to him in presence of
Madame la Duchesse de Valentinois and the king. I shall try to be worthy
of him."

While the physician exhorted the unfortunate lad not to force them
to have recourse to more violent measures, the cardinal and the duke,
impatient to know the result of the interrogations, entered the hall and
themselves asked Christophe to speak the truth, immediately. The young
man repeated the only confession he had allowed himself to make, which
implicated no one but Chaudieu. The princes made a sign, on which the
executioner and his assistant seized their hammers, taking each a wedge,
which then they drove in between the joints, standing one to right, the
other to left of their victim; the executioner's wedge was driven in at
the knees, his assistant's at the ankles.

The eyes of all present fastened on those of Christophe, and he, no
doubt excited by the presence of those great personages, shot forth such
burning glances that they appeared to have all the brilliancy of flame.
As the third and fourth wedges were driven in, a dreadful groan
escaped him. When he saw the executioner take up the wedges for the
"extraordinary question" he said no word and made no sound, but his eyes
took on so terrible a fixity, and he cast upon the two great princes who
were watching him a glance so penetrating, that the duke and cardinal
were forced to drop their eyes. Philippe le Bel met with the same
resistance when the torture of the pendulum was applied in his presence
to the Templars. That punishment consisted in striking the victim on the
breast with one arm of the balance pole with which money is coined,
its end being covered with a pad of leather. One of the knights thus
tortured, looked so intently at the king that Philippe could not detach
his eyes from him. At the third blow the king left the chamber on
hearing the knight summon him to appear within a year before the
judgment-seat of God,--as, in fact, he did. At the fifth blow, the
first of the "extraordinary question," Christophe said to the cardinal:
"Monseigneur, put an end to my torture; it is useless."

The cardinal and the duke re-entered the adjoining hall, and Christophe
distinctly heard the following words said by Queen Catherine: "Go on;
after all, he is only a heretic."

She judged it prudent to be more stern to her accomplice than the
executioners themselves.

The sixth and seventh wedges were driven in without a word of complaint
from Christophe. His