leave the town and go out to fight, unless he has first gone to confession. And let them beware lest women of evil fame follow them: because, for sin, God will permit the loss of this war.
Letter, May 5
(Fastened to an arrow and shot into the English lines)
You Englishmen, who have no right in this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven sends you word and warning, by me Jehanne the Maid, to abandon your forts and depart into your own country, or I will raise such a war-cry against you as shall be remembered forever. And this I write to you for the third and last time, nor shall I write further.
I should send you my letter more decently, but you detain my heralds. For you have kept my herald Guyenne. Send him to me, and I will send you some of your men who were taken at Saint-Loup, for not all were killed.
Orléans: Capture of the English Fortress of the Augustines, May 6
TO HER SOLDIERS
In God’s name! let us go on bravely!
Evening of the Same Day: Council of War
TO ONE OF THE CAPTAINS
You have been with your council and I have been with mine. Believe me that the counsel of my Lord will be accomplished and will stand, and this counsel of yours will perish.
THEN TO HER CHAPLAIN
Tomorrow, rise very early, earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Keep close to me all day, for tomorrow I shall have much to do and greater things than I have had to do yet. And tomorrow blood will flow from my body, above my breast.
Orléans: Capture of the Bridge, May 7
I was the first to set a ladder against the fortress on the bridge, and, as I raised it, I was wounded in the throat by a cross-bow bolt. But Saint Catherine comforted me greatly. And I did not cease to ride and do my work.
TO HER SOLDIERS
Courage! Do not fall back: in a little the place will be yours. Watch! when you see the wind blow my banner against the bulwark, you shall take it!
In, in, the place is yours!
TO THE ENGLISH CAPTAIN
Glasdale, Glasdale, yield, yield to the King of Heaven. You have called me “whore” I pity your soul and the souls of your men.
TO THOSE WHO OFFERED TO CHARM HER WOUND
I would rather die than do what I know to be sin.
Orléans: The English Raise the Siege, May 8
TO HER SOLDIERS
In God’s name! they go. Let them depart. And go we to give thanks to God. We shall not follow them farther, for it is Sunday. Seek not to harm them. It suffices me that they go.
Return to Court
May–June, 1429
In Council
TO CHARLES
NOBLE DAUPHIN, hold no more so any and such long councils, but come as quickly as you can to Reims to take the crown.
Whenever I am unhappy, because men will not believe me in the things that I say at God’s bidding, I go apart and pray to God, complaining to him that those to whom I speak do not easily believe me. And when I have made my prayer to God, I hear a voice that says to me: “Child of God, go, go, go! I shall be with you to help you. Go!” And when I hear that voice I feel a great joy. Indeed, I would that I might ever be in that state.
TO JEAN D’AULON
My counsellors are three. There is one who remains with me always, another comes and goes and visits me often, and the third is he with whom the other two take counsel.
The Loire Campaign
June, 1429
Capture of Jargeau, June 11-12
THE LEADERS OF OUR PARTY answered the English that they could not have the two weeks’ delay for which they had asked, but that they must leave, they and their horses, that very hour. As for me, I said, “Let the garrison in Jargeau go in their small-clothes with their lives safe, if they will. Otherwise they will be taken by assault.”
TO THE FRENCH CAPTAINS
Fear not, however many they be! Neither weigh difficulties. God guides our work. Were I not certain that God guides this work, I would rather keep sheep than expose myself to such perils.
TO D’ALENÇON
Fear not. The hour is ripe when God pleases. We must work when God wills. “Toil and God will toil.”
Ah, noble Duke, are you afraid? Do you not know that I have promised your wife to bring you back safe and sound?
On, noble Duke, to the assault!
TO HER SOLDIERS
Friends, friends, on, on! Our Lord has condemned the English. This very hour they are ours. Be of good heart!
Battle of Patay, June 18
TO THE CAPTAINS
In God’s name! we must fight them. Did they hang from clouds we should have them! For God is sending them to us for us to punish. And today our noble King shall have the greatest victory he has won in many days. My council has told me that they are all ours.
Ride bravely, and we shall have good leading!
Orléans, June 24
TO THE CAPTAINS
Sound trumpets and to horse!
It is time to rejoin our noble King Charles and set him on the road to his anointing at Reims.
Letter, June 25
To the loyal Frenchmen of Tournai
JHESUS MARIA
Noble loyal Frenchmen of Tournai town, the Maid sends you news from these parts: that in one week she has chased the English out of all the places that they held along the River Loire, either by assault or otherwise, in which encounters many English were killed and captured, and she has routed them in a pitched battle. Know too that the Earl of Suffolk, his brother La Pole, Lord Talbot, Lord Scales, with Sir John Fastolf and many other knights and captains have been captured, and a brother of the Earl of Suffolk’s and Glasdale were killed.
Keep yourselves loyal Frenchmen, I pray you. I pray you too and beg you to be ready, all of you, to come to the anointing of noble King Charles at Reims, where we shall shortly be. And come out to meet us when you hear that we are near. I commend you to God. God keep you and give you grace to maintain the good cause
