clamour ran high, and suspicion was directed toward the castle
of Champtoce. So circumstantial was the evidence against de Retz that
at length the Duke of Brittany ordered both the Seigneur and his
accomplice to be arrested. Their trial took place before a commission
which de Retz denounced, declaring that he would rather be hanged like
a dog, without trial, than plead before its members. But the evidence
against him was overwhelming. It was told how the wretched madman, in
his insane quest for gold, had sacrificed his innocent victims on the
altar of Satan, and how he had gloated over their sufferings. Finally
he confessed his enormities and told how nearly a hundred children had
been cruelly murdered by him and his relentless accomplice. Both he
and Prelati were doomed to be burned alive, but in consideration of
his rank he was strangled before being cast into the flames. Before
the execution he expressed to Prelati a hope that they would meet in
Paradise, and, it is said, met his end very devoutly.

The castle of Champtoce still stands in its beautiful valley, and
many romantic legends cluster about its grey old walls. "The
hideous, half-burnt body of the monster himself," says Trollope,
"circled with flames--pale, indeed, and faint in colour, but more
lasting than those the hangman kindled around his mortal form in
the meadow under the walls of Nantes--is seen, on bright moonlight
nights, standing now on one topmost point of craggy wall, and now
on another, and is heard mingling his moan with the sough of the
night-wind. Pale, bloodless forms, too, of youthful growth and
mien, the restless, unsepulchred ghosts of the unfortunates who
perished in these dungeons unassoiled ... may at similar times be
seen flitting backward and forward, in numerous groups, across the
space enclosed by the ruined wall, with more than mortal speed, or
glancing hurriedly from window to window of the fabric, as still
seeking to escape from its hateful confinement."[41]

_Comorre the Cursed_

As has been said, the story of Gilles de Retz is connected by
tradition with that of Bluebeard, but it is probable that this
traditional connexion arises simply from the association of two famous
tales. The other legend in question is that of Comorre the Cursed,
whose story is told in the frescoes which cover the wall of the church
of St Nicolas de Bieuzy, dedicated to St Triphyne, in which the tale
of Bluebeard is depicted as the story of the sai