Joan of Arc

TYR

d so recently abjured regarding her voices and apparitions. When he had concluded, 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-i.e., burnt. The deliberation had not taken long, and, after thanking the company, the Bishop made out a formal order by which Joan was summ

s, 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

one of the judges who had followed Cauchon into the prison, exclaimed: 'Ma

d hope in God's m

nd by His grace I ho

him, and when that was finished she begged that the Sacrament might be administered to her. W

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 mournful 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, knelt the weeping people, fervently praying, and earnestly invoking the Almighty and His saints for her who was about to lay down her young li

as criminals wore at their execution, and on her head they set a mitre-shaped pap

victims of the Inquisition carri

roops 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.

ce, a man pushed his way through the crowd and the soldiers, and

day-was a wide space, surrounded by picturesquely gabled and high-roofed houses, like those which still survive 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 squ

s ordered by Cauchon to address the prisoner and th

delivered by the distinguished doctor, Nicolas Midi'; and the distinguished doctor then took for his text, fro

ould be removed. Strange, indeed, how often the words of Scripture have been used and mis-used in excuse, or in vindication, of t

he following words: 'Joan, the Church, wishing to prevent infectio

in the present case], have by a just judgment, declared you, Joan, commonly styled the Maid, fallen back into diverse errors and crimes, schismatical, idolatrous, and guilty of other sins in 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

flames. Joan of Arc meanwhile was praying fervently; and when Cauchon had finished speaking, she humbly begged thos

r the immense confused crowd; for her enemies as well as her fr

she said to the priests-to those priests and to the Church that had deserted and condemned her; for in spite of all that she had endure

cross. He had not, nor could one be found; but an Englishman broke h

d cross to be held before her while struggling in the flames, and this was at length obt

ble at the length of these preparations: 'Do

he devoutly kissed it, invoking God and her saints to assist her in

d 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 ha

d immediately beneath her, with the cross held and raised

ambard, 'keep it always b

ld 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

or 'Water, holy water!' The body had for an instant

oach the martyr, hoping, perhaps, that in the first terror at seeing the fire springing up

kling of the flames, 'I have come

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 Isambard and Massieu-declared that she

f 'Jesus!' her head

of Arc to her

martyr Maid were gathered to be cast into the Se

im for the 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 Cauchon and his gang of judges, lay and clerical-on the Univers