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Title: Blue-beard: A Contribution to History and Folk-lore

Author: Thomas Wilson

Release date: July 21, 2019 [eBook #59955]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Chris Curnow, Charlie Howard, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUE-BEARD: A CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY AND FOLK-LORE ***
Transcriber’s Note:

Words on the cover were added by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain. The rubric in the middle was on the original cover.

Château (Castle) of Nantes, where Gilles was tried.—From the river Loire.

BLUE-BEARD
A CONTRIBUTION TO HISTORY AND
FOLK-LORE

BEING THE HISTORY OF GILLES DE RETZ OF BRITTANY,
FRANCE, WHO WAS EXECUTED AT NANTES IN 1440 A.D.
AND WHO WAS THE ORIGINAL OF BLUE-BEARD IN THE
TALES OF MOTHER GOOSE

BY
THOMAS WILSON, LL.D.

CURATOR, DIVISION OF PREHISTORIC ARCHÆOLOGY, U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM
COUNSELLOR OF THE BAR OF THE SUPREME COURTS, COURT OF
CLAIMS AND OF APPEALS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

FORMERLY U.S. CONSUL AT GHENT, BELGIUM; AT NANTES AND NICE, FRANCE

ILLUSTRATED

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK & LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1899

COPYRIGHT, 1899
BY
THOMAS WILSON
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

TO
MY DEAR WIFE
THE COMPANION OF MY TRAVELS
WHILE THE MATERIAL FOR THIS VOLUME WAS GATHERED
THE PARTNER OF MY MANY JOYS
THE SHARER OF MY FEW SORROWS
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED

T. W.