HKB
"The Ministers and Generals of France, however, found Joan too useful an instrument to be willing to part with her thus early, and she yielded to their earnest expostulations.
"Under her guidance, they assailed Laon, Soissons, Chauteau, Thirry, Provins, and many other places, and took them one after another. She threw herself into Compiegne, which was besieged by the Duke of Burgundy in conjunction with certain English commanders. The day after her arrival, she headed a sally against the enemy; twice she repelled them, but finding their numbers increase every moment with fresh reinforcements, she directed a retreat. Twice she returned to her pursuers, and made them recoil; the third time she was less fortunate. She found herself alone, surrounded by the enemy, and having performed prodigies of valor, she was compelled to surrender herself a prisoner. This happened on the twenty-fifth of May, 1430. It remained to be determined what should be the fate of this admirable woman. Both friends and enemies agreed that her career had been attended with a supernatural power. The French, who were so infinitely indebted to her achievements, and who owed the sudden and glorious reverse of their affairs to her alone, were convinced that she was immediately commissioned by God, and vied with each other in reciting the miraculous phenomena which marked every step in her progress. The English, who saw all the victorious acquisitions of Henry the Fifth crumbling from their grasp, were equally impressed with the manifest miracle, but imputed all her good fortune to a league with the Prince of Darkness. They said, that her boasted visions were so many delusions of the Devil. They determined to bring her to trial for the tremendous crimes of sorcery and witchcraft.
"They believed that if she were once convicted and led out to execution, the prowess and valor which had hitherto marked their progress, would return to them, and that they should obtain the same superiority over their disheartened foes. The Devil, who had hitherto been her constant ally, terrified at the spectacle of the flames that consumed her, would instantly return to the infernal regions, and leave the field open to English enterprise and energy, and to the interposition of God and his saints. An accusation was prepared against her, and all the solemnities of a public trial were observed. But the proofs; were so weak and unsatisfactory, and Joan, though oppressed and treated with the utmost severity, displayed so much acuteness and presence of mind, that the court, not venturing to proceed to the last extremity, contented themselves, with sentencing her to perpetual imprisonment, and to be allowed no other nourishment than bread and water for life. Before they yielded to this mitigation of punishment, they caused her to sign with her mark a recantation of her offences. She acknowledged that the enthusiasm which had guided her was an illusion, and promised never more to listen to its suggestions.
"The hatred of her enemies, however, was not yet appeased. They determined in some, way to entrap her; They had clothed her in a female garb; they insidiously laid in her way the habiliments of a man. The fire, smothered in the bosom of the maid, revived at the sight; she was alone, she caught up the garments, and; one by one adjusted them to her person. Spies were set to watch for this even; they burst into her apartment. What she had done was construed into no less offence than that of a relapsed heretic. There was no more pardon for such confirmed delinquency. She was brought out to be burned alive; in the market place of Rouen, and she died embracing a crucifix, and in her last moments calling upon the name of Jesus. A few days more than twelve months had elapsed between the period of her first captivity and her execution."