rc still! Yes, it was plain to me now
that there was one spirit there which this dreaded judge could not quell
nor make afraid.

She moved to her place and mounted the dais and seated herself upon her
bench, gathering her chains into her lap and nestling her little white
hands there. Then she waited in tranquil dignity, the only person there
who seemed unmoved and unexcited. A bronzed and brawny English soldier,
standing at martial ease in the front rank of the citizen spectators,
did now most gallantly and respectfully put up his great hand and give
her the military salute; and she, smiling friendly, put up hers and
returned it; whereat there was a sympathetic little break of applause,
which the judge sternly silence.

Now the memorable inquisition called in history the Great Trial began.
Fifty experts against a novice, and no one to help the novice!

The judge summarized the circumstances of the case and the public
reports and suspicions upon which it was based; then he required Joan to
kneel and make oath that she would answer with exact truthfulness to all
questions asked her.

Joan's mind was not asleep. It suspected that dangerous possibilities
might lie hidden under this apparently fair and reasonable demand.
She answered with the simplicity which so often spoiled the enemy's
best-laid plans in the trial at Poitiers, and said:

"No; for I do not know what you are going to ask me; you might ask of me
things which I would not tell you."

This incensed the Court, and brought out a brisk flurry of angry
exclamations. Joan was not disturbed. Cauchon raised his voice and began
to speak in the midst of this noise, but he was so angry that he could
hardly get his words out. He said:

"With the divine assistance of our Lord we require you to expedite these
proceedings for the welfare of your conscience. Swear, with your hands
upon the Gospels, that you will answer true to the questions which shall
be asked you!" and he brought down his fat hand with a crash upon his
official table.

Joan said, with composure:

"As concerning my father and mother, and the faith, and what things
I have done since my coming into France, I will gladly answer; but as
regards the revelations which I have received from God, my Voices have
forbidden me to confide them to any save my King--"

Here there was another angry outburst of threats and expletives, and
much movement and confusion; so she had to stop, and wait for the noise
to