I writhed, but I did not cry.
"Write--" "I, Norman Leslie of Pitcullo--" and, to escape that agony, I wrote as he bade me.
"-- being now in the article of death--" And I wrote.
"-- do attest on my hope of salvation--" And I wrote.
"-- 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 falsely and treacherously accused by me--" I wrote, but I wrote not his false words, putting my own in their place--"has been most truly and righteously accused by me--" "-- of divers deeds of black treason, and dealing with our enemies of England, against our Lord the Dauphin, and the Maid, the Sister of the Saints, and of this I heartily repent me,--" But I wrote, "All which I maintain--" "-- as may God pardon my sins, on the faith of a sinful and dying man." "Now sign thy name, and that of thy worshipful cabbage-garden and dunghill in filthy Scotland." So I signed, "Norman Leslie, the younger, of Pitcullo," and added the place, Orleans, with the date of day and year of our Lord, namely, May the eighth, fourteen hundred and twenty-nine.
"A very laudable confession," quoth Brother Thomas; "would that all the sinners whom I have absolved, as I am about to absolve thee, had cleansed and purged their sinful souls as freely.

And now, my brother, read aloud to me this scroll; nay, methinks it is ill for thy health to speak or read.

A sad matter is this, for, in faith, I have forgotten my clergy myself, and thou mayst have beguiled me by inditing other matter than I have put into thy lying mouth.

Still, where the safety of a soul is concerned, a few hours more or less of this vain, perishable life weigh but as dust in the balance." Here he took from about his hairy neck a heavy Italian crucifix of black wood, whereon was a figure of our Lord, wrought in white enamel, with golden nails, and a golden crown of thorns.
"Now read," he whispered, heaving up the crucifix above me.

And as he lifted it, a bright blade, strong, narrow, and sharp, leaped out from beneath the feet of our Lord, and glittered within an inch of my throat.
An emblem of this false friar it was, the outside of whom was as that of a holy man, while within he was a murdering sword.
"Read!" he whispered again, pricking my throat with the dagger's point.
Then I read aloud, and as I read I was half choked with my blood, and now and then was stopped; but still he cried-- "Read, and if one word is wrong, thine absolution shall come all the swifter." So I read, and, may I be forgiven if I sinned in deceiving one so vile! I uttered not what I had written, but what he had bidden me to write.
"I, Norman Leslie of Pitcullo, being now in the article of death, 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 falsely and treacherously accused by me of divers deeds of black treason, and dealing with our enemies of England, against our Lord the Dauphin, and the Maid, the Sister of the Saints, and of this I heartily repent me, as may God pardon my sins, on the faith of a sinful and dying man.