continue holding the trial with only a few, and those few picked men, of whose sympathies, characters, and feelings he was sure.  The Bishop’s ostensible reason in having the trial henceforth carried on in private was in order ‘not to tire the others.’  A most thoughtful and tender-hearted Bishop!  The details of the trial were now placed in the hands of two judges and two witnesses.  Cauchon now felt he had a free hand.  On the 12th of March he had obtained the permission of the Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Office in France to make use of the services of his Vicar-General—­his name, as has already been said, was John Lemaitre.

The first of the long series of secret interrogations was held in Joan of Arc’s prison—­probably in the principal tower—­on the 10th of March.

John de la Fontaine questioned the prisoner as follows:—­

‘When you went to Compiegne from which place did you start?’

‘From Crespy-en-Valois.’

’When you arrived at Compiegne did many days elapse before you made the sortie?’

’I arrived secretly at an early hour of the morning, and entered the town so that the enemy could not be aware of my arrival, and the same day, in the evening, I made the sortie in which I was captured.’

‘Were the bells of the church rung on the occasion of your arrival?’

’If they were, it was not by my command.  I had not given it a thought.’

‘Did you not order them to be rung?’

‘I have no recollection of having done so.’

‘Did you make the sortie by the command of your voices?’

’Last Easter, when in the trenches of Melun, the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret told me I should be taken prisoner before St. John’s Day; but that I was to keep a brave heart, and take all that befell me with patience, and that in the end God would come to my aid.’

‘Since then, did your voices tell you that you would be taken?’

’Yes, often; nearly every day; and I implored my voices that when I was taken I might then die, and not suffer a long imprisonment:  and the voices said, “Be without fear, for these things must happen.”  But they did not tell me the time when I should be taken, for had I known that I should not have made that sortie.’

’Did you not question them about the time in which you would be taken?’

‘I often inquired; but they never told me.’

’Did your voices cause you to make that sortie, and not tell you the manner by which you would be captured?’

’Had I known the hour of my capture I should not have gone out voluntarily; but had my voices ordered me to go and I had known, then would I have gone all the same, whatever might have happened.’

‘When you made the sally did you pass over the bridge at Compiegne?’

’I passed over the bridge and along the redoubt; and I charged with my soldiers against John de Luxembourg’s men.  Twice were they driven back as far as the quarters of the Burgundians; the third time half as far.  While so engaged the English arrived, and cut off our communications.  While returning towards the bridge, I was taken in the meadows on the side nearest to Picardy.’