Other less formal particulars come to us long after, from various witnesses at the /procès de rehabilitation/, in which a lively picture is given of this scene. Frère Isambard had apparently managed, as was his wont, to get close to the prisoner, and to whisper to her to appeal to the Council of Bale. "What is this Council of Bale?" she asked in the same tone. Isambard replied that it was the "congregation of the whole Church, Catholic and Universal, and that there would be as many there on her side as on that of the English." "Ah!" she cried, "since there will be some of our party in that place, I will willingly yield and submit to the Council of Bale, to our Holy Father the Pope, and to the sacred Council."[2] And immediately--continues the deposition--the Bishop of Beauvais cried out, "Silence, in the devil's name!" and told the notary to take no notice of what she said, that she would submit herself to the Council of Bale; whereupon a second cry burst from the bosom of Jeanne, "You write what is against me, but you will not write what is for me." "Because of these things, the English and their officers threatened terribly the said Frère Isambard, warning him that if he did not hold his peace he would be thrown in the Seine." No notice whatever is taken of any such interruption in the formal record. It must have been before this time that Jean de la Fontaine disappeared. He left Rouen secretly and never returned, nor does he ever appear again. Frère Isambard is said to have taken temporary refuge in his convent; they scattered, /de par l'diable/, according to the Christian adjuration of Mgr. De Beauvais; though l'Advenu would seem to have held his ground, and served as Confessor to Jeanne in her agony, at which Frère Isambard was also present. We are told that the Deputy Inquisitor Lemaitre, he who had been got to lend the aid of his presence with such difficulty, fiercely warned the authorities that he would have no harm done to those two friars, from which we may infer that he too had leanings towards the Maid; and these honest and loyal men, well deserving of their country and of mankind, should not lose their record when the tragic story of so much human treachery and baseness has to be told.
*****
After this there came a long pause, full of much business to the judges, councillors, and clerks who had to reduce the seventy articles to twelve, in order to forward a summary of the case to the University of Paris for their judgment. Jeanne in the meantime had been left, but not neglected, in her prison. The great Feast of Easter had passed without any sacred consolation of the Church; but Monseigneur de Beauvais, in his kindness, sent her a carp to keep the feast withal, if not any spiritual food. It was quite congenial to the spirit of the time to imagine that the carp had been poisoned, and such a thought seems to have crossed the mind of Jeanne, who was very ill after eating of it, and like to die. But it was not thus, poisoned in prison, that it would have suited any of her persecutors to let her die. As a matter of fact, as soon as it was known that she was ill, the best doctors procurable were sent to the prison with peremptory orders to prolong her life and cure her at any cost. But for a little time we lose sight of the sick-bed on which the unfortunate Maid lay fully dressed, never relinquishing the garb which was her protection, with her feet chained to her uneasy couch. Even at the moment when her life hung in the balance we read of no indulgence granted in this respect, no unlocking of the infamous chain, nor substitution of a gentler nurse for the attendant /houspillers/, who were her guards night and day.
When the Bishop and his court had completed their business and sent off to Paris the important document on which so much depended, they found themselves at leisure to return to Jeanne, to inquire after her health and to make her "a charitable admonition." It was on the 18th of April, after the silence of more than a fortnight, that their visit was made with this benevolent purpose. Seven of her judges attended the Bishop into the sick-chamber. They had come, he assured her, charitably and familiarly, to visit her in her sickness and to carry her comfort and consolation. Most of these men were indeed familiar enough: she had seen their faces already through many a dreadful day, though there were one or two which were new and strange, come to stare at her in the depths of her distress. Cauchon reminded her how much and how carefully she had been questioned by the most wise and learned men; and that those there present were ready to do anything for the salvation of her soul and body in every possible way, by instructing or advising her. He added, however, that if she still refused to accept advice, and to act according to the counsel of the Church, she was in the greatest danger--to which she replied:
"It seems to me, being so ill as I am, that I am in great danger of death. And if it is thus that God pleases to decide for me, I ask of you to be allowed to confess and receive my Saviour, and to be laid in holy ground."
"If you desire to have the rites and sacraments of the Church," said Cauchon, "you must do as good Catholics ought to do, submit to Holy Church." She answered, "I can say no other thing to you." She was then told that if she was in fear of death through sickness she ought all the more to amend her life; but that she could not have the privileges of the Church as a Catholic, if she did not submit to the Church. She answered: "If my body dies in prison, I hope that you will bury me in consecrated ground: yet if not, I still hope in our Lord."
She was then reminded that she had said in her trial--if anything had been said or done by her against our Christian faith ordained by our Lord, that she would not stand by it. She answered, "I refer to the answer I made, and to our Lord."
It was then asked of her, since she believed herself to have had many revelations from God by St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, whether if there should appear some good creature (/sic/) who professed to have had a revelation from God in respect to her, she would believe that? She answered that there was no Christian in the world who could come to her professing to have had a revelation, of whom she should not know whether he spoke the truth or not: she would know it through St. Catherine and St. Margaret.
Asked, if she could not imagine that God might reveal something to a good creature who might be unknown to her, she answered: "Yes; but I would not believe either man or woman without a sign."
Asked, if she believed that the Holy Scripture was revealed by God, she answered, "You know that I do, and it is good to know."
The last answer she made in respect to submission to Holy Church was this, "Whatever may happen to me I will neither do nor say anything else, for I have answered before, during the trial."
She was then "exhorted powerfully by the venerable doctors present" (four are mentioned by name) to submit to our Mother the Church, with many authorities and examples drawn from the Holy Scriptures; and finally, Magister Nicolas Midi made her an exhortation from Matthew xviii.: "If your brother trespass against you," and what follows, "If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen man and a publican." This was expounded to Jeanne in the French tongue and, finally, she was told that if she would not obey and submit to the Church she must be given up as if she was a Saracen. To which Jeanne replied that she was a good Christian and well baptised, and that she desired to die as a Christian. She was then asked whether, since she begged leave of the Church to receive her Saviour, she would submit to the Church if it were promised to her that she should receive. She answered that she would say no more than she had said; that she loved God, served Him, and was a good Christian, and would aid and uphold the Holy Church with all her power. Asked if she wished that a beautiful procession should be made for her to restore her to health, she answered that she would be glad if the Church and the Catholics would pray for her.
For another fortnight Jeanne was sent back into the silence, and to her own thoughts, which must have grown heavier and heavier as the weary days went on, and no sound of approaching deliverance came, no rumour of help at hand. All was quiet and safe at Rouen; amid the babble of the courtyard which she might hear fitfully when her guardians were quieter than usual, there was not one word which brought the hope of a French army at hand, or of any movement to rescue her. All was silent in the world around, not a breath of hope, not the whisper of a friend. It was not till the 2d of May that the dreadful blank was again broken, and she was called to the great hall of the castle for another interview with her tormentors. When she was led into the hall it was full, as in the first sitting, sixty-three judges in all being present. The interest had flagged or the pity had grown as the trial dragged its slow length along; but now, when every day the verdict was expected from Paris, the interest had risen again. On her way from her prison to the hall, it was necessary to pass the door of the castle chapel: and here once or twice Massieu, the officer of the court, had permitted her to pause and kneel down as she passed. This was all the celebration of the Paschal Feast that was permitted to Jeanne. The compassionate official, however, was discovered in this small service of charity, and sternly reprimanded and threatened. Henceforward she had to pass without even a longing look through the door at the altar on which was the holy sacrament.
She came in on the renewed sitting of the 2d May to find the assembled priests settling themselves, after the address which had been made to them, to hear another address which John de Chasteillon, Archdeacon, had prepared for herself, in which he said much that was good both for body and soul, to which she consented. He had a list of twelve articles in his hands, and explained and expounded them to her, as they were the occasion of the sitting. He then "admonished her in charity," explaining that those who were faithful to Christ hold firmly and closely to the Christian creed, and adjuring her to consent and to amend her ways. To this Jeanne answered: "Read your book," meaning the schedule held by Monseigneur the Archdeacon, "and then I will answer you. I refer myself to God my master in all things; and I love Him with all my heart."
To read this book, however, was precisely what Monseigneur the Archdeacon had no intention of doing. She was never allowed to hear the twelve articles upon which the verdict against her was founded; but the speaker gave her a long discourse by way of explanation, following more or less the schedule which he held. This "monition general," however, elicited no detailed reply from Jeanne, who answered briefly with some impatience, "I refer myself to my judge, who is the King of Heaven and earth." The "Lord Archdeacon" then proceeded to "monitions particulares."
It was then once more explained to her that this reference to God alone was a refusal to submit to the Church militant, and she was instructed in the authority of the Church, which it was the duty of every Christian to believe--/unam sanctam Ecclesiam/ always guided by the Holy Spirit and which could not err, to the judgment of which every question should be referred. She answered: "I believe in the Church here below; but my doings and sayings, as I have already said, I refer and submit to God. I believe that the Church militant cannot err or fail; but as for my deeds and words I put them all before God, who has made me do that which I have done"; she also said that she submitted herself to God, her Creator, who had made her do everything, and referred everything to Him, and to Him alone.
She was then asked, if she would have no judge on earth and if our Holy Father the Pope were not her judge; she answered: "I will tell you nothing more. I have a good master, that is our Lord, on whom I depend for everything, and not an any other."
She was then told that if she would not believe the Church and the article /Ecclesiam sanctam Catholicam/, that she might be reckoned as a heretic and punished by burning: to which she answered: "I can say nothing else to you; and if I saw the fire before me, I should say only that which I say, and could do nothing else." (Once more at this point the clerk writes on his margin, "Proud reply"--/Superba responsio/--but whether in admiration or in blame it would be hard to say.)
Asked, if the Council General, or the Holy Father, Cardinals, etc., were there--whether she would submit to them. "You shall have no other answer from me," she said.
Asked, if she would submit to our Holy Father the Pope: she answered, "Take me to him and I will answer him," but would say no more.
Questioned in respect to her dress, she answered, that she would willingly accept a long dress and a woman's hood to go to church to receive her Saviour, provided that, as she had already said, she were allowed to wear it on that occasion only, and then to take back that which she at present wore. Further, when it was set before her that she wore that dress without any need, being in prison, she answered, "When I have done that for which I was sent by God, I will then take back a woman's dress." Asked, if she thought she did well in being dressed like a man, she answered, "I refer every thing to our Lord."
Again, after the exhortation made to her, namely, that in saying that she did well and did not sin in wearing that dress, and in the circumstances which concerned her assuming and wearing it, and in saying that God and the saints made her do so--she blasphemed, and as is contained in this schedule, erred and did evil: she answered that she never blasphemed God or the saints.
She was then admonished to give up that dress, and no longer to think it was right, and to return to the garb of a woman; but answered that she would make no change in this respect.
Concerning her revelations: she replied in regard to them, that she referred everything to her judge, that is God, and that her revelations were from God, without any other medium.
Asked concerning the sign given to the King if she would refer to the Archbishop of Rheims, the Sire de Boussac, Charles de Bourbon, La Tremouille, and La Hire, to them or to any one of them, who, according to what she formerly said, had seen the crown, and were present when the angel brought it, and gave it to the Archbishop; or if she would refer to any others of her party who might write under their seals that it was so; she answered, "Send a messenger, and I will write to them about the whole trial": but otherwise she was not disposed to refer to them.
