as it professed to be, I doubt if all the power of Rome could
have got the Maid now out of the English grip. They were exasperated,
and felt that they too, as well as the prisoner, had been played with.
But the Bishop had good hope in his mind, still to be able to content
his patrons. Jeanne had abjured, it was true, but the more he inquired
into that act, the less secure he must have felt about it. And she might
relapse; and if she relapsed there would be no longer any place for
repentance. And it is evident that his confidence in the power of the
clothes was boundless. In any case a few days more would make all clear.

They did not have many days to wait. There are two, to all appearance,
well-authenticated stories of the cause of Jeanne's "relapse." One
account is given by Frere Isambard, whom she told in the presence of
several others, that she had been assaulted in her cell by a _Millourt
Anglois_, and barbarously used, and in self-defence had resumed again
the man's dress which had been left in her cell. The story of Massieu
is different: To him Jeanne explained that when she asked to be released
from her bed on the morning of Trinity Sunday, her guards took away her
female dress which she was wearing, and emptied the sack containing the
other upon her bed. She appealed to them, reminding them that these were
forbidden to her; but got no answer except a brutal order to get up. It
is very probable that both stories are true. Frere Isambard found her
weeping and agitated, and nothing is more probable than this was the
occasion on which Warwick heard her cries, and interfered to save her.
Massieu's version, of which he is certain, was communicated to him a
day or two after when they happened to be alone together. It was on the
Thursday before Trinity Sunday that she put on the female dress, but it
would seem that rumours on the subject of a relapse had begun to spread
even before the Sunday on which that event happened: and Beaupere
and Midi were sent by the Bishop to investigate. But they were very
ill-received in the Castle, sworn at by the guards, and forced to go
back without seeing Jeanne, there being as yet, it appeared, nothing
to see. On the morning of the Monday, however, the rumours arose with
greater force; and no doubt secret messages must have informed the
Bishop that the hoped-for relapse had taken place. He set out himself
accordingly, accompanied by the Vicar-Inquisitor and attended by eight
of the fam