h she
is supposed to have spoken to the people in the Church of Saint James
at Compiegne were owing to her discouragement at not having, a few
weeks previously, been able to cross the river Aisne at Soissons, and
thus finding herself prevented from attacking the Duke of Burgundy at
Choisy, and thence having been obliged to return to Compiegne. Wallon
points out that in coming to defend Compiegne, Joan of Arc came
entirely at her own instigation, and that during the previous six
months Flavy had defended Compiegne against the English and
Burgundians with success and energy; nay more, that, in spite of
bribes from the Duke of Burgundy, Flavy contrived to hold the town
till the close of the war.

On the other side, a recent writer of the heroine's life, especially
as regarded from a military standpoint, M. Marin, gives at great
length his reasons for believing in the treachery of Flavy. M. Marin
points out that, in the first place, Flavy's character was a
notoriously bad one; secondly, that he was very possibly under the
influence of both La Tremoille and the Chancellor Regnault de
Chartres, bitter opponents, as we have already shown, of the Maid;
thirdly, that it was in Flavy's interest that the prestige of saving
Compiegne from the Burgundians and English should be entirely owing to
his own conduct; and fourthly, that he, Flavy, with the majority of
the French officers, was affected against Joan of Arc since the
execution of Franquet d'Arras. M. Marin goes on to prove that Joan of
Arc might have been rescued without difficulty, and that the enemy
could not have forced their way into the town alongside of the
retreating French, unless they were ready to be cut up as soon as they
had come within its walls. M. Marin's opinion, having the authority of
a soldier, carries weight with it; and his opinion is that Joan of Arc
was deliberately betrayed by Flavy, and purposely allowed to fall into
the hands of her enemies.

The names of La Tremoille and Regnault de Chartres should also be
pilloried by the side of that of Flavy--the two great courtiers who
held the ear of the King, and who had always plotted against Joan of
Arc. As has already been said, it was Regnault de Chartres who had the
effrontery to announce the news of Joan of Arc's capture to the
citizens of Rheims as being a judgment of Heaven upon her. She had,
this mean prelate said, offended God by her pride, and in wearing rich
apparel, and in having preferred to f