The next day a still more extraordinary scene took place. While M. de
Laubardemont was questioning one of the nuns, the superior came down
into the court, barefooted; in her chemise, and a cord round her neck;
and there she remained for two hours, in the midst of a fearful storm,
not shrinking before lightning, thunder, or rain, but waiting till M. de
Laubardemont and the other exorcists should come out. At length the door
opened and the royal commissioner appeared, whereupon Sister Jeanne des
Anges, throwing herself at his feet, declared she had not sufficient
strength to play the horrible part they had made her learn any longer,
and that before God and man she declared Urbain Grandier innocent,
saying that all the hatred which she and her companions had felt against
him arose from the baffled desires which his comeliness awoke--desires
which the seclusion of conventional life made still more ardent. M. de
Laubardemont threatened her with the full weight of his displeasure, but
she answered, weeping bitterly, that all she now dreaded was her sin,
for though the mercy of the Saviour was great, she felt that the crime
she had committed could never be pardoned. M. de Laubardemont exclaimed
that it was the demon who dwelt in her who was speaking, but she replied
that the only demon by whom she had even been possessed was the spirit
of vengeance, and that it was indulgence in her own evil thoughts, and
not a pact with the devil, which had admitted him into her heart.
With these words she withdrew slowly, still weeping, and going into the
garden, attached one end of the cord round her neck to the branch of a
tree, and hanged herself. But some of the sisters who had followed her
cut her down before life was extinct.
The same day an order for her strict seclusion was issued for her as for
Sister Claire, and the circumstances that she was a relation of M. de
Laubardemont did not avail to lessen her punishment in view of the
gravity of her fault.
It was impossible to continue the exorcisms other nuns might be tempted
to follow the example, of the superior and Sister Claire, and in that
case all would be lost. And besides, was not Urbain Grandier well and
duly convicted? It was announced, therefore, that the examination had
proceeded far enough, and that the judges would consider the evidence
and deliver judgment.
This long succession of violent and irregular breaches of law procedure,
the repeated denials of his claim to justice, the refusal to let his
witnesses appear, or to listen to his defence, all combined to convince
Grandier that his ruin was determined on; for the case had gone so far
and had attained such publicity that it was necessary either to punish
him as a sorcerer and magician or to render a royal commissioner, a
bishop, an entire community of nuns, several monks of various orders,
many judges of high reputation, and laymen of birth and standing, liable
to the penalties incurred by calumniators. But although, as this
conviction grew, he confronted it with resignation, his courage did not
fail,--and holding it to be his duty as a man and a Christian to defend
his life and honour to the end, he drew up and published another
memorandum, headed Reasons for Acquittal, and had copies laid before his
judges. It was a weighty and, impartial summing up of the whole case,
such as a stranger might have written, and began, with these words.
"I entreat you in all humility to consider deliberately and with
attention what the Psalmist says in Psalm 82, where he exhorts judges to
fulfil their charge with absolute rectitude; they being themselves mere
mortals who will one day have to appear before God, the sovereign judge
of the universe, to give an account of their administration. The Lord's
Anointed speaks to you to-day who are sitting in judgment, and says--
"'God standeth in the congregation of the mighty: He judgeth among the
gods.
"'How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?
"'Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
"'Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
"'I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most
High.
"'But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.'"
But this appeal, although convincing and dignified, had no influence
upon the commission; and on the 18th of August the following verdict and
sentence was pronounced:--
"We have declared, and do hereby declare, Urbain Grandier duly accused
and convicted of the crimes of magic and witchcraft, and of causing the
persons of certain Ursuline nuns of this town and of other females to
become possessed of evil spirits, wherefrom other crimes and offences
have resulted. By way of reparation therefor, we have sentenced, and do
hereby sentence, the said Grandier to make public apology, bareheaded,
with a cord around his neck, holding a lighted torch of two pounds
weight in his hand, before the west door of the church of Saint-Pierre
in the Market Place and before--that of Sainte-Ursule, both of this
town, and there on bended knee to ask pardon of God and the king and the
law, and this done, to be taken to the public square of Sainte-Croix and
there to be attached to a stake, set in the midst of a pile of wood,
both of which to be prepared there for this purpose, and to be burnt
alive, along with the pacts and spells which remain in the hands of the
clerk and the manuscript of the book written by the said Grandier
against a celibate priesthood, and his ashes, to be scattered to the
four winds of heaven. And we have declared, and do hereby declare, all
and every part of his property confiscate to the king, the sum of one
hundred and fifty livres being first taken therefrom to be employed in
the purchase of a copper plate whereon the substance of the present
decree shall be engraved, the same to be exposed in a conspicuous place
in the said church of Sainte-Ursule, there to remain in perpetuity; and
before this sentence is carried out, we order the said Grandier to be
put to the question ordinary and extraordinary, so that his accomplices
may become known.
"Pronounced at Loudun against the said Grandier this 18th day of August
1634."
On the morning of the day on which this sentence was passed, M. de
Laubardemont ordered the surgeon Francois Fourneau to be arrested at his
own house and taken to Grandier's cell, although he was ready to go
there of his own free will. In passing through the adjoining room he
heard the voice of the accused saying:--
"What do you want with me, wretched executioner? Have you come to kill
me? You know how cruelly you have already tortured my body. Well I am
ready to die."
On entering the room, Fourneau saw that these words had been addressed
to the surgeon Mannouri.
One of the officers of the 'grand privot de l'hotel', to whom M. de
Laubardemont lent for the occasion the title of officer of the king's
guard, ordered the new arrival to shave Grandier, and not leave a single
hair on his whole body. This was a formality employed in cases of
witchcraft, so that the devil should have no place to hide in; for it
was the common belief that if a single hair were left, the devil could
render the accused insensible to the pains of torture. From this Urbain
understood that the verdict had gone against him and that he was
condemned to death.
Fourneau having saluted Grandier, proceeded to carry out his orders,
whereupon a judge said it was not sufficient to shave the body of the
prisoner, but that his nails must also be torn out, lest the devil
should hide beneath them. Grandier looked at the speaker with an
expression of unutterable pity, and held out his hands to Fourneau; but
Forneau put them gently aside, and said he would do nothing of the kind,
even were the order given by the cardinal-duke himself, and at the same
time begged Grandier's pardon for shaving him. At, these words Grandier,
who had for so long met with nothing but barbarous treatment from those
with whom he came in contact, turned towards the surgeon with tears in
his eyes, saying--
"So you are the only one who has any pity for me."
"Ah, sir," replied Fourneau, "you don't see everybody."
Grandier was then shaved, but only two marks found on him, one as we
have said on the shoulder blade, and the other on the thigh. Both marks
were very sensitive, the wounds which Mannouri had made not having yet
healed. This point having been certified by Fourneau, Grandier was
handed, not his own clothes, but some wretched garments which had
probably belonged to some other condemned man.
Then, although his sentence had been pronounced at the Carmelite
convent, he was taken by the grand provost's officer, with two of his
archers, accompanied by the provosts of Loudun and Chinon, to the town
hall, where several ladies of quality, among them Madame de
Laubardemont, led by curiosity, were sitting beside the judges, waiting
to hear the sentence read. M. de Laubardemont was in the seat usually
occupied by the clerk, and the clerk was standing before him. All the
approaches were lined with soldiers.
Before the accused was brought in, Pere Lactance and another Franciscan
who had come with him exorcised him to oblige the devils to leave him;
then entering the judgment hall, they exorcised the earth, the air, "and
the other elements." Not till that was done was Grandier led in.
At first he was kept at the far end of the hall, to allow time for the
exorcisms to have their full effect, then he was brought forward to the
bar and ordered to kneel down. Grandier obeyed, but could remove neither
his hat nor his skull-cap, as his hands were bound behind his back,
whereupon the clerk seized on the one and the provost's officer on the
other, and flung them at de Laubardemont's feet. Seeing that the accused
fixed his eyes on the commissioner as if waiting to see what he was
about to do, the clerk said:
"Turn your head, unhappy man, and adore the crucifix above the bench."
Grandier obeyed without a murmur and with great humility, and remained
sunk in silent prayer for about ten minutes; he then resumed his former
attitude.
The clerk then began to read the sentence in a trembling voice, while
Grandier listened with unshaken firmness and wonderful tranquillity,
although it was the most terrible sentence that could be passed,
condemning the accused to be burnt alive the same day, after the
infliction of ordinary and extraordinary torture. When the clerk had
ended, Grandier said, with a voice unmoved from its usual calm--
"Messeigneurs, I aver in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and the Blessed Virgin, my only hope, that I have never been a
magician, that I have never committed sacrilege, that I know no other
magic than that of the Holy Scriptures, which I have always preached,
and that I have never held any other belief than that of our Holy Mother
the Catholic Apostolic Church of Rome; I renounce the devil and all his
works; I confess my Redeemer, and I pray to be saved through the blood
of the Cross; and I beseech you, messeigneurs, to mitigate the rigour of
my sentence, and not to drive my soul to despair."
The concluding words led de Laubardemont to believe that he could obtain
some admission from Grandier through fear of suffering, so he ordered
the court to be cleared, and, being left alone with Maitre Houmain,
criminal lieutenant of Orleans, and the Franciscans, he addressed
Grandier in a stern voice, saying there was only one way to obtain any
mitigation of his sentence, and that was to confess the names of his
accomplices and to sign the confession. Grandier replied that having
committed no crime he could have no accomplices, whereupon Laubardemont
ordered the prisoner to be taken to the torture chamber, which adjoined
the judgment hall--an order which was instantly obeyed.