'Through my voices. I asked in a letter that the sword should be given me, and the clergy sent me it. It lay underground—I am not certain whether at the front or at the back of the altar. It was cleaned by the people belonging to the church. They had a scabbard made for me; also one was made at Tours—one of velvet, the other of black cloth. I had also a third one for the Fierbois sword made of very strong leather.'
'Were you wearing that sword,' asked Beaupère, 'when you were captured?'
'No, I had not one then; I used to wear it constantly up to the time that I left Saint Denis, after the assault on Paris.'
'What benediction did you bestow on that sword?'
'None,' said Joan; and she added, on being questioned as to her feeling about the sword, that she had a particular liking for it, from its having been found in the Church of Sainte Catherine, her favourite saint.
Then Beaupère inquired whether Joan was not in the habit of placing this sword on the altar, in order to bring it good luck.
Joan answered in the negative.
'But then,' the priest asked, 'had she not prayed that it might bring her good fortune?'
'It is enough to know,' answered Joan, 'that I wished my armour might bring me good fortune.'