aste for debauchery.' And he arraigns
his indolence and constantly asserts that delicate repasts and strong
drink have helped uncage the wild animal in him.

"Unresponsive to mediocre passions, he is carried away alternately by
good as well as evil, and he bounds from spiritual pole to spiritual
pole. He dies at the age of thirty-six, but he has completely exhausted
the possibilities of joy and grief. He has adored death, loved as a
vampire, kissed inimitable expressions of suffering and terror, and has,
himself, been racked by implacable remorse, insatiable fear. He has
nothing more to try, nothing more to learn, here below.

"Let's see," said Durtal, running over his notes. "I left him at the
moment when the expiation begins. As I had written in one of my
preceding chapters, the inhabitants of the region dominated by the
chateaux of the Marshal know now who the inconceivable monster is who
carries children off and cuts their throats. But no one dare speak.
When, at a turn in the road, the tall figure of the butcher is seen
approaching, all flee, huddle behind the hedges, or shut themselves up
in the cottages.

"And Gilles passes, haughty and sombre, in the solitude of villages
where no one dares venture abroad. Impunity seems assured him, for what
peasant would be mad enough to attack a master who could have him
gibbeted at a word?

"Again, if the humble give up the idea of bringing Gilles de Rais to
justice, his peers have no intention of combating him for the benefit of
peasants whom they disdain, and his liege, the duke of Brittany, Jean V,
burdens him with favours and blandishments in order to extort his lands
from him at a low price.

"A single power can rise and, above feudal complicities, above earthly
interest, avenge the oppressed and the weak. The Church. And it is the
Church in fact, in the person of Jean de Malestroit, which rises up
before the monster and fells him.

"Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, belongs to an illustrious line.
He is a near kinsman of Jean V, and his incomparable piety, his
infallible Christian wisdom, and his enthusiastic charity, make him
venerated, even by the duke.

"The wailing of Gilles's decimated flock reaches his ears. In silence he
begins an investigation and, setting spies upon the Marshal, waits only
for an opportune moment to begin the combat. And Gilles suddenly commits
an inexplicable crime which permits the Bishop to march forthwith upon
him and smite him