a maid who had espoused a gentleman and a chevalier of lineage, which had uniformly ranked as one of the most honourable in Lorraine. Secondly, we may add, that if they were able at Paris and at the court to distinguish one of these warriors from the real Pucelle, it was much easier to have made that discovery at Metz and Arelont, as being so much nearer to the country of La Pucelle, as well as at Orleans, which had been the first and great theatre of her noble exploits: while the testimony of Peter and John du Lys in favour of Jehanne des Hermoises, whom they recognised for their sister, proves an argument in opposition to which it is very difficult to offer any reply. A third objection may be started; that if La Pucelle escaped from the English, would she not have fled to the court or to the army? and would not the king have rewarded the services which she had rendered him? Yet nothing appears strange in all this; for, by the manner in which Jean du Lys, her brother, was received at Loches in 1436, according to his own recital in a passage before quoted, it appears manifest that little faith was then attached to his statement.

But to reply more fully, let it be remembered what jealousy had been excited against the Pucelle by those who were nearest the king's person, and above all, in George de la Trimouille his favourite, who, to use the words of the Chronicle of Metz, 66 was little loyal to the said king his lord, harbouring great envy at the feats she La Pucelle performed, and was the cause of her being taken."

The credit of this nobleman was so powerful, as to prevent the monarch from recognising La Pucelle, who was supposed to have suffered; and in regard to the gratitude of Charles VII., where shall we trace, upon his receiving news of the execution of La Pucelle, that he ever had recourse to the Lex Talionis in regard to the English and Burgundians of rank who fell into his hands? Can it be proved that he avenged a death which dishonoured him? It must be allowed, that the conduct of this prince was the same under both circumstances, and that the reasons by which he was governed had their origin in the same principle: the jealousy of the courtiers was the sole source.

It is, I conceive, useless here to speak of a girl whom the young count de Wirnenbourg pretended, about the year 1473, to be the Pucelle of Orleans, whom God had raised from the dead in order to establish in the episcopal see of Treves Uldaric Mandencheit; and whose imposition was discovered by the Inquisitor of Cologne, who caused her to be arrested and would have tried her, had not the count found means to effect her escape; and thus by flight rescued her from that death which a life marked by infamy had justly merited.

The period when this third impostor flourished is too far removed to have any reference to those of whom we have spoken, much less to Jeanne des Hermoises, whose disorderly course of life it is first requisite to substantiate ere she can be confounded with the person in question. This assuredly cannot be done; and what we have ad

vanced respecting the other two may with much more reason be applied to this third-mentioned impostor.

I shall conclude by stating, that as the arrival of La Pucelle in France is one of those events in which many persons have thought they could trace a hidden source, it is not unlikely but a similar circumstance appertains to her execution, the secret of which may at some future period be fully exemplified; and in such expectation let us remain satisfied with the reasons thus adduced, for harbouring doubts upon the subject.