The Valet's Tragedy, and Other StudiesLang, Andrew
History
The Valet's Tragedy, and Other Studies
Lang, Andrew
History; World history
This prediction is singular in that it was recorded before the event.
The record was copied into the registre of Brabant, from a letter
written on April 22nd, 1429, by a Flemish diplomatist, De Rotselaer,
then at Lyons.* De Rotselaer had the prophecy from an officer of the
court of the Dauphin. The prediction was thus noted on April 22nd; the
event, the arrow-wound in the shoulder, occurred on May 7th. On the
fifth day of the trial Jeanne announced that, before seven years were
gone, the English ‘shall lose a dearer gage than Orleans; this I know by
revelation, and am wroth that it is to be so long deferred.’ Mr. Myers
observes that ‘the prediction of a great victory over the English within
seven years was not fulfilled in any exact way.’ The words of the Maid
are ‘Angli demittent majus vadium quam fecerunt coram Aurelianis,’ and,
as prophecies go, their loss of Paris (1436) corresponds very well to
the Maid’s announcement. She went on, indeed, to say that the English
‘will have greater loss than ever they had, through a great French
victory,’ but this reads like a gloss on her original prediction. ‘She
knew it as well as that we were there.’** ‘You shall not have the exact
year, but well I wish it might be before the St. John;’ however, she had
already expressed her sorrow that this was NOT to be. Asked, on March
1st, whether her liberation was promised, she said, ‘Ask me in three
months, and I will tell you.’ In three months exactly, her stainless
soul was free.
*Proces, iv. 425.
**Proces, i. 84.
On the appearance, garb, and so on of her saints, she declined to answer
questions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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