e, mildly answered: "For what you
admonish me as to my good, and concerning our faith, I thank you; as to
the counsel you offer me, I have no intention to forsake the counsel of
our Lord."

The first article touched the capital point, submission. She replied:
"Well do I believe that our holy Father, the bishops, and others of the
Church are to guard the Christian faith and punish those who are found
wanting. As to my deeds, I submit myself only to the Church in heaven,
to God and the Virgin, to the sainted men and women in paradise. I have
not been wanting in regard to the Christian faith, and trust I never
shall be." And, shortly afterward, "I would rather die than recall what
I have done by our Lord's command."

What illustrates the time, the uninformed mind of these doctors, and
their blind attachment to the letter without regard to the spirit is
that no point seemed graver to them than the sin of having assumed male
attire. They represented to her that, according to the canons, those who
thus change the habit of their sex are abominable in the sight of God.
At first she would not give a direct answer, and begged for a respite
till the next day, but her judges insisted on her discarding the dress;
she replied "that she was not empowered to say when she could quit it."

"But if you should be deprived of the privilege of hearing mass?"

"Well, our Lord can grant me to hear it without you."

"Will you put on a woman's dress, in order to receive your Saviour at
Easter?"

"No; I cannot quit this dress; it matters not to me in what dress I
receive my Saviour."

After this she seems shaken, asks to be at least allowed to hear mass,
adding, "I won't say but if you were to give me a gown such as the
daughters of the burghers wear, a very _long gown_."

It is clear she shrank, through modesty, from explaining herself. The
poor girl durst not explain her position in prison or the constant
danger she was in. The truth is that three soldiers slept in her room,
three of the brigand ruffians called _houspilleurs_;[78] that she was
chained to a beam by a large iron chain, almost wholly at their mercy;
the man's dress they wished to compel her to discontinue was all her
safeguard. What are we to think of the imbecility of the judge, or of
his horrible connivance?

Besides being kept under the eyes of these wretches, and exposed to
their insults and mockery, she was subjected to espial from without.
Winchester,[79] the Inqu