Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/477

 JOAN

411

JOAN

Fastolf were completely routed. The way to Reims was now practically open, but the Maid had the great- est difficulty in persuading the commanders not to re- tire before Troyes, which was at first closed against them. They captured the town and then, still reluc- tantly, followed her to Reims, where, on Sunday, 17

(Actual Condition) July, 1429, Charles VII was solemnly crowned, the Maid standing by with her standard, for — as she ex- plained — " as it hail sharefl in the toil, it was just that it should share in the victory".

The principal aim of Joan's mission was thus at- tained, and some authorities assert that it was now her wish to return home, but that she was detained with the army against her will. The evidence is to some extent conflicting, and it is probable that Joan herself did not always speak in the same tone. Prob- ably she saw clearly how much might have been done to bring about the speedy expulsion of the English from French soil, but on the other hand she was con- stantly oppre.ssed by the apathy of the king and his advisers, and by the suicidal policy which snatched at every diplomatic bait thrown out by the Duke of Bur- gundy. An abortive attempt on Paris w-as made at the end of .\ugust. Though St-Denis was occupied without opposition, the assault which was made on the city on S Sept. was not seriously supported, and Joan, while heroically cheering on her men to fill the moat, was shot through the thigh with a bolt from a crossbow. The Due d'Alen^on removed her almost by force, and the assault was abandoned. The rever.se unquestionably impaired Joan's prestige, and shortly aftenvards, when, through Charles' political counsel- lors, a truce was signed with the Duke of Burgundy, she sadly laid down her arms upon the altar of St- Denis. The inactivity of the following winter, mostly spent amid the worldliness and the jealousy of the Court, must have been a miserable experience for Joan. It may have been with the idea of consoling her that Charles, on 29 Dec, 1429, ennobled the Maid and all her family, who henceforward, from the lilies on their coat of arms, were known by the name of Du Lis. It was April before Joan was able to take the field again at the conclusion of the truce, and at Jlelun her voices made known to her that she would be taken prisoner before Midsummer Day. Neither was the fulfilment of this prediction long delayed. It seems that she had thrown herself into Compiegne on 24 May at sunrise to defend the town against Burgimdian attack. In the evening she resolved to attempt a sortie, but her httle troop of some five hundred en- countered a much superior force. Her followers were driven back and retired desperately fighting. By some mistake or panic of Guillaume" de Flavy, -who commanded in Compiegne, the drawbridge was raised while still many of those who had made the sortie re- mained outside, Joan amongst the number. She was

pulled down from her horse and became the prisoner of a follower of John of Luxemburg. Guillaume de Flavy has been accused of deliberate treachery, but there seems no adequate reason to suppose this. He continued to hold Compiegne resolutely for his king, while Joan's constant thought during the early months of her captivity was to escape and come to assist him in his task of defending the town.

No words can adequately describe the disgraceful ingratitude and apathy of Charles and his advisers in leaving t he .Maid to her fate. If military force had not availed, they had prisoners like the Earl of Suffolk in t heir hands, for whom she could have been exchanged. Jnan wa ss( ill 1 by Jolm of Luxemliurgto the English for a sum which would be the equivalent of £22,000 (about >^ll.O0O) in moilern money. There can be no doubt that the English, partly because they feared their prisoner with a superstitious terror, partly because they were ashamed of the dread wdiich she inspired, were deter- mined at all costs to take her life. They could not put her to death for having beaten them, but they could get her sentenced as a witch and a heretic. Moreover, they had a tool ready to their hand in Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, an unscrupulous ami am- bitious man who was the creature of the Burgundian party. A pretext for invoking his authority was fomid in the fact that Compiegne, where Joan was captured, lay in the Diocese of Beauvais. Still, as Beauvais was in the hands of the French, the trial took place at Rouen — the latter see being at that time vacant. This raised many points of technical legality which were summarily settled by the parties inter- ested. The Vicar of the Inquisition at first, upon some .scruple of jurisdiction, refused to attend, but this difficulty w-as overcome before the trial ended. Throughout the trial Cauchon's assessors consisted almost entirely of Frenchmen, for the most part theologians and doctors of the University of Paris. Preliminary meetings of the court took place in January, but it was only on 21 Feb., 1431, that Joan appeared for the first time before her judges. She was not allowed an advocate, and, though ' accused in an ecclesiastical court, she was through- out illegally confined in the Castle of Rouen, a secular prison, where she was guarded by dissolute English soldiers. Joan bitterly complained of this. She asked to be in the church prison, where she would

1^

ifc;^^!

^H I *

E(i- ^

IPIL A[|-m-

■m

P

^^^■m^n 't*

t^jm^

(Actual ConditionJ

have had female attendants. It was undoubtedly for the better protection of her modesty under such con- ditions that she persisted in retaining her male attire. Before she had been handed over to the English, she had attempted to escape bv desperately throwing her- self from the window of the tower of Beaurevoir. an act of seeming presumption for which she was much browbeaten by her judges. This also served as a pre-