[Footnote 884: Compare: "Et ardirent la ville et _violerent l'abbaye_." ("And burnt the town and _violated the abbey_.") Froissart, quoted by Littre. As early as _Le chanson de Roland_ we find: "_Les castels pris, les cites violees._" ("The castles taken, the cities violated.")] [Footnote 885: The deliverance of the Duke of Orleans. _Reclamer_ in the French. M. S. Reinach proposes to substitute _relever_, which is plausible (cf. _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 421).] [Footnote 886: _Le journal du siege_ omits the word _France_ and thus renders the phrase unintelligible. This omission proceeds from a text of great antiquity on which are based notably _La chronique de la Pucelle_ and the account of the Greffier de La Rochelle whom this mangled phrase visibly embarrassed.] [Footnote 887: _Gentle_ is here in opposition to _villein_. _Gentle and otherwise_: nobles and villeins. Here we must interpret the terms _comrades_ and _gentle_ according to their true meaning and not consider them as used ironically, as in the following passage from Froissart: "_Il (le duc de Lancastre) entendit comme il pourroit estre saisy de quatre gentils compaignons qui estrangle avoyent son oncle, le duc de Glocestre, au chasteau de Calais._" "He (the Duke of Lancaster) realised how he might be seized by the four gentle comrades who had strangled his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, in the Castle of Calais." (Froissart in La Curne.)] [Footnote 888: French. _Attendez les nouvelles de la Pucelle_ and further on: _Si vous ne voules croire lez nouvelles de par Dieu de la Pucelle...._ This word _Nouvelles_ then as now meant _tidings_, but it also had a sense of _marvels_ as in the following phrase: "_En celle annee apparurent maintes nouvelles a Rosay en Brie; le vin fut mue en sang et le pain en chair sensiblement ou (au) sacrement de l'autel._" ("In that year many _marvels_ were wrought at Rosay in Brie; the wine was turned to blood and the bread to flesh visibly at the sacrament of the altar.") (_Chroniques de Saint Denys_, in La Curne.)] Such is the letter. It was written in a new spirit; for it proclaimed the kingship of Jesus Christ and declared a holy war. It is hard to tell whether it proceeded from Jeanne's own inspiration or was dictated to her by the council of ecclesiastics. On first thoughts one might be inclined to attribute to the priests the idea of a summons, which is a literal application of the precepts of Deuteronomy: "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. "And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. "And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: "And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: