34 Joan of Arc Canonized [1902 



had told him that if Cromer went he and his colleagues in office 

 would go too, and it was in consequence of Gorst's report in this 

 sense that Cromer was allowed to stay on. It is curious that it 

 should have been Gorst, Wolff's intimate friend, who did him this ill 

 turn, though doubtless Gorst was only fulfilling the commission given 

 him by his superiors. It was a decision of critical importance, for 

 on it really rested the question of the alternative policies in Egypt, 

 Cromer's which was a policy of remaining and anglicizing the Nile 

 Valley, Wolff's of restoring National self government." 



On our voyage from Marseilles to Alexandria " I have been read- 

 ing the Documents connected with the trial of Joan of Arc which 

 have just been published. Her death is perhaps the most stupendous 

 political crime ever perpetuated in Western Europe, certainly the black- 

 est in English history, and this, remembering Cromwell in Ireland, 

 the suppression of the Indian Mutiny and the desecration of the 

 Mahdi's tomb, is saying much. At the same time there was un- 

 deniably a certain legal case against Jeanne in the Ecclesiastical Court 

 which condemned her. The position she took up and persisted in 

 with regard to her visions and her mission from God, made it im- 

 possible for the Inquisition to hold a middle course concerning her. 

 Either she had been inspired by God or she had been inspired by the 

 devil for in those days the idea of mental hallucination was unknown, 

 and if not by God she was necessarily a sorceress worthy of death. 

 In reality Jeanne was a pious, good girl, persuaded of the truth of 

 her ' visions ' and acting single-mindedly in obedience to them. A 

 claim is made for her by the editor of the book that her answers to 

 her judges have a character of supernatural wisdom. This seems to 

 me to be exaggerated ; she was often at fault, and to some very simple 

 questions gave answers by no means wise, as when she refused to 

 repeat the Pater Noster or to say who counselled her to put on 

 male attire. So much for the ecclesiastics. The conduct of the Eng- 

 lish commanders Bedford, Warwick, and the rest, was infamous to 

 the last degree and without a shadow of excuse. They burned her 

 and scattered her ashes in the Seine for precisely the same reason that 

 Kitchener and his scoundrel officers blew up the Mahdi's tomb and 

 threw his body into the Nile. It was the dastard spirit of revenge 

 against one who had beaten English armies in the field, and of whom 

 they had all been afraid. 



" 4th Dec. — We arrived off Alexandria at daybreak, the city loom- 

 ing out of a bank of smoke and black cloud for all the world like 

 Liverpool. It was only a local effect, however, and we were soon 

 in the sunshine and on our way across the Delta, and are now at 

 Sheykh Obeyd. Between Damanhur and Cairo I counted seven pied 

 kingfishers, three hoopoes, two spur-winged plovers, one snipe, one 



