owry;
but he had expended immense sums in the national cause, and his
private life was as extravagant as that of a prince in a fairy tale.
At his castle of Champtoce he dwelt in almost royal state; indeed, his
train when he went hawking or hunting exceeded in magnificence that of
the King himself. His retainers were tricked out in the most gorgeous
liveries, and his table was spread with ruinous abundance. Oxen,
sheep, and pigs were roasted whole, and viands were provided daily for
five hundred persons. He had an insane love of pomp and display, and
his private devotions were ministered to by a large body of
ecclesiastics. His chapel was a marvel of splendour, and was furnished
with gold and silver plate in the most lavish manner. His love of
colour and movement made him fond of theatrical displays, and it is
even said that the play or mystery of Orleans, dealing with the story
of Jeanne Darc, was written with his own hand. He was munificent in
his patronage of the arts, and was himself a skilled illuminator and
bookbinder. In short, he was obviously one of those persons of
abnormal character in whom genius is allied to madness and who can
attempt and execute nothing except in a spirit of the wildest excess.

The reduction of his fortune merely served his peculiar and abnormal
personality with a new excuse for extravagance. At this time the art
of alchemy flourished exceedingly and the works of Nicolas Flamel, the
Arabian Geber, and Pierre d'Estaing enjoyed a great vogue. On an evil
day it occurred to Gilles to turn alchemist, and thus repair his
broken fortunes. In the first quarter of the fifteenth century alchemy
stood for scientific achievement, and many persons in our own
enlightened age still study its maxims. A society exists to-day the
object of which is to further the knowledge of alchemical science. A
common misapprehension is current to the effect that the object of the
alchemists was the transmutation of the baser metals into gold, but in
reality they were divided into two groups, those who sought eagerly
the secret of manufacturing the precious metals, and those who dreamed
of a higher aim, the transmutation of the gross, terrestrial nature of
man into the pure gold of the spirit.

The latter of these aims was beyond the fevered imagination of such a
wild and disorderly mind as that of Gilles de Retz. He sent emissaries
into Italy, Spain, and Germany to invite adepts in the science to his
castle at Champt