But no one dare speak.
When, at a turn in the road, the tall figure of the butcher is seen approaching, all flee, huddle behind the hedges, or shut themselves up in the cottages.
"And Gilles passes, haughty and sombre, in the solitude of villages where no one dares venture abroad.

Impunity seems assured him, for what peasant would be mad enough to attack a master who could have him gibbeted at a word?
"Again, if the humble give up the idea of bringing Gilles de Rais to justice, his peers have no intention of combating him for the benefit of peasants whom they disdain, and his liege, the duke of Brittany, Jean V, burdens him with favours and blandishments in order to extort his lands from him at a low price.
"A single power can rise and, above feudal complicities, above earthly interest, avenge the oppressed and the weak.

The Church.

And it is the Church in fact, in the person of Jean de Malestroit, which rises up before the monster and fells him.
"Jean de Malestroit, Bishop of Nantes, belongs to an illustrious line.
He is a near kinsman of Jean V, and his incomparable piety, his infallible Christian wisdom, and his enthusiastic charity, make him venerated, even by the duke.
"The wailing of Gilles's decimated flock reaches his ears.

In silence he begins an investigation and, setting spies upon the Marshal, waits only for an opportune moment to begin the combat.