D’Aulon’s evidence is one of the most complete of the entire set of testimonies.  It was given, not at Rouen, but at Lyons, in 1456, before the Vice-Inquisitor, John Despres.

His depositions are remarkable in this, that, unlike those of the other witnesses, they are recorded in French, and not in Latin.

Next to d’Aulon succeeds, in the chain of witnesses, Simon Beaucroix, aged fifty.  Simon was a youth at Chinon when Joan of Arc came there.  Beaucroix’s evidence is followed by that of John Luillier, a citizen of Orleans.  He bore evidence to the immense popularity of the Maid during and after the siege of Orleans.  At the time of the trial of rehabilitation Luillier was fifty.  To the part played by the Maid at the siege of his native town he speaks thus:—­

’As to the question you put me, whether I think the siege of Orleans was raised and the town saved from the enemy by the intervention and the ministration (ministere) of the Maid, even more than by the force of arms, this is my answer:  All my fellow citizens, as well as I myself, believe that had the Maid not come there by the will of God to our rescue, we should very soon, both town and people, have been in the power of the besiegers.  It is my belief,’ he adds, ’that it was impossible for the people of Orleans and for the army present at Orleans to have held out much longer against the superior strength of the enemy.’

More people from Orleans next gave their evidence:  viz.  William le Charron, John Volant, William Postian, Denis Roger, James de Thou, John Canelier, Aignan de Saint-Mesmin, John Hilaire, Jacques l’Esbalny, Cosme de Commy, John de Champcoux, Peter Hue, Peter Jonqualt, John Aubert, William Rouillart, Gentien Cabu, Peter Vaillant, John Beaucharnys, John Coulon.  All these men were burghers of the town, and their ages varied between forty and seventy.  All agreed with Luillier in their belief that, under God, it was Joan of Arc who rescued their city from the English.

Following these men we now come to the evidence of some of the women who had seen or known the heroine.  First of these is Joan, wife of Gilles de Saint-Mesmin, aged seventy.  She says:  ’The general opinion was and is still at Orleans that Joan was a good Catholic—­simple, humble, and of a holy life.’  Such, too, is the opinion of Joan, the wife of Guy Boyleau, and of Guillemette, wife of John de Coulon; also of the widow of John de Mouchy.  All these agree with the first lady’s testimony.

We have next the evidence of the daughter of James Boucher, the treasurer of Orleans, at whose house Joan of Arc lodged while in Orleans.  Charlotte Boucher had married William Houet.  When her deposition was taken in 1456 she was thirty-six years old, and consequently only nine when Joan lodged at her father’s house.  However, young as she was then, the visit of the Maid had left a great memory behind; she had been Joan’s bed-fellow.