le a
great fear for her husband came over her; nevertheless, her love for
him gave her heart of courage and she paid the ransom. As soon as the
Duke's men had counted the coins, they dismissed her saying that her
husband had died like the other villeins.

At those cruel words, wild with sorrow and despair, she broke forth
into curses and railing. When she refused to be silent, the Bastard
of Vauru had her beaten and taken to the Elm-tree.

There she was stripped to the waist and tied to the Tree, whence hung
forty to fifty men, some from the higher, some from the lower
branches, so that, when the wind blew, their bodies touched her head.
At nightfall she uttered shrieks so piercing that they were heard in
the town. But whosoever had dared to go and unloose her would have
been a dead man. Fright, fatigue, and exertion brought on her
delivery. The wolves, attracted by her cries, came and consumed the
fruit of her womb, and then devoured alive the body of the wretched
creature.

In 1422, the town of Meaux was taken by the Burgundians. Then were the
Bastard of Vauru and his cousin hanged from that Tree on which they
had caused so many innocent folk to die so shameful a death.[1635]

[Footnote 1635: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 170. According to
Monstrelet (vol. iv, p. 96), Denis de Vauru, the Bastard's cousin, was
beheaded in the Market of Paris.]

For the poor peasants of these unhappy lands, whether Armagnac or
Burgundian, it was all of a piece; they had nothing to gain by
changing masters. Nevertheless, it is possible that, on beholding the
King, the descendant of Saint Louis and Charles the Wise, they may
have taken heart of courage and of hope, so great was the fame for
justice and for mercy of the illustrious house of France.

Thus, riding by the side of the Archbishop of Reims, the Maid looked
with a friendly eye on the peasants crying "Noel!" After saying that
she had nowhere seen folk so joyful at the coming of the fair King,
she sighed: "Would to God I were so fortunate as, when I die, to find
burial in this land."[1636]

[Footnote 1636: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15. _Chronique de la
Pucelle_, p. 326.]

Peradventure the Lord Archbishop was curious to know whether from her
Voices she had received any revelation concerning her approaching
death. She often said that she would not last long. Doubtless he was
acquainted with a prophecy widely known at that time, that the maid
would die in the Holy