Words on the cover were added by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain. The rubric in the middle was on the original cover.
The story of Bluebeard has become a classic in infantile mythical folk-lore literature wherever the English and French languages are spoken. Shahan suggests its possible existence in earlier languages and more distant countries see p. The story is more or less mythical. While it does not follow history with any pretence of fidelity, it has come to be recognised by the historians and literati of France as representing the life of Gilles de Retz or Rais , a soldier of Brittany in the first half of the fifteenth century.
He was of noble birth, was possessed of much riches, was the lord of many manors, had a certain genius and ability, made some reputation as a soldier at an extremely early age, fought with Joan of Arc, and was Marshal of France.
Together they became possessed by the idea that the foundation of this elixir should be the blood of infants or maidens, and, using the almost unbridled power incident to a great man at that early date in that wild country, they abducted many maidens and children, who were carried to some one of his castles and slain.
Suspicion was finally directed toward him; he was arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed at the city of Nantes, October 27, , at the early age of thirty-six years. The author of this volume was sent, in , to the good city of Nantes as United States Consul.
