power in France was already shaken, and the wars at home, which in the end caused the loss of all their conquests, were foreseen by many besides the Maid.

Her firmness, and evident belief in all she said, had an effect upon her judges, and one of them, with the hope of getting her out of the power of Bedford and the English, advised her to appeal to the Pope. She did so immediately, but the Bishop of Beauvais, who was a cruel-hearted man, and ready to do anything he could, with safety to himself, to please the English, interfered at once, and forbade the secretary in attendance to make any note of Joan's appeal in the record he kept of their proceedings. Still, however, Joan had confessed nothing, and nothing had been proved against her which could be, even by altering some of the expressions used by her, deemed any offence to the church; and

even Beauvais, ready as he was to do anything to please Bedford, knew that he might afterwards be called to account by the Pope, if he gave a false judgment, and was unwilling to proceed further.

Joan about this time fell ill, and Bedford was more anxious than ever that she should be condemned and executed, being fearful that she would die in prison. Beauvais

upon this agreed to draw up a statement of twelve offences, which he asserted had been proved against Joan, and sent them to the supreme court of law then assembled in Paris, that he might have their sanction, to save himself from the consequences of so unjust an act. There was scarcely a word of truth in the statement he sent to Paris, but the court there confirmed it at once, and ordered him to proceed to judgment. Still he was unwilling to do this before Joan had herself confessed all the

false tale he had told of her; for if she had done so, he could have excused himself readily, as in the case of heretics; and sometimes, but much less frequently, in other crimes it was the practice to use cruel tortures to make accused persons confess themselves guilty, and name those who had acted with them. Joan had never confessed any crime, but the bishop had the instruments of torture and the executioner brought into her cell, and threatened her that no mercy should be shown her, if she would not confess herself guilty of witchcraft, heresy, and other crimes which he had laid to her charge. She was still resolute, and that he did not actually put her to the torture appears strange. He had, however, devised another means of compassing his object, and this alone could have induced him to spare her that suffer

ing, for he was a mean-spirited and pitiless

monster.

On the 24th of May, 1431, she was brought out into the churchyard of the Abbey of St. Ouen, to hear the formal sentence pronounced against her in public. Here, stationed on a high scaffold, she was exhibited to a large concourse of people; but although the object on which so many unfriendly eyes were fixed, and expecting every moment to hear her death-sentence, she was still undaunted. In the first place, a priest got up and made a long address to the people, in which he abused poor Joan without mercy. This she bore quietly, but when he began to attack King Charles, calling him a heretic, and the friend of heretics, the ruiner of the kingdom, and of the souls of the people, she boldly interrupted him, and declared, "that there was not a better Christian or friend to the

church in all France than King Charles the Seventh." She was soon silenced, and they proceeded to read a long accusation against her, charging her with many crimes she had never committed, and some it is impossible to commit; then they demanded if she would submit herself to the church which had condemned her as guilty of these crimes, and abjure them. She replied she did not know what they meant by abjuring, but she was willing to submit to the Pope. She was then sentenced to be burned alive, and again asked if she would submit. She said she desired to save her life, was not guilty of all they had said of her, yet would submit to whatever else they pleased. A short paper was then read to her, (it must be remembered that she could neither read nor write,) in which it was stated, that she submitted herself in all things to the Church