GILLES DE RAIS. 483 presence; he declined the offer of the bishop and inquisitor to frame the interrogatories for their examination, and he declared that he would stand to their depositions and make no exceptions to them or to their evidence. It was the same when, on the 15th and 19th, additional witnesses were sworn in his presence. The examinations of these witnesses, however, were made by notaries in private. The depositions made by Henriet and Poitou, which have been preserved to us, are hideous catalogues of the foulest crimes, minute in their specifications, though the identity between them in trifles, where omissions or discrepancies would be natural, strongly suggests manipulation either of witnesses or of records. That of Prelati is equally full in its details of necromancy, and raises at once the question, not easily answered, why the necro- mancer, who had richly earned the stake, seems to have escaped all punishment ; and the same may be said as to Blanchet, La Meffraye and her colleague, and some others of those involved. It is worthy of note, that in these confessions or depositions the customary formula that they are made without fear, force, or favor is con- spicuous by its absence.* At the hearing of October 20 Gilles was again asked if he had anything to propose, and he replied in the negative. He waived all delay as to the publication of the evidence against him, and when the depositions of his accomplices were read he said he had no exceptions to make to them ; in fact, that the publication was unnecessary in view of what he had already said, and what he in- tended to confess. One would think that this was quite sufficient, for his guilt was thus proved and admitted, but the infernal curi- osity of the jurisprudence of the time was never satisfied until it had wrung from the accused a detailed and formal confession. The prosecutor, therefore, earnestly demanded of the bishop and in- quisitor that Gilles should be tortured, in order, as he said, to de- velop the truth more fully. They consulted with the experts and decided that torture should be applied. f The proud man had hoped to be spared the humiliation of a detailed confession, but this was not to be allowed. On the next
- Bossard et Maulde, Pr. pp. :
ciii.-lxxxi., lxxxii.-xcii., xciii.-ci. t Ibid. Pr. pp. xli.-xlii. xxxii.-xxxvi., xxxvii.-xxxviii., lxiv.-lxxii., lxxiii
