suspected, would not await the fury of the people, but ran away as soon as he found the affair was known. Under the same apprehension, the soldiers, one after another, disappeared without procuring a pass, and secretly absconded from the city. In consequence of which, the Bastard of Orleans, to hold out an example for others, and prevent them, through fear of punishment, from committing a similar fault, having surprised two light horsemen, of the company of Villiers, who were proceeding without leave, caused them to be seized for deserters, and condemned as guilty of leze majesty.”

Page 46. This same day the Pucelle being at Blois, &c.

Grafton, speaking of the Pucelle from the period of her interview with the king at Chinon to her arrival at Blois, thus expresses himself, at page 534: "There came to him, beyng at Chynon, a mayde of the age of xx yeres, and in mannes apparell, named Jone, borne in Burgoyne, in a towne called Droymy besyde Vancolour, which was a greate space a chamberlein in a common hostrey, and was a rampe of such boldnesse, that she would course horses, and ride them to water, and do thinges, that other yong maydens both abhorred and were ashamed to do: yet as some say, whether it were because of her foule face, that no man would desire it, either because she had made a vowe to live chaste, she kept her maydenhed, and preserved her virginitie. She (as a monster) was sent to the dolphyn, by Sir Robert Bandrencort capteyne of Vancolour, to whom she declared, that she was sent from God, both to ayde

the miserable citie of Orleaunce, and also to restore him to the possession of his realme, out of the which he was expulsed and overcommed: rehersyng to him visions, traunces, and fables, full of blasphemie, superstition, and hypocrisye, that I marveyle much that wise men dyd beleeve her, and learned clerkes would write such phantasyes, what should I reherse, howe they say, she knewe and called him her king, whome she never sawe before: that she had by revelation a sworde, to her appoynted in the church of Saint Katheryn of Fierboys in Torayne, where she never had bene; that she declared such privie messeges from God, our ladie, and other saints, to the dolphyn, that she made the teares ronne downe from his eyes; so was he deluded, so was he blinded, and so was he deceved by the devilles meanes which suffered her to begin her race, and in conclusion rewarded her with a shamefull fal. But in the meane season, such credence was given to her, that she was honored as a saint of the religious, and beleved as one sent from God of the temporalitie, insomuch that she (armed at all poyntes) rode from Poyters to Bloys, and there founde men of warre, vitaile, and municions, readie to be conveyed to Orleaunce."

Page 48.

To the duke of Bedford, calling himself regent, &c.

John, duke of Bedford, third son of Henry IV. and uncle of Henry VI., in 1422, had the command of the English forces in France, and the same year was nominated regent of that country by his nephew, Henry VI.

whom he caused to be proclaimed at Paris. He defeated the French fleet near Southampton, and made himself master of Cotoi, entered Paris at the head of his army, and beat the duke d'Alençon, having thus rendered himself conqueror of France. He died at Rouen, 1435, where a sumptuous monument was erected to his memory, which one of the courtiers of Charles VIII. advised that monarch to destroy, who, we are informed, made the following reply: "No; let him rest in peace now dead, who, while living, made all Frenchmen tremble." It is to be regretted that the duke of Bedford, as renowned in the field as consummate in the cabinet, should have completely tarnished his fame by pursuing a line of conduct towards the youthful and heroic Jeanne d'Arc, which would have degraded the most ignoble of the human race. We cannot account for the conduct of this nobleman towards La Pucelle, whom destiny had placed in his power; she nobly combated to emancipate her country from a foreign yoke, and whatsoever might have been the effect produced on vulgar minds from the idea of her supernatural mission, it is scarcely to be believed that the regent of France gave credit to the tales of sorcery and infernal agency attributed to the Maid of Orleans; in which case his mind could only have been swayed by the basest of all human passions; the gratification of a dark and cowardly revenge towards an heroic victim whom fate had placed at his mercy.

Page 51. And upon the same day was a smart skirmish delivered by the pages of the French and those of the English between the two islands of Suint Lawrence, they having no shields excepting small wicker baskets, &c.

Nothing can more forcibly display the rooted animosity that subsisted between the French and the English in the neighbourhood of Orleans, than the hostile rencounters described in this and the ensuing pages of our Diary, from which it appears, that the youth of either country harboured a hatred as implacable as that wherewith the bosoms of veteran soldiers were inspired.

Page 55.

To the which would not acquiesce in any sort, to either of them, the duke of Bedford.

Upon the duke of Burgundy making the above application to the regent, Dubreton, at page 102, states as follows:

"The duke of Bedford, puffed up with his victories and the prosperity of his king, having already begun to despise the duke of Burgundy with proud and brutal insolence, made this answer, 'That having beaten the bushes, it was not just that any one else should possess the birds.' The duke of Burgundy, offended and incensed to the quick at these words replete with ostentation and disdain, forthwith sent by his herald a command to all such as owed him obedience, forthwith to quit the English camp, under pain of death."

Page 59. And in consequence she gave orders that all the men at war should confess themselves, and that they should leave behind them all their silly women, and their baggage, &c.

Whether Jeanne ever wielded her sword, we cannot take upon ourselves to determine; the following very curious extract will, however, afford sufficient proof of the rooted animosity entertained by the Maid of Arc towards females who pursued a vicious course of life; and, as the annotator has never before found this incident quoted, which is handed down by a contemporary writer, it may not prove uninteresting to the lovers of historical facts.

"Et pourcé quen la compaignie avoit plusiers femmes diffamées, qui empeschoiet aucuns gens d'armes d'aller avant, la dicte Jehanne la Pucelle feist crier qu'elles s'en departissent. Apres le cry fait chascun se meit à aller avant. Et pourcé que la dicte Jehanne, qui estoit à cheval, en rencontra deux ou trois en sa voye, elle tira son espée pour les batre, et frappa sur l'une d'elles du plat de son espée si grand coup qu'elle rōpit sa dicte espee, dont le roy fut fort deplaisant quant il le sceut, et luy dist qu'elle devoit prendre ung baston pour les frapper, sans habandonner sa dicte espée, qui luy avoit revelée de par Dieu."—Annales de France, par Maistre Nicole Gille Contreroleur du Tresor de Louis XI.

"And as there were in the company several women of loose morals, who prevented the men at arms from advancing, the said maiden Jeanne, in an elevated voice,