There were shouts of triumph and exultation as the Maid was led back over
the causeway to Margny. The sun had long since set, and the dusk was
dying down into darkness. All along the causeway the earth was stained
with blood, and sown with broken swords, scraps of armour, and the dead
of friend and foe united now in the peace of mortality. Jeanne was too
great a prize for a mere archer to claim, so Jean de Luxembourg bought
her immediately from the man, allowing him to retain her hucque of
crimson cramoisie, her saddle cloth, and horse with caparisons. Then she
was taken to his camp at Clairoix.
Thither came also the great Duke of Burgundy from his camp at Coudon,
eager to see the girl who had almost uprooted the dominion of the English
in France. Thither also assembled the English and Burgundians from the
other camps in numbers, with cries and rejoicings over the taking of the
Maid. Had a great victory been won the effect could not have been
greater. It broke the spell. The Maid was human, like other women. So
they were "as joyous as if they had taken five hundred prisoners, for
they feared her more than all the French captains put together."
Several times Philip of Burgundy had expressed a wish to see Jeanne the
Maid, especially after receiving her letters summoning him to his
rightful allegiance. Now as he found her sitting calmly in the quarters
to which she had been committed, he could not forbear an exclamation of
surprise at her youth and loveliness.
"So you are the Pucelle?" he cried.
"I am Jeanne the Maid, messire," she answered, regarding him with grave
earnestness. "And you, I doubt not, are that Burgundy who hath beguiled
the gentle King with fair words and false promises?"
"I am Philip, Duke of Burgundy," he replied haughtily. "What I have done
hath been for our royal master, Henry, King of England and of France."
"Ay! and for your country's wreck and woe."
"Those are bold words, Pucelle," ejaculated the duke, flushing. "Have a
care. Neither man nor witch may so speak to Burgundy."
"My lord duke, if they be not true then most humbly do I entreat your
pardon. If they be not true, why then do you besiege the good city of
Compiègne, bringing suffering upon your own people? They are French, as
you are."
"The city was promised me," he uttered angrily. "Charles the Dauphin gave
it me. 'Twas in the truce. He broke his faith."
"And how kept you yours?" asked the girl dauntlessly. "I think, my lord,
that Paris once was promised Charles. How was that faith kept?"
But Philip, without reply, turned upon his heel angrily, and left the
room. Forthwith he sent dispatches to the Regent, to the Dukes of
Brittany and Savoy, to his city of St. Quentin, and to the town of Gand
that all Christendom might know that the Witch of the Armagnacs was
taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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