"Not yet." "We decree that thou art a relapsed heretic." "Cast out from the unity of the Church." "Sundered from her body." "Infected with the leprosy of heresy." "A member of Satan." "We declare that thou must be excommunicate." "And now we do cast thee out, segregate thee... and abandon thee to the secular power." "Admonishing the same secular power that it moderate its judgment of thee... in respect of death and division of the limbs." "JOAN" "BORN JANUARY 6 1412" "BURNED MAY 30 1431" "JOAN OF ARC" "REHABILITATED JULY 7 1456" "CANONISED MAY 16 1920" "SAINT JOAN a dramatized chronicle by George Bernard Shaw" "No eggs!" "No eggs!" "Thousand thunders, man, what do you mean by no eggs?" "My chickens are the best layers in the area." "And you tell me there are no eggs." "Sir, what can I do?" "It is not my fault." "What are you?" "I am no one, sir." "Except that I have the honor to be your steward." "And what am I?" "You know you are a greater man here than the king himself." "Precisely." "I shall kick you out through the castle gate for a liar and a seller... of my goods to thieves if you do not tell me who stole my eggs." "Nobody will steal anything, sir." "It is the act of God." "You tell me there are no eggs and you blame your Maker for it." "Sir, what can I do?" "I cannot lay eggs." "You jest about it?" "No, sir, God knows." "We all have to go without eggs just as you have, sir." "The hens will not lay." "My Barbary hens and my black hen do not want to lay?" "Yes, sir." "Listen to me really well." "Yes, sir." "You have not only the honor of being my steward... but the privilege of being the worst, most incompetent, drivelling... snivelling, jibbering, jabbering idiot of a steward in France." "Yes, sir, to a great man like you I must seem like that." "My fault, I suppose." "Eh?" "Oh, sir, you always give my most innocent words such a turn!" "I will give your neck a turn if you do not tell me who stole my eggs." "The milk was short yesterday, too." "I know, sir." "I know only too well." "There is no milk, there are no eggs." "Tomorrow there will be nothing." "You will steal the lot, eh?" "There is a spell on us, sir." "We are bewitched." "That story is not good enough for me." "I burn witches and hang thieves." "Bring me four dozen eggs and two gallons of milk." "Sir, I tell you there are no eggs." "And there will be none." "As long as The Maid is at the door." "The Maid is at the door?" "What maid?" "What are you talking about?" "The girl from Lorraine, sir." "From Domrémy." "Thirty thousand thunders!" "Do you mean to say that that girl, who had the impudence to ask... to see me two days ago, and whom I told you to send back to her father... with my orders that he was to give her a good hiding, is here still?" "I have told her to go, sir." "She won't." "I did not tell you to tell her to go." "I told you to throw her out." "I have fifty men-at-arms and a dozen servants to carry out my orders." "Are they afraid of her?" "She is so positive, sir." "Now see here." "I am going to throw you downstairs." "No, sir." "Please." "Well, stop me by being positive." "Any slut of a girl can do it." "Sir, sir, you cannot get rid of her by throwing me out." "You see, sir, you are much more positive than I am." "But so is she." "I am stronger than you are, you fool." "No, sir, it isn't that." "It's your strong character." "She is weaker than we are." "She is only a slip of a girl." "But we cannot make her go." "You parcel of curs." "You are afraid of her." "No sir, we are afraid of you." "With her it's different." "She puts courage into us." "She really doesn't seem to be afraid of anything." "Perhaps you could frighten her, sir." "Perhaps." "Where is she now?" "Down in the courtyard, sir." "She's talking to the soldiers as usual." "She is always talking to the soldiers." "Except when she is praying." "Praying?" "You believe she prays." "I know the sort of girl that is always talking to soldiers." "She shall talk to me a bit." "Hallo, you there!" "Come up here." "She wants to be a soldier herself." "Actually!" "Good morning, captain squire." "Captain, you are to give me a horse and armor and some soldiers... and send me to the Dauphin." "Those are your orders from my Lord." "Orders from your lord!" "And who the devil may your lord be?" "Go back to him, and tell him that the squire of Baudricourt... only takes orders from the king." "Yes, squire, that is all right." "My Lord is the King of Heaven." "The girl's mad." "Why didn't you tell me so?" "Sir, do not anger her." "Give her what she wants." "They all say I am mad until I talk to them, squire." "But it is the will of God that you are to do what He has put into my mind." "It is the will of God that I shall send you back to your father... with orders to put you under lock and key... and thrash the madness out of you." "You think you will, squire, but you will find it all coming quite different." "You said you would not see me, but here I am." "Yes, sir." "You see, sir." "Hold your tongue." "So you are presuming on my seeing you, are you?" "Yes, sir." "So you will also not be surprised about my next words." "No, squire, not at all." "The horse will cost sixteen francs." "It is a good deal of money." "But I can save it on the armor." "I can find a soldier's armor that will fit me well enough." "I am very hardy." "I do not need beautiful armor made to my measure like you wear." "I shall not want many soldiers." "The Dauphin will give me all I need to raise the siege of Orleans." "To raise the siege of Orleans!" "Yes, squire, that is what God is sending me to do." "Three men will be enough for you to send with me." "Polly and Jeannot have promised to come with me." "Polly!" "You impudent baggage, do you dare call squire Bertrand de Poulengey Polly?" "His friends call him so." "I did not know he had any other name." "And Jeannot..." "Jeannot?" "That is Monsieur Jean de Metz, I suppose?" "Yes, squire." "A very kind gentleman." "He gives me money to give to the poor." "Jeannot wants to come." "I have arranged it all." "You have only to give the order." "Well, I am damned!" "No, squire, God is very merciful." "And the blessed saints Margaret and Catherine, who speak to me every day... will intercede for you." "You will go to paradise and your name... will be remembered as my first helper." "Is this true about Monsieur de Poulengey?" "Yes, sir, and about Monsieur de Metz too." "They both want to go with her." "Hallo!" "You there, send Monsieur de Poulengey to me right away." "Get out and wait in the yard." "Right, squire." "Go with her, dithering imbecile and keep your eye on her." "Stay within call." "I shall have her up here again." "Do so in God's name, sir." "Think of those hens, the best layers in the area." "Think of my boot and take your backside out of reach of it." "Yes, sir." "It isn't service, Polly." "A friendly talk." "Sit down." "I must talk to you like a father." "It's about this girl you are interested in." "Now, I have seen her." "I have talked to her." "First, she's mad." "That doesn't matter." "Second, she's not a farm wench." "That matters a good deal." "Her father came here last year to represent his village in a lawsuit." "He is one of their notables." "Not a gentleman farmer." "Still, not a laborer." "Not a mechanic." "He might have a cousin a lawyer, or in the Church." "People of this sort may be of no account socially... but they can give a lot of bother to the authorities." "That is to say, to me, Polly." "Now no doubt it seems to you a very simple thing to take this girl away... humbugging her into the belief that you are taking her to the Dauphin." "But if you get her into trouble, you may get me into no end of a mess... as I am her father's lord, and responsible for her protection." "So friends or no friends, Polly, hands off her." "I should as soon think of the Blessed Virgin herself in that way... as of this girl." "But she says you and Jack have offered to go with her." "What for?" "You are not going to tell me that you take her crazy notion... of going to the Dauphin seriously, are you?" "There is something about her." "They are pretty foulmouthed down there in the guardroom." "But there hasn't been a word that has anything to do with her being a woman." "They have stopped swearing before her." "It may be worth trying." "Common-sense was never your strong point, but this is a little too much." "If we had any commonsense... we should join the Duke of Burgundy and the English king." "They hold half the country, right down to the Loire." "They have Paris." "And where is the Dauphin?" "In Chinon." "Like a rat in a corner, except that he won't fight." "We don't even know that he is the Dauphin." "His mother says he isn't and she ought to know." "Think of that!" "the queen denying the legitimacy of her own son!" "Can you blame her?" "She married her daughter to the English king." "The English will take Orleans." "The Bastard will not be able to stop them." "He beat the English the year before last at Montargis." "I was with him." "No matter." "His men are cowed now." "He can't work miracles." "And I tell you that nothing can save our side now but a miracle." "Miracles are all right, Polly." "The only difficulty about them is that they don't happen nowadays." "I used to think so." "I am not so sure now." "At all events this is not a time to leave any stone unturned." "There is something about the girl." "Oh!" "You think the girl can work miracles, do you?" "I think the girl herself is a bit of a miracle." "Anyhow, she is the last card left in our hand." "Better play her than throw up the game." "If you were in my place would you let a girl like that... do you out of sixteen francs for a horse?" "I will pay for the horse." "You will, Polly?" "I will back my opinion." "You will really gamble on a forlorn hope to the tune of sixteen francs?" "It is not a gamble." "What else is it?" "Certainty." "Her words... and her ardent faith in God have put fire into me." "You are as mad as she is." "Yes, we want a few mad people now." "See where the sane ones have landed us!" "I shall feel like a precious fool." "Still, if you feel sure..." "Sure enough to take her to Chinon." "Do you think I ought to have another talk to her?" "Yes." "Joan!" "Will he let us go, Polly?" "Come up." "Shall I leave you with her?" "No, stay here and back me up." "Polly!" "Jack will go halves for the horse." "How is it possible?" "Sit down, Joan." "May I?" "Do what you are told." "What is your name?" "They always call me Jenny in Lorraine." "Here in France I am Joan." "The soldiers call me The Maid." "What is your surname?" "Surname?" "My father sometimes calls himself d'Arc." "But I know nothing about it." "You met my father." "He..." "Yes, yes, I remember." "You come from Domrémy in Lorraine, I think." "Yes, but what does it matter?" "We all speak French." "Don't ask questions, answer them." "How old are you?" "Seventeen, so they tell me." "It might be nineteen." "I don't know." "What did you mean when you said that St Catherine and St Margaret... talked to you every day?" "They do." "What are they like?" "I will tell you nothing about that." "They have not given me leave." "But you actually see them." "And they talk to you just as I am talking to you?" "No, it is quite different." "I cannot tell you." "You must not talk to me about my voices." "How do you mean voices?" "I hear voices telling me what to do." "They come from God." "They come from your imagination." "Yes, of course." "That is how the messages of God come to us." "Checkmate." "Wait, wait." "So God says you are to raise the siege of Orleans?" "And to crown the Dauphin in Reims Cathedral." "And to make the English leave France." "Anything else?" "Not just at present, thank you, squire." "I suppose you think raising a siege... is as easy as chasing a cow out of a meadow." "I do not think it can be very difficult if God is on your side... and you are willing to put your life in His hand." "Did you ever see English soldiers fighting?" "They are only men." "God made them just like us." "But He gave them their own country and their own language." "And it is not His will that they should come into our country... and try to speak our language." "Who has been putting such nonsense into your head?" "Don't you know that soldiers are subject to their feudal lord... and that it is nothing to them whether he is the duke of Burgundy... or the king of England or the king of France?" "And what has their language to do with it?" "We are all subject to the King of Heaven." "He gave us our countries and our languages... and meant us to keep to them." "If it were not so... it would be murder to kill an Englishman in battle." "And you, squire, would be in great danger of hell fire." "You must not think about your duty to your feudal lord... but about your duty to God." "It's no use, Robert." "She can choke you like that every time." "Can she?" "We shall see." "We are not talking about God." "We are talking about practical affairs." "I ask you again, girl, have you ever seen English soldiers fighting?" "Have you ever seen them plundering... burning, turning the countryside into a desert?" "Have you heard no tales of their Black Prince... who was blacker than the devil himself... or of the English king's father?" "You must not be afraid, Robert!" "I am not afraid." "And who gave you leave to call me Robert?" "You were called so in church in the name of our Lord." "All the other names are your father's or your brother's or anybody's." "Yes, squire!" "I have seen English soldiers." "At Domrémy we had to fly to the next village to escape from them." "Three of them were left behind, wounded." "I came to know these three poor goddams quite well." "They had not half my strength." "Do you know why they are called goddams?" "No." "Everyone calls them goddams." "It is because they are always calling on their God... to condemn their souls to perdition." "That is what goddam means in their language." "How do you like it?" "God will be merciful to them." "And they will act like His good children when they go back to the country..." "He made for them, and made them for." "I have heard the tales of the Black Prince." "The moment he touched the soil of our country... the devil entered into him, and made him a black fiend." "But at home, in the place made for him by God, he was good." "It is always so." "If I went into England against the will of God to conquer England... and tried to live there and speak its language... the devil would enter into me." "And when I was old..." "I should shudder to remember the wickedness I did." "But the more devil you were the better you might fight." "That is why the goddams will take Orleans." "And you cannot stop them, nor ten thousand like you." "One thousand like me can stop them." "Ten like me can stop them with God on our side." "You do not understand, squire." "Our soldiers are always beaten... because they are fighting only to save their skins... and the shortest way to save your skin is to run away." "Our knights are thinking only of the money they will make in ransoms." "But it is not kill or be killed with them, but pay or be paid." "But I will teach them all to fight... that the will of God may be done in France." "And then they will drive the poor goddams before them like sheep." "You and Polly will live to see the day when there... will not be an English soldier on the soil of France... and there will be but one king there." "Not the feudal English king, but God's French one." "This may be all rot, Polly... but the troops might swallow it, though nothing that we can say... seems able to put any fight into them." "Even the Dauphin might swallow it." "And if she can put fight into him, she can put it into anybody." "I can see no harm in trying." "There is something about the girl." "Now listen you to me." "Yes, squire." "And don't cut in before I have time to think." "No, squire." "Your orders are, that you are to go to Chinon... under the escort of this gentleman." "Squire, your head is all circled with light, like a saint's." "How is she to get with the Dauphin?" "I don't know." "How did she get into my presence?" "If the Dauphin can keep her out, he is a better man than I take him for." "I will send her to Chinon and she can say I sent her." "I can do no more." "And the dress?" "I may have a soldier's dress, mayn't I, squire?" "Have what you please." "I wash my hands of it." "Come, Polly!" "Polly..." "Old man, I am taking a big chance." "Few other men would have done it." "But as you say, there is something about her." "Yes, there is something about her." "Goodbye." "Sir!" "Sir!" "What now?" "Sir!" "The hens are laying like mad, sir." "Five dozen eggs!" "Christ in heaven!" "She did come from God." "in Chinon Castle" "What the devil does the Dauphin mean by keeping us waiting like this?" "I don't know how you have the patience to stand there like a stone idol." "I am an archbishop and an archbishop is a sort of idol." "At any rate he has to learn to keep still and suffer fools patiently." "Besides, my dear Lord Chamberlain... it is the Dauphin's royal privilege to keep you waiting, is it not?" "Dauphin be damned!" "Do you know how much money he owes me?" "More than he owes me, because you are a richer man." "But I take it he owes you all you could afford to lend him." "That is what he owes me." "Twenty-seven thousand." "That was his last haul." "A cool twenty-seven thousand!" "What becomes of it all?" "He never has a suit of clothes that I would throw to a curate." "He borrows my last penny and there is nothing to shew for it." "At last!" "No, my lord, it is not His Majesty." "Monsieur de Rais is approaching." "Young Bluebeard!" "Why announce him?" "Captain La Hire is with him." "Something has happened, I think." "Your faithful lamb, Archbishop." "Good day, my lord." "Do you know what has happened to La Hire?" "He has sworn himself into a fit." "No, just the opposite." "Foul Mouthed Frank, the only man in Touraine... who could beat him at swearing, was told by a soldier... that he shouldn't use such language when he was at the point of death." "Nor at any other point." "But was Foul Mouthed Frank on the point of death?" "Yes, he has just fallen into a well and been drowned." "La Hire is frightened out of his wits." "I have just been telling them The Archbishop says you are a lost man." "This is nothing to joke about." "It is worse than we thought." "It was not a soldier, but an angel dressed as a soldier." "An angel?" "An angel." "Yes, she has made her way from Champagne." "Through the thick of everything." "Through Burgundians, goddams, deserters, robbers, and Lord knows who." "And they never met a soul except the country folk." "I know one of them: de Poulengey." "He says she's an angel." "If ever I utter an oath again may my soul be blasted to eternal damnation!" "A very pious beginning, Captain." "His Majesty." "Oh, Archbishop..." "Do you know what Robert de Baudricourt is sending me from Vaucouleurs?" "I am not interested in the newest toys." "It isn't a toy." "What have you got there?" "What is that to you?" "It is my business to know... what is passing between you and the garrison at Vaucouleurs." "You all think you can treat me as you please... because I owe you money, and because I am no good at fighting." "But I have the blood royal in my veins." "Even that has been questioned, your Highness." "One hardly recognizes in you the grandson of Charles the Wise." "I want to hear no more of my grandfather." "He was so wise that he used up the whole... family stock of wisdom for five generations." "And left me the poor fool I am, bullied and insulted by all of you." "Control yourself, sir." "These outbursts of petulance are not seemly." "Another lecture!" "Thank you." "What a pity it is that though you are an archbishop... saints and angels don't come to see you!" "What do you mean?" "Aha!" "Ask that bully there." "Hold your tongue." "Do you hear?" "Oh, I hear." "You needn't shout." "The whole castle can hear." "Why don't you go and shout at the English, and beat them for me?" "You young..." "Steady, Duke!" "Steady!" "Don't you raise your hand to me." "It's high treason." "Come, come!" "this will not do." "My Lord Chamberlain, please!" "We must keep some sort of order." "And you, sir, if you cannot rule your kingdom, at least try to rule yourself." "Another lecture!" "Thank you." "Here, read the accursed thing for me." "He has sent the blood boiling into my head." "I can't distinguish the letters." "I will read it for you if you like." "I can read, you know." "Yes, reading is about all you are fit for." "Can you make it out, Archbishop?" "I should have expected more common-sense from De Baudricourt." "He is sending some cracked country lass here." "A crazy lass." "No, he is sending a saint, an angel." "And she is coming to me, to me, the king." "And not to you, Archbishop, holy as you are." "She knows the blood royal if you don't." "You cannot be allowed to see this crazy wench." "But I am the king, and I will." "Then she cannot be allowed to see you." "I tell you I will." "I am going to put my foot down." "Naughty!" "What would your wise grandfather say?" "That just shews your ignorance, Bluebeard." "My grandfather had a saint who used to float in the air when she was praying." "And told him everything he wanted to know." "My poor father had two saints." "Marie de Maillé and the Gasque of Avignon." "It is in our family." "And I don't care what you say." "I will have my saint too." "This creature is not a saint." "She is not even a respectable woman." "She does not wear women's clothes." "She is dressed like a soldier, and rides round the country with soldiers." "Do you suppose such a person can be admitted to your Highness's court?" "One moment." "Did you say a girl in armor, like a soldier?" "So De Baudricourt describes her." "But by all the devils in hell..." "Oh, God forgive me, what am I saying?" "By Our Lady and all the saints." "This must be the angel that struck Foul Mouthed Frank dead for swearing." "You see!" "A miracle!" "She may strike the lot of us dead if we cross her." "For Heaven's sake, Archbishop, be careful what you are doing." "Rubbish!" "Nobody has been struck dead." "A drunken blackguard who has been rebuked a hundred times for swearing... has fallen into a well, and been drowned." "A mere coincidence." "I do not know what a coincidence is." "I do know that the man is dead, and that she told him he was going to die." "We are all going to die, Captain." "I hope not." "We can easily find out whether she is an angel or not." "Let us arrange when she comes that I shall be the Dauphin... and see whether she will find me out." "Yes, I agree to that." "If she cannot find the blood royal I will have nothing to do with her." "It is for the Church to make saints." "Let De Baudricourt mind his own business... and not dare usurp the function of his priest." "I say the girl shall not be admitted." "But, Archbishop..." "I speak in the Church's name." "Do you dare say she shall?" "If you make it an excommunication matter, I have nothing more to say." "But you haven't read the end of the letter." "De Baudricourt says she will raise the siege of Orleans... and beat the English for us." "Rot!" "Will you save Orleans for us, with all your bullying?" "I have done more fighting than you ever did or ever will." "But I cannot be everywhere." "Well, that's something." "You have Jack Dunois at the head of your troops in Orleans." "The brave Dunois, the handsome Dunois, the wonderful invincible Dunois... the darling of all the ladies, the beautiful bastard." "Is it likely that the country lass can do what he cannot do?" "Why doesn't he raise the siege, then?" "The wind is against him." "How can the wind hurt him at Orleans?" "It is not in the sea." "It is on the river Loire and the English hold the bridgehead." "He must ship his men across the river and upstream... if he is to take them in the rear." "Well, he cannot, because there is a devil of a wind blowing the other way." "He is tired of paying the priests to pray for a west wind." "What he needs is a miracle." "You tell me that what the girl did to Foul Mouthed Frank was no miracle." "No matter." "It finished Frank." "If she changes the wind for Dunois, that may not be a miracle either... but it may finish the English." "What harm is there in trying?" "It is true that De Baudricourt seems extraordinarily impressed." "De Baudricourt is a blazing ass, but he is a soldier." "And if he thinks she can beat the English... all the rest of the army will think so too." "Oh, let them have their way." "Dunois' men will give up the town in spite of him... if somebody does not put some fresh spunk into them." "Dunois or no Dunois." "The Church must examine the girl before anything decisive is done about her." "However, since his Highness desires it, let her attend the Court." "I will find her and tell her." "Come with me, Bluebeard." "Let us arrange so that she will not know who I am." "You will pretend to be me." "Pretend to be that thing!" "My God!" "Squire..." "Squire..." "Attention!" "Squire Bertrand de Poulengey presents Joan the Maid to his Majesty." "Let her approach the throne." "My dear!" "Her hair!" "Ladies!" "I wear it like this because I am a soldier." "Where be Dauphin?" "You are in the presence of the Dauphin." "Come, Bluebeard!" "Thou canst not fool me." "Where be Dauphin?" "Gentle little Dauphin." "I am sent to you to drive the English away from Orleans and from France." "And to crown you king in the cathedral at Reims... where all true kings of France are crowned." "You see, all of you, she knew the blood royal." "Who dare say now that I am not my father's son?" "But if you want me to be crowned at Reims you must talk to the Archbishop." "There he is." "My lord." "My lord." "I am only a poor country girl." "And you are filled with the blessedness and glory of God Himself." "But you will touch me with your hands, and give me your blessing, won't you?" "The old fox blushes." "Another miracle." "Child, you are in love with religion." "Am I?" "I never thought of that." "Is there any harm in it?" "There is no harm in it." "But there is danger." "There is always danger, except in heaven." "Oh, my lord, you have given me such strength, such courage." "It must be a most wonderful thing to be Archbishop." "Your levity is rebuked by this maid's faith." "I am, God help me, all unworthy... but your mirth is a deadly sin." "My lord, we were laughing at her, not at you." "Not at my unworthiness but at her faith!" "Gilles de Rais, this maid prophesied that the blasphemer... should be drowned in his sin..." "No!" "I prophesy now that you will be... will be hanged in yours if you do not learn when to laugh and when to pray." "My lord, I stand rebuked." "I am sorry." "I can say no more." "But if you prophesy that I shall be hanged..." "I shall never be able to resist temptation... because I shall always be telling myself... that I may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb." "You are an idle fellow, Bluebeard." "And you have great impudence to answer the Archbishop." "Well said, lass!" "Well said!" "Oh, my lord, will you send all these silly folks away... so that I may speak to the Dauphin alone?" "I can take a hint." "The Maid comes with God's blessing... and must be obeyed." "Will you allow me to pass, please?" "Beg pardon, maam, I am sure." "Be that Queen?" "No, she thinks she is." "I'll trouble your Highness not to gibe at my wife." "Who be old Gruff-and-Grum?" "He is the Duke de la Trémouille." "What be his job?" "He pretends to command the army." "And whenever I find a friend I can care for, he kills him." "Why dost let him?" "How can I prevent him?" "He bullies me." "They all bully me." "Art afraid?" "Yes, I am afraid." "It's no use preaching to me about it." "It's all very well for these big men with armor that is too heavy for me... and their swords that I can hardly lift... and their muscle and their shouting and their bad tempers." "They like fighting." "Most of them are making fools of themselves when they are not fighting." "But I am quiet and sensible." "I don't want to kill people." "I only want to be left alone to enjoy myself in my own way." "I never asked to be a king." "It was pushed on me." "So if you are going to say..." ""Son of St Louis, gird on the sword of your ancestors..."" "and lead us to victory"... you may spare your breath to cool your soup... for I cannot do it." "I am not built that way and there is an end of it." "Blethers!" "We are all like that to begin with." "I shall put courage into thee." "But I don't want to have courage put into me." "I want to sleep in a comfortable bed... and not live in continual terror of being killed or wounded." "Put courage into the others... and let them have their bellyful of fighting, but let me alone." "It's no use, Charlie." "Thou must face what God puts on thee." "If thou fail to make thyself king thoult be a beggar." "What else art fit for?" "Come!" "Let me see thee sitting on the throne." "I have looked forward to that." "What is the good of sitting on the throne... when the other fellows give all the orders?" "However!" "Here is the king for you." "Look your fill at the poor devil." "Thourt not king yet, lad." "Thourt but Dauphin." "Be not led away by them around thee." "Dressing up don't fill empty noddle." "I know the people." "The real people that make thy bread for thee." "and I tell thee they count no man king of France... until the holy oil has been poured on his hair... and himself consecrated and crowned in Reims Cathedral." "And thou needs new clothes, Charlie." "Why does not Queen look after thee properly?" "We're too poor." "She wants all the money we can spare to put on her own back." "Besides, I like to see her beautifully dressed." "I don't care what I wear myself." "I should look ugly anyhow." "There is some good in thee, Charlie." "But it is not yet a king's good." "We shall see." "I am not such a fool as I look." "I have my eyes open." "And I can tell you that one good treaty is worth ten good fights." "These fighting fellows lose all on the treaties that they gain on the fights." "If we can only have a treaty." "The English are sure to have the worst of it." "Because they are better at fighting than at thinking." "If the English win, it is they that will make the treaty." "And then God help poor France!" "Thou must fight, Charlie, whether thou will or no." "I will go first to hearten thee." "We must take our courage in both hands... and pray for it with both hands too." "Oh do stop talking about God and praying." "I can't bear people who are always praying." "Isn't it bad enough to have to do it at the proper times?" "Thou poor child, thou hast never prayed in thy life." "I must teach thee from the beginning." "I am not a child." "I am a grown man and a father and I will not be taught any more." "You have a little son?" "Yes." "He that will be Louis the Eleventh when you die." "Would you not fight for him?" "No, a horrid boy." "He hates me." "He hates everybody, selfish little beast!" "I don't want to be bothered with children." "I don't want to be a father." "And I don't want to be a son." "Especially a son of St Louis." "I don't want to be any of these fine things you all have your heads full of." "I want to be just what I am." "Why can't you mind your own business, and let me mind mine?" "What is my business?" "Helping mother at home." "What is thine?" "Petting lapdogs and sucking sugar-sticks." "I call that muck." "I tell thee it is God's business we are here to do, not our own." "I have a message to thee from God." "And thou must listen to it, though thy heart break with the terror of it." "I don't want a message." "But can you tell me any secrets?" "Can you do any cures?" "Can you turn lead into gold, or anything of that sort?" "No, I can turn thee into a king, in Reims Cathedral." "And that is a miracle that will take some doing, it seems." "If we go to Reims, and have a coronation." "Anne will want new dresses." "We can't afford them." "I am all right as I am." "As you are!" "And what is that?" "Less than my father's poorest shepherd." "Thourt not lawful owner of thy own land of France till thou be consecrated." "But I shall not be lawful owner of my own land anyhow." "Or will the consecration pay off my mortgages?" "I have pledged my last acre to the Archbishop and that fat bully." "I owe money even to Bluebeard." "Charlie..." "I come from the land." "I have gotten my strength working on the land." "I tell thee the land is thine to rule righteously... and keep God's peace in." "and not to pledge at the pawnshop as a drunken woman... pledges her children's clothes." "I come from God to tell thee to kneel in Reims Cathedral... and give thy kingdom to Him for ever and ever... and become the greatest king in the world... as His steward and His bailiff, His soldier and His servant." "The very clay of France will become holy." "Our soldiers will be the soldiers of God." "The rebel dukes will be rebels against God." "The English will fall on their knees... and beg thee let them return to their lawful homes in peace." "Wilt be a poor little Judas, and betray me and Him that sent me?" "Oh, if I only dare!" "If only I dare." "I shall dare, dare, and dare again, in God's name, Charlie!" "Art for or against me?" "I'll risk it." "I warn you I shan't be able to keep it up." "But I'll risk it." "You shall see." "Hallo!" "Come back, everybody." "Come along, will you, the whole Court." "Mind you stand by and don't let me be bullied." "Now I'm in for it, but no matter, here goes!" "Call for silence, you little beast, will you?" "Silence for His Majesty the King." "The King speaks." "I have given the command of the army to The Maid." "The Maid is to do as she likes with it." "What is this?" "I command the army." "Who is for God and His Maid?" "Who is for Orleans with me?" "For God and His Maid!" "To Orleans!" "on the Loire riverbank near Orleans" "Be you Bastard of Orleans?" "You see the bend sinister." "Are you Joan the Maid?" "Yes." "Where are your troops?" "Miles behind." "They have cheated me." "They have brought me to the wrong side of the river." "I told them to." "Why?" "The English are on the other side!" "The English are on both sides." "Yes, but Orleans is on the other side." "We must fight the English there." "How can we cross the river?" "There is a bridge." "In God's name, then, let us cross the bridge, and fall on them." "It seems simple, but it cannot be done." "Who says so?" "I say so and older and wiser heads than mine are of the same opinion." "Then your older and wiser heads are fatheads" "They have made a fool of you." "And now they want to make a fool of me too, bringing me to the wrong side." "Do you not know that I bring you better help... than ever came to any general or any town?" "Your own?" "No, the help and counsel of the King of Heaven." "Which is the way to the bridge?" "You are impatient, Maid." "Is this a time for patience?" "Our enemy is at our gates and here we stand doing nothing." "Oh, why are you not fighting?" "I will deliver you from fear." "I..." "No, my girl, if you delivered me from fear..." "I should be a good knight for a story book... but a very bad commander of the army." "Come!" "Let me begin to make a soldier of you." "Do you see those two forts at this end of the bridge?" "The big ones?" "Yes." "Are they ours or the goddams'?" "Be quiet, and listen." "If I were in either of those forts... with only ten men I could hold it against an army." "The English have more than ten times ten goddams in those forts to hold them." "They cannot hold them against God." "God did not give them the land under those forts." "They stole it from Him." "He gave it to us." "I will take those forts." "Single-handed?" "No, our men." "I will lead them." "Not a man will follow you." "I will not look back to see whether anyone is following me." "Good." "You have the makings of a soldier in you." "You are in love with war." "Oh!" "And the Archbishop said I was in love with religion." "I, God forgive me, am a little in love with war myself, the ugly devil!" "I am like a man with two wives." "Do you want to be like a woman with two husbands?" "I will never take a husband." "I am a soldier." "I do not want to be thought of as a woman." "I will not dress as a woman." "I do not care for the things women care for." "They dream of lovers, and of money." "I dream of leading a charge... and of placing the big guns." "You soldiers do not know how to use the big guns." "You think you can win battles with a great noise and smoke." "True." "Half the time the artillery is more trouble than it is worth." "Aye, lad, but you cannot fight stone walls with horses." "You must have guns, and much bigger guns too." "Aye, lass, but a good heart and a stout ladder will get over the stoniest wall." "I will be first up the ladder when we reach the fort." "And I dare you to follow me." "You must not dare a staff officer, Joan." "Only company officers are allowed to indulge in displays of personal courage." "Besides, you must know that I welcome you as a saint... not as a soldier." "I have daredevils enough at my call, if they could help me." "I am not a daredevil." "I am a servant of God." "My sword is sacred." "I found it behind the altar in the church of St Catherine" "Where God hid it for me." "My heart is full of courage, not of anger." "I will lead." "Your men will follow." "That is all I can do." "But I must do it." "You shall not stop me." "All in good time." "Our men cannot take those forts by a sally across the bridge." "They must come by water, and take the English in the rear on this side." "Then make rafts and put big guns on them and let your men cross to us." "The rafts are ready and the men are embarked." "But they must wait for God." "What do you mean?" "God is waiting for them." "Let Him send us a wind then." "My boats are downstream, they cannot come up against both wind and current." "We must wait until God changes the wind." "Come, let me take you to the church." "No, Dunois!" "I love church, but the English will not yield to prayers." "They understand nothing but hard knocks and slashes." "I will not go to church until we have beaten them." "You must, I have business for you there." "What business?" "To pray for a west wind." "I have prayed and I have given two silver candlesticks." "But my prayers are not answered." "Yours may be, you are young and innocent." "Yes." "Yes, you are right." "I will pray." "I will ask St Catherine." "She will make God give me a west wind." "Come, Dunois, shew me the way to the church." "Seigneur!" "Seigneur!" "Mademoiselle!" "What is it?" "The wind, the wind!" "The wind has changed." "God has spoken." "You command the king's army." "I am your soldier." "a tent in the English army camp" "Now this is what I call workmanship." "There is nothing on earth more exquisite than a bonny book." "With well-placed columns of rich black writing in beautiful borders... and illuminated pictures cunningly inset." "But nowadays, instead of looking at books, people read them." "A book might as well be one of those... orders for bacon and bran that you are scribbling." "I must say, my lord, you take our situation very coolly." "Very coolly indeed." "What is the matter?" "The matter, my lord, is that we English have been defeated." "That happens." "It is only in history books and ballads... that the enemy is always defeated." "But we are being defeated over and over again." "First, Orleans..." "I know what you are going to say." "That was a clear case of witchcraft." "But we are still being defeated." "And now we have been butchered again." "And even Sir John Talbot was taken prisoner." "I feel it, my lord." "I feel it very deeply." "I cannot bear to see my countrymen defeated by a parcel of foreigners." "Oh!" "you are an Englishman, are you?" "No, my lord, I am a gentleman." "Still, like you, I was born in England and it makes a difference." "You are attached to the soil, eh?" "It pleases your lordship to be satirical at my expense." "Your greatness privileges you to be so with impunity." "But your lordship knows very well that I am not... attached to the soil in a vulgar manner, like a serf." "Still, I have a feeling about it." "And I am not ashamed of it." "and by God, if this goes on any longer I will fling my cassock to the devil... and take arms myself, and strangle the accursed witch with my own hands." "So you shall, chaplain, so you shall, if we can do nothing better." "But not yet, not quite yet?" "I should not care very much about the witch." "I have made my pilgrimage to the Holy Land." "And the Heavenly Powers can hardly allow me to be worsted by a village sorceress." "But Dunois is a harder nut to crack." "And as he has been to the Holy Land too... honors are easy between us as far as that goes." "He is only a Frenchman, my lord." "A Frenchman!" "Where did you pick up that expression?" "Are these Burgundians and Bretons beginning to call themselves Frenchmen?" "Just as our fellows are beginning to call themselves Englishmen?" "They actually talk of France and England as their countries." "What is to become of me and you if that way of thinking comes into fashion?" "Why, my lord?" "Can it hurt us?" "If this cant of serving their country once takes hold of them... goodbye to the authority of their feudal lords... and goodbye to the authority of the Church." "That is, goodbye to you and me." "I hope I am a faithful servant of the Church." "There are only six cousins between me and the barony of Stogumber." "Which was created by the Conqueror." "But is that any reason why I should stand by... and see Englishmen beaten by a French bastard and a witch." "Easy, man, easy." "We shall burn the witch and beat the bastard Dunois all in good time." "Indeed I am waiting at present for the Bishop of Beauvais... to arrange the burning with him." "He has been turned out of his diocese by her faction." "You have first to catch her, my lord." "Or buy her." "I will offer a king's ransom." "A king's ransom!" "For that slut?" "One has to leave a margin." "Some of Charles's people will sell her to the Burgundians... the Burgundians will sell her to us and there will probably be... three or four middlemen who will expect their little commissions." "Monstrous." "It is all those scoundrels of Jews." "They get in every time money changes hands." "I would not leave a Jew alive in Christendom if I had my way." "Why not?" "The Jews generally give value." "They make you pay, but they deliver the goods." "In my experience the men who want something for nothing... are invariably Christians." "The Right Reverend the Bishop of Beauvais, Monseigneur Cauchon." "My dear Bishop, how good of you to come." "Allow me to introduce myself." "Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, at your service." "Your lordship's fame is well known to me." "This reverend cleric is Master John de Stogumber." "John Bowyer Spenser Neville de Stogumber, at your service, my lord." "Bachelor of Theology, and Keeper of the Private Seal to His Eminence... the Cardinal of Winchester." "You call him the Cardinal of England, I believe." "Messire John de Stogumber, I am always the very good friend of His Eminence." "Do me the honor to be seated." "Well, my Lord Bishop, you find us in one of our unlucky moments." "Charles is to be crowned at Reims... practically by the young woman from Lorraine." "And" "I must not deceive you, nor flatter your hopes- we cannot prevent it." "I suppose it will make a great difference to Charles's position." "Undoubtedly." "It is a masterstroke of The Maid's." "We were not fairly beaten, my lord." "No Englishman is ever fairly beaten." "Our friend here takes the view that the young woman is a sorceress." "It would, I presume, be the duty of your reverend lordship... to denounce her to the Inquisition, and have her burnt for that offence." "If she were captured in my diocese, yes." "Just so." "Now I suppose there can be no doubt that she is a sorceress." "An arrant witch!" "We are asking for the Bishop's opinion, Chaplain." "We shall have to consider not merely our own opinions here... but the opinions, the prejudices, if you like, of a French court." "A Catholic court, my lord." "Catholic courts are composed of mortal men... however sacred their function and inspiration may be." "And if the men are Frenchmen, as the modern fashion calls them..." "I am afraid the bare fact that an English army... has been defeated by a French one... will not convince them that there is any sorcery in the matter." "What!" "Not when the famous Sir Talbot himself has been defeated... and actually taken prisoner by a drab from the ditches of Lorraine!" "Sir John Talbot is a fierce and formidable soldier, Chaplain... but I have yet to learn that he is an able general." "And though it pleases you to say that he has been defeated by this girl... some of us may be disposed to give a little of the credit to Dunois." "The Bastard of Orleans!" "Let me remind..." "I know what you are going to say, my lord." "Dunois defeated me at Montargis." "I take that as evidence that... the Seigneur Dunois is a very able commander indeed." "Your lordship is the flower of courtesy." "I admit, on our side, that Talbot is a mere fighting animal." "and that it probably served him right to be taken at Patay." "My lord, at Orleans this woman had her throat pierced by an English arrow... and was seen to cry like a child from the pain of it." "It was a death wound." "Yet she fought all day." "And when our men had repulsed all her attacks like true Englishmen... she walked alone to the wall of our fort with a white banner in her hand." "Our men were paralyzed... and could neither shoot nor strike... whilst the French fell on them and drove them on to the bridge... which immediately burst into flames and crumbled under them... letting them down into the river, where they were drowned in heaps." "Was this your bastard's generalship?" "Or were those flames the flames of hell, conjured up by witchcraft?" "You will forgive Messire John's vehemence, my lord." "But he has put our case." "Dunois is a great captain... but why could he do nothing until the witch came?" "I do not say that there were no supernatural powers on her side." "But the names on that white banner were not the names of Satan and Beelzebub... but the blessed names of our Lord and His holy mother." "And your commander who was drowned..." "Clahzda I think you call him." "Glasdale." "Sir William Glasdale." "Glass-dell, thank you." "He was no saint." "And many of our people think that he was drowned... for his blasphemies against The Maid." "Well, what are we to infer from all this, my lord?" "Has The Maid converted you?" "If she had, my lord, I should have known better... than to have trusted myself here within your grasp." "Oh!" "oh!" "My lord!" "If the devil is making use of this girl... and I believe he is..." "You hear, Messire John?" "I knew your lordship would not fail us." "Pardon my interruption." "Proceed." "If it be so... the devil has longer views than you give him credit for." "Yes?" "In what way?" "Listen to this, Messire John." "If the devil wanted to damn a country girl... do you think so easy a task would cost him the winning of half a dozen battles?" "Any trumpery imp could do that much if the girl could be damned at all." "The Prince of Darkness does not condescend to such cheap drudgery." "When he strikes, he strikes at the Church... whose realm is the whole spiritual world." "When he damns, he damns the souls of the entire human race." "Against that dreadful design The Church stands ever on guard." "And it is as one of the instruments of that design that I see this girl." "She is inspired, but diabolically inspired." "I told you she was a witch." "She is not a witch." "She is a heretic." "What difference does that make?" "What difference?" "You, a priest, ask me that!" "You English are strangely blunt in the mind." "All these things that you call witchcraft... are capable of a natural explanation." "The woman's miracles would not impose on a rabbit." "She does not claim them as miracles herself." "What do her victories prove but that... she has a better head on her shoulders than... your swearing Glass-dells and mad bull Talbots... and that the courage of faith, even though it be a false faith... will always outstay the courage of wrath?" "Does your lordship compare Sir John Talbot... three times Governor of Ireland, to a mad bull?" "It would not be seemly for you to do so, Messire John." "But as I am an earl, and Talbot is only a knight..." "I may make bold to accept the comparison." "My lord, I wipe the slate as far as the witchcraft goes." "None the less, we must burn the woman." "I cannot burn her." "The Church cannot take life." "And my first duty is to seek this girl's salvation." "No doubt." "But you do burn people occasionally." "No." "When The Church cuts off an obstinate heretic... as a dead branch from the tree of life... the heretic is handed over to the secular arm." "The Church has no part in what the secular arm may see fit to do." "Precisely." "And I shall be the secular arm in this case." "Well, my lord, hand over your dead branch... and I will see that the fire is ready for it." "If you will answer for The Church's part..." "I will answer for the secular part." "I can answer for nothing." "You great lords are too prone to treat The Church... as a mere political convenience." "No, my lord, the soul of this village girl... is of equal value with yours or your king's before the throne of God." "And my first duty is to save it." "I will not suffer your lordship to smile... at me as if I were repeating a meaningless form of words... and it were well understood between us that I should betray the girl to you." "I am no mere political bishop." "My faith is to me what your honor is to you." "And if there be a loophole through... which this baptized child of God can creep to her salvation..." "I shall guide her to it." "You are a traitor." "Priest!" "If you dare do what this woman has done... set your country above the holy Catholic Church... you shall go to the fire with her." "My lord, I..." "I went too far." "My lord, I apologize to you for the word used by Messire John." "It does not mean in England what it does in France." "In your language traitor means betrayer... one who is perfidious, treacherous, unfaithful, disloyal." "In our country it means simply one who... is not wholly devoted to our English interests." "I am sorry, I did not understand." "I must apologize on my own account... if I have seemed to take the burning of this poor girl too lightly." "When one has seen whole countrysides burnt over and over again... as mere items in military routine..." "One has to grow a very thick skin, otherwise one might go mad." "At all events, I should." "May I venture to assume that your lordship also... having to see so many heretics burned from time to time... is compelled to take, shall I say a professional view... of what would otherwise be a very horrible incident?" "Yes, it is a painful duty." "Even, as you say, a horrible one." "But in comparison with the horror of heresy it is less than nothing." "I am not thinking of this girl's body... which will suffer for a few moments only, but of her soul... which may suffer to all eternity." "Just so, and God grant that her soul may be saved!" "But the practical problem would seem to be how... to save her soul without saving her body." "For we must face it, my lord." "If this cult of The Maid goes on, our cause is lost." "May I speak, my lord?" "Messire John, I had rather you did not, unless you can keep your temper." "It is only this." "I speak under correction." "The Maid is full of deceit." "She pretends to be devout." "Her prayers and confessions are endless." "How can she be accused of heresy... when she neglects no observance of a faithful daughter of The Church?" "A faithful daughter of The Church?" "The Pope himself at his proudest dare not presume as this woman presumes." "She acts as if she herself were The Church." "She brings the message of God to Charles... and The Church must stand aside." "She will crown him in the cathedral of Reims." "She, not The Church!" "She sends letters to the king of England... giving him God's command through her... to return to his island on pain of God's vengeance, which she will execute." "Has she ever in all her utterances said one word of The Church?" "Never." "It is always God and herself." "What will the world be like when The Church's accumulated wisdom... and knowledge and experience, its councils of learned... venerable pious men, are thrust into the kennel... by every ignorant laborer or dairymaid whom the devil can puff up... with the monstrous self-conceit of being directly inspired from heaven?" "It will be a world of blood, of fury, of devastation... of each man striving for his own hand." "In the end a world wrecked back into barbarism." "I shudder to the very marrow of my bones when I think of it." "I have fought it all my life and I will fight it to the end." "Let all this woman's sins be forgiven her except only this sin." "For it is the sin against the Holy Ghost... and if she does not recant in the dust before the world... and submit herself to the Church, to the fire she shall go... if she once falls into my hand." "You feel strongly about it, naturally." "Do not you?" "I am a soldier, not a churchman." "To my mind there is a stronger case against The Maid... than the one you have so forcibly put." "You will carry The Church with you, but you have to carry the nobles also." "Have you noticed that in these letters of hers... she proposes to all the kings of Europe, as she has already pressed on Charles... a transaction which would wreck the whole social structure of Christendom?" "Wreck The Church." "I tell you so." "My lord..." "Pray get The Church out of your head for a moment." "and remember that there are temporal institutions as well as spiritual ones." "I and my peers represent the feudal aristocracy... as you represent The Church." "We are the temporal power." "Do you not see how this girl's idea strikes at us?" "How does her idea strike you, except as it strikes at all of us... through The Church?" "Her idea is that the kings should give their realms to God... and then reign as God's bailiffs." "Quite sound theologically, but... the king will hardly care, provided he reign." "It is an abstract idea, a mere form of words." "By no means." "It is a cunning device to supersede the aristocracy... and make the king sole and absolute autocrat." "Instead of the king being merely the first among his peers... he becomes their master." "That we cannot suffer." "We call no man master." "Nominally we hold our lands and dignities from the king... because there must be a keystone to the arch of human society..." "But we hold our lands in our own hands, and defend them with our own swords... and those of our own tenants." "Now by The Maid's doctrine the king will take our lands... and make them a present to God." "and God will then vest them wholly in the king." "Need you fear that?" "You are the makers of kings after all." "York or Lancaster in England, Lancaster or Valois in France..." "They reign according to your pleasure." "Yes, but only as long as the people follow their feudal lords... and know the king only as a travelling show... owning nothing but the highway that belongs to everybody." "If the people's thoughts and hearts were turned to the king... and their lords became only the king's servants in their eyes... the king could break us across his knee one by one... and then what should we be but liveried courtiers in his halls?" "Still you need not fear." "Some men are born kings and some are born statesmen." "The two are seldom the same." "Where would the king find counsellors... to plan and carry out such a policy for him?" "Perhaps in the Church, my lord." "Strike down the barons and the cardinals will have it all their own way." "My lord... we shall not defeat The Maid if we strive against one another." "I know well that there is a Will to Power in the world." "I know that while it lasts there will be a struggle between... the Emperor and the Pope, between the dukes and the political cardinals... between the barons and the kings." "The devil divides us and governs." "I see you are no friend to The Church." "You are an earl first and last... as I am a churchman first and last." "But can we not sink our differences in the face of a common enemy?" "I see now that what is in your mind is not that this girl... has never once mentioned The Church, and thinks only of God and herself... but that she has never once mentioned the peerage... and thinks only of the king and herself." "Quite so." "These two ideas of hers are the same idea at bottom." "It goes deep, my lord." "It is the protest of the individual soul against the interference of priest... or peer between the private man and his God." "I should call it Protestantism if I had to find a name for it." "You understand it wonderfully well, my lord." "Scratch an Englishman, and find a Protestant." "I think you are not entirely void of sympathy... with The Maid's secular heresy, my lord." "I leave you to find a name for it." "I have no sympathy with her political presumptions." "But as a priest I have gained a knowledge of the minds of the people." "And there you will find yet another most dangerous idea." "I can express it only by such phrases as France for the French..." "England for the English, Italy for the Italians, and so forth." "It is sometimes so narrow and bitter in country folk... that it surprises me that this country girl can... rise above the idea of her village for its villagers." "But she can." "She does." "When she threatens to drive the English from the soil of France... she is undoubtedly thinking of the whole extent... of country in which French is spoken." "To her the French people are what the Holy Scriptures describe as a nation." "Call this side of her heresy Nationalism if you will." "I can find you no better name for it." "I can only tell you that it is essentially anti-Christian." "the Catholic Church knows only one realm... and that is the realm of Christ's kingdom." "Divide that kingdom into nations, and you dethrone Christ." "Dethrone Christ, and who will stand between our throats and the sword?" "The world will perish in a welter of war." "Well, if you will burn the Protestant, I will burn the Nationalist." "Though perhaps I shall not carry Messire John with me there." "England for the English will appeal to him." "Certainly England for the English goes without saying." "It is the simple law of nature." "But this woman denies to England her legitimate conquests... given to us by God because of our peculiar fitness... to rule over less civilized races for their own good." "I do not understand what your lordships mean by Protestant and Nationalist." "You are too learned and subtle for a poor clerk like myself." "But I know as a matter of plain commonsense... that the woman is a rebel, and that is enough for me." "She rebels against Nature by wearing man's clothes, and fighting." "She rebels against The Church... by usurping the divine authority of the Pope." "She rebels against God by her damnable league with Satan... and his evil spirits against our army." "And all these rebellions are only excuses... for her great rebellion against England." "That is not to be endured." "Let her perish." "Let her burn." "Let her not infect the whole flock." "It is expedient that one woman die for the people." "My lord, we seem to be agreed." "I will not imperil my soul." "I will uphold the justice of the Church." "I will strive to the utmost for this woman's salvation." "I am sorry for the poor girl." "I hate these severities." "I will spare her if I can." "I would burn her with my own hands." "Sancta simplicitas." "in Reims Cathedral" "Come." "Dear child of God, you have had enough praying." "After that fit of crying you will catch a chill if you stay here any longer." "It is all over." "The cathedral is empty... and the streets are full." "They are calling for The Maid." "We have told them you are staying here alone to pray." "But they want to see you again." "No, let the king have all the glory." "He only spoils the show, poor devil." "No, Joan." "You have crowned him, and you must go through with it." "Come, come." "It will be over in a couple of hours." "It's better than the bridge at Orleans, eh?" "Oh, dear Dunois..." "How I wish it were the bridge at Orleans again!" "We lived at that bridge." "Yes, faith, and died too, some of us." "Isn't it strange, Jack?" "I am such a coward." "I am frightened beyond words before a battle... but it is so dull afterwards when there is no danger." "Oh, so dull, dull!" "You must learn to be abstemious in war... just as you are in your food and drink, my little saint." "Dear Jack, I think you like me as a soldier likes his comrade." "You need it, poor innocent child." "You have not many friends at court." "Why do all these courtiers and knights and churchmen hate me?" "What have I done to them?" "I have asked nothing for myself... except that my village shall not be taxed, for we cannot afford war taxes." "I have brought them luck and victory." "I have set them right when they were doing all sorts of stupid things." "I have crowned Charles and made him a real king." "And all the honors he is handing out have gone to them." "What more do they want?" "Why do they not love me?" "Simpleton!" "Do you expect stupid people to love you for shewing them up?" "Do blundering old military dug-outs... love the successful young captains who supersede them?" "Do ambitious politicians love the climbers... who take the front seats from them?" "Do archbishops enjoy being played off their own altars, even by saints?" "Why, I should be jealous of you myself if I were ambitious enough." "You are the pick of the basket here, Jack." "The only friend I have among all these nobles." "I'll wager your mother was from the country." "I will go back to the farm when I have taken Paris." "I am not so sure that they will let you take Paris." "What!" "I should have taken it myself before this... if they had all been sound about it." "Some of them would rather Paris took you, I think." "So take care." "Jack!" "Jack, the world is too wicked for me." "If the goddams and the Burgundians do not make an end of me, the French will." "Only for my voices I should lose all heart." "That is why I had to steal away to pray here alone after the coronation." "I'll tell you something, Jack." "It is in the bells I hear my voices." "Not today, when they all rang." "That was nothing but jangling." "But here in this corner... where the bells come down from heaven... and the echoes linger, or in the fields... where they come from a distance through the quiet of the countryside... my voices are in them." "Do you hear?" "Hark." "'Dear-child-of-God'..." "Just what you said." "At the half-hour they will say 'I-am-thy-Help'." "At the three-quarters they will say 'Be-brave-go-on'." "But it is at the hour... when the great bell goes after 'God-will-save-France'... it is then that St Margaret and St Catherine... and sometimes even the blessed Michael will say things... that I cannot tell beforehand." "Then, oh then..." "Joan..." "Then we shall hear whatever we fancy in the booming of the bell." "You make me uneasy when you talk about your voices." "I should think you were a bit cracked... if I hadn't noticed that you give me very sensible reasons for what you do... though I hear you telling others you are only obeying Madame Saint Catherine." "Yes." "I have to find reasons for you, because you do not believe in my voices." "But the voices come first, and I find the reasons after... whatever you may choose to believe." "Are you angry, Joan?" "Yes." "No, not with you." "I wish you were one of the village babies." "Why?" "I could nurse you for awhile." "You are a bit of a woman after all." "No, not a bit." "I am a soldier." "Soldiers always nurse children when they get a chance." "That is true." "Well, your Majesty is an anointed king." "How do you like it?" "I would not go through it again to be emperor." "I thought I should have dropped when they loaded that crown on to me." "And the famous holy oil they talked so much about was rancid." "Phew!" "The Archbishop must be nearly dead." "His robes must have weighed a ton." "They are stripping him still in the vestry." "Your majesty should wear armor oftener." "That would accustom you to heavy dressing." "Yes, the old jibe!" "Well, I am not going to wear armor." "Fighting is not my job." "Where is The Maid?" "Sire, I have made you king." "My work is done." "I am going back to my father's farm." "Oh, are you?" "Nice." "A healthy life, you know." "But a dull one." "You will find the petticoats tripping you up... after leaving them off for so long." "You will miss the fighting." "It's a bad habit, but a grand one, and the hardest of all to break yourself of." "Still, we don't want you to stay if you would really rather go home." "I know well that none of you will be sorry to see me go." "I shall be able to swear when I want to." "But I shall miss you at times." "La Hire, in spite of all your sins and swears... we shall meet in heaven... for I love you as I love Pitou, my old sheep dog." "Pitou could kill a wolf." "You will kill the English wolves until they go back to their... country and become good dogs of God, will you not?" "You and I together, yes." "No, I shall last only a year from the beginning." "What?" "I know it somehow." "Nonsense!" "Jack, do you think you will be able to drive them out?" "Yes, I shall drive them out." "They beat us because we thought battles were tournaments and ransom markets." "We played the fool while the goddams took war seriously." "But I have learnt my lesson, and taken their measure." "They have no roots here." "I have beaten them before and I shall beat them again." "You will not be cruel to them, Jack?" "The goddams will not yield to tender handling." "We did not begin it." "Jack, before I go home, let us take Paris." "Oh no no." "We shall lose everything we have gained." "We can make a very good treaty with the Duke of Burgundy." "Treaty!" "Well, why not?" "Now that I am crowned and anointed?" "Oh, that oil!" "Archbishop, The Maid wants to start fighting again." "Have we ceased fighting, then?" "Are we at peace?" "No, I suppose not." "But let us be content with what we have done." "Let us make a treaty." "Our luck is too good to last, and now is our chance to stop before it turns." "Luck!" "God has fought for us, and you call it luck!" "And you would stop while there are still Englishmen on this holy earth of France!" "Maid, the king addressed himself to me, not to you." "You forget yourself." "You very often forget yourself." "Then speak, you, and tell him that it is not God's will... that he should take his hand from the plough." "If I am not so glib with the name of God as you are, it is because I interpret..." "His will with the authority of the Church and of my sacred office." "When you first came you respected it... and would not have dared to speak as you are now speaking." "You came clothed with the virtue of humility, and because God blessed... your enterprises accordingly, you have stained yourself with the sin of pride." "The old Greek tragedy is rising among us." "It is the chastisement of hubris." "Yes, she thinks she knows better than everyone else." "But I do know better." "And I am not proud." "I never speak unless I know I am right." "Well?" "How do you know you are right?" "I always know." "My voices..." "Oh, your voices." "Why don't the voices come to me?" "I am king, not you." "They do come to you, but you do not hear them." "You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them." "When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with it." "But if you prayed from your heart... and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air... after they stop ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do." "But what voices do you need to tell you what the blacksmith can tell you?" "That you must strike while the iron is hot." "I tell you we must make a dash at Compiègne." "And relieve it as we relieved Orleans." "Then Paris will open its gates, or if not, we will break through them." "What is your crown worth without your capital?" "That is what I say too." "We shall go through them like a red hot shot through a pound of butter." "What do you say, Bastard?" "If our cannon balls were all as hot as your head... and we had enough of them, we should conquer the earth." "Pluck and impetuosity are good servants in war... but bad masters." "They have delivered us into the hands of the English... every time we have trusted to them." "We never know when we are beaten." "That is our great fault." "You never know when you are victorious." "That is a worse fault." "I shall have to make you carry looking-glasses in battle... to convince you that the English have not cut off all your noses." "You would have been besieged in Orleans still... you and your councils of war, if I had not made you attack." "If you only hold on long enough the enemy will stop first." "You don't know how to begin a battle." "And you don't know how to use your cannons." "And I do." "I know what you think of us, General Joan." "Never mind that, Jack." "Tell them what you think of me." "I think that God was on your side." "For I have not forgotten how the wind changed." "And how our hearts changed when you came." "And by my faith I shall never deny that it was in your sign that we conquered." "But I tell you as a soldier that God is no man's daily drudge... and no maid's either." "If you are worthy of it He will sometimes... snatch you out of the jaws of death and set you on your feet again." "But that is all." "Once on your feet you must fight with all your might and all your craft." "For He has to be fair to your enemy too." "Don't forget that." "He set us on our feet through you at Orleans... and the glory of it has carried us through a few good battles... here to the coronation." "But if we presume on it further... and trust to God to do the work we should do ourselves... we shall be defeated, and serve us right!" "But Jack..." "Sh!" "I have not finished." "Do not think, any of you, that these victories of ours... were won without generalship." "King Charles... you have said no word in your proclamations... of my part in this campaign, and I make no complaint of that." "For the people will run after The Maid and her miracles... and not after Dunois' hard work finding troops for her and feeding them." "But I know exactly how much God did for us through The Maid... and how much He left me to do by my own wits." "And I tell you that your little hour of miracles is over." "From this time on he who plays the war game best will win... if the luck is on his side." "Let me tell you this, Dunois." "Your art of war is no use... because your knights are no good for real fighting." "War is only a game to them, like tennis and all their other games." "They make rules as to what is fair and what is not fair... and heap armor on themselves and on their horses to keep out the arrows." "And when they fall they can't get up... and have to wait for their squires to come and lift them... to arrange about the ransom with the man that has poked them off their horse." "Can't you see that all the like of that is gone by and done with?" "What use is armor against gunpowder?" "And if it was, do you think men that are fighting for France and for God... will stop to bargain about ransoms, as half your knights live by doing?" "No, they will fight to win... and they will give up their lives out of their own hand into the hand of God... when they go into battle, as I do." "Common folks understand this." "They cannot afford armor and cannot pay ransoms." "But they followed me half naked... into the moat and up the ladder and over the wall." "With them it is my life or thine... and God defend the right!" "You may shake your head, Jack." "And Bluebeard may twirl his billygoat's beard and cock his nose at me." "But remember the day your knights and captains refused... to follow me to attack the English at Orleans!" "You locked the gates to keep me in." "And it was the townsfolk and the common people that followed me... and shewed you the way to fight in earnest." "Not content with being Pope Joan, you must be Caesar and Alexander as well." "Pride will have a fall, Joan." "Oh, never mind whether it is pride or not." "Is it true or not?" "Is it commonsense?" "It is true." "Half of us are afraid of having our handsome noses broken." "And the other half are out for paying off their mortgages." "Let her have her way, Dunois." "She does not know everything... but she has got hold of the right end of the stick." "Fighting is not what it was." "I know all that." "I have learnt my lessons." "I know what they are worth." "I know how many lives any move of mine will cost." "And if the move is worth the cost I make it and pay the cost." "But Joan never counts the cost at all." "She goes ahead and trusts to God." "She thinks she has God in her pocket." "Up to now she has had the numbers on her side, and she has won." "But I know Joan." "I see that some day she will go ahead... when she has only ten men to do the work of a hundred." "And then she will find that God is on the side of the big battalions." "She will be taken by the enemy." "And the lucky man that makes the capture will receive sixteen thousand pounds." "Sixteen thousand pounds!" "Have they offered that for me?" "There cannot be so much money in the world." "There is, in England." "And now tell me, all of you... which of you will lift a finger to save Joan once the English have got her?" "I speak first, for the army." "The day after she has been dragged from her horse by a goddam or a Burgundian... and he is not struck dead... the day after she is locked in a dungeon... and the bars and bolts do not fly open at the touch of St Peter's angel... the day when the enemy finds out... that she is as vulnerable as I am and not a bit more invincible... she will not be worth the life of a single soldier to us." "And I will not risk that life... much as I cherish her as a companion-in-arms." "I don't blame you, Jack." "You are right." "I am not worth one soldier's life if God lets me be beaten." "But France may think me worth my ransom... after what God has done for her through me." "I tell you I have no money." "And this coronation, which is all your fault... has cost me the last farthing I can borrow." "The Church is richer than you." "I put my trust in the Church." "Joan, they will drag you through the streets, and burn you as a witch." "Oh, my lord... do not say that." "It is impossible." "I a witch!" "Peter Cauchon knows his business." "The University of Paris has burnt a woman for saying... that what you have done was well done, and according to God." "What sense is there in it?" "What I have done is according to God." "They could not burn a woman for speaking the truth." "They did." "But you know that she was speaking the truth." "You would not let them burn me." "How could I prevent them?" "You would speak in the name of the Church." "I would go anywhere with your blessing to protect me." "I have no blessing for you while you are proud and disobedient." "I am not proud and disobedient." "I am a poor girl, and so ignorant that I do not know A from B." "And how can you say that I am disobedient... when I always obey my voices, because they come from God." "The voice of God on earth is the voice of the Church Militant..." "And all the voices that come to you are the echoes of your own wilfulness." "It is not true." "You tell the Archbishop in his cathedral that he lies... and yet you say you are not proud and disobedient." "I never said you lied." "It was you that as good as said my voices lied." "If you will not believe in them." "Are they not always right?" "Even if they are only the echoes of my own commonsense." "They are right... and are not your earthly counsels always wrong?" "It is waste of time admonishing you." "It always comes back to the same thing." "She is right and everyone else is wrong." "Take this as your last warning." "If you perish through setting your private judgment... above the instructions of your spiritual directors... the Church disowns you... and leaves you to whatever fate your presumption may bring upon you." "The Bastard has told you that if you persist in setting up... your military conceit above the counsels of your commanders..." "To put it quite exactly... if you attempt to relieve the garrison in Compiègne... without the same superiority in numbers you had at Orleans..." "The army will disown you, and will not rescue you." "And His Majesty the King has told you... that the throne has not the means of ransoming you." "Not a penny." "You stand alone, absolutely alone... trusting to your own conceit, your own ignorance... your own headstrong presumption and impiety." "You hide all these sins under the cloak of a trust in God." "When you pass through these doors into the sunlight... the crowd will cheer you." "They will bring you their little children to bless." "They will kiss your hands and feet, and do what they can... poor simple souls, to turn your head... and madden you with the self-confidence... that is leading you to your destruction." "But you will be none the less alone." "They cannot save you." "We and we only can stand between you and the stake... at which our enemies have burnt that wretched woman in Paris." "I have better friends and better counsel than yours." "I see that I am speaking in vain to a hardened heart." "You reject our protection, and are determined... to turn us all against you." "In future, then, fend for yourself." "And if you fail, God have mercy on your soul." "That is the truth, Joan." "Heed it." "Where would you all have been now if I had heeded that sort of truth?" "There is no help, no counsel, in any of you." "Yes, I am alone on earth." "I have always been alone." "My father told my brothers to drown me... if I would not stay to mind his sheep... while France was bleeding to death." "France might perish if only his lambs were safe." "I thought France would have friends at the court of the king of France... and I find only wolves fighting for pieces of her poor torn body." "I thought God would have friends everywhere... because He is the friend of everyone." "and in my innocence I believed that you who now cast me out... would be like strong towers to keep harm from me." "But I am wiser now." "And nobody is any the worse for being wiser." "Do not think you can frighten me by telling me that I am alone." "God is alone, and France is alone." "And what is my loneliness before the loneliness of my country and my God?" "I see now that the loneliness of God is His strength." "Well, my loneliness shall be my strength too." "It is better to be alone with God." "His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love." "In His strength I will dare, and dare, and dare, until I die." "I will go out now to the common people... and let the love in their eyes comfort me for the hate in yours." "You will all be glad to see me burnt." "But if I go through the fire I shall go through it to their hearts... for ever and ever." "And so, God be with me," "The woman is quite impossible." "I don't dislike her, but what are you to do with such a character?" "As God is my judge... if she fell into the Loire I would jump in in full armor to fish her out." "But if she plays the fool at Compiègne, and gets caught..." "I must leave her to her doom." "Then you had better chain me up... for I could follow her to hell when the spirit rises in her like that." "She disturbs my judgment too." "There is a dangerous power in her outbursts." "But the pit is open at her feet." "And for good or evil we cannot turn her from it." "If only she would keep quiet, and go home." "Rouen May 30 1431" "I suppose your lordship is aware that we have no business here." "This is an ecclesiastical court, and we are only the secular arm." "Will it please your impudence to find the Bishop of Beauvais for me... and give him a hint that he can have a word with me here before the trial?" "Yes, my lord." "I wish your lordship good-morrow." "Good-morrow to your lordship." "Have I had the pleasure of meeting your friends before?" "I think not." "This is Brother John Lemaître, of the order of St Dominic." "He is acting as deputy for the Chief Inquisitor... into the evil of heresy in France." "Brother John, the Earl of Warwick." "Your Reverence is most welcome." "We have no Inquisitor in England, unfortunately... though we miss him greatly, especially on occasions like the present." "This gentleman is Canon John D'Estivet, of the Chapter of Bayeaux." "He is acting as Promoter." "Promoter?" "Prosecutor, you would call him in civil law." "Ah!" "prosecutor." "Quite, quite." "I am very glad to make your acquaintance." "May I ask what stage the proceedings have reached?" "It is now more than nine months... since The Maid was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundians." "It is fully four months since I bought her... from the Burgundians sum solely that she might be brought to justice." "It is very nearly three months since I delivered her up to you... as a person suspected of heresy." "May I suggest that you are taking a rather unconscionable time... to make up your minds about a very plain case?" "Is this trial never going to end?" "It has not yet begun, my lord." "Not yet begun!" "Why, you have been at it eleven weeks!" "We have not been idle, my lord." "We have held fifteen examinations of The Maid." "Six public and nine private." "I have been present at only two of these examinations." "They were proceedings of the Bishop's court solely." "And not of the Holy Office." "I have only just decided to associate myself... that is, to associate the Holy Inquisition, with the Bishop's court." "I did not at first think that this was a case of heresy at all." "I regarded it as a political case, and The Maid as a prisoner of war." "But having now been present at two of the examinations, I must admit... that this seems to be one of the gravest cases of heresy within my experience." "Therefore everything is now in order, and we proceed to trial this morning." "This moment, if your lordship's convenience allows." "Well, that is good news." "I will not attempt to conceal from you... that our patience was becoming strained." "So I gathered from the threats of your soldiers... to drown those of our people who favor The Maid." "Dear me!" "At all events their intentions were friendly to you, my lord." "I hope not." "I am determined that the woman shall have a fair hearing." "The justice of the Church is not a mockery, my lord." "Never has there been a fairer examination within my experience." "The Maid needs no lawyers to take her part." "She will be tried by her most faithful friends... all ardently desirous to save her soul from perdition." "Sir, I am the Promotor... and it has been my painful duty to present the case against her." "But believe me, I would throw up my case today and hasten to her defence... if I did not know that men far my superiors in learning and piety... in eloquence and persuasiveness... have been sent to reason with her... to explain to her the danger she is running... and the ease with which she may avoid it." "Men have dared to say that we are acting from hate... but God is our witness that they lie." "Have we tortured her?" "No." "Have we ceased to exhort her, to implore her to have pity on herself... to come to the bosom of her Church as an erring but beloved child?" "Have we..." "Take care, Canon." "All that you say is true... but if you make his lordship believe it I will not answer for your life... and hardly for my own." "Oh, my lord, you are very hard on us poor English." "But we certainly do not share your pious desire to save The Maid." "In fact, her death is a political necessity... which I regret but cannot help." "If the Church lets her go..." "If the Church lets her go, woe to the man, were he the Emperor himself... who dares lay a finger on her!" "The Church is not subject to political necessity, my lord." "You need have no anxiety about the result, my lord." "You have an invincible ally in the matter." "one who is far more determined than you that she shall burn." "And who is this very convenient partisan, may I ask?" "The Maid herself." "Unless you put a gag in her mouth you cannot prevent her... from convicting herself ten times over every time she opens it." "That is perfectly true, my lord." "My hair bristles on my head when I hear... so young a creature utter such blasphemies." "Well, by all means do your best for her... if you are quite sure it will be of no avail." "I should be sorry to have to act without the blessing of the Church." "What scoundrels these English nobles are." "All secular power makes men scoundrels." "They are not trained for the work, and they have not the Apostolic Succession." "Our own nobles are just as bad." "My Lord." "Good morning, Master de Stogumber." "Chaplain to the Cardinal of England." "Of Winchester, my lord." "I have to make a protest," "You make a great many." "I am not without support, my lord." "Here is Master de Courcelles." "Canon of Paris, who associates himself with me in my protest." "What is the matter?" "Speak you, Master de Courcelles..." "Since I do not seem to enjoy his lordship's confidence." "My lord, we have been at great pains to draw up... an indictment of The Maid on sixty-four counts." "We are now told that they have been reduced, without consulting us." "Master de Courcelles, I am the culprit." "I am overwhelmed with admiration... for the zeal displayed in your sixty-four counts." "But in accusing a heretic, as in other things, enough is enough." "Also you must remember that all the members of the court... are not so subtle and profound as you... and that some of your very great learning might appear to them... to be very great nonsense." "Therefore I have thought it well to have your... sixty-four articles cut down to twelve." "Twelve!" "Twelve." "Twelve will, believe me, be quite enough for your purpose." "But some of the most important points have been reduced almost to nothing." "For instance, The Maid has actually declared that... the blessed saints Margaret and Catherine... and the holy Archangel Michael, spoke to her in French." "That is a vital point." "You think, doubtless, that they should have spoken in Latin?" "No, he thinks they should have spoken in English." "Naturally, my lord." "Well, as we are all here agreed, that these voices of The Maid... are the voices of evil spirits tempting her to her damnation..." "It would not be very courteous to you, Master de Stogumber... or to the King of England... to assume that English is the devil's native language." "So let it pass." "The matter is not wholly omitted from the twelve articles." "Pray take your places, gentlemen, and let us proceed to business." "Well, I protest." "I think it hard that all our work should go for nothing." "It is only another example of the diabolical influence... which this woman exercises over the court." "Do you suggest that I am under diabolical influence?" "I suggest nothing, my lord." "But it seems to me that there is a conspiracy here to hush up the fact... that The Maid stole the Bishop of Senlis's horse." "This is not a police court." "Are we to waste our time on such rubbish?" "My lord, do you call the Bishop's horse rubbish?" "Master de Courcelles." "The Maid alleges that she paid handsomely for the Bishop's horse." "and that if he did not get the money the fault was not hers." "As that may be true... the point is one on which The Maid may well be acquitted." "Yes, if it were an ordinary horse." "But the Bishop's horse!" "how can she be acquitted for that?" "I submit to you, with great respect... that if we persist in trying The Maid on trumpery issues... on which we may have to declare her innocent... she may escape us on the great main issue of heresy... on which she seems so far to insist on her own guilt." "I will ask you, therefore... to say nothing, when The Maid is brought before us... of these stealings of horses, and dancings round fairy trees... with the village children, and prayings at haunted wells... and a dozen other things... which you were diligently inquiring into until my arrival." "There is not a village girl in France against whom... you could not prove such things." "They all dance round haunted trees, and pray at magic wells." "Some of them would steal the Pope's horse if they got the chance." "Heresy, gentlemen, heresy is the charge we have to try." "The detection and suppression of heresy is my peculiar business." "I am here as an inquisitor, not as an ordinary magistrate." "Stick to the heresy, gentlemen, and leave the other matters alone." "We have sent to the girl's village to make inquiries about her... and there is practically nothing serious against her." "Nothing serious, my lord..." "What!" "The fairy tree not..." "Be silent, gentlemen, or speak one at a time." "That is what The Maid said to us last Friday." "I wish you had followed her counsel." "When I say nothing serious, I mean nothing that men... of sufficiently large mind to conduct this inquiry would consider serious." "I agree with my colleague the Inquisitor... that it is on the count of heresy that?" "we must proceed." "But is there any great harm in the girl's heresy?" "Is it not merely her simplicity?" "Many saints have said as much as Joan." "Brother Martin... if you had seen what I have seen of heresy... you would not think it a light thing even in its most apparently... harmless and even lovable and pious origins." "Heresy begins with people who are to all appearance better than their neighbors." "A gentle and pious girl, or a young man who has obeyed... the command of our Lord by giving all his riches to the poor... and putting on the garb of poverty, the life of austerity... and the rule of humility and charity, may be the founder of a heresy... that will wreck both Church and Empire if not ruthlessly stamped out in time." "Heresy at first seems innocent and even laudable... but it ends in such a monstrous horror of unnatural wickedness... that the most tender-hearted among you... if you saw it at work as I have seen it... would clamor against the mercy of the Church in dealing with it." "For two hundred years the Holy Office has striven... with these diabolical madnesses." "And it knows that they begin always by vain and ignorant persons... setting up their own judgment against the Church... and taking it upon themselves to be the interpreters of God's will." "You must not fall into the common error... of mistaking these simpletons for liars and hypocrites." "They believe honestly and sincerely that their diabolical inspiration is divine." "Therefore you must be on your guard against your natural compassion." "You are all, I hope, merciful men." "How else could you have devoted... your lives to the service of our gentle Savior?" "You are going to see before you a young girl, pious and chaste." "This girl is not one of those whose hard features are the sign of hard hearts... and whose brazen looks and lewd demeanor condemn them before they are accused." "The devilish pride that has led her into her present peril... has left no mark on her countenance." "Strange as it may seem to you, it has even left no mark on her character... outside those special matters in which she is proud... so that you will see a diabolical pride and a natural humility... seated side by side in the selfsame soul." "Therefore be on your guard." "God forbid that I should tell you to harden your hearts." "for her punishment if we condemn her will be so cruel... that we should forfeit our own hope of divine mercy... were there one grain of malice against her in our hearts." "But if you hate cruelty -and if any man here does not hate it..." "I command him on his soul's salvation to quit this holy court..." "I say, if you hate cruelty, remember that nothing is so cruel... in its consequences as the toleration of heresy." "Gentlemen, I am compassionate by nature as well as by my profession." "But I would go to the stake myself sooner... than do it if I did not know its righteousness, its essential mercy." "I ask you to address yourself to this trial in that conviction." "Anger is a bad counsellor, cast out anger." "Pity is sometimes worse." "Cast out pity." "But do not cast out mercy." "Remember only that justice comes first." "Have you anything to say, my lord, before we proceed to trial?" "You have spoken for me, and spoken better than I could." "I do not see how any sane man could disagree... with a word that has fallen from you." "The court sits." "Let the accused be brought in." "Let the accused be brought in." "Sit down, Joan." "You look very pale today." "Are you not well?" "Thank you kindly." "I am well enough." "But the Bishop sent me some carp, and it made me ill." "I am sorry." "I told them to see that it was fresh." "You meant to be good to me, I know." "But carp is a fish that does not agree with me." "The English thought you were trying to poison me." "What?" "No, my lord." "They are determined that I shall be burnt as a witch." "They sent their doctor to cure me, but he was forbidden to bleed me... because the silly people believe that a witch's witchery... leaves her if she is bled." "So he only called me filthy names." "Why do you leave me in the hands of the English?" "I should be in the hands of the Church." "Why must I be chained by the feet to a log of wood?" "Are you afraid I will fly away?" "Woman." "It is not for you to question the court." "It is for us to question you." "When you were left unchained, did you not try to escape by... jumping from a tower sixty feet high?" "If you cannot fly like a witch, how is it that you are still alive?" "I suppose because the tower was not so high then." "It has grown higher every day since you began asking me questions about it." "Why did you jump from the tower?" "How do you know that I jumped?" "You were found lying in the moat." "Why did you leave the tower?" "Why would anybody leave a prison if they could get out?" "You tried to escape?" "Yes, and not for the first time either." "If you leave the door of the cage open the bird will fly out." "That is a confession of heresy." "I call the attention of the court to it." "Heresy, he calls it!" "Am I a heretic because I try to escape from prison?" "Assuredly." "You are in the hands of the Church... and you wilfully take yourself out of its hands... you are deserting the Church, and that is heresy." "It is great nonsense." "Nobody could be such a fool as to think that." "You hear, my lord, how I am reviled in the execution of my duty by this woman." "I have warned you before, Joan... that you are doing yourself no good by these pert answers." "But... you will not talk sense to me." "I am reasonable if you will be reasonable." "This is not yet in order." "You forget, Master Promoter, that the proceedings... have not been formally opened." "The time for questions is after she has sworn on the Gospels... to tell us the whole truth." "You say this to me every time." "I have said again and again that I will tell you all that concerns this trial." "But I cannot tell you the whole truth." "God does not allow the whole truth to be told." "You do not understand it." "It is an old saying... that he who tells too much truth is sure to be hanged." "I am weary of this argument." "We have been over it nine times already." "I have sworn as much as I will swear, and I will swear no more." "My lord, she should be put to the torture." "You hear, Joan?" "That is what happens to the obdurate." "Think before you answer." "Has she been shewn the instruments?" "They are ready, my lord." "She has seen them." "If you tear me limb from limb... until you separate my soul from my body... you will get nothing out of me beyond what I have told you." "What more is there to tell that you could understand?" "Besides, I cannot bear to be hurt." "And if you hurt me I will say anything you like to stop the pain." "But I will take it all back afterwards, so what is the use of it?" "There is much in that." "We should proceed mercifully." "But the torture is customary." "It must not be applied wantonly." "If the accused will confess voluntarily, then its use cannot be justified." "But this is unusual and irregular." "She refuses to take the oath." "Do you want to torture the girl for the mere pleasure of it?" "But it is not a pleasure." "It is the law." "It is customary." "It is always done." "That is not so, Master... except when the inquiries are carried on by people... who do not know their legal business." "But the woman is a heretic." "I assure you it is always done." "It will not be done today... if it is not necessary." "I will not have it said that we proceeded on forced confessions." "We have sent our best preachers and doctors to this woman... to exhort and implore her to save her soul and body from the fire." "We shall not now send the executioner to thrust her into it." "Your lordship is merciful, of course." "But it is a great responsibility to depart from the usual practice." "Thou are a rare noodle, Master." "Do what was done last time, eh?" "Thou wanton, dost thou dare call me noodle?" "Patience, Master, patience." "I fear you will soon be only too terribly avenged." "Meanwhile, let us not be moved by the rough side of a shepherd lass's tongue." "Nay, I am no shepherd lass... though I have helped with the sheep like anyone else." "I will do a lady's work in the house, spin or weave... against any woman in Rouen." "This is not a time for vanity, Joan." "You stand in great peril." "I know it." "But have I not been punished for my vanity?" "If I had not worn my cloth of gold surcoat in battle like a fool... that Burgundian soldier would never have pulled me backwards off my horse... and I should not have been here." "If you are so clever at woman's work why do you not stay at home and do it?" "There are plenty of other women to do it, but there is nobody to do my work." "Come, Joan." "I am going to put a most solemn question to you." "Take care how you answer... for your life and salvation are at stake on it." "Will you for all you have said and done, be it good or bad... accept the judgment of God's Church on earth?" "More especially as to the acts and words... that are imputed to you in this trial by the Promoter." "will you submit your case... to the inspired interpretation of the Church Militant?" "I am a faithful child of the Church." "I will obey the Church." "You will?" "Provided it does not command anything impossible." "She imputes to the Church of commanding the impossible." "If you command me to declare that all that I have done and said... and all the visions and revelations I have had, were not from God... then that is impossible." "What God made me do I will never go back on." "I will not declare it for anything in the world." "What He has commanded or shall command..." "I will not fail to do." "In case the Church should bid me do anything contrary... to the command I have from God, I will not consent to it... no matter what it may be." "The Church contrary to God!" "What do you say now?" "Flat heresy." "Woman, you have said enough to burn ten heretics." "Will you not be warned?" "Will you not understand?" "If the Church Militant tells you that your revelations and visions... are sent by the devil to tempt you to your damnation... will you not believe that the Church is wiser than you?" "I believe that God is wiser than I." "And it is His commands that I will do." "All the things that you call my crimes... have come to me by the command of God." "I say that I have done them by the order of God." "It is impossible for me to say anything else." "If any Churchman says the contrary I shall not mind him." "I shall mind God alone, whose command I always follow." "You do not know what you are saying, child." "Do you want to kill yourself?" "Listen." "Do you not believe that you are subject to the Church of God on earth?" "Yes." "When have I ever denied it?" "That means, does it not, that you are subject to our Lord the Pope... to the cardinals, the archbishops, and the bishops... for whom his lordship stands here today." "God must be served first." "Then your voices command you not to submit yourself to the church." "My voices do not tell me to disobey the Church, but God must be served first." "And you, and not the Church, are to be the judge?" "What other judgment can I judge by but my own?" "Out of your own mouth you have condemned yourself." "We have striven for your salvation to the verge of sinning ourselves." "We have opened the door to you again and again." "And you have shut it in our faces and in the face of God." "Dare you pretend, after what you have said... that you are in a state of grace?" "If I am not, may God bring me to it." "If I am, may God keep me in it." "That is a very good reply, my lord." "Were you in a state of grace when you stole the Bishop's horse?" "Devil take the Bishop's horse and you too!" "We are here to try a case of heresy... and no sooner do we come to the root of the matter... than we are thrown back by idiots who understand nothing but horses." "Gentlemen, gentlemen." "In clinging to these small issues you are The Maid's best advocates." "I am not surprised that his lordship has lost patience with you." "What does the Promoter say?" "Does he press these trumpery matters?" "I am bound by my office to press everything." "But when the woman confesses a heresy... that must bring upon her the doom of excommunication... of what consequence is it that she has been guilty... also of offences which expose her to minor penances?" "I share the impatience of his lordship as to these minor charges." "But there is another matter." "I must emphasize the gravity of two very horrible and blasphemous crimes... which she does not deny." "First, she has intercourse with evil spirits, and is therefore a sorceress." "Second, she wears men's clothes, which is indecent, unnatural, and abominable." "And in spite of our most earnest entreaties... she will not change them even to receive the sacrament." "Is the blessed St Catherine an evil spirit?" "Is St Margaret?" "Is Michael the Archangel?" "How do you know that the spirit which appears to you is an archangel?" "Does he not appear to you as a naked man?" "Do you think God cannot afford clothes for him?" "Well answered, Joan." "It is, in effect, well answered." "But no evil spirit would be so simple as to appear to a young girl... in a guise that would scandalize her... when he meant her to take him for a messenger from the Most High." "Joan, the Church instructs you that these apparitions... are demons seeking your soul's perdition." "Do you accept the instruction of the Church?" "I accept the messenger of God." "How could any faithful believer in him refuse him?" "Wretched woman, again I ask you, do you know what you are saying?" "You wrestle in vain with the devil for her soul, my lord." "She will not be saved." "Now as to this matter of the man's dress." "For the last time... will you put off that impudent attire, and dress as becomes your sex?" "I will not." "The sin of disobedience, my lord." "But my voices tell me I must dress as a soldier." "Joan, does not that prove to you that the voices are voices of evil spirits?" "Can you suggest to us one good reason why an angel of God... should give you such shameless advice?" "Why, yes, what can be plainer commonsense?" "I was a soldier living among soldiers." "I am a prisoner guarded by soldiers." "If I were to dress as a woman they would think of me as a woman." "If I dress as a soldier they think of me as a soldier." "And I can live with them as I do at home with my brothers." "That is why St Catherine tells me I must not dress as a woman... until she gives me leave." "When will she give you leave?" "When you take me out of the hands of the English soldiers." "I should be in the hands of the Church... and not left night and day with four soldiers of the Earl of Warwick." "Do you want me to live with them in petticoats?" "My lord, what she says is, God knows, very wrong and shocking... but there is a grain of worldly sense in it such... as might impose on a simple village maiden." "A simple village maiden..." "If we were as simple in the village as you are in your courts and palaces... there would soon be no wheat to make bread for you." "Joan, we are all trying to save you." "His lordship is trying to save you." "The Inquisitor could not be more just to you if you were his own daughter." "But you are blinded by a terrible pride and self-sufficiency." "Why do you say that?" "I have said nothing wrong." "I cannot understand." "The blessed St Athanasius has laid it down that... those who cannot understand are damned." "It is not enough to be simple." "It is not enough even to be what simple people call good." "The simplicity of a darkened mind... is no better than the simplicity of a beast." "There is great wisdom in the simplicity of a beast, let me tell you... and sometimes great foolishness in the wisdom of scholars." "We know that, Joan, we are not so foolish as you think us." "Try to resist the temptation to make pert replies to us." "Do you see that man who stands behind you?" "The torturer?" "But the Bishop said I was not to be tortured." "You are not to be tortured because you have confessed everything... that is necessary to your condemnation." "That man is not only the torturer." "He is also the Executioner." "Executioner, let The Maid hear your answers to my questions." "Are you prepared for the burning of a heretic this day?" "Yes, Master." "Is the stake ready?" "It is." "In the market-place." "The English have built it too high for me to get near her... and make the death easier." "It will be a cruel death." "But you are not going to burn me now?" "You realize it at last." "There are eight hundred English soldiers... waiting to take you to the market-place the moment... the sentence of excommunication has passed the lips of your judges." "You are within a few short moments of that doom." "Oh God!" "Do not despair, Joan." "The Church is merciful." "You can save yourself." "Yes, my voices promised me I should not be burnt." "St Catherine bade me be bold." "Woman, are you quite mad?" "Do you not yet see that your voices have deceived you?" "Oh no, that is impossible." "Impossible?" "They have led you straight to your excommunication... and to the stake which is there waiting for you." "Have they kept a single promise to you since you were taken at Compiègne?" "The devil has betrayed you." "The Church holds out its arms to you." "Oh, it is true, it is true, my voices have deceived me." "I have been mocked by devils." "My faith is broken." "I have dared and dared." "But only a fool will walk into a fire." "God, who gave me my commonsense, cannot will me to do that." "God be praised that He has saved you at the eleventh hour." "Amen." "What must I do?" "You must sign a solemn recantation of your heresy." "Sign?" "That means to write my name." "I cannot write." "You have signed many letters before." "Yes." "But someone held my hand and guided the pen." "I can make my mark." "My lord, do you mean that you are going to allow... this woman to escape us?" "The law must take its course, Master de Stogumber, and you know the law." "I know that there is no faith in a Frenchman." "I know what my lord the Cardinal of Winchester will say... when he hears of this." "I know what the Earl of Warwick will do... when he learns that you intend to betray him." "There are eight hundred men at the gate... who will see that this abominable witch is burnt in spite of your teeth." "Master Chaplain, bethink you a moment of your holy office... of what you are, and where you are." "I direct you to sit down." "My lord, here is the form of recantation for The Maid to sign." "Read it to her." "Be seated." "Do not trouble." "I will sign it." "Woman, you must know what you are putting your hand to." "Read it to her, Brother Martin." "'I, Joan, commonly called The Maid... a miserable sinner... do confess that I have most grievously sinned in the following articles." "I have pretended to have revelations from..." "God and the angels and the blessed saints... and rejected the Church's warnings that these were temptations by demons." "I have blasphemed abominably by wearing an immodest dress... contrary to the Holy Scripture and the canons of the Church." "Also I have clipped my hair in the style of a man and... against all the duties which have made my sex specially acceptable in heaven... have taken up the sword, even to the shedding of human blood... inciting men to slay each other, invoking evil spirits to delude them... and stubbornly and most blasphemously imputing these sins to Almighty God." "I confess to the sin of sedition, to the sin of idolatry... to the sin of disobedience, to the sin of pride, and to the sin of heresy." "All of which sins I now renounce and abjure and depart from... humbly thanking you Doctors and Masters who have brought me back to the truth... and into the grace of our Lord." "And I will never return to my errors... but will remain in communion with our Holy Church... and in obedience to our Holy Father the Pope of Rome." "All this I swear by God Almighty and the Holy Gospels... in witness whereto I sign my name to this recantation.'" "You understand this, Joan?" "I believe so." "And is it true?" "It may be true." "If it were not true, the fire would not be ready for me in the market-place." "Let me guide your hand." "Take the pen." "Take the pen." "J-o-a-n." "So." "Now make your mark by yourself." "There." "Praise be to God, my brothers, the lamb has returned to the flock... and the shepherd rejoices in her more... than in ninety and nine just persons." "We declare thee by this act set free from the danger of excommunication... in which thou stoodest." "I thank you." "But because thou has sinned most presumptuously against..." "God and the Holy Church, and that thou mayst repent thy errors... in solitary contemplation, and be shielded from all temptation... to return to them, we, for the good of thy soul... and for a penance that may wipe out thy sins... and bring thee finally unspotted to the throne of grace... do condemn thee to eat the bread of sorrow... and drink the water of affliction... to the end of thy earthly days in perpetual imprisonment." "Perpetual imprisonment!" "Am I not then to be set free?" "Set free, child, after such wickedness as yours!" "Light your fire!" "Do you think I dread it as much as the life of a rat in a hole?" "My voices were right." "They told me that I was not to listen to your fine words... nor trust to your charity." "You promised me my life, but you lied." "You think that life is nothing but not being stone dead." "I can live on water and bread." "When have I asked for more?" "It is no hardship to drink water if the water be clean." "Bread has no sorrow for me, and water no affliction." "But to shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of fields and flowers... to chain my feet... so that I can never again ride with the soldiers nor climb the hills... to make me breathe foul damp darkness... and keep from me everything that brings me back to the love of God... when your wickedness and foolishness tempt me to hate Him... all this is worse than the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times." "I could do without my warhorse." "I could drag about in a skirt." "I could let the banners and the trumpets pass me... and leave me behind as they leave the other women... if only I could still hear the wind in the trees... the larks in the sunshine... the young lambs crying through the healthy frost... and the blessed blessed church bells that send my angel voices... floating to me on the wind." "Without these things..." "I cannot live." "And by your wanting to take them away from me... or from any human creature..." "I know that your counsel is of the devil, and that mine is of God." "She said our counsel was of the devil." "The devil is in our midst!" "She is a relapsed heretic!" "I call for her excommunication!" "Light your fire, man." "To the stake with her." "If your counsel were of God would He not deliver you?" "His ways are not your ways." "He wills that I go through the fire to His bosom." "I am His child." "And you are not fit that I should live among you." "That is my last word to you." "Not yet." "We decree that thou art a relapsed heretic." "Cast out from the unity of the Church." "Sundered from her body." "Infected with the leprosy of heresy." "A member of Satan." "We declare that thou must be excommunicate." "And now we do cast thee out, segregate thee... and abandon thee to the secular power." "Admonishing the same secular power that it moderate its judgment of thee... in respect of death and division of the limbs." "And if any true sign of penitence appear in thee... to permit our Brother Martin to administer to thee... the sacrament of penance." "Into the fire with the witch." "No, no, this is wrong." "They cannot take her like this." "That man is an incorrigible fool." "Brother Martin, see that everything is done in order." "My place is at her side, my Lord." "You must exercise your own authority." "These English are impossible." "They will thrust her straight into the fire." "I must stop that." "Yes, but not too fast, my lord." "But there is not a moment to lose." "We are not to blame." "We have proceeded in perfect order." "If the English choose to put themselves in the wrong... it is not our business to put them in the right." "A flaw in the procedure may be useful later on." "One never knows." "And the sooner it is over, the better for that poor girl." "That is true." "But I suppose we must see this dreadful thing through." "One gets used to it." "Habit is everything." "I am accustomed to the fire." "It is soon over." "But it is a terrible thing to see a young and innocent creature... crushed between these mighty forces, the Church and the Law." "You call her innocent." "Quite innocent." "What does she know of the Church and the Law?" "She did not understand a word we were saying." "It is the ignorant who suffer." "Come, or we shall be late for the end." "I shall not be sorry if we are." "I am not so accustomed as you." "Oh, I am intruding." "I thought it was all over." "Do not go, my lord." "It is all over." "The execution is not in our hands, my lord." "But it is desirable that we should witness the end." "So by your leave..." "There is some doubt, my lord... whether your people have observed the forms of law." "I am told that there is some doubt... whether your authority runs in this city." "It is not in your diocese." "However, if you will answer for that I will swear for the rest." "It is to God that we both must answer." "Good morning, my lord." "Good morning, my lord." "Attendance!" "Guards!" "Is anyone here?" "Brian!" "Child, where are you?" "They have all gone to see the burning." "Even that child." "JOAN" "JOAN OF ARC" "SAINT JOAN a dramatized chronicle by George Bernard Shaw"