第77章 THE PUBLIC EXAMINATION.FEBRUARY,(5)

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 the will of 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 saying among children that men were sometimes hanged for speaking the truth.

She was then asked if she knew herself to be in 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 Iwere 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,adding,that she was about thirteen 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 Domremy,whether there were any Burgundians there?to which Jeanne answered boldly that there was one,and that she wished his head might be cut off,adding piously,"that is,if it pleased God"[3];she was also asked whether she had fought along with the other children against the children of the neighbouring Burgundian village of Maxy (Maxey sur Meuse):why she hated the Burgundians,and many questions of this kind,with a close examination about a certain tree near the village of Domremy,which some called the Tree of the good Ladies,and others,the Fairies'Tree;and also about a well there,the Fairies'Well,of which poor patients were said to drink and get well.Jeanne (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 Marie of Domremy;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,after having thus been 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 Iwill accept it;otherwise no.I prefer this,since it pleases God that I should wear it."The recollection of Domremy and of the pleasant fields,must have carried her back to the days when the little Jeanne 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.