erground portion of a tower at Crotoy, still to be seen,
although the upper part has disappeared, facing the sea, is a
door-way, which local tradition points out as that of the dungeon of
Joan of Arc. Crotoy, or Le Crotoy, is on the coast of Picardy, a
little to the north of Abbeville. In the fifteenth century it was a
place of some warlike importance, especially to the English. Its
situation near the coast, and the strength of its fortress, made Le
Crotoy one of the principal places on the sea line, whence stores and
war provender could be carried into France. Le Crotoy had fallen into
possession of the English through the marriage of Henry III. with
Eleanor of Castille, Countess of Ponthieu, of which Crotoy formed a
part. During the hundred years' war, the port could receive vessels of
considerable tonnage; and from this point the booty taken by the
English could be shipped and sent across the Channel. Now but a few
vestiges can be traced of its once strong and ably fortified castle. A
few years ago, a statue, representing the Maid of Orleans in the garb
of a prisoner, was placed near the ruins of the castle in which she
passed most of the month of December, 1430.

At Crotoy, Joan of Arc was permitted to assist at the celebration of
the Mass in the chapel of the castle; and while here she received a
visit from some of her admirers from Abbeville--a few noble hearts who
still remained loyal to the once all-powerful deliveress of their
country, now a poor and abandoned prisoner on her road to a long
imprisonment and a cruel death! Touched by this mark of sympathy from
these Abbeville folk, Joan gave them, on parting from them, her
blessing, and asked them to remember her in their prayers. The
enlightened clergy and doctors, lay and spiritual, who formed the body
known as the University of Paris, preferred that Joan of Arc should be
sent to the capital, there to undergo her trial, and wrote to this
effect to Bedford, through the name of the boy-king. They also
despatched a letter to Cauchon (probably inspired by Bedford), in
which they rated him for not bringing the Maid at once to her trial.
They told him he was showing a lamentable laxness in not immediately
punishing the scandals which had been committed under his jurisdiction
against the Christian religion.

Paris was not considered enough of a safe place to take Joan of Arc
into; the French lay too near its walls, and the loyalty of its
citizens to the English was