The Case of Bluebeard. such atrocity. But at this time De Retz sent a letter to the Duke which was 'in the nature of a confession. In this letter the Marshal acknowledged having sinned horribly again and again, but said he had never failed in his religious duties, having heard many masses and vespers, always having fasted at Lent and at vigils, and confessed and communicated regularly. He was ready to acknowledge and expiate his crime by retiring into a monastery, there to lead a good and exemplary life. He signed himself, " In all earthly humility Friar Gilles Carmelite in intention." At the trial the Marshal was haughty. He suggested to his judges that they expedite matters, so that he might consecrate himself to God, and that he might go about his work of endowing charities and distributing his alms for the salvation of his soul. He was arrogant. It had not entered the Marshal's mind at this time that a conviction of his crime would condemn him to death. He seemed to think that his godliness and piety would procure him that admission to a mon astery which he so much desired. But the Bishop of Nantes stood in his way. He believed the testimony of the many witnesses who testified against the Marshal, and was horrified at the magnitude of his crime. The Sire de Retz assumed a bold front, and charged the witnesses with testifying falsely; but when informed that his servants had divulged the whole diabolical plan, he weakened and no longer equivocated. Con fronted with the terrible alternative of the rack, Gilles de Laval shuddered, and declared that rather than be tortured he would confess all. When the confessions of his
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servants were read to him, he turned deadly pale, and exclaimed that God had loosened their tongues so that they had spoken the truth. Urged to relieve his conscience, he told how he had robbed mothers of their children and how he had killed them, some times by cutting their throats with daggers or knives, sometimes by cracking their skulls. Some of the bodies he opened that he might examine their hearts and entrails, and after wards burned the bodies. He confessed to some one hundred and twenty-five murders in a single year. One of his judges suggested that the Evil One must have possessed him, to which he replied : " It came to me from myself, no doubt at the instigation of the devil; but these acts of cruelty afforded me incompara ble delight. The desire to commit these atrocities came upon me eight years ago. I left court to go to Cantonen, that I might claim the property of my grandfather deceased. In the library of the castle I found a Latin book, Suetonius, I believe, full of the accounts of the cruelties of the Roman Emperors. "I read the charming history of Tiberius, Caracalla, and other Caesars, and the pleasure they took in watching the agonies of tortured children. Thereupon I resolved to imitate and surpass these same Caesars, and that very night I began to do so. For some time I confided my secret to no one, but afterwards I communicated it to my cousins Gilles de Sile, then to Master Roger de Briqueville, and then to Henriet Ponton, Rossignol, and Robin." These last were the servants of De Retz. This is the historical character of the famous, or rather infamous, Bluebeard.
