“The hireling—­the popular mouther after favour!  I know him,” cried Duke John, angrily.  “What accursed demon sent you to him?  In this, as in other matters, he will strive to oust me from the hearts of the folk of Brittany.  He will be the people’s advocate and will gain great honour from this trial, will he?  We shall see.  Ho! guards there!  Turn out.  Summon those that are asleep.  Let the full muster be called.  I will lead you to Machecoul myself.  And these gentlemen shall march with us.  But by Heaven and the bones of Saint Anne of Auray, if in one jot they shall fail to substantiate against Gilles de Retz those things which they have testified, they shall die by the rack, and by the cord, and by disembowelling, and by fire.  So swear I, Duke John of Brittany.”

“It is good,” said James Douglas.  And “It is good,” accorded also Malise and Sholto MacKim.

“But before any dies in Brittany, Gilles de Retz or another, I will judge the case,” commented Pierre de l’Hopital, President of Justice and Grand Councillor of the reigning sovereign.

CHAPTER LVII

THE TOWER OF DEATH

Throughout La Vendee and all the country of Retz had run a terrible rumour.  “The Marshal de Retz is the murderer of our children.  He has a thousand bodies in the vaults of his castles.  The Duke of Brittany has given orders that they shall be searched.  His soldiers are forsaking him.  The names of the dead have been written in black and white, and are in the hands of the headmen of the villages.  Hasten—­it is the hour of vengeance!  Let us overwhelm him!  Rise up and let us seek our lost ones, even if we find no more than their bones!”

And terrible as had been the gathering of the were-wolves in the dark forests around Machecoul upon the night of the fight by the hollow tree, far more threatening and terrible was the uprising of the angry commons.

In whole villages there was not a man left, and mothers too marched in that muster armed with choppers and kitchen knives, wild eyed and angry hearted as lionesses robbed of their cubs.  From the deep glens and deeper woods of the country of Retz they poured.  They disgorged from the caves of the earth whither the greed and rapacity of their terrible lord had driven them.

Schoolmasters were there with the elder of their pupils.  For many of the vanished children had disappeared on their way to school, and these men were in danger of losing both their credit and occupation.

Towards Tiffauges, Champtoce, Machecoul, the angry populace, long repressed, surged tumultuously, and with them, much wondering at their orders, went the soldiers of the Duke.

But it is with the columns that concentrated upon Machecoul that we have chiefly to do.  Our three Scots accompanied these, and here, too, marched John of Brittany himself with his Councillor Pierre de l’Hopital by his side.