The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould (best desktop ebook reader .txt) 📕

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