CHAPTER VI

THE TRIAL BEFORE THE CIVIL COURT

_Trial before the Civil Court--Depositions--Conviction and Sentence_

Upon the arrest of Gilles and his henchmen, and during their trial before the ecclesiastical court, the army of retainers which had been employed by him, including his chapel and all his familiars, fled as would a flock of young chickens on the approach of a hawk. François Prelati, Eustache Blanchet, Henriet Griard, and Poitou seem to have been all who were arrested with Gilles. Gilles de Sillé and Roger de Briqueville had fled to the south before the blow fell. The rest got under cover as quickly as possible; instead of standing by their master, they got as far away from him as they could. Gilles was the only one tried by the ecclesiastical tribunal. No particular reason has been given why François and Blanchet were not tried with him, for they were undoubtedly guilty, equally with Gilles, of the charges of sorcery and invocation of demons; but they were priests, one of them an Italian priest, and whether they were promised freedom in consideration of their testimony against Gilles, is now unknown.

When, on the 19th of October, it had been decided by the ecclesiastical court to apply the torture to Gilles, it was done on the confessions of his accomplices. Why François Prelati and Eustache Blanchet had been excused or overlooked is, as has been said, unknown; but Henriet Griard and Poitou were then delivered to the civil court for trial. This civil court was presided over by Pierre de l’Hospital, who, as has been seen, had assisted in the ecclesiastical court, and was necessarily officially cognisant of the developments. Pierre de l’Hospital was the chief justice of the duchy of Brittany, and the civil courts were under his authority; so immediately after the confessions of Henriet and Poitou, they were transferred to the civil authorities, and Pierre de l’Hospital, as supreme judge, brought them before the court on the 20th or 21st of October. The civil court held its session at the Bouffay, then, and until 1848, the _Palais de Justice_. The Bouffay had been a castle, but had been reconstructed and used as the _Palais de Justice_ during many centuries. It was in proximity to the Château de Nantes. It was enclosed in a high wall, possibly to make a jail-yard, and occupied the present Place, or Market, Bouffay.

It was within this palace yard that the celebrated trial by duel took place, by direction or authority of the Duke of Brittany, between Count Robert Beaumanoir and Sieur Pierre Tournemine, on a charge of murder made by the former against the latter.

The castle, or palace, has been destroyed, as well as the wall, and it now stands all open. One side of the Place abuts on the river Loire, adjoining the Bridge de la Poissonerie, over which the prisoners were taken to the Prairie Madeleine, the place of execution.

The proceedings of the civil court need not be followed in their details. Preparing for the trial, as is the custom of criminal courts in France, the prosecutor called the witnesses before him, and took down their depositions, and it is worth our while to pause and examine the record as it appears in the archives of the department of Loire-Inférieure.

The records of the two trials, the ecclesiastical and the civil, on file in the Departmental Archives, are unequal in the extent and detail with which they have been respectively reported. It is to be explained that it is a considerable work, and scarcely possible to have been completed in all its parts as the trial progressed, without immense labour on the part of the clerks and notaries. The proceedings of the ecclesiastical court, reported in Latin, comprise three hundred and eight pages, of which the photograph on page 137 of this memoir is a sample. The proceedings of the civil court, in French, comprise a hundred and nine pages, the two together making four hundred and twenty pages in parchment, without including the sentence, which was in Latin, much mixed with French. The sentence is about the size of the original Declaration of Independence of the United States. It is said to have been written in its entirety in a single night, and an inspection of it corroborates the story, for it bears evidence, by way of erasures and interlineations, of haste and rapid work.

The report of the evidence in the ecclesiastical trial is not nearly so satisfactory, nor has it been recorded so clearly, or with so much detail, as was that in the civil court. It is also much more convenient to render that of the civil trial, and the author has, therefore, used it in making a transcript. (Appendix D.)

It must not be forgotten that the evidence was taken by deposition, out of court; that it was rendered, not in the language of the witness, but of the scribe. The depositions were not signed by the witnesses, but were reported to the court under the signature of the notary or commissioner. Eighty-six witnesses were examined, and their testimony appears to have been reduced to writing by Jean Colin, and certified to by Jean de Touscheronde. The dates of the various sessions are not given, but each witness, or each batch of witnesses, appears to have been examined independently and certified to separately. This examination of witnesses in the civil court seems to have begun about as early as did that in the ecclesiastical trial, for the first record is under date of September 18, 1440. For the purpose of showing the style of the French language in use at that time, that it may be compared with modern French, and the changes noted, the heading of these depositions is here reproduced textually:

“September 18, 1440.

“Informacion et enqueste a trouver, se estre peut, que le sire de Rais, ses gens et complices, out prins et fait prandre pluseurs petiz enffans et autres gens, et les murtriz et occiis pour en avoir le sang, le cueur, le faye et autres parties d’elx, pour en faire sacrifice au deable, et autres malefices, de quoy il est grant clamour. Celle enqueste faite par Jehan de Touscheronde, commissaire de duc, nostre souverain seigneur, en ceste matere, appellé Jehan Colin, pour le prouchain tesmoign que eust en sa compaignie, le xviii^e jour de septembre, l’an mil IIII C quarante.”

Before reporting the testimony in the depositions against Gilles de Retz, and that it may be better understood, it should be explained that there were two methods pursued by Gilles in the abduction of children: one, the secret and forcible abduction, and the other the hiring of the child for service as a page, or his being taken with the consent of the parents on a pretended duty, by which he should be attached to the retinue of the Baron. Both systems were pursued, and, it is believed, always by the followers and “familiars” of the Baron, for it does not appear that he was ever personally engaged in either. The demand of the parent for the presence of the child was always put off by indefinite statements: the boy was at another château, or he had gone with the masters, or men-at-arms, and would be absent for an indefinite time; sometimes, that he had gone to a distant province; other times, that he had fled and was a fugitive, and they knew not his whereabouts. These were all equivocal responses, and far from satisfactory to the demanders; but out of them there grew the reports circulated through the country, as set forth in the first pages of Chapter IV.

On the trial, Henriet Griart and Poitou made no defence, but pleaded guilty. They confessed openly their crime, and being pushed to detail, they admitted that they had been concerned in the abduction of more than fifty children, and Henriet added that during his last trip to Jocelyn with Gilles de Retz, he had captured three of them with his own hands.

The confession of Henriet and of Corrillaud called Poitou, appears in the records, and following it, on October 23d, is the condemnation by the civil court under Pierre de l’Hospital, as follows:

“After the confession of the aforesaid Henriet and Poitou, and on the advice of the assistants, advocates and others, heard in the case, and considering all the facts, it was adjudged and declared by the aforesaid seignior the President, that the aforesaid Henriet and Poitou should, and ought to be, hung and burned” (_penduz et ars_).

But the execution of the sentence was postponed to await the conclusion of the trial of Gilles before the ecclesiastical court.

On the 25th of October, Gilles’s sentence was passed upon him by the ecclesiastical court, and he was turned over to the civil court (_bras séculeir_). He was delivered to the prison at the Bouffay on the same evening, and the next morning was brought before the civil court with Pierre de l’Hospital as supreme judge. All hope of escape was lost to Gilles, and, like his accomplices, he seemed to be more interested for the salvation of his soul than care for his body. He made no defence,--indeed defence was useless, for the trial was only a formality. Being charged with the crime of murder and interrogated as to the facts, he repeated his confession of guilt.

In the consultation of the court as to the sentence, there were some differences of opinion among the judges. That he merited death, there was no question, and that appears to have been accepted by all. But as to the manner of death and the degree of odium to be attached thereto, there was some debate. However, as he had been excommunicated by the Church, as his accomplices had already been sentenced _penduz et ars_, and as the crime shocked all the world who knew of it, the argument prevailed that, as Gilles had been the chief promoter, and as he and his two accomplices had been together in their crimes they should not be separated in their punishments, and therefore first, a fine should be upon him of fifty thousand pounds; and second, that he should be hung and burned alive on the gibbet of Piesse.

Piesse was a little open prairie on the island of La Madeleine in the river opposite, forming part of the city of Nantes. It was reached by two bridges communicating with the Place Bouffay.

Pierre de l’Hospital in pronouncing the sentence upon Gilles, concluded:

“You have naught to rely upon now but the mercy of God; I ask you so to dispose yourself as to die in good state, and to seek repentance for having committed such great crimes. To-morrow, at one o’clock, the sentence against you will be carried into effect.”

Gilles preferred three petitions, through the judge, to the Bishop. One, that the execution of the three, himself and his two servants, should be at one and the same time, to the end that he might comfort and aid them by his presence upon that dread occasion; that they should see that his execution actually took place, and should not be tormented with the thought that either his wealth or power could procure the postponement of the execution, and finally, or possibly, a pardon. The second was, that his ashes might be buried in consecrated ground; and when this prayer was granted, he chose the Carmelite church at Nantes. The third was, that on the day of the execution, a procession of litany, such as was common in that country, should be organised to make prayers to God for him and his two servants, that they might be sustained and supported in their repentance, and that their salvation might be assured. Accordingly, on the morrow, at nine o’clock, this procession was organised and marched through the streets of the city in the most solemn manner, headed by the clergy of all ranks, reciting the prayers for the dead.