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Untitled Article
ma your Christian faith . I was anxious to know if I must bear a faggot in my hands * or stand in a white sheet , bare-footed and bare-headed , to the public gaze , thus to do penances , as if my crime were a shame- * kiss lack of chastity , and myself some vain and profligate wanton . ' As she finished speaking , she bent her eyes upon the ground , and drew -more closely round her the white and modest folds of her long
veil , while a deep , and , it seemed , an angry blush spread over her face , and mounted even to her forehead . There was another pause , in which the council , rising from their seats , discoursed together for some few minutes . Their whispers were short and low ; and they had the air of men whose measures were already determined , and who only needed the general and decided assent then given , to make known their decision to the prisoner .
Joan had continued to sit with her face still unraised ; and even while the sentence of excommunication was read , she remained as one almost regardless of what " passed , till another paper was read , in which her death was spoken of as fixed and settled . She seemed smitten , and pierced to the soul with agony , and a shriek suddenly burst from her , so loud and shrill , that a dead silence succeeded . Breathless she sat , as if eager to catch , and silence at once , the first sound that should be spoken . Again , the same voice proceeded to read the admonition .
* Stop V she cried , rising , and tossing her arms about her wildly , 4 you are men , if there is common feeling in your bosoms , stop these proceedings . I will not die . Nay , stop , or I will curse you with a curse that shall cling to every soul among you . Stop , I command you , cowards ! poor , mean , pitiless cowards ! for cowards you must be , to ¦ it here with all this mockery of justice , nay of godliness , and with your vrritten-down and regular sentences , deliver over a helpless woman to a dreadful death . '
But while , at the command of Cranmer , a profound silence still prevailed , eome new impulse seemed gradually to rise within her . She clasped her hands , and an expression of such utter wretchedness came over her face , that the hearts of many were deeply affected . The fear of death seemed to have bowed her spirit . * God , the merciful God in heaven knows / she exclaimed , ' how unable I , a poor * feeble wretch , am to defend my righteous cause , to
make an appeal to which you will listen . He must pity me / she continued , In a voice scarcely audible , raising her eyes , and lifting her clasped hands towards heaven : * He must help me , or I am lost . Why must I suffer ? I had hoped , good sirs , that happy times were come at last ; that we had done with tortures and cruel burnings .
You are not savage Papists . Nay , I had thought that many among you would have gone willingly to the stake , sooner than conform to the idolatries and cruelties of bigot QLome . Some of your faces wear a gracious aspect . Good Master Cranmer , will you not prove my friend ? You are most powerful here * Tell me , in pity , what I may do to save myself from death /
* * I scarcely need to tell you / replied the primate , with a mild gravity , ** I scarcely need repeat what you have heard so often . Hear but the truth , or I should rather say , take heed unto it : recant your errors : and , that you may show unto yourself good reason for ao doing , call bMtk your ftpirtta from those flighti , those wanderings in the realm of *¦ - . *
Untitled Article
40 , 6 Critical Notice * . —Fiction .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 426, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/66/
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