it. They will double
the guards; they will never let any come near her now between this and
her condemnation, lest she get a hint and speak that word again. This is
the bitterest day that has come to me in all this miserable time."

13 The Third Trial Fails

SO THE SECOND trial in the prison was over. Over, and no definite
result. The character of it I have described to you. It was baser in one
particular than the previous one; for this time the charges had not been
communicated to Joan, therefore she had been obliged to fight in the
dark.

There was no opportunity to do any thinking beforehand; there was no
foreseeing what traps might be set, and no way to prepare for them.
Truly it was a shabby advantage to take of a girl situated as this
one was. One day, during the course of it, an able lawyer of Normandy,
Maetre Lohier, happened to be in Rouen, and I will give you his opinion
of that trial, so that you may see that I have been honest with you, and
that my partisanship has not made me deceive you as to its unfair
and illegal character. Cauchon showed Lohier the proces and asked his
opinion about the trial. Now this was the opinion which he gave to
Cauchon. He said that the whole thing was null and void; for these
reasons: 1, because the trial was secret, and full freedom of speech and
action on the part of those present not possible; 2, because the trial
touched the honor of the King of France, yet he was not summoned to
defend himself, nor any one appointed to represent him; 3, because the
charges against the prisoner were not communicated to her; 4, because
the accused, although young and simple, had been forced to defend her
cause without help of counsel, notwithstanding she had so much at stake.

Did that please Bishop Cauchon? It did not. He burst out upon Lohier
with the most savage cursings, and swore he would have him drowned.
Lohier escaped from Rouen and got out of France with all speed, and so
saved his life.

Well, as I have said, the second trial was over, without definite
result. But Cauchon did not give up. He could trump up another. And
still another and another, if necessary. He had the half-promise of
an enormous prize--the Archbishopric of Rouen--if he should succeed in
burning the body and damning to hell the soul of this young girl who
had never done him any harm; and such a prize as that, to a man like the
Bishop of Beauvais, was worth the burning and damning of fifty harmless
girl