was performed with complete success, and Joan herself entered the beleaguered city on the 29th April. Anxious to raise the siege, if possible, without bloodshed, she sent repeated warnings to the besiegers to depart, under pain of vengeance from heaven; but, as might have been expected, they answered only with scoffs and ribaldry. On the 4th of May a part of the garrison made a sally against the English bastile of St. Loup, but were driven back. Joan heard the noise of the fray, and galloping to the spot, plunged headlong into the thickest of the fight, and leading the troops on to a second onset, succeeded in storming the bastile. The remaining bastiles on the southern bank of the Loire were carried by assault on the 6th and 7th of May, and the garrisons put to the sword, and on the 8th the English generals, dispirited by these defeats, and finding that their troops were panic-stricken at the approach of "the sorceress," as they termed her, raised the siege and retreated to Mehun-sur-Loire. The anniversary of this deliverance is still held sacred at Orleans. Having thus achieved the first part of her promise, the relief of Orleans, Joan hastened to Tours, where Charles was now residing, and urged him to undertake at once the expedition to Rheims. It was deemed necessary, however, in the first instance, to reduce the other posts which the English still held on the Loire. Jargeau was stormed, Joan as usual leading the assault with indomitable courage, and Beaugency and Mehun were surrendered without resistance. The remainder of the English array under Talbot retreated towards the Seine, but was overtaken near the village of Patay, 18th June, and so terror-struck were the troops at the idea of the Maid's supernatural power, that they fled almost without striking a blow. The brave Talbot himself was taken prisoner, and upwards of two thousand men were killed in the pursuit. Joan now renewed her entreaty that the king should set forth to be crowned at Rheims, though that city and every other stronghold on the way was still in the hands of the enemy. And Charles, indisposed as he was to personal exertion, was compelled to yield to the solicitations of his benefactor, supported as they were by the popular voice and the wishes of his troops. Difficulties and perils seemed to vanish at the approach of the Maid. Troyes, Chalons, and Rheims in succession opened their gates as if in concert to welcome their king. On the 16th of July Charles made a triumphal entry into the city of Rheims, and on the following day was solemnly crowned in its cathedral, his deliverer standing by his side before the high altar during the ceremony with her banner unfurled in her hand. Joan now regarded her mission as accomplished, and asked the king to "allow her to return to her father and mother to keep her flocks and herds as before, and do all things as she was wont to do." But Charles and his captains, though they did not themselves credit her divine commission, were well aware of her influence over the soldiers and the people, and by their urgent entreaties induced her to remain. Laon and other strong towns opened their gates to the king; but the army was repulsed in an attack upon Paris, and the Maid was severely wounded. She once more determined to retire from the contest, but was again induced by renewed entreaties to lay aside her resolution. Charles, in the midst of his successes, led back his troops into winter quarters, and by his supineness lost a most favourable opportunity of completing his triumph. Joan spent the winter at the court in Bourges or its neighbourhood, and in December received from the king letters patent of nobility to herself and her family. Her birthplace was at her request also declared to be exempted in future from any kind of impost, a privilege which it retained for more than three centuries. At the return of spring, 1430, the French army again took the field. Joan displayed her accustomed bravery in several skirmishes, and on the 21st of May threw herself into the fortress of Compiègne, which was besieged by the duke of Burgundy. In a sally which was made on the evening of her arrival she was taken prisoner—there is reason to believe through the treachery of the governor, Guillaume de Flavy, a brave but harsh and savage officer, who envied her renown. After having been transferred in succession to several prisons, Joan was sold by John of Luxemburg for 10,000 livres to the English, by whom she was treated with great cruelty, and ultimately brought to trial on a charge of witchcraft before an ecclesiastical tribunal presided over by Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, a base and cruel priest, and by Jean Lemaitre, vicar-general of the inquisition. The whole proceedings were of the most infamous character, and the condemnation of the unfortunate girl was determined beforehand. She displayed in her defence, not only a courageous spirit, but remarkable discretion and good sense. She was of course found guilty of sorcery and heresy in May, 1431, and having under the terror of death signed a formula of abjuration, she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, "with the bread of grief and the water of anguish for her food." The object of these proceedings was to degrade her in public opinion, and then to find a pretext for putting her to death. By some means or other, by fraud or violence, she was induced to clothe herself in a suit of men's apparel, and was in consequence pronounced a heretic relapsed, and condemned to death. On the 30th of May she was burned alive in the market-place of Rouen, protesting to the last that her voices were unfeigned, and that in obeying them she had obeyed the will of God. The infamous treatment of this noble-minded, generous, courageous, patriotic, and devoted woman, reflects deep disgrace on all parties connected with it—the English authorities, the renegade Frenchmen, her judges and accusers, and on the king of France, who immersed in his voluptuous pleasures, made no effort to save the subject to whom he was so deeply indebted. Her father died of grief at the tidings of her cruel fate; her mother survived for many years, and was supported by a pension from the city of Orleans. The memory of the Maid of Orleans and her noble deeds was long cherished by the French people, and her story has been the theme of many a poet in England and Germany, as well as in France. It is a curious fact that an impostor, who pretended to be Joan of Arc escaped from her captivity, was acknowledged so early as 1436, by many and even by Joan's brothers as the heroine of Orleans.—J. T.
JOAN or JEANNE D'ALBRET, Queen of Navarre, born at Pau, 7th January, 1528, was the only daughter of John II., king of Navarre, and of Marguerite of France. John, though nominally, was scarcely territorially king of Navarre. He possessed, however. Lower Navarre, Bearn, the counties of Foix, d'Albret, Armagnac, and other extensive seigneuries. Charles V. coveted these provinces, which would have opened his way into France; and proposed to acquire them by wedding his son Philip II. to Joan the heiress. Francis I., her uncle, entered his protest against the scheme and affianced Joan to John, duke of Cleves. The scheme of Francis, however, was also unsuccessful. Joan appeared at the court of France, and was soon famed for her wit and beauty. Admirers flocked round the young princess, who appears to have made her own selection. She fixed on Antoine de Bourbon, duke of Vendôme, and married him at Moulins in 1548. At that period, says Brantome, "she loved a ball as much as a sermon," and counselled her husband, who was inclined to Calvinism, to let the new opinions alone. Her indifference, however, did not last long. Joan was soon distinguished for the grasp of her understanding, her knowledge of public affairs, and the invincible heart that could meet adversity. At the death of her father she was at the French court, and only took possession of her estates against the orders of the king of France, who wished to acquire Bearn. Her first step was to protect her subjects against religious persecution; and so energetic was she in her hostility to the inquisition that the pope went the length of assigning her kingdom to Philip II. of Spain. Joan now embraced protestantism, and had to defend herself against the Guises, the court of Spain, and the court of Rome. To add to her troubles, when she turned to protestantism her husband returned to Romanism, was appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and was carried off from the effects of a fatal wound received at the siege of Rouen. She now became the special object of persecution, and was threatened with the loss of all she possessed, if in the course of six months she did not seek absolution. In August, 1555, Joan at Nerac received a visit from the king of France and Catherine de Medicis. For the sake of peace she consented to the reintroduction of the mass in her states. In 1567, on the demand of the estates of Bearn, she established Calvinism throughout her kingdom. In the wars that followed she occupied a place of no small note. "The service of God and the progress of the Reformation"—such were now her main thoughts and most constant watchwords. She harangued the Huguenots and presented to them her son, the young Henry of Bearn. She took an oath and called on them also to take an oath "on soul, honour, and life," never to abandon the cause. In a political sense the cause was not successful; but the peace of St. Germain-en-Laye suspended for a time the massacres carried on in the name of religion. She gave an unwilling consent to the marriage of her son with
