dges of the Maid had in no way the appearance of partisans hotly
pursuing a political vengeance; but that, on the contrary, their known
weight, the consideration which most of them enjoyed, and the nature
of the tribunal for which they were assembled, were all calculated to
produce generally an expectation full of confidence and respect."

Meanwhile there is not a word to be said for the treatment to which
Jeanne herself was subjected, she being, so far as is apparent, entirely
in English custody. She had been treated with tolerable gentleness it
would seem in the first part of her captivity while in the hands of Jean
de Luxembourg, the Count de Ligny. The fact that the ladies of the house
were for her friends must have assured this, and there is no complaint
made anywhere of cruelty or even unkindness. When she arrived in Rouen
she was confined in the middle chamber of the donjon, which was the best
we may suppose, neither a dungeon under the soil, nor a room under the
leads, but one to which there was access by a short flight of steps from
the courtyard, and which was fully lighted and not out of reach or sight
of life. But in this chamber was an iron cage,(1) within which she was
bound, feet, and waist and neck, from the time of her arrival until
the beginning of the trial, a period of about six weeks. Five English
soldiers of the lowest class watched her night and day, three in the
room itself, two at the door. It is enough to think for a moment of the
probable manners and morals of these troopers to imagine what torture
must have been inflicted by their presence upon a young woman who had
always been sensitive above all things to the laws of personal modesty
and reserve. Their course jests would no doubt be unintelligible to
her, which would be an alleviation; but their coarse laughter, their
revolting touch, their impure looks, would be an endless incessant
misery. We are told that she indignantly bestowed a hearty buffet on the
cheek of a tailor who approached her too closely when it was intended
to furnish her with female dress; but she was helpless to defend herself
when in her irons, and had to endure as she best could--the bars of
her cage let us hope, if cage there was, affording her some little
protection from the horror of the continual presence of these rude
attendants, with whom it was a shame to English gentlemen and knights to
surround a helpless woman.

When her trial began Jeanne was released from he