THE TRIAL OF JEANNE DARC. 479 and have my irons taken off. I prefer to die than be in irons. Let me go to mass, take off my chains, put me in a proper prison, let me have a woman for companion, and then I will be good, and do what the Church desires." They asked her if her voices had revisited her, if she still believed that they were St. Catherine and St. Mar- garet, if she adhered to what she had said with regard to the- crown given to her king by St. Michael. To all such questions she replied bluntly in the affirmative, as if court- ing death. " All that I revoked and declared on the scaffold," said she, " I did through fear of the fire. I prefer to die than endure longer the pain of imprison- ment. Never have I done anything against God or the faith. I did not understand what was in the act of abjuration. If the judges desire it, I will wear woman's dress ; beyond that I will yield nothing." To reassemble the court, and bring this erring, tor- tured, devoted child to the stake, required but two days. On Wednesday morning, May 30, 1431, there was another open-air session of the court, in a market-place of Rouen, where there was erected a platform of another kind for the prisoner. On that last morning of her life her demeanor was not stoical nor histrionic, but simply human — the demeanor of a terrified girl of nineteen who was nerving herself to a frightful ordeal which she herself had chosen. She bewailed her fate with cries and sobs. They gave her a priest to hear her in confession, after which the sacrament was brought to her by the usual procession of priests chanting a litany, and bearing many candles. She received it " very devoutly, and with a great abundance of tears," and passed her remaining time in prayer. The same cart conveyed her to the market-place, guarded by " a hundred and twenty " English men-at-arms. Another sermon was preached, upon the text, " If one member suffer, the other members suffer also." The bishop then
