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The fortunes of the dauphin Charles at this time had sunk to the lowest ebb; Orleans, almost his last bulwark, was besieged and closely pressed, and the loss of the battle of Herrings' seemed to take away all hope of saving the city from the English. In this crisis, when all human support seemed unavailing, Baudricourt no longer despised the supernatural aid promised by the damsel of Domremy, and gave permission to John of Metz and Bertram of Poulengy, two gentlemen who had become converts to the truth of her divine mission, to conduct Joan of Arc to the dauphin. They purchased a horse for her, and, at her own desire, furnished her with male habits, and other necessary equipments. Thus provided, and accompanied by a respectable escort, Joan set out from Vaucouleurs on the 13th of February, 1429. Her progress, through regions attached to the Burgundian interest, was perilous, but she safely arrived at Fierbois, a place within five or six leagues of Chinon, where the dauphin, then held his court. At Fierbois was a celebrated church dedicated to St. Catherine, and here she spent her time in devotion, whilst a messenger was despatched to the dauphin to announce her approach. She was commanded to proceed, and reached Chinon on the eleventh day after her departure from Vaucouleurs.

Charles, though he desired, still feared to accept the proffered aid, Because he knew that the instant ery of his enemies would be, that he had put his faith in sorcery, and had leagued himself with the infernal powers. In consequence of this, Joan encountered every species of distrust. She was not even admitted to the dauphin's presence without difficulty, and was required to recognize Charles amidst all his court; this Joan happily was able to do, as well as to gain the good opinion of the young monarch by the simplicity of her demeanour. Nevertheless, the prince proceeded to take every precaution before he openly trusted her. He first handed her over to a commission of ecclesiastics, to be examined; then sent her for the same purpose to Poictiers, a great law-school, that the doctors of both faculties might solemnly decide whether Joan's mission was from heaven or from the devil; for none believed it to be merely human. The greatest guarantee against sorcery was considered to be the chastity of the young girl, it being an axiom, that the devil would not or could not take part with a virgin; and no pains were spared to ascertain her true character in this respect. In short, the utmost incredulity could not have laboured harder to find out imposture, than did the credulity of that day to establish its grounds of belief. Joan was-frequently asked to do miracles, but her only reply was, 'Bring me to Orleans, and you shall see. The siege shall be raised, and the dauphin crowned king at Rheims.' They at length granted her request, and she received the rank of a military commander. A suit of armour was made for her, and she sent to Fierbois for a sword, which she said would be found buried in a certain spot within the church. It was found there, and conveyed to her. The circumstance became afterwards one of the alleged

proofs of her sorcery or imposture. Her having passed some time at Fierbois amongst the ecclesiastics of the place must have led, in some way or other, to her knowledge of the deposit. Strong in the conviction of her mission, it was Joan's desire to enter Orleans from the north, and through all the fortifications of the English. Dunois, however, and the other leaders, at length overruled her, and induced her to abandon the little company of pious companions which she had raised, and to enter the beleaguered city by water, as the least perilous path. She succeeded in carrying with her a convoy of provisions to the besieged. The entry of Joan of Arc into Orleans, at the end of April, was itself a triumph. The hearts of the besieged were raised from despair to a fanatical confidence of success; and the English, who in every encounter had defeated the French, felt their courage paralyzed by the coming of this simple girl. Joan announced her arrival to the foe by a herald, bearing a summons to the English generals to be gone from the land, or she, the Pucelle, would slay them. The indignation of the English was increased by their terror; they detained the herald, and threatened to burn him, as a specimen of the treatment which they reserved for his mistress. But in the mean time the English, either from being under the influence of terror, or through some unaccountable want of precaution, allowed the armed force raised and left behind by Joan, to reach Orleans unmolested, traversing their entrenchments. Such being the state of feeling on both sides, Joan's ardour impelled her to take advantage of it. Under her banner, and cheered by her presence, the besieged marched to the attack of the English forts one after another. The first carried was that of St. Loup, to the east of Orleans. It was valiantly defended by the English, who, when attacked, fought desperately; but the soldiers of the Pucelle were invincible. On the following day, the 6th of May, Joan, after another summons to the English, signed 'Jhesus Maria and Jehanne la Pucelle," renewed the attack upon the other forts. The French being compelled to make a momentary retreat, the English took courage, and pursued their enemies: whereupon Joan, throwing herself into a boat, crossed the river, and her appearance was sufficient to frighten the English from the open field. Behind their ramparts they were still, however, formidable; and the attack led by Joan against the works to the south of the city is the most memorable achievement of the siege. After cheering on her people for some time, she had seized a scaling-ladder, when an English arrow struck her between the breast and shoulder, and threw her into the fosse. When her followers took her aside, she showed at first some feminine weakness, and wept; but seeing that her standard was in danger, she forgot her wound, and ran back to seize it. The French at the same time pressed hard upon the enemy, whose strong hold was carried by assault. The English commander, Gladesdall, or Glacidas, as Joan called him, perished with his bravest soldiers in the Loire. The English now determined to raise the siege, and Sunday being

mander, John of Luxemburg. Her capture appears, from the records of the Parisian parliament, to have taken place on the 23d of May, 1430.

the day of their departure, Joan forbade her sol- | officers, who gave her up to the Burgundian comdiers to molest their retreat. Thus in one week from her arrival at Orleans was the beleaguered city relieved of its dreadful foe, and the Pucelle, henceforth called the Maid of Orleans, had redeemed the most incredible and important of her promises.

No sooner was Orleans freed from the enemy, than Joan returned to the court, to entreat Charles to place forces at her disposal, that she might reduce the towns between the Loire and Rheims, where she proposed to have him speedily crowned. Her projects were opposed by the ministers and warriors of the court, who considered it more politic to drive the English from Normandy than to harass the Burgundians, or to make sacrifices for the idle ceremony of a coronation; but her earnest solicitations prevailed, and early in June she attacked the English at Jargeau. They made a desperate resistance, and drove the French before them, till the appearance of Joan chilled the stout hearts of the English soldiers. One of the Poles was killed, and another, with Suffolk the commander of the town, was taken prisoner. This success was followed by a victory at Patay, in which the English were beaten by a charge of Joan, and the gallant Talbot himself taken prisoner. No force seemed able to withstand the Maid of Orleans. The strong town of Troyes, which might have repulsed the weak and starving army of the French, was terrified into surrender by the sight of her banner; and Rheims itself followed the example. In the middle of July, only three months after Joan had come to the relief of the sinking party of Charles, this prince was crowned in the cathedral consecrated to this ceremony, in the midst of the dominions of his enemies. Well might an age even more advanced than the fifteenth century believe, that superhu- | man interference manifested itself in the deeds of Joan.

As soon as Joan was conveyed to John of Luxemburg's fortress at Beaurevoir, near Cambray, cries of vengeance were heard among the Anglican partizans in France. The English themselves were not foremost in this unworthy zeal. Joan, after having made a vain attempt to escape by leaping from the top of the donjon at Beaurevoir, was at length handed over to the English partizans, and conducted to Rouen. The University of Paris called loudly for the trial of Joan, and several letters are extant, in which that body reproaches the bishop of Beauvais and the English with their tardiness in delivering up the Pucelle to justice.

The zeal of the University was at length satisfied by letters patent from the king of England and France, authorizing the trial of the Pucelle, but stating in plain terms that it was at the demand of public opinion, and at the especial request of the bishop of Beauvais and of the University of Paris,-expressions which, taken in connection with the delay in issuing the letters, sufficiently prove the reluctance of the English council to sanction the extreme measure of vengeance. After several months' interrogatories, the judges who conducted the trial drew from her confessions the articles of accusation: these asserted that Joan pretended to have had visions from the time when she was thirteen years old: to have been visited by the archangels Gabriel and Michael, the saints Catharine and Margaret, and to have been accompanied by these celestial beings to the presence of the Dauphin Charles; that she pretended to know St. Michael from St. Gabriel, and St. Catharine from St. Margaret; that she pretended to reveal the future; and had assumed male attire by the order of God. Upon these charges her accusers wished to convict her of sorcery. Moreover, they drew from her answers, that she de

whenever her voices told her the contrary. This was declared to be heresy and schism, and to merit the punishment of fire.

These articles were dispatched to the University of Paris, and all the faculties agreed in condemn

Some historians relate that, immediately after the coronation, the Maid of Orleans expressed to the king her wish to retire to her family at Dom-clined to submit to the ordinances of the church remy; but there is little proof of such a resolution on her part. In September of the same year, we find her holding a command in the royal army, which had taken possession of St. Denis, where she hung up her arms in the cathedral. Soon after, the French generals compelled her to joining such acts and opinions, as impious, diabolical, in an attack upon Paris, in which they were repulsed with great loss, and Joan herself was pierced through the thigh with an arrow. It was the first time that a force in which she served had suffered defeat. Charles immediately retired once more to the Loire, and there are few records of Joan's exploits during the winter. About this time a royal edict was issued, ennobling her family, and the district of Domremy was declared free from all tax or tribute. In the ensuing spring, the English and Burgundians formed the siege of Compiegne; and Joan threw herself into the town to preserve it, as she had before saved Orleans, from their assaults. She had not been many hours in it when she headed a sally against the Burgundian quarters, in which she was taken by some

and heretical. This judgment came back to Rouen, but it appears that many of the assessors were unwilling that Joan should be condemned; and even the English in authority seemed to think imprisonment a sufficient punishment. The truth is, that Joan was threatened with the stake unless she submitted to the church, as the phrase then was, that is, acknowledged her visions to be false, forswore male habits and arms, and owned herself to have been wrong. Every means were used to induce her to submit, but in vain. At length she was brought forth on a public scaffold at Rouen, and the bishop of Beauvais proceeded to read the sentence of condemnation, which was to be followed by burning at the stake. Whilst it was reading, every exhortation was used, and Joan's

courage for once failing, she gave utterance to words of contrition, and expressed her willingness to submit, and save herself from the flames. A written form of confession was instantly produced, and read to her, and Joan, not knowing how to write, signed it with a cross. Her sentence was commuted to perpetual imprisonment, to the bread of grief and the water of anguish.' She was borne back from the scaffold to prison; whilst those who had come to see the sight displayed the usual disappointment of unfeeling crowds, and even threw stones in their anger.

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When brought back to her prison, Joan submitted to all that had been required of her, and assumed her female dress; but when two days had elapsed, and when, in the solitude of her prison, the young heroine recalled this last scene of weakness, forming such a contrast with the glorious feats of her life, remorse and shame took possession of her, and her religious enthusiasm returned in all its ancient force. She heard her voices reproaching her, and under this impulse she seized the male attire, which had been perfidiously left within her reach, put it on, and avowed her altered mind, her resumed belief, her late visions, and her resolve no longer to belie the powerful impulses under which she had acted. 'What I resolved,' said she, I resolved against truth. Let me suffer my sentence at once, rather than endure what I suffer in prison.'

The bishop of Beauvais knew that if Joan were once out of the power of the court that tried her, the chapter of Rouen, who were somewhat favourably disposed, would not again give her up to punishment; and fears were entertained that she might ultimately be released, and gain new converts. It was resolved, therefore, to make away with her at once, and the crime of relapse was considered sufficient. A pile of wood was prepared in the old market at Rouen, and scaffolds placed round it for the judges and ecclesiastics: Joan was brought out on the last day of May, 1431; she wept piteously, and showed the same weakness as when she first beheld the stake. But now no mercy was shown. They placed on her head the cap used to mark the victims of the Inquisition, and the fire soon consumed the unfortunate Joan of Arc. When the pile had burned out, all the ashes were gathered and thrown into the Seine.

It is difficult to say to what party most disgrace attaches on account of this barbarous murder: whether to the Burgundians, who sold the Maid of Orleans; the English, who permitted her execution; the French, of that party who brought it about and perpetrated it; or the French, of the opposite side, who made so few efforts to rescue her to whom they owed their liberation and their national existence. The story of the Maid of Orleans is, throughout, disgraceful to every one, friend and foe; it forms one of the greatest blots and one of the most curious enigmas in historic record. It has sometimes been suggested that she was merely a tool in the hands of the priests; but this supposition will hardly satisfy those who read with attention the history of Joan of Arc.

No scrutiny has ever detected imposture or artifice in her. Enthusiasm possessed her, yet it was the lofty sentiment of patriotic zeal; not a particle of selfish ambition shadowed her bright path of victory and fame. She seemed totally devoid of vanity, and showed in all her actions as much good sense, prudence, firmness, and resolution, as exalted religious zeal and knowledge of the art of war. Her purity of life and manners was never doubted. During all the time she was with the army, she retired, as soon as night came, to the part of the camp allotted to females. She confessed and communed often, and would never allow a profane word to be uttered in her presence. She always tried to avoid the great deference paid to her; and when, at one time, a crowd of women pressed around her, offering her different objects to touch and bless, she said laughingly to them, "Touch them yourselves; it will do just as well." And yet she would never allow the slightest familiarity from any one. Not the least remarkable part of her character was the influence she invariably acquired over all with whom she was brought into contact. Her personal attractions were very great.

The works on the subject of Joan of Arc are very numerous. M. Chaussard enumerates upwards of four hundred, either expressly devoted to her life or including her history. Her adventures form the subject of Voltaire's poem of La Pucelle, and of a tragedy by Schiller; but perhaps the best production of the kind is Mr. Southey's poem bearing her name.

ARCHIDAMIA,

THE daughter of king Eleonymas of Sparta, was famed for her patriotism and her courage. When Pyrrhus marched against Lacedemon, it was resolved by the Senate that all the women should be sent out of the city; but Sparta's women would not listen to this proposition. Sword in hand, they entered with this leader Archidamia, the senate chamber, and administered to the city fathers a severe reproof for their want of confidence in woman's patriotism, and declared that they would not leave the city, nor survive its fall, if that should take place.

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the administration of his dominions, in which she acquitted herself very well, during the minority of her eleven children. From her came all the house of Este, which still subsists in the branch of the Dukes of Modena and of Rhegio. The author from whom I borrow this, observes, that Lippa Ariosta did more honour to her family, which is one of the noblest in Ferrara, than she had taken from it.

ARLOTTA,

A BEAUTIFUL Woman of Falaise, daughter of a tanner. She was seen, standing at her door, by Robert duke of Normandy, as he passed through the street; and he made her his mistress. She had by him William the Conqueror, who was born 1044. After Robert's death, she married Herluin, a Norman gentleman, by whom she had three children, for whom William honourably provided.

ARRIA,

WIFE of Cæcinna Pætus, a consul under Claudius, emperor of Rome in 41, is immortalized for her heroism and conjugal affection. Her son and husband were both dangerously ill at the same time; the former died; and she, thinking that in his weak state, Pætus could not survive a knowledge of the fatal event, fulfilled every mournful duty to her child in secret; but when she entered the chamber of her husband, concealed so effectually her anguish, that till his recovery Pætus had no suspicion of his loss.

Soon after, Pætus joined with Scribonius in exciting a revolt against Claudius in Illyria. They were unsuccessful, and Pætus was carried a prisoner to Rome, by sea. Arria, not being allowed to accompany him, hired a small bark, and followed him. On her arrival at Rome, she was met by the widow of Scribonius, who wished to speak to her.

"I speak to thee!" replied Arria, indignantly; "to thee, who hast been witness of thy husband's death, and yet survivest!"

She had herself determined that, if all her endeavours to save Pætus failed, she would die with him. Thraseus, her son-in-law, in vain combated her resolution. "Were I," said he, "in the situation of Pætus, would you have your daughter die with me?" "Certainly," answered she, "had she lived with you as long and as happily as I with Pætus."

Her husband was at length condemned to die, whether by his own hands or not is uncertain; if it were not so, he wished to avoid the punishment allotted to him, by a voluntary death; but at the moment wanted courage. Seeing his hesitation, Arria seized the dagger, plunged it first into her own breast, and then presenting it to her husband, said, with a smile, "It is not painful, Pætus."

The wife of Thraseus, and her daughter, who married Heloidius Priscus, inherited the sentiments and the fate of Arria.

Martial wrote a beautiful epigram on the subject of Arria's death, of which this is the translation:

"When to her husband Arria gave the steel,

Which from her chaste, her bleeding breast she drew; She said- My Pætus, this I do not feel,

But, oh! the wound that must be given by you!"

ATTENDULI,

MARGARET DE, a sister of the great Sforza, founder of the house of Sforza, dukes of Milan, was born about 1375, at Catignola, a small town in Italy. Her father was a day labourer; but after her brother James, under the name of Sforza, had made himself distinguished by his valour and skill, he sent for her to share his honours. She had married Michael de Catignola.

She seems to have shared her brother's heroic spirit; when James, count de la Marche, came to espouse Joanna II., queen of Naples, Sforza, then grand constable of Naples, was sent to meet him: but that prince threw him, his relations, and all his suite, into prison, thinking by this means to attain, more easily, the tyrannic power he afterwards assumed. When the news of Sforza's arrest arrived, Margaret, with her husband, and other relations who had served with honour in his troops, were at Tricarico. They assembled an army, of which Margaret took the command. The ill treatment Joanna experienced from her new husband, soon made the revolt general, and James was at length besieged in a castle, where the conditions proposed to him were, to be contented with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and give Sforza his liberty. Knowing the value of his hostage, James sent deputies to Margaret, menacing her brother with instant death, if Tricarico were not given up to him. Anxious for her brother, but indignant at the proposition, she immediately imprisoned the deputies, whose families, alarmed for their safety, ceased not to intercede, until the count consented to set Sforza and his friends at liberty, and to reinstate him in his former situation.

AYESHA,

THE second, and most beloved of all Mahomet's wives, was the daughter of Abubeker, the first caliph, and the successor of Mahomet. She was the only one of all his wives who had never been married to any other man; but she was only nine when she was espoused by him. She had no children; but his affection for her continued till death; and he expired in her arms. After his death, she was regarded with great veneration by the Mussulmen, as being filled with an extraordinary portion of Mahomet's spirit. They gave her the title of "Mother of the Faithful," and consulted her on important occasions. Ayesha entertained a strong aversion for the caliph Othman: and she had actually formed a plot to dethrone him, with the intention of placing in his stead her favourite Telha, when Othman was assassinated, by another enemy, in a sedition.

The succession of Ali was also strongly opposed by Ayesha. Joined by Telha and Zobier, at Mecca, she raised a revolt, under pretence of avenging the murder of Othman; an army was levied, which marched towards Bassora, while Ayesha, at its head, was borne in a litter on a camel of great strength. On arriving at a village called Jowab, she was saluted with the loud barking of the dogs of the place, which, reminding her

no manner of shame for her abandoned life. This is not the thing in which her great singularity consisted; for there are but too many princesses who are above being concerned at any imputations on account of their lewdness. What was extraordinary in her was Atheism, a thing which there is scarce any instance of amongst women.

of a prediction of the prophet, in which the dogs | ordinary wife of her that ever was seen. She had of Jowab were mentioned, so intimidated her, that she declared her resolution not to advance a step; and it was not till a number of persons had been suborned to swear that the village had been wrongly named to her, and till the artifice had been employed of terrifying her with a report of Ali's being in the rear, that she was prevailed on to proceed.

When the revolters reached Bassora, they were met by a party of the inhabitants, whom they defeated. A number of people then came from the city, to know their intentions, on which Ayesha made a long speech, in a voice, so loud and shrill from passion, that she could not be understood. One of the Arabs replied to her, saying, "O, mother of the faithful, the murdering of Othman was a thing of less moment than thy leaving home on this cursed camel. God has bestowed on thee a veil and a protection; but thou hast rent the veil, and set the protection at nought."

She was refused admittance into the city. In the end, however, her troops gained possession. Ali assembled an army, and marched against her. Ayesha violently opposed all pacific counsels, and resolved to proceed to the utmost extremity. A fierce battle ensued, in which Telha and Zobier were slain. The combat raged about Ayesha's camel, and an Arabian writer says, that the hands of seventy men, who successively held its bridle, were cut off, and that her litter was stuck so full of darts, as to resemble a porcupine. The camel, from which this day's fight takes its name, was at length hamstrung, and Ayesha became a captive. Ali treated her with great respect, and sent her to Medina, on condition that she should live peaceably at home, and not intermeddle with state affairs.

Her resentment afterwards appeared in her refusal to suffer Hassan, the unfortunate son of Ali, to be buried near the tomb of the prophet, which was her property. She seems to have regained her influence in the reign of the caliph Moawiyah. She died in the fifty-eighth year of the Hegira, A. D. 677, aged sixty-seven; having constantly experienced a high degree of respect from the followers of Mahomet, except at the time of her imprudent expedition against Ali.

B. BARBARA,

Si

WIFE of the emperor Sigismond, was the daughter of Herman, Count of Cilia, in Hungary. gismond had been taken by the Hungarians, and placed under the guard of two young gentlemen, whose father he had put to death. While they had him in custody, he persuaded their mother to let him escape. This favour was not granted without a great many excuses for the death of her husband, and a great many promises. He promised, among other things, to marry the daughter of the Count of Cilia, a near relation of that widow; which promise he performed. He had the most extra

The Bohemians, notwithstanding, gave her a magnificent funeral at Prague, and buried her in the tomb of their kings, as we are assured by Bonfinius in the VII. Book of the III. Decade. Prateolus has not omitted her in his alphabetical catalogue of heretics.

BARBE DE VERRUE,

A FRENCH improvisatrice, was an illegitimate child born of obscure parents. The count de Verrue adopted her after she became famous and gave her his name. She was called a troubadouresse, or female troubadour; and she travelled through towns and cities singing her own verses, by means of which she acquired a considerable fortune. She sung the stories of Griselidis; of William with the Falcon; of Ancassin and Nicolette; and a poem entitled, The Gallic Orpheus or Angelinde and Cyndorix, which related to the civilization of the Gauls. Barbe lived to a very advanced age, travelled a great deal, and, although not beautiful, had many admirers. She lived in the thirteenth century.

BASINE, or BASIN,

WAS the wife of Basin, king of Thuringia. Childeric, king of France, driven from his dominions by his people, sought an asylum with the king of Thuringia; and during his residence at that court, Basine conceived a strong attachment for him. Childeric was at length restored to his kingdom; and a short time after, he beheld with surprise the queen of Thuringia present herself before him. "Had I known a more valiant hero than yourself," said she to Childeric, "I should have fled over the seas to his arms." Childeric received her gladly, and married her. She became the mother, in 467, of the great Clovis, the first Christian king of France.

BEATRICE,

DAUGHTER of the count of Burgundy, married the emperor Frederick in 1156. It is asserted by some historians that she was insulted by the Milanese, and that the emperor revenged her wrongs by the destruction of Milan, and the ignominious punishment of the inhabitants.

BEATRICE,

Or Provence, daughter of Raymond Berenger, count of Provence, married, in 1245, Charles, son of Louis VIII. of France, who was afterwards crowned king of Naples and Sicily. She died at Nocisa.

BEATRICE PORTINARI

Is celebrated as the beloved of Dante, the Italian poet. She was born at Florence, and was very

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