JOAN. What other judgment can I judge by but my own? THE ASSESSORS [_scandalized_] Oh! [_They cannot find words_]. CAUCHON. Out of your own mouth you have condemned yourself. We have striven for your salvation to the verge of sinning ourselves: we have opened the door to you again and again; and you have shut it in our faces and in the face of God. Dare you pretend, after what you have said, that you are in a state of grace? JOAN. If I am not, may God bring me to it: if I am, may God keep me in it! LADVENU. That is a very good reply, my lord. COURCELLES. Were you in a state of grace when you stole the Bishop’s horse? CAUCHON [_rising in a fury_] Oh, devil take the Bishop’s horse and you too! We are here to try a case of heresy; and no sooner do we come to the root of the matter than we are thrown back by idiots who understand nothing but horses. [_Trembling with rage, he forces himself to sit down_]. THE INQUISITOR. Gentlemen, gentlemen: in clinging to these small issues you are The Maid’s best advocates. I am not surprised that his lordship has lost patience with you. What does the Promoter say? Does he press these trumpery matters? D’ESTIVET. I am bound by my office to press everything; but when the woman confesses a heresy that must bring upon her the doom of excommunication, of what consequence is it that she has been guilty also of offences which expose her to minor penances? I share the impatience of his lordship as to these minor charges. Only, with great respect, I must emphasize the gravity of two very horrible and blasphemous crimes which she does not deny. First, she has intercourse with evil spirits, and is therefore a sorceress. Second, she wears men’s clothes, which is indecent, unnatural, and abominable; and in spite of our most earnest remonstrances and entreaties, she will not change them even to receive the sacrament. JOAN. Is the blessed St Catherine an evil spirit? Is St Margaret? Is Michael the Archangel? COURCELLES. How do you know that the spirit which appears to you is an archangel? Does he not appear to you as a naked man? JOAN. Do you think God cannot afford clothes for him? _The assessors cannot help smiling, especially as the joke is against Courcelles._ LADVENU. Well answered, Joan. THE INQUISITOR. It is, in effect, well answered. But no evil spirit would be so simple as to appear to a young girl in a guise that would scandalize her when he meant her to take him for a messenger from the Most High? Joan: the Church instructs you that these apparitions are demons seeking your soul’s perdition. Do you accept the instruction of the Church? JOAN. I accept the messenger of God. How could any faithful believer in the Church refuse him? CAUCHON. Wretched woman: again I ask you, do you know what you are saying?