rne
away a prisoner, while after her followed the victors, roaring their mad
joy over the capture of such a prize.

Like wildfire the awful tidings spread. The Maid of Orleans taken by the
English? Jeanne a prisoner? Could such things be?

Alas, yes. The Maid who had delivered France was in the hands of the
enemy, because, at the climax of her victory, when all France was in her
grip, the chance had been lost by the folly of that King whom she had
led to his crowning.

After six months of captivity she was sold, yes sold, for ten thousand
crowns, that royal Maid--sold to John of Luxembourg, the only bidder for
her noble self. Truth which is sometimes stranger than fiction, offers
no parallel to this. Not a single effort was put forth by the King, or
his counsellors, or by any loyal Frenchman to rescue or to ransom
Jeanne. No trouble was taken to redeem the girl who, foe and friend
alike agreed, had saved the day for France, and who was the greatest
soldier of them all, when she was allowed to have her way.

Ten thousand crowns was the price of Jeanne's brave spirit, and her
purchaser doubtless meant to hold on to her until he could make money on
his prisoner, but, oh the shame, the infamy of it, Charles, the King of
France,--led to his crowning day by a Maid's own hand,--offered not one
sou for her ransoming!

To linger on this part of Jeanne's life is torture to others, as it was
to her. In December she was carried to Rouen, the headquarters of the
English army, heavily fettered; was flung into a gloomy prison, from
which she attempted escape, but vainly, and finally was tried as a
sorceress and a heretic, and never a sound of help or deliverance from
the King or the nation.

Her trial was long, and she was exposed to every form of brutality,
thinly veiled under the guise of justice. Day after day her simple heart
was tortured by the questions of learned men, whose aim was to make her
condemn herself, but this they could never do, for every probing
resulted in the same calm statements. Finally one was sent to draw from
her under the seal of the confessional, her sacred confidences, which
were then rudely desecrated. She was found guilty of sacrilege,
profanation, disobedience to the church, pride and idolatry, and her
heavenly visions were said to be illusions of the devil. She was then
tortured by a series of ignominies, insults, threats, and promises
until, bewildered and half crazed by confinement, in agony o