( 69 )
CHAPTER VI.
A CHAPTER OF HORRORS.
Pierre Bourgot and Michel Verdung—The Hermit of S. Bonnot—The Gandillon Family—Thievenne Paget—The Tailor of Chalons—Roulet.
In December, 1521, the Inquisitor-General for the diocese of Besançon, Boin by name, heard a case of a sufficiently terrible nature to produce a profound sensation of alarm in the neighbourhood. Two men were under accusation of witchcraft and cannibalism. Their names were Pierre Bourgot, or Peter the Great, as the people had nicknamed him from his stature, and Michel Verdung. Peter had not been long under trial, before he volunteered a full confession of his crimes. It amounted to this:—
About nineteen years before, on the occasion of a New Year's market at Poligny, a terrible storm had
