ghting, being one of
the most notable among them. Franquet's band fought vigorously but were
cut to pieces, and the leader was taken prisoner. When this man was
brought back to Lagny, a prisoner to be ransomed, and whom Jeanne
desired to exchange for one of her own side, the law laid claim to him
as a criminal. He was a prisoner of war: what was it the Maid's duty to
do? The question is hotly debated by the historians and it was brought
against her at her trial. He was a murderer, a robber, the scourge of
the country--especially to the poor whom Jeanne protected and cared for
everywhere, was he pitiless and cruel. She gave him up to justice, and
he was tried, condemned, and beheaded. If it was wrong from a military
point of view, it was her only error, and shows how little there was
with which to reproach her.

In Lagny other things passed of a more private nature. Every day and all
day long her "voices" repeated their message in her ears. "Before the
St. Jean." She repeated it to some of her closest comrades but left
herself no time to dwell upon it. Still worse than the giving up of
Franquet was the supposed resuscitation of a child, born dead, which
its parents implored her to pray for that it might live again to be
baptised. She explained the story to her judges afterwards. It was
the habit of the time, nay, we believe continues to this day in some
primitive places, to lay the dead infant on the altar in such a case, in
hope of a miracle. "It is true," said Jeanne, "that the maidens of the
town were all assembled in the church praying God to restore life that
it might be baptised. It is also true that I went and prayed with them.
The child opened its eyes, yawned three or four times, was christened
and died. This is all I know." The miracle is not one that will find
much credit nowadays. But the devout custom was at least simple and
intelligible enough, though it afforded an excellent occasion to
attribute witchcraft to the one among those maidens who was not of Lagny
but of God.

From Lagny Jeanne went on to various other places in danger, or which
wanted encouragement and help. She made two or three hurried visits to
Compiegne, which was threatened by both parties of the enemy; at one
time raising the siege of Choicy, near Compiegne, in company with the
Archbishop of Rheims, a strange brother in arms. On another of her
visits to Compiegne there is said to have occurred an incident which, if
true, reveals to us w