I nodded to D'Aulon that he should shut it, but he marked me not, being wholly in amaze at the written scroll of my confession.
The physician himself was no great clerk, and he read the paper slowly, stumbling over the words, as it were, while Brother Thomas, clasping his crucifix to his breast, listened in triumph as he heard what he himself had bidden me write.
"I, Norman Leslie, of--of Peet--What name is this?
Peet--I cannot utter it." "Passez outre," quoth D'Aulon.
"I, Norman Leslie, being now in the article of death"-- here the leech glanced at me, shaking his head mournfully--"do attest on my hope of salvation, and do especially desire Madame Jeanne La Pucelle, and all Frenchmen and Scots loyal to our Sovereign Lord the Dauphin, to accept my witness that Brother Thomas, of the Order of St.Francis, called Noiroufle while of the world, has been most truly and righteously accused by me of divers deeds of black treason." At these words the cordelier's hand leaped up from his breast, his crucifix dagger glittered bright, he tore his frock from D'Aulon's grip, leaving a rag of it in his hand, and smote, aiming at the squire where the gorget joins the vambrace.

Though he missed by an inch, yet so terrible was the blow that D'Aulon reeled against the wall, while the broken blade jingled on the stone floor.

Then the frock of the friar whisked through the open door of the chamber; we heard the stairs cleared in two leaps, and D'Aulon, recovering his feet, rushed after the false priest.

But he was in heavy armour, the cordelier's bare legs were doubtless the nimbler, and the physician, crossing himself, could only gape and stare on the paper in his hand.

As he gazed with his mouth open his eyes fell on me, white as my sheets, that were dabbled with the blood from my mouth.
"Nom Dieu!" he stammered, "Nom Dieu! here is business more to my mind and my trade than chasing after mad cordeliers that stab with crucifixes!" Then, coming to my side, he brought water, bathed my face, and did what his art might do for a man in such deadly extremity as was mine.