APPENDIX C
Mystery of the Siege of Orleans
Abbé Bossard is authority for the statement that the unique and original manuscript of the Mystery of Orleans in modern times is in the library of the Vatican, No. 1022, registered under de la reine de Suède (Queen of Sweden). This copy came from the library de Fleury or of Saint-Henoit-sur-Loire. It was written, he says, in the second half of the sixteenth century, and made a quarto volume of 509 leaves with 20,529 lines, and its author is unknown. It was published for the first time (from the manuscript in the Vatican library in 1862), by MM. Guessard et de Certain, and forms part of the great collection of documents inédits de l’histoire de France. Quicherat says that the first author in modern times to mention the Mystery of the Siege of Orleans was M. Paul Lacroix in his Dissertation sur quelques points curieux de l’histoire de France (Paris, 1839). M. Adelbert Keller in his Ronvart (Mannheim, 1844), gave a more extended notice with extracts. M. Salmon, a student in the École des Chartes, made elaborate notes of the Vatican MSS., which notes fell into the hands of M. Quicherat while writing his Procès de condemnation et réhabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc.
Extracts from the “Mystery of the Siege of Orleans” as acted by Gilles de Retz
According to this drama, it was Gilles de Retz, with Ambroise de Loré, who were charged by the king to conduct and act as guards for Joan of Arc from Blois to Orleans.
There is in the drama or poem the following speech made by the King to the Maid, directing her to go to Orleans:
“Et pour vous conduire voz gens
Aurez le maréchal de Rais,
Et ung gentilhomme vaillant
Ambroise de Loré arés;
Esquelz je commande exprès
Ou il vous plaisa vous conduisent,
En quelque lieu, soit loing, soit près.”
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The Marshal de Retz says to the Maid: