Page:Joan of Arc - Southey (1796).djvu/122

 Whether of holy church a duteous child Before our court appears, so not unlike Heaven might vouchsafe its gracious miracle: Or silly heretic whose erring thoughts Monstrous and vain perchance might stray beyond All reason, and conceit strange dreams and signs Impossible? Say, woman, from thy youth Hast thou (as rightly mother church demands) To holy Priest confess'd each secret sin, So purged by grace to him vouchsaf'd from Heaven, Of absolution? "Father," she replied, "In forest shade my infant years train'd up Knew not devotion's forms. The chaunted mass, The silver altar and religious robe, The mystic wafer and the hallowed cup, Gods priest-created, are to me unknown. Beneath no high-arch'd roof I bow'd in prayer, No solemn light by storied pane disguis'd, No trophied pillars, and no imag'd cross "Wak'd