Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-04-13
THE MAID OF ORR leans.

At daybreak, on the 30tl day of May,
1881, a priest entered the cell OF a
young woman at Rouen, and announ-
ced that he was come to- prepare her
for death. Not that the prisoner was
ill-she was young, healthy, and in the
full possession of her faculties the
death she was to suffer was a violent
one-she was to be burm ID alive Burn
ed alive at one and-t genty What
could the poor wretch hive done?
She had shivered the power of the
English in France she had, by means
of an enthusiasm which rendered her
obnoxious to the clergy, reused the
French nation from tho torpor into
which it had been throw by the stun
ming blows dealt to it by Henry V. of
En- gland, and she had de red to thwart
the purposes and brave Che anger of
vindictive churchmen Ike the Bishop
of Beauvais, and the b ishop of Win
chester, Cardinal Beauf ort. The pris-
oner's name was Jeanne Dare, or as she
has been more commonly but erroneous
ly called, Joan of Arc,
The priests annour,e ement took the
poor maiden entirely by surprise. A
week before she had Di zen led out into a
public place in Rouen, and compelled
in a moment of veal mess, when sur
rounded by enemies mot one kindly
face among the crowtl-and under Cir
cumstances of great excitement, to sign
q document disavowi ng and solemnely
adjuring certain G aarges of heresy
which were preferred against her and
she had been told oil That occasion that
her life would now be spared, though
she must resign hel self to sentence
of perpetual impri sonment. The ex-
cuse for breaking Il nth with the poor
girl was this-that since her abluratlon
she had said that t. Catharine and st.
Margaret, with VIII ON she asserted she
was frequently in direct communion,
had appeared to h, 9r, and rebuked her
for her weakness in yielding to the
threats of violence
On first hearin g the announcement
of the priest, Je anne's tirmness gave
wav she wept al id gave vent to pit
eus cries, tore he hair, and appealed to
1.-the great Jud, ge" against the cruel
wrongs done to her; but by degrees
her self-possessi on returned, and she
listened to the ministratious of the
priest. received the last sacrament from
him, and annou need herself ready to
submit to the i'll of God.
At nine o'clot TX in the morning she
was carried ava in the hangman's cart
to the market place of Rouen, where
had been alrea ly laid the funeral pyre
on which the J Dung victim was to be
sacrificed. I'll le Bishop of Beauvais,
Cardinal BeaI fort, and several other
prelates, with the English military
commanders, were there, and vast
crowd had co me out to see "the Maid
of Orleans" d ie. In the centre of the
market placs, about the spot where
now stands fountain .surmounted by
a figure of j eanne Dare, the stake was
reared, and around it were piled the
fagots. Sol lers guarded the place OF
execution.
The cereI nonial OF death was begun
ON that bea utiful May morning by a
sermon in which the crime of heresy
was vehem emily denounced, then the
sentence pronounced by the shepherds
of the flock upon the eve lamb before
them was. published, and the signal
was given to proclaim the last act of
the tragedy. A soldiers staff was bro
ken and formed into a rough cross,
which . the Maid clasped to her
breast. She was then bound to the
stake, the fagots were lighted, the fire
leaped up around her, and after suffer
ing the agony indispensable to death
by burning, her spirit returned to God
who gave it, The English cardinal
watched the whole proceedings with
unmoyed face, and when his victim s
life was beyond his reach he ordered
her ashes and bones to be gathered up
and to lie cast into the Seine.