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The Book of Were-Wolves
by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865
This full length classic werewolf reference
book is presented courtesy of MythologyWeb.
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CHAPTER XI
THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ
- I. THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES
The history of the man whose name heads this chapter I purpose
giving in detail, as the circumstances I shall narrate have,
I believe, never before been given with accuracy to the English
public. The name of Gilles de Laval may be well known, as sketches
of his bloody career have appeared in many biographies, but these
sketches have been very incomplete, as the material from which
they were composed was meagre. M. Michelet alone ventured to
give the public an idea of the crimes which brought a marshal
of France to the gallows, and his revelations were such that,
in the words of M. Henri Martin, "this iron age, which seemed
unable to feel surprise at any amount of evil, was struck with
dismay."
M. Michelet derived his information from the abstract of the
papers relating, to the case, made by order of Ann of Brittany,
in the Imperial Library. The original documents were in the library
at Nantes, and a great portion of them were destroyed in the
Revolution of 1789. But a careful analysis had been made of them,
and this valuable abridgment, which was inaccessible to M. Michelet,
came into the hands of M. Lacroix, the eminent French antiquarian,
who published a memoir of the marshal from the information he
had thus obtained, and it is his work, by far the most complete
and circumstantial which has appeared, that I condense into the
following chapters.
"The most monstrously depraved imagination," says
M. Henri Martin, "never could have conceived what the trial
reveals." M. Lacroix has been obliged to draw a veil over
much that transpired, and I must draw it closer still. I have,
however, said enough to show that this memorable trial presents
horrors probably unsurpassed in the whole volume of the world's
history.
During the year 1440, a terrible rumour spread through Brittany,
and especially through the ancient pays de Retz, which
extends along the south of the Loire from Nantes to Paimboeuf,
to the effect that one of the most famous and powerful noblemen
in Brittany, Gilles de Laval, Maréchal de Retz, was guilty
of crimes of the most diabolical nature.
Gilles de Laval, eldest son of Gay de Laval, second of his
name, Sire de Retz, had raised the junior branch of the illustrious
house of Laval above the elder branch, which was related to the
reigning family of Brittany. He lost his father when he was aged
twenty, and remained master of a vast territorial inheritance,
which was increased by his marriage with Catharine de Thouars
in 1420. He employed a portion of their fortune in the cause
of Charles VII., and in strengthening the French crown. During
seven consecutive years, from 1426 to 1433, he was engaged in
military enterprises against the English; his name is always
cited along with those of Dunois, Xaintrailles, Florent d'Illiers,
Gaucourt, Richemont, and the most faithful servants of the king.
His services were speedily acknowledged by the king creating
him Marshal of France. In 1427, he assaulted the Castle of Lude,
and carried it by storm; he killed with his own hand the commander
of the place; next year he captured from the English the fortress
of Rennefort, and the Castle of Malicorne; in 1429, he took an
active part in the expedition of Joan of Arc for the deliverance
of Orleans, and the occupation of Jargeau, and he was with her
in the moat, when she was wounded by an arrow under the walls
of Paris.
The marshal, councillor, and chamberlain of the king participated
in the direction of public affairs, and soon obtained the entire
confidence of his master. He accompanied Charles to Rheims on
the occasion of his coronation, and had the honour of bearing
the oriflamme, brought for the occasion from the abbey of S.
Remi. His intrepidity on the field of battle was as remarkable
as his sagacity in council, and he proved himself to be both
an excellent warrior and a shrewd politician.
Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone, he quit the service
of Charles VII., and sheathed forever his sword, in the retirement
of the country. The death of his maternal grandfather, Jean de
Craon, in 1432, made him so enormously wealthy, that his revenues
were estimated at 800,000 livres; nevertheless, in two years,
by his excessive prodigality, he managed to lose a considerable
portion of his inheritance. Mauléon, S. Etienne de Malemort,
Loroux-Botereau, Pornic, and Chantolé, he sold to John
V., Duke of Brittany, his kinsman, and other lands and seigneurial
rights he ceded to the Bishop of Nantes, and to the chapter of
the cathedral in that city.
The rumour soon spread that these extensive cessions of territory
were sops thrown to the duke and to the bishop, to restrain the
one from confiscating his goods, and the other from pronouncing
excommunication, for the crimes of which the people whisperingly
accused him; but these rumours were probably without foundation,
for eventually it was found hard to persuade the duke of the
guilt of his kinsman, and the bishop was the most determined
instigator of the trial.
The marshal seldom visited the ducal court, but he often appeared
in the city of Nantes, where he inhabited the Hôtel de
la Suze, with a princely retinue. He had, always accompanying
him, a guard of two hundred men at arms, and a numerous suit
of pages, esquires, chaplains, singers, astrologers, etc., all
of whom he paid handsomely.
Whenever he left the town, or moved to one of his other seats,
the cries of the poor, which had been restrained during the time
of his presence, broke forth. Tears flowed, curses were uttered,
a long-continued wail rose to heaven, the moment that the last
of the marshal's party had left the neighbourhood. Mothers had
lost their children, babes had been snatched from the cradle,
infants had been spirited away almost from the maternal arms,
and it was known by sad experience that the vanished little ones
would never be seen again.
But on no part of the country did the shadow of this great
fear fall so deeply as on the villages in the neighbourhood of
the Castle of Machecoul, a gloomy château, composed of
huge towers, and surrounded by deep moats, a residence much frequented
by De Retz, notwithstanding its sombre and repulsive appearance.
This fortress was always in a condition to resist a siege: the
drawbridge was raised, the portcullis down, the gates closed,
the men under arms, the culverins on the bastion always loaded.
No one, except the servants, had penetrated into this mysterious
asylum and had come forth alive. In the surrounding country strange
tales of horror and devilry circulated in whispers, and yet it
was observed that the chapel of the castle was gorgeously decked
with tapestries of silk and cloth of gold, that the sacred vessels
were encrusted with gems, and that the vestments of the priests
were of the most sumptuous character. The excessive devotion
of the marshal was also noticed; he was said to hear mass thrice
daily, and to be passionately fond of ecclesiastical music. He
was said to have asked permission of the pope, that a crucifer
should precede him in processions. But when dusk settled down
over the forest, and one by one the windows of the castle became
illumined, peasants would point to one casement high up in an
isolated tower, from which a clear light streamed through the
gloom of night; they spoke of a fierce red glare which irradiated
the chamber at times, and of sharp cries ringing out of it, through
the hushed woods, to be answered only by the howl of the wolf
as it rose from its lair to begin its nocturnal rambles.
On certain days, at fixed hours, the drawbridge sank, and
the servants of De Retz stood in the gateway distributing clothes,
money, and food to the mendicants who crowded round them soliciting
alms. It often happened that children were among the beggars:
as often one of the servants would promise them some dainty if
they would go to the kitchen for it. Those children who accepted
the offer were never seen again.
In 1440 the long-pent-up exasperation of the people broke
all bounds, and with one voice they charged the marshal with
the murder of their children, whom they said he had sacrificed
to the devil.
This charge came to the ears of the Duke of Brittany, but
he pooh-poohed it, and would have taken no steps to investigate
the truth, had not one of his nobles insisted on his doing so.
At the same time Jean de Châteaugiron, bishop of Nantes,
and the noble and sage Pierre de l'Hospital, grand-seneschal
of Brittany, wrote to the duke, expressing very decidedly their
views, that the charge demanded thorough investigation.
John V., reluctant to move against a relation, a man who had
served his country so well, and was in such a high position,
at last yielded to their request, and authorized them to seize
the persons of the Sire de Retz and his accomplices. A serjent
d'armes, Jean Labbé, was charged with this difficult
commission. He picked a band of resolute fellows, twenty in all,
and in the middle of September they presented themselves at the
gate of the castle, and summoned the Sire de Retz to surrender.
As soon as Gilles heard that a troop in the livery of Brittany
was at the gate, he inquired who was their leader? On receiving
the answer "Labbé," he started, turned pale,
crossed himself, and prepared to surrender, observing that it
was impossible to resist fate.
Years before, one of his astrologers had assured him that
he would one day pass into the hands of an Abbé, and,
till this moment, De Retz had supposed that the prophecy signified
that he should eventually become a monk.
Gilles de Sillé, Roger de Briqueville, and other of
the accomplices of the marshal, took to flight, but Henriet and
Pontou remained with him.
The drawbridge was lowered and the marshal offered his sword
to Jean Labbé. The gallant serjeant approached, knelt
to the marshal, and unrolled before him a parchment sealed with
the seal of Brittany.
"Tell me the tenor of this parchment?" said Gilles
de Retz with dignity.
"Our good Sire of Brittany enjoins you, my lord, by these
presents, to follow me to the good town of Nantes, there to clear
yourself of certain criminal charges brought against you."
"I will follow immediately, my friend, glad to obey the
will of my lord of Brittany: but, that it may not be said that
the Seigneur de Retz has received a message without largess,
I order my treasurer, Henriet, to hand over to you and your followers
twenty gold crowns."
"Grand-merci, monseigneur! I pray God that he may give
you good and long life."
"Pray God only to have mercy upon me, and to pardon my
sins."
The marshal had his horses saddled, and left Machecoul with
Pontou and Henriet, who had thrown in their lot with him.
It was with lively emotion that the people in the villages
traversed by the little troop, saw the redoubted Gilles de Laval
ride through their streets, surrounded by soldiers in the livery
of the Duke of Brittany, and unaccompanied by a single soldier
of his own. The roads and streets were thronged, peasants left
the fields, women their kitchens, labourers deserted their cattle
at the plough, to throng the road to Nantes. The cavalcade proceeded
in silence. The very crowd which had gathered to see it, was
hushed. Presently a shrill woman's voice was raised:
"My child! restore my child!"
Then a wild, wrathful howl broke from the lips of the throng,
rang along the Nantes road, and only died away, as the great
gates of the Chateau de Bouffay closed on the prisoner.
The whole population of Nantes was in commotion, and it was
said that the investigation would be fictitious, that the duke
would screen his kinsman, and that the object of general execration
would escape with the surrender of some of his lands.
And such would probably have been the event of the trial,
had not the Bishop of Nantes and the grand-seneschal taken a
very decided course in the matter. They gave the duke no peace
till he had yielded to their demand for a thorough investigation
and a public trial.
John V. nominated Jean de Toucheronde to collect information,
and to take down the charges brought against the marshal. At
the same time he was given to understand that the matter was
not to be pressed, and that the charges upon which the marshal
was to be tried were to be softened down as much as possible.
The commissioner, Jean de Toucheronde, opened the investigation
on the 18th September, assisted only by his clerk, Jean Thomas.
The witnesses were introduced either singly, or in groups, if
they were relations. On entering, the witness knelt before the
commissioner, kissed the crucifix, and swore with his hand on
the Gospels that he would speak the truth, and nothing but the
truth: after this he related all the facts referring to the charge,
which came under his cognizance, without being interrupted or
interrogated.
The first to present herself was Perrine Loessard, living
at la Roche-Bernard.
She related, with tears in her eyes, that two years ago, in
the month of September, the Sire de Retz had passed with all
his retinue through la Roche-Bernard, on his way from Vannes,
and had lodged with Jean Collin. She lived opposite the house
in which the nobleman was staying.
Her child, the finest in the village, a lad aged ten, had
attracted the notice of Pontou, and perhaps of the marshal himself,
who stood at a window, leaning on his squire's shoulder.
Pontou spoke to the child, and asked him whether he would
like to be a chorister; the boy replied that his ambition was
to be a soldier.
"Well, then," said the squire, "I will equip
you."
The lad then laid hold of Pontou's dagger, and expressed his
desire to have such a weapon in his belt. Thereupon the mother
had ran up and had made him leave hold of the dagger, saying
that the boy was doing very well at school, and was getting on
with his letters, for he was one day to be a monk. Pontou had
dissuaded her from this project, and had proposed to take the
child with him to Machecoul, and to educate him to be a soldier.
Thereupon he had paid her clown a hundred sols to buy the lad
a dress, and had obtained permission to carry him off.
Next day her son had been mounted on a horse purchased for
him from Jean Collin, and had left the village in the retinue
of the Sire de Retz. The poor mother at parting had gone in tears
to the marshal, and had entreated him to be kind to her child.
From that time she had been able to obtain no information regarding
her son. She had watched the Sire de Retz whenever he had passed
through La Roche Bernard, but had never observed her child among
his pages. She had questioned several of the marshal's people,
but they had laughed at her; the only answer she had obtained
was: "Be not afraid. He is either at Machecoul, or else
at Tiffauges, or else at Pornic, or somewhere." Perrine's
story was corroborated by Jean Collin, his wife, and his mother-in-law.
Jean Lemegren and his wife, Alain Dulix, Perrot Duponest,
Guillaume Guillon, Guillaume Portayer, Etienne de Monclades,
and Jean Lefebure, all inhabitants of S. Etienne de Montluc,
deposed that a little child, son of Guillaume Brice of the said
parish, having lost his father at the age of nine, lived on alms,
and went round the country begging.
This child, named Jamet, had vanished suddenly at midsummer,
and nothing was known of what had become of him; but strong suspicions
were entertained of his having been carried off by an aged hag
who had appeared shortly before in the neighbourhood, and who
had vanished along with the child.
On the 27th September, Jean de Toucheronde, assisted by Nicolas
Chateau, notary of the court at Nantes, received the depositions
of several inhabitants of Pont-de-Launay, near Bouvron: to wit,
Guillaume Fourage and wife; Jeanne, wife of Jean Leflou; and
Richarde, wife of Jean Gandeau.
These depositions, though very vague, afforded sufficient
cause for suspicion to rest on the marshal. Two years before,
a child of twelve, son of Jean Bernard, and another child of
the same age, son of Ménégué, had gone to
Machecoul. The son of Ménégué had returned
alone in the evening, relating that his companion had asked him
to wait for him on the road whilst he begged at the gates of
the Sire de Retz. The son of Ménégué said
that he had waited three hours, but his companion had not returned.
The wife of Guillaume Fourage deposed that she had seen the lad
at this time with an old hag, who was leading him by the hand
towards Machecoul. That same evening this hag passed over the
bridge of Launay, and the wife of Fourage asked her what had
become of little Bernard. The old woman neither stopped nor answered
further than by saying he was well provided for. The boy had
not been seen since. On the 28th September, the Duke of Brittany
joined another commissioner, Jean Couppegorge, and a second notary,
Michel Estallure, to Toucheronde and Chateau.
The inhabitants of Machecoul, a little town over which the
Sire de Retz exercised supreme power, appeared now to depose
against their lord. André Barbier, shoemaker, declared
that last Easter, a child, son of his neighbour Georges Lebarbier,
had disappeared. He was last seen gathering plums behind the
hotel Rondeau. This disappearance surprised none in Machecoul,
and no one ventured to comment on it. André and his wife
were in daily terror of losing their own child. They had been
a pilgrimage to S. Jean d'Angely, and had been asked there whether
it was the custom at Machecoul to eat children. On their return
they had heard of two children having vanished -- the son of
Jean Gendron, and that of Alexandre Châtellier. André
Barbier had made some inquiries about the circumstances of their
disappearance, and had been advised to hold his tongue, and to
shut his ears and eyes, unless he were prepared to be thrown
into a dungeon by the lord of Machecoul.
"But, bless me!" he had said, "am I to believe
that a fairy spirits off and eats our little ones?"
"Believe what you like," was the advice given to
him; "but ask no questions." As this conversation had
taken place, one of the marshal's men at arms had passed, when
all those who had been speaking took to their heels. André,
who had run with the rest, without knowing exactly why he fled,
came upon a man near the church of the Holy Trinity, who was
weeping bitterly, and crying out, "O my God, wilt Thou not
restore to me my little one?" This man had also been robbed
of his child.
Licette, wife of Guillaume Sergent, living at La Boneardière,
in the parish of S. Croix de Machecoul, had lost her son two
years before, and had not seen him since; she besought the commissioners,
with tears in her eyes, to restore him to her.
"I left him," said she, "at home whilst I went
into the field with my husband to sow flax. He was a bonny little
lad, and he was as good as he was bonny. He had to look after
his tiny sister, who was a year and a half old. On my return
home, the little girl was found, but she could not tell me what
had become of him. Afterwards we found in the marsh a small red
woollen cap which had belonged to my poor darling; but it was
in vain that we dragged the marsh, nothing was found more, except
good evidence that he had not been drowned. A hawker who sold
needles and thread passed through Machecoul at the time, and
told me that an old woman in grey, with a black hood on her head,
had bought of him some children's toys, and had a few moments
after passed him, leading a little boy by the hand."
Georges Lebarbier, living near the gate of the châtelet
de Machecoul, gave an account of the manner in which his son
had evanesced. The boy was apprenticed to Jean Pelletier, tailor
to Mme. de Retz and to the household of the castle. He seemed
to be getting on in his profession, when last year, about S.
Barnabas' day, he went to play at ball on the castle green. He
never returned from the game.
This youth and his master, Jean Pelletier, had been in the
habit of eating and drinking at the castle, and bad always laughed
at the ominous stories told by the people.
Guillaume Hilaire and his wife confirmed the statements of
Lebarbier. They also said that they knew of the loss of the sons
of Jean Gendron, Jeanne Rouen, and Alexandre Châtellier.
The son of Jean Gendron, aged twelve, lived with the said Hilaire
and learned of him the trade of skinner. He had been working
in the shop for seven or eight years, and was a steady, hardworking
lad. One day Messieurs Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville
entered the shop to purchase a pair of hunting gloves. They asked
if little Gendron might take a message for them to the castle.
Hilaire readily consented, and the boy received beforehand the
payment for going--a gold angelus, and he started, promising
to be back directly. But he had never returned. That evening
Hiliare and his wife, observing Gilles de Sillé and Roger
de Briqueville returning to the castle, ran to them and asked
what had become of the apprentice. They replied that they had
no notion of where he was, as they had been absent hunting, but
that it was possible he might have been sent to Tiffauges, another
castle of De Retz.
Guillaume Hilaire, whose depositions were more grave and explicit
than the others, positively asserted that Jean Dujardin, valet
to Roger de Briqueville had told him he knew of a cask secreted
in the castle, full of children's corpses. He said that he had
often heard people say that children were enticed to the château
and then murdered, but had treated it as an idle tale. He said,
moreover, that the marshal was not accused of having any hand
in the murders, but that his servants were supposed to be guilty.
Jean Gendron himself deposed to the loss of his son, and he
added that his was not the only child which had vanished mysteriously
at Machecoul. He knew of thirty that had disappeared.
Jean Chipholon, elder and junior, Jean Aubin, and Clement
Doré, all inhabitants of the parish of Thomage, deposed
that they had known a poor man of the same parish, named Mathelin
Thomas, who had lost his son, aged twelve, and that he had died
of grief in consequence.
Jeanne Rouen, of Machecoul, who for nine years had been in
a state of uncertainty whether her son were alive or dead, deposed
that the child had been carried off whilst keeping sheep. She
had thought that he had been devoured of wolves, but two women
of Machecoul, now deceased, had seen Gilles de Sillé approach
the little shepherd, speak to him, and point to the castle. Shortly
after the lad had walked off in that direction. The husband of
Jeanne Rouen went to the château to inquire after his son,
but could obtain no information. When next Gilles de Sillé
appeared in the town, the disconsolate mother entreated him to
restore her child to her. Gilles replied that he knew nothing
about him, as he had been to the king at Amboise.
Jeanne, widow of Aymery Hedelin, living at Machecoul, had
also lost, eight years before, a little child as he had pursued
some butterflies into the wood. At the same time four other children
had been carried off, those of Gendron, Rouen, and Macé
Sorin. She said that the story circulated through the country
was, that Gilles de Sillé stole children to make them
over to the English, in order to obtain the ransom of his brother
who was a captive. But she added that this report was traced
to the servants of Sillé, and that it was propagated by
them.
One of the last children to disappear was that of Noël
Aise, living in the parish of S. Croix.
A man from Tiffauges had said to her (Jeanne Hedelin) that
for one child stolen at Machecoul, there were seven carried away
at Tiffauges.
Macé Sorin confirmed the deposition of the widow Hedelin.,
and repeated the circumstances connected with the loss of the
children of Châtellier, Rouen, Gendron, and Lebarbier.
Perrine Rondeau had entered the castle with the company of
Jean Labbé. She had entered a stable, and had found a
heap of ashes and powder, which had a sickly and peculiar smell.
At the bottom of a trough she had found a child's shirt covered
with blood.
Several inhabitants of the bourg of Fresnay, to wit, Perrot,
Parqueteau, Jean Soreau, Catherine Degrépie, Gilles Garnier,
Perrine Viellard, Marguerite Rediern, Marie Carfin, Jeanne Laudais,
said that they had heard Guillaume Hamelin, last Easter, lamenting
the loss of two children.
Isabeau, wife of Guillaume Hamelin, confirmed these depositions,
saving that she had lost them seven years before. She had at
that time four children; the eldest aged fifteen, the youngest
aged seven, went together to Machecoul to buy some bread, but
they did not return. She sat up for them all night and next morning.
She heard that another child had been lost, the son of Michaut
Bonnel of S. Ciré de Retz.
Guillemette, wife of Michaut Bonnel, said that her son had
been carried off whilst guarding cows.
Guillaume Rodigo and his wife, living at Bourg-neuf-en-Retz,
deposed that on the eve of last S. Bartholomew's day, the Sire
de Retz lodged with Guillaume Plumet in his village.
Pontou, who accompanied the marshal, saw a lad of fifteen,
named Bernard Lecanino, servant to Rodigo, standing at the door
of his house. The lad could not speak much French, but only bas-Breton.
Pontou beckoned to him and spoke to him in a low tone. That evening,
at ten o'clock, Bernard left his master's house, Rodigo and his
wife being absent. The servant maid, who saw him go out, called
to him that the supper table was not yet cleared, but he paid
no attention to what she said. Rodigo, annoyed at the loss of
his servant, asked some of the marshal's men what had become
of him. They replied mockingly that they knew nothing of the
little Breton, but that he had probably been sent to Tiffauges
to be trained as page to their lord.
Marguerite Sorain, the chambermaid alluded to above, confirmed
the statement of Rodigo, adding that Pontou had entered the house
and spoken with Bernard. Guillaume Plumet and wife confirmed
what Rodigo and Sorain had said.
Thomas Aysée and wife deposed to the loss of their
son, aged ten, who had gone to beg at the gate of the castle
of Machecoul; and a little girl had seen him drawn by an offer
of meat into the château.
Jamette, wife of Eustache Drouet of S. Léger, had sent
two sons, one aged ten, the other seven, to the castle to obtain
alms. They had not been seen since.
On the 2nd October the commissioners sat again, and the charges
became graver, and the servants of the marshal became more and
more implicated.
The disappearance of thirteen other children was substantiated
under circumstances throwing strong suspicion on the inmates
of the castle. I will not give the details, for they much resemble
those of the former depositions. Suffice it to say that before
the commissioners closed the inquiry, a herald of the Duke of
Brittany in tabard blew three calls on the trumpet, from the
steps of the tower of Bouffay, summoning all who had additional
charges to bring against the Sire de Retz, to present themselves
without delay. As no fresh witnesses arrived, the case was considered
to be made out, and the commissioners visited the duke, with
the information they had collected, in their hands.
The duke hesitated long as to the steps he should take. Should
he judge and sentence a kinsman, the most powerful of his vassals,
the bravest of his captains, a councillor of the king, a marshal
of France?
Whilst still unsettled in his mind as to the course he should
pursue, he received a letter from Gilles de Retz, which produced
quite a different effect from that which it had been intended
to produce.
"MONSIEUR MY COUSIN AND HONOURED SIRE,
"It is quite true that I am perhaps the most detestable
of all sinners, having sinned horribly again and again, yet have
I never failed in my religious duties. I have heard many masses,
vespers, &c., have fasted in Lent and on vigils, have confessed
my sins, deploring them heartily, and have received the blood
of our Lord at least once in the year.
"Since I have been languishing in prison, awaiting your
honoured justice, I have been overwhelmed with incomparable repentance
for my crimes, which I am ready to acknowledge and to expiate
as is suitable.
"Wherefore I supplicate you, M. my cousin, to give me
licence to retire into a monastery, and there to lead a good
and exemplary life. I care not into what monastery I am sent,
but I intend that all my goods, &c., should be distributed
among the poor, who are the members of Jesus Christ on earth
.... Awaiting your glorious clemency, on which I rely, I pray
God our Lord to protect you and your kingdom.
"He who addresses you is in all earthly humility,"
"FRIAR GILLES,
"Carmelite in intention."
The duke read this letter to Pierre de l'Hospital, president
of Brittany, and to the Bishop of Nantes, who were those most
resolute in pressing on the trial. They were horrified at the
tone of this dreadful communication, and assured the duke that
the case was so clear, and the steps taken had been so decided,
that it was impossible for him to allow De Retz to escape trial
by such an impious device as he suggested. In the meantime, the
bishop and the grand-seneschal had set on foot an investigation
at the castle of Machecoul, and had found numerous traces of
human remains. But a complete examination could not be made,
as the duke was anxious to screen his kinsman as much as possible,
and refused to authorize one.
The duke now summoned his principal officers and held a council
with them. They unanimously sided with the bishop and de l'Hospital,
and when John still hesitated, the Bishop of Nantes rose and
said: "Monseigneur, this case is one for the church as much
as for your court to take up. Consequently, if your President
of Brittany does not bring the case into secular court, by the
Judge of heaven and earth! I will cite the author of these execrable
crimes to appear before our ecclesiastical tribunal."
The resolution of the bishop compelled the duke to yield,
and it was decided that the trial should take its course without
let or hindrance.
In the meantime, the unhappy wife of Gilles de Retz, who had
been separated from him for some while, and who loathed his crimes,
though she still felt for him as her husband, hurried to the
duke with her daughter to entreat pardon for the wretched man.
But the duke refused to hear her. Thereupon she went to Amboise
to intercede with the king for him who bad once been his close
friend and adviser.
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