Part 118 (1/2)

And even now she did not neglect to defend the honour of the fair Dauphin, whom she had so greatly loved.

She was heard to say: ”It was never my King who induced me to do anything I have done, either good or evil.”[2564]

[Footnote 2564: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 56.]

Many of the bystanders wept. A few English laughed. Certain of the captains, who could make nothing of the edifying ceremonial of ecclesiastical justice, grew impatient. Seeing Messire Ma.s.sieu in the pulpit and hearing him exhort Jeanne to make a good end, they cried:

”What now, priest! Art thou going to keep us here to dinner?”[2565]

[Footnote 2565: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20; vol. iii, pp. 53, 177, 186.]

At Rouen, when a heretic was given up to the secular arm, it was customary to take him to the town hall, where the town council made known unto him his sentence.[2566] In Jeanne's case these forms were not observed. The Bailie, Messire le Bouteiller, who was present, waved his hand and said: ”Take her, take her.”[2567] Straightway, two of the King's sergeants dragged her to the base of the scaffold and placed her in a cart which was waiting. On her head was set a great fool's cap made of paper, on which were written the words: ”_Heretique, relapse, apostate, idolatre_”; and she was handed over to the executioner.[2568]

[Footnote 2566: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 188. A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 386. Guedon and Ladvenu added to their evidence that not long afterwards a certain Georges Folenfant was also given up to the secular arm. But the Archbishop and the Inquisitor sent Ladvenu to the Bailie ”in order to warn him that the said Georges was not to be treated like the Maid who was burned without the p.r.o.nouncement of any definite and final sentence.” _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2567: _Ibid._, p. 344.]

[Footnote 2568: Falconbridge, in _Trial_, vol. iv, p. 459. Yet Martin Ladvenu says ”until the last hour,” etc., which is obviously false.]

A bystander heard her saying: ”Ah! Rouen, sorely do I fear that thou mayest have to suffer for my death.”[2569]

[Footnote 2569: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 53.]

She evidently still regarded herself as the messenger from Heaven, the angel of the realm of France. Possibly the illusion, so cruelly reft from her, returned at last to enfold her in its beneficent veil. At any rate, she appears to have been crushed; all that remained to her was an infinite horror of death and a childlike piety.

The ecclesiastical judges had barely time to descend and flee from a spectacle which they could not have witnessed without violating the laws of clerical procedure. They were all weeping: the Lord Bishop of Therouanne, Chancellor of England, had his eyes full of tears. The Cardinal of Winchester, who was said never to enter a church save to pray for the death of an enemy,[2570] had pity on this damsel so woeful and so contrite. Brother Pierre Maurice, the canon who was a reader of the aeneid, could not keep back his tears. All the priests who had delivered her to the executioner were edified to see her make so holy an end. That is what Maitre Jean Alespee meant when he sighed: ”I would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman to be.”[2571] To himself and the hapless sufferer he applied the following lines from the _Dies irae_:

_Qui Mariam absolvisti, Mihi quoque spem dedisti._[2572]

[Footnote 2570: Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 1, act i, scene 1.]

[Footnote 2571: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 6; vol. iii, pp. 53, 191, 375.]

[Footnote 2572: _Missel Romain, Office des morts._ Cf. Le P. C. Clair, _Le Dies irae, histoire, traduction et commentaire_, Paris, in 8vo, 1881, pp. 38-142.]

But none the less he must have believed that by her heresies and her obstinacy she had brought death on herself.

The two young friars preachers and the Usher Ma.s.sieu accompanied Jeanne to the stake.

She asked for a cross. An Englishman made a tiny one out of two pieces of wood, and gave it to her. She took it devoutly and put it in her bosom, on her breast. Then she besought Brother Isambart to go to the neighbouring church to fetch a cross, to bring it to her and hold it before her, so that as long as she lived, the cross on which G.o.d was crucified should be ever in her sight.

Ma.s.sieu asked a priest of Saint-Sauveur for one, and it was brought.

Jeanne weeping kissed it long and tenderly, and her hands held it while they were free.[2573]

[Footnote 2573: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 6, 20.]

As she was being bound to the stake she invoked the aid of Saint Michael; and now at length no examiner was present to ask her whether it were really he she saw in her father's garden. She prayed also to Saint Catherine.[2574]

[Footnote 2574: _Ibid._, vol. iii, p. 170.]