r was it only of the
Church and the Law?--were arrayed against her: no guilty mystery to be
discovered, was in her countenance. But it must have been plain to the
keen and not too charitable Normans that such semblances are not always
to be trusted, and that the devil himself even, on occasion, can take
upon himself the appearance of an angel of light; so that after the
first shock of wonder they no doubt settled themselves to listen,
believing that soon they would have their imaginations fed with tales
of horror, and would discover the hoofs and the horns and unveil
with triumph the lurking demon. The French historians never take into
consideration the fact that it was the belief of Rouen and Normandy, as
well as of any similar town or province in England, that the child
Henry VI. was lawful king, and that whatever was on the other side was
a hateful adversary, to be brought to such disaster and shame as was
possible, without mercy and without delay.

But after a few days of the examination which we have just reported,
public opinion was greatly staggered, and knew not how to turn.
Gradually the conviction must have been forced upon every mind which had
any candour left, that Jeanne, at that dreadful bar, with the stake
in sight, and all the learning of Paris--the entire power of one great
national and half of another, all England and half France against--(many
more than half France, for the other part had abandoned her
cause),--showed nothing of the demon, but all--if not of the angel, yet
of the Maid, the emblem of perfection to that rude world, though
often so barbarously handled. It might almost be said of the age,
notwithstanding its immorality and rampant viciousness, that in its eyes
a true virgin could do no harm. And hers was one if ever such a thing
existed on earth. The talk in the streets began to take a very different
tone. Massieu the clerical sheriff's officer saw nothing in her answers
that was not good and right. Out of the midst of the crowd of listeners
would burst an occasional cry of "Well said!" An Englishman, even a
knight, overcome by his feelings, cried out: "Why was not she English,
this brave girl!" All these were ominous sounds. Still more ominous was
the utterance of Maitre Jean Lohier, a lawyer of Rouen, who declared
loudly that the trial was not a legal trial for the reasons which
follow:

"In the first place because it was not in the form of an ordinary trial;
secondly, because it was