itterly as she went, and the people wept
to see her sobbing in the cart. Even Loyseleur was overcome by his
remorse, and was bidden to leave Rouen. In the Vieux Marche she had
first to listen to the sermon of Nicole Midi, who formally delivered
her to the Secular Justice. The Bishop of Beauvais then pronounced her
sentence of excommunication. When Jeanne rose to implore the pardon of
the people and the prayers of the Church, insisting to the end on the
sincerity of her cause and of her King, there was hardly even an
English soldier who was not touched with some compassion after the six
hours of her suspense. Massieu handed her a roughly-fashioned cross
which she placed in her bosom. She begged Isambard de la Pierre to
hold another before her eyes until the end. The delay of the
ecclesiastics had been long, but the civil powers were short. "Do your
duty" was the only sentence she heard in the short command[56] to the
executioner. Then she wept again, crying, "Rouen, Rouen, mourrai-je
ici, seras-tu ma maison? Ah Rouen, j'ai grand peur que tu n'aies a
souffrir de ma mort." The slow flames mounted from the scaffold which
had been built to burn her slowly, and with the last word, "Jesus," on
her lips, she died.

[Footnote 56: As a matter of recorded fact no sentence was then
pronounced on her save by the impatient soldiers. The Bailli of Rouen,
Messire Raoul le Bouteiller, only said the words I have given above,
as his lieutenant swore in the second Proces, and this is why the
sentence is not recorded in the minutes of the Baillage.]

Her ashes were cast into the Seine. They were scarcely cold before the
rumour of her saintliness, and the miracles of her passing spread
through Rouen and through France. Soon afterwards Pierre Cauchon,
Bishop of Beauvais, died of apoplexy. Nicole Midi was struck with
leprosy within a few days of her death. Loyseleur died suddenly at
Bale. The corpse of d'Estivet was found in a gutter outside the gates
of Rouen.

Not a single attempt was made to rescue her in Rouen at the last, not
a solitary effort had been made before to save her by the French.
Judged by the Church, and appealing for fair hearing, Jeanne was not
supported in her trial by a single French ecclesiastic. Not a single
reference to her death occurs on subsequent occasions, when the Court
of France had official opportunity to make it. An age still so
strongly imbued with the principles of feudalism could not believe in
that inte