‘Have you anything to complain about?’ asked the Bishop; and Joan then said how cruelly she was fastened by chains round her body and her feet.  Probably, had she then promised not to escape from prison, this severity would have been relaxed, but Joan of Arc had not the spirit to stoop to her persecutors; she would not give her word not to get free if she could.  ‘The hope of escape is allowed to every prisoner,’ she bravely said.

At the close of the sitting, John Gris, the English knight who had the chief charge over the prisoner, with the two soldiers Berwoit and Talbot, were called, and took an oath not to allow the prisoner to see any one without Cauchon’s permission, and to strictly guard the prisoner.  And with that the first day’s trial ended.

Manchon, in his minutes on the day’s proceedings, says that shouts and interruptions interfered with the reporters and their notes, and that Joan of Arc was repeatedly interrupted.  Cauchon had placed some of his clerks behind the tapestry in the depth of a window of the chapel, whose duty it was to make a garbled copy of Joan of Arc’s answers to suit the Bishop.

Possibly finding the chapel of the castle too small for the number of people present at the trial, the next meeting of the judges was held in a different place, more suitable—­namely, in the great hall of the castle.  That second day’s trial took place on the 22nd of February.  The tribunal consisted of Cauchon and forty-seven assessors.

Cauchon commenced the proceedings by introducing John Lemaitre, vicar of the Inquisition, to the judges, after which Joan was brought into the hall—­a splendid chamber used on happier occasions for festivities and Court pageants.

Cauchon again commanded the prisoner to take the oath, as on the first day’s trial.  She said that she had already once sworn to speak nothing but the truth, and that that should suffice.  Cauchon still insisted, and again Joan replied that as far as any question was put to her regarding faith and religion she had promised to answer, but that she could not promise more, and Cauchon failed to get anything more from her.

The Bishop then applied to one of the doctors of theology to examine and cross-question the prisoner.  This man’s name was Beaupere.

B.—­’In the first place, Joan, I will exhort you to tell the truth, as you have sworn to do, on all that I may have to ask you.’

J.—­’You may ask me questions on which I shall be able to answer you, and on others about which I cannot.  If you were well informed about me you should wish me out of your power.  All that I have done has been the work of revelation.’

B.—­’How old were you when you left your home?’

J.—­’I do not exactly know.’

B.—­’Did you learn any trade at home?’

J.—­’Yes, to sew and to spin, and for that I am not afraid to be matched by any woman in Rouen?’

B.—­’Did you not once leave your father’s house before you left it altogether?’