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Joan of Arc 
 
TOUR CO U D RAY - C H I NO N . 
 
JOAN OF ARC 
 
 BY 
 
 Lord Ronald Gower, f.s.a. 
 
 A TRUSTEE OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY 
 
 WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 SEVEN ETCHINGS AND THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN C. NIMMO 
 
 14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND 
 
 MDCCCXCIII 
 
JDC103 
 
Dedication. 
 
 My mother had what the French call a culte 
 for the heroine whose life I have attempted to 
 write in the following pages. 
 
 It was but natural that one who loved and 
 admired all that is good and beautiful and 
 high-minded should have a strong feeling of 
 admiration for the memory of Joan of Arc. On 
 the pedestal of the bronze statue, which my 
 mother placed in her house at Cliveden, are 
 inscribed those words which sum up the life and 
 career of the Maid of Orleans : — 
 
 * La grande pitie qu'il y avait au royaume de France.^ 
 
 Thinking that could my mother have read 
 the following pages she would have approved 
 the feeling which prompted me to write them, 
 I inscribe this little book to her beloved 
 memory. 
 
 R. G. 
 
 Arcachon, 
 
 November 2g. 
 
 M13S304 
 
Preface. 
 
 The authors whose works I have chiefly used 
 in writing this Life of Joan of Arc, are — first, 
 Quicherat, who was the first to publish at ^ 
 length the Minutes of the two trials concerning 
 the Maid — that of her trial at Rouen in 1430, 
 and of her rehabilitation in 1456, and who 
 unearthed so many chronicles relating to her 
 times ; secondly, Wallon, whose Life of Joan ^ 
 of Arc is of all the fullest and most reliable ; 
 thirdly, Fabre, who has within the last few \^ 
 years published several most important books 
 respecting the life and death of Joan. Fabre 
 was the first to make a translation in full of 
 the two trials which Quicherat had first pub- 
 lished in the original Latin text. 
 
 Thinking references at the foot of the page 
 a nuisance to the reader, these have been 
 avoided. 
 
 The subjects for the etched illustrations in 
 this volume have been kindly supplied by my 
 friend, Mr. Lee Latrobe Bateman, during a 
 journey we made together to places connected 
 with the story of the heroine. 
 
 R. G. 
 
 London, yanuary^ 1^93- 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE CALL I 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS 39 
 
 s 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS 70 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE CAPTURE 100 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL 138 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 MARTYRDOM 242 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE REHABILITATION 253 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH HISTORY 289 
 11. JOAN OF ARC IN POETRY 301 
 
 FRENCH BIBLIOGRAPHY 311 
 
 ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY 320 
 
 INDEX 323 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 (SEVEN ETCHINGS, THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS). 
 
 TOUR COUDRAY— CHINON .... Frontispiece 
 
 CHINON To face page i6 
 
 STREET IN CHINON „ 20 
 
 HALL OF AUDIENCE— CHINON ... ,,28 
 
 TOUR D'HORLOGE— CHINON .... ,,32 
 
 WEST PORTAL— RHEIMS „ 80 
 
 INTERIOR— RHEIMS „ 96 
 
 FIFTEENTH-CENTURY HOUSES— COMPIEGNE „ 112 
 
 TOUR DE LA PUCELLE— COMPIEGNE . . „ 128 
 
 ST. OUEN— ROUEN ,,224 
 
Joan of Arc, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CALL. 
 
 NEVER perhaps in modern times had a 
 country sunk so low as France, when, 
 in the year 1420, the treaty of Troyes was 
 signed. Henry V. of England had made him- 
 self master of nearly the whole kingdom ; and 
 although the treaty only conferred the title of 
 Regent of France on the English sovereign 
 during the lifetime of the imbecile Charles VI., 
 Henry was assured in the near future of the full 
 possession of the French throne, to the exclusion 
 of the Dauphin. Henry received with the daugh- 
 ter of Charles VI. the Duchy of Normandy, 
 besides the places conquered by Edward III. 
 and his famous son ; and of fourteen provinces 
 left by Charles V. to his successor only three 
 remained in the power of the French crown. 
 The French Parliament assented to these hard 
 conditions, and but one voice was raised in 
 protest to the dismemberment of France ; that 
 solitary voice, a voice crying in a wilderness, 
 was that of Charles the Dauphin — afterwards 
 Charles VII. Henry V. had fondly imagined that 
 
 A 
 
• . • • • • 
 • • « c 
 
 • • «« t 
 
 2. JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 by the treaty of Troyes and his marriage with a 
 French princess the war, which had lasted over 
 a century between the two countries, would now 
 cease, and that France would lie for ever at the 
 foot of England. Indeed, up to Henry's death, 
 at the end of August 1422, events seemed to 
 justify such hopes ; but after a score of years 
 from Henry s death France had recovered almost 
 the whole of her lost territory. 
 
 There is nothing in history more strange and 
 yet more true than the story which has been told 
 so often, but which never palls in its interest — that 
 life of the maiden through whose instrumentality 
 France regained her place among the nations. No 
 poet's fancy has spun from out his imagination a 
 more glorious tale, or pictured in glowing words 
 an epic of heroic love and transcendent valour, to 
 compete with the actual reality of the career of 
 this simple village maiden of old France : she who, 
 almost unassisted and alone, through her intense 
 love of her native land and deep pity for the woes 
 of her people, was enabled, when the day of action 
 at length arrived, to triumph over unnumbered 
 obstacles, and, in spite of all opposition, ridicule, 
 and contumely, to fulfil her glorious mission. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve has written that, in his opinion, 
 the way to honour the history of Joan of Arc is to 
 / tell the truth about her as simply as possible. This 
 has been my object in the following pages. 
 
 On the border of Lorraine and Champagne, 
 in the canton of the Barrois — between the 
 rivers Marne and Meuse — extended, at the time 
 of which we are writing, a vast forest, called the 
 
THE CALL. 3 
 
 Der. By the side of a little streamlet, which took 
 its source from the river Meuse, and dividing 
 it east by west, stands the village of Domremy. 
 The southern portion, confined within its banks 
 and watered by its stream, contained a little for- 
 talice, with a score of cottages grouped around. 
 These were situated in the county of Champagne, 
 under the suzerainty of the Count de Bar. 
 
 The northern side of the village, containing the 
 church, belonged to the Manor of Vaucouleurs. 
 In this part of the village, in a cottage built 
 between the church and the rivulet close by, Joan 
 of Arc was born, on or about the 6th of January, 
 141 2. The house which now exists on the site 
 of her birthplace was built in 1481, but the little 
 streamlet still takes its course at its foot. Michelet, *^ 
 in his account of the heroine, says the station in 
 life of Joan's father was that of a labourer ; later 
 investigations have proved that he was what we 
 should call a small farmer. In the course of the 
 trial held for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc's 
 memory, which yields valuable and authentic infor- 
 mation relating to her family as well as to her life 
 and actions, it appears that the neighbours of the 
 heroine deposed that her parents were well-to-do 
 agriculturists, holding a small property besides this 
 house at Domremy ; they held about twenty acres 
 of land, twelve of which were arable, four meadow- 
 land, and four for fuel. Besides this they had some 
 two to three hundred francs kept safe in case of 
 emergency, and the furniture goods and chattels 
 of their modest home. The money thus kept 
 in case of sudden trouble came in usefully when 
 
4 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the family had to escape from the English to 
 Neufchiteau. All told, the fortune of the family 
 of Joan attained an annual income of about two 
 hundred pounds of our money, a not inconsider- 
 able revenue at that time ; and with it they were 
 enabled to raise a family in comfort, and to give 
 alms and hospitality to the poor, and wandering 
 friars and other needy wayfarers, then so common 
 in the land. 
 
 Two documents lately discovered prove Joan's 
 father to have held a position of some importance 
 at Domremy. In the one, dated 1423, he is styled 
 'doyen (senior inhabitant) of the village, which 
 gave him rank next to the Mayor. In the other, 
 four years later, he fills a post which tallies with 
 w^hat is called in Scotland the Procurator-fiscal. 
 
 The name of the family was Arc, and much 
 ink has been shed as to the origin of that name. 
 By some it is derived from the village of d'Arc, 
 in the Barrois, now in the department of the 
 Haute Marne ; and this hypothesis is as good 
 as any other. 
 
 Jacques d'Arc had taken to v/ife one Isabeau 
 Romee, from the village of Vouthon, near Dom- 
 remy. Isabeau is said to have had some property 
 in her native village. The family of Jacques 
 d'Arc and Isabella or Isabeau consisted of five 
 children: three sons, Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre, 
 and two daughters, the elder Catherine, the 
 younger Jeanne, or Jennette, as she was generally 
 called in her family, whose name was to go through 
 the ages as one of the most glorious in any land. 
 
 Well favoured by nature was the birthplace of 
 
THE CALL. 5 
 
 Joan of Arc, with its woods of chestnut and of oak, 
 then in their primeval abundance. The vine of 
 Greux, which was famous all over the country-side 
 as far back as the fourteenth century, grew on the 
 southern slopes of the hills about Joan's birthplace. 
 Beneath these vineyards the fields were thickly 
 clothed with rye and oats, and the meadow-lands 
 washed by the waters of the Meuse were fragrant 
 with hay that had no rival in the country. It was 
 in these rich fields that, after the hay-making was 
 over, the peasants let out their cattle to graze, the 
 number of each man's kine corresponding with the 
 number of fields which he owned and which he 
 had reaped. 
 
 The little maid sometimes helped her father's 
 labourers, and the idea has become general that 
 ' Joan of Arc was a shepherdess ; in reality, it was "^ 
 only an occasional occupation, and probably under- 
 taken by Joan out of mere good-nature, seeing that 
 her parents were well-to-do people. All that we 
 gather of Joan's early years proves her nature to 
 have been a compound of love and goodness. 
 Every trait recorded of the litde maid's life at 
 home which has come down to us reveals a 
 mixture of amiability, unselfishness, and charity. 
 From her earliest years she loved to help the 
 weak and poor : she was known, when there was 
 no room for the weary wayfarer to pass the night y 
 in her parents' house, to give up her bed to 
 them, and to sleep on the floor, by the hearth. 
 
 She loved her mother tenderly, and in her trial 
 she bore witness before men to the good influence 
 that she had derived from that parent. Isabeau 
 

 6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 d'Arc appears to have been a devout woman, and 
 to have brought up her children to love work 
 and religion. Joan loved to sit by her mother's 
 side for the hour together, spinning, and doubtless 
 listening to the stories of wars with the here- 
 ditary enemy. When she could be of use, Joan 
 was ever ready to lend a hand to help her 
 father or brothers in the rougher labours of 
 coach-house, stable, or farmyard, to keep watch 
 over the flocks as they browsed by the river-side 
 along the meadow-lands. 
 
 Joan had not the defect of so many excellent 
 but tedious women, who love talk for the mere 
 sake of talking : she seems to have been reserved ; 
 but, as she proved later on, she was never at a loss 
 for a word in season, and with a few words could 
 speak volumes. From her childhood she showed 
 
 / f^an intense and ever-increasing devotion to things 
 holy; her delight in prayer became almost a pas- 
 sion. She never wearied of visiting the churches 
 in and about her native village, and she passed 
 many an hour in a kind of rapt trance before the 
 crucifixes and saintly images in these churches. 
 Every morning saw her at her accustomed place 
 at the early celebration of her Lord's Sacrifice ; 
 and if in the afternoon the evening bells sounded 
 across the fields, she would kneel devoutly, and 
 commune in her heart with her divine Master 
 and adored saints. She loved above all things 
 these evening bells, and, when it seemed to her 
 
 ^ the ringer grew negligent, would bribe him with 
 some little gift — the worked wool from one of 
 her sheep or some other trifle — to remind him 
 
THE CALL. 7 
 
 in the future to be more instant in his office. 
 That this little trait in Joan is true, we have the 
 testimony of the bell-ringer himself to attest. 
 
 This devotion to her religious duties had not 
 the effect of making Joan less of a companion 
 to her fellow-villagers. She could not have been 
 so much beloved by them as she was had she held 
 herself aloof from them : on the contrary, Joan 
 enjoyed to play with the lads and village lasses ; 
 and we hear of her swiftness of foot in the race, of 
 her gracefulness in the village dance, either by the 
 stream or around an old oak-tree in the forest, 
 which was said to be the favourite haunt of the 
 fairies. 
 
 Often in the midst of these sports Joan would 
 break away from her companions, and enter some 
 church or chapel, where she placed garlands of 
 flowers around statues of her beloved saints. 
 
 Thus passed away the early years of the 
 maiden's gentle life, among her native fields, with 
 nothing especially to distinguish her from her 
 companions beyond her goodness and piety. A 
 great change, however, was near at hand. The 
 first of those mysterious and supernatural events 
 which played so all-important a part in the life of 
 our heroine occurred in the summer of 1425, when 
 Joan was in her thirteenth year. In her trial at 
 Rouen, on being asked by her judges what was the 
 first manifestation of these visions, she answered 
 that the first indication of what she always called 
 ' My voices ' was that of St. Michel. It is not 
 a little remarkable that this vision of St. Michel, 
 the patron saint of the French army, should have 
 
 i^ 
 
8 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 taken place in the summer of 1425, at the time of 
 a double defeat by land and sea of the enemy of 
 France, and when the Holy Mount In Normandy, 
 crowned by the chapel guarded by St. Michel, 
 was once again in the hands of the French. At 
 the same time, Joan of Arc experienced some of 
 the hardships of war when the country around 
 Domremy was overrun by the enemy ; and the 
 little household of the Arcs had to fly for shelter 
 to the neighbouring village of Chateauneuf, in 
 Lorraine. 
 
 r I will pass somewhat rapidly over the visions, 
 or rather revelations — for, whatever doubts one may 
 hold as to such heavenly messengers appearing 
 literally on this earth, no man can honestly doubt 
 that Joan believed as firmly in these unearthly 
 visitants coming from Heaven direct as she did in 
 
 (-the existence of herself or of her parents. On 
 the subject of these voices and visions no one 
 has written with more sense than a distinguished 
 prelate who was a contemporary of the heroine's 
 — namely, Thomas Basin, Bishop of LIsieux, who, 
 in a work relating to Joan of Arc, writes thus : — 
 'As regards her mission, and as regards the 
 apparitions and revelations that she affirmed 
 having had, we leave to every one the liberty to 
 believe as he pleases, to reject or to hold, ac- 
 cording to his point of view or way of thinking. 
 What is important regarding these visions is the 
 fact that Joan had herself no shadow of a doubt 
 regarding their reality, and it was their effect upon 
 her, and not her natural inclination, which impelled 
 her to leave her parents and her home to under- 
 
THE CALL. 9 
 
 take great perils and to endure great hardships, 
 and, as it proved, a terrible death. It was these 
 visions and voices, and they alone, which made 
 her believe that she would succeed, if she obeyed 
 them, in saving her country and in replacing her 
 king on his throne. It was these visions and 
 voices which finally enabled her to do those 
 marvellous deeds, and accomplish what appeared 
 to all the world the impossible ; these voices and 
 visions will ever be connected with Joan of Arc, 
 and with her deathless fame and glory.' 
 
 From the year 1425 till 1428, the apparitions 
 and voices were heard and seen more or less 
 frequently. 
 
 It is the year 1427 : all that remains to 
 Charles of his kingdom north of the Loire, with 
 the exception of Tournay, are a pitiful half-dozen 
 places. Among these is Vaucouleurs, near Dom- 
 remy. They are defended by a body of men 
 under the command of a knight, Robert de Baud- 
 ricourt, who is about to play an important part in 
 the history of Joan. 
 
 In one of her visions the maid was told to seek 
 this knight, that through his help she might be 
 brought to the French Court ; for the voices had 
 told her she might find the King and tell him her 
 message, by which she should deliver the land 
 from the English, and restore him to his throne. 
 There had not been wanting legends and pro- 
 phecies upon the country-side which may have 
 impressed Joan, and helped her to believe that 
 it was her mission to deliver France. One of 
 the prophecies was to the effect that a maiden 
 
lo JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 J from the borders of Lorraine should save France, 
 that this maiden would appear from a place near 
 an oak forest. This seemed to point directly to 
 our heroine. The old oak-tree haunted by the 
 / fairies, the neighbouring country of Lorraine, 
 were all in help of the tradition. Since the be- 
 trayal of her husband's country by the wife of 
 Charles VI., another saying had been spread 
 abroad throughout all that remained of that 
 small portion of France still held by the French 
 King — namely, that although France would be 
 lost by a woman, a maiden should save It. Any 
 hope to the people In those distressful days was 
 eagerly seized on ; and although the first pro- 
 phecy dated from the mythical times of Merlin, 
 it stirred the people, especially when, later on, 
 
 , Joan of Arc appeared among them, and her 
 
 i^ story became known. 
 
 These prophecies appear to have struck deeply 
 Into Joan's soul ; they, and her voices aiding, 
 made her believe she was the maiden by whom 
 her country would be delivered from the presence 
 of the enemy. But how was she to make her 
 parents understand that it was their child who 
 was appointed by Heaven to fulfil this great 
 deliverance .'* Her father seems to have been 
 a somewhat harsh, at any rate a practical, 
 parent. When told of her Intention to join the 
 J army, he said he would rather throw her into the 
 river than allow her to do so. An attempt was 
 made by her parents to induce her to marry. 
 They tried their best, but Joan would none of 
 it; and bringing the case before the lawyers at 
 
THE CALL. II 
 
 Toul, where she proved that she had never 
 thought of marrying a youth whom her parents 
 required her to wed, she gained her cause and 
 her freedom. 
 
 In order to take the first step in her mission, 
 Joan felt it necessary to rely on some one outside 
 her immediate family. A distant relation of her 
 mother's, one Durand Laxart, who with his wife 
 lived in a little village then named Burey-le-Petit 
 (now called Burey-en-Vaux), near Vaucouleurs, 
 was the relation in whose care she placed her 
 fate. With him and his wife Joan remained eight 
 days ; and it might have been then that the plan 
 was arranged to hold an interview with Baudri- 
 court at Vaucouleurs, in order to see whether 
 that knight would interest himself in Joan's 
 mission. 
 
 The interview took place about the middle of 
 the month of May (1428), and nothing could have 
 been less propitious. A soldier named Bertrand 
 de Poulangy, who was one of the garrison of 
 Vaucouleurs, was an eye-witness of the meeting. 
 He accompanied Joan of Arc later on to Chlnon, 
 and left a record of the almost brutal manner 
 with which Baudricourt received the Maid. From 
 this soldier's narrative we possess one of the rare 
 glimpses which have come down to us of the 
 appearance of the heroine : not indeed a descrip- 
 tion of what would be of such intense interest as 
 to make known to us the appearance and features 
 of her face ; but he describes her dress, which 
 was that then worn by the better-to-do agricul- 
 tural class of Lorraine peasant women, made of 
 
 •^ 
 
^, 
 
 12 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 rough red serge, the cap such as Is still worn 
 by the peasantry of her native place. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that no portrait of 
 Joan of Arc exists either in sculpture or painting. 
 A life-size bronze statue which portrayed the Maid 
 kneeling on one side of a crucifix, with Charles 
 VII. opposite, forming part of a group near the 
 old bridge of Orleans, was destroyed by the 
 Huguenots ; and all the portraits of Joan painted 
 in oils are spurious. None are earlier than the 
 sixteenth century, and all are mere imaginary 
 daubs. In most of these Joan figures in a hat 
 and feathers, of the style worn in the Court of 
 Francis I. From various contemporary notices, 
 it appears that her hair was dark in colour, as in 
 Bastien Lepage's celebrated picture, which sup- 
 plies as good an idea of what Joan may have 
 been as any pictured representation of her form 
 and face. Would that the frescoes which Mon- 
 taigne describes as being painted on the front of 
 the house upon the site of which Joan was born 
 could have come down to us. They might have 
 given some conception of her appearance. Mon- 
 taigne saw those frescoes on his way to Italy, and 
 says that all the front of the house was painted 
 with representations of her deeds, but even in his 
 day they were much injured. 
 
 When Joan at length stood before the knight 
 of Vaucouleurs, she told him boldly that she had 
 come to him by God's command, and that she 
 was destined to give the King victory over the 
 English. She even said that she was assured 
 that early in the following March this would be 
 
THE CALL. 13 
 
 accomplished, and that the Dauphin would then 
 be crowned at Rheims, for all these things had 
 been promised to her through her Lord. 
 
 'And who is he?' asked de Baudrlcourt. 
 
 * He is the King of Heaven,' she answered. 
 
 The knight treated Joan's words with deri- 
 sion, and Joan herself with Insults ; and thus 
 ended the first of their interviews. 
 
 It was only in the season of Lent of the next 
 year (March 1427) that Joan again sought the 
 aid of de Baudrlcourt. On the plea of attending 
 her cousin Laxart's wife's confinement, Joan re- 
 turned to Burey-le-Petit. She left Domremy 
 without bidding her parents farewell ; but it has 
 been recorded by one of her friends, named 
 Mengeth, a neighbour of the d'Arcs, that she 
 told this woman of her intention of going to 
 Vaucouleurs, and recommended her to God's 
 keeping, as if she felt that she would not see 
 her again. At Burey-le- Petit Joan remained 
 between the end of January until her departure 
 for Chlnon, on the 23rd of February ; and be- 
 fore taking final leave she asked and received 
 her parents' pardon for her abrupt departure 
 from them. 
 
 While with the Laxarts, news reached Vau- 
 couleurs that the English had commenced the 
 siege of Orleans. This intelligence brought 
 matters to a crisis, for with the loss of Orleans 
 the whole of what remained to the French King 
 must fall into the hands of the enemy, and 
 France felt her last hour of independence had 
 come. 
 
 • 
 
14 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Joan determined on again seeking an interview 
 with Robert de Baudrlcourt, and this second meet- 
 ing between her and the knight, which took place 
 six months after the first, had far happier resuhs. 
 As M. Simeon Luce has pointed out in his history 
 of ' Jeanne d'Arc at Domremy,' the situation both 
 of Charles VI. and of the knight of Vaucouleurs 
 was far different in 1429 to what it had been when 
 Joan first saw de Baudrlcourt at Vaucouleurs in 
 the previous year. The most important strong- 
 hold held by the French in their ever-lessening 
 territory was in utmost danger of falling into the 
 grasp of the English; while de Baudrlcourt was 
 anxiously waiting to hear whether his protector, 
 the Due de Bar, whom Bedford had summoned to 
 enter into a treaty with the English, would not 
 be prevailed upon to do so. If he consented, 
 this would make the knight's tenure of Vau- 
 couleurs impracticable. It was probably owing 
 to this state of affairs that, on her second Inter- 
 view with the knight of Vaucouleurs, Joan of 
 Arc was favourably received by him. Since the 
 first visit to de Baudrlcourt by the Maid of Dom- 
 remy, her name had become familiar to many of 
 the people in and about Vaucouleurs. An offi- 
 cer named Jean de Metz has left some record of 
 his meeting at this time with Joan ; for he was 
 afterwards examined among other witnesses at 
 the time of the Maid's rehabilitation in 1456. De 
 Metz describes the Maid as being clothed in a 
 dress of coarse red serge, the same as she wore 
 on her first visit to Vaucouleurs. When he ques- 
 tioned her as to what she expected to gain by 
 
THE CALL. 15 
 
 coming again to Vaucouleurs, she answered that 
 she had returned to induce Robert de Baudricourt 
 to conduct her to the King ; but that on her first 
 visit he was deaf to her entreaties and prayers. 
 But, she added, she was still determined to appear 
 before Charles, even if she had to go to him all 
 the way on her knees. 
 
 * For I alone,' she added, 'and no other person, 
 whether he be King, or Duke, or daughter of the 
 King of Scots ' (alluding to the future wife of 
 Charles VII. 's son, Louis XI. — Margaret of Scot- 
 land) 'can recover the kingdom of France.' 
 
 As far as her own wishes were concerned, she 
 said she would prefer to return to her home, and 
 to spin again by the side of her beloved mother ; 
 for, she added : * I am not made to follow the 
 career of a soldier ; but I must go and carry out 
 this my calling, for my Lord has appointed me to 
 do so.' 
 
 ' And who,' asked de Metz, ' is your Lord ? ' 
 
 * My Lord, ' answered the Maid, ' is God ^ 
 Himself.' 
 
 The enthusiasm of Joan seems to have at once 
 gained the soldier's heart. He took her by the 
 hand, and swore that God willing he would accom- 
 pany her to the King. When asked how soon 
 she would be ready to start, she said that she was 
 ready. * Better to-day than to-morrow, and better 
 to-morrow than later on.' 
 
 During her second visit to Vaucouleurs, Joan 
 remained with the same friends as on her former 
 visit ; they appear to have been an honest couple, 
 of the name of Le Royer. One day while Joan 
 
i6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 was helping In the domestic work of her hosts, and 
 seated by the side of Catherine Le Royer, Robert 
 de Baudricourt suddenly entered the room, accom- 
 panied by a priest, one Jean Fournier, In full 
 canonicals. It appeared that the knight had con- 
 ceived the brilliant Idea of finding out, through 
 the assistance of the holy man, whether Joan was 
 under the influence of good or evil spirits, before 
 allowing her to go to the King's Court. 
 
 As may be Imagined, Joan received the priest 
 with all respect, kneeling before him ; and the 
 good father was soon able to reassure de Baudri- 
 court that the evil spirits had no part or parcel In 
 the heart of the maid who received him with so 
 much humility. 
 
 For three weeks Joan was left In suspense at 
 Vaucouleurs, and probably It was not until a mes- 
 senger had been sent to Chinon and had returned 
 with a favourable answer, that at length de Baudri- 
 court gave a somewhat unwilling consent to Joan's 
 leaving Vaucouleurs on her mission to Chinon. 
 During those weary weeks of anxious waiting, 
 Joan's hostess bore witness In after days to the 
 manner in which the time was passed : of how she 
 would help Catherine in her spinning and other 
 homely work, but, as when at home, her chief 
 delight was to attend the Church services, and she 
 would often remain to confession, after the early 
 communion In the church. The chapel In which 
 she worshipped was not the parochial church of 
 Vaucouleurs, but was attached to the castle, and It 
 still exists. In that castle chapel, and in a sub- 
 terranean crypt beneath the Collegiate Church of 
 
'^-r^ 
 
 4-- 
 
 
 K.' 
 
THE CALL. 17 
 
 Notre Dame de Vaucouleurs, Joan passed much 
 of her time. Seven and twenty years after these 
 events, one Jean le Fumeux, at that time a chor- 
 ister of the chapel, a lad of eleven, bore witness, at 
 the trial in which the memory of Joan was vin- 
 dicated, to having often seen her kneeling before 
 an image of the Virgin. This image, a battered 
 and rude one, still exists. Nothing less artistic can 
 be imagined ; but no one, be his religious views 
 what they may, be his abhorrence of Mariolatry as 
 strong as that of a Calvinist, if he have a grain of 
 sympathy in his nature for what is glorious in 
 patriotism and sublime in devotion, can look on 
 that battered and broken figure without a feeling 
 deeper than one of ordinary curiosity. 
 
 A short time before leaving Vaucouleurs, Joan 
 made a visit into Lorraine — a visit which proved 
 how early her fame had spread abroad. The then 
 reigning Duke of that province, Charles II. of 
 Lorraine, an aged and superstitious prince, had 
 heard of the mystic Maid of Domremy, and he 
 had expressed his wish to see her, probably think- 
 ing that she might afford him relief from the 
 infirmities from which he suffered. Whatever 
 the reason may have been, he sent her an urgent 
 request to visit him, a message with which Joan 
 at once complied. 
 
 Accompanied by Jean de Metz, Joan went to 
 Toul, and thence with her cousin, Durand Laxart, 
 she proceeded to Nancy. Little is known of her 
 deeds while there. She visited Duke Charles, and 
 gave him some advice as to how he should regain 
 his character more than his health, over which she 
 
i8 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 said she had no control. The old Duke appears 
 to have been rather a reprobate, but whether he 
 profited by Joan's advice does not appear. 
 
 Possibly this rather vague visit of the Maid's 
 to Nancy was undertaken as a kind of test as to 
 how she would comport herself among dukes and 
 princes. That she showed most perfect modesty 
 of bearing under somewhat difficult circumstances 
 seems to have struck those who were with her at 
 Nancy. She also showed practical sagacity ; for 
 she advised Duke Charles to give active sup- 
 port to the French King, and persuaded him 
 to allow his son-in-law, young Ren6 of Anjou, 
 Duke of Bar, to enter the ranks of the King's 
 army, and even to allow him to accompany her to 
 the Court at Chinon. By this she bound the 
 more than lukewarm Duke of Lorraine to exert 
 all his influence on the side of King Charles. 
 
 Before leaving Nancy on her return to Vau- 
 couleurs, Joan visited a famous shrine, not far 
 from the capital, dedicated to St. Nicolas, after 
 which she hastened back to Vaucouleurs to make 
 ready for an immediate start for Chinon. 
 
 Joan's equipment for her journey to Chinon was 
 subscribed for by the people of Vaucouleurs ; for 
 among the common folk there, as wherever she 
 was known, her popularity was great. She seems 
 to have won in every instance the hearts of the 
 good simple peasantry, the poorer classes in gen- 
 eral, called by a saintly King of France the ' com- 
 mon people of our Lord,' who believed in her 
 long before others of the higher classes and the 
 patricians were persuaded to put any faith in her. 
 
THE CALL, 19 
 
 To the peasantry Joan was already the maiden 
 pointed out in the old prophecy then known all 
 over France, which said that the country would be 
 first lost by a woman and then recovered by a 
 maiden hailing from Lorraine. The former was ' 
 believed to be the Queen-mother, who had sided 
 with the English; Joan, the Maid out of Lorraine 
 who should save France, and by whose arm the 
 English would be driven out of the country. 
 
 Clad in a semi-male attire, composed of a tight- 
 fitting doublet of dark cloth and tunic reaching to 
 the knees, high leggings and spurred boots, with 
 a black cap on her head, and a hauberk, the Maid 
 was armed with lance and sword, the latter the 
 gift of de Baudricourt. Her good friends of Vau- 
 couleurs had also subscribed for a horse. Thus 
 completely equipped, she prepared for war, ready 
 for her eventful voyage. Her escort consisted of 
 a knight named Colet de Vienne, accompanied by 
 his squire, one Richard TArcher, two men-at-arms 
 from Vaucouleurs, and the two knights Bertrand »^ 
 de Poulangy and Jean de Metz— eight 'men in 
 all, well armed and well mounted, andthoroughly 
 prepared to defend their charge should the occasion 
 arise. Nor were precautions and means of repel- 
 ling an attack unnecessary, for at this time the 
 country around Vaucouleurs was infested by rov- 
 ing bands of soldiers belonging to the Anglo- 
 Burgundian party. Especially dangerous was that 
 stretch of country lying between Vaucouleurs and 
 Joinville, the first of the many stages on the way 
 to Chinon. Although the knights and men of the 
 small expedition were not without apprehension, 
 
20 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Joan seems to have shown no sign of fear : calm 
 and cheerful, she said that, being under the protec- 
 tion of Heaven, they had nothing to fear, for that 
 no evil could befall her. 
 
 There still exists the narrow gate of the old 
 castle of Vaucouleurs through which that little 
 band rode out into the night; hard by is the small 
 subterranean chapel, now under repair, where Joan 
 had passed so many hours of her weary weeks 
 of waiting at Vaucouleurs. The old gate is still 
 called the French Gate, as it was in the days of 
 the Maid. 
 
 It was the evening of the 23rd of February, 
 1429, that the little band rode away into the open 
 country on their perilous journey. Joan, besides 
 adopting a military attire, had trimmed her dark 
 hair close, as it was then the fashion of knights to 
 do — cut round above the ears. Even this harm- 
 less act was later brought as an accusation against 
 her. Joan was then in her seventeenth year, and, 
 although nothing but tradition has reached us of 
 her looks and outward form, it is not difficult to 
 imagine her as she rides out of that old gate, a 
 comely maid, with a frank, brave countenance, lit 
 up by the flame of an intense enthusiasm for her 
 country and people. There can be no doubt that 
 by her companions in arms — rough soldiers though 
 most of them were — she was held in veneration ; 
 they bore testimony to their feelings by a kind of 
 adoration for one who seemed indeed to them 
 more than mortal. Wherever Joan appeared, 
 this feeling of veneration spread rapidly through 
 the length and breadth of the land ; and the 
 
STREET IN CHINON 
 
THE CALL. 21 
 
 people were wont to speak of the future saviour 
 of France, not by the name of Joan the Maid, 
 or Joan of Arc, but as the Angelic One — * I'An- 
 gelique.' 
 
 Among the crowd who gathered to see Joan 
 depart was de Baudricourt, who then made 
 amends for his rudeness and churHsh behaviour 
 on her first visit by presenting her with his ^^ 
 own sword, and bidding her heartily god-speed. 
 ' Advienne que pour ra!' was his parting salute. 
 
 The journey between Vaucouleurs and Chinon 
 occupied eleven days. Not only was the danger 
 of attack from the English and Burgundian soldiers 
 a great and a constant one, but the winter, which 
 had been exceptionally wet, had flooded all the 
 rivers. Five of these had to be crossed — namely, 
 the Marne, the Aube, the Seine, the Yonne, and 
 the Loire: and most of the bridges and fords of 
 these rivers were strictly guarded by the enemy. 
 The little band, for greater security, mostly tra- 
 velled during the night. Their first halt was made 
 at the Monastery of Saint- Urbain-les-JoInville. 
 The Celibat of this monastery was named Arnoult 
 d'Aunoy, and was a relative of de Baudricourt. 
 After leaving that shelter they had to camp out 
 in the open country. 
 
 Joan's chief anxiety was that she might be able 
 to attend Mass every day. ' If we are able to 
 attend the service of the Church, all will be well,' 
 she said to her escort. The soldiers only twice 
 allowed her the opportunity of doing so, on one 
 occasion in the principal church of the town of 
 Auxerre. 
 
22 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 They crossed the Loire at Glen ; and at that 
 place, in the church dedicated to one of Joan's 
 special saints — St. Catherine, for whom she held 
 a personal adoration — she thrice attended Mass. 
 
 When the litde band entered Touraine, they 
 were out of danger, and here the news of the 
 approach of the Maid spread like wildfire over 
 the country-side. Even the besieged burghers of 
 Orleans learned that the time of their delivery 
 from the English was at hand. 
 / Perhaps it was when passing through Fierbois 
 
 that Joan may have been told of the existence in 
 its church of the sword which so conspicuously 
 figured in her later story, and was believed to 
 have been miraculously revealed to her. 
 
 A letter was despatched from Fierbois to 
 Charles at Chinon, announcing the Maids ap- 
 proach, and craving an audience. At length, on 
 the 6th of March, Joan of Arc arrived beneath 
 the long stretch of castle walls of the splendid 
 old Castle of Chinon. 
 
 That imposing ruin on the banks of the river 
 Vienne is even in its present abandoned state one 
 of the grandest piles of mediaeval building in the 
 whole of France. Crowning the rich vale of Tour- 
 aine, with the river winding below, and reflecting 
 its castle towers in the still water, this time-hon- 
 oured home of our Plantagenet kings has been not 
 inaptly compared to Windsor. Beneath the castle 
 walls and the river, nestles the quaint old town, in 
 which are mediaeval houses once inhabited by the 
 court and followers of the French and English 
 kings. 
 
. THE CALL. 23 
 
 When Joan arrived at Chinon, Charles's affairs 
 were in a very perilous state. The yet uncrowned 
 King of France regarded the chances of being able 
 to hold his own In France as highly problematical. 
 He had doubts, as to his legitimacy. Financially, 
 so low were his affairs that even the turnspits In 
 the palace were clamouring for their unpaid wages. 
 The unfortunate monarch had already sold his 
 jewels and precious trinkets. Even his clothes 
 showed signs of poverty and patching, and to 
 such a state of penury was he reduced that his 
 bootmaker, finding that the King was unable to 
 pay him the price of a new pair of boots, and not 
 trusting the royal credit, refused to leave the new 
 boots, and Charles had to wear out his old shoe- 
 leather. All that remained in the way of money 
 in the royal chest consisted of four gold 'ecus.' 
 To such a pitch of distress had the poor King, 
 who was contemptuously called by the English 
 the King of Bourges, sunken. 
 
 Now that Orleans was in daily peril of falling 
 Into the hands of the English, and with Paris and 
 Rouen In their hold, the wretched sovereign had 
 serious thoughts of leaving his ever-narrowing 
 territory and taking refuge either in Spain or in 
 Scotland. Up to this time In his life Charles had 
 shown little strength of character. His existence 
 was passed among a set of idle courtiers. He 
 had placed himself and his broken fortunes in 
 the hands of the ambitious La Tremoille, whose 
 object it was that the King should be a mere 
 cipher in his hands, and who lulled him into a 
 false security by encouraging him to continue a 
 
24 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 listless career of self-indulgence in his various 
 palaces and pleasure castles on the banks of the 
 Loire. Charles had, indeed, become a mere tool 
 in the hands of this powerful minister. ' The his- 
 / torian Quicherat has summed up George de la 
 Tremoille's character as an avaricious courtier, 
 false and despotic, with sufficient talent to make 
 a name and a fortune by being a traitor to every 
 side. That such a man did not see Joan of Arc's 
 arrival with a favourable eye is not a matter of 
 surprise, and La Tremoille seems early to have 
 done his utmost to undermine the Maid's influence 
 with his sovereign. From the day she arrived at 
 Chinon, if not even before her arrival there — 
 if we may trust one story — an ambush was ar- 
 ranged by Tremoille to cut her off with her 
 escort. That plot failed, but her capture at 
 Compiegne may be indirectly traced to La Tre- 
 moille's machinations. 
 
 Those who have visited Chinon will recall the 
 ancient and picturesque street, named La Haute 
 Rue Saint Maurice, which runs beneath and 
 parallel with the castle walls and the Vienne. 
 Local tradition pointed out till very recently, in 
 this old street, the stone well on the side of which 
 the Maid of Domremy placed her foot on her 
 arrival in the town. This ancient well stone has 
 recently been removed by the Municipality of 
 Chinon, but fortunately the * Margelle ' (to use 
 the native term) has come into reverent hands, 
 and the stone, with its deeply dented border, 
 reminding one of the artistic wells in Venice, is 
 religiously preserved. 
 
THE CALL. 25 
 
 Of Chlnon it has been said : 
 Chynon, petit ville, 
 Grande renom. 
 
 Its renown dates back from the early days of our 
 Plantagenets, when they lived in the old fortress 
 above its dwellings: how Henry III. died of a 
 broken heart, and the fame of Rabelais, will 
 ever be associated with the ancient castle and 
 town. Still, the deathless interest of Chinon is 
 owing to the residence of the Maid of Domremy 
 — as one has a better right to call her than of 
 Orleans — in those early days of her short career, 
 in its burgh and castle. In or near the street 
 La Haute Rue Saint Maurice, hard by a square 
 which now bears the name of the heroine, Joan 
 of Arc arrived at noon on Sunday, the 6th of 
 March. 
 
 It would be interesting to know in which of 
 the old gabled houses Joan resided during the two 
 days before she was admitted to enter the castle. 
 Local tradition reports that she dwelt with a good 
 housewife {'ckez une bonne fcniTne'). According 
 to a contemporary plan of Chinon, dated 1430, 
 a house which belonged to a family named La 
 Barre was where she lodged ; and although the 
 actual house of the La Barres cannot be identified, 
 there are many houses in the street of Saint 
 Maurice old enough to have witnessed the advent 
 of the Maid on that memorable Sunday in the 
 month of March 1430. Few French towns are 
 so rich in the domestic architecture of the better 
 kind dating from the early part of the fifteenth 
 century as that of Chinon ; and now that Rouen, 
 
26 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 Orleans, and Poitiers have been so terribly mod- 
 ernised, a journey to Chlnon well repays the 
 trouble. Little Imagination is required to picture 
 the street with Its crowd of courtiers and Court 
 hangers-on, upon their way to and from the 
 castle above ; so mercifully have time and that 
 far greater destroyer of things of yore dealt with 
 this old thoroughfare. 
 
 Two days elapsed before Joan was admitted 
 to the presence of the King. A council had been 
 summoned in the castle to determine whether 
 the Maid should be received by the monarch. 
 The testimony of the knights who had accom- 
 panied the Maid from Vaucouleurs carried the 
 day in her favour. 
 
 While waiting to see the King, we have from 
 Joan's own lips a description of how her time was 
 passed. ' I was constantly at prayers In order 
 that God should send the King a sign. I was 
 lodging with a good woman when that sign was 
 given him, and then I was summoned to the King.' 
 
 The church In which she passed her time In 
 prayer was doubtless that of Saint Maurice, close 
 by the place at w^hich she lodged. It owed Its 
 origin to Henry II. of England; It Is a rare and 
 beautiful little building: of orood Norman archi- 
 tecture, but much defaced by modern restoration. 
 Its age Is marked by the depth at which its pave- 
 ment stands, the ground rising many feet above 
 Its present level. 
 
 A reliable account of Joan of Arc's Interview 
 with King Charles has come down to us, as have 
 so many other facts In her life's history, through 
 
THE CALL. 27 
 
 the witnesses examined at the time of the hero- 
 Ines rehabiHtation. Foremost among these Is 
 the testimony of a priest named Pasquerel, who 
 was soon to become Joan's ahnoner, and to 
 accompany her In her warfare. He tells how, 
 when Joan was on her road to enter the castle, 
 a soldier used some coarse language as he saw 
 the young Maid pass by — some rude remark 
 which the fellow qualified with an oath. Turn- 
 ing to him, the Maid rebuked him for blasphem- 
 ing, and added that he had denied his God at 
 the very moment in which he would be sum- 
 moned before his Judge, for that within an hour 
 he would appear before the heavenly throne. 
 The soldier was drowned within the hour. At 
 least such is the tale as told by Priest Pasquerel. 
 The castle was shrouded In outer darkness, 
 but brilliantly lit within, as Joan entered Its 
 gates. The King's Chamberlain, the Comte de 
 Vendome, received the Maid at the entrance of 
 the royal apartments, and ushered her into the 
 great gallery, of which fragments still exist — 
 a blasted fireplace, and sufficient remains of the 
 original stone-work to prove that this hall was 
 the principal apartment In the palace. Flam- 
 beaux and torches glowed from the roof and 
 from the sides of this hall, and here the Court 
 had assembled, half amused, half serious, as to 
 the arrival of the peasant girl, about whom there 
 had been so much strange gossip stirring. Now 
 the grass grows in wild luxuriance over the pave- 
 ment, and the ivy clings to the old walls of that 
 noble room, in which, perhaps, the most note- 
 
28 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 worthy of all recorded meetings between king and 
 subject then took place. A score of torches held 
 by pages lit the sides of the chamber. Before 
 these were ranged the knights and ladies, the 
 latter clothed in the fantastically rich costume of 
 that time, with high erections on their heads, from 
 which floated long festoons of cloth, and glittering 
 with the emblems of their families on their storied 
 robes. The King, in order to test the divina- 
 tion of the Maid, had purposely clad himself in 
 common garb, and had withdrawn himself behind 
 his more brilliantly attired courtiers. 
 
 Ascending the flight of eighteen steps which 
 led into the hall, and following Vendome, Joan 
 passed across the threshold of the hall, and, with- 
 out a moment's hesitation singling out the King 
 at the end of the gallery, walked to within a few 
 paces of him, and falling on her knees before 
 him — 'the length of a lance,' as one of the 
 spectators recorded — said, ' God give you good 
 life, noble King!' {"Dieu vous don7ie bonne vie, 
 gentil Rot). 
 
 * But,' said Charles, ' I am not the King. 
 This,' pointing to one of his courtiers, *is the 
 King.' 
 
 Joan, however, was not to be hoodwinked, 
 and, finding that in spite of his subterfuges he 
 was known, Charles acknowledged his identity, 
 and entered at once with Joan on the subject of 
 her mission. 
 
 It appears, from all the accounts which have 
 come to us of this interview, that Charles was 
 at first somewhat loth to take Joan and her 
 
HALL OF AU D I E: N C E: - C H 1 N O N 
 
THE CALL. 29 
 
 mission seriously. He appears to have treated 
 the Maid as a mere visionary ; but after an 
 interview which the King gave her apart from 
 the crowded gallery, when she is supposed to 
 have revealed to him a secret known only to 
 himself, his whole manner changed, and from 
 that moment Joan exercised a strong influence 
 over the man, all-vacillating as was his character. 
 It has never been known what words actually 
 passed in this private interview between the 
 pair, but the subject probably was connected 
 with a doubt that had long tortured the mind 
 of the King — namely, whether he were legiti- 
 mately the heir to the late King's throne. At 
 any rate the impression Joan had produced on 
 the King was, after that conversation, a favour- 
 able one, and Charles commanded that, instead 
 of returning to her lodging in the town, Joan 
 should be lodged in the castle. 
 
 The tower which she occupied still exists — 
 one of the large circular towers on the third line 
 of the fortifications. A gloomy-looking cryptal 
 room on the ground floor was probably the one 
 occupied by Joan. It goes by the name of Beller's 
 Tower — a knight whose wife, .Anne de Maille, 
 bore a reputation for great goodness among the 
 people of the Court. Close to Beller's Tower is a 
 chapel within another part of the castle grounds, 
 but the church which in those days stood hard by 
 Joan's tower has long since disappeared — its site 
 Is now a mass of wild foliage. 
 
 While Joan was at Chinon, there arrived, 
 from his three years' imprisonment in England, 
 
30 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the young Duke of Anjou. Of all those who 
 were attached to the Court and related to the 
 French sovereign, this young Prince was the 
 most sympathetic to Joan of Arc. He seems 
 to have fulfilled the character of some hero 
 of romance more than any of the French 
 princes of that time, and Joan at once found 
 in him a chivalrous ally and a firm friend. 
 That she admired him we cannot doubt, and 
 she loved to call him her knight. 
 
 Hurrying to Chlnon, having heard of the 
 Maid of Domremy's arrival, he found Joan with 
 the King. Her enthusiasm w^as contagious with 
 the young Prince, who declared how eagerly he 
 would help her In her enterprise. 
 
 'The more there are of the blood royal of 
 France to help in our enterprise the better,' 
 answered Joan. 
 
 Many obstacles had still to be met before 
 the King accorded liberty of action to the Maid. 
 La Tremoille and others of his stamp threw 
 all the difificultles they could suggest In the way 
 of Joan of Arc's expedition to deliver Orleans : 
 these men preferred their easy life at Chlnon 
 to the arbitrament of battle. In vain Joan 
 sought the King and pressed him to come to a 
 decision : one day he said he would consent to 
 her progress, and the following he refused to 
 give his consent. He listened to the Maid, but 
 also to the courtiers, priests, and lawyers, and 
 among so many counsellors he could come to 
 no determination. 
 
 Joan during these days trained herself to the 
 
THE CALL, 31 
 
 vocation which her career compelled her to follow. 
 We hear of her on one occasion surprising the 
 King and the Court by the dexterity with which 
 she rode and tilted with a lance. From the 
 young Duke of Alengon she received the gift 
 of a horse ; and the King carried out on a large 
 scale what de Baudrlcourt had done on a small 
 one, by making her a gift of arms and accoutre- 
 ments. Before, however, deciding to entrust the 
 fate of hostilities into the hands of the Maid, It 
 was decided that the advice and counsel of the 
 prelates assembled at Poitiers should be taken. 
 
 It was in the Great Hall of that town that 
 the French Parliament held its conferences. 
 The moment was critical, for should the decision 
 of these churchmen be favourable to Joan, then 
 Charles could no longer have any scruples in 
 making use of her abilities, and of profiting by 
 her influence. 
 
 It was, therefore, determined that Joan 
 should be examined by the Parliament and 
 clergy assembled at Poitiers. The King In 
 person accompanied the Maid to the Parlia- 
 ment. The majestic hall, which still calls forth 
 the admiration of all travellers at Poitiers, is 
 little changed in its appearance since the time 
 of that memorable event. It is one of the 
 noblest specimens of domestic architecture in 
 France : Its graceful pillars and arched roof, 
 and immense fireplace, remain as they were 
 in the early days of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Of the proceedings of that examination un- 
 fortunately no complete report exists. Within 
 
 1/ 
 
32 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 a tower connected with the Parliament Hall is 
 still pointed out a little chamber, said to have 
 been occupied by the Maid while undergoing 
 this, the first of her judicial and clerical exam- 
 inations. But later investigations point to her 
 having been lodged in a house within the town 
 belonging to the family of the Parliamentary 
 Advocate-General, Maitre Jean Rabuteau. 
 
 It must have been a solemn moment for Joan 
 when summoned for the first time into the pre- 
 sence of the Court of bishops, judges, and 
 lawyers, whom Charles had gathered together 
 to examine her on her visions and on her mis- 
 sion. The orders had been sent out by the 
 King and the Archbishop of Rheims ; Gerard 
 Machot, the Bishop of Castres and the King's 
 confessor ; Simon Bonnet, afterwards Bishop of 
 Senlls ; and the Bishops of Macquelonne and 
 of Poitiers. Among the lesser dignitaries of 
 the Church was present a Dominican monk, 
 named Sequier, whose account of the proceed- 
 ings, and the notes kept by Gobert Thibault, 
 an equerry of the King, are the only records of 
 the examination extant. The scantiness of these 
 accounts is all the more to be regretted, inas- 
 much as Joan frequently referred to the ques- 
 tions made to her, and her answers, at this trial 
 at Poitiers, during her trial at Rouen ; and they 
 would probably have thrown much light on the 
 obscure passages of her early years, for at 
 Poitiers she had not to guard against hostile 
 inquisition, and, doubtless, gave her questioners 
 a full and free record of her past life. 
 
TouK D horloge: -chinon 
 
THE CALL. 33 
 
 The first conference between these prelates, 
 lawyers, and Joan lasted two hours. At first 
 they appeared to doubt the Maid, but her 
 frank and straightforward answers to all the 
 questions put her impressed them with the truth 
 of her character. They were, according to the 
 old chronicles, 'grandement ebahis comme une 
 ce simple bergere jeune fille pouvait ainsi 
 repondre.' 
 
 One of her examiners, Jean Lombard by 
 name, a professor of theology from the Univer- 
 sity of Paris, in asking Joan what had induced 
 her to visit the King, was told she had been en- 
 couraged so to do by 'her voices' — those voices 
 which had taught her the great pity felt by 
 her for the land of France ; that although at 
 first she had hesitated to obey them, they be- 
 came ever more urgent, and commanded her 
 to go. 
 
 'And, Joan,' then asked a doctor of theology 
 named William Aymeri, 'why do you require 
 soldiers, if you tell us that it is God's will that 
 the English shall be driven out of France ? If 
 that is the case, then there is no need of soldiers, 
 for surely, if it be God's will that the enemy 
 should fly the country, go they must!' 
 
 To which Joan answered : ' The soldiers will 
 do the fighting, and God will give the victory !' 
 
 Sequier, whose account of the proceedings 
 has come down to us, then asked Joan in what 
 language the Saints addressed her. 
 
 ' In a better one than yours,' she answered. 
 
 Now Brother Sequier, although a doctor of 
 
 c 
 
34 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 theology, had a strong and disagreeable accent 
 which he had brought from his native town of 
 
 v/ Limoges, and, doubtless, the other clerks and 
 priests tittered not a little at Joan's answer. 
 Sequler appears to have been somewhat irri- 
 tated, and sharply asked Joan whether she 
 believed in God. 
 
 'Better than you do,' was the reply; but 
 Sequier, who is described as a 'blen algre 
 homme,' was not yet satisfied, and returned to 
 the charge. Like the Pharisees, he wished for a 
 sign, and he declared that he for one could not 
 believe in the sacred mission of the Maid, did 
 she not show them all a sign, nor without such 
 a sign could he advise the King to place any 
 ■ one in peril, merely on the strength of Joan's 
 declaration and word. 
 
 To this Joan said that she had not come to 
 Poitiers to show signs, but she added : — 
 
 * Let me go to Orleans, and there you will 
 be able to judge by the signs I shall show 
 wherefore I have been sent on this mission. 
 
 J Let the force of soldiers with me be as small 
 as you choose; but to Orleans I must go!' 
 
 For three weeks did these conferences last. 
 Nothing was neglected to discover every detail 
 regarding Joan's life : of her childhood, of her 
 family and her friends. And one of the Coun- 
 cil visited Domremy to ferret out all the details 
 that could be got at. Needless to say, all that 
 he heard only redounded to the Maid's credit ; 
 nothing transpired which was not honourable to 
 the Maid's character and way of life, and in 
 
THE CALL. 35 
 
 keeping with the testimony Jean de Metz and 
 Poulangy had given the King at Chinon. 
 
 One day she said to one of the Council, 
 Pierre de Versailles, * I believe you have come 
 to put questions to me, and although I know 
 not A or B, what I do know is that I am 
 sent by the King of Heaven to raise the siege 
 of Orleans, and to conduct the King to Rheims, 
 in order that he shall be there anointed and 
 crowned.* 
 
 On another occasion she addressed the fol- 
 lowing words in a letter which John Erault took 
 down from her dictation — to write she knew not 
 — to the English commanders before Orleans : 
 * In the name of the King of Heaven I com- 
 mand you, Suffolk [spelt In the missive Suffort], 
 Scales [Classidas], and Pole [La Poule], to return 
 to England.' 
 
 One sees by the above missive that the 
 French spelling of English names was about as 
 correct In the fifteenth as it is in the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 What stirred the curiosity of Joan's examiners 
 was to try and discover whether her reported 
 visions and her voices were from Heaven or 
 not. This was the crucial question over which 
 these churchmen and lawyers puzzled their 
 brains during those three weeks of the blithe 
 spring-tide at Poitiers. How were they to 
 arrive at a certain knowledge regarding those 
 mystic portents? All the armoury of theologi- 
 cal knowledge accumulated by the doctors of the 
 Church was made use of; but this availed less 
 
36 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 than the simple answers of Joan In bringing 
 conviction to these puzzled pundits that her 
 call was a heavenly one. When they produced 
 piles of theological books and parchments, Joan 
 simply said : ' God s books are to me more than 
 all these.' 
 
 When at length it was officially notified that 
 the Parliament approved and sanctioned the mis- 
 sion of the Maid, and that nothing against her 
 had appeared which could in any way detract 
 from the faith she professed to follow out her 
 mission of deliverance, the rejoicing in the good 
 town of Poitiers was extreme. The glad news 
 spread rapidly over the country, and fluttered 
 the hearts of the besieged within the walls of 
 Orleans. The cry was, 'When will the angelic 
 one arrive ? ' The brave Dunois — Bastard of 
 Orleans — in command of the French in that 
 city, had ere this sent two knights, Villars and 
 Jamet de Tilloy, to hear all details about the 
 Maid, whose advent was so eagerly looked for- 
 ward to. These messengers of Dunois had 
 seen and spoken with Joan, and on their re- 
 turn to Orleans Dunois allowed them to tell 
 the citizens their impressions of the Maid. 
 Those people at Orleans were now as enthusi- 
 astic about the deliverance as the inhabitants 
 at Poitiers, who had seen her daily for three 
 weeks in their midst. All who had been ad- 
 mitted to her presence left her with tears of 
 joy and devotion ; her simple and modest be- 
 haviour, blended with her splendid enthusiasm, 
 won every heart. Her manner and modesty, 
 
THE CALL. 37 
 
 and the gay brightness of her answers, had also 
 won the suffrage of the priests and lawyers, and 
 the military were as much delighted as surprised""^ 
 at her good sense when the talk fell on subjects 
 relating to their trade. 
 
 It was on or about the 20th of April 1429 
 that Joan of Arc left Poitiers and proceeded to 
 Tours. The King had now appointed a mili- 
 tary establishment to accompany her ; and her 
 two younger brothers, John and Peter, had 
 joined her. The faithful John de Metz and v 
 Bertrand de Poulangy were also at her side. 
 The King had selected as her esquire John 
 d'Aulon ; besides this she was followed by two 
 noble pages, Louis de Contes and Ralmond. 
 There were also some men-at-arms and a 
 couple of heralds. A priest accompanied the 
 little band, Brother John Pasquerel, who was 
 also Joan's almoner. The King had further- 
 more made Joan a gift of a complete suit of 
 armour, and the royal purse had armed her 
 retainers. 
 
 During her stay at Poitiers Joan prepared 
 her standard, on which were emblazoned the 
 lilies of France, In gold on a white ground. 
 On one side of the standard was a painting re- 
 presenting the Almighty seated in the heavens, 
 in one hand bearing a globe, flanked by two 
 kneeling angels, each holding a fleur-de-lis. Be- 
 sides this standard, which Joan greatly prized, 
 she had had a smaller banner made, with the 
 Annunciation painted on it. This standard was 
 triangular In form ; and, in addition to those 
 
38 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 mentioned, she had a banneret on which was re- 
 presented the Crucifixion. These three flags or 
 pennons were all symbolic of the Maid's mission : 
 the large one was to be used on the field of battle 
 and for general command ; the smaller, to rally, in 
 case of need, her followers around her; and pro- 
 bably she herself bore one of the smaller pennons. 
 The names * Jesu ' and ' Maria ' were inscribed in 
 large golden letters on all the flags. 
 
 The national royal standard of France till 
 this period had been a dark blue, and it is not 
 unlikely that the awe and veneration which these 
 white flags of the Maid, with their sacred pictures 
 on them, was the reason of the later French kings 
 adopting the white ground as their characteristic 
 colour on military banners. 
 
 Joan never made use of her sword, and bore 
 one of the smaller banners into the fight. She 
 declared she would never use her sword, although 
 she attached a deep importance to it. 
 
 * My banner,' she declared, * I love forty 
 times as much as my sword!* 
 
 And yet the sword which she obtained from 
 the altar at Fierbois was in her eyes a sacred 
 weapon. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 
 
 TT will be now necessary to go back in our 
 -*- story to the commencement of the siege by 
 the English of the town of Orleans, in order to 
 understand the work which Joan of Arc had pro- 
 mised to accomplish. Orleans was the place of 
 the utmost importance ; not merely as being the 
 second city in France, but as forming the 'tete 
 du pont ' for the passage of the river Loire. The 
 French knew that were it to fall into the hands 
 of the English the whole of France would soon 
 become subject to the enemy. 
 
 The town was strongly fortified ; huge towers 
 of immense thickness, and three stories in height, 
 surrounded by deep and wide moats, encircled the 
 city. The only bridge then in existence was also 
 strongly defended with towers, called ' Les Tour- 
 nelles,' while at the end of the town side of the 
 bridge were large 'bastilles,' powerful fortresses 
 which dated from the year 141 7, when Henry V. 
 threatened Orleans after his triumphal march 
 through Normandy. In 1421 the Orleanists de- 
 fied the victor of Agincourt : again they were in 
 the agony of a desperate defence against their in- 
 vaders, ready to sustain all the horrors of a siege. 
 
 39 
 
40 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Equally keen and determined were the Eng- 
 lish leaders to take Orleans, which they rightly 
 considered as the key of what remained uncon- 
 quered to them In France. Both countries looked 
 anxiously on as the siege progressed. Salisbury 
 commanded the English ; he had been up to this 
 point successful in taking all the places of im- 
 portance in the neighbourhood of Orleans, and 
 that portion of the valley of the Loire was 
 commanded by his forces, both above and below 
 Orleans. 
 
 On the approach of the enemy, the Inhabi- 
 tants of Orleans turned out to strengthen the 
 outer fortifications, and to place cannon and cata- 
 pults on the walls and ramparts. The priests 
 on this occasion worked as hard as the other 
 citizens, and even the women and children helped 
 with a will. 
 
 Besides Dunois, who commanded the besieged 
 o^arrlson, was Raoul de Gaucourt, who had de- 
 fended Harfleur in 141 5 ; he had but recently 
 returned from imprisonment in England, and 
 was burning to avenge his captivity. La Hire, 
 Xaintrallles, Coulant, Coaraze, and Armagnac 
 were among the defenders of Orleans. Many 
 Gascons belonging to the Marshal- Saint Severe 
 and soldiers from Brittany helped to swell the 
 forces of the besieged. 
 
 It was on the 12th day of October (1428) 
 that Salisbury crossed the Loire and established 
 his besieging force at the village of Portereau, 
 in front of the strongly defended bridge. In the 
 meanwhile the besieged had razed the houses 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 41 
 
 and the convent of St. Augustin, in order to 
 prevent the enemy from entrenching themselves 
 so near the city gates. SaHsbury, however, 
 threw up fortifications on the site of St. Augus- 
 tin's, and placed a battery of guns opposite to 
 the bridge and its 'bastilles,' whence he was 
 able to bombard the town with huge stones. 
 The English also placed mines below the bridge 
 and the fortresses of the Tournelles. 
 
 On the 2 1 St, an assault was made on the 
 bridge and its defences, which was vigorously 
 repulsed ; the whole population were in arms, 
 and manned the walls ; the women fought by the 
 side of their husbands and brothers. After a 
 severe fight of four hours, the besiegers were 
 forced to withdraw. 
 
 The Tournelles were now mined and counter- 
 mined, and were soon found to be untenable. 
 The besieged then abandoned this fortification, 
 and retired further back towards the centre of 
 the bridge, which, as well as its approaches, was 
 defended by towers. Part of the bridge on the 
 side near the English was blown up, and a draw- 
 bridge, which could be raised or lowered at 
 pleasure, was thrown across the open space. 
 
 Salisbury was satisfied with the result of that 
 day's fighting, for he knew that, once he had the 
 command of the northern side of the tower, he 
 could take it when necessary from that quarter. 
 What he aimed at for the present was to prevent 
 all communication between the town and the 
 south of France. Holding the bridge, he could 
 prevent relief from coming to the city, and when 
 
42 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the moment arrived he would be able to throw 
 his men with certain success upon it from the 
 northern side. 
 
 The evening of the day in which he had 
 made so successful an attack, Salisbury mounted 
 into the Tournelles in order to inspect thence the 
 city which lay beneath him. While gazing on it, a 
 stray cannon shot struck him on the face ; he was 
 carried, mortally wounded, from the place. That 
 fatal shot was said to have been fired by a lad, 
 who, finding a loaded cannon on the ramparts, 
 had discharged it. For the English, it was the 
 deadliest shot of the whole war. 
 
 Readers of Shakespeare will remember that, 
 in the first part of Henry VI., the Master Gunner 
 (no doubt that very * Maitre Jean ' whose fame 
 was great in the besieged town) and his boy 
 are introduced on the scene, and that the boy 
 fires the shot which proved fatal both to Salis- 
 bury and Sir Thomas Gargrave. The promi- 
 nent place given to this French Master Gunner 
 in the English play shows what a high reputa- 
 tion Maitre Jean must have had, even among the 
 English, at the siege. 
 
 Salisbury's death, occurring a few days after he 
 received the wound, caused the siege to languish. 
 Glansdale succeeded Salisbury in the command ; 
 but it was not until the doughty Talbot and Lord 
 Scales appeared on the scene that siege operations 
 recommenced with vigour. 
 
 The great pounding match then began again ; 
 the huge stone shot of the English, which weighed 
 one hundred and sixty-four livres, came tumbling 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 43 
 
 about the heads of the besieged, to which can- 
 nonade the French promptly replied by a heavy 
 fire. They had a kind of bomb, of which they 
 were not a little proud, wherefrom they fired 
 iron shot of one hundred and twenty livres in 
 weight. The Master of Gunners of Shake- 
 speare's play, whose name was John de Mons- 
 teschere, made also extraordinary practice with 
 his culverin ; and he could pick off marked men 
 in the Tournelles, as, for the misfortune of the 
 English, had been proved in the case of Salisbury. 
 At times Master John would sham dead, and, 
 just as the English were congratulating them- 
 selves on his demise, would reappear, and again 
 use his culverin with deadly effect. 
 
 On the last day but one of the year (1428), 
 the English had been reinforced, and were 
 now commanded by William de la Pole, Earl, 
 and afterwards Duke of Suffolk, under whose 
 command acted Suffolk's brother, John de la 
 Pole, Lord Scales, and Lancelot de Lisle. In 
 order to maintain touch with his troops posted at 
 the Tournelles, Suffolk threw up flanking batteries 
 on the northern side of the town. To Suffolk's 
 already large force Sir John Fastolfe brought a ^ 
 force of twelve hundred men, in the month of 
 January (1429). 
 
 The number of troops mustered by the be- 
 sieged and besiegers was as follows : — 
 
 On the side of the English, there were 
 quartered at the Tournelles five hundred men, 
 under the command of Glansdale ; three hundred 
 under Talbot ; twelve hundred with Fastolfe. 
 
44 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 Including those who had come with Suffolk 
 at the commencement of the siege, the English 
 force amounted to four thousand five hundred 
 men. 
 
 On the side of the besieged, excluding the 
 armed citizens, who were from three to four 
 thousand strong, was a garrison numbering be- 
 tween six and seven hundred men ; also some 
 thousand soldiers had been thrown Into the city 
 between the middle of October 1428 and the 
 January following. 
 
 Both in strength of position, and as regards 
 the number of their troops, the French had the 
 advantage. The comparative weakness of the 
 English force — which, all told, could only count 
 about four thousand men to carry on the siege 
 — is to be accounted for by the garrisons which 
 were left in the conquered places over the north 
 and south of the country. 
 
 The siege was weakly conducted during the 
 winter— a series of skirmishes from the bastilles 
 or towers thrown up by the besiegers led to 
 little result on either side ; and it was not till 
 the month of February that a decisive engage- 
 ment took place. 
 
 Near Rouvray a battle was fought, which is 
 known by the singular appellation of the Battle 
 of the Herrings, from the circumstance that, at 
 that Lenten season, a huge convoy of fish was 
 being taken from the coast to Paris. In the 
 fight, the fish-laden barrels were overthrown, 
 and their contents scattered over the field ; 
 whence the name of the Battle of the Herrings. 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 45 
 
 During this engagement, in which the French 
 were defeated, fell, on the side of the French, 
 two noble Scots — John Stuart, the Constable of 
 Scotland, and his brother William. 
 
 After this action, the position of the besieged 
 in Orleans became more perilous, and the citizens, 
 despairing of help coming to them from Charles, 
 were inclined to call in aid from the Duke of 
 Burgundy. The east, north, and west of the 
 city were covered by the bastilles or huge 
 towers which the besiegers had thrown up, and 
 from which they could bombard the place ; and 
 the pressure on the devoted city waxed ever 
 stronger. By the month of April, Orleans was 
 girdled by a chain of fortresses, from which 
 the cannonade was incessant. The English gave 
 names of French towns to these huge towers 
 which threatened Orleans on every side ; one 
 they named Paris, another Rouen, and one other 
 they called London. 
 
 The thirty thousand men, women, and chil- 
 dren within the city walls were now beginning 
 to suffer from the horrors of a long siege. In 
 the town disturbances broke out, and the cry of 
 treachery was heard — that sure precursor of the 
 fears of the strong that the hardships of the 
 siege would undermine the patriotism of their 
 weaker citizens. But when things seemed at 
 their worst, succour was near at hand. 
 
 During those winter months the Queen- 
 mother, who had warmly interested herself in 
 Joan of Arc's mission, had, in the Castle of 
 Blois, been collecting troops and securing the 
 
46 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 services of some notable officers, including the 
 Duke of Alen^on. Towards the end of April 
 Joan arrived at Blois from Poitiers, accompanied 
 by the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault de 
 Chartres. On the 27th of April she left Blois 
 on her first warlike expedition. 
 
 No certain account of the numbers of troops 
 which accompanied the Maid has been kept. 
 ^ Monstrelet gives the numbers at seven thousand ; 
 but Joan, during her trial, asserted that she had 
 between ten and twelve thousand men committed 
 to her charge by the King. Joan's historian, 
 ^'' M. Wallon, points out that this may be an in- 
 correct entry made in the interest of the English 
 at the trial, as they naturally would wish the re- 
 lieving force to appear as large as possible. It 
 has even been placed as low as three thousand. 
 Among the officers who accompanied the Maid 
 was a Gascon knight, named La Hire, half 
 freebooter, half condottiere, a brave and reck- 
 less soldier, of whom it is recorded that, before 
 making a raid, he would offer up the following 
 prayer : — 
 
 ' I pray my God to do for La Hire what La 
 Hire would do for Him, if He were Captain and 
 La Hire was God.' 
 
 From having been a mighty swearer, owing 
 
 -' to Joan of Arc's influence La Hire broke off 
 
 this habit, but, in order to give him some scope 
 
 for venting his temper, Joan allowed him to 
 
 swear by his stick. 
 
 These are but trivial details : still, they are 
 of interest as showing what influence a simple 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 47 
 
 village maiden like Joan was able to exert on 
 those who, from their position and habits of life, 
 might have been thought to be the last to tolerate 
 such interference. So changed, it is said, had this 
 rough warrior. La Hire, and many of his fellow- 
 soldiers become in their habits while with the 
 Maid, that they were happy to be able to kneel 
 by the side of the sainted maiden and partake in 
 her Lord's Sacrament of the Eucharist ; and then 
 to confess themselves to her good father con- 
 fessor, Peton de Xaintrailles, the Marshal de 
 Boussac, and the Seigneur de Rais. 
 
 Joan had the following letter despatched to 
 the Duke of Bedford : — 
 
 * In the name of Jesus and Mary — You, King 
 of England ; and you, Duke of Bedford [Beth- 
 fort], who call yourself Regent of France ; you, 
 William de la Pole ; you. Earl of Suffolk ; you, 
 John Lord Talbot [Thalebot] ; and you, Thomas 
 Lord Scales, who call yourselves Lieutenants of 
 the said Bedford, in the name of the King of 
 Heaven, render the keys of all the good towns 
 which you have taken and violated in France, 
 to the Maid sent hither by the King of Heaven. 
 She is ready to make peace if you will consent 
 to return and to pay for what you have taken. 
 And all of you, soldiers, and archers, and men-at- 
 arms, now before Orleans, return to your country, 
 in God's name. If this is not done, King of 
 England, I, as a leader in war, whenever I shall 
 meet with your people in France, will oblige 
 them to go whether they be willing or not ; and 
 if they go not, they will perish ; but if they will 
 
48 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 depart I will pardon them. I have come from 
 the King of Heaven to drive you out \boMter\ 
 of France. And do not imagine that you will 
 ever permanently hold France, for the true heir, 
 King Charles, shall possess it, for it is Gods 
 wish that it should belong to him. And this 
 has been revealed to him by the Maid, :who will 
 enter Paris. If you will not obey, we shall make 
 such a stir \^ferons un si gros kakaye] as hath 
 not happened these thousand years in France. 
 The Maid and her soldiers will have the victory. 
 Therefore the Maid is willing that you, Duke 
 of Bedford, should not destroy yourself.' 
 
 And Joan finishes this strange effusion by 
 proposing to Bedford that they should combine 
 in making a holy war for Christianity! 
 
 This letter, written * in the name of the Maid,' 
 was dated on a Tuesday in Holy Week. The 
 / address ran thus : ' To the Duke of Bedford, 
 so called Regent of the Kingdom of France, or 
 to his Lieutenants, now before the town of 
 Orleans.' 
 
 Doubtless the reference to the deed of arms 
 which, once again at peace together, might be 
 accomplished by the combined English and 
 French armies, was an idea which seems to 
 have floated in Joan's enthusiastic imagination, 
 that the day might come when the two foremost 
 nations in Christendom would fight together for 
 the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 As might be expected, this letter was received 
 by the English with gibes and jeers, which was 
 pardonable ; but what was not so was the bad 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS, 49 
 
 treatment of the messenger who had brought it 
 to the English camp. He was kept prisoner, 
 and, if some rather doubtful French writers of the 
 day are to be believed, it was seriously debated 
 whether or not he should be burnt. Let us 
 trust this is but an invention of the enemy. 
 
 Joan, before leaving Blols, insisted on the 
 dismissal of all camp followers — such bad bag- 
 gage was certainly well left behind, and could 
 not have followed an army led by one who, 
 night and morning, had an altar erected, around 
 which her hallowed flags were placed, and 
 where the Maid, and those willing, took the 
 Sacrament at the head of the army. It must 
 have been a striking sight during that spring- 
 time — that army, led by a maiden all clad in 
 white armour, and mounted on a black charger, 
 surrounded by a brilliant band of knights, riding 
 along the pleasant fields of Touraine, then In 
 their first livery of brilliant green. And a strik- 
 ing sight It must have been, when, at the close 
 of the long day's march, the tents were pitched 
 and the altar raised, the officiating priests grouped 
 about It and the sacred pictured standards wav- 
 ing above, while the solemn chant was raised, and 
 the soldiers knelt around. 
 
 One can well think how ready were those 
 soldiers to follow Joan wherever she would lead 
 them, and it is not improbable that such a 
 crusade as she dreamt of, had it been possible. In 
 which the two nations, so closely connected by 
 religious feeling, and so closely united by posi- 
 tion, but so long enemies owing to the rapacity 
 
 D 
 
so JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and greed of their kings, might have again placed 
 the cross on the battlements of the Holy City, 
 under the leadership of her whom her country- 
 men rightly called *The Angelic' 
 
 Joan rode out of Blois bearing her pennon 
 in her hand, and as she rode she chanted the 
 * Veni Creator' The sacred strain was taken up 
 by those who followed, and thus passed the 
 Maid forth on her first great deed of deliver- 
 ance. 
 
 During the whole of the first night Joan re- 
 mained, as was her custom when she had no 
 women about her, in her armour. 
 i/ It was the Maid's wish to enter Orleans 
 
 from the northern side, but the officers with 
 her thought this would be a great imprudence, 
 and followed the opposite bank of the river. 
 Passing through Beaugency and Meung, they 
 went on by Saint Die, Saint Laurent, and Clery, 
 without meeting with any attack from the enemy 
 who occupied these places. On arriving at a 
 place called Olivet, they were within the neigh- 
 bourhood of the beleaguered city. Below them 
 rose the English bastille towers ; beyond, the 
 walls, towers, and steeples of Orleans. 
 
 Joan had hoped that the city could have been 
 entered without further difficulty ; she now found 
 that not only the river lay between her and the 
 town, but that the English were in force on all 
 sides. She wished that the nearest of these 
 bastilles, at Saint Jean le Blanc, should be 
 stormed, and the river forded there ; but this 
 scheme was judged by her companions- in-arms 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 51 
 
 to be too perilous, and Joan had again to comply 
 with the opinion of the officers. 
 
 Riding to the eastwards, and skirting the river 
 some four miles below the town, she and her 
 knights forded it at a spot where some low long 
 islands, or 'eyots' as we call them on the Thames, 
 lay in this part of the Loire. On one of these, 
 called risle aux Bourdons, the provisions and 
 stores for the beleaguered city were shipped and 
 transhipped, and carried down to Orleans when 
 the wind lay in that quarter. 
 
 It was at Reuilly that Dunois met the Maid, 
 still chafing from her thwarted plan of attacking 
 the English in their stronghold at Saint Jean le 
 Blanc, and she appears to have shown him her 
 displeasure. While this interview took place 
 the wind changed, and the provision boats, 
 which, owing to the wind being contrary, had 
 not been able to make the islands, were now 
 enabled to leave the city. They soon arrived, 
 were laden with provisions, corn, and even cattle 
 embarked on them, and, when thus provisioned, 
 returned to Orleans by the canal on the left bank 
 of the Loire, and successfully arrived at the city 
 end of the broken bridge, whence the provisions 
 and live stock were passed into the town. 
 
 The river was too much in flood to allow 
 of the army being taken across, nor could a 
 bridge of boats be made, owing to the height 
 of the waters. Joan, however, was determined 
 to enter Orleans, flood or no flood, for she 
 knew what the moral effect of her appearing 
 to the townspeople would be. Accompanied by 
 
52 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 Dunois, La Hire, and some two hundred lances, 
 just after darkness had hidden her movements 
 from the enemy, she left Reuilly and entered 
 the city. 
 
 Preceded by a great banner, the Maid of 
 Orleans, as she may now be called, with Dunois 
 by her side, and followed by her knights and 
 men-at-arms, rode slowly through the streets, 
 filled with a crowd almost delirious in its joy 
 at welcoming within its walls its long-looked- 
 for Deliverer. The people clung to her, kiss- 
 V ing her knees and feet, and, according to the 
 old chroniclers, behaved as if God Himself had 
 appeared among them. So eager was the throng 
 to approach her, that in the press one of her 
 standards was set on fire by a flambeau. After 
 returning thanks for the delivery of her country- 
 men in the cathedral, Joan was made welcome 
 at the house of the treasurer of the imprisoned 
 Duke of Orleans. This citizen's name was James 
 ^ Boucher ; and here she lodged, with her brothers, 
 and the two faithful knights who had accom- 
 panied her during her journey from Vaucou- 
 leurs to Chinon. 
 
 A vaulted room in this house is still shown, 
 which purports to have been that occupied by 
 the Maid of Orleans. If it is the same building 
 it has been much modernised, although a beauti- 
 ful specimen of the domestic Gothic of the early 
 part of the fifteenth century, known as the house 
 of Agnes Sorel, remains much in the condition 
 that it must have been in during the famous year 
 of deliverance, 1429. 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 53 
 
 Although Orleans, by the action of Joan of 
 Arc, had been succoured for the time, the enemy- 
 was still at its gates, and Joans mission was but 
 half accomplished. The aspect of affairs since 
 the 29th of April was, however, greatly changed 
 in favour of the French, and the roles of be- 
 sieged and besiegers changed. Joan's arrival 
 had infused a fresh spirit of enthusiasm and 
 patriotism into the citizens, and the English 
 were no longer feared. We have Dunois's 
 authority for the fact that whereas, up to that 
 time, two hundred English could put eight hun- 
 dred French to the rout, now five hundred 
 French soldiers were prepared to meet the 
 entire English army. 
 
 On the 13th of April, hostilities had recom- 
 menced. Four hundred men, commanded by 
 Florent d'llliers, made a sortie against the 
 English near the trenches at Saint Pouair, driv- 
 ing them into their quarters. But the success 
 was not followed up, and appears to have been 
 undertaken without Joan of Arc's advice. To the 
 heralds that she sent into the English camp only 
 jeers and taunts were returned ; and already 
 the threat of burning her when caught was 
 made use of. Joan was, however, not to be 
 deterred by menaces and insults from doing 
 all she could to prevent unnecessary loss of 
 life. On one occasion she rode out half-way 
 across the bridge, to where there stood a cruci- 
 fix called La Belle Croix, within speaking 
 distance of the English in the Tournelles. 
 Thence she summoned Glansdale and his men 
 
54 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 to surrender, promising that their lives should 
 be spared. They answered with derisive shouts 
 and villainous abuse. Still commanding her 
 patience, which was only equalled by her courage, 
 and before returning to the town, she told them 
 that, In spite of their boasting, the time was 
 near at hand when they would be driven forth, 
 and that their leader would never see England 
 again. That they feared the Maid was evident, 
 In spite of the insults with v/hlch they greeted 
 her ; at any rate, no attempt was made to attack 
 her: even when almost alone, she came close to 
 their fortifications. 
 
 Meanwhile Dunois left for Blols to bring up 
 the bulk of the army, while Joan remained In 
 Orleans, encouraging its inhabitants by her confi- 
 dence, faith, and courage. The people, writes the 
 chronicler of the siege, were never sated with the 
 sight of the Maid : ' lis ne pouvaient saouler de 
 la voir,' he graphically says. 
 
 A second ineffectual effort was made by Joan, 
 this time at a place called the Croix Morin, to 
 negotiate with the English, she again promis- 
 ing them quarter If they would capitulate, but, 
 as might be expected, with no better result 
 than before. 
 
 On the 2nd of May, followed by a vast 
 throng, Joan of Arc rode out along the 
 enemy's forts, and after closely Inspecting their 
 defences returned to vespers at the Church of 
 Sainte-Crolx. Certainly among the people there 
 was no want of belief In, and enthusiastic devo- 
 tion to, the Maid ; but she had already enemies 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 55 
 
 among the entourage of the King. We have 
 already alluded to Tremoille's feelings with 
 regard to her and her mission. A still more 
 formidable enemy was the Chancellor of France, 
 the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault de Char- 
 tres ; he and Tremoille worked In concert to 
 undermine all the prestige which Joan's success 
 in revictualling Orleans had caused at Court. 
 The historian Quicherat, whose work on Joan 
 of Arc is by far the most complete and reliable, 
 considers this man to have been an astute poli- 
 tician, without any moral strength or courage. 
 When with Joan of Arc, he seems to have shown 
 firmness and even enthusiasm in her mission, 
 but he sank into the role of a poltroon when 
 her influence was withdrawn. Instead of hast- 
 ening the despatch of the reinforcements from 
 Blols to Orleans, he threw delay in the way ; 
 he seems to have hesitated In letting these 
 troops join those under the Maid, for fear that 
 were she to gain a thorough success his in- 
 fluence at Court would be weakened. When 
 Joan fell Into the hands of her foes, the Arch- 
 bishop had the incredible baseness publicly to 
 show his pleasure, declaring that her capture by 
 the enemy was a proof of Divine justice. 
 
 It was not till the 4th of May, and not 
 until Dunois had ridden in hot haste from Blols, 
 that at length the aid, so long and eagerly 
 expected, arrived. 
 
 Joan rode to meet the succouring army 
 some two miles out of the city, bearing her 
 flag, accompanied by La Hire and others of her 
 
 \y 
 
 »^'' 
 
56 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 knights. After a joyful meeting, they turned, 
 riding right through the enemy's lines and 
 along the fortified bastilles occupied by the 
 y English. Whether it was fear, or superstition 
 mixed with fear, not a man from the English 
 side stirred, although the English outnumbered 
 the French. It seemed that a terror had seized 
 on the enemy as they saw her, whom they 
 called the Sorceress, ride by in her white 
 panoply, bearing aloft her mystic banner. 
 
 The English had now run short of supplies, 
 ^y and eagerly awaited the arrival of Sir John Fas- 
 tolfe, who was on his road to Orleans. Joan 
 of Arc felt uneasy, lest she might not be able 
 to cut off Fastolfe and his supplies, and she 
 playfully threatened Dunols with his instant exe- 
 cution if he failed to tell her of the moment 
 he learnt of his approach. Her anxiety was 
 well founded, for the attack commenced before 
 she had been apprised of it. She had lain 
 down for a short repose one afternoon, when 
 she heard the sounds of a cannonade. She 
 instantly ordered her squire d'Aulon to arm her, 
 as she must immediately attack the English; 
 but whether those at the Tournelles, or the 
 advancing force under Fastolfe, she could not 
 yet tell. 
 
 While arming, a great clamour rang through 
 the town : the enemy were said to be at hand, 
 and the battle already engaged. Hastily throw- 
 ing on her armour, with the assistance of her 
 hostess and d'Aulon, she dashed off on her 
 horse, and had only time to snatch her flag, as 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 57 
 
 it was handed to her from a window, so impetuous 
 was she to enter the fray. 
 
 As she galloped down the street the sparks 
 flew from the stones, through the High Street 
 and past the cathedral, and out by the Burgundy 
 Gate. The action had already been raging, and 
 the wounded were being borne back into the 
 town. It was the first time the Maid came face 
 to face with such grisly sights — the agony of the 
 wounded, the blood and gaping wounds. Her 
 squire, d'Aulon, who has left some record of 
 that day, says how much she grieved over the 
 wounded as they were carried past her ; her 
 beloved countrymen bleeding and dying affected 
 her deeply. As her page writes, she said she 
 could not see French blood without her hair 
 rising with horror at the sight. 
 
 Before she reached the field the day had 
 been lost and won, the English were in full 
 retreat, and the battle now lay around the 
 bastilles of Saint Loup. About a mile to the 
 north-east of the town were the Englishmen ; 
 strongly entrenched, the place commanded that 
 portion of the river which Talbot had garrisoned 
 with some three hundred of his best troops. 
 Joan now gave instructions that no aid should 
 reach this portion of the English defences from 
 the adjacent bastilles. All around the fight 
 raged, and Joan was soon in the hottest of 
 the engagement, encouraging her soldiers, her 
 flag in her hand. Dismounting, she stood on 
 the edge of the earthwork, beyond which the 
 English were at bay. 
 
58 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Talbot, seeing his men hard pressed, gave 
 orders for a sortie to be made from one of 
 the other towers, named Paris, and thus cause 
 a diversion, while another force attacked the 
 French in their rear. This expedient, however, 
 failed, for a fresh force appeared at this juncture 
 from Orleans, led by Boussac and De Graville, 
 who beat back the attack of the English. The 
 English troops within the fortress of Saint Loup 
 were slain or taken. Joan herself rescued some 
 of these, and placed them under her protec- 
 tion ; caring for them in the house she was 
 staying in. 
 
 At the close of the day, on returning into 
 the town, Joan told the people that they might 
 count on being free from the enemy in five 
 days' time, and that by that time not a single 
 Englishman would remain before Orleans. No 
 wonder that the joy-bells rang out in victorious 
 clamour during all that night in May, the eve 
 of the Ascension. 
 
 On the following day no hostilities occurred. 
 Joan again had a letter sent to the English, 
 summoning them as before to surrender and to 
 quit their forts ; she said this was the third 
 and the last time that she could give them a 
 chance of escaping with their lives. On this 
 occasion she made use of a new way of com- 
 municating with the foe ; she tied the letter to 
 an arrow, which was discharged into the English 
 lines. No answer was received in return. 
 
 It was now determined that the next attack 
 against the English should be made from the 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 59 
 
 left bank of the river, where they were strongly 
 fortified at the Bastille des Augustins, a little 
 further down the Loire than the Tournelles. On 
 the opposite side this fortress communicated with 
 the Boulevard of Saint Prive, as well as with 
 the strong fortress of Saint Laurent, near which 
 a small island, which exists no longer, called the 
 Isle of Charlemagne, kept open their connections 
 on both sides of the Loire. To the east, on 
 the same side of the river, a fortress, that of 
 Saint Jean le Blanc, which had been abandoned 
 on the approach of Joan, had since been re- 
 occupied by the English. It was at this spot 
 that the next and all-important attack was 
 directed to be made. 
 
 The French forces crossed the river over 
 an island called Saint Aignan. The distance was 
 so narrow between the river bank on the town 
 side and this island, that a couple of boats 
 moored together served as a bridge. When 
 Saint Jean le Blanc was reached, it was found 
 deserted by the English, Glansdale having left 
 it in order to concentrate his forces at the 
 Tournelles. Joan led the attack. At first the 
 French fought badly ; they had been seized 
 by a panic, believing that a strong force of 
 the enemy were coming down on them from 
 Saint Prive. Rallying her men, Joan threw 
 herself on the English, and drove them back 
 into the Augustins. She was now eagerly 
 followed by the soldiers. 
 
 The first barricade was carried in a hand-to- 
 hand fight, and soon the French flags waved 
 
6o JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 above the fortress so long held by the enemy. 
 The few English able to escape retired to the 
 Tournelles. Eager to carry on the success of 
 the attack, and to prevent delay, Joan ordered 
 that the fort of the Augustins be fired, with 
 the booty it contained. 
 
 The victors, who only numbered three thou- 
 sand strong, captured six hundred prisoners, 
 one third were slain of the English, and two 
 hundred French prisoners recovered. 
 
 This was the second occasion on which the 
 Maid had carried all before her. 
 
 The day was closing, and the attack on the 
 Tournelles had to be deferred for that evening. 
 That night Joan of Arc said to her almoner : 
 * Rise early to-morrow, for we shall have a 
 hard day's work before us. Keep close to me, 
 for I shall have much to do, more than I have 
 / ever had to do yet. I shall be wounded ; my 
 blood will flow ! ' 
 
 This prophetic speech of the Maid is among 
 the most curious facts relating to her life ; for 
 not only did she, during her trial at Rouen, 
 tell her judges that she had been aware that 
 she would be wounded on that day, and even 
 knew the position beforehand of the wound, 
 but that she had known it would occur a long 
 time before, and had told the King about it. 
 A letter is extant in the Public Library at 
 Brussels, written on the 22nd of April (1429), 
 by the Sire de Rotslaer, dated from Lyons, in 
 which Joan's prophecy regarding her wound is 
 mentioned. This letter was written fifteen days 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 6i 
 
 before the date (7th of May) of the engagement 
 when that event occurred. A facsimile of the 
 passage in this letter referring to Joan's pro- 
 phecy appears in the illustrated edition of M. ^ 
 Wallon's Life of Joan of Arc, 
 
 Very early on the following day, Saturday, 
 the 7th of May, it appears that an attempt 
 was made to prevent the Maid from starting 
 for the field, as, at a council held on the 
 evening before by the officers, it had been 
 considered more prudent, before renewing the 
 attack on the English fortifications, to await 
 fresh reinforcements from the King. When 
 this was reported to Joan, she said: 'You have 
 taken your counsel, and I have received mine,' 
 and at break of day she was ready, armed and 
 prepared for the attack. Before starting, her 
 host wished her to eat some fish, an ' alose, ' 
 which had just been brought to him. * Keep 
 it, ' said Joan with a smile, ' till the evening, 
 and I will bring with me a *' Godon " who will 
 eat his share of it.' This sobriquet of 'Godon' 
 was evidently the generic term for the English, 
 as far back as the early years of the fifteenth 
 century, and may have been centuries before 
 the French designation for our countrymen. 
 
 Thus, full of spirits and with a brave heart, 
 the Maid rode off to meet the foe. When she 
 reached the gate called Burgundy, she found it 
 closed by order of De Gaucourt, Grand Master 
 of the King's Household, who had done so at 
 the instigation of those officers who wished 
 the attack on the English deferred until fresh 
 
62 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 reinforcements arrived. But the Maid was not 
 to be beaten and kept back even by barred 
 gates. 
 
 *You are doing a bad deed,' she indignantly 
 said to those about the gate, *and whether you 
 wish it or not, my soldiers shall pass.' 
 
 The gate was opened, and Joan, followed 
 by her men, galloped to where some troops 
 who had been left in possession of the fortifica- 
 tions taken on the previous day were stationed. 
 The attack on the Tournelles commenced as 
 soon as Joan arrived — it was then between six 
 and seven in the morning. Meanwhile Dunois, 
 La Hire, and the principal forces from the 
 town came up. A desperate struggle ensued ; 
 both sides knew that, whatever the result, that 
 day would decide the fate of Orleans — even 
 that of the war. 
 
 The French were fighting under the eyes of 
 their countrymen, who manned the walls, and 
 under the guidance of a leader they already 
 regarded as more than human — and never had 
 they fought so well, during that long and 
 bloody century of warfare, as they did on that 
 day. 
 
 The English, on the other hand, knew that 
 if they were beaten out of the Tournelles their 
 defeat would be complete, and they too fought 
 with desperate courage. 
 
 Down into the ditches rushed the French, 
 and up the sides of the glacis ; scaling-ladders 
 were placed against the walls, to which the 
 men upon them clung like a swarm of bees. 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 63 
 
 The defenders met them with showers of arrows 
 and shot, and hurled them back with lance and 
 hatchets. Constantly beaten back, they re- 
 turned as constantly to the charge. For six 
 hours this fight lasted, and weariness and dis- 
 couragement fell on the French. Joan, who 
 had been all these hours in the thick of the 
 engagement, seeing her men were losing heart, 
 redoubled her efforts ; and, helping to raise a 
 scaling-ladder, she placed it against the para- 
 pet of one of the towers. While thus en- 
 gaged she was struck by a bolt from a cross- 
 bow, between her shoulder and neck. The 
 wound was a severe one ; she fell, and was 
 carried out of the press. Although she suffered 
 acutely, she had the nerve to draw the arrow 
 from the wound. She refused to have the 
 wound * charmed,' as some of those standing 
 around her suggested, saying she would sooner 
 die than do anything that might be displeasing 
 in the sight of Heaven. A compress, steeped 
 in oil, was then applied, and it staunched the 
 bleeding. She was faint and unnerved, and, as 
 she seemed to feel her death was near, made 
 her confession to her priest. 
 
 Still the Tournelles held out in spite of these 
 repeated attacks, and Dunois, as the shadows 
 lengthened, was on the point of calling back his 
 forces and sounding the retreat. Joan, in the 
 meanwhile, had been withdrawn from the fight- 
 ing, and placed in a meadow at some distance 
 from the carnage ; but when she heard that the 
 troops were about to be recalled from their 
 
 ^ 
 
64 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 attack on the Tournelles, she seemed to forget 
 her wound, and, making her way to Dunols, 
 implored him not to give up the fight. She 
 assured him that she was certain they would 
 even yet be victorious. In a few stirring sen- 
 tences she rallied the men to fresh efforts, and 
 told them that now or never would they con- 
 quer ; the English, she declared, could not hold 
 out much longer. Mounting her horse, and 
 with flag unfurled, she again led the van ; to 
 v^ those near her she said, ' Watch my standard ; 
 when it reaches the walls the place will be 
 ours.' 
 
 The struggle that ensued was fierce and 
 decisive. Inspired by the valour of Joan, the 
 French, who appeared as fresh as before her 
 wound, stormed the bastions and towers of 
 the Tournelles with tremendous energy. Rein- 
 forcements had meanwhile arrived from the 
 town, and these attacked the Tournelles in the 
 rear. Passing over the broken arches of the 
 bridge by means of ladders thrown across the 
 masonry, the first man to reach the other bank 
 was a knight of Rhodes, Nicolas de Giresme. 
 Attacked from two sides, the English still held 
 the Tournelles with bull-dog tenacity ; but the 
 sight of the witch and sorceress, as they con- 
 sidered Joan, and who they thought had met 
 with a mortal hurt, leading the soldiers with 
 unabated courage, caused a panic to spread 
 through their ranks ; and when a sudden shout 
 of victory proclaimed that the white and golden 
 banner had at length struck the walls of the 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 65 
 
 fortress, the doom of the Tournelles had 
 arrived. 
 
 Clear above the din of battle rang out the 
 triumphant voice of the Maid : * The victory is 
 ours ! ' she cried. 
 
 Seeing- the day was lost, the English now 
 attempted to escape destruction by swimming 
 the river ; others threw themselves on a bridge, 
 which, however, having been set on fire by the 
 French, only caused those who hoped to cross 
 to fall either into the flames or into the river 
 below. 
 
 Glansdale, the English leader, who had grossly 
 insulted Joan but a few days before, was among 
 those who were drowning in the Loire. Seeing 
 his peril, Joan of Arc attempted to save him, 
 but Glansdale was swept, before her aid could 
 reach him, down the stream, never more to 
 return to his own land again, as Joan had pro- 
 phesied. 
 
 Five hundred English perished either in the 
 Tournelles or were drowned in attempting to 
 escape ; the rest were made prisoners by the 
 French. 
 
 Darkness had now fallen, and although Joan 
 had been taking part in the battle for more than 
 a dozen hours, and had besides been grievously 
 hurt, she would not leave the field till late in 
 the night, in case the English at the Bastille of 
 Saint Laurent should be inclined to avenge the 
 fall of the Tournelles, and the victory over their 
 comrades. But for that day, at all events, the 
 English had had enough of fighting : ' ils n'en 
 
 E 
 
(£ JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 avaient une vouloir' for more, as the old chroni- 
 cler quaintly expresses himself. 
 
 Riding back across the bridge which the 
 citizens had in the meanwhile partially restored, 
 Joan re-entered the city which her splendid 
 courage had rescued from the English. ' God 
 knows,' writes Perceval de Cagny, 'with what 
 joy she was received ' ; and our English his- 
 torian of those days, Hall, has left the following 
 graphic account of the joy that went out from 
 the people of Orleans to their saviour : — 
 
 * After the siege was thus broken up, to 
 tell you what triumphs were made in the city 
 of Orleans, what wood was spent in fire, what 
 wine was drunk in houses, what songs were 
 sung in the streets, what melody was made in 
 taverns, what rounds were danced in large and 
 broad places, what lights were set up in the 
 churches, what anthems were sung in chapels, 
 and what joy was showed in every place — it 
 were a long work, and yet no necessary cause. 
 For they did as we in like case would have 
 done ; and we, being in like estate, would have 
 done as they did.' 
 
 All that day Joan of Arc had eaten nothing, 
 and her strength must have been more than 
 mortal to have sustained the heat,' fatigue, and, 
 above all, the anguish of her wound. At length 
 she was able to find some repose with her kind 
 hosts, and, after taking a little bread dipped in 
 wine, she retired to enjoy her well-earned rest. 
 
 Orleans was now delivered, as the citizens 
 found on waking the next morning after the 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS, 67 
 
 battle, when the joyful news spread through the 
 town that the English had abandoned the bas- 
 tilles on the northern side of the city, leaving 
 all their sick, stores, artillery, and ammunition. 
 That day Lord Talbot must have used expres- 
 sions probably not as poetical as those put into 
 his mouth in the play of Henry VI. ; but doubt- 
 less far more forcible — for it was now that he, 
 for the first time, felt the bitterness of defeat, 
 the shame of turning his back on his enemy ; 
 that enemy whom, until now, he had, after so 
 many victories, almost grown to despise. 
 
 ' My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel ; 
 I know not where I am, nor what I do : 
 A witch, by fear, not force, like Hannibal, 
 Drives back our troops, and conquers as she lists.' 
 
 But although retire he had to, Talbot's retreat 
 was made in perfect order, and in a kind of 
 defiant fashion. Ranging his forces near to 
 and facing the town, he seemed inclined to 
 make a further stand, if not to carry out an 
 attack against the city. Joan was prepared to 
 repel such an attack, but the English contented 
 themselves with a mere feint, a military demon- 
 stration. 
 
 The day was a Sunday, and Joan, ever loath 
 to fight on that day, refused to give the signal 
 for attack, saying that if the enemy chose to 
 begin an engagement they would be met and 
 defeated ; but that she could not sanction fight- 
 ing on that holy day. Prepared for whatever 
 might occur, the Maid of Orleans then ordered 
 
68 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 that Mass should be said at the head of her 
 troops. 
 
 When the religious act was over : 
 
 ' Look,' she said, 'whether the English have 
 their faces or their backs turned to us.' 
 
 And when she heard that they were in full 
 retreat on Mehun-sur- Loire, she added, * Let 
 them depart, in God's name : it is not His 
 wish that you should attack them to-day, and 
 you will meet them again.' 
 
 After an hour's halt, the English continued 
 to retreat, previously setting fire to their bas- 
 tilles, and carrying their prisoners with them. 
 
 The day that saw the deliverance of Orleans 
 was held for centuries as a national day of re- 
 joicing in the town, and seldom have the citizens 
 of any place had better cause for celebrating so 
 joyful and honourable an event. The siege 
 which Joan had thus brought to an end began 
 on the 1 2th of October (1428), and ended on 
 the 8th of May (1429). Ten days had suf- 
 ficed for the heroic Maid to raise the English 
 blockade. 
 
 Throughout France the effect of the news 
 of the deliverance of Orleans v/as prodigious ; 
 and although most of the English, no doubt, 
 believed that the result was owing to the Instru- 
 mentality of the powers of darkness, many saw 
 In It the finger of God. 
 
 When the great news reached Paris on the 
 loth of May, Fauconbridge, a clerk of Parlia- 
 ment, made the following note In his register : — 
 ' Quis eventus fuerit novit Deus bellorum ' ; and 
 
DELIVERY OF ORLEANS. 69 
 
 on the margin of the register he has traced a 
 little profile sketch of a woman In armour, hold- 
 ing in her right hand a pennon on which are 
 inscribed the letters I. H. S. In the other hand 
 she holds a sword. This parchment may still be 
 seen in the National Archives in Paris. 
 
 Joan, having accomplished her undertaking, 
 lost no time in returning to the King at Chlnon. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS, 
 
 T EAVING the now free and happy town to 
 -■-^ jubilate In its deliverance from the enemy, 
 Joan of Arc went by Blols and Tours to Chinon. 
 At Tours the King had come to meet the Maid. 
 When within sight of the King, Joan dismounted 
 and knelt before him. Charles came forward 
 bareheaded to meet her, and embraced her on 
 the cheek ; and, to use the words of the chroni- 
 cler, made her ' grande chere.' It was on this 
 occasion that the King bestowed on Joan of Arc 
 ^ the badge of the Royal Lily of France to place 
 in her coat-of-arms. The cognizance consisted 
 of a sword supporting a royal crown, with the 
 fleur-de-lis on either side. 
 
 Joan now strongly urged the King to lose 
 no time, but at once go to Rhelms, to be 
 crowned. The fact of his being crowned and 
 proclaimed King of France would add Infinitely 
 to his prestige and authority ; he would then no 
 longer be a mere Dauphin or King of Bourges, 
 as the English and Burgundlans styled him. 
 But now Joan found how many at Court were 
 lukewarm. The council summoned to deliberate 
 on her proposal alleged that the King's powers 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 71 
 
 and purse would not enable him to make so 
 long and hazardous an expedition. Joan used 
 every argument in favour of setting out forth- 
 with for Rheims : she declared that the time 
 given to her for carrying out her mission was 
 short, and, according to the Duke of Alen9on s 
 testimony, she said that after the King was 
 crowned she would deliver the Duke of Orleans 
 from his captivity in England, but that she had 
 only one year in which to accomplish this task ; 
 and therefore she prayed that there might be 
 no delay in starting for Rheims. 
 
 Charles was now staying at the Castle of 
 Loches, that gloomy prison-fortress whose dun- 
 geons were to become so terribly notorious in 
 the succeeding reign. Joan, whose impatience 
 for action carried her beyond the etiquette of 
 the Court, entered on one occasion into the 
 King's private apartment, where the feeble and 
 irresolute monarch was consulting with his con- 
 fessor the Bishop of Castres, Christophe d'Har- 
 court, and Robert de Magon. Kneeling, the 
 Maid said : — 
 
 * Noble Dauphin, hold not such long and 
 so many councils, but start at once for Rheims, 
 and there receive your crown.' 
 
 * Do your voices inspire this advice ? ' asked 
 the King's confessor. 
 
 'Yes,' was the answer, 'and with vehemence.' 
 'Then,' said the Bishop, 'will you not tell 
 
 us in the King's presence in what way your 
 
 voices communicate with you ? ' 
 
 To this Jesuitical query, Joan, in her simple 
 
72 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and straightforward manner, answered the priest, 
 that when she met with people who doubted the 
 truth of her mission she would retire to her 
 room and pray, and then voices returned and 
 spoke to her : — ' Go forward, daughter of God, 
 and we will assist you,' and how hearing those 
 voices and those words she would rejoice and 
 take courage, and only long that her then state 
 of happiness might last always. While telling 
 them these things she seemed a being trans- 
 formed, surrounded by a" something Divine and 
 holy. 
 
 It was not unnatural that the King and his 
 councillors should hesitate before making up 
 their minds to undertake the journey to Rhelms, 
 for the English were posted in force at Beau- 
 gency, at Meun, where Talbot was encamped, 
 and at Jargeau. They also held a strong 
 position on the Loire ; it would be difficult to 
 reach Rheims without encountering some of 
 their forces. Jargeau had been attacked, indeed, 
 by Dunois and Xaintrailles, but unsuccessfully ; 
 and there was real danger in going northwards 
 while the English were still so plentiful and so 
 strongly entrenched in the towns of the centre 
 and south of France. Another reason for delay- 
 ing the journey to Rheims and the ceremony of 
 the coronation, was that some time must elapse 
 before the princes and great nobles, who would 
 have to take part in the coronation, could 
 assemble at Rheims. 
 
 Joan, thus thwarted in her wish of march- 
 ing directly on to Rheims, suggested driving the 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. y^ 
 
 English from their fortresses and encampments 
 on the Loire. To this scheme the royal con- 
 sent was obtained, and the Duke of Alen^on 
 was placed in command of a small force of 
 soldiers. Joan directed the expedition, and it 
 was ordered that nothing should be done with- 
 out the sanction of the Maid. 
 
 In a letter, dated the 8th June, 1429, written 
 by the young Count of Laval, who met Joan of 
 Arc in Selles in Berri, the place of rendezvous 
 for the expedition, is a pleasant notice of the 
 impression the heroine caused him. He describes 
 her as being completely armed, except that her 
 head was bare. She entertained the Count and 
 his brother at Selles. 'She ordered some wine,' 
 he writes, *and told me that I should soon drink 
 wine with her in Paris.' He adds that it was 
 marvellous to see and hear her. He also 
 describes her leaving Selles that same evening 
 for Romorantin, with a portion of her troops. 
 'We saw her,' he writes, 'clothed all in white 
 armour excepting her head ; her charger, a great 
 black one, plunged and reared at the door of 
 her lodging, so that she could not mount him. 
 Then she said, " Lead him to the Cross," which 
 cross stood In front of the church on the high 
 road. And then he stood quite still before the 
 cross, and she mounted him ; then as she was 
 riding away she turned her face to the people 
 who were standing near the door of the church ; 
 in her clear woman's voice she said: — "You 
 priests and clergy, make processions, and pray 
 to God for our success." Then she gave the 
 
74 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 word to advance, and with her banner borne by 
 a handsome page, and with her little battle-axe 
 in her hand, she rode away.' 
 
 The church before which this scene took 
 place at Selles-sur-Cher still exists, a fine mas- 
 sive building, dating from between the eleventh 
 and thirteenth centuries ; but the old cross that 
 stood before it, to which Joan of Arc's black 
 charger was led, has long ago disappeared. 
 
 In my opinion, this graphic description of the 
 Maid of Orleans, written by Guy de Laval to 
 his parents, is the best that has come down to 
 our day of the heroine. There is to us a fresh- 
 ness about it which proves how deeply the 
 writer must have been stirred by that wonder- 
 ful character ; it shows too that, with all her 
 intensely religious and mystic temperament, Joan 
 of Arc had a good part of sprightliness and 
 bonhomie in her character, which endeared her to 
 those whose good fortune it was to meet her. 
 
 The incident of the black charger standing so 
 still beside the cross, and the figure of the Maid, 
 mystic, wonderful, in her white panoply, with her 
 head bare — that head which, in spite of no auth- 
 entic portrait having come down to us, we can- 
 not but imagine a grand and noble one — make 
 up a living picture of historic truth, far above 
 the fancies evolved out of the brains of any 
 writer of fiction — for is it not romance realised ? 
 
 The eagerness to accompany Joan of Arc in 
 this expedition of the Loire was great. The Duke 
 of Alengon wrote to his mother to sell his lands 
 in order that money might be raised for the army. 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 75 
 
 The King was unable or unwilling to pay out of 
 his coffers the expenses of the campaign. From 
 all sides came officers and men eager for new 
 victories under the banner of the Maid. 
 
 Joan led the vanguard, followed by Alencon, 
 de Rais, Dunois, and Gaucourt. At Orleans 
 they were joined by fresh forces under Vendome 
 and Boussac. On the nth of June the army 
 amounted to eight thousand men. Jargeau was 
 the first place to be attacked. Here Suffolk, 
 with between six and seven thousand men, all 
 picked soldiers, had established himself. Inferior 
 in numbers, the English had the advantage over 
 the French in their artillery. In the meanwhile, 
 Bedford, who had news of Suffolk's peril, sent 
 Fastolfe to Jargeau, with a fresh force of five 
 thousand men. But for some reason or other 
 Fastolfe seemed in no hurry to come to Suffolk's 
 assistance ; he lost four days at Etampes, and four 
 more at Jauville. Some alarm seems to have 
 been felt among the French troops at the news 
 of Fastolfe's approach. Joan mildly rebuked 
 those who showed anxiety by saying to them : 
 * Were I not sure of success, I would prefer to 
 keep sheep than to endure these perils.' 
 
 The faubourgs of the town of Jargeau were 
 attacked and taken, but before storming the 
 place, Joan, according to her habit, sent a sum- 
 mons to the army. She bade the enemy sur- 
 render : doing so, he would be spared, and 
 allowed to depart with his side-arms ; if he 
 refused, the assault should be made at once. 
 The English demanded an armistice of fifteen 
 
 ^ 
 
ye JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 days : hardly a reasonable request when it Is 
 remembered that Fastolfe, with his reinforce- 
 ments, might any day arrive before Jargeau. 
 Joan said they might leave, taking their horses 
 with them, but within the hour. To this the 
 English would not consent, and it was decided 
 to attack upon the following morning. 
 
 The next day was a Tuesday; the signal was 
 given at nine in the morning. Joan had the 
 trumpets sounded, and led on the attacking 
 column in person. Alen^on appears to have 
 thought the hour somewhat early ; but Joan 
 overruled him by telling him that it was the 
 Divine will that the engagement should then 
 take place. ' Travaillez,' she repeated, 'Travail- 
 lez! et Dieu travaillera ! ' 
 
 These words may well be called Joan of 
 Arc's life motto, and the secret of her success. 
 'Had she,' she asked Alencon, 'ever given him 
 reason to doubt her word?' And she reminded 
 him how she had promised his wife to bring him, 
 Alengon, back safe and sound from this expedi- 
 tion. Joan seems throughout that day's fighting 
 to have watched over the Duke's safety with 
 much anxious care ; at one hour of the day she 
 bade him leave a position from which he was 
 watching the attack, as she told him that if he 
 remained longer In that place he would get slain 
 from some catapult or engine, to which she 
 pointed on the walls. Hardly had the Duke 
 left the spot when a Seigneur de Lude was 
 struck and killed by a shot from the very 
 engine about which Joan had warned Alen9on. 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 77 
 
 Hour after hour raged the attack ; both Joan 
 and Alen9on directed the storming parties under 
 a heavy fire. A stone from a catapult struck 
 Joan on her helmet as she was in the act of 
 mounting a ladder — she fell back, stunned, into 
 the ditch, but soon revived, and rising, with her 
 undaunted courage, she turned to hearten her 
 followers, declaring that the victory would be 
 theirs. In a few more moments the place was 
 in possession of the French. Suffolk fled to the 
 bridge which spanned the Loire: there he was 
 captured. A soldier named William Regnault 
 beat him to the ground, but Suffolk refused to 
 yield to one so low in rank, and is said to have 
 dubbed his victor knight before giving him up 
 his sword. Besides Suffolk, a brother of his was 
 taken, and four or five hundred men were killed 
 or captured. The place was pillaged. The 
 most important of the prisoners were shipped 
 to Orleans. 
 
 The following day Joan returned to Orleans 
 with Alen^on, where they remained two days to 
 rest their men, after which they proceeded to 
 Meun. This was a strongly fortified town on 
 the Loire, about an equal distance from Orleans 
 on the west and from Jargeau on the east. 
 
 The first success of the French was the occu- 
 pation of a bridge held by the English. They 
 then descended the river, and attacked the town 
 of Beaugency. This town had been abandoned 
 by the English garrison, who had thrown them- 
 selves into the castle. Here it was that the army 
 of the Loire was joined by the Constable de 
 
78 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Richemont, who could be almost considered as a 
 little monarch in his own territory of Brittany. 
 This magnate appears to have been a somewhat 
 unwelcome addition to Joan and Alencon's army. 
 He was, however, tolerated, if not welcomed. 
 Alengon and the Constable, who had till now 
 been at enmity, were reconciled by Joan's influ- 
 ence, and she paved the way for a reconciliation 
 between Richemont and the King. 
 
 It was high time that all the French princes 
 should be reconciled, for the danger from the in- 
 vaders was still great even in the immediate 
 circle of the Court and army. A strong body of 
 men was known to be on the way from Paris, 
 under the command of Fastolfe, and Talbot was 
 marching to meet him with a force from the 
 Loire district ; they soon met, and together pro- 
 ceeded directly upon Orleans. Fastolfe appears to 
 have been disinclined to attack, his force being 
 smaller than that of the French ; but Talbot was 
 beside himself with rage at having to retreat from 
 Orleans, and swore by God and St. George that, 
 even had he to fight the enemy alone, fight he 
 would. Fastolfe had to give way to the fiery 
 lord, although he told his commander that they 
 had but a handful of men compared to the 
 French ; and that if they were beaten, all that 
 King Henry V. had won in France with so much 
 loss of life would be again lost to the English. 
 
 Leaving some troops to watch the English 
 garrisons in the castle of Beaugency, Joan 
 marched against the English. The hostile armies 
 met some two miles between Beaugency and 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 79 
 
 Meun. The English had taken up a place of 
 vantage on the brow of a hill ; their archers as 
 usual were placed in the front line, and before 
 them bristled a stockade. The French force 
 numbered about six thousand, led by Joan of 
 Arc, the Duke of Alengon, Dunois, Lafayette, 
 La Hire, Xaintrailles, and other officers. 
 
 It was late in the day when heralds from the 
 English lines arrived with a defiant message 
 for the French. Joan's answer was firm and 
 dignified. 'Go,' she said to the heralds, 'and 
 tell your chiefs that it is too late for us to 
 meet to-night, but to-morrow, please God and 
 our Lady, we shall come to close quarters.' 
 
 The English were still strongly fortified in 
 the little town of Meun. A portion of their army 
 left Beaugency in order to effect a junction 
 with their other comrades, and in perfect order 
 Talbot commenced his retreat on Paris, taking 
 the northern road through the wooded land of 
 La Beauce. They were closely followed by the 
 French, but neither army had any idea how near 
 they were to one another till a stag, startled by 
 the approach of the French, crossed the English 
 advanced guard. The shouts of the English 
 soldiers on seeing the stag gallop by was the 
 first sign the French had of the propinquity of 
 their foes. A hasty council of war was held by 
 the French commanders. Some were for delay 
 and postponing the attack until all their forces 
 should be united ; and these, the more prudent, 
 pointed out the inferiority of their force to that 
 of the enemy, arguing that a battle under the 
 
So JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 circumstances, in the open country, would be 
 hazardous. Joan of Arc, however, would not 
 listen to these monitions. 'Even,* she cried, *if 
 they reach up to the clouds we must fight them ! ' 
 And she prophesied a complete victory. 
 
 Although, as ever, anxious to command the 
 attack, she allowed La Hire to lead the van. His 
 orders were to prevent the enemy advancing, 
 and to keep him on the defensive till the entire 
 French force could reach the ground. La Hire's 
 attack proved so impetuous that the English 
 rearguard broke and fled back in confusion. 
 Talbot, who had not had time, so sudden and un- 
 expected had been the French attack, to place 
 his archers and defend the ground, as was his 
 wont, with palisades and stockades, turned on the 
 enemy like a lion at bay. Fastolfe now came up 
 to Talbot's succour ; but his men were met by 
 the rout of the rearguard of the broken battle, 
 and the fugitives caused a panic among the new- 
 comers. In vain did Sir John attempt to rally 
 his men and face the enemy. After a hopeless 
 struggle, he too was borne off by the tide of 
 fugitives. One of these, an officer named 
 Waverin, states the English loss that day to 
 have amounted to two thousand slain and two 
 hundred taken, but Dunois gives a higher 
 figure, and places the English killed at four 
 thousand. 
 J This battle of Patay was the most com- 
 
 plete defeat that the English had met with 
 during the whole length of that war of a 
 hundred years between France and England ; 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 8i 
 
 and, to add to Its completeness, the hitherto 
 undefeated Talbot was himself amongst the 
 taken. 
 
 'You little thought,' said Alen^on to him, 
 when brought before him, ' that this would 
 have happened to you ! ' 
 
 *'Tis the fortune of war,' was the old hero's 
 laconic answer. 
 
 The effects of this victory of Patay on 
 the fortunes of the English in France were 
 greater than the deliverance of Orleans, and far 
 more disastrous, for the French had now for 
 the first time beaten in the open field their 
 former victors. The once invincible were now 
 the vanquished, and the great names of Crecy, 
 Poitiers, and Agincourt had lost their glamour. 
 When the news was known that the English 
 under Talbot and Fastolfe had been beaten, 
 and that the great commander for so many 
 years the terror of France had been made a 
 prisoner, and that these mighty deeds had been 
 accomplished by the advanced guard of the 
 French army under the inspiration of the Maid 
 of Orleans, the whole country felt that the 
 knell of doom of the English occupation in 
 France had rung. 
 
 There is an anecdote relating to Joan of 
 Arc at Patay that should find a place here. 
 After the battle, and while the prisoners were 
 being marched off by the French, Joan was 
 distressed to see the brutality with which those 
 captives unable to pay a ransom were treated. 
 One poor fellow she saw mortally wounded by 
 
 v^ 
 
82 JOAN OF 'ARC. 
 
 his captors. Flinging herself from her saddle, 
 she knelt by the side of the dying man, and, 
 having sent for a priest to shrive him, she 
 v^ remained by the poor fellow's side and attended 
 to him to the end, and by her tender ministra- 
 tions helped him to pass more gently over the 
 dark valley of death. 
 / Michelet discovered this story in the deposi- 
 
 tion of Joan of Arc's page, Louis de Contes, 
 who was probably an eye-witness of the scene. 
 
 With this brilliant victory at Patay closed 
 Joan of Arc's short but glorious campaign on 
 the Loire. Briefly, this was the career of her 
 victories: — On the nth of June the Maid at- 
 tacked Jargeau, which surrendered the next day. 
 On the 13th she re-entered Orleans, where she 
 rallied her troops. On the 15th she occupied 
 the bridge at Meun, and the following day she 
 attacked Beaugency, which yielded on the day 
 after. The English had in vain hoped to relieve 
 Jargeau : they arrived too late. After the fall of 
 Beaugency they fell back, and were defeated at 
 Patay on the i8th. 
 
 A wonderful week's work was this campaign, 
 ordered and led by a maiden of eighteen. What 
 made Joan of Arc's success more remarkable 
 is the fact that among the officers who served 
 under her many were lukewarm and repeatedly 
 foiled her wishes. And it is not difficult to trace 
 the feeling of jealousy that existed among her 
 officers; for here was one not knight or noble, 
 not prince, or even soldier, but a village maiden, 
 who had succeeded in a few days in turning the 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 83 
 
 whole tide of a war, which had lasted with disas- 
 trous effects for several generations, into a suc- 
 cession of national victories. This professional 
 jealousy, as one may call it, among the French 
 military leaders was fomented and aggravated by 
 the perfidious counsellors about the King. The 
 only class who thoroughly appreciated and were 
 really worthy of the Maid and her mission, 
 were the people. And it is still by the people 
 that everlasting gratitude and love of the heroic 
 Maid are most deeply felt. 
 
 While Joan was gaining a succession of 
 victories on the Loire, the indolent King was on 
 a visit to La Tremoille at his castle of Sully- 
 sur- Loire. Accompanied by Alengon and the 
 Constable Richemont, Joan repaired to Sully. 
 She had promised to make the peace between 
 Charles and Richemont, and as the Constable had 
 brought with him from his lands in Brittany 
 fifteen hundred men as a peace-offering, the re- 
 conciliation was not a matter of much difficulty. 
 La Tremoille saw with an evil feeling the ever- 
 growing popularity of Joan, and feared her daily 
 increasing influence with the King ; but he could 
 not prevent the march on Rheims, much as he 
 probably wished to do so. It was arranged that 
 the army should be concentrated at Gien. From 
 Gien, Joan addressed a letter to the citizens of 
 Tournay, a town of doubtful loyalty to Charles, 
 and much under the influence of the Burgundian 
 party. She summoned in this letter those who 
 were loyal to Charles to attend the King's forth- 
 coming coronation. 
 
84 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 On the 28th of June the King and Court 
 left Glen, on their northern march. That march 
 was not a simple matter, for a country had to be 
 traversed in which the towns and castles still 
 bristled with English garrisons, or with doubtful 
 allies. Auxerre belonged to the Burgundian 
 party, always In alliance with the English ; 
 Troyes was garrisoned with a mixed force of 
 English and Burgundlans ; and the strongly for- 
 tified places on the Loire, such as Marchenois, 
 Cosne, and La Charite, were still held by the 
 English troops. Charles' army had no artillery ; 
 it was therefore out of the question to storm or 
 besiege towns however hostile, and the counsel- 
 lors and creatures of the King urged him not to 
 risk the dangers of a journey to Rheims under 
 such disadvantageous circumstances. 
 
 Joan, wearied out by the endless procrastina- 
 tion and hesitation of the King, left him, and 
 preferred a free camp In the open fields to the 
 purlieus of the Court, with its feeble sovereign 
 and plotting courtiers. Joan of Arc on this 
 occasion may be said to have 'sulked,' but she 
 showed her usual common sense in what she did, 
 and her leaving the Court seems to have given 
 the vacillating King a momentary feeling of 
 shame and remorse. Orders were issued that 
 the Court should be moved on the 29th of 
 June. 
 
 The royal army which started on that day 
 for Rheims numbered twelve thousand men ; but 
 this force was greatly increased on its march. 
 By the side of the King rode the Maid of Orleans ; 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 85 
 
 on the other side of the King, Alengon. The 
 Counts of Clermont, of Vendome, and of Bou- 
 logne — all princes of the blood — came next. 
 Dunois, the Marechal de Boussac (Saint-Severe), 
 and Louis Admiral de Culan followed. And 
 then, in a crowd of knights and captains, rode 
 the Seigneurs de Rais, de Laval, de Loheac, de 
 Chauvigny, La Hire, Xaintrailles, La Tremoille, 
 and many others. 
 
 Before the town of Auxerre a halt was called : 
 it was still under the influence of the English 
 and Burgundians. A deputation waited upon 
 Charles, provisions were sent to the army, but 
 the town was not entered. Outside its fortifi- 
 cations the army rested three days, after which 
 it continued its march to Saint-Florentin, whose 
 gates swung open to the King ; thence on to 
 Brinon TArcheveque, whence Charles forwarded 
 a messenger with a letter to his lieges at Rheims, 
 announcing his approach. 
 
 On the 4th of July the royal force had 
 reached Saint-Fal, near Troyes. Joan of Arc 
 despatched a messenger summoning that place 
 to open its gates to the King ; but Troyes was 
 strongly garrisoned by a force of half English 
 half Burgundian soldiers, and these had sent for 
 succour to the English Regent, the Duke of Bed- ^ 
 ford. The army of the King arrived before the 
 gates of the town on the 4th of July ; a sally 
 was made by the hostile garrison, but this was 
 driven back. Pour-par lers ensued. The Kings 
 heralds were informed by the garrison officers 
 that they had sworn to the Duke of Burgundy 
 
86 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 not to allow, without his leave, any other troops 
 to enter their gates. They went further, and in- 
 sulted the Maid of Orleans in gross terms, calling 
 her a ' cocqitarde ' — whatever that ugly term may 
 mean. 
 
 The situation was embarrassing. How could 
 the town be taken without a siege train and 
 artillery .-^ But to leave it in the rear, with its 
 strong garrison, would be madness. The King's 
 men were in favour of retiring and abandoning 
 the expedition to Rheims. There happened to 
 be within the town of Troyes at this time a 
 famous monk of the preaching kind, named 
 Father Richard. Father Richard had been a 
 pilgrim, and had visited the Holy Land, and had 
 made himself notorious by interminable sermons, 
 for he was wont to preach half-a-dozen hours 
 at a time. Crowds had listened to him in Paris 
 and other places. The English, who probably 
 thought his sermons insufferably long, or too 
 much leavened with French sympathies, drove 
 him out of Paris, and he had taken refuge 
 at Troyes. The monk had heard much of Joan 
 of Arc, and was eager to see and speak with her, 
 but his enthusiasm was mixed with a religious 
 and even superstitious fear in regard to the 
 heroine. He was allowed to enter the royal 
 precincts, and approached the Maid of Orleans 
 with many a sign of the cross, and with sprinkling 
 of holy water. Seeing the good mans terror, 
 Joan told him to approach her without fear. 
 
 * Come forward boldly ! ' she said to the monk. 
 ' I shall not fly away ! ' 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 87 
 
 And after convincing him that she was not 
 a demon in any way, she made him the bearer of 
 a letter from her to the people in the town. The 
 negotiations between the army and the burghers 
 lasted five days ; the town refusing to admit the 
 King, and the King unwilling to pass the town, 
 but unable to take it by force. Charles was on 
 the point of giving up the attempt to reach 
 Rheims when one of his Council pointed out 
 that as the expedition had been undertaken at 
 the instigation of Joan of Arc, it was only fair 
 her judgment should now be followed, and not 
 that of any one else. Joan was summoned before 
 the Council, when she solemnly assured the King 
 that in three days' time the place would be taken. 
 
 ' If we were sure of it,' said the Chancellor, 
 *we would wait here six days.' 
 
 * Six days ! ' said the Maid. ' You will enter 
 Troyes to-morrow.' 
 
 Mounting her horse, the Maid rode into the 
 camp, and ordered all to prepare to carry out a 
 general assault on the next morning. Anything 
 that could be used in the shape of furniture and 
 fagots, to make a bridge across the town ditches, 
 was collected. Joan, who had now her tent 
 moved up close to the moat, worked harder, 
 says an eye-witness, than any two of the most 
 skilful captains in preparing the attack. She 
 directed that fascines should be thrown into 
 the moat, across which the troops were to pass 
 to the town. 
 
 Early next day everything was in readiness 
 for the attack, but at this juncture, just as she 
 
/ 
 
 SS JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 was preparing to lead the storming party, the 
 Bishop of Troyes, John Laiguise, attended by 
 a deputation of the principal citizens, came 
 from the town with offers of capitulation. The 
 people were ready to place themselves at the 
 King's mercy, owing probably to the terror the 
 preparations made by Joan of Arc on the pre- 
 vious evening had inspired them with, mixed, 
 too, with the superstitious dread they felt for 
 her presence. Had not even the English 
 soldiers declared that, when attacked by the 
 terrible Maiden, they had seen what appeared 
 to be flights of white butterflies sparkling all 
 around her form ! How could these good 
 people of Troyes hope to withstand such a 
 power? To add to this fear, it was remem- 
 bered by the citizens of Troyes that in it had 
 been signed and concluded the shameful treaty 
 by which Charles VH. had been disinherited 
 from his crown and possessions. The people 
 therefore gave in without further struggle. The 
 conditions of capitulation were soon arranged. 
 The burghers were granted the immunity of 
 their persons and their goods, and certain liber- 
 ties for their commerce. All those traders who 
 held any office at the hands of the English 
 government were to continue the enjoyment of 
 these offices or benefices, with the condition of 
 taking them up again at the hands of the King 
 of France. No garrison would be quartered 
 upon the town, and the English and Burgun- 
 dian soldiers were to be allowed to depart 
 with their goods. 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 89 
 
 The next day — the loth of July — Charles 
 and his host entered Troyes in state, the Maid 
 of Orleans riding by the side of the King, her 
 banner displayed as was her custom. 
 
 When, as had been arranged in the treaty 
 of capitulation, the foreign soldiers began to 
 leave the place with bag and baggage (goods), 
 Joan was indignant at finding that some of 
 these so-called goods were nothing less than 
 French prisoners. This was a thing that she 
 could not tolerate, treaty or no treaty; and, 
 placing herself at the gate of the town, she in- 
 sisted that her imprisoned countrymen should be 
 left in her charge. The King naturally felt 
 obliged to gratify her ; so he released the cap- ly 
 tives, and paid their ransom down. Before leav- 
 ing Troyes the next day, William Bellier, who had 
 been Joan's host at Chinon, was left as bailiff of 
 the place, along with other officers. 
 
 Thence the army moved on by way of 
 Chalons. Though still in the hands of the Eng- 
 lish, a deputation of clergy and citizens met the 
 King, and placed themselves at his orders. 
 
 While in the neighbourhood of Chalons, Joan 
 of Arc met some friends who had arrived from 
 Domremy ; among them were two old village 
 companions, Gerardin d'Epinal and John Morel, 
 to whom she gave her red dress. In conver- 
 sation with these she said that the only dread 
 she had in the future was treachery : a dread 
 which seems to point in some strange pro- 
 phetic manner to the fate which was so soon to 
 meet her at Compiegne. 
 
90 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 It was on the evening of the i6th of July 
 that the royal host at length came in sight of 
 the massive towers of the great cathedral church 
 of Rhelms. It was at Sept Saulx, about eight 
 miles' distance from Rheims, that the King waited 
 for a deputation to reach him from the town. 
 Rheims was still filled with the English and 
 Burgundian adherents, and had Bedford chosen 
 to throw, as he could well have done, a force 
 into that place, Charles might yet have been 
 prevented from entering its gates. Perhaps Bed- 
 ford did not believe in the possibility of Charles 
 arriving at his goal, and had counted on the 
 Kings well-known weakness and indecision, and 
 on the hesitation of such men as La Tremoille 
 and others of his Council. The Regent had 
 received assurances from the officials in Rheims 
 that they would not admit Charles. But after 
 what passed at Troyes and at Chalons, Charles 
 had not long to wait for a favourable answer 
 from his lieges at Rheims. Indeed, the depu- 
 tation which met him at Sept Saulx were effu- 
 sive in their good offices and entreaties that 
 the King should forthwith enter his good city 
 of Rheims. 
 
 The Archbishop (Regnault de Chartres), who 
 had preceded the King by a few hours to his 
 town, came out to meet the King at the head of 
 the corporation and civic companies. From all 
 sides flocked crowds eager to welcome the King, 
 and even more the Maid of Orleans. In those 
 days the peoples cry of joy and triumph was 
 ' Noel! ' — but why that cry of Christmas joy had 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 91 
 
 become the popular hosanna, it is not easy to 
 conjecture. 
 
 Throughout that night the preparations for 
 the coronation were feverishly made both within 
 and without the cathedral. On the 17th of 
 July, with all the pomp and ceremony that the 
 church and army could bestow, the King was 
 crowned and anointed with the holy oil which 
 four of his principal officers had brought to the 
 cathedral from the ancient abbey church of 
 Saint- Remy. 
 
 There exist few grander fanes in Christen- 
 dom than the great cathedral of Rheims. The 
 thirteenth century, so prolific of splendid churches, 
 had expended all its wealth of lavish decoration 
 on the gorgeous portal, with its array of saints and 
 sovereigns, under which passed Charles VII. of 
 France, with the Maid of Orleans on his right 
 hand. Hurried as had been the preparations for 
 the ceremonial, the even then ancient and vener- 
 able rites must have deeply impressed the specta- 
 tors, and the semi-sacred act was carried out with 
 scrupulous care — the King crowned and anointed 
 with 'the holy oil, surrounded on his throne by 
 the ecclesiastical peers and high dignitaries of 
 the Church, and waited on by the secular peers 
 during the crowning and after at the coronation 
 banquet. 
 
 At length was accomplished the darling wish 
 of Joan of Arc's heart, for now her King was 
 regarded and sanctioned by all true French 
 persons as King of France, by the grace of God 
 and Holy Church. 
 
92 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 When the King received the crown from the 
 hands of the Archbishop, a peal of trumpets rang 
 out, with such a mighty volume of sound that the 
 very roof of the cathedral seemed to shake again. 
 Ingres, in his striking picture of Joan of Arc, 
 now in the gallery of the Louvre, represents her 
 standing by the high altar, clad in her white 
 panoply of shining steel, her banner held on high ; 
 below bows in prayer her confessor, the priest 
 Pasquerel, in his brown robes of the Order of 
 Augustin ; and beyond stand her faithful squire 
 and pages. The heroine's face is raised, and on 
 it sits a radiant look of mingled gratitude and 
 triumph. It is a noble idea of a sublime figure. 
 
 When the long-drawn-out ceremony came to 
 an end, and after the people had shouted them- 
 selves hoarse in crying ' Noel ! ' and ' Long live 
 King Charles!' — Joan, who had remained by the 
 King throughout the day, knelt at his feet and, 
 according to one chronicle, said these words : 
 
 * Now is finished the pleasure of God, who 
 willed that you should come to Rheims and re- 
 ceive your crown, proving that you are truly 
 the King, and no other, to whom belongs this 
 land of France.' 
 
 Many besides the King are said to have 
 shed tears at that moment. 
 
 That seemed indeed the moment of Joan 
 of Arc's triumph. The Nitnc Dimittis might 
 well have then echoed from her lips ; but in 
 the midst of all the rejoicing and festivity at 
 this time Joan had saddened thoughts and 
 melancholy forebodings as to the future. While 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 93 
 
 the people shouted 'Noel!' as she rode through 
 the jubilant streets by the side of the King, 
 she turned to the Archbishop, and said : ' When 
 I die I should wish to be buried here among 
 these good and devout people.' 
 
 And on the prelate asking her how it was 
 that at such a moment her mind should set 
 itself on the thought of death, and when she 
 expected her death to happen, she answered : 
 * I know not — it will come when God pleases ; 
 but how I would that God would allow me 
 to return to my home, to my sister and my 
 brothers ! For how glad would they be to see 
 me back again. At any rate,' she added, ' I 
 have done what my Saviour commanded me to 
 do.' 
 
 Her mission was indeed accomplished : that 
 is to say, if her mission consisted of the two 
 great deeds which while at Chinon she had 
 repeatedly assured her listeners she was born 
 to accomplish. These were, first, to drive the 
 English out of Orleans, and thereby deliver 
 that town ; the second, to take the King to 
 Rheims, where he would receive his crown. 
 The other enterprises, such as the wish to 
 deliver the Duke of Orleans from his captivity 
 in England, and then to wage a holy war 
 against the Moslems, may be left out of the 
 actual task which, encouraged by her voices, 
 Joan had set herself to accomplish. But the 
 two great deeds had now been carried out — and 
 with what marvellous rapidity ! In spite of all 
 the obstacles placed in her path, not only by 
 
94 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the enemies of her country, but by those 
 nearest to the ear of the King, Orleans had 
 been delivered in four days' time, the English 
 host had been in a week driven out of their 
 strongholds on the Loire, and defeated in a 
 pitched battle ! The King unwillingly, and with 
 many of his Court opposed to the enterprise, 
 after passing through a country strongly oc- 
 cupied by the enemy without having lost a 
 man, had by the tact and courage of Joan of 
 Arc been enabled to reach Rheims ; and after 
 this successful march he had received his 
 crown among his peers and lieges, as though 
 the country were again at peace, and no 
 English left on the soil of France. What was 
 still more surprising was, that all these things 
 should have been accomplished at the instigation 
 and by the direction of a Maid who only a few 
 months before had been an unknov/n peasant 
 in a small village of Lorraine. How had she 
 been able not only to learn the tactics of a 
 campaign, the rudiments of the art of war, 
 but even the art itself? No one had shown 
 in these wars a keener eye for selecting the 
 weakest place to attack, or where artillery and 
 culverin fire could be used with most effect, 
 or had been quicker to avail himself of these 
 weapons. No one saw with greater rapidity — 
 (that rarest of military gifts) — when the decisive 
 moment had arrived for a sudden attack, or had 
 a better judgment for the right moment to 
 head a charge and assault. How indeed must 
 the knights and commanders, bred to the use 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 95 
 
 of arms since their boyhood, have wondered 
 how this daughter of the peasants had obtained 
 the knowledge which had placed her at their 
 head, and enabled her to gain successes and 
 reap victories against the enemy, which until 
 she came none of them had any hope of 
 obtaining. They indeed could not account for 
 it, except that in Joan of Arc was united not 
 only the soul of patriotism and a faith to 
 move mountains, but the qualities of a great 
 captain as well. That, it seems to us, must 
 have been the conclusion that her comrades 
 in arms arrived at regarding the Maid of 
 Orleans. 
 
 Dunois stated that until the advent of the 
 Maid the French had no longer the courage 
 to attack the English in the open field, but 
 that since she had inspired them with her 
 courage they were ready to attack any force 
 of the army, however superior it might be. 
 This testimony was confirmed by Alen9on also : 
 he declared that in things outside the province 
 of warfare she was in every respect as simple 
 as a young girl ; but in all that concerned 
 the science of war she was thoroughly skilled, 
 from the management of a lance in rest to that 
 of marshalling an army ; and that as regarded ^ 
 the use of artillery she was eminently qualified. 
 All the military commanders, he said, were 
 amazed to see in her as much skill as could 
 be expected in a seasoned captain who had 
 profited by a training of from twenty to thirty 
 years. * But,' added the Duke, * it is principally 
 
96 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 in her use of artillery that she displays her most 
 complete talent.' And he proceeds to bear his 
 high tribute to her goodness of heart, which she 
 displayed on every possible occasion. 
 
 Although her physical courage enabled her to 
 face the greatest perils and personal risks, she 
 had a horror of bloodshed, and though her spirit 
 was 'full of haughty courage, not fearing death 
 nor shrinking distress, but resolute in most ex- 
 tremes,' she never entered battle but bearing her 
 banner in her hand ; and to the last day of her 
 appearance on the field she strove with all her 
 great moral force to induce the rude and brutal 
 men around her to become more humane even 
 in the hurly-burly of the din of battle. All un- 
 necessary cruelty and bloodshed made her suffer 
 intensely, and we have seen how she ministered 
 to the English wounded who had fallen in fight. 
 As far as she could she prevented pillage, and 
 she would only promise her countrymen success 
 on the condition that they should not prey upon 
 the citizens of the places they conquered. Even 
 when she had passed the day fasting on horse- 
 back, Joan would refuse any food unless it had 
 been honourably obtained. As a child she had 
 been taught to be charitable and to give to the 
 needy, and she carried out these Christian prin- 
 ciples when at the head of armies ; the ' quality 
 of mercy ' with her was ever present. She dis- 
 tributed to the poor all she had with her, and 
 would say, with what truth God knows, ' I have 
 been sent for the consolation of the poor and 
 the relief of the needy.' She would take upon 
 
^CV^'tC^. 
 
 RHEIMS CATHEIDRAL- IN'^EIRICR 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 97 
 
 herself the charge of the wounded ; Indeed, she 
 may be considered as the precursor of all the 
 noble hearts who in modern warfare follow 
 armies in order to alleviate and help the sick 
 and wounded. And she tended with equal care 
 and sympathy the wounded among the enemy, as 
 well as those of her own side. 
 
 This is no invention, no fancy of romance, 
 but the plain truth ; for there can be no disput- 
 ing the testimony of those who followed Joan of 
 Arc and saw her acts. 
 
 Regarding herself, Joan of Arc said she was 
 but a servant and an instrument under Divine 
 command. When people would avow that such 
 works as she had carried out had never been 
 done in former times, she would simply say: * My 
 Saviour has a book in which no one has ever 
 read, however learned a scholar he may be.' 
 
 In all things she was pure and saint-like, 
 and her wonderful life, as Michelet has truly 
 said of it, was a living legend. Had she not 
 been inspired by her voices and her visions to 
 take up arms for the salvation of her country, 
 Joan of Arc would probably have lived and 
 ended her obscure life in some place of holy 
 retreat. An all-absorbing love for all things 
 sacred was her ruling idiosyncrasy. From her 
 childhood her delight was to hear the church *^ 
 bells, the music of anthems, the sacred notes 
 of the organ. Never did she miss attending 
 the Church festivals. When within hail of a 
 church it was her wont, however hurried the 
 march, to enter, attended by any of the soldiers 
 
 G 
 
98 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 whom she could induce to follow her, and kneel 
 with them before the altar. At the close of some 
 stirring day passed in the midst of the din of 
 battle, and after being for hours in the saddle, she 
 would, ere she sought rest, always return thanks 
 to her God and His saints for their succour. 
 
 Joan also loved to mix in the crowd of poor 
 citizens, and begged that the little children should 
 be brought to her. Pasquerel, her confessor, was 
 always told to remind Joan of Arc of the feast 
 days on which children were allowed to receive 
 the Communion, in order that she too might 
 receive it with these innocents. 
 
 The army has probably ever been the home 
 of high swearing : the expression in French of 
 ' ton de garnison ' is an amiable way of referring 
 to that habit of speech ; and we all know ancient 
 warriors whose conversation is thickly larded 
 with oaths and profanity. This habit Joan of 
 Arc seems to have held in great abhorrence. 
 We have seen how she got La Hire to swear 
 only by his stick ; to another officer of high 
 rank, who had been making use of some strong 
 oaths, she said : ' How can you thus blaspheme 
 your Saviour and your God by so using His 
 name?' Let us hope her lesson bore fruit. 
 
 Throughout the land Joan of Arc was now 
 regarded as the Saviour of France. Nor at 
 this time did the King prove ungrateful. In 
 those days nobility was highly regarded. It 
 brought with it great prestige, and much benefit 
 accrued to the holders of titles. Charles now 
 raised the Maid of Orleans to the equal in rank 
 
THE CORONA TION A T RHEIMS. 99 
 
 of a Count, and bestowed upon her an estab- 
 lishment and household. The grateful burghers 
 of Orleans, too, loaded her with gifts, all which 
 honours Joan received with quiet modesty. For 
 herself she never asked anything. After the 
 coronation at Rheims, when the King begged 
 her to make him a request, the only thing she 
 asked was, that the taxes might be taken off *^ 
 her native village. 
 
 Her father, who came to see her at Rheims, 
 had the satisfaction of carrying back this news 
 to Domremy. 
 
 Although both King and nobles vied in paying 
 honours to Joan of Arc, it was from the common 
 people, from the heart of the nation, that she re- 
 ceived what seems to have amounted to a feeling 
 approaching adoration. Wherever she passed she 
 was followed by crowds eager to kiss her feet and ^ 
 her hands, and who even threw themselves before 
 her horse's feet. Medals were struck and worn 
 as charms, with her effigy or coat-of-arms struck 
 on them. Her name was introduced into the 
 prayers of the Church. 
 
 Joan, although touched by these marks of 
 affection, never allowed the people, as far as in 
 her power lay, to ascribe unearthly influence to 
 her person. When in the course of her trial 
 the accusation that the people had made her 
 an object of adoration was brought as a proof 
 of her heresy, she said : * In truth I should not 
 have been able to have prevented that from 
 being so, had God not protected me Himself 
 from such a danger.' 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE CAPTURE, 
 
 WE must now glance at the movements of 
 the English since the deliverance of Or- 
 leans and their defeat at Patay, and the French 
 King's coronation. 
 
 What proves the utter demoralisation of the 
 English at this time is that the Regent Bedford 
 was not only afraid of remaining in Paris, but had 
 also taken refuge in the fortress of Vincennes. 
 He was so poor that he could not pay the 
 members of Parliament sitting in Paris. Like 
 other bodies receiving no pay, the Parliament 
 declined to work. So restricted were all things 
 then in Paris that when the child-king (Henry 
 VI.) was brought from London to be crowned 
 there, not enough parchment could be found on 
 which to register the details of his arrival. 
 
 For want of a victim to assuage his ire, the 
 Regent disgraced Sir John Fastolfe, whom he 
 unknighted and ungartered, in order to punish 
 him for the defeat at Patay ; and he wrote that 
 the English reverses had been caused by *a dis- 
 ciple and lyme of the Feende, called the Pucelle, 
 that used fals enchantements and sorcerie.' 
 
THE CAPTURE. loi 
 
 The Regent, whose degrading of Fastolfe 
 and vituperation of Joan of Arc did not serve 
 to help, applied to his powerful brother-in-law, 
 the Duke of Burgundy, for aid. Burgundy- 
 came to the Regent's assistance, bringing a 
 small force with him from Picardy. Then Bed- 
 ford bethought him of his powerful relation in 
 England, Henry Beaufort, the Bishop of Win- 
 chester. Most opportunely for the Regent, the 
 Bishop had collected an army for the suppres- 
 sion of the Bohemian Hussites. The Regent 
 implored his uncle, the Bishop, to send this 
 army for the defence of the English and their 
 interests, now in such dire jeopardy. Winchester 
 was a mean, avaricious prince, and his aid had 
 to be bought. A treaty was signed on the ist 
 of July, in which Winchester promised to bring 
 his troops to his nephew's assistance ; but he 
 delayed stirring till the middle of that month. 
 It pleased the crafty Bishop to know that his 
 great wealth made him all-powerful in Eng- 
 land ; for the English Protector, the Duke of 
 Gloucester, was a mere cipher compared to 
 Winchester ; and now that his other nephew, 
 the Protector of France, was in distress, he 
 could dictate his own terms to both. It was 
 not until the 25th of July that Winchester at 
 length arrived with his army in Paris. Then 
 Bedford breathed more freely, and left the capi- 
 tal with an army of observation to watch the 
 movements of the French King. 
 
 It was now the earnest wish of Joan of Arc 
 that Charles should march direct on Paris, and 
 
102 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 perhaps had he done so he might have entered 
 that city with as little difficulty as he had entered 
 Rheims ; for if once the King of France had ap- 
 peared in person, many of the wealthy citizens, as 
 well as the majority of the common people, would 
 have welcomed him. Charles, however, as usual 
 vacillated, and the precious moment slipped by. 
 
 Philip (called ^the Good'), Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, was at this time one of the most power- 
 ful princes of Christendom. In addition to his 
 titular domain, he held the wealthy provinces of 
 Burgundy, including Brabant, Flanders, Franche- 
 Comt6, Holland, Namur, Lower Lorraine, Lux- 
 embourg, Artois, Hainault, Zealand, Friesland, 
 Malines, and Salines. This much-territoried 
 potentate was at the present juncture coquetting 
 both with Bedford and with Charles, playing one 
 against the other. To the former he promised 
 an army, but only contributed a handful of men ; 
 to the latter he made advances of friendship, as 
 false as the man who made them. 
 
 Joan had despatched two letters of a con- 
 ciliatory tone to the Duke of Burgundy from 
 Rheims. The original of one of these is to be 
 seen in the archives at Lille. Like most of Joan 
 of Arc's letters, it commences with the name of 
 Jesus and Mary. As Joan could not write, the 
 only portion of this letter which bears the mark of 
 her hand is the sign of the Cross placed at the left 
 of those names at the top of the document. She 
 strongly urged the Duke in these letters to make 
 peace with the King ; she appeals on the score of 
 his relationship with Charles, to his French blood, 
 
THE CAPTURE. 103 
 
 in order to prevent further bloodshed, and to aid 
 the rightful King. While waiting some definite 
 answer from the Duke, the King went to Vailly- 
 sur-Aisne from Rheims. He arrived at Soissons 
 on the 28th of July, and Chateau Thierry on the 
 next day. Montmirail was reached on the ist 
 of August, Provins on the 2nd. It will be seen 
 that, instead of marching straight upon Paris, the 
 King was making a mere detour from Rheims 
 towards the Loire. 
 
 It was soon evident that Charles and his civil 
 councillors had no intention of advancing direct 
 upon Paris, and were merely marching and counter- 
 marching until they could, as they trusted, get the 
 Duke of Burgundy to join them. 
 
 In the meanw^hile, Bedford saw his oppor- 
 tunity, and made prompt use of it. Early in the 
 month of August he issued a proclamation call- 
 ing on all the subjects of Henry of England in 
 France and Normandy to rally round their liege 
 lord. Leaving Paris on the 25th of July, Bedford 
 marched to Melun with a force of ten thousand 
 men. Melun was reached on the 4th of August. 
 On the day after Bedford's arrival at Melun a 
 letter was sent by Joan of Arc to her friends at 
 Rheims, announcing that the King's retreat on the 
 Loire would not be continued by his Majesty. 
 The King had, in fact, met with a check to his ad- 
 vanced guard at Bray-sur- Seine. Charles had, she 
 informed her correspondents, concluded a truce of 
 fifteen days with the Duke of Burgundy, at the 
 expiration of which the Duke had promised to 
 surrender Paris to the King. But, she adds, it 
 
104 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 could not be certain whether the Duke would 
 keep to his promise. She concludes her letter by- 
 saying that should the treaty not hold good, then 
 the army of the King would be able to take active 
 measures. 
 
 This letter is vaguely dated from a lodging on 
 the road to Paris. It was, she knew, necessary 
 to be near the capital at the close of the period 
 stipulated by Burgundy, and the royal army ac- 
 cordingly took the northern road, leading to Paris. 
 
 On the 7th of August the royal force reached 
 Coulommiers ; on the loth La Ferte Milon, and 
 on the nth Crespy-en-Valois. Bedford, apprised 
 of this change in the movements of his foe, sent 
 off an insulting letter to Charles, whom he ad- 
 dressed as ' Charles who called himself Dauphin, 
 and now calls himself King!' The Regent re- 
 proaches the King for having taken the crown of 
 France, which he said belonged to the rightful 
 King of France and of England, King Henry ; 
 and he then styles the Maid of Orleans *an 
 abandoned and ill-famed woman, draped in men's 
 clothes and leading a corrupt life.' He bids 
 Charles to make either his peace with him or to 
 meet him face to face. Altogether a most rude, 
 abusive, and ungallant letter for one prince to 
 send to another. This letter reached Charles at 
 Crespy-en-Valois on the 1 1 th of August. Bed- 
 ford was then close at hand, and eager to provoke 
 the King into attacking him. 
 
 Charles contented himself with pushing on his 
 advanced guard aS far as Dammartin, remaining 
 himself at Lagny-le-Sec. 
 
THE CAPTURE, 105 
 
 During the 13th of August skirmishes took 
 place between the advanced guards of the armies, 
 but without any result. 
 
 Bedford now returned to Paris — In order to 
 collect more troops, some said, others that he 
 had found the French too strong to attack. The 
 towns and villages around Paris, hearing of these 
 events, and that the English had returned to the 
 capital, showed now their readiness to join the 
 French cause. 
 
 On his way to Complegne news reached the 
 French King that Bedford had left Paris and 
 marched on Senlls. On the 15th of August the 
 French attacked the English at dawn. Their 
 army, formed Into companies, was commanded by 
 Alen^on, Rene d'Anjou, the King, who had with 
 him La Tremoille, and Clermont. Joan of Arc 
 was at the head of a detachment with Dunois and 
 La Hire. The English held a strong position, 
 which they had made still more so by throwing 
 up palisades and digging ditches. 
 
 What appeared destined to be a great engage- 
 ment ended in a mere skirmish. Neither Charles 
 nor Bedford were eager to pit all on a stake, 
 and both preferred to play a waiting game. 
 Charles retired on Crecy, while Joan of Arc 
 remained In the field. She had done all that 
 courage and audacity could to Induce the English 
 to attack. She had ridden up to their palisades 
 and struck them with the staff of her banner. 
 But nothing would make the English fight that 
 day ; and the next, Joan had the mortification of 
 watching the retreat of the English upon Paris. 
 
io6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Joan had nothing now left her to do but to rejoin 
 the King at Crecy. 
 
 On the 17th the King received the keys of 
 the town of Compiegne, and there he was wel- 
 comed on the next day with much loyalty. It 
 was during his stay at Compiegne that Charles 
 heard the welcome news that the people of Senlis 
 had admitted the Count of Vendome within their 
 walls, and had bestowed on him the governor- 
 ship of their town. Beauvais had also shown its 
 loyalty, had made an ovation in honour of the 
 V King, and had ordered the Te Demn to be sung, 
 greatly to the annoyance of the Bishop of that 
 place — Peter Cauchon — a creature of the Anglo- 
 Burgundian faction, of whom we shall hear a 
 good deal later on. 
 
 Charles remained at Compiegne until the ex- 
 piration of the term during which the treaty with 
 the Duke of Burgundy relating to the disposal of 
 Paris remained open ; but the negotiations ended 
 in Burgundy contenting himself with sending to 
 Charles, John of Luxembourg and the Bishop of 
 Arras with words of peace. Arrangements were 
 projected that in order to come to a general 
 peace the Duke of Savoy was to be called in as 
 mediator. In the meanwhile a truce was pro- 
 posed, which was to last until Christmas, with 
 the proviso that the town of Compiegne should 
 be ceded to Burgundy during the continuance 
 of the armistice. No allusion appears to have 
 been made regarding the fate of Paris. 
 
 Joan of Arc, knowing that without Paris all 
 that she had fought for and obtained would soon 
 
THE CAPTURE. lo; 
 
 again be lost, resolved to see what she could do 
 without coming to the King for assistance. She 
 bade Alengon be ready to accompany her, as she 
 wished, so she expressed it, to see Paris at closer 
 quarters than she had yet been able to do. 
 
 Joan of Arc left Compiegne accompanied by 
 the Duke of Alengon on the 23rd of August, 
 taking a strong force with them. At Senlis they 
 collected more troops ; on the 26th they arrived 
 at Saint Denis. Here they were joined by the 
 King, who may be supposed to have felt some 
 shame at not having started with them from 
 Compiegne ; he came very unwillingly, it is said, 
 for all that. 
 
 Bedford left Paris precipitately for Normandy, 
 owing to the discovery of a plot having been 
 started to make over Rouen to the French. This 
 event must have opened the Regent's eyes to 
 the uncertain tenure the English held even in 
 the old duchy of their kings. Bedford had left 
 Louis of Luxembourg in Paris to command its 
 garrison of two thousand English soldiers. De 
 L'Isle Adam was in command of the Burgundian 
 soldiers. In addition to Luxembourg, who was 
 a bishop (of Therouanne) as well as a soldier, 
 Bedford had given charge of the joint com- 
 mand to an English officer named Radley. The 
 Bishop summoned the Parliament in order that 
 it should swear fealty to King Henry VI. 
 The town walls and ditches were carefully re- 
 paired and renewed. Guns were placed on the 
 towers, walls, and batteries ; immense quantities 
 of ammunition of iron and stone were piled 
 
io8 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 ready at hand, to be used for the defence of all 
 the gates and approaches of the city. The 
 moats were deepened, and by dint of threats 
 and menace, and by frightening the people as 
 to the terrible revenge the French King would 
 take on the town and its people when It fell 
 Into his power, the citizens were cajoled into 
 being made the agents of their natural enemies, 
 and in sheer terror helped to strengthen the 
 defences of their town. 
 
 During the first days of the siege only a 
 few unimportant skirmishes took place between 
 besieged and besiegers. Joan of Arc was 
 indefatigable, and with her keen eye sought 
 out the likeliest place where an assault might 
 be successfully carried ; but she lacked troops 
 for storming such strong outworks as Paris 
 then had. The capital was not only defended 
 by walls and towers, but the English held both 
 the upper and lower banks of the Seine. 
 
 From Saint Denis no assistance came from 
 the King, and it was only on the 8th of Sep- 
 tember that, having received reinforcements, 
 Joan of Arc was at length enabled to make a 
 determined attack. It was a very high and 
 holy day in the Church Calendar — the Feast 
 of the Virgin's Nativity — and, not unmindful of 
 the sac redness of that feast-day, Joan of Arc 
 had determined to make a general attack ; for 
 ' the better the day the better the deed ! ' 
 was her feeling on that anniversary. In those 
 times the western limit of Paris was where 
 now the wide thoroughfare of the Avenue de 
 
THE CAPTURE. 109 
 
 rOpera runs from north to south. The walls 
 of the city erected under Charles V., flanked 
 by huge moats and protected by double fortress 
 towers, each tower having a double drawbridge, 
 made any attack almost a forlorn hope. The 
 Regent's departure from Paris points to the 
 little fear he felt that Paris could be taken by 
 assault ; and in this matter Bedford judged 
 rightly. 
 
 Whether or not Joan felt that some Divine 
 assistance would enable her to surmount the 
 barriers that lay between her and the town 
 she was so determined to win back for her King, 
 we cannot say. She fought below the walls 
 with a courage which, if the others had equalled, 
 might have made Paris their own. The attack- 
 ing force was divided into two parts — one, com- 
 manded by Joan, Rais, and De Gaucourt, was to 
 attack the city at the Gate of Saint Honore ; 
 the other, led by Alengon and Clermont, was 
 to cover the assailants, and prevent any sorties 
 being made by the garrison. 
 
 Joan's impetuous onslaught successfully car- 
 ried the first barriers and the boulevard in front 
 of the gate ; but here she met with a check — 
 the heavy gates were barred, nor could she pre- 
 vail on the enemy to make a sortie. 
 
 Joan of Arc, carrying her flag, dashed, under 
 a heavy fire, into the ditch, followed by a few of 
 the most courageous of the soldiers. The ditch 
 was a deep but a dry one ; and rising on the 
 further side, close beneath the town walls, was a 
 second and a wider moat, full of water. Here, 
 
no JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 unable to advance, but unwilling to retire, Joan of 
 Arc and her followers were exposed to a mur- 
 derous hail of shot, arrows, and other missiles. 
 Sending for fagots and fascines to be cast into the 
 moat, in order to enable a kind of bridge to be 
 thrown across, while probing with the staff of her 
 banner the depth of the water, Joan was struck 
 / by a cross-bow bolt, which made a deep wound 
 in her thigh. Refusing to leave the spot, she 
 urged on the soldiers to fill the ditch. The day 
 was waxing late, and the men, who had been fight- 
 ing since noon, were nearly exhausted. The news 
 of Joan having been wounded caused a kind of 
 panic among the French. There came a lull in 
 the fighting, and the recall was sounded. Joan 
 had almost to be forced back from before the walls 
 by the Duke of Alen9on and other of the officers. 
 Placed upon her horse, she was led back to the 
 camp, Joan protesting the whole time that if the 
 attack had only been continued it would have 
 been crowned with success. The spot where the 
 heroine is supposed to have been wounded is 
 near where now stands Fremiet's spirited statue 
 of the Maid of Orleans, between the Rue Saint 
 Honore — named in later days after the gate she 
 had so gallantly attacked — and the Gardens of 
 the Tuileries. 
 
 Within the town a great fear had fallen on the 
 citizens, divided as they were between the hope 
 of their countrymen forcing their way into the 
 city and fear as to how they would be treated by 
 Charles should he be victorious. Perhaps, had 
 Joan of Arc's urgent entreaties of continuing the 
 
THE CAPTURE, in 
 
 attack been more vigorously responded to by the 
 other French commanders, she might have been 
 in the end successful. At any rate Joan herself 
 was of that opinion. 
 
 The following day she was, In spite of the 
 previous evening's failure and her wound, as 
 urgent as ever for further fighting ; and again and 
 again implored Alen^on to renew the attack. It 
 seems the Duke was on the point of complying, 
 when there appeared on the scene Rene d'Anjou 
 and Clermont, sent by the King with the order 
 for the Maid's immediate return to Saint Denis. 
 There was nothing to do but to obey, but It must 
 have been a bitter disappointment to the brave 
 maiden when she turned her back on Paris. 
 Alen^on did his best to encourage her in the 
 hope that It might yet fall. He gave orders for 
 a bridge to be thrown across the Seine at Saint 
 Denis, In order to make a fresh attack on the city 
 from that quarter. However, on the next night 
 this bridge was ordered by Charles to be re- 
 moved, and with Its destruction fell any hopes 
 Joan might still have entertained of being able 
 to take Paris. 
 
 All the blame of the want of success of the 
 army before Paris was now laid at the door of 
 Joan of Arc ; and the creatures of the Court, who 
 had long waited for an opportunity of this kind 
 to show their bitter jealousy of the heroine, now 
 made no secret of their enmity. Foremost of 
 these was the Archbishop of Rheims, who now, 
 in spite of Joan of Arc's entreaties, was allowed by 
 the King to make a truce with the enemy. Another 
 
112 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 powerful foe was La Tremoille, who (as has been 
 pointed out by Captain Marin In his work on Joan 
 of Arc) thought It to be against his personal In- 
 fluence that the French should take Paris. La 
 Tremoille had shown, from Joan's first appearance 
 at Court, his entire want of confidence In her 
 mission. He had unwillingly, after the examina- 
 tion of the Maid by the doctors and lawyers at 
 Poitiers, conformed to the King's wish that a com- 
 mand should be given her In the army. He had 
 done all In his power to induce the King not to 
 undertake the expedition to Rheims. He had 
 told the King, when nothing else could be urged 
 against the journey, that there was no money 
 In the royal coffers, and that consequently the 
 soldiers would not receive their pay. As it turned 
 out, volunteers offered their services gratuitously 
 to escort Charles to his crowning. At Auxerre, 
 La Tremoille concluded a treaty with the citizens, 
 which prevented Joan from taking that town. At 
 Troyes he tried to create a like impediment ; but 
 here he was foiled, for Troyes capitulated. After 
 the coronation, he persuaded Charles not to go to 
 Paris, but to go instead to linger in his castle on 
 the Loire ; and thereby prevented what might then 
 have proved a successful attack on the capital. 
 And he again succeeded in thwarting the Maid of 
 Orleans when he resisted her wish to make a 
 second attack upon Paris. Later on it was La 
 Tremoille who tried to make Joan of Arc fail at 
 the siege of Saint Plerre-le-Moutler. When she 
 was unsuccessful before La Charitd-sur- Loire, and 
 when the blame of that failure was laid at Joan's 
 
P-fmk. 
 
 XV CENTURY H O U S E - C O M PI E G N E 
 
 * ' J > 
 
THE CAPTURE. 113 
 
 door, La Tremoille for very shame was obliged 
 publicly to acknowledge the heroic zeal with 
 which she had carried out the operations of that 
 siege. The higher Joan's popularity rose among 
 the people and in the army, the more her two 
 bitter enemies, La Tremoille and the Archbishop ^ 
 of Rheims, shared between them their jealous 
 dislike. 
 
 Thus, even before her capture and trial, Joan 
 of Arc met with some of her worst foes among 
 those whose duty it was to have been her 
 staunchest friends and helpers ; and, deplorable 
 to say, among her own countrymen. 
 
 Charles left Saint Denis on the 13th of 
 September. Before his departure, Joan of Arc 
 performed an act which indicated that she felt 
 her mission to be finished. In the old fane of ^ 
 Saint Denis, the tomb-house of the long line 
 of French kings, she solemnly placed her armour 
 and arms at the foot of an Image of the Holy 
 Mother, near the spot where were kept the relics 
 of the Patron Saint of France. By that act of 
 humility she seemed to wish to show her ab- 
 negation of any further earthly victory by the 
 aid of arms. 
 
 We have now arrived at the turning-point 
 of Joan of Arc's successes, and although the 
 heroine Is even more admirable in her days of 
 misfortune and suffering than in those of her 
 triumphs, when she led her followers on from 
 victory to victory, the course of her brief life 
 now darkens rapidly, and the approaching fate 
 of the brave-hearted maiden is so terrible that 
 
 H 
 
114 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 it requires some courage to follow her to the 
 very end, glorious as that end was, and bright 
 with its sainted heroism. 
 
 The King's return journey from Compiegne 
 to Gien was so hurried that it almost re- 
 sembled a flight. Avoiding the towns still 
 doubtful in their loyalty to him, Charles sped 
 from Lagny to Bovins, then to Bray, Cour- 
 tenay. Chateau- Regnaut, and Montargis, arriving 
 at Gien on the 21st of September. Ere this 
 time there could be little doubt of the Duke 
 of Burgundy's unwillingness to abide by his 
 pledge, and restore Paris to Charles. The 
 Duke and Bedford had in fact already come to 
 terms. The Regent resigned to Burgundy the 
 Lieutenancy of the country, keeping only the 
 now empty title of Regent and the charge of 
 Normandy. The result of the King's with- 
 drawal from the neighbourhood of Paris, and 
 his hurried march, or rather retreat, to Gien, 
 was that the English felt that there was now 
 no longer any fear of their being drawn out of 
 the capital. They promptly marched on and 
 occupied Saint Denis, pillaging that town and 
 carrying off as a trophy the arms which Joan 
 of Arc had placed by the shrine of Saint Denis, 
 in the ancient basilica of Dagobert. 
 
 The other towns, which had so recently re- 
 turned to their allegiance to Charles, were 
 again abandoned to the English, who punished 
 them by levying large ransoms on the citizens. 
 The surrounding country was laid waste, and 
 Joan of Arc had the mortification of seeing 
 
THE CAPTURE. 115 
 
 that, without any attempt being made to defend 
 her people, the places which had so shortly 
 before been the scene of her triumphs were 
 now allowed to be reoccupied by the English 
 and their allies. Normandy, Picardy, and Bur- 
 gundy were once more in possession of the 
 enemy. 
 
 At length Joan obtained Charles' permission 
 to attack La Charite, where the enemy were in 
 force, and from whence they threatened the 
 French forts on the Loire. At Bourges she 
 assembled a few troops, and in company with the 
 Sire d'Albret she laid siege to Saint Pierre-le- 
 Moutier. Then, although feebly supported, Joan 
 led the first column of attack. This attacking 
 column might have been called a forlorn hope, so 
 few men had she with her. The little party 
 were repulsed, and at one moment her squire, 
 d'Aulon, saw that his brave mistress was fighting 
 alone, surrounded by the English. At great peril 
 she was rescued from the melde. Asked how 
 she could hope to succeed in taking the place 
 with hardly any support, she answered, while 
 she raised her helmet, ' There are fifty thousand 
 of my host around me,' alluding to the vision of 
 angels that in moments of extreme peril she 
 relied on. D'Aulon in vain urged her to beat 
 a retreat, and retire to a place of safety ; she 
 insisted on renewing the attack, and gave orders 
 for crossing the moat on logs and fascines. A 
 roughly constructed bridge over the fosse was 
 then made, and after a desperate struggle the 
 fortress was taken. 
 
ii6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 This occurred early in the month of No- 
 vember (1429). A few years ago a stained- 
 glass window commemorative of the Maid of 
 Orleans having saved the church in Saint 
 Pierre-le-Moutier (it had been converted by 
 the besieged into a warehouse for the goods 
 and chattels of the citizens) was placed in 
 the building she had preserved from destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The next siege undertaken by Joan of Arc 
 was that of La Charite — a far larger and more 
 strongly garrisoned town than the other. La 
 Charit6 was held by one Peter Grasset, who had 
 been its governor for seven years. It was not 
 only strongly defended by fortifications, but fully 
 victualled for a prolonged siege. Joan and her 
 little army had not the material necessary for 
 carrying on such a siege as that of La Charite 
 would require — the very sinews of war were want- 
 ing. Charles would not or could not contri- 
 bute a single 6cu d'or, and Joan had to solicit 
 help and funds from the towns. In the public 
 library at Riom is preserved the original letter 
 addressed by the Maid of Orleans to ' My dear 
 and good friends the clergy, burghers, and citi- 
 zens of the town of Riom.' It was sent to that 
 place on the 9th of November from Moulins. In 
 this letter, the only one to which is affixed the 
 Maid's signature, spelt ' Jehonne,' possibly signed 
 by herself, she says that her friends at Riom are 
 aware of how the town of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier 
 had been taken, and she adds that she has the 
 intention of driving out {de faire vider) the other 
 
THE CAPTURE. 117 
 
 towns hostile to King Charles. She begs the 
 citizens of Riom, in order to accomplish this, to 
 provide her with the means of pushing forward 
 the siege of La Charite, and asks them to supply 
 her with powder, saltpetre, sulphur, bows and 
 arrows, cross-bows, and other material of war, 
 having exhausted all her stock of such things 
 in the late siege. Whether or not the burghers 
 of Riom were able to carry out Joan's wishes 
 is not known. The town of Bourges, however, 
 provided funds out of its customs, and Orleans 
 also sent soldiers and artillerymen (^joueurs de 
 cotilverines') to the Maid's army for the siege of 
 La Charitd. 
 
 But in spite of all efforts Joan of Arc was 
 destined to fail in this undertaking. No doubt 
 her enemies at Court helped to thwart all her 
 attempts at raising a sufficient force to beleaguer 
 so strong a place of arms, and seeing her hopes 
 of taking La Charltd by assault vanish, Joan of 
 Arc relinquished the undertaking. 
 
 The remainder of that winter Joan of Arc 
 passed in what must have tried her high spirit 
 sorely — inaction. 
 
 Accompanying the Court, she went from 
 Bourges to Sully-sur- Loire, and revisited Or- 
 leans. In the latter town we find some traces 
 of her passage, and some further traits of her 
 sweet nature, and of that simplicity which had 
 endeared her so deeply to the hearts of the 
 people : a disposition no success altered, no dis- 
 appointment embittered. What was the chief 
 charm of her character was this simplicity, 
 
ii8 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 her entire freedom from self-glorification, her 
 horror of it being imagined that she was a 
 supernatural or miraculous being, even when 
 those supernatural and miraculous powers were 
 considered as coming direct to her from Heaven 
 — in fact, to use a slang but expressive phrase, 
 her utter freedom from humbug. This is one 
 of the most marked features of her character, 
 although not the most glorious or salient to 
 those who are dazzled by her triumphs and 
 extraordinary career. 
 
 When she was told by people that they 
 could well understand how little she feared being 
 in action and under fire, knowing that she had 
 a charmed life, she answered them that she 
 had no more assurance of not being killed than 
 the commonest of her soldiers ; and when some 
 foolish creatures brought her their rosaries and 
 beads to touch, she told them to touch these 
 themselves, and that their rosaries would benefit 
 quite as much as if she had done so. 
 
 On one occasion at Lagny she was asked 
 to resuscitate a dead child. One of the greatest 
 of the French nobles wrote to ask her which 
 of the rival Popes was the true one. When 
 asked on the eve of a battle who would be 
 victor, she answered that she could no more 
 tell than any of the soldiers could. A woman 
 ^ named Catherine de la Rochelle, who assumed 
 the power of knowing where money was hidden, 
 was commanded by the King to take Joan of 
 Arc into her confidence. The latter soon dis- 
 covered that Catherine was a fraud, and refused 
 
THE CAPTURE. 119 
 
 to have anything to do with her. Catherine had 
 suggested going to the Duke of Burgundy to 
 arrange a peace between him and the French 
 King, to which proposition Joan of Arc very 
 sensibly said that it seemed to her that no 
 peace could be made between them but at the 
 lance's point. Joan had seen too much of the 
 duplicity of the Duke to believe in any of his 
 treaties and promises. 
 
 The early months of the year 1430 were 
 months of anxiety for the citizens of Orleans 
 and the other towns which had thrown off the 
 English allegiance. The truce made between 
 Burgundy and France expired at Christmas of 
 the former year, but was renewed till Easter. 
 Early in the year, the burghers of Rheims 
 implored help of Joan of Arc, and not of the 
 King, thus proving how far greater trust was 
 placed in the hands of the Maid of Orleans, 
 by such a town as Rheims, than in the good- 
 will of the King. 
 
 Twice during the month of March did Joan 
 have letters written to reassure them of aid 
 in case of need. ' Know,' she says in a letter 
 dated the 16th of March, *that if I can pre- 
 vent it you will not be assailed ; and if I can- 
 not come to your rescue, close your gates, and 
 I will make them [the English] buckle on their 
 spurs in such a hurry that they will not be able 
 to use them.' 
 
 In the second letter to the people of Rheims, 
 written at Sully on the 28th of March, Joan 
 tells them that they will soon hear some good 
 
/ 
 
 I20 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 news about herself. This good news referred 
 no doubt to her return to the field, for we find 
 that by the end of that month she was again 
 on the march. 
 
 It was early in the month of April, 1430, that 
 Joan of Arc left the Court and rode to the north, 
 on what was to prove her last expedition. It 
 is said that while at Melun, during Easter week, 
 y/ she was told by her voices that she would be 
 taken prisoner before St. John's Day. 
 
 It was at Lagny that an incident occurred 
 which formed one of the accusations brought 
 against the Maid by her judges, and to which re- 
 ference may now be made. A freebooter, named 
 Franquet d'Arras, had, at the head of a band of 
 about three hundred English freelances, held all 
 the country-side in terror round about Lagny. 
 Hearing of this, being in the neighbourhood of 
 Lagny, Joan of Arc gave orders that Franquet 
 and his band should be attacked. The French 
 were in number about equal to the English. 
 After a stubborn fight, the English were all 
 killed or captured. Among the latter was the 
 chief of the robbers, Franquet d'Arras. It was 
 proved before the bailiff and justices of Lagny 
 that Franquet had not only been a thief, but a 
 murderer, and he was consequently condemned 
 to die. Joan of Arc wished that he should 
 be exchanged for a French prisoner, but this 
 French prisoner had meanwhile died. The 
 justices of Lagny insisted on having their sen- 
 tence carried out, to which Joan at length un- 
 willingly gave way, and Franquet met with his 
 
THE CAPTURE. 121 
 
 deserts. We cannot see how the Maid was to 
 blame in this affair ; but this thing was one of 
 the accusations which helped to bring her to 
 the stake. 
 
 On the 17th of April the truce agreed to 
 between King Charles and Burgundy came to 
 an end. At this time the town of greatest 
 strategical importance to Burgundy was that 
 of Compiegne. Holding Compiegne, the Duke 
 of Burgundy held the key of France. King 
 Charles, with his habitual carelessness, had been 
 on the point of handing over Compiegne to the 
 Duke as a pledge of peace ; and no doubt he 
 would have done so had not the inhabitants 
 protested. Charles then surrendered the town 
 of Pont Sainte-Maxence to Burgundy instead 
 of Compiegne. But this sop did not at all 
 satisfy the greedy Duke, whose mouth watered 
 for Compiegne, which he was determined to ob- 
 tain by fair or by foul means. At Soissons 
 the Duke had succeeded in gaining the Gover- 
 nor by a bribe, and had, through this bribe, 
 obtained the place ; and there is little reason 
 not to suppose that he was still more ready to 
 offer a still greater bribe to obtain Compiegne. 
 The Governor of Compiegne, William de Fla- 
 vigny — a man very deeply suspected, writes 
 Michelet of him — was not likely to refuse a 
 bribe ; and, as we shall see, he acted in a man- 
 ner that has made the accusation of his treachery 
 to his country and Joan of Arc almost a cer- 
 tainty. 
 
 It was to prevent, if possible, Compiegne 
 
122 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 falling into the hands of Burgundy that Joan of 
 Arc hastened to its defence. On the 13th of 
 May she reached Compiegne, where she was 
 received with great joy by the citizens. The 
 Maid lodged in the town with Mary le Boucher, 
 wife of the Procurettr of the King. At Com- 
 piegne were some important Court officials — the 
 Chancellor Regnault de Chartres, no friend to 
 Joan as we have seen, Vendome, and others. 
 The country around and the places of armed 
 strength were all in the occupation of the 
 English and Burgundians ; near Noyon, the 
 town of Pont-l'Eveque was in the possession of 
 the English. This place Joan of Arc attacked, 
 and she was on the point of capturing it when a 
 strong force of Burgundians arrived from Noyon, 
 and Joan had to beat a retreat on Crecy. On 
 the 23rd of May, news reached Joan that Com- 
 piegne was threatened by the united English 
 and Burgundian forces, under the command of 
 the Duke and the Earl of Arundel. By mid- 
 night of that day, Joan of Arc was back again 
 in Compiegne. She had been warned of the 
 danger of passing, to gain the town, through the 
 enemies' lines with so small a company. 
 
 * Never fear ! ' she answered, * we are enough. 
 I must go and see my good friends at Compiegne.' 
 
 These words have been appropriately placed 
 on the pedestal of the statue of the heroine in 
 front of the Hotel de Ville in Compiegne. 
 
 By sunrise all her troopers were within the 
 town : not a man was missing. 
 
 Compiegne w?ls a strongly fortified place, 
 
THE CAPTURE. 123 
 
 resting on the left bank of the river Olse, 
 across which, as at Orleans, one long stoutly- 
 defended bridge connected the right bank with 
 the town. In front of the bridge was one of 
 those redoubts which were in those days called 
 * boulevards.' This boulevard was surrounded 
 by a wet moat or ditch connected with the 
 principal bridge by a drawbridge, closed or 
 opened from within at pleasure. The town 
 was surrounded and protected by a broad and 
 deep moat, filled from the river. Behind this 
 moat rose the town walls, girt with strong 
 towers at short intervals. On the right bank 
 of the river extended a wide stretch of fertile 
 meadow land, bounded on the northern horizon 
 by the soft low-lying hills of Picardy. From the 
 circuit of the walls across the plain the eye 
 rested on the towns of Margny, of Clairvoix, 
 and of Venette. The Burgundians were en- 
 camped at Margny and at Clairvoix ; the Eng- 
 lish, under the command of Montgomery, were 
 encamped at Venette. 
 
 The evening of the day on which she had 
 arrived at Compiegne (the 24th of May), Joan of v^ 
 Arc resolved to attack the Burgundians, both at 
 Margny and also at Clairvoix. Her plan was 
 to draw out the Duke of Burgundy, should he 
 come to the support of his men at these places. 
 As to the English at Venette, she trusted that 
 Flavy with his troops at Compiegne would 
 prevent them from cutting her off after her 
 attack on the Burgundians, and so intercepting 
 her return to the town ; but this unfortunately 
 was the very disaster which occurred. 
 
124 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 In front of the bridge the redoubts were 
 filled by French archers to keep off any attack 
 made by the English, and Flavy had placed a 
 large number of boats filled with armed men, 
 principally bowmen, In readiness along the river 
 to receive their companions should they meet 
 with a repulse in their attack on the Bur- 
 gundians. 
 
 It was about five o'clock that afternoon 
 when Joan of Arc rode out of Complegne at 
 the head of five hundred horsemen and foot 
 soldiers. Flavy remained within the town, of 
 which he was Governor. The attack led by 
 the Maid on Margny, with splendid impetuosity, 
 proved a complete success, and the enemy fled 
 for shelter to their companions at Clairvoix. 
 Here the resistance made was far more stub- 
 born. While the French and Burgundians 
 were combating in the meadows at Clairvoix, 
 the English came from Venette to the assist- 
 ance of their allies, and attacked the French in 
 their rear. A panic was created by this at- 
 tack among the French troops, and a sauve qui 
 pent ensued, both foot and horse dashing back 
 In confusion towards Complegne, and when 
 they reached the river either taking refuge In 
 the boats or on the redoubts near the bridge. 
 Mixed among this panic-stricken crowd of fugi- 
 tives came the English in hot pursuit, followed 
 by the Burgundians. 
 
 Carried away by the throng of frightened 
 soldiers, Joan was among the last to leave 
 the field, and to those who cried to her to 
 
THE CAPTURE. 125 
 
 make her escape she answered that all might 
 yet be saved, and urged her men to rally. 
 Nevertheless, she was forced back towards the 
 bridge, across which fugitives were making 
 their escape into the town. In a few seconds 
 Joan could have been safe across the draw- 
 bridge, and under shelter of the towers which 
 defended it. At this instant, whether inten- 
 tionally to exclude the heroine from safety, or 
 through panic and fear of the Burgundians 
 and English entering the town along with 
 the French, the drawbridge was lifted, and 
 Joan, with a handful of the faithful few who 
 were ever at her side in time of peril, was 
 surrounded by a sea of foemen. In a mo- 
 ment half a dozen soldiers secured her horse 
 and seized her on every side, trying to drag 
 her out of the saddle. The long skirts which 
 the heroine wore were soon torn off by these 
 rough hands. An archer of Picardy, belonging 
 to the army of John of Luxembourg, wrenched 
 her from her horse and made her prisoner. 
 Her brother Peter, her faithful squire d'Aulon, 
 and Pothon de Xaintrailles were all captured at 
 the same time. 
 
 Thus fell Joan of Arc into the hands of 
 her enemies, and the question whether through 
 treachery or not has never been settled. 
 
 According to an old work published early 
 in the sixteenth century, called Le Miroir des 
 Femmes Vertueuses, Joan of Arc had taken the 
 communion in the Church of Saint James at 
 Compiegne, and was standing leaning against a 
 
 i^ 
 
126 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 pillar of that church ; a large number of citizens 
 with many children stood around, to whom she 
 said : * My children and dear friends, I bid you 
 to mark that I have been sold and betrayed, 
 and that I shall be shortly put to death. So I 
 beseech you all to pray to God for me, for 
 never more shall I be able to be of service to 
 the King or to the kingdom of France.' 
 
 This story, which, whether authentic or not, 
 is surely a touching one, is full of the spirit of 
 the heroine. It rests upon the testimony of 
 two persons, one eighty-six and the other eighty- 
 eight years of age, by whom the author was 
 told the tale in 1498, both affirming that they 
 had been in the church when Joan of Arc 
 spoke of her betrayal. There can be but little 
 doubt that Joan had had for some time be- 
 fore she went to Compiegne a presentiment 
 of her soon falling into her enemies' power. 
 / On the eve of the King's coronation at Rheims 
 she said to her friends that what she alone 
 feared was treason — a foreboding too soon, 
 alas! to come true. She never, however, 
 seems to have fixed on any particular period 
 when the treason she dreaded would occur ; and 
 during her trial she acknowledged that, had 
 she known she would have been taken prisoner 
 during the sortie on the 24th of May, she would 
 not have undertaken that adventure. 
 >^ V One of her best historians, M. Wallon, 
 
 thinks that the words which she is supposed 
 to have spoken to the people in the Church of 
 Saint James at Compiegne were owing to her 
 
THE CAPTURE. 127 
 
 discouragement at not having, a few weeks 
 previously, been able to cross the river Aisne 
 at Soissons, and thus finding herself prevented 
 from attacking the Duke of Burgundy at Choisy, 
 and thence having been obliged to return to 
 Compiegne. Wallon points out that in com- 
 ing to defend Compiegne, Joan of Arc came 
 entirely at her own instigation, and that during 
 the previous six months Flavy had defended 
 Compiegne against the English and Burgun- 
 dians with success and energy ; nay more, 
 that, in spite of bribes from the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, Flavy contrived to hold the town till the 
 close of the war. 
 
 On the other side, a recent writer of the 
 heroine's life, especially as regarded from a 
 military standpoint, M. Marin, gives at great 
 length his reasons for believing in the treachery 
 of .Flavy. M. Marin points out that, in the 
 first place, Flavy s character was a notoriously 
 bad one ; secondly, that he was very possibly 
 under the influence of both La Tremoille and 
 the Chancellor Regnault de Chartres, bitter 
 opponents, as we have already shown, of 
 the Maid; thirdly, that it -was in Flavy 's in- 
 terest that the prestige of saving Compiegne 
 from the Burgundians and English should be 
 entirely owing to his own conduct ; and 
 fourthly, that he, Flavy, with the majority of the 
 French officers, was affected against Joan of 
 Arc since the execution of Franquet d'Arras. 
 M. Marin goes on to prove that Joan of Arc 
 might have been rescued without difficulty, 
 
J 
 
 V 
 
 128 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and that the enemy could not have forced 
 their way into the town alongside of the re- 
 treating French, unless they were ready to be 
 cut up as soon as they had come within its 
 walls. M. Marin's opinion, having the autho- 
 rity of a soldier, carries weight with it ; and 
 his opinion is that Joan of Arc was deliber- 
 ately betrayed by Flavy, and purposely allowed 
 to fall into the hands of her enemies. 
 
 The names of La Tremoille and Regnault 
 de Chartres should also be pilloried by the 
 side of that of Flavy — the two great cour- 
 tiers who held the ear of the King, and who 
 had always plotted against Joan of Arc. As 
 has already been said, it was Regnault de 
 Chartres who had the effrontery to announce 
 the news of Joan of Arc's capture to the citi- 
 zens of Rheims as being a judgment of 
 Heaven upon her. She had, this mean pre- 
 late said, offended God by her pride, and in 
 wearing rich apparel, and in having preferred 
 to follow her own will rather than that of God ! 
 Verily, and with reason, might poor Joan have 
 prayed to be delivered from such friends as 
 those creatures and courtiers about her King, 
 for whom she had done and suffered so much. 
 
 The archer who had captured Joan of Arc 
 was in the pay of the Bastard of Wandome, 
 or Wandoune, and this Wandome was himself 
 in the service of John de Ligny, a vassal of 
 the Duke of Burgundy, and a cadet of the 
 

THE CAPTURE, 129 
 
 princely house of Luxembourg. Like most 
 younger sons, John de Ligny was badly off, 
 and the temptation of the English reward in 
 exchange for his prisoner, whose escape he 
 greatly feared, overtopped any scruples he may 
 have felt in receiving this blood-money. 
 
 The historian Monstrelet tells us he was 
 present when Joan of Arc was brought into 
 the Burgundian camp, at Margny, and before 
 the Duke of Burgundy. But the old chronicler 
 relates nothing with regard to that eventful 
 meeting ; only he is eloquent on the joy caused 
 by the capture of the Maid of Orleans among 
 the English and their allies ; and he tells us 
 that in their opinion Joan's capture was equal 
 by itself to that of five hundred ordinary pri- 
 soners, for they had feared her, he adds, more 
 than all the other French leaders put together. 
 Of the high opinion held by her enemies of the 
 Maid's influence, one could not ask for a more 
 remarkable proof than this testimony, coming as 
 it does from a partisan of her foes. 
 
 After three days passed at Margny, Joan 
 of Arc was taken, for greater security, by Lux- 
 embourg to the castle of Beaulieu, in Picardy. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 
 
 npHE news of Joan's capture soon reached 
 ^ Paris, and within a few hours of that 
 event becoming known, the Vicar-General of the 
 Order of the Inquisition sent a letter to the 
 Duke of Burgundy, accompanied by another 
 from the University of Paris, praying that Joan 
 of Arc might be delivered up to the keeping 
 of Mother Church as a sorceress and idolatress. 
 That terrible engine, the Inquisition, had, like 
 some mighty reptile scenting its prey near, 
 slowly unfolded its coils. Whether Bedford 
 had or had not caused these letters to be sent 
 the Duke is not known, but the Regent had 
 both in the Church and the University of Paris 
 the men he wanted — instruments by whom his 
 vengeance could be worked on Joan of Arc ; 
 and he had the astuteness to see that in calling 
 in the aid of the Church, and treating Joan of 
 Arc as a heretic and witch, the rules of war 
 could be laid aside. What no civilised body of 
 men could do, namely, kill a prisoner of war, 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 131 
 
 that thing could be done in the name and by 
 the authority of the Church and its holy office ; 
 and in the Bishop of Beauvais, the inexorable 
 Cauchon, Bedford had the tool necessary to 
 his hand whereby this dastardly plot could be 
 carried out. 
 
 The first move that Bedford now was ob- 
 liged to take was to secure the victim ; and in 
 order to do so the Bishop of Beauvais was 
 applied to. The name of Peter Cauchon, Bishop "^ 
 of Beauvais, will go down to the latest posterity 
 with the execration of humanity, for the part 
 he played in the tragedy of the worst of judicial 
 murders of which any record exists. Let us 
 give even the devil his due. According to 
 Michelet the Bishop was * not a man without 
 merit,' although the historian does not say in 
 what Cauchon's merit consisted. Born at 
 Rheims, he had been considered a learned 
 priest when at the University of Paris ; but he 
 had the reputation of being a harsh and vin- 
 dictive opponent to all who disagreed with his 
 views, within or without the Church. He was 
 forced to leave Paris, in 141 3, for some mis- 
 conduct. It was then that Cauchon became 
 a strong partisan of the Duke of Burgundy. 
 It was through the Duke that he obtained the 
 See of Beauvais. The English also favoured 
 Cauchon, and obtained for him a high post in 
 the University of Paris. When the tide of 
 French success reached Beauvais, in 1429, 
 Cauchon was obliged to escape, and found 
 shelter in England. There Winchester received 
 
132 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 him with cordiality. While in England, Cauchon 
 became a thorough partisan of the English, 
 and the humble servant of the proud Prince- 
 Cardinal. Winchester promised Cauchon pre- 
 ferment, and, when the See of Rouen fell vacant, 
 recommended the Pope to place Cauchon on its 
 throne. The Pope, however, refused his consent, 
 and the Rouen Chapters would hear naught 
 of the Anglicised Bishop. At that time the 
 Church at Rouen was at war with the University 
 of Paris, and did not wish one of the members 
 of that University placed over it. 
 
 Joan of Arc's place of capture happened to 
 be in the diocese of Beauvais, and although 
 Cauchon was now only nominally Bishop of 
 Beauvais, he still retained that title. Cauchon 
 now placed himself, body and soul, at the dis- 
 posal of the English, hoping thereby sooner to 
 t obtain the long-coveted Archbishopric of Rouen 
 in exchange for helping his friends to the ut- 
 most in his power by furthering their schemes 
 and in ridding them of their prisoner once and 
 for ever. The bait held out by Winchester 
 and Bedford was the Archbishopric of Rouen, 
 and eagerly did Cauchon seize his prey. What 
 added to his zeal was his wish to gratify base 
 feelings of revenge on those who had thrust 
 him out of his Bishopric of Beauvais, and 
 on her without whose deeds he might have 
 still been living in security in his palatial home 
 there. 
 
 After a consultation with the leaders of the 
 University of Paris, Cauchon arrived at the 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 133 
 
 Burgundian camp before Complegne on the 
 14th of July, and claimed Joan of Arc as 
 prisoner from the keeping of the Duke of 
 Burgundy. Cauchon justified his demand by 
 letters which he had obtained from the doctors 
 of the University, and he made the offer in the 
 name of the child-king of England. The sum 
 handed over for the purchase of the prisoner 
 was 10,000 livres tournois, equivalent to 61,125 
 francs of French money of to-day — about ^2400 
 sterling. This was the ordinary price in that 
 day for the ransom of any prisoner of high 
 rank. Luxembourg, to his shame and that of 
 his order, consented to the sale on those terms, 
 and Cauchon soon returned with the news of 
 his bargain to his English employers. 
 
 The whole transaction sounds more like what 
 one might expect to have occurred amongst an 
 uncivilised nation rather than among a people 
 who prided themselves on their chivalry and 
 their usages of fair-play in matters relating to 
 warfare. That a high dignitary of the Church, 
 and a countryman of Joan of Arc, should have 
 bought her from a prince, the descendant of 
 emperors and kings, also a countryman of the 
 heroic Maid's, for English gold, is bad enough ; 
 and that the so-called ' good ' Duke of Bur- 
 gundy should have been a silent spectator of ^' 
 the mfamous transaction, brands all the actors 
 as among the most sordid and meanest of indi- 
 viduals. But what is infinitely worse is the fact 
 that no steps appear to have been taken by 
 Charles to rescue the Maid, or to attempt an 
 
134 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 exchange of her for any other prisoner or 
 prisoners. 
 
 Thus Joan of Arc, bound literally hand and 
 foot, was led like a lamb to the shambles, not 
 a hand being raised by those for whom she had 
 done such great and noble deeds. 
 
 The University of Paris, whose decisions car- 
 ried so great a weight in the issue of the trial 
 of the Maid of Orleans, consisted at this period 
 of an ecclesiastical body of doctors ; but as far 
 as its attributes consisted it was a body secular, 
 and holding an independent position owing to 
 its many privileges. The University was a 
 political as well as an ecclesiastical body, su- 
 preme under the Pope above the whole of the 
 Galilean Church. Although divided into two 
 parties through the war then raging between 
 England and France, its judicature was greatly 
 influenced by the Church. It was a matter of 
 certainty that the Doctors of Theology who sat 
 in the University of Paris, and who were all, 
 or nearly all, French by birth, would favour the 
 English, and give an adverse decision to that 
 of those French ecclesiastics who had examined 
 into Joan's life and character when assembled 
 at Poitiers, and who then considered her to be 
 acting under the influence and with the protec- 
 tion of the Almighty. 
 
 As a prisoner, Joan of Arc's behaviour was 
 as modest and courageous as it had been in 
 her days of success and liberty. In the first 
 times of her durance, d'Aulon, who, as we men- 
 tioned, had been captured at the same time, 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 135 
 
 appears to have been allowed to remain with 
 her. On his telling her that he feared Com- 
 piegne would now probably be taken by the 
 enemy, Joan of Arc said such a thing could not 
 occur, 'For all the places,' she added, * which 
 the King of Heaven has placed in the keeping 
 of King Charles by my means will never again 
 be retaken by his enemies, at any rate as long 
 as he cares to keep them.' 
 
 Although willing to endure for the sake of 
 her beloved country all the cruelty her enemies 
 could inflict upon her, Joan was most anxious 
 to return in order to continue her mission. 
 While in the castle of Beaulieu she made a 
 desperate attempt to escape. She managed to ^y 
 squeeze herself between two beams of wood 
 placed across an opening in her prison, and 
 was on the point of leaving her dungeon tower 
 when one of the jailers caught sight of her, 
 and she was retaken. Probably in consequence 
 of this attempt, Joan of Arc, after an imprison- 
 ment of four months at Beaulieu, was transferred 
 thence by Ligny to his castle of Beaurevoir, 
 near the town of Cambrai, a place far re- 
 moved from the neighbourhood of the war, and 
 consequently more secure than Beaulieu. At 
 Beaurevoir lived the wife and the aunt of 
 Ligny ; they showed some attention and com- 
 passion to the prisoner. They offered her some 
 of their dresses, and tried to persuade her to 
 quit her male attire. Joan, however, refused : 
 she gave as her reason for not complying with 
 their request that the time had not yet arrived 
 
136 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 for her to cease wearing the clothes she had 
 worn during the time of her mission. That 
 she had good reason not to don woman's attire 
 even when at Beaurevoir, and keep to her male 
 attire as a protection, is probable, as she was 
 not safe from wanton insult at the hands of 
 the rough soldiery placed about her person. 
 This clinging to her male dress, we shall see, 
 under similar circumstances at Rouen, was the 
 principal indictment made against her by her 
 executioners. 
 
 At Beaurevoir Joan of Arc was placed in a 
 chamber at the top of a high tower, whence 
 Ligny thought that no attempt at escape would 
 y/ be made, but Joan of Arc tried once again to 
 recover her liberty. In the course of her trial 
 she told her judges how her voices counselled 
 her not again to make this venture, and of her 
 perplexity whether she should obey them, or, at 
 the risk of her life, escape from the clutches of 
 the English, for at this time she knew that she 
 had been sold to her bitterest foes. 
 
 What appears to have determined her de- 
 cision was hearing that Compiegne was in 
 imminent peril of falling into the hands of the 
 English, and that the inhabitants would be 
 massacred. In her desperation, feeling, like 
 young Arthur, that 
 
 * The wall is high ; and yet will I leap down : — 
 Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not ! . . . 
 As good to die, and go, as die, and stay' 
 
 she knotted some thongs together and let her- 
 self out of a window ; but the thongs broke, and 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 137 
 
 she fell from a great height — the tower is sup- 
 posed to have been no less than sixty feet high. ^ 
 She was found unconscious at its foot, and for 
 several days she was not expected to recover 
 from the injuries she had received. But she 
 was doomed for a far more terrible death. 
 
 For several days Joan of Arc took no nour- 
 ishment. Gradually she revived, and she told 
 her jailers that her beloved Saint Catherine 
 had visited and comforted her ; and she also 
 told them that she knew Compiegne would not 
 be taken, and would be free from its enemies 
 before the Feast of Saint Martin. 
 
 Beaurevoir is now a ruin : although above 
 the lintel can still be seen the coat-of-arms of 
 the jailer of the Maid, the tower in which she 
 was imprisoned, and from which she so nearly 
 met her death, has been destroyed. 
 
 In the month of November of that year 
 (1430), in spite of the entreaties of his wife 
 and aunt, Ligny delivered up his prisoner into 
 the custody of the Duke of Burgundy, from 
 whose keeping she was soon transferred into 
 that of the English. 
 
 On the 20th of November the University 
 of Paris sent a message to Cauchon, advising 
 him to bring Joan of Arc before a tribunal. 
 Cauchon, however, waited the arrival of Win- 
 chester, bringing with him his great-nephew, 
 Henry VI. Winchester arrived with the boy- 
 king on the 2nd of December. The Cardinal 
 intended the function of the crowning of his 
 great-nephew to be as imposing a ceremony 
 
138 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 as possible ; and he also meant, by defaming 
 the source of the French King's successes, to 
 show the French people that Charles' coronation 
 at Rheims had been brought about by what 
 the Regent Bedford called a Mimb of the evil 
 one.' It was, therefore, Bedford's plan that it 
 should be declared before the world that Joan 
 of Arc was inspired by Satanic agencies, and 
 that consequently the French King's coronation 
 was also due to these agencies. By similar 
 means it would be made clear that all the 
 French victories were owing to the same in- 
 fluence ; for were it not, argued the English, 
 they would be proved to have been themselves 
 fighting against and defeated by — not the spirit 
 of evil but — the spirit of righteousness. 
 
 Nothing, indeed, could be clearer than Win- 
 chester's argument. It was now only necessary 
 that Joan of Arc should be at once placed on 
 her trial as a sorceress and a witch — one 
 who was in league with the evil one ; and, 
 when that had been satisfactorily proved, that 
 she should publicly meet with the fate which 
 a merciful Church had, in its infinite wisdom, 
 ordained for such as she. Thus would the 
 English army and people be avenged, and the 
 French King's crown and prerogative suffer an 
 irreparable damage. 
 
 From Beaurevoir, Joan of Arc was first taken 
 to the town of Arras, thence to Crotoy, where, 
 about the 21st of November, she was handed 
 over to the English. 
 
 A chronicler of that day writes that the 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 139 
 
 English rejoiced as greatly on that occasion as 
 if they had received all the wealth of Lombardy. 
 The Duke of Burgundy had never merited the 
 title of 'Good,' which, somehow or other, has 
 been linked with his name. Had he been the 
 most virtuous of princes of any time, he yet 
 deserves to have his memory branded for the 
 part he then took in the sale of Joan of Arc — a 
 transaction whereof the poor excuse of not losing 
 the benefits of his alliance with the English 
 avails nothing. For this, if nothing else, we 
 reverse the good fame which lying history has 
 accorded him. 
 
 In the underground portion of a tower at 
 Crotoy, still to be seen, although the upper 
 part has disappeared, facing the sea, is a door- 
 way, which local tradition points out as that of 
 the dungeon of Joan of Arc. Crotoy, or Le 
 Crotoy, is on the coast of Picardy, a little to 
 the north of Abbeville. In the fifteenth century 
 it was a place of some warlike importance, 
 especially to the English. Its situation near 
 the coast, and the strength of its fortress, made 
 Le Crotoy one of the principal places on the 
 sea line, whence stores and war provender 
 could be carried into France. Le Crotoy had 
 fallen into possession of the English through 
 the marriage of Henry III. with Eleanor of 
 Castille, Countess of Ponthieu, of which Crotoy 
 formed a part. During the hundred years' 
 war, the port could receive vessels of con- 
 siderable tonnage ; and from this point the 
 booty taken by the English could be shipped 
 
I40 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and sent across the Channel. Now but a few 
 vestiges can be traced of Its once strong and 
 ably fortified castle. A few years ago, a statue, 
 representing the Maid of Orleans in the garb 
 of a prisoner, was placed near the ruins of the 
 castle in which she passed most of the month 
 of December, 1430. 
 
 At Crotoy, Joan of Arc was permitted to 
 assist at the celebration of the Mass in the 
 chapel of the castle ; and while here she re- 
 ceived a visit from some of her admirers from 
 Abbeville — a few noble hearts who still re- 
 mained loyal to the once all-powerful deliveress 
 of their country, now a poor and abandoned 
 prisoner on her road to a long imprisonment 
 and a cruel death ! Touched by this mark of 
 sympathy from these Abbeville folk, Joan gave 
 them, on parting from them, her blessing, and 
 asked them to remember her in their prayers. 
 The enlightened clergy and doctors, lay and 
 spiritual, who formed the body known as the 
 University of Paris, preferred that Joan of Arc 
 should be sent to the capital, there to undergo 
 her trial, and wrote to this effect to Bedford, 
 through the name of the boy-king. They also 
 despatched a letter to Cauchon (probably inspired 
 by Bedford), In which they rated him for not 
 bringing the Maid at once to her trial. They 
 told him he was showing a lamentable lax- 
 ness In not Immediately punishing the scandals 
 which had been committed under his jurisdic- 
 tion against the Christian religion. 
 
 Paris was not considered enough of a safe 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL, 141 
 
 place to take Joan of Arc into ; the French lay 
 too near its walls, and the loyalty of its citizens 
 to the English was a doubtful quantity. Besides, 
 it was not convenient that the University of 
 Paris should be allowed the entire direction of 
 the trial. It was well that the University should 
 be made use of; but Cauchon relied on the In- ^ 
 quisition to carry out his and Bedford's plan. 
 Cauchon must be the principal agent and judge, 
 and he felt, with Bedford, that they had a freer \^ 
 hand if the trial were to be at Rouen ; therefore 
 Rouen was decided on as the place of trial and 
 punishment. Rouen, also, being in the midst of 
 the English possessions, was perfectly safe from 
 attack, should it occur to any of Joan of Arc's 
 countrymen to attempt a rescue. 
 
 At the close of December Joan of Arc was 
 taken across the river Somme, in a boat, to 
 Saint Valery, and thence, strongly guarded, and 
 placed on horseback, she was led along the Nor- 
 mandy coast by Eure and Dieppe to the place 
 of her martyrdom. On arriving at Rouen it 
 was seriously debated by some of her captors 
 whether or not she should be at once put to 
 death. They suggested her being sewn into 
 a sack and thrown into the river! The reason 
 these people gave for summarily disposing of 
 Joan of Arc without form or trial was that, as 
 long as she lived, there was no security for 
 the English in France. As has already been 
 noticed, those who commanded and sided with 
 the English were desirous that Joan of Arc 
 should be first branded as a witch and a 
 
142 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 sorceress, both by the doctors of the Church 
 and by the State, before being put to death. 
 
 Arrived at Rouen, Joan of Arc was immured 
 in the old fortress built by Philip Augustus. 
 One tower alone remains of the seven massive 
 round towers which surrounded the circular 
 castle. Her jailers had the barbarity to place 
 v/ their prisoner in an iron cage, in which she 
 was fastened with iron rings and chains, one 
 at the neck, another at the hands, and a third 
 confining the feet. Joan was thus caged as if 
 she were a wild animal until her trial com- 
 menced. After that, she was chained to a 
 miserable truckle bed. 
 
 A chronicler of that time, named Macy, 
 tells the following story of an incident which, for 
 the sake of English manhood, one trusts is un- 
 true. Among others who went to see Joan 
 of Arc in her prison came one day the Earl 
 ^ of Warwick, with Lord Stafford and Ligny — 
 Joan's former jailer. The latter told her in a 
 jeering way that he had come to buy her back 
 from the English, provided she promised never 
 again to make war against them. 
 
 'You are mocking me,' said Joan of Arc. 
 ' For I know that you have not the power to 
 do that, neither the will.' And she added, * I 
 know well that these English will kill me, 
 thinking that by doing so they will reconquer 
 the kingdom of France ; but even if there were 
 one hundred thousand Godons more in France 
 than there are now, they will never again con- 
 quer the kingdom ! ' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 143 
 
 On hearing these words Stafford drew his 
 dagger, and would have struck her had not 
 Warwick prevented the cowardly act. 
 
 Cauchon formed his tribunal of the follow- 
 ing :— 
 
 1. John Graverent, a Dominican priest, D.D., 
 Grand Inquisitor of France. It was he who 
 appointed John Lemaitre as judge in the trial 
 of the Maid. The following July this Grave- 
 rent preached a sermon in Paris, in which he 
 glorified the death of Joan of Arc. 
 
 2. John Lemaitre, who represented the In- 
 quisition on the trial. He was a Dominican 
 prior. He appears to have been a feeble- 
 minded creature, and a mere tool of Cauchon 
 and Graverent. 
 
 3. Martin Bellarme, D.D., another Domini- 
 can, and also a member of the Inquisition. 
 
 4. John d'Estivet, surnamed ' B^n^dicit^,' 
 canon of Beauvais and Bayeux, was another of 
 Cauchon's creatures. He acted the part of 
 Procm^eur-Gdndral during the trial. D'Estivet 
 was a gross and cruel ecclesiastic, and it is 
 somewhat satisfactory to know his end. He 
 was found dead in a muddy ditch soon after 
 Joan of Arc's death. As M. Fab re justly says, ^ 
 ' He perished in his native element' 
 
 5. John de la Fontaine, M.A. He was 
 Conseille d' Instruction during the trial. In the 
 course of it he was threatened by Cauchon 
 for having given some friendly advice to the 
 prisoner, and escaped from Rouen before the 
 conclusion of the trial. 
 
144 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 6, 7, 8. William Manchon, William Colles, 
 and Nicolas Taquel, all three recorders. They 
 belonged to the Church. It is to Manchon 
 that we are indebted for a summary of the 
 most interesting account of the trial. We shall 
 find that at the time of Joan's execution this 
 man was horrified at the part he had taken 
 in it. He confesses his horror at having re- 
 ceived money for his infamy, but instead of 
 casting his blood-money at the feet of Cauchon, 
 and hanging himself like another Judas, he some- 
 what naively informs us that he laid it out in 
 the purchase of a breviary in order to pray for 
 the soul of the martyr. 
 
 9. Massieu, another priest, who acted as the 
 sheriffs officer. He appears to have had feel- 
 ings of humanity, and attended Joan to the end. 
 
 10. Louis de Luxembourg, Bishop of The- 
 rouenne and the Chancellor of France to King 
 Henry VL This bishop was the go-between of 
 Cauchon and Winchester throughout the trial ; 
 but he only appears to have taken part in these 
 occasions during the examinations. It was he 
 who was made Archbishop of Rouen, which 
 post Cauchon had hoped to gain ; and it was 
 for this archbishopric that Cauchon had taken 
 the presiding post during the trial. 
 
 11. John de Mailly, Bishop of Noyon ; he 
 was another staunch auxiliary of Cauchon. In 
 the year 1456, at the trial for the rehabilitation 
 of Joan of Arc's memory, Mailly signed his name 
 among those who condemned the deed he had 
 helped to carry out. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 145 
 
 12. Zanon de Castigllone, Bishop of LIsieux. 
 One of the reasons that this man gave for 
 condemning Joan of Arc to the stake was that 
 she was born in too low a rank of Hfe to have 
 been inspired by God. This decision makes one 
 wonder so aristocratic a prelate could demean 
 himself by belonging to a religion which owed 
 its origin to One who had followed the trade 
 of a carpenter. 
 
 13. Philibert de Montjeu, Bishop of Cou- 
 tances. 
 
 14. John de Saint Av6t, Bishop of Av- 
 ranches. The latter was the only one of the 
 above Bishops, Dominicans, and members of 
 the French Church who gave his vote against 
 the condemnation of Joan of Arc, although the 
 trial minutes have not recorded the fact. 
 
 Besides the above French prelates, were : — 
 
 15. John Beaupere, M.A. and D.D., formerly 
 a rector of the University of Paris, also a 
 canon of Besangon. It was he who, with the 
 following five representatives of the University 
 of Paris, took the most prominent part in the 
 cross-questioning of the prisoner. 
 
 16. Thomas de Courcelles, a canon of 
 Amiens, of Thdrouenne, and of Laon. This 
 person was employed to read the articles of 
 accusation to the prisoner, and was in favour 
 of employing torture to make Joan confess 
 what was required of her by her prosecutors. 
 He was considered one of the shining lights of 
 the University of Paris. He died in 1469, 
 and until the Revolution an engraved slab, on 
 
 K 
 
 «^ 
 
146 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 which his virtues and learning were recorded, 
 covered his remains. 
 
 17. Gerard Feuillet. He was sent to Paris 
 during the trial in order to lay the twelve ar- 
 ticles of accusation before the University, and did 
 not take part in the latter portion of the trial. 
 
 18. Nicolas Midi, D.D., a celebrated preacher. 
 He is supposed to have been the author of the 
 twelve articles ; and he it was who preached a 
 sermon at the time of the execution of Joan of 
 Arc. Attacked soon after by leprosy, he suffi- 
 ciently recovered to see Charles VH. enter 
 Paris ; and he had the audacity to send the 
 King an address of felicitation in the name of 
 the faculties of the University by whose instru- 
 mentality Joan of Arc had been executed. 
 
 19. Peter Morice, a doctor of the University 
 and a canon of Rouen. He was one of the most 
 eager to bring Joan to the stake. 
 
 20. James de Touraine, also a doctor of the 
 University, was violently hostile to Joan of Arc. 
 
 The above six doctors, with Cauchon, were 
 those who had most to do with the proceed- 
 ings of the trial, and those whose duty it was 
 principally to question the prisoner. 
 
 21. Nicolas Loiseleur, M.A., a canon of 
 Rouen ; he was the most abject of all the gang 
 of priests and doctors who formed part of this 
 infamous tribunal. It was Loiseleur who, in the 
 disguise of a layman, attempted to worm secrets 
 from Joan, pretending to be her friend and sym- 
 pathiser. When he found he gained nothing 
 by the subterfuge, he resumed his clerical garb. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 147 
 
 and succeeded in getting, under the promise of 
 secrecy from his order, a confession from the 
 prisoner. He also introduced spies, into the 
 prison who took notes of Joan's words. When 
 the idea was mooted of putting Joan of Arc to 
 the torture, Loiseleur was one of the most urgent 
 for it to be applied. However, on the day of 
 the execution this man, who, strange as it may 
 seem, appears to have had some kind of con- 
 science, or at least to have been able to feel 
 remorse for the base part he had played in 
 the trial of the Maid, implored Joan of Arc's 
 forgiveness. He, however, after the execution, 
 helped Cauchon to spread calumnies regarding 
 their victim. This infamous scoundrel died sud- 
 denly at Basle. 
 
 22. Raoul Roussel de Vernon, D.C.L., and 
 the canon treasurer of the Cathedral of Rouen. 
 He acted throughout the trial as reporter. In 
 1443 Roussel became Archbishop of Rouen. 
 
 23. Robert Barbier, also a D.C.L., and canon 
 of Rouen Cathedral. 
 
 24. Nicolas Coppequesne, also a canon of 
 Rouen Cathedral. 
 
 25. Nicolas de Venderes, a canon of Rouen, 
 and Cauchon's chaplain. 
 
 26. John Alessee, also a canon of Rouen. 
 This Alessee was greatly moved at the heroine's 
 death, and exclaimed, * I pray to God my soul 
 may one day be where hers is now.' 
 
 27. Raoul Auguy, another canon. 
 
 28. William de Baubribosc, also a canon of 
 Rouen. 
 
148 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 29. John Brullot, another canon and pre- 
 centor of Rouen. 
 
 30. John Basset, another canon and a M.A. 
 
 31. John Brullot, another canon. Besides 
 these were seventeen others, named Caval, 
 Columbel, Cormeilles, Crotoy, Duchemin, Dube- 
 sert, Garln, Gastinel, Ledoux, Leroy, Maguerie, 
 Manzier, Morel, Morellet, Pinchon, Saulx, and 
 Pasquier de Vaux, who became Bishop of 
 Meaux, Evreux, and Lisieux. In all, nine-and- 
 twenty canons of Rouen. 
 
 After these came a list of mitred abbots, 
 priors, and heads of religious houses : Peter 
 de Crique, Prior of Sigy ; William Lebourg, 
 Prior of the College of Saint Lo of Rouen ; 
 Peter Migiet, Prior of Longueville. 
 
 After these priors came eleven abbots : 
 Durement, Abbot of Fecamp, later Bishop of 
 Coutances ; Benel, Abbot of Courcelles ; De 
 Conti, Abbot of Sainte Catherine ; Dacier, 
 Abbot of Saint Corneille of Compiegne ; Frique, 
 Abbot of Bee ; Jolivet, Abbot of Saint Michael's 
 Mount in Normandy ; Labb6, Abbot of Saint 
 George de Bocherville; Leroux, Abbot of 
 Jumieges ; Du Masle, Abbot of Saint Ouen ; 
 Moret, Abbot of Pr^aux ; and Theroude, Abbot 
 of Mortemer. 
 
 Besides these there were many doctors and 
 assessors from the University of Paris ; among 
 the latter lot appears the name of an English 
 priest, William Haiton, a secretary of Henry VI. 
 He and William Alnwick, Bishop of Norwich, 
 Privy Seal to the English King, are the only 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 149 
 
 two names belonging to the English clergy 
 who took part in the trial. The Cardinal of 
 Winchester never once appeared during the 
 proceedings, although he was, together with 
 Cauchon, the prime mover in the business. To 
 complete the list of the other French clergy — 
 French only by birth and nationality indeed — 
 must be added the names of Chatillon, Arch- 
 deacon of Evreux ; Erard, Canon of Langres, 
 Laon, and Beauvais ; Martin Ladvenu, a Domi- 
 nican priest, one of the few who showed some 
 humanity to the prisoner. It was Ladvenu who ^ 
 heard her confession on the day of her exe- 
 cution, and who" after her death testified to 
 her saintliness. Isambard de la Pierre, also a *^ 
 Dominican. Although he voted for her death, 
 de la Pierre showed signs of pity and compas- 
 sion for his victim, and assisted her at her last 
 moments. Testimony to her pure character was 
 given by him in the time of her rehabilitation. 
 Besides these were Emenyart, Fiexvet, Guer- 
 don, Le Fevre, Delachambre, and Tiphanie, all of 
 whom, with the exception of the last two, who 
 were doctors of medicine, were members of the 
 University. As we have already stated, out 
 of this vast crowd of ecclesiastics and a few 
 laymen, only two Englishmen took part in the 
 trial. But the immediate guard of the prisoner 
 was composed of English soldiers — namely, of 
 the following : John Gris, an English knight, 
 one of Henrys bodyguard, who was in personal 
 attendance on Joan of Arc ; also John Berwoit 
 (?) and William Talbot, subordinator to Gris. 
 
ISO JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 These men commanded a set of soldiers called 
 kouspilleurs, placed in the cell of the prisoner 
 day and night. According to J. Bellow's pocket 
 dictionary, the term houspilleur is derived from 
 the old French term houspiller — Ang. 'to worry.' 
 And these fellows certainly carried out that 
 meaning of the word. 
 
 If anything is needed to prove what an 
 important case the English and those allied to 
 them in France considered that of Joan of Arc, 
 the great number of prelates and doctors as- 
 sembled to judge her is sufficient to show. 
 The doctors who had been summoned to attend 
 the trial, and who- had come to Rouen from 
 Paris, were well paid by Winchester. Some of 
 the receipts are still in existence. The Inquisi- 
 tion and Cauchon also received pay from the 
 English Government. 
 
 Besides money, as we have said, Cauchon 
 expected also to receive the Archbishopric of 
 Rouen for his zeal in bringing Joan of Arc to 
 the stake. Cupidity, lust of place and power, 
 and fear of the enemies of the French were the 
 principal motives which influenced these men, 
 whose names should for ever be execrated. 
 In truth, a vulgar greed induced them to de- 
 stroy one of the noblest creatures that had 
 ever honoured humanity. 
 
 The pi^oces-verbal and the minutes of the 
 trial were written in Latin, and translated by 
 Thomas de Courcelles ; only a portion of the 
 original translation has been preserved. There 
 were three reporters who took notes during the 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 151 
 
 trial — Manchon, Colles, and Taquel. The notes 
 in Latin, written as the trial proceeded, were 
 collected in the evenings, and translated into 
 French by Manchon. 
 
 One difficult question arises — namely, are 
 these notes to be relied on? Manchon appears 
 to have been honest in his writing, but Cauchon 
 was not to be trifled with in what he wished 
 noted, as the following instance will show. A 
 sheriff's officer, named Massieu, was overheard 
 to say that Joan of Arc had done nothing 
 worthy of the death sentence. It was repeated 
 to Cauchon, who threatened to have Massieu 
 drowned. When Isambert de la Pierre advised 
 Joan to submit herself to the Council then hold- 
 ing meetings at Bale, to which she assented, 
 Cauchon shouted out, * In the devil's name hold 
 your peace!' On being asked by Manchon 
 whether the prisoner's wish to submit her case 
 to the Council at Bale should be placed on the 
 minutes of the trial, Cauchon roughly refused. 
 Joan of Arc overhearing this, said, ' You write ^x 
 down what is against my interest, but not what 
 is in my favour.' But we think the truth comes 
 out, on the whole, pretty clearly; and we have in 
 the answers of Joan to her judges, however much 
 these answers may have been altered to suit 
 Cauchon's views and ultimate object, a splendid 
 proof of her presence of mind and courage. 
 This she maintained day after day in the face 
 of that crowd of enemies who left no stone 
 unturned, no subtlety of law or superstition 
 disused, to bring a charge of guilt against her. 
 
152 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 No victory of arms that Joan of Arc might 
 have accomplished, had her career continued 
 one bright and unclouded success, could have 
 shown in a grander way the greatness of her 
 character than her answers and her bearing 
 during the entire course of her examinations 
 before her implacable enemies, her judicial 
 murderers. 
 
 After holding some preliminary and private 
 meetings, in which Cauchon, with some of the 
 prelates, drew up a series of articles of indict- 
 ment against the prisoner, the first public sitting 
 of the tribunal took place in the chapel of 
 the castle, in the same building in which Joan 
 was imprisoned, 
 y This was on the 21st of February, 1431. 
 
 As we have said, from the day of her arrival in 
 Rouen, at the end of December of the previous 
 year, till this 21st day of February, Joan had 
 been kept in an iron cage — a martyrdom of 
 fifty days' daily and nightly torture. During the 
 trial her confinement was less barbarous, but 
 she was kept chained to a wooden bed, and 
 the only wonder is that she did not succumb 
 to this barbarous imprisonment. We shall see 
 that she fell seriously ill, and the English at 
 one time feared she would die a natural death, 
 and defeat their object of having her exposed 
 and destroyed as a witch and a heretic. 
 
 On the day before the meeting of the tri- 
 bunal, Cauchon sent summonses for all the 
 judges to attend. Joan of Arc had meanwhile 
 made two demands, both of which were re- 
 
IMPRIS ONMENT A ND TRIA L. 153 
 
 fused. One was, that an equal number of 
 clergy belonging to the French party should 
 form an equal number in the tribunal to those 
 of the English faction. The other demand ^ 
 was that she should be allowed to hear Mass 
 before appearing before the tribunal. 
 
 At eight In the morning of Wednesday, the 
 2 1 St of February, Cauchon took his seat as 
 presiding judge for the trial about to com- 
 mence. Beneath him were ranged forty-three 
 assessors — there were ninety-five assessors in 
 all who took part in the trial. On the public 
 days their numbers varied from between forty 
 to sixty. 
 
 The prisoner was led into the chapel by 
 the priest Massieu. Cauchon opened the pro- 
 ceedings with the following harangue : — 
 
 ' This woman,' he said, pointing to Joan of 
 Arc, ' this woman has been seized and ap- 
 prehended some time back, In the territory of 
 our diocese of Beauvais. Numerous acts in- 
 jurious to the orthodox faith have been com- 
 mitted by her, not merely in our diocese, but 
 in many other regions. The public voice which 
 accuses her of such crimes has become known 
 throughout Christendom, and quite recently the 
 high and very Christian Prince, our lord the 
 King, has delivered her up and given her in 
 our custody in order that a trial in the cause of 
 religion shall be made, as it seemeth right and 
 proper. For as much in the eyes of public 
 opinion, and owing to certain matters which 
 have come to our knowledge' — (Cauchon here 
 
154 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 refers to the information that he sought to 
 obtain from Domremy : as nothing could be 
 learnt there but what redounded to Joan of 
 Arc's credit, no further use was made of the in- 
 formation by the Bishop) — 'we have, with the 
 assistance of learned doctors in religious and 
 civil law, called you together in order to 
 examine the said Joan, in order that she be 
 examined on matters relating to faith. There- 
 fore,' he continued, *we desire in this trial that 
 you fill the duty of your office for the preserva- 
 tion and exaltation of the Catholic faith ; and, 
 with the Divine assistance of our Lord, we call 
 upon you to expedite these proceedings for the 
 welfare of your consciences, that you speak the 
 plain and honest truth, without subterfuge or 
 concealment, on all questions that will be made 
 you touching the faith. And in the first place 
 we call upon you to take the oath in the form 
 prescribed. Swear, the hands placed on the 
 Gospels, that you will answer the truth in the 
 questions that will be asked you.' 
 
 The latter words the Bishop had addressed 
 to Joan; who answered that she knew not on 
 what Cauchon would question her. ' Perhaps, 
 she said, * you will ask me things about which 
 I cannot answer you.' 
 
 *Will you swear,' said Cauchon, 'to tell the 
 truth respecting the things which will be asked 
 you concerning the faith, and of which you are 
 cognisant .-^ ' 
 
 * Of all things regarding my family, and what 
 things I have done since coming into France, I 
 
IMPRIS ON MEN T A ND TRIA L. 155 
 
 will gladly answer ; but, as regards the revelation 
 which I have received from God, I have never 
 revealed to any one, except to Charles my King, 
 and I will never reveal these things, even if 
 my head were to be cut off, because my voices 
 have ordered me not to confide these things to 
 any one save the King. But,' she continued, *in 
 eight days' time I shall know whether or not I 
 may be allowed to tell you about them.' 
 
 Cauchon then repeated his question to the 
 prisoner, namely, whether she would answer any 
 questions put to her regarding matters of faith, 
 and the Gospels were placed before her. The 
 prisoner, kneeling, laid her hands upon them, 
 and swore to speak the truth in what was asked 
 her as regarded matters of faith. 
 
 *What is your name?' asked Cauchon. 
 
 J. — ' In my home I was called Jeannette. 
 Since I came to France I was called Joan. I 
 have no surname.' 
 
 C. — * Where were you born ? ' 
 
 J. — *At Domremy, near Greux. The prin- 
 cipal church is at Greux.' 
 
 C. — * What are your parents' names } ' 
 
 J. — * My father's name is James d'Arc ; my 
 mother's, Isabella.' 
 
 C. — 'Where were you baptized?' 
 
 J. — *At Domremy.' 
 
 Cauchon then asked her the names of her 
 god - parents, who baptized her, her age (she 
 was about nineteen), and what her education 
 amounted to. 
 
 * I have learnt,' Joan said, in answer to the 
 
156 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 last question, 'from my mother the Paternoster, 
 the Ave Maria, and the Belief. All that I know 
 has been taught me by my mother.' 
 
 Cauchon then called upon her to repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 In trials for heresy the prisoners had to 
 repeat this prayer before the judges. At the 
 commencement of Joan of Arc's trial the crime 
 of magic was brought against her, but as Cau- 
 chon completely failed to find any evidence for 
 such a charge against his prisoner, he altered 
 \l the charge of magic into one of heresy. It 
 was probably supposed that a heretic would 
 be unable to repeat the prayer and the creed, 
 being under diabolic influence. 
 
 Joan of Arc then asked whether she might 
 make her confession before the tribunal. Cau- 
 chon refused this request, but told her that 
 he would send some one to whom she might 
 confess. He then warned her that if she were 
 to leave her prison she would be condemned 
 as a heretic. Considering the way she was 
 chained to her cell, it sounds strange that 
 Cauchon should fear her flight. 
 
 *I have never,' the Maid said, * given my 
 promise not to attempt to escape if I can.' 
 
 * Have you anything to complain about .'^' 
 asked the Bishop ; and Joan then said how 
 cruelly she was fastened by chains round her 
 body and her feet. Probably, had she then pro- 
 mised not to escape from prison, this severity 
 would have been relaxed, but Joan of Arc 
 had not the spirit to stoop to her persecutors ; 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 157 
 
 she would not give her word not to get free if 
 she could. 'The hope of escape is allowed to ^ 
 every prisoner,' she bravely said. 
 
 At the close of the sitting, John Gris, the 
 English knight who had the chief charge over 
 the prisoner, with the two soldiers Berwoit 
 and Talbot, were called, and took an oath not 
 to allow the prisoner to see any one without 
 Cauchon's permission, and to strictly guard the 
 prisoner. And with that the first day's trial 
 ended. 
 
 Manchon, in his minutes on the day's pro- 
 ceedings, says that shouts and interruptions 
 interfered with the reporters and their notes, 
 and that Joan of Arc was repeatedly interrupted. 
 Cauchon had placed some of his clerks behind 
 the tapestry in the depth of a window of the 
 chapel, whose duty it was to make a garbled \/ 
 copy of Joan of Arc's answers to suit the Bishop. 
 
 Possibly finding the chapel of the castle 
 too small for the number of people present at 
 the trial, the next meeting of the judges was 
 held in a different place, more suitable — namely, 
 in the great hall of the castle. That second 
 day's trial took place on the 22 nd of February. 
 The tribunal consisted of Cauchon and forty- 
 seven assessors. 
 
 Cauchon commenced the proceedings by in- 
 troducing John Lemaitre, vicar of the Inquisi- 
 tion, to the judges, after which Joan was 
 brought into the hall — a splendid chamber used 
 on happier occasions for festivities and Court 
 pageants. 
 
158 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Cauchon again commanded the prisoner to 
 take the oath, as on the first day's trial. She 
 said that she had already once sworn to speak 
 nothing but the truth, and that that should 
 suffice. Cauchon still insisted, and again Joan 
 replied that as far as any question was put to 
 her regarding faith and religion she had pro- 
 mised to answer, but that she could not promise 
 more, and Cauchon failed to get anything more 
 from her. 
 
 The Bishop then applied to one of the doc- 
 tors of theology to examine and cross-question 
 the prisoner. This man's name was Beaupere. 
 
 B. — * In the first place, Joan, I will exhort 
 you to tell the truth, as you have sworn to do, 
 on all that I may have to ask you.* 
 
 J. — *You may ask me questions on which 
 I shall be able to answer you, and on others 
 about which I cannot. If you were well in- 
 formed about me you should wish me out of 
 your power. All that I have done has been 
 the work of revelation.' 
 
 B. — ' How old were you when you left your 
 home?' 
 
 J. — * I do not exactly know.* 
 
 B. — * Did you learn any trade at home ? ' 
 
 J. — 'Yes, to sev/ and to spin, and for that 
 I am not afraid to be matched by any woman 
 in Rouen?' 
 
 B. — 'Did you not once leave your father's 
 house before you left it altogether ? ' 
 
 J. — 'We left for fear of the Burgundians, 
 and I once left my father's house and went to 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 159 
 
 Neufchateau in Lorraine, to visit a woman 
 named La Rousse, where I remained for fifteen 
 days.' 
 
 B. — ' What was your occupation when at 
 home ? ' 
 
 J. — 'When I was with my father I looked 
 after the household affairs, and I went but sel- 
 dom with the sheep and cattle to the fields.' 
 
 B. — 'Did you make your confession every 
 year ? ' 
 
 J. — * Yes, to my curate, and when he was 
 prevented hearing it, to another priest, with my 
 curate's permission. I think on two or three 
 occasions I have confessed to mendicant friars. 
 That happened at Neufchateau. I took the 
 Communion at Easter.' 
 
 B.— ' Have you received the Eucharist at 
 other festivals besides that of Easter ? ' 
 
 Joan of Arc said that what she had already 
 told regarding this question was sufficient. 
 
 ' Passes outre ' is the term she used, not an 
 easy one to translate. Perhaps 'that will suffice' *"" 
 is like it. 
 
 Beaupere now began questioning Joan of 
 Arc regarding 'her voices,' and one can ima- 
 gine how eagerly this portion of the prisoner's 
 examination must have been listened to by all 
 present. 
 
 'When did you first hear the voices?' asked 
 Beaupere. 
 
 'I was thirteen,* answered Joan, *when I ^ 
 first heard a voice coming from God to help 
 me to live well. That first time I was much 
 
i6o JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 alarmed. The voice came to me about mid-day; 
 it was in the summer, and I was in my father's 
 garden.' 
 
 * Had you been fasting?' asked Beaupere. 
 
 J. — 'Yes, I had been fasting.' 
 
 B. — * Had you fasted on the day before ? ' 
 
 J.— 'No, I had not.' 
 
 B. — ' From what direction did the voices 
 come 1 ' 
 
 J. — ' I heard the voice coming from my right 
 — from towards the church.' 
 
 B. — ' Was the voice accompanied with a 
 bright light?' 
 
 J. — * Seldom did I hear it without seeing a 
 bright light. The light came from the same 
 side as did the voice, and it was generally very 
 brilliant. When I came into France I often 
 heard the voices very loud.' 
 
 B. — 'How could you see the light when you 
 say it was at the side ? ' 
 
 To this question Joan gave no direct answer, 
 but she said that when she was in a wood she 
 would hear the voices coming towards her. 
 
 'What,' next asked Beaupere, 'what did 
 you think this voice which manifested itself to 
 you sounded like?' 
 
 J. — ' It seemed to me a very noble voice, 
 and I think it was sent to me by God. When 
 I heard it for the third time I recognised it as 
 being the voice of an angel.' 
 
 B. — ' Could you understand it ? ' 
 
 J. — ' It was always quite clear, and I could 
 easily understand it.* 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. i6i 
 
 B. — * What advice did it give you regarding 
 the salvation of your soul ? ' 
 
 J. — ' It told me to conduct myself well, and 
 to attend the services of the Church regularly ; 
 and it told me that it was necessary that I 
 should go to France.' 
 
 B. — * In what manner of form did the voice 
 appear ? ' 
 
 J. — *As to that I will give you no answer.' 
 
 B. — ' Did that voice solicit you often ? ' 
 
 J. — ' It said to me two or three times a 
 week, '* Leave your village and go to France." ' 
 
 B. — ' Did your father know of your depar- 
 ture } ' 
 
 J. — * He knew nothing about it. The 
 voice said, ''Go to France," so I could not 
 remain at home any longer.' 
 
 B. — ' What else did it say to you ? ' 
 
 J. — ' It told me that I should raise the siege 
 of Orleans.' 
 
 B._*Was that all?' 
 
 J. — * The same voice told me to go to Vau- 
 couleurs, to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of 
 that place, and that he would give me soldiers 
 to accompany me on my journey ; and I 
 answered it, that I was a poor girl who did 
 not know how to ride, neither how to fight.' 
 
 B. — * What did you do then 1 ' 
 
 J. — ' I went to my uncle, and told him that 
 I wished to remain with him for some time, 
 and I lived with him eight days. I then told 
 him that I must go to Vaucouleurs, and he took 
 me there. When I arrived there I recognised 
 
 L 
 
n/ 
 
 162 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Robert de Baudricourt, although it was the 
 first time that I saw him.' 
 
 B. — ' How, then, did you recognise him ? * 
 
 J. — ' I knew him through my voices. They 
 said to me, '*This is the man," and I said to 
 him, ** I must go to France." Twice he re- 
 fused to listen to me. The third time he re- 
 ceived me. The voices had told me this would 
 happen.' 
 
 B. — * Had you not some business with the 
 Duke of Lorraine 1 ' 
 
 J. — 'The Duke ordered that I should be 
 brought to him. I went and said to him, '* I 
 must go to France." The Duke asked me 
 how he should recover his health. I told him 
 I knew nothing about that.' 
 
 B. — * Did you speak much to him about your 
 journey ? ' 
 
 J. — * I told him very little about it. But I 
 asked him to allow his son, with some soldiers, 
 to go to France with me, and that I should 
 pray God to cure him. I had gone to him with 
 a safe conduct. After leaving him I returned 
 to Vaucouleurs.' 
 
 B. — * How were you dressed when you 
 left Vaucouleurs ? ' 
 
 J. — 'When I left Vaucouleurs I wore a 
 man's dress. I had on a sword which Robert 
 de Baudricourt had given me, without any 
 other arms. I was accompanied by a knight, a 
 squire, and four servants. We went to the 
 town of Saint Urban, and I passed that night 
 in the abbey. On the way, we passed through 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 163 
 
 the town of Auxerre, where I attended mass in 
 the principal church. At that time I heard my 
 voices often, with that one of which I have al- 
 ready spoken.' 
 
 B. — 'Tell me, now, by whose advice did you 
 come to wear the dress of a man .-^ * 
 
 Joan of Arc refused to answer, in spite of 
 being repeatedly told to do so. 
 
 B. — * What did Baudricourt say to you when 
 you left ? ' 
 
 J. — ' He made them who went with me 
 promise to take charge of me, and as I left he 
 said, '' Go, and let come what may ! " ' {Ad- 
 vienne que pourra /) 
 
 B. — 'What do you know regarding the 
 Duke of Orleans, now a prisoner in England ? ' 
 
 J. — ' I know that God protects the Duke 
 of Orleans, and I have had more revelations 
 about the Duke than about any other person 
 in the world, with the exception of the King.' 
 
 She was now again asked as to who it was 
 who had advised her to wear male attire. She 
 said it was necessary that she should dress in 
 that manner. 
 
 ' Did your voice tell you so ? ' was asked her. 
 
 ' I believe my voice gave me good advice,' 
 she answered. 
 
 B. — 'What did you do on arriving at 
 Orleans?' 
 
 J. — ' I sent a letter to the English before 
 Orleans. In it I told them to depart ; a copy 
 of this letter has been read to me here in 
 Rouen. There are two or three sentences in 
 
I64 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 that copy which were not in my letter. For 
 instance, "Give back to the Maiden" should 
 read, "Give back to the King." Also these 
 words, "Troop for troop" and "Commander-in- 
 chief," which were not in my letters.' 
 
 In this Joan of Arc was mistaken, M. 
 Fabre points out in his Life of the Maid of 
 Orleans, the text being the same both in the 
 original and in the copy of the letter. 
 
 B. — * When at Chinon, could you see as 
 often as you wished him you call your King ? ' 
 
 J. — * I used to go whenever I wished to 
 see my King. When I arrived at the village 
 of Sainte Catherine de Fierbois, I sent a 
 messenger to Chinon to the King. We ar- 
 rived about mid-day at Chinon, and lodged at 
 an inn. After dinner I went to see the King 
 at the castle.' 
 
 Either here Joan of Arc, or the reporter, 
 which is more likely, makes a slip, as she did 
 not see Charles till two days after her arrival 
 at Chinon. 
 
 B. — ' Who pointed out the King to you } ' 
 
 J. — * When I entered the chamber I re- 
 cognised the King from among all the others, 
 my voices having revealed him to me. I told 
 the King that I wished to go and make war 
 on the English.' 
 
 B. — 'When your voices revealed your King 
 to you, were they accompanied by any light.'*' 
 
 Joan made no answer. 
 
 B. — * Did you see any angel above the 
 figure of the King?' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 165 
 
 'Spare me such questions,' pleaded Joan; 
 but the Inquisitor was not to be so easily- 
 put off, and repeated the question again and 
 again, until Joan said that the King had also 
 seen visions and heard revelations. 
 
 * What were these revelations ? ' asked the 
 priest. 
 
 This Joan refused to answer, and told 
 Beaupere that he might, if he liked, send to 
 Charles and ask him. 
 
 * Did you expect the King to see you ? ' 
 then asked the priest. 
 
 Her answer was that the voice had promised 
 her that the King would soon see her after 
 her arrival. 
 
 *And why,' asked Beaupere, 'did he 
 receive you ? ' 
 
 'Those on my side,' said Joan, 'knew well 
 that I was sent by God; they have known 
 and acknowledged that voice.' 
 
 ' Who ? ' asked Beaupere. 
 
 'The King and others,' answered Joan, 'have 
 heard the voices coming to me. Charles of 
 Bourbon also, and two or three others.' 
 
 (The Charles of Bourbon was the Count 
 of Clermont.) 
 
 'Did you often hear that voice?' asked 
 the priest. 
 
 'Not a day passes that I do not hear it,' 
 Joan replied. 
 
 'What do you ask of it?' inquired Beaupere. 
 
 'I have never,' answered Joan, 'asked for 
 any recompense, except the salvation of my soul.' 
 
i66 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 * Did the voice always encourage you to 
 follow the army ? ' 
 
 'The voice told me to remain at Saint 
 Denis. I wished to remain, but against my 
 will the knights obliged me to leave. I would 
 have remained had I had my free-will. ' 
 
 'When were you wounded.^' asked Beaupere. 
 
 *I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'in the 
 moat before Paris, having gone there from 
 Saint Denis. At the end of five days I re- 
 covered.' 
 
 ' What did you attempt to do against 
 Paris?' 
 
 Joan answered that she had made one 
 skirmish [escarmoMcke) in front of Paris. 
 
 ' Was it on a feast day ? ' asked the priest. 
 
 ' It was,' replied Joan. And on being 
 asked if she considered it right to make an 
 attack on such a day, she refused to answer. 
 
 It is plain that the gist of those questions 
 made by Beaupere was to try and make Joan 
 of Arc avow that her voices had given her 
 evil counsel. On the following day the same 
 tactics were pursued. 
 
 The third meeting of the tribunal was 
 held on the 24th of February, in the same 
 chamber. Sixty-two assessors were present. 
 Again Cauchon commenced by admonishing 
 Joan to tell the truth on all subjects asked 
 her, and again she protested that as far as her 
 revelations were concerned she could give no 
 answers. On Cauchon insisting, she said, 'Take 
 care what you, who are my judge, undertake, 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 167 
 
 for you take a terrible responsibility on your- 
 self, and you presume too far. It is enough,' 
 she added, *that I have already twice taken 
 the oath.' 
 
 Upon her saying this, Cauchon lost all 
 control, and he stormed and threatened her 
 with instant condemnation if she refused to 
 take the oath. 
 
 'All the clergy in Paris and Rouen could 
 not condemn me,' was the proud answer, 'if 
 they had not the right to do so.' But, as on 
 the previous occasions, she said she would 
 willingly answer all questions relating to her 
 deeds since leaving her home, but that it 
 would take many days for her to tell them 
 all. Wearied with the persistence and threats 
 of her arch-tormentor, Cauchon, Joan said that 
 she had been sent by' God and wished to 
 return to God. * I have nothing more to do 
 here,' she added. 
 
 Beaupere was again ordered to cross-examine 
 the prisoner. 
 
 He began by asking her when she had 
 last eaten. 
 
 ' Not since yesterday at mid-day,' she said. 
 (It was then Lent.) 
 
 Beaupere then began again to question her 
 regarding the voice. When had she last heard 
 it.^ 
 
 'On the previous day,' Joan said, 'and also 
 on that day too.' 
 
 'At what o'clock of the day before?' 
 
 Thrice she had heard the voice in the 
 
i68 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 morning, and once at the hour of Vespers, 
 and again when the Ave Maria was being 
 sung. 
 
 'What were you doing,' asked Beaupere, 
 ' when the voices called you ? ' 
 
 *I was sleeping,' answered Joan, 'and the 
 voice awoke me.' 
 
 * Did it awake you by touching your arm ? ' 
 ' The voice awoke me without its touching me.' 
 
 * Was it in your room ? ' 
 
 * Not that I know, but it was in the castle.' 
 ' Did you acknowledge it by kneeling ? ' 
 
 * I acknowledged its presence by sitting up 
 and clasping my hands. I had begged for its 
 help.' 
 
 *And what did it say to you?' 
 
 ' It told me to answer boldly.' 
 
 'Tell us more clearly what it said to you.' 
 
 'I asked its advice in what I should answer, 
 and bade it ask the Saviour for counsel. And 
 the voice said, "Answer boldly; God will help 
 you. 
 
 * Had it said anything to you before you 
 interrupted it ? ' 
 
 ' Some words it had said which I did not 
 clearly comprehend ; but when fully awake I 
 understood it to tell me to answer boldly.' 
 Then, emboldened as it seemed by the recollec- 
 tion of that voice, she turned to Cauchon and 
 exclaimed, ' You, Bishop, you tell me that you 
 are my judge — have a care how you act, for 
 in truth I am sent by God, and your position 
 is one of great peril.' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 169 
 
 Then Beaupere broke in again, and asked 
 Joan of Arc if the voice had ever altered its 
 advice, and whether it had told Joan not to 
 answer all the questions that would be put to her. 
 
 'I cannot answer you about that,' said Joan. 
 ' I have revelations of matters concerning the 
 King which I shall not reveal.' 
 
 The Maid then asked whether she might 
 wait for fifteen days, in order that, by that 
 time, she might know whether she might, or 
 might not, answer questions relating to this point. 
 
 The priest then asked whether she knew 
 that the voice came from God. 
 
 'Yes,' she answered, *and by this order — 
 that,' she continued, * I believe as firmly as I 
 believe the Christian religion, and that God 
 has saved us from the pains of hell.' 
 
 She was then asked if the voice was that 
 of a male or of a female. 
 
 'It is a voice sent by God,' she only 
 deigned to say to this. 
 
 Joan again asked for an interval of fifteen 
 days, in order that she might better be able 
 in that time to know how much she might 
 reveal to her judges relating to her voices. 
 
 On being asked whether she believed the 
 Almighty would be displeased at her telling 
 the whole truth, she said that she had been 
 ordered by the voices to reveal certain things 
 to the King, and not to her judges ; that her 
 voices had told her that very night many things 
 for the good of the King which he alone was 
 to know. 
 
I70 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 But, asked Beaupere, could she not prevail 
 on the voices to visit the King? 
 
 * I know not if the voices would consent,' 
 she answered. 
 
 * But why,' then asked Beaupere, * does 
 the voice not speak to the King now, as it 
 did formerly, when you were with him ? ' 
 
 * I know not if it be the wish of God,' Joan 
 / answered : * without the grace of God I should 
 
 be able to do nothing.' 
 
 This remark, most innocent to our compre- 
 hension, was afterwards made use of as a v/eapon 
 to accuse the prisoner of the charge of heresy. 
 
 Later on in the day Beaupere asked Joan 
 if the voice had form and features. This the 
 prisoner refused to answer. 
 
 'There is a saying among children,' she 
 said, *that one is sometimes hanged for speak- 
 ing the truth.' 
 
 On being asked by Beaupere if she was 
 sure of being in a state of grace — a question to 
 which he had carefully led up, and whereby 
 Cauchon hoped to entrap her into a state- 
 ment which might be used in the accusation 
 of heresy he was now framing against Joan 
 of Arc — her answer even disarmed the Bishop. 
 
 * If I am not, may God place me in it ; if I 
 am already, may He keep me in it.' 
 
 When that test question had been put to 
 the prisoner, one of the judges, guessing the 
 object of its being made, expostulated, to 
 Cauchon's rage — who roughly bade him hold 
 his peace. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 171 
 
 To that triumphant reply Joan of Arc added 
 these words : * If I am not in God's grace I 
 should be the most unhappy being in the 
 world, and I do not think, were I living in sin, 
 that my voices would come to me. Would,' 
 she cried, 'that every one could hear them as 
 well as I do myself!' 
 
 Beaupere then asked her about her child- 
 hood, and when she had first heard the voices. 
 Asked if there were many people at Dom- 
 remy in favour of the Burgundians, she said 
 she only knew of one individual. Then came 
 a string of questions about the fairy-well, the 
 haunted oak-tree. All these questions Joan fully 
 answered. She had never, she said, seen a 
 fairy, nor had she heard the prophecy about 
 the oak wood from which a maid was to come 
 and deliver France. When asked if she would 
 leave off wearing man's clothes, she said she 
 would not, as it was the will of Heaven for 
 her to wear them. 
 
 The fourth day of the trial was the 27th 
 of February. Fifty-three judges were present. 
 The usual attempt to make Joan take the oath 
 was made to the prisoner by Cauchon, and she 
 was again cross-examined by Beaupere. Again 
 questioned as to her voices, she said that with- 
 out their permission she could not say what 
 they said to her relating to the King. 
 
 Asked if the voices came to her direct from 
 God, or through some intermediary channel, she 
 answered, 'The voices are those of Saint Cathe- 
 rine and Saint Margaret; they wear beautiful 
 
v/ 
 
 172 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 crowns — of this I may speak, for they allow 
 me to do so.' If, she added, her words were 
 doubted, they might send to Poitiers, where she 
 had already been questioned on the same sub- 
 ject. 
 
 * How do you distinguish one from the 
 other ? ' asked Beaupere. 
 
 'By the manner in which they salute me,' 
 Joan answered. 
 
 ' How long have they been in communica- 
 tion with you .^ ' 
 
 * I have been under their protection seven 
 years,' was the answer. 
 
 Joan had referred to the succour which she 
 had received from Saint Michel. On being 
 asked which of these saints was the first to 
 appear to her, she said it was the last named. 
 She had seen him, she said, as clearly as she 
 saw Beaupere, and that he was not by himself, 
 but in a company of angels. When he left her 
 she felt miserable, and longed to have been 
 taken with the flight of angels. 
 
 When Beaupere asked her if it was her own 
 idea to come into France, Joan replied in the 
 affirmative, and also that she would sooner have 
 been torn to pieces by horses than have come 
 without the will of God. 
 
 * Does He,* asked the priest, 'tell you not 
 to wear the man's dress? and had not Bau- 
 dricourt,' he added, 'wished she should dress as 
 a man ? ' 
 
 She said it was not by man's but by God's 
 orders that she wore the dress of a man. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL, 173 
 
 The questions again turned upon the vision 
 and the voice. 
 
 Had an angel appeared above the head of 
 the King at Chinon? 
 
 She answered that when she entered the 
 King's presence, three hundred soldiers stood 
 in the hall, and fifty torches burnt in the great 
 hall of the castle, and that without counting 
 the spiritual light within. 
 
 She was then asked respecting her exami- 
 nation before the clergy at Poitiers. 
 
 'They believed,' Joan answered, 'that there 
 was nothing in me against matters of religion.' 
 
 Then Beaupere asked the prisoner if she 
 had visited Sainte Catherine de Fierbois. 
 
 'Yes,' she answered; 'I heard mass there 
 twice in one day, on my way to Chinon.' 
 
 ' How did you communicate your message 
 to the King ? ' 
 
 ' I sent a letter asking him if I might be 
 allowed to see him. That I had come one 
 hundred and fifty miles to bring him assistance, 
 and that I had much to do for him. I think,' 
 she added, ' that I also said I should know 
 him amongst all those who might be present.' 
 
 ' Did you then wear a sword 1 ' asked 
 Beaupere. 
 
 ' I had one that I had taken at Vaucouleurs.' 
 
 ' Had you not another one as well '^ ' 
 
 * Yes ; I had sent to the church of Fierbois, 
 either from Troyes or Chinon, for a sword 
 from the back of the altar of Sainte Catherine. 
 It was found, much rusted.' 
 
V 
 
 174 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 * How did you know there was a sword 
 there ? ' 
 
 'Through my voices. I asked in a letter 
 that the sword should be given me, and the 
 clergy sent me it. It lay underground — I am 
 not certain whether at the front or at the back 
 of the altar. It was cleaned by the people 
 belonging to the church. They had a scabbard 
 made for me ; also one was made at Tours — 
 v/' one of velvet, the other of black cloth. I 
 had also a third one for the Fierbois sword 
 made of very strong leather.' 
 
 *Were you wearing that sword,' asked 
 Beaupere, 'when you were captured.'*' 
 
 ' No, I had not one then ; I used to wear 
 it constantly up to the time that I left Saint 
 Denis, after the assault on Paris.' 
 
 ' What benediction did you bestow on that 
 sword "^ ' 
 
 * None,' said Joan ; and she added, on being 
 questioned as to her feeling about the sword, 
 that she had a particular liking for it, from its 
 having been found in the Church of Sainte 
 Catherine, her favourite saint. 
 
 Then Beaupere inquired whether Joan was 
 not in the habit of placing this sword on the 
 altar, in order to bring it good luck. 
 
 Joan answered in the negative. 
 
 'But then,' the priest asked, 'had she not 
 prayed that it might bring her good fortune.-*' 
 
 'It is enough to know,' answered Joan, 
 'that I wished my armour might bring me 
 good fortune.' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 175 
 
 ' What had become of the Fierbois sword ? ' 
 asked the priest. 
 
 ' I offered up at Saint Denis,' answered 
 Joan, ' a sword and some armour, but not the 
 Fierbois sword.' 
 
 * Had you it when at Lagny?* asked 
 Beaupere.' 
 
 * Yes,' answered the prisoner. 
 
 But between the time passed at Lagny and 
 Compiegne she wore another sword, taken from 
 a Burgundian soldier, which she said was a good 
 weapon, able to deal shrewd blows. But she 
 woi|ld not satisfy Beaupere's curiosity as to what 
 had become of the sword of Fierbois: 'That,' 
 she said, 'has nothing to do with the trial.' 
 
 Beaupere next inquired as to what had 
 become of Joan of Arc's goods. 
 
 She said her brother had her horses and 
 her goods ; she said she believed the latter 
 amounted to some twelve thousand dcus. 
 
 'Had you not,' asked the priest, 'when 
 you went to Orleans, a banner or pennon? Of 
 what colour was that 1 ' 
 
 ' My banner had a field all covered with 
 fleurs-de-lis. In it was represented the world, 
 with angels on either side. It was white, made 
 of white cloth, of a kind called coucassin. On 
 it was written Jesu Maria. It was bordered 
 with silk.' 
 
 'Which were you fondest of?' asked Beau- 
 pere, — ' your banner or your sword ? ' 
 
 'I loved my banner,' was the answer, 'forty 
 times as much as I did my sword.' 
 
176 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 * Who painted your banner ? ' 
 This Joan would not say. 
 
 'Who bore your flag?' asked the priest. 
 
 Joan of Arc said she carried it herself when 
 charging the enemy, *in order,' she added, *to 
 avoid killing any one. I never killed any one,' 
 she said. 
 
 * How many soldiers did the King give 
 you,' asked the priest, 'when he gave you a 
 command ? ' 
 
 * Between ten and twelve thousand men,' 
 answered Joan. 
 
 Then Beaupere questioned her regarding 
 the relief of Orleans, and he was told by 
 the Maid that she first went to the redoubt 
 of Saint Loup by the bridge. 
 
 ' Did you expect,' was the next question, 
 * that you would be able to raise the siege t ' 
 
 ' Yes,' she was certain, Joan answered, from 
 a revelation which she had received, and of 
 which she had told the King before making 
 the expedition. 
 
 *At the time of the assault,' asked Beau- 
 pere, 'did you not tell your soldiers that you 
 alone would receive all the arrows, bolts, and 
 stones discharged by the cannon and culverins?' 
 
 'No,' she answered, 'there were over a 
 hundred wounded ; but,' she added, ' I said to 
 my people, " Be assured that you will raise the 
 siege." ' 
 
 ' Were you wounded ? ' asked the priest. 
 
 'I was wounded,' Joan answered, 'at the 
 assault of the fortress on the bridge. I was 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 177 
 
 struck and wounded by an arrow or a dart ; but 
 I received much comfort from Saint Catherine, 
 and I recovered in less than fifteen days. I 
 recovered, and in spite of the wound I did 
 not give up riding or working.' 
 
 ' Did you know beforehand that you would 
 be wounded ? ' asked Beaupere. 
 
 'Yes,' was the answer; 'and I had told my 
 King I should be wounded. My saints had told 
 me of it' 
 
 'In what manner were you wounded .f*' he 
 asked. 
 
 ' I was,' she answered, ' the first to raise 
 a ladder against the fortress at the bridge. 
 While raising the ladder I was struck by the 
 bolt.' 
 
 'Why,' now asked the priest, 'did you not 
 come to terms with the English captains at 
 Jargeau ? ' 
 
 'The knights about me,' she answered, 'told 
 the English that they could not have a truce 
 of fifteen days, which they wanted ; but that 
 they and their horses must leave the place at 
 once.' 
 
 ' And what did you say '^. ' 
 ' I told them that if they left the place 
 with their side arms {j)etites cottes) their lives 
 would be spared. If not, that Jargeau would 
 be stormed.' 
 
 ' Had you then consulted your voices to 
 know whether you should accord them that 
 delay or not ? ' 
 
 Joan did not remember. 
 
 M 
 
178 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 Here closed the fourth day's trial. 
 
 The fifth day of the trial took place on the 
 I St of March. Fifty- eight judges were present. 
 
 The opening proceedings were the same as 
 on the former occasions, and Joan of Arc 
 again professed her willingness to answer all 
 questions put to her regarding her deeds as 
 readily as if she were in the presence of the 
 Pope of Rome himself; but, as formerly, she 
 gave no promise of revealing what her voices 
 had told her. 
 
 Beaupere caught immediately at the oppor- 
 tunity of her having spoken of the Pope to 
 lay a pitfall in her path : Which Pope did she 
 believe the authentic one — he at Avignon or the 
 one in Rome.^^ 
 
 * Are there two } ' she asked. This was an 
 awkward question to those bishops and doctors 
 of the faith who had for so long a time en- 
 couraged the schism In the Church. 
 
 Beaupere evaded the question, and asked 
 her if it were true that she had received a 
 letter from the Count of Armagnac asking her 
 which of the two Popes he was bound to obey. 
 
 A copy of this letter was produced, as well as 
 the one sent by Joan of Arc in reply. 
 
 When she sent her answer, the Maid said, 
 she was about to mount her horse, and had 
 told him she would be able better to answer 
 his question when at rest in Paris or elsewhere. 
 The copy of her letter which was now read, 
 Joan said, did not quite agree with that she 
 had sent to Armagnac. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 179 
 
 'She had not,' Joan added, 'said in her 
 letter that what she knew was by the inspira- 
 tion of Heaven.' 
 
 Again pressed as to which of the two Popes 
 she believed the true one, she said that the one 
 then in Rome was to her that one. 
 
 Questioned regarding her letter to the Eng- 
 lish before Orleans, she acknowledged the ac- 
 curateness of the copy produced, with the 
 exception of a slight mistake. She retracted 
 nothing regarding this letter, and declared that 
 the English would, ere seven years were passed v" 
 from that time, give a more striking proof of 
 their loss of power in France than that which 
 they had shown before Orleans. This predic- 
 tion was literally carried out when, in 1436, 
 Paris opened its gates to Charles VII., the loss 
 of the capital being shortly after followed by 
 the loss of all the other English conquests, 
 with the exception of the town of Calais — the 
 gains of a century of war being snatched from 
 them in a score of years. 
 
 'They will meet,' said Joan of Arc, 'with 
 greater reverses than have yet befallen them.' 
 
 When she was asked what made her speak 
 thus, she answered that these things had been 
 revealed to her. The examination again turned 
 upon her voices and apparitions. 
 
 ' Do they always appear to you in the same 
 dress ^ Always in the same form, and richly 
 crowned "^ ' 
 
 Similar foolish questions were then put to 
 her. Had the saints long hair.-* She did not 
 
i8o JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 know. And what language did they converse 
 in with her? 
 
 'Their language,' she replied, 'is good and 
 beautiful.' 
 
 * What sort of voices were theirs ? ' 
 
 'They speak to me in soft and beautiful 
 French voices,' she said. 
 
 ' Does not Saint Margaret speak in English ? ' 
 
 ' How should she,' was the answer, ' when 
 she is not on the side of the English .'* ' 
 
 ' Do they wear ear-rings } ' 
 
 This Joan could not say ; but the idiotic 
 question reminded the prisoner that Cauchon 
 had taken a ring from her. She had worn two 
 / — one had been taken by the Burgundians when 
 she was captured, the other by the Bishop. The 
 former had been given her by her parents, the 
 latter by one of her brothers. This ring she 
 asked Cauchon to give the Church. 
 
 'Had she not,' she was asked, 'made use of 
 these rings to heal the sick ? ' 
 
 She had never done so. 
 
 It is very easy throughout all these question- 
 ings to see how eager Cauchon and the other 
 judges were to find some acknowledgment from 
 the lips of Joan of Arc, upon which they could 
 found a charge of heresy against her. Her 
 visions were distorted by them into a proof 
 of infernal agency ; even the harmless super- 
 stitions of her village home did not escape 
 beino; turned into idolatrous and infernal matters 
 of belief. 
 
 Had not her saints, questioned the Bishop, 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. i8i 
 
 appeared to her beneath the haunted oak of 
 Domremy ? — and what had they promised her 
 besides the re-establishment of Charles upon 
 the throne ? 
 
 *They promised,' she answered, *to take me 
 with them to Paradise, which I had prayed them 
 to do.' 
 
 ' Nothing more ? ' queried Cauchon. 
 
 * If they made me another promise,' Joan 
 replied, ' I am not at liberty to say what that 
 promise is till three months are past' 
 
 * Did they say that you would be free in 
 three months' time ? ' 
 
 That question remained unanswered, but be- 
 fore those three months had passed, the heroine 
 had been delivered by death from all earthly 
 sufferings. 
 
 She was again minutely questioned regard- 
 ing the superstitions of her country. Was there 
 not growing there a certain fabulous plant, 
 called Mandragora .»* Joan of Arc knew no- 
 thing regarding such a plant — had never seen it, 
 and did not know the use of it. Again the 
 apparitions were brought forward. 
 
 'What was Saint Michel like? Was he 
 clothed ? ' 
 
 * Do you think,' was the answer to this 
 question, which could only have occurred to a 
 foul-minded priest, * do you think that God 
 cannot clothe him ? ' 
 
 Other absurd questions followed — as to his 
 hair; long or short? Had he a pair of scales 
 with him? As before, Joan of Arc answered 
 
 \^ 
 
i82 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 these futile, and sometimes indecent, questions 
 with her wonderful patience. At one moment 
 she could not help exclaiming how supremely 
 happy the sight of her saints made her ; it 
 seemed as if a sudden vision of her beloved 
 saints had been vouchsafed her in the midst 
 of that crowd of persecuting priests. 
 
 She was again told to tell what the sign 
 or secret was which she had revealed to the 
 King on first seeing him at Chinon ; but about 
 this she was firm as adamant, and refused to 
 give any information. To reveal that sign or 
 secret would, she felt, be not only a breach of 
 confidence and disloyalty between her and her 
 King, but a crime to divulge a sacred secret, 
 which Charles kept sealed in his breast, and 
 which she was determined to utter to no one, 
 and least of all to his enemies. 
 
 * I have already said,' she told her judges, 
 *that you will have nothing from me about 
 that. Go and ask the King ! ' 
 
 Then followed questions as to the fashion 
 of the crown that the King had worn at 
 Rheims : which brought the fifth day of the 
 trial to a close. 
 
 The sixth and last day's public examina- 
 tion took place on the 3rd of March, forty-two 
 judges present. The long series of questions 
 were nearly all relating to the appearance of 
 the saints. Both questions and answers were 
 nearly the same as on the previous occasions, 
 and little more information was got from the 
 prisoner. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 183 
 
 After these, the subject of her dress — what 
 she then wore, and what she had worn — was 
 entered upon. 
 
 *When you came to the King,' she was 
 asked, 'did he not inquire if your change in 
 dress was owing to a revelation or not ? ' 
 
 *I have already answered,' said Joan, 'that 
 I do not remember if he asked me. This 
 evidence was made known when I was at 
 Poitiers.' 
 
 'And the doctors who examined you,' asked 
 Beaupere, *at Poitiers, did they not want to 
 know regarding your being dressed in man's 
 clothes ? ' 
 
 ' I don't remember,' she answered ; ' but 
 they asked me when I had first begun to 
 wear man's dress, and I told them that it was 
 when I was at Vaucouleurs.' 
 
 She was then asked whether the Queen 
 had not asked her to leave off wearing male 
 clothes. She answered that that had nothing 
 to do with the trial. 
 
 * But,' next inquired Beaupere, *when you 
 were at the castle of Beaurevoir, did not the 
 ladies there ask you to do so?' 
 
 *Yes,' was the answer, 'and they offered 
 to give me a woman's dress. But the time 
 had not yet come.' She would, she added, 
 have yielded sooner to the wishes of those 
 ladies than to those of any other, the Queen 
 excepted. 
 
 The subject of the flags and banners used by 
 her during her campaigns was now entered on. 
 
>/ 
 
 i84 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Had her standards not been copied by the 
 men-at-arms ? 
 
 'They did so at their pleasures,' she an- 
 swered. 
 
 *Of what material was the banner made? 
 If the poles were broken, were they renewed?' 
 
 'They were,' she answered, 'when broken.' 
 
 'Did you not,' asked Beaupere, 'say that 
 the flags made like your banners were of 
 good augury ? ' 
 
 'What I said,' answered Joan, 'to my 
 soldiers was, that they should attack the enemy 
 with boldness.' 
 
 * Did you not sprinkle holy water on the 
 banners ? ' 
 
 To this question Joan refused to answer. 
 
 Next she was questioned about a certain 
 Friar Richard, the preaching friar who had 
 seen her at Troyes. She answered that he 
 came to her making the sign of the Cross, 
 and that she told him to come up to her with- 
 out fear. 
 
 She was asked if it was true that she had 
 pictures painted of herself in the likeness of a 
 saint. 
 
 'When at Arras,' she answered, 'she had 
 seen a portrait of herself, in which she was 
 represented kneeling before the King and pre- 
 senting him with a letter.' 
 
 ' But was there not a picture of you,' asked 
 Beaupere, 'in your host's house at Orleans?' 
 
 Joan of Arc knew nothing regarding such 
 a picture. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 185 
 
 * Did you not know,' was the next ques- 
 tion put, 'that your partisans had prayers and 
 masses said in your honour ? ' 
 
 * If they did so,' she answered, ' it was not 
 by my wish ; but if they prayed for me,' she 
 added, ' there was no harm in so doing.' 
 
 She was then asked what her opinion was 
 regarding the people who kissed her hands and ^ 
 her feet, and even her clothes. She answered 
 that, inasmuch as she could, she prevented them 
 doing so ; but she acknowledged that the poor 
 people flocked eagerly around her, and that she 
 gave them all the assistance in her power. 
 
 She was next asked if she had not stood 
 sponsor to some children baptized at Rheims. 
 
 'Not at Rheims,' she said; but she had for 
 one child at Troyes. She had also stood sponsor 
 for two children at Saint Denis, and she had 
 gladly had the boy christened by the name of 
 Charles in honour of the King, and the girl 
 Joan, as it pleased their mothers. 
 
 * Did the women not touch your rings and 
 charms ? ' 
 
 'Many,' she answered, 'were wont to touch 
 both my hands and my rings ; but I know not 
 with what intention.' 
 
 ' Did she not receive the sacrament and con- 
 fess herself as she passed through the country.^' 
 
 * Often,' she answered. 
 
 'And did you,' asked the priest, 'receive 
 the sacrament in your male attire ? ' 
 
 'Yes,' she said; 'but not, if I recollect right, i/^ 
 when wearing my armour.' 
 
i86 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 This confession of having received the 
 Eucharist in her male dress was made one 
 of the accusations of sacrilege by Joan of Arcs 
 judges. 
 
 She was next questioned about a horse she 
 had bought from the Bishop of Senlis, and 
 ridden in battle. 
 
 The next point related to the supposed 
 miraculous resurrection — a very temporary one 
 ^ however — of an infant three days old at Lagny. 
 When Joan was in that place, this child ap- 
 peared to have died, and was put before the 
 image of the Virgin, in front of which some 
 young women were kneeling. Joan of Arc 
 joined them in their prayers, upon which it 
 was noticed that the supposed dead infant gave 
 some signs of life ; he or she was baptized, 
 and soon after expired. Joan of Arc had 
 never for a moment supposed that it was 
 owing to her presence and her prayers that 
 this miracle had occurred. 
 
 *But,' asked Beaupere, 'was it not the 
 common talk of the town of Lagny that you 
 had performed this miracle, and had been the 
 means of restoring the infant to life.'^' 
 
 * I did not inquire,' she said. 
 
 She was then asked about the woman, 
 V Catherine de la Rochelle, whom, it may be re- 
 membered, Joan had discovered to be a vulgar 
 impostor, and whom she had tried to dissuade 
 from making people believe that she could dis- 
 cover hidden treasures, advising her to return 
 to her husband and her children. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 187 
 
 Next she was asked why she had tried to 
 escape from her prison tower at Beaurevoir. 
 She said that she had made the attempt, 
 although against the warning of her voices, 
 which had counselled her to have patience — 
 but that Saint Catherine had comforted her 
 after her fall from the tower, telling her that 
 she would recover, and also that Compiegne 
 would not be taken. 
 
 It was tried to prove that in order not to 
 fall into the hands of the enemy she intended 
 committing suicide. To this accusation she 
 answered : — 
 
 * I have already said that I would sooner 
 give up my soul into God's keeping, than fall 
 into the hands of the English.' 
 
 And with this ended the sixth and last 
 public day of the heroine's trial. 
 
 Joan of Arc's judges had found nothing to 
 attach guilt to her in any of her replies ; but 
 as she had been condemned before the farce 
 was enacted of trying her, her innocence could 
 not save her life. As Michelet observes, Joan v^ 
 of Arc's answers may have had some effect 
 in touching the hearts of even such men as 
 were her judges ; and it was perhaps on this 
 account that Cauchon thought it more prudent 
 to continue holding the trial with only a few, 
 and those few picked men, of whose sympathies, 
 characters, and feelings he was sure. The 
 Bishop's ostensible reason in having the trial 
 henceforth carried on in private was in order 
 * not to tire the others.' A most thoughtful 
 
i88 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 and tender-hearted Bishop! The details of the 
 trial were now placed in the hands of two 
 judges and two witnesses. Cauchon now felt 
 he had a free hand. On the 12th of March 
 he had obtained the permission of the Grand 
 Inquisitor of the Holy Office In France to 
 make use of the services of his Vicar-General 
 — his name, as has already been said, was John 
 Lemaitre. 
 
 The first of the long series of secret inter- 
 rogations was held in Joan of Arc's prison — 
 probably In the principal tower — on the loth 
 of March. 
 
 John de la Fontaine questioned the prisoner 
 as follows : — 
 
 * When you went to Complegne from which 
 place did you start '^. ' 
 
 * From Crespy-en-ValoIs.' 
 
 ' When you arrived at Complegne did many 
 days elapse before you made the sortie ? ' 
 
 * I arrived secretly at an early hour of the 
 morning, and entered the town so that the 
 enemy could not be aware of my arrival, and 
 the same day, in the evening, I made the sortie 
 in which I was captured.' 
 
 ' Were the bells of the church rung on the 
 
 occasion of your arrival ? ' 
 
 ' If they were, it was not by my command. 
 
 I had not given it a thought.' 
 
 ' Did you not order them to be rung ? ' 
 
 ' I have no recollection of having done so.' 
 
 ' Did you make the sortie by the command 
 
 of your voices ? * 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 189 
 
 ' Last Easter, when in the trenches of ,x 
 Melun, the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint 
 Margaret told me I should be taken prisoner 
 before St. John's Day ; but that I was to keep 
 a brave heart, and take all that befell me with 
 patience, and that in the end God would come 
 to my aid.' 
 
 * Since then, did your voices tell you that 
 you would be taken ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, often ; nearly every day ; and I im- 
 plored my voices that when I was taken I 
 might then die, and not suffer a long imprison- 
 ment : and the voices said, ''Be without fear, 
 for these things must happen." But they did 
 not tell me the time when I should be taken, 
 for had I known that I should not have made 
 that sortie.' 
 
 * Did you not question them about the time 
 in which you would be taken ? ' 
 
 ' I often inquired ; but they never told me. 
 
 * Did your voices cause you to make that 
 sortie, and not tell you the manner by which 
 you would be captured ? ' 
 
 'Had I known the hour of my capture I 
 should not have gone out voluntarily ; but had 
 my voices ordered me to go and I had known, 
 then would I have gone all the same, whatever 
 might have happened.' 
 
 ' When you made the sally did you pass 
 over the bridge at Compiegne ? ' 
 
 ' I passed over the bridge and along the 
 redoubt ; and I charged with my soldiers against 
 John de Luxembourg's men. Twice were they 
 
I90 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 driven back as far as the quarters of the 
 Burgundlans ; the third time half as far. While 
 so engaged the English arrived, and cut off 
 our communications. While returning towards 
 the bridge, I was taken in the meadows on 
 the side nearest to Picardy.' 
 
 * Upon your banner, the one you carried, 
 was not a picture painted representing the world 
 and two angels ? What was the significance of 
 that?' 
 
 ' My saints told me to carry that banner 
 boldly.' 
 
 * Did you not also bear arms and a shield ? ' 
 ' Not I ; but the King gave my brothers a 
 
 coat-of-arms ; a shield with a blue ground, on 
 which were two fleu7's-de4is of gold, and a 
 sword between.' 
 
 ' Did you make a present to your brothers of 
 those arms?' 
 
 ' They were given my brothers by the King, 
 without any request made by me.' 
 
 * What kind of horse were you riding when 
 you were captured ? ' 
 
 * I was mounted on a demi-coitrsier' 
 ' Who had given you that horse ? ' 
 
 * My King,' answered Joan of Arc ; and she 
 went on to tell them how she had had fine 
 horses purchased by the King for her use ; she 
 also gave them an account of her few pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 There is, indeed, so much repetition in the 
 questions and answers during these long ex- 
 aminations, that it would be a weariness to the 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 191 
 
 reader did one minutely re-write them as they 
 appear in the chronicle. We shall therefore 
 confine ourselves to the principal and most im- 
 portant facts and statements which bear most 
 prominently on our heroines career, and on 
 the answers most characteristic made by her. 
 
 The remainder of that first day's trial in the 
 prison consisted nearly entirely of trying to 
 elicit from Joan of Arc what was the special 
 sign or secret that she had revealed to the 
 King at Chinon. She, however, gave them no 
 further information than in saying that the sign 
 was a beautiful and honoured mark of Divine 
 favour. For hours she was urged to tell of what 
 this special sign or token consisted — whether of 
 precious stones, gold, or silver. Joan, who ap- 
 parently was wearied out by the pertinacity of 
 her inquisitors, seems to have allowed herself 
 to mix with the reality the fabulous, and de- in- 
 scribed that an angel had appeared to Charles 
 bringing him a crown of matchless beauty. She 
 seems, poor creature, half dazed and bewildered 
 by her sufferings and her tormentors, to have 
 mixed up in her mind and in her replies the 
 actual event of the King's coronation at Rheims 
 with her angelic visions and voices ; for to her 
 one must have appeared as real and actual as 
 the other. 
 
 Nine examinations in the prison tower of 
 Rouen were undergone by Joan of Arc : — Once 
 on the loth of March; twice on the 12th, and 
 again on the 13th; twice on the 14th; again 
 on the 15th; and twice more on the 17th. In 
 
192 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 all these successive trials, nothing of importance 
 was obtained by the judges from the prisoner. 
 Both answers and questions were similar to 
 those which have already been recorded during 
 the days of her examinations in public. Through- 
 out all this trying process of a week's long and 
 minute cross-questioning, the heroine maintained 
 the same firmness, and answered with the same 
 simple dignity as on the former occasions. Tw^o 
 of her answers may be justly called sublime. 
 When during the course of the seventh day's 
 trial, she was asked what doctrine Saint Michel 
 had inspired her with, she answered : — 
 y ' The pity that I have for the Kingdom of 
 
 France ! ' 
 
 And again, when at the close of the last 
 day's examination she was asked why she had 
 taken such special care that her banner should 
 be carried and held near the King during the 
 ceremony of the coronation, she answered : — 
 / * If it had been in the travail it was right 
 
 that it should be in the place of greatest honour.' 
 (*// avail did a la peine ; cdtait bieii raison quit 
 fut a [Iionneur !^^ 
 
 Glorious words, worthy of her who spoke 
 them ! They bear with them an heroic ring, 
 and reveal by one sublime expression the very 
 soul and spirit of Joan of Arc! 
 
 Little as the secret interrogations had re- 
 vealed to Joan of Arc's examiners regarding the 
 mysterious sign they were so eager to wrest 
 from her, Cauchon had succeeded in inveigling 
 his victim into making statements he considered 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 193 
 
 could be used in a charge of heresy against 
 her. 
 
 When bidden to say if she would be ready 
 to submit herself regarding all her actions to 
 the determination of the Church, she answered 
 that she loved the Church, and was ready to 
 obey its doctrines as far as lay in her power ; 
 and on being asked to which Church she al- 
 luded, whether to the Church Militant or to 
 the Church Triumphant, she replied, * I have 
 been sent to France by God and the Virgin 
 Mary, and by the saints of the Church Victorious 
 from above, and to that Church I submit myself, 
 and all that I have done or may have to do ! ' 
 
 This answer did not satisfy Cauchon, and 
 he again inquired to which Church she sub- 
 mitted ; but Joan had already answered, and 
 would say no more — and on this Cauchon fixed 
 his accusation of heresy against the heroine. 
 Having failed throughout the trial to get Joan 
 to say anything incriminating regarding Charles 
 VII. or anything which might tend to injure him 
 in the minds of his subjects, Cauchon had Joan 
 questioned as to what she thought respecting 
 the murder of the Duke of Orleans by Charles. 
 
 * It was a great misfortune for the kingdom 
 of France,' was her answer. 
 
 Could the wariest statesman have better 
 parried that question ? Not on one single 
 occasion during the long series of questions 
 that Joan of Arc was made to undergo, without 
 any counsel or help, and with some of the 
 subtlest brains in the country eager to involve 
 
 N 
 
/ 
 
 194 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 her in damaging statements and to entangle 
 her in saying something which might be taken 
 up as injurious to Charles — that mean prince, 
 who made so much by her devotion to him 
 and his cause, and in return for that devotion 
 had not taken a step towards attempting her 
 deliverance — not at any time did she drop one 
 word or let an expression escape her which 
 could cause any uneasiness to the King, who 
 had proved himself so utterly unworthy of such 
 a subject, or to the men about the King's 
 person, some of whom, if not actually guilty 
 of having given her over to her enemies, at 
 any rate had allowed her to be kept during 
 all those long months a close prisoner, without 
 protest or any sign of sympathy. 
 
 When the judges asked Joan if she were 
 as willing to answer the questions put to her, 
 standing in the presence of the Pope, as she 
 had done in the presence of the Bishop of 
 Beauvais, she replied that she would willingly 
 do so. The idea of referring her case to the 
 Pope was not at all what Cauchon wished to 
 enter her mind ; and when he found that John 
 de la Fontaine and two monks had visited the 
 prisoner and advised her to submit herself to 
 Rome, he was furious, and threatened them with 
 condign punishment. They only escaped the 
 Bishop's anger by taking flight from Rouen. 
 It was not too soon for Cauchon's object that 
 the trial was now conducted with closed doors. 
 Joan of Arc's courage, firmness, and simplicity, 
 accompanied by her transparent truth and pure 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 195 
 
 fervent belief in her mission, impressed even 
 her judges — and much more so those who had 
 attended the public days of her trial as specta- 
 tors. Now and again, after one of her straight- 
 forward and brave answers, which would expose 
 and lay bare the malicious intention of the 
 question, voices were heard to say in the 
 great hall, ' Well spoken, Joan ! ' and an Eng- 
 lish knight was overheard to declare that, for 
 his part, he regretted that such a courageous 
 maid had not been born an Englishwoman. A 
 reaction in favour of the heroine might have 
 set in, and, as we have already said, it was for 
 fear of this that Cauchon caused the trial in 
 future to be held in private. It is clear from 
 the previous narrative that the prisoner had no 
 one to advise her, no one to support her. At 
 the commencement of the trial she asked to be 
 allowed counsel, but Cauchon refused this most 
 just demand. Among the crowd of doctors and 
 clergy it was impossible but that, now and 
 again, some feeling of interest, even of sym- 
 pathy, should gain a few of these men, who, in 
 spite of their education and surroundings, were 
 human beings after all. But whenever such 
 feeling was shown, Cauchon, ever on the watch, 
 sternly repressed its manifestation. The name • 
 of Isambard de la Pierre should be remembered 
 for good ; for he, although one of the creatures of 
 the detestable Inquisition, showed humanity to 
 Cauchon's victim. During the examinations it 
 was the wont of Isambard to place himself as 
 near as possible to Joan of Arc, and by nudging 
 
/ 
 
 196 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 her, or by some sign, he attempted to help 
 her and advise her in her answers to the 
 questions of the judges. Cauchon s evil eye, 
 however, at length detected Isambard's conduct, 
 and he informed Warwick of it. Soon after, 
 Isambard was confronted by Warwick, and the 
 latter, with many abusive words, threatened to 
 have him drowned in the Seine if he dared 
 assist Joan of Arc. 
 
 Though the Maid's treatment in the dun- 
 geon of the castle was not, after the beginning 
 of the trial, so barbarous as in the first days 
 after her arrival at Rouen, when she was 
 treated like a caged wild animal, the poor pri- 
 soner was watched day and night by three 
 soldiers, who, one must fear, outraged every 
 sense of humanity in their treatment of Joan. 
 The very term houspiller proves that they were 
 set apart to embitter the prisoner's already too 
 cruel state. Although Joan of Arc never her- 
 self disclosed the abominable fact, the reason 
 for retaining and continuing to wear her male 
 dress was that it served her as a protection 
 from these ruffians. Chained to a heavy wooden 
 beam, her sufferings must have been at times 
 almost beyond endurance ; but in this long 
 torture, which was only to terminate in the 
 flaming death, her wonderful constancy and 
 heaven-inspired spirit never failed. Had she 
 given way to a kind of despair, as happened 
 shortly before her final release — for only a few 
 moments indeed — her jailers would not have 
 neglected to record such weakness as a sign 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 197 
 
 that her heavenly agencies had failed, if not for- 
 saken her utterly. What appears to have con- 
 stituted the greatest privation to Joan of Arc 
 during her imprisonment was not being allowed 
 the consolation of receiving the rites of the re- 
 ligion she so fervently believed. During the 
 days on which the public examinations were 
 held in the hall of the castle, she was wont to 
 be led from her dungeon by a passage lead- 
 ing to the place of judgment : the castle chapel 
 was passed in traversing this passage. One day 
 while going by the chapel door she asked one 
 of the sheriffs, Massieu, whether the Eucharist 
 was then exposed within the chapel, and, if so, 
 whether she might be permitted to kneel before 
 the entrance. The man was humane enough 
 to allow her to do so, but this coming to the 
 knowledge of one of Cauchon's familiars, the 
 sheriff was told if he allowed the prisoner 
 again to kneel before the chapel door that he 
 would be thrown into prison — 'and,' added 
 Cauchon, *in a prison where no light of sun 
 or moon should appear!* 
 
 But perhaps among so many instances gf 
 cruelty and bigotry, the most infamous act of 
 all the many in this tragedy was that performed 
 by the Canon Nicolas Loiseleur, a creature of ^ 
 Cauchon, as false, as cruel, and as unscrupu- 
 lous as his master and patron. This reverend 
 scoundrel had, at the beginning of the trial, by 
 his feigned sympathy for the prisoner, wormed 
 himself into Joan of Arc's confidence. He 
 told her that he, too, came from near her 
 
198 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 home, that he in his heart of hearts belonged 
 to the French side, that he was a prisoner on 
 account of his known devotion to Charles and 
 to France, and many other such lies. This 
 Judas — half in the character of a layman, half in 
 that of a confessor, and wholly as a sympathetic 
 friend and a fellow -sufferer — paid the prisoner 
 long visits, disguised both as priest and lay- 
 man, as the part suited the day's action best. 
 Loiseleur actually used the means of extracting 
 information from Joan of Arc under the seal of 
 confession, to be afterwards employed against 
 her by Cauchon. While these conversations and 
 confessions took place, Warwick and Cauchon 
 would be concealed in a part of the dungeon 
 from which they could overhear what passed 
 between the two — one of whom worthily might 
 be called an angel, the other truthfully a devil. 
 With the Bishop and knight — whose conduct as 
 regards Joan of Arc deeply tarnished an other- 
 wise high character — were seated clerks, who 
 wrote down what passed in these meetings. 
 The clerks, to their credit, are said to have at 
 first refused to comply with doing such dirty 
 work. 
 
 Cauchon gained but little by this infamy. 
 Nothing of any importance could be constructed 
 out of the prisoner's confidence and confessions ; 
 but Cauchon was, through Loiseleur, enabled to 
 tender such advice to Joan as made her answers 
 coincide more closely with his wishes than they 
 otherwise could have done ; especially those re- 
 lating to the Church Triumphant and Militant. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 199 
 
 When his crime had borne fruit, Loiseleur, i 
 like another Judas, was overwhelmed with an 
 intolerable remorse ; and, although he obtained 
 his victim's pardon, his end appears to have 
 been as sudden as that of Judas, if not also 
 self-inflicted. By a lawyer named John Lohier, ^ 
 whom he consulted during the course of the 
 trial, Cauchon was not so well served as he 
 had been by Loiseleur. This Lohier, who 
 was a Norman and seems to have been a 
 worthy man, had the courage to tell Cauchon 
 that inasmuch as Joan of Arc was being tried 
 in secret and without benefit of counsel, the pro- 
 ceedings were null and worthless. Like all who 
 showed any interest for the prisoner, Lohier 
 was threatened by Cauchon with imprisonment, 
 but he escaped and found refuge in Rome. 
 
 On Passion Sunday, the i8th of March, 
 Cauchon held a meeting of a dozen of the 
 lawyers, including the Vice- Inquisitor, and asked 
 them to give their opinion on some of the 
 answers of Joan of Arc. He held a second 
 and similar consistory on the 22nd of that 
 month, at which it was decided to shape into 
 the form of a series of articles the chief heads 
 of accusation. This, when made out, was to 
 be submitted to the prisoner. On the 24th, 
 the Bishop, accompanied by the Vice- Inquisitor 
 and some others, proceeded to the dungeon in 
 which Joan of Arc was kept. The day was 
 Palm Sunday, and the great French historian [/^ 
 Michelet has, with his accustomed skill and 
 bright, vivid word-painting, in his short but 
 
200 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 incomparable Life of the heroine not only of 
 France but of humanity, reminded his readers 
 with what a longing Joan of Arc must, on that 
 festival of joy and triumph, have yearned for 
 the privilege 'to breathe once again the fresh 
 air of heaven.' Daughter of the fields, born 
 on the border of the woods, she who had 
 always lived under the open sky had to pass 
 Easter Day in a dark dungeon tower. To 
 her the great succour which the Church in- 
 vokes upon that day did not reach — her prison 
 door did not fly open. 
 
 It may be recalled that on Palm Sunday 
 the morning prayer in the office of the Roman 
 Church contains these words: ' Deus in ad- 
 jutorium meum intended For her, however, 
 no earthly gate was to be thrown open wide. 
 The gate through which she was to pass from 
 suffering and death into life eternal and peace 
 everlasting — i^per a^igusta ad aiigtcsta)- — was, how- 
 ever, not far distant. But she had still to wait 
 awhile amid the ever-darkening shadows. 
 
 * If,' said Cauchon to Joan, 'you will cease 
 to wear this man's dress, and dress as you 
 would do were you back in your home, you 
 shall be allowed to hear Mass.' 
 
 But Joan could not be prevailed on to con- 
 sent to abandon the costume, which, as we have 
 said, proved her safeguard against the brutality 
 of her jailers. 
 
 By the 26th of March the articles were 
 drawn up and ready, and were approved of in 
 a meeting held by Cauchon in his own house. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 201 
 
 And on these articles, or rather heads of 
 articles, the further trial of the prisoner was to 
 be carried on. 
 
 The examination took place on the days 
 following in a chamber next to the great hall 
 in the castle. Nine judges, besides Cauchon, 
 attended. The Bishop ordered Joan to answer 
 categorically all the accusations on which she 
 was arraigned ; if she refused to do so, or re- 
 mained silent beyond a given time, he threatened 
 her with excommunication. He went on to 
 declare that all her judges were men of high 
 position, well versed in all matters appertaining 
 to Church and State ; and he had the audacity 
 to qualify them — and probably included himself 
 among them — as being benins et pitoyables, 
 having no wish to inflict corporal punishment 
 upon Joan, but filled only with the pious desire 
 of leading her into the way of truth and salva- 
 tion. 'Seeing that,' he continued, 'she was not 
 sufficiently versed in such weighty matters as 
 those they had now to deal with, they in their 
 pitifulness and benignity, would allow her to 
 choose among the learned doctors present, one 
 or more to aid her with counsel and advice.' 
 
 The Bishop had probably guessed that by 
 this time Joan of Arc would have ceased to 
 care for the benefit of counsel, having had to do 
 without it till now ; and his asking her whether 
 she wished for it was merely made in order to 
 appear as an act of judicial indulgence on his 
 part — perhaps, also, what Lohier had urged 
 regarding the illegality of trying his prisoner 
 
202 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 without giving her the help of counsel may 
 have influenced him. 
 
 In a few simple words Joan of Arc thanked 
 the Bishop and the others for the offer, of 
 which she, however, declined to avail herself. 
 She added that she felt no need now of having 
 any human counsel, for that she had that of 
 her Lord to aid her. 
 
 Thomas de Courcelles next proceeded to 
 read the articles contained in the act of accusa- 
 tion. These were so long that they occupied 
 the remainder of that and the next day's sitting. 
 This first series of articles — for there were forty 
 more to follow — consisted of thirty heads, and 
 forms one of the most glaring examples of what 
 the human mind is capable of inventing when 
 thoroughly steeped in bigotry, stupidity, and 
 cruelty. The Bishop of Beauvais may have 
 been congratulated on producing the most 
 momentous mass of accusation, intended to 
 destroy the life and reputation of a peerless 
 and perfect woman and to blast the career of 
 his native sovereign : it only redounded to the 
 Bishop's everlasting shame and infamy. 
 
 We will spare the reader a detailed sum- 
 mary of these articles — articles which have the 
 lie so palpably and strongly writ all over them, 
 that we can but hesitate whether to be more 
 surprised or disgusted that even such a man 
 as Cauchon could dare to bring them into 
 court. 
 
 The preamble of the articles gave the gist 
 of what was to follow, and showed up the true 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 203 
 
 spirit of Joan's 'benign and merciful judges.' 
 It consisted of one long string of abuse, in 
 which the terms 'sorceress,' 'false prophet,' 'a 
 practiser of magic,' and 'devilish arts,' were 
 freely used. Joan of Arc was declared in this 
 preamble to be 'abominable in the eyes of 
 God and man ' ; a violator of all laws — divine, 
 ecclesiastical and natural. To sum up all the 
 epithets, she was termed 'heretical, or, at any 
 rate, strongly suspected of being so.' This ac- 
 cusation, the most awful that those cruel times 
 held, must have sounded to all those men present 
 as the heroine's knell of doom. 
 
 Then followed the thirty articles of accusa- \^ 
 tion. Never, indeed, had a short but well filled 
 career, bright with glorious deeds, undertaken 
 for King and fatherland — never had such a life 
 (for no life ever approached that of the Maid's) 
 been so ludicrously, so violently and wilfully 
 misrepresented. Her most innocent words and 
 actions were turned into accusations of sorcery, 
 witchcraft, vice, and every kind of wickedness. 
 Her harmless and pure youth was made to 
 appear a childhood of sorcery and idolatrous 
 superstition ; she was accused in her earliest 
 years of having trafficked with evil spirits : it 
 was alleged that she had consorted with 
 witches ; that she had frequented places where 
 spirits and fairies best loved to congregate ; 
 that she had taken part in sacrilegious dancing ; 
 that she had suspended wreaths on the trees 
 in honour of these rural spirits ; that she had 
 carried hidden about her person a plant called 
 
204 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Mandragora, hoping by it to obtain good luck ; 
 that she had left her parents against their 
 will to go to Neufchateau, and lived in that 
 place among a debauched set of people : that 
 in consequence of all these wicked acts, a 
 youth who intended marrying her had not 
 done so. Then, having left not a stage or an 
 act of her innocent girlhood unblasted, and 
 covered with the slime of the Bishop's reptile- 
 like imagination, her acts when with the King 
 were reviewed. She had promised Charles to 
 slay all the English in France ; her cruelty 
 and love of bloodshed were insatiable ; she had 
 influenced Charles by acts of magic ; her 
 banners and her rings were bewitched ; she 
 was schismatic, and doubted as to which was 
 the right Pope ; and, in spite of this, she 
 had the wickedness to inform the Earl of 
 Armagnac which of the two Popes he was to 
 believe the genuine. Of all this long tissue of 
 crimes laid to her charge, that of wearing a 
 man's dress was made the most heinous ; for 
 the Almighty had made it a crime abomin- 
 able to Himself, that woman should wear man's 
 dress. Now, not only had the prisoner com- 
 mitted this sin, but she had added to it by 
 affirming that she did so by the wish of God 
 — she had done even worse ; for did she not 
 refuse when at the castle of Beaurevoir to wear 
 woman's dress, also when at Arras, and even 
 now in Rouen "^ So obstinate was she in her 
 wickedness that she had refused to comply with 
 the Bishop's wish that she should leave off 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 205 
 
 these clothes, although he had told her she 
 would be allowed to assist at the offices of the 
 Church if she would consent to do so. 
 
 To all these accusations, at the end of 
 each paragraph, Cauchon bade Courcelles, who 
 read the accusations, to pause, and would then 
 ask the prisoner what answer she had to make 
 to that accusation. Joan of Arc contented her- 
 self by simply denying the alleged crime, or 
 else she referred to the answers she had made 
 to the same, or similar questions, during the 
 former days when under examination. Some 
 of her replies were, as they often had been 
 during those trials, grand in their simplicity. 
 For instance, when asked a difficult and even 
 perplexing question relating to her belief in the 
 Church Militant, she said : — ' I believe that the 
 Holy Father, the Bishops, and other clergy, are 
 here for the protection of the Christian faith, 
 and to punish those who deserve it. As to 
 my acts,' she continued, * I submit them to the 
 Church in Heaven, to God, to the Holy Virgin, 
 and the Saints In Paradise. I have not failed,'^ 
 she proudly added, * in the Christian religion ; 
 nor will I ever do so.' 
 
 When repeatedly questioned about the change 
 of costume, and of its importance regarding her 
 being allowed to attend Mass or not, she said : 
 * In the eyes of the Saviour the dress of those 
 who receive the Sacrament can have no im- 
 portance.' 
 
 On the day after, the 28th of March, the same 
 chamber was used for the trial, and the same 
 
2o6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 indictments were entered on. That almost in- 
 terminable series of accusations numbered some 
 seventy charges. On that day, Joan of Arc 
 appears to have ceased to deny at any length 
 the string of false evidence brought against her ; 
 she generally replied that she had already an- 
 swered as to the crimes laid to her charge, or 
 simply said, * I refer myself to my Saviour.' 
 Two of her answers are worth recording : the 
 first, when accused of having been guilty not 
 only of discarding the proper dress of her sex, 
 but also of having acted the part of a man, 
 she said : * As to women's occupation there are 
 plenty of them to occupy themselves with such 
 things ' ; and to the second question, when 
 taunted with having carried out her mission with 
 violence and slaughter, she answered : * I im- 
 plored at the commencement of my mission that 
 peace might be made, while, at the same time, 
 I declared that if that was not agreed to, I 
 was willing to fight.' When she was accused of 
 having made war on the Burgundians and the 
 English alike, she made the distinguishing dif- 
 ference between them by saying : — * As to the 
 Duke of Burgundy, I wrote to him, and asked 
 him through his envoys that peace should be 
 made between him and my King. As regards 
 the English, the only peace that could be made 
 with them is when they have returned to Eng- 
 land.' The Maid's natural modesty and sim- 
 plicity are apparent in a circumstance which 
 occurred in one of those long days of searching 
 examination and cross-questioning. When the 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 207 
 
 sentence she had used, and which had been 
 noted down in the minutes of an early day of 
 the trial, was read as follows : * All that I 
 have done has been done by the advice of my 
 Saviour,' she stopped the clerk, and said that 
 it should stand thus : * All that I have done 
 well has been done by the advice of my Saviour.' 
 When she was asked by what form of words 
 she prayed to her Saints to come to her assist- 
 ance, she repeated the following prayer : — ' Very 
 blessed God, in honour of your holy Passion, I 
 beseech you, if you love me, that you will re- 
 veal to me what I am to answer these Church- 
 men. I know concerning the dress the reason 
 for which I have adopted it, but I know not in 
 what manner I am to discard it. For this thing 
 I beseech you to tell me what to do.' And 
 she added that after this prayer her voices were 
 soon heard. 
 
 On the 31st of March, Cauchon, accom- 
 panied by the Vice- Inquisitor and some other 
 of the judges, had an interview with the pri- 
 soner. They again inquired of Joan of Arc 
 whether she submitted herself wholly and en- 
 tirely into the hands of the Church Militant. 
 She answered that if such were her Saviour's 
 wish she was quite willing to do so. The 
 accusations were now set forth afresh, in |Lwelve 
 chief heads or articles, under which the series 
 of calumnies was summarised before they 
 should be submitted to the University of Paris. 
 These twelve heads, which formed the founda- 
 tion of Joan of Arc's condemnation, were never 
 
2o8 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 shown her ; and she had therefore no chance of 
 contradicting any of the grossly false charges 
 of which they were full. Like the trial itself, 
 these articles were merely a sham invented for 
 the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of 
 the people, who by these, it was hoped, would 
 be persuaded that the law of the Church and 
 State had been acted up to. The heads of these 
 articles were as follows : — 
 
 First — A woman pretends to have had 
 communication with Saints from her thirteenth 
 year ; and she affirms that they have counselled 
 her to dress in male attire ; she affirms that 
 she has found her salvation, and refuses to 
 submit herself to the Church. 
 
 Second — She affirms that, through a sign, 
 she persuaded the King to believe in her ; 
 and that accompanied by an angel she placed 
 a crown upon his head. 
 
 Third — She affirms her companionship with 
 Saint Michel and other Saints. 
 
 Fourth — She affirms certain things will occur 
 by the revelation obtained by her from certain 
 Saints.' 
 
 Fifth — She affirms that her wearing a man's 
 dress is done by her through the will of God ; 
 she has sinned by receiving the Sacrament in 
 that garb, which she says she would sooner die 
 than quit wearing. 
 
 Sixth — She admits having written letters 
 signed with the names of Jesus and Mary and 
 with the sign of a cross. That, also, she admits 
 having threatened death to those who would 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 209 
 
 not obey her ; and she affirms that all she has 
 done has been accomplished by the Divine will. 
 
 Seventh — She gives a false account of her 
 journey to Vaucouleurs and to Chinon. 
 
 Eighth — She also gives an untrue account of 
 her attempt to kill herself at Beaurevoir, sooner 
 than fall into the power of the English. 
 
 Ninth — And also gives false statements of 
 her assurance of salvation, provided she remains 
 a maid, and of never having committed any sin. 
 
 Tenth — And also of her pretending that 
 Saints Catherine and Margaret speak to her in 
 French, and not in English, as they do not 
 belong to the latter side. 
 
 Eleventh — She admits the adoration of her 
 Saints ; her disobedience to her parents ; and 
 of saying that if the evil one were to appear 
 in the likeness of Saint Michel she would know 
 it was not the Saint. 
 
 Twelfth — Admits that she refuses to submit 
 to the Church Militant, and this in spite of 
 being told that all faithful members of the 
 Church must, by the article * Unam Sanctam 
 Ecclesiam Catholicam,' comply with and submit 
 to the commands of the Church Militant, and 
 principally in all things which pertain to sacred 
 doctrines and the ecclesiastical sanctions. 
 
 This was the substance of the twelve ar- 
 ticles which Cauchon laid before the doctors of 
 theology and law in Paris. No one knew better 
 than the Bishop how false these were ; Manchon ^ "^ 
 himself had been so impressed with their utter 
 fraudulence that he had inserted in their margin, 
 
 o 
 
210 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 under the date of the 4th of April, the state- 
 ment that in many instances the facts alleged 
 were entirely at variance with the declarations 
 of the prisoner. Cauchon despatched the ar- 
 ticles to Paris on the following day, April the 
 / y 5th. M. Walloh, in his admirable and exhaus- 
 tive history of Joan of Arc, has remarked that 
 all her deeds were in these twelve articles tra- 
 vestied from acts of piety or patriotism into acts 
 of superstition and rebellion against God and His 
 Church. 'What,' asks M. Wallon, 'had her 
 accusers to reproach her with.** Her visions.*^ 
 None of her judges could declare these were 
 impossible, for then they would declare them- 
 selves unbelievers in the history of all the saints, 
 which is full of such visions. They might 
 deny them if they pleased, but it required all 
 the wilful blindness of passion to affirm, once 
 such things were articles of belief, that they 
 came from Satanic influence.' As regards Joan 
 of Arc's costume, she had on several occasions 
 answered with sufficient clearness, and every 
 person might have made a like answer, that 
 there is no hard and fast law laid down by the 
 Church relating to the costume that may be 
 worn by members of the Church. Nay more, 
 it was notorious that one of the female saints 
 of the Church (Sainte Marine) had always worn 
 a man's dress. The question as to her dress 
 had been gone into thoroughly during Joan of 
 Arc's examination by the Churchmen and lay- 
 men at Poitiers ; that which the Church had 
 not blamed at Poitiers could not therefore be 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 211 
 
 a sin in Rouen. By the same token, how was 
 it possible for Joan to believe that what had 
 not been disapproved of by the Archbishop at 
 Rheims should be considered a criminal offence 
 by the Bishop of Beauvais? As regards the 
 question of her submission to the Church, Joan 
 of Arc replied, when asked if she would submit 
 to its will, in these words : * You speak to me 
 of the ''Church Militant" and of the ''Church 
 Triumphant." I do not understand the signifi- 
 cation of those terms ; but I wish to submit 
 myself to the Church as all good Christians 
 should do.' What more could be required of 
 her than this entire submission to the Church ^ 
 She had made that answer to the doctors and 
 clergy at Poitiers, and it had entirely satisfied 
 those men. What Joan of Arc had a clear 
 right not to do was to submit herself to her 
 arch-enemy the Bishop of Beauvais. When she 
 asked what Cauchon and his judges called the 
 ' Church Militant,' she was told it consisted of 
 the Pope and the prelates below him. She 
 thereupon exclaimed she would willingly appear 
 before him, but that she would not submit to ^ 
 the judgment of her enemies, and particularly 
 not to Cauchon. ' In saying this,' adds M. ^ 
 Wallon, 'she displayed her usual courageous 
 spirit. How eagerly had she,' he remarks 
 (when told that if she would submit herself to 
 the Council then sitting at Bale, where she 
 would find some judges of her party among 
 the English), 'appealed to be allowed to bring 
 her case before that Council ; and it will be 
 
/ 
 
 212 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 remembered how Cauchon cursed the lawyer 
 who had brought forward the suggestion dur- 
 ing the trial.' On that occasion escaped from 
 the prisoner's lips the cry which showed how 
 well she knew the unscrupulousness of her 
 judges. On learning that her wish to appeal 
 to the Council of Bale by Cauchon's order was 
 not to appear in that day's report of the trial, 
 she said, 'You write down what Is against me, 
 but you will not write what is favourable to 
 me.' Along with the twelve articles, Cauchon 
 enclosed a letter to the lawyers in Paris asking 
 for their opinion on what he calls the facts 
 submitted to them, 'whether they do not appear 
 to be contrary to the orthodox faith, to the 
 Scriptures, and to the Church of Rome, and 
 whether the learned members of the Church 
 and doctors do not consider such things as 
 stated in these articles as scandalous, dangerous 
 to civil order, injurious and adverse to public 
 morals.' In every way Cauchon's letter was 
 worthy of its author. 
 
 On the 1 2th of April a meeting under the 
 presidency of Erard Emenyart, consisting of a 
 score of lawyers and clergy, was held In the 
 chapel of the archieplscopal palace. At this 
 meeting, with scarcely a dissentient voice, it 
 was voted that Joan of Arc had by her deeds 
 and her expressed opinions proved herself 
 schismatical and strongly tainted with heresy. 
 A second meeting took place in the same 
 building on the following day, attended by 
 some more Church functionaries. Some of 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL, 213 
 
 these suggested that the prisoner should be 
 promptly handed over to the secular arm — if 
 she refuses still to renounce her errors — and 
 if she acknowledges them, her fate will then 
 be to be imprisoned for life, and given for 
 nourishment 'the bread of sorrows and the 
 water of anguish.' Eleven advocates — all be- 
 longing to Rouen — however, added the following 
 clause, that the latter should be her punishment, 
 'provided that her revelations do not come 
 from God.' But with the fear of Cauchon 
 before them, they added to this clause that 
 the revelations coming from such a source 
 seems hardly probable, and they appeal to the 
 bachelors in theology to set them right on 
 that head. The Bishop of Lisieux, who had 
 already given as his reason for not believing 
 that Joan of Arc's mission could be Heaven- 
 inspired the fact of the low station from which 
 she came, now repeated the same absurdity 
 on this occasion. There were others who 
 preferred delaying their verdict until the de- 
 cision arrived at by the University of Paris 
 had been made known. A number of the 
 Churchmen belonging to the Chapter of the 
 Cathedral of Rouen hesitated, divided between 
 two opinions, for and against the Maid, and 
 of these only twenty put in an appearance 
 when summoned by Cauchon to meet on the 
 13th of April. They were threatened and 
 bullied by the Bishop to come in stronger 
 numbers on the next day, when they attended 
 to the number of thirty-one, but could not be 
 
214 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 prevailed on to give a definite opinion until 
 the answer arrived from the University — which 
 ultimatum Cauchon had to take with as much 
 grace as he could. While these things were 
 taking place, Joan of Arc fell ill — worn out 
 probably by her long and harsh imprisonment, 
 by the mental as well as physical torment 
 she must have undergone during those weeks 
 of cross-questioning and endless browbeating. 
 Her jailers were more alarmed about her con- 
 dition than she was herself, for were she to 
 die a natural death, half the moral effect her 
 enemies counted on obtaining by giving her 
 the death of a sorceress and heretic would 
 y be lost. Doctors were sent for — sent by the 
 Cardinal of Winchester and Warwick. When 
 asked what ailed her she said that her illness 
 had commenced after eating a fish that had 
 been sent her by the Bishop of Beauvais. 
 Warwick is said to have had the brutality 
 to tell the doctors that her life must be 
 saved at all hazards, for she had to die by the 
 hands of the executioners. The doctors ordered 
 her to be bled, and her naturally strong con- 
 stitution soon restored her to health. During 
 the days of the weakness following her illness, 
 Cauchon, thinking probably that more might 
 be then wrung from her than when well, came 
 to see her. This was on the i8th of April. 
 He went to the dungeon accompanied by the 
 Vice- Inquisitor and half-a-dozen judges, and the 
 following charitable exhortation, as the chroni- 
 cler styles it, took place. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 215 
 
 *We have come,' began Cauchon, 'to you 
 with charitable and amiable Intentions, to con- 
 sole you In your sickness. You will remember, 
 Joan, how you have been questioned on various 
 matters relating to the faith, and you know the 
 answers you made. Knowing your Ignorance re- 
 lating to such matters, we are willing to send 
 learned and well-versed men In such matters.' 
 Then turning to the lawyers and others present, 
 the Bishop continued : ' We exhort you to give 
 Joan profitable counsel on the obligations which 
 appertain to the true doctrine of the faith, and 
 to the furtherance of the safety and welfare of 
 her body and soul. Joan,' continued Cauchon, 
 * If there be any one else you wish to consult in 
 this matter, we are ready to send for such in 
 order that they may aid you. We are men of 
 the Church, ever ready to aid those in need of 
 advice good for the soul as well as the body, 
 and ready to benefit you or any of your own 
 kith, or ourselves. We should gladly give you 
 daily such to advise you. In a word, we are 
 ready, under the circumstances, to aid you, as 
 does the Church itself, ever ready to help all 
 such who will willingly come to her. But be- 
 ware to act against our advice and exhortation. 
 For if you still should refuse to submit yourself 
 to us, we shall abandon you. Judge then of the 
 peril you lie In In that case. It is this peril 
 which we hope to prevent you from falling into 
 with all our strength and all our affection.' 
 
 To this Mephistophelean address Joan of Arc 
 made the following reply : ' I render you my 
 
2i6 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 best thanks for what you have said respecting 
 the salvation of my soul ; and it seems to me, 
 seeing the illness I am now suffering, that I am in 
 danger of dying. If this is to happen, God's will 
 be done. I will only ask you to allow me to con- 
 fess, and to partake of the Blessed Sacrament, 
 and that my body may be laid in holy ground.' 
 
 Cauchon replied as follows : ' If you wish to 
 receive the Sacraments of the Church you must 
 confess yourself like a good Catholic, and you 
 must also submit yourself to the Church. If 
 you persevere in not doing so, you cannot ob- 
 tain what you desire, except that for Penitence, 
 which we are always ready to administer.' 
 
 Joan wearily said to this : * I have then no- 
 thing more to say.' 
 
 The Bishop, however, had no wish that the 
 interview should end thus, and continued : ' The 
 greater your danger of now dying is, the greater 
 reason have you to amend your life ; if you do 
 not submit yourself to the Church, then you will 
 not obtain the privilege of a Catholic to its Sacra- 
 ments.' 
 
 To this she answered : * If I die here in 
 ^ prison, I trust my body will be placed in conse- 
 crated earth. If you refuse me this favour, I 
 can but appeal to my Saviour!' 
 
 * You said,' quoth Cauchon, * during the trial 
 that if you had done or said anything that was 
 against our Christian faith you could not sup- 
 port it ! ' 
 
 *I refer myself,' said Joan, 'to the answer I 
 then made, and to our Lord ! ' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 217 
 
 'You said,' continued the Bishop, 'that you 
 had received many revelations both from God and 
 from the saints. Suppose, then, that now some 
 worthy person were to appear, declaring that 
 they had received a revelation from God about 
 your deeds, would you believe that person ? ' 
 
 To this the prisoner replied : ' There is not 
 a Christian on earth, who, coming to me and 
 saying that he came by such revelation, I should 
 not know whether to believe or not, for I should 
 know whether he were true or false by Saint 
 Catherine and Saint Margaret.' 
 
 *But,' said Cauchon, *do you imagine then 
 that God is not able to reveal to some one 
 besides yourself things that you may be ignorant 
 about t ' 
 
 Joan answered : * Without a sign, I should 
 not believe man or woman.' 
 
 Then Cauchon asked Joan if she believed 
 in the holy Scriptures ? 
 
 'You know that I do,' she answered. 
 
 Then the Bishop again returned to the 
 question whether or not the prisoner consented 
 to submit herself to the Church Militant, by 
 which the Church Temporal should be under- 
 stood. 
 
 Now, as before, Joan of Arc's answer was 
 unchanged. 
 
 'Whatever,' she said, 'may happen to me, 
 I shall neither do nor say anything further than 
 that I have already declared during the trial.' 
 
 In vain all the venerable doctors present 
 exhorted the prisoner to make her submission ; 
 
2i8 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 they quoted Scripture, chapter and verse, to 
 her (Matt, xviil.), without obtaining any more 
 success than the Bishop had done. 
 
 As they were leaving the prison one of 
 these * venerable doctors ' hissed to Joan : * If 
 you refuse to submit to the Church, the Church 
 will abandon you as if you were a Saracen.' 
 
 To this Joan of Arc replied : * I am a good 
 Christian — a Christian born and baptized — and 
 a Christian I shall die.' 
 
 Before Cauchon left his victim he made 
 one further attempt to obtain a decided answer 
 from Joan of Arc, this time making use of a 
 bait which he thought must catch her — namely, 
 permission to receive the Communion: *As,' 
 he said, *you desire the Eucharist, will you, if 
 you are allowed to do so, submit yourself to 
 the Church?' 
 
 To this offer Joan answered : 'As to that 
 submission I can give no other answer than 
 that I have already given you. I love God ; 
 Him I serve, as a good Christian should. Were 
 I able I would help the Church with all my 
 strength.' 
 
 'But,' said Cauchon, 'if we were to order 
 a grand procession to restore your health, then 
 would you not submit yourself?' 
 
 ' I only request,' she answered, ' that the 
 Church and all good Catholics will pray for me.' 
 
 Some of the judges had suggested that, 
 in a more public place than in her prison, Joan 
 of Arc should be again admonished relating 
 to the crimes of which she was accused ; and 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 219 
 
 Cauchon accordingly summoned a public meet- 
 ing of the judges for the 2nd of May, to be held 
 in a chamber near the Great Hall. 
 
 On that day sixty-two judges were present. 
 Cauchon took care that the actual charges con- 
 tained in the twelve articles which had been 
 sent to the University should not be read in 
 the presence of the prisoner, and told her that 
 she had only been summoned in order to receive 
 another admonition before a larger assemblage 
 than had as yet met. 
 
 In his opening allocution he told his audi- 
 ence that the private admonition had been un- 
 attended with good results, that Joan had refused 
 to submit herself to the Church, and that he 
 had accordingly invited to the present meet- 
 ing a learned doctor of theology, namely, John 
 de Chatillon, archdeacon of Evreux, whose elo- 
 quence he doubted not would have a beneficial 
 effect upon the stubbornness of the prisoner. 
 
 On Joan being led into the room, the Bishop 
 admonished her to listen to what Chatillon 
 would now lay before her, and to agree to what 
 he would advise. If she would not do so, he 
 added, she would place herself in jeopardy, 
 both as to her body and as to her soul. 
 
 Chatillon then took up his parable, which 
 was to the effect that all faithful Christians 
 must conform to the tenets of the Church ; and 
 that he trusted she would do so to all that the 
 doctors lay and spiritual there present expected 
 her. 
 
 The Archdeacon held a digest of his sermon 
 
220 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 in his hand. Seeing this, Joan of Arc requested 
 y him to read his book, after which, she said, she 
 would make her answer. 
 
 The speech, or sermon, that he then de- 
 Hvered was an exhaustive examination of the 
 twelve articles, brought under six heads, but 
 much altered and garbled. 
 
 In the first place, he admonished her of not 
 having given a full account of her apparitions 
 to the Church through her judges ; secondly, he 
 told her of her culpability in insisting on re- 
 taining her male attire ; thirdly, of her wicked- 
 ness in asserting that she committed no crime 
 in retaining that dress ; fourthly, her sin in 
 holding as true revelations that could only lead 
 the people into error ; fifthly, that she had, 
 owing to these revelations, done deeds dis- 
 pleasing to the Divine will ; and lastly, that she 
 was committing a sin in treating the apparitions 
 as holy, when she was not certain whether 
 they did not come from evil spirits. When 
 Chatillon said that by not conforming to the 
 article ' Sanctam Ecclesiam' she placed herself 
 in the power of the Church to condemn her to 
 the flames, and to be burnt as a heretic, she 
 answered boldly : 
 y * I will not say aught else than that I have 
 
 already spoken ; and were I even to see the 
 fire I should say the same ! ' 
 
 After this answer in the minutes of that 
 day's trial is written by the clerk in the 
 margin of the vellum : 
 
 * Superb a responsio / ' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 221 
 
 That was a testimony of admiration which 
 neither the fears of persecution nor of supersti- 
 tion could prevent from appearing. 
 
 Nothing more was to be obtained from the 
 prisoner's Hps than this declaration, either by 
 private or public examinations. This being so, 
 Cauchon bethought him what further cruelty 
 could be employed to force the prisoner to give 
 way, and the barbarous scheme of torture was 
 decided on. 
 
 The only portion of the old castle of 
 Rouen that has survived Time, war, revolutions, 
 and rebuilding (although partially restored), is 
 a massive high tower, built of white stone, 
 called the Tower of Joan of Arc. This is not 
 the tower of the castle which contained the 
 heroine's dungeon, but it has always been tra- 
 ditionally regarded as that in which, on the 9th 
 of May, Joan of Arc was led to where her 
 judges intended, by fear or by the infliction of 
 bodily torment, to oblige her to make the 
 confession which she had so steadily and for 
 so long a time refused. The lower portion of 
 this tower only is ancient, for from about its 
 centre to the top is a restoration. 
 
 The chamber to which Joan of Arc was led, 
 and where the instruments of torture and the 
 executioners were waiting, is probably that on 
 the ground floor, and is but little changed from 
 what it was on that May morning in the year 
 of grace 1431. 
 
 In that dark stone chamber with its groined 
 roof, besides the prisoner, were present Cauchon, 
 
222 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 with the Vice- Inquisitor, the Abbot of Saint 
 Corneille of Compiegne, WilHam Erard, Andrew 
 Marguerie, Nicolas de Venderes, John Massieu, 
 William Haiton, Aubert Morel, and the infam- 
 ous Loiseleur. Ranged round the circular walls 
 were placed the instruments of torture, and men 
 skilled in their use were ready at hand. 
 
 *Joan,' said Cauchon, who had now dropped 
 his hypocritical semblance of sympathy, which 
 he had assumed when interrogating the prisoner 
 in her cell, 'I command you to tell the truth. 
 In your examination many and various points 
 have been touched on, about which you refused 
 to answer, or, when you did so, answered un- 
 truthfully. Of this we have certain proof. 
 These points will now be read to you.' 
 
 What was then read was probably a sum- 
 mary of the articles of impeachment. 
 
 Cauchon then continued : * If, Joan, you now 
 refuse to speak the truth, you will be put to 
 the torture. You see before you the Instruments 
 which are prepared, and by them stand the exe- 
 cutioners, who are ready to do their office at 
 our command. You will be tortured In order 
 that you may be led into the way of truth, and 
 for the salvation of your body and soul, which 
 you by your lies have exposed to so great a 
 peril.' 
 
 It was at this terrible juncture that Joan 
 showed her Indomitable spirit more clearly than 
 at any moment since her capture. In front of 
 her lay the rack upon which, at a signal from 
 Cauchon, her limbs would be wrenched asunder ; 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 223 
 
 but her reply, as given in the minutes written 
 by the clerk who was present, bears the ring of 
 a courage superior to all the terrors which con- 
 fronted her. 
 
 'Even,' she said, *if you tear me limb from 
 limb, and even if you kill me, I will not tell you 
 anything further. And even were I forced to 
 do so, I should afterwards declare that it was 
 only because of the torture that I had spoken 
 differently.' 
 
 That was an answer which sums up the 
 whole folly and crime of obtaining evidence by 
 means of torture, and recalls Galileo's famous 
 phrase when In a somewhat similar situation. 
 
 Cauchon then again ordered Joan to tell 
 them of her revelations, and asked her if she 
 had again sought counsel from her voices. 
 
 She had, answered Joan. 
 
 'And have they,' asked the Bishop, 'fore- 
 told what will now happen '^. ' 
 
 'I asked them,' answered Joan of Arc, 'if 
 I should be burnt, and they answered : " Abide 
 by your Lord and He will aid you."' 
 
 There is little more than the above recorded 
 of what took place, but it is probable that Joan, 
 who had as yet hardly recovered from her 
 illness, was, from fear of her dying under the 
 torture, not subjected to it. At any rate, that 
 additional horror was not to be laid on the 
 consciences of the already heavily burthened 
 judges of the Maid. 
 
 It appears, however, that these men had 
 not altogether given up the idea of carrying 
 
224 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 out this barbarity, so congenial to such a man 
 as Cauchon and to his friend the Inquisitor ; 
 for a meeting was summoned by Cauchon at his 
 house three days after Joan had been brought 
 face to face with the torture apparatus, at which 
 the question was discussed as to whether it 
 should not after all be used. 
 
 Thirteen judges met the Bishop and the 
 Inquisitor to discuss the question. Of these 
 the following were against applying torture : 
 Maitres Roussel, Venderes, Marguerie, Erard, 
 Barbier, Gastinel, Coppequesne, Ledoux, De 
 la Pierre, Halton, and Lemaistre. One of 
 these, Erard, remarked that it was unnecessary 
 to torture the prisoner seeing that, as he ex- 
 pressed it, *they had already sufficient evidence 
 to condemn her to death without putting her 
 to torment.' But Morel de Courcelles, and 
 Loiseleur were in favour that it should be 
 made use of. Surely the names of these men 
 deserve to be held in execration, and placed 
 by the side of Cauchon's In the historic pillory 
 of everlasting infamy. 
 y Meanwhile the University of Paris were 
 
 deliberating upon their answer to the twelve 
 articles. This body met on the 29th of April, 
 within the convent of Saint Bernard. The 
 ancient building, in which the University held 
 many notable conclaves when even Popes were 
 judged by the doctors of Paris, still exists, 
 but It has been transformed into an oil ware- 
 house. John de Troyes, senior of the Faculty 
 of Theology, was the spokesman, and read the 
 
1 
 
 -""trj'^^*. 
 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 225 
 
 decisions of the faculty on each of the twelve 
 articles. It is unnecessary to go through the 
 long verbiage of abuse and blasphemy with 
 which these theologians thought it their duty to 
 bespatter Joan of Arc. 
 
 On every head these reverend seigneurs 
 condemned her. After De Troyes had finished 
 his reading of the opinions and the judgment, 
 Guerold de Boissel read the deliberations of 
 the Faculty of Decrees upon the six points of 
 accusation. * If this woman,' so ran the rede, 
 'was in her right mind when she made af- 
 firmation of the propositions contained in the 
 twelve articles, one may say in the manner of 
 counsel and of doctrine, and to speak charitably, 
 first, that she is schismatic in separating herself 
 from obedience to the Church ; secondly, that 
 she is out of the pale of the law in contra- 
 dicting the article '' Unam Sanctani Ecclesiam 
 Catholicam " ; thirdly, apostate, for having cut 
 short her hair, which was given her by God 
 to hide her head with, and also in having 
 abandoned the dress of a woman for that 
 of a man ; fourthly, vicious and a soothsayer, 
 for saying, without showing miracles, that she 
 is sent by God, as was Moses and John 
 the Baptist ; fifthly, rebel to the faith, by 
 remaining under the anathema framed by the 
 canons of the Church, and by not receiving 
 the Sacraments of the Church at the season 
 set apart by the Church, in order not to have 
 to cease wearing the dress of a man ; and, 
 sixthly, blasphemous in saying that she knows 
 
226 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 she will be received into Paradise. Therefore, 
 if after being charitably warned she refuses to 
 re-enter the Catholic faith, and thereby give 
 satisfaction, she shall be given over to the 
 secular judges, and meet with the punishment 
 due to her crimes.' 
 
 And the University of Paris in solemn con- 
 clave ratified the above judgment. The Univer- 
 sity also sent Cauchon a letter of commenda- 
 tion, in which he was held up to the general 
 admiration as a faithful pastor, zealous in good 
 works, on whom the University trusted that the 
 Almighty would, on the day of His manifesta- 
 tion, bestow an imperishable crown of glory. 
 Such were the sentiments of the most erudite, 
 ^y most pious, and most eminent school of learning 
 existing in the capital of France. On the 19th 
 of May Cauchon summoned yet another gather- 
 ing of Joan's judges in the archiepiscopal palace 
 at Rouen. Fifty of them attended. After some 
 discussion, during which a few of the learned 
 men present expressed their opinion that Joan 
 of Arc should be at once handed over to the 
 secular arm, it was decided that the prisoner 
 should again be brought before them to be 
 what they were pleased to call * charitably ad- 
 monished.' Accordingly, four days after, on the 
 23rd of May, in a chamber near Joan of Arc's 
 dungeon, another meeting was held. On this 
 occasion a canon of Rouen, named Peter Morice, 
 was ordered to question the prisoner. 
 
 He commenced by delivering a long lecture, 
 in which he recapitulated the twelve articles, 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 227 
 
 and wound up his oration by imploring Joan 
 to submit herself to the Church Militant, and 
 threatening her with the loss of body and soul 
 in this world and the next if she still refused 
 to do so. 
 
 Joan of Arc was as unmoved and as firm 
 when thus threatened as she had been when 
 placed before the instruments of torture, and % 
 she replied : — 
 
 * If I were to see the fire itself, the stake, 
 and the executioner ready to light the pile, and 
 were I in the midst of the flames, I should not 
 say anything else than what I have already 
 spoken during the trial, and this is my deter- 
 mination, even unto my death ! ' 
 
 There is some probability for believing that, 
 during the following evening after this last meet- 
 ing of Joan of Arc and her judges, Loiseleur 
 gained admittance to the prisoner, and, under 
 the disguise of a friendly and sympathetic priest, 
 promised Joan that if she would conform to the 
 wishes of the judges, she should be taken out 
 of the prison she now lay in and the custody of 
 the English, and transferred to prisons belong- 
 ing to the Church. 
 
 Poor Joan's chief desire was that she might 
 be set free from the hands of the English. 
 Be this as it may, there is no authority given 
 for this idea of Loiseleur having probed her 
 on this point ; and Wallon, in his history of j / 
 the Maid, makes no allusion to such an inter- i 
 view, and only states that John Beaupere went 
 in the morning of the 24th to the prison, and 
 
 1^ 
 
228 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 he was soon followed there by Nicolas Loiseleur, 
 who vehemently urged on Joan to comply with 
 the demands which the judges had made. 
 
 Nothing had been neglected to give the 
 greatest solemnity to the cruel farce which 
 Cauchon had prepared to be now enacted — a 
 solemnity by which the Bishop hoped to de- 
 grade Joan of Arc in the eyes of the people. 
 It was that of obliging the prisoner to make 
 a public apology and recantation of all her 
 deeds — a declaration in fact to be made by 
 her in the eyes of the whole world that all 
 she had undertaken and accomplished had been 
 through and by the aid of evil spirits. 
 
 By this stroke the Bishop hoped to show 
 to France that its heroine, instead of being a 
 sainted and holy maid sent by God to deliver 
 her country from the invader, was, by her own 
 open and public confession, proved to be an 
 emanation from Satan — a being abhorrent in 
 the eyes of God and man. By this device, 
 Cauchon hoped also to deal a blow to Charles, 
 for when once it became known that his ser- 
 vant and saviour was a creature in league with 
 the fiends, all the works done through her 
 influence, and by her prowess, including his 
 coronation, would also be proved to have been 
 accomplished by the powers of darkness, and 
 therefore deeds abhorrent to all good Catholics 
 throughout his realm. 
 
 The place chosen for the stage on which 
 Joan of Arc was to abjure before the eyes of 
 Rouen — and through Rouen the rest of France 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 229 
 
 — her deeds and her words, was the cemetery 
 in front of that most beautiful of all Gothic 
 fanes — the Church of Saint Ouen. 
 
 Adjacent to its southern wall the exquisitely 
 carved portal named the Marmousets, then as 
 now rich in statuary of royal and imperial bene- 
 factors of the Church, looks down upon what 
 is the entrance to a fair public garden. In the 
 fifteenth century this space was used as a place 
 of burial. 
 
 Here, arranged with a view to dramatic 
 effect, were placed two huge wooden scaffolds, 
 or rather platforms, which faced one another. 
 Upon one of these sat the Bishop of Beauvais 
 in state. He had on his right hand the Prince 
 Cardinal of Winchester, great-uncle of the child- 
 king Henry VI., with other notabilities of the 
 Church ; the Bishops of Norwich, of Noyon, 
 and of Therouenne ; the Vice- Inquisitor, eight 
 abbots, and a large number of friars and doc- 
 tors, clerical and lay — In fact all those who had 
 attended the trials of the Maid of Orleans 
 during the two preceding months. Upon the 
 opposite platform stood Joan of Arc, a ^ crowd 
 of lawyers and priests about her. Here, too, 
 stood Loiseleur close by the prisoner ; he never 
 ceased urging her to conform to the commands 
 of the clergy about her. 
 
 A vast throng of the town's-people gathered 
 below, and the place was all in a turmoil. A 
 seething mob had followed the Maid from her 
 prison to the cemetery, which, already full, now 
 held with difficulty the fresh press of people 
 
230 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 who accompanied Joan of Arc and her guards 
 to the purHeus of the Church of Saint Ouen. 
 
 William Erard had been appointed by 
 Cauchpn to preach in this ' terrible comedy,' as 
 -flVtichelet") calls this farce of the Maid's abjura- 
 tion. For text the monk selected the fifteenth 
 chapter of Saint John's gospel: 'The branch,' 
 etc. Erard showed in his discourse how Joan 
 had fallen from one sin into another, till she 
 had at length separated herself from the Church. 
 To a long string of abuse about herself Joan 
 of Arc listened with perfect patience ; but the 
 preacher, not content with hurling his invec- 
 tives at the prisoner, began to attack her 
 King for having listened to Joan's advice, by 
 which conduct the King had, Erard said, also 
 incurred the crime of heresy. 
 
 This attack on Charles roused the indigna- 
 tion of the Maid. Turning on the monk, without 
 a moment's thought of her own situation, and 
 the fresh danger she exposed herself to, the 
 noble girl exclaimed : ' By my faith, and with 
 all respect to you, I dare to affirm on my peril 
 y that the King of this realm is the noblest of 
 Christians, and no one has greater love for the 
 Faith and Church than my King ! ' 
 
 * Silence her ! ' shrieked the preacher, beside 
 himself with rage at finding that these few 
 words from the lips of Joan of Arc had de- 
 stroyed all the effect of his eloquence on that 
 vast crowd, whose sympathy must have been 
 now strongly shown towards the glorious victim 
 before them. 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 231 
 
 Again summoned to submit to the Church, 
 Joan said : ' I have answered on that point 
 already to my judges. I call upon them to 
 send an account of all my actions to the Holy 
 Father at Rome, to whom after God I submit 
 myself.' 
 
 This was not what Cauchon wished his 
 victim to express, for one of the charges that 
 he had made against her was her refusal to 
 submit to the Pope. He therefore changed the 
 subject, and asked Joan of Arc whether she 
 acknowledged that there were any things evil 
 among those deeds she had committed or 
 said. 
 
 * As to my deeds and sayings,' she answered, 
 * I have done them by the command of God.' 
 
 *Then you admit,' said the Bishop, *that 
 the King and others have sometimes urged you 
 to act as you have done ? ' 
 
 *As to my words and actions,' she answered, 
 ' I make no one, and particularly not the King, 
 responsible. If any wTong has been committed, 
 it is I who am to blame, and not another.' 
 
 'But,' said Cauchon, * those acts and words 
 of yours which have been found evil by the 
 judges, will you recant them ? ' 
 
 'I submit them,' said Joan, *to God and 
 our Holy Father the Pope.' 
 
 'The bishops,' continued Cauchon, 'are the 
 judges in their dioceses, therefore you must 
 submit to the Church as your judges have 
 determined that you shall do.' 
 
 Joan still refused, and the Bishop then 
 
 \r^ 
 
232 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 began to read the sentence condemning her 
 to death as a heretic. 
 
 Now arose a great uproar among the clergy 
 and others on the platforms and among the 
 crowd beneath. Loiseleur and Massieu urged 
 her to abjure ; the former promising that if she 
 consented she would, after abjuring, be taken 
 from her English jailers and placed in keeping 
 of the clergy. In the midst of the hubbub 
 Erard produced a parchment scroll, on which, he 
 told Joan, were written the different accusations 
 against her, which she had only to sign with 
 her mark to be saved. All about this abjura- 
 tion was a mesh of confusion to the mind of 
 Joan. Massieu told her she need but make a 
 mark on the parchment before her to be deli- 
 vered : if not — and he pointed down to a grim 
 figure near the foot of the stage they were on, 
 where stood the headsman with cart and assis- 
 tants, ready to draw her to the stake. 
 
 ' Abjure ! ' cried Erard and Massieu, * or you 
 will be taken and burnt.' 
 
 Even Joan of Arc's courage failed at that 
 '^ sight, and all the woman in her nature asserted 
 itself. 
 
 * Do what I tell you,' cried Loiseleur; * ab- 
 jure and put on woman's dress, and all will yet 
 be well.' 
 
 The text of the abjuration was then hurriedly 
 
 read, Joan of Arc following it, and repeating 
 
 the words, the sense of which she had no time 
 
 / to understand. She spoke the words, it is said, 
 
 as one in a dream. Some said she did this 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 233 
 
 mockingly, for she was observed to smile once 
 or twice ; but the poor soul's spirit was crushed, 
 and doubtless the whole scene was to her like an 
 evil dream — the poor broken-down body could 
 not discriminate what words she was forced to 
 repeat. A troubled, horrible dream must that 
 have seemed to the hapless maiden, standing 
 on that scaffold, with all the shouting mob about, 
 and all her deadly enemies at hand. She made 
 her mark on the parchment — a little cross — and 
 the deed was done. 
 
 In the recantation, or abjuration, thus ob- 
 tained from Joan of Arc, the twelve articles were 
 included, with all their abuse set down. Thus 
 was Joan obliged by her signature to declare 
 that all her visions and voices were false and 
 from evil spirits ; also that she had been guilty 
 of transgressing laws divine in having worn her 
 hair cut short and the dress of a man ; also in 
 having caused bloodshed ; also in having idola- 
 trously invoked evil spirits ; also in having 
 treated God and His sacraments with contempt ; 
 and, besides all this, of having acted schismati- 
 cally, and of having fallen foul of the Church : 
 all of which crimes and errors she now ab- 
 jured, and humbly submitted herself to the will 
 of the Church and its ordinances. She promised 
 with her abjuration not to relapse, and called on 
 Saint Peter, the Pope, as well as the Bishop of 
 Beauvais and other of her judges, to keep her 
 word. 
 
 Not content with having inveigled Joan of 
 Arc into signing this farrago of blasphemous 
 
234 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 nonsense, her judges, it seems, added fraud 
 to their crime by reading to the prisoner a 
 different recantation from that to which they 
 had forced her to sign her mark. The one she 
 marked contained only six lines, and it did 
 not take longer to read these few lines, an 
 eye-witness afterwards asserted, than it does 
 to repeat the ' Paternoster ' ; whereas the one 
 produced after the ceremony of the abjuration 
 filled several sides. But in an act of such 
 infamy as this of having cheated Joan of Arc 
 not only into signing a recantation of her life- 
 work, but of confessing to her existence hav- 
 ing been one long series of superstitious and 
 criminal workings with the spirits of evil, it 
 matters very little whether she signed a longer 
 or a shorter list of falsehoods invented by her 
 persecuting judges. 
 
 While these things were taking place upon 
 the platform on which Joan was bullied into 
 signing this abjuration, the English and their 
 faction in the crowd below began to fear that 
 their victim would escape them ; they had not 
 grasped the astuteness of the French prelate, 
 who was ready to hand his prisoner over to 
 them directly he had obtained this recantation 
 from her hand. Cauchon was, however, obliged 
 to keep them waiting until he had got that by 
 which he hoped to destroy Joan of Arc's fame, 
 and at the same time, and by the same deed, 
 to retain in his possession a formidable weapon 
 by which he thought to weaken the cause of 
 the French monarch. 
 
i^ 
 
 IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 235 
 
 Cauchon may well have felt on that after- 
 noon that what he had done for the English 
 cause merited as his reward the coveted arch- 
 bishopric of Rouen. There remained but one 
 further act for him to play in this drama before 
 he quitted his platform. Rising from among 
 his brother bishops he read a list of the crimes 
 committed by the prisoner, and announced that, 
 as Joan had now, owing to her abjuration 
 of her sins, re-entered into the fold of the 
 Church, she was absolved by him from her 
 excommunication. However, he added, as she 
 had sinned so grievously against God and the 
 Church, he, for the sake of her soul's welfare, 
 condemned her to perpetual imprisonment — 
 'to the water of sorrow, and the bread of 
 anguish,' so that she might repent of her faults, 
 and cease ever to commit any more. 
 
 Then, in spite of the promises made to her 
 of being placed in the charge of the clergy, 
 Cauchon ordered that Joan should be taken 
 back to her former prison. 
 
 Warwick is said to have displayed anger U^ 
 at this termination of the proceedings. Observ- 
 ing this, one of the judges pacified him by 
 assuring him that Joan should not be allowed 
 to escape her fate : ' Do not fear, my lord,' 
 he said; 'you will catch her yet' 
 
 That evening the Vice- Inquisitor, accom- 
 panied by Loiseleur, Thomas de Courcelles, 
 Isambard de la Pierre, and a few other of 
 the judges who had taken part in the pro- 
 ceedings that day at Saint Ouen, visited the 
 
236 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 prisoner. Their object in going to her was to 
 insist upon her changing her man's dress, with 
 which demand she now had to comply. That 
 
 J occurred on Thursday night, and on the Sunday 
 following a rumour was spread abroad that Joan 
 of Arc had discarded the woman's dress, and 
 had again put on male dress. 
 
 Although, during the last days of the hero- 
 ine's life, it is most difficult to gather anything 
 authentic as to her treatment in the prison, 
 we are led to understand, by the least untrust- 
 worthy testimony, that what happened in the 
 interval between Thursday night and the follow- 
 ing Sunday was as follows. 
 
 The soldiers placed in charge of Joan after 
 her recantation and her return to the prison had 
 rendered her existence a long martyrdom ; and 
 there is reason to believe that on her discard- 
 ing her man's dress these ruffians attempted to 
 violate the prisoner : so, sooner than suffer this, 
 although she knew that to return to her former 
 dress would be equivalent to meeting certain 
 death, she did not hesitate to save her maiden- 
 hood at the exposure of her life. 
 
 ^ Michelet, in his history of the Maid, quotes 
 
 from the deposition of one of the officials — Mas- 
 sieu, who saw much of Joan of Arc in those 
 last days — the statement that on the morning 
 of Trinity Sunday, on waking, she asked the 
 soldiers to leave her alone for a few moments 
 while she dressed ; that one of the men re- 
 moved her woman's clothes, and in place sub- 
 stituted the dress of a man ; and that, in order 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 237 
 
 not to be naked, she was obliged to put on the 
 latter. 
 
 Be this as it may, on the following morning, 
 Cauchon, followed by several of his creatures, 
 returned to the prison. In order that he might 
 see and show to others that his victim had 
 been entrapped at last. ' We have come,' he 
 said to the prisoner, ' to find out the state of 
 your soul, and we find you, in despite of our 
 command, and despite of your promise to re- 
 nounce this man's dress, again thus attired. Tell 
 us the reason why you have dared again to wear 
 these clothes.' 
 
 Joan's answer was that she preferred that 
 dress to the other, and that, being placed among 
 men, it was better that she should wear it 
 than the dress of a woman. Although not 
 placed In the judicial record of this interview, 
 Manchon adds in his account of the proceed- 
 ings on that day, that Joan of Arc also said 
 that she had returned to wearing her male attire, 
 feeling safer when in that dress than when she 
 was dressed in woman's clothes. This seems 
 to us an evident avowal that she had to re- 
 sist the brutality of the men placed over her In 
 the dungeon. Massieu also adds to Manchon's 
 testimony that he knew Joan was unable to pro- 
 tect herself against attempts made to violate 
 her. Her legs were chained to the wood with 
 which her pallet bed was framed, and this chain 
 was again fixed to a large beam about six 
 feet long, and locked with a padlock ; so that 
 the poor creature could hardly move. To the 
 
238 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 above testimony of these two men, Isambard 
 de la Pierre adds his. He states that when 
 / Cauchon came to the Maid's dungeon she bore 
 all the traces of having undergone a violent 
 struggle, * being all in tears, and so bruised and 
 outraged {outragde) that he (Isambard) could 
 not help feeling pity for her.' 
 \/ But the strongest testimony of all Is that 
 of the priest, Martin Ladvenu, who heard her 
 confession on the eve of her death, and he con- 
 firms Isambard's statement entirely. He even 
 adds that not only had Joan of Arc to suffer 
 from the brutality of the soldiery placed about 
 her, but that a millourt d Angleterre had acted 
 as shamefully as these men towards her. 
 ^/ Although Michelet and other French writers 
 
 have naturally not allowed this * Millourt ' (which, 
 by the way, Is quite as correct a form of spell- 
 ing that title as the better known ' Milor ') 
 to escape the branding he deserves for his 
 attempted villainy, it is but fair to add that 
 Isambard de la Pierre, as well as Manchon, 
 qualify his conduct as that not of a would-be 
 violator, but of a tempter — a not inconsiderable 
 difference in the scale of Infamy. 
 
 To return to Cauchon and Joan of Arc. 
 
 'But,' said the Bishop, 'are you not aware 
 you have now no right to wear such a dress?' 
 
 Joan answered that she had been misled 
 Into believing that if she wore the woman's 
 dress she would be allowed to hear Mass and 
 to communicate, and to be, she added, 'de- 
 livered from these chains.' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 239 
 
 * But,' replied Cauchon, *have you not ab- 
 jured, and promised never to take to wearing 
 this dress again ? ' 
 
 *I would prefer to die,' she answered, 'than 
 to remain on a prisoner here. But if I were 
 allowed' to go to the Mass, and these chains 
 were taken off me, and if I was placed in some 
 other prison where some woman could be near 
 me, then I should do all that is required of me 
 by the Church.' 
 
 In all Joan of Arc's answers it should be 
 noticed that she never, in spite of the terrible 
 sufferings she endured, and the gross barbarities 
 inflicted on her, in any single instance ever 
 made any complaint of her treatment. There is 
 something superhuman in this utter absence of 
 any shade of vindictiveness, when one thinks 
 that, by a few words, she might have saved 
 herself from much of what she had to suffer. 
 Never once did she blame even those who had 
 deceived, insulted, and ill-treated her ; her life 
 was one beautiful example, full of divine charity 
 and forgiveness. 
 
 Cauchon, to make doubly sure of complet- 
 ing his work, then asked Joan : * Have you, 
 since last Thursday, heard the voices of Saint 
 Catherine and Saint Margaret ? ' 
 
 'Yes,' she answered. 
 
 ' And,' continued the Bishop, ' what did they 
 say?' 
 
 ' They told me of the great sorrow they 
 felt for the great treason to which I have been 
 led, by my abjuring and revoking my deeds in 
 
240 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 ^ order to save my life, and that by so doing I 
 have lost my soul.' 
 
 On the margin of the original document of 
 the MSS. of this examination, written in the 
 prison, the original of which Is in the National 
 Library in Paris, we find alongside of this 
 answer of loan of Arc's the following- words : 
 v/ ' Responsio 7nortifera' Indeed it was an answer 
 of deadliest import ; for Joan in asserting that 
 her voices had again spoken to her, and in 
 saying that she had committed a mortal sin 
 by recanting her deeds, had thrown away the 
 only plank of safety left her. 
 
 It seems to us evident, however, that Joan 
 of Arc was now quite eager and willing to 
 meet the worst that her enemies could inflict 
 upon her : death itself must now have seemed 
 more tolerable than the daily death she was 
 undergoing in her prison. 
 
 ' Did your voices urge you to resist giv- 
 ing way about the recantation ? ' questioned the 
 Bishop. 
 
 'My voices,' Joan said, 'told me as I stood 
 on the platform before the people that I should 
 answer the preacher with boldness.' 
 
 'Did he not,' said Cauchon, 'speak the 
 truth?' 
 
 * No,' she answered, 'he was a false preacher; 
 and he accused me of having done things which 
 I never did.' 
 
 'But,' then said Cauchon, 'do you mean to 
 tell us that you still persist in saying that you 
 have been sent by God?' 
 
IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL. 241 
 
 To which Joan replied that that was still 
 her belief. 
 
 *Then,' continued the Bishop, 'you deny- 
 that to which you swore on oath only last 
 Thursday ? ' 
 
 * My voices/ said Joan, 'have told me since 
 then that I had committed a bad deed in say- 
 ing that I had not done the things which I 
 have done ! ' 
 
 'Then,' continued the Bishop, with eager- 
 ness, 'you retract your abjuration?' 
 
 'It was,' said Joan of Arc, 'from the fear 
 of being burnt that I retracted what I had 
 done ; but I never intended to deny or revoke 
 my voices.' 
 
 'But then,' said Cauchon, /are you now no 
 longer afraid of being burnt .'^' 
 
 ' I had rather die than endure any longer 
 what I have now to undergo.' 
 
 And with these broken-hearted words of the 
 sufferer ended this long mockery of a trial, so 
 patiently endured during three weariful months 
 by the martyr Maid. 
 
 On quitting the prison, Cauchon met Lord 
 Warwick among some Englishmen In the outer 
 court of the castle. They were clamouring that 
 the execution of Joan of Arc should be soon 
 carried out. The Bishop accosted the Earl 
 with a smile of triumph, and said to him in 
 English : — 
 
 'You can dine now with a good appetite. 
 We have caught her at last ! ' 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MARTYRDOM. 
 
 n^HE next day, the 29th of May, Cauchon 
 ^ summoned a large number of prelates and 
 doctors — forty-two in all — to meet him at the 
 archiepiscopal chapel, where he recounted to 
 them all the circumstances of his late interview 
 with the prisoner. He told them how he had 
 found Joan, in spite of her abjuration, again 
 dressed as a man, and of her having reaffirmed 
 all that she had so recently abjured regarding 
 her voices and apparitions. When he had con- 
 cluded, Cauchon took the opinion of those 
 around him. Without one dissentient voice, 
 they all affirmed that she should be handed 
 over to the secular arm — ix,, burnt. The de- 
 liberation had not taken long, and, after thank- 
 ing the company, the Bishop made out a formal 
 order by which Joan was summoned at eight 
 o'clock on the next morning to the old market- 
 place, there to be delivered into the hands of 
 the civil judge, and by him to be handed over 
 to those of the executioners. 'We conclude,' 
 said the Bishop, as he dismissed the meeting, 
 *that Joan shall be treated as a relapsed heretic, 
 for this appears to us right and proper in the 
 sight of law and justice.' 
 
MARTYRDOM, 243 
 
 Early in the morning of Wednesday, the 30th 
 of May — a date which should be held sacred in 
 France as that of the martyrdom of her who 
 through all time must be her country's greatest 
 glory — two priests (Martin Ladvenu and John 
 Toutmouilld) were sent by the Bishop's order 
 to the prisoner to tell her that her last day 
 on earth had come. Toutmouille describes, with 
 some pathos; the manner in which Joan of Arc 
 received the terrible news. She, he tells us, at 
 first wept bitterly, and said she would sooner be 
 beheaded seven times than suffer such a death 
 as that of burning. She recalled with pain the 
 promises made by Cauchon to her — that after 
 she had abjured she would be taken to the 
 prison of the Church, for then, she said, this cruel 
 death would not have befallen her ; and she 
 called upon God, *the omnipotent and just Judge,' 
 to take pity on her. While she thus lamented 
 her fate, Cauchon entered the dungeon. Turning 
 on him, she cried : ' I lay my death at your 
 door ; for had you placed me in the prison of 
 the Church, this cruel death would not have 
 befallen me, and I make you responsible to 
 God for my death.' 
 
 Then, turning away from the Bishop, she 
 appeared more calm, and, addressing one of the 
 judges who had followed Cauchon into the 
 prison, exclaimed : * Master Peter ' — the man's 
 name was Peter Maurice — * where shall I be 
 this evening ? ' 
 
 * Have you not good hope in God's mercy } * 
 he answered. 
 
244 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 'Yes/ said Joan; 'and by His grace I hope 
 to be in Paradise.' 
 
 Cauchon and the others having left her 
 alone with Martin Ladvenu, she made her con- 
 fession to him, and when that was finished she 
 begged that the Sacrament might be adminis- 
 tered to her. Without Cauchon's leave Ladvenu 
 did not dare to obtain this supreme consolation 
 for the martyr. 
 
 He despatched a messenger to the Bishop, 
 who, after consulting with some of the clergy, 
 gave his permission. In the meanwhile, the 
 city had heard that the day of the Maid of 
 Orleans' execution had come, and the people 
 crowded about the neighbourhood of the castle. 
 In spite of the English soldiery, the people did 
 not conceal their grief and dismay on learning 
 that the heroine was so soon to perish. The 
 Eucharist was brought into the prison, but with- 
 out the usual accompaniments of candle, stole, 
 and surplice. These 'maimed rights' raised the 
 indignation of the priest Martin, and he indig- 
 nantly refused to proceed with the ceremony 
 until lights and stole were brought. During 
 the time in which Joan of Arc was receiving 
 the Sacrament, those persons who had been 
 admitted within the castle recited the litany for 
 the departing soul, and never had the mourn- 
 ful invocation for the dying, the supplication 
 of the solemn chant, ' Kyrie eleison! Christe 
 eleison ! ' been raised from a more tragic place, 
 or on a more heart-stirring occasion. Outside, 
 in the street, and all around the prison gates, 
 
MARTYRDOM. 245 
 
 knelt the weeping people, fervently praying, and 
 earnestly invoking the Almighty and His saints 
 for her who was about to lay down her young 
 life in their behalf. 'Christ have pity! Saint 
 Margaret have pity ! Pray for her, all ye saints, 
 archangels, and blessed martyrs, pray for her! 
 Saints and angels intercede for her! From Thy 
 wrath, good Lord, deliver her! O, Lord God, 
 save her ! Have mercy on her, we beseech thee, 
 good Lord!' The poor, helpless people had 
 nothing but their prayers to give Joan of Arc ; 
 but these we may believe were not unavailing. 
 There are few more pathetic events recorded 
 in history than this weeping, helpless, praying 
 crowd, holding their lighted candles, and kneel- 
 ing, on the pavement, beneath the prison walls 
 of the old fortress. 
 
 It was about nine o'clock when they placed 
 on Joan of Arc a long white shirt, such as 
 criminals wore at their execution, and on her 
 head they set a mitre-shaped paper cap, on 
 which the words * heretic, relapsed, apostate, 
 idolatress,' were written. 
 
 This was the head-dress which the victims 
 of the Inquisition carried, and in which they 
 were burnt. 
 
 When Joan of Arc was taken forth to die, 
 there mounted with her on to the cart the two 
 priests, Martin Ladvenu and Isambard. Eight 
 hundred English troops lined the road by which 
 the death-cart and its load passed from the 
 castle to the old market-place ; they were armed 
 with staves and with axes. These soldiers, as 
 
246 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the victim passed, fell into line behind the 
 cart, and kept off with their staves the crowd, 
 eager to show its sympathy for Joan. 
 
 Suddenly, when as yet the procession had 
 gone but a short distance, a man pushed his 
 way through the crowd and the soldiers, and 
 threw himself at Joan of Arc's feet, imploring 
 her forgiveness. 
 
 It was the priest Loiseleur, Joan's confes- 
 sor and betrayer. Roughly thrown back by 
 the men-at-arms, Loiseleur disappeared in the 
 throng, but not before Joan had bestowed her 
 pardon on him. On the old market-place — 
 where now not a single building remains which 
 witnessed the tragedy of that day — was a wide 
 space, surrounded by picturesquely gabled and 
 high-roofed houses, like those which still sur- 
 vive in the old Norman capital, and within 
 a short distance of the churches of Saint 
 Sauveur and Saint Michel, now destroyed. 
 Two tribunes had been raised on either side 
 of the square. Between this, placed high on 
 a stage of masonry, stood the pile. A placard 
 affixed in front of this pile bore a long inscrip- 
 tion, beginning thus : ' Joan, known as the 
 Maid' . . . and ending with a cumbrous list of 
 epithets, among which * apostate' and * schis- 
 matic' were the least abusive. 
 
 Pending the final act, a monk named 
 Nicolas Midi was ordered by Cauchon to 
 address the prisoner and those present. The 
 Bishop's words have come down to us. 
 
 'For your admonition,' he began, 'and for 
 
MARTYRDOM. 247 
 
 the edification of all those present, a learned 
 discourse will now be delivered by the dis- 
 tinguished doctor, Nicolas Midi ' ; and the 
 distinguished doctor then took for his text, 
 from the first Epistle of Saint Paul to the 
 Corinthians, twelfth chapter, the words : * If 
 one member suffereth,' etc. 
 
 The gist of his sermon was to prove that 
 it was necessary, in order to prevent others fall- 
 ing into sin, that the guilty member should be 
 removed. Strange, indeed, how often the words 
 of Scripture have been used and mis-used in 
 excuse, or in vindication, of the most atrocious 
 cruelties by so-called Christians, professing to 
 preach the religion of mercy, of forgiveness, 
 and of humanity. 
 
 The sermon being finished, the preacher 
 addressed Joan of Arc in the following words : 
 'Joan, the Church, wishing to prevent infection, 
 casts you from her. She no longer protects 
 you. Depart in peace ! ' 
 
 Then Cauchon took up his text, which was 
 to the effect that Joan, 'by renouncing her ab- 
 juration, had returned as the dog of Scripture 
 did to its vomit ; for which cause we, Peter, by 
 the divine mercy Bishop of Beauvais, and 
 brother John Lemaitre, vicar of the very rever- 
 end doctor John Graverent Inquisitor of the 
 heretical evil [especially retained by Cauchon 
 in the present case], have by a just judgment, 
 declared you, Joan, commonly styled the Maid, 
 fallen back into diverse errors and crimes, schis- 
 matical, idolatrous, and guilty of other sins in 
 
248 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 great number. For these causes we declare 
 you fallen back into your former errors, and 
 by the sentence of excommunication under 
 which you were already found guilty we de- 
 clare you to be heretical and relapsed ; and 
 we declare that you, as a decayed member, to 
 prevent the contagion from spreading to others, 
 are cast from the unity of the Church, and 
 given over to the secular power. We reject, 
 we cast you off, and we abandon you, praying 
 that, beyond death and the mutilation of your 
 limbs, the Church treats you with moderation.' 
 
 These last words were the usual formula 
 used by the Inquisition when its victims were 
 about to be committed to the flames. Joan 
 of Arc meanwhile was praying fervently ; and 
 when Cauchon had finished speaking, she humbly 
 begged those around her to pray for her. Her 
 tears, her fervour, and her submission, over- 
 came the feelings even of her judges. 
 
 Winchester was seen to weep, and a great 
 wave of pity swept over the immense con- 
 fused crowd ; for her enemies as well as her 
 friends among the people were all more or less 
 under its influence. 
 
 In her prayers the heroine implored the 
 Divine Mercy to pardon those from whom she 
 had suffered so much. * Pray for me in your 
 churches,' she said to the priests — to those priests 
 and to the Church that had deserted and con- 
 demned her ; for in spite of all that she had 
 endured at the hands of those Churchmen, Joan 
 of Arc remained to the end as fervent and loyal 
 
MARTYRDOM. 249 
 
 a Churchwoman as she had been throughout her 
 Hfe. 
 
 One thing she missed. Turning to Massieu, 
 she asked him if he had a cross. He had not, 
 nor could one be found ; but an Englishman 
 broke his stave into two pieces, and these tied 
 together formed a rude cross. 
 
 This cross Joan took, and placed it against 
 her heart ; but she still wanted a consecrated 
 cross to be held before her while struggling in 
 the flames, and this was at length obtained by 
 the priest Isambard, who fetched one from the 
 adjacent Church of Saint Sauveur. 
 
 Meanwhile the English soldiers began to 
 grumble at the length of these preparations : 
 * Do they expect us to dine here ? ' they growled. 
 
 As soon as the cross from the church had 
 been placed in her hands, she devoutly kissed 
 it, invoking God and her saints to assist her in 
 this the heaviest of her needs, when all human 
 help had abandoned her. 
 
 The heroine appears to have been then 
 seized by the English sergeants-at-arms, and 
 given by them into the charge of the execu- 
 tioners ; and while she was being led to the foot 
 of the high pile of clay and wood — the instrument 
 of her martyrdom — the men-at-arms surrounded 
 and roughly handled their prisoner. The scene 
 had become so poignant that many of the judges 
 left their tribune, unable to endure the sight of 
 that white-robed and helpless figure in the midst 
 of the brutal soldiers hounding her on to her 
 death. It must indeed have been a ghastly 
 
250 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 spectacle, even for men accustomed to scenes 
 of savage brutality and cruelty. At length she 
 was delivered from her tormentors, and, pre- 
 ceded by the executioner, she mounted the 
 ladder, and was bound round the body by a 
 chain attached to the stake. 
 
 The good priest, IsambaM, closely followed 
 her, and stood immediately beneath her, with 
 the cross held and raised towards Joan, who 
 but once removed her gaze from off it. 
 
 ^ Keep it,' she said to Isambard, *keep it 
 always before my eyes, till death.' 
 
 Then she took a last look around her — a 
 last look on a world which had been so harsh 
 and cruel a world to her, poor victim of all 
 the powers of evil on this earth! She looked 
 but once on the surging crowd beneath, at the 
 old timbered houses of the town, filled from 
 basement to high-peaked roof, with thousands 
 of its citizens. * O, Rouen, Rouen ! ' she cried, 
 'must I die here? I have great fear lest you 
 will suffer for my death.' And with that she 
 put away from her all earthly things, and gave 
 herself up to Heaven. In the interval the 
 executioners had lighted the lower portion of 
 the pile of wood, and the fire, fed by the pitch- 
 covered fagots, mounted rapidly. 
 
 Joan of Arc gave a cry of terror, and called 
 aloud for ' Water, holy water ! ' The body had 
 for an instant conquered the spirit — but it was 
 only for an instant. 
 
 At that moment Cauchon had the incon- 
 ceivable and apparently devil-driven curiosity to 
 
MARTYRDOM. 251 
 
 approach the martyr, hoping, perhaps, that in 
 the first terror at seeing the fire springing up 
 to her, Joan of Arc would let fall some words 
 of reproach against her King or her saints. 
 
 'Joan,' he cried through the crackling of 
 the flames, * I have come to exhort you for the 
 last time.' 
 
 * I die through you,' she said, as she had 
 said once before, and then she was allowed to 
 die in peace, so far as Cauchon and his Church 
 were concerned. For her all earthly things were 
 now over. Till the last sign of life expired the 
 eye-witnesses who have given us the fullest 
 account of her last moments — the priests Isam- 
 bard and Massieu — declared that she continued 
 to call on her God and on her saints. Fre- 
 quently through the blinding smoke and the 
 fierce rush of flame her face looked that of a 
 blessed saint uplifted and radiant. 
 
 With one loud cry of * Jesus ! ' her head 
 fell on her breast. 
 
 Thus came Joan of Arc to her glorious 
 end. 
 
 There is a tradition that when the ashes 
 of the martyr Maid were gathered to be cast 
 into the Seine, the heart was found uncon- 
 sumed — Cor cordium ! 
 
 Many other traditions are related regarding 
 her death, but none with much certainty. The 
 executioner is said to have come later on that 
 day to Isambard in an agony of grief. He 
 confessed himself, and told Isambard that he 
 felt Heaven would never pardon him for the 
 
252 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 part he had taken in killing a saint. The poor 
 fellow's responsibility for her death was really 
 not greater than that of the fagots and the 
 flames which had destroyed her life. On Cau- 
 chon and his gang of judges, lay and clerical 
 — on the University of Paris and the Catho- 
 lic Church — on Winchester and the English, 
 noble and simple, who had sold and bought 
 the glorious Maid, the crime of her martyrdom 
 will ever rest, and surely no other crime but 
 one in the world's history can be paralleled 
 with it. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE REHABILITATION. 
 
 T^WENTY years after the events which I 
 -^ have attempted to describe, an act of tardy 
 justice was accorded to Joan of Arc. Charles 
 VII. at length felt it necessary, more for his 
 own interest than for any care of the memory 
 of Joan of Arc, to have a revision made of the 
 iniquitous condemnation of the heroine. 
 
 This King, even if unable to rescue the 
 Maid of Orleans from her captors, might at 
 least have attempted her release, yet during 
 all the time — over a year — -of her imprison- 
 ment he had not even made a sign in her 
 behalf. 
 
 There does not exist in the documents of 
 the time a trace of any negotiation, of the 
 smallest offer made to obtain her exchange by 
 prisoners or by ransom, or of any wish to 
 effect her release. But Charles was anxious 
 on his own account, when France had almost 
 wholly been gained back to its allegiance, that 
 his coronation at Rheims should not be im- 
 puted to the actions and to the aid of one 
 whom the French clergy and the French judges 
 had condemned and executed as a heretic and 
 
254 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 apostate. Hence the vast judicial inquiry set on 
 foot by the King to vindicate the fame of her 
 whom the English and the Anglo-French had 
 hoped, through the condemnation pronounced by 
 Cauchon in the name of the Church, to vilify, 
 and through her, by her trial, condemnation, and 
 death, to discredit Charles and his coronation. 
 
 On the 15th of February, 1450, Charles 
 VI L declared that Joan of Arc's enemies had 
 destroyed her 'against reason' — so ran the for- 
 mula — 'and very cruelly,' and that it was his, 
 the King's, intention * to obtain the truth re- 
 garding this affair.' 
 
 Pope Nicolas V. made difficulties. Cardinal 
 d'Estouteville, who had undertaken to manage 
 the process of rehabilitation, presented the Pope 
 with a claim for a revision of the sentence 
 of condemnation in the name of Joan of Arc's 
 mother and of her two brothers. The peti- 
 tion ran thus : * The brothers, mother, and 
 relations of Joan, anxious that her memory and 
 their own should be cleansed from this un- 
 merited disgrace, demand that the sentence of 
 condemnation that was given at Rouen shall be 
 annulled.' Not, however, until the death of Pope 
 Nicolas v., and the accession of Calixtus III., 
 was anything further done. 
 
 The new Pope (Alfonso Borgia) did not 
 hesitate as to the line he intended taking in 
 the matter, and he gave his sanction to the 
 rehabilitation of the heroine by a rescript dated 
 the nth of June, 1455. It was as follows: — 
 
 ' We, Calixtus, servant of the servants of 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 255 
 
 God, accord a favourable ear to the request 
 which has been made us. There has lately 
 been brought before us on the part of Peter 
 and John of Arc, also of Isabella of Arc, their 
 mother, and some of their relations, a petition 
 stating that their sister, daughter, and relative, 
 Joan of Arc deceased, had been unjustly con- 
 demned as guilty of the crime of heresy and 
 other crimes against the Faith, on the false 
 testimony of the late William [John, it should 
 be] d'Estivet of the Episcopal Court of Beau- 
 vais, and of Peter of happy memory, at that 
 time Bishop of Beauvais, and of the late 
 John Lemaitre, belonging to the Inquisition. 
 The nullity of their proceedings and the inno- 
 cence of Joan are clearly established both by 
 documents and further by clearest proofs. In 
 consequence of this, the brothers, mother, and 
 relatives of Joan are therefore at liberty to cast 
 off the mark of infamy with which this trial 
 has falsely stamped them ; and thus they have 
 humbly supplicated our permission to authorise 
 and to proceed in this trial of rehabilitation.' 
 
 The prelates selected by the Pope as com- 
 missioners to follow the course of the trial of 
 rehabilitation were John Jouvenel des Ursins, 
 Archbishop of Rheims, William Chartrier, Bishop 
 of Paris, and Richard de Longueil, Bishop of 
 Coutances. On the 7th of November, 1455, 
 this trial was solemnly begun in the Church of 
 Notre Dame, in Paris. 
 
 It has been said that Joan of Arc's father 
 died of grief on hearing of his daughter's 
 
256 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 martyrdom. He was certainly dead before the 
 date of this trial. However, the now a^ed 
 mother of Joan of Arc, Isabella Romde d'Arc, 
 in her sixty-seventh year, was there. She was 
 supported by her two sons, John and Peter, and 
 was accompanied by many of her relations from 
 Vaucouleurs, and friends from Orleans. The 
 poor soul appears to have been much affected 
 when she appeared before the sympathetic 
 crowd. Many of those present must have come 
 from far to see the mother of the famous hero- 
 ine claiming at the hands of the Church the 
 vindication of her daughter's fame. 
 
 Two meetings took place at Notre Dame, 
 and a third was held at Rouen, at which the 
 family of Joan of Arc were unable to be 
 present — the mother from illness, and the 
 brothers by affairs at home. The Procureur, 
 whose name was Pr^vosteau, was the advocate 
 for the Arc family. The debates lasted all 
 through the winter, and into the early part of 
 the year 1456. During the debates a hun- 
 dred articles were drawn up and agreed to, 
 relating to the life, death, and trial of the 
 heroine. None of these are of much impor- 
 tance or interest. 
 
 It was not until the witnesses of Joan of 
 Arc's life at home, and of her actions abroad, 
 gave their testimony that the debates became 
 interesting. Then began to pass before the 
 eyes of the spectators a succession of people 
 who had known Joan of Arc, and who had 
 taken part in the same actions as those of the 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 257 
 
 Maid — peasants from her native village, towns- 
 folk from Orleans, generals and soldiers who 
 had ridden with her into battle and fought by 
 her side. 
 
 In fact, here appeared all sorts and condi- 
 tions of men, from farm labourers to princes 
 of the blood royal. The testimony of these 
 people helps one to follow the life of Joan of 
 Arc throughout its short career with something 
 like precision. The sittings of the commis- 
 sioners took place at Paris, Orleans, Rouen, 
 and also at Domremy. It may be said without 
 exaggeration that the whole of France and all 
 its classes seemed, after an interval of a quarter 
 of a century, to raise its voice in honour of 
 the memory of its martyr Maid, and to attest 
 to the spotless and noble life of her country's 
 saviour. 
 
 At Domremy, at Vaucouleurs, and at Toul, 
 thirty-four witnesses were heard on the 28th of 
 January and on the nth of February, 1456. 
 At Orleans, during the months of February 
 and of March, forty-one depositions were col- 
 lected by the Archbishop of Rheims. 
 
 In Paris, in April and May, the same pre- 
 late, assisted by the Bishop of Paris, heard the 
 evidence of twenty witnesses. At Rouen, the 
 same commission heard nineteen others. Fin- 
 ally, at Lyons, the deposition of Joan of Arc's 
 esquire, d'Aulon, who had attended her through- 
 out her campaigns, was made before the Vice- 
 Inquisitor of that province, John Despres. 
 
 All these depositions are recorded in Latin, 
 
 R 
 
258 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 the only exception being that of d'Aulon, which 
 was taken down in French. All those written 
 in Latin have been translated into French by 
 M. Fabre, and published in his Proces de Re- 
 habilitation de Jeanne d'Arc. 
 
 Among the witnesses first appear the friends 
 and neighbours of Joan of Arc in her childhood 
 and early years. From her birthplace came her 
 greatest friends, Henriette, Mengette, and Isa- 
 bellette. The first of these, in the year 1456, 
 was aged forty-five, the second was a year 
 older, and the third was in her fiftieth year. 
 All three were the wives of labourers. Henri- 
 ette was married to Gerard, Mengette to John 
 Joyart, and Isabellette to Gerardin d'Epinal. 
 To the child of the last Joan had stood god- 
 mother. Next came from the same village 
 three older women, all three being god-mothers 
 to Joan. In those days the French peasantry 
 seem to have had an almost unlimited number 
 of god-fathers and god-mothers. These were 
 named Jeannette, widow of Thdpelin de Viteau, 
 aged sixty; Jeannette Th^verien, aged sixty-six; 
 and Beatrix, widow of d'Estelin, a labourer of 
 Domremy, then in her eightieth year. 
 
 After these three god-mothers, came to give 
 their evidence her god-fathers. Four of these 
 appear — John Rainguesson, John Barrey, John 
 de Langart, and John Morel de Greux. Of 
 these four god-fathers, only the last one seems 
 to have been called to give evidence; he 
 was in his seventieth year. Gerardin d'Epinal, 
 husband of one of the god-mothers, also gave 
 
THE REHABILITA TION. 259 
 
 his evidence ; it was his son Nicolas for 
 whom Joan of Arc had stood sponsor. In 
 those days it was held that the god-mother 
 of a child stood to it in the relation of a 
 second mother : hence originated the term of 
 *commere' and * compere/ which Joan gave the 
 d'Epinals. 
 
 Six labourers, who had been playmates with 
 Joan in childhood, then came forward. These 
 men, named respectively Le Cuin, Guillemeth, 
 Waterin, Colin, Masnier, and Jacquard, were 
 between the ages of forty-four and fifty. All 
 these humbly born witnesses agreed in their 
 answers to the twelve questions asked them 
 in the following order :— 
 
 1. When and where was Joan born? 
 
 2. Who were her parents ? Were they of 
 
 good character and of good repute? 
 
 3. Who were her god-fathers? 
 
 4. Was she piously brought up? 
 
 5. How did she conduct herself between 
 
 her seventh year up to the time she 
 left her home? 
 
 6. Did she often frequent the churches and 
 
 places of devotion of her free-will? 
 
 7. How did she occupy herself, and what 
 
 were her duties ? 
 
 8. Did she confess often? 
 
 9. Did she frequent the fairies' tree and 
 
 the haunted well, and did she go to 
 places with the other young people of 
 the neighbourhood? 
 
26o JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 10. How did she leave her home, and how 
 
 did she accomplish her journey? 
 
 11. Were any investigations made in her 
 
 native country at the time she was 
 taken prisoner? 
 
 12. Did Joan on one occasion escape to 
 
 Neufchateau on account of a military 
 raid, and was she then in the com- 
 pany of her parents? 
 
 We now arrive at a higher grade in the 
 ranks of the witnesses, in the shape of M'hon- 
 orable homme Nicolas Bailly.' Bailly was a 
 man of sixty ; he had been employed by the 
 English in 1430, and by Cauchon — he was a 
 scrivener {tabellion) by profession — to make in- 
 vestigations into the character of Joan in her 
 native place. 
 
 Then came the old bell-ringer of Joan of 
 Arc's village — Perrin le Drassier, aged sixty. 
 He told how the maiden loved the sound of 
 the church bells, and how she would blame 
 him when he neglected ringing them, and of 
 her little gifts to him to make him more diligent 
 in his office. After the bell-ringer came three 
 priests — all belonging to the neighbourhood of 
 Domremy. The first — namely, the * discrete 
 personne Messire Henri Arnolin' — belonged 
 to Gondrecourt-le-Chateau, near to Commercy, 
 and was sixty-four. The next is the *vdn^rable 
 personne Messire Etienne de Sionne,' curate 
 of the parish church at Raucessey-sous-Neuf- 
 chiteau, aged fifty-four ; and the third was 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 261 
 
 named Dominic Jocab, curate of the parish 
 church of Moutier-sur-Saulx. 
 
 Next came an old peasant from Domremy, 
 named Bertrand Laclopssd, a thatcher by pro- 
 fession, ninety years of age ; after him three 
 neighbours of Joan's father — Thevenin le Royer, 
 seventy years old ; Jacquier, sixty ; and John 
 Moen, wheelwright, fifty-six. But a far more 
 important witness than any of the preceding 
 three-and-twenty was the uncle of the heroine, 
 Durand Laxart, farm labourer at Burey-le- Petit, 
 whom, it will be remembered, Joan first took 
 into her confidence regarding her voices and 
 her mission. Laxart was then in his sixtieth 
 year. At the close of his evidence he states 
 that all he had said regarding his niece he had 
 also told Charles VII. — probably at the time of 
 the coronation, for Laxart was then at Rheims. 
 Laxart was followed by the couple with whom 
 Joan of Arc lodged when living at Vaucou- 
 leurs, Henry and Joan le Royer (or le Charron). 
 After this worthy pair appeared the two brave 
 knights who had guarded the Maid of Orleans 
 during her perilous journey to Chinon — John de 
 Novelem-hont, commonly called John de Metz, 
 aged fifty-seven, and the other, named Bertrand 
 de Poulangy — one of the King's esquires — aged 
 sixty-three. 
 
 Three other knights were heard after them 
 — namely, Albert d'Ourche, from Ourche, near 
 Commercy, aged sixty ; Geoffrey du Fay, aged 
 fifty ; and Louis de Martigny, living at Martigny- 
 les-Gerboneaux, a village near Neufchateau, aged 
 
262 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 fifty-four. These were followed by two curates 
 and a sergeant. * Discrete personne Messire Jean 
 le Fumeux,' of Vaucouleurs, canon of the Church 
 of Sainte Marie in that village, also curate of the 
 parish church of d'Ugny, aged only thirty-eight, 
 was, as he admitted, a mere child when Joan 
 of Arc came to Vaucouleurs ; but he remembered 
 distinctly having seen her praying in the church 
 at Vaucouleurs, and kneeling for a long time in 
 the subterranean chapel of Sainte Marie's Church 
 before an image of the Blessed Virgin. 
 
 The other priest, named John Colin, was the 
 curate of the parish church of Domremy, and a 
 canon of the collegiate church of Saint Nicolas 
 de Brixey, near Vaucouleurs. His age was sixty- 
 six. The last of these thirty-four witnesses was 
 the sergeant, Guillot Jacquier, aged thirty-six : 
 why he was called as a witness does not appear. 
 As a child he had heard Joan of Arc spoken of 
 as *une brave fiUe, de bonne renommde, et de 
 conduite honnete,' which opinion was the general 
 one given in their evidence by all the other 
 witnesses, whose names only we have been able 
 to give. 
 
 Relating to the period in the life of the 
 heroine between the time of the King's corona- 
 tion and that of her capture, the facts told by 
 the various persons examined are few and far 
 between. In the trial for the rehabilitation of 
 the Maid of Orleans, the story of her deeds in 
 the field was not of much importance to the 
 commissioners. What they principally desired to 
 ascertain was the fact that no taint of heresy 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 263 
 
 could attach to the life of the heroine. It was 
 for this reason that all those persons who could 
 throw any light upon Joan's early days and the 
 actions of her childhood had been collected to 
 give their evidence. We now come to those 
 witnesses who were examined regarding the 
 life of Joan of Arc after her interview with the 
 King at Chinon and about the stirring events 
 which immediately followed that interview. The 
 first of these is the 'nobile et savant homme 
 Messire Simon Charles,' Master of the Requests 
 {Maftre des requites) in the year 1429. He 
 had been president of the State exchequer in 
 1456, and was aged sixty. Simon's evidence is of 
 interest and importance both as regards Joan of 
 Arc's arrival at Chinon, and also with respect 
 to the siege of Orleans and the triumphant 
 entry into Rheims. The next witness was one 
 of the clergy who examined Joan when at 
 Poitiers ; this was a preaching friar from Li- 
 mousin who had asked Joan of Arc in what 
 language her saints spoke to her, and had been 
 answered by 'In a better language than yours ' 
 — for this good friar, whose name was Brother 
 Sequier, spoke with a strong Limousin accent. 
 When he was giving his evidence before the 
 commission (in 1456) he was an old man in his 
 seventy-third year, and head of the theological 
 college of Poitiers. 
 
 Next to him came the evidence given by 
 the *vdn6rable et savant homme Maitre Jean 
 Barbier, docteur es lois.' Barbier was King's- 
 Advocate in the House of Parliament, and had 
 
264 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 also been one of the judges at Joan of Arc's 
 examination at Poitiers : he was aged fifty. 
 Barbier had been at Loches when the people 
 threw themselves before Joan of Arc's horse, and 
 embraced the heroine's feet and hands. Barbier 
 reproved her for allowing them to do so. He 
 told her that if she permitted them to act thus 
 it would render them idolatrous in their wor- 
 ship of her, to which reprimand Joan answered, 
 * Indeed, without God's help I could not pre- 
 vent them from becoming so.' 
 
 Another of the Poitiers witnesses was Go- 
 bert Thibault, also aged fifty. This Thibault 
 had been at Chinon when Joan arrived there, 
 and had followed her to Orleans. Among 
 these Poitiers witnesses was Francis Garivel, 
 aged forty. Garivel, when a lad of fifteen, had 
 seen Joan at Poitiers, and he remembered that 
 on her being asked why she styled Charles 
 Dauphin, and not by his kingly title, she 
 replied that she could not give him his regal 
 title until he had been crowned and anointed 
 at Rheims. 
 
 The collected testimony of the above wit- 
 nesses, whose evidence covers the time passed 
 by Joan at Poitiers, was submitted to Charles 
 VII., and the MSS. exist in the National 
 J Library in Paris. It has been edited by the 
 historians Bachon and Quicherat, and trans- 
 lated from the Latin into French by Fabre. 
 
 The next batch of witnesses' evidence con- 
 cerns the fighting period of Joan of Arc's life, 
 and consists principally of the testimony given 
 
THE REHABILITA TION. 265 
 
 by her companions in her different campaigns, 
 and this appears to us by far the most interest- 
 ing and curious. 
 
 Of those witnesses the first to testify was 
 a prince of the blood, Joan of Arc's 'beau 
 Due,' as she loved to call John, Duke of 
 Alengon. He is thus styled in the original 
 document : 'Illustris ac potentissimus princeps 
 et dominus' 
 
 Alengon came of a truly noble line of an- 
 cestors, and was descended also from brave 
 warriors. His great-grandfather fell at Crecy, 
 leading the vanguard of the French host. His 
 grandfather was the companion-in-arms of the 
 great Du Guesclin. His father, on the field 
 of Agincourt, after having wounded the Duke 
 of York and stricken him to the ground, 
 crossed swords with King Harry, and then, 
 overwhelmed by numbers, had fallen under a 
 rain of blows. 
 
 With Dunois (Bastard of Orleans) Alengon 
 is one of the most prominent of the French 
 leaders who appear in Shakespeare's play, in 
 the first part of Henry VL Duke John, like 
 his illustrious forebears, had also fought and 
 bled for his country. His first campaign was 
 made when he was but eighteen. Alen^on 
 first saw Joan of Arc in 1429. A strong 
 mutual regard sprang up between the prince 
 and the Maid of Domremy. Alengon had 
 wedded the daughter of the Duke of Orleans, 
 and it was to her that the heroine, when she 
 left with the Duke for their expedition against 
 
266 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Paris, promised to bring back her husband in 
 safety. 
 
 No one had seen more of Joan of Arc 
 during those days of fighting than had Alengon, 
 and no one bore a higher testimony than did 
 the Duke to her purity, her courage, and the 
 sublime simplicity of her character. It was the 
 Duke of Alengon who was especially struck 
 with the skill shown by the heroine in war- 
 like matters ; particularly in her science in the 
 management of artillery — ridiculously rude as 
 that branch of the service appears to us. 
 
 * Everybody,' Alengon says, *was amazed to 
 see that in all that appertained to warfare she 
 acted with as much knowledge and capacity as 
 if she had been twenty or thirty years trained 
 in the art of war.' 
 
 Next to Alengon's evidence came that of 
 the famous Bastard of Orleans, the Count de 
 Dunois, one of the most engaging and sym- 
 pathetic figures of the whole age of chivalry. 
 John of Orleans was the natural son of the 
 Duke of Orleans, and, as Fabre says of him, 
 he 'glorified the appellation of Bastard.' In- 
 deed, the Bastard's name deserves to be handed 
 down in his country's annals with as much 
 glory as that of his great English rival and 
 foe, Talbot, in those of the English. He was 
 a consummate soldier, who even at the early 
 age of twenty-three had brilliantly distinguished 
 himself, and he lived to liberate Normandy and 
 Guyenne from the English. 
 
 Well may M. Fabre, in his book on the 
 
THE REHABILITA TION, 267 
 
 rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, express his regret 
 that Dunois' evidence was not set forth in the 
 language in which it was delivered, and that it 
 has come down to us weakened by translation 
 into Latin. What is worse is that we have only 
 the translation of a translation. 
 
 Dunois had, besides his high military reputa- 
 tion, that of being skilled in oratory. There is, 
 however, in the translation more than a trace 
 of the enthusiasm with which Dunois speaks of 
 the deeds of the heroic maiden. Dunois, Bas- 
 tard of Orleans as he is always called, bore 
 the following titles, as recited by the chroni- 
 cler : * I'illustrieuse prince Jean Comte de Dunois 
 et de Longueville, lieutenant-general de notre 
 seigneur le roi.' He was fifty-one years old in 
 the month of February, 1456. His deposition 
 extends over the entire period of the life of 
 Joan of Arc between the time of her arrival 
 before Orleans and the period of the King's 
 coronation. 
 
 Dunois' evidence closes thus : — * To conclude, 
 it was habitual to Joan to speak playfully on 
 matters relating to war, in order to cheer the 
 soldiers, and she may have alluded to many 
 military events which never were to take place. 
 But I declare that, when she spoke seriously 
 about the war, of her deeds, and of her voca- 
 tion, she said her work was limited to raising 
 the siege of Orleans, to succouring the unhappy 
 people shut up in that town and in its suburbs, 
 •and to leading the King to Rheims for his 
 coronation and anointing.' 
 
268 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Next we have the testimony of the noble 
 knight, Raoul de Gaucourt, who had so stoutly- 
 defended Orleans during its long siege. De 
 Gaucourt was eighty-five years old. This fine 
 old warrior's evidence confirms all that Dunois 
 had said in praise of Joan of Arc. 
 
 The next to appear was the heroine's page, 
 ^ Louis de Contes, aged fifteen when appointed 
 to attend on Joan of Arc : at the time of the 
 trial of her rehabilitation he was forty-two. 
 
 Next came a very interesting witness, to wit, 
 Joan of Arc's almoner, *v^n6rable et religieux 
 personne Jean Pasquerel.* This worthy priest 
 had been formerly in a Tours monastery. We 
 do not find his age given at this time. The 
 clear graphic testimony of this good man is a 
 pleasure to read. His love and admiration for 
 the heroine appear in every line of his testi- 
 mony, and although this narrative is already too 
 long, it will not perhaps be considered tedious if 
 some of his evidence is quoted. 
 
 * When I first had tidings,' he says, *of Joan 
 of Arc and of her arrival at Court, I was at Puy, 
 where at that time were her mother and some 
 people who had accompanied her to Chinon. 
 Having come to me, they said, ** You must come 
 with us and see Joan; we will not allow you to 
 leave us until you have seen her." So I went 
 with them to Chinon, and also to Tours. At 
 that time I was reader in a convent in that town. 
 When she came to Tours, Joan lived in the 
 house of John Dupuy, a burgher of that place. 
 It was there that I first met her. "Joan," they 
 
THE REHABILITA TION. 269 
 
 said to her, '*we have brought this good father 
 to see you. When you know him well you will 
 like him very much." And Joan answered them 
 and said, *' The good father pleases me much ; I 
 have heard about him already, and I will make 
 my confession to him to-morrow." 
 
 *And I heard her confession on the day fol- 
 lowing, when I also sang the Mass before her. 
 Since that I have always followed Joan, and I 
 remained her chaplain till the time of her capture 
 at Compiegne.* 
 
 It was in this good priest's evidence that 
 the touching trait of Joan of Arc's fondness for 
 gathering children about her was made known. 
 'She confessed nearly every day,' he said, *and 
 took the Sacrament often. When near any com- 
 munity of begging friars she asked me to remind 
 her of the days on which the beggar children 
 received the Eucharist, so that she might receive 
 it at the same time with them. It was her de- 
 light,' he said, 'to take the Sacrament along 
 with the poor mendicant children. She shed 
 tears often at confession.' 
 
 Later on in his evidence Pasquerel adds to 
 the above, 'that often at night I have seen 
 her kneeling, praying for her King and for 
 the success of her mission. I certainly,' he 
 said, ' firmly believed in the divine source of 
 her mission, for she was always engaged in 
 good works, and she was full of every good 
 .quality. During a campaign when provisions 
 ran short Joan would never take that which 
 had been gained by pillage. To the wounded 
 
270 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 she was ever pitiful — to the English as well as 
 to those of her own country, and she always 
 tried to get them to make their confession, 
 if badly, and even if only slightly, wounded. 
 The fear of God was ever before her, nor 
 would she for anything in the world do any- 
 thing which she considered contrary to His 
 will : for instance, when she was wounded in 
 the shoulder by the dart from a crossbow, 
 when some people wished her to allow the 
 wound to be charmed, promising that if she 
 had it done her hurt would be healed, Joan 
 said that to do so would be a sin, and that 
 she would sooner die than commit one. 
 
 ' I am greatly surprised,' continued the unso- 
 phisticated old priest, ' that such great lawyers 
 {grands clercs) as were those at Rouen could 
 have sentenced Joan to death. How could they 
 put to death that poor child, who was such a 
 good and such a simple Christian, and that 
 too, so cruelly, without a reason — for surely 
 they had not sufficient reason at any rate to 
 kill her!' 
 
 Pasquerel could evidently not grasp the real 
 reason for the part played by Cauchon in the 
 execution of the Maid of Orleans, or imagine 
 that in order to obtain an archbishopric his 
 beloved Joan had been condemned by the 
 Bishop of Beauvais to the flames. Pasquerel's 
 evidence ends thus : — 
 
 * I have nothing more to add except this. 
 On several occasions Joan told me that if she 
 were to die, she hoped our lord the King 
 
THE REHABILITA TION, 27 1 
 
 would found chantries in which the Almighty- 
 might be entreated in intercession for the souls 
 of those who had been slain in the defence 
 of the kingdom.' 
 
 The next witness is John d'Aulon, knight, 
 Seneschal of Beaucaire, member of the King's 
 Council. It was he who had served Joan of 
 Arc as esquire during all her campaigns. His 
 evidence is of importance, as it proves clearly 
 the grounds on which the trial of rehabilitation 
 was held — namely, to clear the King of having 
 been crowned and anointed through the agency 
 of one condemned by the Church as an apos- 
 tate and heretic. The Archbishop thus wrote 
 to d'Aulon on the 20th of April, 1456 : — 
 
 * By the sentence pronounced against Joan 
 the English wish it to be believed that the 
 Maid was a sorceress, a heretic, and in league 
 with the devil, and therefore that the King had 
 received his kingdom by those means ; and 
 thus they hold as heretics the King and those 
 that have served him.' 
 
 Nothing can be clearer than this declaration, 
 or show better the real object for which that 
 utterly selfish prince, Charles VII., had, after 
 the lapse of a quarter of a century since the 
 death of Joan of Arc, instituted these proceed- 
 ings — not at all in order to do honour to the 
 heroine's memory, but in order that his position 
 as King of France should not be tainted with 
 the heresy which had been charged to the 
 account of Joan by and through the clergy and 
 French doctors of theology and learning. 
 
272 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 D'Aulon's evidence is one of the most com- 
 plete of the entire set of testimonies. It was 
 given, not at Rouen, but at Lyons, in 1456, 
 before the Vice- Inquisitor, John Despres. 
 
 His depositions are remarkable in this, that, 
 unlike those of the other witnesses, they are re- 
 corded in French, and not in Latin. 
 
 Next to d'Aulon succeeds, in the chain of 
 witnesses, Simon Beaucroix, aged fifty. Simon 
 was a youth at Chinon when Joan of Arc came 
 there. Beaucroix s evidence is followed by that 
 of John Luillier, a citizen of Orleans. He bore 
 evidence to the immense popularity of the Maid 
 during and after the siege of Orleans. At the 
 time of the trial of rehabilitation Luillier was 
 fifty. To the part played by the Maid at the 
 siege of his native town he speaks thus : — 
 
 *As to the question you put me, whether 
 I think the siege of Orleans was raised and 
 the town saved from the enemy by the inter- 
 vention and the ministration {ministere) of the 
 Maid, even more than by the force of arms, 
 this is my answer : All my fellow citizens, as 
 well as I myself, believe that had the Maid not 
 come there by the will of God to our rescue, 
 we should very soon, both town and people, 
 have been in the power of the besiegers. It is 
 my belief,' he adds, 'that it was impossible for 
 the people of Orleans and for the army pre- 
 sent at Orleans to have held out much longer 
 against the superior strength of the enemy.' 
 
 More people from Orleans next gave their 
 evidence : viz. William le Charron, John Volant, 
 
THE REHABILITA TION. 273 
 
 William Postian, Denis Roger, James de Thou, 
 John Caneller, Aignan de Salnt-Mesmin, John 
 Hilaire, Jacques I'Esbalny, Cosm6 de Commy, 
 John de Champcoux, Peter Hue, Peter Jon- 
 qualt, John Aubert, William Rouillart, Gentien 
 Cabu, Peter Vaillant, John Beaucharnys, John 
 Coulon. All these men were burghers of the 
 town, and their ages varied between forty and 
 seventy. All agreed with Luillier in their belief 
 that, under God, it was Joan of Arc who rescued 
 their city from the English. 
 
 Following these men we now come to the 
 evidence of some of the women who had seen 
 or known the heroine. First of these is Joan, 
 wife of Gilles de Saint- Mesmin, aged seventy. 
 She says: 'The general opinion was and is still 
 at Orleans that Joan was a good Catholic — 
 simple, humble, and of a holy life.' Such, too, 
 is the opinion of Joan, the wife of Guy Boyleau, 
 and of Guillemette, wife of John de Coulon ; 
 also of the widow of John de Mouchy. All 
 these agree with the first lady's testimony. 
 
 We have next the evidence of the daughter 
 of James Boucher, the treasurer of Orleans, at 
 whose house Joan of Arc lodged while in Or- 
 leans. Charlotte Boucher had married William 
 Houet. When her deposition was taken in 1456 
 she was thirty-six years old, and consequently 
 only nine when Joan lodged at her father's 
 house. However, young as she was then, the 
 visit of the Maid had left a great memory be- 
 hind ; she had been Joan's bed-fellow. 
 
 'Often,' she says, *Joan said to my mother, 
 
 s 
 
274 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 " Hope in God, for He will deliver the town of 
 Orleans, and drive the enemy away."' 
 
 And last we find the evidence of two good 
 wives of Orleans, one widow of John Hur4 the 
 other Petronilld, wife of Beaucharnys. After these 
 came six clerics, canons of the Church of Saint 
 Aignan at Orleans — Robert de Farciaux, Peter 
 Compaing, Peter de la Censurey, Raoul Godert, 
 Herv6 Bonart, and Andr6 Bordez. Peter Milet 
 and his wife, Colette, were also witnesses. All 
 had known Joan when she was at Orleans, as 
 had Aignan Viole, an advocate of Parliament, 
 who had been in Orleans during the siege. 
 
 The * noble homme Guillaume de Richarville, 
 panetier de la cour,' gave his evidence, relating 
 to Joan of Arc's appearance at Court, as also 
 did an old Court physician named Reginald 
 Thierry ; it is he who relates how, at the cap- 
 ture of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier, Joan prevented 
 its church from being pillaged. 
 
 A doughty warrior follows, namely, 'noble et 
 prudent Seigneur le chevalier Thibauld d'Ar- 
 magnac. Sire de Thermes, Bailli de Chartres.' 
 D'Armagnac was fifty years old ; he had followed 
 Joan of Arc all through her campaign, and, like 
 Alengon, had a very high opinion of her military 
 talents. At the close of his evidence, he says : 
 * In the manner of the conduct and ordering of 
 troops, in that of placing them in battle array, and 
 of animating the men, Joan of Arc had as much 
 capacity for these things as the most accom- 
 plished captain in the art of war.' 
 
 After the soldier, the peasant. This peasant, 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 275 
 
 or rather mechanic, is a coppersmith named 
 Husson Lemaitre. Lemaitre hailed from Dom- 
 remy. Being in the year 1456 at Rouen, he 
 then and there gave his evidence. He had 
 known Joan of Arc's family, and Joan too in 
 her childhood ; of all of them he spoke most 
 highly. 
 
 Next comes ' honnete et prude femme de- 
 moiselle Marguerite la Tournelle,* the widow of 
 R6n6 de Bouligny. It was at her house at 
 Bourges that Joan lodged after the coronation 
 at Rheims. 
 
 We now pass to an entirely different cate- 
 gory of witnesses. These are the men who 
 sat in the trial of the heroine. One can well 
 understand the embarrassment shown by such 
 folk in their replies to the questions they had 
 to answer, and their wish if it were possible to 
 turn the responsibility of their previous judg- 
 ment on the heads of those who were no longer 
 in this world to answer the charges made against 
 them. 
 
 The first of these men is * vdndrable et 
 savante personne Mattre Thomas de Courcelles.' 
 De Courcelles was only fifty-six in 1456, when 
 called on to make his deposition as to the part 
 he had played in the heroine's trial at Rouen, 
 five-and-twenty years before. His evidence is 
 full of the feeblest argument, and his memory 
 appears to have been a very convenient one, 
 as he repeatedly evades an answer by the plea 
 of having forgotten all about the incident al- 
 luded to. 
 
276 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Next follows that * vdn^rable et circonspecte 
 personne, Maitre Jean Beaupere ' — a doctor of 
 theology, and canon of Rouen, Paris, and Be- 
 sangon. This circumspect person was now in 
 his seventieth year. He laid most of the blame 
 of Joan of Arc's death upon the English, and 
 the rest on Cauchon. The English being away, 
 and Cauchon dead, the circumspection of this 
 doctors evidence is evident. 
 
 We next have that of the Bishop of Noyon, 
 John de Mailly. This bishop had been in the 
 service of the English King, but had, when 
 Charles became prosperous, returned to him. 
 In 1456 he was aged sixty. An intimate of 
 the Prince Cardinal of Winchester, and one of 
 the foremost of the judges who condemned Joan 
 of Arc to death, his deposition in 1456 is quite 
 a study in the art of trying to convince people 
 that black is white. He had shown some kind 
 of feeling of humanity at the time of the mar- 
 tyrdom of the Maid, and had left that scene 
 of horror early. To the memory of his old 
 friend and colleague, Cauchon, he gives a part- 
 ing kick by saying at the close of his ex- 
 amination that of one thing he was quite 
 certain, and that was that Cauchon received 
 money for the conduct of the trial from his 
 friends, the English. But he might have now 
 been reminded that he too had received some 
 of this blood-money. 
 
 Next to appear is another French bishop, 
 Monseigneur Jean Le Fevre, Eveque in partibus 
 de Ddmetriade. This prelate was in his seven- 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 277 
 
 tieth year. At the time of Joan of Arc's trial 
 he was professor of theology of the order of 
 hermit monks of Saint Augustins. The Bishop 
 had taken an active part in the trial and con- 
 demnation. Like his brother bishop, Le Fevre 
 enjoyed a very convenient memory, and had 
 quite forgotten many things of importance which 
 occurred during the trial in 1430. Nor did he 
 even take part as a spectator in the martyrdom 
 which he had helped to bring about — * I left 
 before the end,' he said, *not feeling the strength 
 to see more.' Let that shred of humanity in 
 the composition of priests like him be allowed 
 before we entirely condemn them. 
 
 The next witness is also a Churchman, Peter 
 Migiet, the prior of Longueville, aged seventy. 
 He also had been one of Cauchon's crawling 
 creatures. There is little of interest in his evi- 
 dence, except the passage where he says that an 
 English knight had told him that the English 
 feared Joan of Arc more than a hundred soldiers, 
 and that her very name was a source of terror 
 to the foe. Although this sounds an exaggerated 
 statement, it is not so, as is proved by an edict 
 having been issued by the English Government 
 in the May of 1430, in which English officers and 
 soldiers who refused to enter France for fear of 
 ' the enchantments of the Maid ' were threatened 
 with severe punishment. There is, moreover, 
 an edict, bearing the date of December 1430, 
 which was also issued by the English military 
 authorities, describing the trial and the punish 
 ment by court martial of all soldiers who had 
 
278 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 deserted the army in France from fear of Joan 
 of Arc. 
 
 After the above priests, on whom rests the 
 infamy of having taken part in the death of the 
 heroine, it is a relief to find the next witness, 
 although a Churchman, a man of sufficient hon- 
 esty and courage to have been one of those few 
 who refused to take any part in the iniquitous 
 proceedings connected with Joan of Arc's trial, 
 and who suffered imprisonment owing to his 
 unwillingness to carry out Cauchon's wishes. 
 This worthy priest was named Nicolas de 
 Houppeville, a doctor of theology, now in his 
 sixty-fifth year. 
 
 The next witness is John Tiphanie, a canon 
 of the Sainte Chapelle of Paris. He was also 
 a doctor in medicine. Tiphanie had been com- 
 pelled much against his inclination to take part 
 in the trial of Joan. He was one of the doctors 
 who were sent to see her when she lay ill in 
 prison. 
 
 Then follows another doctor ; this is William 
 Delachambre, aged only forty-eight in 1456. He 
 must have practised his vocation at a very early 
 age. Delachambre had also joined in the trial 
 of the Maid, from fear of Cauchon. His evi- 
 dence relating to the scene at Saint Ouen is 
 important. 
 
 *I remember well,' he says, *the abjuration 
 which Joan of Arc made. She hesitated a long 
 while before she made it. At length William 
 Erard determined her to make it by telling her 
 that, when she had made it, she should be 
 
THE REHABILITATION, 279 
 
 delivered from her prison. Under this promise 
 she at length decided to do so, and she then 
 read a short profession of some six or seven 
 lines written on a piece of folded paper. I was 
 so near that I could see the writing on the 
 paper.' 
 
 We next come to the witness whose evidence 
 is, next to that of Dunois, of the greatest impor- 
 tance ; it is that of the Recorder, or judges* 
 clerk, William Manchon. Born in 1395, he was 
 sixty-one years of age when the rehabilitation 
 trial took place. Manchon's evidence takes up 
 thirty pages in M. Fab re's work, already often 
 referred to — Le P voces de Rehabilitation de Jeanne 
 d'Arc. Much against his will was Manchon ob- 
 liged to act in the trial of the Maid, but he 
 did not dare disobey the orders of those who 
 formed the Council of Henry VI. All that he 
 deposed has been made use of in the account 
 of the heroine's life ; so now we need do no 
 more than refer to it. The other Recorder who 
 helped Manchon to draw up the minutes of the 
 trial was also examined ; this was William Colles, 
 called Boisguillaume. He was in his sixty-sixth 
 year. Colles relates that, after the execution, the 
 people used to point out the author of Joan's 
 death with horror — 'besides,' he adds, *I have 
 been told that the most prominent of those who 
 took part in her condemnation died miserably. 
 Nicolas Midi [who had preached the sermon 
 on the day of her execution, and just before 
 it took place] was stricken with leprosy, and 
 Cauchon died suddenly, while being shaved.' 
 
 v^ 
 
280 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 A third Recorder was also examined, Nico- 
 las Taquel. Then followed the priest Massleu. 
 During the trial of Joan he had acted as bailiff 
 to the Court, and in that capacity had seen 
 much of the prisoner ; he had always conveyed 
 her to and from her prison. It may be re- 
 membered that it was he who, on Joan's peti- 
 tion to be allowed to kneel before the chapel 
 on her way to the hall of judgment, granted 
 her request, and was threatened by Cauchon, 
 should it again occur, to be thrown into prison 
 where, as Cauchon said to him, he would 
 not have 'the light of sun or moon.' Massieu 
 remained till the end with Joan, and it is he 
 who records that the executioner found, after 
 the body had been destroyed, that the heart 
 remained unconsumed. He also relates that 
 the executioner was ordered to collect the 
 ashes and all that remained, and to throw those 
 few relics of humanity into the Seine, which 
 was accordingly done. Martin Ladvenu followed 
 Massieu. Ladvenu was a Dominican friar : he 
 was one of the few priests who showed some 
 humanity to the victim. It was to him that 
 Joan of Arc confessed on the morning of her 
 death, and it was also to him that the execu- 
 tioner came on the night of the martyrdom, 
 and said that no execution had ever affected 
 him as that one had done. Next to arrive 
 was Isambard de la Pierre, a Dominican priest. 
 He had been an acolyte of the Vice- Inquisitor, 
 Lemaitre ; he too, like Ladvenu, had shown 
 sympathy with the sufferer, had given her 
 
THE REHABILITATION. 281 
 
 advice during the trial, and had helped to 
 soothe her last moments. De la Pierre states 
 in his evidence regarding her supposed refusal 
 to submit herself to the Church, that Joan of 
 Arc, when she was told by her judges to 
 submit herself, thought they meant themselves 
 by the Church of which they spoke to her ; 
 but when she was told by him what the Church 
 really signified she always said she submitted 
 herself to it and to the Pope. It was to 
 Isambard de la Pierre that Joan begged for 
 a cross when on the pile and about to die. 
 'As I was close by the poor child,' he says, 
 ' she begged me humbly to go to the church 
 close at hand and bring her a cross to hold up 
 right before her eyes, till her death, so that 
 the cross on which God hung might as long 
 as she lived appear before her. She died a 
 true and good Christian. In the midst of the 
 flames she never ceased calling on the sacred 
 name of Jesus, and invoking the aid of the 
 saints in Paradise. When the fire was lit she 
 begged me to get down from off the stake 
 with my cross, but to hold it still before her, 
 which I did. At last, bending down her head, 
 with a strong voice calling on the name of 
 Jesus, she gave up the ghost.' 
 
 Yet another priest succeeds : this is * vener- 
 able et religieux personne, frere Jean Tout- 
 mouilld,' of the order of the preaching friars 
 of Rouen. Toutmouilld was quite a youth at 
 the time of Joan of Arc's death. Another priest 
 follows, William Daval, also one of the order 
 
282 JOAN OF ARC, 
 
 of preaching friars, and belonging to the Church 
 of Saint James at Rouen. He, too, had been, 
 with Isambard, one of the acolytes of the Vice- 
 Inqulsltor. In his evidence, he tells of how, 
 after Isambard had been advising Joan in her 
 prison, he was met by Warwick, who threatened 
 to have him thrown into the river If he con- 
 tinued seeing the prisoner. 
 
 We next have 'v^ndrable et circonspecte 
 personne Maitre Andre Marguerie ' ; this was 
 one of Cauchon's most trusted creatures. His 
 ' dme damndey Richard de Grouchet, canon of 
 the collegiate Church of Sans Faye, is the next 
 witness. There is nothing of any interest in 
 the testimony of these Churchmen, nor in that 
 of Nicolas Dubesert, another canon of Rouen, 
 nor in that of Nicolas Caval. Next appears a 
 prior, Thomas Marie, of the Church of Saint 
 Michel, near Rouen. Four other ecclesiastics fol- 
 low them — John Roquler, Peter Bouchler, John 
 Bonnet, John de Lenozoles ; but none of these 
 men's testimony Is of any interest. The evi- 
 dence of no less a person than the torturer 
 is called next. He is named — to give him his 
 titles in full — * Honnete homme Mauger Les- 
 sarmentrer, clerc non marier, apparlteur de la 
 cour archiepiscopalle de Rouen.' The name of 
 the chief torturer of the good city of Rouen, 
 Mauger, has a gruesome ring about it — it re- 
 minds one of the headsman in Harrison Ains- 
 worth's novel of the Tower of Londo7i, Aged 
 fifty-six in 1456, Mauger had seen Joan of Arc 
 when she was brought into the yet extant tower 
 
THE REHABILITATION, 283 
 
 of the castle, and threatened by Cauchon with 
 the torture. * We were,' deposed Mauger, * my 
 companion and myself,' ordered to go there to 
 torture her. She was questioned, and she an- 
 swered with much prudence, and so well, that 
 every one was amazed. Finally, I and my 
 companion left the tower without having laid 
 hands upon her.* Mauger attended at the exe- 
 cution, and this is what he heard and saw 
 there and then. * As soon as the Bishop (Cau- 
 chon) had read the sentence, Joan was taken 
 to the fire. I did not hear whether the civil 
 judges delivered the sentence or not. Joan 
 was placed instantly upon the fire. In the 
 midst of the flames she called out more than 
 six times the name of Jesus. It was when 
 about to give the last breath that she called 
 out with a loud voice, "Jesus!" so that every 
 one could hear her. Nearly everybody wept, 
 for all were overcome with pity.' 
 
 After the torturer's witness came that of 
 a soldier, Aimonde de Macy, who was thirty 
 years old when he met Joan in the Castle of 
 Beaurevoir ; she being then a prisoner in the 
 charge of Ligny. 
 
 De Macy was at Rouen at the time when 
 Lord Stafford came so nearly stabbing the 
 Maid in her prison, and was only prevented 
 from that dastardly act by Warwick. 
 
 We next hear the evidence of an attorney, 
 Peter Daron : he had also seen Joan in her 
 prison at Rouen, and had seen her die. 
 
 Next we have 'prudent homme Maitre Jean 
 
284 yOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Fave, maitre des requetes du roi Charles VII.': 
 he, too, was present at the execution. 
 
 Next appears upon the scene 'honnete per- 
 sonne Laurent Guesdon,' clerk and advocate to 
 the lay court of Rouen. He also had been 
 present at the death of Joan of Arc, and, from 
 his office as lieutenant of the Bailiff of Rouen, 
 he held an important position at the execution ; 
 and this Is some of his evidence relating to 
 It : 'I assisted at the last sermon preached at 
 the old market-place. I had accompanied the 
 Bailiff, being then his deputy. The sentence 
 was read by which Joan was abandoned to the 
 secular arm ; after that sentence had been pro- 
 nounced the executioners seized her, before 
 either the Bailiff or myself had time to read the 
 sentence ; and she was led up to the stake — 
 which was not as It should have been ordered.' 
 
 Next arrive as witnesses two burghers of 
 Rouen, Peter Cusquel and John Moreaux. Both 
 of them had been spectators of the martyrdom, 
 but they have nothing of interest to say about it. 
 And finally — (and doubtless the reader will be 
 glad to come to the end of this interminable 
 procession, as is the writer) — comes the deposi- 
 tion of John Marcel — * bourgeois ' of Paris. Mar- 
 cel had been In Rouen during the time of the 
 Maid's trial, and was also present at the end 
 7 of her life. M. Fabre, In concluding in his book 
 the translation of the testimonies of the long list 
 of witnesses given by him for the first time in 
 full, makes a great point of the universal concur- 
 rence of those who knew Joan of Arc as to her 
 
THE REHABILITA TION. 285 
 
 undoubted purity of person as well as of mind : 
 that fact is of the greatest importance as re- 
 garded the rehabilitation of the Maid of Orleans. 
 That is a subject which it is not now necessary 
 to do more than to allude to ; but to the French 
 judges in the time of the trial of the rehabilita- 
 tion, the fact of Joan of Arc being proved to \/ 
 have been incontestably a virgin was of the 
 highest interest. It was reserved for a country- 
 man of Joan of Arcs (Du Bellay) to invent a 
 legend to disprove the fact ; and to the everlast- 
 ing shame of French literature, Voltaire adopted 
 the lying calumny in his licentious burlesque- 
 heroic poem, La Pucelle d'Orldans. 
 
 The sentence of rehabilitation which fills in 
 the translation a dozen of M. Fabre's pages, 
 was solemnly delivered in the great hall of the 
 archiepiscopal palace at Rouen. On that occa- 
 sion one of Joan of Arc's brothers, John, was 
 present. The sentence which was framed to 
 wipe away the iniquity of the judgment by 
 which the heroine had been condemned, was 
 delivered by the Archbishop of Rheims in the 
 presence of a vast concourse of people, among 
 whom were the Bishops of Paris and of Cou- 
 tances. Among other things ordered to honour 
 the memory of the Martyr, it was ordained that 
 after a sermon preached on the spot where the 
 act of abjuration had taken place in the cemetery 
 of the Church of Saint Ouen, and also on the 
 site of the spot where had stood the stake and 
 pyre, two crosses should be erected. 
 
 Crosses were placed not only there, and in 
 
286 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Rouen, but also on other spots. It is interest- 
 ing to know that one of these crosses can still 
 be seen in the Forest of Compiegne ; and it is 
 traditionally said that this cross at Compiegne 
 was placed there by no other than Dunois 
 himself. Both the crosses at Rouen have 
 disappeared centuries ago. Processions took 
 place at Rouen, and all was done that the 
 Church could do to wash out the indelible stain 
 of its action four-and-twenty years before the 
 time of the rehabilitation. In 1431, the clergy 
 of France, to please the English, had in the 
 name of orthodoxy, and with the tolerance of 
 the Pope, denounced Joan of Arc as *a heretic 
 and idolatress.' In 1456, the same French 
 clergy, to please Charles VII., in the name 
 of religion and justice pronounced the memory 
 of Joan of Arc free from all taint of heresy 
 and of idolatry, and ordered processions and 
 erected crosses in her honour to keep her 
 memory fresh in the land. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 No. I. 
 
 JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND 
 ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 EVEN In France no thoroughly satisfactory 
 history exists of Joan of Arc, although a 
 large number of histories have been written. 
 Following Is an enumeration of the most im- 
 portant. 
 
 As was natural while her countrymen were 
 divided Into two camps, those writers who be- 
 longed to the side of the English attacked the 
 heroine, or rather her mission, with ill-placed 
 zeal. Of them Enguerrand de Monstrelet was 
 the most eminent. 
 
 Less well known chroniclers on the national 
 side, such as Philip de Bergame, an Augus- 
 tinlan monk, on the other hand exaggerate the 
 deeds of the Maid. None of these chroniclers' 
 writings can be called histories of Joan of Arc. 
 Nor In the following (the sixteenth) century, 
 did such writers as Du Bellay and Halllon do 
 more than allude to Joan of Arc ; the first in 
 his Instruction^; S7ir le fait de la guerre, and 
 the second in his book on the Affaires de 
 France. 
 
 a89 
 
290 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 Haillon had written disparagingly of the 
 heroine. It had the effect of raising the ire of 
 that learned scribe William Postel, who wrote 
 that the actions and renown of Joan of Arc 
 were as necessary to maintain as the Bible 
 itself. With Postel the celebrated jurisconsult 
 Stephen Pasquier was quite in accord, and in 
 his work called Recherches sur la France^ he 
 writes that 'never had any one saved France so 
 opportunely or so well as did this Maid.' In 
 1576 a book was published by the magistrates 
 of Orleans relating to the siege of their town, 
 in which all honour was given to the heroine 
 for the part she had taken in its delivery. In 
 the preface to that book the following sentiment 
 is expressed: — 'It is a lamentable fact that the 
 Maid, respected by all other nations, the English 
 alone excepted, finds amongst her countrymen 
 writings to injure her memory by people who 
 are greater enemies to the honour of France 
 than those who are strangers to that country.' 
 
 It should be noted that as early as the 
 year 1534 the famous early chronicler Poly- 
 dore Virgile, Italian by origin, wrote a volumin- 
 ous history of England in twenty-six books, and 
 treated the Maid's mission as one inspired by 
 divine influence, severely blaming her judges 
 for their inhuman conduct towards her. 
 
 In 1 6 10 a book was published discussing 
 the origin of the family of the Maid of Or- 
 leans ; a work of little value. In 161 2 one 
 of the descendants of a brother of Joan of 
 Arc — Charles du Lys — published a slight work 
 
IN FRENCH HISTOR V. 291 
 
 called Traitd sommaire stir le nom, les armes, 
 la naissance et la parentd do la Pucelle et de 
 ses f7^eres. In that same year the first history 
 of Joan of Arc was published, also by a de- 
 scendant of one of her brothers, John Hordal. 
 This book was in Latin ; it was entitled * The 
 History of Joan of Arc, that very noble hero- 
 ine' Soon after an elaborated work, based on 
 this book, was produced by Edmond Richer, a 
 doctor of theology in Paris. 
 
 The next account of the Maid of any length 
 occurs in Mdzarie's huge History of France, 
 It was published between 1643 ^^<i 1652. In 
 1 66 1 appeared a work called LHistoire du roi 
 Charles VII., contettant les choses mdmorables 
 de 1422 a 1466. It was in this work, which 
 was compiled by Denis Godefroy, that the 
 manuscripts of the Chroniqiie de la Pucelle 
 were first printed. This chronicle concerns the 
 events which occurred between the years 1422 
 and 1429. Although not a complete history 
 of the heroine, it is the earliest account. It 
 was republished by Buchon, by Petitot, and by 
 Quicherat ; and it was consulted by Michelet 
 when writing his account of Joan of Arc. M. 
 Vallet de Viriville believes the Chronicle of the 
 Maiden to have been written by G. Cousinot, 
 Chancellor of the Duke of Orleans, who was 
 present at the siege of Orleans. At the. close 
 of the seventeenth century was published a 
 history of France by a Jesuit priest named 
 David, in which there is some account of Joan 
 of Arc ; but David's history is more remarkable 
 
292 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 for being a colossal list of falsehoods than 
 for any other merit. 
 
 We now arrive at the eighteenth century, 
 and still find no tolerable history of Joan of 
 Arc. In the year 1753 the Abb6 Longlet Du- 
 fresnoy published a Life of Joan of Arc \ it 
 is totally devoid of any merit. 
 
 In 1790 Clement de I'Averdy published 
 some notices relating to the trial and con- 
 demnation of Joan of Arc. These notices 
 led up to, and were followed by the publica- 
 tions of Petitot, Buchon, Michaud, and Pou- 
 goulat. At length, under the protection of the 
 Society of French History, the learned author 
 Quicherat produced his all - important works. 
 That distinguished historian and antiquarian 
 began his career under Charlet. In 1847 he 
 was appointed Professor of Archaeology, and 
 later, Director of the Institute of the Char- 
 ters. Between 1841 and 1850 he edited the 
 original documents relating to the trials of 
 Joan of Arc — those of her condemnation and 
 of her rehabilitation. Of these only a few 
 extracts had previously been published by M. 
 I'Averdy. The series edited by Quicherat 
 ^ consists of five bulky tomes. Although when 
 Michelet was writing his history of France, 
 Quicherat's work had not yet been published, 
 the chronicler helped the historian by lending 
 Michelet the MSS. he was then annotating. 
 
 But to return to the earlier years of the 
 century. In 181 7, Lebrun des Charnettes 
 published a history of Joan of Arc in four 
 
IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 293 
 
 volumes ; this history of the Maid was up to 
 that time the best that had been written. In 
 the same year there was pubHshed another 
 history of the heroine by M. Berriat Saint- 
 Prix. The best thing that work contains is 
 an itinerary of the different places at which 
 Joan of Arc passed the last three years of 
 her short existence. It is a useful list for 
 any one who wishes to visit the scenes con- 
 nected with her wonderful history. 
 
 The list commences with her flight to Neuf- 
 chateau in 1428, and the journey to Toul, and 
 continues as follows : — 
 
 1428. 
 
 May. 
 
 From Domremy to Burey-le-Petit, Vaucouleurs. Return 
 to Domremy. 
 
 1429. 
 
 February. 
 
 From Domremy to Vaucouleurs, Toul, Nancy, Saint 
 Nicolas-du-Port. 
 13th Return to Vaucouleurs, Saint Urbain, Auxerre. 
 
 March. 
 
 Gien, Sainte Catherine de Fierbois. 
 6th Chinon, Le Coudray en Touraine, Poitiers. 
 
 April. 
 
 Chinon, Tours, Saint Florent-les-Saumur. 
 25th Blois. 
 
 28th Rully prbs de Checy. 
 29th Orleans. 
 
 ^ 
 
294 yOAN OF ARC 
 
 May. 
 
 2nd Reconnaissance before Orleans. 
 4th Sortie on the road of Blois. 
 loth Return to Blois from Orleans. 
 To Tours and Loches. 
 
 
 June. 
 
 4th 
 
 Selles-en-Berri. 
 
 6th 
 
 Selles to Romorantin and Orleans. 
 
 nth 
 
 Jargeau. 
 
 15th 
 
 Meun-sur-Loire. 
 
 1 6th 
 
 Beaugency. 
 
 1 8th 
 
 Patay and Jauville. 
 
 19th 
 
 Orleans, Saint Benoit-sur-Loire. 
 
 22nd 
 
 Chateauneuf. 
 
 24th 
 
 Departure from Orleans for Gien. 
 
 27th 
 
 Departure from Gien in the direction of Montargis. 
 
 
 July. 
 
 I St 
 
 Before Auxerre. 
 
 2nd 
 
 Saint Florentin. 
 
 4th 
 
 Saint Fal. 
 
 5th 
 
 Before Troyes. 
 
 loth 
 
 Entry into Troyes. 
 
 14th 
 
 Bussy. 
 
 15th 
 
 Chalons-sur-Marne. 
 
 1 6th 
 
 Sept Saulx. 
 
 1 6th 
 
 Rheims. 
 
 2ISt 
 
 Saint Marcoul de Corbeny. 
 
 22nd 
 
 Vailly. 
 
 23rd 
 
 Soissons. 
 
 29th 
 
 Chateau Thierry. 
 
 
 August. 
 
 I St 
 
 Montmirail-en-Brive. 
 
 2nd Provins. Sortie as far as Lamotte-de-Nangis, Bray- 
 
 sur-Seine. 
 5th Return towards Paris by Provins. 
 
IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 295 
 
 August — continued. 
 
 7th Coulommiers, Chateau Thierry, 
 
 loth La Ferte Milon. 
 
 nth Crespy-en-Valois. 
 
 12 th Lagny-le-Sec. 
 
 13th Dammartin and Thieux. 
 
 14th Baron, Montessilloy. 
 
 15 th Crespy. 
 
 1 8th Compibgne, Senlis. 
 
 23rd Leave Compiegne. 
 
 26th Saint Denis. 
 
 September. 
 
 5 th La Chapelle, near Paris. 
 8th Attack on the gate Saint Honore. 
 9th Retreat from La Chapelle to Saint Denis. 
 14th Lagny-sur-Marne. 
 
 15th Provins, Bray-sur-Seine. Passage of the river Yonne 
 at a ford near Sens Courtenay. Chateau Regnaut, 
 Montargis. 
 2 1 St Gien. Selles-en-Berri, Bourges. 
 
 October. 
 Meun-sur-Ybvre, Bourges. 
 
 November. 
 
 Saint Pierre-le-Moutier. 
 9th Moulins. 
 24th La Charite-sur-Loire, Meun-sur-Y^vre. 
 
 Jargeau. 
 
 1 8th Bourges. 
 19th Orleans. 
 
 December. 
 
 1430. 
 January. 
 
296 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 March. 
 3rd Sully. 
 28th Flight from Sully. 
 
 April. 
 
 15th Before Melun, Lagny, Sortie against Franquet d' Arras, 
 Senlis, Compiegne, Pont I'Eveque, Soissons, Com- 
 piegne. 
 
 May. 
 
 Lagny, Crecy, Compiegne. 
 28th Sortie from Compiegne against Margny and Clairvoix. 
 
 June, July. 
 At Beaulieu-en-Vermandois. 
 
 August, September, October, and November. 
 
 Beaurevoir, Arras, Drugy, near Saint Riquier, Le 
 Crotoy. 
 
 December. 
 Saint Valery-sur-Somme, Eu, Dieppe, Rouen. 
 
 1431. 
 January, February, March, April, and May. 
 
 Rouen. 
 
 Sismondi devotes a part of the thirteenth 
 volume of his History of France, published be- 
 tween 1 82 1 and 1844, to the Maid of Orleans. 
 He sums up the action of the Church to her 
 in these words : * The Church was against the 
 Maid. All persons not delegated by her who 
 pretended to have supernatural powers were 
 accused of using magical arts.' 
 
IN FRENCH HIS TOR Y. 297 
 
 Barante In his famous history of the Dukes 
 of Burgundy, published In 1824, gives a some- 
 what meagre and uninteresting account of Joan 
 of Arc. In 1821 appeared a Z//^ of the heroine, 
 by Jollols, under whose direction the Httle monu- 
 ment was placed at Domremy In honour of the 
 Maid. 
 
 Alexandre Dumas has left among his num- 
 berless works a Life of jGhanne la Pttcelle, 
 which Is neither true history nor romance, but 
 a jumble of both, and Is a work hardly worthy 
 the author, but there are some fine expressions 
 in the book. Dumas christened Joan of Arc 
 'The Christ of France.' MIchelet In the fifth 
 volume of his Histoire de France published In 
 1 84 1, has written what will probably always be 
 considered the best account of the Maid. Al- 
 though only one hundred and thirty pages are 
 given to her life, these pages form a book in 
 themselves, and as a separate volume Mlche- 
 let's Life of Joan of Arc has gone through a 
 large number of editions, the latest a handsome 
 illustrated one, published by Hachette in 1888. 
 
 One cannot help regretting that so great a 
 writer should allow his Anglophobism to appear 
 to such an extent In some of the pages of his 
 work. MIchelet attacks the entire English nation 
 as If they had been individually and collectively 
 guilty of Joan of Arc's death. He even goes out 
 of his way to abuse English literature in this 
 amazing passage : ' De Shakespeare a Milton, 
 de Milton a Byron leur belle et simple llttdrature 
 est sceptique, judaique, satanique.' It is pitiable 
 
 <^ 
 
/ 
 
 298 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 that so distinorulshed a writer as was Michelet 
 should pen such rubbish, but when a Frenchman 
 writes on the subject of Joan of Arc much should 
 be forgiven him. More serious than the abuse 
 of the English in Michelet's work are the inac- 
 curacies in his account of Joan of Arc. For in- 
 stance, he writes of the heroine watching the 
 English coast from her prison in the castle of 
 Crotoy. Her eyesight must have been tele- 
 scopic had she been able to do so, for eighty 
 miles of sea stretch between the site of Crotoy 
 and the English coast. 
 
 We next come to Henry Martin's history 
 of France. In this work a third part of the 
 sixth volume is consecrated to Joan of Arc, 
 whom he calls the ' Messiah of France.' 
 
 M. Wallon, however. Is the writer who has 
 given France the most complete biography of her 
 heroine. This work, published by Hachette, had 
 in 1879 attained its fifth edition. A most sumptu- 
 ously illustrated edition appeared in 1876, one of 
 those splendidly illustrated books in which the 
 French press has no rival. That book is the 
 finest monument which has appeared to honour 
 the memory of the Maid of Orleans. Its illustra- 
 tions contain views of all places and memorials 
 connected with the heroine from the fifteenth to 
 the middle of the nineteenth century. The text 
 of Wallon's Life is, however, wanting in charm, 
 and it is, as M. Veulllot writes of it, * un livre 
 sdrieuse et sollde.' Salnte-Beuve has been still 
 more severe in his judgment on Wallon's book, 
 which he calls * la falblesse meme.' 
 
IN ENGLISH HIS TOR Y, 299 
 
 Some slighter histories may be alluded to : 
 one by Lamartine, unworthy of the author and 
 the subject ; another by M. Abel Desjardlns ; 
 a third by Villaume ; a fourth by M. Lafon- 
 taine. There is an interesting study by Simon 
 Luce on Joan of Arc's early years ; and last, 
 but certainly not least, the three works by M. 
 Joseph Fab re, relating to Joan of Arc's life, 
 her trial, her condemnation, and her rehabili- 
 tation. In the two last works the whole of 
 the long examination appears for the first 
 time, translated into French from the Latin — 
 documents invaluable to any one studying the 
 heroine's life. 
 
 In England little has been written in prose 
 relating to Joan of Arc that will be likely to 
 live. The early chroniclers were monstrously 
 unjust to her. It is enough to allude to the 
 lying and scurrilous abuse which such writers as 
 Robert Fabyan, in his • chronicles on the history 
 of England and of France, published in 15 16, 
 heaped upon Joan of Arc. Hall's and Holin- 
 shed's chronicles, from which the author of the 
 First Part of King Henry VL borrowed so 
 largely, sinned as deeply. Hall's authorities 
 among French writers were Monstrelet, Bou- 
 chet, Mayer, Argentan, Gile Corozet, and the 
 annals of France and Aquitaine — and of Eng- 
 lish writers, Fabyan, Caxton, John Harding, 
 Sir Thomas More, Basset, Balantyne, and the 
 Chronicle of London. 
 
 The annalist Stow, Hume's 'honest historian,' 
 is less unjust and bitter in his account of Joan 
 
300 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 of Arc than are Hall and Holinshed. Thomas 
 Fuller appears not to have settled to his satis- 
 faction whether Joan of Arc was a witch or a 
 heroine. 
 
 In the seventeenth century we have only a 
 handful of poor writers who have treated more 
 or less badly of the Maid, such as Daniel, 
 Martyn, and Sir Richard Baker. It is not 
 until well into the eighteenth century that a 
 man of letters appears capable of giving an 
 unprejudiced and true history of the life of 
 Joan of Arc : this historian is Guthrie, who 
 published, between the years 1744 and 1751, a 
 long history of England. M. Darmesteter has 
 named this author * a village Bossuet.' 
 
 Coming to our own days we have quite a 
 crowd of writers who have written with en- 
 thusiasm on the Maid of Domremy. It is 
 sufficient to name the most prominent of these 
 — Landor, Sir James Mackintosh, John Sterling, 
 Lord Mahon, De Quincey, and J. R. Green. 
 
No. II. 
 
 JOAN OF ARC IN POETRY. 
 
 The Maid of Orleans (though a more poetical 
 figure cannot be found in all history) has not 
 been more fortunate at the hands of the poets 
 than at those of the historians. 
 
 To begin with her own countrywoman — for 
 the first who sang of Joan of Arc was appro- 
 priately enough a fellow-countrywoman — Chris- 
 tine de Pisan. 
 
 As the name indicates, this poetess was an 
 Italian by origin, but appears to have lived 
 most of her life in France. The latter part 
 she passed in a convent. 
 
 In the year 1429, Christine was sixty-seven 
 years old ; she had been living in some con- 
 ventual establishment for eleven years. Her 
 verses in praise of Joan of Arc — which num- 
 ber several hundred stanzas — were undoubtedly 
 written in the heroine's life-time. They are 
 supposed to have been the last lines she wrote. 
 These stanzas were completed shortly after the 
 coronation of Charles VII. A manuscript copy 
 of this poem exists in which Joan of Arc is 
 compared to Deborah, Judith, and Queen Esther. 
 These poems are curious and quaint in their old 
 
302 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 French expressions, but they are quite unread- 
 able for any but French students well versed in 
 the literature of the fifteenth century. 
 
 In 1440, Martin le France, provost of the 
 Cathedral of Lausanne, bestows some lines on 
 Joan of Arc in his poem called the Champion 
 des dames. In 1487, Martial de Paris published, 
 under the title of Vigiles du roi Charles VII., 
 a rhymed translation of Jean Chartrier's chro- 
 nicle of that monarch. 
 
 Villon has left some charming lines in which 
 he has placed the heroine's name as it were on 
 a string of pearls ; they occur in his exquisite 
 ballad ' Dames du temps jadis,' and, as it would 
 be profanation to try and translate, I give them 
 here in the original : — 
 
 * La Reine blanche comme un lys 
 Qui chantait "k voix de sir^ne, 
 Berthe au grand pied, Bi^tris, Allis, 
 Haremburge qui tint le Maine, 
 Et Jeanne la bonne Lorraine 
 Qu' Anglais brfilerent h. Rouen, 
 Oil sont-ils, vierge souveraine ? 
 Mais oil sont les neiges d'antan ? ' 
 
 Long before those beautiful lines were 
 written by Villon, a play called Le Mysiere du 
 Siege d' Orleans had been acted. As early as 
 the year 1435 ^^is performance appears to have 
 taken place on the anniversary of the deliver- 
 ance of the city, and the dramatic piece was 
 probably acted on the return of that day for 
 many a year after. This was one of the so- 
 called ' Miracle Plays,* popular both in France 
 
IN POETRY. 303 
 
 and in England at that period. The author 
 or authors of the play are not known. 
 
 Some one has taken the trouble to count 
 the number of lines: they amount to 20,529, 
 and are all in dialogue ! 
 
 Whether the unfortunate audience had to 
 sit all through this performance one does not 
 know. One hopes, for their sake, that, like a 
 Chinese play or a Bayreuth performance of 
 Wagner's operas, • the performance was ex- 
 tended over a number of days. 
 
 Joan is naturally the heroine throughout ; 
 she first appears as the bearer of the Divine 
 mandate to drive the enemy from off the sacred 
 soil of France. The play closes with her tri- 
 umphant return to Orleans after the victory of 
 Patay. As far as the mission is concerned the 
 play is historically correct, and it is in this 
 respect an improvement on Shakespeare and 
 Schiller. There is a point of great interest 
 concerning this piece which, so far as we know, 
 has never been noticed — namely, the fact of one 
 of its acts being almost identical with one in 
 the First Part of King Henry VI. In the mys- 
 tery play the scene of this act is laid before 
 Orleans. The French are determined to de- 
 fend their city to the last ; the English are 
 determined on taking it. We are in front of 
 the besieged and the besiegers. Salisbury has 
 entered the Tournelles, and he looks out over 
 the city from a window in the tower. Glans- 
 dale ('Glassidas') stands beside him, and says 
 to Salisbury, * Look to your right, and to your 
 
304 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 left — it looks like a terrestrial paradise, all this 
 country flowing with milk and honey ; you will 
 soon be its master.' Salisbury expresses his 
 satisfaction at the sight of all the plunder at 
 his feet, and gives vent to some very sanguin- 
 ary sentiments about the French ; he will slay 
 every one in the place — all the men, *et leurs 
 femmes et leurs enfants. Personne je n'dpar- 
 gnerai.' But scarcely has he been able to give 
 vent to this terrible threat when his head is 
 carried off by a cannon ball fired from the 
 town. The English cry out 'Ha! Hay! 
 maudite journde ! " 
 
 Earl Salisbury is carried out stiff and stark. 
 Talbot and the other English officers now vow 
 vengeance on the French in these words : — 
 
 * Ha, Sallebery, noble coraige ! 
 Ta mort nous sera vendue chbre, 
 Jamais un tel de ton paraige, 
 Ne se trouvera en fronti^re.' 
 
 If we turn to Scene 4 of the first act of 
 Shakespeare's First Part of King Henry VL, we 
 shall find almost the same scene enacted. 
 
 Enter on the turrets. Lord Salisbury, Tal- 
 bot, etc. Salisbury, after welcoming Talbot, calls 
 on Sir William Glansdale to look down into the 
 town, and while conversing the shot is fired which 
 kills Salisbury. After the death of Salisbury, 
 Talbot vows vengeance on the French, and says 
 he will 
 
 ' Nero-like 
 Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn.' 
 
IN POETRY. 305 
 
 There can be little doubt that whoever wrote 
 the First Part of Kifig Henry VI. had seen the 
 mystery play of the Siege of Orleans acted in 
 that town. This brings one to the much de- 
 bated question, * Who wrote the First Part of 
 Ki7ig Henry VI. ? ' 
 
 There can be no doubt that Shakespeare 
 had studied both Hall's and Holinshed's chro- 
 nicles. The former styled Joan of Arc *a mon- 
 strous woman,' and also suggested that fine 
 passage beginning ' Why ring not the bells 
 throughout the town ? ' We are of those who 
 would wish to believe that our greatest poet 
 had but little hand in delineating the French 
 heroine of all time as she is described in Hall 
 and in Holinshed, and to believe that he left 
 the play — originally written, we think, by Greene 
 — very much as he found it. It is not in- 
 deed till the fifth act, when Joan is represented 
 as a magician, and when the grotesqueness of 
 the author passes even the limits of burlesque, 
 that we fail to see a shred of the poet's skill. 
 Nothing in Shakespeare is at once so unpoeti- 
 cal as well as so untrue to history as the last 
 scene, in which Joan repudiates her father. If 
 it is by Shakespeare — which we cannot believe — 
 it must have been one of the very earliest of 
 his historical plays ; and, with Ben Jonson, we 
 could wish that the passages referring to the 
 Maid of Orleans had been freely blotted. 
 
 The era of the Renaissance brought with 
 it in France no poets to sing of Joan of Arc, 
 and we only find — besides the mystery play of 
 
 u 
 
3o6 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 the Siege of Orleans — one literary work relating 
 to her at this period ; that is a five-act tragedy- 
 written by a Jesuit priest named Fronton du 
 Due, a gloomy piece, which was acted in 1580 
 at Pont-^-Mousson. In the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century appeared another tragedy 
 by a Norman squire named Virey : it was 
 titled Jeanne d'Arques, dite la Pucelle d'Orldans. 
 This very mellifluous production was published 
 at Rouen in the year 1600. 
 
 Another tragedy on the same subject ap- 
 peared in 1642, written by the Abbd d'Aubignac 
 — a very pedantic play. 
 
 Next appears an 'heroic poem' by Chape- 
 Iain, published in 1656, entitled La Pucelle, 
 Great things had been expected of this poem, 
 but it fell very flat after a long expectancy of 
 thirty years when it at length saw the light. 
 Chapelain's ridiculous poem gave the idea to 
 Voltaire of his licentious one. 
 
 Even Voltaire was ashamed of his work, 
 and long denied that he was its author. As a 
 very slight reparation for his deed, he writes 
 of Joan of Arc in his Essai sur les mceurs et 
 resprit des natives, that the heroine would have 
 had altars built in the days when altars were 
 erected by primitive men to their liberators. 
 
 Southey, referring to Voltaire's infamous pro- 
 duction, said, ' I never committed the crime of 
 reading Voltaire's Pucelle' 
 
 After all, Voltaire did infinitely more harm 
 to himself by writing his poem La Pucelle 
 than he did to the memory of the Maid of 
 
IN POETRY. 307 
 
 Orleans, for it revealed to the world what an 
 amount of depravity was mixed up within that 
 wonderful shrewd mind, and how it weakened its 
 genius. The great Revolution which swept so 
 many shams away with its terrible breath, ven- 
 erated, to its honour be it said, both the spirit 
 of humanity displayed by the poet-philosopher 
 and the spirit of patriotism that possessed the 
 virgin heroine and martyr. 
 
 In 1795 appeared Southey's heroic play on 
 Joan of Arc. That drama is more a glorification 
 of the principles of the French Revolution than 
 of Joan of Arc. There is no attempt made to 
 follow out her history. The play contains a love 
 episode due entirely to the youthful poet's im- 
 agination, but it contains fine passages as well, 
 and seems to us to have merited more praise 
 from posterity than it has received. 
 
 Schiller's play, like Southey's, sins grievously 
 as far as historical truth is concerned. The Ger- 
 man poet wishes, it seems, to remove the bad 
 impression made by Voltaire's poem. The play 
 was first performed on the stage at Weimar in 
 1801 ; and the Jungfrau von Orleans met with 
 considerable success. It contains noble lines, 
 but is historically a mere travesty of the life and 
 death of the heroine. 
 
 In 181 5 Casimir Delavigne wrote, as a coun- 
 terblast to the double invasion that France had 
 just undergone, his well known Messeniennes to 
 the honour of the French heroine. These poems 
 had a great success, the second being the most 
 admired ; but they are now forgotten. Two 
 
308 JOAN OF ARC 
 
 other dramatic poets followed in Delavigne's 
 steps : these were d'Avrigni and Soumet. By 
 the former appeared, in 1819, a tragedy in five 
 acts and in verse ; it was performed at the 
 Theatre Fran^ais. Soumet's play was also 
 acted ; it almost equals d'Avrigni's in length 
 and tedlousness. 
 
 Besides the above tragedies which had, as 
 the French term it, the honour of seeing the 
 light of the footlights, Desnoyers wrote a play 
 on Joan of Arc in 1841, and was followed by 
 a series of other writers in verse and in prose 
 — Caze, Dumolard, Maurin, Cramar, Hddouville, 
 Millot, Lequesme, Crepot, Puymaigre, Porchat, 
 Haldy, Renard, Jouve, Cozic, Daniel Stern, 
 Bousson de Maviet, Constant Materne. All 
 the above wrote plays and tragedies on the sub- 
 ject of Joan of Arc between the years 1805 
 and 1862. Daniel Stern was the only author- 
 ess who composed a drama in honour of the 
 heroine. 
 
 While all this galimatias of dramas has 
 sunk into the limbo which waits for all such 
 work, Villon's two lines remain as bright as 
 the day on which, four centuries ago, he wrote 
 them : — 
 
 * Jeanne la bonne Lorraine, 
 Qu' Anglais brulerent \ Rouen.' 
 
 Some plays on the subject of the Maid of 
 Orleans also appeared in Italy and in England, 
 but none is likely to retain a long hold of 
 the stage. The drama of Joan of Arc's life has 
 
IN POETRY. 309 
 
 inspired two of the greatest masters of music 
 of our day. Verdi set a tragedy by Solera to 
 music in 1845, and in 1869 Gounod wrote some 
 music for a piece by Jules Barbier, which was 
 performed with some success at the Gait6 
 Theatre in Paris in 1873. 
 
 What will always remain an unfortunate fact 
 in the history of modern literature is that the 
 two greatest minds of England and France 
 have written on the subject of the Maid of 
 Orleans lines which — for their fame — it were 
 well they had never written. Whether Shake- 
 speare composed the First Part of King Henry 
 VI. may for long remain a disputed point, but 
 he is responsible for that play, and consequently 
 for the manner in which Joan of Arc is treated 
 in it. No genius can pardon or excuse the 
 abuse and filth with which Voltaire bespatters 
 the immortal memory of the glorious Maid of 
 Orleans. 
 
 Voltaire's attack on Church and State had 
 much to excuse them in his day ; but that 
 on Joan of Arc was entirely unwarranted, un- 
 called for, and unpardonable. Still, could Joan 
 have known the offence and the offender, we 
 have no doubt she would have forgiven the 
 ribaldry and the ribald as freely as she forgave 
 all her enemies. 
 
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 8vo. 
 
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 i6mo. 
 
ENGLISH BIBLIOGRAPHY OF JOAN 
 OF ARC. 
 
 Bartlett, David W., 'The Life of Joan of Arc' Auburn, New 
 
 York, 1855. i2mo. 
 Blake, Robert, 'Joan of Arc' A poem. London, 1876. 8vo. 
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 London, 1879. 8vo. 
 
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 i2mo. 
 
 Davenport- Adams, W. H., 'The Maid of Orleans.' London, 1889. 
 
 8vo. 
 Delepierre, Joseph Octave, ' Historical Difficulties and Contested 
 
 Events.' London, 1868. 8vo. 
 Doran, John, ' Knights and their Days.' London, 1856. 8vo. 
 
 Fuller, Thomas, ' The Holy State and the Profane State.' London, 
 1840. 8vo. pp. 341. 
 
 Guizot, F. P. G., 'The History of France from the Earliest Times to 
 the year 1789.' Translated by R. Black. London, 1870. 8vo. 
 
 Jameson, Mrs. A., 'Lives of Celebrated Sovereigns.' London, 
 
 1834. i2mo. 
 'Joan of Arc: The Story of a Noble Life.' Edinburgh, 1871. 
 
 i2mo. 
 
 Maceroni, Cecilia, ' Illustrations from the History of the Maid of 
 Orleans.' London, 1854. 8vo. 
 
 Owen, Emily, ' Heroines of History.' London, 1877. 8vo. 
 
 320 
 
JOAN OF ARC. 321 
 
 Parr, Harriet, 'The Life and Death of Jeanne d'Arc' London, 
 
 1866. 8vo. 
 Parton, James, *The People's Book of Biography.' New York, 
 
 1869. 8vo. 
 Pauli, Rheinhold, * Pictures of Old England.' Translated by E. C. 
 
 Otte. London, 1861. 8vo. 
 
 Quincey, T. de, ' Miscellaneous Essays : Joan of Arc' London, 
 1865. 8vo. 
 
 Russell, Wm., 'Extraordinary Women.' London, 1857. 8vo. 
 R., C. L., 'The Story of Joan of Arc' London, i860. i6mo. 
 
 Southey, Robert, ' Joan of Arc ; an epic Poem.' Bristol, &c, 
 
 1796. 4to. 
 Stanhope, P. H. (5th Earl), 'The Life of Joan of Arc' London, 
 
 1853. 8vo. 
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 Stothart, A. E., 'Joan of Arc' London, 1874. 8vo. 
 
 'The Wonderful Exploits of the Maid of Orleans.' Falkirk, 181 5. 
 
 i2mo. 
 Tuckey, Janet, * Life of Joan of Arc' London, 1880. 8vo. 
 
 MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 Blackwood^ s Magazine, vol. xlvii. p. 284 (1841). 
 
 Dublin Review, vol. Ix. p. 118 (1866). 
 
 Dublin University Magazine, vol. Ixxxix. p. 417 (1876). 
 
 Encyclopcedia Britannica, Article, 'Joan of Arc' 
 
 Temple Bar, vol. xxi. p. 380 (1867). 
 
 Fortnightly Review, vol. vi. p. 632 (1866). 
 
 Harper's Magazine, vol. Ixiii. p. 91 (1881). 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Adam, De I'Isle, commander of the 
 Burgundian soldiers in Paris, 107 
 
 Albret, Sire d', assists Joan of Arc at 
 the siege of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier, 
 
 "5 
 
 Alenyon, Duke of, entrusted with the 
 command of the expedition on the 
 Loire, 73, 74 ; his personal safety 
 vouchsafed by Joan of Arc, 76 ; 
 accompanies the King to Rheims, 
 85 ; testifies to the military talents 
 of Joan, 95 ; gives evidence at the 
 trial for her rehabilitation, 265 
 
 Alessee, John, canon at Rouen, as- 
 sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 147 
 
 Alnwick, William, Bishop of Nor- 
 wich, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 148 
 
 Anjou, Duke of, his sympathy with 
 Joan of Arc, 30 
 
 Anjou, Rene d', 1 1 1 
 
 Arc, origin of the name, 4 
 
 Arc, Isabeau d' (mother of Joan of 
 Arc), her influence upon her daugh- 
 ter, 5 ; at the trial for rehabilitation, 
 256 
 
 Arc, Jacques d' (father of Joan of 
 Arc), his social position, 4 ; his 
 death, 255 
 
 Arc, Joan of. See Joan of Arc 
 
 Arc, John d' (brother of Joan of Arc), 
 37 ; at the trial for her rehabilita- 
 tion, 256, 285 
 
 Arc, Peter d' (brother of Joan of Arc), 
 37 ; taken prisoner with his sister, 
 125 ; at the trial for rehabilitation, 
 256 
 
 Armagnac, Thibauld d', Sire de 
 
 Thermes, 40; at the trial for the 
 
 rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 274 
 Arnolin, Henri, priest, 260 
 Arras, Bishop of, 106 
 Arundel, Earl of, threatens the town 
 
 ofCompiegne, 122 
 Aubert, John, burgher of Orleans, 273 
 Aubignac, Abbe d', his tragedy on 
 
 Joan of Arc, 306 
 Auguy, Raoul, canon at Rouen, as- 
 sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 147 
 Aulon, John d', esquire of Joan of Arc, 
 
 37, 56, 57 ; rescues his mistress, 115; 
 
 taken prisoner with her, 125, 134 ; 
 
 gives evidence at the trial for her 
 
 rehabilitation, 257, 271 
 Aunoy, Arnoult d', Celibat of the 
 
 Monastery of Saint Urban-les-Join- 
 
 ville, 21 
 Averdy, Clement de 1', 292 
 Avet, John de Saint, Bishop of Av- 
 
 ranches, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 145 
 Avrigni, D', dramatic poet, 308 
 Aymeri, William, doctor of theology, 
 
 33 
 
 Bailly, Nicolas, scrivener, 260 
 Baker, Sir Richard, English writer, 
 
 300 
 Bar, Count de, 3 
 Barante, historian, 297 
 Barbier, Robert, canon of Rouen, 
 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 147 
 
BAR 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 CAU 
 
 Barbier, Jean, King's Advocate, 224 ; 
 at the trial for the rehabilitation of 
 Joan of Arc, 263 
 
 Barbier, Jules, 309 
 
 Barrey, John, godfather of Joan of 
 Arc, 258 
 
 Basin, Thomas, Bishop of Lisieux, 
 quoted for Joan of Arc's belief in 
 the reality of her visions, 8 
 
 Basset, John, canon, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Baubribosc, William de, canon at 
 Rouen, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 147 
 
 Baudricourt, Robert de, 9 ; his first 
 interview with Joan of Arc, 12 ; 
 second interview, 14 ; presents her 
 with his sword, 21 
 
 Beaucharnys, John, burgher of Or- 
 leans, 273 
 
 Beaucharnys, Petronille, 274 
 
 Beaucroix, Simon, at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 272 
 
 Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Win- 
 chester. See Winchester. 
 
 Beaupere, John, canon at Besan9on, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 145 ; examines and cross-questions 
 her, 158 ; seeks to effect her ab- 
 juration, 227 ; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 276 
 
 Bedford, Duke of, sends Fastolfe to 
 Suffolk's assistance at Jargeau, 75 ; 
 takes refuge in the fortress of Vin- 
 cennes, 100 ; appeals for help to the 
 Duke of Burgundy and the Bishop 
 of Winchester, 10 1 ; advances from 
 Paris, 103 ; returns there, 105 ; 
 leaves for Normandy, 107 ; comes 
 to terms with the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy, 114; invokes the aid of 
 the Church against Joan of Arc, 
 130 
 
 Bellarme, Martin, Dominican priest, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 143 
 Bellier, William, bailiff of Troyes, 89 
 Bellow, J., cited, 150 
 
 Benel, Abbot of Courcelles, assessor 
 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 Bergame, Philip de, Augustinian 
 
 monk, 289 
 Berwoit, John, attendant on Joan of 
 
 Arc, 149, 157 
 Bibliography of Joan of Arc: French, 
 
 311 ; English, 320 
 Boissel, Guerold de, 225 
 Bonart, Herve, canon at Orleans, 274 
 Bonnet, John, priest, 282 
 Bonnet, Simon, Bishop of Senlis, 32 
 Bordez, Andre, canon at Rouen, 274 
 Boucher, Charlotte, bedfellow of Joan 
 
 of Arc, at the trial for rehabilitation, 
 
 273 
 
 Boucher, James, host of Joan of Arc 
 in Orleans, 52 
 
 Boucher, Mary le, 122 
 
 Bouchier, Peter, priest, 282 
 
 Boulogne, Count of, accompanies 
 Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 
 
 Boussac, Marshal de (Saint-Severe), 
 40, 47, 58, 75 
 
 Boyleau, Joan, 273 
 
 Brullot, John, canon at Rouen, as- 
 sessor at trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Buchon, 291, 292 
 
 Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, his trim- 
 ming conduct after the coronation 
 at Rheims, 102; comes to terms 
 with Bedford, 114; intrigues to 
 obtain possession of Compiegne, 
 121 ; hands over Joan of Arc to the 
 English, 137 
 
 Cabu, Gentien, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 Cagny, Perceval de, cited, 66 
 Calixtus III., Pope, sanctions the re- 
 habilitation of Joan of Arc, 254 
 Canelier, John, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 Castiglione, Zanon de. Bishop of 
 
 Lisieux, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 145, 213 
 Cauchon, Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, 
 
 326 
 
CAU 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 COP 
 
 1 06 ; his early career, 131 ; offered 
 preferment by Winchester, 132 ; 
 ransoms Joan of Arc for the En- 
 glish, 133; resolves that her trial 
 shall take place in Rouen, 141 ; 
 constitution of his tribunal, 143 ; 
 his policy at the beginning of 
 the trial, 150, 151 ; his opening 
 speech, 153 ; his examination of the 
 Maid, 154 et seq.\ fails to attach 
 guilt to her in the public trial, 187 ; 
 subjects her to a secret examination 
 in prison, 188 ; contents of his 
 letter of indictment to the Uni- 
 versity of Paris, 208 ; tries to extort 
 her submission in illness, 215 ; de- 
 cides to put her to the torture, 221 ; 
 commended for his zealous conduct, 
 
 226 ; seeks to effect her abjuration, 
 
 227 ; absolves her from excom- 
 munication, 235 ; interviews her 
 in prison, 238 ; hands her over to 
 the secular powers, 248 
 
 Caval, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 ; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 282 
 
 Censurey, Peter de la, canon at 
 Rouen, 274 
 
 Chapelain, his * heroic poem ' on the 
 Maid, 306 
 
 Charles II., Duke of Lorraine, seeks 
 an interview with Joan of Arc, 17 
 
 Charles V. of France, i 
 
 Charles VI. of France, i 
 
 Charles the Dauphin (afterwards 
 Charles VII.), protests against the 
 dismemberment of France, i ; his 
 wretched condition at the begin- 
 ning of 1429, 23; interview with 
 Joan of Arc at Chinon, 28 ; pre- 
 sents her with a suit of armour, 
 37 ; meets her after the delivery of 
 Orleans, 70 ; sets out for Rheims, 
 83 ; is crowned there, 91 ; en- 
 nobles Joan, 98 ; vacillating con- 
 duct, 102 ; marches on Paris, 
 104; retreats to Gien, 114; takes 
 measures for the rehabilitation of 
 
 the Maid, 253 ; real object in doing 
 so, 271 
 
 Charles, Simon, Master of the Re- 
 quests, 263 
 
 Charlet, 292 
 
 Charnettes, Lebrun les, historian, 
 292 
 
 Charron, William le, burgher of 
 Orleans, 272 
 
 Chartres, Regnault de. Archbishop of 
 Rheims, 32 ; accompanies Joan of 
 Arc to Blois, 46 ; tries to thwart her 
 mission, 55 ; meets Charles VII. on 
 his entry into Rheims, 90 ; makes 
 a truce with the English, in; an- 
 nounces the capture of the Maid to 
 the citizens of Rheims, 128 
 
 Chartrier, William, Bishop of Paris, 
 appointed a commissioner for the 
 rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 255 
 
 Chatillon, Archdeacon of Evreux, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of 
 Arc, 149 ; his sermon before Joan, 
 219 
 
 Chauvigny , Seigneur de, accompanies 
 Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 
 
 Chinon, the Castle of, 22 
 
 Clermont, Count of, accompanies 
 Charles VII. to Rheims, 85, III 
 
 Coaraze, 40 
 
 Colin, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259 
 
 Colin, John, priest, 262 
 
 Colles, William, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 144, 151 ; at the 
 trial for rehabilitation, 279 
 
 Columbel, canon, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Compaing, Peter, canon at Orleans, 
 274 
 
 Compiegne, the town of, 122 
 
 Contes, Louis de, page of Joan, 37, 
 268 
 
 Conti, De, Abbot of Sainte Catherine, 
 Assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 148 
 
 Coppequesne, Nicolas, canon at 
 Rouen, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 147, 224 
 
 327 
 
COR 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ERA 
 
 Cormeilles, canon, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Coulant, 40 
 
 Coulon, John, burgher of Orleans, 
 273 
 
 Coulon, Guillemette de, 273 
 
 Courcelles, Thomas de, canon, asses- 
 sor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 145, 
 150, 202, 224, 235 ; nature of his 
 evidence at the trial for rehabilita- 
 tion, 275 
 
 Cousinot, G., Chancellor of the Duke 
 of Orleans, 291 
 
 Crique, Peter de. Prior of Sigy, asses- 
 sor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 148 
 
 Crotoy, I^e, importance of, to the 
 English in the fifteenth century, 
 
 139 
 
 Crotoy, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Culan, Louis, Admiral de, accom- 
 panies Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 
 
 Cusquel, Peter, burgher of Rouen, 
 284 
 
 Dacier, Abbot of Saint Corneille of 
 Compiegne, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148, 222 
 
 Daniel, English writer, 300 
 
 Darmesteter, M., cited, 300 
 
 Daron, Peter, attorney, 283 
 
 Daval, William, priest, at the trial 
 for rehabilitation, 281 
 
 David, Jesuit priest, 291 
 
 De Champcoux, John, burgher of 
 Orleans, 273 
 
 De Commy, Cosme, burgher of Or- 
 leans, 273 
 
 Dclachambre, William, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 149 ; at the 
 trial for rehabilitation, 278 ; Joan 
 of Arc's doctor, ib. 
 
 Delavigne, Casimir, his poems on 
 Joan of Arc, 307 
 
 Desjardins, Abel, biographer of Joan 
 of Arc, 299 
 
 Desnoyers, dramatist, 308 
 
 Despres, John, 257 
 
 Dornremy, birthplace of Joan of 
 Arc, 3 
 
 Du Bellay, French writer, cited, 285, 
 289 
 
 Dubesert, canon at Rouen, assessor at 
 the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 ; at 
 the trial for rehabihtation, 282 
 
 Duchemin, canon, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Du Due, Fronton, his tragedy on 
 Joan of Arc, 306 
 
 Du Fay, Geoffrey, knight, 261 
 
 Dufresnoy, Abbe I.onglet, his Life of 
 Joan of Arc, 292 
 
 Du Lys, Charles, descendant of the 
 Arc family, 290 
 
 Dumas, Alexandre, his Life of Joan 
 of Arc, 297 
 
 Dunois, Bastard of Orleans, com- 
 mander of the French troops in 
 Orleans, 36, 40 j interview with 
 Joan of Arc at Reuilly, 5 1 ; goes to 
 Blois to bring up reinforcements, 
 54 ; attacks the Tournelles, 62, 75 ; 
 testifies to the military talents of 
 Joan, 95 ; at the trial for rehabilita- 
 tion, 266 
 
 Durement, Abbot of Fecamp, assessor 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Edward III. of England, i 
 
 Emenyart, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 149, 212 
 
 Epinal, Gerardin d', village com- 
 panion of Joan of Arc, 89, 258 
 
 Epinal, Isabellette d', friend of Joan 
 of Arc, 258 
 
 Erard, William, canon of Beauvais, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of 
 Arc, 149 ; opposed to applying 
 the torture to her, 224 ; preaches 
 on the occasion of Joan's abjura- 
 tion, 230, 232 
 
 Erault, John, 35 
 
 328 
 
ESB 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GUI 
 
 Esbalny, Jacques l', burgher of Or- Gargrave, Sir Thomas, mortally 
 
 leans, 273 
 Estelin, Beatrix d', godmother of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 258 
 Estivet, John d', surnamed 'Bene- 
 
 dicite,' at trial of Joan of Arc, 143 
 Estouteville, Cardinal d', 254 
 
 Fabre, Joseph, historian, cited, 164, 
 258, 266, 284 ; his works on Joan 
 of Arc, 299 
 
 Fabyan, Robert, English writer, 299 
 
 Farciaux, Robert de, canon, 274 
 
 Fastolfe, Sir John, at the siege of 
 Orleans, 43 ; sent to Jargeau to 
 reinforce Suffolk, 75 ; joins forces 
 with Talbot, 78; defeated at the 
 battle of Patay, 80 ; disgraced, 100 
 
 Fauconbridge, clerk of the French 
 Parliament, quoted, 68 
 
 Fave, Jean, Master of Requests, 284 
 
 Feuillet, Gerard, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 146 
 
 Fevre, Le, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 149 
 
 Fiexvet, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 149 
 
 Flavigny, William de, governor of 
 Compiegne, 121, 123, 124 ; his sup- 
 posed treachery towards Joan, 127 
 
 Fontaine, John de la, at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 143 ; secretly examines 
 her in prison, 188; flies from the 
 wrath of Couchon, 194 
 
 Fournier, Jean, priest, testifies in 
 favour of Joan of Arc, 16 
 
 France, state of, in 1420, i 
 
 France, Martin le, 302 
 
 Franquet d' Arras, English freebooter, 
 captured by Joan of Arc, 120 
 
 Fremiet, sculptor, no 
 
 Frique, Abbot of Bee, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 P'uller, Thomas, 300 
 
 Fumeux, Jean le, priest, testifies to 
 the piety of Joan of Arc, 17 ; at the 
 trial for rehabilitation, 262 
 
 wounded in the attack on Orleans, 
 42 
 
 Garin, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Garivel, Francis, at the trial for re- 
 habilitation, 264 
 
 Gastinel, canon, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 148, 224 
 
 Gaucourt, Raoul de. Grand Master of 
 the King's Household, 40 ; closes 
 the Burgundy Gate at Orleans 
 against Joan of Arc, 61, 75 ; at 
 the trial for her rehabilitation, 268 
 
 Gerard, Henriette, friend of Joan of 
 Arc, 258 
 
 Giresme, Nicolas de, knight of Rhodes, 
 in the attack on the Tournelles, 
 64 
 
 Glansdale, Sir William, succeeds 
 Salisbury in the command of the 
 English forces before Orleans, 42, 
 59 ; drowned in the Loire, 65 
 
 Gloucester, Duke of, EngUsh Pro- 
 tector, lOI 
 
 Godart, Raoul, canon at Rouen, 274 
 
 Godefroy, Denis, 291 
 
 ' Godon,' the French sobriquet for the 
 English, 61 
 
 Gounod, 309 
 
 Grasset, Peter, governor of La Charite, 
 116 
 
 Graverent, John, Dominican priest 
 and Grand Inquisitor of France, at 
 the trial of Joan of Arc, 143 
 
 Graville, De, 58 
 
 Green, J. R., 300 
 
 Greene, Robert, dramatist, 305 
 
 Gris, John, English knight, personal 
 attendant on Joan of Arc, 149, 
 
 157 
 Grouchet, Richard de, priest, 282 
 Guerdon, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 149 
 Guesdon, Laurent, clerk and advocate 
 
 to the lay court of Rouen, 284 
 Guillemeth, playmate of Joan of Arc, 
 
 259 
 
 329 
 
GUT 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 JOA 
 
 Guthrie, his Life of Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc, her birth and parent- 
 age, 3 ; her amiable character, 
 5 ; devotion to religious duties, 
 6 ; first visions, 7 ; her belief 
 in their reality, 8 ; interviews with 
 Baudricourt, ii, 14; visits Duke 
 Charles of Lorraine, 17 ; her popu- 
 larity at Vaucouleurs, 18 ; her equip- 
 ment, 19 ; sets out for Chinon, 
 20 ; opposed by La Tremoille, 24 ; 
 arrival at Chinon, 25 ; interview 
 with the King, 26 ; favourably 
 impresses him, 29 ; trains herself 
 in military exercises, 30 ; examined 
 at Poitiers before the French Parlia- 
 ment, 32 ; her mission sanctioned, 
 36 ; prepares her standard, 37 ; 
 arrives at Blois, 46 ; despatches a 
 letter to the Duke of Bedford, 47 ; 
 her interview with Dunois before 
 Orleans, 51 ; enthusiastic entry into 
 the city, 52 ; summons the English 
 to surrender, 53 ; meets Dunois 
 with the relieving forces, 55 ; her 
 first engagement, 57 ; carries the 
 Bastille des Augustins, 59 ; pro- 
 phesies she will be wounded, 60 ; 
 leads the attack on the Tournelles, 
 62 ; wounded, 63 ; rallies the waver- 
 ing French, 64 ; compels the EngHsh 
 to raise the siege, 65 ; returns to 
 Chinon, 69 ; urges Charles VIL to 
 go to Rheims, 70 ; leads the ex- 
 pedition on the Loire, 73 ; storms 
 and takes Jargeau, 75 ; gains the 
 battle of Patay, 80 ; sets out for 
 Rheims with Charles, 84 ; the 
 enforced halt before Troyes, 85 ; 
 expresses her fear of treachery, 89 ; 
 at the King's coronation in Rheims 
 cathedral, 91 ; her military talents, 
 94 ; her humane conduct in war, 
 96 ; ennobled by Charles, 98 ; ad- 
 vises the latter to march on Paris, 
 loi ; writes to the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy for assistance, 102 ; resolves 
 to attempt to take Paris, 107 ; her 
 impetuous onslaught, 109 ; again 
 
 300 
 
 Haillon, French writer, 289 
 Haiton, William, English priest, as- 
 sessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 148, 222, 224 
 Hall, English historian, quoted, for 
 
 the delivery of Orleans, 66, 299 
 Harcourt, Christophe d', Bishop of 
 
 Castres, confessor of Charles VIL, 
 
 71 
 Henry H. of England, 26 
 Henry HL of England, his death at 
 
 Chinon, 25 
 Henry V. of England, his position 
 
 in France in 1420, i, 39 
 Henry VL of England, 100, 137 
 Herrings, the battle of the, 44 
 Hilaire, John, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 Hire, La, 40 ; persuaded to break off 
 
 swearing by Joan of Arc, 46 ; assists 
 
 in the attack on the Tournelles, 62 ; 
 
 leads the van at the battle of Patay, 
 
 80 ; accompanies Charles VH. to 
 
 Rheims, 85 
 Holinshed, English writer, 299 
 Hordal, John, descendant of the Arc 
 
 family, 291 
 Houppeville, Nicolas de, doctor of 
 
 theology, 278 
 Hue, Peter, burgher of Orleans, 273 
 
 Illiers, Florent d', 53 
 
 Ingres, his picture of Joan of Arc, 
 92 
 
 Inquisition, the, resolve to prosecute 
 Joan of Arc as a sorceress and idola- 
 tress, 130 
 
 Jacquard, playmate of Joan of Arc, 
 
 259 
 Jacquier, native of Domremy, 261 
 Jacquier, Guillot, 262 
 
 330 
 
JOA 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 LEM 
 
 wounded, i lo ; deposits her armour 
 and arms in the fane of Saint 
 Denis, 113; assaults and captures 
 the fortress of Saint Pierre-Ie- 
 Moutier, 115; fails to take La 
 Charite, 1 17; her simplicity and 
 freedom from egotism, ib. ; captures 
 an English freebooter and his band 
 at Lagny, 120; received with joy 
 in Compiegne, 122 ; attacks the 
 Burgundians at Margny, 124 ; 
 driven back from Clairvoix, 124 ; 
 taken prisoner, 125 ; removed to 
 the castle of Beaulieu, in Picardy, 
 129 ; handed over to Peter 
 Cauchon, 133 ; attempts to escape, 
 135, 136; delivered to the English, 
 138 ; taken to Rouen, 141 ; bar- 
 barously treated, 142; demands that 
 her judges should be equally divi- 
 ded in nationality, 153 ; her answers 
 to Cauchon and Beaupere, 154 sq. ; 
 secretly interrogated in prison, 1S8 ; 
 continued maltreatment, 196 ; the 
 twelve articles on which her con- 
 demnation was founded, 207 ; falls 
 ill in prison, 214 ; again interrogated 
 by Cauchon, 215 ; threatened with 
 torture, 221 ; condemned by the 
 University of Paris, 225 ; her ab- 
 juration, 228 sq. ; discards her male 
 attire, 236 ; roughly treated by her 
 guard, ib. ; her forgiving nature, 
 239 ; is apprised of her fate, 243 ; 
 upbraids Cauchon, ib. ; confesses 
 and receives the sacrament, 244 ; 
 pardons Loiseleur, 246 ; handed 
 over to the secular powers, 248 ; 
 implores pardon for her enemies, 
 ib. ; her martyrdom, 250 ; the trial 
 for her rehabilitation, 253 sq. 
 
 Jocab, Dominic, curate, 261 
 
 Jolivet, Abbot of St. Michel's Mount, 
 Normandy, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Jollois, historian, 297 
 
 Jonqualt, Peter, burgher at Orleans, 
 273 
 
 Jonson, Ben, cited for the authorship 
 of the First Part of King Henry 
 VI., 304 
 
 Jouvenel des Ursins, John, Archbishop 
 of Rheims, appointed commissioner 
 for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 
 
 255 
 Joyart, Mengette, friend of Joan of 
 Arc, 258 
 
 Labbe, Abbot of Saint George de 
 Bocherville, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Laclopsse, Bertrand, thatcher, 261 
 
 Ladvenu, Martin, Dominican priest, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 149 ; cited for her brutal treatment 
 in prison, 238 ; sent to apprise her of 
 her fate, 243 ; receives her confes- 
 sion and administers the sacrament, 
 244; attends her to execution, 245 ; 
 at the trial for her rehabilitation, 
 280 
 
 La Fontaine, biographer of Joan of 
 Arc, 299 
 
 Laiguise, John, Bishop of Troyes, 
 offers to capitulate Troyes to King 
 Charles VIL, 88 
 
 Lamartine, 299 
 
 Landor, Walter Savage, 300 
 
 Langart, John de, godfather of Joan 
 of Arc, 258 
 
 Laval, Count Guy de, cited, 73 ; ac- 
 companies the King to Rheims, 85 
 
 Laxart, Durand, cousin of Joan of 
 Arc, 1 1 ; at the trial for rehabilita- 
 tion, 261 
 
 Lebourg, William, prior, assessor at 
 the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Le Cuin, playmate of Joan of Arc, 
 
 259 
 Ledoux, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 
 Joan of Arc, 148, 224 
 Le France, Martin, French poet, yxy 
 Le Fevre, Jean, bishop, at the trial for 
 
 rehabilitation, 276 
 Lemaitre, Husson, coppersmith, 275 
 
 331 
 
LEM 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MIC 
 
 Lemaitre, John, Dominican prior, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 I43» 157, 188, 224 
 
 Lenozoles, John de, priest, 282 
 
 Lepage, Bastien, his picture of Joan 
 of Arc, 12 
 
 Leroux, abbot of Jumieges, assessor 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Leroy, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Lessarmentrer, Mauger, chief torturer 
 of Rouen, at the trial for rehabilita- 
 tion, 282 
 
 Ligny, John de, 128 ; transfers Joan 
 of Arc to his castle of Beaurevoir, 
 135 ; delivers her into the hands of 
 the Duke of Burgundy, 137; taunts 
 her in prison, 142 
 
 Lisle, Lancelot de, at the siege of 
 Orleans, 43 
 
 Loheac, Seigneur de, accompanies 
 Charles VIL to Rheims, 85 
 
 Lohier, John, threatened by Cauchon 
 for his sympathy with Joan of Arc, 
 199 
 
 Loiseleur, Nicolas, canon of Rouen, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 146; his infamous conduct, ib.^ 
 197 ; his remorse, 199 ; intent on 
 torture, 222, 224 ; seeks to effect 
 her abjuration, 227, 232, 235 ; asks 
 pardon of her, 246 
 
 Lombard, Jean, professor of theology, 
 
 33 
 Longueil, Richard de, Bishop of Cou- 
 tances, appointed a commissioner 
 for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 
 
 255 
 
 Luce, Simeon, cited, 14, 299 
 
 Luillier, John, at the trial for re- 
 habilitation, 272 
 
 Luxembourg, John of, 106 
 
 Luxembourg, Louis of. Bishop of 
 Therouanne, in command of the 
 English soldiers in Paris, 107 ; con- 
 sents to the sale of Joan of Arc to 
 the English, 133 ; an assessor at 
 the trial of the Maid, 144 
 
 Machot, Gerard, Bishop of Castres, 32 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 300 
 
 Ma9on, Robert de, 71 
 
 Macquelonne, the Bishop of, 32 
 
 Macy, historian, cited, 142 
 
 Macy, Aimonde de, soldier, 283 
 
 Mahon, Lord, 300 
 
 Mailly, John de. Bishop of Noyon, 
 assessor at trial of Joan of Arc, 144 ; 
 at the trial for rehabilitation, 276 
 
 Manchon, William, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 144, 151, 157, 209; 
 cited for the brutal treatment of her 
 guard, 237, 238 ; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 279 
 
 Mansier, canon, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Marcel, John, 284 
 
 ' Margette,' the, 24 
 
 Marguerie, canon at Rouen, assessor 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148, 
 222, 224, 282 
 
 Marie, Thomas, priest, 282 
 
 Marin, Captain, cited, 112, 127 
 
 Martigny, Louis de, 216 
 
 Martin, Henry, historian, 298 
 
 Martyn, English writer, 300 
 
 Masle, Du, Abbot of Saint Ouen, 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 148 
 
 Masnier, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259 
 
 Massieu, John, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 144, 151, 153 ; 
 grants her permission to kneel at 
 the prison chapel door, 197, 222 ; 
 urges her to abjure, 232 ; cited for 
 the brutal treatment of her guard, 
 237, 249 ; at the trial for rehabilita- 
 tion, 280 
 
 Maurice, Peter, 243 
 
 Metz, Jean de, becomes acquainted 
 with Joan of Arc, 14 ; escorts her 
 to Chinon, 19 ; at the trial for re- 
 habilitation, 261 
 
 Mezarie, historian, 291 
 
 Michelet, cited, 3, 82, 121, 131, 187, 
 199, 236, 238, 291 ; his Life of 
 Joan of Arc, 297 
 
 332 
 
MID 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 RAB 
 
 Midi, Nicolas, D.D., assessor at the 
 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 146 ; his ser- 
 mon on the eve of Joan's death, 246 
 Migiet, Peter, Prior of Longueville, 
 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 148 ; at trial for rehabilitation, 277 
 Milet, Peter, 274 
 Moen, John, of Domremy, 261 
 Monsteschere, John de, master gunner 
 
 at the siege of Orleans, 43 
 Monstrelet, Enguerrand de, cited, 
 
 46, 129 ; the most eminent writer 
 
 against Joan of Arc, 289 
 Montaigne, cited, 12 
 Montgomery, commands the English 
 
 forces before Compiegne, 123 
 Montjeu, Philibert de. Bishop of Cou- 
 
 tances, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 145 
 Moreaux, John, burgher of Rouen, 284 
 Morel, Aubert, canon, assessor at the 
 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 148, 222, 224 
 Morel, John, village companion of 
 
 Joan of Arc, 89 
 Morel de Greux, John, godfather of 
 
 Joan of Arc, 258 
 Morellet, canon, assessor at the trial 
 
 of Joan of Arc, 148 
 Moret, Abbot of Preaux, assessor at 
 
 the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 Morice, Peter, canon at Rouen, 
 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of 
 
 Arc, 146, 226 
 Mystery play, the French, on Joan 
 
 of Arc, 301 
 
 Nicolas v., Pope, opposed to the 
 rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, 254 
 
 Paris, Martial de, French poet, 301 
 
 Paris, University of. See University 
 
 Parliament, French, at Poitiers, 31 ; 
 examine Joan of Arc, 32 j sanction 
 her mission, 36 
 
 Pasquerel, Jean, cited, 27, 37 ; at the 
 trial for rehabilitation, 268 
 
 Pasquier, Stephen, French juriscon- 
 sult, 290 
 
 Patay, the battle of, 80 
 
 Perrin le Brassier, bell-ringer of Dom- 
 remy, 260 
 
 Petitot, 291, 292 
 
 Pierre, Isambard de la, Dominican 
 priest, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 149, 151 ; his sympathy 
 for her, 195, 224, 235 ; cited for 
 the brutal treatment of her guard, 
 238 ; attends her last moments, 
 245, 249, 251 ; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 280 
 
 Pinchon, canon, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Pisan, Christine de, poetess, 301 
 
 Poitiers, the Great Hall of, 31 ; the 
 Bishop of, 32 
 
 Pole, John de la, at the siege of 
 Orleans, 43 
 
 Pole, William de la. See Suffolk 
 
 Postel, William, French writer, 290 
 
 Postian, William, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 
 Pougoulat, 292 
 
 Poulangy, Bertrand de, 11 ; escorts 
 Joan of Arc on her journey to 
 Chinon, 19 ; at the trial for re- 
 habilitation, 261 
 
 Prevosteau, advocate, at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 256 
 
 Orleans, the siege of, begun by the 
 English, 13 ; enthusiasm of the 
 people of, for Joan of Arc, 36 ; its 
 defences, 39 ; horrors of the siege, 
 45 ; the siege raised, 66, 68 
 
 Ourche, Albert d', knight, 261 
 
 Quicherat, historian, cited, 24, 55, 
 
 291 ; his literary labours, 292 
 Quincey, De, 300 
 
 Rabelais, connection with Chinon, 25 
 
 333 
 
RAB 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 THE 
 
 Rabuteau, Maitre Jean, Parliamentary 
 
 Advocate-General, 32 
 Radley, English officer, 107 
 Raimond, page of Joan, 37 
 Rainguesson, John, godfather of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 258 
 Rais, Seigneur de, 47, 75 \ accom- 
 panies Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 
 Regnault, William, captures the Earl 
 
 of Suffolk at Jargeau, 77 
 Rheims, coronation of Charles VII. 
 
 at, 91 
 Rheims, the Archbishop of. See Char- 
 
 tres, Regnault de 
 Richard, Father, his interview with 
 
 Joan of Arc, 86 
 Richarville, Guillaume de, 274 
 Richemont, Constable de, joins the 
 
 army of the Loire, 78 
 Richer, Edmond, doctor of theology, 
 
 291 
 Rochelle, Catherine de la, her deceit 
 
 exposed by Joan of Arc, 1 18 
 Roger, Denis, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 Roquier, John, priest, 282 
 Rotslaer, Sire de, cited, 60 
 Rouillart, William, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 272 
 Roussel, 224 
 Rouvray, the Battle of the Herrings 
 
 near, 44 
 Royer, Henry and Joan le, 261 
 
 Savoy, Duke of, 106 
 
 Scales, Lord, at siege of Orleans, 42 
 
 Schiller, his Jungfrau von Orleans^ 
 
 307 
 Sequier, Dominican monk, 32 ; ques- 
 tions Joan, 33 ; at the trial for 
 
 rehabilitation, 263 
 Shakespeare and the character of Joan 
 
 of Arc, 301, 309 
 Sionne, Etienne de, curate, 260 
 Sismondi, historian, 296 
 Solera, 309 
 Sorel, Agnes, 52 
 Soumet, dramatic poet, 308 
 Southey, cited, 306 ; his heroic poem 
 
 on Joan of Arc, 307 
 Stafford, Lord, visits Joan of Arc in 
 
 prison, 142 
 Sterling, John, 300 
 Stern, Daniel, French authoress, 308 
 Stow, historian, 299 
 Stuart, John, Constable of Scotland, 
 
 killed at the battle of the Herrings, 
 
 45 
 
 Stuart, William, brother of the Con- 
 stable of Scotland, killed at the 
 battle of the Herrings, 45 
 
 Suffolk, William de la Pole, Earl of, 
 commands the English forces before 
 Orleans, 43 ; confronts the French 
 at Jargeau, 75 ; defeated and cap- 
 tured, 77 
 
 Sainte-Beuve, cited, 2 ; on Wallon's 
 
 biography of Joan of Arc, 298 
 Saint-Mesmin, Aignan de, burgher of 
 
 Orleans, 273 
 Saint-Prix, Berriat, historian, 293 ; 
 
 his itinerary of the last three years 
 
 of the life of Joan of Arc, ib. 
 Saint-Severe, Marshal. See Boussac. 
 Salisbury, commands the English 
 
 forces before Orleans, 40 ; mortally 
 
 wounded, 42 
 Saulx, canon, assessor at the trial of 
 
 Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Talbot, Lord, at the siege of Orleans, 
 42 ; withdraws his forces, 67 ; joins 
 hands with Fastolfe, 78 ; defeated 
 and taken prisoner, 80 
 
 Talbot, William, attendant on Joan 
 of Arc, 149, 157 
 
 Taquel, Nicolas, assessor at the trial 
 of Joan of Arc, 144; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 280 
 
 Thepelin de Viteau, Jeannette, god- 
 mother of Joan of Arc, 258 
 
 Theroude, Abbot of Mortemer, assessor 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 148 
 
 Thevenin le Royer, of Domremy, 261 
 
 334 
 
THE 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 XAI 
 
 Theverien, Jeannette, godmother of 
 
 Joan of Arc, 258 
 Thibault, Gobert, 3?, 264 
 Thierry, Reginald, court physician, 
 
 274 
 Thou, James de, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 
 Tilloy, Jamet de, French knight, 36 
 
 Tiphanie, assessor at the trial of Joan 
 of Arc, 149, 27S 
 
 Touraine, James de, assessor at the 
 trial of Joan of Arc, 146 
 
 Toutmouille, John, apprises Joan of 
 Arc of her fate, 243 ; at the trial for 
 rehabilitation, 281 
 
 Tremo'ille, George de la, minister of 
 Charles VII., 23; tries to thwart 
 Joan of Arc in her mission, 24, 30, 
 55, 112 ; alarmed at her ever-grow- 
 ing popularity, 83 ; accompanies 
 the King to Rheims, 85, 128 
 
 Troyes, the treaty of (1420), i 
 
 Troyes, John de, senior of the Faculty 
 of Theology in the University of 
 Paris, 224 
 
 University of Paris, aid in the pro- 
 secution of Joan of Arc, 130 ; con- 
 stitution of the, 134 ; recommend 
 the removal of Joan to Paris, 140 ; 
 their decision regarding her guilt, 
 224 
 
 Vaillant, Peter, burgher of Orleans, 
 
 273 
 Vaux, Pasquier de, canon, one of the 
 
 tribunal on the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 148 
 Vender ^s, Nicolas de, canon of Rouen, 
 
 assessor at the trial of Joan of Arc, 
 
 147, 222, 225 
 Vendome, Comte de, Chamberlain to 
 
 Charles VII., 27, 75 ; accompanies 
 
 the King to Rheims, 85 
 Verdi, 307 
 
 Vernon, Raoul Roussel de, reporter 
 
 at the trial of Joan of Arc, 147 
 Versailles, Pierre de, 35 
 Veuillot, on Wallon's Life of Joan of 
 
 Arc, 298 
 Viennne, Colet de, escorts Joan of 
 
 Arc to Chinon, 19 
 Villars, French knight, 36 
 Villaume, biographer of Joan of Arc, 
 
 299 
 Villon, Fran9ois, his lines on Joan of 
 
 Arc, 302, 308 
 Viole, Aignan, advocate, 274 
 Virey, his tragedy on Joan of Arc, 306 
 Virgile, Polydore, French writer, 290 
 Viriville, Vallet de, 291 
 Volant, John, burgher of Orleans, 272 
 Voltaire, cited, 285 ; his Fucelle^ 
 
 306, 309 
 
 Wallon, historian, cited, 46, 126, 
 
 210, 211, 227, 297 
 Wandome, the Bastard of, 128 
 Warwick, Earl of, visits Joan of Arc 
 in prison, 142 ; threatens Isambard 
 de la Pierre for his sympathy with 
 her, 196 ; demands that she should 
 be saved from a natural death, 214; 
 enraged at the prospect of her re- 
 lease, 235 
 Waterin, playmate of Joan of Arc, 259 
 Waverin, English officer, cited for the 
 English loss at the battle of Patay, 
 80 
 Winchester, Henry Beaufort, Bishop 
 of, arrives in Paris with his army, 
 101 ; retains Peter Cauchon to pro- 
 secute Joan of Arc, 132 ; his scheme 
 for this purpose, 137 ; at the abjura- 
 tion of Joan, 229 ; weeps over her 
 fate, 248 
 
 Xaintrailles, 40, 47 ; accompanies 
 Charles VII. to Rheims, 85 ; taken 
 prisoner, 125 
 
 THE END. 
 
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