Autobiography of Mark Twain (46 page)

6. Great as she was in so many ways, she was perhaps
even
greatest of all in the lofty things just named
her patient endurance, her steadfastness, her granite fortitude. We may
not
_^
never
_^
hope
to
easily
_^
to
_^
find her
mate and twin
_^
equal
_^
in these majestic qualities
; w
here we lift our eyes highest we find only a strange and curious contrast—there in the captive eagle beating his broken wings
on
_^
upon
_^
the Rock of St. Helena.

7. The Trial
ended with her condemnation.
But as
_^
As
_^
she had conceded nothing, confessed nothing, this was victory for her, defeat for Cauchon. But his evil resources were not yet exhausted. She was persuaded to
agree to
sign a paper of slight import, then by treachery
a paper
_^
another
_^
was substituted which contained a recantation
and
_^
together with
_^
a detailed confession of everything
which
_^
that
_^
had been charged against her during the Trial
and denied and repudiated by her persistently
during the three months; and this
_^
throughout. This
_^
false paper she ignorantly signed
. This
_^
it
_^
was victory for Cauchon. He followed it eagerly and pitilessly up by at once setting a trap for her
which
_^
that
_^
she could not escape. When she realised this she gave up the
long
_^
fruitless
_^
struggle, denounced the treason
which
_^
that
_^
had been practised against her, repudiated the false confession, reasserted the truth of the testimony
which
she had given
in
_^
at
_^
the Trial
, and went to her martyrdom with the peace of God in her tired heart, and on her lips endearing words and loving prayers for the cur she had crowned and the nation of ingrates she had saved.

8. When the
fires rose about her and
_^
flames leapt up and enveloped her frail form
_^
and she begged for a cross for her
dying
_^
parched
_^
lips to kiss, it was not a friend but an enemy, not a Frenchman but an alien, not a comrade in arms but an English soldier that answered
that
_^
her
_^
pathetic prayer. He broke a stick across his knee, bound the pieces together in the form of the symbol she so loved, and gave it
_^
to
_^
her
; and his
_^
This
_^
gentle deed is not forgotten, nor
_^
ever
_^
will be.

III
.

THE REHABILITATION
.

Twenty-five years
afterwards
_^
later
_^
the Process of Rehabilitation was instituted,
there being
_^
in consequence of
_^
a growing doubt as to the validity of a sovereignty that had been rescued and set upon its feet by
a person
_^
one
_^
who had been
proven
_^
declared
_^
by the Church
to be
a witch and a familiar of evil spirits.
Joan’s
_^
Jeanne’s
_^
old generals
her secretary
several aged relations and other villagers of Domremy
surviving judges and secretaries of the Rouen and Poitiers Processes—a cloud of witnesses, some of whom had been her enemies and persecutors
came and made oath and testified
; and what they said was written down.
_^
Their statements were taken down as evidence.
_^
In that sworn testimony the moving and beautiful history of
Joan of
_^
Jeanne d’
_^
Arc is laid bare
from her childhood to her martyrdom. From the verdict she rises stainlessly pure, in mind and heart, in speech
and
deed and spirit
and will so endure to the end of time.