“Now then, Jeanne, did not your Voices promise you deliverance?”
“Yes;” she admitted sadly.
“Then you must perceive that they are evil and come not from God. Had this not been true they would not have deceived you.”
“I see that I have been deceived,” she said. They had said, “Take all things peacefully: heed not this martyrdom. Thou shalt come at last into the Kingdom of Paradise.” They had spoken also of deliverance by a great victory, but Jeanne misunderstood the message. So now she said sadly, “I see that I 379 have been deceived. But,” she added, “be they good spirits or bad spirits, they really appeared to me.”
And now she was allowed to receive the Sacraments, for this would be proof that the Maid had again recanted. The sacrament was brought irreverently, without stole or candles, so that Ladvenu remonstrated indignantly, not being willing to administer a diminished rite. And at his request the Host was sent with a train of priests chanting litanies as they went through the streets with torches burning.
Without the prison in the courtyard, in the streets, everywhere in the city the people gathered to pray for her, their hearts touched with pity at her sad fate.
The maiden received the Sacrament with tears and devotion, the churchmen expounding views and exhorting her during all the time that it was administered. Pierre Maurice spoke kindly to her at its close.
“Ah, Sieur Pierre,” she said, “where shall I be to-night?”
“Have you not good faith in the Lord?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered. “God helping me I shall be in Paradise.”