Among the records found at Orleans was one which, made under the circumstances relating to his expenses and financial condition, throws a strong side-light on his character, bringing out the recklessly spendthrift side of it, and would go a long way towards justifying the King’s decree of the interdiction of the sale and mortgage of any property, which, it is not to be forgotten, shortly followed this visit to Orleans. This paper, prepared by Gilles, provided: “Saturday, xxvi day of March, MCCCCXXXIIII (1435 N.S.). The noble and puissant lord, Monsieur Gilles, Seignior of Retz, Count of Brienne, Lord of Champtocé and Pouzauges, Marshal of France, has lately, for the good of his soul, and looking to our Lord Jesus Christ, on behalf of himself, his late father, mother, relatives and friends, all sinners, made a foundation _in memory of the Holy Innocents_, at Machecoul in Rais, Duchy of Brittany.” By this paper he appoints a full corps of priests, “vicar, dean, archdeacon, treasurer, canons, chapter, and college”; for the support and maintenance of this establishment he gives in trust, in due and formal language, to the King of Sicily and Duke of Anjou his castle and _châtellenie_ of Champtocé, and to the Duke of Brittany one-half the Barony and lands of Rais. He confirmed this gift before notaries named. He declared the two princes named should act as his trustees; and, providing for their possible refusal to act, he names respectively, and in succession, as future trustees, the King, the Emperor, the Pope; in case they all refuse, the lands shall be divided between the knights of the Orders of Saint John and of Saint Lazare. All the Princes named refused, and each, as far as he could, interdicted and prohibited Gilles from carrying out his project. It accordingly fell through. Yet, at the moment of his establishing this priestly organisation, he was engaged, as we shall see farther on, in the commission of the most horrible and unnatural of crimes, for which he was, before the end of the decade, to be ignominiously executed. His Maison de la Suze has been described, whether actually or only from similar houses of the epoch, is now impossible to tell; but it is said to have eclipsed, in its luxury and taste, the palace of the Dukes of Brittany. It was ornamented and decorated to a high degree. All countries were laid under tribute to furnish riches for its decoration: Italy for its painting and sculpture, Spain for its Cordovan leather, Flanders for its tapestry, Venice and Bohemia for their crystals and glassware, the Orient for its magnificent stuffs, and Persia for its tiles and _faience_; while, without doubt, the ceramics of his own and neighbouring provinces, like Tours, Orleans, Gien, Quimper, and Poitou (the latter the forerunner of Limoges), were represented in the luxurious fittings of the houses and châteaux of Gilles, the Baron de Retz.