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she performed prodigies...... The Pucelle, habited as a man, and conducted by skilful captains, undertook to relieve Orleans; while the soldiers, conceiving that a supernatural agent combated for them, followed her with courage she proceeded at their head, beat the English, and delivered the city."

These assertions are laconic and decisive, but it is necessary to consider some of them. Jeanne d'Arc was, for a certainty, born in 1412; consequently she was only eighteen. The learned antiquary should have adduced the proofs upon which he founded this spontaneous anachronism; and, secondly, it appears from the documents produced on her trial, that Baudricourt, for a considerable time, refused to yield to the enthusiasm of Jeanne d'Arc.

AN

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT

OF

THIRTY-ONE MANUSCRIPTS,

RESPECTING

THE LIFE AND CRIMINAL PROCESS

OF

JEANNE D'ARC,

SURNAMED

LA PUCELLE D'ORLEANS.

PROCESS OF CONDEMNATION.

MANUSCRIPTS IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY,

AT PARIS.

No. I.

THE first manuscript of the process and condemnation of Jeanne d'Arc, is in Latin, occupying a small folio volume, bound in calf, and in excellent preservation. On the back is inscribed, Processus Joannis Puella, No. 5965. The paper is of a brownish hue, and the characters in a running hand, towards the close of the fifteenth century.

The style throughout this process is perspicuous, and its author was Guillaume Colés, surnamed Bos-Guillaume, one of the notaries appointed by the bishop of Beauvais. The bottom of the first folio, recto, contains his signature and flourish, which is regularly continued on the recto page of each leaf, until the hundred and fifty-eighth page, certifying, that it is conformable with the original minutes, while, on the last-mentioned leaf, appear these words: Affirmo et subscribo (I affirm it and sign it); this attestation being followed by the same original autograph and

flourish; consequently, the volume in question may be regarded as authentic.

At folio 158, is an attestation of the truth of this transcript, separately subscribed by three notaries, namely, the said Colés, called Bos-Guillaume, Guillaume Manchon, both appointed by the bishop of Beauvais; and Nicolas Tacquel, named by the Vice-Inquisitor; with their signatures and flourishes, which tend still more to validate the authenticity of this document.

Then follows an official account, written after the death of Jeanne, but without signature, attestation, or flourish: a process instituted against the member of a religious order, who had spoken disrespectfully of the judgment pronounced against the Pucelle. Two letters of the king of England, one addressed to the sovereigns of Europe, and the other to the bishops, nobles, and inhabitants of the principal cities of France; and, lastly, two letters of the university of Paris, one to the pope, and the other to the college of cardinals. These additional documents are merely copies, and apparently written by the same hand that penned the body of the manuscript.

No. II.

The second manuscript relating to the process, is in Latin, occupying a small folio, numbered 5966; the paper is thick, and the penmanship of the fifteenth century, rather wider than that of the preceding manuscript. This volume contains two hundred and twenty leaves, being also an authentic transcript of the process, accom

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