ii, pp. 185, 186.]

It has been said that the district of the provost of Tournai was loyal
to the King of France, who had granted it freedom and privileges.
Message after message it sent him; it organised public processions in
his honour, and it was ready to grant him anything, so long as he
demanded neither men nor money. The alderman, Carlier, and the
Councillor, Romain, had both previously gone to Reims as
representatives of their town to witness the anointing and the
coronation of King Charles. There they had doubtless seen the Maid in
her glory and had held her to be a very great saint. In those days,
their town, attentively watching the progress of the royal army, was
in regular correspondence with the warlike _beguine_, and with her
confessor, Friar Richard, or more probably Friar Pasquerel. To-day
they wended to the castle, wherein she was imprisoned in the hands of
her cruel enemies. We know not what it was they came to say to the
Sire de Luxembourg, nor even whether he received them. He cannot have
refused to hear them if he thought they came to make secret offers on
the part of King Charles for the ransom of the Maid, who had fought in
his battles. We know not, either, whether they were able to see the
prisoner. The idea that they did enter her presence is quite tenable;
for in those days it was generally easy to approach captives, and
passers by when they visited them were given every facility for the
performance of one of the seven works of mercy.

One thing, however, is certain; that when they left Beaurevoir, they
carried with them a letter which Jeanne had given them, charging them
to deliver it to the magistrates of their town. In this letter she
asked the folk of Tournai, for the sake of her Lord the King and in
view of the good services she had rendered him, to send unto her
twenty or thirty crowns, that she might employ them for her
necessities.[2094]

[Footnote 2094: H. Vandenbroeck, _Extraits analytiques des anciens
registres des consaux de la ville de Tournai_, vol. ii, pp. 338,
371-373. Canon H. Debout, _Jeanne d'Arc et les villes d'Arras et de
Tournai_, Paris, n.d., p. 24.]

It was the custom in those days thus to permit prisoners to beg their
bread.

It is said that the Demoiselle de Luxembourg, who had just made her
will, and had but a few days longer to live,[2095] entreated her noble
nephew not to give the Maid up to the English.[2096] But what power had
this good dame against the Nor