by D. J. Holmes
***
“Daniel,” Treysen interrupts. “They’ve brought her from her cell. She’s wearing a white dress. Her feet are bare…. A priest is with her…. She is walking toward the huge stake that the English soldiers have piled all of the logs against. Jehanne is asking for a cross.”
“Everyone, I know that this is hard,” Daniel says insistently, “but we need to listen so that we will be ready to help her as she needs help. We have to be her strength!”
Silence falls throughout the room as everyone is watching and listening to Jehanne on the screen….
“Please, I need a cross. I need a cross,” she pleads.
An English soldier, hearing her request, shows mercy by quickly breaking a twig into two pieces. Placing the shorter part of the broken twig across the top of the longer one, he quickly secures the pieces together with a piece of thin leather string he has just pulled from his uniform; he quickly hands the newly made cross to Jehanne as she walks in front of him. Stopping for a moment, she looks directly at him, “Thank you for your kindness, Sir.”
Holding the small wooden cross close to her heart another English soldier pushes her toward the stake at the top of the stack of wooden logs. Looking up at the huge pile of wood she puts the small wooden cross next to her heart, inside of her dress. Climbing the stairs, she finally reaches the top. Soldiers on each side forcibly turn Jehanne around and push her back to the wooden beam; chains are wrapped around her waist and ankles. They have made sure that she is securely chained to the stake, so that, in the eyes of her accusers, her angels won’t be able to help her escape.
The fire is set.
Within a few moments, Jehanne can see smoke rising and detects the smell of burning wood directly below her. As the flames travel higher and higher some of the crowd are anxiously waiting to see if she will deny what she has always said, that she has seen and heard her angels. Others are waiting for her soldiers, who they know will ride in and save her.
A woman in the crowd declares, “Her soldiers will rescue her. Surely they will not let their great commander Jehanne d’Arc, die…not this way! Just watch. They will be here soon.”
The woman’s son, standing next to her, agrees, “Yes. And then they will run the English out of Rouen.”
Everyone continues to stand watching this horrible situation unfold before their eyes. Watching, praying and hoping for a miracle to happen. What could any lone unarmed person do but watch, with eight hundred English soldiers armed and standing guard to make sure that the sentence is carried out.