The description of this spectacle has not been preserved to us, though, as with the Mystery of Orleans, of which a few copies of the libretto have been preserved, this spectacle at Nantes excited the populace and aroused their enthusiasm, to which they gave vent with cries of joy and great huzzas. The dignitaries were present with many of their suite, in gorgeous dress and costumes, their men-at-arms with casque and cuirass, Damascene steel and shining halbert and scabbard. Their coats-of-mail were fire-gilt, and covered them from waist to knees; gloves and boots of red leather completed a brilliant and striking costume. The prelates, on the other hand, with their magnificent official robes of scarlet and gold and silver, with the curtains and hangings of such royal magnificence, all served as a background for the play of the Mystery which, being of the Infant Jesus and the Virgin Mary, excited the deep-seated religious fervour and enthusiasm of the people. They manifested their joy and enthusiasm in the usual way of crowds, but the principal share was devoted to the Baron de Retz. This was the pleasure reserved for him; this was the compensation for his great expenditure. It gratified his ambition, tickled his vanity, gave him pleasure, justified his expenditure, confirmed his extravagant habits, and led him farther in the course which ended in his ruin.
It would scarcely be possible at this late date, to obtain a more complete report of the prodigalities of Gilles de Retz than is furnished by the Mémoires des Héritiers, which, as it was sufficient for the King, should be sufficient for us; but there will occasionally crop out of the historical desert of this ancient time a record which, by giving information on a particular subject, lifts the veil from his life and gives us glimpses into certain extravagances, whereby we may imagine the result. One of these, lately found among the archives at Orleans, and contributed by M. Doinel, is a memorandum of a visit of Gilles to that city from September, 1434, to August, 1435. He was accompanied by his suite and retinue, military and ecclesiastic. His brother, René de la Suze, was with him, which was the only time they are shown to have been together, and, curiously enough, it must have been while the Mémoires des Héritiers, if not already presented, were being prepared, or at least contemplated; for the decree of the King was published within the next two years; yet no mention is made therein of René’s presence on this trip.
Arrived at Orleans, Gilles de Retz installed himself, with his personal adjutants, at the Hôtel Croix d’Or (Golden Cross), while his suite and high officers with their respective retinues, were installed at the other hotels, until, as the minute says, there was not a hotel in all Orleans but was occupied, if not filled, by him or by the officers and men of his suite. His “college,” that is, the ecclesiastics, twenty-five or thirty persons, were installed at the Écu (Crown) de Saint Georges; the choir and their leader at the Enseigne de l’Épée (Sign of the Sword); his armourer, Hector Broisset, at the Coupe; his brother, René de la Suze, at the Petit Saumon (Little Salmon); his councillors, Gilles de Sillé, Guy de Bonnière, Guyot de Chambrays, Guillaume Tardif, and Guy de Blanchfort, with his captain of the guard, Loys l’Angevin, at the Grand Saumon (Great Salmon); his chevaliers, Monseignieurs de Martigné, Foulques Blasmes, Jean de Rains, and Bauleis, at the Image de Sainte Marie Madeleine; Jean de Montecler, with Colin le Godelier; his Rais le herault (herald) and suite, with men-at-arms, at the Tête Noire; his chariots and horses, with those of his brother René, at the Roche-Boulet; the vicar of the chapel, the priest Le Blond and his barber, and the horses of the “college” at l’Enseigne du Fourbisseur; the Seignieur Jean de Veille, Bois-Roulier, his provost, George the trumpeter, at the house of Jeannette la Pionne; Thomas his enlumineur, at le Dieu d’Amour (God of Love); while men-at-arms, servants, lackeys, and followers, occupied the Cheval Blanc (White Horse), l’Homme Sauvage (Savage Man), and l’Écu d’Orléans (the Crown of Orleans).
While at Orleans, in 1434, he made thence, during the autumn, a trip to the Bourbonnais country, stopping for a time at Montlucon, at the hotel l’Écu (Crown) de France. When his hotel bill for eight hundred and ten reaux d’or was presented, he could pay only four hundred and ninety-five, and his two servitors, Jean de Sellier and Huet de Villarceau, became his guarantors of payment. Everything during the trip was at his expense. They all travelled on horseback, unless it was some high dignitary or quelque malade (sick) who had a chariot. Horses and all expenditures were furnished by him, and preparing for such a trip, everybody was provided with new, striking, and, consequently, expensive costumes, suitable for the suite of such a rich and puissant Baron.
On his return to Brittany in August, 1435, it was found that his travels during the year had cost the round sum of eighty thousand golden crowns. The Mémoires say this trip left a train of “devoured revenues, lands sold, seigniories mortgaged, works of art and valuables hypothecated, with considerable debts and unpaid loans très onéreux, which menaced ruin and opened an abyss threatening to engulf everything.”
Among the records found at Orleans was one which, made under the circumstances relating to his expenses and financial condition, throws a strong side-light on his character, bringing out the recklessly spendthrift side of it, and would go a long way towards justifying the King’s decree of the interdiction of the sale and mortgage of any property, which, it is not to be forgotten, shortly followed this visit to Orleans.
This paper, prepared by Gilles, provided:
“Saturday, xxvi day of March, MCCCCXXXIIII (1435 N.S.). The noble and puissant lord, Monsieur Gilles, Seignior of Retz, Count of Brienne, Lord of Champtocé and Pouzauges, Marshal of France, has lately, for the good of his soul, and looking to our Lord Jesus Christ, on behalf of himself, his late father, mother, relatives and friends, all sinners, made a foundation in memory of the Holy Innocents, at Machecoul in Rais, Duchy of Brittany.”
By this paper he appoints a full corps of priests, “vicar, dean, archdeacon, treasurer, canons, chapter, and college”; for the support and maintenance of this establishment he gives in trust, in due and formal language, to the King of Sicily and Duke of Anjou his castle and châtellenie of Champtocé, and to the Duke of Brittany one-half the Barony and lands of Rais. He confirmed this gift before notaries named. He declared the two princes named should act as his trustees; and, providing for their possible refusal to act, he names respectively, and in succession, as future trustees, the King, the Emperor, the Pope; in case they all refuse, the lands shall be divided between the knights of the Orders of Saint John and of Saint Lazare.
All the Princes named refused, and each, as far as he could, interdicted and prohibited Gilles from carrying out his project. It accordingly fell through. Yet, at the moment of his establishing this priestly organisation, he was engaged, as we shall see farther on, in the commission of the most horrible and unnatural of crimes, for which he was, before the end of the decade, to be ignominiously executed.