GILLES DE RAIS. 487 the servants whom he had brought to a shameful death, assuring them that as soon as their souls should leave their bodies they would all meet in paradise. The men were as contrite and as sure of salvation as their master, declaring that they welcomed death in their unbounded trust in God. They were all mounted on stands over piles of wood, with halters around their necks attached to the gallows. The stands were pushed aside, and as they swung the fagots were lighted. Henriet and Poitou were allowed to burn to ashes, but when Gilles's halter was burned through and his body fell, the ladies of his kindred rushed forward and plucked it from the flames. It was honored with a magnificent funeral, and it is said that some of the bones were kept by his family as relics of his repentance.* Under the Breton laws execution for crime entailed confisca- tion of movables to the seigneur justicier, but not of the landed estates. Condemnation for heresy, as we have seen, everywhere carried with it indiscriminate confiscation and inflicted disabilities for tw^o generations. Gilles was convicted as a heretic, but the secular sentence is obscure on the subject of confiscation, and in the intricate and prolonged litigation which arose over his inheri- tance it is difficult to determine to what extent confiscation was enforced. Some twenty years later the " Memoire des Heritiers" argues that death had expiated his crimes and removed all cause of confiscation, which would seem to indicate that it had taken place. Certain it is that, to assist the Duke of Brittany, Rene of Anjou in 1450 confiscated Champtoce and Ingrandes, which were under his jurisdiction, and ceded them to the duke to confirm his title. Charles VII., on the other side, had already decreed confis- cation in order to help the heirs. f No disabilities were inflicted upon the descendants, and the house was still regarded as eligible to the noblest alliances. After a year of widowhood, Catharine de Thouars married Jean de Ven- dome, Vidame of Chartres, and in 1442 Gilles's daughter, Marie, es- poused Pregent de Coetivy, Admiral of France and one of the most powerful men in the royal court. He must have considered the match most desirable, for he submitted to hard conditions in
- Bossard et Maulde, pp. 337-41.
t Tres-Anc. Cout. de Bretagne c. 118 (Bourdot de Richebourg, IV. 228).— Bossard et Maulde, pp. 357, 377.
