idence that would clear up this question by means of recalling
to her the stories of her childhood, of the enchanted tree, and the
Fairies' Well; from which sources, her accusers anxiously hoped to prove
that she derived her inspiration. But it is very clear that no such
evidence was forthcoming, and that it seemed to them hopeless to
attribute sorcery to her; therefore the accusation was changed to that
of heresy alone. The following mandate from the University authorising
her prosecution will show what the charge was; and the reader will note
that one of its darkest items is the costume, which for so many good
and sufficient reasons she wore. Here is the official description of the
accused:

"A woman, calling herself the Maid, leaving the dress and habit of her
sex against the divine law, a thing abominable to God, clothed and armed
in the habit and condition of a man, has done cruel deeds of homicide,
and as is said has made the simple people believe, in order to abuse
and lead them astray, that she was sent by God, and had knowledge of His
divine secrets; along with several other doctrines (_dogmatisations_),
very dangerous, prejudicial, and scandalous to our holy Catholic faith,
in pursuing which abuses, and exercising hostility against us and our
people, she has been taken in arms, before Compiegne, and brought as a
prisoner before us."

According to French law the indictment ought to have been founded upon a
preliminary examination into the previous life of the accused, which, as
it does not appear in the formal accusations, it was supposed had never
been made. Recent researches, however, have proved that it was made, but
was not of a nature to strengthen or justify any accusation. All that
the examiners could discover was that Jeanne d'Arc was a good and honest
maid who left a spotless reputation behind her in her native village,
and that not a suspicion of _dogmatisations_, nor worship of fairies,
nor any other unseemly thing was associated with her name. Other things
less favourable, we are told, were reported of her: the statement,
for instance, made in apparent good faith by Monstrelet the Burgundian
chronicler, that she had been for some time a servant in an _auberge_,
and there had learned to ride, and to consort with men--a statement
totally without foundation, which was scarcely referred to in the trial.

The skill of M. Quicherat discovered the substance of those inquiries
among the many secondary pap