ACT II Charley and Joan are on a tour of the provinces. He is trying to effect reconciliation with his family. He has even got Joan out of armour and into a dress - it's part of his plan to convince everyone she's just a simple shepherdess. Joan has quietened down somewhat - she lost her first battle when she marched against Paris. Charley tries to introduce her to all his relatives, sending Minguet to say Joan is no longer a threat. They send back their own descriptions of her - "whore, witch, murderer, liar." His attempts to calm everyone fail when Joan threatens more battles if "the villains and bullies who've been raping France for 100 years don't stop!" Charley tells Joan things must change, he's confining her to Chinon. But Joan says her "voices" have suddenly returned to tell her Phillip will break the truce and attack Compiègne in the spring. "Enough!" Charley commands. "I demand obedience. I am the king." "I will listen to no one except my voices," Joan shouts. It's spring. Minguet, now a squire, and Agnes are in the courtyard at Chinon. There's been much discontent over the winter. Charley and Joan aren't speaking - not a single word between them for months. Minguet is confident they'll be together soon. He foresees an event that might do it - a certain catastrophe. They decide they should be grateful for small blessings. The catastrophe comes: the Duke of Burgundy does break the truce, attacks Compiègne. And it does bring Charley and Joan together, on the banks of the Vienne, near Chinon. Compiègne is expected to fall in a week. Joan's "voices" have warned her not to enter the battle. She'll be captured if she does. She wants Charley to act like a king and go. They argue. The dangers to Compiègne become more certain. Finally Joan says she must go. If she is captured, Charley can come and rescue her. He swears to heaven they are "the strangest pair that ever had to do with each other in all of history, with nothing in common." Joan says they have one thing in common, "Love of France." And she rides off to battle. A few days later the Archbishop and the General are in a confessional booth. Joan has been captured; they are responsible. Her trial starts the next day. They've promised Charley to get her off. Joan is in a prison cell, in Rouen, tried and condemned for witchery and other assorted misdeeds. But Charley has done nothing yet to save her. It is May 30, 1431. However, Charley is trying to do something. He and Minguet are tented outside the walls of Rouen. There aren't enough troops, though, to break into the city. Charley has another plan, and Agnes, in a nun's outfit, has visited the prison to see Joan to carry it out. The plan is simple. Joan will sign a confession, admit temporary insanity, swear there are no "voices," and Church law will remand the death penalty. Then, after six months of imprisonment, Charley will buy her release. Not wishing to die, Joan signs the paper for Agnes, who gives it to a guard as she leaves. Now Joan has second thoughts about that piece of paper - she went against her "voices" at Compiègne, and had been captured as they had warned her, and now she is defying them again with this false confession. She sees Charley's game, his plan to pay all of France for her and have nothing to rule over. It's more than she will do. Charley will just have to be king of France. She takes the paper from the guard and rips it up. Three weeks later the Great Hall is filled with people including Charley's relatives. Joan has been burned at the stake. Thousands saw it. The Archbishop, however, is trying to convince Charley that she has come back to life, that there has been a miraculous resurrection and Joan can help write the truce with Phillip. A girl enters. She looks exactly like Joan. Charley begs her forgiveness for not trying to save her. But it is all just another piece of intrigue. The girl is a fake, who has been put up to the hoax by the Archbishop, the General and Charley's relatives. The king orders the impostor be released and all his enemies arrested on the spot. When the guards hesitate, Charley grabs a knife, kills the Archbishop and the General as his relatives flee. It
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