Pamela

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On the summit of a little hill, one can see in outline the chateau of Quail Rock which proudly and authoritatively dominates the little village which belongs to it. This ancestral dwelling, which has always sheltered the dynasty of the de Chavignacs, has become renowned, neither for its architecture nor wealth — the many sculptuaries and paintings by masters which decorate its interior, nor again for its fabulous underground tunnel whose origin is obscured by the centuries, but principally for the births of its heirs, some of whom have having brought it a sinister fame through behavior which recalls that of the infamous Gilles de Rais in his own terrible chateau of Tiffauges in the Vendee.

In 1549, Louis de Brow, father-in-law of the beautiful Princess Charlotte de Chavignac, seduced this delectable young woman. In return, he was delivered up to the villagers by his own victim, who denounced his odious rape to these serfs who were her subjects as they were his. His punishment was hideous indeed: despite his mature age and his noble blood, Louis de Brow was tied by the wrists to the tail of a wild horse and dragged through the fields till he was torn to shreds. Then, unsatisfied with their grisly work, the peasants fried the remnants of his carcass and fed those morsels to their pigs and cows, all except de Brow's testicles, which were preserved for their reproductive powers. These were nailed to the wall of a villager's hut till they were dry and resembled prunes.

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