that a force in which she served had suffered defeat. Charles immediately retired once more to the Loire, and there are few records of Joan's exploits during the winter. About this time a royal edict was issued, ennobling her family, and the district of Domremy was declared free from all tax or tribute. In the ensuing spring, the English and Burgundians formed the siege of Compiegne; and Joan threw herself into the town to preserve it, as she had before saved Orleans, from their assaults. She had not been many hours in it when she headed a sally against the Burgundian quarters, in which she was taken by some officers, who gave her up to the Burgundian commander, John of Luxemburg. Her capture appears, from the records of the Parisian parliament, to have taken place on the 23rd. of May, 1430.
As soon as Joan was conveyed to John of Luxemburg's fortress at Beaurevoir, near Cambray, cries of vengeance were heard among the Anglican partizans in France. The English themselves were not foremost in this unworthy zeal. Joan, after having made a vain attempt to escape, by leaping from the top of the doujon at Beaurevoir, was at length handed over to the English partizans, and conducted to Rouen. The University of Paris called loudly for the trial of Joan, and several letters are extant, in which that body reproaches the bishop of Beauvais and the English with their tardiness in delivering up the Pucelle to justice.
Letters patent from the king of England and France, were after a while issued authorizing her trial. She was accused of sorcery, and on her declining to submit to the ordinances of the church, of heresy and schism, and eventfully threatened with the stake unless she submitted to the church, as the phrase then was, that is, acknowledged her visions to be false, forswore male habits and arms, and owned herself to have been wrong. Every means were used to induce her to submit, but. in vain. At length she was brought forth on a public scaffold at Rouen, and the bishop of Beauvais proceeded to read the sentence of condemnation, which was to be followed by burning at the stake. Whilst it was reading, every exhortation was used, and Joan's courage for once failing, she gave utterance to words of contrition, and expressed her willingness to submit, and save herself from the flames. A written form of confession was instantly produced, and read to her, and Joan, not knowing how to write, signed it with a cross. Her sentence was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, 'to the bread of grief and the water of anguish.' She was borne back from the scaffold to prison; whilst those who had come to see the sight displayed the usual disappointment of unfeeling crowds, and even threw stones in their anger.
When brought back to her prison, Joan submitted to all that had been required of her, and assumed her female dress; but when two days had elapsed, and when, in the solitude of her prison, the young heroine recalled this last scene of weakness, forming such a contrast with the glorious feats of her life, remorse and shame took possession of her, and her religious enthusiasm returned in alt its ancient force. She heard her voices reproaching her, and under this impulse she seized the male attire, which had been perfidiously left within her reach, put it on, and avowed her altered mind, her resumed belief, her late visions, and her resolve no longer to belie the powerful impulses under which she had acted.
