Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
The mistake of the "Place de la Pucelle" arose because a monumental
fountain was erected there for the first time, when Cardinal Georges
d'Amboise, who really started the waterworks of Rouen on a proper
basis, used the Fontaine St. Filleul for the benefit of the Quartier
Cauchoise. The pipe was brought into the Marche aux Veaux because the
level of the ground permitted a better fall for the water, and the
town took advantage of the opportunity to turn the new fountain into a
memorial of Jeanne d'Arc. The actual spot where she was burnt was
never marked at all, until the tablet of to-day was set up; for
although the "Proces de Rehabilitation" decreed that the scene of her
execution should be consecrated with a cross, that cross was placed on
the point of the wall of the Cemetery of St. Sauveur, which was
nearest to her scaffold; and this for the very good reason that the
English (if for no other motive) would not allow another "sanctuary"
(as all crosses were in the fifteenth century) to be erected so near
to the cemetery which was already holy ground itself. It was this
commemorative cross which was replaced by the Fountain of St. Sauveur
just before the larger monumental fountain was erected in the more
convenient (though less appropriate) situation of the Marche aux
Veaux, now the Place de la Pucelle.
Over the hideous tragedy of the Vieux Marche I have neither space nor
inclination to linger. At nine o'clock on the 30th of May 1431 she
left the chateau of Philip Augustus in woman's dress, wearing a mitre
on which was written, "Heretique, Relapse, Apostate, Idolatre," with
Ladvenu and Massieu beside her, and seven or eight hundred men-at-arms
accompanying them. She wept bitterly as she went, and the people wept
to see her sobbing in the cart. Even Loyseleur was overcome by his
remorse, and was bidden to leave Rouen. In the Vieux Marche she had
first to listen to the sermon of Nicole Midi, who formally delivered
her to the Secular Justice. The Bishop of Beauvais then pronounced her
sentence of excommunication. When Jeanne rose to implore the pardon of
the people and the prayers of the Church, insisting to the end on the
sincerity of her cause and of her King, there was hardly even an
English soldier who was not touched with some compassion after the six
hours of her suspense. Massieu handed her a roughly-fashioned cross
which she placed in her bosom. She begged Isambard de la Pierre to
hold another before her eyes until the end. The delay of the
ecclesiastics had been long, but the civil powers were short. "Do your
duty" was the only sentence she heard in the short command[56] to the
executioner. Then she wept again, crying, "Rouen, Rouen, mourrai-je
ici, seras-tu ma maison? Ah Rouen, j'ai grand peur que tu n'aies a
souffrir de ma mort." The slow flames mounted from the scaffold which
had been built to burn her slowly, and with the last word, "Jesus," on
her lips, she died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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