s; but as far as its
attributes consisted it was a body secular, and holding an independent
position owing to its many privileges. The University was a political
as well as an ecclesiastical body, supreme under the Pope above the
whole of the Gallican Church. Although divided into two parties
through the war then raging between England and France, its judicature
was greatly influenced by the Church. It was a matter of certainty
that the Doctors of Theology who sat in the University of Paris, and
who were all, or nearly all, French by birth, would favour the
English, and give an adverse decision to that of those French
ecclesiastics who had examined into Joan's life and character when
assembled at Poitiers, and who then considered her to be acting under
the influence and with the protection of the Almighty.

As a prisoner, Joan of Arc's behaviour was as modest and courageous as
it had been in her days of success and liberty. In the first times of
her durance, d'Aulon, who, as we mentioned, had been captured at the
same time, appears to have been allowed to remain with her. On his
telling her that he feared Compiegne would now probably be taken by
the enemy, Joan of Arc said such a thing could not occur, 'For all the
places,' she added, 'which the King of Heaven has placed in the
keeping of King Charles by my means will never again be retaken by his
enemies, at any rate as long as he cares to keep them.'

Although willing to endure for the sake of her beloved country all the
cruelty her enemies could inflict upon her, Joan was most anxious to
return in order to continue her mission. While in the castle of
Beaulieu she made a desperate attempt to escape. She managed to
squeeze herself between two beams of wood placed across an opening in
her prison, and was on the point of leaving her dungeon tower when one
of the jailers caught sight of her, and she was retaken. Probably in
consequence of this attempt, Joan of Arc, after an imprisonment of
four months at Beaulieu, was transferred thence by Ligny to his castle
of Beaurevoir, near the town of Cambrai, a place far removed from the
neighbourhood of the war, and consequently more secure than Beaulieu.
At Beaurevoir lived the wife and the aunt of Ligny; they showed some
attention and compassion to the prisoner. They offered her some of
their dresses, and tried to persuade her to quit her male attire.
Joan, however, refused: she gave as her reason for not complying with
their