English 
 host ; while her own troops, borne along by 
 a superhuman impulse when they saw their 
 glorious warrior-maiden at their head, once 
 more carried all before them. After a brief 
 struggle, the English leader, Gladsdale, was 
 precipitated by a cannon shot into the Loire, 
 and the fortress was won. 
 
 The fall of the Tournelles so discomfited 
 the English that the very next day they 
 broke up their camp and retreated, leaving 
 behind them their baggage and artillery. 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 6i 
 
 The victorious Maid of Orleans now urged 
 the king to march without delay upon 
 Rheims. ‘ I shall not last more than a year,’ 
 she said ; ‘ I must employ the time well.’ 
 After some hesitation, her counsel was 
 adopted. On the loth of June, the French 
 stormed Jargeau, where the Earl of Suffolk 
 was taken prisoner. The tide of victory 
 had turned in behalf of Charles and his 
 army, and it passed on, taking town after 
 town. They met with a check at Troyes, 
 where the gates were closed, and the gar- 
 rison refused to surrender. But the energy 
 of Jeanne overcame all obstacles; she led 
 the troops undauntedly to the assault, and 
 at the sight of the Maid the men in the 
 citadel threw down their arms, and opened 
 the gates to her victorious train. 
 
 On the 1 6th of July, Charles VII. was 
 crowned in the cathedral of Rheims, for 
 only here could a French coronation take 
 place, according to ancient usage. The 
 Maid stood beside the altar, with her lily 
 standard in her hand, far more regal in her 
 simple dignity of purity and truth than the 
 easy-going, indolent king, who let others 
 
62 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 fight his battles, but gave himself very little 
 concern as to how they fared while doing it. 
 
 But to Jeanne he was the earthly repre- 
 sentative of the King of kings, and, as such, 
 worthy of her utmost devotion ; and no 
 flouting from his courtiers, no jealousy and 
 ill-will from his counsellors, or supreme in- 
 difference on his own part, could make the 
 zealous Maid relax her efforts to save him 
 and ‘fair France’ from falling again under 
 the domination of the English, 
 
 They were still at Paris, the Duke of 
 Bedford trying to patch up a peace with 
 the Duke of Burgundy, with whom he had 
 quarrelled, while Charles and his counsellors 
 were trying to win over the powerful duke 
 to their side. They were bitterly jealous of 
 Jeanne, and the love evinced for her by the 
 common people everywhere ; and though 
 they might be almost sure of winning Paris 
 if she marched at the head of the army to 
 meet the English, as she proposed, still they 
 would almost rather lose it than have it said 
 the Maid was everywhere victorious. 
 
 At last, after delaying and temporizing, 
 she did succeed in bringing the royal army 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 63 
 
 face to face with Bedford and his English 
 host. But they retired when they saw the 
 white charger and the girl-warrior^ who 
 never carried any weapon but a lily-bordered 
 banner, with the image of the Saviour pic- 
 tured on it. 
 
 Losing all patience at last, and fearing 
 that the enemy would yet escape from her 
 to stir up fresh trouble in some other part 
 of France, Jeanne led the army on after the 
 regent to Paris, and took St. Denis un- 
 opposed. But this so angered the king’s 
 favourites that, instead of following up this 
 advantage, they thwarted all her efforts, and 
 that so effectually, that in an attack made 
 on the Porte St. Honore, on the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, the French were repulsed. They 
 were within reach of the prize, but Charles 
 was tired of the campaign. He hated to be 
 stirred up and pushed on, and he wanted 
 to get back to the easy-going life of the 
 court, where he could hunt and flirt, and 
 not be reminded of his own poor life con- 
 tinually, as he was here, by the holy earnest- 
 ness of the Maid. 
 
 So back they marched beyond the Loire, 
 
64 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 where they could live safely protected by 
 the fortress of Orleans; and Jeanne, looking 
 altogether another Maid from what she did 
 when she led her soldiers to victory, followed 
 the king, as he desired. 
 
 Another page had opened before her 
 prophetic eyes now. Orleans had been 
 saved, and her king crowned ; she had not 
 looked beyond that before, but now a dark 
 path stretched before her, and her mind was 
 full of forebodings of evil, and her heart was 
 very sad. She must have longed now for 
 the peaceful rest of her own village home, 
 and the quiet fields where she fed her cows ; 
 but duty commanded that she should follow 
 her king to his court in Touraine, and 
 Jeanne ever followed the call of duty. 
 
 It must have been a sad winter to the 
 Maid, idling her time away in the country of 
 the Loire, while the English were desolating 
 all the provinces of France she had won 
 since the siege of Orleans. But nothing 
 could rouse the king from his indolence, and 
 the blind, infatuated folly of yielding to the 
 influence of his favourite. La Tremouille, and 
 other court flatterers. To quiet Jeanne, and 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 65 
 
 make her content among the nobles of the 
 court, the king granted patents of nobility 
 to her and her family for ever — as though 
 any earthly title could make the Maid more 
 noble and worthy, when she was the only 
 royal soul in that ignoble court. 
 
 At last, leaving the king at the castle of 
 Sully, in the spring of 1430, the Maid placed 
 herself at the head of the army once more, 
 and took possession of Compiegne, where 
 she was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy. 
 On the 23rd of May, she headed a sortie ; 
 but the Burgundians met her in overpower- 
 ing numbers, and drove her back under the 
 walls of the town. Most of her followers 
 had re-entered, the Maid, as usual, placing 
 herself in the most exposed position. She 
 was behind the rest, when the city gates 
 were suddenly closed, and the drawbridge 
 raised. Whether this was through a mis- 
 take, or the act of traitors, was never clearly 
 known. Jeanne defended herself desperately, 
 until all her little company were slain or 
 made prisoners, when she surrendered to a 
 knight in the service of John of Luxemburg, 
 and was carried off prisoner to the Burgun- 
 dian camp at Margni, k 
 
66 
 
 The Maid of Orleans. 
 
 A more shameful story than the rest of 
 Jeanne’s life discloses cannot be found in the 
 annals of history. All that spite and hatred 
 could do against this innocent girl was perpe- 
 trated by those whose lives she shamed by 
 her whole-souled patriotism, her pure and 
 simple piety, and her utter indifference to the 
 pomps and vanities of a selfish court. 
 
 John of Luxemburg kept Jeanne some 
 time, in the hope that her king, Charles, 
 whom she had led to his coronation, would 
 bestir himself sufficiently to ransom her ; but 
 no word came from the king concerning 
 Jeanne. He at last sold her to her bitterest 
 enemy, the Duke of Bedford, whom she had 
 told to go home with his soldiers to England, 
 and till the fields there, instead of ravaging 
 those of France. 
 
 All through that summer she lingered in 
 prison, and in November was delivered to 
 the duke’s officers at Crotoy, and being con- 
 veyed to Rouen was heavily chained and 
 put into an iron cage in the castle of that 
 town. The Inquisition had claimed her, as 
 suspected of heresy, sorcery, and other crimes, 
 and she was consigned to the hands of one 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 67 
 
 of the most unscrupulous partisans of the 
 English, Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beau- 
 vais. 
 
 In order to obtain materials to use against 
 her at her trial, revelations were drawn from 
 her by a priest, under the seal of confession, 
 that she had left home without her parents’ 
 leave, and taken down by notaries, concealed 
 in the adjoining chamber. On the 21st of 
 February, 1431, the trial commenced in the 
 chapel of the castle of Rouen, and for sixteen 
 days did this infamous tribunal exhaust every 
 artifice to entrap poor Jeanne. But she was 
 not to be moved by cunningly devised ques- 
 tions ; she maintained immovably the Divine 
 origin of her ‘ visions ’ and ‘ voices,’ and made 
 no single admission that could justify a con- 
 viction for sorcery or witchcraft. 
 
 She was sent back to prison, and the case 
 submitted to the University of Paris. It 
 was all a mockery of a trial from beginning 
 to end, but they wanted to convince the 
 people of France that their maiden deliverer 
 was an emissary from the evil one — to black- 
 en her name and her memory for ever. So 
 on the i8th of April, Jeanne’s ‘visions’ and 
 
68 
 
 The Maid of Orleans, 
 
 ‘ voices ’ were declared to have come from 
 Satan. She was found guilty of blasphemy 
 and imposture, and of course every charge 
 that had been brought against her. She was 
 persuaded to admit this afterwards, under 
 the threat of being instantly burned ; but her 
 enemies never intended to let her escape. 
 Part of her sentence was that she was to lay 
 aside man’s attire — the most fitting garments 
 for the work she had to do, and to her an 
 outward and visible sign that this work had 
 been given her by God, so that women’s 
 clothes came to mean that her mission was 
 from the evil one. But while condemninsf 
 her to these, a suit of men’s garments was 
 placed in her cell, and, as was hoped, Jeanne 
 soon put them on, declaring to her gaolers 
 once more that her ‘ visions ’ and ‘ voices ’ 
 were from God and His saints. It was what 
 her enemies had been waiting for. She was 
 handed over as a relapsed penitent to the 
 secular arm, and on the 30th of May, 1431, 
 she was brought out to the market-place at 
 Rouen and burnt to death. 
 
 Never was a truer martyr than the Maid 
 of Orleans. Amid the gloom of that dark 
 
Conflict and Death. 
 
 69 
 
 fifteenth century the heroine of France stands 
 out a figure of amazing beauty ; she towers 
 above her nation and her age, a woman for 
 all good men and women to reverence while 
 the world shall last. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE STAINLESS KNIGHT. — EARLY LIFE. 
 
 HERE was a dull little castle near 
 Grenoble, in the province of Dauphiny, 
 standing among its vineyards and corn- 
 fields, where a family named Bayard had 
 lived for generations. The low doors and 
 narrow windows in the thickness of the 
 walls must have made it dim and dark in the 
 brightest weather. Yet a happy family lived 
 beneath the quaint, steep roof of Bayard 
 Castle, and the mother’s room, at the top of 
 the tower forming the outside staircase, was 
 a haven of refuge, and the sweetest, most 
 sacred spot in all the world to the four boys 
 who lived here. 
 
 Their uncle was the Bishop of Grenoble, 
 but their own mother was more sacred than 
 any bishop, and her little tower-room, where 
 
 70 
 
Early Eife. 
 
 7 ‘ 
 
 she taught them to pray, was more to them 
 than any church or cathedral. 
 
 Sorrow had come to this home a short 
 time before our story begins. The brave 
 father, who had fought in so many battles for 
 the King of France, had died. Just before 
 his death, he called his boys to his bedside, 
 and asked them each what they would like 
 to be. The eldest said he should like to 
 stay at home, and take care of his mother 
 and father. Perhaps he knew that, being 
 the eldest, it was his duty to stay and take 
 care of the old castle and retainers ; and it 
 certainly must have been a comfort to his 
 mother to know that one of her boys wished 
 to stay with her when the rest went away. 
 The next boy, Pierre, said he would like to 
 be a knight, and fight the enemies of his 
 country, as his grandfather had fought the 
 English at Agincourt. Of the others, one 
 wanted to be a bishop, like his uncle, and the 
 other an abbot. 
 
 Soon after the funeral of their father, the 
 bishop came to see if he could do anything 
 for the widow and her boys, and then hear- 
 ing of Pierre’s wish, he offered to take him 
 
72 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 back to Grenoble with him, for he could get 
 him a place as a page to the Duke of Savoy. 
 Of course such a good offer could not be re- 
 fused ; and though the mother’s voice trembled 
 as she gave the orders, the village tailor was 
 sent for, and her stores turned out, to make 
 Pierre the new clothes necessary for him to 
 go out in the world. 
 
 Such a bustle as there was in the castle ! 
 No one thought of going to bed that night, 
 for there was velvet and satin and cloth for 
 the tailor to make up into doublets, and 
 mantles and hose, while the maids sewed at 
 the linen garments, and somebody else at the 
 leather jerkins. Pages were for use as well 
 as ornament, in those days, and Pierre would 
 have to work in his new place. 
 
 But when everything was ready the next 
 day, and the mother saw the lively little roan 
 that the bishop had bought for Pierre, and 
 how delighted the boy was over it all, her 
 heart quite gave way. She was obliged to 
 run up to her tower and shed a few tears, 
 and ask God’s help to bear this fresh sorrow. 
 Then she was called down, for Pierre had 
 mounted his pony, and the bishop was ready 
 
Gnu 
 
 74 
 
 i 
 
Early Life. 
 
 75 
 
 to start on the sixteen-mile ride to Grenoble. 
 She contrived to draw her boy aside for a 
 few parting words. With tears in her eyes, 
 she charged him ‘ to love and serve God, to 
 be courteous to his peers, and merciful to the 
 poor ; to tell the truth, to be sober, and free 
 from envy and flattery or tale-bearing ; to be 
 loyal, loving, and liberal.’ 
 
 Pierre was deeply touched by his mother’s 
 earnest love ; and happy as he was at the 
 prospect of seeing the great world, and join- 
 ing in battles, as his father and grandfather 
 had done, he solemnly vowed that he would 
 remember and obey his mother’s words. For 
 a minute or two he felt awed as he made this 
 vow, not only in obedience to his mother’s 
 wish, but also to be a law to himself ever- 
 more ; but, like a happy boy of fourteen, he 
 rode away with his uncle on his sprightly 
 little horse, chattering of the things that 
 interested him and of the brothers he had 
 left behind. 
 
 At parting, his mother had given him a 
 little purse, with six crowns in gold, and one 
 in lesser coin for himself, that he might be 
 able to help the poor who came in his way. 
 
76 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 She also gave him two crowns for the ser- 
 vant of the squire under whom he might be 
 placed. 
 
 The great castle of Savoy was a very 
 different household from the little homestead 
 he had left, and opened up an altogether new 
 world to Pierre — a world within a world, for 
 he was assigned to a squire, to be taught the 
 duties appertaining to that office, so that by- 
 and-by he might become a knight in out- 
 ward seeming as well as inward truth. 
 
 A book lately published on chivalry gives 
 us a detailed account of the duties of a squire, 
 all which little Pierre had to learn, under 
 the direction of the squire set over him, from 
 which we shall see, that to obey his mother’s 
 loving counsel needed constant watchfulness 
 and prayerfulness. 
 
 ‘ The squire u:;ed to rise early. His first 
 duty took him to the stables, where he had 
 to spend several hours every day, brush and 
 curry-comb in hand, beginning with his 
 master’s horses, ending with his own. He 
 was often trusted with the delicate task of 
 training the young colts, and he delighted in 
 that hard and perilous occupation. Then he 
 
Early Life. 
 
 77 
 
 watched for the awakening of his master ; 
 for upon him devolved the duty of dressing 
 the knight. Was a visitor expected, was a 
 guest received in the castle ? the squires 
 had to go and meet him, to take off his 
 armour, look after his horse, conduct the 
 new-comer to his room, undress him, bid 
 him welcome. 
 
 ‘ But, lo ! a horn has sounded. It is dinner 
 time, and all the guests arrive to wash their 
 hands before sitting down. Who has given 
 the water ? who has laid the cloth ? who 
 stands behind each guest, baron or lad}^ 
 silent, attentive, eager? who hands the bread? 
 who carves ? The squires, still the squires, 
 and they boast of being as clever at that 
 business as the best servants. 
 
 ‘ If their lord is on a journey, they watch 
 over his coffers, which are full of gold and 
 jewels. If he goes to a tournament, they 
 rejoice at accompanying him, and do unto 
 him the same service as at war, proclaiming 
 their master’s name, taking charge of the 
 horses he had won, providing him with fresh 
 armour when he needed it. On a hunting 
 expedition, the employment, the zeal, the 
 
78 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 joy are the same. The knight and the squire 
 are inseparable from each other. 
 
 ‘ On his return from the chase, the tour- 
 nament, or the war, it is still the squires who 
 receive the baron at the castle gate, and 
 bring him some wine. 
 
 ‘ But night is beginning to fall, but the 
 day’s work of our squire is not yet over. 
 They must undress their master, whose bed 
 they made in the morning. Is all finished 
 now ? No ; they have to walk through the 
 stables, and go their rounds all over the 
 castle.’ 
 
 Amid all these multifarious duties, in which 
 the pages took their share as well as their 
 masters the squires, little Pierre Bayard 
 must have found ample opportunity to carry 
 into practice his mother’s loving counsel, if 
 he strove to resist the temptation to shirk 
 little duties, to be patient under reproof, not 
 to grasp more than his share of the gifts 
 bestowed by the guests, to be gentle and 
 obliging to his fellow-pages, as well as to 
 his master the squire, and not to hector and 
 domineer over the turnspits and scullions 
 that came in his way. 
 
Early Life. 
 
 79 
 
 Life was rather hard sometimes for the 
 fatherless boy in the big, strange castle, and 
 he often thought of his mother, for we know 
 that he never forgot her parting words ; but, 
 following the advice of the wise man given 
 in the Bible concerning wisdom, he wrote 
 them on the table of his heart, that they 
 might bring forth fruit in his life. 
 
 After two years of obedience and dis- 
 cipline as a page, he was made an esquire, 
 and thence, in addition to the duties already 
 enumerated, he had to learn all those ex- 
 ploits that best fitted him for successful 
 warfare. War was the profession of knights 
 in this rough age, but chivalry was to teach 
 them to be as humane and merciful as they 
 could, even to their enemies. It was the 
 practical carrying out of the gospel of Christ 
 amid the horrors and wrongs of war. Pierre 
 learned all manner of feats of strength and 
 agility, tilting, and riding, as well as the 
 military evolutions in the rudiments of which 
 he had been instructed when a page. Among 
 his new duties he would learn to spring on 
 his horse armed at all points — no small feat 
 to accomplish, when we consider the armour 
 
8o 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 of that day, so stiff, heavy, and cumbrous. 
 Running, dancing, throwing somersaults fully 
 armed except his helmet ; raising himself 
 between two partition walls to any height, 
 by placing his back against one and his 
 hands and feet against the other ; mounting 
 a high ladder on the under side by his hands, 
 not touching the rounds with his feet ; throw- 
 ing the javelin and pitching the bar, were 
 all diligently practised. 
 
 As a page, Pierre Bayard had distinguished 
 himself by his industry and painstaking atten- 
 tion to all the small details of his work. As 
 a squire, he soon distanced all his companions 
 by his skill and dexterity in these martial 
 exercises, bringing himself very soon under 
 the notice of the Duke of Savoy himself, 
 who took care that such a promising young 
 man should be engaged in those duties that 
 brought him near to his own person. 
 
 When his master went to court, Pierre 
 Bayard was among the first to be selected 
 to go with him ; and wishing to please the 
 king, Charles VIII., he could think of nothing 
 so valuable as the services of such a true 
 and faithful squire as Bayard. So the duke 
 
Early Life. 
 
 8i 
 
 gave Pierre to the king; and temptations 
 undreamed of in a country castle presented 
 themselves to the squire in his new life at 
 court. 
 
 He had probably tasted some ot the glory 
 and danger of the battle-field while in the 
 service of the duke, for it was here that the 
 squire’s office was most important. He had 
 to take charge of his master’s shield and 
 horse, and when in the actual fight, to be at 
 hand to help him in any and every way 
 possible. 
 
 Soon after taking service with the king, 
 Pierre probably went with him to Brittany ; 
 but this war soon ended in a marriage. The 
 Duke of Brittany had died, leaving all his 
 wide province to a thirteen-year-old girl — a 
 poor ruler for such stormy times. She had 
 chosen a husband to help her rule her people, 
 and married him by proxy ; but he had never 
 been to see his little wife and help her in 
 her wars. So it was easy to persuade the 
 little lady that she was neglected, and there- 
 fore had better take the King of France for 
 her husband. The Pope consented to dis- 
 solve the marriage with the husband she had 
 
82 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 never seen, and then pretty Anne of Brittany 
 was married to ignorant, ugly, awkward 
 Charles VIII., and became Queen of France 
 — a greater France than had ever existed 
 before, for Brittany now became for the first 
 time part of the royal kingdom. 
 
 Pierre Bayard was busy enough at the 
 wedding and coronation that followed ; for 
 jousts and tournaments, where martial skill 
 and prowess were displayed, were the 
 fashionable amusements of the day. One 
 so bold and venturesome, and yet known 
 in the court as the most gentle, courteous, 
 and truthful squire, would naturally attract 
 much attention, especially among the ladies. 
 Amid all this, it was not easy for young 
 Bayard to resist the flattery and adulation, 
 or to carry out truly and faithfully his 
 mother’s last words. 
 
 But that dear mother in the little tower- 
 room had taught her boy to look beyond 
 the saints, whom all invoked, to God Him- 
 self, and so, at the cry often used at the 
 tournament, ‘ St. George,’ or ‘ St. Louis,’ or 
 ‘ St. Michael,’ Bayard would join in ; but 
 his heart would spring up to God Himself, 
 
Early Life. 
 
 83 
 
 and there would be a momentary prayer that 
 the God who had helped these saints to 
 conquer the powers of evil would also help 
 him — help him to tread down and overcome 
 temptation, even as he overcame his foes in 
 the lists. 
 
 Many who became squires did not care 
 to go beyond this rank, and take upon 
 themselves the solemn vows of knighthood ; 
 but Pierre Bayard was not one of these. 
 When he rode away from the old home in 
 Dauphiny, he had to all intents and purposes 
 taken the vows of a true knight, and as a 
 little page-boy had lived by them, looking 
 up to God for help in every difficulty. So 
 when his king offered him this honour, he 
 did not shrink from its responsibilities. He 
 had long been preparing to undertake them, 
 and avow to the whole world that henceforth 
 he would be a Christian soldier. 
 
 The ceremony of investiture of knight- 
 hood, whenever time and place permitted, 
 was long and splendid. Preparatory to enter- 
 ing upon his new dignity, the squire was 
 stripped of his garments and took a bath. 
 On leaving this, he was clad in a white tunic. 
 
84 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 the symbol of purity ; a red robe, emblema- 
 tical of the blood he was to shed in the 
 cause of truth ; and a black doublet, in 
 token of the death that awaited him as well 
 as all mankind. Thus purified and clad, he 
 entered the church, where he passed a whole 
 night in prayer, sometimes alone, and some- 
 times with a friend who prayed with him, 
 and certain other knights who acted as 
 sponsors in this ceremony. 
 
 The following morning the first act of the 
 candidate for knighthood was confession, 
 after which the priest administered to him 
 the sacrament. The novice then advanced 
 to the altar, and kneeling before the lord 
 who was to confer the order of knighthood 
 upon him, received the accolade. This was 
 three strokes upon the neck with the flat 
 part of a sword, while at the same time he 
 was addressed thus : ‘In the name of God 
 and St. Michael, I make thee a knight ; be 
 faithful, true, and fortunate.’ 
 
 After this, bishops and priests, and often 
 ladies, helped to array the newly made knight 
 in the garb of his order, putting on first his 
 gilt spurs, then his coat of mail, his breast- 
 
Early Life. 
 
 85 
 
 plate and arm pieces, gauntlets, and last of 
 all his sword, which had previously been laid 
 upon the altar. The oath of chivalry was 
 then administered to him, which was to the 
 effect that he would be faithful to God, to 
 the king, and to the ladies — which every true 
 knight like Pierre Bayard understood to 
 mean the weak and defenceless, and all 
 whom he could help. 
 
 After this, his helmet was brought to him, 
 and a horse, upon which he sprang without 
 the aid of stirrups, and caracoled inside the 
 church, brandishing his lance and sword. 
 Then, leaving the church, he went through 
 similar evolutions outside, where crowds 
 were waiting to see the new-made knight, 
 and the gorgeously dressed ladies, knights, 
 nobles, and clergy, who had filled the church 
 to witness the investiture. 
 
 Thus did Pierre Bayard enter upon his 
 stainless knighthood, seeing and thinking 
 less of the outward pomp and show that 
 accompanied it than of the inward meaning 
 of each mystical act. The whole ceremony 
 was linked in his mind to the little tower- 
 room at home, where his mother taught him 
 
The Stainless Knight. 
 
 when a boy, and where she was praying for 
 him, that his knightly vows might ever be 
 kept truly and faithfully, and he become a 
 Christian soldier. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE STAINLESS KNIGHT. KNIGHTHOOD. 
 
 f AYARD was ever in the forefront of a 
 battle, ever at the post of danger ; and 
 so when Charles VIII. entered upon 
 the wild scheme of conquering Naples, to 
 which he thought he had some claim, Bayard, 
 like a true knight sworn to protect his king, 
 went with him, whatever he thought of the 
 wisdom ot the proceeding. Italy at this 
 time was the wealthiest and most intellectual 
 country in Europe. The large, prosperous 
 towns had swallowed up the powers of the 
 feudal nobles ; but they had begun to grow 
 jealous of each other, and it was through 
 this rivalry that the King of France was 
 able to revive an old claim to the throne 
 of Naples. 
 
 87 
 
88 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 In 1492, just when Columbus had dis- 
 covered the new world of America, France 
 discovered across the Alps an altogether new 
 world in Europe — one that was to modify 
 and revolutionize all her future life, and 
 bring a new factor into the political life of 
 Europe. Wealthy, industrious, art-loving, 
 fastidious Italy had few soldiers with whom 
 to resist this new invader ; and so the first 
 French campaign was little more than a 
 march of triumph, for conquerors and con- 
 quered could only stare in amazement at 
 each other. 
 
 Had the King of France been as wise as 
 he was ignorant, an easy conquest of Italy 
 might have been made. Charles foolishly 
 thought he had conquered it, because the 
 towns opened their gates and allowed his 
 court and soldiers to give themselves up to 
 every riotous pleasure. But after a year or 
 two of this military promenade, Italy grew 
 tired of such troublesome guests, and drove 
 them all out. 
 
 Then the king died, and his cousin, Louis 
 XII,, succeeded him. He had taken part 
 in that merry expedition to Italy with 
 
Knighthood. 
 
 89 
 
 Charles, and saw where the mistakes had 
 been made, and resolved to remedy them 
 in a war he soon entered upon. But he 
 found the Italians prepared for his coming ; 
 and although Bayard and other brave 
 captains had also learned to know the 
 country and something of the people, the 
 French soon met with a defeat before Milan, 
 and one of the first to be taken prisoner was 
 Bayard. 
 
 But the brave knight had won for himself 
 a renown during his former campaign that 
 was well known in Milan ; and when the 
 duke heard who had been taken prisoner 
 from the French, he at once ordered him to 
 be set at liberty, for was he not known 
 already as the knight sans peur et sans re- 
 proche — the knight who, if he entered a 
 town, ordered his soldiers to protect its 
 women and children ; who never robbed 
 convents, or ruthlessly sacked houses ; who 
 was ready to share his last morsel of bread 
 with the poorest soldier when rations ran 
 short ; who would give his share of the spoil 
 to hospital or church, rather than rob the 
 town he had conquered ? 
 
90 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, was a 
 knight himself, and could respect one who 
 was so loyally true to his knightly vows, 
 even though he was a Frenchman and an 
 enemy, and so Bayard was sent back to his 
 wondering but delighted soldiers, who were 
 bitterly mourning the capture of their brave 
 captain. 
 
 In all the wars waged at this time, — and 
 France, Italy, and Spain were in a chronic 
 state of warfare, — Bayard everywhere won 
 fresh laurels for bravery and generosity and 
 tenderness to all prisoners. 
 
 The two old foes, French and English, 
 went to war with each other in 1513, for 
 Henry VIII. wanted to seize Picardy, and 
 besieged Terouanne. On one occasion the 
 French, finding their capture was inevitable, 
 laid down their arms ; but Bayard made 
 another dash for victory, and, riding forward, 
 met the English officer in command, and, 
 pointing his sword to his breast, said, ‘ Sur- 
 render, or I take your life.’ 
 
 The Englishman gave his sword to Bayard, 
 but he could see by this time that his men 
 had laid down their arms, so he at once gave 
 
Knighthood. 
 
 91 
 
 up his own, saying, ‘ 1 am Bayard, your 
 prisoner, and you are mine ; ’ and the two 
 generous foes were marched off to the op- 
 posite camps. 
 
 But neither remained a prisoner long, for 
 they were soon exchanged, and no ransom was 
 asked for Bayard. In fact, it seems soon to 
 have become an unwritten law among these 
 quarrelsome nations, that whoever captured 
 ‘ the stainless knight ’ should treat him 
 with all honour while in captivity, and re- 
 lease him without ransom at the first op- 
 portunity. 
 
 It was a splendid testimony to the moral 
 worth of the man, and proved that though 
 others might fail to follow his bright example, 
 they could not but admire it. He never 
 became wealthy, for the spoil that fell to his 
 share was restored to the owners or given 
 to the poor ; and brave though he was, he 
 spoke the truth too uncompromisingly, with 
 too little flattery, ever to rise to any great 
 dignity. At the time of his death he was 
 only a simple captain in the French army. 
 And yet Francis I., the third King of France 
 whom he served, valued and revered him. 
 
92 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 When Francis asked to be made a knight, 
 he chose to receive that honour from the 
 hands of Bayard. 
 
 Doubtless, Bayard was an uncompromising 
 foe to the flatterers and pleasure-seekers 
 about the court. What could they do with 
 this man, whose clear truthfulness scorned 
 their little underhand tricks and crooked 
 ways, and the flattery and meanness by 
 which they hoped to win favour and get on } 
 He marched straight through their cleverly 
 woven webs, and upset all their plans, by his 
 plain outspokenness. Kings are but men, 
 and very paltry ones too sometimes, so that 
 none of the three king’s he served could 
 ever get far enough away from the flatterers 
 to see the undimmed lustre of Bayard’s 
 character, and honour themselves by honour- 
 ing him. 
 
 But the people loved him, and recognised 
 his worth; and after he had successfully kept 
 back the Emperor Charles from taking 
 Champagne, Paris hailed him as its saviour, 
 and he was appointed over a company of 
 a hundred men, led in his own name — an 
 
Knighthood. 
 
 93 
 
 honour which until then had only been held 
 by princes of the blood- royal. 
 
 Now we come to the last scene in the 
 eventful life of Bayard. A coalition of sove- 
 reigns had been formed against France and 
 her pleasure-loving king, Francis. The 
 English were harassing them on one side, 
 the Spaniards on the other, while the Italians 
 were driving them out of Italy. 
 
 The French army was in the neighbour- 
 hood of Milan, but not commanded by 
 Bayard. The favour of a wicked woman 
 had given the command to an incapable, 
 dissolute man, who knew nothing about the 
 art of war. He sent an order to Bayard to 
 hold an utterly untenable position. Bayard 
 knew that the order was a grievous blunder, 
 but he marched with his company at once to 
 obey it. 
 
 ‘ Not though the soldier knew 
 Some one had blundered. 
 
 Theirs not to make reply. 
 
 Theirs not to reason why. 
 
 Theirs but to do and die.’ 
 
 And Bayard died as he had lived, true to 
 
94 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 his knightly vow of obedience, as he had 
 been to all others. He was struck by a stray 
 stone from an arquebuse that fractured his 
 spine. 
 
 He lived for several hours after he fell 
 into the hands of the enemy ; but when they 
 knew who their prisoner was, some of them 
 were moved to tears, and all tried to soothe 
 the last hours of the dying hero. 
 
 A camp bed and pavilion were provided 
 for him, and a priest fetched to hear his last 
 confession. All that tenderest friends could 
 do, these enemies did for him ; but the end 
 came in a few hours, and Bayard went home 
 to that Lord and Master in whose footsteps 
 he had striven to walk. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that in the war- 
 like times of which we write there were 
 many brave and noble soldiers ; but Bayard 
 stood out from among them all, the knight 
 sans peur et sans reproche, because he, more 
 than any other, tried to carry mercy and 
 justice, as well as valour, into all he did. 
 He tempered with the gospel of Jesus Christ 
 the rude, rough warfare in which he was 
 engaged. 
 
Knighthood. 
 
 95 
 
 Not only France, but all Europe mourned, 
 when they heard that Bayard, the flower of 
 knighthood and chivalry, had gone to serve 
 the King of kings in a higher realm. Every 
 French soldier mourned for him as for a 
 father. 
 
 The Italians allowed the French to take 
 away his body, and carry it home to Gre- 
 noble. Everywhere, as it passed, the in- 
 habitants turned out to meet it, with the 
 mournful honours due to a prince. 
 
 H e was buried in the church of the 
 Minorite monastery, built by his uncle, 
 and where his brother was probably the 
 abbot. 
 
 Amid the moral darkness and gloom of 
 this fifteenth century, Bayard obeyed his 
 Master’s command: ‘ Let your light so shine 
 before men, that they may see your good 
 works, and glorify your Father who is in 
 heaven.’ 
 
 All may follow his example. In the 
 narrower ways of life we are called to tread, 
 we may exhibit the virtues that shone with 
 such lustre in Bayard, for they are the 
 common ones of truthfulness and kindliness, 
 
96 
 
 The Stainless Knight. 
 
 gentleness and unselfishness. Every life 
 affords ample scope for the exercise of 
 these. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MARGUERITE OF NAVARRE. THE NEW DAY. 
 
 Tn the year 1510, Louis XII., the “ Father 
 of his people,” as he was called, and cer- 
 ^ tainly one of the best kings P' ranee ever 
 had, assembled a Parliament at Tours, to 
 consider whether it was lawful to go to war 
 with a Pope ‘ who breaks treaties, and com- 
 mits all sorts of injustice, who leads armies 
 to the battle-field, but never preaches from a 
 pulpit.’ 
 
 It is a difficult question to decide, for the 
 Pope was the head of the Church, and all 
 men were bound to yield obedience to the 
 spiritual father ; but at last it was conceded 
 that such a warlike pontiff as now disturbed 
 the peace of Europe might be opposed. 
 
 ‘It is lawful,’ said this Parliament, ‘ for 
 the king to act, not only defensively, but 
 
 97 G 
 
98 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 ofifensively against such a man ; ’ and Louis 
 at once prepared to march an army into Italy 
 against his spiritual pastor and master. 
 
 While this was going on at Tours, there 
 was a little old man at Paris who might be 
 seen any morning going the round of the 
 churches, prostrating himself before the im- 
 ages of the saints, and devoutly ‘ repeating 
 his hours.’ But with him it was no vain 
 repetition or formal service, but an inward 
 longing to grow pure and holy, that prompted 
 this devotion. 
 
 Everybody knew the little bent, withered - 
 looking old man was Dr. Jacques Lefevre, 
 the most learned professor of the Sorbonne, 
 and withal so meek and gentle, so full of 
 loving-kindness, that everybody who knew 
 him loved him, and his classes were more 
 crowded than any other in the university. 
 
 To lead the minds of his students to con- 
 template what was pure and holy in the lives 
 of men and women of old, he decided to 
 write the lives of the saints, and he had 
 made some progress with this work when 
 the thought struck him that he might find in 
 the Bible some useful materials for his work. 
 
The New Day. 
 
 99 
 
 The Bible was almost an unknown book 
 at this time, for unless a man had learned 
 the ancient languages — Greek and Hebrew 
 — he could not read it ; but Dr. Lefevre had 
 learned both while on a visit to Italy, and 
 now he turned to this unknown book for 
 help to honour the saints. 
 
 He thought he had well-nigh exhausted 
 all fields of knowledge, for his keen thirst for 
 it had overcome innumerable difficulties in 
 the way, and he had visited almost every 
 country in Europe, as well as Asia and 
 Africa, in its pursuit ; and history, mathe- 
 matics, philosophy, and theology, as well as 
 modern and ancient languages, had all been 
 mastered, but it was the first time he had set 
 himself to the patient study of God’s Word. 
 
 Now the learned old man of seventy came 
 to it with the spirit of a little child, willing to 
 learn whatever God should teach him, but 
 little dreaming what wonders were to be re- 
 vealed to his soul through the crabbed black 
 letters of the old tome he was studying. He 
 had unwittingly opened the portals of a new 
 world, as wonderful to his soul as Italy had 
 been to his bodily sight, when crossing the 
 
lOO 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 Alps he had first caught sight of the ‘garden 
 of Europe/ lying at his feet in all her trans- 
 cendent loveliness. Never would he forget 
 that moment. Earth had no greater joy to 
 offer him than he had tasted when he looked 
 down on sunny Italy ; but a newer, deeper 
 joy came to him now, for he had gained a 
 sight, not of an earthly paradise, but of the 
 kingdom of heaven itself. Saints of another 
 sort than those who had up to this moment 
 engaged his attention now stood before 
 him. The teaching of the real saints wholly 
 eclipsed that of the legendary and fanciful 
 ones he had so long honoured, and St. Paul 
 soon became his chief study. 
 
 He had often said that a new day was 
 dawning for the world, but he little dreamed 
 that he was to be its harbinger for France — 
 the Wicklif of its reformation ; but when the 
 new day broke upon his soul, and the plan of 
 justification by faith stood revealed before 
 him, he could not do otherwise than teach 
 others what he himself had learned. His 
 lives of the saints grew into a commentary 
 on the Epistles of Paul, in which he says, ‘ It 
 is God who gives us by faith that righteous- 
 
The New Day. 
 
 lOI 
 
 ness which by grace alone justifies to eternal 
 life.’ 
 
 This doctrine was the keystone of the Re- 
 formation, and now Lefevre taught it to the 
 students attending the classes, as well as 
 setting it forward in his book. 
 
 Opposition was soon stirred up against 
 him by the other doctors of the Sorbonne, 
 who were jealous of his popularity, and they 
 might have prevailed to silence him, but the 
 new method of teaching had suddenly grown 
 fashionable in France ; for owing to the 
 Italian war, the nobles who had gone with 
 King Louis into Italy had been brought into 
 contact with the learned men there, and were 
 anxious that France should know something 
 of the new learning they alone could teach. 
 Italy had given them shelter when they fled, 
 with what books they could save, from Con- 
 stantinople before the barbarous, all-conquer- 
 ing Turks ; but they were willing to go to 
 Paris, and many of them had accepted invi- 
 tations and come. So Italian learning, and in 
 fact everything Italian, had suddenly grown 
 fashionable, and by this means Lefevre was 
 able to continue his work. 
 
102 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 French genius is one of marvellous adapt- 
 ability, and the new doctrine taught by 
 Lefevre was readily received by numbers of 
 earnest-minded men and women. Among 
 these was Madame de Chatillon, the gover- 
 ness and friend of the king’s niece, Mar- 
 guerite de Valois, now Duchess of Alen^on. 
 
 Although surrounded by wealth and lux- 
 ury, and all the frivolity of the French 
 court, this young lady had been taught by 
 her excellent governess that the fear of the 
 Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that 
 piety, modesty, purity, and beneficence would 
 be the brightest ornaments of her exalted 
 rank ; and so the teaching of Lefevre, which 
 came a little later, found this lady well pre- 
 pared to receive the wonderful truth the 
 Bible had revealed to him. 
 
 The beloved and accomplished Marguerite 
 of Valois had been forced to marry the Duke 
 of Alengon, for whom she felt no regard, and 
 who seems to have cared very little for her. 
 Except in wealth, he was greatly her inferior; 
 and she must have missed the companion- 
 ship of her brother Francis and other friends 
 very sorely when she left Amboise, where 
 
The New Day. 
 
 103 
 
 the happiest years of her life were spent. 
 Here, under the guidance of Madame de 
 Chatillon, she learned Latin and Italian, 
 Spanish and English, while philosophy and 
 theology also came in for a share of the 
 studious girl’s attention. She mingled freely 
 too with the young French nobles who were 
 chosen by the king to be the companions of 
 her brother, who was heir to the French 
 throne. 
 
 Among these youthful playmates was 
 Henry d’Albret, Prince of Navarre, the 
 Montpensiers and Montmorencys, and others 
 of the French nobility, who were ready to 
 do anything for Marguerite. But her mar- 
 riage with the Duke of Alen^on, when she 
 was only seventeen, changed her from a 
 light-hearted girl to a sad and disappointed 
 woman. Mere pleasure could never satisfy 
 the earnest, ardent soul of Marguerite ; and 
 emptied of earthly comfort and companion- 
 ship, her mind was the more ready to receive 
 the good news — the gospel of salvation by 
 faith in Christ, now taught by Lefevre and 
 his disciple, Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux. 
 
 At the time of her marriage. Marguerite 
 
104 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 had begged that she might not be separated 
 from all her friends at once, and that her 
 beloved governess might become her lady 
 of honour, and accompany her to her new 
 home in Normandy ; and this wish was 
 gratified, so that both ladies lived together 
 still, and frequently came to Paris together, 
 where they would not fail to hear Lefevre 
 or some of his disciples. In 1514 the elderly 
 king married an English girl-wife, Mary, the 
 sister of Henry VIII. ; and with her, among 
 other English ladies, came Anne Boleyn, 
 a beautiful, sprightly girl, for whom the 
 young Duchess of Alen9on soon evinced 
 a decided preference. 
 
 Amid the gay scenes that apparently left 
 no time or opportunity for serious thought, 
 the two friends would contrive to exchange 
 confidences, and Anne learned here of the 
 wonderful day that had dawned for France 
 and the world through the discovery of the 
 truth made by Lefevre. 
 
 The worship of God at this time was little 
 more than a spectacle provided to amuse 
 people. The gorgeous dresses of the priests, 
 the rich altars, the gleaming vessels of silver 
 
The New Day. 
 
 105 
 
 and gold, the wax candles, the music and 
 chanting, were all calculated to divert the 
 mind, for not a word could be understood, 
 the whole service being in an unknown 
 language. There was no preaching except 
 on great festivals, when some ignorant monk 
 would mount the pulpit and recite the legend 
 of a Romish saint, or the virtues of holy 
 water or crossing or exorcism. 
 
 It may therefore be imagined what a 
 sensation was caused when Lefevre or 
 Briconnet or other teachers of the new 
 doctrine occupied a Parisian pulpit, and 
 instead of sleepily drawling out some tale 
 of Romish superstition, declared in burning 
 words and with heartfelt earnestness that 
 for ages the Church had been wrong in 
 representing God as a cruel tyrant, who 
 must be appeased or bought off or flattered 
 into complaisance; that, on the contrary, He 
 so loved men, so pitied them, that out of 
 His infinite grace and mercy He had sent 
 His only Son to redeem them from their 
 sins, and, believing in Him, they were justified 
 by faith, and needed neither the intercession 
 of saints and martyrs nor to perform penance 
 
io6 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 or go on pilgrimage. Now, this proclama- 
 tion of deliverance from sin through faith in 
 Christ cut at the root of a most profitable 
 traffic established by the Church of Rome, 
 for the Popes encouraged the doctrine, and 
 priests and monks were only too ready to 
 teach the people that sins could be pardoned 
 for money, and pardons bought for every 
 form of iniquity. There were years of 
 jubilee also proclaimed, when those who 
 went on pilgrimage to Rome, and contri- 
 buted to the support of the Pope, received 
 pardon and promises of heaven. Religion 
 thus became a question of buying and selling 
 only, in which the rich might engage, and at 
 the same time commit every kind of sin, 
 while the poor were left poor indeed. It 
 was a doctrine that pleased the thoughtless 
 and vicious, if they only happened to have 
 money enough to purchase indulgences ; and 
 so, when these began to hear that the new 
 teachers declared their pardons were not 
 worth the parchment they were written upon, 
 and that if they wanted to be saved they 
 must leave their sins and begin a new life, 
 they grew angry, and stirred up all the 
 
The New Day. 
 
 107 
 
 opposition they could against Lefevre and 
 his disciples. The priests and monks, whose 
 profits had begun to fall off through the 
 preaching and teaching of this doctrine of 
 salvation by faith in Christ, were already 
 enraged, and so were many of the Sorbonne 
 professors ; but the Duchess Marguerite of 
 Alen^on, and her mother and brother through 
 her influence, favoured the reformers, and so 
 for several years Lefevre continued to teach 
 unmolested in Paris, while Briconnet did all 
 he could to forward the movement in his 
 diocese of Meaux. 
 
 In 1515 Louis XII. died, and Marguerite’s 
 brother, Francis, became king. The brother 
 and sister were ardently attached to each 
 other, and the young king and the young 
 duchess often discussed the new doctrine, 
 and went to hear Lefevre and the Bishop 
 of Meaux, or some of their disciples, when- 
 ever they were in Paris. It seemed as 
 though the reformation must soon conquer 
 the old superstition, for the new doctrine 
 taught by the reformers was so closely allied 
 to the new learning brought from Italy, that 
 in the minds of many they were all but 
 
io8 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 identical. But the Renaissance, the revival 
 of Greek literature and art, with its refining 
 influence on the coarse manners of the age, 
 made no such demands on the heart and life 
 as the gospel taught by Lefevre. Francis 
 was in love with the Renaissance, and ready 
 to do anything to promote it. Artists, 
 painters, sculptors, and men of learning were 
 encouraged to come and settle in Paris, and 
 never was there a more liberal patron of the 
 arts of civilized and polished society than 
 Francis I. 
 
 A pope had succeeded the turbulent old 
 Julius, too, who was determined that life 
 should be more refined and polished ; but 
 neither Leo X. nor Francis ever thought of 
 going below the surface. Life must be less 
 rude, but not more pure and true and holy, 
 for both these men loved pleasure more than 
 anything else, and were ready to do anything 
 in its pursuit. Greed and luxury, vice and 
 corruption grew rampant underneath the sur- 
 face of the refined, polite society that formed 
 the court of Francis, and it must have been 
 a sore grief to the Duchess Marguerite to see 
 how these daily increased. 
 
The New Day. 
 
 109 
 
 Not so had the Renaissance and the new 
 doctrine touched her. Religion had grown 
 to be a matter of life and conscience to the 
 beautiful Duchess of Alen^on, and she was 
 not ashamed to confess Christ before men, 
 even in the midst of her brother’s corrupt 
 court ; for, after the fanciful fashion of the 
 times, she chose for her badge the marigold, 
 which always turns to the sun, plainly in- 
 timating to all who cared to know, that 
 Marguerite was determined to look ever 
 upwards to Christ as her Sun of righteous- 
 ness, from whom she expected to receive 
 help and guidance in every time of need. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MARGUERITE OF NAVARRE. — A HAVEN OF 
 REFUGE. 
 
 f OR a few years Lelevre and his disciples, 
 Fare!, Roussel, and Vatable, all four 
 professors in the University of Paris, 
 were allowed to teach the new doctrine un- 
 molested, although the enemies of truth and 
 righteousness were eager to silence them ; 
 for light and darkness cannot dwell together, 
 and such uncompromising truth as the re- 
 formers taught left no room for vice and 
 greed on the one hand, or ignorant super- 
 stition on the other. 
 
 So priests and monks and pleasure-loving 
 courtiers were alike in their hatred of the 
 new doctrine, and the Duchess of Alen^on 
 soon became aware that a storm was gather- 
 ing, and she exerted all her powerful influence 
 
 no 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 to protect the reformers ; and for a time she 
 succeeded, forP'rancis dearly loved his sister, 
 and was ready to do almost anything to 
 please her — anything but give up his plea- 
 sure, and he loved this more than the truth 
 he was willing to hear proclaimed some- 
 times. He declined to have it branded as 
 heresy at the bidding of the other doctors 
 of the Sorbonne, but he could not accept 
 it as his sister did — he was willing to hear 
 with his ears, but not understand with his 
 heart, all the wonderful truth now for the 
 first time proclaimed to France and the 
 world. 
 
 Still he was ready to protect the re- 
 formers as long as he could without incon- 
 venience to himself, and also to place some 
 power in his sister’s hands, by which she 
 would be able to do it when he had to give 
 it up. 
 
 He doubtless foresaw that the tide of 
 clerical opposition, slowly but surely gathering 
 against the reformers, would presently prove 
 too strong for him, unless he intended to 
 identify himself more closely with them than 
 was convenient ; and this was doubtless the 
 
I 12 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 reason why he made his sister Duchess of 
 Berry in her own right two years after he 
 became king. They were together at their 
 old home at Amboise, and away from the 
 frivolities and gaieties of Paris, and amid the 
 scenes of their happy childhood the brother 
 and sister could talk over the old times and 
 the new, and Marguerite would have an 
 opportunity of pleading the cause of the 
 Reformation, begging her brother not to 
 allow it to be crushed out, but to protect the 
 reformers against all their enemies. 
 
 We can imagine the gay, handsome king 
 and his stately sister walking in the castle 
 gardens or on the terrace ; she so earnest in 
 her pleading that he would not allow this 
 new doctrine to be denounced as heresy, and 
 he laughing and joking at her fears, treat- 
 ing it all as lightly as he did everything 
 else, but at last suggesting in a gay tone 
 that he should make her a little queen by 
 resigning the Duchy of Berry to her, with 
 all its royal prerogatives, privileges, and the 
 revenues of the crown lands in that pro- 
 vince. 
 
 This offer Marguerite most willingly ac- 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 1 1 3 
 
 cepted. The wealth it would bring her was 
 almost princely, but this was the least valu- 
 able part of the gift, for it also gave her the 
 patronage of the University of Bourges ; and 
 so, if ever her friends should be driven 
 from the Sorbonne and Paris, they could 
 take refuge in her Duchy of Berry, and 
 Bourges would become the centre from which 
 the light of the Reformation would radiate 
 over the rest of France. 
 
 None were more earnest than the Bishop 
 of Meaux in spreading the knowledge of 
 Divine truth. He was not content that 
 crowds came to hear him preach in Paris — 
 Paris was not France, and all France needed 
 the Reformation, and so he soon turned his 
 attention to his own diocese. 
 
 His rectors and curates walked in the old 
 paths. They squandered their revenues in 
 the dissolute gaieties of Paris, while they 
 appointed ignorant deputies to do duty for 
 them at Meaux. In other days Briconnet 
 had looked upon this as a matter of course ; 
 now it appeared to him as a scandalous 
 abuse, and he published a mandate pro- 
 claiming all to be ‘ traitors and deserters who, 
 
 H 
 
Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 114 
 
 abandoning their flocks, show plainly that 
 what they love is the fleece and wool.’ He 
 also established a theological seminary at 
 Meaux, where there might be trained ‘ able 
 ministers of the New Testament,’ and mean- 
 while he did all he could to spread the new 
 doctrine by preaching himself — ‘a thing which 
 had long since gone out of fashion,’ we are 
 told — and the only times the pulpits were 
 used were at feasts and festivals, when some 
 wandering friar would mount it and turn 
 some popular topic into ridicule, and retail 
 all the latest jests he had been able to collect. 
 This was the friar’s contribution to the gene- 
 ral merriment, and then he would share in 
 the feast and go away with a well-stuffed 
 wallet for his pains. 
 
 Now the reforming bishop stopped all this. 
 He would not have the pulpits used for 
 buffoonery, but to proclaim the gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, which roused against him 
 the wrath of all the begging friars, who saw 
 their means of living thus threatened. 
 
 It is always thus. To disturb abuses is 
 to raise enemies, but Briconnet could laugh 
 at them now. These were but as morning 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 1 1 5 
 
 clouds flecking the sky, which the rapidly 
 rising sun of the Reformation would speedily 
 dissipate. 
 
 In 1522 another step forward was taken. 
 The Gospels in French were published, and 
 two years later the remaining books of the 
 New Testament; for, like our own Wicklif, 
 the aged Lefevre was most anxious that 
 every man in France should be able to read 
 God’s Word for himself 
 
 But Paris, or rather the Sorbonne, was 
 growing so seriously alarmed now, that the 
 king was called upon to put down this new 
 doctrine by force. 
 
 Francis did not respond as the Sorbonne 
 would have liked ; but still little reliance 
 could be placed in the wavering, pleasure- 
 loving king, and so Lefevre was persuaded 
 to leave Paris and retire to Meaux, with 
 Farel and most of the other prominent men 
 of the Reformation. 
 
 Henceforth Meaux became the centre of 
 the light, and by means of its wool markets 
 and corn markets strangers from all parts of 
 F ranee — a different class from the gay crowds 
 that flocked to Paris — heard of the new doc- 
 
Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 1 16 
 
 trine, and that God’s Word in their native 
 tongue could be bought here, and by this 
 means the light was carried into many a 
 dark corner of the kingdom. 
 
 Meanwhile trouble had come to Marguerite, 
 and she felt very lonely amid the gay splen- 
 dours of Paris when the reformers fled to 
 Meaux. The only person to whom she 
 could speak of what was of such vital im- 
 portance to her — her Aunt Philiberta of Savoy 
 — was leaving her now to return to Italy, 
 and so she wrote to Briconnet, begging him 
 to send to her one of the reformed pastors, 
 who might become her chaplain and teach 
 her and her household more of Divine truth, 
 for there was no one to teach it now in 
 Paris. 
 
 In compliance with her wish, Michel 
 d’Arande returned to Paris, and became 
 Marguerite’s almoner as well as her chaplain, 
 and not only preached to her household, but 
 wherever they might be staying he contrived 
 to gather some of the townspeople together 
 and declare to them the way of salvation by 
 faith in Christ Jesus. Through this means 
 the gospel was carried to Lyons when Mar- 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 117 
 
 guerite went there ; and although the public 
 declaration of this truth had by this time 
 been prohibited at Meaux as well as Paris, 
 still the Reformation made considerable 
 progress at Lyons owing to Marguerite’s 
 visit. 
 
 At Meaux everything promised well for 
 some time, until the virulence of the Sor- 
 bonne, aided by the king and his mother, put 
 an end to it. They pretended that the new 
 doctrines endangered the throne, and Par- 
 liament was convoked to deal with the ques- 
 tion. They summoned the Bishop of Meaux 
 before them on the charge of heresy, 
 Briconnet was at first firm, and refused to 
 make any concession ; but at length the 
 alternative was plainly put before him — he 
 must abandon the new doctrine or go to 
 prison, perhaps the stake. One can imagine 
 the conflict in the good man’s soul ; for he 
 was a good man, although not the strong 
 veteran he had promised to be. Perhaps he 
 thought he could yet do something for the 
 Reformation in France, when this storm had 
 blown over ; at all events, he yielded all that 
 was demanded of him. On the 12th of 
 
ii8 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 April, 1523, he was compelled to pay a fine, 
 and was sent back to his diocese to publish 
 three edicts — the first restoring public prayers 
 to the Virgin and the saints, which he had 
 so often denounced ; the second forbidding 
 any one to buy or read the books he had so 
 long laboured to distribute ; while the third 
 enjoined silence on all his friends, and those 
 teachers he had trained in his seminary to 
 preach the gospel. 
 
 This unfaithfulness of Briconnet was a 
 great blow to the Reformation in France, and 
 a great sorrow to the royal lady, who had 
 done all she could to protect the reformers, 
 and still continued that protection, in spite of 
 the opposition of her mother and brother. 
 Angry as the Sorbonne had been with 
 Briconnet, it was Lefevre whom they most 
 bitterly hated and whom they most wished 
 to punish, and so he was persuaded to go 
 to Blois, when he was driven from Meaux, 
 for here the powerful duchess could protect 
 him from his enemies, and he could live in 
 peace and finish his work of translating 
 the New Testament. The other reformers 
 turned in different directions. Farel went 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 119 
 
 to Switzerland, where a great work awaited 
 him. The two Roussels carried the gospel 
 to Navarre; and so, while the Sorbonne was 
 thinking it had stamped out the light of 
 gospel truth, its disciples were spreading it 
 further and further abroad. It was by no 
 means extinguished in Meaux either. The 
 shepherds had been driven away, but the 
 flock were faithful, and humble wool-combers 
 and vine-dressers disdained to follow the 
 example of their bishop. He might plead 
 with his own conscience and the Duchess 
 Marguerite, that he could still love his 
 Saviour with his heart, though he did not 
 confess Him with his mouth; but they saw 
 more clearly than he did, that the kingdom of 
 heaven and the Reformation in France could 
 not grow if all men followed his example, and 
 from the midst of humble congregations, 
 meeting in garrets and secluded copses 
 around Meaux, the first contingent of the 
 ‘ noble army of martyrs ’ in F ranee went to 
 bear their testimony to the truth of the 
 gospel. 
 
 While the Duchess Marguerite was staying 
 at Lyons, greater troubles still came upon 
 
I 20 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 her. The king was taken at the disastrous 
 battle of Pavia, and imprisoned by his rival, 
 Charles V., while her husband fled from the 
 battle-field ''and returned home branded as a 
 coward. It must have been bitter indeed to 
 a high-spirited, noble woman like Marguerite 
 to hear such things as were freely spoken of 
 concerning her husband, and at first she was 
 so indignant she refused to see him. But 
 he was ill, and soon she remembered that, 
 whatever his faults might be, she was his 
 wife, and bound to succour him in his 
 distress, and she went and nursed him 
 through his illness, and spoke to him of 
 that Saviour so precious to herself. 
 
 He did not live long after his return to 
 Lyons. Disappointment added to the dis- 
 ease from which he was suffering, and in a 
 few weeks he passed away, leaving his wife 
 free to arrange some plan for the release 
 of her brother. King Francis, who was still 
 kept a close prisoner. 
 
 The defeat of Pavia proved a great 
 calamity to the French reformers, for the 
 friars and monks, urged on by the doctors of 
 the Sorbonne, everywhere taught the people 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 I 2 I 
 
 that the disasters which had fallen upon 
 France were judgments sent upon them for 
 not adopting more vigorous measures to 
 stamp out the new opinions. 
 
 The king’s mother, also, in her anxiety to 
 secure the interference of the Pope on her 
 son’s behalf, wrote a very humble letter, 
 asking how he would have her act as regent 
 of the kingdom with regard to heretics, and 
 expressing her readiness to obey his orders, 
 whatever they might be. 
 
 So, in reply to this, a brief was sent to the 
 Parliament by the Pope, and they directed 
 that an Act should be passed empowering 
 the Bishop of Paris and other prelates to 
 appoint two laymen and two ecclesiastics 
 to investigate all causes of heresy, and all 
 convicted were to be doomed to the flames. 
 This commission at once undertook the work 
 of persecution, and many perished at the 
 stake. 
 
 Marguerite was overwhelmed with sorrow 
 when she knew what was happening, and 
 sent off an appealing letter to her brother 
 in his distant prison, to interfere and stop 
 these cruel proceedings. The captive king 
 
122 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 was touched by his sister’s earnest re- 
 monstrance, and many were saved from the 
 flames. He also commanded the Parliament 
 to release one or two of the leaders whom 
 they had seized, ordering them to suspend 
 all further proceedings against heretics until 
 his return. 
 
 To Marguerite’s delight, she heard, too, 
 about this time, that by journeying herself 
 to Madrid, she might do more to forward 
 her brother’s release than all the ambassadors 
 that could be sent, and she joyfully undertook 
 the journey. The emperor and his council 
 received her very graciously, for the beautiful 
 widow pleaded very eloquently for her 
 brother’s release, even while she told Charles 
 some home truths about his treatment ot 
 Francis he was not likely to hear often ; but 
 she failed to accomplish her errand, and was 
 obliged to return to France without her 
 brother. 
 
 The terms of his release were agreed to 
 soon afterwards ; but they were disgraceful 
 to both parties, and France was greatly 
 humiliated by the transaction. 
 
 While Marguerite was so busily engaged 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 123 
 
 protecting the reformers, and striving to 
 gain her brother’s release, secret negotiations 
 were being carried on by her mother and 
 Cardinal Wolsey for her marriage with 
 Henry VIII. of England. The Emperor 
 Charles also, at one time, wished to make 
 her his wife, but the widowed duchess 
 married neither. A fellow-prisoner of her 
 brother, who had escaped from Madrid 
 before Francis’s release, — Henry d’Albret, 
 the eldest son of the King of Navarre, 
 — became her second husband, and a year 
 afterwards a daughter was born, Jeanne 
 d’Albret, who followed closely in her 
 mother’s footsteps afterwards in befriending 
 the reformers, and protecting the reformed 
 faith. 
 
 So long as Marguerite lived in France, 
 she did not openly follow the reformed 
 doctrine, for fear of offending her brother, to 
 whom she was strongly attached, and also 
 lest she should injure his popularity with 
 the very powerful party who hated it ; but 
 when she became Queen of Navarre, she 
 could act with less restraint, and her palace 
 and dominions became asylums for the 
 
1 24 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 persecuted. Many of the French reformers 
 fled to her when driven from France, and 
 never failed to find protection and hospitality, 
 while in return they helped the queen in 
 many of her efforts to improve the condition 
 of her people. 
 
 Navarre was at this time in a very wild, 
 unsettled state, the inhabitants caring little 
 for anything but hunting the chamois in the 
 Pyrenees. Now Marguerite introduced 
 skilful French agriculturists to teach them 
 the most improved methods of cultivating 
 the soil, architects to enlarge the cities and 
 improve them in every way possible, while 
 painters, poets, and musicians, as well as 
 scholars and eloquent preachers of the 
 reformed faith, were encouraged to come 
 and settle at her court at Pau, so that in 
 talent and refinement of manners, if not in 
 splendour, it soon rivalled that of France 
 itself. 
 
 The presence of such a court in the midst 
 of the people, combined with Queen Mar- 
 guerite’s other efforts on their behalf, soon 
 began to bear visible fruit, and order, 
 prosperity, and happiness soon succeeded to 
 
A Haven of Reftige. 
 
 125 
 
 the violence and pillage that ’{had hitherto 
 prevailed, and thus this little kingdom of 
 Navarre became the nursery of true religion, 
 when popes and bishops would have driven 
 it from the earth. 
 
 Lefevre, the Wicklif of the French 
 Reformation, lived until he was nearly ninety, 
 and ended his days in peace at the court of 
 Marguerite. For years he had lived at 
 Bio is under her protection; and when she 
 wanted him to come to her at Bearn, so 
 bitter was the hostility felt against him that 
 a special permit from the king had to be 
 obtained before he could venture to begin 
 his journey, or he might have been seized 
 and cast into prison the moment he left the 
 gates of his city of refuge. Calvin also 
 sought and found protection with this noble 
 lady, and the Sorbonne loudly complained 
 of her as a heretic and protector of here- 
 tics. Indeed, but for her help and counte- 
 nance, the struggling Reformation in France 
 would speedily have been crushed ; but 
 she was truly ‘ a nursing mother ’ to the 
 infant Church of God — a light shining in 
 the midst of darkness and corruption, and 
 
126 
 
 Marguerite of Navarre. 
 
 one of the noblest ladies of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 She continued to be the unswerving friend 
 of the Reformers and the reformation, until 
 her death, in 1549, in spite of all the opposi- 
 tion that it often aroused against her, and 
 that she never publicly severed herself from 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 Indeed, while repudiating many of the 
 popish doctrines of that Church, and holding 
 the great principles of evangelical truth, still 
 she does not seem to have discovered the 
 idolatry and superstition of much of its ritual. 
 She tried to make them helpful means of 
 devotion, instead of discarding them as hin- 
 drances. But, although we could wish that 
 this had been otherwise, and that she could 
 have ranged herself altogether on the side of 
 the despised Reformation, yet, taking into 
 consideration her family and position, the 
 times in which she lived, and the evil and 
 corrupting influences by which she was 
 surrounded, Margaret of Valois was a won- 
 derful woman, and we may thank God for 
 such a bright example as she has left us of 
 purity where all else was impure, and of 
 
A Haven of Refuge. 
 
 127 
 
 steadfast devotion to a despised and un- 
 popular cause, and of faithfully following all 
 the light she was able to receive. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Froine, and London. 
 
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