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.
She was taken to the Castle of Rouen, where she was placed in a prison
facing the fields. Whilst she was there, in this prison, came the Count
de Ligny, on whom I was in attendance. The Count de Ligny desired to see
Jeanne, and came to visit her, in company of the Earls of Warwick and
Stafford, the present Chancellor of England, then Bishop of Thérouanne,
the brother[202] of the Count de Ligny, and myself. He said to her:
“Jeanne, I have come to ransom you, if you will promise never again to
bear arms against us.” She answered: “In God’s Name, you mock me, for I
know well that you have neither the will nor the power;” this she
repeated often, because the Count persisted in his statement. “I know
well,” she ended by saying, “that the English will do me to death,
thinking after my death to gain the kingdom of France; but if they were
a hundred thousand more ‘godons’[203] than they are at present, they
would not have the kingdom.” Indignant at these words, the Earl of
Stafford half drew his dagger to kill her, but the Earl of Warwick
withheld him. After this, while I was still at Rouen, Jeanne was taken
to the Place St. Ouen, where a sermon was preached to her by Maître
Nicolas Midi,[204] who, amongst other things, said, in my hearing:
“Jeanne, we have great compassion for thee; it behoves thee to revoke
what thou hast said, or we must give thee up to the secular judges.” She
answered, that she had done no evil, that she believed in the Twelve
Articles of the Faith and in the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue;
adding, that she referred herself to the Court of Rome, and that she
wished to believe all things in which Holy Church believed.
Notwithstanding this, they pressed her much to recant, to which she
answered: “You take much pains to seduce me;” and, to escape danger, she
said at last that she was content to do all they required. Then a
Secretary of the King of England there present, named Laurence Calot,
drew from his pocket a little written schedule, which he handed to
Jeanne to sign. She replied that she could neither read nor write.
Notwithstanding this Laurence Calot, the Secretary, handed Jeanne the
schedule and a pen to sign it; and by way of derision Jeanne made some
sort of round mark. Then Laurence Calot took her hand with the pen and
caused her to make some sort of signature,—what, I cannot remember.
I believe her to be in Paradise.
COLETTE, _wife of_ PIERRE MILET.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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