A REMARKABLE TRIAL. 311 the ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries. They were preceded by the cross-bearer of the Bishop of Nantes, carrying aloft the high and sacred emblem. The Bishop in full pontificals followed: on his right hand walked the Vicar of the Inquisition for the city, followed by the canons and clergy of the Cathedral, and the officials of the Inquisition, in black gowns, with a cross on the breast, each bearing a lighted taper. The Grand Judge of Brittany, full robed, accompanied by men of the law, came last, as on this occasion the principal judge was to co-operate with the ecclesiastical powers. The chief personages were marshalled to their appointed seats. The Vicar of the Inquisition attracted much notice. He was more than sixty years of age, his deportment dignified, his countenance grave and earnest, whilst the raised brow, and the mouth that seemed as if a muscle could never be relaxed, denoted pride and self-importance. All the preliminaries being made, on a sign from the chief notary, an official left the apartment. Again there was the hush of expectation. The sound of approaching footsteps met the ear from without a side door, before which there was a vacant space barred off from the rest of the hall. Every eye fixed itself on that side door; the interest felt by all was deep and solemn; many shuddered, and some wept. Well might it be so, for on that day the Lord Gilles de Retz, one of the chief nobles, and a relative of the Duke of Brittany, a Marshal of France, and as such, by permission of the King, was to be arraigned on a charge of sorcery. The door grated on its hinges; it was not often opened, for it stood at the top of the steps that led down to the dungeons. Conducted by two familiars of the Inquisition, and surrounded by guards, the prisoner entered. The very breath of every one seemed suspended, as they surveyed him, nobleman in birth, demon in life, who now stood before the bar of temporal judgment to answer to a charge of hitherto unheard of crimes. His deportment was serious, but unabashed. He bowed to the Duke, and then sat down. No portrait of De Retz has come down to us, but we can imagine his countenance from his deeds. It must have been hard and revolting, from the sternness of cruelty. "The most depraved imagination,' says Henri Martin, 'could never have dreamed of the horrors which this trial brought to light; De Retz was a Moloch in human form.' But so The evidence was overwhelming, confirming the criminal's previous examination and confession. dreadful were the circumstances, that the chroniclers of the time forbear to give any very minute details. It appeared that in the châteaux of Choutocé, of Suze, and others, belonging to the Lord de Retz in Brittany, had been found the bones of one hundred and forty children— some in the towers of the buildings, others thrown down into the wells. These had been murdered by De Retz, with the assistance of two sorcerers, one an Italian, the other an Englishman. The children had been enticed away, or carried off wherever they could be found in THE EXECUTION OF DE RETZ. 313 towns, villages, or country, and sacrificed to the powers of darkness. De Retz acknowledged that the blood of these victims was employed in writing incantations of a diabolical nature, to obtain fortune and honours, knowledge and power. At last these demons in human form became so accustomed to murder, that as animals having tasted blood are said to thirst for it, so De Retz and his companions murdered for the enjoyment of the deed. One circumstance was singularly characteristic in an age of superstition. De Retz did not believe he should. ever become a subject of the infernal regions, because he averred that in all his sorcery dealings he had always avoided giving his soul in any compact with the devil. On being arrested, he confessed his deeds. For the sake of example in the punishment of crimes so dreadful, it was determined to make the trial as public as possible at Nantes. De Retz was condemned to be hanged until dead, and his body to be afterwards burnt to ashes. Before he ascended the scaffold, he carefully fulfilled all the duties enjoined by the priests who prepared him for death; took an affectionate leave of the Italian sorcerer, and made an appointment to meet him in Paradise! The lookers-on were much edified by his pious end. The sentence was carried out; but before the body could be half burnt, some ladies, who were related to the criminal, begged the Duke of Brittany not to let it be entirely consumed, but to allow them to have the remains in order to place them in holy ground. Their prayer was granted, and these ladies caused what the flames had spared of this monster in iniquity, after a solemn service, to be buried in the Church of the Carmelites. The trial of De Retz in Latin still exists in the archives of the municipality of Nantes. In our times, it has been pronounced to be too dreadful for translation.1 What must be the revelations it contains, when they were deemed, even in their own age of iron,' bloodshed, and iniquity, too horrible for detail? If all the sorcerers in the middle ages were like these human demons, we cannot wonder that fire and faggot became their doom. Certain it is, that the pretended adepts in the black art used every means in their power to raise terror and amazement in the credulous. They professed to have a demon who attended upon them, who could call up the dead and perform miraculous services, but only for evil, and bestowed no favours but at the price of souls.2 Everything about this period seemed to turn in favour of Charles; for, while affairs in England were becoming worse and worse, those in France were rapidly improving. Henry VI., religious, merciful, and good, but feeble in mind and unresisting in temper, would have made an admirable medieval saint, but was utterly unfit for a ruler. His passive easiness did more harm to his kingdom, by his giving way to a set of selfish, violent men, than the tyranny of a more resolute spirit could possibly have 1 See Murray's Handbook of France, Article 'Nantes.' DISSENSIONS IN ENGLAND. 315 effected. Two factions threatened England, and, as usual, the stronger weighed down the weaker. Gloucester succumbed to Winchester, the wretched Cardinal persuading the poor King that his uncle Gloucester was plotting against his life in order to seize his crown! It was an age of belief in all that was fabulous and monstrous. No superstition could be too strange for the credulous. By the malice and contrivance of the Cardinal, Henry was made to believe that Gloucester's wife, assisted by her confederates in evil, had formed an image of wax to represent him; and as it wasted away before a slow fire, so would he decline by wasting sickness. The Duchess was accused of sorcery. She was bad enough certainly, being the woman with whom Gloucester lived as his mistress before the Pope set him free from his first bonds, when he married her. She was sentenced to do penance, barefooted, clad in a in her hand.1 white sheet, with a burning taper The next step taken by Beaufort was to provide the passive King with a wife. One was chosen for him, not among the enemies, but among the connections of France. If the sword could not avail to keep that country under, a more friendly policy perhaps might do something towards it. Margaret of Anjou, daughter of the accomplished Prince René, Duke of Anjou and King of Sicily, was the lady. Margaret resembled her father in nothing but his handsome face. She was only fifteen years old, but soon 1 Hollingshed, p. 622. |