JOAN. You meant to be good to me, I know; but it is a fish that does not agree with me. The English thought you were trying to poison me— CAUCHON } [_together_] { What! THE CHAPLAIN } { No, my lord. JOAN [_continuing_] They are determined that I shall be burnt as a witch; and they sent their doctor to cure me; but he was forbidden to bleed me because the silly people believe that a witch’s witchery leaves her if she is bled; so he only called me filthy names. Why do you leave me in the hands of the English? I should be in the hands of the Church. And why must I be chained by the feet to a log of wood? Are you afraid I will fly away? D’ESTIVET [_harshly_] Woman: it is not for you to question the court: it is for us to question you. COURCELLES. When you were left unchained, did you not try to escape by jumping from a tower sixty feet high? If you cannot fly like a witch, how is it that you are still alive? JOAN. I suppose because the tower was not so high then. It has grown higher every day since you began asking me questions about it. D’ESTIVET. Why did you jump from the tower? JOAN. How do you know that I jumped? D’ESTIVET. You were found lying in the moat. Why did you leave the tower? JOAN. Why would anybody leave a prison if they could get out? D’ESTIVET. You tried to escape. JOAN. Of course I did; and not for the first time either. If you leave the door of the cage open the bird will fly out. D’ESTIVET [_rising_] That is a confession of heresy. I call the attention of the court to it. JOAN. Heresy, he calls it! Am I a heretic because I try to escape from prison? D’ESTIVET. Assuredly, if you are in the hands of the Church, and you wilfully take yourself out of its hands, you are deserting the Church; and that is heresy. JOAN. It is great nonsense. Nobody could be such a fool as to think that. D’ESTIVET. You hear, my lord, how I am reviled in the execution of my duty by this woman. [_He sits down indignantly_]. CAUCHON. I have warned you before, Joan, that you are doing yourself no good by these pert answers. JOAN. But you will not talk sense to me. I am reasonable if you will be reasonable. THE INQUISITOR [_interposing_] This is not yet in order. You forget, Master Promoter, that the proceedings have not been formally opened. The time for questions is after she has sworn on the Gospels to tell us the whole truth. JOAN. You say this to me every time. I have said again and again that I will tell you all that concerns this trial. But I cannot tell you the whole truth: God does not allow the whole truth to be told. You do not understand it when I tell it. It is an old saying that he who tells too much truth is sure to be hanged. I am weary of this argument: we have been over it nine times already. I have sworn as much as I will swear; and I will swear no more. COURCELLES. My lord: she should be put to the torture.