Give up to the Maid the keys of all the good towns you have taken by
force. She is come from God to avenge the blood royal, and quite
ready to make peace, if you will render proper account. If you do
not so I am a war-chief; in whatsoever place I shall fall in with
your folks in France, if they be not willing to obey, I shall make
them get thence, whether they will or not; and if they be willing to
obey, I will receive them to mercy. . . . The Maid cometh from
the King of Heaven as His representative, to thrust you out of
France; she doth promise and certify you that she will make therein
such mighty _haha_ [great tumult], that for a thousand years
hitherto in France was never the like. . . . Duke of Bedford,
who call yourself regent of France, the Maid doth pray you and
request you not to bring destruction on yourself; if you do not
justice towards her, she will do the finest deed ever done in
Christendom.

"Writ on Tuesday in the great week." [Easter week, March, 1429].
Subscribed: "Hearken to the news from God and the

Maid."

At the end of their examination, the doctors decided in Joan's favor.
Two of them, the Bishop of Castres, Gerard Machet, the king's confessor,
and Master John Erault, recognized the divine nature of her mission. She
was, they said, the virgin foretold in the ancient prophecies, notably in
those of Merlin; and the most exacting amongst them approved of the
king's having neither accepted nor rejected, with levity, the promises
made by Joan; "after a grave inquiry there had been discovered in her,"
they said, "nought but goodness, humility, devotion, honesty, simplicity.
Before Orleans she professes to be going to show her sign; so she must be