So we come to the 30th day of May, of the year 1431. At nine in the
morning Joan left her prison for the last time. She was in woman's
dress. Over her shoulders was the long black robe of the Inquisition,
on her head a paper cap or mitre, bearing the words: "Heretic, Relapsed,
Apostate, Idolater." As the cart in which she stood rumbled through the
streets, the Maid of France lifted up her voice and wept over the city
of her death.
"_Rouen, Rouen, mourrai-je içi? Seras-tu ma maison? Ah, Rouen, j'ai
grand peur que tu n'aies à souffrir de ma mort._"[70]
Hearing these words, the people around her, even the English soldiers,
wept for pity. It is recorded that as the tumbril jolted its way over
the stones, a man in priest's dress was seen pressing through the crowd,
trying desperately to force a way to the cart. It was Loiseleur, the
spy, come in an agony of repentance, to fling himself before the saint
he had helped to condemn and implore her pardon. The soldiers repulsed
him brutally; would have slain him but for Warwick's intervention. The
crowd closed over him.
There were three scaffolds in Rouen Old Market that morning of May. On
one of them the Maid was set to hear her last sermon preached by
Nicholas Midi, of Rouen and Paris; on another sat judges and spectators,
a goodly company; Cardinal Beaufort, Warwick, the "Father of Courtesy,"
Cauchon and all his priestly bloodhounds, who yet could not see blood
shed.
The third scaffold was a heap of plaster, piled high with fagots, from
which rose the stake. It bore the legend: "Jeanne, self-styled the Maid,
liar, mischief-maker, abuser of the people, diviner, superstitious,
blasphemer of God, presumptuous, false to the faith of Christ, boaster,
idolater, cruel, dissolute, an invoker of devils, apostate, schismatic,
heretic."
Nicholas Midi was long in speaking, and the English waxed impatient.
Dinner time was near.
"How now, priest? Are you going to make us dine here?" some of them
cried.
Cauchon read the sentence.
"Then she invoked the blessed Trinity, the glorious Virgin Mary, and all
the blessed saints of Paradise. She begged right humbly also the
forgiveness of all sorts and conditions of men, both of her own party
and of her enemies; asking for their prayers, forgiving them the evil
that they had done her."[71]
The Bailiff of Rouen waved his hand, saying "Away with her."
Quietly, patiently, the Maid climbed the third scaffold. She was well
used to climbing; witness the walls of Les Tourelles, of Jargeau and
Compiègne. Beside her climbed her confessor, Martin Ladvenu, and some
say another Dominican, Isambart de la Pierre, who had been kind to her
throughout. She begged for a cross; an English soldier hastily bound two
sticks together cross-fashion and handed her the emblem. She kissed it
devoutly, and thrust it in her bosom. Then, at her urgent prayer, they
brought a crucifix from a church hard by; this she long embraced,
holding it while they chained her to the stake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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