e hold your peace!' On being asked by
Manchon whether the prisoner's wish to submit her case to the Council
at Bale should be placed on the minutes of the trial, Cauchon roughly
refused. Joan of Arc overhearing this, said, 'You write down what is
against my interest, but not what is in my favour.' But we think the
truth comes out, on the whole, pretty clearly; and we have in the
answers of Joan to her judges, however much these answers may have
been altered to suit Cauchon's views and ultimate object, a splendid
proof of her presence of mind and courage. This she maintained day
after day in the face of that crowd of enemies who left no stone
unturned, no subtlety of law or superstition disused, to bring a
charge of guilt against her.

No victory of arms that Joan of Arc might have accomplished, had her
career continued one bright and unclouded success, could have shown in
a grander way the greatness of her character than her answers and her
bearing during the entire course of her examinations before her
implacable enemies, her judicial murderers.

After holding some preliminary and private meetings, in which Cauchon,
with some of the prelates, drew up a series of articles of indictment
against the prisoner, the first public sitting of the tribunal took
place in the chapel of the castle, in the same building in which Joan
was imprisoned.

This was on the 21st of February, 1431. As we have said, from the day
of her arrival in Rouen, at the end of December of the previous year,
till this 21st day of February, Joan had been kept in an iron cage--a
martyrdom of fifty days' daily and nightly torture. During the trial
her confinement was less barbarous, but she was kept chained to a
wooden bed, and the only wonder is that she did not succumb to this
barbarous imprisonment. We shall see that she fell seriously ill, and
the English at one time feared she would die a natural death, and
defeat their object of having her exposed and destroyed as a witch and
a heretic.

On the day before the meeting of the tribunal, Cauchon sent summonses
for all the judges to attend. Joan of Arc had meanwhile made two
demands, both of which were refused. One was, that an equal number of
clergy belonging to the French party should form an equal number in
the tribunal to those of the English faction. The other demand was
that she should be allowed to hear Mass before appearing before the
tribunal.

At eight in the morning of Wednesday, the 21s