day by day, in public and in her dungeon, with questions about these
visions which she held sacred, and could only speak of with a blush
among her friends. Had she answered (as a lawyer said at the time), '_it
seemed to me_ I saw a saint,' no man could have condemned her. Probably
she did not know this, for she was not allowed to have an advocate of
her own party, and she, a lonely girl, was opposed to the keenest and
most learned lawyers of France. But she maintained that she certainly
did see, hear, and touch her Saints, and that they came to her by the
will of God. This was called blasphemy and witchcraft. And now came in
the fatal Fairies! She was accused of dealing with devils under the Tree
of Domremy.

Most was made of her refusal to wear woman's dress. For this she seems
to have had two reasons; first, that to give up her old dress would have
been to acknowledge that her mission was ended; next, for reasons of
modesty, she being alone in prison among ruffianly men. She would wear
woman's dress if they would let her take the Holy Communion, but this
they refused. To these points she was constant, she would not deny her
visions; she would not say one word against her king, 'the noblest
Christian in the world' she called him, who had deserted her. She would
not wear woman's dress in prison. We must remember that, as she was
being tried by churchmen, she should have been, as she often prayed to
be, in a prison of the church, attended by women. They set a spy on her,
a caitiff priest named L'Oyseleur, who pretended to be her friend, and
who betrayed her. The English soldiers were allowed to bully, threaten,
and frighten away every one who gave her any advice. They took her to
the torture-chamber, and threatened her with torture, but from this even
these priests shrunk, except a few more cruel and cowardly than the
rest. Finally, they put her up in public, opposite a pile of wood ready
for burning, and then set a priest to preach at her. All through her
trial, her Voices bade her 'answer boldly,' in three months she would
give her last answer, in three months 'she would be free with great
victory, and come into the Kingdom of Paradise.' In three months from
the first day of her trial she went free through the gate of fire.
Boldly she answered, and wisely. She would submit the truth of her
visions to the Church, that is, to God, and the Pope. But she would
_not_ submit them to 'the Church,' if that meant the clergy rou