No heavenly voice spoke, no miracle intervened as her young limbs were tied to the stake and the fagots and straw piled up about her.

The torch was applied, and her pure soul mounted heavenward in a column of flames.
Rugged men wept.

A Burgundian general said, as he turned gloomily away, "We have murdered a saint." [Illustration: Burning of Joan of Arc at Rouen, May 30, 1431.

From the painting by Lenepveu.] And Charles, sitting upon the throne she had rescued for him, what was he doing to save her?
Nothing--to his everlasting shame be it said, nothing.

He might not have succeeded; the effort at rescue, or to stay the event, might have been unavailing.