Joint of Arc and Bluebeard. whom Joan had given a crown, nor his generals, whom she had led to victory time and again, did aught to succor or rescue her; twice, however, had she well-nigh es caped her English enemies. Once she suc ceeded in bolting her guards into her cell at Beaulieu, but, alas, was spied and caught by the porter; and afterwards, in despair, when she knew she was to be handed over to the English, she jumped from the wall of Beaurevoir. The shock stunned her, and when she came to her senses again her enemies had her safe. Joan's first experience of the law was when, at the early age of sweet sixteen, she appeared as a defendant in a breach of promise case. An honest citizen of Toul had sought her in marriage, and her parents favored his suit; but her " heavenly voices" told her that God had destined her for higher things than to be wedded to a clown, so she was resolved to remain a virgin until her work was done, and refused to listen to her suitor. He, backed by her parents, cited her before the judge at Toul, to compel her to fulfill the marriage promises made, as he asserted, years before. This " mar velous child" (as the judge called her), was nothing daunted, but trudged bravely the seventeen miles from her village home in Domremy to the place of trial, whither her neighbors had flocked to hear the evi dence. (Such trials were as interesting to the men and women of the fifteenth century as to those of the nineteenth.) Joan's " voices" promised her success, so she had no counselto help her; she herself cross-questioned the too ardent lover and riddled to pieces his evidence of the betrothal and promise of marriage, then gave her own testimony under oath, modestly, calmly and easily. Counsel for the poor man sought to address the court, but the judge refused to listen, dis missed the case and complimented the Maid upon her wisdom and tact. ( En passant we may say that actions for breach of promise or contract of marriage
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brought by the deluded man against the designing woman were not unknown in Eng land in those early days. The records tell of a poor law-student who complained that he was asked to take to wife one Elizabeth Morgan, with whom he should have in hand one hundred marks in ready money; that upon such promises he resorted to the said Elizabeth to his great cost and charges, and delivered to her many tokens; and he sought the aid of the court to have these tokens back again, and to have full recompense for the great cost and charges to which he had been put through his manifold journeys taken to visit her. Men can never hope for justice when plaintiffs in such actions, unless and until the judges are women, the coun sel, Portias, and the jurymen are all Graces and Muses.) Speedily after the English had obtained her, poor Joan was taken to Rouen for trial. Here she was confined in a tower of the citadel, in a room but 'feebly lighted by a slit in the twelve-foot wall just wide enough ' to shoot an arrow through. Her enemies, not content with her being shut up within this somber mass of masonry, and watched by half a dozen common soldiers, had her feet chained and fastened to her bed. An iron cage was provided in which to keep her sitting upright chained by neck, hands and feet, but it is not in evidence that this j dreadful machine was used. She was ever subject to the taunts and insults of her watchers; at times assaults were made upon her honor, and once the English Earl of Stafford drew his dagger to kill her. Again and again she pleaded to be taken to an ecclesiastical prison, where at least her honor would be safe. The wretched girl deemed the male attire she wore her best protection against outrage. Canchón claimed jurisdiction over Joan, as she was taken prisoner within his diocese. Strictly he could only sit in judgment in his own territory, and this he dare not attempt as Beativais was in the hands of the French
