CHAPTER IV.
"How is Gilles de Rais progressing ?" "I have finished the first part of his life, making just the briefest possible mention of his virtues and achievements." "Which are of no interest," remarked Des Hermies.
"Evidently, since the name of Gilles de Rais would have perished four centuries ago but for the enormities of vice which it symbolizes.

I am coming to the crimes now.

The great difficulty, you see, is to explain how this man, who was a brave captain and a good Christian, all of a sudden became a sacrilegious sadist and a coward." "Metamorphosed over night, as it were." "Worse.

As if at a touch of a fairy's wand or of a playwright's pen.
That is what mystifies his biographers.

Of course untraceable influences must have been at work a long time, and there must have been occasional outcropping not mentioned in the chronicles.