 Section 13 of Jean Dark, Her Life and Death. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Kay Hand. Jean Dark, Her Life and Death by Margaret O. Oliphant. The judges, 1431. The name of Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, appears to us at this long distance as a rising out of the infernal mists, into which, when his ministry of shame was accomplished, he disappeared again, bearing with him nothing but hatred and ill-fame. Yet in his own day and to his contemporaries, he was not an inconsiderable man. He was of Reims, a great student, and excellent scholar, the friend of many good men, highly esteemed among the ranks of the learned, a good man of business, which is not always the attribute of a scholar, and at the same time a Burgundian of pronounced sentiments, holding for his duke against the king. When Beauvais was summoned by Charles, after his coronation, at that moment of universal triumph, would all seem to open for him to march upon Paris if he would. The city had joyfully thrown open its doors to the royal army, and in doing so had driven out its bishop, who was hot on the other side. He would not seem to have been wanted in Paris at that moment. The Triste Bedford, as Michelet calls him, had no means of employing an ambitious priest, no dirty work for the moment to give him. It is natural to suppose that a man so admirably adapted for that employment when in search of it to the ecclesiastical court, not beloved of England, which the cardinal bishop of Winchester held then. Winchester was the only one of the House of Lancaster who had money to carry on the government, either at home or abroad. The two priests, as the historians are always pleased to insinuate in respect to ecclesiastics, soon understood each other, and Winchester became aware that he had in Cauchon a tool ready for any shameful enterprise. It is not, however, necessary to assume so much as this, for we have not the least reason to believe that either one or the other of them had the slightest doubt on the subject of Jean or as to her character. She was a pernicious witch filling a hitherto invincible army with that savage fright which is but too well understood among men, in which produces cruel outrageous as well as cowardly panic. The heir of this very day, while I write, is ringing with the story of a woman burnt to death by her own family under the influence of that same horrible panic and terror. Cauchon was the countryman, almost the pais, an untranslatable expression of Jean, but he did not believe in her any more than the loftier ecclesiastics of France believed in Bernadette of lords, who was of the spiritual lineage of Jean, nor than we should believe today in a similar pretender. It seems unnecessary, then, to think of dark plots hatched between these two dark priests against the white, angelic apparition of the maid. What services Cauchon had done to recommend him to the favor of Winchester we are not told, but he was so much in favor that the cardinal had recommended him to the Pope for the vacant archbishopric of Rouen a few months before there was any immediate question of Jean. The appointment was opposed by the clergy of Rouen and the Pope had not come to any decision as yet on the subject. But no doubt the ambition of Cauchon made him very eager, with such a tempting prize before him, to recommend himself to his English patron by every means in his power. And he it was who undertook the office of negotiating the ransom of Jean from the hands of Jean de Luxembourg. We doubt whether, after all, it would be just even to call this a nefarious bargain. To the careless senior, it would probably be very much a matter of course. The ransom offered, six thousand francs, was as good as if she had been a prince. The ladies at home might be indignant, but what was their foolish fancy for a high-flung girl in comparison with those substantial crowns in his pocket? And to be free from the responsibility of guarding her would be an advantage too. And if her own party did not stir on her behalf, why should he? A most pertinent question. Cauchon, on the other hand, could assure all objectors that no summary vengeance was to be taken on the main. She was to be judged by the church and by the best men the university could provide, but if she were found innocent, no doubt would go free. There must have been Sanguine indeed who hoped for a triumphant acquittal of Jean, but still it may have been hoped that a trial by her countrymen would in every case be better for her than to languish in prison or to be seized perhaps by the English on some after occasion and to perish by their hands. Let us therefore be fair to Cauchon, if possible, up to the beginning of the procé. He was no Frenchman but a Burgundian. His allegiance was to his duke, not to the king of England, but his natural sovereign did so, and many, very many men of note and importance were equally base, and did not esteem it base at all. Had the inhabitants of Reims his native town or of Rouen, in which his trial and downfall took place as well as Jean's, pronounced for the king of Prussia in the last war and proclaimed themselves his subjects, the traitors would have been hung with an infamy from their own high towers or driven into their riverhead long. But things were very different in the 15th century. There has never been a moment in our history when either England or Scotland has pronounced for a foreign sway. Scotland fought with desperation for centuries against the mere name of Souserainty, though of a kindred race. There have been terrible moments of forced subjugation at the point of the sword, but never any such phenomena as appeared in France so far on in the world's history as was that brilliant and highly-cultured age. Such a state of affairs is to our minds impossible to understand or almost to believe. But in the interests of justice, it must be fully acknowledged and understood. Cowshawn arises accordingly, not at first with any infamy out of the obscurity. He had been expelled and dethroned from his sea, but this only for political reasons. He was ecclesiastically bishop of Beauvais still it was within his diocese that the maid had taken prisoner and there also her last acts of magic, if magic there was, had taken place. He had therefore a legal right to claim the jurisdiction, a right which no one had any interest in taking from him. If Paris was disappointed at not having so interesting a trial carried on before its courts, there was compensation in the fact that many doctors at the university were called to assist Cowshawn in his examination of the maid and to bring her, which sorceress, heretic, whatever she might be, to question. These doctors were not undistinguished or unworthy men. A number of them held high office in the church. Almost all were honorably connected with the university, the source of learning in France. With what art were they chosen? Exclaims M. Blaise de Bury. A number of theologians, the elite of the time, had been named to represent France at the Council of Bale. These Cowshawn chose the flower. This does not seem on the face of it to be a fact against, but rather in favor of, the tribunal, which the reader naturally supposes must have been the better, the more just, for being chosen among the flower of learning in France. They were not men who could be imagined to be the tools of any bishop. Quichirat, in his moderate and able remarks on this subject, selects for special mention three men who took a very important part in it. Guillaume Erard, Nicole Maddie, and Thomas de Corselles. They were all men who held a high place in the respect of their generation. Erard was a friend of Maché, the Confessor of Charles VII, who had been a member of the tribunal at Poitiers, which first pronounced upon the pretensions of Jean. Yet after the trial of the maid, Maché still describes him as a man of the highest virtue and heavenly wisdom. Nicole Maddie continued to hold an honorable place in his university for many years, and was the man chosen to congratulate Charles when Paris finally became again the residence of the king. Corset was considered the first theologian of the age. He was a nastier and eloquent young man, says Quichirat, of a lucid mind, though nourished on abstractions. He was the first of theologians long before he had attained the age at which he could assume the rank of doctor. And even before he had finished his studies, he was considered as the successor of Gershon. He was the light of the Council of Bale. Anais Pigolomini, Pope Pius II, speaks with admiration of his capacity and his modesty. In him we recognize the father of the freedom of the Galician Church. His disinterestedness is shown by the simple position with which he contented himself. He died with no higher rank than that of Dean of the Chapter of Paris. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? Was this the man to be used for their vile ends by a savage English party thirsting for the blood of an innocent victim and by the vile priest who was its tool? Does not seem so to our eyes across the long level of the centuries which clear away so many mists. A no more dreadful accusation can be brought against France in the suggestion that men like these, her best, and most carefully trained, were willing to act as bloodhounds for the advantage and the pay of the invader. But there are many French historians to whom the mere fact of a black priest should retain a shred of honor of honesty. We should have said by the light of nature and probability that had every guarantee been required for the impartiality and justice of such a tribunal, they could not have been better secured than by the selection of such men to conduct its proceedings. They made a great and terrible mistake as the wisest of men have made before now. They did much worse. They behaved to an unfortunate girl who was in their power with indescribable ferocity and cruelty. But we must hope that this was owing to the period at which they lived, rather than to themselves. It is not perhaps indeed from the wise and learned, the stoics and pundits of a university, that we should choose judges for the divine simplicity of those babes and sucklings out of whose mouths praise is perfected. At the same time, to choose the best man is not generally the way adopted to procure a base judgment. Calchon may have been subject to this blame had he filled the benches of his court with creatures of his own, nameless priests and dialecticians, knowing nothing but their own poor science of words. He did not do so. There were but two Englishmen in the assembly, neither of them men of any importance or influence, although there must have been many English priests in the country and in the train of Winchester. There were not even any special partisans of Burgundy, though some of the assessors were Burgundian by birth. We should have said, had we known no more than this, that every precaution had been taken to give the maid the fairest trial. But at the same time a trial which is conducted under the name of the Inquisition is always suspect. The mere fact of that terrible name seems to establish a foregone conclusion. Few are the prisoners at that bar who have ever escaped. This fact is almost all that can be set against the high character of the individuals who composed the tribunal. At all events, it is no argument against the English that they permitted the best men in France to be chosen as Jean's judges. It is the most bewildering and astonishing of historical facts that they were so and yet came to the conclusion they did by the means they did and that without falling under the condemnation or scorn or horror of their fellow men. This then was the assembly which gathered in Rouen in the beginning of 1431. Kishara will not venture to affirm that intimidation was directly employed to affect their decision. He says that the evidence tends to prove that this was the case but honestly allows that. It is well to remark that the witnesses contradict each other. In all that I have said, he adds, my intention has been to prove that the judges of the maid had in no way the appearance of partisans hotly pursuing a political vengeance. But that on the contrary, their known weight, the consideration which most of them enjoyed and the nature of the tribunal for which they were assembled, were all calculated to produce generally an expectation full of confidence and respect. Meanwhile, there is not a word to be said for the treatment to which Jean herself was subjected. She being, so far as is apparent, entirely in English custody. She had been treated with tolerable gentleness it would seem in the first part of her captivity while in the hands of Jean de Luxembourg the Count de Ligny. The fact that the ladies of the house were for her friends must have assured this. And there is no complaint made anywhere of cruelty or even unkindness. When she arrived in Rouen, she was confined in the middle chamber of the Don Jean which was the best we may suppose neither a dungeon under the soil nor a room under the elite, but one to which there was access by a short flight of steps from the courtyard and which was fully lighted and not out of reach or sight of life. But in this chamber was an iron cage within which she was bound, feet and neck, from the time of her arrival until the beginning of the trial, a period of about six weeks. Five English soldiers of the lowest class watched her night and day, three in the room itself, two at the door. It is enough to think for a moment of the probable manners and morals of these troopers to imagine what torture must have been inflicted by their presence upon a young woman who had always been sensitive above all things to the laws of personal modesty and reserve. Their coarse jests would no doubt be unintelligible to her, which would be an alleviation, but their coarse laughter, their revolting touch, their impure looks would be an endless, incessant misery. We are told that she indignantly bestowed a hearty buffet on the cheeks of a tailor who approached her too closely when it was intended to furnish her with female dress, but she was helpless to defend herself when in her irons and had to endure as best she could. The bars of her cage let us hope if cage there was affording her some little protection from the horror of the continual presence of these rude attendants with whom it was a shame to English gentlemen and knights to surround a helpless woman. When her trial began, Jean was released from her cage but was still chained by one foot to a wooden beam during the day and at night to the posts of her bed. Sometimes her guards would wake her to tell her that she had been condemned and was immediately to be led forth to execution, but that was a small matter. Attempts were also made to inflict the barest insults and outrage upon her and on one occasion she is said to have been saved only by the Earl of Warwick who heard her cries and went to her rescue. By night as by day she clung to her male garb tightly fastened by the innumerable points of which Shakespeare so often speaks. Such were the horrible circumstances in which she awaited her public appearance before her judges. She was brought before them every day for months together to be badgered by the keenest wits in France, coming back and back with artful questions upon every detail of every subject to endeavor to shake her firmness or force her in a self-contradiction. Imagine a cross-examination going on for months, like those only more cruel than those to which we sometimes see an unfortunate witness exposed in our own courts of law. There is nothing more usual than to see people break down entirely after a day or two of such a tremendous ordeal in which their hearts and lives are turned inside out, their minds so bewildered that they know not what they are saying and everything they have done in their lives exhibited in the worst, often in an entirely fictitious light, to the curiosity and amusement of the world. But all our processes are mercy in comparison with those to which French prisoners at the bar are still exposed. It is unnecessary to enter into an account of these which are so well known, but they show that even such a trial was by no means so contrary to common usage, as it would be and always would have been in England. In England, we warned the accused to utter no rash word which may be used against him. In France the first principle was to draw from him every rash word that he could be made to bring forth. This was the method employed with Jean. Her judges were all churchmen and dialecticians of the subtlest wit and most dexterous faculties in France. They had all, or almost all a strong pre-possession against her. Though we cannot believe that men of such quality were suborned there was no doubt enough jealous and indignant feeling among them to make the desire of convicting Jean more powerful with them than the desire for pure justice. She was a true Christian, but not perhaps the soundest of church women. Her visions had not the sanction of any priest's approval, except indeed the official but not warm affirmation of the council at Poitiers. She not hastened to take the church into her confidence nor to put herself under its protection. Though her claims had been guaranteed by the company of divines at Poitiers, she herself had always appealed to her private instructions through her saints rather than to the guiding of any priest. The chief ecclesiastical dignitary of her own party had just held her up to the reprobation of the people for this cause. She was too independent, so proud that she wouldn't take no advice but acted according to her own will. The more accustomed a churchman is to experience the unbounded devotion and obedience of women, the more enraged he is against those who judge for themselves or have other guides on whom they rely. Jean was, besides all other sins alleged against her, a presumptuous woman, and very few of these men had any desire to acquit her. They were little accustomed to researches which were solely intended to discover the truth. Their principle rather was, as it has been the principle of many, to obtain proofs that their own particular way of thinking was the right one. It's not perhaps very good even for a system of doctrine when this is the principle by which it is tested. It is more fatal still on this principle to judge an individual for death or for life. It will be abundantly proved, however, by all that is to follow, that in the face of this tribunal, learned, able, powerful and prejudiced, the peasant girl of nineteen stood like a rock, unmoved by all their cleverness, undaunted by their severity, seldom or never losing her head or her temper. Her modest, steadfastness or her high spirit. If they hoped to have an easy bargain of her, never were men more mistaken. Not knowing A from B, as she herself said, untrained, unaided, she was more than a match for them all. Round about this center of eager intelligence, curiosity and prejudice, the Cathedral and Council Chamber teaming with Churchmen was a dark and silent ring of laymen and soldiers. A number of the English leaders were in Ruin, but they appear very little. Winchester, who had very lately come from England with an army, which according to some of the historians, would not budge from Calais where it had landed, for fear of the maid, was the chief person in the place but did not make any appearance at the trial curiously enough. The Duke of Bedford we are informed was visible on one shameful occasion but no more. But Warwick, who was the governor of the town, appears frequently in various other lords with him. We see them in the mirror held up to us by the French historians, pressing round in an ever-narrowing circle, closing up upon the tribunal in the midst, breaking the priests with perpetual sword points if they seemed to loiter. They would have had everything pushed on, no delay, no possibility of escape. It is very possible that this was the case, for it is that the witch was deeply obnoxious to the English and that they were eager to have her and her endless process out of the way. But the evidence for their terror and fierce desired expedite matters is of the feeblest. A canon of ruin, declared at the trial that he had heard it said by Matra, Pierre, Maurice and Nicholas, Locellure judges assessors and by other, who names he does not recollect that the said English were so afraid of her that they did not dare to begin the siege of Louvier until she was dead and that it was necessary if one would please them to hasten the trial as much as possible to find the means of condemning her. Very likely this was quite true, but it cannot at all be taken for proof by such evidence. Another contemporary witness allows that though some of the English pushed on her trial for hate, some were well-disposed to her, the matter of Jeanne's imprisonment is the only thing which can make the reader to believe every evil thing that is said against them. Such were the circumstances in which Jeanne was brought to trial. The population moved to pity and to tears as any population would have been before the end would seem at the beginning to have been indifferent and not to have taken much interest one way or another. The court, 100 men and more with all their hangers on, the cleverest men in France, one more distinguished and impeccable than the others, the suffering of the Englishmen outside keeping an eye upon the tedious suit and all its convolutions. These all appear before us, surrounding as with bands of iron, the young lonely victim in the donjon who's submitting to every indignity and deprived of every aid, feeling that all her friends had abandoned her, yet stood sub-fast and strong in her absolute simplicity and honesty. It was but two years in that same spring weather since she had left France to seek the fortune of France to offer herself to the struggle which now was coming to an end. Not a soul had Jeanne to comfort or stand by her. She had her say to, one wonders if such a thought ever entered into her young visionary head, had lured her to her doom and who still comforted her with enigmatic words, promises which came true in so sadly different a sense from that in which they were understood. End of section 13 section 14 of Jeanne Dark Her Life and Death This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kay Hand Jeanne Dark Her Life and Death by Margaret O. Bollifant Before the trial Blent 1431 We have not however sufficiently described the horror of the prison and the treatment to which Jeanne was exposed, though the picture is already dark enough. It throws a horrible yet also a grotesque light upon the savage manners of the time to find that the chamber in which she was confined had secret provision for an espionage of the most base kind. Openings made in the walls through which everything that took time, every proceeding of the unfortunate prisoner could be spied upon and every word heard. The idea of such a secret watch has always been attractive to the vulgar mind and no doubt it has been believed to exist many times when there was little or no justification for such an infernal thought. From the ear of Dionysus down to the trial Judas, which early tourists on the continent were taught to fear in every chamber door, the idea has descended to our own times. It would seem however to be beyond doubt that this odious means of acquiring information was in full operation during the trial of Jeanne and various spies were permitted to peep at her and to watch for any unadvised words she might say in her most private moments. We are told that the Duke of Bedford made use of the opportunity in a still more revolting way. In was present, a secret spectator at the fantastic scene when Jeanne was visited by a committee of matrons who examined her person to prove or disprove one of the hateful insinuations which were made about her. The imagination however refuses to conceive that a man of serious age and of high functions should have degraded himself to the level of a peeping Tom in this way. All the French historians nevertheless repeat the story though on the nearest hearsay evidence and they also relate with more apparent truth how a double treachery was committed upon the unfortunate prisoner by stationing two secretaries at these openings to take down her conversation with a spy who had been sent to her in the guise of a countryman of her own and that not only Kaushall but Warwick also was present on this occasion listening while their plot was carried out by the vile traitor inside. The clerks we are glad to say are credited with a refusal to act but Warwick did not shrink from the ignominy. The Englishmen indeed shrink from no ignominy nor did the French savants assembled under the presidency of the bishop. It is necessary to grant to begin with that they were neither ignorant nor basemen yet from the beginning of the trial almost every step taken by them appears base as well as a market in the midst of all their subtlety and diabolical cunning are the profoundest ignorance of human nature. Despite whom we have spoken the Ocelière bird snare a significant name was sent and consented to be sent to Jean in her prison as a fellow prisoner the Pays like herself from Lorraine to invite her confidence but his long conversations with the maid which were heard behind their backs by the secretaries elicited nothing from her that she did not say in the public examination. She had no secret devices to betray to a traitor she would not seem indeed to have suspected the man at all not even when she saw him among her judges taking part against her Jean herself suspected no falsehood but made her confession to him when she found that he was a priest and trusted him fully. The bewildering and confusing fact turning all the contrivances of her judges into foolishness was that she had nothing to confess that she was not ready to tell in the eye of day. The adoption of this abominable method and its sole which had none was justified it appears by the manner of her trial which was after the rules of the inquisition by which even more than by those which regulate an ordinary French trial the guilt of the accused is a foregone conclusion for which proof is sought not a fair investigation of facts for abstract purposes of justice. The first thing to be determined by the tribune was the counts of the indictment against Jean. Was she to be tried for magical arts or sorcery and witchcraft? It is very probable that the mission of Lois Sealer was to obtain evidence that would clear up this question by means of recalling to her the stories of her childhood of the enchanted tree and the fairies well from which sources her accusers anxiously hoped to prove that she derived her inspiration but it is very clear that no such evidence was forthcoming and that it seemed to them hopeless to attribute sorcery to her therefore the accusation was changed by the university alone. The following mandate from the university authorizing her prosecution will show what the charge was and the reader will note that one of its darkest items is the costume which for so many good and sufficient reasons she wore. Here is the official description of the accused quote A woman calling herself the maid leaving the dress and habit of her sex against the divine law a thing abominable to God the accused and armed in the habit and condition of a man has done cruel deeds of homicide and as is said has made the simple people believe in order to abuse and lead them astray that she was sent by God and had knowledge of his divine secrets along with several other doctrines dogmatizations very dangerous, prejudicial and scandalous to our holy catholic faith in pursuing which abuses and exercising hostility against us and our people she has been taken in arms before Compiègne and brought as a prisoner before us end quote According to French law the indictment ought to have been founded upon a preliminary examination into the previous life of the accused which as it does not appear in the formal accusations it was supposed had never been made Recent researches however have proved that it was made but was not of a nature to strengthen any accusation All that the examiners could discover was that Jean Dark was a good and honest maid who left a spotless reputation behind her in her native village and that not a suspicion of dogmatizations nor worship of fairies nor any other unseemly thing was associated with her name Other things less favorable we are told were reported of her The statement for instance made in apparent good faith by the Burgundian chronicler that she had been for some time a servant in and out Burgier and there had learned to ride and to consort with men a statement totally without foundation which was scarcely referred to in the trial The schedule of M. Kishara discovered the substance of those inquiries among the many secondary papers but they were not made use of in the formal proceedings These also we are told though contrary to the habit of French law was justified by the methods of the Inquisition which were followed throughout the trial One breach of law and justice however is permitted by no code it is expressly forbidden by French and even by inquisitorial law that a prisoner should be tried by his enemies that is by judges avowedly hostile to him an initial difficulty which it would have been impossible to get over and which therefore had to be ignored One brave and honest man Nicholas de Hopaville had the courage to make this observation in one of the earliest sittings of the assembly Neither the Bishop of Beauvais he said nor the other members of the tribunal ought to be judges in the matter and it did not seem to him a good mode of procedure that those who were of the opposite party to the accused should be her judges considering also that she had been examined already by the clergy of Poitiers and by the Archbishop of Riem who was the Metropolitan of the said Bishop of Beauvais Nicholas de Hopaville was a lawyer and had a right to be heard on such a point but the reply of the judges was to throw him into prison, not without threats on the part of the civil authorities to carry the point further by throwing him into the same This was the method by which every honest objection was silenced that the examination at Poitiers were the judges as has been seen were by no means too favorable to Jean should never have been referred to by her present examiners so there was no doubt it ought to have been one of the most important sources of the preliminary information is also very remarkable it was suggested indeed to Jean at a late period of the trial that she might appeal to the Archbishop but he was, as she well knew one of her most cruel enemies still more important was the breach of all justice apparent in the fact that she had no advocate, no counselor on her side, no one to speak to her and conduct her defense it was suggested to her near the end of the proceedings that she might choose one of her judges to fill this office but even if the proposal had been a genuine one or at all likely to be to her advantage it was then too late to be of any use these particulars, we believe were enough to invalidate any process in strict law but the name of law seemed ridiculous altogether as applied to this rambling and cruel cross-examination in which was neither sense nor decor the reader will understand that there were no witnesses either for or against her the answers of the accused herself forming the entire evidence one or two particulars may still be added to make the background at least more clear the prison of Jean as we have seen was not left in the usual silence of such a place the constant noise with which the English troopers filled the air, justing gossiping and carrying on their noisy conversation if nothing worse and more offensive sometimes as Jean complains preventing her from hearing her soul solace the soft voices of our saintly visitors was not her only disturbance her solitude was broken by curious and inquisitive visitors of various kinds but Oise Leur, the abominable detective who professed to be her countrymen and who beguiled her into talking for childhood and native place was the first of these and it is possible that at first his presence was a pleasure to her one other visitor of whom we hear accidentally, a citizen of Rouen, Pierre Cascale seems to have got in private interest and with a more or less good motive and no evil meaning he warned her to answer with prudence the questions put to her since it was a matter of life and death she seemed to him to be very simple instilled to believe that she might be ransomed Earl Warwick the commander of the town appears on various occasions he had his headquarters in the castle and thus heard her cry for help in her danger executing, let us hope, summary vengeance on her brutal assailant but he also evidently took advantage of his power to show his interesting prisoner to his friends on occasion and it was he who took her original captor, Joan de Luxembourg now Comte de Ligny by whom she had been given up to see her along with an English lord sometimes named as Lord Sheffield the Belgian who had put so many good crowns in his pocket for her ransom thought it could taste to enter with a jesting suggestion that he had come to buy her back Joan, I will have you ransomed if you will promise never to bear arms against this again, he said the maid was not deceived by this mocking suggestion it is well for you to jest, she said but I know you have no such power I know that the English will kill me believing, after I am dead, that they will be able to win all the kingdom of France but if there were a hundred thousand more Goddons than there are they shall never win the kingdom of France the English lord drew his dagger to strike the helpless girl all the stories say, but was prevented by Warwick Warwick, however, we are told though he had thus saved her twice recovered his barbarous instincts as soon as he got outside and indignantly lamented the possibility of Joan's escape from the stake such incidents as these alone are weary days in prison a traitor or spy, a prophet of evil shaking his head over her danger a contemptuous party of jeering nobles afterwards inquisitors forever repeating in private their tedious questions, these all visited her but never a friend Joan was not afraid of the English word dagger or of the watchful eye of Warwick over her even when spying through a hole if the English Earl and Knight indeed permitted himself that strange indulgence and inspection must have been almost the only defense of the prisoner our historians all quote with an admiration almost as misplaced as their horror of Warwick's barbarous instincts that the vri galant on of an Englishman in the midst of the trial cried out, brav femme it is difficult to translate the words for brav means more than brave why was she not English however, we are not concerned to defend the English share of the crime the worst feature of all is that she never seems to have been visited by anyone favorable and friendly to her except afterwards, the two or three pitying priests whose hearts were touched by her great sufferings, though they remained among her judges and gave sentence against her no woman seems ever to have entered that dreadful prison except those matrons who came officially as has been already said the ladies of Ligny had cheered her in her first confinement the kind women of Abbeville had not been shut out even from the gloomy fortress of LeCourtoy but here, no woman ever seems to have been permitted to enter a fact which must either be taken to prove the hostility of the population or the very vigorous regulations of the prison perhaps the barbarous watch set upon her, the soldiers ever present may have been a reason for the absence of any female visitor at all events it is a very distinct fact that during the whole period of her trial five months of misery except on the one occasion already referred to no woman came to console the unfortunate maid she had never before during all her vicissitudes been without their constant administrations one woman the only one we ever hear of who was not the partisan and lover of the maid does however make herself vaguely seen amid the crowd Catherine of La Rochelle the woman who had laid claim to saintly visitors and voices like those of Jean and who had been for a time received and fed at the court of Charles with vile satisfaction as making the loss of the maid no such great thing had by this time been dropped as useless on the appearance of the shepherd boy quoted by the Archbishop of Reims and had fallen into the hands of the English was not she too a witch and admirably qualified to give evidence as to the other witch for whose blood all around her for thirsty Catherine was ready to say anything that was evil of her sister sorceress take care of her she said if you lose sight of her for one moment the devil would carry her away perhaps this was the cause of the guard in Jean's room the ceaseless scrutiny to which she was exposed the vulgar slanderer was allowed to escape after this valuable testimony she comes into history like a will of the wisp one of the martial arts that mean nothing but putrescence and decay and then flickers out again with her false witness into the wastes of an entity that she should have been treated so leniently and Jean so cruelly say the historians reason good she was nothing came of nothing and meant nothing it is profane to associate Jean's pure and beautiful name with that of a mount above this is the only woman in all her generation so far as appears to us was not the partisan and devoted friend of the spotless maid the aspect of that old world city of Rouen still so old and picturesque to the visitor of today though all new since that time except the churches is curious and interesting to look back upon it must have hummed and rustled with life through every street not only with the English troops and many a Burgundian man at arms swaggering about swearing big o's and filling the air with loud voices but with all the polished bands of the doctors men first in fame and of the famous university and benefits priests of all classes cannons and deans and bishops with the countless array that followed them the cardinals tonsured court in addition standing by and taking no share in the business but all French and English alike occupied with one subject talking of the trial of the new points brought out of the opinions of this doctor and that of matron Nicholas who had presumed on his voyorship to correct the bishop and had suffered for it of the bold cannon who ventured to whisper a suggestion to the prisoner and who ever since had had the eye of the governor upon him of warwick keeping a rough shield of protection around the maid but himself fiercely impatient of the law's delay anxious to burn the witch and be done with her and Jean herself the one strange figure that nobody understood was she a witch was she an angelic messenger her answers so simple so bold so full of the spirit and sentiment of truth must have been reported from one to another this is what she said does that look like a deceiver could the devils inspire that steadfastness that constancy and quiet or was it not rather the angels the saints as she said never we may be sure had there been in ruin a time of so much interest such a theme for conversations such a subject for all thoughts the eager cords sat with her tonsured heads together keen to seize on every weak point did you observe how she hesitated on this let us push that we'll get an admission on that point tomorrow is impossible to believe that in such an assembly every man was a partisan much less that each one of them was thinking of the fee of the English the daily allowance which it was the English habit to make that were to imagine a France base indeed beyond the limits of human baseness all the Norman dignitaries of the church all the most learned doctors of the university know that is too great a stretch of our faith the greater part no doubt believed as an indisputable fact that Jean was either a witch or an imposter as we should all probably do now and the vertigo of inquisition gained upon them they became day by day more exasperated with her seeming innocence with what must have seemed to them the cunning and cleverness impossible to her age and sex of her replies who could have kept the girl so cool so dauntless so embarrassing and a straightforwardness and sincerity the saints the saints were that dialecticians far more likely the evil one himself in whom the church has always such faith he had the devil and by the else above cast it out devils it was all like a play only more exciting than any play and going on endlessly the excitement always getting stronger till it became the chief stimulus and occupation of life end of section 14 section 15 of Jeanne d'Arc her life and death this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Jeanne d'Arc her life and death by Margaret O. Olyphant chapter 13 the public examination February 1431 part 1 it was in the chapel of the castle of Juan on the 21st of February that the trial of Jeanne was begun the judges present numbered about 40 and are carefully classed as doctors in theology abbots canons doctors in canonical and civil law with the bishop of Beauvais at their head the arch-episcopal sea of Juan being vacant as is added but not that my lord of Beauvais hoped for that promotion they were assembled there in all the solemnity of their priestly and professional robes the reporters ready with their pens the range of dark figures forming a semi-circle round the presiding bishop when the officer of the court led in the prisoner clothed in her worn and war-stained tunic like a boy with her hair cut close as for the helmet and her slim figure no doubt more slim than ever after her long imprisonment she had asked to be allowed to hear mass before coming to the bar but this was refused it was a privilege which she had never failed to avail herself of in her most triumphant days now the chapel the sanctuary of God contained for her no sacred sacrifice but only those dark benches of priests amid whom she found no responsive countness no look of kindness Jeanne was addressed sternly by Cauchon in an exhortation which it is said to think was not in Latin as it appears in the process she was then required to take the oath on the scriptures to speak the truth and to answer all questions addressed to her Jeanne had already held that conversation with Lois-Elyre in the prison which Cauchon and Warwick had listened to in secret with greedy ears but which Manchon, the honest reporter, had refused to take down perhaps therefore the bishop knew that the slim creature before him half boy, half girl was not likely to be overawed by his presence for questions but it cannot have been but a wonder to the others all gazing at her the first men in Normandy the most learned in Paris to hear her voice a sé femme young and clear arising in the midst of them I know not what things I may be asked said Jeanne perhaps you may ask me questions which I cannot answer the assembly was startled by this beginning will you swear to answer truly all that concerns the faith and that you know I will swear, said Jeanne about my father and mother and what I have done since coming to France but concerning my revelations from God I will answer to no men except only to Charles my king I should not reveal them were you to cut off my head unless by the secret council of my visions the bishop continued not without gentleness and joining her to swear at least that in everything that touched the faith she would speak truth kneeling down crossed her hands upon the book of the gospel or miss all as it is called in the report and took the required oath always under the condition she stated to answer truly on everything she knew concerning the faith except in respect to her revelations the examination then began with the usual formalities she was asked her name which is said with touching simplicity was Jeannette at home but Jeanne in France the names of her father and mother godfather and godmothers the priest who baptized her the place where she was born etc. her age almost 19 her education consisting of the paternoster Ave Maria and Credo which her mother had taught her here she was asked a curious interruption to the formal interrogatory to say the paternoster the reason of which sudden demand was that witches and sorcerers were supposed to be unable to repeat that prayer as unexpected as the question was Jeannette's reply she answered that if the bishop would hear her in confession she would say it willingly she had been refused all the exercises of piety and she was speaking to a company of priests there is a great dignity in her reply protest against the treatment in such an answer the request was made a second time with the promise of selecting two worthy Frenchmen to hear her but her reply was the same she would say the prayer when she made her confession but not otherwise she was ready it would seem in proud humility to confess to any or to all of her enemies as one whose conscience was clear and who had nothing to conceal she was then commended not to attempt to escape from her prison on pain of being condemned for heresy but should this again she demerred at once she would not accept the prohibition but would escape if she could so that no man could say that she had broken faith although since her capture she had been bound in chains and her feet fastened with irons to this her examiner said that it was necessary so to secure her in order that she might not escape it is true and certain she replied whatever others may wish that to every prisoner it is lawful to escape if he can it may be remarked as she forcibly pointed out afterwards that she had never given her faith never surrendered but had always retained her freedom of action the tribunal there upon was a captain in charge of Jean's prison a gentleman called John Griss in the record probably John Gray along with two soldiers Bernois and Taubot and enjoined them to guard her securely and not to permit her to talk with anyone without the permission of the court this was all the business done on the first day of audience on the 22nd of February at 8 o'clock in the morning the sitting was resumed in the meantime however the chapel had been found too small and too near the outer world the proceedings being much interrupted by shouts and noises from without and probably incommitted with them by the audience which had crowded it the first day the judges accordingly assembled in the great hall of the castle they were 49 in number on the second day the number being chiefly swelled after some preliminary business the accused was once more introduced and desired again to take the oath Jean replied that she had done so on the previous day and that this was enough upon which there followed a short altercation which however ended by her consent to swear again that she would answer truly in all things that concern the faith the questioner this day was Jean-Baudpère Poucri-Patrice as he is called in the Latin a theologian master of arts Canon of Paris and of Besançon one of the greatest props of the University of Paris a man holding a number of important offices and who afterwards appeared at the Council of Ball as the deputy of Normandy he began by another exhortation to speak the truth to which Jean replied as before that what she did say she would say truly but that she would not answer upon all subjects I have done nothing but by revelation these preliminaries on both sides having been gone through the examination was resumed Jean informed the Court in answerable Père's question that she had been taught by her mother to sow and did not fear to compete with any woman in Hoix in these crafts that she had once been absent from home when her family were driven out of their village by fear of the Burgundians and that she had then lived for about 15 days in the house of a woman called Laus at Neufchateau that when she was at home she was occupied in the work of the house and did not go to the fields with the sheep and other animals that she went to confession regularly to the cure of her own village or when he could not hear her to some other priest by permission also that two or three times she had made her confession to the mendicant friars this being during her stay in Neufchateau where presumably she was not acquainted with the clergy and that she received the sacrament always at Easter asked whether she had communicated at other feasts than Easter she said briefly that this was enough go on to the rest passe autres she added and the questioner seems to have been satisfied then came the really vital part of the matter she proceeded no direct question on the point being recorded though no doubt it was made to tell how when she was about 13 she heard voices from God bidding her to be good and obedient the first time she was much afraid the voice came about the hour of noon in summer in her father's garden she was fasting but had not fasted the preceding day the voice came from the right towards the church and came rarely without a great light this light came always from the side whence the voice proceeded and was a very bright radiance when she came into France she still continued to hear the same voices she was then asked how she could see the light when it was at the side to which foolish question Jean gave no reply but turned to other matters saying voluntarily with a soft implied reproof of the noise around her that if she were in a wood that is in a quiet place she could hear the voices coming towards her she added going on one could imagine in amusing forgetting the congregation of sinners about her that it seemed to her a noble voice and that she believed it came from God and that when she had heard it three times she knew it was the voice of an angel the voice always came quite clearly to her and she understood it well she was then asked what it said to her concerning the salvation of her soul she said that it taught her to rule her life well to go often to church and told her that it was necessary that she, Jean, should go to France the said Jean added that she would not be questioned further concerning the voice or the matter in which it was made known to her but that two or three times in a week it had said to her that she must go to France but that her father knew nothing of this the voice said to her that she should go to France until she could endure it no longer he said to her that she should raise the siege which was set against the city of Orleans it said also that she must go to Robert of Baudrycourt in the city of Vauculaire who was captain of that place and that he would give her people to go with her to which he had entered that she was a poor girl who knew not how to ride nor how to conduct war she then said that she went to her uncle and told him that she wished to go with him for a little while to his house she lived there for eight days she then told her uncle that she must go to Vauculaire and the said uncle took her there also she went on to say that when she came to the sad city of Vauculaire she recognized Robert of Baudrycourt though she had never seen him before she knew him by the voice that said to her which was he she then told his Robert that it was necessary that she should go to France but twice over he refused and repulsed her the third time however he received her and gave her certain men to go with her the voice had told her that this would be so she said also that the Duke of Lorraine sent for her to come to him and that she went under a safe conduct granted by him and told him that she must go to France he asked her whether he should recover from his illness but she told him that she knew nothing of that and she talked very little to him of her journey she told the Duke that he ought to send his son and his people with her to take her to France and that she would pray God to restore his health and then she was taken back to Vauculaire she said also that when she left Vauculaire she wore the dress of a man without any other arms and a sword which Robert of Baudrycourt had given her and that she had with her a chivalier a squire and four servants and that they slept for the first night and sent Urban and the Abbey there she was then asked by whose advice she wore the dress of a man but refused to answer finally she said that she charged no man with giving her this advice she went on to say that the said Robert de Baudrycourt exited an oath from those who went with her that they would conduct her to the end of her journey well and safely and that he said as she left him go and let come what will she also said that she knew well that God loved the Duke of Orleans concerning whom she had more revelations and about any other living men except him whom she called her king she added that it was necessary for her to wear male attire and that whoever advised her to do so had given her wise counsel she then said that she sent a letter in English before Orleans in which she required them to go away a copy of which letter had been read to her in Huan but there were two or three mistakes especially in the words which called upon them to surrender to the maid instead of to surrender to the king there's no indication why these two letter statements should have been introduced into the midst of her narrative of the journey he may have been in reply to some other question interjected by another of her examiners pas c'est autre, as she herself says she immediately resumes the simple and straightforward tale but said Jeanne went on to say that her further journey to him whom she called her king was without any impediment and that when she arrived at the town of St. Catherine de Fierbois she sent news of her arrival to the town of Chasteau-Chinot where the said king was she arrived there herself about noon and went to an inn and after dinner went to him whom she called her king who was in the castle she then said that when she entered the chamber where he was she knew him among all others by the revelation of her voices she told her king that she wished to make war against the English she was then asked whether when she heard the voices in the presence of the king the light was also seen in that place she answered as before passe-autre transeatis ultra go on as we might say to the other questions she was asked if she had seen an angel hovering over her king she answered spare me passe-autre she added afterwards however that before he put his hand to the work the king had many beautiful apparitions and revelations she was asked what these were she answered I will not tell you it is not I who should answer send to the king and he will tell you she was then asked if her voices had promised her that when she came to the king he would receive her she answered that those of her own party knew that she had been sent from God and that some had heard and recognized the voices further she said that her king and various others had heard and seen the voices coming to her Charles of Bourbon and two or three others with him she then said that there was no day in which she did not hear that voice but that she asked nothing from it except the salvation of her soul besides this Jean confessed that the voice said she would be led to the town of Saint-Denis and France where she wished to remain that is after the attack on Paris but that against her will she had made an assault on the town of Tarmouche Skirmish upon the town of Paris she was asked if it was on a holy day and said that she believed it was on a festival she was then asked if she thought it well done to fight on a holy day and answered go on to the next question this is a verbatim account of one day of the trial most of the translations which exist give questions as well as answers as occasionally given in the original document and Jean's narrative reads like a calm continuous statement only interrupted now and then by a question usually a cunning attempt to startle her with a new subject and to hurry some admission from her the great dignity with which she makes her replies the occasional flesh of high spirit the calm determination with which she refuses to be led into discussions of the subjects which she had from the first moment reserved are very remarkable we have seen her hitherto only in conflict in the din of battle and the fatigue yet exuberant energy of rapid journeys her circumstances were now very different she had been shut up in prison for months for six weeks at least she had been in irons and the air of heaven upon this daughter of the fields her robust yet sensitive maidenhood had been exposed to a hundred offenses and to the constant society infecting the very ear about of the rudest of men yet so far is her spirit from being broken that she meets all those potent grave and reverend doctors and ecclesiastics with the simplicity and freedom of a princess answering frankly or holding her peace that seems good to her afraid of nothing keeping her self-possession all her wits about her as we say without panic and without presumption the trial of Jean is indeed almost more miraculous than her fighting a girl not yet 19 forsaken of all without a friend it is less wonderful to develop the qualities of a general of a gunner every gift of war than that in her humiliation and distress she should thus hold head against all the most subtle intellect and friends and bear with but one moment of faltering a continued cross-examination of three months without losing her patience her heart or her courage the third day brought a larger accession of judges 62 of them taking their places on the benches around the bishop in the great hall and the day began with another and longer altercation between Cauchon and Jeanne on the subject of the oath again demanded of her she maintained her resolution to say nothing of her voices we, according to the record required of her that she should swear simply and absolutely in her reservation she would seem to have replied with impatience let me speak freely adding by my faith you may ask me many questions which I will not answer then explaining many things you may ask me but I will tell you nothing truly that concerns my revelations for you might compel me to say things which I have sworn not to say and so I should perjure myself which you ought not to wish this explains several statements which she made later in respect to her introduction to the king she repeated emphatically I warn you well you who call yourselves my judges that you take a great responsibility upon you and that you burden me too much she said also that it was enough to have already sworn twice she was again asked to swear simply and absolutely and answered it is enough to have sworn twice and that all the clerks in Hua and Paris could not condemn her unless lawfully and that of her coming she would speak the truth but not all the truth and that the space of eight days would not be enough to tell all we, the sad bishop, continues the report then said to her that she should ask advice from those present whether she ought to swear or not she replied again that of her coming she would speak truly and not otherwise nor would it be fit that she should talk at large we then told her that he would throw suspicion on what she said if she did not swear to speak the truth she answered as before we repeated that she must swear precisely and absolutely she answered that she would say what she knew but not all and that she had come on the part of God and appealed to God from whom she came again requested and admonished to swear on pain of every punishment that could be put on her again answered pas c'est autre finally she consented to swear that she would speak the truth in everything that concerned the trial her examination was then resumed by Beaupère as before who elicited from her that she had fasted he seems to have wished to make out that the fasting had something to do with her visions the day before it was lent and also that she had heard her voices both on that day and the day before three times on the previous day the first time in the morning when she was asleep unawakened by them that she kneeled and thanked them she thanked them sitting up in her bed to which she was chained as her questioner knew and clasping her hands she asked them what she was to do and they told her to answer boldly it may be remarked here that more frequently as the examination goes on part of Jean's words are quoted in the first person as if the reporters had been specially struck by them while the bulk of her evidence goes on more calmly in the third person the narrative form after saying that she was bitten to answer boldly she seems to have turned to the bishop and to have addressed him individually you say you are my judge I warn you to take care what you are doing for I am sent from God and you are putting yourself in much peril Magno Pericolo Galliche adds the reporter she was then asked if her voices ever changed their meaning and answered that she had never heard to speak contrary to each other what they had said that day was that she should speak boldly asked if the voice forbade her to reply to questions asked she replied I will not answer you I have revelations touching the king which I will not tell you asked if the voices forbade her to reveal these revelations she answered I have not consulted them give me 15 days delay and I will answer you but being again exhorted to reply said if the voice forbade me to speak how many times should I tell you again asked if she were forbidden to speak answered I believe I am not forbidden by men repeating that she would not reply and knew not how far she should reply for it had not been revealed to her but that she believed firmly as firmly as the Christian faith and that God had redeemed us from the pains of hell that this voice came from him question concerning the voice what it appeared to be when it spoke if that of an angel or from God himself or if it was the voice of a saint or of saints feminine answered the voice comes from God and I believe that I should not tell you all I know for I should displease these voices if I answered you and as for this question I pray you to leave me free asked if she thought that to speak the truth would displease God she answered what the voices say I am to tell to the king not to you adding that during the night they had said much to her for the good of the king and that if she could but let him know she would willingly drink no wine up to Easter the reader will remember that her frugal fear consisted of bread dipped in the wine and water which is justly called au rouge in France asked if she could not induce the voices to speak to her king directly she answered that she knew not whether her voices would consent unless it were the will of God and God consented to it adding they might well reveal it to the king and with that I should be content asked if the voices could not communicate with the king as they did in her presence she answered that she did not know whether this was God's will and added that unless it were God she would not know how to act asked if it was by the advice of her voices that she attempted to escape from her prison she answered I have nothing to say to you on that point asked if she always saw a light when the voices were heard she answered yes that with the sound of the voices light came asked if she saw anything else coming with the voices answered I do not tell you all I am not allowed to do so nor does my oath touch that the voices are good and noble but neither of that will I answer she was then asked to give in writing the points on which she would not reply then she was asked if her voices had eyes and ears and answered you shall not have this either adding that it was a sane among children that men were sometimes hanged for speaking the truth she was then asked if she knew herself to being the grace of God she replied if I am not so may God put me in his grace if I am may God keep me in it I should be the most miserable in the world if I were not in the grace of God she said besides that if she were in a state of sin she did not believe her voices would come to her and she wished that everyone could understand them as she did and she was about 13 when they came to her first she was then asked whether in her childhood she had played with the other children in the fields and various other particulars about Don Hemi whether there were any Burgundians there to which Jean answered boldly that there was one and that she wished his head might be cut off adding piously that is if it pleased God she was also asked whether she had fought along with the other children of the neighboring Burgundian village of Maxi Maxi-sur-Meuse why she hated the Burgundians and many other questions of this kind with a close examination about a certain tree near the village of Don Hemi which some called the tree of the good ladies and others the fairies tree and also about the well there the fairies well on which poor patients were said to drink and get well then no doubt relieved by the simple character of these questions made answer freely and without hesitation in no way denying that she had danced and sung with the other children and made garlands for the image of the blessed Mary of Don Hemi but she did not remember whether she had ever done so after attaining years of discretion and certainly she had never seen a fairy nor worked any spell by their means at the end when she was being put off her guard she was suddenly asked about her dress a capital point in the eyes of her judges whether she wished to have a woman's dress probably she was as they hoped tired and expecting no such question for she answered quickly yet with instant recovery bring me one to go home in and I will accept it otherwise no I prefer this since it pleases God that I should wear it the recollection of Don Hemi and of the pleasant fields must have carried her back to the days when the little Jean was like the rest in her short full petticoats of crimson stuff free of any danger what could be better to go home in but she immediately remembered the obvious and excellent reasons she had for wearing another costume now so ended the third day in the meantime there had been a totaled various interruptions during the examination perhaps it was then that Nicolae de Roupéville protested against Bishop Rochon as a partisan and a Burgundian and therefore incapable by law of judging a member of the opposite party and had been rudely silenced and afterwards punished as we have already heard another kind of opposition last bold had begun to be remarked which was that one of the persons present by word and sign whispering suggestions to her or warning her with her eyes was helping the unfortunate prisoner in her defence probably this did little good for she was often troubled and hurried in her answers we are told but it was a sign of goodwill at least when Fer Isambar who was the person in question speaks at a later period the questions put to Jean were too difficult, subtle and dangerous so that the great clerks and learned men who were present scarcely would have known how to answer them and that many in the assembly murmured at them perhaps the good frère Isambar might have spared himself the trouble for Jean however she may have suffered was probably more able to hold her own than many of those great clerks so with unfailing courage and spirit one of the other judges Jean Fabry a bishop declared afterwards that her answers were so good that for three weeks he believed that they were inspired Marchand the reporter he who had refused to take down the private conversations of Jean in her prison with the vile traitor Lois-Eleur makes his voice heard also to the effect that Lové would have had everything written as pleased him and when there was anything that displeased him he forbade the secretaries to report it as being of no importance for the trial on another day a humbler witness to Monsieur one of the officers of the court who had the charge of taking Jean daily from her prison to the hall and back again met in the courtyard an Englishman who seems to have been a singingman of the king's chapel in England probably attached to Winchester's ecclesiastical retinue this man asked him what do you think of her answers will she be burned? what will happen? up to this time said monsieur I have heard nothing from her that was not honorable and good she seems to me a good woman but how it will all end god only knows no doubt conversations of this kind have gone all over Huang would she be burned? what would happen? could anyone stand and answer like that hour after hour and day by day inspired only by the devil there was no popular enthusiasm for her even now how should there have been in that partisan province more English than French but a chill doubt began to steal into many minds whether she was so bad as had been thought whether indeed she might not after all be something quite different from what she had been thought nature had begun to work in the agitated place and even in that black-robed eager assembly if there was a vile wasle trying to get her confidence in private and so betray her there was also a kind faire is un bar privately plucking at her sleeve imploring her to be cautious whispering an answer probably not have so wise as her own natural reply yet warming her heart with a suggestion of a friend at hand on the fourth day Zhang was again required to swear and reply it as before that so far as concerned a trial she would answer truly but not all she knew you ought to be satisfied I have sworn sufficiently she said and with this her judges seem to have been content will pair their resume his questions but first asked her perhaps with a momentary gleam of compassion and a sudden consciousness of the pallor and weariness of the young prisoner how she did she answered one can imagine with what tone of indignant disdain you see how I am I am as well as I can be he then cross-examined her closely as to what voices she had heard since her last appearance in court but drew from her only the same answer the voice tells me to answer boldly and that she would tell them as much as she was permitted by God to tell them but concerning her revelations for the king of friends she would say nothing except by permission of her voices she was then asked what kind of voices they were which she heard were they voices of angels or of saints sancti out sanctai male or female saints or from God himself she answered that the voices were those of St. Catherine and St. Margaret whose heads were crowned with beautiful crowns very rich and precious so much as this God allows me to say if you doubt send to Poitiers where I was questioned before it may perhaps be permissible to suppose that the kind whisperer at her elbow might have suggested the repeated references to Poitiers that follow but which are not to be found before though it was most natural she should refer to this place where she was examined at the beginning of her mission asked how she knew which of these two saints she answered that she could quite distinguish one from the other by the manner of their salutation that she had been led and guided by them for seven years and that she knew them because they had named themselves her she was then asked how they were dressed and answered I cannot tell you I am not permitted to reveal this if you do not believe me sent to Poitiers she said also that at her coming into France she had revealed these things but could not now she was asked what was the age of her saints but replied that she was not permitted to tell asked if both saints spoke at once or one after the other she replied I have not permission to tell you but I always consult them both together asked which had appeared to her first and answered I do not know which it was I did know but have forgotten it is written in the register of Poitiers she then said she had much comfort from Saint Michael again asked which had come first she replied that it was Saint Michael asked if a long time had passed since she first heard the voice of Saint Michael answered I do not name to you the voice of Saint Michael but his conversation was of great comfort to me asked again what voice came first to her when she was 13 answered that it was Saint Michael whom she saw before her eyes and that he was not alone but accompanied by many angels of heaven she said also that she would not have come into France but by the command of God asked if she saw Saint Michael and the angels really with her ordinary senses she answered I saw them with my bodily eyes as I see you and when they left me I wept desiring much that they would take me with them asked what was the form in which he appeared she replied I cannot answer you I am not permitted asked what Saint Michael said to her the first time she cried you shall have no answer today the angels say that her voices told her to reply boldly afterwards she said that she had told her king once all that had been revealed to her said also that she was not permitted to say here what Saint Michael had said but that it would be better to send for a copy of the books which were at Poitiers than to question her on this subject asked what sign she had that these were revelations of God and that it was really Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret with whom she had talked she answered it is enough that I tell you they were Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret believe me or not as you will end of section 15