Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — The Original Bluebeard. [ARTICLE]

The Original Bluebeard.

The story of “Bluebeard” was written during the reign of Louis XIV., by a Frenchman named Perrault, and is supposed .to have been suggested by the deeds of Giles de Laval, Better known as Marshal de Retz. He was born in 1396, and subsequently served under the Duke of Bretagne and Charles VIL with distinction, and was one of the trusted captains of Joan of Aro. In 1432 he was reputed the richest man in France, but quickly squandered his fortune. It is said that soon after that event, through the influence of an alchemist named Prelati, he pledged all but his soul to the devil in exchange for a fortune equal to the one he had spent. His career from that time became that of a demon. Children and young women were inviegled into his house and killed. It is related that the children were dangled at ropes’ ends, pricked with needles and otherwise tortured until dead, and their heads were afterward used as ornaments for his mantels and bed-posts. After he had carried on that career of crime for about eight years he was arrested, confessed and burned at the stake about December 22, 1440.