[21]. Up to the end of her life, Jeanne spoke of the Bishop as the person responsible for her trial and death. “Bishop, I die through you,” was her last speech to him, on May 30th, the day of her martyrdom.
[22]. This, and a subsequent enquiry, on February 27th, as to Jeanne’s habit of fasting, would seem to suggest a desire on the part of the questioner to prove that her visions had a more or less physical cause in a weak bodily state resulting from abstinence. As Jeanne’s usual food consisted of a little bread dipped in wine and water, and as she is reported to have had when at home (not in war) but one meal a day, it need hardly be supposed that she suffered much from the results of a Lenten Fast.
[23]. The fifteen days’ respite would coincide with the first Examination held in the Prison, May 10th, the first day on which the Allegory of the Sign was given.
[24]. Gérardin of Epinal, to whose child Jeanne was godmother, is probably the person alluded to; he gave witness in 1455 that Jeanne had called him “Burgundian.”
[25]. A small fortress in an island formed by two arms of the Meuse, nearly opposite the village of Domremy.
[26]. According to local tradition, this tree stood to within the last 50 years, and was struck by lightning; another has been planted in its place. The house, in which Jeanne was born, remained in the possession of the De Lys family till the 16th Century, when it passed into the hands of the Count de Salm, Seigneur of Domremy. In the 18th Century it became the property of Jean Gerardin, whose grandson, Nicolas, gave it up in 1818 to the Department of Vosges; so that it is now preserved as National property.
[27]. This is probably a survival of the Fontinalia, an old Latin festival. The custom of decorating the wells and springs was kept up in England until the last century, and still exists in a few remote villages. The name ‘Well Sunday’ survives, though the processions of youths and maidens have long passed away. The ‘fontaine aux Groseilliers’ is still in existence. It is an oblong tank of water, with the original spring flowing through it. The great beech tree stood close by.
[28]. Pierre de Bourlement, Head of the ancient house of Bassigny, and Lord of the Manor of Bourlement. He was the last of his race.
[29]. Merlin had foretold the coming of a maiden out of an Oak-wood from Lorraine; and a paper containing a prophecy to this effect had been sent, at the beginning of Jeanne’s career, to the English Commander, the Earl of Suffolk. There was also an old prophecy (quoted by Jeanne herself to Catharine Leroyer) that France, which had been “lost by a woman, should be saved by a Maid.” The conduct of Isabeau of Bavaria, wife of Charles VI., might certainly be said to have fulfilled the first half of this prophecy; and a tradition in the eastern counties that “deliverance should come from a maid of the Marches of Lorraine” must have directed many hopes to the mission of the Maiden from Domremy, though she herself does not seem to have known of the last prediction until some time later. The Oak-wood covers the hills above Domremy to this day.
[30]. This is the first identification of the “revelations” with any name; Jeanne had always spoken of her “Voices” or her “Counsel.”