For another fortnight Jeanne was sent back into the silence, and to her
own thoughts, which must have grown heavier and heavier as the weary
days went on, and no sound of approaching deliverance came, no rumour
of help at hand. All was quiet and safe at Rouen; amid the babble of the
courtyard which she might hear fitfully when her guardians were quieter
than usual, there was not one word which brought the hope of a French
army at hand, or of any movement to rescue her. All was silent in the
world around, not a breath of hope, not the whisper of a friend. It was
not till the 2d of May that the dreadful blank was again broken, and she
was called to the great hall of the castle for another interview with
her tormentors. When she was led into the hall it was full, as in the
first sitting, sixty-three judges in all being present. The interest
had flagged or the pity had grown as the trial dragged its slow length
along; but now, when every day the verdict was expected from Paris, the
interest had risen again. On her way from her prison to the hall, it was
necessary to pass the door of the castle chapel: and here once or twice
Massieu, the officer of the court, had permitted her to pause and kneel
down as she passed. This was all the celebration of the Paschal Feast
that was permitted to Jeanne. The compassionate official, however, was
discovered in this small service of charity, and sternly reprimanded
and threatened. Henceforward she had to pass without even a longing look
through the door at the altar on which was the holy sacrament.

She came in on the renewed sitting of the 2d May to find the assembled
priests settling themselves, after the address which had been made to
them, to hear another address which John de Chasteillon, Archdeacon, had
prepared for herself, in which he said much that was good both for body
and soul, to which she consented. He had a list of twelve articles in
his hands, and explained and expounded them to her, as they were the