them, we hereby give power
and authority to carry out this decree notwithstanding any opposition or
appeal, and the said Grandier having been heard, such a decision will be
given by our attorney as the facts may seem to warrant.

"Given at Dissay the 22nd day of October 1629, and signed in the
original as follows:

"HENRI-LOUIS, Bishop of Poitiers."

Grandier was, as we have said, at Paris when these proceedings were
taken against him, conducting before the Parliament his case against
Duthibaut. The latter received a copy of the decision arrived at by the
bishop, before Grandier knew of the charges that had been formulated
against him, and having in the course of his defence drawn a terrible
picture of the immorality of Grandier's life, he produced as a proof of
the truth of his assertions the damning document which had been put into
his hands. The court, not knowing what to think of the turn affairs
had taken, decided that before considering the accusations brought
by Grandier, he must appear before his bishop to clear himself of the
charges, brought against himself. Consequently he left Paris at once,
and arrived at Loudun, where he only stayed long enough to learn what
had happened in his absence, and then went on to Poitiers in order to
draw up his defence. He had, however, no sooner set foot in the place
than he was arrested by a sheriff's officer named Chatry, and confined
in the prison of the episcopal palace.

It was the middle of November, and the prison was at all times cold and
damp, yet no attention was paid to Grandier's request that he should be
transferred to some other place of confinement. Convinced by this that
his enemies had more influence than he had supposed, he resolved to
possess his soul in patience, and remained a prisoner for two months,
during which even his warmest friends believed him lost, while Duthibaut
openly laughed at the proceedings instituted against himself, which he
now believed would never go any farther, and Barot had already selected
one of his heirs, a certain Ismael Boulieau, as successor to Urbain as
priest and prebendary.

It was arranged that the costs of the lawsuit should be defrayed out of
a fund raised by the prosecutors, the rich paying for the poor; for as
all the witnesses lived at Loudun and the trial was to take place at
Poitiers, considerable expense would be incurred by the necessity of
bringing so many people such a distance; but the lust of vengeance
pro