The Book of Were-Wolves, page 139 by Sabine Baring-Gould
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overed his head, and said in a solemn voice:--
"The court, notwithstanding the quality, dignity, and nobility of the accused, condemns him to be hung and burned. Wherefore I admonish you who are condemned, to ask pardon of God, and grace to die well, in great contrition for having committed the said crimes. And the said sentence shall be carried into execution to-morrow morning between eleven and twelve o'clock." A similar sentence was pronounced upon Henriet and Pontou.
On the morrow, October 26th, at nine o'clock in the morning, a general procession composed of half the people of Nantes, the clergy and the bishop bearing the blessed Sacrament, left the cathedral and went round the city visiting each of the principal churches, where masses were said for the three under sentence.
At eleven the prisoners were conducted to the place of execution, which was in the meadow of Biesse, on the further side of the Loire.
Three gibbets had been erected, one higher than the others, and beneath each was a pile of faggots, tar, and brushwood.
It was a glorious, breezy day, not a cloud was to be seen in the blue heavens; the Loire rolled silently towards the sea its mighty volumes of turbid water, seeming bright and blue as it reflected the brilliancy and colour of the sky. The poplars shivered and whitened in the fresh air with a pleasant rustle, and the willows flickered and wavered above the stream.
A vast crowd had assembled round the gallows; it was with difficulty that a way was made for the condemned, who came on chanting the _De profundis_. The spectators of all ages took up the psalm and chanted it with them, so that the surge of the old Gregorian tone might have been heard by the duke and the bishop, who had shut themselves up in the château of Nantes during the hour of execution.
After the close of the psalm, which was terminated by the _Requiem æternam instead of the Gloria_, the Sire de Retz thanked those who had conducted him, and then embraced