[Footnote 25: _Mystere du Siege d'Orleans_, first published by MM. F. Guessard and E. de Certain, Paris, 1862, 4to, according to the only manuscript, which is preserved in the Vatican Library.--_Cf._ _Etude sur le mystere du siege d'Orleans_, by H. Tivier, Paris, 1868, 8vo.] [Footnote 26: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 309.] [Footnote 27: The Abbe E. Bossard and de Maulde, _Gilles de Rais, Marechal de France, dit Barbe-Bleue_ (1404-1440), 2nd edition, Paris, 1886, 8vo, pp. 94-113.] [Footnote 28: _Un estandart et banniere qui furent a Monseigneur de Reys pour faire la maniere de l'assault comment les Tourelles furent prinses sur les Anglois Mistere du siege_, p. viii.] Among the one hundred and forty speaking personages in this work is the Marechal de Rais. Hence it has been concluded that the mystery was written and acted before the lawsuit ended by that sentence to which effect was given above the Nantes Bridge, on October 20, 1440. How, indeed, it has been asked, after so ignominious a death could the vampire of Machecoul have been represented to the people of Orleans as fighting for their deliverance? How could the Maid and Blue Beard be associated in a heroic action? It is hard to answer such a question, because we cannot possibly tell how much of that kind of thing could be tolerated by the barbarism of those rude old times. Perhaps our text itself, if properly examined, will be found to contain internal evidence as to whether it is of an earlier or later date than 1440. The bastard of Orleans was created Count of Dunois on July 14, 1439.[29] The lines of the mystery, in which he is called by this title, cannot therefore be anterior to that date. They are numerous, and, by a singularity which has never been explained, are all in the first third of the book. When Dunois reappears later he is the Bastard again. From this fact the editors of 1862 concluded that five thousand lines were prefixed to the primitive text subsequently, although they in no way differ from the rest, either in language, style, or prosody. But may the rest of the poem be assigned to 1435 or 1439? [Footnote 29: _Mistere du siege_, preface, p. x.] That is not my opinion. In the lines 12093 and 12094 the Maid tells Talbot he will die by the hand of the King's men. This prophecy must have been made after the event: it is an obvious allusion to the noble captain's end, and these lines must have been written after 1453. Six years after the siege no clerk of Orleans would have thought of travestying Jeanne as a lady of noble birth. In line 10199 and the following of the "_Mistere du Siege_" the Maid replies to the first President of the Parlement of Poitiers when he questions her concerning her family: "As for my father's mansion, it is in the Bar country; and he is of gentle birth and rank right noble, a good Frenchman and a loyal."[30] [Footnote 30: