He weeps, throws himself on his knees, swears to God that he will do penance.

He promises to found pious institutions.

He does establish, at Machecoul, a boys' academy in honour of the Holy Innocents.

He speaks of shutting himself up in a cloister, of going to Jerusalem, begging his bread on the way.
"But in this fickle and aberrated mind ideas superpose themselves on each other, then pass away, and those which disappear leave their shadow on those which follow.

Abruptly, even while weeping with distress, he precipitates himself into new debauches and, raving with delirium, hurls himself upon the child brought to him, gouges out the eyes, runs his finger around the bloody, milky socket, then he seizes a spiked club and crushes the skull.