rhaps by certain indiscreet persons in the
service of the King of France. The condemnation and death of Jeanne
was a serious attack upon the prestige of Charles VII. May he not have
had in his household or among his counsellors certain subjects who
were rashly jealous enough to invent this appearance, in order to
spread abroad the belief that Jeanne the Maid had not died the death
of a witch, but that by virtue of her innocence and her holiness she
had escaped the flames? If this were so, then we may regard the
imposture of the pseudo-Jeanne, invented at a time when it seemed
impossible ever to obtain a papal revision of the trial of 1431, as an
attempt, surreptitious and fraudulent and speedily abandoned, to bring
about her rehabilitation.

Such a hypothesis would explain why the Du Lys brothers were not
punished or even disgraced, when they had put themselves in the wrong,
had deceived King and people and committed the crime of high treason.
Jean continued provost of Vaucouleurs for many a long year, and then,
when relieved of his office, received a sum of money in lieu of it.
Pierre, as well as his mother, La Romee, was living at Orleans. In 1443
he received from Duke Charles, who had returned to France three years
before, the grant of an island in the Loire, l'Ile-aux-Boeufs,[2682]
which was fair grazing land. Nevertheless, he remained poor, and was
constantly receiving help from the Duke and the townsfolk of Orleans.[2683]

[Footnote 2682: _Trial_, vol. v, pp. 212, 214. Lottin, _Recherches_,
vol. i, p. 287. Duleau, _Vidimus d'une charte de Charles VII,
concedant a Pierre du Lys la possession de l'Isle-aux-Boeufs_,
Orleans, 1860, in 8vo. 6. G. Lefevre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne
d'Arc_, p. 28, note 1.]

[Footnote 2683: I have not made use of the very late evidence given by
Pierre Sala (_Trial_, vol. iv, p. 281). It is vague and somewhat
legendary, and cannot possibly be introduced into the Life of La Dame
des Armoises. For the bibliography of this interesting subject, see
Lanery d'Arc, _Le livre d'or de Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 573, 580, and G.
Lefevre-Pontalis, _La fausse Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 8vo,
concerning the account given by M. Gaston Save.

There are those who have supposed, without adducing any proof, that
this pseudo-Jeanne was a sister of the Maid (Lebrun de Charmettes,
_Histoire de Jeanne d'Arc_, vol. iv, pp. 291 _et seq._). Francis
Andre, _La verite sur Jeanne d'Arc_, Paris, 1895, in 18mo, pp. 75