ess of Compiegne, who was in distress. She set
out, and on the evening of May 24th, headed an attack upon the English.
She fought nobly and well, but before the close of the combat, she was
obliged to sound a retreat, and as she was attempting to escape through
the half-closed city gate, an English archer came up behind and pulled
her to the ground.

Joan of Arc was a prisoner. The joy of the English was overwhelming--the
despair of the French correspondingly great; and that despair gave place
to anger when it was learned that William de Flavy, the man whom she had
tried to defend, had betrayed her into the hands of the English because
he was jealous of her. This man's wife slew him when she learned of his
base act, and was pardoned for the crime when she told its cause. In all
the cities which Joan had delivered from English control, public prayers
and processions were ordered; people walked barefooted and bareheaded,
chanting the _Miserere_, in the streets of Tours. She was imprisoned
first at Beaurevoir, then in the prison of Arras, and from there she was
taken to Le Crotoy.

It was customary in those days to exchange prisoners taken in arms, or
to ransom them; but the English had suffered such loss and defeat
through Joan that they determined she should die.

Their only way to do this without publicly dishonoring themselves, was
to accuse her of being a witch, and to compel the "religious" tribunal
of her own land to become her murderer.

During the first six months of her captivity Joan was treated humanely;
but the defeat of the English at Compiegne awoke anew the superstitions
of the English, who believed that, though a prisoner, she exercised her
spell upon the army; and she was taken to Le Crotoy, and cast into an
iron cage with chains upon her wrists and ankles. After being starved,
insulted, and treated with the most hellish brutality in prison for
nearly ten months, the saviour of France was brought before a tribunal
of men, all of them her enemies. There were three days of this shameful
pretence of a trial, and the holy maid, deserted by those whom she had
crowned with glory and benefits, was trapped into signing a paper which
she supposed only a form of abjuration, but which proved to be a
confession of all the crimes with which she was charged; and after she
was returned to her dungeon this was exhibited to the people to convince
them of her guilt and turn the tide of public sympathy. The Bishop of
Be