nother. Jeanne
listened to him dubiously.[2378] On that day she was again questioned
touching her flight from the chateau of Beaulieu and her intention to
leave the tower without the permission of my Lord of Beauvais. As to
the latter she was firmly resolute.

[Footnote 2378: _Trial_, vol. i, p. 162.]

"Were I to see the door open, I would go, and it would be with the
permission of Our Lord. I firmly believe that if I were to see the
door open and if my guards and the other English were beyond power of
resistance, I should regard it as my permission and as succour sent
unto me by Our Lord. But without permission I would not go, save that
I might essay to go, in order to know whether it were Our Lord's will.
The proverb says: 'Help thyself and God will help thee.'[2379] This I
say so that, if I were to go, it should not be said I went without
permission."[2380]

[Footnote 2379: _Ayde-toy, Dieu te aidera._ _Le Jouvencel_, vol. ii, p.
33.]

[Footnote 2380: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 163, 164.]

Then they reverted to the question of her wearing man's dress.

"Which would you prefer, to wear a woman's dress and hear mass, or to
continue in man's dress and not to hear mass?"

"Promise me that I shall hear mass if I am in woman's dress, and then
I will answer you."

"I promise you that you shall hear mass when you are in woman's
dress."

"And what do you say if I have promised and sworn to our King not to
put off these clothes? Nevertheless, I say unto you: 'Have me a robe
made, long enough to touch the ground, but without a train. I will go
to mass in it; then, when I come back, I will return to my present
clothes.'"

"You must wear woman's dress altogether and without conditions."

"Send me a dress like that worn by your burgess's daughters, to wit, a
long _houppelande_; and I will take it and even a woman's hood to go
and hear mass. But with all my heart I entreat you to leave me these
clothes I am now wearing, and let me hear mass without changing
anything."[2381]

[Footnote 2381: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 165, 166.]

Her aversion to putting off man's dress is not to be explained solely
by the fact that this dress preserved her best against the violence of
the men-at-arms; it is possible that no such objection existed. She
was averse to wearing woman's dress because she had not received
permission from her Voices; and we may easily divine why not. Was she
not a chieftain of war? How humiliating for such an one to we