hich he caused to be carried from one
castle to another on the shoulders of six men, whenever he changed his
residence. He kept up a choir of twenty-five young children of both sexes,
who were instructed in singing by the first musicians of the day. The
master of his chapel he called a bishop, who had under him his deans,
arch-deacons, and vicars, each receiving great salaries; the bishop four
hundred crowns a year, and the rest in proportion.

He also maintained a whole troop of players, including ten dancing girls
and as many ballad-singers, besides morris-dancers, jugglers, and
mountebanks of every description. The theatre on which they performed was
fitted up without any regard to expense, and they played mysteries or
danced the morris-dance every evening for the amusement of himself and
household, and such strangers as were sharing his prodigal hospitality.

At the age of twenty-three he married Catherine, the wealthy heiress of
the house of Touars, for whom he refurnished his castle at an expense of a
hundred thousand crowns. His marriage was the signal for new extravagance,
and he launched out more madly than ever he had done before; sending for
fine singers or celebrated dancers from foreign countries to amuse him and
his spouse; and instituting tilts and tournaments in his great court-yard
almost every week for all the knights and nobles of the province of
Brittany. The Duke of Brittany's court was not half so splendid as that of
the Marechal de Rays. His utter disregard for wealth was so well known,
that he was made to pay three times its value for every thing he
purchased. His castle was filled with needy parasites and panderers to his
pleasures, amongst whom he lavished rewards with an unsparing hand. But
the ordinary round of sensual gratification ceased at last to afford him
delight; he was observed to be more abstemious in the pleasures of the
table, and to neglect the beauteous dancing girls who used formerly to
occupy so much of his attention. He was sometimes gloomy and reserved, and
there was an unnatural wildness in his eye which gave indications of
incipient madness. Still his discourse was as reasonable as ever, his
urbanity to the guests that flocked from far and near to Champtoce
suffered no diminution; and learned priests, when they conversed with him,
thought to themselves that few of the nobles of France were so well
informed as Gilles de Laval. But dark rumours spread gradually over the
count