Nicolas L'Oyseleur, the spy and traitor, who voted for the torture. One
man most reasonably asked why she should be put to torture when they
had ample material for judgment without it? One cannot but feel that
the proceedings on this occasion were either intended to beguile the
impatience of the English authorities, eager to be done with the whole
business, or to add a quite gratuitous pang to the sufferings of the
heroic girl. As the men were not devils, though probably possessed by
this time, the more cruel among them, by the horrible curiosity, innate
alas! in human nature, of seeing how far a suffering soul could go, it
is probable that the first motive was the true one. The English, Warwick
especially, whose every movement was restrained by this long-pending
affair, were exceedingly impatient, and tempted at times to take the
matter into their own hands, and spoil the perfectness of this well
constructed work of art, conducted according to all the rules, the
beautiful trial which was dear to the Bishop's heart--and destined to
be, though perhaps in a sense somewhat different to that which he hoped,
his chief title to fame.

Ten days after, the decision of the University of Paris arrived, and a
great assembly of counsellors, fifty-one in all, besides the permanent
presidents, collected together in the chapel of the Archbishop's
house, to hear that document read, along with many other documents, the
individual opinions of a host of doctors and eminent authorities.
After an explanation of the solemn care given by the University to the
consideration of every one of the twelve articles of the indictment,
that learned tribunal pronounced its verdict upon each. The length of
the proceedings makes it impossible to reproduce these. First as to the
early revelations given to Jeanne, described in the first and second
articles, they are denounced as "murderous, seductive, and pernicious
fictions," the apparitions those of "malignant spirits and devils,