As Cauchon had not been able to convict Saint Joan either of being an impostor or one in league with the evil one, her answers during the trial having made her many friends and brought over to her side men who had previously doubted her, he was at a loss how to strengthen the cause of the prosecution.
He was resolved to destroy the Maid under any pretext, and finally determined to bring against her the charge of heresy and rebellion against the Church. To this end he proceeded to have her questioned privately, as the judgment of her hearers at her public trial had been favorable to her cause. To have been accused of insubordination to the Church by two such men as Cauchon and d'Estivet, his colleague, would have been from their previous conduct not a surprising thing. But not for one moment did Saint Joan confound these arch-deceivers, who had no authority from the Church, with the governing powers of the great body of which she was a member. To any one who observes the fearlessness of her answers, their courage and coolness, joined to the shrewdness with which she parried and confronted their foolish and irrelevant questions, must go far toward convincing the mind of the reality of her divine mission.
Fearful of the judgment of honest men against him, Cauchon had commanded the attendance of Brother Isambard de la Pierre, a Franciscan of piety, honesty, and good repute. This decision of Cauchon resulted in Saint Joan's favor, as Brother Isambard at once became convinced of her absolute sincerity, by reason of the extraordinary manner in which she replied to all the questions, which were selected with a view of confusing and condemning her. He became her very good friend and remained so until her last hour.
Said he, in his declaration after the Maid's death, "Such difficult, crafty, subtle questions were put to poor Joan that the great clerks and learned doctors present would have found it hard to answer them."
"Are you willing to submit to the Church?" asked Cauchon.
"What is the Church?" answered wise Saint Joan, with another question. "So far as it is you I will not submit to your judgment, because you are my deadly enemy."
"Would you submit to the judgment of the Pope?"
"Take me to him," replied Saint Joan, "and I shall be content."
But that was the farthest thing from Cauchon's thoughts. Brother Isambard, who saw that whatever happened, Saint Joan would never be justified as long as she remained in the hands of her enemy, advised her to submit to the General Council, then sitting at Basle, which, he assured her, would do her justice.
"Oh!" she replied. "If at that place there are any who are on our side I am quite willing to submit to the Council of Basle."
"Hold your tongue, in the devil's name!" shouted Cauchon, and told the clerk to make no note of her answer - which would have been in her favor, as it evinced her willingness to submit to the highest authority.
Whereupon Saint Joan cried:
"What is for me you never write down - what is against me you never fail to write. I appeal - "
"She appeals," wrote the clerk - and was ordered to write no further. And it stands thus on the records to this day.
"Do you believe in the Church militant?" they asked her.
"What do you mean by that?" answered the simple Maid, unskilled in aught of religion but the science of prayer.
"Do you believe in the Church triumphant?" they inquired, seeking still more to confuse her.
Again Saint Joan asked them to make their meaning clear. When they had explained, with her accustomed wariness, fearing some trick, she besought them to allow her to consider it until the afternoon.
Again the merciless questioning was resumed.
"Do you know if Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret hate the English?" they asked her.
"They love what God loves: they hate what God hates."
"Does God hate the English?"
"Of the love or hate God may have for the English or of what He will do for their souls, I know nothing, but I know quite well they will be put out of France, except those who shall die there, and that God will send victory to the French against the English."
"Was God for the English when they were prospering in France?"
"I do not know if God hated the French; but I believe He wished them to be defeated for their sins, if they were in sin."
They could not confound her.
Holy Week was approaching. She begged permission to hear Mass on Palm Sunday and to receive the Holy Eucharist on Easter Day. It was not granted her. That afternoon, Isambard de la Pierre, accompanied by Brother Guillaume Duval and Jean de la Fontaine, went to the prison to give her some advice. The English Earl of Warwick, who had been one of the attendants at the private trial and had observed that Brother Isambard had endeavored to help Saint Joan in her answers, by nudging her with his elbow and making signs to her, happened to be near.
"Why did you touch that wicked person this morning, making many signs?" he exclaimed. "Mort bleu, villain! If I see you again taking trouble to deliver her and to advise her for her good, I will have you thrown into the Seine!"
After that Brother Guillaume fled to his convent and remained there, and Brother Isambard, whether through fear of what might happen to himself, or thinking it better for Saint Joan's cause that she should not provoke her enemies, kept a close silence. But he did not desert her until she needed him no more.
- taken from A Child's Life of Saint Joan of Arc, by Mary Ellen Mannix