NINE o'clock
And there were other great crowds of the like caste gathered in masses outside the castle gates . And when the lights and the other accompaniments of the Sacrament passed by , coming to Joan in the prison , all those multitudes kneeled down and began to pray for her , and many wept ; and when the solemn ceremony of the communion began in Joan 's cell , out of the distance a moving sound was borne moaning to our ears -- it was those invisible multitudes chanting the litany for a departing soul . The fear of the fiery death was gone from Joan of Arc now , to come again no more , except for one fleeting instant -- then it would pass , and serenity and courage would take its place and abide till the end . 24 Joan the Martyr AT NINE o'clock the Maid of Orleans , Deliverer of France , went forth in the grace of her innocence and her youth to lay down her life for the country she loved with such devotion , and for the King that had abandoned her . She sat in the cart that is used only for felons . In one respect she was treated worse than a felon ; for whereas she was on her way to be sentenced by the civil arm , she already bore her judgment inscribed in advance upon a miter-shaped cap which she wore : HERETIC , RELAPSED , APOSTATE , IDOLATER In the cart with her sat the friar Martin Ladvenu and Maetre Jean Massieu . She looked girlishly fair and sweet and saintly in her long white robe , and when a gush of sunlight flooded her as she emerged from the gloom of the prison and was yet for a moment still framed in the arch of the somber gate , the massed multitudes of poor folk murmured `` A vision !