APPENDIX D
Depositions against Gilles
The Depositions in the Civil Court
Peronne Loessart of Rochebernart, makes oath that the Baron de Retz, on returning from Vannes with his retinue, stopped in her town, at the Hotel of Jean Colin, in the immediate neighbourhood of her house. She had a son ten years of age then going to school whom one of the retinue of Gilles, called Poitou, desired to obtain as his page. It was agreed that he should have four pounds (livres) for his services, and Peronne, cent souls (sous), five francs, for a dress, and Poitou should continue the boy at school. A pony was bought from the hotel-keeper for the boy to ride, and he departed on the morrow in the company. She talked with Gilles de Retz, and he commended her wisdom in placing the boy, and assured her it would be for her and his advantage. She had never seen her son afterwards, though this had taken place two years before. On a future journey, she had met the servants of Gilles, and on demanding news of her son, was informed that he was either at Tiffauges or Pouzauges.
(Signed) De Touscheronde.[5]
[5] The depositions were all signed by Touscheronde and some other.
Jean Colin, his wife Olive, and her mother, support Peronne, and Colin says that he sold Poitou a pony for the sum of LX s., on which the boy was mounted and departed with the rest of the company.
Jean le Meignen, his wife, Allain Dulis, Perrot Dupouez, Guillaume Ganton, Guillaume Portuys, Jean le Fevre, clerc, all of Saint Étienne de Montluc (Loire-Inférieure) depose on their oaths that since about three years ago they had known a Guillaume Brice of their parish. He was a mendicant and had a son about eight or nine years of age named Jamet; that the father was now dead about one year; that last Saint John’s day the said child disappeared and had never been heard of since in the neighbourhood. No one knew what had become of him. He was last seen near the wood of Saint Étienne, and Dupouez says that about the same time he met a woman of fifty or sixty years, hardened and strong, with a visage vermaillé (bronzed), supposed to be la Meffraye, who, it was believed, had abducted the boy. She was making her way towards Nantes.
Guillaume Fouraige, his wife Jehanne, the wife of Jean le Flou, Richarde, wife of Jean Gaudeau, from the Port de Launay near Coueron (Loire-Inférieure), record on their oaths the loss of the son, an infant of about twelve years, of Jean Bernart, their neighbour; that he started in the direction of Machecoul to ask alms (on a begging expedition) from which he had never returned, nor had anybody in their neighbourhood ever received news of him. The woman, Fouraige, told of meeting or seeing an old woman with a gray gown and black bonnet (supposed to be Meffraye) with a young boy in her company, who said she was on her way to Machecoul. In two or three days she returned alone. Being asked what had become of the child, she responded that she had placed him to live with a good master.
28, 29, and 30 September, 1440.
André Barbe, shoemaker, living at Machecoul, says that since Easter he has heard that the son of Georget le Barbier has been lost; that he (the witness) had seen the boy on a certain day gathering apples in the rear of the hotel Rondeau, and since that time he had never been seen in the neighbourhood; that the mothers of the neighbourhood had great fear for the loss of their children and guarded them very closely. He had been at Saint Jean d’Angely where some of the residents demanded whence he came, and when he said “from Machecoul,” they responded, “That is the place where they eat the small children.” He recounts the loss of several other children from his neighbourhood: Guillaume Jeudon, Jehannot Roucin, Alexandre Chastelier. He had heard at the church of Trinity de Machecoul, a stranger in search of his child of seven years, who had been gone for eight months or more.