Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
History
Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France: Being the Story of Her Life, Her Achievements, and Her Death, as Attested on Oath and Set Forth in the Original Documents
Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 -- Trials, litigation, etc.
Sometimes it was the Abbot of Fécamp who interrogated Jeanne. Once, I
saw the Abbot of Fécamp interrogating Jeanne, and Maître Jean Beaupère
interrupted with many and divers questions. Jeanne would not reply to
them both at once, saying that they did her much harm by thus vexing
her, and that she would reply presently. As to her illness, one day the
Cardinal of England and the Earl of Warwick having sent for me, I found
myself associated with Guillaume Desjardins and other doctors. The Earl
of Warwick told us that Jeanne had been ill and that we had been sent
for to give her all our attention, for the King would not, for anything,
that she should die a natural death: he had bought her too dear for
that, and he intended that she should die at the hands of justice, and
should be burnt. For this, I and Guillaume Desjardins and others visited
her. Desjardins and I felt her pulse on the right side, and found fever,
from which we recommended she should be bled. “Away with your bleeding!”
said Warwick, “she is artful, and might kill herself.” Nevertheless, we
did bleed her, and she recovered. One day, after she had recovered,
there arrived a certain Maître Guillaume d’Estivet, who used evil words
against Jeanne, calling her ... and a _paillarde_. This abuse upset her
to such a point that the fever returned, and she had a relapse. And this
being brought to the notice of the Earl, he forbade d’Estivet to abuse
Jeanne from that day forth.
I was present at a sermon of Maître Guillaume Érard. I do not remember
the sermon, but I remember well the Abjuration made by Jeanne. She was
long in doing this. Maître Guillaume Érard decided her by saying that,
if she did what he advised her, she would be delivered from prison. She
abjured on this condition and no other, and immediately read a small
schedule containing six or seven lines on a piece of paper folded in
two. I was so near her that, in all truth, I could see the lines and
their form.
For the rest, I can only say that I was present at the last discourse
made in the Old Market-Place of Rouen by Maître Nicolas Midi. As soon as
the sermon was over, Jeanne was burnt, the stake being already prepared.
Her pious lamentations and ejaculations made many weep; only some
English were laughing. I heard her say these or like words: “Alas!
Rouen, I fear me that thou wilt have to suffer for my death.” Shortly
after she began to cry “Jesus” and to invoke St. Michael; and then she
perished in the flame.
_The Reverend Father in God, the Lord_ JEAN DE MAILLY, _Bishop of
Noyon_.
I knew nothing of Jeanne before she came to Rouen; and I saw her only
two or three times. I do not remember either being present at the Trial
or giving my opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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