ferocious and haughty baron, the first of his caste no doubt, humiliated
himself. He turned toward the people and said, weeping, "Ye, the parents
of those whom I have so cruelly put to death, give, ah give me, the
succour of your pious prayers!"

Then in its white splendour the soul of the Middle Ages burst forth
radiant.

Jean de Malestroit left his seat and raised the accused, who was beating
the flagstones with his despairing forehead. The judge in de Malestroit
disappeared, the priest alone remained. He embraced the sinner who was
repenting and lamenting his fault.

A shudder overran the audience when Jean de Malestroit, with Gilles's
head on his breast, said to him, "Pray that the just and rightful wrath
of the Most High be averted, weep that your tears may wash out the blood
lust from your being!"

And with one accord everybody in the room knelt down and prayed for the
assassin. When the orisons were hushed there was an instant of wild
terror and commotion. Driven beyond human limits of horror and pity, the
crowd tossed and surged. The judges of the Tribunal, silent, enervated,
reconquered themselves.

With a gesture, brushing away his tears, the Prosecutor arrested the
proceedings. He said that the crimes were "clear and apparent," that the
proofs were manifest, that the court would now "in its conscience and
soul" chastise the culprit, and he demanded that the day of passing
judgment be fixed. The Tribunal designated the day after the next.

And that day the Official of the church of Nantes, Jacques de
Pentcoetdic, read in succession the two sentences. The first, passed by
the Bishop and the Inquisitor for the acts coming under their common
jurisdiction, began thus:

"The Holy Name of Christ invoked, we, Jean, Bishop of Nantes, and
Brother Jean Blouyn, bachelor in our Holy Scriptures, of the order of
the preaching friars of Nantes, and delegate of the Inquisitor of
heresies for the city and diocese of Nantes, in session of the Tribunal
and having before our eyes God alone--"

And after enumerating the crimes it concluded:

"We pronounce, decide, and declare, that thou, Gilles de Rais, cited
unto our Tribunal, art heinously guilty of heresy, apostasy, and
evocation of demons; that for these crimes thou hast incurred the
sentence of excommunication and all other penalties determined by the
law."

The second judgment, rendered by the Bishop alone, on the crimes of
sodomy, sacrilege, and violation of t