“The Bishop learns of this outrage and prevails upon the reluctant Jean V to march against the rebel.  Then, while one army advances on Saint Etienne, which Gilles abandons to take refuge with his little band in the fortified manor of Machecoul, another army lays siege to Tiffauges.

“During this time the priest hastens his redoubled investigations.  He delegates commissioners and procurators in all the villages where children have disappeared.  He himself quits his palace at Nantes, travels about the countryside, and takes the depositions of the bereft.  The people at last speak, and on their knees beseech the Bishop to protect them.  Enraged by the atrocities which they reveal, he swears that justice shall be done.

“It takes a month to hear all the reports.  By letters-patent Jean de Malestroit establishes publicly the ‘infamatio’ of Gilles, then, when all the forms of canonic procedure have been gone through with, he launches the mandate of arrest.

“In this writ of warrant, given at Nantes the 13th day of September in the year of Our Lord 1440, the Bishop notes all the crimes imputed to the Marshal, then, in an energetic style, he commands his diocese to march against the assassin and dislodge him.  ’Thus we do enjoin you, each and all, individually, by these presents, that ye cite immediately and peremptorily, without counting any man upon his neighbor, without discharging the burden any man upon his neighbour, that ye cite before us or before the Official of our cathedral church, for Monday of the feast of Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the 19th of September, Gilles, noble baron de Rais, subject to our puissance and to our jurisdiction; and we do ourselves cite him by these presents to appear before our bar to answer for the crimes which weigh upon him.  Execute these orders, and do each of you cause them to be executed.’

“And the next day the captain-at-arms, Jean Labbe, acting in the name of the duke, and Robin Guillaumet, notary, acting in the name of the Bishop, present themselves, escorted by a small troop, before the chateau of Machecoul.

“What sudden change of heart does the Marshal now experience?  Too feeble to hold his own in the open field, he can nevertheless defend himself behind the sheltering ramparts—­yet he surrenders.

“Roger de Bricqueville and Gilles de Sille, his trusted councillors, have taken flight.  He remains alone with Prelati, who also attempts, in vain, to escape.  He, like Gilles, is loaded with chains.  Robin Guillaumet searches the fortress from top to bottom.  He discovers bloody clothes, imperfectly calcinated ashes which Prelati has not had time to throw into the latrines.  Amid universal maledictions and cries of horror Gilles and his servitors are conducted to Nimes and incarcerated in the chateau de la Tour Neuve.

“Now this part is not very clear,” said Durtal to himself.  “Remembering what a daredevil the Marshal had been, how can we reconcile ourselves to the idea that he could give himself up to certain death and torture without striking a blow?