“Do not trouble yourself; he will come soon enough.”
A little while afterwards the servant, hearing his master say, “I am
dying, may God receive my soul!” wished to go to his assistance, but the
lady again withheld him, saying--
“Do not trouble yourself; my husband is only chastising him for his
follies. We will go and see what it is.”
Then, leaning over the balustrade at the top of the stairway, she asked
her husband--
“Well, is it done?”
“Come and see,” he replied. “I have now avenged you on the man who put
you to such shame.”
So saying, he drove a dagger that he was holding ten or twelve times
into the belly of a man whom, alive, he would not have dared to assail.
When the murder had been accomplished, and the two servants of the dead
man had fled to carry the tidings to the unhappy father, St. Aignan
bethought himself that the matter could not be kept secret. But he
reflected that the testimony of the dead man’s servants would not be
believed, and that no one in his house had seen the deed done, except
the murderers, and an old woman-servant, and a girl fifteen years of
age. He secretly tried to seize the old woman, but, finding means to
escape out of his hands, she sought sanctuary with the Jacobins,(8) and
was afterwards the most trustworthy witness of the murder. The young
maid remained for a few days in St. Aignan’s house, but he found means
to have her led astray by one of the murderers, and had her conveyed to
a brothel in Paris so that her testimony might not be received.(9)
8 It was still customary to take sanctuary in churches,
monasteries, and convents at this date, although but little
respect was shown for the refugees, whose hiding-places were
often surrounded so that they might be kept without food and
forced to surrender. After being considerably restricted by
an edict issued in 1515, the right of sanctuary was
abolished by Francis I. in 1539.--B. J. and D.
9 Prostitutes were debarred from giving evidence in French
courts of law at this period.--D.
To conceal the murder, he caused the corpse of the hapless dead man to
be burnt, and the bones which were not consumed by the fire he caused to
be placed in some mortar in a part of his house where he was building.
Then he sent in all haste to the Court to sue for pardon, setting
forth that he had several times forbidden his house to a person whom he
suspected of plotting his wife’s dishonour, and who, notwithstanding
his prohibition, had come by night to see her in a suspicious fashion;
whereupon, finding him in the act of entering her room, his anger had
got the better of his reason and he had killed him.
But before he was able to despatch his letter to the Chancellor’s, the
Duke and Duchess had been apprised by the unhappy father of the matter,
and they sent a message to the Chancellor to prevent the granting of the
pardon. Finding he could not obtain it, the wretched man fled to England
with his wife and several of his relations. But before setting out he
told the murderer who at his entreaty had done the deed, that he had
seen expresses from the King directing that he should be taken and put
to death. Nevertheless, on account of the service that he had rendered
him, he desired to save his life, and he gave him ten crowns wherewith
to leave the kingdom. The murderer did this, and was afterwards seen no
more.
The murder was so fully proven by the servants of the dead man, by the
woman who had taken refuge with the Jacobins, and by the bones that were
found in the mortar, that legal proceedings were begun and completed in
the absence of St. Aignan and his wife. They were judged by default
and were both condemned to death. Their property was confiscated to the
Prince, and fifteen hundred crowns were to be given to the dead man’s
father to pay the costs of the trial.
St. Aignan being in England and perceiving that in the eyes of the law
he was dead in France, by means of his services to divers great lords
and by the favour of his wife’s relations, induced the King of England
(10) to request the King of France (11) to grant him a pardon and
restore him to his possessions and honours. But the King of France,
having been informed of the wickedness and enormity of the crime, sent
the process to the King of England, praying him to consider whether the
offence was one deserving of pardon, and telling him that no one in the
kingdom but the Duke of Alençon had the right to grant a pardon in that
duchy. However, notwithstanding all his excuses, he failed to appease
the King of England, who continued to entreat him so very pressingly
that, at his request, the Proctor at last received a pardon and so
returned to his own home.(12) There, to complete his wickedness, he
consorted with a sorcerer named Gallery, hoping that by this man’s art
he might escape payment of the fifteen hundred crowns to the dead man’s
father.