heaven. All of a sudden the door was opened and a loud voice called out: ‘It is the devil ... he will eat you all!’ At these words, Motey jumped up, caught hold of a javelin and prepared to hurl it at the intruder; but De Joye hastily retired. There were no blows given, and no blood was shed.[280] This incident had been almost forgotten, when the bishop’s agents, who were resolved to be severe upon the friends of liberty, shut up De Joye in the Château de l’Ile, where Berthelier had been imprisoned, and asked the syndics’ permission to question and to torture him in order to get at the truth (7th September, 1519). Besides this affair of the image, he was charged with ‘having been present at illegal meetings where the citizens bound themselves by oath to resist any infringement of their liberties by word or by deed.’[281] The syndics ordered that De Joye should be examined in prison, _pede ligato_, with the feet bound. The proceedings commenced. ‘I was born of worthy, upright, and distinguished parents,’ said De Joye when he appeared before the syndics, ‘and by them trained up virtuously until the age of manhood. Since then I have associated with all the good men of the city, and in the profession which I follow I have always borne a good reputation. Far from picking quarrels, I have carefully avoided them, and have reconciled many. Finally, I have been all my life faithful and obedient to my lord the bishop.’[282] These words, which we transcribe from the documents in the trial, were of a nature to inspire the judges with a certain respect; but they did not. First Claude du Bois, the vidame’s lieutenant, and next the governor of the castle, proposed that De Joye should be put to the torture to force him to confess the crimes imputed to him;[283] but it was decided to begin by examining the witnesses, who told what they had _heard say_ by persons _whose names they could not remember_. Fine evidence on which to put a man to the torture![284] The governor did not abandon his project; the vidame came in person to urge the syndics to _do him this pleasure_.[285] Could they be denied, when it concerned only a contemner of St. Babolin? Amadeus knew not the Gospel; his opposition to the black image proceeded merely from the disgust which superstition inspires in intelligent minds, and there was in his character more fire than firmness, more impetuosity than perseverance. The mild, weak, and infirm man, who was scared by the idea of torture, fancied his limbs already dislocated, and beginning to weep he offered to make oath of his innocence on the relics of St. Anthony. To all the questions put to him he replied only by groans and tears. The vidame, whose heart was hardened, again demanded that he should be put to the torture. ‘My right arm is crippled,’ exclaimed the poor wretch; ‘the sinews are contracted.’ Two surgeons declared, after examination, that he might be able to bear the strappado, but could not support the torture of the