n collected to give their
evidence. We now come to those witnesses who were examined regarding
the life of Joan of Arc after her interview with the King at Chinon
and about the stirring events which immediately followed that
interview. The first of these is the 'nobile et savant homme Messire
Simon Charles,' Master of the Requests (_Maitre des requetes_) in the
year 1429. He had been president of the State exchequer in 1456, and
was aged sixty. Simon's evidence is of interest and importance both as
regards Joan of Arc's arrival at Chinon, and also with respect to the
siege of Orleans and the triumphant entry into Rheims. The next
witness was one of the clergy who examined Joan when at Poitiers; this
was a preaching friar from Limousin who had asked Joan of Arc in what
language her saints spoke to her, and had been answered by 'In a
better language than yours'--for this good friar, whose name was
Brother Sequier, spoke with a strong Limousin accent. When he was
giving his evidence before the commission (in 1456) he was an old man
in his seventy-third year, and head of the theological college of
Poitiers.

Next to him came the evidence given by the 'venerable et savant homme
Maitre Jean Barbier, docteur es lois.' Barbier was King's-Advocate in
the House of Parliament, and had also been one of the judges at Joan
of Arc's examination at Poitiers: he was aged fifty. Barbier had been
at Loches when the people threw themselves before Joan of Arc's horse,
and embraced the heroine's feet and hands. Barbier reproved her for
allowing them to do so. He told her that if she permitted them to act
thus it would render them idolatrous in their worship of her, to which
reprimand Joan answered, 'Indeed, without God's help I could not
prevent them from becoming so.'

Another of the Poitiers witnesses was Gobert Thibault, also aged
fifty. This Thibault had been at Chinon when Joan arrived there, and
had followed her to Orleans. Among these Poitiers witnesses was
Francis Garivel, aged forty. Garivel, when a lad of fifteen, had seen
Joan at Poitiers, and he remembered that on her being asked why she
styled Charles Dauphin, and not by his kingly title, she replied that
she could not give him his regal title until he had been crowned and
anointed at Rheims.

The collected testimony of the above witnesses, whose evidence covers
the time passed by Joan at Poitiers, was submitted to Charles VII.,
and the MSS. exist in the National Library in