The Executioner's Knife Part 29

JOAN DARC (with an accent of profound conviction)--"The voices came from G.o.d."

ANOTHER JUDGE--"What do you know about that?"

ANOTHER JUDGE--"What were the circ.u.mstances under which you were captured at Compiegne?"

ANOTHER JUDGE--"Who dictated the letter that you addressed to the English?"

These unrelated and cross questions followed close upon one another for the purpose of confusing Joan.

JOAN DARC (after a moment's silence)--"If you all question me at once, sirs, I shall be unable to answer any of you."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"Well, what makes you believe that the voices you speak about were divine?"

JOAN DARC--"They told me to behave like an honest girl, and that with the aid of G.o.d I would save France."

A JUDGE--"Was it revealed to you that if you lost your virginity you would forfeit your luck in war?"

JOAN DARC (blushing)--"That was not revealed to me."

THE SAME JUDGE--"Was it to the archangel St. Michael that you promised to remain a virgin?"

JOAN DARC (with chaste impatience)--"I made my vow to my good saints, St. Marguerite and St. Catherine."

ANOTHER JUDGE--"And so the voices of your saints ordered you to come to France?"

JOAN DARC--"Yes, for my own and the King's safety, and to deliver Gaul from the foreign yoke."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"Did you not at that epoch see the apparition of St.

Marguerite and St. Catherine, to whom you attribute the voices, those divine voices according to you?"

JOAN DARC--"Yes, sir."

BISHOP CAUCHON (deliberately)--"You are certain of having seen the apparition?"

JOAN DARC--"I saw my dear saints as clearly as I see you, sir."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"You affirm that?"

JOAN DARC--"I affirm it upon my salvation."

Renewed and profound silence among the judges; several of them take notes; others exchange a few words in a low voice.

A JUDGE--"By what sign did you recognize those whom you call St.

Catherine and St. Marguerite to have been saints?"

JOAN DARC--"By their saintliness."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"And the archangel St. Michael appeared before you?"

JOAN DARC--"Yes, sir; several times."

A JUDGE--"How is he clad?"

JOAN DARC (recollecting the advice of Canon Loyseleur)--"I do not know."

THE SAME JUDGE--"You refuse to answer? Was the angel perhaps quite nude?"

JOAN DARC (blushing)--"Do you imagine G.o.d has not the wherewithal to clothe him?"

BISHOP CAUCHON--"Your language is quite bold. Do you consider yourself under the protection of G.o.d?"

JOAN DARC--"If I am not, may G.o.d place me there. If I am, may He keep me there. (In a loud and strong voice:) But remember this: You are my judges, you a.s.sume a grave responsibility in accusing me. As to myself, the burden is light."

These n.o.ble words, p.r.o.nounced by the martial maid in the conviction of her innocence, and indicative of her mistrust of her judges, announce a change in her spirit, a fort.i.tude not there when the interrogatory commenced. She had secretly invoked her "voices" and they had answered--"Go on; fear not; answer the wicked priests boldly; you have nothing to reproach yourself with; G.o.d is with you; He will not forsake you." Strengthened by these thoughts and hope, the heroine raises her head; her pale and handsome face is now slightly colored; her large black eyes fix themselves boldly upon the Bishop; she realizes that he is her mortal enemy. The ecclesiastical judges remark the increasing a.s.surance of the accused, who but a moment before was so timid and so dejected. The transformation augurs well for their projects. In the pride of her exaltation, Joan Darc may, and is bound to, drop admissions that she would have kept secret had she remained reserved, timid and mistrustful. Despite his wickedness, the Bishop feels rebuked by the eyes of Joan. He drops his hypocritical face, turns away his eyes and continues the interrogatory in a faltering voice.

BISHOP CAUCHON--"So, then, Joan, it was by order of your voices that you went to Vaucouleurs in search of a certain captain named Robert of Baudricourt, who furnished you with an escort to take you to the King, to whom you promised to raise the siege of Orleans?"

JOAN DARC--"Yes, sir, you speak truly."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"Do you admit having dictated a letter addressed to the Duke of Bedford, Regent of England, and other ill.u.s.trious captains?"

JOAN DARC--"I dictated the letter at Poitiers, sir."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"In that letter you threatened the English with death?"

JOAN DARC--"Yes; if they did not return to their own country, and if they persisted in heaping trials upon trials on the poor people of France, in ravaging the country, in burning the villages."

BISHOP CAUCHON--"Was not that letter written by you under the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His immaculate Mother, the holy Virgin?"

JOAN DARC--"I ordered the words 'Jesus and Mary' to be placed in the form of a prayer at the head of the letters that I dictated. Was that wrong?"

BISHOP CAUCHON (does not answer; looks askance at the judges; several of these enter on their tablets the last answer of the accused, an answer that seems to be of extreme gravity judging from their hurry to note it)--"How did you sign the letters that you dictated?"

JOAN DARC--"I do not know how to write. I placed my cross in G.o.d as a signature at the foot of the parchment."

This second answer, no less dangerous than the first, is likewise noted down with great zest by the priests. A profound silence follows. The Bishop seems to interrogate the registrars with his looks, and to ask them whether they have finished writing down the words of the accused.

BISHOP CAUCHON--"After several battles you forced the English to raise the siege of Orleans?"

JOAN DARC--"My voices advised me. I fought--and G.o.d gave us the victory."

A JUDGE--"If those voices are of St. Marguerite and St. Catherine, these saints must hate the English."

JOAN DARC--"What G.o.d hates they hate; what He loves they love."

ANOTHER JUDGE--"Come, now; G.o.d loves the English, seeing He has so long rendered them victorious and they conquered a part of France."

JOAN DARC--"He undoubtedly left them to the punishment of their cruelty."