ikely that none were acquainted with the true
Jeanne's voice and features. We must therefore conclude that Jeanne
d'Arc was really consigned to the tender mercies of the English. About
the 21st of November she was taken on horseback, strongly guarded, from
Cotoy to Rouen, where the trial began January 9, 1431. On the 21st of
February she appeared before the court; on the 13th of March she was
examined in the prison by an inquisitor; and on May 24, the Thursday
after Pentecost, upon a scaffold conspicuously placed in the Cemetery of
St. Ouen, she publicly recanted, abjuring her "heresies" and asking the
Church's pardon for her "witchcraft." We may be sure that the Church
dignitaries would not knowingly have made such public display of a
counterfeit Jeanne; nor could they well have been deceived themselves
under such circumstances. It may indeed be said, to exhaust all possible
suppositions, that a young girl wonderfully similar in feature and voice
to Jeanne d'Arc was palmed off upon the English by Duke Philip, and
afterwards, on her trial, comported herself like the Maid, trusting
in this recantation to effect her release. But we consider such an
hypothesis extremely far-fetched, nor does it accord with the events
which immediately followed. It seems hardly questionable that it was the
real Jeanne who publicly recanted on the 24th of May. This was only six
days before the execution. Four days after, on Monday the 28th, it was
reported that Jeanne had relapsed, that she had, in defiance of the
Church's prohibition, clothed herself in male attire, which had been
left in a convenient place by the authorities, expressly to test her
sincerity. On the next day but one, the woman purporting to be the Maid
of Orleans was led out, with her face carefully covered, and burnt at
the stake.

Here is the first combination of circumstances which bears a suspicious
look. It disposes of our Burgundy hypothesis, for a false Jeanne, after
recanting to secure her safety, would never have stultified herself by
such a barefaced relapse. But the true Jeanne, after recanting, might
certainly have escaped. Some compassionate guard, who before would have
scrupled to assist her while under the ban of the Church, might have
deemed himself excusable for lending her his aid after she had been
absolved. Postulating, then, that Jeanne escaped from Rouen between
the 24th and the 28th, how shall we explain what happened immediately
afterward?

The Eng