Quant est de l'ostel de mon pere, Il est en pays de Barois; Gentilhomme et de noble afaire Honneste et loyal Francois. _Mistere du siege_, pp. 397-398.] Before a clerk would write thus, Jeanne's family must have been long ennobled and the first generation must have died out, which happened in 1469; there must have come into existence that numerous family of the Du Lys, whose ridiculous pretensions had to be humoured. Not content with deriving their descent from their aunt, the Du Lys insisted on connecting the good peasant Jacquot d'Arc with the old nobility of Bar. Notwithstanding that Jeanne's reference to "her father's mansion" conflicts with other scenes in the same mystery, this lengthy work would appear to be all of a piece. It was apparently compiled during the reign of Louis XI, by a citizen of Orleans who was a fair master of his subject. It would be interesting to make a more detailed study of his authorities than has been done hitherto. This poet seems to have known a _Journal du siege_ very different from the one we possess. Was his mystery acted during the last thirty years of the century at the festival instituted to commemorate the taking of Les Tourelles? The subject, the style, and the spirit are all in harmony with such an occasion. But it is curious that a poem composed to celebrate the deliverance of Orleans on May 8 should assign that deliverance to May 9. And yet this is what the author of the mystery does when he puts the following lines into the mouth of the Maid: "Remember how Orleans was delivered in the year one thousand four hundred and twenty-nine, and forget not also that of May it was the ninth day."[31] [Footnote 31: ... Ayez en souvenance.... Comment Orleans eult delivrance.... L'an mil iiijc xxix; Faites en memoire tous dis; Des jours de may ce fut le neuf. _Mistere du siege_, lines 14375-14381, p. 559.] Such are the chief chroniclers on the French side who have written of the Maid. Others who came later or who have only dealt with certain episodes in her life, need not be quoted here; their testimony will be best examined when we come to that of the facts in detail. Placing on one side any information to be obtained from _La Chronique de l'etablissement de la fete_,[32] from _La Relation_[33] of the Clerk of La Rochelle and other contemporary documents, we are now in a position to realise that if we depended on the French chroniclers for our knowledge of Jeanne d'Arc we should know just as much about her as we know of Sakya Muni. [Footnote 32: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 285 _et seq._] [Footnote 33: _Relation inedite sur Jeanne d'Arc, extraite du livre noir de l'hotel de ville de La Rochelle_, ed. J. Quicherat, Orleans, 1879, 8vo, and _La Revue Historique_, vol. iv, 1877, pp. 329-344.]