[50]. Jeanne de Bethune, Viscountess de Meaux, wife of Jean de Luxembourg. Both these ladies were at Beaurevoir during Jeanne’s captivity, and shewed her great kindness, even interceding for her that she should not be sold to the English.
[51]. The Sieur de Pressy, in Artois. Present in the Burgundian camp when Jeanne was taken prisoner, and afterwards at Arras, where she was imprisoned on her way from Beaurevoir to Rouen. The questions seem to suggest that Beaupère had before him some information which has not come down to us.
[52]. This may perhaps refer to a popular belief in a halo, as of a Saint, surrounding the Maid’s head.
[53]. Brother Richard, a Mendicant Friar; some say, Augustan; some, Cordelier. He was preaching in Paris and the neighbourhood in 1428–9; and said, amongst other things, in a sermon at Sainte Géneviève, April 16th, 1419, that “strange things would happen in 1430.” He professed to have been in Jerusalem; and his sermons were so popular that congregations were found to listen to him for 10 or 11 hours, from 5 o’clock in the morning! He was driven out of Paris by the English and went to Troyes, where he joined the Maid.
[54]. No absolutely authentic portraits of Jeanne are known. A head of fine work, the portrait of a young girl wearing a casque and of Jeanne’s time, is at the Musée Historique at Orleans. Tradition asserts that when Jeanne entered Orleans in triumph with the relieving force a sculptor modelled the head of his statue of St. Maurice from Jeanne herself. This head is a portion of the statue which formerly stood in the church at Orleans dedicated to St. Maurice. The church was demolished in 1850. A photograph from the head is given as the frontispiece to this book, and an admirable copy maybe seen at the Musée du Trocadéro in Paris. It should have been stated on the frontispiece that the original is at Orleans, the copy in Paris.
[55]. Latin text adds: “dum rex suus consecraretur.” Tradition asserts that at the Coronation Jeanne stood on the left and slightly in front of the altar, coming direct from the sacristy of the cathedral. The coronation throne stood in front of the high altar. The cathedral and its painted glass exist as at the Coronation, with the exception of some comparatively recent stone work surrounding the choir. The Coronation of the Kings of France has taken place at Rheims Cathedral since the twelfth century. The King was not to all intents King of France until he had been anointed by the Holy Oil, brought in great state to the cathedral from the more ancient church of St. Remy.
An inscription on the front of the Hotel Maison Rouge, situated near the west entrance of the cathedral, states that the town entertained Jeanne’s father and mother in that house during the Coronation.
[56]. About £200.
[57]. November 9th, 1429.
[58]. The Minute adds: “and I should be cured.”