Was it
wonder that the people believed in her? that they would have been
ready to tear in pieces any who durst contemn her mission, or
declare her possessed of evil spirits?
Yet I will not say that it was fear which possessed the hearts of
her judges, and decided their ruling in this matter. I trow they
could not look upon her, or hear her, without conviction of heart.
Nevertheless it is possible that the respect for popular enthusiasm
led them to speak in such high praise of the Maid, and to add that
she was in the right in assuming the dress which she wore. For she
had been sent to do man's work, and for this a man's garb was the
only fitting one to wear. And this ruling was heard with great
acclamation of satisfaction; for her dress had been almost more
commented upon than any other matter by some, and that the Church
had set its sanction upon that which common sense deemed most right
and fitting, robbed the most doubtful of all scruple, and gave to
the Maid herself no small pleasure.
"I do in this, as in all other things, that which I have been
bidden," she said.
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