Histoire : Texte original

The History of England

(David Hume)

1428

Siege of Orleans.

333The city of Orleans was so situated between the provinces commanded by Henry, and those possessed by Charles, that it opened an easy entrance to either ; and as the duke of Bedford intended to make a great effort for penetrating into the south of France, it behoved him to begin with this place, which, in the present circumstances, was become the most important in the kingdom. He committed the conduct of the enterprize to the earl of Salisbury, who had newly brought him a re-inforcement of 6000 men from England, and who had much distinguished himself by his abilities during the course of the present war. Salisbury, passing the Loire, made himself master of several small places, which surrounded Orleans on that side1 ; and as his intentions were thereby known, the French King used every expedient to supply the city with a garrison and provisions, and enable it to maintain a long and obstinate siege. The lord of Gaucour, a brave and experienced captain, was appointed governor : many officers of distinction threw themselves into the place : the troops which they conducted were inured to war, and were determined to make the most obstinate resistance : and even the inhabitants, disciplined by the long continuance of hostilities, were well qualified, in their own defence, to second the efforts of the most veteran forces. The eyes of all Europe were turned towards this scene ; where, it was reasonably supposed, the French were to make their last stand for maintaining the independence of their monarchy, and the rights of their sovereign.

The earl of Salisbury at last approached the place with an army, which consisted only of ten thousand men ; and not being able, with so small a force, to invest so great a city, that commanded a bridge over the Loire, he stationed himself on the southern side towards Sologne, leaving the other, towards the Beausse, still open to the enemy. He there attacked the fortifications which guarded the entrance to the bridge ; and, after an obstinate resistance, he carried several of them ; but was himself killed by a cannon ball as he was taking a view of the enemy2. The earl of Suffolk succeeded to the command ; and being re-inforced with great numbers of English and Burgundians, he passed the river with the main body of his army, and invested Orleans on the other side. As it was now the depth of winter, 334Suffolk, who found it difficult, in that season, to throw up intrenchments all around, contented himself, for the present, with erecting redoubts at different distances, where his men were lodged in safety, and were ready to intercept the supplies which the enemy might attempt to throw into the place. Though he had several pieces of artillery in his camp, (and this is among the first sieges in Europe where cannon were found to be of importance,) the art of engineering was hitherto so imperfect, that Suffolk trusted more to famine than to force for subduing the city ; and he purposed in the spring to render the circumvallation more complete, by drawing intrenchments from one redoubt to another. Numberless feats of valor were performed both by the besiegers and besieged during the winter : bold sallies were made, and repulsed with equal boldness : convoys were sometimes introduced, and often intercepted : the supplies were still unequal to the consumption of the place : and the English seemed daily, tho’ slowly, to be advancing towards the completion of their enterprize.

1429

But while Suffolk lay in this situation, the French parties ravaged all the country around ; and the besiegers, who were obliged to draw their provisions from a distance were themselves exposed to the danger of want and famine. Sir John Fastolffe was bringing up a large convoy of even kind of stores, which he escorted with a detachment of 2500 men ; when he was attacked by a body of 4000 French, under the command of the counts of Clermont and Dunois. Fastolffe drew up his troops behind the wagons ; but the French generals, afraid of attacking him in that posture, planted a battery of cannon against him ; which threw every thing into confusion, and would have insured them the victory, had not the impatience of some Scottish troops, who broke the line of battle, brought on an engagement, in which Fastolffe was victorious. The count of Dunois was wounded ; and about 500 French were left on the field of battle. This action, which was of great importance in the present conjuncture, was commonly called the battle of Herrings ; because the convoy brought a great quantity of that kind of provisions, for the use of the English army during the Lent season3.

Charles seemed now to have but one expedient for saving this city, which had been so long invested. The duke of Orleans, who was still prisoner in England, prevailed on the protector and the council to consent that all his demesnes should be allowed to preserve a neutrality during the war, and should be sequestered, for greater security, into the hands of the duke of Burgundy. This 335prince, who was much less cordial in the English interests than formerly, went to Paris, and made the proposal to the duke of Bedford ; but the regent coldly replied, that he was not of a humor to beat the bushes while others ran away with the game ; an answer which so disgusted the duke, that he recalled all the troops of Burgundy that acted in the siege4. The place, however, was every day more and more closely invested by the English : great scarcity began already to be felt by the garrison and inhabitants : Charles, in despair of collecting an army which should dare to approach the enemy’s intrenchments, not only gave the city for lost, but began to entertain a very dismal prospect with regard to the general state of his affairs. He saw that the country in which he had hitherto with great difficulty subsisted, would be laid entirely open to the invasion of a powerful and victorious enemy ; and he already entertained thoughts of retiring with the remains of his forces into Languedoc and Dauphiny, and defending himself as long as possible in those remote provinces. But it was fortunate for this good prince that, as he lay under the dominion of the fair, the women whom he consulted had the spirit to support his sinking resolution in this desperate extremity. Mary of Anjou, his Queen, a princess of great merit and prudence, vehemently opposed this measure, which, she foresaw, would discourage all his partisans, and serve as a general signal for deserting a prince who seemed himself to despair of success. His mistress too, the fair Agnes Sorel, who lived in entire amity with the Queen, seconded all her remonstrances, and threatened that, if he thus pusillanimously threw away the sceptre of France, she would seek in the court of England a fortune more correspondent to her wishes. Love was able to rouze in the breast of Charles that courage which ambition had failed to excite : he resolved to dispute every inch of ground with an imperious enemy, and rather to perish with honor in the midst of his friends, than yield ingloriously to his bad fortune : when relief was unexpectedly brought him by another female of a very different character, who gave rise to one of the most singular revolutions that is to be met with in history.

The Maid of Orleans.

In the village of Domremi, near Vaucouleurs, on the borders of Lorraine, there lived a country girl of twenty-seven years of age, called Joan d’Arc, who was servant in a small inn, and who in that station had been accustomed to tend the horses of the guests, to ride them without a saddle to the watering-place, and to perform other offices which, in well frequented inns, commonly fall to the share of the men servants5. This girl was of an irreproachable life, and 336had not hitherto been remarked for any singularity ; whether that she had met with no occasion to excite her genius, or that the unskilful eyes of those who conversed with her had not been able to discern her uncommon merit. It is easy to imagine, that the present situation of France was an interesting object even to persons of the lowest rank, and would become the frequent subject of conversation : a young prince, expelled his throne by the sedition of native subjects, and by the arms of strangers, could not fail to move the compassion of all his people whose hearts were uncorrupted by faction ; and the peculiar character of Charles, so strongly inclined to friendship and the tender passions, naturally rendered him the hero of that sex, whose generous minds know no bounds in their affections. The siege of Orleans, the progress of the English before that place, the great distress of the garrison and inhabitants, the importance of saving this city and its brave defenders, had turned thither the public eye ; and Joan, inflamed by the general sentiment, was seized with a wild desire of bringing relief to her sovereign in his present distresses. Her unexperienced mind, working day and night on this favorite object, mistook the impulses of passion for heavenly inspirations ; and she fancied that she saw visions, and heard voices, exhorting her to re-establish the throne of France, and to expel the foreign invaders. An uncommon intrepidity of temper made her overlook all the dangers which might attend her in such a path ; and thinking herself destined by heaven to this office, she threw aside all that bashfulness and timidity so natural to her sex, her years, and her low station. She went to Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs ; procured admission to him ; informed him of her inspirations and intentions ; and conjured him not to neglect the voice of God, who spoke thro’ her, but to second those heavenly revelations which impelled her to this glorious enterprize. Baudricourt treated her at first with some neglect ; but on her frequent returns to him, and importunate solicitations, he began to remark something extraordinary in the Maid, and was inclined, at all hazards, to make so easy an experiment. It is uncertain whether this gentleman had discernment enough to perceive, that great use might be made with the vulgar of so uncommon an engine ; or, what is more likely in that credulous age, was himself a convert to this visionary : but he adopted at last the schemes of Joan ; and he gave her some attendants, who conducted her to the French court, which at that time resided at Chinon.

It is the business of history to distinguish between the miraculous and the marvellous ; to reject the first in all narrations merely profane and human ; to scruple the second ; and when obliged by undoubted testimony, as in the present case, to admit of something extraordinary, to receive as little of it as is consistent 337with the known facts and circumstances. It is pretended, that Joan, immediately on her admission, knew the King, tho’ she had never seen his face before, and tho’ he purposely kept himself in the crowd of courtiers, and had laid aside every thing in his dress and apparel which might distinguish him : that she offered him, in the name of the supreme Creator, to raise the siege of Orleans, and conduct him to Rheims to be there crowned and anointed ; and on his expressing doubts of her mission, revealed to him, before some sworn confidants, a secret which was unknown to all the world beside himself, and which nothing but a heavenly inspiration could have discovered to her : and that she demanded, as the instrument of her future victories, a particular sword, which was kept in the church of St. Catharine of Fierbois, and which, tho’ she had never seen it, she described by all its marks, and by the place in which it had long lain neglected6. This is certain, that all these miraculous stories were spread abroad, in order to captivate the vulgar. The more the King and his ministers were determined to give into the illusion, the more scruples they pretended. An assembly of grave doctors and theologians cautiously examined Joan’s mission, and pronounced it undoubted and supernatural. She was sent to the parliament, then residing at Poictiers ; and was interrogated before that assembly : the presidents, the counsellors, who came persuaded of her imposture, went away convinced of her inspiration. A ray of hope began to break through that despair in which the minds of all men were before enveloped. Heaven had now declared itself in favor of France, and had laid bare its out-stretched arm to take vengeance on her invaders. Few could distinguish between the impulse of inclination and the force of conviction ; and none would submit to the trouble of so disagreeable a scrutiny.

After these artificial precautions and preparations had been for some time employed, Joan’s requests were at last complied with : she was armed cap-apee, mounted on horseback, and shown in that martial habiliment before the whole people. Her dexterity in managing her steed, tho’ acquired in her former occupation, was regarded as a fresh proof of her mission ; and she was received with the loudest acclamations by the spectators. Her former occupation was even denied : she was no longer the servant of an inn. She was converted into a shepherdess, an employment much more agreeable to the imagination. To render her still more interesting, near ten years were subtracted from her age ; and all the sentiments of love and of chivalry, were thus united to those of enthusiasm, in order to inflame the fond fancy of the people with prepossessions in her favor.

338When the engine was thus dressed up in full splendor, it was determined to essay its force against the enemy. Joan was sent to Blois, where a large convoy was prepared for the supply of Orleans, and an army of ten thousand men, under the command of St. Severe, assembled to escort it. She ordered all the soldiers to confess themselves before they set out on the enterprize : she banished from the camp all women of bad fame : she displayed in her hands a consecrated banner, where the Supreme Being was represented, grasping the globe or earth, and surrounded with Flower de Luces. And she insisted, in right of her prophetic mission, that the convoy should enter Orleans by the direct road from the side of Beausse ; but the count of Dunois, unwilling to submit the rules of the military art to her inspirations, ordered it to approach by the other side of the river, where he knew the weakest part of the English army was stationed.

Previous to this attempt, the Maid had written to the regent, and to the English generals before Orleans, commanding them, in the name of the omnipotent Creator, by whom she was commissioned, immediately to raise the siege and to evacuate France ; and menacing them with divine vengeance in case of their disobedience. All the English affected to speak with derision of the Maid, and of her heavenly commission ; and said, that the French King was now indeed reduced to a sorry pass, when he had recourse to such ridiculous expedients : but they felt their imagination secretly struck with the vehement persuasion, which prevailed in all around them ; and they waited with an anxious expectation, not unmixed with horror, for the issue of these extraordinary preparations.

29th April.

As the convoy approached the river, a sally was made by the garrison on the side of Beausse, to prevent the English general from sending any detachment to the other side : the provisions were peaceably embarked in boats, which the inhabitants of Orleans had sent to receive them : the Maid covered with her troops the embarkation : Suffolk did not venture to attack her : and the French general carried back the army in safety to Blois ; an alteration of affairs which was already visible to all the world, and which had a proportional effect on the minds of both parties.

The Maid entered the city of Orleans, arrayed in her military garb, and displaying her consecrated standard ; and was received as a celestial deliverer by all the inhabitants. They now believed themselves invincible under her influence ; and Dunois himself, perceiving such a mighty alteration both in friends and foes, consented, that the next convoy, which was expected in a few days, should enter by the side of Beausse.

4th May.

The convoy approached : no sign of resistance appeared in the besiegers : the wagons and troops passed 339without interruption between the redoubts of the English : a dead silence and astonishment reigned among those troops, formerly so elated with victory, and so fierce for the combat.

The earl of Suffolk was in a situation very unusual and extraordinary, and which might well confound the man of the greatest capacity and firmest temper. He saw his troops overawed, and strongly impressed with the idea of a divine influence accompanying the Maid. Instead of banishing these vain terrors by hurry, and action, and war, he waited till the soldiers should recover from the panic ; and he thereby gave leisure for those prepossessions to sink still deeper into their minds. The military maxims which are prudent in common cases, deceived him in these unaccountable events. The English felt their courage daunted and overwhelmed ; and thence inferred a divine vengeance hanging over them. The French drew the same inference from an inactivity so new and unexpected. Every circumstance was now reversed in the opinions of men, on which all depends : the spirit resulting from a long course of uninterrupted success, was on a sudden transferred from the victors to the vanquished.

The Maid called aloud, that the garrison should remain no longer on the defensive ; and she promised her followers the assistance of heaven in attacking those redoubts of the enemy which had so long kept them in awe, and which they had never hitherto dared to insult. The generals seconded her ardour : an attack was made on one redoubt, and it proved successful7 : all the English who defended the intrenchments were put to the sword or taken prisoners : and Sir John Talbot himself, who had drawn together, from the other redoubts, some troops to bring them relief, durst not appear in the open field against so formidable an enemy.

Nothing, after this success, seemed impossible to the Maid and her enthusiastic votaries. She urged the generals to attack the main body of the English in their intrenchments, but Dunois, still unwilling to hazard the fate of France by too great temerity, and sensible that the least reverse of fortune would make all the present visions evaporate, and restore every thing to its former condition, checked her vehemence and proposed to her, first to expel the enemy from their forts on the other side of the river, and thus lay the communication with the country entirely open, before she attempted any more hazardous enterprize. Joan was persuaded, and these forts were vigorously assailed. In one attack the French were repulsed ; the Maid was left almost alone ; she was obliged to retreat, and join the runaways ; but, displaying her sacred standard, and animating them 340with her countenance, her gestures, her exhortations, she led them back to the charge, and overpowered the English in their intrenchments. In the attack of another fort, she was wounded in the neck with an arrow ; she retreated a moment behind the assailants ; she pulled out the arrow with her own hands ; she had the wound quickly dressed ; and she hastened back to head the troops, and to plant her victorious banner on the ramparts of the enemy.

By all these successes, the English were entirely chased from their fortifications on that side : they had lost above six thousand men in these different actions ; and, what was still more important, their wonted courage and confidence were wholly gone, and had given place to amazement and despair. The Maid returned triumphant over the bridge, and was again received as the guardian angel of the city. After performing such miracles, she convinced the most obdurate incredulity of her divine mission : men felt themselves animated as by a superior energy, and thought nothing impossible to that divine hand which so visibly conducted them. It was in vain even for the English generals to oppose with their soldiers the prevailing opinion of supernatural influence : they themselves were probably moved by the same belief : the utmost they dared to advance was, that Joan was not an instrument of God ; she was only the implement of the devil : but as the English had felt, to their sad experience, that the devil might be allowed sometimes to prevail, they derived not much consolation from the enforcing of this opinion.

The siege of Orleans raised. 8th May.

It might prove extremely dangerous for Suffolk, with such intimidated troops, to remain any longer in the presence of so courageous and victorious an enemy ; he therefore raised the siege, and retreated with all the precaution imaginable. The French resolved to push their conquests, and to allow the English no leisure to recover from their consternation. Charles formed a body of six thousand men, and sent them to attack Jergeau, whither Suffolk had retired with a detachment of his army. The siege lasted ten days ; and the place was obstinately defended. Joan displayed her wonted intrepidity on the occasion. She descended into the fossee, in leading the attack : and she there received a blow on the head with a stone, by which she was confounded and beaten to the ground : but she soon recovered herself ; and in the end rendered the assault successful : Suffolk was obliged to yield himself prisoner to a Frenchman called Renaud ; but before he submitted, he asked his adversary whether he were a gentleman. On receiving a satisfactory answer, he demanded whether he were a knight. Renaud replied, that he had not yet attained that honor. Then I make you one, replied Suffolk ; upon which he gave him the blow with his 341sword which dubbed him into that fraternity ; and he immediately surrendered himself his prisoner.

The remainder of the English army was commanded by Fastolffe, Scales, and Talbot, who thought of nothing but of making their retreat, as soon as possible, into a place of safety ; while the French esteemed the overtaking them equivalent to a victory. So much had the events, which passed before Orleans, altered every thing between the two nations !

18th June.

The vanguard of the French under Richemont and Xaintrailles attacked the rear of the enemy at the village of Patay. The battle lasted not a moment : the English were discomfited and fled : the brave Fastolffe himself showed the example of flight to his troops ; and the order of the garter was taken from him, as a punishment for this instance of cowardice8. Two thousand men were killed in this action, and both Talbot and Scales taken prisoners.

In the account of all these successes, the French writers, to magnify the wonder, represent the Maid (who was now known by the appellation of the Maid of Orleans) as not only active in combat, but as performing the office of general ; directing the troops, conducting the military operations, and swaying the deliberations in all councils of war. It is certain that the policy of the French court endeavored to maintain this appearance with the public : but it is much more probable, that Dunois and the wiser commanders prompted her in all her measures, than that a country girl, without experience of education, could on a sudden become expert in a profession which requires more genius and capacity than any other active scene of life. It is sufficient praise, that she could distinguish the persons on whose judgment she might rely ; that she could seize their hints and suggestions, and on a sudden, deliver their opinions as her own ; and that she could curb, on occasion, that visionary and enthusiastic spirit with which she was actuated, and could temper it with prudence and discretion.

The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of the Maid’s promise to Charles : the crowning of him at Rheims was the other : and she now vehemently insisted that he should forthwith set out on that enterprize. A few weeks before, such a proposal would have appeared the most extravagant in the world. Rheims lay in a distant quarter of the kingdom ; was then in the hands of a victorious enemy ; the whole road which led to it was occupied by their garrisons ; and no man could be so sanguine as to imagine that such an attempt could so soon come within the bounds of possibility. But as it was extremely 342the interest of Charles to maintain the belief of something extraordinary and divine in these events, and to avail himself of the present consternation of the English ; he resolved to follow the exhortations of his warlike prophetess, and to lead his army upon this promising adventure. Hitherto he had kept remote from the scene of war : as the safety of the state depended upon his person, he had been persuaded to restrain his military ardour : but observing this prosperous turn of affairs, he now determined to appear at the head of his armies, and to set the example of valor to all his soldiers. And the French nobility saw at once their young sovereign assuming a new and more brilliant character, seconded by fortune, and conducted by the hand of heaven, and they caught fresh zeal to exert themselves in replacing him on the throne of his ancestors.

The King of France crowned at Rheims.

Charles set out for Rheims at the head of twelve thousand men : he passed by Troye, which opened its gates to him ; Chalons imitated the example : Rheims sent him a deputation with its keys, before his approach to it : and he scarcely perceived, as he passed along, that he was marching through an enemy’s country.

17th July.

The ceremony of his coronation was here performed9 with the holy oil, which a pigeon had brought to King Clovis from heaven, on the first establishment of the French monarchy : the Maid of Orleans stood by his side, in complete armour, and displayed her sacred banner, which had so often dissipated and confounded his fiercest enemies : and the people shouted with the most unfeigned joy, on viewing such a complication of wonders. After the completion of the ceremony, the Maid threw herself at the King’s feet, embraced his knees, and with a flood of tears, which pleasure and tenderness extorted from her, she congratulated him on this singular and marvellous event.

Charles, thus crowned and anointed, became more respectable in the eyes of all his subjects, and seemed, in a manner, to receive anew, from a heavenly commission, his title to their allegiance. The inclinations of men swaying their belief, no one doubted of the inspirations and prophetic spirit of the Maid : so many incidents which passed all human comprehension, left little room to question a superior influence : and the real and undoubted facts brought credit to every exaggeration, which could scarcely be rendered more wonderful. Laon, Soissons, Chateau-Thierri, Provins, and many other towns and fortresses in that neighborhood, immediately after Charles’s coronation, submitted to him on the first summons ; and the whole nation was disposed to give him the most zealous testimonies of their duty and affection.

Prudence of the duke of Bedford.

343Nothing can impress us with a higher idea of the wisdom, address, and resolution of the duke of Bedford, than his being able to maintain himself in so perilous a situation, and to preserve some footing in France, after the defection of so many places, and amidst the universal inclination of the rest to imitate that contagious example. This prince seemed present every where by his vigilance and foresight : he employed each resource which fortune had yet left him : he held all the English garrisons in a posture of defence : he kept a watchful eye over every attempt among the French towards an insurrection : he retained the Parisians in obedience, by alternately employing caresses and severity : and knowing that the duke of Burgundy was already wavering in his fidelity, he acted with so much skill and prudence, as to renew, in this dangerous crisis, an alliance, which was so important to the credit and support of the English government.

The small supplies which he received from England set the talents of this great man in a still stronger light. The ardour of the English for foreign conquests was now extremely abated by time and reflection : the parliament seems even to have become sensible of the danger which might attend their further progress : no supply of money could be obtained by the regent during his greatest distresses : and men enlisted slowly under his standard, or soon deserted, by reason of the wonderful accounts which had reached England, of the magic and sorcery, and diabolical power of the Maid of Orleans10. It happened fortunately, in this emergency, that the bishop of Winchester, now created a cardinal, landed at Calais with a body of 5000 men, which he was conducting into Bohemia, on a croisade against the Hussites. He was persuaded to lend these troops to his nephew during the present difficulties11 ; and the regent was thereby enabled to take the field, and to oppose the French King, who was advancing with his army to the gates of Paris.

The extraordinary capacity of the duke of Bedford appeared also in his military operations. He attempted to restore the courage of his troops by boldly advancing to the face of the enemy ; but he chose his posts with so much caution, as always to decline a combat, and to render it impossible for Charles to attack him. He still attended that prince in all his movements ; covered his own towns and garrisons ; and kept himself in a posture to reap advantage from every imprudence or false step of the enemy. The French army, which consisted mostly of volunteers, who served at their own expense, soon after retired and was disbanded : Charles went to Bourges, the ordinary place of his residence ; but not 344till he made himself master of Compiegne, Beauvais, Senlis, Sens, Laval, Lagni, St. Denis, and of many places in the neighborhood of Paris, which the affections of the people had put into his hands.

1430

The regent endeavored to revive the declining state of his affairs, by bringing over the young King of England, and having him crowned and acknowledged King of France at Paris12. All the vassals of the crown who lived within the provinces possessed by the English, swore anew allegiance and did homage to him. But this ceremony was cold and insipid, compared with the eclat which had attended the coronation of Charles at Rheims ; and the duke of Bedford expected more effect from an accident, which put into his hands the person, who had been the author of all his calamities.

The Maid of Orleans, after the coronation of Charles, declared to the count of Dunois that her wishes were now fully gratified, and that she had no further desire than to return to her former condition, and to the occupation and course of life which became her sex : but that nobleman, sensible of the great advantages which might still be reaped from her presence in the army, exhorted her to persevere, till, by the final expulsion of the English, she had brought all her prophecies to their full completion. In pursuance of this advice, she threw herself into the town of Compiegne, which was at that time besieged by the duke of Burgundy, assisted by the earls of Arundel and Suffolk ; and the garrison, on her appearance, believed themselves thenceforth invincible. But their joy was of short duration.

25th May.

The Maid, next day after her arrival, headed a sally upon the quarters of John of Luxembourg ; she twice drove the enemy from their intrenchments ; finding their numbers to increase every moment, she ordered a retreat ; when hard pressed by the pursuers, she turned upon them, and made them again recoil ; but being here deserted by her friends, and surrounded by the enemy, she was at last, after exerting the utmost valor, taken prisoner by the Burgundians13. The common opinion was, that the French officers, finding the merit of every victory ascribed to her, had, in envy to her renown, by which they were themselves so much eclipsed, willingly exposed her to this fatal accident.

The envy of her friends, on this occasion, was not a greater proof of her merit than the triumph of her enemies. A complete victory would not have given more joy to the English and their partizans. The service of te Deum, which has so often been profaned by princes, was publicly celebrated on this fortunate event at Paris. The duke of Bedford fancied that, by the captivity of that extraordinary 345woman, who had blasted all his successes, he should again recover his former ascendant over France ; and to push farther the present advantage, he purchased the captive from John of Luxembourg, and formed a prosecution against her, which, whether it proceeded from vengeance or policy, was equally barbarous, and dishonorable.

1431

There was no possible reason why Joan should not be regarded as a prisoner of war, and be entitled to all the courtesy and good usage which civilized nations practise towards enemies on these occasions. She had never, in her military capacity, forfeited, by any act of treachery or cruelty, her claim to that treatment : she was unstained by any civil crime : even the virtues and the very decorums of her sex had ever been rigidly observed by her14 : and tho’ her appearing in war, and leading armies to battle, may seem an exception, she had thereby performed such signal service to her prince, that she had abundantly compensated for this irregularity ; and was, on that very account, the more an object of praise and admiration. It was necessary, therefore, for the duke of Bedford to interest religion some way in the prosecution ; and to cover under that cloak his violation of justice and humanity.

The bishop of Beauvais, a man wholly devoted to the English interests, presented a petition against Joan, on pretence that she was taken within the bounds of his diocese, and he desired to have her tried by an ecclesiastical court for sorcery, impiety, idolatry, and magic : the university of Paris was so mean as to join in the same request : several prelates, among whom the cardinal of Winchester was the only Englishman, were appointed her judges : they held their court in Roüen, where the young King of England then resided : and the Maid, clothed in her former military apparel, but loaded with irons, was produced before this tribunal.

She first desired to be eased of her chains : her judges answered, that she had once already attempted an escape by throwing herself from a tower : she confessed the fact, maintained the justice of her intention, and owned that, if she could, she would still execute that purpose. All her other speeches showed the same firmness and intrepidity : tho’ harassed with interrogatories during near the 346course of four months, she never betrayed any weakness or womanish submission ; and no advantage was gained over her. The point which her judges pushed most vehemently, was her visions and revelations, and intercourse with departed saints ; and they asked her, whether she would submit to the church the truth of these inspirations : she replied, that she would submit them to God, the fountain of truth. They then exclaimed, that she was a heretic, and denied the authority of the church. She appealed to the Pope : they rejected her appeal.

They asked her, why she put trust in her standard, which had been consecrated by magical incantations : she replied that she put trust in the Supreme Being alone, whose image was impressed upon it. They demanded, why she carried in her hand that standard at the anointment and coronation of Charles at Rheims : she answered, that the person who had shared the danger was entitled to share the glory. When accused of going to war, contrary to the decorums of her sex, and of assuming government and command over men ; she scrupled not to reply, that her sole purpose was to defeat the English, and to expel them from the kingdom of France. In the issue, she was condemned for all the crimes of which she had been accused, aggravated by heresy ; her revelations were declared to be inventions of the devil to delude the people ; and she was sentenced to be delivered over to the secular arm.

Joan, so long surrounded by inveterate enemies, who treated her with every mark of contumely ; browbeaten and overawed by men of superior rank, and men invested with the ensigns of a sacred character, which she had been accustomed to revere, felt her spirit at last subdued ; and those visionary dreams of inspiration, in which she had been buoyed up by the triumphs of success and the applauses of her own party, gave way to the terrors of that punishment to which she was sentenced. She publicly declared herself willing to recant : she acknowledged the illusion of those revelations which the church had rejected ; and she promised never more to maintain them. Her sentence was then mitigated : she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to be fed during life on bread and water.

Enough was now done to fulfill all political views, and to convince both the French and the English, that the opinion of divine influence, which had so much encouraged the one and daunted the other, was entirely without foundation. But the barbarous vengeance of Joan’s enemies was not satisfied with this victory. Suspecting that the female dress, which she had now consented to wear, was disagreeable to her, they purposely placed in her apartment a suit of men’s apparel ; and watched for the effects of that temptation upon her. On the sight of a dress in which she had acquired so much renown, and which, she once 347believed, she wore by the particular appointment of heaven, all her former ideas and passions revived ; and she ventured in her solitude to clothe herself again in the forbidden garment. Her insidious enemies caught her in that situation : her fault was interpreted to be no less than a relapse into heresy : no recantation would now suffice ; and no pardon could be granted her.

Execution of the Maid of Orleans. 14th June.

She was condemned to be burned in the market place of Roüen ; and the infamous sentence was accordingly executed. This admirable heroine, to whom the more generous superstition of the ancients would have erected altars, was, on pretence of heresy and magic, delivered over alive to the flames, and expiated, by that dreadful punishment, the signal services which she had rendered to her prince and to her native country.

1432

The affairs of the English, far from being advanced by this execution, went every day more and more to decay : the great abilities of the regent were unable to resist the strong inclination which had seized the French to return under the obedience of their rightful sovereign, and which that act of cruelty was ill fitted to remove…

Notes

1. [1]

   Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 38, 39. Polyd. Virg. p. 468.

2. [2]

   Hall, fol. 105. Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 39. Stowe, p. 369. Holingshed, p. 599. Grafton, p. 531.

3. [3]

   Hall, fol. 100. Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 41, 42. Stowe, p. 369. Holingshed, p. 600. Polyd. Virg. p. 469. Grafton, p. 532.

4. [4]

   Hall, fol. 106. Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 42. Stowe, p. 369. Grafton, p. 533.

5. [5]

   Hall, fol. 107. Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 42. Grafton, p. 534.

6. [6]

   Hall, fol. 107. Holingshed, p. 600.

7. [7]

   Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 45.

8. [8]

   Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 46.

9. [9]

   Monstrelet, vol. 2, p. 48.

10. [10]

    Rymer, vol. 10, p. 459, 472.

11. [11]

    Rymer, vol. 10, p. 421.

12. [12]

    Rymer, vol. 10, p 432.

13. [13]

    Stowe, p. 371.

14. [14]

    We learn from her trial in Pasquier, that when accused of having put to death Franquet d’Arras, her prisoner, she justified herself by saying, that he was a known robber, and lay under sentence of death by a civil magistrate. She was so careful of observing decorums, that, when she was in any town or garrison, she always went to bed with some women of character in the place : when in the camp, she lay in armour, and always had one other brothers on each side of her. The English never reproached her with any thing in regard to her morals.