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Martin des Champs, of the Advocates, and of the Oratory, which bore the smallest reference to the minutes in question.

The inquiries of M. Laverdy were attended by no better success after inspecting the private collections of the marquess de Paulmy: M. de Brunville, who united those of the president Darcy de Mainières, and M. de Saint Genis, auditor of accounts, a portion of whose manuscripts came from the library of M. Dulys, advocate-general of the Court of Aids, and a descendant of Jeanne d'Arc's family.

The same il success atttended the examination of the depôts in the Louvre, in the Cabinet of Royal Orders, of the Genealogies in the king's library, and lastly of the duchy of Lorraine, so contiguous to Domrémy, the birth-place of Jeanne d'Arc.

It was only in the depôt of the Legislation of Charters and other historical monuments, that M. Laverdy discovered the manuscript containing four articles, one of which appeared to be a copy of the major part, at least, of the French minutes.

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A singular opinion has gone abroad respecting the minutes of the process of condemnation; it having been imagined that they were burnt after the judgment of revisal; but this is an error solely originating in the want of attention with which manuscripts are frequently hurried over, instead of being studiously attended to.

The mother and the brothers of Jeanne d'Arc, who appeared as the appellants at the revisal of the judgment of La Pucelle, demanded in this proceeding, according to the pleasure of the judges, that the process of condemna

tion should be burnt by the hands of the executioner ; while the process of revisal was to be deposited among the charters of France. This was sufficient to lead persons to imagine that the demand respecting the burning of the first process was complied with; whereas, on perusing the manuscript throughout, it will be found, on the contrary, that the judges issued orders that all the minutes of the two proceedings should be united; that they were scrupulously careful in avoiding any line of conduct that might lead to a conjecture of their having sought to remove the minutes of the condemnation from the eyes of posterity; a proceeding which of itself demonstrates the iniquity of the judgment that followed, and which they themselves retracted. If, therefore, the judges did not order the deposit of the minutes, it was on account of that proceeding not being discretionary with them, and that, consequently, it remained with the king to issue such orders upon that point as he deemed expedient.

Some writers have conceived that Charles VII. caused the minutes to be placed in the treasury containing the charters, and that Louis XI. subsequently removed them from thence to the Chamber of Accounts. If such was the fact, the documents in question were consumed to ashes, when the whole of that structure was burnt to the ground; the devastation being so dreadful, when that fire took place, that not even a catalogue exists to prove what were the stores contained in that edifice prior to the conflagration.

In fine, after the research made in the dépôt of Historical Charters and Monuments, Place Vendôme, at Paris, and the examination of the manuscripts therein preserved,

there is every reason to believe that the French transcript of the manuscript in the Royal Library, is that of the original minute in French of the process of condemnation. If, therefore, it should be found impossible to trace out the minute in French, as taken down during the trial, by Guillaume Manchon, the copy in the royal collection, Place Vendôme, may, in some measure, supply the deficiency, as it agrees in every respect with the Latin transcripts extant, containing all the true and most essential interrogatories, and affording, in short, the most convincing testimonies of its fidelity throughout.

Under every consideration, therefore, this manuscript may be regarded as a unique document in its kind, since it contains, and at the same time serves to support the truth of the allegations made by the three notaries; that the minute of the process of condemnation was revised with fidelity: such having been the document uniformly consulted during the present work, in many essential statements concerning the life and exploits of Jeanne d'Arc.

THE END.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. MOYES, GREVILLE STREET.

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