im gentle Dauphin, and by that term she
implied nobility and royal magnificence.[703] She also called him her
_oriflamme_, because he was her _oriflamme_, or, as in modern language
she would have expressed it, her standard.[704] The _oriflamme_ was
the royal banner. No one at Chinon had seen it, but marvellous things
were told of it. The _oriflamme_ was in the form of a gonfanon with
two wings, made of a costly silk, fine and light, called
_sandal_,[705] and it was edged with tassels of green silk. It had
come down from heaven; it was the banner of Clovis and of Saint
Charlemagne. When the King went to war it was carried before him. So
great was its virtue that the enemy at its approach became powerless
and fled in terror. It was remembered how, when in 1304 Philippe le
Bel defeated the Flemings, the knight who bore it was slain. The next
day he was found dead, but still clasping the standard in his
arms.[706] It had floated in front of King Charles VI before his
misfortunes, and since then it had never been unfurled.

[Footnote 703: Clerk of the Town Hall of Albi, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p.
300.]

[Footnote 704: Thomassin, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 304.]

[Footnote 705: _Sandal_ or _cendal_, a silk bearing some resemblance
to taffetas. Cf. Godefroy, _Lexique de l'ancien francais_ (W.S.).]

[Footnote 706: Du Cange, _Glossaire_, under the word _auriflamma_. Le
Roux de Lincy and Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens_, pp. 150, 251,
257, 259. [_Histoire generale de Paris._]]

One day when the Maid and the King were talking together, the Duke of
Alencon entered the hall. When he was a child, the English had taken
him prisoner at Verneuil and kept him five years in the Crotoy
Tower.[707] Only recently set at liberty, he had been shooting quails
near Saint-Florent-les-Saumur, when a messenger had brought the
tidings that God had sent a damsel to the King to turn the English out
of France.[708] This news interested him as much as any one because he
had married the Duke of Orleans' daughter; and straightway he had come
to Chinon to see for himself. In the days of his graceful youth the
Duke of Alencon appeared to advantage, but he was never renowned for
his wisdom. He was weak-minded, violent, vain, jealous, and extremely
credulous. He believed that ladies find favour by means of a certain
herb, the mountain-heath; and later he thought himself bewitched. He
had a disagreeable, harsh voice; he knew it, and the knowledge annoyed
h