JOAN OF ARC. 373 of her burning that morning. She was overcome with terror, threw herself on the ground, tore her hair and uttered piercing shrieks, declaring, as she grew calmer, that it would not have hap- pened had she been placed m an ecclesiastical prison, which was an admission that only the brutality of her dungeon had led her to revoke her abjuration. She confessed to PAdvenu and asked for the sacrament. He was puzzled and sent for instructions to Cauchon, who gave permission, and it was brought to her with all due solemnity. It has been mistakenly argued that this was an admission of her innocence, but the sacrament was never to be denied to a relapsed who asked for it at the last moment, the mere asking, preceded by confession, being an evidence of contri- tion and desire for reunion to the Church.* The platform for the sermon and the pile for the execution had been erected in the Yiel Marehe. Thither she was conveyed amid a surging crowd which blocked the streets. It is related that on the way Nicholas TOyseleur, the wretched spy, pierced the crowd and the guards and leaped upon the tumbril to entreat her for- giveness, but before she could grant it the English dragged him off and would have slain him had not Warwick rescued him and sent him out of Rouen to save his life. On the platform Nicholas Midi preached his sermon, the sentence of relaxation was read, and Joan was handed over to the secular authorities. Cauchon, le Maitre, and the rest left the platform, and the Bailli of Rouen took her and briefly ordered her to be carried to the place of exe- cution and burned. It has been assumed that there was an infor- mality in not having her sentenced by a secular court, but this, as we have seen, was unnecessary, especially in the case of a relapsed. On her head was placed a high paper crown inscribed " Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, Idolator," and she was carried to the stake. One account states that her shrieks and lamentations moved the crowd to tears of pity ; another that she was resigned and com- posed, and that her last utterance was a prayer. When her clothes
- Le Brun de Charmettes, IV. 180-4.— L'Averdy, p. 488, 493 sqq.
A week after Joan's execution a statement was drawn up by seven of those present in her cell to the effect that she acknowledged that her Voices had de- ceived her and begged pardon ot the English and Burgundians for the evil she had done them, but this is evidently manufactured evidence, and does not even bear a notarial attestation.— Le Brun de Charmettes, IV. 220-5.
