April 18th. They visited her in her chamber, and represented to her that
she would be in great danger if she did not reconsider, and follow the
advice of the Church. "It seems to me, indeed," she said, "seeing my
sickness, that I am in great danger of death. If so, God's will be done;
I should like to confess, receive my Saviour, and be laid in holy
ground."

"If you desire the sacraments of the Church, you must do as good
Catholics do, and submit yourself to it." She made no reply. But, on the
judge's repeating his words, she said: "If the body die in prison, I
hope that you will lay it in holy ground; if you do not, I appeal to our
Lord."

Already, in the course of these examinations, she had expressed one of
her last wishes. _Question_: "You say that you wear a man's dress by
God's command, and yet, in case you die, you want a woman's shift?"
_Answer_: "All I want is to have a long one." This touching answer was
ample proof that, in this extremity, she was much less occupied with
care about life than with the fears of modesty.

The doctors preached to their patient for a long time; and he who had
taken on himself the especial care of exhorting her, Master Nicolas
Midy, a scholastic of Paris, closed the scene by saying bitterly to her,
"If you don't obey the Church, you will be abandoned for a Saracen."

"I am a good Christian," she replied meekly; "I was properly baptized,
and will die like a good Christian."

The slowness of these proceedings drove the English wild with
impatience. Winchester had hoped to bring the trial to an end before the
campaign; to have forced a confession from the prisoner, and have
dishonored King Charles. This blow struck, he would recover Louviers,
secure Normandy and the Seine, and then repair to Basel to begin another
war--a theological war--to sit there as arbiter of Christendom, and make
and unmake popes. At the very moment he had these high designs in view,
he was compelled to cool his heels, waiting upon what it might please
this girl to say.

The unlucky Cauchon happened at this precise juncture to have offended
the chapter of Rouen, from which he was soliciting a decision against
the Pucelle; he had allowed himself to be addressed beforehand as "My
lord the Archbishop." Winchester determined to disregard the delays of
these Normans, and to refer at once to the great theological tribunal,
the University of Paris.

While waiting for the answer, new attempts were made to ove