by D. J. Holmes
***
Jehanne’s horse turns suddenly. She is hit just above her collar bone, on her right side. The impact from the arrow throws her off her horse and she lands on the ground. Stunned that an arrow actually hit her, along with the shock of seeing her own blood flowing from her body, she panics. “My angels, I thought that they would protect me,” she says to herself.
A thought quickly streams into her mind. “Jehanne, we are here for you. Whatever you have to endure, we are here for you.”
Thinking to herself, “Ah, so having angels with me does not mean that nothing will ever happen to me. It means that if I look to them, I will have the strength to endure what this life has to offer me.”
While she is on the ground, rumors quickly spread through her troops. “Jehanne is dead.”
Soldier after soldier passes the rumor, “She got hit by an arrow, and fell to the ground.” And with this message, they begin to retreat.
Hearing the shouts from her soldiers, “Retreat, retreat, Jehanne is dead.” Jehanne forces herself to quickly stand up.
Pierre rushes to her aid. “Pierre, quickly break off the end of this arrow.”
“But, Jehanne…”
“We don’t have any time to discuss this Pierre. Please just do it quickly. We must stop the soldiers from retreating.”
Protecting the wound made by the arrow in her collar bone, Pierre makes sure that the shaft of the arrow does not move. Looking into her tear filled eyes, Pierre breaks off the tip and then the end.
“Thank you, Pierre.” She quickly gets on her horse and riding throughout the lines of her soldiers, holding her standard with her left hand and guiding her horse with her knees, she yells, “I AM STILL ALIVE…FIGHT ON MY BROTHERS, I AM STILL ALIVE…TAKE OUR COUNTRY BACK FROM THE ENGLISH!… FIGHT ON, FIGHT ON MY BROTHERS!” Hearing her yell, and seeing her standard move through their ranks, the soldiers turn around and begin fighting with renewed strength.
It was only after winning this battle that most of her soldiers found out that the arrow she had been hit with is still lodged in her upper shoulder.
“None of the French Nobles would ever do something like that.”
“Jehanne is a true leader.”
“We will follow only Jehanne,” they commit.
After the battle, Jehanne, with Pierre by her side, rides up to the English noble and demands his sword. “I am here for your sword…Please hand it to Pierre. As you can see, I have been wounded.” Looking at the arrow, she continues, “I do want to thank you for this arrow though, it helped us to win this war.” Looking back and directly into his eyes Jehanne speaks with even more strength. “Tell your English brothers that I have been asked by God to take our land back, and crown the Dauphin as the rightful King of France. Tell them that they can give up peacefully, and we will do them no harm. Or, we will come against them with the vengeance of God, and many more Englishmen will die. In our next battles know that your Nobles will also be targeted!”
The English noble attempts to assume an air of indifference and states, “With your permission, we will now leave.”
“You may go after I tell you one more thing. I want you to know that if you and I are ever together on the battlefield again, or in your case, as you watch from your hill, my soldiers, and I WILL come after you.”
“Until then….”
“Breathe while you can, English nobleman…until then.”
The Englishman and his soldiers leave, angry that a woman no less, has beaten them at their own game.
The Nobleman who has just lost this battle makes his way to England. Reporting back to his King, he states, “She is magnificent, your majesty. The very sight of her riding in the middle of battle, in her white armor, carrying her standard and encouraging her soldiers, is a sight to behold. I’ve never see anything like it! She took an arrow from the best archer that I have. She got up off the ground had the ends broken off and got back up on her horse, continuing to lead her soldiers. When she came for my sword she still had the arrow in her shoulder, and she didn’t show that she was in any pain.”
He continues to tell his King about Jehanne and her greatness in the battle that he had fought with her. He also recounts what he has heard from other nobles that have also come against her on the field of battle.
“Everyone that has fought against her has been amazed at her cunningness. Her expertly crafted battle plans and her devotion to her soldiers. She calls them her brothers. She cares how many die. Can you imagine a commander who cares for their soldiers?”
“What I can’t understand is that as a woman, she commands her troops with an extensive knowledge of war,” the King wonders.
“I don’t know either Sire, but she is magnificent! She rides a horse with the expertise of my best soldiers. She knows the strategy of war. Her soldiers revere her as a saint, and there is a glow that surrounds her every time she speaks.”
“Is there nothing that this Jehanne can’t do?” the King questions.
“So far, she has been very successful. All of the nobles are becoming very frustrated at her success. What shall we do, Sire?”
As the King of England and the English noble continue to strategize how they will get rid of her, Jehanne is still in France preparing for yet another battle.
Looking at her Captains, she says, “As I have looked at the landscape, I have noticed a small area that looks much like a ravine where hills protrude on each side.” Kneeling down toward the ground, Jehanne begins drawing in the dirt with her index finger. “I will lead half of you onto the battlefield. When the English come against us, we will turn and ride away from them. The English will think that we are afraid. As I lead you through the ravine, the English will follow. Our archers will be hiding behind the hills, on both sides. After we pass the center, with the English right behind us, our archers will start shooting their arrows into the center of the English soldiers. My soldiers and I will continue to ride through the ravine. Once we pass through, your group, pointing to one Captain, will head back into the ravine I just come out of. You will ride toward the English, while your group, pointing to another Captain, comes in from behind.” Continuing her dirt drawing she adds, “The English will then be surrounded. Do you have any questions?”
“No. Your drawing makes everything quite clear,” the Captains nod in agreement.
“Get a good night’s sleep.” She adds, “We will need to get up quite early to put this plan into action.”
The morning sun marks the extended shadows of Jehanne’s troops in a large beautiful meadow as they face the English. With her soldier’s backs to the sun, in place and ready for battle, Jehanne rides out to meet with the noble. His familiar face brings a smile to her expression as she approaches him. “You probably don’t remember me,” she begins the confrontation.
“Remember you? I don’t know any French people.”
“You came to my village when I was a young girl. You were going to take me, and all the rest of the village girls. Do you remember that day?”
“No, I can’t say that I do.”
“My angels whisper to me that you just lied. You have thought of it every day since it happened. I told you then that you would not take me that day, but that I would meet you on the field of battle…. Well, here I am.”
“Understand this…no woman has the ability to lead soldiers in a war.”
“I guess we shall see. My angels just told me that you are going to lose this battle. You carry a beautiful sword… I would like to have it when you surrender.”
“You’re just as crazy today as you were that day.”
“Ah, so you do remember.”
“It is hard to forget someone who is truly crazy.”
“I guess that the definition of crazy is in each individual. I would think that it is crazy for the French and English to still be fighting against each other since this war began years before I was born. How many of your family members have died because of these battles?”
“In
a few more years it will be 100 years since this war began. I haven’t had any member of my family die. But I would imagine that every family of the lower classes in France and England have probably had someone in their family, or maybe even many die in this war. But that’s what they were born for.”
“You see, that is what I see as crazy, people dying because of power struggles between Nobles. People accepting money to fight, so that the Nobles can stay alive, rule the people that are left and own all of the land won in each battle. Now that’s crazy! Why don’t the Nobles fight their own battles and die for what they want, instead of asking others to do it for them? I don’t think listening to angels is crazy. But you, YOU, thinking that all other people are here for YOUR OWN SELFISH PURPOSES? YOU expecting…your people to DIE for YOUR desires SO THAT YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE LAND AND RICHES THAT EXIST…. Now THAT is what is crazy!”
“I guess we all have our own interpretation” the English royal responds with a stony face.
“There is only one interpretation of crazy. And you, Sir, are the crazy one.”
Looking at her silently, he finally asks, “Are you ready for the battle?”
“I am! Take care of that sword. Oh I forgot, you will be watching the battle from the hill far away from danger. You won’t be taking part in it. So your sword should be in the same shape that it is now when I come to get it. Until then….”
A short time later, as the English soldiers rush toward the French, Jehanne’s soldiers turn and run away from them.
“Look! She thinks that she can win the battle against me!” the English Nobleman says with a smile. “They’re running away from my soldiers,” he laughs.
“Sir, do you think that it is a good idea for our soldiers to follow Jehanne and her soldiers into that ravine?” his captain questions.
“They’re running away from my soldiers. What is there to be afraid of?”
Suddenly, Jehanne’s archers appear. Hundreds of arrows are shot into the middle of the ravine; Englishmen fall to the ground, one after another. Finally the English that are left are surrounded, exactly as Jehanne has planned. Her Captains have followed her plan as directed.
A white flag is signaled by the English.
“Sir, our men have drawn a white flag.”
“What? This battle just started.”
“They rode into the ravine. Her archers were waiting for them.”
“Send our archers out to assist them.”
“But Sir, they have no armor.”
“It doesn’t matter. Tell them to shoot into the French soldiers!”
“What about the white flag?”
“Give the order or you will be out there with them!” he responds coldly.
After the order is given, many of the English archers respond by running for safety hoping for the chance to join Jehanne’s troops.
“Where are my archers? I asked you to tell them to go against the French?
“I did, Sir, but most of them can’t be found.”
“Those cowards, I’ll make an example of them and their families. How many do we have that are ready to shoot?”
“…About five.”
“That will be enough. Have them stand in the tree line right over there. I’ll stand over here, so that the French will have their backs to them when they turn to face me.”
Trusting in the white flag, Jehanne is unaware that the noble has asked his archers to shoot at them as they negotiate the terms of surrender. Jehanne and Pierre ride up the hill toward the English nobleman.
“I have come for your sword.” Holding her arms out for his sword, Jehanne continues, “I saw you on the top of the hill as I was in the middle of the battle. I would imagine that your sword is in the same condition as when I last saw it.
Handing his sword over to her he states, “It is. You were magnificent in the way that you led your troops.”
“Thank you Sir. But they aren’t my troops. These men fight for their families. They fight to regain their land and the possessions that have been taken from them. They fight to free themselves from the tyranny and control in which the English have tried to enslave them all these years. They fight for their God given rights, the rights that they were born with. I simply lead them.”
Jehanne takes the sword. “Tell your English brothers that I come for them next. Tell them that all of the English will be driven out of our land…we will become free of the English. The French did not come against the English…the English came against the French. We WILL drive you back to your own lands. Will you tell them what I said?”
“Yes, I’ll tell them that a witch is leading the French.”
Hearing a scuffle in the woods behind them, Jehanne and Pierre turn around. Some of the English longbowmen have tied up five fellow longbowmen and are leading them toward Jehanne.
“What is going on here?” she asks in bewilderment, as Pierre puts his hand on his sword ready to fight.
Poking the captured bowmen in the back, their fellow longbowmen command them, “Go on and tell them. Tell them what the Noble wanted you to do.”
“The noble wanted us to shoot you in the back.”
“Ah. English integrity,” she remarks. “You have tied up five. What about the rest of you who are not tied up. What would you like?”
“We would like to go with you. He cares nothing about us. We’ve heard that you treat all of your soldiers like brothers.”
“What you have heard is true. They are my brothers! I welcome you, and your skills, to the French side of this battle.” Turning back to the noble, she says, “When will you learn that all people are of the same rank? In God’s eyes, no one is better than another. We are all the same, and as such should be treated with equality.”
“Nobles will always be better than commoners, Jehanne,” he says with a great deal of pride.
“Someday your family will be commoners. In that day you will be sorry that you didn’t teach everyone to be kinder to all people. As for thinking that I am a witch, if you want to think of me as a witch, then so be it. Just make sure that you tell them that I am coming.”
Jehanne watches as the English slowly leave the field of battle.
Turning to Pierre she says, “Pierre, I am concerned that he still calls me a witch. I told him that I didn’t care, but I am concerned.”
“Don’t worry Jehanne your angels are with you.”
Chapter 6
“Treysen, have you seen, Jon and Julia, yet?” Daniel asks.
“Yes, they landed at the same coordinates that Running Deer did. They are walking in the direction of Jehanne’s village, Domremy.”
“Keep me up to date, please.”
“I will.”
***
“Jon, can you believe that we are finally here?”
“Julia, I always thought that the minute someone went through the refracted waves in the Hall of Corridors that they were automatically where they were supposed to be.”
“I did too. So where are we, Jon?”
“I don’t know. Let’s keep walking this way. It looks like this road is used quite a bit. There might be a village just over that ridge.”
