JOAN OF ARC. 303 March 12 that he received a special commission from Graveran, who declined to come personally, after which he presided in con- junction with Cauchon ; sentence was rendered in their joint names, and he was duly paid by the English for his services.* At length, on February 21, Jean Estivet, the prosecutor, de- manded that the prisoner be produced and examined. Before she was introduced Cauchon explained that she had earnestly begged the privilege of hearing mass, but, in view of the crimes whereof she was accused and her wearing male attire, he had refused. This prejudgment of the case was acquiesced in, and Joan was brought in with fetters on her legs. Of this cruelty she com- plained bitterly. Even the Templars, as we have seen, had their irons removed before examination, but Joan was only nominally in the hands of the court, and Cauchon accepted the responsibility for the outrage by telling her that it was because she had repeat- edly tried to escape, to which she replied that she had a right to do so, as she had never given her parole. Then Cauchon called up the English guard who accompanied her and went through the farce of swearing them to watch her strictly — apparently for the futile purpose of asserting some control over them.f It would be superfluous to follow in detail the examinations to which she was subjected during the next three months, with an intermission from April 18 to May 11 on account of sickness which nearly proved mortal. The untaught peasant girl, enfeebled by the miseries of her cruel prison, and subjected day after day to the shrewd and searching cross-questions of the trained and subtle in- tellects of her carefully selected judges, never lost her presence of mind or clearness of intellect. Ingenious pitfalls were constructed for her, which she evaded almost by instinct. Questions puzzling to a theologian of the schools were showered upon her ; half a dozen eager disputants would assail her at once and would interrupt her replies ; the disorder at times was so great that the notaries finally declared themselves unable to make an intelligent record. Her responses would be carefully scrutinized, and she would be recalled in the afternoon, the same ground would be gone over in a differ-
- Ripoll III. 8,— Procfes, pp. 467-8, 470, 509.— Le Brun de Charmettes, III. 183,
192, 219, 407-8.— L'Averdy, p. 391. t Proems, pp. 468-9.
