great Court of the Rehabilitation and verified under oath by Manchon
and me, and surviving judges of our court confirmed the exactness of the
record in their testimony.
Joan' startling utterance on that now so celebrated first of March
stirred up a great turmoil, and it was some time before it quieted down
again. Naturally, everybody was troubled, for a prophecy is a grisly and
awful thing, whether one thinks it ascends from hell or comes down from
heaven.
All that these people felt sure of was, that the inspiration back of it
was genuine and puissant.
They would have given their right hands to know the source of it.
At last the questions began again.
“How do you know that those things are going to happen?”
“I know it by revelation. And I know it as surely as I know that you sit
here before me.”
This sort of answer was not going to allay the spreading uneasiness.
Therefore, after some further dallying the judge got the subject out of
the way and took up one which he could enjoy more.
“What languages do your Voices speak?”
“French.”
“St. Marguerite, too?”
“Verily; why not? She is on our side, not on the English!”
Saints and angels who did not condescend to speak English is a grave
affront. They could not be brought into court and punished for contempt,
but the tribunal could take silent note of Joan's remark and remember it
against her; which they did. It might be useful by and by.
“Do your saints and angels wear jewelry?--crowns, rings, earrings?”
To Joan, questions like these were profane frivolities and not worthy of
serious notice; she answered indifferently. But the question brought to
her mind another matter, and she turned upon Cauchon and said:
“I had two rings. They have been taken away from me during my captivity.
You have one of them. It is the gift of my brother. Give it back to me.
If not to me, then I pray that it be given to the Church.”
The judges conceived the idea that maybe these rings were for the
working of enchantments.
Perhaps they could be made to do Joan a damage.
“Where is the other ring?”
“The Burgundians have it.”
“Where did you get it?”
“My father and mother gave it to me.”
“Describe it.”
“It is plain and simple and has 'Jesus and Mary' engraved upon it.”
Everybody could see that that was not a valuable equipment to do devil's
work with. So that trail was not worth following. Still, to make sure,
one of the judges asked Joan if she had ever cured sick people by
touching them with the ring. She said no.
“Now as concerning the fairies, that were used to abide near by Domremy
whereof there are many reports and traditions. It is said that your
godmother surprised these creatures on a summer's night dancing under
the tree called l'Arbre Fee de Bourlemont. Is it not possible that your
pretended saints and angels are but those fairies?”
“Is that in your proces?”
She made no other answer.
“Have you not conversed with St. Marguerite and St. Catherine under that
tree?”
“I do not know.”
“Or by the fountain near the tree?”
“Yes, sometimes.”
“What promises did they make you?”
“None but such as they had God's warrant for.”
“But what promises did they make?”
“That is not in your proces; yet I will say this much: they told me that
the King would become master of his kingdom in spite of his enemies.”
“And what else?”
There was a pause; then she said humbly:
“They promised to lead me to Paradise.”
If faces do really betray what is passing in men's minds, a fear came
upon many in that house, at this time, that maybe, after all, a chosen
servant and herald of God was here being hunted to her death. The
interest deepened. Movements and whisperings ceased: the stillness
became almost painful.
Have you noticed that almost from the beginning the nature of the
questions asked Joan showed that in some way or other the questioner
very often already knew his fact before he asked his question? Have you
noticed that somehow or other the questioners usually knew just how and
were to search for Joan's secrets; that they really knew the bulk of her
privacies--a fact not suspected by her--and that they had no task before
them but to trick her into exposing those secrets?
Do you remember Loyseleur, the hypocrite, the treacherous priest,
tool of Cauchon? Do you remember that under the sacred seal of the
confessional Joan freely and trustingly revealed to him everything
concerning her history save only a few things regarding her supernatural
revelations which her Voices had forbidden her to tell to any one--and
that the unjust judge, Cauchon, was a hidden listener all the time?
Now you understand how the inquisitors were able to devise that long
array of minutely prying questions; questions whose subtlety and
ingenuity and penetration are astonishing until we come to remember
Loyseleur's performance and recognize their source. Ah, Bishop of
Beauvais, you are now lamenting this cruel iniquity these many years
in hell! Yes verily, unless one has come to your help. There is but one
among the redeemed that would do it; and it is futile to hope that that
one has not already done it--Joan of Arc.
We will return to the questionings.
“Did they make you still another promise?”
“Yes, but that is not in your proces. I will not tell it now, but before
three months I will tell it you.”
The judge seems to know the matter he is asking about, already; one gets
this idea from his next question.
“Did your Voices tell you that you would be liberated before three
months?”
Joan often showed a little flash of surprise at the good guessing of the
judges, and she showed one this time. I was frequently in terror to find
my mind (which I could not control) criticizing the Voices and saying,
“They counsel her to speak boldly--a thing which she would do without
any suggestion from them or anybody else--but when it comes to telling
her any useful thing, such as how these conspirators manage to guess
their way so skilfully into her affairs, they are always off attending
to some other business.”
I am reverent by nature; and when such thoughts swept through my head
they made me cold with fear, and if there was a storm and thunder at the
time, I was so ill that I could but with difficulty abide at my post and
do my work.
Joan answered:
“That is not in your proces. I do not know when I shall be set free, but
some who wish me out of this world will go from it before me.”
It made some of them shiver.
“Have your Voices told you that you will be delivered from this prison?”
Without a doubt they had, and the judge knew it before he asked the
question.
“Ask me again in three months and I will tell you.” She said it with
such a happy look, the tired prisoner! And I? And Noel Rainguesson,
drooping yonder?--why, the floods of joy went streaming through us from
crown to sole! It was all that we could do to hold still and keep from
making fatal exposure of our feelings.
She was to be set free in three months. That was what she meant; we
saw it. The Voices had told her so, and told her true--true to the very
day--May 30th. But we know now that they had mercifully hidden from her
how she was to be set free, but left her in ignorance. Home again!
That day was our understanding of it--Noel's and mine; that was our
dream; and now we would count the days, the hours, the minutes. They
would fly lightly along; they would soon be over.
Yes, we would carry our idol home; and there, far from the pomps and
tumults of the world, we would take up our happy life again and live
it out as we had begun it, in the free air and the sunshine, with the
friendly sheep and the friendly people for comrades, and the grace and
charm of the meadows, the woods, and the river always before our eyes
and their deep peace in our hearts. Yes, that was our dream, the dream
that carried us bravely through that three months to an exact and awful
fulfilment, the thought of which would have killed us, I think, if we
had foreknown it and been obliged to bear the burden of it upon our
hearts the half of those weary days.
Our reading of the prophecy was this: We believed the King's soul was
going to be smitten with remorse; and that he would privately plan a
rescue with Joan's old lieutenants, D'Alencon and the Bastard and La
Hire, and that this rescue would take place at the end of the three
months. So we made up our minds to be ready and take a hand in it.
In the present and also in later sittings Joan was urged to name the
exact day of her deliverance; but she could not do that. She had not the
permission of her Voices. Moreover, the Voices themselves did not name
the precise day. Ever since the fulfilment of the prophecy, I have
believed that Joan had the idea that her deliverance was going to come
in the form of death. But not that death! Divine as she was, dauntless
as she was in battle, she was human also. She was not solely a saint,
an angel, she was a clay-made girl also--as human a girl as any in
the world, and full of a human girl's sensitiveness and tenderness and
delicacies. And so, that death! No, she could not have lived the three
months with that one before her, I think. You remember that the first
time she was wounded she was frightened, and cried, just as any other
girl of seventeen would have done, although she had known for eighteen
days that she was going to be wounded on that very day. No, she was
not afraid of any ordinary death, and an ordinary death was what she
believed the prophecy of deliverance meant, I think, for her face showed
happiness, not horror, when she uttered it.
Now I will explain why I think as I do. Five weeks before she was
captured in the battle of Compiegne, her Voices told her what was
coming. They did not tell her the day or the place, but said she would
be taken prisoner and that it would be before the feast of St. John.
She begged that death, certain and swift, should be her fate, and the
captivity brief; for she was a free spirit, and dreaded the confinement.
The Voices made no promise, but only told her to bear whatever came. Now
as they did not refuse the swift death, a hopeful young thing like Joan
would naturally cherish that fact and make the most of it, allowing it
to grow and establish itself in her mind. And so now that she was told
she was to be “delivered” in three months, I think she believed it meant
that she would die in her bed in the prison, and that that was why she
looked happy and content--the gates of Paradise standing open for her,
the time so short, you see, her troubles so soon to be over, her reward
so close at hand. Yes, that would make her look happy, that would make
her patient and bold, and able to fight her fight out like a soldier.
Save herself if she could, of course, and try for the best, for that
was the way she was made; but die with her face to the front if die she
must.
Then later, when she charged Cauchon with trying to kill her with a
poisoned fish, her notion that she was to be “delivered” by death in the
prison--if she had it, and I believe she had--would naturally be greatly
strengthened, you see.
But I am wandering from the trial. Joan was asked to definitely name the
time that she would be delivered from prison.
“I have always said that I was not permitted to tell you everything. I
am to be set free, and I desire to ask leave of my Voices to tell you
the day. That is why I wish for delay.”
“Do your Voices forbid you to tell the truth?”
“Is it that you wish to know matters concerning the King of France? I
tell you again that he will regain his kingdom, and that I know it as
well as I know that you sit here before me in this tribunal.” She
sighed and, after a little pause, added: “I should be dead but for this
revelation, which comforts me always.”
Some trivial questions were asked her about St. Michael's dress and
appearance. She answered them with dignity, but one saw that they gave
her pain. After a little she said:
“I have great joy in seeing him, for when I see him I have the feeling
that I am not in mortal sin.”
She added, “Sometimes St. Marguerite and St. Catherine have allowed me
to confess myself to them.”
Here was a possible chance to set a successful snare for her innocence.
“When you confessed were you in mortal sin, do you think?”
But her reply did her no hurt. So the inquiry was shifted once more
to the revelations made to the King--secrets which the court had tried
again and again to force out of Joan, but without success.
“Now as to the sign given to the King--”
“I have already told you that I will tell you nothing about it.”
“Do you know what the sign was?”
“As to that, you will not find out from me.”
All this refers to Joan's secret interview with the King--held
apart, though two or three others were present. It was known--through
Loyseleur, of course--that this sign was a crown and was a pledge of the
verity of Joan's mission. But that is all a mystery until this day--the
nature of the crown, I mean--and will remain a mystery to the end of
time. We can never know whether a real crown descended upon the King's
head, or only a symbol, the mystic fabric of a vision.
“Did you see a crown upon the King's head when he received the
revelation?”
“I cannot tell you as to that, without perjury.”
“Did the King have that crown at Rheims?”
“I think the King put upon his head a crown which he found there; but a
much richer one was brought him afterward.”
“Have you seen that one?”
“I cannot tell you, without perjury. But whether I have seen it or not,
I have heard say that it was rich and magnificent.”
They went on and pestered her to weariness about that mysterious crown,
but they got nothing more out of her. The sitting closed. A long, hard
day for all of us.
10 The Inquisitors at Their Wits' End
THE COURT rested a day, then took up work again on Saturday, the third
of March.
This was one of our stormiest sessions. The whole court was out
of patience; and with good reason. These threescore distinguished
churchmen, illustrious tacticians, veteran legal gladiators, had left
important posts where their supervision was needed, to journey
hither from various regions and accomplish a most simple and easy
matter--condemn and send to death a country-lass of nineteen who could
neither read nor write, knew nothing of the wiles and perplexities of
legal procedure, could not call a single witness in her defense, was
allowed no advocate or adviser, and must conduct her case by herself
against a hostile judge and a packed jury. In two hours she would be
hopelessly entangled, routed, defeated, convicted. Nothing could be more
certain that this--so they thought. But it was a mistake. The two hours
had strung out into days; what promised to be a skirmish had expanded
into a siege; the thing which had looked so easy had proven to be
surprisingly difficult; the light victim who was to have been puffed
away like a feather remained planted like a rock; and on top of all
this, if anybody had a right to laugh it was the country-lass and not
the court.
She was not doing that, for that was not her spirit; but others were
doing it. The whole town was laughing in its sleeve, and the court knew
it, and its dignity was deeply hurt. The members could not hide their
annoyance.
And so, as I have said, the session was stormy. It was easy to see that
these men had made up their minds to force words from Joan to-day which
should shorten up her case and bring it to a prompt conclusion. It shows
that after all their experience with her they did not know her yet.
They went into the battle with energy. They did not leave the
questioning to a particular member; no, everybody helped. They volleyed
questions at Joan from all over the house, and sometimes so many were
talking at once that she had to ask them to deliver their fire one at a
time and not by platoons. The beginning was as usual:
“You are once more required to take the oath pure and simple.”
“I will answer to what is in the proces verbal. When I do more, I will
choose the occasion for myself.”
That old ground was debated and fought over inch by inch with great
bitterness and many threats. But Joan remained steadfast, and the
questionings had to shift to other matters. Half an hour was spent over
Joan's apparitions--their dress, hair, general appearance, and so on--in
the hope of fishing something of a damaging sort out of the replies; but
with no result.
Next, the male attire was reverted to, of course. After many well-worn
questions had been re-asked, one or two new ones were put forward.
“Did not the King or the Queen sometimes ask you to quit the male
dress?”
“That is not in your proces.”
“Do you think you would have sinned if you had taken the dress of your
sex?”
“I have done best to serve and obey my sovereign Lord and Master.”
After a while the matter of Joan's Standard was taken up, in the hope of
connecting magic and witchcraft with it.
“Did not your men copy your banner in their pennons?”
“The lancers of my guard did it. It was to distinguish them from the
rest of the forces. It was their own idea.”
“Were they often renewed?”
“Yes. When the lances were broken they were renewed.”
The purpose of the question unveils itself in the next one.
“Did you not say to your men that pennons made like your banner would be
lucky?”
The soldier-spirit in Joan was offended at this puerility. She drew
herself up, and said with dignity and fire: “What I said to them was,
'Ride those English down!' and I did it myself.”
Whenever she flung out a scornful speech like that at these French
menials in English livery it lashed them into a rage; and that is what
happened this time. There were ten, twenty, sometimes even thirty of
them on their feet at a time, storming at the prisoner minute after
minute, but Joan was not disturbed.
By and by there was peace, and the inquiry was resumed.
It was now sought to turn against Joan the thousand loving honors which
had been done her when she was raising France out of the dirt and shame
of a century of slavery and castigation.
“Did you not cause paintings and images of yourself to be made?”
“No. At Arras I saw a painting of myself kneeling in armor before the
King and delivering him a letter; but I caused no such things to be
made.”
“Were not masses and prayers said in your honor?”
“If it was done it was not by my command. But if any prayed for me I
think it was no harm.”
“Did the French people believe you were sent of God?”
“As to that, I know not; but whether they believed it or not, I was not
the less sent of God.”
“If they thought you were sent of God, do you think it was well
thought?”
“If they believed it, their trust was not abused.”
“What impulse was it, think you, that moved the people to kiss your
hands, your feet, and your vestments?”
“They were glad to see me, and so they did those things; and I could
not have prevented them if I had had the heart. Those poor people came
lovingly to me because I had not done them any hurt, but had done the
best I could for them according to my strength.”
See what modest little words she uses to describe that touching
spectacle, her marches about France walled in on both sides by the
adoring multitudes: “They were glad to see me.” Glad?
Why they were transported with joy to see her. When they could not kiss
her hands or her feet, they knelt in the mire and kissed the hoof-prints
of her horse. They worshiped her; and that is what these priests were
trying to prove. It was nothing to them that she was not to blame for
what other people did. No, if she was worshiped, it was enough; she was
guilty of mortal sin.
Curious logic, one must say.
“Did you not stand sponsor for some children baptized at Rheims?”
“At Troyes I did, and at St. Denis; and I named the boys Charles, in
honor of the King, and the girls I named Joan.”
“Did not women touch their rings to those which you wore?”
“Yes, many did, but I did not know their reason for it.”
“At Rheims was your Standard carried into the church? Did you stand at
the altar with it in your hand at the Coronation?”
“Yes.”
“In passing through the country did you confess yourself in the Churches
and receive the sacrament?”
“Yes.”
“In the dress of a man?”
“Yes. But I do not remember that I was in armor.”
It was almost a concession! almost a half-surrender of the permission
granted her by the Church at Poitiers to dress as a man. The wily court
shifted to another matter: to pursue this one at this time might call
Joan's attention to her small mistake, and by her native cleverness she
might recover her lost ground. The tempestuous session had worn her and
drowsed her alertness.
“It is reported that you brought a dead child to life in the church at
Lagny. Was that in answer to your prayers?”
“As to that, I have no knowledge. Other young girls were praying for the
child, and I joined them and prayed also, doing no more than they.”
“Continue.”
“While we prayed it came to life, and cried. It had been dead three
days, and was as black as my doublet. It was straight way baptized, then
it passed from life again and was buried in holy ground.”
“Why did you jump from the tower of Beaurevoir by night and try to
escape?”
“I would go to the succor of Compiegne.”
It was insinuated that this was an attempt to commit the deep crime of
suicide to avoid falling into the hands of the English.
“Did you not say that you would rather die than be delivered into the
power of the English?”
Joan answered frankly; without perceiving the trap:
“Yes; my words were, that I would rather that my soul be returned unto
God than that I should fall into the hands of the English.”
It was now insinuated that when she came to, after jumping from the
tower, she was angry and blasphemed the name of God; and that she did it
again when she heard of the defection of the Commandant of Soissons. She
was hurt and indignant at this, and said:
“It is not true. I have never cursed. It is not my custom to swear.”
11 The Court Reorganized for Assassination
A HALT was called. It was time. Cauchon was losing ground in the fight,
Joan was gaining it.
There were signs that here and there in the court a judge was being
softened toward Joan by her courage, her presence of mind, her
fortitude, her constancy, her piety, her simplicity and candor, her
manifest purity, the nobility of her character, her fine intelligence,
and the good brave fight she was making, all friendless and alone,
against unfair odds, and there was grave room for fear that this
softening process would spread further and presently bring Cauchon's
plans in danger.
Something must be done, and it was done. Cauchon was not distinguished
for compassion, but he now gave proof that he had it in his character.
He thought it pity to subject so many judges to the prostrating fatigues
of this trial when it could be conducted plenty well enough by a
handful of them. Oh, gentle judge! But he did not remember to modify the
fatigues for the little captive.
He would let all the judges but a handful go, but he would select the
handful himself, and he did.
He chose tigers. If a lamb or two got in, it was by oversight, not
intention; and he knew what to do with lambs when discovered.
He called a small council now, and during five days they sifted the huge
bulk of answers thus far gathered from Joan. They winnowed it of all
chaff, all useless matter--that is, all matter favorable to Joan; they
saved up all matter which could be twisted to her hurt, and out of this
they constructed a basis for a new trial which should have the semblance
of a continuation of the old one. Another change. It was plain that the
public trial had wrought damage: its proceedings had been discussed
all over the town and had moved many to pity the abused prisoner. There
should be no more of that. The sittings should be secret hereafter, and
no spectators admitted. So Noel could come no more. I sent this news
to him. I had not the heart to carry it myself. I would give the pain a
chance to modify before I should see him in the evening.
On the 10th of March the secret trial began. A week had passed since I
had seen Joan. Her appearance gave me a great shock. She looked tired
and weak. She was listless and far away, and her answers showed that
she was dazed and not able to keep perfect run of all that was done and
said. Another court would not have taken advantage of her state, seeing
that her life was at stake here, but would have adjourned and spared
her. Did this one? No; it worried her for hours, and with a glad and
eager ferocity, making all it could out of this great chance, the first
one it had had.
She was tortured into confusing herself concerning the “sign” which
had been given the King, and the next day this was continued hour after
hour. As a result, she made partial revealments of particulars forbidden
by her Voices; and seemed to me to state as facts things which were but
allegories and visions mixed with facts.
The third day she was brighter, and looked less worn. She was almost
her normal self again, and did her work well. Many attempts were made
to beguile her into saying indiscreet things, but she saw the purpose in
view and answered with tact and wisdom.
“Do you know if St. Catherine and St. Marguerite hate the English?”
“They love whom Our Lord loves, and hate whom He hates.”
“Does God hate the English?”
“Of the love or the hatred of God toward the English I know nothing.”
Then she spoke up with the old martial ring in her voice and the old
audacity in her words, and added, “But I know this--that God will send
victory to the French, and that all the English will be flung out of
France but the dead ones!”
“Was God on the side of the English when they were prosperous in
France?”
“I do not know if God hates the French, but I think that He allowed them
to be chastised for their sins.”
It was a sufficiently naive way to account for a chastisement which had
now strung out for ninety-six years. But nobody found fault with it.
There was nobody there who would not punish a sinner ninety-six years if
he could, nor anybody there who would ever dream of such a thing as the
Lord's being any shade less stringent than men.
“Have you ever embraced St. Marguerite and St. Catherine?”
“Yes, both of them.”
The evil face of Cauchon betrayed satisfaction when she said that.
“When you hung garlands upon L'Arbre Fee Bourlemont, did you do it in
honor of your apparitions?”
“No.”
Satisfaction again. No doubt Cauchon would take it for granted that she
hung them there out of sinful love for the fairies.
“When the saints appeared to you did you bow, did you make reverence,
did you kneel?”
“Yes; I did them the most honor and reverence that I could.”
A good point for Cauchon if he could eventually make it appear that
these were no saints to whom she had done reverence, but devils in
disguise.
Now there was the matter of Joan's keeping her supernatural commerce a
secret from her parents. Much might be made of that. In fact, particular
emphasis had been given to it in a private remark written in the margin
of the proces: “She concealed her visions from her parents and from
every one.” Possibly this disloyalty to her parents might itself be the
sign of the satanic source of her mission.
“Do you think it was right to go away to the wars without getting your
parents' leave? It is written one must honor his father and his mother.”
“I have obeyed them in all things but that. And for that I have begged
their forgiveness in a letter and gotten it.”
“Ah, you asked their pardon? So you knew you were guilty of sin in going
without their leave!”
Joan was stirred. Her eyes flashed, and she exclaimed:
“I was commanded of God, and it was right to go! If I had had a hundred
fathers and mothers and been a king's daughter to boot I would have
gone.”
“Did you never ask your Voices if you might tell your parents?”
“They were willing that I should tell them, but I would not for anything
have given my parents that pain.”
To the minds of the questioners this headstrong conduct savored of
pride. That sort of pride would move one to see sacrilegious adorations.
“Did not your Voices call you Daughter of God?”
Joan answered with simplicity, and unsuspiciously:
“Yes; before the siege of Orleans and since, they have several times
called me Daughter of God.”
Further indications of pride and vanity were sought.
“What horse were you riding when you were captured? Who gave it you?”
“The King.”
“You had other things--riches--of the King?”
“For myself I had horses and arms, and money to pay the service in my
household.”
“Had you not a treasury?”
“Yes. Ten or twelve thousand crowns.” Then she said with naivete “It was
not a great sum to carry on a war with.”
“You have it yet?”
“No. It is the King's money. My brothers hold it for him.”
“What were the arms which you left as an offering in the church of St.
Denis?”
“My suit of silver mail and a sword.”
“Did you put them there in order that they might be adored?”
“No. It was but an act of devotion. And it is the custom of men of war
who have been wounded to make such offering there. I had been wounded
before Paris.”
Nothing appealed to these stony hearts, those dull imaginations--not
even this pretty picture, so simply drawn, of the wounded girl-soldier
hanging her toy harness there in curious companionship with the grim
and dusty iron mail of the historic defenders of France. No, there
was nothing in it for them; nothing, unless evil and injury for that
innocent creature could be gotten out of it somehow.
“Which aided most--you the Standard, or the Standard you?”
“Whether it was the Standard or whether it was I, is nothing--the
victories came from God.”
“But did you base your hopes of victory in yourself or in your
Standard?”
“In neither. In God, and not otherwise.”
“Was not your Standard waved around the King's head at the Coronation?”
“No. It was not.”
“Why was it that your Standard had place at the crowning of the King in
the Cathedral of Rheims, rather than those of the other captains?”
Then, soft and low, came that touching speech which will live as long
as language lives, and pass into all tongues, and move all gentle hearts
wheresoever it shall come, down to the latest day:
“It had borne the burden, it had earned the honor.” (1) How simple it
is, and how beautiful. And how it beggars the studies eloquence of the
masters of oratory. Eloquence was a native gift of Joan of Arc; it came
from her lips without effort and without preparation. Her words were as
sublime as her deeds, as sublime as her character; they had their source
in a great heart and were coined in a great brain.
(1) What she said has been many times translated, but never with
success. There is a haunting pathos about the original which eludes all
efforts to convey it into our tongue. It is as subtle as an odor, and
escapes in the transmission. Her words were these:
“Il avait, a la peine, c'etait bien raison qu'il fut a l'honneur.”
Monseigneur Ricard, Honorary Vicar-General to the Archbishop of Aix,
finely speaks of it (Jeanne d'Arc la Venerable, page 197) as “that
sublime reply, enduring in the history of celebrated sayings like the
cry of a French and Christian soul wounded unto death in its patriotism
and its faith.” -- TRANSLATOR.
12 Joan's Master-Stroke Diverted
NOW, as a next move, this small secret court of holy assassins did a
thing so base that even at this day, in my old age, it is hard to speak
of it with patience.
In the beginning of her commerce with her Voices there at Domremy, the
child Joan solemnly devoted her life to God, vowing her pure body and
her pure soul to His service. You will remember that her parents tried
to stop her from going to the wars by haling her to the court at Toul
to compel her to make a marriage which she had never promised to make--a
marriage with our poor, good, windy, big, hard-fighting, and most dear
and lamented comrade, the Standard-Bearer, who fell in honorable battle
and sleeps with God these sixty years, peace to his ashes! And you will
remember how Joan, sixteen years old, stood up in that venerable court
and conducted her case all by herself, and tore the poor Paladin's case
to rags and blew it away with a breath; and how the astonished old judge
on the bench spoke of her as “this marvelous child.”
You remember all that. Then think what I felt, to see these false
priests, here in the tribunal wherein Joan had fought a fourth lone
fight in three years, deliberately twist that matter entirely around
and try to make out that Joan haled the Paladin into court and pretended
that he had promised to marry her, and was bent on making him do it.
Certainly there was no baseness that those people were ashamed to stoop
to in their hunt for that friendless girl's life. What they wanted to
show was this--that she had committed the sin of relapsing from her vow
and trying to violate it.
Joan detailed the true history of the case, but lost her temper as she
went along, and finished with some words for Cauchon which he remembers
yet, whether he is fanning himself in the world he belongs in or has
swindled his way into the other.
The rest of this day and part of the next the court labored upon the
old theme--the male attire. It was shabby work for those grave men to be
engaged in; for they well knew one of Joan's reasons for clinging to the
male dress was, that soldiers of the guard were always present in her
room whether she was asleep or awake, and that the male dress was a
better protection for her modesty than the other.
The court knew that one of Joan's purposes had been the deliverance of
the exiled Duke of Orleans, and they were curious to know how she had
intended to manage it. Her plan was characteristically businesslike, and
her statement of it as characteristically simple and straightforward:
“I would have taken English prisoners enough in France for his ransom;
and failing that, I would have invaded England and brought him out by
force.”
That was just her way. If a thing was to be done, it was love first, and
hammer and tongs to follow; but no shilly-shallying between. She added
with a little sigh:
“If I had had my freedom three years, I would have delivered him.”
“Have you the permission of your Voices to break out of prison whenever
you can?”
“I have asked their leave several times, but they have not given it.”
I think it is as I have said, she expected the deliverance of death, and
within the prison walls, before the three months should expire.
“Would you escape if you saw the doors open?”
She spoke up frankly and said:
“Yes--for I should see in that the permission of Our Lord. God helps
who help themselves, the proverb says. But except I thought I had
permission, I would not go.”
Now, then, at this point, something occurred which convinces me, every
time I think of it--and it struck me so at the time--that for a moment,
at least, her hopes wandered to the King, and put into her mind the same
notion about her deliverance which Noel and I had settled upon--a rescue
by her old soldiers. I think the idea of the rescue did occur to her,
but only as a passing thought, and that it quickly passed away.
Some remark of the Bishop of Beauvais moved her to remind him once more
that he was an unfair judge, and had no right to preside there, and that
he was putting himself in great danger.
“What danger?” he asked.
“I do not know. St. Catherine has promised me help, but I do not know
the form of it. I do not know whether I am to be delivered from this
prison or whether when you sent me to the scaffold there will happen a
trouble by which I shall be set free. Without much thought as to this
matter, I am of the opinion that it may be one or the other.” After a
pause she added these words, memorable forever--words whose meaning she
may have miscaught, misunderstood; as to that we can never know; words
which she may have rightly understood, as to that, also, we can never
know; but words whose mystery fell away from them many a year ago and
revealed their meaning to all the world:
“But what my Voices have said clearest is, that I shall be delivered by
a great victory.” She paused, my heart was beating fast, for to me that
great victory meant the sudden bursting in of our old soldiers with the
war-cry and clash of steel at the last moment and the carrying off of
Joan of Arc in triumph. But, oh, that thought had such a short life! For
now she raised her head and finished, with those solemn words which men
still so often quote and dwell upon--words which filled me with fear,
they sounded so like a prediction. “And always they say 'Submit to
whatever comes; do not grieve for your martyrdom; from it you will
ascend into the Kingdom of Paradise.”
Was she thinking of fire and the stake? I think not. I thought of it
myself, but I believe she was only thinking of this slow and cruel
martyrdom of chains and captivity and insult. Surely, martyrdom was the
right name for it.
It was Jean de la Fontaine who was asking the questions. He was willing
to make the most he could out of what she had said:
“As the Voices have told you you are going to Paradise, you feel certain
that that will happen and that you will not be damned in hell. Is that
so?”
“I believe what they told me. I know that I shall be saved.”
“It is a weighty answer.”
“To me the knowledge that I shall be saved is a great treasure.”
“Do you think that after that revelation you could be able to commit
mortal sin?”
“As to that, I do not know. My hope for salvation is in holding fast to
my oath to keep by body and my soul pure.”
“Since you know you are to be saved, do you think it necessary to go to
confession?”
The snare was ingeniously devised, but Joan's simple and humble answer
left it empty:
“One cannot keep his conscience too clean.”
We were now arriving at the last day of this new trial. Joan had come
through the ordeal well. It had been a long and wearisome struggle for
all concerned. All ways had been tried to convict the accused, and
all had failed, thus far. The inquisitors were thoroughly vexed and
dissatisfied.
However, they resolved to make one more effort, put in one more day's
work. This was done--March 17th. Early in the sitting a notable trap was
set for Joan:
“Will you submit to the determination of the Church all your words and
deeds, whether good or bad?”
That was well planned. Joan was in imminent peril now. If she should
heedlessly say yes, it would put her mission itself upon trial, and
one would know how to decide its source and character promptly. If she
should say no, she would render herself chargeable with the crime of
heresy.
But she was equal to the occasion. She drew a distinct line of
separation between the Church's authority over her as a subject member,
and the matter of her mission. She said she loved the Church and was
ready to support the Christian faith with all her strength; but as to
the works done under her mission, those must be judged by God alone, who
had commanded them to be done.
The judge still insisted that she submit them to the decision of the
Church. She said:
“I will submit them to Our Lord who sent me. It would seem to me that
He and His Church are one, and that there should be no difficulty about
this matter.” Then she turned upon the judge and said, “Why do you make
a difficulty when there is no room for any?”
Then Jean de la Fontaine corrected her notion that there was but one
Church. There were two--the Church Triumphant, which is God, the saints,
the angels, and the redeemed, and has its seat in heaven; and the Church
Militant, which is our Holy Father the Pope, Vicar of God, the prelates,
the clergy and all good Christians and Catholics, the which Church has
its seat in the earth, is governed by the Holy Spirit, and cannot err.
“Will you not submit those matters to the Church Militant?”
“I am come to the King of France from the Church Triumphant on high by
its commandant, and to that Church I will submit all those things which
I have done. For the Church Militant I have no other answer now.”
The court took note of this straitly worded refusal, and would hope to
get profit out of it; but the matter was dropped for the present, and a
long chase was then made over the old hunting-ground--the fairies, the
visions, the male attire, and all that.
In the afternoon the satanic Bishop himself took the chair and presided
over the closing scenes of the trial. Along toward the finish, this
question was asked by one of the judges:
“You have said to my lord the Bishop that you would answer him as you
would answer before our Holy Father the Pope, and yet there are several
questions which you continually refuse to answer. Would you not answer
the Pope more fully than you have answered before my lord of Beauvais?
Would you not feel obliged to answer the Pope, who is the Vicar of God,
more fully?”
Now a thunder-clap fell out of a clear sky:
“Take me to the Pope. I will answer to everything that I ought to.”
It made the Bishop's purple face fairly blanch with consternation. If
Joan had only known, if she had only know! She had lodged a mine under
this black conspiracy able to blow the Bishop's schemes to the four
winds of heaven, and she didn't know it. She had made that speech by
mere instinct, not suspecting what tremendous forces were hidden in it,
and there was none to tell her what she had done. I knew, and Manchon
knew; and if she had known how to read writing we could have hoped to
get the knowledge to her somehow; but speech was the only way, and none
was allowed to approach her near enough for that. So there she sat,
once more Joan of Arc the Victorious, but all unconscious of it. She was
miserably worn and tired, by the long day's struggle and by illness, or
she must have noticed the effect of that speech and divined the reason
of it.
She had made many master-strokes, but this was the master-stroke. It was
an appeal to Rome. It was her clear right; and if she had persisted
in it Cauchon's plot would have tumbled about his ears like a house of
cards, and he would have gone from that place the worst-beaten man of
the century. He was daring, but he was not daring enough to stand up
against that demand if Joan had urged it. But no, she was ignorant, poor
thing, and did not know what a blow she had struck for life and liberty.
France was not the Church. Rome had no interest in the destruction of
this messenger of God.
Rome would have given her a fair trial, and that was all that her cause
needed. From that trial she would have gone forth free, and honored, and
blessed.
But it was not so fated. Cauchon at once diverted the questions to other
matters and hurried the trial quickly to an end.
As Joan moved feebly away, dragging her chains, I felt stunned and
dazed, and kept saying to myself, “Such a little while ago she said the
saving word and could have gone free; and now, there she goes to her
death; yes, it is to her death, I know it, I feel it. They will double
the guards; they will never let any come near her now between this and
her condemnation, lest she get a hint and speak that word again. This is
the bitterest day that has come to me in all this miserable time.”
13 The Third Trial Fails
SO THE SECOND trial in the prison was over. Over, and no definite
result. The character of it I have described to you. It was baser in one
particular than the previous one; for this time the charges had not been
communicated to Joan, therefore she had been obliged to fight in the
dark.
There was no opportunity to do any thinking beforehand; there was no
foreseeing what traps might be set, and no way to prepare for them.
Truly it was a shabby advantage to take of a girl situated as this
one was. One day, during the course of it, an able lawyer of Normandy,
Maetre Lohier, happened to be in Rouen, and I will give you his opinion
of that trial, so that you may see that I have been honest with you, and
that my partisanship has not made me deceive you as to its unfair
and illegal character. Cauchon showed Lohier the proces and asked his
opinion about the trial. Now this was the opinion which he gave to
Cauchon. He said that the whole thing was null and void; for these
reasons: 1, because the trial was secret, and full freedom of speech and
action on the part of those present not possible; 2, because the trial
touched the honor of the King of France, yet he was not summoned to
defend himself, nor any one appointed to represent him; 3, because the
charges against the prisoner were not communicated to her; 4, because
the accused, although young and simple, had been forced to defend her
cause without help of counsel, notwithstanding she had so much at stake.
Did that please Bishop Cauchon? It did not. He burst out upon Lohier
with the most savage cursings, and swore he would have him drowned.
Lohier escaped from Rouen and got out of France with all speed, and so
saved his life.
Well, as I have said, the second trial was over, without definite
result. But Cauchon did not give up. He could trump up another. And
still another and another, if necessary. He had the half-promise of
an enormous prize--the Archbishopric of Rouen--if he should succeed in
burning the body and damning to hell the soul of this young girl who
had never done him any harm; and such a prize as that, to a man like the
Bishop of Beauvais, was worth the burning and damning of fifty harmless
girls, let alone one.
So he set to work again straight off next day; and with high confidence,
too, intimating with brutal cheerfulness that he should succeed this
time. It took him and the other scavengers nine days to dig matter
enough out of Joan's testimony and their own inventions to build up
the new mass of charges. And it was a formidable mass indeed, for it
numbered sixty-six articles.
This huge document was carried to the castle the next day, March 27th;
and there, before a dozen carefully selected judges, the new trial was
begun.
Opinions were taken, and the tribunal decided that Joan should hear the
articles read this time.
Maybe that was on account of Lohier's remark upon that head; or maybe it
was hoped that the reading would kill the prisoner with fatigue--for, as
it turned out, this reading occupied several days. It was also decided
that Joan should be required to answer squarely to every article, and
that if she refused she should be considered convicted. You see, Cauchon
was managing to narrow her chances more and more all the time; he was
drawing the toils closer and closer.
Joan was brought in, and the Bishop of Beauvais opened with a speech to
her which ought to have made even himself blush, so laden it was with
hypocrisy and lies. He said that this court was composed of holy and
pious churchmen whose hearts were full of benevolence and compassion
toward her, and that they had no wish to hurt her body, but only a
desire to instruct her and lead her into the way of truth and salvation.
Why, this man was born a devil; now think of his describing himself and
those hardened slaves of his in such language as that.
And yet, worse was to come. For now having in mind another of Lovier's
hints, he had the cold effrontery to make to Joan a proposition which,
I think, will surprise you when you hear it. He said that this court,
recognizing her untaught estate and her inability to deal with the
complex and difficult matters which were about to be considered, had
determined, out of their pity and their mercifulness, to allow her to
choose one or more persons out of their own number to help her with
counsel and advice!
Think of that--a court made up of Loyseleur and his breed of reptiles.
It was granting leave to a lamb to ask help of a wolf. Joan looked up to
see if he was serious, and perceiving that he was at least pretending to
be, she declined, of course.
The Bishop was not expecting any other reply. He had made a show of
fairness and could have it entered on the minutes, therefore he was
satisfied.
Then he commanded Joan to answer straitly to every accusation; and
threatened to cut her off from the Church if she failed to do that or
delayed her answers beyond a given length of time.
Yes, he was narrowing her chances down, step by step.
Thomas de Courcelles began the reading of that interminable document,
article by article. Joan answered to each article in its turn; sometimes
merely denying its truth, sometimes by saying her answer would be found
in the records of the previous trials.
What a strange document that was, and what an exhibition and exposure of
the heart of man, the one creature authorized to boast that he is made
in the image of God. To know Joan of Arc was to know one who was wholly
noble, pure, truthful, brave, compassionate, generous, pious, unselfish,
modest, blameless as the very flowers in the fields--a nature fine and
beautiful, a character supremely great. To know her from that document
would be to know her as the exact reverse of all that. Nothing that she
was appears in it, everything that she was not appears there in detail.
Consider some of the things it charges against her, and remember who
it is it is speaking of. It calls her a sorceress, a false prophet,
an invoker and companion of evil spirits, a dealer in magic, a person
ignorant of the Catholic faith, a schismatic; she is sacrilegious, an
idolater, an apostate, a blasphemer of God and His saints, scandalous,
seditious, a disturber of the peace; she incites men to war, and to the
spilling of human blood; she discards the decencies and proprieties of
her sex, irreverently assuming the dress of a man and the vocation of a
soldier; she beguiles both princes and people; she usurps divine honors,
and has caused herself to be adored and venerated, offering her hands
and her vestments to be kissed.
There it is--every fact of her life distorted, perverted, reversed. As a
child she had loved the fairies, she had spoken a pitying word for them
when they were banished from their home, she had played under their tree
and around their fountain--hence she was a comrade of evil spirits.
She had lifted France out of the mud and moved her to strike for
freedom, and led her to victory after victory--hence she was a disturber
of the peace--as indeed she was, and a provoker of war--as indeed she
was again! and France will be proud of it and grateful for it for many
a century to come. And she had been adored--as if she could help that,
poor thing, or was in any way to blame for it. The cowed veteran and the
wavering recruit had drunk the spirit of war from her eyes and touched
her sword with theirs and moved forward invincible--hence she was a
sorceress.
And so the document went on, detail by detail, turning these waters
of life to poison, this gold to dross, these proofs of a noble and
beautiful life to evidences of a foul and odious one.
Of course, the sixty-six articles were just a rehash of the things which
had come up in the course of the previous trials, so I will touch upon
this new trial but lightly. In fact, Joan went but little into detail
herself, usually merely saying, “That is not true--passez outre”; or,
“I have answered that before--let the clerk read it in his record,” or
saying some other brief thing.
She refused to have her mission examined and tried by the earthly
Church. The refusal was taken note of.
She denied the accusation of idolatry and that she had sought men's
homage. She said:
“If any kissed my hands and my vestments it was not by my desire, and I
did what I could to prevent it.”
She had the pluck to say to that deadly tribunal that she did not know
the fairies to be evil beings. She knew it was a perilous thing to say,
but it was not in her nature to speak anything but the truth when she
spoke at all. Danger had no weight with her in such things. Note was
taken of her remark.
She refused, as always before, when asked if she would put off the male
attire if she were given permission to commune. And she added this:
“When one receives the sacrament, the manner of his dress is a small
thing and of no value in the eyes of Our Lord.”
She was charge with being so stubborn in clinging to her male dress that
she would not lay it off even to get the blessed privilege of hearing
mass. She spoke out with spirit and said:
“I would rather die than be untrue to my oath to God.”
She was reproached with doing man's work in the wars and thus deserting
the industries proper to her sex. She answered, with some little touch
of soldierly disdain:
“As to the matter of women's work, there's plenty to do it.”
It was always a comfort to me to see the soldier spirit crop up in her.
While that remained in her she would be Joan of Arc, and able to look
trouble and fate in the face.
“It appears that this mission of yours which you claim you had from God,
was to make war and pour out human blood.”
Joan replied quite simply, contenting herself with explaining that war
was not her first move, but her second:
“To begin with, I demanded that peace should be made. If it was refused,
then I would fight.”
The judge mixed the Burgundians and English together in speaking of the
enemy which Joan had come to make war upon. But she showed that she
made a distinction between them by act and word, the Burgundians being
Frenchmen and therefore entitled to less brusque treatment than the
English. She said:
“As to the Duke of Burgundy, I required of him, both by letters and by
his ambassadors, that he make peace with the King. As to the English,
the only peace for them was that they leave the country and go home.”
Then she said that even with the English she had shown a pacific
disposition, since she had warned them away by proclamation before
attacking them.
“If they had listened to me,” said she, “they would have done wisely.”
At this point she uttered her prophecy again, saying with emphasis,
“Before seven years they will see it themselves.”
Then they presently began to pester her again about her male costume,
and tried to persuade her to voluntarily promise to discard it. I
was never deep, so I think it no wonder that I was puzzled by their
persistency in what seemed a thing of no consequence, and could not make
out what their reason could be. But we all know now. We all know now
that it was another of their treacherous projects. Yes, if they could
but succeed in getting her to formally discard it they could play a game
upon her which would quickly destroy her. So they kept at their evil
work until at last she broke out and said:
“Peace! Without the permission of God I will not lay it off though you
cut off my head!”
At one point she corrected the proces verbal, saying:
“It makes me say that everything which I have done was done by the
counsel of Our Lord. I did not say that, I said 'all which I have well
done.'”
Doubt was cast upon the authenticity of her mission because of the
ignorance and simplicity of the messenger chosen. Joan smiled at that.
She could have reminded these people that Our Lord, who is no respecter
of persons, had chosen the lowly for his high purposes even oftener
than he had chosen bishops and cardinals; but she phrased her rebuke in
simpler terms:
“It is the prerogative of Our Lord to choose His instruments where He
will.”
She was asked what form of prayer she used in invoking counsel from on
high. She said the form was brief and simple; then she lifted her pallid
face and repeated it, clasping her chained hands:
“Most dear God, in honor of your holy passion I beseech you, if you love
me, that you will reveal to me what I am to answer to these churchmen.
As concerns my dress, I know by what command I have put it on, but I
know not in what manner I am to lay it off. I pray you tell me what to
do.”
She was charged with having dared, against the precepts of God and His
saints, to assume empire over men and make herself Commander-in-Chief.
That touched the soldier in her. She had a deep reverence for priests,
but the soldier in her had but small reverence for a priest's opinions
about war; so, in her answer to this charge she did not condescend to
go into any explanations or excuses, but delivered herself with bland
indifference and military brevity.
“If I was Commander-in-Chief, it was to thrash the English.”
Death was staring her in the face here all the time, but no matter;
she dearly loved to make these English-hearted Frenchmen squirm, and
whenever they gave her an opening she was prompt to jab her sting into
it. She got great refreshment out of these little episodes. Her days
were a desert; these were the oases in it.
Her being in the wars with men was charged against her as an indelicacy.
She said:
“I had a woman with me when I could--in towns and lodgings. In the field
I always slept in my armor.”
That she and her family had been ennobled by the King was charged
against her as evidence that the source of her deeds were sordid
self-seeking. She answered that she had not asked this grace of the
King; it was his own act.
This third trial was ended at last. And once again there was no definite
result.
Possibly a fourth trial might succeed in defeating this apparently
unconquerable girl. So the malignant Bishop set himself to work to plan
it.
He appointed a commission to reduce the substance of the sixty-six
articles to twelve compact lies, as a basis for the new attempt. This
was done. It took several days.
Meantime Cauchon went to Joan's cell one day, with Manchon and two of
the judges, Isambard de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenue, to see if he
could not manage somehow to beguile Joan into submitting her mission to
the examination and decision of the Church Militant--that is to say, to
that part of the Church Militant which was represented by himself and
his creatures.
Joan once more positively refused. Isambard de la Pierre had a heart in
his body, and he so pitied this persecuted poor girl that he ventured to
do a very daring thing; for he asked her if she would be willing to have
her case go before the Council of Basel, and said it contained as many
priests of her party as of the English party.
Joan cried out that she would gladly go before so fairly constructed
a tribunal as that; but before Isambard could say another word Cauchon
turned savagely upon him and exclaimed:
“Shut up, in the devil's name!”
Then Manchon ventured to do a brave thing, too, though he did it in
great fear for his life. He asked Cauchon if he should enter Joan's
submission to the Council of Basel upon the minutes.
“No! It is not necessary.”
“Ah,” said poor Joan, reproachfully, “you set down everything that is
against me, but you will not set down what is for me.”
It was piteous. It would have touched the heart of a brute. But Cauchon
was more than that.
14 Joan Struggles with Her Twelve Lies
WE WERE now in the first days of April. Joan was ill. She had fallen ill
the 29th of March, the day after the close of the third trial, and was
growing worse when the scene which I have just described occurred in her
cell. It was just like Cauchon to go there and try to get some advantage
out of her weakened state.
Let us note some of the particulars in the new indictment--the Twelve
Lies.
Part of the first one says Joan asserts that she has found her
salvation. She never said anything of the kind. It also says she refuses
to submit herself to the Church. Not true. She was willing to submit all
her acts to this Rouen tribunal except those done by the command of God
in fulfilment of her mission. Those she reserved for the judgment of
God. She refused to recognize Cauchon and his serfs as the Church, but
was willing to go before the Pope or the Council of Basel.
A clause of another of the Twelve says she admits having threatened with
death those who would not obey her. Distinctly false. Another clause
says she declares that all she has done has been done by command of God.
What she really said was, all that she had done well--a correction made
by herself as you have already seen.
Another of the Twelve says she claims that she has never committed any
sin. She never made any such claim.
Another makes the wearing of the male dress a sin. If it was, she had
high Catholic authority for committing it--that of the Archbishop of
Rheims and the tribunal of Poitiers.
The Tenth Article was resentful against her for “pretending” that St.
Catherine and St.
Marguerite spoke French and not English, and were French in their
politics.
The Twelve were to be submitted first to the learned doctors of theology
of the University of Paris for approval. They were copied out and ready
by the night of April 4th. Then Manchon did another bold thing: he wrote
in the margin that many of the Twelve put statements in Joan's mouth
which were the exact opposite of what she had said. That fact would
not be considered important by the University of Paris, and would not
influence its decision or stir its humanity, in case it had any--which
it hadn't when acting in a political capacity, as at present--but it was
a brave thing for that good Manchon to do, all the same.
The Twelve were sent to Paris next day, April 5th. That afternoon there
was a great tumult in Rouen, and excited crowds were flocking through
all the chief streets, chattering and seeking for news; for a report had
gone abroad that Joan of Arc was sick until death. In truth, these
long seances had worn her out, and she was ill indeed. The heads of the
English party were in a state of consternation; for if Joan should die
uncondemned by the Church and go to the grave unsmirched, the pity and
the love of the people would turn her wrongs and sufferings and death
into a holy martyrdom, and she would be even a mightier power in France
dead than she had been when alive.
The Earl of Warwick and the English Cardinal (Winchester) hurried to
the castle and sent messengers flying for physicians. Warwick was a hard
man, a rude, coarse man, a man without compassion. There lay the sick
girl stretched in her chains in her iron cage--not an object to move man
to ungentle speech, one would think; yet Warwick spoke right out in her
hearing and said to the physicians:
“Mind you take good care of her. The King of England has no mind to have
her die a natural death. She is dear to him, for he bought her dear, and
he does not want her to die, save at the stake. Now then, mind you cure
her.”
The doctors asked Joan what had made her ill. She said the Bishop of
Beauvais had sent her a fish and she thought it was that.
Then Jean d'Estivet burst out on her, and called her names and abused
her. He understood Joan to be charging the Bishop with poisoning her,
you see; and that was not pleasing to him, for he was one of Cauchon's
most loving and conscienceless slaves, and it outraged him to have Joan
injure his master in the eyes of these great English chiefs, these being
men who could ruin Cauchon and would promptly do it if they got
the conviction that he was capable of saving Joan from the stake by
poisoning her and thus cheating the English out of all the real value
gainable by her purchase from the Duke of Burgundy.
Joan had a high fever, and the doctors proposed to bleed her. Warwick
said:
“Be careful about that; she is smart and is capable of killing herself.”
He meant that to escape the stake she might undo the bandage and let
herself bleed to death.
But the doctors bled her anyway, and then she was better.
Not for long, though. Jean d'Estivet could not hold still, he was so
worried and angry about the suspicion of poisoning which Joan had hinted
at; so he came back in the evening and stormed at her till he brought
the fever all back again.
When Warwick heard of this he was in a fine temper, you may be sure,
for here was his prey threatening to escape again, and all through
the over-zeal of this meddling fool. Warwick gave D'Estivet a quite
admirable cursing--admirable as to strength, I mean, for it was said by
persons of culture that the art of it was not good--and after that the
meddler kept still.
Joan remained ill more than two weeks; then she grew better. She was
still very weak, but she could bear a little persecution now without
much danger to her life. It seemed to Cauchon a good time to furnish it.
So he called together some of his doctors of theology and went to her
dungeon. Manchon and I went along to keep the record--that is, to set
down what might be useful to Cauchon, and leave out the rest.
The sight of Joan gave me a shock. Why, she was but a shadow! It was
difficult for me to realize that this frail little creature with the
sad face and drooping form was the same Joan of Arc that I had so often
seen, all fire and enthusiasm, charging through a hail of death and
the lightning and thunder of the guns at the head of her battalions. It
wrung my heart to see her looking like this.
But Cauchon was not touched. He made another of those conscienceless
speeches of his, all dripping with hypocrisy and guile. He told Joan
that among her answers had been some which had seemed to endanger
religion; and as she was ignorant and without knowledge of the
Scriptures, he had brought some good and wise men to instruct her, if
she desired it. Said he, “We are churchmen, and disposed by our good
will as well as by our vocation to procure for you the salvation of your
soul and your body, in every way in our power, just as we would do the
like for our nearest kin or for ourselves. In this we but follow the
example of Holy Church, who never closes the refuge of her bosom against
any that are willing to return.”
Joan thanked him for these sayings and said:
“I seem to be in danger of death from this malady; if it be the pleasure
of God that I die here, I beg that I may be heard in confession and also
receive my Saviour; and that I may be buried in consecrated ground.”
Cauchon thought he saw his opportunity at last; this weakened body
had the fear of an unblessed death before it and the pains of hell to
follow. This stubborn spirit would surrender now. So he spoke out and
said:
“Then if you want the Sacraments, you must do as all good Catholics do,
and submit to the Church.”
He was eager for her answer; but when it came there was no surrender
in it, she still stood to her guns. She turned her head away and said
wearily:
“I have nothing more to say.”
Cauchon's temper was stirred, and he raised his voice threateningly
and said that the more she was in danger of death the more she ought to
amend her life; and again he refused the things she begged for unless
she would submit to the Church. Joan said:
“If I die in this prison I beg you to have me buried in holy ground; if
you will not, I cast myself upon my Saviour.”
There was some more conversation of the like sort, then Cauchon demanded
again, and imperiously, that she submit herself and all her deeds to
the Church. His threatening and storming went for nothing. That body
was weak, but the spirit in it was the spirit of Joan of Arc; and out
of that came the steadfast answer which these people were already so
familiar with and detested so sincerely:
“Let come what may. I will neither do nor say any otherwise than I have
said already in your tribunals.”
Then the good theologians took turn about and worried her with
reasonings and arguments and Scriptures; and always they held the lure
of the Sacraments before her famishing soul, and tried to bribe her with
them to surrender her mission to the Church's judgment--that is to their
judgment--as if they were the Church! But it availed nothing. I could
have told them that beforehand, if they had asked me. But they never
asked me anything; I was too humble a creature for their notice.
Then the interview closed with a threat; a threat of fearful import;
a threat calculated to make a Catholic Christian feel as if the ground
were sinking from under him:
“The Church calls upon you to submit; disobey, and she will abandon you
as if you were a pagan!”
Think of being abandoned by the Church!--that August Power in whose
hands is lodged the fate of the human race; whose scepter stretches
beyond the furthest constellation that twinkles in the sky; whose
authority is over millions that live and over the billions that wait
trembling in purgatory for ransom or doom; whose smile opens the gates
of heaven to you, whose frown delivers you to the fires of everlasting
hell; a Power whose dominion overshadows and belittles the pomps and
shows of a village. To be abandoned by one's King--yes, that is death,
and death is much; but to be abandoned by Rome, to be abandoned by the
Church! Ah, death is nothing to that, for that is consignment to endless
life--and such a life!
I could see the red waves tossing in that shoreless lake of fire, I
could see the black myriads of the damned rise out of them and struggle
and sink and rise again; and I knew that Joan was seeing what I saw,
while she paused musing; and I believed that she must yield now, and in
truth I hoped she would, for these men were able to make the threat good
and deliver her over to eternal suffering, and I knew that it was in
their natures to do it.
But I was foolish to think that thought and hope that hope. Joan of
Arc was not made as others are made. Fidelity to principle, fidelity
to truth, fidelity to her word, all these were in her bone and in her
flesh--they were parts of her. She could not change, she could not cast
them out. She was the very genius of Fidelity; she was Steadfastness
incarnated. Where she had taken her stand and planted her foot, there
she would abide; hell itself could not move her from that place.
Her Voices had not given her permission to make the sort of submission
that was required, therefore she would stand fast. She would wait, in
perfect obedience, let come what might.
My heart was like lead in my body when I went out from that dungeon;
but she--she was serene, she was not troubled. She had done what she
believed to be her duty, and that was sufficient; the consequences
were not her affair. The last thing she said that time was full of this
serenity, full of contented repose:
“I am a good Christian born and baptized, and a good Christian I will
die.”
15 Undaunted by Threat of Burning
TWO WEEKS went by; the second of May was come, the chill was departed
out of the air, the wild flowers were springing in the glades and
glens, the birds were piping in the woods, all nature was brilliant with
sunshine, all spirits were renewed and refreshed, all hearts glad,
the world was alive with hope and cheer, the plain beyond the Seine
stretched away soft and rich and green, the river was limpid and
lovely, the leafy islands were dainty to see, and flung still daintier
reflections of themselves upon the shining water; and from the tall
bluffs above the bridge Rouen was become again a delight to the eye, the
most exquisite and satisfying picture of a town that nestles under the
arch of heaven anywhere.
When I say that all hearts were glad and hopeful, I mean it in a general
sense. There were exceptions--we who were the friends of Joan of Arc,
also Joan of Arc herself, that poor girl shut up there in that frowning
stretch of mighty walls and towers: brooding in darkness, so close to
the flooding downpour of sunshine yet so impossibly far away from it;
so longing for any little glimpse of it, yet so implacably denied it
by those wolves in the black gowns who were plotting her death and the
blackening of her good name.
Cauchon was ready to go on with his miserable work. He had a new scheme
to try now. He would see what persuasion could do--argument, eloquence,
poured out upon the incorrigible captive from the mouth of a trained
expert. That was his plan. But the reading of the Twelve Articles to
her was not a part of it. No, even Cauchon was ashamed to lay that
monstrosity before her; even he had a remnant of shame in him, away down
deep, a million fathoms deep, and that remnant asserted itself now and
prevailed.
On this fair second of May, then, the black company gathered itself
together in the spacious chamber at the end of the great hall of the
castle--the Bishop of Beauvais on his throne, and sixty-two minor judges
massed before him, with the guards and recorders at their stations and
the orator at his desk.
Then we heard the far clank of chains, and presently Joan entered with
her keepers and took her seat upon her isolated bench. She was looking
well now, and most fair and beautiful after her fortnight's rest from
wordy persecution.
She glanced about and noted the orator. Doubtless she divined the
situation.
The orator had written his speech all out, and had it in his hand,
though he held it back of him out of sight. It was so thick that it
resembled a book. He began flowing, but in the midst of a flowery period
his memory failed him and he had to snatch a furtive glance at his
manuscript--which much injured the effect. Again this happened, and then
a third time. The poor man's face was red with embarrassment, the whole
great house was pitying him, which made the matter worse; then Joan
dropped in a remark which completed the trouble. She said:
“Read your book--and then I will answer you!”
Why, it was almost cruel the way those moldy veterans laughed; and as
for the orator, he looked so flustered and helpless that almost anybody
would have pitied him, and I had difficulty to keep from doing it
myself. Yes, Joan was feeling very well after her rest, and the native
mischief that was in her lay near the surface. It did not show when she
made the remark, but I knew it was close in there back of the words.
When the orator had gotten back his composure he did a wise thing; for
he followed Joan's advice: he made no more attempts at sham impromptu
oratory, but read his speech straight from his “book.” In the speech he
compressed the Twelve Articles into six, and made these his text.
Every now and then he stopped and asked questions, and Joan replied.
The nature of the Church Militant was explained, and once more Joan was
asked to submit herself to it.
She gave her usual answer.
Then she was asked:
“Do you believe the Church can err?”
“I believe it cannot err; but for those deeds and words of mine which
were done and uttered by command of God, I will answer to Him alone.”
“Will you say that you have no judge upon earth? Is not our Holy Father
the Pope your judge?”
“I will say nothing about it. I have a good Master who is our Lord, and
to Him I will submit all.”
Then came these terrible words:
“If you do not submit to the Church you will be pronounced a heretic by
these judges here present and burned at the stake!”
Ah, that would have smitten you or me dead with fright, but it only
roused the lion heart of Joan of Arc, and in her answer rang that
martial note which had used to stir her soldiers like a bugle-call:
“I will not say otherwise than I have said already; and if I saw the
fire before me I would say it again!”
It was uplifting to hear her battle-voice once more and see the
battle-light burn in her eye. Many there were stirred; every man that
was a man was stirred, whether friend or foe; and Manchon risked his
life again, good soul, for he wrote in the margin of the record in good
plain letters these brave words: “Superba responsio!” and there they
have remained these sixty years, and there you may read them to this
day.
“Superba responsio!” Yes, it was just that. For this “superb answer”
came from the lips of a girl of nineteen with death and hell staring her
in the face.
Of course, the matter of the male attire was gone over again; and as
usual at wearisome length; also, as usual, the customary bribe was
offered: if she would discard that dress voluntarily they would let her
hear mass. But she answered as she had often answered before:
“I will go in a woman's robe to all services of the Church if I may be
permitted, but I will resume the other dress when I return to my cell.”
They set several traps for her in a tentative form; that is to say,
they placed suppositious propositions before her and cunningly tried to
commit her to one end of the propositions without committing themselves
to the other. But she always saw the game and spoiled it. The trap was
in this form:
“Would you be willing to do so and so if we should give you leave?”
Her answer was always in this form or to this effect:
“When you give me leave, then you will know.”
Yes, Joan was at her best that second of May. She had all her wits about
her, and they could not catch her anywhere. It was a long, long session,
and all the old ground was fought over again, foot by foot, and the
orator-expert worked all his persuasions, all his eloquence; but the
result was the familiar one--a drawn battle, the sixty-two retiring upon
their base, the solitary enemy holding her original position within her
original lines.
16 Joan Stands Defiant Before the Rack
THE BRILLIANT weather, the heavenly weather, the bewitching weather made
everybody's heart to sing, as I have told you; yes, Rouen was feeling
light-hearted and gay, and most willing and ready to break out and laugh
upon the least occasion; and so when the news went around that the young
girl in the tower had scored another defeat against Bishop Cauchon there
was abundant laughter--abundant laughter among the citizens of both
parties, for they all hated the Bishop. It is true, the English-hearted
majority of the people wanted Joan burned, but that did not keep them
from laughing at the man they hated. It would have been perilous for
anybody to laugh at the English chiefs or at the majority of Cauchon's
assistant judges, but to laugh at Cauchon or D'Estivet and Loyseleur was
safe--nobody would report it.
The difference between Cauchon and cochon (1) was not noticeable
in speech, and so there was plenty of opportunity for puns; the
opportunities were not thrown away.
Some of the jokes got well worn in the course of two or three months,
from repeated use; for every time Cauchon started a new trial the folk
said “The sow has littered (2) again”; and every time the trial failed
they said it over again, with its other meaning, “The hog has made a
mess of it.”
And so, on the third of May, Noel and I, drifting about the town, heard
many a wide-mouthed lout let go his joke and his laugh, and then move to
the next group, proud of his wit and happy, to work it off again:
“'Od's blood, the sow has littered five times, and five times has made a
mess of it!”
And now and then one was bold enough to say--but he said it softly:
“Sixty-three and the might of England against a girl, and she camps on
the field five times!”
Cauchon lived in the great palace of the Archbishop, and it was guarded
by English soldiery; but no matter, there was never a dark night but the
walls showed next morning that the rude joker had been there with his
paint and brush. Yes, he had been there, and had smeared the sacred
walls with pictures of hogs in all attitudes except flattering ones;
hogs clothed in a Bishop's vestments and wearing a Bishop's miter
irreverently cocked on the side of their heads.
Cauchon raged and cursed over his defeats and his impotence during seven
says; then he conceived a new scheme. You shall see what it was; for you
have not cruel hearts, and you would never guess it.