he states nothing, except that in 1475, that is to say, forty-four years after the execution of Jeanne d'Arc, there existed at Orleans, if not the original minute, at all events an authentic rough draught, or, as we may say, an autographical instrument, such as is said to exist in the Royal Library, of the process of condemnation, signed, delivered, and certified by the notaries and keepers of the records who had officiated throughout the proceedings. The number of these different rough draughts leads one to presume, that the original minute remained for a length of time in the office of these notaries, since they issued so many transcripts testified by themselves conformable to the original.

This collated copy is so perfect in every respect, and approximates so nearly to the period of the process, that it is almost equivalent to an original rough draught taken down at the examinations: it is, beyond all doubt, the best and the most perfect transcript that is to be found in any of the public collections, excepting only the authentic instruments preserved in the Royal Library at Paris.

The Thirty-first Manuscript respecting Jeanne d'Arc, constituted a part of the library of the chapter of Orleans.

M. L'Abbé Lenglet Dufresnoy, in his history of La Pucelle, makes mention of this manuscript, which he describes as being a folio volume; in this, however, he labours under a mistake, as it is a quarto size. The work is not signed by any author, nor does any signature occur: the writer, whosoever he was, states, that it was com

posed by order of Louis XII., at the desire of admiral De Graville.*

The writer of this manuscript, while engaged in its compilation, referred to various copies of the process, in which some differences might occur; which tends to prove that, while engaged in his labour, he had not under his eye the minute in French, nor the original in Latin.

Properly speaking, it is not the process of our heroine, but an abridgment of her acts and deeds, composed by order of Louis XII. and admiral Graville. It is true that the process of condemnation and the act of revisal constitute a portion of the manuscript, but they are both incomplete. The process is rather written in an historical than a judicial form; they are not the judges who speak; it is the writer who relates in his own way what was said and done during each sitting. The verbal process which precedes each interrogatory is suppressed, notwithstanding which, all the essential points agree, and the interrogatories in all that is quoted, are, with some trifling exceptions, conformable to the Latin text of the authentic copy.

The French text of the manuscript is in the ordinary style, and not in the constrained language of a translator. The date of this manuscript is unknown, equally with the name of the writer; however, from the general character of the writing, it would appear to be of the fifteenth, or

* Extract from the notice compiled by M. D'Autroche de Talsy, deacon of the church of Orleans, and from the observations of M. Laurent.

the commencement of the sixteenth century. I must beg to remark on this head, that it rather appears to be of the beginning of the sixteenth century, an epoch that coincides with the period of the reign of Louis XII., who was crowned in 1498.

The library at Geneva possesses a manuscript in folio, the pages of which are not numbered; it contains a journal of the siege of Orleans, conformable with that which is in the royal library at Paris, and the process of condemnation in Latin, all written by the same hand, but without any erasure or collating.

The major part of the manuscripts above mentioned, belonging to the libraries of Saint Germain des Près, Sainte Genevieve, Colbert, Baluze, Chamber of Accounts, &c., have been removed to the Royal Library at Paris.

DISSERTATION

RESPECTING THE ORIGINAL MINUTES OF THE PROCESSES OF THE CONDEMNATION AND ABSOLUTION OF JEANNE D'ARD.

THE examination of the thirty-one manuscripts concerning this celebrated affair, has necessarily led to the search after the two original minutes of the proceedings, which has hitherto proved altogether unsuccessful.

Three opinions have been disseminated respecting the loss of these minutes: some have conceived that the English clandestinely got possession of these documents; others pretend that they were committed to the flames by the judges who presided at the revisal; while a third party have suggested, that they were successively deposited with those of the last process, in the depôt of the Historical Charters, or in that of the Chamber of Accounts.

In regard to the first opinion of the minutes having been conveyed away, it is an ill-judged idea to suppose that the English, ashamed of the flagrant injustice they had committed in dooming Jeanne d'Arc to the stake through the medium of Frenchmen, should have been desirous to conceal from posterity a knowledge of such an infamous proceeding; for it is obvious they never once dreamt of such a measure: on the contrary, the notaries who acted as keepers of the records in this