whose congealed blood
covered the tiles, and that recognizing in these unhappy women the first
six wives of Bluebeard, she foresaw the fate which awaited herself.
She must, in this case, have mistaken the paintings on the walls for
mutilated corpses, and her hallucinations must be compared with those
of Lady Macbeth. But it is extremely probable that Jeanne imagined
this horrible sight in order to relate it afterwards, justifying her
husband's murderers by slandering their victim.

The death of Monsieur de Montragouz was determined upon. Certain letters
which lie before me compel the belief that Madame Sidonie Lespoisse had
her part in the plot. As for her elder daughter, she may be described as
the soul of the conspiracy. Anne de Lespoisse was the wickedest of the
whole family. She was a stranger to sensual weakness, remaining chaste
in the midst of the profligacy of the house; it was not a case of
refusing pleasures which she thought unworthy of her; the truth was that
she took pleasure only in cruelty. She engaged her two brothers,
Cosme and Pierre, in the enterprise by promising them the command of a
regiment.

CHAPTER V

IT now rests with us to trace, with the aid of authentic documents,
and reliable evidence, the most atrocious, treacherous, and cowardly
domestic crime of which the record has come down to us. The murder
whose circumstances we are about to relate can only be compared to
that committed on the night of the 9th March, 1449, on the person of
Guillaume de Flavy, by his wife Blanche d'Overbreuc, a young and slender
woman, the bastard d'Orbandas, and the barber Jean Bocquillon.

They stifled Guillaume with a pillow, battered him pitilessly with a
club, and bled him at the throat like a calf. Blanche d'Overbreuc proved
that her husband had determined to have her drowned, while Jeanne de
Lespoisse betrayed a loving husband to a gang of unspeakable scoundrels.
We will record the facts with all possible restraint. Bluebeard returned
rather earlier than expected. This it was gave rise to the quite
mistaken idea that, a prey to the blackest jealousy, he was wishful to
surprise his wife. Full of joy and confidence, if he thought of giving
her a surprise it was an agreeable one. His kindness and tenderness, and
his joyous, peaceable air would have softened the most savage hearts.
The Chevalier de la Merlus, and the whole execrable brood of Lespoisse
saw therein nothing but an additional facility for ta