merity, besought him
instantly to seek safety in flight; and, when this last appeal proved as
ineffectual as all his frequent efforts in the past, he confessed that
he almost regretted that a friendship had ever arisen which had
occasioned him so much trouble and disquiet.[292]

A third time Louis de Berquin was arrested, on application of the
officer known as the _Promoteur de la foi_. His trial was committed to
twelve judges selected by parliament, among whom figured not only the
first president and the vicar-general of the Bishop of Paris, but,
strange to say, even so well-disposed and liberal a jurist as Guillaume
Bude, the foremost French scholar of the age for broad and accurate
learning.[293] The case advanced too slowly to meet De Berquin's
impatience. In the assurance of ultimate success, he is even accused by
a contemporary chronicler of having offered the court two hundred crowns
to expedite the trial.[294] It soon became evident, however, from, the
withdrawal of the liberties at first accorded, that Be Berquin would
scarcely escape unless the king again interposed--a contingency less
likely to occur in view of the incessant appeals with which Francis was
plied, addressed at once to his interest, his conscience, and his pride.
But the more desperate the cause of Berquin, and the more uncertain the
king's disposition, the more urgent the intercessions of Margaret of
Angouleme, whose character is nowhere seen to better advantage than in
her repeated letters to her brother about this time.[295]

[Sidenote: Berquin sentenced to public penance, branding, and
imprisonment.]

The sentence was rendered on the sixteenth of April, 1529. De Berquin,
being found guilty of heresy, was condemned to do public penance in
front of Notre Dame, with lighted taper in hand, and crying for mercy to
God and the blessed Virgin. Next, on the Place de Greve, he was to be
ignominiously exhibited upon a scaffold, while his books were burned
before his eyes. Taken thence in a cart to the pillory, and again
exposed to popular derision on a revolving stage, he was to have his
tongue pierced and his forehead branded with the ineffaceable
_fleur-de-lis_. His public disgrace over, De Berquin was to be
imprisoned for life in the episcopal jail.[296]

[Sidenote: He appeals, is sentenced to death, and is executed.]

More than twenty thousand persons--so intense a hatred had been stirred
up against the reformers--assembled to witness the exe