ir counsel that I ought to sign it and do
what I am told, then willingly will I do it."[2488]

[Footnote 2488: _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 331; vol. iii, p. 157. This deed,
written in a large hand and containing but a few lines, appears to be
an abridgment of that contained in the _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 447, 448
(cf. vol. iii, pp. 156, 197).]

Maitre Guillaume Erard replied: "Do it now, or you will be burned this
very day."

And he forbade Jean Massieu to confer with her any longer.

Whereupon Jeanne said that she would liefer sign than be burned.[2489]

[Footnote 2489: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 156, 197.]

Then straightway Messire Jean Massieu gave her a second reading of the
deed of abjuration. And she repeated the words after the Usher. As she
spoke her countenance seemed to express a kind of sneer. It may have
been that her features were contracted by the violent emotions which
swayed her and that the horrors and tortures of an ecclesiastical
trial may have overclouded her reason, subject at all times to strange
vagaries, and that after such bitter suffering there may have come
upon her the actual paroxysm of madness. On the other hand it may have
been that with sound sense and calm mind she was mocking at the clerks
of Rouen; she was quite capable of it, for she had mocked at the
clerks of Poitiers. At any rate she had a jesting air, and the
bystanders noticed that she pronounced the words of her abjuration
with a smile.[2490] And her gaiety, whether real or apparent, roused
the wrath of those burgesses, priests, artisans, and men-at-arms who
desired her death.

[Footnote 2490: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 338; vol. iii, p. 147.]

"'Tis all a mockery. Jeanne doth but jest,"[2491] they cried.

[Footnote 2491: _Ibid._, pp. 55, 143.]

Among the most irate was Master Lawrence Calot, Secretary to the King
of England. He was seen to be in a violent rage and to approach first
the judge and then the accused. A noble of Picardy who was present,
the very same who had essayed familiarities with Jeanne in the Castle
of Beaurevoir, thought he saw this Englishman forcing Jeanne to sign a
paper.[2492] He was mistaken. In every crowd there are those who see
things that never happen. The Bishop would not have permitted such a
thing; he was devoted to the Regent, but on a question of form he
would never have given way. Meanwhile, under this storm of insults,
amidst the throwing of stones and the clashing of swords, these
illustrious masters