ill not say otherwise than I have said already; and if I saw the
fire before me I would say it again!"

It was uplifting to hear her battle-voice once more and see the
battle-light burn in her eye. Many there were stirred; every man that
was a man was stirred, whether friend or foe; and Manchon risked his
life again, good soul, for he wrote in the margin of the record in good
plain letters these brave words: "Superba responsio!" and there they
have remained these sixty years, and there you may read them to this
day.

"Superba responsio!" Yes, it was just that. For this "superb answer"
came from the lips of a girl of nineteen with death and hell staring her
in the face.

Of course, the matter of the male attire was gone over again; and as
usual at wearisome length; also, as usual, the customary bribe was
offered: if she would discard that dress voluntarily they would let her
hear mass. But she answered as she had often answered before:

"I will go in a woman's robe to all services of the Church if I may be
permitted, but I will resume the other dress when I return to my cell."

They set several traps for her in a tentative form; that is to say,
they placed suppositious propositions before her and cunningly tried to
commit her to one end of the propositions without committing themselves
to the other. But she always saw the game and spoiled it. The trap was
in this form:

"Would you be willing to do so and so if we should give you leave?"

Her answer was always in this form or to this effect:

"When you give me leave, then you will know."

Yes, Joan was at her best that second of May. She had all her wits about
her, and they could not catch her anywhere. It was a long, long session,
and all the old ground was fought over again, foot by foot, and the
orator-expert worked all his persuasions, all his eloquence; but the
result was the familiar one--a drawn battle, the sixty-two retiring upon
their base, the solitary enemy holding her original position within her
original lines.

16 Joan Stands Defiant Before the Rack

THE BRILLIANT weather, the heavenly weather, the bewitching weather made
everybody's heart to sing, as I have told you; yes, Rouen was feeling
light-hearted and gay, and most willing and ready to break out and laugh
upon the least occasion; and so when the news went around that the young
girl in the tower had scored another defeat against Bishop Cauchon there
was abundant laughter--abundant la