Free Trial of Gilles De Rais by George Bataille

the Limousin extravagances, those at Orléans recall tragedy. Orléans, which in 1429 had foreshadowed Rais’ glory, six years later consecrates his disgrace.
    In effect, the stay — after which Rais clearly recognized that the glorious past he had previously lived in this city was dead — signifies that he remains connected to this place.
    In the course of this ostentatious existence, he wants once again to be the young Marshal of France that he became beside Joan of Arc, throwing himself with an irresistible fury upon the English, delivering to his country an unexpected victory. This event had a different meaning to him than it did to everyone else. For Gilles de Rais, Joan of Arc was evidently unintelligible. How would he be interested in the destiny of a people? What was said about this was troublesome: he was only interested in himself. In a pinch he managed, in his childishness, to partake in the great emotions that he was incapable of understanding … But like every year, on May 8, 1435, Orléans celebrated its liberation; for Gilles this involves garnering for himself a part of the delirious popularity that Joan of Arc possessed from the first day at Orléans. The unfortunate Joan was now four years dead; she had died in the flames, survived by Rais himself, who by her side had had one of the great roles of the day, the greatest after her own perhaps. It was his second chance to relive that day in the enthusiasm of the crowd; but this time he was alone, and the liberation of Orléans, the battle of the Tourelles, became his personal triumph.
    This commemoration of the liberation apparently lasted several days. On this occasion, Gilles let the gold flow. He was spending as one drinks liquor, to become giddy; the principle of the feast was, as it still is, the interminable procession that followed the first year the English departed, but the procession was set off with “mystery plays” presented along the way. In these mysteries, one represented episodes of the battle of 1429. We know that, this year, a performance took place at the moment when the procession reached the boulevard of the bridge: it had to do with taking the Tourelles, the fortress that commanded the bridge over the Loire. The City participated in the costs, but — as the municipal reports that we possess show — only assumed a portion of them. Rais had the mysteries performed quite often; he is said to have worked his ruin in this way. He multiplied the purchases of new and magnificent costumes, not wanting them to be used twice; it was possible for him to have the spectators served with wine, hippocras, and delicacies. We know moreover that four years later in 1439, in another performance of this same assault on the Tourelles, a standard and a banner came from him. We cannot doubt that, in this same year when he spent 80,000 crowns, an important part of this fortune went toward the considerable costs of these feasts.
    But when he returned to Brittany, his coffers were empty.
    His coffers were empty, and his indignant relatives had just obtained royal letters of prohibition against him. At Angers, Tours, Orléans, Champtocé, Pouzauges, and Tiffauges, this prohibition was blaringly announced. He could not have managed this delirium without selling a part of his property, but from then on nobody, in the realm at least, could enter into a contract with him.
    It is probable that Gilles de Rais was then not as completely ruined as it might seem. But in addition to his moral disgrace, this prohibition made another disgrace apparent to everyone: his financial disgrace — which must have also depressed him.
    A striking character trait ultimately emerges from these great expenditures at Orléans: that which must have sovereignly counted double for Gilles de Rais was to make of his life, and of himself, a spectacular blaze! With this purpose he had a sense of theater. In 1435 he was all washed up. But at Orléans he rediscovered in a theatrical form the