She was further questioned whether it was by the advice of her voices that she attacked La Charite, and afterwards Paris, her two points of failure; the purpose of her examiners clearly being to convince her that those voices had deceived her.  To both questions she answered no.  To Paris she went at the request of gentlemen who wished to make a skirmish, or assault of arms (vaillance d’armes); but she intended to go farther, and to pass the moats; that is, to force the fighting and make the skirmish into a serious assault; the same was the case before La Charite.  She was asked whether she had no revelation concerning Pont l’Eveque, and said that since it was revealed to her at Melun that she should be taken, she had had more recourse to the will of the captains than to her own; but she did not tell them that it was revealed to her that she should be taken.  Asked, if she thought it was well done to attack Paris on the day of the Nativity of our Lady, which was a festival of the Church; she answered, that it was always well to keep the festivals of our Lady:  and in her conscience it seemed to her that it was and always would be a good thing to keep the feasts of our Lady, from one end to the other.

In the afternoon the examiners returned to the attempt at escape or suicide—­they seemed to have preferred the latter explanation—­made at Beaurevoir; and as Jeanne expresses herself with more freedom as to her personal motives in these prison examinations and opens her heart more freely, there is much here which we give in full.

She was asked first what was the cause of her leap from the tower of Beaurevoir.  She answered that she had heard that all the people of Compiegne, down to the age of seven, were to be put to the sword, and that she would rather die than live after such a destruction of good people; this was one of the reasons; the other was that she knew that she was sold to the English and that she would rather die than fall into the hands of the English, her enemies.  Asked, if she made that leap by the command of her voices; answered, that St. Catherine said to her almost every day that she was not to leap, for that God would help her, and also the people of Compiegne:  and she, Jeanne, said to St. Catherine that since God intended to help the people of Compiegne she would fain be there.  And St. Catherine said:  “You must take it in good part, but you will not be delivered till you have seen the King of the English.”  And she, Jeanne, answered:  “Truly I do not wish to see him.  I would rather die than fall into the hands of the English.”  Asked, if she had said to St. Catherine and St. Margaret, “Will God leave the good people of Compiegne to die so cruelly?” answered, that she did not say “so cruelly,” but said it in this way:  “Will God leave these good people of Compiegne to die, who have been and are so loyal to their lord?” She added that after she fell there were two or three days that she would not eat; and that she was so hurt by the leap that she could not eat; but all the time she was comforted by St. Catherine, who told her to confess and ask pardon of God for that act, and that without doubt the people of Compiegne would have succour before Martinmas.  And then she took pains to recover and began to eat, and shortly was healed.