the scene clamoring for their despoiled and lost ones. On October 8th he was brought before his judges, and the articles of accusa tion were orally stated by the prosecutor. Gilles appealed from the court, but his ap peal was promptly dismissed. Without counsel, or legal assistance, he was called upon, without aid or preparation, to defend his life. The prosecutor took the oath/«rameiitnm de calumnia, to tell the truth and avoid deceit, and demanded that Gilles should do the same. He, however, stoutly refused, though threatened with excommuni cation, denouncing all the charges as false. On the 1 3th he again was brought up, and the accusations, in a formidable list of fortynine articles, were presented. Again he re fused to plead; they were not his judges, he had appealed. Then his knightly spirit rose and he roundly denounced the right reverend ecclesiastics as simoniacs and scoundrels be fore whom it was a disgrace for him to ap pear. However, the dire indictment was read and as he refused to answer it, save by stig matizing the charges as a pack of lies, he was pronounced contumacious and excom municated, and he was given forty-eight hours in which to frame his defense. (In England, from early in the fifteenth century until 1772, a prisoner who refused to plead was subjected to peine fort et dure, that is, he was pressed to death. Poor Mar garet Clitherow in I 586, for hearing mass, died beneath some seven or eight hundred weight; the Inquisition deemed a prisoner standing mute, as contumacious, or the act was considered equivalent to a confession, and the obdurate accused was forthwith handed over to the secular arm.) The indictment contained well-nigh every charge that could be made against the un fortunate man: the charge of sacrilege and violation of clerical immunity committed at St. Etienne, immoderate eating and drink ing, child murder, unnatural crimes, heretical apostacy and the invocation of demons. The poor wretch now saw, from the de
tails given him, that his accomplices had betrayed him, and when next brought before the court humbly submitted to his judges, craved pardon for insulting them, and abso lution from the excommunication, confess ing in general terms his guilt; but, when required to answer in detail, denied the in vocation of demons and many other crimes, promising, however, to admit any evidence produced against him. Witnesses were examined, and day after day Gilles ad mitted accusation after accusation. The prosecutor was determined to wring the whole story from the unhappy man, and ob tained an order that he be put to the torture. All was in readiness, the hero of many a well-fought field trembled at the thought of the pangs he would endure, and humbly begged for a brief respite. It was granted, and then the Marshal of France, who had so often braved death, quailed at the idea of being suspended by a cord wound round his wrists, and being jerked up and down while heavy weights were fastened to his feet, and confessed everything " freely and willingly, and without evasion of any kind," as the official report declared. No further talk of torture by the prosecutor, no effort made by the once haughty baron save to win pardon from God and the Church, and the parents of the murdered children. On the 25th, the court gave judgment, both judges finding him guilty of heretical apostacy and horrid invocation of demons, by which he had incurred excommunication and other penalties, and for which he would be punished by canon law. The bishop alone (for he alone had jurisdiction on these points) condemned him for unnatural crimes, for sacrilege, and violation of the immuni ties of the Church. No punishment was mentioned, but condemnation for heresy carried with it total confiscation of the heretic's property, and inflicted certain dis abilities for two generations. The charge of murder had been left to the secular court. where it properly belonged. It had served
