was regarded as one who could no longer provoke jealousy.  Jealousy is a devouring passion, especially among nobles.  The generals of Charles VII. could not bear to have it said that the rescue of France was effected, not by their abilities, but by the inspired enthusiasm of a peasant girl.  She had scorned intrigues and baseness, and these marked all the great actors on the stage of history in that age.  So they said it was a judgment of Heaven upon her because she would not hear counsel.  “No offer for her ransom, no threats of vengeance came from beyond the Loire.”  But the English, who had suffered most from the loss of Orleans, were eager to get possession of her person, and were willing even to pay extravagant rewards for her delivery into their hands.  They had their vengeance to gratify.  They also wished it to appear that Charles VII. was aided by the Devil; that his cause was not the true one; that Henry VI. was the true sovereign of France.  The more they could throw discredit and obloquy upon the Maid of Orleans, the better their cause would seem.  It was not as a prisoner of war that the English wanted her, but as a victim, whose sorceries could only be punished by death.  But they could not try her and condemn her until they could get possession of her; and they could not get possession of her unless they bought her.  The needy John of Luxemburg sold her to the English for ten thousand livres, and the Duke of Burgundy received political favors.

The agent employed by the English in this nefarious business was Couchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, who had been driven out of his city by Joan,—­an able and learned man, who aspired to the archbishopric of Rouen.  He set to work to inflame the University of Paris and the Inquisition against her.  The Duke of Bedford did not venture to bring his prize to Paris, but determined to try her in Rouen; and the trial was intrusted to the Bishop of Beauvais, who conducted it after the forms of the Inquisition.  It was simply a trial for heresy.

Joan tried for heresy!  On that ground there was never a more innocent person tried by the Inquisition.  Her whole life was notoriously virtuous.  She had been obedient to the Church; she had advanced no doctrines which were not orthodox.  She was too ignorant to be a heretic; she had accepted whatever her spiritual teacher had taught her; in fact, she was a Catholic saint.  She lived in the ecstasies of religious faith like a Saint Theresa.  She spent her time in prayer and religious exercises; she regularly confessed, and partook of the sacraments of the Church.  She did not even have a single sceptical doubt; she simply affirmed that she obeyed voices that came from God.