Beaurevoir is now a ruin:  although above the lintel can still be seen the coat-of-arms of the jailer of the Maid, the tower in which she was imprisoned, and from which she so nearly met her death, has been destroyed.

In the month of November of that year (1430), in spite of the entreaties of his wife and aunt, Ligny delivered up his prisoner into the custody of the Duke of Burgundy, from whose keeping she was soon transferred into that of the English.

On the 20th of November the University of Paris sent a message to Cauchon, advising him to bring Joan of Arc before a tribunal.  Cauchon, however, waited the arrival of Winchester, bringing with him his great-nephew, Henry VI.  Winchester arrived with the boy-king on the 2nd of December.  The Cardinal intended the function of the crowning of his great-nephew to be as imposing a ceremony as possible; and he also meant, by defaming the source of the French King’s successes, to show the French people that Charles’ coronation at Rheims had been brought about by what the Regent Bedford called a ’limb of the evil one.’  It was, therefore, Bedford’s plan that it should be declared before the world that Joan of Arc was inspired by Satanic agencies, and that consequently the French King’s coronation was also due to these agencies.  By similar means it would be made clear that all the French victories were owing to the same influence; for were it not, argued the English, they would be proved to have been themselves fighting against and defeated by—­not the spirit of evil but—­the spirit of righteousness.

Nothing, indeed, could be clearer than Winchester’s argument.  It was now only necessary that Joan of Arc should be at once placed on her trial as a sorceress and a witch—­one who was in league with the evil one; and, when that had been satisfactorily proved, that she should publicly meet with the fate which a merciful Church had, in its infinite wisdom, ordained for such as she.  Thus would the English army and people be avenged, and the French King’s crown and prerogative suffer an irreparable damage.

From Beaurevoir, Joan of Arc was first taken to the town of Arras, thence to Crotoy, where, about the 21st of November, she was handed over to the English.

A chronicler of that day writes that the English rejoiced as greatly on that occasion as if they had received all the wealth of Lombardy.  The Duke of Burgundy had never merited the title of ‘Good,’ which, somehow or other, has been linked with his name.  Had he been the most virtuous of princes of any time, he yet deserves to have his memory branded for the part he then took in the sale of Joan of Arc—­a transaction whereof the poor excuse of not losing the benefits of his alliance with the English avails nothing.  For this, if nothing else, we reverse the good fame which lying history has accorded him.