Jacques Vallée Desbarreaux

Jacques Vallée Desbarreaux, Seigneur, French poet and sceptic, b. Paris, 1602, great-nephew of Geoffrey Vallée, who was burnt in 1574. Many stories are related of his impiety, e.g. the well-known one of his having a feast of eggs and bacon. It thundered, and Des Barreaux, throwing the plate out of window, exclaimed, “What an amount of noise over an omelette.” It was said he recanted and wrote a poem beginning, “Great God, how just are thy chastisements.” Voltaire, however, assigns this poem to the Abbé Levau. Died at Chalons, 9 May, 1673.