was not wisely to prepare the
way of peace to cast the crime of Montereau in the face of Charles of
Valois, who had been dragged there as a child and with whom there had
remained ever after a physical trembling and a haunting fear of
crossing bridges.[1644]

[Footnote 1644: Georges Chastellain, fragments published by J. Quicherat
in _La Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartes_, 1st series, vol. iv, p.
78.]

For the moment the Duke of Bedford's most serious grievance against
Charles was that he was accompanied by the Maid and Friar Richard.
"You cause the ignorant folk to be seduced and deceived," he said,
"for you are supported by superstitious and reprobate persons, such as
this woman of ill fame and disorderly life, wearing man's attire and
dissolute in manners, and likewise by that apostate and seditious
mendicant friar, they both alike being, according to Holy Scripture,
abominable in the sight of God."

To strike still greater shame into the heart of the enemy, the Duke of
Bedford proceeds to a second attack on the maiden and the monk. And in
the most eloquent passage of the letter, when he is citing Charles of
Valois to appear before him, he says ironically that he expects to see
him come led by this woman of ill fame and this apostate monk.[1645]

[Footnote 1645: Monstrelet, vol. iv, pp. 341, 342.]

Thus wrote the Regent of England; albeit he had a mind, subtle,
moderate, and graceful, he was moreover a good Catholic and a believer
in all manner of devilry and witchcraft.

His horror at the army of Charles of Valois being commanded by a witch
and a heretic monk was certainly sincere, and he deemed it wise to
publish the scandal. There were doubtless only too many, who, like
him, were ready to believe that the Maid of the Armagnacs was a
heretic, a worshipper of idols and given to the practice of magic. In
the opinion of many worthy and wise Burgundians a prince must forfeit
his honour by keeping such company. And if Jeanne were in very deed a
witch, what a disgrace! What an abomination! The Flowers de Luce
reinstated by the devil! The Dauphin's whole camp was tainted by it.
And yet when my Lord of Bedford spread abroad those ideas he was not
so adroit as he thought.

Jeanne, as we know, was good-hearted and in energy untiring. By
inspiring the men of her party with the idea that she brought them
good luck, she gave them courage.[1646] Nevertheless King Charles's
counsellors knew what she could do for them an