CHAPTER VII
The Execution
On October 26, 1440, at eleven o’clock, the time fixed, the procession approached the prison Bouffay; Gilles, Henriet, and Poitou were brought out, and with this long procession for an escort, were conducted across the two bridges to the place of execution. The two courts, ecclesiastical and civil, were present, and it has been said that the Duke of Brittany was also present. Three gibbets had been erected with their cross-arms, and at the foot of each a pile of wood and fagots (bucher) was laid. It is needless to describe the details of the execution. Some of them may be apocryphal; they were not recorded at the time, and they may have been made for the occasion; in any event, they add nothing to the strength of the story. It seems agreed, however, that at the given signal the three malefactors were suspended by ropes from the gibbets, that the wood was fired, and that they were hung and burned at the same time; that they died with words of repentance upon their lips, expressions of hope for pardon from the God whom they had offended, and stating their hopes and beliefs of salvation. There was no sermon, no reading of sentences, no prolongation of agony. Prayers for the dead were continually recited, but the execution proceeded with as much rapidity as possible.
The historians of the day, Monstrelet, Chartier, Argentré, all agree that the body of Gilles was rescued from the flames before it was burned to ashes, and enclosed in a coffin and carried to the church of the Carmelites at Nantes, where it was buried privately and without ceremony, while the ashes of the two accomplices were scattered to the winds of heaven and the waves of the Loire.
Grotto of Bonne Vierge de Crée-Lait.
Expiatory altar of Gilles, erected by his daughter.
This was the punishment of Gilles de Retz, and this the expiation of his crimes. It is curious to remark its effect on human nature, and how it was regarded by the people. If Gilles de Retz had escaped the punishment of his crimes, the whole country would have been in arms, and he would have been denounced in the fiercest terms, as the most execrable of human beings. But, after having suffered this terrible punishment before the eyes of all men, and it was thus made known throughout the country, the spirit of hate and vengeance seems to have turned to pity, and sorrow and grief seem to have taken their places.
In commemoration of his sufferings, an altar was erected in his memory and to his name, upon the spot where he died. A niche was made for the reception of a statue, though none appears to have been erected, and, unexplainable as it is,—almost marvellous,—it came in after years to be called the altar of the “Bonne Vierge de Créé-Lait.” The spot where was executed this man, who had decimated Brittany by the abduction and murder of its infants, came in a superstitious manner to be esteemed as a place of value in furnishing milk for nursing mothers. Offerings of flowers and similar objects were frequently placed upon the altar to secure the good offices of Saint Anne, who was supposed to have it in charge. This is evidence, not only of the instability of the judgment of the multitude and the changeableness of the public, but the elusiveness of and want of dependence in tradition.