Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

against Bedford had an unfavourable effect upon his

cause.

While these things were passing in the capital, the disturbed state of the country tempted the Duke of Savoy to make a treaty with the Prince of Orange for seizing upon an important portion of the French territory between the Alps and the Rhone. The Duke was to have Grenoble and the mountainous portion of Dauphiné; the Prince was to have Vienne and the adjoining district.' But Gaucourt, who commanded for Charles in those parts, suspecting the design of the two confederates, made a sudden attack on the Prince of Orange with a body of nobles whom he induced to take the field mounted, and a still more efficient band of those freebooters who were then the terror of the country. The unexpected movement proved perfectly successful. Possession was

taken of the whole principality, and the Prince himself only escaped by dashing into the river and swimming across that rapid torrent. The good offices of the Pope and King of Sicily (Count of Provence) restored peace between the parties, and Charles gave

the Prince back his dominions on condition of his serving against the English.

But by far the most important event to either party during this campaign happened at the siege of Compiègue, which Suffolk and Arundel formed with

These Princes apparently resolved to possess themselves of what now forms the great department of the Isère, having half a million of inhabitants.

a considerable portion of the English army. The Maid having headed a sortie with 600 men, and being pressed by the Burgundians who opposed her, was compelled to retreat towards the gates, but not before she had performed prodigies of valour. She continued from time to time facing about and encou raging her men to make head against their pursuers; but, overpowered by numbers, she was forced to fly in order to regain the town; her horse fell; she was thrown to the ground; and being surrounded she surrendered to Lionel, a bastard of Vendôme. It is by some authors affirmed, that the jealousy of the French captains, which continually broke out, showed itself fatally on this occasion; for Guillaume Flavey, the commandant of the place, is said to have closed the gates and prevented her when pursued from reaching the shelter she sought. Certainly the treatment she received afterwards at the hands of those whose cause she had rescued from destruction, would justify any such suspicion as rests upon Flavey's But whatever opinion we may May 23, memory. 1430. form on this point, there is no doubt that Vendôme the captain, under sanction of the barbarous practices adopted in those days of chivalry, sold his prize to John de Luxemburgh; and he soon after, likewise for a price, made her over to the English. They, regarding her fall as the most signal success that could attend their arms, caused it to be celebrated as a victory by a solemn Te Deum

16000 livres and 300 a-year rent or annuity was the price.

and other marks of rejoicing at Paris and elsewhere. It is urged, in extenuation of the Burgundian's bargain, that a few days before, Franquet, a partisan of great valour and high reputation, having fallen into her hands overpowered by superior forces, near Lagny, she had caused him to be beheaded on the spot, to the general horror of the army.

No sooner was the Maid in their power than Bedford's officers had her closely confined, and loaded with irons, treating her, not as a prisoner of war, but a malefactor. After carrying her about from gaol to gaol, they proceeded to try her for heresy and sorcery. The University of Paris, ever outstripping in obsequious flattery all the rest of Bedford's parasites, required that she should be delivered over to the spiritual arm, well aware that this was exactly the course most agreeable to the Regent. Then P. Cochon, Bishop of Beauvais, a mere tool of Philip, claimed to have jurisdiction in the cause, on the ground of her having been taken within his diocese. He accordingly was allowed to preside, and he was assisted by several other prelates, French and English, Cardinal Beaufort being at their head, and known as her most determined adversary. He was further suffered to consult the University on any question of casuistry that arose; it is needless to add, that the determination in all these cases was given against the unhappy prisoner. For sixteen days did this mockery of a trial last, during which she displayed the most wonderful acuteness as well as presence of mind; and

she was then condemned as a heretic, excommunicated, and delivered over to the secular arm. When the sentence was read on the scaffold, she interposed with an abjuration recanting her declaration of divine aid, and promising not again to commit the offences charged upon her. The execution of the capital part of the punishment was then suspended, and she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to be fed on bread and water:-"The bread of woes," said the sentence, "and the water of anguish."

A part of her recantation was to abandon male attire, her principal offence having been the wearing that dress, "a thing abominable before God," says Henry VI. in his letter to the Duke of Burgundy. Cast into prison upon the remission of the capital punishment, she was suffering under all the weariness of solitude and inaction, so intolerable to one of her former habits; her armour was laid in her way, and the poor girl, unable to resist the temptation of indulging the tender recollections which that garb raised in her sad mind, was observed to put it on by the spies who lay in wait to pounce upon her. The door of her cell was thrown open; the keepers presented themselves; she could not deny the venial breach of promise; and it was at once resolved by her judges, acting under the advice of the University, to carry the whole of the sentence into execution. She was treated as a relapsed heretic, and preparations were immediately made for burning her alive. She was put to a lingering death in the square

opposite the church of St. Ouen at Rouen by this cruel punishment. The agony of her torments extorted from her a fresh recantation, her former one having been withdrawn. She expired 30 May, clasping the crucifix to her bosom, and invoking the Virgin instead of the saints on whom she had been wont to rely.'

1431.

The pious credulity of her countrymen supposed that many miracles attended her last hours. Her soul, in the form of a milk-white dove, was seen to rise from the funeral pile as she gave up the ghost. Among her ashes, cast into the Seine, her heart was found entire and unscathed by the fire. Subsequently, almost all her judges and prosecutors were affirmed to have died violent deaths; while constant prosperity accompanied her family and her townsfolks.

This is truly a painful passage of history, and the rather that so many persons are necessarily the objects of severe censure; for it must be confessed that a deep stain is left upon the memory of every party to the execrable proceeding. That Bedford should have suffered his feelings of revenge so far to master his sense of justice and his cooler judgment of what sound policy prescribed, as to condemn a French subject, never in allegiance to his sovereign, for an offence of which his judges and prelates could not by

P. Daniel, vii. 93, 98. Mezer., ii. 17. Monstrel., tom. ii. fol. xlviii. liv. Henry VI.'s letter, above referred to, gives the English account of the whole proceeding. It is in Monstrelet, tom. ii. fol. liv.

« ZurückWeiter »