# The Maid in Chains explained — Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc > Chapter companion for Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. ## What happens Louis de Conte recounts the shameful period following Joan's capture, detailing how France and King Charles VII failed to ransom her while the English, using the Church as a disguise, negotiated her purchase. Joan was imprisoned, attempted escape twice, and was ultimately sold to the English for a royal prince's ransom. She was taken to Rouen, chained in a dungeon, and the trial was orchestrated by the infamous Pierre Cauchon. ## Themes in this chapter ### Betrayal and Martyrdom Joan is betrayed by France and the King, who fail to ransom her, and is sold to her enemies by a French prince. ### Injustice and Corruption of Power The English use the Church as a disguise to unjustly try Joan for crimes against religion, inventing charges to destroy her influence. ### Courage and Resilience Despite imprisonment and chains, Joan attempts escape twice and remains silent without reproach, showing immense fortitude. ## Character check-ins ### Joan of Arc Captured and held prisoner; attempts escape twice; sold to the English; taken to Rouen and chained in a dungeon. ### Louis de Conte Narrator who reflects on the shameful history and the failure of France to ransom Joan. ### Pierre Cauchon The infamous French bishop sent by the English to negotiate Joan's purchase and preside over her ecclesiastical trial. ### De la Tremouille Suspected of influencing the King to remain silent and not offer ransom for Joan. ### Charles VII The King of France who made no offer or effort to ransom Joan despite her service. ### The Paladin Mentioned indirectly as part of the friends who remained silent during Joan's captivity. ## Key lines > By the laws of war she could not be denied the privilege of ransom. She was not a rebel; she was a legitimately constituted soldier, head of the armies of France by her King’s appointment, and guilty of no crime known to military law; therefore she could not be detained upon any pretext, if ransom were proffered. Under military law, Joan had the right to be ransomed because she was a legitimate soldier appointed by the King, not a rebel, and had committed no military crime. _Louis explains the legal basis for Joan's expected ransom._ > The Church was being used as a blind, a disguise; and for a forcible reason: the Church was not only able to take the life of Joan of Arc, but to blight her influence and the valor-breeding inspiration of her name, whereas the English power could but kill her body; that would not diminish or destroy the influence of her name; it would magnify it and make it permanent. The English used the Church as a cover because the Church could destroy Joan's inspirational legacy, while mere execution would only enhance her fame. _Louis explains the strategic reason for the ecclesiastical trial._ > For that sum Joan of Arc, the Savior of France, was sold; sold to her enemies; to the enemies of her country; enemies who had lashed and thrashed and thumped and trounced France for a century and made holiday sport of it; enemies who had forgotten, years and years ago, what a Frenchman’s face was like, so used were they to seeing nothing but his back; enemies whom she had whipped, whom she had cowed, whom she had taught to respect French valor, newborn in her nation by the breath of her spirit; enemies who hungered for her life as being the only puissance able to stand between English triumph and French degradation. Joan was sold for a royal ransom to the English, who had long dominated France and feared her as the only force capable of preventing their victory. _Louis laments the betrayal of Joan's sale to her enemies._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/personal_recollections_of_joan_of_arc_se/chapters/i-the-maid-in-chains - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/personal_recollections_of_joan_of_arc_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/personal_recollections_of_joan_of_arc_se/chapters