第75章 THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION.FEBRUARY,(3)

She went on to say that the said Robert de Baudricourt exacted 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 than about any other living man,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 to the English before Orleans,in which she required them to go away,a copy of which letter had been read to her in Rouen;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 is no indication why these two latter statements should have been introduced into the midst of her narrative of the journey;it may have been in reply to some other question interjected by another of her examiners:/Passez outre/,as she herself says.She immediately resumes the simple and straightforward tale.)The 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-Chinon where the said King was.She arrived there herself about noon and went to an inn[1];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:/Passez outre: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;/passez outre/."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 recognised the voices.Further,she said that her King and various others had heard and seen[2]the voices coming to her--Charles of Bourbon (Comte de Clermont)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,Jeanne confessed that the voice said she should be led to the town of St.Denis in France,where she wished to remain--that is after the attack on Paris--but that against her will the lords forced her to leave it:if she had not been wounded she would not have gone:but she was wounded in the moats of Paris:however she was healed in five days.She then said that she had made an assault,called in French /escarmouche/(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,"/Passez outre/."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:but these are but occasionally given in the original document,and Jeanne'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 flash of high spirit,the calm determination with which she refuses to be led into discussion 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 had not blown upon this daughter of the fields;her robust yet sensitive maidenhood had been exposed to a hundred offences,and to the constant society,infecting the very air 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 as 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 Jeanne is indeed almost more miraculous than her fighting;a girl not yet nineteen,forsaken of all,without a friend!It is less wonderful that she should have developed 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 intellects in France,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 still larger accession of judges,sixty-two of them taking their places on the benches round 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.