Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) [Illustration: TOUR COUDRAY--CHINON.] JOAN OF ARC BY LORD RONALD GOWER, F.S.A. A TRUSTEE OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS SEVEN ETCHINGS AND THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS LONDON JOHN C. NIMMO 14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND MDCCCXCIII DEDICATION. My mother had what the French call a _culte_ for the heroine whose life I have attempted to write in the following pages. It was but natural that one who loved and admired all that is good and beautiful and high-minded should have a strong feeling of admiration for the memory of Joan of Arc. On the pedestal of the bronze statue, which my mother placed in her house at Cliveden, are inscribed those words which sum up the life and career of the Maid of Orleans:-- '_La grande pitie qu'il y avait au royaume de France._' Thinking that could my mother have read the following pages she would have approved the feeling which prompted me to write them, I inscribe this little book to her beloved memory. R.G. ARCACHON, _November 29._ PREFACE. The authors whose works I have chiefly used in writing this Life of Joan of Arc, are--first, Quicherat, who was the first to publish at length the Minutes of the two trials concerning the Maid--that of her trial at Rouen in 1430, and of her rehabilitation in 1456, and who unearthed so many chronicles relating to her times; secondly, Wallon, whose Life of Joan of Arc is of all the fullest and most reliable; thirdly, Fabre, who has within the last few years published several most important books respecting the life and death of Joan. Fabre was the first to make a translation in full of the two trials which Quicherat had first published in the original Latin text. Thinking references at the foot of the page a nuisance to the reader, these have been avoided. The subjects for the etched illustrations in this volume have been kindly supplied by my friend, Mr. Lee Latrobe Bateman, during a journey we made together to places connected with the story of the heroine. R.G. LONDON, _January, 1893._ CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. THE CALL 1 CHAPTER II. THE DELIVERY OF ORLEANS 39 CHAPTER III. THE CORONATION AT RHEIMS 70 CHAPTER IV. THE CAPTURE 100 CHAPTER V. IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL 138 CHAPTER VI. MARTYRDOM 242 CHAPTER VII. THE REHABILITATION 253 APPENDIX. I. JOAN OF ARC IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH HISTORY 289