he selection of such men to conduct its
proceedings. They made a great and terrible mistake, as the wisest
of men have made before now. They did much worse, they behaved to an
unfortunate girl who was in their power with indescribable ferocity and
cruelty; but we must hope that this was owing to the period at which
they lived rather than to themselves.

It is not perhaps indeed from the wise and learned, the Stoics and
Pundits of a University, that we should choose judges for the divine
simplicity of those babes and sucklings out of whose mouth praise is
perfected. At the same time to choose the best men is not generally the
way adopted to procure a base judgement. Cauchon might have been subject
to this blame had he filled the benches of his court with creatures of
his own, nameless priests and dialecticians, knowing nothing but
their own poor science of words. He did not do so. There were but two
Englishmen in the assembly, neither of them men of any importance or
influence although there must have been many English priests in the
country and in the train of Winchester. There were not even any special
partisans of Burgundy, though some of the assessors were Burgundian by
birth. We should have said, had we known no more than this, that every
precaution had been taken to give the Maid the fairest trial. But at the
same time a trial which is conducted under the name of the Inquisition
is always suspect. The mere fact of that terrible name seems to
establish a foregone conclusion; few are the prisoners at that bar who
have ever escaped. This fact is almost all that can be set against the
high character of the individuals who composed the tribunal. At all
events it is no argument against the English that they permitted the
best men in France to be chosen as Jeanne's judges. It is the most
bewildering and astonishing of historical facts that they were so, and
yet came to the conclusion they did, by the means they did, and that
without falling under the condemnation, or scorn, or horror of their
fellow-men.

This then was the assembly which gathered in Rouen in the beginning of
1431. Quicherat will not venture to affirm even that intimidation was
directly employed to effect their decision. He says that the evidence
"tends to prove" that this was the case, but honestly allows that, "it
is well to remark that the witnesses contradict each other." "In all
that I have said," he adds, "my intention has been to prove that the
ju