ccusation that the
people had made her an object of adoration was brought as a proof of
her heresy, she said: 'In truth I should not have been able to have
prevented that from being so, had God not protected me Himself from
such a danger.'

CHAPTER IV.

_THE CAPTURE._

We must now glance at the movements of the English since the
deliverance of Orleans and their defeat at Patay, and the French
King's coronation.

What proves the utter demoralisation of the English at this time is
that the Regent Bedford was not only afraid of remaining in Paris, but
had also taken refuge in the fortress of Vincennes. He was so poor
that he could not pay the members of Parliament sitting in Paris. Like
other bodies receiving no pay, the Parliament declined to work. So
restricted were all things then in Paris that when the child-king
(Henry VI.) was brought from London to be crowned there, not enough
parchment could be found on which to register the details of his
arrival.

For want of a victim to assuage his ire, the Regent disgraced Sir John
Fastolfe, whom he unknighted and ungartered, in order to punish him
for the defeat at Patay; and he wrote that the English reverses had
been caused by 'a disciple and lyme of the Feende, called the Pucelle,
that used fals enchantements and sorcerie.'

The Regent, whose degrading of Fastolfe and vituperation of Joan of
Arc did not serve to help, applied to his powerful brother-in-law, the
Duke of Burgundy, for aid. Burgundy came to the Regent's assistance,
bringing a small force with him from Picardy. Then Bedford bethought
him of his powerful relation in England, Henry Beaufort, the Bishop of
Winchester. Most opportunely for the Regent, the Bishop had collected
an army for the suppression of the Bohemian Hussites. The Regent
implored his uncle, the Bishop, to send this army for the defence of
the English and their interests, now in such dire jeopardy. Winchester
was a mean, avaricious prince, and his aid had to be bought. A treaty
was signed on the 1st of July, in which Winchester promised to bring
his troops to his nephew's assistance; but he delayed stirring till
the middle of that month. It pleased the crafty Bishop to know that
his great wealth made him all-powerful in England; for the English
Protector, the Duke of Gloucester, was a mere cipher compared to
Winchester; and now that his other nephew, the Protector of France,
was in distress, he could dictate his own terms to both.