neurs, to mitigate the rigour of
my sentence, and not to drive my soul to despair."

The concluding words led de Laubardemont to believe that he could obtain
some admission from Grandier through fear of suffering, so he ordered
the court to be cleared, and, being left alone with Maitre Houmain,
criminal lieutenant of Orleans, and the Franciscans, he addressed
Grandier in a stern voice, saying there was only one way to obtain any
mitigation of his sentence, and that was to confess the names of his
accomplices and to sign the confession. Grandier replied that having
committed no crime he could have no accomplices, whereupon Laubardemont
ordered the prisoner to be taken to the torture chamber, which adjoined
the judgment hall--an order which was instantly obeyed.

CHAPTER XI

The mode of torture employed at Loudun was a variety of the boot, and
one of the most painful of all. Each of the victim's legs below the knee
was placed between two boards, the two pairs were then laid one above
the other and bound together firmly at the ends; wedges were then
driven in with a mallet between the two middle boards; four such wedges
constituted ordinary and eight extraordinary torture; and this latter
was seldom inflicted, except on those condemned to death, as almost no
one ever survived it, the sufferer's legs being crushed to a pulp before
he left the torturer's bands. In this case M. de Laubardemont on his own
initiative, for it had never been done before, added two wedges to those
of the extraordinary torture, so that instead of eight, ten were to be
driven in.

Nor was this all: the commissioner royal and the two Franciscans
undertook to inflict the torture themselves.

Laubardemont ordered Grandier to be bound in the usual manner, I and
then saw his legs placed between the boards. He then dismissed
the executioner and his assistants, and directed the keeper of the
instruments to bring the wedges, which he complained of as being too
small. Unluckily, there were no larger ones in stock, and in spite of
threats the keeper persisted in saying he did not know where to procure
others. M. de Laubardemont then asked how long it would take to make
some, and was told two hours; finding that too long to wait, he was
obliged to put up with those he had.

Thereupon the torture began. Pere Lactance having exorcised the
instruments, drove in the first wedge, but could not draw a murmur from
Grandier, who was reciting a prayer in a