The only portion of the old castle of Rouen that has survived Time, war, revolutions, and rebuilding (although partially restored), is a massive high tower, built of white stone, called the Tower of Joan of Arc.  This is not the tower of the castle which contained the heroine’s dungeon, but it has always been traditionally regarded as that in which, on the 9th of May, Joan of Arc was led to where her judges intended, by fear or by the infliction of bodily torment, to oblige her to make the confession which she had so steadily and for so long a time refused.  The lower portion of this tower only is ancient, for from about its centre to the top is a restoration.

The chamber to which Joan of Arc was led, and where the instruments of torture and the executioners were waiting, is probably that on the ground floor, and is but little changed from what it was on that May morning in the year of grace 1431.

In that dark stone chamber with its groined roof, besides the prisoner, were present Cauchon, with the Vice-Inquisitor, the Abbot of Saint Corneille of Compiegne, William Erard, Andrew Marguerie, Nicolas de Venderes, John Massieu, William Haiton, Aubert Morel, and the infamous Loiseleur.  Ranged round the circular walls were placed the instruments of torture, and men skilled in their use were ready at hand.

‘Joan,’ said Cauchon, who had now dropped his hypocritical semblance of sympathy, which he had assumed when interrogating the prisoner in her cell, ’I command you to tell the truth.  In your examination many and various points have been touched on, about which you refused to answer, or, when you did so, answered untruthfully.  Of this we have certain proof.  These points will now be read to you.’

What was then read was probably a summary of the articles of impeachment.

Cauchon then continued:  ’If, Joan, you now refuse to speak the truth, you will be put to the torture.  You see before you the instruments which are prepared, and by them stand the executioners, who are ready to do their office at our command.  You will be tortured in order that you may be led into the way of truth, and for the salvation of your body and soul, which you by your lies have exposed to so great a peril.’

It was at this terrible juncture that Joan showed her indomitable spirit more clearly than at any moment since her capture.  In front of her lay the rack upon which, at a signal from Cauchon, her limbs would be wrenched asunder; but her reply, as given in the minutes written by the clerk who was present, bears the ring of a courage superior to all the terrors which confronted her.

‘Even,’ she said, ’if you tear me limb from limb, and even if you kill me, I will not tell you anything further.  And even were I forced to do so, I should afterwards declare that it was only because of the torture that I had spoken differently.’

That was an answer which sums up the whole folly and crime of obtaining evidence by means of torture, and recalls Galileo’s famous phrase when in a somewhat similar situation.