"This order simply hastened the ruin of the interdicted. The grand
skinflint, the master usurer of the time, Jean V, duke of Brittany,
refused to publish the edict in his states, but, underhandedly, notified
all those of his subjects who dealt with Gilles. No one now dared to buy
the Marshal's domains for fear of incurring the wrath of the king, so
Jean V remained the sole purchaser and fixed the prices. You may judge
how liberal his prices were.

"That explains Gilles's hatred of his family who had solicited these
letters patent of the king, and why, as long as he lived, he had nothing
to do with his wife, nor with his daughter whom he consigned to a
dungeon at Pouzauges.

"Now to return to the question which I put a while ago, how and with
what motives Gilles quitted the court. I think the facts which I have
outlined will partially explain.

"It is evident that for quite a while, long before the Marshal retired
to his estates, Charles had been assailed by the complaints of Gilles's
wife and other relatives. Moreover, the courtiers must have execrated
the young man on account of his riches and luxuries; and the king, the
same king who abandoned Jeanne d'Arc when he considered that she could
no longer be useful to him, found an occasion to avenge himself on
Gilles for the favours Gilles had done him. When the king needed money
to finance his debaucheries or to raise troops he had not considered the
Marshal lavish. Now that the Marshal was ruined the king censured him
for his prodigality, held him at arm's length, and spared him no
reproach and no menace.

"We may be sure Gilles had no reason to regret leaving this court, and
another thing is to be taken into consideration. He was doubtless sick
and tired of the nomadic existence of a soldier. He was doubtless
impatient to get back to a pacific atmosphere among books. Moreover, he
seems to have been completely dominated by the passion for alchemy, for
which he was ready to abandon all else. For it is worth noting that this
science, which threw him into demonomania when he hoped to stave off
inevitable ruin with it, he had loved for its own sake when he was rich.
It was in fact toward the year 1426, when his coffers bulged with gold,
that he attempted the 'great work' for the first time.

"We shall find him, then, bent over his retorts in the chateau de
Tiffauges. That is the point to which I have brought my history, and now
I am about to begin on the series of cr