uding his coronation, would
also be proved to have been accomplished by the powers of darkness,
and therefore deeds abhorrent to all good Catholics throughout his
realm.

The place chosen for the stage on which Joan of Arc was to abjure
before the eyes of Rouen--and through Rouen the rest of France--her
deeds and her words, was the cemetery in front of that most beautiful
of all Gothic fanes--the Church of Saint Ouen.

Adjacent to its southern wall the exquisitely carved portal named the
Marmousets, then as now rich in statuary of royal and imperial
benefactors of the Church, looks down upon what is the entrance to a
fair public garden. In the fifteenth century this space was used as a
place of burial.

Here, arranged with a view to dramatic effect, were placed two huge
wooden scaffolds, or rather platforms, which faced one another. Upon
one of these sat the Bishop of Beauvais in state. He had on his right
hand the Prince Cardinal of Winchester, great-uncle of the child-king
Henry VI., with other notabilities of the Church; the Bishops of
Norwich, of Noyon, and of Therouenne; the Vice-Inquisitor, eight
abbots, and a large number of friars and doctors, clerical and lay--in
fact all those who had attended the trials of the Maid of Orleans
during the two preceding months. Upon the opposite platform stood Joan
of Arc, a crowd of lawyers and priests about her. Here, too, stood
Loiseleur close by the prisoner; he never ceased urging her to conform
to the commands of the clergy about her.

A vast throng of the town's-people gathered below, and the place was
all in a turmoil. A seething mob had followed the Maid from her prison
to the cemetery, which, already full, now held with difficulty the
fresh press of people who accompanied Joan of Arc and her guards to
the purlieus of the Church of Saint Ouen.

William Erard had been appointed by Cauchon to preach in this
'terrible comedy,' as Michelet calls this farce of the Maid's
abjuration. For text the monk selected the fifteenth chapter of Saint
John's gospel: 'The branch,' etc. Erard showed in his discourse how
Joan had fallen from one sin into another, till she had at length
separated herself from the Church. To a long string of abuse about
herself Joan of Arc listened with perfect patience; but the preacher,
not content with hurling his invectives at the prisoner, began to
attack her King for having listened to Joan's advice, by which conduct
the King had, Erard said, al