occasion she was jailed in a high tower and she tried
to escape by leaping from a window more than sixty feet above the
ground, only to be picked up insensible and bleeding as she lay at the
foot of the castle wall.

Then her worst enemy appeared before her. This was Pierre Cauchon, the
Bishop of Beauvais. He persuaded the English to buy her from her
captors so that they might try her and punish her, and the sum of six
thousand francs was paid by them as blood money.

Jeanne was then taken to the town of Rouen and imprisoned in a grim and
ancient castle, which was already centuries old. Not content with
lodging her in a damp cell, the English placed fetters on her leg and
chained her to a great log so that she must needs drag the chain about
whenever she moved. And instead of allowing her women to be her
attendants, her only jailers were rough men at arms, who were
constantly with her.

To try this simple girl came the greatest dignitaries of the realm--men
aged in experience and the law, grave doctors and wise bishops, all
with the single purpose of accomplishing her death. With every
advantage on their side they did not even allow a counsel for their
prisoner, and when they saw that in spite of this she might be able
skilfully to defend herself, they had her answers set aside as being of
no importance and having no bearing on the trial. And they were right,
for nothing that Jeanne said could possibly affect an issue where the
stake and the executioner were already decided upon. And when some of
the spectators showed signs of pity for her youth and innocence they
had the trial continued secretly in her cell.

They played with her as a cat plays with a mouse and tortured her in
mind as well as in body. And under the guise of compassion they
pretended to spare her life, only in the end to tell her that the stake
had been made ready and that she must come at once to the market place
to be burned.

On the thirtieth of May, 1431, Jeanne was taken from her cell by two
priests and escorted by men at arms to the market place of Rouen, where
three scaffolds had been prepared. On one sat the priests who had been
her judges, on another Jeanne must stand and hear a sermon before she
died, and on the third was a grim stake with fagots piled high for her
burning, and at the top of the stake was nailed a placard that bore
these words:

"_Jeanne, who hath caused herself to be called the maid, a liar,
pernicious, deceiver of t