g, out of January and into
February, and was often in the citadel with him--in the very fortress
where Joan was imprisoned, though not in the dungeon where she was
confined, and so did not see her, of course.

Manchon told me everything that had been happening before my coming.
Ever since the purchase of Joan, Cauchon had been busy packing his jury
for the destruction of the Maid--weeks and weeks he had spent in this
bad industry. The University of Paris had sent him a number of learned
and able and trusty ecclesiastics of the stripe he wanted; and he had
scraped together a clergyman of like stripe and great fame here and
there and yonder, until he was able to construct a formidable court
numbering half a hundred distinguished names. French names they were,
but their interests and sympathies were English.

A great officer of the Inquisition was also sent from Paris for the
accused must be tried by the forms of the Inquisition; but this was a
brave and righteous man, and he said squarely that this court had no
power to try the case, wherefore he refused to act; and the same honest
talk was uttered by two or three others.

The Inquisitor was right. The case as here resurrected against Joan had
already been tried long ago at Poitiers, and decided in her favor. Yes,
and by a higher tribunal than this one, for at the head of it was an
Archbishop--he of Rheims--Cauchon's own metropolitan. So here, you see,
a lower court was impudently preparing to try and redecide a cause which
had already been decided by its superior, a court of higher authority.
Imagine it! No, the case could not properly be tried again. Cauchon
could not properly preside in this new court, for more than one reason:

Rouen was not in his diocese; Joan had not been arrested in her
domicile, which was still Domremy; and finally this proposed judge was
the prisoner's outspoken enemy, and therefore he was incompetent to
try her. Yet all these large difficulties were gotten rid of. The
territorial Chapter of Rouen finally granted territorial letters to
Cauchon--though only after a struggle and under compulsion. Force was
also applied to the Inquisitor, and he was obliged to submit.

So then, the little English King, by his representative, formally
delivered Joan into the hands of the court, but with this reservation:
if the court failed to condemn her, he was to have her back again! Ah,
dear, what chance was there for that forsaken and friendless child?
Fri