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Russian camp. Olga caused the birds to be let loose, with lighted
torches tied to their tails; they, of course, flew back to their nests in
the house-eaves of Karosten. The town was soon in a blaze from
end to end. The terrified inhabitants, flying to escape the flames,
were met by the swords and lances of the Russians. The Drevlian
prince and his court perished in the massacre, as indeed, did nearly
every one in the city, save the dregs of the population.
Having glutted her thirst for revenge, Olga made a progress
through Russia, taking Sviatoslaf with her. Towns and villages arose
at her command, taxation was regulated on a better footing; and by
various measures highly beneficial to the prosperity of the country,
the Grand Duchess proved herself a most able ruler. In 955 she went
to Constantinople to be baptised a Christian, and in the course of a
few years the Greek faith spread through the land, and paganism
was abolished.
When Sviatoslaf grew old enough to rule his own dominions, Olga
resigned the reins of government. She lived in retirement for several
years, and died in 968 at an advanced age.

In the Middle Ages, chemistry and mathematics were things

known to few people except the monks; any man who studied the
sciences was styled an alchemist, and suspected of being in league
with the Evil One. When it was a woman who gave herself up to
learned studies, the people could scarcely be withheld from tearing
"the sorceress" to pieces. Occasionally, however, despite what the
world said, noble ladies, especially on the Continent, did apply their
minds to what in those days went by the name of the Black Art.
Amongst these was Richilda, Countess of Hainault, who married
Baldwin the Good, eldest son of Baldwin, Marquis of Flanders, one of
whose daughters, Matilda, became the wife of William the
Conqueror, and another of Tosti Godwinsson, son of the powerful
Earl Godwin. The fame of Richilda as a wicked sorceress caused her
to be anything but a favourite in the country; and when her husband
died, Robert le Frison, Count of Friesland, and brother of the
deceased, endeavoured to wrest Flanders from her young son
Arnulf, or Arnoul, who was little more than a boy. William the
Conqueror espoused the cause of Richilda, and sent over Fitz-
Osbern, Earl of Hereford, the tyrant of the Welsh, to her aid. The
Countess also implored the assistance of her liege lord, the king of
France.
A battle took place on St. Peter's Day, 1071, at Bavinchorum, near
Cassel; Richilda and Fitz-Osbern commanded their troops in person.
The left wing of the foe was routed, and Robert le Frison made
prisoner and sent to St. Omer. But this success was counterbalanced
by the death of Fitz-Osbern and young Arnoul. Richilda's forces fled
in confusion, and the heroine was made prisoner.
An exchange was effected, by which Richilda and the Frison
regained their liberty. The countess immediately set about raising
fresh troops to avenge the death of her boy. The contending armies
met again; this time at Broqueroi, near Mons, where the troops of
Richilda were routed with so terrible a slaughter that the scene of
the conflict was afterwards known under the name of "the Hedges of
Death." All hope now fled the breast of Richilda. Escaping from the
field, she took refuge in a convent, where the rest of her days were
passed under the severest penances—to atone, as folks said, for her
past dealings with the Prince of Darkness.
 VI.
The Crusades—French, German, and Genoese Amazons—
Eleonora of Aquitaine—Matilda of Boulogne—Empress Maud—
Aldrude, Countess of Bertinoro—Empress Constantia—Nichola
de Camville (Barons' Wars)—Blanche of Castille, Queen-Regent
of France—Women of Culm—Blanche de Rossi—Black Agnes,
Countess of March—Countess de Montfort—Julia du Guesclin—
Jane de Belleville, Lady of Clisson—Marzia—Margaret, Queen of
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Semiramis of the North—
Fair Maiden Lilliard (Chevy Chase)—Lady Pelham—Philippa,
Queen of Denmark.

I T would be difficult at the present day to appreciate the

wild enthusiasm spread throughout Europe by the
preaching of Peter the Hermit. Thousands from all
classes—kings, princes, nobles, priests, peasants,
beggars, all alike impelled by the same blind impulse, many amongst
them scarcely knowing where they were going or for what they went
to fight,—hastened to take up arms against the Infidel. The
enthusiasm was not, as it would probably in our days, confined to
one, nor even to three or four nations. "There were men," says
Robert of Gloucester:—
"Of Normandy, of Denmark, of Norway, of
Bretagne,
Of Wales, and of Ireland, of Gascony, of Spain,
Of Provence, of Saxony, and of Allemayne,
Of Scotland, and of Greece, of Rome and
Aquitaine."
Ay, and women too. The first Crusading armies which set out in
the spring of 1096, commanded by Peter the Hermit, Gaultier-sans-
Avoir, and other leaders of less reputation, comprised nearly as
many women as men. Even where they did not contend hand to
hand with the Saracens, these heroines cheered the warriors by
marching with them in the ranks, by carrying food and ammunition
to the battle-field, by speaking with enthusiasm of the cause for
which they had armed. It was, indeed, owing as much to the
courage and endurance of the women, who suffered without a
murmur the miseries of cold, hunger, and want of clothing, as to
their own indomitable bravery that the Templars owed the capture of
Antioch. William of Tyre, speaking of the grand review held before
Nice in 1099, says that exclusive of the cavalry, who, to the number
of one hundred thousand were well armed in helmets and mail,
there were found six hundred thousand Crusaders of both sexes,
many of them little children.
When the second Crusade was preached, many ladies, especially
in France and Germany, formed themselves into squadrons and
regiments of Amazons, and assumed the arms and armour of the
Templars. The commander of the German Amazons, who, says
Michaud, was more admired for her dress than her courage, received
the title of the "Golden Footed Dame," or the "Lady with the Golden
Legs," on account of her magnificent gilded buskins and spurs. She
enrolled her troop under the banner of the emperor Conrad, who
started for the East 1147. The French Amazons were commanded by
their queen, Eleonora of Aquitaine (afterwards wife of Henry II. of
England). Forming themselves into a squadron of light cavalry, they
went through a regular course of military training, and, by constant
exercise, they acquired tolerable proficiency in the use of arms.
Mezerai, speaking of these "squadrons of females," declares that
by their valour they "rendered credible all that has been said of the
prowess of the Amazons;" but, certes, those who followed King
Louis to the Holy Land rendered themselves more notable for
rashness and folly than manly courage. They set out in the year
1147, with the bold determination to share all the fatigues and brave
all the dangers incident to a crusade; but their first essay in the
presence of the enemy proved sufficient to put an end to their
gallant resolutions and cover their leader with ridicule. The corps of
Amazons, escorted by a band of sterner warriors commanded by a
distinguished knight, had been sent on in advance, with strict orders
from the king to encamp on the heights of Laodicea, and there await
his arrival. They reached the spot as the sun was setting, and the
black, dreary rocks appeared to the romantic, but inexperienced eye
of Eleonora, an exceedingly uninviting situation for a resting place.
With the haughty imperiousness of her nature, she insisted on
turning aside to a beautiful valley watered by cool streams, and
overshadowed by lofty palms, where, despite the warnings and
expostulations of the brave captain who led her escort, she
encamped.
In this charming but unprotected dale they were soon attacked by
a party of Saracens. King Louis arrived barely in time to save the
corps of Amazons from capture. Compelled to hazard an
engagement under peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances against
an enemy who received reinforcements from moment to moment,
Louis was so near being made prisoner as to be obliged to seek
refuge in a tree. The Christians were victorious, but it was with
heavy losses. Eleonora and her followers retired to the court of her
cousin Raymond, Prince of Antioch, and there passed the rest of the
season.
While the Crusades lasted, ladies continued to accompany
husbands and lovers to the East. In the arsenal of the palace at
Genoa there are, or were some few years since, several light
cuirasses, made for a band of Genoese ladies, who, towards the
close of the thirteenth century, wished to join in a crusade against
the Turks. However, by the entreaties of Pope Boniface VIII., who
wrote an autograph letter for the purpose, they were persuaded to
relinquish their design.
Pierre Gentien, an old French poet, who flourished at the latter
end of the thirteenth century, has left a species of epic in rhyme,
wherein he describes a tournament held by certain noble dames who
were about departing with the knights beyond the seas. In this
poem the author, describing how the combatants, to acquire
proficiency in the use of arms, disputed the prize of valour with all
the courage and enthusiasm of the knights of those days, takes the
opportunity to name forty or fifty, the most beautiful ladies of their
time. His poem has been therefore admired rather as being a
memoir of the old French families than for the excellence of the
poetry.

The somewhat ridiculous termination to her first essay in

presence of the foe did not entirely quench the military ardour of
Eleonora of Aquitaine. After she had been for some years the wife of
king Henry II., she stirred up her sons, Richard and John, to
rebellion against their father; and went so far as to appear in
masculine attire, at the head of their forces in Aquitaine. And thus
clad, she was made prisoner.
When Prince Arthur was prosecuting his claims on the English
crown, Philip Augustus, the French king, sent him with a military
retinue into Normandy, then in the hands of the English. The French
barons laid siege to Mirebeau, a fortified town near Poitiers. It was
defended for King John by Eleonora, who, though she had then
attained the age of four-score, was as active as ever, and had only
just returned from a journey into Spain—a matter of some difficulty
in those days. When the French had captured the town, the veteran
Amazon threw herself into a strong tower which served as a sort of
citadel; and here she held out bravely till the arrival of John with
reinforcements, on the night between July 31st and August 1, 1202;
when the besiegers were compelled to surrender.
 During the wars between the Empress Maud and Stephen, the
latter was ably seconded by his queen, Matilda of Boulogne. For the
first five years of his usurpation, the king was disturbed only by the
revolt of Baldwin, Earl of Exeter, and the invasion of David, King of
Scotland. Matilda showed herself to be an able politician and a brave
soldier. In June, 1137, she laid siege to Dover Castle, which had
been seized by the rebels, and, at the same time, sent orders to her
Boulogne subjects to blockade the fortress by sea.
In July, 1139, the empress, escorted by her brother Robert, Earl
of Gloucester, landed in England. After several battles, of which little
is known, she defeated and captured King Stephen near Lincoln,
1141. The empress was at once proclaimed queen of England, and
after sending Stephen in irons to Bristol, she entered London.
Matilda made humble suit for the liberty of her lord, and offered, in
his name, to resign all claim to the crown; but the empress refused,
save on the petitioner also surrendering her inheritance of Boulogne.
The queen refused; and with the assistance of William of Ypres,
Stephen's talented but unpopular minister, she raised the standard of
the king in Surrey and Kent, where a large party were in favour of
the royal captive.
"In the pages of superficially-written histories," remarks Miss
Strickland, "much is said of the prowess and military skill displayed
by Prince Eustace at this period; but Eustace was scarcely seven
years old at the time when these efforts were made for the
deliverance of his royal sire; therefore it is plain to those who reflect
on the evidence of dates, that it was the high-minded and prudent
queen, his mother, who avoided all Amazonian display by acting
under the name of her son."
The empress, being warned that the Londoners, weary of her
insolence, had a mind to serve her as she had served Stephen, fled
from the city by night, and laid siege to Winchester Castle. The men
of London and Kent, headed by Matilda, Eustace, and William of
Ypres, were soon at the city gates, and Maud was closely invested
for several days in her palace. To escape the horrors of a city in
flames, the empress feigned herself dead, and her body was
conveyed to Gloucester. Robert, her brother, was made prisoner, and
his liberty was purchased by the release of Stephen.
From this time the fortunes of the empress rapidly declined. She
was so closely invested in Oxford during the inclement weather of
1142, that she was compelled to dress herself and her attendants in
white, which, as the ground was covered with snow, more readily
escaped observation, and so steal away from the town. The war
continued to rage with the utmost fury for the next five years; but
Maud, weary at last of the miserable struggle, returned to Normandy
in 1147.
Queen Matilda died at Henningham Castle, in Essex, on May 3rd,
1151, a little more than three years before her husband. The
empress outlived both her rivals, and died abroad, September 10th,
1167.

The famous contest between the Guelfs and the Ghibelines, which
for nearly three hundred years devastated Italy, broke out early in
the twelfth century. The struggle was at first hardly more than a
feud between two powerful families; but it soon developed into an
obstinate war between two political parties—the Guelfs, who formed
the papal and Italian party, and the Ghibelines, who favoured the
German Emperors.
One of the leading events of this war was the siege of Ancona, in
1172, by the Archbishop of Mentz, Frederic Barbarossa's deputy in
Italy, backed by all the power of Ghibeline Tuscany. The citizens,
reduced to the direst extremities, applied for aid to William degli
Adelardi, a noble and influential citizen of Ferrara, and to the
Countess de Bertinoro. Aldrude, the countess, who belonged to the
illustrious house of Frangipani, has been immortalized by the Italian
writers of those days, on account of her personal beauty, her
generosity, and the magnificence of her court, which was the
favourite resort of Italian chivalry, poetry, and art. She was married
young to the Count de Bertinoro, who died, and left her a widow in
the bloom of youth.
The Countess and Adelardi, with their combined forces, hastened
to the relief of the beleaguered city, near which they arrived at
sunset. Having pitched their camp on a hill overlooking the Ghibeline
tents, the soldiers were assembled, and harangued with exciting
speeches, which they received with loud applause, mingled with the
clashing of arms. However, they gained a bloodless victory. The
besiegers, alarmed at the strength of the foe, struck their tents, and
retired under cover of night.
The famished Anconians, relieved from the presence of the
imperial army, received a fresh stock of provisions. They came out to
thank the countess and her ally, and offered them magnificent
presents.
On her homeward march, the countess fell in with a party of
retreating Ghibelines. Numerous skirmishes took place, in which the
troops of Aldrude were uniformly victorious.
The date of this heroine's death is unknown.

The designs of the Hohenstaufen on the throne of Sicily drew

their attention for a time from Lombardy. Henry VI., who ascended
the imperial throne of Germany on the death of his father, Frederick
Barbarossa, established a claim on the crown of the Two Sicilies in
right of his wife, the daughter of King Roger. Constantia became the
rightful queen of Sicily on the death of William the Good in 1189; but
the throne was usurped by Tancred, her natural brother. Henry
invaded the Neapolitan states in 1191; but though successful at first,
a terrible mortality in his camp compelled him to raise the siege of
Naples and retire from the country.
 After the death of Tancred, his widow resigned all claim to the
crown; stipulating that her infant son, William, should be left in
possession of Tarentum. But the cruel and perfidious emperor, who
had failed in all his attempts on Naples and Sicily during the life-time
of the king, cast the boy into prison, after putting out his eyes,
imprisoned the queen and the princesses in a convent, and carried
the royal treasures to Germany.
When the emperor returned to his own land, Naples and Sicily
rose against his tyranny. Hastening back with a mighty army, Henry
defeated the rebels, and commanded that the leaders should suffer
the most excruciating tortures. Constantia, shocked at his barbarity,
quarrelled with her husband, cast off her allegiance, and stirred up
the Sicilians to a fresh rebellion. Thousands flocked to her standard,
and the empress, at this time fifty years old, led them against the
German troops. Henry, who had sent away most of his soldiers to
the Holy Land, was defeated, and compelled to submit to the terms
dictated by Constantia.
The emperor died at Messina in 1197, shortly after the conclusion
of the treaty, and his wife has been accused of administering poison,
to rid her people of a cruel and vindictive tyrant. After his death,
Constantia lived peacefully in Sicily as regent of the island and
guardian of her infant son, the Emperor Frederick II. She died three
years later, in the year 1200.

Returning to England, we find Dame Nichola de Camville, a noted

heroine of those days, personally engaged on the royal side during
the Barons' wars. Nichola de Hara, widow of Gerard, Lord Camville
was co-sheriff for the county of Lincolnshire. She held the Castle of
Lincoln for King John against Gilbert de Gaunt, who had captured
the city; and after the death of John she defended it for his son,
Henry III. Shortly after the death of King John, the Count de la
Perche, a French knight commanding the Confederate Barons,
marched to Lincoln at the head of six hundred knights and twenty
thousand soldiers, and besieged the castle. It was defended by
Dame Nichola till the arrival of the Earl of Pembroke in May, 1217,
when the battle, afterwards known as "Lincoln Fair," quelled for a
time the rebellion of the English barons, and established Henry III.
on the throne.
Turn which way we will, we see nothing but civil wars and
struggles for supremacy between crowned heads and nobles.
Crossing to France, some nine or ten years later, we find the great
vassals of the throne conspiring to deprive Queen Blanche of the
regency. However, Blanche of Castille was not a woman easily
intimidated. At the head of a large army, she went with the young
king (her son) to Brittany, the seat of the conspiracy. The malcontent
nobles, not being prepared to meet the royal forces in the field,
submitted for a time.
In the following year, 1227, the royal troops defeated and
captured Raymond, Count of Toulouse, leader of the Albigeois, and
the queen treated her noble captive so harshly that the French lords
again took up arms, led by the Duke of Brittany. Despite the severity
of the winter, the queen-regent and her son marched into Brittany;
and after surmounting terrible obstacles from the cold, and from the
snow and ice, which stopped both roads and rivers, laid siege to the
stronghold of Bellesme. This fortress which from the thickness of its
walls, was supposed to be impregnable, had a garrison of Bretons,
supported by a body of English auxiliaries. The besieged were in
hopes that the royal army, horribly decimated by the severe weather,
would be compelled soon to retire. But the queen was not the one to
yield when she had once resolved on anything. To preserve her
soldiers, hundreds of whom perished from the bitter cold, she
caused immense fires to be kept constantly blazing, and offered high
rewards to all who brought wood into camp. To encourage the men
she slept in the open air by the bivouac fires, conversed with the
troops, and encouraged officers and privates alike by her affability
and condescension.
 Queen Blanche pressed the siege with unyielding determination.
After two assaults had been made the great tower was dismantled,
and the garrison surrendered. The Duke of Brittany was made
prisoner, though, through motives of policy, he was speedily set at
liberty. The queen next took Nantes and Acenis; and the revolt was
brought to a close in 1230 by the surrender of the Count de Marche.
From the courage and military tact displayed by the queen during
the siege of Bellesmes, she received the complimentary title of "the
Great Captain."
The regency of Blanche ended in 1235, and Louis IX. took the
government into his own hands; but she again took up the regency
in 1248, when her son set forth on his crusade. She died in 1252,
before St. Louis came home from his ill-starred expedition.
So deep was the respect entertained for the memory of Blanche
of Castille, that many of the queen-dowagers of France assumed the
surname of Blanche, as the Roman emperors took the title of
Augustus.
Until the thirteenth century, Prussia was inhabited by heathen
barbarians. In 1226, Conrad of Masovia gave the Teutonic Knights a
strip of land on the Vistula, that they might protect Poland from the
Prussian savages. For more than half a century the knights carried
on a war of extermination against the natives; again and again were
the Prussian tribes vanquished, again and again they rebelled. In
1240 a general insurrection of greater magnitude burst forth, and
nearly all the knights were massacred. Those who escaped—
principally the Knights of the Cross—took refuge in the castles of
Thorn, Reden, and Culm, where they were soon beleaguered by the
Prussians. The knights in Culm were induced by a stratagem to
come out, when they fell into an ambuscade, and were all slain. The
city would have fallen had not the women closed the gates, clad
themselves in mail, and mounted the walls with spears in their
hands. The Prussians, deceived by this stratagem, withdrew their
forces, believing that Culm was still strongly garrisoned by sturdy
knights.
Prussia was at last converted to Christianity, and adopted the
manners and customs of Germany, of which it is now the leading
State.
The contests between the Guelfs and Ghibelines proved fatal to
Italian liberty. Might became right, tyrants arose on every side, and
either by open force or by fraud, possessed themselves of the
sovereign power in some one of the Lombardian cities and the
adjacent territories. The various military leaders, whether Italians or
Germans, were mere freebooters, accountable to no one for their
acts, permitting the utmost license to themselves and their followers.
One of the most infamous of these mercenaries was Acciolin, who
was not a brutal and rapacious robber, but a man of refined cruelty.
His favourite mode of torture was to fasten his prisoners to half-
putrified corpses, and leave the living and the dead to rot away
together.
In 1253, this fiend in human shape captured Bassano by storm,
after a tiresome siege. The garrison was commanded by John
Baptista de Porta, who was either governor or lord of the place.
Blanche de Rossi, his wife, a native of Padua, put on armour,
mounted the ramparts, and fought by the side of her husband.
When the town fell the governor was slain, and Blanche, after
making a desperate resistance, was made prisoner and led in
triumph before Acciolin. Directly the villain set eyes upon his
beautiful captive, he was seized with a violent passion for her; and
to escape him, she sprang, clad as she was in armour, through a
window. But in place of death, she only met with a sprained
shoulder. Directly she recovered from her swoon the tyrant sent for
her again, and finding his renewed protestations were repulsed with
loathing, he obtained by force what was denied to his prayers.
Blanche then withdrew to the place where her husband's body had
been thrown, and flinging herself into the open grave, was crushed
to death by the falling earth and stones.
 In the year 1333, King Edward III., espousing the cause of
Edward Baliol, invaded Scotland. The battle of Hallidon Hill, July
29th, in which the Regent Douglas was defeated, placed Baliol on
the throne; and Edward, carried away by his ambitious designs upon
the French throne, left his army in charge of the Earls of Arundel
and Salisbury, and returned to England. Montague, Earl of Salisbury,
laid siege to the castle of Dunbar, a place of great importance,
esteemed as the key of Scotland, on the south-east border. It had
been fortified very recently; and in the absence of the Earl of March,
was defended by the countess, who, from the dark colour of her
complexion, was popularly styled "Black Agnes." She was the
daughter of Randolph, Earl of Moray, and inherited from her father a
fierce, intrepid spirit. During the five months' siege she performed all
the duties of a bold and skilful commander, and the garrison had the
utmost confidence in her abilities. Constantly on the ramparts, she
derided the English with biting sarcasms. When the battering-
engines hurled stones against the walls, she scornfully told one of
her female attendants to wipe off the dust with her handkerchief.
The Earl of Salisbury knew well the kind of foe he had to deal
with. One day he was superintending the siege operations, when an
arrow from the castle whizzed past and struck a knight who stood
by, piercing through his chain-mail haubergeon, and killing him on
the spot.
"There comes one of my lady's tire-pins," exclaimed the Earl.
"Agnes's love-shafts go straight to the heart!"
A monster called the "sow," a huge engine covered with hides,
somewhat resembling the testudo of the Romans, was at last rolled
to the foot of the walls. When the countess saw this ponderous
machine coming, she cried in a loud, mocking voice:—
"Montague, beware! your sow shall soon cast her pigs!"
She quickly verified her words by hurling an immense piece of
rock upon the "sow," crushing both it and its occupants to pieces.
 Salisbury finding he could not succeed by fair means, bribed the
gate-keeper to leave the gates open on the following night. The
porter disclosed this to the countess, who directed him to keep to
his bargain and say nothing about it. The Earl, who commanded the
party that were to seize the castle, rode through the darkness at the
head of his soldiers, found the gates open according to agreement,
and was about to enter, when one of his men, John Copeland,
passed in front of him. The portcullis was suddenly dropped;
Copeland, mistaken for his master, remained a prisoner. The Earl was
saved by his men, who dragged him back just in time. Agnes, from a
high turret, saw that the general had escaped.
"Farewell, Montague!" she cried. "I intended that you should have
supped with us to-night, and assisted in defending the fortress
against the English."
Salisbury, despairing of being able to take the place, either by
treachery or by storm, turned the siege into a blockade, closely
investing the castle by sea and land, and tried to starve the garrison
out into a surrender. Alexander Ramsay, hearing of the extremities to
which Black Agnes was reduced, embarked with a party of forty
resolute men, eluded the vigilance of the English, and entered the
castle, under cover of night, by a postern next the sea. Sallying out
again, they attacked and dispersed the advanced guard of the
besiegers. Salisbury, disheartened by so many reverses, withdrew
his forces, after having remained before Dunbar for nineteen weeks.
About this time the duchy of Brittany was the subject of
contention between two rivals, John, Count de Montfort, son of the
late duke, and Charles of Blois, who had married the duke's
granddaughter. Philip de Valois, King of France, decided the dispute
in favour of Charles, and despatched a large army to establish him in
the capital. Edward III., of England, at once declared for the Count
de Montfort, as an enemy to the house of Valois, which he—King
Edward—wished to drive from the throne of France.
 The count was betrayed into the hands of his rival by some
malcontent nobles. But Jane, the brave countess, sustained his
sinking fortunes "with the courage of a man and the heart of a lion."
Directly the news of her husband's capture arrived at Rennes, where
she resided, the countess assembled the citizens, showed them her
infant son, and entreated them not to desert the last male heir of
their ancient dukes. Her eloquence, beauty, and courage produced a
magical effect. The people swore to defend her and her son to the
last extremity.
The countess next visited all the strongholds throughout Brittany,
and excited the people to resist the French, and to adopt the
requisite measures of defence. Then, sending her boy to England,
she shut herself up in Hennebonne, and there awaited the
reinforcements promised by King Edward.
Charles of Blois entered Brittany, captured Rennes, and
despatched a force, commanded by Prince Louis of Spain, to besiege
Hennebonne. The garrison, animated by the presence of the valiant
countess, made a resolute defence. Jane herself performed prodigies
of valour. Clad in armour from head to foot, she stood foremost in
the breach, sustaining every attack of the foe with the utmost sang
froid, or ran from post to post, according as the troops required
encouragement or reinforcement.
One day the besiegers, engaged in an attack on the town, left
their camp totally unprotected. The countess, perceiving their
neglect, sallied forth by a postern-gate at the head of five hundred
picked men, set fire to the enemy's baggage and magazines, and
created such universal alarm that the besiegers gave over their
assault on the town to intercept her return. Jane, seeing that her
retreat was cut off that way, galloped towards Arrai, where she
arrived in safety. In five days she returned, cut her way through the
camp of Charles, and re-entered the town. By this time, however,
the breaches in the walls had grown so numerous that the place was
deemed untenable. The bishop of Léon, despite the entreaties, the
prayers of Jane, resolved to capitulate, and opened negotiations with
the enemy. Jane mounted the highest turret and turned her eyes
towards the sea, with a last hope of seeing her deliverers. She
descried some small specks far away in the distance. Rushing down
into the street, she cried, with transports of joy:—
"Succours! Succours! The English succours! No capitulation!"
The English fleet soon entered the harbour, and a small but
valiant body of English, headed by the chivalrous Sir Walter Manny,
cast themselves into the town. The negotiations were at once
broken off, and the besiegers, balked of their prey, renewed the
attack with more determined vigour than ever.
Sir Walter and his companions were at dinner with the countess
when a huge mass of stone crashed through the roof of an adjoining
house, terrifying the ladies assembled in the castle hall. Starting
from his seat, Sir Walter vowed to destroy the terrible engine which
had thrown this missile. In a few moments the English sallied forth,
hewed the monster catapult in pieces, burned the sow, and threw
the enemy's camp into confusion. The foe, recovering from their first
astonishment, tried to surround the returning warriors; but the
English knights stood their ground till the archers and men-at-arms
had re-crossed the ditch. Then driving back their assailants they
crossed the draw-bridge, and were received with acclamations by
the townspeople, while the countess herself "came down from the
castle to meet them, and with a most cheerful countenance kissed
Sir Walter and all his companions, one after another, like a noble and
valiant dame."
Prince Louis abandoned his camp the same evening, and retired
to that of Prince Charles before the Castle of Arrai.
Charles, though unsuccessful in his attack on Hennebonne, soon
became master of nearly the whole of Brittany. During the truce
between England and France, the Countess de Montfort came to
London, and asked King Edward to grant her further assistance. He
commanded Robert of Artois to return with her, accompanied by a
strong force, to Brittany. They encountered the French fleet near
Guernsey; and during the engagement Jane displayed her
accustomed bravery. The contending fleets were at last separated by
a storm, and the English sailed to Brittany, took Vannes by storm,
and massacred, not only the garrison, but even the townspeople.
The French soon recaptured the town, when Robert of Artois was
slain.
Edward III. landed in Brittany in 1345, with twelve thousand men,
but was not at first very successful. In June he was obliged to
conclude a short truce with France, during which the Count de
Montfort was set at liberty; but he died of a fever on Sept. 20th,
when his son John was proclaimed duke. At the end of July, 1346,
the English invaded Normandy. The Countess de Montfort, assisted
by an English force under Sir Thomas Dagworth, defeated Charles of
Blois, who was made prisoner.
Charles was set free in May, 1360, when peace was concluded
between France and England. The treaty, though it did not interfere
with Brittany, brought about an arrangement some months later, by
which the duchy was divided between the rival claimants.
But Charles broke faith, and renewed hostilities with the
assistance of France. The struggle was at last decided in favour of
the Count de Montfort, by the death of Charles and his son John,
both of whom were slain in the battle of Arrai, gained by the English,
September 20th, 1364, the same day of the month on which his rival
died.
The French heroine of this war was Julia du Guesclin, sister of the
great Constable. When the English invaded Brittany to support the
Count de Montfort, Julia, who was living with her sisters in a
convent, was obliged to take refuge in the fortress of Pontsorel,
which was soon besieged by the English. The garrison was small and
the besiegers were many, but Julia, with a courage worthy of her
brother Bertrand, persuaded the French not to surrender. Clad in a
coat of mail (one of her brother's) she stood on the ramparts and
hurled back all who attempted to scale the walls. Animated by her
courage, the French made so sturdy a defence that the English were
compelled to retire, discomfited. Julia then commanded the garrison
to throw open the gates and pursue the foe. The retreating army,
confronted unexpectedly by a strong force commanded by the
Constable himself, who was returning to Pontsorel, and surrounded
on all sides, were nearly all slain, while their commander was made
prisoner.
When the war was over, Julia returned to her convent, where she
passed the rest of her days.

Another heroine of this war was Jane de Belleville. Her husband,

Oliver, Lord of Clisson, was accused of holding secret intelligence
with the English; and in 1343 Philip de Valois, without waiting till the
evidence should be well substantiated, caused him to be
decapitated. The widow, burning for revenge, sold her jewels, and
with the proceeds equipped three vessels. After sending her son, a
lad of twelve, to England, to ensure his safety, Jane cruised about
the coast of Normandy, attacking every French ship which came in
her way, and ravaging the country for a mile or so inland. This
female corsair was frequently seen, with a sword in one hand and a
torch in the other, amidst the smoking ruins of a castle, or the
smouldering heaps of a destroyed village, directing with inhuman
exultation the ferocious cruelties suggested by her thirst for
vengeance.

While King Edward and Philip de Valois were devastating France

in their contests for the crown, the Romagna was the scene of a
fierce struggle between the Pope, the Visconti, and the various
nobles and cities of Italy. After having lost a great part of his
territories, Innocent II. reconquered the States of the Church by
means of the Cardinal Legate Egidius Albornez. But the Papal
governors were so tyrannical that the nobles of the Romagna, with
few exceptions, fought desperately to maintain their independence.
Francesco d'Ordelaffi, lord of Forli, was the last to give way. He was
ably seconded in his brave resistance by Marzia, his wife, a member
of the house of Ubaldini. While he was defending Forli he entrusted
the town of Cesena to his wife; and in the beginning of 1357 the
husband and wife separated. Marzia took up her station in Cesena,
with a garrison of two hundred knights and an equal number of
common soldiers. She was accompanied by her son and daughter,
and by Sgariglino de Petragudula, the wise counsellor of the
Ordelaffi family.
The town was soon invested by a force ten times as numerous as
the garrison. At the end of April some terrified burgesses opened the
gates of the lower town. But Marzia, recollecting the words of her
husband, who declared that unless the Pope offered him honourable
terms he would sustain a siege in every one of his castles, that when
they were all taken he would defend Forli, the walls, the streets, his
own palace, even to the last tower of his palace, before surrendering
his rights, retreated to the upper town with those soldiers and
townspeople who remained faithful. Sgariglino having proved to be a
traitor, she caused him to be executed; his reeking head was flung
from the battlements amongst the besiegers.
Marzia took upon herself all the duties of governor and military
commander. She wore her helmet and cuirass day and night, and
scarcely closed her eyes at all. At last she was compelled to retire
into the citadel with four hundred soldiers and citizens who swore to
stand by her to the death. But the citadel, undermined by the Papal
engineers, almost hung in the air. Marzia's father, permitted by the
legate, entered Cesena and besought her to surrender. Her answer
was firm and simple. Her husband gave her a duty to perform, and
she must obey implicitly.
 At last the people began to murmur. Marzia was compelled to
surrender. She conducted the negotiations herself; and so skilfully
did she manage, that the Legate, afraid of driving her to despair,
consented that her soldiers should return home unmolested, with
their arms and accoutrements. On the 21st of June she opened the
gate of the citadel.
She had disdained to make terms for herself, so the legate cast
Marzia and her children into prison.
It is curious to note that there are now no remains of Cesena to
commemorate the heroic valour of Marzia.

The illustrious northern heroine, Margaret, whose military

achievements gained for her the title of "Semiramis of the North,"
was daughter of Waldemar, King of Denmark, and was born at
Copenhagen in 1353. On the death of her father, Margaret, through
her exceeding popularity with the people, succeeded in placing
Olaus, her son, on the throne. Haquin, King of Norway, Margaret's
husband, died in 1380, and Olaus in 1387. The election of a female
sovereign was not yet authorised by custom; but Margaret's superior
talents, her beauty, and her profuse liberality prevailed, and she was
chosen Queen of Denmark, and, soon after, she was elected Queen
of Norway.
By taking advantage of the internal dissensions in the kingdom of
Sweden, Margaret gained over a faction of the nobility, who offered
her the crown. She marched into Sweden with a large army, and
after a war of seven years defeated and captured King Albert at
Falkœping. She kept him a prisoner seven years longer, at the
expiration of which he resigned all claim to the Swedish crown.
To effect a permanent union of the three Scandinavian crowns,
Queen Margaret concluded the famous Union of Calmar, 1397. She
restored tranquillity at home, and was successful against all her
enemies abroad; but her latter years were disturbed by the
ingratitude of Eric, whom she had chosen as her successor. She died
in 1412.

According to Border tradition, a Scottish maiden named Lilliard

fought at the battle of Otterburn ("Chevy Chase") on the 19th of
August, 1388, and displayed the same style of valour attributed to
the gallant Witherington, who fell in the same battle. It is said that
the following inscription was, till within a few years ago, to be seen
on her tombstone:—
"Fair Maiden Lilliard lies under this stane,
Little was her stature, but great was her fame,
On the English lads she laid many thumps,
And when her legs were off, she fought upon
her stumps."
One of the most faithful adherents of Henry Bolingbroke in his
days of adversity was Sir John de Pelham, who had been squire to
old John of Gaunt. When Lancaster was banished by king Richard,
Pelham followed him abroad, leaving Pevensey castle in charge of
his wife, Lady Joan. Sir John was one of the fifteen lances who
disembarked at Ravenspur, in July, 1399, with Henry; and on the 4th
of the same month, while he was sharing the fatigues and perils of
what seemed then a rash enterprise, the partizans of Richard II. laid
siege to Pevensey castle. Lady Joan, a noble and spirited woman,
took upon herself the conduct of the defence, and directed all the
efforts of the garrison with such prudence and decision that the
besiegers were forced to retire.
When the Duke of Lancaster ascended the throne as Henry IV., he
remembered the services of his faithful adherents. Sir John de
Pelham was created a Knight of the Bath, and appointed royal
sword-bearer, treasurer-at-war, and chief butler to the king. The king
further displayed his confidence in Sir John by sending James I. of
Scotland as a prisoner to Pevensey castle. The courage of Lady Joan
was also publicly recognised and applauded.

Eric, Margaret's successor on the Scandinavian throne, proved to

be a very inferior ruler to his illustrious aunt. Nearly all his reign was
taken up with an inglorious war for the Duchy of Schleswig. The
quarrel was decided in favour of Denmark by the Emperor
Sigismund; but the Count of Holstein refused to accept the imperial
decree, and the war waxed fiercer every day. The Hanseatic League,
whose fleet then ruled the Baltic, joined the alliance against
Denmark; and in 1428 a powerful armament, commanded by Count
Gerard of Holstein, invested Copenhagen. The city would doubtless
have fallen but for the courage of Eric's queen, Philippa, who was
the daughter of Henry IV. of England. Throwing herself into the city,
the queen, by her exhortations and example, inspired the garrison
with such enthusiasm and patriotic fervour, that the foe were
compelled to retire discomfited.
Elated by her success, Philippa now resolved to carry the war into
the enemy's country. So, while Eric was endeavouring to gather
reinforcements of men and money in Sweden, the queen, with a
fleet of seventy-five sail, invested Stralsund. But this time fortune
was against the heroine. The Danish navy was almost entirely
destroyed in a great sea-fight. Eric, without reflecting that he had
himself suffered many a worse defeat, flew into a rage when he
heard of this disaster; and carried away by his blind fury, he even
struck the queen. The high-spirited Philippa, unable to forgive this
brutality, retired to a convent, where she died shortly after.
 VII.
Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans—Margaret de Attendoli,
Sister of the great Sforza—Bona Lombardi and Onerata Rodiana,
Female Condottieri—Marulla (Turks in Europe)—Margaret of
Anjou—Jeanne Hachette—Doña Aldonza de Castillo, and Doña
Maria Sarmiento (Civil Wars in Castile)—Isabel the Catholic—
Caterina Sforza.

A T the beginning of the fifteenth century there dwelt in the

little village of Domremy, on the banks of the Meuse,
Jacques d'Arc, or Darc, a peasant, and Isabeau Romie,
his wife. Though comparatively poor, they had the
respect of their neighbours as being a hard-working, honest couple.
They had three sons and two daughters, all of whom were bred, like
their parents, to humble occupations. Joan, Jeanne, or Jehanne was
born, according to different writers, in 1402, 1410, or 1412. She was
exceedingly beautiful, with fine expressive features, and jet black
hair. She was about the middle height, with a delicately moulded
frame. Her education was the same as that of most peasant-girls,
French or English, in those days—spinning, sewing, and repeating
her Paternoster and Ave Maria. From her infancy Jeanne was
employed in various duties, the chief of which was driving the cattle
to and from pasture. She was of a religious, imaginative disposition,
and as early as her thirteenth year began to indulge those
superstitious reveries which afterwards made her famous. Although
her gentleness caused her to be universally beloved, she shunned
girls of her own age, and took but little interest in the amusements
of others. While her young friends were playing under the "Fairies'
Tree" near the fountain of Domremy, Jeanne was dancing and
singing by herself in pious fervour, or weaving garlands for the Holy
Virgin in the small chapel of Notre Dame de Bellemont.
 The villagers of Domremy were, without exception, staunch
Royalists, while those of the neighbouring hamlet were zealous
Burgundians. A very bitter hostility prevailed between the rival
parties. On one occasion a band of troopers invaded Domremy and
drove all the people from their homes. The family of Jeanne found
shelter for a few days at an inn; whence arose the mistake of the
English chroniclers, who state that the maiden was in early life an
innkeeper's servant.
For a quarter of a century, France had been torn by civil war, and
the death of Charles VI. in 1422 plunged the country into hopeless
confusion and anarchy. According to the Treaty of Troyes (concluded
in 1420), Henry VI. of England was proclaimed King of France, which
his uncle, the Duke of Bedford, governed as regent. Queen Isabella
and the Duke of Burgundy joined England; and the Dauphin,
abandoned by his own mother, had a very small party indeed. The
English army was commanded by several brave and talented
warriors—the Earls of Salisbury, Somerset, Warwick, Suffolk,
Shrewsbury, Arundel, and many gallant knights.
The Dauphin, at the age of nineteen, was crowned at Poitiers, as
Charles VII. On the 12th of October, 1428, the Earl of Salisbury laid
siege to Orleans, the last stronghold of any importance held by the
Royalists. It was bravely defended by Glaucour, Lahyre, and Dunois.
Repeated messages were sent to the king imploring assistance. The
city was naturally strong, and well-garrisoned, but the English
commenced an elaborate system of counter-fortification, and cut off
the supplies of the besieged.
Jeanne d'Arc watched with eager anxiety the siege of Orleans.
Even as a child she had learned to detest the English; and now she
felt herself commanded, by frequent visions and supernatural
admonitions, to undertake the deliverance of her king and country.
Believing firmly that Heaven destined her to save France, she
refused more than one advantageous offer of marriage. In February,
1429, being then, according to the most reliable authorities, barely
eighteen, she was commanded by a vision of Our Lady to raise the
siege of Orleans, and afterwards conduct Charles to Rheims to be
crowned in state. She presented herself before Robert de
Baudricourt, governor of Vaucoulour, a town situated a few miles
from Domremy, and related her mission. Believing her to be insane,
the governor twice sent her away, threatening the second time to
box her ears; but when she returned a third time he thought it best
to send her with letters of recommendation to the Dauphin, at
Chinon, in Touraine.
The fame of Jeanne d'Arc preceded her; and the king awaited
with impatience the arrival of his extraordinary visitor. Although
Charles disguised himself and mixed with his courtiers, Jeanne
singled him out at once, and addressed him as king of France.
After being subjected to the most severe examination during
three weeks, by divines, counsellors of parliament and learned men,
the king was satisfied that her story was true, and consented to
accept her aid. She was furnished with a suit of armour, and armed
with a sword marked on the blade with five crosses, taken by her
directions from the tomb of an old warrior in the church of St.
Catherine at Fierbois. In company with several nobles she was sent
to the camp at Blois, thirty-five miles from Orleans. Her presence
produced the most miraculous effect upon the drooping spirits of the
soldiers. The French generals resolved now to make some great
effort for the relief of Orleans; and ten thousand men, commanded
by St. Severre, Lahyre, and the veteran Dunois were despatched to
its aid. Most of the soldiers retreated in dismay when they saw the
strong towers of the besiegers, but La Pucelle, followed by a small
party, forced her way through the English camp, and entered
Orleans on the 29th of April, 1429. She was clad in armour and
mounted on a snow-white horse; her head was bare, and the long
raven tresses, parted across her forehead, were tied at the back with
ribbon. In her right hand she grasped a lance; by her side hung the
consecrated sword and a small battle-axe.
On the 4th of May a sortie was made against the English bastille
of St. Loup, but the French were driven back with great slaughter.
Jeanne, hearing the noise of the fight, mounted her horse and
galloped to the spot, when she rode into the midst of the battle. The
French, re-animated by her presence, again charged the English,
drove them back, and captured the bastille.
After this first success the rest was comparatively easy. On the
6th and 7th the remaining bastilles on the south bank of the Loire
were carried by storm. The most important, that at the head of the
bridge, defended by Sir William Gladsdale with five thousand picked
men, yielded after an attack of fourteen hours. During the attack on
this tower, Jeanne, having placed a ladder against the walls, was
attempting to scale the battlements, when she was struck in the
neck by an arrow. She plucked out the weapon immediately, but the
loss of blood compelled her to leave the field. However, when she
heard that her absence dispirited the soldiers, she insisted upon
returning to the scene of action.
The Earl of Salisbury died during the siege; and the Earl of
Suffolk, who succeeded to the command, raised the siege on the 8th
of May, and beat a hasty retreat.
Jeanne d'Arc, the "Heaven-sent Maid," had now fully entered
upon her extraordinary career of victory. The universal belief in her
elevated mission—as much amongst the English as the French—
produced marvellous results. Resolute and chivalrous, pious and
gentle, she won the hearts of all,—even the roughest and most
sceptical veterans. However, it was only in matters of moral
discipline that she was implicitly obeyed; oaths or foul language
were severely censured when they reached her ears. She compelled
the entire army, generals and soldiers alike, to attend regularly at
confession; and at every halt she ordered an altar to be established
and the Holy Sacrament administered. But the generals, while they
skilfully employed her to animate the soldiers, did not implicitly
follow her counsels in military matters.
Her tactics were very simple. "I used," she said, "to say to them
'go boldly in among the English,' and then I used to go boldly in
myself." Her duties were chiefly confined to bearing at the head of
the army the consecrated sword and the sacred banner—the latter
made of white satin, semée with fleurs-de-lis, with the words "Jesus
Maria," and a representation of Our Saviour in his glory embroidered
on its surface. Her conduct was never stained by unfeminine cruelty.
It appears from the documents relative to her trial, that, although
she was herself wounded many a time, she never shed the blood of
anyone. Some French historians, however, aver that she did
sometimes, when hard pressed, use the consecrated sword as a
weapon of offence.
When the Earl of Suffolk retired from before Orleans he
established his head-quarters at Méhun-sur-Loire, and afterwards at
Jargeau. Jeanne hastened to Tours, where Charles was residing with
his court, and urged him at once to go to Rheims to be crowned.
The royal advisers, however, were afraid to venture on such a step
when Rheims itself, together with all the intermediate towns, was
still held by the English. The French next attacked the towns in
possession of the English on the banks of the Loire. During the
assault on Jargeau, which was taken by storm, La Pucelle, leading
on the French, was seen on the highest step of one of the scaling-
ladders, waving her banner over her head. A stone from the English
engines struck her so violent a blow on the head, that her helmet
was shattered, and she fell heavily to the foot of the wall. Rising on
the instant, she cried:—
"Amis, amis! sus, sus! Notre Seigneur a condamné les Anglais. Ils
sont à nous. Bon courage!"
The Earl of Suffolk was made prisoner during the assault.
Beaugency and Méhun capitulated shortly after the fall of
Jargeau; and the English, commanded by Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
the "English Achilles," retreated towards Paris. They were pursued
and overtaken in April, 1429, at Patai, by the Maid of Orleans. Sir
John Fastolfe, one of the bravest knights of his day (whatever
Shakespeare may declare to the contrary), advised Talbot to
continue his retreat with all speed; but the Earl scorned to fly before
his enemies, even though, as on this occasion, they were twice as
numerous as his own men. The English, struck with a superstitious
dread of La Pucelle, fled, after making little resistance; and Talbot,
after losing twelve hundred men, was captured. Eight hundred
English were slain in the pursuit. Sir John Fastolfe, with a prudence
long stigmatised as rank cowardice, continued his retreat to Paris,
where he arrived safely without the loss of a man.
Jeanne now insisted that the royal coronation should be no longer
delayed. Every obstacle vanished at her approach. Troyes, Chalons,
and other cities in rapid succession opened their gates; the people of
Rheims expelled the English garrison, and Charles entered in
triumph, July 16th, 1429. The consecration took place next day in
the cathedral. The Maid stood by the side of Charles, clad in armour;
and, taking the office of High Constable, held the sword over the
king's head.
Her mission being now concluded, Jeanne d'Arc entreated the
king's permission to "return to her father and mother, to keep her
flocks and herds as before, and do all things as she was wont to do;"
but her presence was considered so necessary to animate the
troops, that she was prevailed upon to stay. In September, Jeanne
was wounded in an unsuccessful attack on Paris, when she
requested, a second time, to be allowed to retire from the war. But
she was again overruled. In December, a patent of nobility was
conferred upon her; she was first styled Dalis, then Dulis, and finally
Dy Lys. Her coat of arms contained two golden lilies and a sword,
pointing upwards, bearing a crown. She obtained for the villages of
Domremy and Greux an exemption from taxation, which they
enjoyed until the equalisation of public imposts in 1789.
In the spring of 1429, the Duke of Burgundy besieged
Compiégne. Jeanne d'Arc threw herself into the town on the 21st of
May. Believing that her presence now would work the same miracles
as of old, she insisted, the evening of her arrival, that the garrison
should make a sortie. After some hard fighting the French took to
flight. Jeanne took the command of the rear-guard, and tried to rally
her countrymen. A Burgundian archer pulled her from her horse;
and while lying on the ground she was obliged to surrender to
Lyonnel, the Bastard of Vendôme. There is good reason for
supposing that Guillaume de Flavy, governor of the fortress, envious
of her military renown, betrayed Jeanne into the hands of her
enemies.
The English purchased Jeanne from the Duke of Burgundy for ten
thousand livres; and Henry VI. also settled an annuity of three
hundred francs upon her captor. Through many weary months the
Maid of Orleans dragged out a miserable existence in a dungeon. In
place of being treated as a prisoner of war, she was handed over to
ecclesiastical justice, charged with heresy and blasphemy. At the
instigation of several Frenchmen a process was instituted by the
Bishop of Beauvais, in whose diocese she had been captured. The
process lasted three months and had sixteen sittings. Jeanne denied
resolutely the accusations of sorcery and witchcraft, and named St.
Michael, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine as the bearers of the
heavenly messages.
The Bishop's Court, representing the Church and the University of
Paris, condemned Jeanne d'Arc as a sorceress and a heretic. Charles
VII. made little or no efforts to save her; and after four months'
imprisonment, the innocent enthusiast was sentenced to be burned
alive at Rouen. She was cut off from the Church, and delivered to
the secular judges.
On the 24th of May, 1431, she was carried to the stake, which
had been erected in the Vieux Marché of Rouen. At sight of the pile
her courage deserted her. She submitted to the Church, and
confessed that her visions were the work of Satan. Her punishment
was commuted to imprisonment for life, but it was not considered
expedient to let her live; so she was condemned as a relapsed
heretic, and dragged to the stake, May 30th. She was dressed in
female attire; and on her head was a mitre, covered with the words
"Apostate," "Relapse," "Idolâtre," "Hérétique."
 She met her fate this time with terrible calmness. While they were
putting the cap on her head, she said to one of the Dominican friars
who stood by her side:—
"Maître, par la grâce de Dieu, je serai ce soir en paradis."
Falling on her knees, she prayed fervently for a few moments, not
for herself only, but for the ungrateful king who had so cruelly
deserted her. The judges, even the stern Bishop of Beauvais, were
moved to tears. She was burned by a slow fire, and the pile was so
high that her agony lasted for a considerable time. Her ashes were
gathered together and flung into the Seine.
There is a legend that, as she expired, a white dove rose from the
flames. Another tradition says that after her ashes were removed,
the heart was found entire.
The Rouen theatre now occupies that part of the public square on
which the stake was erected. It was remarked as a curious
coincidence that when Soumet's tragedy of "Jeanne d'Arc" was
performed at Rouen, in the autumn of 1865, the last act, which
represents the death of the Maid, was played on the identical spot
where the real tragedy had been enacted in 1431.
Jeanne's father died of grief at her cruel fate; her mother survived
for many years, supported by a pension from the city of Orleans. In
1436 an impostor started up, who pretended to be the Maid of
Orleans, giving a plausible account of her escape. She was for
sometime successful, being acknowledged, even by the brothers, as
the heroine herself. Within the last few years this idea of Jeanne's
escape has been revived. Many French writers assert that there is
ample documentary evidence to prove that the Maid of Orleans lived
to be comfortably married, while another girl took her place at the
stake. This notion is gaining ground, both in France and England.
Among all the divines who condemned Jeanne, there was only
one Englishman—the Bishop of Winchester, Cardinal Beaufort.
 In 1450 and 1451 measures were taken to revise the process of
condemnation. In 1456 a court, presided over by the Archbishop of
Rheims and the Bishops of Paris and Coutance, decided that Jeanne
d'Arc was entirely innocent, and declared her to have been falsely
condemned.
The citizens of Orleans celebrate the annual Festival of Jeanne
d'Arc on the 8th of May; the villagers of Domremy hold an annual
fête on the 6th of January, the birth-day of the heroine. It is said
that the girls of the village have so much military esprit that they will
hardly deign to look upon a lover who has not served some years in
the wars.
The memory of Jeanne d'Arc has been preserved in France by
several monuments. Louis XI. erected a figure of the heroine in front
of her father's house; and in September, 1820, another memorial
was raised in Domremy, with Jeanne's bust carved in marble. In the
market-place of Rouen stands another figure of the Maid. In front of
the Marie of Orleans is a statue, modelled by the Princess Marie,
daughter of the Citizen King. In April, 1855, a colossal equestrian
figure was uncovered in one of the public squares of Orleans, on the
exact spot where she animated the French soldiers to attack the foe.
It was remarked as a sign of the times that not only the English flag,
but also the Turkish crescent stood out prominently from amongst
the numberless standards which surrounded the monument.
It has lately been proposed by the Bishop of Orleans, the Cardinal
Archbishop of Rouen, and others, to add Jeanne d'Arc to the
calendar of French saints. Shakespeare may thus prove once more a
prophet; he has put into the mouth of King Charles, the words:—
"No longer on Saint Denis will we cry,
But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint."
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Italy was terribly
harassed by bands of mercenary soldiers, who sought service in
every war, and fought neither through patriotism nor for the love of
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