ollow her own will rather than
that of God! Verily, and with reason, might poor Joan have prayed to
be delivered from such friends as those creatures and courtiers about
her King, for whom she had done and suffered so much.

* * * * *

The archer who had captured Joan of Arc was in the pay of the Bastard
of Wandome, or Wandoune, and this Wandome was himself in the service
of John de Ligny, a vassal of the Duke of Burgundy, and a cadet of
the princely house of Luxembourg. Like most younger sons, John de
Ligny was badly off, and the temptation of the English reward in
exchange for his prisoner, whose escape he greatly feared, overtopped
any scruples he may have felt in receiving this blood-money.

[Illustration: TOUR DE LA PUCELLE--COMPIEGNE.]

The historian Monstrelet tells us he was present when Joan of Arc was
brought into the Burgundian camp, at Margny, and before the Duke of
Burgundy. But the old chronicler relates nothing with regard to that
eventful meeting; only he is eloquent on the joy caused by the capture
of the Maid of Orleans among the English and their allies; and he
tells us that in their opinion Joan's capture was equal by itself to
that of five hundred ordinary prisoners, for they had feared her, he
adds, more than all the other French leaders put together. Of the high
opinion held by her enemies of the Maid's influence, one could not ask
for a more remarkable proof than this testimony, coming as it does
from a partisan of her foes.

After three days passed at Margny, Joan of Arc was taken, for greater
security, by Luxembourg to the castle of Beaulieu, in Picardy.

CHAPTER V.

_IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL._

The news of Joan's capture soon reached Paris, and within a few hours
of that event becoming known, the Vicar-General of the Order of the
Inquisition sent a letter to the Duke of Burgundy, accompanied by
another from the University of Paris, praying that Joan of Arc might
be delivered up to the keeping of Mother Church as a sorceress and
idolatress. That terrible engine, the Inquisition, had, like some
mighty reptile scenting its prey near, slowly unfolded its coils.
Whether Bedford had or had not caused these letters to be sent the
Duke is not known, but the Regent had both in the Church and the
University of Paris the men he wanted--instruments by whom his
vengeance could be worked on Joan of Arc; and he had the astuteness to
see that in calling in the ai