She was right.  After Paris fell, in 1436, the rest of the work had to be done city by city, castle by castle, and it took twenty years to finish it.

Yes, it was the first day of March, 1431, there in the court, that she stood in the view of everybody and uttered that strange and incredible prediction.  Now and then, in this world, somebody’s prophecy turns up correct, but when you come to look into it there is sure to be considerable room for suspicion that the prophecy was made after the fact.  But here the matter is different.  There in that court Joan’s prophecy was set down in the official record at the hour and moment of its utterance, years before the fulfilment, and there you may read it to this day.

Twenty-five years after Joan’s death the record was produced in the great Court of the Rehabilitation and verified under oath by Manchon and me, and surviving judges of our court confirmed the exactness of the record in their testimony.

Joan’ startling utterance on that now so celebrated first of March stirred up a great turmoil, and it was some time before it quieted down again.  Naturally, everybody was troubled, for a prophecy is a grisly and awful thing, whether one thinks it ascends from hell or comes down from heaven.

All that these people felt sure of was, that the inspiration back of it was genuine and puissant.

They would have given their right hands to know the source of it.

At last the questions began again.

“How do you know that those things are going to happen?”

“I know it by revelation.  And I know it as surely as I know that you sit here before me.”

This sort of answer was not going to allay the spreading uneasiness.  Therefore, after some further dallying the judge got the subject out of the way and took up one which he could enjoy more.

“What languages do your Voices speak?”

“French.”

“St. Marguerite, too?”

“Verily; why not?  She is on our side, not on the English!”

Saints and angels who did not condescend to speak English is a grave affront.  They could not be brought into court and punished for contempt, but the tribunal could take silent note of Joan’s remark and remember it against her; which they did.  It might be useful by and by.

“Do your saints and angels wear jewelry?—­crowns, rings, earrings?”

To Joan, questions like these were profane frivolities and not worthy of serious notice; she answered indifferently.  But the question brought to her mind another matter, and she turned upon Cauchon and said: 

“I had two rings.  They have been taken away from me during my captivity.  You have one of them.  It is the gift of my brother.  Give it back to me.  If not to me, then I pray that it be given to the Church.”

The judges conceived the idea that maybe these rings were for the working of enchantments.