The Executioner's Knife Part 39

The priests look at one another and exchange meaning looks.

WILLIAM HAITON--"What did your voices say to you? We want to know."

JOAN DARC (with a firm voice)--"They told me I committed an act of cowardice by denying the truth."

JAMES CAMUS--"And before the abjuration, what did your voices say?"

JOAN DARC (intrepidly looking at her judges)--"My voices said to me it would be criminal to deny the divine inspiration that ever guided me.

(Commotion among the judges.) Upon the scaffold my voices said to me: 'Answer that preacher boldly--he is a false priest!' Woe is me, I did not obey my voices!"

The judges remain silent for a moment, and exchange expressive looks.

THOMAS OF COURCELLES--"These words are as rash as they are criminal.

After having abjured, you relapse into your d.a.m.nable errors!"

JOAN DARC (in a ringing voice)--"The error lies in lying--by abjuring I lied! What is d.a.m.nable is to d.a.m.n one's soul, and I d.a.m.ned it by not maintaining that I obeyed the will of heaven! My voices have reproached me for having abjured."

JAMES CAMUS--"Thus, after resuming male attire, a capital crime, an unpardonable crime which makes you a relapsed one, _revolvistis ad vestrum vomitum_--you have returned to your vomit, you dare maintain that those alleged voices--"

JOAN DARC--"The voices of my saints--come from G.o.d."

THOMAS OF COURCELLES--"On the scaffold you confessed."

JOAN DARC--"On the scaffold I was a coward! I lied! I yielded to the feeling of terror!"

JAMES CAMUS--"At this hour, thinking you no longer need to fear death, you come back to your former declarations."

JOAN DARC--"At this hour I maintain that only fear forced me to abjure, to confess the contrary of the truth. I prefer to die, rather than remain in this prison. I have spoken. You shall have not another word from me."

JAMES CAMUS--"Be it so!"

The priests file out slowly and silently. Joan Darc remains alone, on her knees upon the straw. She raises her eyes to the vault of her prison with a radiant, inspired face, and with her hands joined, she thanks her saints for the courage they have given her to expiate and annul her apostasy by resolutely marching to death.

CHAPTER X.

TO THE FLAMES!

The scene changes. After the last interrogatory of Joan the priests proceed to Bishop Cauchon in order to inform him of the issue of their visit to the prisoner--a result that the prelate expects, so much so that he has convoked a sufficient number of judges to meet in the chapel of the Archbishop's palace at Rouen in order to proceed with the final sentence of the relapsed sinner. All the summoned prelates are a.s.sembled and in their seats in the chapel. Bishop Cauchon, seated in the center of the choir, presides, and orders silence with a gesture.

BISHOP CAUCHON--"My very dear brothers, Joan has fallen back into her d.a.m.nable errors, and in contempt of her solemn abjuration, p.r.o.nounced in the face of G.o.d and His Holy Writ, not only has she resumed her male attire, but she again stubbornly maintains that all that she has done and said was said and done by divine inspiration! I now call for your views, in the order of precedence, upon the fate of the said Joan who is now charged with having relapsed, reserving to myself the right of convoking you again, should I deem it necessary."

ARCHDEACON NICOLAS OF VENDERESSE--"The said Joan should be given over to the secular arm, to be burned alive as a relapsed sinner."

ABBOT AGIDIE--"Joan is a relapsed heretic, no doubt about it.

Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that a second abjuration should be proposed to her, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm."

CANON JOHN PINCHON--"Joan has relapsed; I shall adhere to whatever plan of punishment my very dear brothers may decide upon."

CANON WILLIAM ERARD--"I p.r.o.nounce the said Joan a relapsed sinner and deserving of the pyre."

CHAPLAIN ROBERT GILBERT--"Joan should be burned as a relapsed sinner and heretic."

ABBOT OF ST. AUDOIN--"The woman is a relapsed sinner. Let her abjure a second time or be condemned."

ARCHDEACON JOHN OF CASTILLONE--"Let the relapsed sinner be delivered to the secular arm."

CANON ERMANGARD--"I demand the exemplary death of Joan."

DEACON BOUCHER--"Joan should be sentenced as a relapsed one."

PRIOR OF LONGUEVILLE--"That is my opinion. She should be burned alive."

FATHER GIFFARD--"I think the relapsed sinner should be sentenced without delay."

FATHER HAITON--"I p.r.o.nounce the said Joan a relapsed sinner. I am for her speedy punishment, provided, however, she refuses to abjure a second time."

CANON MARGUERIE--"Joan is a relapsed sinner. Let her be delivered up to secular justice."

CANON JOHN OF L'EPEE--"I am of my brother's opinion. She should be burned to death."

CANON GARIN--"I think so, too."

CANON GASTINEL--"Let us give up the relapsed sinner to the pyre."

CANON PASCAL--"That is my opinion. Let her be burned to death."

FATHER HOUDENC--"The ridiculous explanations of the woman are to me an ample proof that she has always been an idolatress and a heretic.

Besides that, she is a relapsed sinner. I demand that she be delivered to the secular arm without delay."

MASTER JOHN OF NIBAT--"The said Joan is impenitent and a relapsed sinner. Let her undergo her punishment."

FATHER FABRE--"A heretic by habit, hardened in her errors, a rebel to the Church, the body of the said Joan should be delivered to the flames, and her ashes cast to the winds."

ABBOT OF MONTEMART--"I hold as my brother. Only I am of the opinion that she should be given a second chance to abjure."

FATHER GUELON--"That is my opinion."

CANON COUPEQUESNE--"Mine also."

CANON GUILLAUME--"Let the said Joan be offered a second chance to retract. If she refuses, then death."

CANON MAURICE--"I favor such a second summons, although I do not expect good results from it."

DOCTOR WILLIAM OF BANDIBOSC--"I side with my very dear brother."