MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 189 



to subdue the rebel angels, and to bring the most powerful among them under 

 the dominion of the Marshal. 



" * One night at the mid-hour the sage proceeded to this spot, armed at all 

 points, protected by the cuirass cemented by human blood, and furnished with 

 the seal of Gilles de Retz, who followed him alone. They first dug a grave, 

 round which he traced various circles, and these he intermingled with strange 

 figures, in which he deposited some odd or hideous objects. He then buifrt 

 an altar with the earth taken out of the grave and some flat stones that he 

 had set carefully apart, placing upon it, when ready, the bones of the victims 

 buried round the spring. 



" ' A new crime was then committed. The blood of an infant flowed into 

 the grave, and, responding to its death-cries, the voice of an owl was heard, 

 which the stranger a few days before, set at liberty in the forest. Up to this 

 moment the theatre of the dreadful sacrifice had received no light except from 

 some rays of the moon darting fitfully through the foliage. But, when the In- 

 dian had pronounced certain barbarous and impious words, a thick smoke 

 appeared round the altar, and was followed by a bluish light, so brilliant that 

 the eye could scarcely endure it. The magician then struck fiercely on a 

 buckler, which resounded to the blow, and, in the midst of a terrific noise 

 which filled the forest, a being resembling an enormous leopard, whose hor- 

 rible form was long imprinted on the imagination of the Marshal, advanced 

 slowly, with seemingly articulated roars, which the Indian explained, in a low 

 and troubled voice, to his wretched employer. 



" ' " It is Satan," said he, " he accepts your homage. But, curses on my 

 soul ! I have forgotten the most important part of the incantation. He can- 

 not speak to you. Why did I not think of this sooner ?" 



" ' " Can we not begin again," cried the Marshal, trembling with hope 

 and fear. 



" ' " Peace, in the devil's name ! " whispered the Indian, appearing to listen. 

 " At Florence," continued he. " Yes, in the depths of that cellar. Do you, 

 then, consent to the death of " 



" ' " Just Heaven !" shouted the Marshal, in a fury, * may the great God 

 confound you, have I not already promised ? " But at the holy name of the 

 Father of Mercies the vision vanished ; the echoes of the forest repeated a thou- 

 sand wild and mournful cries, and the dazzling light expired in thick darkness. 



" ' " I recommended silence to you," said the magician, after according an 

 instant to human weakness, " but the name which escaped from your lips has 

 lost to you the power you were on the eve of acquiring over the spirits. He 

 said enough, however, to enable me to render you the possessor of all the trea- 

 sures buried in the bosom of the earth. The talisman by means of which 

 this must be effected is at the bottom of an urn in a tomb near Florence ; and 

 behold," continued he, stooping and picking up a plate of gold which the Mar- 

 shal had not before observed, " behold the sign which will introduce me into 

 places however deeply hidden." 



** ' The Marshal returned to his chateau, placed in the hands of the Indian 

 the whole amount he was able to raise, saw him set out on his journey to 

 Florence, and with a heart full of rage for having lost, by his own fault, the 

 immense advantages he had expected, awaited with anxiety the expiration cf 

 the year, which the impostor had marked as the period of his return. 



"'Disappointed in his search after the philosopher's stone, and in his 

 longings for dominion over the powers of the air, Gilles de Retz sought in mar- 

 riage a means of replenishing his coffers. The dowry of his wife was soon 

 exhausted, or her charms palled upon his senses, and she disappeared. A 

 second supplied her place a third even to the seventh wife ! The cry of 

 blood at length rose to heaven, and Jean V., Duke of Brittany, determined 

 to arrest this gigantic criminal. After some difficulty he was taken not in 

 his own chateau, which was too well defended, but by means of an ambus- 

 cade and thrown into the dungeons of Nantes. 



