815 A. The following account is extracted from Mr. Andrew Lang's "The Voices of Jeanne d'Arc" in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 198-212.

Mr. Lang gives evidence taken from the Proces of her trial at Rouen and other original sources which he mentions. Her own account given at her trial was that her "voices" were first heard when she was about thirteen - telling her to behave well and go to church, and afterwards they used to tell her to go into France to her mission. Jeanne kept objecting that she was a poor girl who could not ride, or lead in war, and resisted the voices with all her energy.

Turning to the Maid's own evidence in court, we must remember that she was most averse to speaking at all, that she often asked leave to wait for advice and permission from her voices before replying, that on one point she constantly declared that, if compelled to speak, she would not speak the truth. This point was the King's secret. There is absolutely contemporary evidence, from Alain Chartier, that, before she was accepted, she told Charles something which filled him with surprise, joy, and belief. (Proces V., 131. Letter of July, 1429.) The secret was connected with Charles's doubts of his own legitimacy, and Jeanne at her trial was driven to obscure the truth in a mist of allegory, as, indeed, she confessed. [The] tale of an angel and a crown was mere allegory. Jeanne's extreme reluctance to adopt even this loyal and laudable evasion is the measure of her truthfulness in general. Still, she did say some words which, as they stand, it is difficult to believe, to explain, or to account for. She asserted that she knew the Dauphin, on their first meeting, by aid of her voices. (I. 56.) She declared that the Dauphin himself "multas habuit revelationes et apparitiones pulchras." In its literal sense, there is no evidence for this, but rather the reverse.

She may mean, "revelations" through herself, or may refer to some circumstance unknown. "Those of my party saw and knew that voice," she said, but later would only accept them as witnesses if they were allowed to come and see her. (I. 57).

This is the most puzzling point in Jeanne's confession. She had no motive for telling an untruth, unless she hoped that these remarks would establish the objectivity of her visions. Of course, one of her strange experiences may have occurred in the presence of Charles and his court, and she may have believed that they shared in it.

She said that she heard the voice daily in prison, "and stood in sore need of it." The voice bade her remain at St. Denis (after the repulse from Paris, in September 1429), but she was not allowed to remain.

On the next day (the third of the trial) she told Beaupere that she was fasting since yesterday afternoon. "Yesterday she had heard the voices in the morning, at vespers, and at the late ringing for Ave Maria, and she heard them much more frequently than she mentioned." "Yesterday she had been asleep when the voice aroused her. She sat up and clasped her hands, and the voice bade her answer boldly. Other words she half heard before she was quite awake, but failed to understand".

She denied that the voices ever contradicted themselves. On this occasion, as not having received leave from her voices, she refused to say anything as to her visions.

At the next meeting she admitted having heard the voices in court, but in court she could not distinguish the words, owing to the tumult. She had now, however, leave to speak more fully. The voices were those of St. Catherine and St. Margaret. They were crowned with fair crowns, as she had said at Poictiers two years before. Seven years ago (that is, when she was twelve) she first saw the saints. On the attire of the saints she had not leave to speak. They were preceded by St. Michael "with the angels of Heaven." "I saw them as clearly as I see you, and I used to weep when they departed, and would fain that they should have taken me with them".

As to the famous sword at Fierbois, she averred that she had been in the church there, on her way to Chinon, that the voices later bade her use a sword which was hidden under earth, - she thinks behind, but possibly in front of the altar, - at Fierbois. A man unknown to her was sent from Tours to fetch the sword, which after search was found, and she wore it.

Asked whether she had prophesied her wound by an arrow at Orleans, and her recovery, she said "Yes".

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.1 De Rotselaer had the prophecy from an officer of the court of the Dauphin. The prediction was thus noted on April 22nd, the event occurred on May 7th. On the fifth day of the trial Jeanne announced that, before seven years were gone, the English would lose a dearer gage than Orleans; "this I know by revelation, and am wroth that it is to be so long deferred." As prophecies go, their loss of Paris (1436) corresponds very well to the Maid's announcement. 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.

She had once disobeyed her voices, when they forbade her to leap from the tower of Beaurevoir. She leaped, but they forgave her, and told her that Compiegne (where she was captured on May 23rd, 1430) would be relieved "before Martinmas." It was relieved on October 26th, after a siege of five months. She told the touching story of how, at Melun, on April 1430, the voices had warned her that she would be taken prisoner before midsummer; how she had prayed for death, or for tidings as to the day and hour. But no tidings were given to her, and her old belief, often expressed, that she "should last but one year or little more," was confirmed. The Due d'Alencon had heard her say this several times; for the prophecy at Melun we have only her own word.

1 Proces, IV., 425.

She was now led into the allegory about the Angel (herself) and the Crown (the coronation at Rheims). This allegory was fatal, but does not bear on her real belief about her experiences. She averred, returning to genuine confessions, that her voices often came spontaneously; if they did not, she summoned them by a simple prayer to God. She had seen the angelic figures moving, invisible save to her, among men. The voices had promised her the release of Charles d'Orleans, but time had failed her. This was as near a confession of failure as she ever made, till the day of her burning; if she really made one then. But here, as always, she had predicted that she would do this or that if she were sans empeschement. She had no revelation bidding her attack Paris when she did, and after the day at Melun, she submitted to the advice of the other captains. By the way, if this be so, not she, but the captains, displayed the strategy admired by Captain Marin in the Oise campaign of 1430. As to her release, she was only bidden "to bear all cheerfully; be not vexed with thy martyrdom, thence shalt thou come at last into the kingdom of Paradise".

For the rest, Jeanne recanted her so-called recantation, averring that she was unaware of the contents or full significance of the document. Her voices recalled her to her duty, for them she went to the stake, and, as I have shown, if there was a moment of wavering on the day of her doom, her belief in the objective reality of the phenomena remained firm, and she recovered her faith in the agony of her death.

Of external evidence as to these experiences, the best is probably that of d'Aulon, the Maitre d'Hotel of the Maid, and her companion through her whole career. He and she were reposing in the same room at Orleans, her hostess being in the chamber (May 1429), and d'Aulon had just fallen asleep, when the Maid awoke him with a cry. Her voices bade her go against the English, but in what direction she knew not. In fact, the French leaders had begun, without her knowledge, an attack on St. Loup, whither she galloped and took the fort (Proces III. 212). It is, of course, very possible that the din of onset, which presently became audible, had vaguely reached the senses of the Maid. Her page confirms d'Aulon's testimony.

D'Aulon states that when the Maid had any martial adventure in prospect, she told him that her "counsel" had given her this or that advice. He questioned her as to the nature of this "counsel." She said "she had three councillors, of whom one was always with her, a second went and came to her, and the third was he with whom the others deliberated." D'Aulon "was not worthy to see this counsel." From the moment when he heard this, d'Aulon asked no more questions. Dunois also gave some evidence as to the "counsel." At Loches, when Jeanne was urging the journey to Rheims, Harcourt asked her, before the King, what the nature (modus) of the council was; how it communicated with her. She replied that when she was met with incredulity, she went apart and prayed to God. Then she heard a voice say, Fille De, va, va, va,je serai d ton aide, va!" And when she heard that voice she was right glad, and would fain be ever in that state." "As she spoke thus, ipsa miro modo exsultabat, levando suos oculos ad coelum" (III., 12). Finally, that Jeanne maintained her belief to the moment of her death, we learn from the priest, Martin Ladvenu, who was with her to the last (III., 170). There is no sign anywhere that at the moment of an "experience," the Maid's aspect seemed unusual, or uncanny, or abnormal, in the eyes of those who were in her company.

These depositions were given twenty years later (1452-56), and, of course, allowance must be made for weakness of memory and desire to glorify the Maid. But there is really nothing of a suspicious character about them. In fact the "growth of legend" was very slight, and is mainly confined to the events of the martyrdom, the White Dove, the Name of Christ blazoned in flame, and so forth. It should also have been mentioned that at the taking of St. Pierre de Moustier (November 1429), Jeanne, when deserted by her forces, declared to d'Aulon that she was "not alone, but surrounded by fifty thousand of her own." The men therefore rallied and stormed the place.

This is the sum of the external evidence as to the phenomena. I have already indicated what is known as to the mental and physical characteristics of the Maid. Her extreme temperance should also perhaps be remembered.

As to the contents of the communications to Jeanne, they were certainly sane, judicious, and heroic. M. Quicherat (A percus Nouveaux, p. 61) distinguishes three classes of abnormally conveyed knowledge, all on unimpeachable evidence.

(1) Thought-reading, as in the case of the King's secret; she repeated to him the words of a prayer which he had made mentally.

(2) Clairvoyance, as exhibited in the affair of the sword of Fierbois.

(3) Prescience, as in the prophecy of her arrow-wound at Orleans. According to her confessor, Pasquerel, she repeated the prophecy and indicated the spot in which she would be wounded (under the right shoulder) on the night of May 6th. But this is later evidence given in the Trial of Rehabilitation.

To these we might add the view, from Vaucouleurs, a hundred leagues away, of the defeat at Rouvray; the prophecy that she "would last but a year or little more;" the prophecy, at Melun, of her capture; the prophecy of the relief of Compiegne; and the strange affair of the bon conduit at the battle of Pathay.1 For several of these predictions we have only the Maid's word, but, to be plain, we can scarcely have more unimpeachable testimony.