s portraits de Jeanne d'Arc et
de la fausse Jeanne d'Arc_ and _Memoire sur les fausses Jeanne d'Arc_,
in _Les Memoires de la Societe d'Agriculture d'Orleans_, 1854, in
8vo.]

The success of this fraud had endured four years. After all it is not
so very surprising. In every age people have been loath to believe in
the final end of existences which have touched their imagination; they
will not admit that great personalities can be struck down by death
like ordinary folk; such an end to a noble career is repugnant to
them. Impostors, like la Dame des Armoises, never fail to find some
who will believe in them. And the Dame appeared at a time which was
singularly favourable to such a delusion; intellects had been dulled
by long suffering; communication between one district and another was
rendered impossible or difficult, and what was happening in one place
was unknown quite near at hand; in the minds of men there reigned
dimness, ignorance, confusion.

But even then folk would not have been imposed upon so long by this
pseudo-Jeanne had it not been for the support given her by the Du Lys
brothers. Were they her dupes or her accomplices? Dull-witted as they
may have been, it seems hardly credible that the adventuress could
have imposed upon them. Admitting that she very closely resembled La
Romee's daughter, the woman from La Grange-aux-Ormes cannot possibly
for any length of time have deceived two men who knew Jeanne
intimately, having been brought up with her and come with her into
France.

If they were not imposed upon, then how can we account for their
conduct? They had lost much when they lost their sister. When he
arrived at La Grange-aux-Ormes, Pierre du Lys had just quitted a
Burgundian prison; his ransom had been paid with his wife's dowry, and
he was then absolutely destitute.[2680] Jean, Bailie of Vermandois,
afterwards Governor of Chartres and about 1436 Bailie of Vaucouleurs,
was hardly more prosperous.[2681] Such circumstances explained much.
And yet it is unlikely that they of themselves alone and unsupported
would have played a game so difficult, so risky, and so dangerous.
From the little we know of their lives we should conclude that they
were both too simple, too naif, too placid, to carry on such an
intrigue.

[Footnote 2680: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 210, 213.]

[Footnote 2681: _Trial_, vol. v, p. 279.]

We are tempted to believe that they were urged on by some higher and
greater power. Who knows? Pe