xteen thousand _livres tournois_.[622] When La Tremouille
had treated the Constable as the Constable had treated Louvet,
Regnault de Chartres became Chancellor again. He entered into his
office on the 8th of November, 1428. By this time the Council had sent
men-at-arms and cannon to Orleans. No sooner was my Lord of Reims
appointed than he threw himself into the city and spared no
trouble.[623] He was keenly attached to the goods of this world and
might pass for a miser.[624] But there can be no doubt of his devotion
to the royal cause, nor of his hatred of those who fought under the
Leopard and the Red Cross.[625]

[Footnote 621: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
632.]

[Footnote 622: Le P. Anselme, _Histoire genealogique de la maison de
France_, vol. i, p. 407.]

[Footnote 623: _Journal du siege_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 624: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises_,
introduction. _Cf._ the collection of official receipts in the
National Library, fr. 20,887, original documents 693, Clairambault,
_deeds_, _seals_, vol. 29.]

[Footnote 625: F. Duchesne, _Histoire des chanceliers et garde des
sceaux de France_, p. 487.]

After eleven days' journey, Jeanne reached Chinon on the 6th of
March.[626] It was the fourth Sunday in Lent, that very Sunday on
which the lads and lasses of Domremy went forth in bands, into the
country still grey and leafless, to eat their nuts and hard-boiled
eggs, with the rolls their mothers had kneaded. That was what they
called their well-dressing. But Jeanne was not to recollect past
well-dressings nor the home she had left without a word of
farewell.[627] Ignoring those rustic, well-nigh pagan festivals which
poor Christians introduced into the penance of the holy forty days,
the Church had named this Sunday _Laetare_ Sunday, from the first word
in the introit for the day: _Laetare, Jerusalem_. On that Sunday the
priest, ascending the altar steps, says low mass; and at high mass the
choir sings the following words from Scripture: "_Laetare, Jerusalem;
et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam ..._: Rejoice ye with
Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy
with her all ye that mourn for her: That ye may suck, and be satisfied
with the breasts of her consolations; ..."[628] That day priests,
monks, and clerks versed in holy Scripture, as in the churches with
the people assembled they sang _Laetare, Jerusalem_, had present before
their minds