A MONK OF FIFE
A Romance of the Days of Jeanne D'Arc - Joan of Arc
by Andrew Lang
CHAPTER XXIX
SHOWETH HOW VERY NOBLE WAS THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY
All this was well, but we were no nearer Rouen, and the freeing of
the Maid, on this twentieth of November, than we had been when the
siege of Compiegne broke up, on the twenty-sixth of October.
The Duke of Burgundy, we learned, was like a man mad when he heard
of the Battle of the Hares. Nothing would serve him that day but to
lead all his host to Guermigny from Peronne, whence he would have
got little comfort of vengeance, for we were in a place of safety.
But Jean de Luxembourg told him that he must not venture his
nobility among routiers like us, wherein he pleased the Duke, but
spoke foolishly. For no man, be he duke or prince, can be of better
blood than we of the House of Rothes, not to speak of Xaintrailles
and many other gentlemen of our company.
The Duke, then, put not his noble person in any jeopardy, but, more
wisely, he sent messengers after my Lord of Huntingdon that he
should bring up the English to aid the Burgundian hare-hunters. But
Huntingdon had departed to Rouen, where then lay Henry, King of
England, a boy on whom and on whose House God has avenged the Maid
with terrible judgments, and will yet the more avenge her, blessed
be His name!
The Duke of Burgundy comforted himself after his kind, for when he
did pluck up heart to go against Guermigny, he, finding us departed,
sacked the place, and razed it to the very ground, and so withdrew
to Roye, and there waited for what help England would send him. Now
Roye is some sixteen leagues due north of Compiegne.
So the days went by, for Messire Lefebvre Saint-Remy, the
pursuivant, was hunting for my Lord of Huntingdon, all up and down
Normandy, and at last came to Rouen, and to the presence of the Duke
of Bedford, the uncle of the English King. All this I myself heard
from Messire Saint-Remy, who is still a pursuivant, and a learned
man, and a maker of books.
Bedford then, who was busy hounding that devil, Cauchon, sometime
Bishop of Beauvais, against the Maid, sent the Comte de Perche and
Messire Loys Robsart, to bid the Duke of Burgundy be of what courage
he might, for succour of England he should have. Wherein Bedford
was no true prophet.
Of all this we, in Compiegne, knew so much as that it was wiser to
strike the Duke at Roye, before he could add English talbots to his
Burgundian harriers. Therefore all the captains of companies, as
Boussac, Xaintrailles, Alain Giron, Amadee de Vignolles, and Loys de
Naucourt, mustered their several companies, to the number of some
five thousand men-at-arms. We had news of six hundred English
marching to join the Duke, and on them we fell at Couty, hard by
Amiens, and there slew Loys Robsart, a good knight, of the Order of
the Garter, and drove the English that fled into the castle of
Couty, and we took all their horses, leaving them shamed, for they
kept no guard.
Thence we rode to within a league of Roye, and thence sent a herald,
in all due form, to challenge the Duke to open battle for his
honour's sake. This we did, because we had no store of victual, and
must fight or ride home.
The Duke received the herald, and made as if he would hear him as
beseems a gentleman under challenge. But his wise counsellors
forbade him, because he was so noble.
We were but "routiers," they said, and had no Prince in all our
company; so we must even tarry till the morrow, and then the Duke
would fight. In truth he expected the English, who were footing it
to Castle Couty.
I stood by Xaintrailles when the pursuivant bore back this message.
Pothon spat on the ground.
"Shall we be more noble to-morrow than to-day, or to-morrow can this
huxter of maids, the Duke, be less noble than he is, every day that
he soils knighthood?"
Thereon he sent the herald back, to say that the Duke should have
battle at his gates if he gave no better answer, for that wait for
his pleasure we could not, for want of victuals.
And so we drew half a league nearer to Roye.
The Duke sent back our herald with word that of victuals he would
give us half his own store; for he had read, as I deem, the romance
of Richard Lion-Heart, another manner of man than himself. We said
nought to this, not choosing to dine in such high company, but rode
up under the walls of Roye, defying the Duke with open ribaldry,
such as no manant could bear but he would take cudgel in hand to
defend his honour. Our intent was, if the Duke accepted battle, to
fight with none but him, if perchance we might take him, and hold
him as hostage for the Maid's life.
Howbeit, so very noble was the Duke this day, that he did not put
lance in rest (as belike he would have done on the morrow), but,
drawing up his men on foot, behind certain mosses and marshes, all
in firm array, he kept himself coy behind them, and not too far from
the gate of Roye.
To cross these mosses and marshes was beyond our cunning, nor could
we fast all that night, and see if the Duke would feel himself less
noble, and more warlike, on the morrow.
So, with curses and cries of shame, we turned bridle, and, for that
we could not hold together, being in lack of meat, the companies
broke up, and went each to his own hold.
I have heard Messire Georges Chastellain tell, in times that were
still to come, how fiercely the Duke of Burgundy bore him in council
that night, after that we had all gone, and how he blamed his people
who would not let him fight. But, after he had well supped, he even
let this adventure slip by, as being ordained by the will of God,
who, doubtless, holds in very high honour men of birth princely, and
such, above all, as let sell young virgins to the tormentors. And
thus ended our hope to save the Maid by taking captive the Duke of
Burgundy.
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