James Camus—"Be it so!"
The priests file out slowly and silently. Joan Darc remains alone, on her knees upon the straw. She raises her eyes to the vault of her prison with a radiant, inspired face, and with her hands joined, she thanks her saints for the courage they have given her to expiate and annul her apostasy by resolutely marching to death.
CHAPTER X.
TO THE FLAMES!
The scene changes. After the last interrogatory of Joan the priests proceed to Bishop Cauchon in order to inform him of the issue of their visit to the prisoner—a result that the prelate expects, so much so that he has convoked a sufficient number of judges to meet in the chapel of the Archbishop's palace at Rouen in order to proceed with the final sentence of the relapsed sinner. All the summoned prelates are assembled and in their seats in the chapel. Bishop Cauchon, seated in the center of the choir, presides, and orders silence with a gesture.
Bishop Cauchon—"My very dear brothers, Joan has fallen back into her damnable errors, and in contempt of her solemn abjuration, pronounced in the face of God and His Holy Writ, not only has she resumed her male attire, but she again stubbornly maintains that all that she has done and said was said and done by divine inspiration! I now call for your views, in the order of precedence, upon the fate of the said Joan who is now charged with having relapsed, reserving to myself the right of convoking you again, should I deem it necessary."
Archdeacon Nicolas of Venderesse—"The said Joan should be given over to the secular arm, to be burned alive as a relapsed sinner."
Abbot Agidie—"Joan is a relapsed heretic, no doubt about it. Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that a second abjuration should be proposed to her, under pain of being delivered to the secular arm."
Canon John Pinchon—"Joan has relapsed; I shall adhere to whatever plan of punishment my very dear brothers may decide upon."
Canon William Erard—"I pronounce the said Joan a relapsed sinner and deserving of the pyre."
Chaplain Robert Gilbert—"Joan should be burned as a relapsed sinner and heretic."