Canon Loyseleur—"From point to point, monseigneur. The captive travels in a closed litter, with irons on her feet and hands. When a town has to be crossed, the said Joan is gagged. No one has been able to approach her. The guards of the escort informed all inquirers that they were taking to Rouen an old witch who throttled little children to accomplish her evil deeds."
Bishop Cauchon (laughing)—"And the good people forthwith crossed themselves and gave the litter a wide berth? Stupid plebs!"
Canon Loyseleur—"It was just as you say. That notwithstanding, at Dieppe, the exasperation of the mob at what they really took for a witch became so violent that the people sought to tear her from our hands and trample her to death."
Bishop Cauchon—"The idiots! What would have been left for us?"
Canon Loyseleur—"This incident excepted, the journey went smooth. No one along the route thought for a moment that the prisoner was Joan the Maid."
Bishop Cauchon—"That was of the highest importance. The girl's renown is such in Gaul at present, even in the provinces that are subject to our English friends, that if it had been learned that she was being taken in chains, the town and country plebs would have been greatly agitated, they might even have taken the she-devil away from her keepers. Well, at any rate, we got her now!"
Canon Loyseleur (pointing to the parchments)—"Shall we now proceed with the reading of the condensed acts of the Maid?"
Bishop Cauchon (taking up a parchment on which he has made a large number of notes)—"Yes; these facts and acts are to be the basis of the process. While you, canon, read, I shall mark down the acts upon which the said Joan is to be particularly interrogated. This report, which my brother in God the Bishop of Chartres secretly sent me by orders of the Sire of La Tremouille, is very full and accurate. It is attributed to one Percival of Cagny, equerry of the Duke of Alençon[106] and a partisan of the Maid, or to be more accurate, he does her justice. The justice done to her in the report does not trouble me. Her acts have been witnessed by such a large number of people, that it would be tactless to deny or alter the truth on that head, all the more seeing that the very acts carry with them their own condemnation. Where did we break off in our reading?"
Canon Loyseleur—"At the departure from Rheims after the consecration."
Bishop Cauchon—"Continue." (He dips his pen in the ink-horn and makes ready to take notes.)