THE MARÉCHAL DE RETZ.—I. THE INVESTIGATION OF CHARGES.
Introduction—History of Gilles de Laval—The Castle of
Machecoul—Surrender of the Marshal—Examination of Witnesses—Letter of
De Retz—The Duke of Brittany reluctant to move—The Bishop of Nantes
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 Paimbœuf, 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 every one, he quitted the service of
Charles VII., and sheathed for ever 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, &c., 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 Do 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 do 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 do 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 do 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.