主题：【原创】淘书记（二十二）这里水深十二英尺（上） -- 履虎尾

Presently the house pricked up its ears and began to listen eagerly, for Beaupere began to touch upon Joan’s Voices, a matter of consuming interest and curiosity to everybody. His purpose was to trick her into heedless sayings that could indicate that the Voices had sometimes given her evil advice - hence that they had come from Satan, you see. To have dealings with the devil - well, that would send her to the stake in brief order, and that was the deliberate end and aim of this trial.

‘When did you first hear these Voices?’

‘I was thirteen when I first heard a Voice coming from God to help me to live well. I was frightened. It came at mid-day, in my father’s garden in the summer.’

‘Had you been fasting?’

‘Yes.’

‘The day before?’

‘No.’

‘From what direction did it come?’

‘From the right - from toward the church.’

‘Did it come with a bright light?’

‘Oh, indeed yes. It was brilliant. When I came into France I often heard the Voices very loud.’

‘What did the Voices sound like?’

‘It was a noble Voice, and I thought it was sent to me from God. The third time I heard it I recognised it as being an angel’s.’

‘You could understand it?’

‘Quite easily. It was always clear.’

‘What advice did it give you as to the salvation of your soul?’

‘It told me to live rightly and be regular in attendance upon the services of the Church. And it told me that I must go to France.’

‘In what species of form did the Voice appear?’

Joan looked suspiciously at the priest a moment, then said, tranquilly -

‘As to that I will not tell you.’

‘Did the Voice seek you often?’

‘Yes. Twice or three times a week, saying, "Leave your village and go to France."’

'Did your father know about your departure?’

‘No. The voice said, "Go to France"; therefore I could not abide at home any longer.’

‘What else did it say?’

‘That I should raise the siege of Orleans.’

‘Was that all?’

‘No, I was to go to Vaucouleurs, and Robert de Baudricourt would give me soldiers to go with me to France; and I answered, saying that I was a poor girl who did not know how to ride, neither how to fight.’

Then she told how she was baulked and interrupted at Vaucouleurs, but finally got her soldiers, and began her march.

最后说一句，该书的全称是Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte。最初发表于1895年。