United States or Guatemala ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


On one side of her was brother Martin l'Advenu; the constable, Massieu, was on the other. The Augustine monk, Brother Isambart, who had already displayed much charity and courage, would not quit her. Up to this moment the Pucelle had never despaired, with the exception, perhaps, of her temptation in the Passion Week.

The story is, therefore, worth nothing. Enough. They burned Joan the Maid. She did not suffer long. Her eyes were fixed on a cross which a priest, Martin L'Advenu, held up before her. She maintained, he says, to her dying moment, the truth of her Voices. With a great cry of JESUS! she gave up her breath, and her pure soul was with God.

Blood was the one thing wanted; and that of the judges was, perhaps, not far from flowing. They hastily drew up a summons, to be served the next morning at eight o'clock; she was not to appear, save to be burned. Cauchon sent her a confessor in the morning, brother Martin l'Advenu, "to prepare her for her death, and persuade her to repentance.

He left Rouen secretly and never returned, nor does he ever appear again. Frere Isambard is said to have taken temporary refuge in his convent; they scattered, de par l'diable, according to the Christian adjuration of Mgr. De Beauvais; though l'Advenu would seem to have held his ground, and served as Confessor to Jeanne in her agony, at which Frere Isambard was also present.

Jeanne answered: "I believe in God alone and not in the voices, which have deceived me." L'Advenu himself, however, does not give this deposition, but another of the persons present, Le Camus, who did not live to revise his testimony at the Rehabilitation. The rite being over, the Bishop himself bustled in with an air of satisfaction, rubbing his hands, one may suppose from his tone.

Jean de la Fontaine and the two monks l'Advenu and Frere Isambard also succeeded in gaining admission to her, and pressed upon her the advantage of appealing to the Church, to the Council of Bale about to assemble, or to the Pope himself, which would have again changed the venue, and transferred her into less prejudiced hands.

On the fatal morning very early, Brother Martin l'Advenu appeared in the cell of the Maid. He had a mingled tale to tell first "to announce to her her approaching death, and to lead her to true contrition and penitence; and also to hear her confession, which the said l'Advenu did very carefully and charitably." Jeanne on her part received the news with no conventional resignation or calm.

Thus we have heard from the Domremy peasants how good she was as a child, from Dunois, d'Alençon, d'Aulon, how she was beautiful, courteous, and brave, from Isambart and L'Advenu, how nobly she died, and how she never made one complaint, but forgave all her enemies freely.