and all Frenchmen
and Scots loyal to our Sovereign Lord the Dauphin, to accept my witness,
that Brother Thomas, of the Order of St. Francis, called Noiroufle while
of the world, has been most falsely and treacherously accused by me--"

I wrote, but I wrote not his false words, putting my own in their
place--"has been most truly and righteously accused by me--"

"--of divers deeds of black treason, and dealing with our enemies of
England, against our Lord the Dauphin, and the Maid, the Sister of the
Saints, and of this I heartily repent me,--"

But I wrote, "All which I maintain--"

"--as may God pardon my sins, on the faith of a sinful and dying man."

"Now sign thy name, and that of thy worshipful cabbage-garden and
dunghill in filthy Scotland." So I signed, "Norman Leslie, the younger,
of Pitcullo," and added the place, Orleans, with the date of day and year
of our Lord, namely, May the eighth, fourteen hundred and twenty-nine.

"A very laudable confession," quoth Brother Thomas; "would that all the
sinners whom I have absolved, as I am about to absolve thee, had cleansed
and purged their sinful souls as freely. And now, my brother, read aloud
to me this scroll; nay, methinks it is ill for thy health to speak or
read. A sad matter is this, for, in faith, I have forgotten my clergy
myself, and thou mayst have beguiled me by inditing other matter than I
have put into thy lying mouth. Still, where the safety of a soul is
concerned, a few hours more or less of this vain, perishable life weigh
but as dust in the balance."

Here he took from about his hairy neck a heavy Italian crucifix of black
wood, whereon was a figure of our Lord, wrought in white enamel, with
golden nails, and a golden crown of thorns.

"Now read," he whispered, heaving up the crucifix above me. And as he
lifted it, a bright blade, strong, narrow, and sharp, leaped out from
beneath the feet of our Lord, and glittered within an inch of my throat.
An emblem of this false friar it was, the outside of whom was as that of
a holy man, while within he was a murdering sword.

"Read!" he whispered again, pricking my throat with the dagger's point.

Then I read aloud, and as I read I was half choked with my blood, and now
and then was stopped; but still he cried--

"Read, and if one word is wrong, thine absolution shall come all the
swifter."

So I read, and, may I be forgiven if I sinned in deceiving one so vile! I
uttered not what I had wri