her as we say, without panic
and without presumption. The trial of Jeanne is indeed almost more
miraculous than her fighting; a girl not yet nineteen, forsaken of all,
without a friend! It is less wonderful that she should have developed
the qualities of a general, of a gunner, every gift of war--than that in
her humiliation and distress she should thus hold head against all
the most subtle intellects in France, and bear, with but one moment of
faltering, a continued cross-examination of three months, without losing
her patience, her heart, or her courage.

*****

The third day brought a still larger accession of judges, sixty-two of
them taking their places on the benches round the Bishop in the great
hall; and the day began with another and longer altercation between
Cauchon and Jeanne on the subject of the oath again demanded of her. She
maintained her resolution to say nothing of her voices. "We" according
to the record "required of her that she should swear simply and
absolutely without reservation." She would seem to have replied with
impatience, "Let me speak freely:" adding "By my faith you may ask me
many questions which I will not answer": then explaining, "Many things
you may ask me, but I will tell you nothing truly that concerns my
revelations; for you might compel me to say things which I have sworn
not to say; and so I should perjure myself, which you ought not to
wish." This explains several statements which she made later in respect
to her introduction to the King. She repeated emphatically: "I warn
you well, you who call yourselves my judges, that you take a great
responsibility upon you, and that you burden me too much." She said also
that it was enough to have already sworn twice. She was again asked to
swear simply and absolutely, and answered, "It is enough to have sworn
twice," and that all the clerks in Rouen and Paris could not condemn her
unless lawfully; also that of her coming she would speak the truth but
not all the truth; and that the space of eight days would not be enough
to tell all.

"We the said Bishop" (continues the report) "then said to her that she
should ask advice from those present whether she ought to swear or
not. She replied again that of her coming she would speak truly and not
otherwise, nor would it be fit that she should talk at large. We then
told her that it would throw suspicion on what she said if she did not
swear to speak the truth. She answered as before. We re