taken back, dismayed and miserable, to the prison which she
had perilled her soul to escape. It was very little she had done in
reality, and at that moment she could scarcely yet have realised what
she had done, except that it had failed. At the end of so long and
bitter a struggle she had thrown down her arms--but for what? to escape
those horrible gaolers and that accursed room with its ear of Dionysius,
its Judas hole in the wall. The bitterness of the going back was beyond
words. We hear of no word that she said when she realised the hideous
fact that nothing was changed for her; the bitter waters closed over her
head. Again the chains to be locked and double locked that bound her to
her dreadful bed, again the presence of those men who must have been
all the more odious to her from the momentary hope that she had got free
from them for ever.

The same afternoon the Vicar-Inquisitor, who had never been hard
upon her, accompanied by Nicole Midi, by the young seraphic doctor,
Courcelles, and L'Oyseleur, along with various other ecclesiastical
persons, visited her prison. The Inquisitor congratulated and almost
blessed her, sermonising as usual, but briefly and not ungently, though
with a word of warning that should she change her mind and return to her
evil ways there would be no further place for repentance. As a return
for the mercy and clemency of the Church, he required her immediately
to put on the female dress which his attendants had brought. There is
something almost ludicrous, could we forget the tragedy to follow, in
the bundle of humble clothing brought by such exalted personages, with
the solemnity which became a thing upon which hung the issues of life or
death. Jeanne replied with the humility of a broken spirit. "I take them
willingly," she said, "and in everything I will obey the Church." Then
silence closed upon her, the horrible silence of the prison, full of
hidden listeners and of watching eyes.

Meantime there was great discontent and strife of tongues outside. It
was said that many even of the doctors who condemned her would fain have
seen Jeanne removed to some less dangerous prison: but Monseigneur de
Beauvais had to hold head against the great English authorities who were
out of all patience, fearing that the witch might still slip through
their fingers and by her spells and incantations make the heart of the
troops melt once more within them. If the mind of the Church had been as
charitable