CAUCHON. No. When the Church cuts off an obstinate heretic as a dead branch from the tree of life, the heretic is handed over to the secular arm. The church has no part in what the secular arm may see fit to do. WARWICK. Precisely. And I shall be the secular arm in this case. Well, my lord, hand over your dead branch; and I will see that the fire is ready for it. If you will answer for the Church’s part, I will answer for the secular part. CAUCHON [_with smouldering anger_] I can answer for nothing. You great lords are too prone to treat the Church as a mere political convenience. WARWICK [_smiling and propitiatory_] Not in England, I assure you. CAUCHON. In England more than anywhere else. No, my lord: the soul of this village girl is of equal value with yours or your king’s before the throne of God; and my first duty is to save it. I will not suffer your lordship to smile at me as if I were repeating a meaningless form of words, and it were well understood between us that I should betray the girl to you. I am no mere political bishop: my faith is to me what your honor is to you; and if there be a loophole through which this baptized child of God can creep to her salvation, I shall guide her to it. THE CHAPLAIN [_rising in a fury_] You are a traitor. CAUCHON [_springing up_] You lie, priest. [_Trembling with rage_] If you dare do what this woman has done—set your country above the holy Catholic Church—you shall go to the fire with her. THE CHAPLAIN. My lord: I—I went too far. I—[_he sits down with a submissive gesture_]. WARWICK [_who has risen apprehensively_] My lord: I apologize to you for the word used by Messire John de Stogumber. It does not mean in England what it does in France. In your language traitor means betrayer: one who is perfidious, treacherous, unfaithful, disloyal. In our country it means simply one who is not wholly devoted to our English interests. CAUCHON. I am sorry: I did not understand. [_He subsides into his chair with dignity._] WARWICK [_resuming his seat, much relieved_] I must apologize on my own account if I have seemed to take the burning of this poor girl too lightly. When one has seen whole countrysides burnt over and over again as mere items in military routine, one has to grow a very thick skin. Otherwise one might go mad: at all events, I should. May I venture to assume that your lordship also, having to see so many heretics burnt from time to time, is compelled to take—shall I say a professional view of what would otherwise be a very horrible incident? CAUCHON. Yes: it is a painful duty: even, as you say, a horrible one. But in comparison with the horror of heresy it is less than nothing. I am not thinking of this girl’s body, which will suffer for a few moments only, and which must in any event die in some more or less painful manner, but of her soul, which may suffer to all eternity.