Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/122

Whether of holy church a duteous child
Before our court appears, so not unlike 345
Heaven might vouchsafe its gracious miracle:
Or silly heretic whose erring thoughts
Monstrous and vain perchance might stray beyond
All reason, and conceit strange dreams and signs
Impossible? Say, woman, from thy youth 350
Hast thou (as rightly mother church demands)
To holy Priest confess'd each secret sin,
So purged by grace to him vouchsaf'd from Heaven,
Of absolution?
"Father," she replied,
"In forest shade my infant years train'd up 355
Knew not devotion's forms. The chaunted mass,
The silver altar and religious robe,
The mystic wafer and the hallowed cup,
Gods priest-created, are to me unknown.
Beneath no high-arch'd roof I bow'd in prayer, 360
No solemn light by storied pane disguis'd,
No trophied pillars, and no imag'd cross

"Wak'd