Children Of The Market Place

She declared to her judges her innocence of the charge and said, "God has always been my guide in all that I have done. The devil has never had power over me." Her trial was long and tiresome. At its close she was doomed to be burned at the stake. So in the market-place at Rouen the English soldiers fastened her to a stake surrounded by a great pile of fagots. A soldier put into her hands a rough cross, which he had made from a stick that he held. She thanked him and pressed it to her bosom. Then a good priest, standing near the stake, read to her the prayers for the dying, and another mounted the fagots and held towards her a crucifix, which she clasped with both hands and kissed. When the cruel flames burst out around her, the noble girl uttered the word "Jesus, " and expired. A statue of her now stands on the spot where she suffered. Among all the men of her time none did nobler work than Joan. And hence it is that we put the story of her life among the stories of the lives of the great MEN of the Middle Ages, although she was only a simple peasant girl ...»