CHAPTER XXV--OF THE ONFALL AT PONT L'EVEQUE, AND HOW NORMAN LESLIE WASHURT
I have now shown wherefore the fighting, in this spring, was to be up anddown the water of Oise, whence the villagers had withdrawn themselves, ofnecessity, into the good towns. For the desire of the Duke of Burgundywas to hold the Oise, and so take Compiegne, the better to hold Paris.And on our side the skill was to cut his army in two, so that from eastof the water of Oise neither men nor victual might come to him.
Having this subtle device of war in her mind, the Maid rode north fromMelun, by the King's good towns, till she came to Compiegne, that was notyet beleaguered. There they did her all the honour that might be, andthither came to her standard Messire Jacques de Chabennes, MessireRigault de Fontaines, Messire Poton de Xaintrailles, the best knight thenon ground, and many other gentlemen, some four hundred lances in all.{33} With these lances the Maid consorted to attack Pont l'Eveque by anight onfall. This is a small but very strong hold, on the Oise, somesix leagues from Compiegne, as you go up the river, and it lies near thetown of Noyon, which was held by the English. In Pont l'Eveque there wasa garrison of a hundred lances of the English, and our skill was to breakon them in the grey of dawn, when men least fear a surprise, and are mosteasily taken. By this very device La Hire had seized Compiegne but sixyears agone, wherefore our hope was the higher. About five of the clockon an April day we rode out of Compiegne, a great company,--too great,perchance, for that we had to do. For our army was nigh a league inlength as it went on the way, nor could we move swiftly, for there werewaggons with us and carts, drawing guns and couleuvrines and powder,fascines wherewith to fill the fosses, and ladders and double ladders forscaling the walls. So the captains ordered it to be, for ever since thatday by Melun fosse, when the Saints foretold her captivity, the Maidsubmitted herself in all things to the captains, which was never hermanner before.
As we rode slowly, she was now at the head of the line, now in the midst,now at the rear, wherever was need; and as I rode at her rein, I tookheart to say--
"Madame, it is not thus that we have taken great keeps and holds, in mycountry, from our enemies of England."
"Nay," said she, checking her horse to a walk, and smiling on me in thedusk with her kind eyes. "Then tell me how you order it in yourcountry."
"Madame," I said, "it was with a little force, and lightly moving, thatMessire Thomas Randolph scaled the Castle rock and took Edinburgh Castleout of the hands of the English, a keep so strong, and set on a cliff soperilous, that no man might deem to win it by sudden onfall. And in likemanner the good Messire James Douglas took his own castle, more than onceor twice, by crafty stratagem of war, so that the English named it CastlePerilous. But in every such onfall few men fought for us, of such ascould move secretly and swiftly, not with long trains of waggons thatcover a league of road, and by their noise and number give warning to anenemy."
"My mind is yours," she said, with a sigh, "and so I would have made thisonslaught. But I submitted me to the will of the captains."
Through the night we pushed our way slowly, for in such a march none maygo swifter than the slowest, namely, the carts and the waggons. Thus itbefell that the Maid and the captains were in more thoughts than one todraw back to Compiegne, for the night was clear, and the dawn would bebright. And, indeed, after stumbling and wandering long, and doubting ofthe way, we did, at last, see the church towers and walls of Pontl'Eveque stand out against the clear sky of morning, a light mistgirdling the basement of the walls. Had we been a smaller and swiftercompany, we should have arrived an hour before the first greyness showsthe shapes of things. But now, alas! we no sooner saw the town than weheard the bells and trumpets calling the townsfolk and men-at-arms to beon their ward. The great guns of the keep roared at us so soon as wewere in reach of shot; nevertheless, Pothon and the Maid set companies tocarry the double ladders, for the walls were high, and others were toldoff to bring up the fascines, and so, leaving our main battle to wait outof shot, and come on as they were needed, the Maid and Pothon ran up thefirst rampart, she waving her standard and crying that all was ours. Aswe ran, for I must needs be by her side, the din of bells and guns wasworse than I had heard at Orleans, and on the top of the church towerswere men-at-arms waving flags, as if for a signal. Howbeit, we spranginto the fosse, under shield, wary of stones cast from above, andpresently three ladders were set against the wall, and we went up, theMaid leading the way.
Now of what befell I know but little, save that I had so climbed that Ilooked down over the wall, when the ladder whereon I stood was whollyoverthrown by two great English knights, and one of them, by his coatarmour, was Messire de Montgomery himself, who commanded in Pontl'Eveque. Of all that came after I remember no more than a flightthrough air, and the dead stroke of a fall on earth with a stone aboveme. For such is the fortune of war, whereof a man knows but his ownshare for the most part, and even that dimly. The eyes are often blindedwith swift running to be at the wall, and, what with a helm that rings tosword-blows, and what with smoke, and dust, and crying, and clamour, androar of guns, it is but little that many a man-at-arms can tellconcerning the frays wherein, may be, he has borne himself not unmanly.
This was my lot at Pont l'Eveque, and I knew but little of what passedtill I found myself in very great anguish. For I had been laid in one ofthe carts, and so was borne along the way we had come, and at every turnof the wheels a new pang ran through me. For my life I could not choosebut groan, as others groaned that were in the same cart with me. For myright leg was broken, also my right arm, and my head was stounding as ifit would burst. It was late and nigh sunset or ever we won the gates ofCompiegne, having lost, indeed, but thirty men slain, but having whollyfailed in our onfall. For I heard in the monastery whither I was bornethat, when the Maid and Xaintrailles and their men had won their waywithin the walls, and had slain certain of the English, and were pushingthe others hard, behold our main battle was fallen upon in the rear bythe English from Noyon, some two miles distant from Pont l'Eveque.Therefore there was no help for it but retreat we must, driving back theEnglish to Noyon, while our wounded and all our munitions of war werecarried orderly away.
As to the pains I bore in that monastery of the Jacobins, when my brokenbones were set by a very good surgeon, there is no need that I shouldwrite. My fortune in war was like that of most men-at-arms, or betterthan that of many who are slain outright in their first skirmish. Somegood fortune I had, as at St. Pierre, and again, bad fortune, of whichthis was the worst, that I could not be with the Maid: nay, never againdid I ride under her banner.
She, for her part, was not idle, but, after tarrying certain days inCompiegne with Guillaume de Flavy, she rode to Lagny, "for there," shesaid, "were men that warred well against the English," namely, a companyof our Scots. And among them, as later I heard in my bed, was RandalRutherford, who had ransomed himself out of the hands of the French inParis, whereat I was right glad. At Lagny, with her own men and theScots, the Maid fought and took one Franquet d'Arras, a Burgundian"routier," or knight of the road, who plundered that country withoutmercy. Him the Maid would have exchanged for an Armagnac of Paris, thehost of the Bear Inn, then held in duresse by the English, for his sharein a plot to yield Paris to the King. But this burgess died in the handsof the English, and the echevins {34} of Lagny, claiming Franquet d'Arrasas a common thief, traitor, and murderer, tried him, and, on hisconfession, put him to death. This was counted a crime in the Maid bythe English and Burgundian robbers, nay, even by French and Scots. "For,"said they, "if a gentleman is to be judged like a manant, or a fatburgess by burgesses, there is no more profit or glory in war." Nay, Ihave heard gentlemen of France cry out that, as the Maid gave up Franquetto such judges as would surely condemn him, so she was rightly punishedwhen Jean de Luxembourg sold her into the hands of unjust judges. But Ianswer that the Maid did not sell Franquet d'Arras, as I say DeLuxembourg sold her: not a livre did she take from the folk of Lagny. Andas for the sla
ying of robbers, this very Jean de Luxembourg had but justslain many English of his own party, for that they burned and pillaged inthe Beauvais country.
Yet men murmured against the Maid not only in their hearts, but openly,and many men-at-arms ceased to love her cause, both for the slaying ofFranquet d'Arras, and because she was for putting away theleaguer-lasses, and, when she might, would suffer no plundering. Whethershe was right or wrong, it behoves me not to judge, but this I know, thatthe King's men fought best when she was best obeyed. And, like Him whosent her, she was ever of the part of the poor and the oppressed, againststrong knights who rob and ravish and burn and torture, and hold toransom. Therefore the Archbishop of Reims, who was never a friend of theMaid, said openly in a letter to the Reims folk that "she did her ownwill, rather than obeyed the commandments of God." But that God commandsknights and gentlemen to rob the poor and needy (though indeed He has seta great gulf between a manant and a gentleman born) I can in nowisebelieve. For my part, when I have been where gentlemen and captainslamented the slaying of Franquet d'Arras, and justified the dealings ofthe English with the Maid, I have seemed to hear the clamour of the cruelJews: "Tolle hunc, et dimitte nobis Barabbam." {35} For Barabbas was arobber. Howbeit on this matter, as on all, I humbly submit me to thejudgment of my superiors and to Holy Church.
Meantime the Maid rode from Lagny, now to Soissons, now to Senlis, now toCrepy-en-Valois, and in Crepy she was when that befell which I am aboutto relate.