I live at Rouen; but I came from Viville, in Bassigny,—not far from Domremy, where Jeanne was born.
At the time when Jeanne was at Rouen, and during the Trial against her, a man of note from Lorraine came to the town. We soon made acquaintance, being of the same country. He told me that he came from the Marches of Lorraine, and that he had been called to Rouen, having been commissioned to get information in the native country of the said Jeanne, and to hear what was said about her. This he had done, and had brought it to the Bishop of Beauvais, expecting to have satisfaction for his labour and expense. But the Bishop blamed him for a traitor and a bad man, and said he had not done in this as he had been told. My compatriot complained that he could not get any wage from the Bishop, who found his information of no use: he told me that in this information he had learnt nothing of Jeanne which he would not willingly know of his own sister, although he had made enquiries in five or six parishes near Domremy as well as in the village itself. I remember it was said that she had committed the crime of lèse majesté,[[208]] and had led the people away.
Husson Le Maître, of Viville, in Bassigny, Coal Merchant.
I knew nothing of Jeanne until she came to Rheims, for the King’s coronation, in which town I was then living. Thither came also her father and her brother Pierre, both of whom were friendly with me and my wife, as we were compatriots; and they called my wife “neighbour.”
I was in my own neighbourhood when Jeanne went to Vaucouleurs, to Robert de Baudricourt, that she might get an escort to go to the King. I then said it was by the grace of God, and that Jeanne was led by the Spirit of God. Jeanne requested the said Robert to give her an escort to conduct her to my lord the Dauphin.
I heard, at the time when she was taken from Vaucouleurs to the King, that some of the soldiers who conducted her feigned to be on the other side, and, when those who were with her pretended to fly, she said to them: “Fly not, in God’s Name! they will do us no harm.” When she came to the King, she recognized him, though she had never seen him before; and afterwards she took the King without hindrance to Rheims, where I saw her; and from Rheims the King went to Corbignac, and afterwards to Château Thierry, which was surrendered to the King. And there arrived news that the English were come to fight against the King; but Jeanne told the King’s people not to fear, for the English would not come.
Pierre Daron, Locum Tenens, Deputy to the Bailiff of Rouen.
I knew nothing of Jeanne until she was brought to Rouen, where, at that time, I was Procurator of the town. Having much curiosity to see the said Jeanne, I enquired the best means to accomplish this: and a certain Pierre Manuel, Advocate of the King of England, who was also anxious to see her, came, and together we went to see her.
We found her in the Castle, in a certain turret, in shackles, with a great piece of wood chained to her feet, and having many English guards. And Manuel said to her, in my presence, jokingly, that she would never have come there if she had not been brought: and he asked her if she knew, before she was captured, that she would be taken; to which she replied that she had feared it. When he asked her, afterwards, why, if she feared to be taken prisoner, she did not guard herself on the day that she was captured, she replied that she did not know either the day or hour when she was to be taken.
I saw her once again during the Trial, when she was being brought from the prison to the great hall of the Castle.