THE BISHOP OF BEAUVAIS AND JOAN OF ARC

THOMAS DE QUINCEY

THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859) was an eminent English essayist noted for his imaginative and impassioned style.

NOTE.

The story of Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who saved France, is a familiar one. After she had succeeded in her efforts to establish 5 King Charles the Seventh upon his throne she was taken prisoner and sold to the English. In January, 1431, she was tried before a court of churchmen and, being condemned as a heretic, was burned at the stake in the market place of Rouen.

Bishop of Beauvais! thy victim died in fire upon a 10 scaffold — thou upon a down bed. But for the departing minutes of life both are often alike. At the farewell crisis, when the gates of death are opening and flesh is resting from its struggles, oftentimes the tortured and the torturer have the same truce from carnal torment; both 15 sink together into sleep; together both sometimes kindle into dreams. When the mortal mists were gathering fast upon you two, bishop and shepherd girl, - when the pavilions of life were closing up their shadowy curtains about you,-let us try, through the gigantic glooms, to 20 decipher the flying features of your separate visions.

The shepherd girl that had delivered France - she from her dungeon, she from her baiting at the stake, she from her duel with fire, as she entered her last dream saw Domrémy, saw the fountain of Domrémy, saw the pomp

of forests in which her childhood had wandered. That Easter festival which man had denied to her languishing heart, that resurrection of springtime which the darkness of dungeons had intercepted from her, hungering after the glorious liberty of forests, were by God given back into 5 her hands, as jewels that had been stolen from her by robbers. With those, perhaps (for the minutes of dreams can stretch into ages), was given back to her by God the bliss of childhood. By special privilege, for her might be created in this farewell dream a second childhood, inno- 10 cent as the first; but not, like that, sad with the gloom of a fearful mission in the rear. This mission had now been fulfilled. The storm was weathered, the skirts even of that mighty storm were drawing off. The blood that she was to reckon for had been exacted; the tears that 15 she was to shed in secret had been paid to the last. The hatred to herself in all eyes had been faced steadily, had been suffered, had been survived.

Bishop of Beauvais ! because the guilt-burdened man is in dreams haunted and waylaid by the most frightful of 20 his crimes, and because upon that fluctuating mirror, rising from the fens of death, most of all are reflected the sweet countenances which the man has laid in ruins, therefore I know, bishop, that you also, entering your final dream, saw Domrémy. That fountain of which the wit- 25 nesses spoke so much showed itself to your eyes in pure morning dews; but neither dews nor the holy dawn could

cleanse away the bright spots of innocent blood upon its surface. By the fountain, bishop, you saw a woman seated, that hid her face. But as you draw near, the woman raises her wasted features. Would Domrémy know them 5 again for the features of her child? Ah, but you know them, bishop, well! Oh, mercy! what a groan was that which the servants, waiting outside the bishop's dream at his bedside, heard from his laboring heart, as at this moment he turned away from the fountain and the woman, 10 seeking rest in the forests afar off. Yet not so to escape the woman, whom once again he must behold before he dies. In the forests to which he prays for pity, will he find a respite? What a tumult, what a gathering of feet is there! In glades where only wild deer should run 15 armies and nations are assembling; towering in the fluctuating crowd are phantoms that belong to departed hours. There is the great English prince, regent of France. There is my lord of Winchester, the princely cardinal that died and made no sign. There is the bishop of Beauvais, 20 clinging to the shelter of thickets. What building is that which hands so rapid are raising? Is it a martyr's scaffold? Will they burn the child of Domrémy a second time? No; it is a tribunal that rises to the clouds; and two nations stand around it waiting for a trial. Shall my lord 25 of Beauvais sit again upon the judgment seat and again number the hours for the innocent? Ah! no; he is the prisoner at the bar. Already all is waiting; the mighty

audience is gathered, the Court are hurrying to their seats, the witnesses are arrayed, the trumpets are sounding, the judge is taking his place. Oh! but this is sudden. My lord, have you no counsel? "Counsel I have none; in 5 heaven above, or on earth beneath, counselor there is none now that would take a brief from me; all are silent." Is it indeed come to this? Alas! the time is short, the tumult is wondrous, the crowd stretches away into infinity; but yet I will search in it for somebody to take your 10 brief: I know of somebody that will be your counsel. Who is this that cometh from Domrémy? Who is she that cometh with blackened flesh from walking the furnaces of Rouen? This is she, the shepherd girl, counselor that had none for herself, whom I choose, bishop, for yours. She 15 it is, I engage, that shall take my lord's brief. She it is, bishop, that would plead for you: yes, bishop, SHE -— when heaven and earth are silent.

Beauvais (bō-vā'): Cauchon (kō-shoN'), a disgraced bishop of Beauvais, was promised a vacant bishopric if he would undertake the trial of Joan (jōn) of Arc. - Rouen (roo-ŎN'): a city of France on the Seine. -baiting: tormenting. The word bait meant originally "to cause to bite.” — Domrémy (don ́re-mē): the little French village where Joan of Arc was born. prince regent: the Duke of Bedford, who ruled England at this time, the king being only ten years old. - Winchester: Henry Beaufort (bū' fort), an ambitious politician. — made no sign: see Act III, Scene III, line 29, of the second part of Shakespeare's "King Henry the Sixth.” - brief: the statement of a client's case, often used, in legal phrase, for the case itself.