ar
petticoats like a townsman's wife! And above all things just now, when
at any moment the French might come and deliver her by some great feat
of arms. Ought they not to find their Maid in man's attire, ready to
put on her armour and fight with them?

Thereafter the examiner asked her whether she would submit to the
Church, whether she made a reverence to her Voices, whether she
believed the saints, whether she offered them lighted candles, whether
she obeyed them, whether in war she had ever done anything without
their permission or contrary to their command.[2382]

[Footnote 2382: _Ibid._, pp. 166-169.]

Then they came to the question which they held to be the most
difficult of all:

"If the devil were to take upon himself the form of an angel, how
would you know whether he were a good angel or a bad?"

She replied with a simplicity which appeared presumptuous: "I should
easily discern whether it were Saint Michael or an imitation of
him."[2383]

[Footnote 2383: _Trial_, vol. i, pp. 170, 171.]

Two days later, on Saturday, the 17th of March, Jeanne was examined in
her prison both morning and evening.[2384]

[Footnote 2384: _Ibid._, p. 173.]

Hitherto she had been very loath to describe the countenance and the
dress of the angel and the saints who had visited her in the village.
Maitre Jean de la Fontaine endeavoured to obtain some light on this
subject.

"In what form and semblance did Saint Michael come to you? Was he tall
and how was he clothed?"

"He came in the form of a true _prud'homme_."[2385]

[Footnote 2385: _Ibid._]

Jeanne was not one to believe she saw the Archangel in a long doctor's
robe or wearing a cope of gold. Moreover it was not thus that he
figured in the churches. There he was represented in painting and in
sculpture, clothed in glittering armour, with a golden crown on his
helmet.[2386] In such guise did he appear to her "in the form of a
right true _prud'homme_," to take a word from the _Chanson de Roland_,
where a great sword thrust is called the thrust of a _prud'homme_. He
came to her in the garb of a great knight, like Arthur and
Charlemagne, wearing full armour.

[Footnote 2386: S. Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy_. Proofs and
illustrations, pp. 74, 75.]

Once again the examiner put to Jeanne that question on which her life
or death depended:

"Will you submit all your deeds and sayings, good or bad, to the
judgment of our mother, Holy Church?"

"As for the Church, I