MONTHLY 11EV1KW OF LITERATURE. 187 



" * These ruins are all that remain of the abode of Gilles de Retz, the verit- 

 able Blue Beard, the hero of the celebrated tale of Perrault. He was lord also 

 of Ingrande, Chantoce, Machecore, Bourgnoeuf, Parnic, Prince, and many 

 other places, each of which claim the distinction of having been the principal 

 theatre of his crimes. Without entering into this controversy, however, all 

 that we can do at the present moment is to offer a very slight historical account 

 of the marechal de Retz, who flourished if the upas-tree can be said to flourish 

 in the reign of Jean V. Duke of Brittany, in the early part of the fifteenth 

 century. 



" ' Born of one of the most illustrious houses of Brittany, he found himself 

 an orphan at twenty years of age, and the possessor of enormous wealth. He 

 was, of course, immediately surrounded by parasites, who, by flattering the 

 weaknesses, and cherishing the evil passions of his nature, and introducing 

 new ones, contrived to turn both his follies and crimes to their own advantage. 

 He was a man of extraordinary bravery ; and, while yet in his youth, acquired 

 by his services in war the honourable title of Marshas. This, however, al- 

 though high enough for his ambition, did not suffice for his vanity. He would 

 be known to the world not only as a brave soldier, but as a man of illustrious 

 birth, immense fortune, and boundless generosity. The world, he knew, 

 can only distinguish characters by their outward manifestations, and he there- 

 fore assumed a state befitting the exalted personage whom he imagined him- 

 self to be. 



" ' When he went abroad he was followed by two hundred men of his 

 house, well mounted and magnificently equipped ; and on returning to the 

 chateau he was joined, at some distance from the house, by his almoner, at- 

 tended by a dean, a chanter, two archdeacons, four vicars, a schoolmaster, 

 twelve chaplains, and eight choristers, each handsomely mounted, and fol- 

 lowed, like his body-guard, by valets. The clothing of this ecclesiastical 

 company was splendid in the extreme, consisting of scarlet robes trimmed 

 with precious firs. In religious pomp, in fact, he was scarcely surpassed by 

 the wealthiest churches. His travelling chapel dazzled every eye by. the num- 

 bers it displayed of crosses, chandeliers, censers, vases of gold and silver, and 

 other ornaments. The procession was closed by six organs, each carried by 

 six men. 



" ' All this state, however, which might have well satisfied a monarch, was 

 vanity and vexation of spirit to Gilles de Retz, on account of one little desidera- 

 tum. He wished that the priest of his chapel should have the privilege of 

 wearing a bishop's mitre ; and this, in spite of his entreaties, his ambassadors, 

 and his gifts, the pope had the insolence to refuse. The chateau in which he 

 deigned to reside emulated the splendour of one of those fairy fabrics which 

 cost a poor author only a page or two of words. The roofs were painted in 

 imitation of azure skies, sprinkled with stars ; the gilded cornices were carved 

 so as to resemble foliage, and the walls were tapestried with cloth of gold 

 which cost six hundred francs the ell. Often, however, he forsook this palace 

 of the genii, in order to dazzle the wondering citizens, accompanied by a train 

 of flatterers, dancing and singing boys, musicians and stage-players. He 

 betook himself to some great town, where he not only treated the people to 

 gratis representations of mysteries the only sort of drama then known but 

 distributed refreshments to all who were polite enough to look on. 



" ' It is hardly necessary to say that a very few years were sufficient to ex- 

 haust a fortune subject to such demands, and pillaged at the same time by 

 the owner's friends. Gilles was by no means alarmed at this consummation. 

 His estates were so numerous that he could hardly repeat their names with- 

 out book ; and he looked upon them as possessing the same kind of inexhaust- 

 ibility which he had attributed to his vanished millions. He began to sell. 

 First went one lordship and then another, till at last his relations, taking the 

 alarm, petitioned the king to forbid the further alienation of the family pro- 

 perty, which, after many disturbances threatening a political convulsion, was 



