most miserable in the world if I were 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 I will 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.

In the meantime there had been, we are told, various interruptions
during the examination; perhaps it was then that Nicolas de Houp