osts, a mere creature
of the Church Militant.

[Footnote 2776: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 100. N. Valois, _Un nouveau
temoignage sur Jeanne d'Arc_, pp. 8, 13.]

[Footnote 2777: Reproduced in chromo in Wallon's _Jeanne d'Arc_.]

Standing, her head, neck, and shoulders covered with a kind of furred
hood and tippet fringed with black, her gauntlets and shoes of mail,
girt above her red tunic with a belt of gold, Jeanne may be recognised
by her name inscribed over her head, and also by the white banner,
embroidered with _fleurs-de-lis_, which she raises in her right hand,
and by her silver shield, embossed in the German style; on the shield
is a sword bearing on its point a crown. A three-lined inscription in
French is on the steps of the throne, whereon sits the Virgin Mary.
Although the inscription is three parts effaced and almost
unintelligible, with the aid of my learned friend, M. Pierre de
Nolhac, Director of the Museum of Versailles, I have succeeded in
deciphering a few words. These would convey the idea that the
inscription consisted of prayers and wishes for the salvation of
Jeanne, who had fallen into the hands of the enemy. It would appear
therefore that we have here one of those _ex voto_ hung in the
churches of France during the captivity of the Maid. In such a case
the nimbus round the head of a living person and the isolated
position of Jeanne would be easily explained; it is possible that
certain excellent Frenchmen, thinking no evil, adapted to their own
use some picture which originally represented the Virgin between two
personages of the Church Triumphant. By a few touches they transformed
one of these personages into the Maid of God. In so small a panel they
could find no place more suitable to her mortal state, none like those
generally occupied at the feet of the Virgin and saints by the
kneeling donors of pictures. This too might explain perhaps why Saint
Michael, the Virgin and the Maid have their names inscribed above
them. Over the head of the Maid we read _ane darc_. This form _Darc_
may have been used in 1430.[2778] In the inscription on the steps of
the throne I discern _Jehane dArc_, with a small _d_ and a capital _A_
for _dArc_, which is very curious. This causes me to doubt the
genuineness of the inscription.

[Footnote 2778: The form _Darc_ occurs in the condemnation trial
(_Trial_, vol. i, p. 191, vol. ii, p. 82). But side by side we find
also _Dars_ (document dated March 31, 1427), _Day_ (