Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 526 Doubt
"At least in my opinion, there are too many doubts in this case. If you really judge according to the evidence, you should not believe that Elizabeth is the murderer behind the scenes anyway." After listening to Liang En's story, Joan was a little excited Said.

Because of her own history, Joan of Arc has always been very sensitive to this kind of framing.

"If all the evidence we know now is true, then we can basically be sure that this is a premeditated frame-up campaign to get rid of Bathory's nephew, the leader of the Hungarian region."

Then, Joan talked about the doubts in the case, such as the important letter from Tourseau saying that more than 30 of his men found a dead girl in Elizabeth's home, a dying girl , an injured woman and her group of detainees.

These discoveries soon became evidence that Elisabeth Bathory abused and murdered her servants, leading to her imprisonment and subsequent trial.

However, according to other contemporaries, there were no such people in the castle, and if one or two people said so, it may be to cover up crimes.But if a lot of people say that, that's a different story.

You must know that the size of this castle is not large. If dozens of people are imprisoned, the whole castle will probably know about it, but according to the notes of the people at the time, no one mentioned these prisoners.

What's more interesting is that many witnesses participated in the trial process, up to 35 witnesses were called in one day.But no one can say anything about the most basic question of the number of victims.

The four accused accomplices respectively admitted that 36, 37, 50 and 51 people were killed, and one of the town witnesses even produced a list of up to 650 victims, and lied that Elizabeth herself wrote it.

This insulting evidence of human intelligence was naturally not used, but this number later became the number of girls killed by Elizabeth in legend.

More importantly, although the so-called accomplices were executed quickly after being tortured, Elizabeth Bathory, the principal criminal, did not get a guilty verdict, even if Emperor Shenra repeatedly urged it to have no effect.

At the same time, according to some materials, Elizabeth Bathory was later sealed in a bedroom with bricks, leaving only a small hole, and the legend that it was used to pass items is also false.

She was indeed under house arrest in the castle, but as long as she didn't leave the castle, she could still walk around the castle under the supervision of the guards. The supply of various items was also in line with her identity, and it was not as miserable as in the legend.

Liang En and Joan of Arc confirmed this with their own eyes just now, at least there is absolutely no wall at the door of the room to lock her in, and the situation in the room is also in line with the ostentation that a noble should live in.

In addition to these historical records, the current on-site investigation also made Liang En and the others more firmly believe that Bathory was innocent. For example, the rumor that thirty or forty corpses were buried in the castle was absolutely false.

"As you have seen, the castle is located on a hill, and the drinking water depends on the cellar and a deep well in the castle. If the corpse is buried underground, the water source will be polluted soon. By that time, half of the people in the castle will survive. Not bad."

Soon, Joan stated what she observed on the spot just now. It has to be said that as an ancient soldier, she can judge many things through experience in this regard.

"Besides, people come and go in places like castles, and buried corpses are easy to find. As long as anyone is in a normal mind, they won't put things that don't want to be discovered and hide them in the castle."

"You're right, and there's something more suspicious in history." Liang En said, recalling the information he had seen before. "That is, the victim did not appear during the trial, nor did the relatives of the victim appear."

"You know, at that time most people only moved within a small area centered on their hometown, and it was impossible to go out to work across long distances like now, so there is a high probability that the maids found in the castle are from the surrounding area. people."

"If only one or two people disappeared, it might not attract everyone's attention, but it is impossible for dozens or even hundreds of girls to disappear at one time without attracting people's attention."

"So if something really happened, the family members of those maids will definitely get the information and appear during the interrogation. So now I wonder who the so-called witnesses are?"

"So this book, or the notes are very important." Jeanne looked at the black leather book and said, "I believe that what should be recorded in it is the ins and outs of the whole thing."

Sure enough, after opening the book, it was full of Elizabeth Bathory's records of the trial. Obviously, for her, she had experienced so much in this life that he was not afraid of death, but she hoped that it would not affect the honor of herself and her family. .

"Fortunately, we didn't talk much before, otherwise she would never be happy to know that she is considered a pervert who kills people and takes blood." Liang En shook his head and said after roughly flipping through the notebook.

The legends about Bathory in later generations mainly focus on two aspects. One is that the countess bathed in the blood of the victim to keep her beauty or youth.

Another legend is that Elizabeth Bathory's uncle Gabriel was a cultist, armed to fight against invisible enemies, shouting words that people could not understand; aunt Clara was gay, she taught Elizabeth to torture servants skills; older brother Stefan is a sex maniac.

But these two claims are nonsense, at least the interrogation records only say that Bathory tortured and murdered servants, and there is nothing related to blood bathing or cults.

Considering the contradiction between the Prime Minister and Bathory, even a little bit of this sign will be used as evidence in the interrogation, so if it is not in the record, it is really gone.

The actual extant legends of Elizabeth Bathory all appeared from the 18th and 19th centuries. They first appeared in Laszlo Tuloch's "The Tragic History" in 1729, which is about Elizabeth Bathory first artistic creation.

The legend was called into question after witness statements were made public in 1817.John Paget's 1850 book "Hungary and Transylvania" said blood baths were unfounded.

Despite this, the legend has been used in various spin-offs, possibly due in part to Elizabeth Bathory's connection to the Transylvanian vampire legend, which is, after all, very close in space.

Some versions of the story are meant to denounce female vanity, while others are meant to entertain or irritate the audience.Laszlo Tuloch wrote this book because of his opposition to the Reformation.

As for all the villains in Bathory's family, it is related to being stigmatized as the loser in the struggle. The real situation is that Elizabeth does not have an uncle named Gabriel at all.

She has only one distant nephew named Gabriel Bathory, who is also her brother's adopted son, and has no biological children of her own.

As for her aunt Clara, who was almost sixty years old when Elizabeth was 10 years old, it was impossible to teach Elizabeth anything.

(End of this chapter)