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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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