Saint Joan

The Epilogue of Saint Joan takes place in 1456, 25 years after Joan’s martyrdom. Brother Ladvenu comes to tell King Charles VII that an inquiry into Joan’s trial has reversed the previous verdict and she has been declared innocent. However, Ladvenu also claims that this inquiry was full of lies and deceptions. While the inquiry found that Joan’s original trial was corrupt, in fact, it was completely fair and just. Charles VII does not care about the perjury; he is relieved that no one can accuse him of having been crowned by a witch and a heretic anymore.

He goes to sleep and is visited by a dream of Joan. She asks him about his life, and he tells her that he has become a brave military commander and fallen in love with a woman named Agnes Sorrel. However, when he says that he has placed a beautiful cross in the place where she was burned, Joan discounts the significance of this gesture, saying that she will be remembered long after the cross is gone. Cauchon appears, explaining that after his death, he was excommunicated and his body thrown in a sewer. He does not regret his actions, still faithfully maintaining that he did the right thing.