, and that
you know?"

"I will swear," said Jeanne, "about my father and mother and what I have
done since coming to France; but concerning my revelations from God
I will answer to no man, except only to Charles my King; I should not
reveal them were you to cut off my head, unless by the secret counsel of
my visions."

The Bishop continued not without gentleness, enjoining her to swear at
least that in everything that touched the faith she would speak truth;
and Jeanne kneeling down crossed her hands upon the book of the Gospel,
or Missal as it is called in the report, and took the required oath,
always under the condition she stated, to answer truly on everything she
knew concerning the faith, except in respect to her revelations.

The examination then began with the usual formalities. She was asked her
name (which she said with touching simplicity was Jeannette at home but
Jeanne in France), the names of her father and mother, godfather and
godmothers, the priest who baptised her, the place where she was born,
etc., her age, almost nineteen; her education, consisting of the Pater
Noster, Ave Maria, and Credo, which her mother had taught her.

Here she was asked, a curious interruption to the formal interrogatory,
to say the Pater Noster--the reason of which sudden demand was that
witches and sorcerers were supposed to be unable to repeat that prayer.
As unexpected as the question was Jeanne's reply. She answered that if
the Bishop would hear her in confession she would say it willingly. She
had been refused all the exercises of piety, and she was speaking to a
company of priests.

There is a great dignity of implied protest against this treatment in
such an answer. The request was made a second time with a promise of
selecting two worthy Frenchmen to hear her: but her reply was the same.
She would say the prayer when she made her confession but not otherwise.
She was ready it would seem in proud humility to confess to any or
to all of her enemies, as one whose conscience was clear, and who had
nothing to conceal.

She was then commanded not to attempt to escape from her prison, on pain
of being condemned for heresy, but to this again she demurred at once.
She would not accept the prohibition, but would escape if she could,
so that no man could say that she had broken faith; although since her
capture she had been bound in chains and her feet fastened with irons.
To this, her examiner said that it was necessary