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diff --git a/44930-0.txt b/44930-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72b2fb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/44930-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4059 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Palissy the Huguenot Potter, by C. L. +Brightwell + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Palissy the Huguenot Potter + A True Tale + + +Author: C. L. Brightwell + + + +Release Date: February 16, 2014 [eBook #44930] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALISSY THE HUGUENOT POTTER*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler + + [Picture: . . . our artist was struck dumb with admiration] + + + + + + PALISSY + THE + HUGUENOT POTTER. + + + A TRUE TALE. + + * * * * * + + BY + C. L. BRIGHTWELL + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + * * * * * + + PHILADELPHIA: + PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION + AND SABBATH SCHOOL WORK, + No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +THE readers of this little book may ask, with great propriety, “What is +meant by a true tale?” and the answer to this question shall be very +explicit, as it is of great importance that there should be no +misunderstanding as to the matter of truth or fiction. + +What is known of the history of Palissy is gathered from his writings, +which are written in the form of dialogues, and into which he has +incorporated short narratives of the events of his own life, and of the +occurrences which took place under his own eyes. These, and a few +incidental notices of him in contemporary writers, are the sources whence +the materials for his life have been gathered. + +In the present narrative, I have attempted to give an account of the +facts which Palissy has himself recorded, weaving them into a tale. For +instance, he tells us, in one of his treatises, of his troubles, and +experiments, and sorrows, during the time he was engaged in discovering +the white enamel; and he gives, now and then, a peep at his domestic +life, showing how his poor children drooped and died; how he became +burdened with debt; that his family and friends reproached him for his +long and unprofitable toil; and that his neighbors joined in their +invectives against his folly; also, that when reduced to the greatest +straits, he obtained help from a friendly publican. + +So with the religious events narrated: they are given from his work, +“Recepte Vèritable, par laquelle tous les hommes de la France,” etc. {4} +All that has been done is to arrange these details in order, and give +them a narrative form. There is not one event in this narrative which +did not actually occur, although it was not possible to give literally a +Life of Palissy. + +The principal aim has been to call attention to his religious character, +which has been but slightly noticed in the accounts of those who have +recorded the achievements of this great genius, as an artist in earth. +He was, in fact, a French Huguenot: one of the glorious band of martyrs +for the faith of Jesus; and he has told us, in a touching and simple +manner, what he saw and heard in those days of persecution and trial. + +The plan adopted seemed not only legitimate, but the one which could best +render the work attractive and pleasing to those for whose instruction it +is designed. They may be assured that the sentiments and doings of +Palissy are here truly recorded, and if they take his example as an +incentive to earnest, patient, and unwearying application—above all, if +they adopt his high standard and the motive which sanctified all his +work—they will not read this “True Tale” in vain. + +I cannot conclude without expressing the great obligations I am under to +Mr. Morley’s “Life of Palissy,” which has been my guide throughout. Of +his admirable translations of the various passages he has given from the +original treatises, I have gladly availed myself, finding it impossible +to improve upon them. + +NORWICH, _November_, 1858. + + [Picture: The Town of Saintes] + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + + “And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another + one; to every man according to his several ability.”—MATTHEW xxv. 15 + +IN the south-west of France is the ancient town of Saintes, the capital +of Saintonge, charmingly situated on the river Charente, and once the +most flourishing city of all Guienne. It is a very ancient place, and +was, in the time of the Romans, one of the principal cities of Aquitaine. +There are still some slight remains of an amphitheatre, and a fine Roman +bridge spans the waters of the Charente, bearing a Latin inscription (now +illegible) upon its frieze. Placed at the foot of a mountain, the aspect +of the town from a distance is impressive, but its streets are narrow and +winding, and its houses low and ill-built. In olden times it boasted an +ancient cathedral dedicated to St. Peter, and said to have been built by +Charlemagne; but only the bell-tower now remains, and, indeed, most of +the antiquities in which the town once abounded must be named among the +things that were. A great deal of this destruction is attributed to the +religious struggles which were carried on in Saintes with especial +fierceness, and of which some record will be found interwoven in the +story of Palissy the Potter. + +It was in the year 1538, one morning in May, that the people of the old +narrow-streeted town we have described, were surprised to find a strange +family had arrived among them. The new-comers were a young couple who +brought with them an infant in arms, and presently established themselves +in a small house on the outskirts of the city, the frontage of which +looked upon one of the steep crooked streets, and presented to view a +workshop, in which were displayed various objects calculated to attract +the eyes of passers-by. Above all, at the entrance of the door was +placed the figure of a dog, modelled and painted in such life-like +fashion, that many a time was this sturdy-looking guardian of the +threshold challenged to single combat by the perplexed dogs of the good +town. + +It was not long before the inhabitants of Saintes learned that the head +of this small family was named Bernard Palissy, and that he desired to +obtain occupation among them as a surveyor, a painter, or a worker in +glass. In the former of these occupations they soon discovered that he +possessed considerable talent. He had good knowledge of geometry, and +manual skill in the employment of the rule and compass, and these enabled +him to measure and plan sites for houses and gardens, and to make maps of +landed property; all which might turn to account in disputes as to +questions of boundaries, a source of constant litigation formerly, in +most countries. But, unfortunately, land measuring came only now and +then, and on the arts of painting and glass-working, he must chiefly +depend for support. The neighbours learned, too, after a while, to look +with favourable eyes upon the young artist, whose spirit and vivacity +attracted them, and seemed always to shed a sunshine around his home; for +Palissy was a man full of hope at all times; and, even in the darkest +hour of evil fortune he still looked cheerfully onward. At the time when +he settled in Saintes he was about thirty years old. Of his early +history but few particulars are known; he was born in the diocese of +Agen, of parents so poor that they were unable to give him the advantages +of a liberal education. However, he learned to read and write, and from +his early youth showed a turn for drawing and designing, and speedily +attained a degree of skill which secured him employment in painting on +glass and drawing plans. + +It was by the small funds he procured in this way that he supported +himself during his travels through the principal provinces of France, +which he traversed, everywhere gazing, with youthful eagerness, on the +works of God and the productions of human skill. + +For nine or ten years he wandered on; sometimes pausing, and taking up +his temporary residence in places where he found employment. Thus, at +Tarbes, the capital of Bigorre, he dwelt some years, and in sundry other +towns be sojourned awhile. It is evident that those were years of +education to his young and indefatigably inquiring spirit. He was +storing up knowledge which was afterwards turned to excellent account. +He investigated the arts of life and studied the monuments of antiquity, +observing the local customs and habits of the places he visited, +acquiring dexterity of hand, while, at the same time, he enlarged his +mind. But the study in which he most delighted was that of natural +history. The great interest he took in the various qualities of the +earths, rocks, sands, and waters, on account of the relation they bore to +his calling, had made him a naturalist. Everywhere he employed his +leisure hours in wandering over the woods and meadows, and thus he +studied that wondrous book men call the Book of Nature. + +It is time we visit the humble dwelling of the man of genius, who, his +wanderings now over, has quietly settled down, and is entering on the +earnest business of life, full of that spiritual sense of power which +begets hopefulness, and, at the same time, simple-hearted and loving as a +child. Bernard’s studio was no other than a small out-house, in which he +wrought at his occupation, and beyond which was a little garden, filled +with the choice plants and herbs he met with in his rambles through the +woods and pasture lands around Saintes. The evening hour has just set +in, bringing with it rest and relaxation, and the artist has laid aside +his tools and is fondling the little Nicole, his eldest born; while his +eyes glance lovingly towards his young wife, who, delicate and slightly +formed, looks but ill-fitted to endure the troubles of life—we must add, +the troubles peculiar to the wife of a genius. + +For the present, however, the evil days have not come upon her, and she +replies with looks of pleasure to his fond words. He is telling her of +the glorious ramble he has had in the early morning, and of the treasures +he has seen and gathered. A large earthen pot stands on his work-bench, +filled with flowers and foliage, and his pencil has been diligently +occupied in imitating the bright colors and elegant forms of these wild +plants, with the minute accuracy of a naturalist. Lisette has opened his +portfolio, and is turning over the loose sketches it contains; +butterflies, lizards, beetles, and many other wild creatures are +there—all drawn from nature, and true to the smallest tracery-work upon +the insects’ wings. To her exclamation of delight he answers, “Truly, it +is a great recreation to those who will contemplate admiringly the +wondrous works of nature, and methinks I could find nothing better than +to employ one’s-self in the art of agriculture, and to glorify God, and +to admire him in his marvels. As I walked along the avenues, and under +the foliage of the chestnuts, I heard the murmuring waters of a brook +which passes at the foot of the hill; and on the other side the voices of +the young birds warbling among the trees; then there came to my memory +that 104th Psalm, where the prophet says, ‘He sendeth the springs into +the valleys, which run among the hills;’ also, he says, ‘By them shall +the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the +branches.’” + +The mother took the infant from her husband, and began undressing him for +bed, while the father smiled and went on, half soliloquizing, “When I had +walked through the avenue, I turned toward the side, where the woods and +mountains are, and there I received a great contentment, and much joyous +pleasure, for I saw the squirrels gathering the fruits and leaping from +branch to branch, with many pretty looks and gestures; further on, I +beheld the rooks busy at their repast; and again, under the apple trees I +found certain hedgehogs, which had rolled themselves up, and having +thrust their little hairs, or needles, through the said apples, went so +burdened. I saw likewise many things narrated in that Psalm, as the +conies, playing and bounding along the mountains, near certain holes and +pits which the Sovereign Architect has made for them: and when suddenly +the animals caught sight of an enemy, they knew well how to retire into +the place which was ordained to be their dwelling. Then I exclaimed, ‘O +Lord, how manifold are thy works; in wisdom hast thou made them all.’ +Such sights as these have made me so great a lover of the fields, that it +seems to me there are no treasures on earth so precious, or which ought +to be held in such great esteem, although they are the most despised.” + +At that moment Lisette, who had risen from the bench on which they had +seated themselves, looking toward the palings of their garden, perceived +a tall figure leaning there. She directed the attention of her husband +to this person, and then retired into the chamber with her infant. A few +moments after, Bernard was in eager conversation with the stranger. They +spoke in low accents, as though anxious not to be overheard. “Let us go +down to the field together,” said Palissy; “I must speak with thee, +master Philibert, where our words may be freely uttered;” and presently +the two had disappeared in the twilight. + +This Master Philibert Hamelin, who was so eagerly accosted by our artist, +was one of those “poor and unlearned men,” whose names were chronicled in +the list of “heretics,” as infected with the taint of disloyalty to the +Roman Catholic Church. At the time when Palissy came forth into life, +the minds of men were greatly agitated by those religious struggles which +convulsed Europe during the sixteenth century. From Germany the desire +of spiritual emancipation had spread abroad, and before long the fire +which burned with such fierceness during the terrible wars of the +Huguenots, was kindled in France. Examples of religious persecution, +cruel punishments of heretics, and expressions of much discontent on +matters of faith, must, without fail, have often attracted the notice of +Palissy during his years of travel. + +As we have already intimated, Saintes became a stronghold of the new +opinions. Many “heretics,” and among them Calvin himself, the great +Reformer, had taken refuge in Saintonge—the very district in which the +home of Palissy was afterwards fixed. He dwelt there in the house of a +young man, whose friends were wealthy; and this youth persuaded Calvin, +while in his retirement there, to write Christian sermons and +remonstrances, which he then caused to be preached by curés in the +neighbourhood. These curés were “certain Reformed monks,” who, having +adopted the new tenets, visited among the people, teaching them secretly, +and gradually instructing them, so that by degrees the eyes of many were +opened to see the errors of the Romish Church. + +Among those who had eagerly embraced the instructions of Calvin was +Hamelin, who, consequently, having incurred suspicion of heresy, escaped +from Saintes, and journeyed to Geneva, at that time the head quarters of +the French Reformers, where he acquired clearer knowledge of divine +truth, and increased earnestness. Zealous to communicate to others the +faith he had adopted, he wandered from place to place through the +provinces of his native land, exerting himself wherever he went to incite +men to have ministers, and to gather themselves into church communion. +So eager was he to spread the gospel, that he took up with the trade of a +printer, and printed Bibles, which he hawked about in the towns and +villages. In the course of his journeyings, he passed through one of the +towns in which Palissy had taken up his temporary abode. The spirit of +the young artist was stirred within him as he listened to the animated +exhortations of Hamelin, who, having gathered together a little flock of +some seven or eight auditors, laboured to win them to God: and exhorted +them to meet together for prayer and mutual instruction. + +His teaching fell like the dew upon the heart of the young man, and he +eagerly sought out the preacher and took counsel with him. From that +time the persecuted Huguenot commanded the love and reverence of Palissy, +who never spoke of him but in terms of respect and affection. + +At the period of which we are about to speak, although the persecutions +had not yet reached Saintonge, the struggle had begun in many towns by +the tumultuous rising of the people, and severe punishments were +inflicted upon all who joined in these outbreaks. Emissaries of the +ecclesiastics were keenly on the watch for suspected characters, and it +was at the risk of fine, imprisonment, and death, that the proceedings of +men like Hamelin were carried on. Nor was it without serious danger of +compromising his own safety that Palissy cultivated the friendship of a +man so attainted, and of this he was well aware. It was, however, no +part of his character to flinch from trouble or peril in such a cause. + +It will be unnecessary to relate what passed between the two friends on +the evening in which we have introduced Palissy to our readers. The +visit of Hamelin was secret and hurried. He had come for the purpose of +bringing to the poor people he had formerly taught around Saintes, three +teachers, who, having been convinced of the errors of the Romish Church, +had been constrained to take flight and exile themselves. Having +recommended them to the friendly notice of Bernard, and taken counsel +with him as to certain precautionary measures, Hamelin hastened to quit +the neighbourhood of a place in which he was too well known to venture +himself openly. Some years passed away before these two met again. + +Shall we follow our artist homeward, as slowly and thoughtfully he +retraced his steps thither? He was pondering, in the earnestness of his +heart, an idea which was indeed the mainspring of all his intellectual +and moral activity. Again and again in his writings does he solemnly +recur to this idea, and in all the long years of his toil and suffering +to acquire the skill which was to render him immortal in the history of +art; this was his incentive and spur. The parable of the talents—the +duty of every man to turn to account the powers and gifts he has received +from God—was the touchstone by which Bernard tried his work. + +His own words, written long after, will best close this opening chapter. +“Though there be some who will at no time hear mention of the holy +Scripture, yet so it is that I have found nothing better than to pursue +the counsel of God; his edicts, statutes, and ordinances; and in +regarding what might be his will, I have found that he has commanded his +heirs that they should eat bread by the labour of their bodies, and that +they should multiply the talents which he has committed to them. +Considering which, I have not been willing to hide in the ground those +talents it has pleased him to allot me; but to cause them to yield profit +and increase to him from whom I have received them.” + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + + “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” + + ECCLES. ix. 10. + +FOR a considerable time after he had settled at Saintes, Palissy went on +surveying, painting, and designing, working industriously, and earning a +competent, though slender, income for the support of his household—an +increasing one—for he had now another baby to kiss, as well as a child +upon his arms. Conscious of his own strength, and dissatisfied with +labour which produced only food, he naturally felt eager to accomplish +something better than he had yet done. + +There is often a long period, during which a man of genius is occupied in +gathering together materials, unconscious what use they shall eventually +serve; but the turning-point of his history comes, and suddenly, perhaps +through a passing and merely accidental circumstance, he receives an +impetus which directs him on to the fulfilment of his career. It was +thus in the case of Palissy. Some two years after the events related in +the preceding chapter, Bernard had received a little commission from one +of the great seigneurs who lived in the neighbourhood of Saintes. He was +a man of much taste in the fine arts, and had in his possession some +choice specimens of ancient Moorish pottery. After showing these to +Palissy (who had come to the château for directions), the nobleman, going +to the cabinet from which they had been taken, drew out an earthen cup, +turned and enamelled with so much beauty, that, at the sight of it, our +artist was struck dumb with admiration. He knew nothing of pottery, he +had no knowledge of clays, and he was aware of the fact that there was no +man in all France who could make enamels. + +This last thought acted, perchance, as a stimulus to his ambition. +However that might be, the idea instantly took possession of his mind +that he would make enamels. They could be made, for here was a specimen. +To be the only man in the land who could produce these beautiful vases +would be not only to secure an abundant supply for the wants of his +family, but it would be a triumph of art—a riddle of deep interest to +solve, and an occupation after his heart. + +That evening he called his wife to him, and told her what he had seen, +and how his heart was set upon learning to make enamels. The poor woman +saw by his beaming countenance that he was pleased; she knew that he +loved her and their children, and she said not a word to discourage him, +although he plainly told her, with that truthfulness which was as the +very breath of his nostrils, that his first experiments must be made at +great cost. “There will be the loss of my time from my wonted +occupation; besides that, I must purchase drugs and make me furnaces, and +all, at first, a clear outlay, without fruit. I shall have many +drawbacks, and it may be a weary while before I master this art. I shall +be as a man that gropes his way in the dark, for I have no knowledge of +clays, nor have I ever seen earth baked, nor do I know of what materials +enamels are composed.” His wife urged that he had better rest content +with diligence in his own calling, and on her pale face came a blush of +pleasure and pride as she looked up at him, who was already, in her +esteem, a perfect artist. But he heeded not her words, save that he +tenderly bade her be of good cheer. Poverty and pain would have mattered +little to him personally; and had he been free from household cares, he +would, in all likelihood, have wandered forth among the potters, and +learned all that could be gathered of their work from them. But he was +bound to home and its cares and duties, and so, alone, unaided, and +without sympathy, must he work. Nothing daunted, however, by these +drawbacks, his resolve was taken—to complete his invention, or perish in +the attempt. + + [Picture: Palissy devoutly opened the sacred volume] + +Before retiring to rest that night, Palissy, as his custom was, devoutly +opened the sacred volume; and turning to the thirty-fifth chapter of +Exodus, he read how God called by name Bezaleel, the son of Uri, and +filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in +knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, and to devise curious works, +in gold, in silver, in brass, and in cutting of stones, and in carving of +wood, in all manner of cunning work. “Then I reflected,” said he, “that +God had gifted me with some knowledge of drawing, and I took courage in +my heart, and besought him to give me wisdom and skill.” + +Palissy lost no time in setting to work. He began by making a furnace +which he thought most likely to suit his purpose, and having bought a +quantity of earthen pots, and broken them into fragments, he covered +these with various chemical compounds which he had pounded and ground, +and which he proposed to melt at furnace heat. His hope was, that of all +these mixtures, some one or other might run over the pottery in such a +way as to afford him at least a hint towards the composition of white +enamel, which he had been told was the basis of all others. Alas! his +first experiment was but the beginning of an endless series of +disappointments and losses, while, for many long months and years he +wrought with fruitless labor. But we must not anticipate. Happily the +ardent spirit of our artist suffered him not easily to succumb under +difficulties; nay, it even seemed to gather new energy from the struggle, +as, with all the fire of love and all the strength of will, he, every +day, renewed his experiments, and blundered on with cheerful hope. It +has well been said, “Ideas become passions in the breasts of poets and +artists.” + +Many months have now passed in this way; and the little family gathering +around Palissy’s humble hearth begin to show symptoms that all is not so +flourishing as when we first saw them. Lisette looks thin and worn, and +there is a shadow upon her brow. As she goes down the garden walk to +call her husband to his mid-day meal, you see her garments are poor and +scanty, and she has no longer the trim look of conscious comeliness about +her. By her side, and clinging to her gown, is a delicate creature, +whose pale face tells a sorrowful tale of childish suffering, and the +infant she is carrying looks sallow and feeble. The furnace and shed +where Palissy is at work are built at the end of the garden, as far as +possible from the house. Close by, is the road, and beyond it the fields +and waste lands; there was no sheltering wall or enclosure near, and when +the storm and winds of winter blew, nothing could be more bleak and +comfortless. Palissy has drawn a doleful picture of this scene of his +labors. “I was every night,” he says, “at the mercy of the rains and +winds, without help or companionship, except from the owls that screeched +on one side, and the dogs that howled upon the other; and oftentimes I +had nothing dry upon me, because of the rains that fell.” At the present +time, however, it is looking cozy and picturesque, for the season is +spring, and a bright sun is shining overhead. There is a glad sound, +too, proceeding from the shed, over which its owner has trained a +cluster-rose, whose tendrils have interwoven themselves among the reeds, +and are putting forth their blossoms. It is the voice of Palissy, +chanting in clear sonorous tones, the Psalm which Luther loved so well, +and which we sing in the tuneful strains of our unequalled psalmodist— + + “God is the refuge of his saints, + When storms of sharp distress invade.” + +And the little Nicole, who is busily occupied in mimic pottery-work at +the door of the shed, chimes in with his small voice, and beats the time +with his wooden spade. Lisette’s face brightened as she listened, and +with cheerful tones, she summoned Bernard indoors, and bade the little +boy lead his sister back. + +Notwithstanding Palissy’s psalmody and the cheerful face he wore, matters +were far from satisfactory at this peculiar juncture. In fact, he had +just undergone a heavy disappointment, and was secretly making up his +mind to a step which it cost him a grievous heartache to have recourse +to. Seeing that all his experiments with his own furnace had proved +failures, he determined to adopt a new scheme, and send the compositions +to be tested in the kiln of some potter. For this purpose he bought a +large stock of crockery, which according to custom, he broke into small +fragments; three or four hundreds of which he covered with various +mixtures, and sent to a pottery some league and a half off, requesting +the workmen to bake this strange batch with their own vessels. They +consented readily to let the amateur potter try his experiments; but +alas! when the operation was complete, and the trial pieces were drawn +out, they proved absolutely worthless. Not the smallest appearance of +the longed-for enamel was to be seen on any of them. The cause of the +failure was a secret, at the time, to the grievously disappointed +Bernard, and he returned home heavily discouraged, for he knew that his +wife and children were deprived of many comforts they might have enjoyed, +had he continued steadily at his occupation of glass-working and +surveying. What was to be done? “Begin afresh.” And so, again he fell +to work, compounding and grinding, and sending more batches to the same +potters to be baked as before. This he had continued to do time after +time, “with great cost, loss of time, confusion, and sorrow.” + + [Picture: . . the trial pieces were . . absolutely worthless] + +At length a more than usually trying failure had occurred, and many +things combined to warn our artist that he must desist for a season and +procure some remunerative work. His home resources were completely +exhausted; while the home wants had greatly multiplied, and he could not +be blind to the sorrowful looks of the woman he loved, nor indifferent to +the necessities of his babes. + +Three years had been spent about this work, and, for the present, he was +no wiser than when he began, and he resolved now to try his hand at the +old trades. His poor wife urged that food and medicine must be thought +of, and she lowered her voice as she added that the doctor had yet to be +paid for her confinement, and for physicking their lost darling, whom he +said he would soon cure, notwithstanding, she pined and languished like a +frost-nipped flower, that fades away and dies. Poor mother! the tears +trickled down her cheeks at the thought; and for all there were still +three hungry little mouths to feed, she could not be reconciled to the +loss of one of her treasures. But Palissy would not let her dwell upon +this sorrow; he wiped away the tears, and smilingly said, he had good +news for her. Yesterday, there had arrived in the town the commissioners +deputed by the king to establish the salt-tax in the district of +Saintonge; and it seems they had judged no man in the diocese more +competent than Bernard Palissy for the task of mapping the islands and +the countries surrounding all the salt marshes in that part of the world. +It was a profitable job, and would occupy him many months. + +This was, indeed, glad tidings for Lisette; and that night she slept +sweetly, and dreamed of her girlhood; for when the heart is happy it suns +itself in the memories of early days. Her husband’s rest was broken and +perturbed, for it pained him deeply to give up the struggle which had +cost him so much, before he had justified his pertinacious efforts by +success. + +Perhaps it was in reality advantageous to him, and tended to his eventual +success, that he was thus perforce constrained to taste an interval of +repose. When a man has been repeatedly foiled it is well to cease from +effort awhile, and to dismiss, if possible, the subject which has +occupied his thoughts too long and too unremittingly. + +Revolving in his mind such considerations, Palissy determined wholly to +cease from his labours in pursuit of the discovery on which his heart was +set, and “to comport himself as if he were not desirous to dive any more +into the secrets of enamels.” + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + + “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the + commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”—REV. xiv. 12. + +OF the profitable task assigned him by the commissioners of the gabelle +(or tax), Palissy has left some memorial in his spirited account of the +salt marshes of Saintonge. The work with which he was intrusted was to +make a plan of the district adjoining the western coast line, where was +the celebrated salt-marsh, which yielded the largest supply of salt. At +that time Saintonge was the chief source of salt in France, until it was +obtained more abundantly from Brittany, and a large sum was gathered into +the royal revenue from the tax produced by this article. But with all +the skill and energy of taxation, difficulties and fraud still perplexed +and threatened the tax receivers; and in the year 1543, Francis I, after +trying various means for enforcing the payment of the gabelle, determined +on a new and more stringent system, in consequence of which it became +necessary that an accurate survey should be taken and new maps prepared. + +What chiefly interests us in this matter of the surveying is the fact +that the islands Oléron, Allevert, and Marepènes—called the Saintonic +Isles—which adjoin and form part of this marshy district, were a +favourite resort for the persecuted refugees, who brought the Reformed +tenets into Saintonge. These districts being remote from the public +roads, in fact being an intricate labyrinth of marshes, afforded a safe +hiding-place, and there several “Reformed monks” had established +themselves; some taking to a little trade, others keeping +village-schools, and finding sundry means of gaining a livelihood, +without being known. As it was impossible for large ships to approach +the low flat coast, one of the chief difficulties in ordering the marshes +was to form channels of communication by which the salt made on them +might be conveyed to the open sea. An immense amount of money and labour +had been expended in the construction of dykes, canals, or passages—of +which there was a perfect net-work, extending many miles—to afford the +means of bringing up small barques or vessels, which thus penetrated the +flat country, and conveyed the salt from thence. So intricate was this +labyrinthine communication, that a stranger inclosed therein without a +guide, would have been wholly unable to thread his way, or extricate +himself from their meshes. During the winter season, all these marshes +were flooded, in order that the clay which formed the foundation of the +dykes or canals, might be protected by the water from the destructive +bite of the frost; and thus, for a considerable part of the year, all +communication was blocked up, or wholly cut off. What an admirable place +of refuge must this district have afforded to men hunted like partridges +upon the mountains! Accordingly here the three refugees brought by +Hamelin, together with many others similarly circumstanced, had found +shelter: men these, whose guileless lives and active charity commended +them to the esteem of the poor peasants among whom they had sought a +home. They visited in their cottages, ministered, as best they could, to +their wants, and ventured by degrees to promulgate those spiritual +truths, for the sake of which they had suffered the loss of all worldly +goods, and were prepared to yield life itself. At first their +instructions were cautiously given. They spoke in parables, and with +hidden meaning, until they were assured they should not be betrayed. +Slowly, but steadily, the leaven had begun to work, and it was shortly +after Palissy had completed his task (which involved no slight labour, +and occupied him more than a year), that a report came to the ears of the +bishop of Saintes, that the place was full of Lutherans, whom it was +highly desirable to extirpate without delay. + +The devil never wants for agents to execute his malicious purposes; and +at this juncture, a man of “perverse and evil life,” named Collardeau (a +fiscal attorney), set busily to work to discover the lurking places of +the heretics. In that day, Saintes was an extensive and lucrative +bishopric, including more than 700 parishes, and its bishop was an august +personage, in whose veins flowed “the blood of St. Louis,” Charles, +cardinal of Bourbon, brother of the king of Navarre, then twenty-three +years of age. His fitting place was the court, and, accordingly, there +he abode, taking small note of the heretical doings among the poor +villagers of the Saintonic isles. + +With zeal worthy a good cause, Collardeau not only repeatedly wrote to +this high dignitary, preferring his charges, but eventually crowned his +energetic efforts by a journey to the capital, and by these means he +succeeded in obtaining a commission from the bishop and the parliament of +Bordeaux, with ample funds for carrying out his designs. Thus furnished, +he proceeded to work upon the cupidity of certain judges, with whom he +tampered so successfully that he procured the arrest of the preacher of +St. Denis, a small town at the extremity of the isle of Oléron, named +brother Robin, a man of such metal, that the principal anxiety had been +to lay hand upon him by way of example. Shortly after, another preacher +named Nicole was taken; and a few days later a similar fate overtook the +schoolmaster at Gimosac, a man much beloved of the inhabitants, to whom +he preached on Sundays. This last arrest keenly touched the heart of +Palissy. He knew and esteemed the good brother, and had intrusted to his +care his little Nicole, who had been placed at the school of Gimosac from +the time Bernard had made his survey of the marshes. The poor child wept +bitterly as he described to his parents the grievous parting his young +eyes had witnessed; for, undaunted by the threats of their cruel enemies, +the poor villagers accompanied, with prayers, tears, and lamentations, +their beloved instructor to the shores of their little island. Alas! +there, perforce, they parted never to meet on earth again. + +It was the eve of St. John, the twenty-third of June, 1546, when the +citizens of Saintes beheld a strange and ominous scene, the commencement +of the horrors subsequently perpetrated within the walls of their ancient +town. The day, being a gala one, was ushered in with music of every +kind, while the whole population, down to the lowest of the multitude, +were decorated with flowers. Old pitch-barrels and faggots, piled up +along the banks of the river, lay in readiness for the illuminations of +the evening, while games, dances, and banquets were the diversions of the +day. In the afternoon, there were to be many hogsheads of claret +delivered out, and a universal merry-making prevailed. From an early +hour crowds hastened to perform their devotions at the shrine of the +patron saint of the city, carrying with them their votive offerings with +which to propitiate his favour. + +Among the multitude who thronged the high street at noon, were two men, +one tall, and of a vigorous form, who looked with an air of thoughtful +concern around him. He was still in the prime of manhood, and about his +whole bearing there was a certain air of energetic intelligence, while, +ever and anon, his eyes kindled with the fire of enthusiasm; one saw at +once he was a worker, and that what his hands found to do would be done +with all his might. His companion was small and deformed, and would not +have awakened any interest save from the intense feeling visible on his +pale, sunken countenance. The two were approaching the church of St. +Eutropius, where the saint was displayed to the admiring gaze of the +people. On entering the sacred edifice, all kneeled down reverently +before a kind of cupboard with an iron grating before it, and at an awful +distance made sundry genuflections, and uttered various prayers. At +last, the attendant priests opened the door of the closet where the head +of the saint was deposited, and displayed the treasure to view. It would +be difficult to conceive an object less calculated to awaken feelings of +true devotion than that presented for adoration. It was very large, and +formed entirely of solid silver; the hair and an immense pair of whiskers +were gilt, and the shoulders were covered with lawn, and decorated with +glittering gems. All around were placed the gifts brought by the deluded +people, who ascribed the most marvellous power of healing to this graven +image. The divinity was absolutely encircled with their votive +offerings. Group after group, alternately advancing and retiring, filled +up the church, and then emerged into the busy streets to gaze upon the +crowds of gaily bedecked revellers, and gossip over the news of the day. + +Close to the gate of the church Palissy and his companion had taken their +stand, and were conversing together in low tones. “Alas! I know the +truth of the facts, and can assert them for such,” said the former; “nay, +I was myself present when the three brethren admirably disputed and +maintained their religion in the presence of that false theologian, +Navières, who had himself, some months ago, begun to detect errors, +although now, conquered by his love of gain, he stoutly upholds the +contrary. Well did brother Robin know how to reproach him with this to +his face, and he flinched under his words, but for all the right is with +the poor heretics, as they are called, the power is with their enemies, +and they have ever since languished in prison. After a while Robin fell +sick of pleurisy, and as it was feared he might die in his bed, after +all, they sent both for physician and apothecary, the latter of whom is +well known to me, having been but too frequent a visitor in my afflicted +household. The worthy man has conveyed many a message from me to the +brethren, and in more ways than one has done them good service.” “And +now they are to be made a show of openly, like the servants of the Lord +in former times,” said Bernard’s comrade; “it is a hateful thing when the +wicked triumph, and when the righteous are as the offscouring of all +things.” “Patience, my good Victor,” replied the sturdy potter. “Let us +see the end of these things. At present we are but in the beginning of +sorrows; I am of opinion we must lay our account for trouble, and assure +ourselves that we shall have enemies and be persecuted, if, by direct +paths, we will follow and sustain the cause of God; for such are the +promises written originally in the Old and New Testaments. Let us, then, +take refuge under the shelter of our protecting Chief and Captain the +Lord Christ, who, in time and place, will know how properly to avenge the +wrongs his people have suffered, and our sorrows.” + +As he spoke, the sound of music was heard at a distance, and presently a +noisy rabble crowded the street, running, shouting, pushing, and +gesticulating. Then followed the procession, whose approach had been +heralded by the sound of drums, fifes, and tabrets; horsemen gaily +attired, rode, two and two, at a foot pace; then flags and banners were +borne aloft, and a troop of priests, barefooted, and carrying torches, +advanced at a slow pace. A strange and melancholy sight was next +presented to the eyes of the by-standers; three men, caparisoned in +green, and bedizened with fluttering ribbons, walked, bridled like +horses, and each of them having an _apple_ of iron fastened to the +bridle, which filled all the inside of his mouth. Thus tortured and +degraded, the three brethren, Robin, Nicole, and he of Gimosac, were +driven, like beasts, by their cruel enemy, Collardeau, who triumphantly +conducted them, in this wise, to a scaffold, which was erected in the +market-place, that they might there be exposed to the public execration, +as fools and madmen. This done, they were returned to prison, thence to +be conveyed to Bordeaux to receive sentence of death. + +“A hideous sight to behold,” said Palissy, drawing a deep breath, as he +looked after the three sufferers, whose sole crime was that they had +manfully upheld the cause of truth, “and one that makes us marvel at the +wondrous patience of God. How long, O Lord, wilt thou leave thy chosen +ones at the mercy of those who cease not to torment them?” This +sorrowful exclamation had scarcely been uttered, when two fellows who +stood near fell to quarrelling and beating each other. A ring was soon +formed around them, and the bystanders looking on cried, “Give it him +well; strike as though he were an heretic.” “Alas!” said Palissy, “what +frightful crimes will be committed when such a spirit grows rife; already +terrible things are done elsewhere. I heard but yesterday, through one +who shall be nameless, that many are burned and destroyed in various +ways, in Paris and elsewhere. A peasant in the forest of Lyons, met four +men who were on their way to execution. He asked the reason of their +punishment, and having learned they were Huguenots, claimed a place upon +the cart, and went to the gallows with them.” + +That evening there occurred what Bernard called “an admirable accident.” +The three heretics had been conveyed to their prison-house carefully +guarded; and, above all, Robin, who was the principal object of hatred, +and whom it was designed to put to death with the most cruelty. He was +kept, with his companions, heavily ironed, in a prison attached to the +bishop’s palace, and a sentry was placed to watch outside, while a number +of large village dogs were turned into the court-yard. But, for all +these precautions, Robin did not despair. He had obtained a file +(probably Palissy could have told how he managed this,) and having filed +off the irons which were upon his legs, he gave the file to his +fellow-captives, and proceeded to scrape a hole through the prison wall. +But a strange accident here occurred. It chanced that a number of +hogsheads which had been emptied during the fête, had been piled, one +above another, against the wall, and these being pushed down by the +prisoner, in his efforts to escape, fell with rumbling noise, and +awakened the sleeping sentry, who listened for a while, but hearing +nothing further, and overcome by the fumes of the liquor in which he had +indulged somewhat freely, relapsed into slumber. Bernard tells, in his +quaint manner, what next befell, thus: “Then the said Robin went out into +the court at the mercy of the dogs; however, God had inspired him to take +some bread, which he threw to the said dogs, who were quiet as the lions +of Daniel. It was so ordered that he should find an open door, which led +into the garden, where, finding himself again shut up between certain +somewhat high walls, he perceived by the light of the moon, a tall pear +tree, close enough to the outer wall, and having mounted this, he +perceived, on the outer side of the wall, a chimney, to which he could +leap easily enough.” He was soon safe in the street, but, having never +been in the town before, he was at a loss how to proceed. In this +dilemma, the clever fugitive recalled to mind the names of the physician +and apothecary who had attended him, and went knocking from door to door +inquiring for their residence. He had contrived to fasten his fetters to +his leg, and carrying his dress about his shoulders, had the adroitness +to arrange it somewhat after the costume of a footman, so that the people +whom he roused were deceived, and supposing it to be an urgent case of +sickness, gave him the necessary directions. In this manner he succeeded +in gaining the shelter of a friendly roof, and from thence was conducted +safely out of the town; nor was he again taken, though, in the course of +his perilous adventure, he had knocked at the door of one of his +principal enemies, who, in the morning, offered a reward of fifty dollars +for his recapture. + +Alas, for Nicole and the kind-hearted schoolmaster of Gimosac! Brother +Robin would fain have had them accompany him and share his risk, but they +chose rather to remain in their fetters. Seeing they had neither +strength nor energy to follow his example, he took a sorrowful leave of +them, praying with and consoling them, exhorting them to do valiantly, +and to meet death with courage. Both perished in the flames a few days +after; one in the city of Saintes, and the other at Libourne. The heart +of Palissy was too full to suffer him to detail the particulars of this +event. It was the first time the fires of persecution had blazed before +his eyes; and as he gazed upon the terrific sight, his soul was kindled +with a zeal unquenchable, and from that time the whole force of his +energy was upon the side of the Reformers. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + + “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a + work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred + in the hand of the potter.”—JER. xviii. 3, 4. + +SHORTLY before the events recorded in the preceding chapter, there had +been no small excitement among Palissy’s poor neighbours and +acquaintance, with reference to his proceedings. Day after day little +knots of gossips might be seen, lounging about the neighbourhood of his +garden and work-shed, expressing in various ways, their surprise and +indignation at his conduct, and exclaiming, in no measured terms, against +his obstinate and mad folly. This indignation reached its height when, +one day, the report spread, far and wide, that the poor man was actually +insane, and had torn up the palings of his garden, and the planks of his +dwelling-house, and that his unhappy wife, half-crazed with his conduct, +had herself rushed out of the house accompanied by her children, and +taken refuge with a neighbour. + +In order to account for all this, it is necessary to retrace our steps, +and relate in what manner our artist has been spending the two years that +have intervened since his marsh-surveying. + +Undaunted by the failure of his early efforts, and relieved, for a time, +from anxiety on the score of domestic wants, Palissy, giving the money he +had received for the execution of his task into the hands of his wife, +resumed his “affection for pursuing in the track of the enamels.” + +Two years of unremitting and zealous labour followed, productive of no +practical results, although there had once been a partial melting of some +of his compounds, which gave him sufficient encouragement to persist. +During those two long years, he tells us, he did nothing but come and go +between his dwelling and the adjacent glass-houses, where the furnaces +being much hotter than those of the potteries, were more likely to be +successful in melting his materials. + +Was it any marvel if poverty and sorrow invaded his household; if his +wife grew moody and sad, and if the neighbours, pitying the hapless woman +and innocent children, pronounced hard judgment upon a man who consumed +his time in buying pots and breaking them, in grinding drugs and burning +them, and in going to and fro upon his bootless errand? Death, too, had +once and again entered his doors, bearing away the two sickly infants we +saw clinging to their mother, while in their place, two others had been +born, inheriting, alas! their malady. Of late, Lisette, full of gloomy +thoughts, had taken to complaining, and remonstrating with her husband. +Her temper had been soured by disappointment and trouble; and hope, so +long deferred, ceased to buoy up her spirit. She could not understand +the course Bernard was pursuing. She did not partake in his glowing +visions of future fame and prosperity, and the instinct of power and the +energy of will that nerved and inspired him were all unknown to and +unshared by her. Poor suffering woman! She felt as any other +common-sense wife and mother would have felt in her circumstances; and +bewailing his obstinate persistence in such profitless labour, she +embittered his home by her lamentations and reproaches. + +In this strait Palissy began to give way: he faltered, and at length made +a compromise with his anxious helpmate. One more last trial he pleaded +for; and then—if it failed, he would abandon the search for ever! He +must have felt that the happiness as well as the fortune of his life, +depended on the cast. Rather, we learn from his own touching account of +what ensued, that he looked for counsel and help from above. In all his +ways did this good man acknowledge his heavenly Father’s hand, and seek +his blessing. What befell, in this crisis, he thus tells us: “God willed +that, when I had begun to lose my courage, and was gone for the last time +to a glass furnace, having a man with me carrying more than 300 kinds of +trial pieces, there was one among them which was melted within four hours +after it had been placed in the furnace, which turned out white and +polished, in a way that caused me to feel such joy as made me think I was +become a new creature.” + +With winged feet he flew home, bearing his treasure, which he pronounced +“exceedingly beautiful,” and, almost beside himself with delight, he +rushed into the chamber, where his poor wife lay in her sick bed, and +holding up the shining white fragment exclaimed, “I have found it!” +Lisette caught the infection of his gladness, and hailed the first ray of +returning prosperity. Poor woman, she little knew how long she must wait +before she could warm herself in its sunshine. + + [Picture: . . he exclaimed, “I have found it!”] + +But Palissy was convinced that he had now discovered the full perfection +of the white enamel; and his delight was in proportion to all the toil +and struggle the discovery had cost him. No more any idea, now, of +giving over, and returning to his old calling. Illustrious results must +soon follow, he was sure, and from henceforth it was necessary he should +work privately, and construct for his own use a furnace like that of the +glass-workers. Already in imagination stretching out his hand to grasp +the prize, he eagerly betook himself to moulding vessels of clay, shaped +after his own designs, which, covered with the exquisite white enamel he +had discovered, he purposed to adorn with lovely paintings. He saw them +doubtless, in his mind’s eye, beautiful, as those he actually produced in +after years—those perfect master-pieces of porcelain in relief, and +dishes ornamented with figures, beasts, reptiles, insects, beetles, and +flowers: treasures of art, full of grace, beauty, and simplicity, which +were eagerly purchased by the rich seigneurs of that day, to adorn their +cabinets and beautify their châteaux, and which now sell for their weight +in gold. + +But though his fancy saw them, as his taste, so exquisite and refined, +had already designed them, still it was with the rough clay his hands +were actually at work, and he had, unfortunately for his present need, +“never understood earths.” + +Some seven or eight months more were expended in making these vessels, +and then he began to erect the furnace. With incredible difficulty and +labour—for he had none to assist him in the work, not even so much as to +draw water, and fetch bricks from the kiln—the indefatigable man wrought +till he had completed the furnace, and the preliminary baking of his +vessels. And then, instead of reposing after all this toil, by the space +of more than a month, he worked, night and day, grinding and compounding +the materials of which he had made the white enamel. At length his task +was completed, and the vessels, coated with the mixture, were arranged +within the furnace. + +Look at him now!—he has kindled his furnace fire, and is feeding it +through its two mouths. He does not spare the fuel; he diligently throws +it in, all day; he suffers it not to slacken all night. Yet the enamel +does not melt. The sun rises, bright and glowing, and Nicole, now a +sturdy boy of eleven or twelve years old, brings his father a basin of +pottage for breakfast; a poor and scanty meal, ill-fitted to recruit his +over-taxed powers, but eagerly devoured by the hungry artisan, who pauses +for a few moments in order to swallow it. How pale and thin and haggard +he looks! What a strained expression does his countenance wear; but all +indomitable and calmly hopeful ’mid his toil! + +“God bless thee, my child,” he says, as he returns the empty basin to the +boy; “learn well thy lesson to-day, and to-morrow, I hope, we may make +holiday, and ramble together through the fields as we once used to do.” +“Nay, father, and who will mind the furnace?” “I trust it will have done +its work. The enamel will surely melt soon.” + +But the hours of that day passed on; and the dark night succeeded, and +still, amid the blaze and crackle of the furnace, Palissy worked on. +Another day dawns; and still he feeds his fire. Worn and weary, he +occasionally drops asleep for some minutes, but his ever wakeful spirit +rouses him almost instantly, and he throws in more wood, again. In vain. +Six days and six nights has he spent about the glowing furnace, each day +more anxious and laborious than the preceding—but the enamel has not +melted. At length, convinced that something is amiss, he ceases from his +task. He sits, with drooping head and lack-lustre eye, gazing on the +smouldering fires, which begin slowly to slacken ready to die away. What +will he do next? In few and heart-stirring words he tells us what: +“Seeing it was not possible to make the said enamel melt, I was like a +man in desperation; and although quite stupefied with labour, I +counselled to myself that in my mixture there might be some fault. +Therefore I began once more to pound and grind more materials, all the +time without letting my furnace cool; in this way I had double labour, to +pound, grind, and maintain the fire. I was also forced to go again, and +purchase pots, in order to prove the said compound, seeing that I had +lost all the vessels which I had made myself. And having covered the new +pieces with the said enamel, I put them into the furnace, keeping the +fire still at its height. But now occurred a new misfortune, which +caused me great mortification—namely, that the wood having failed me, I +was forced to burn the palings which maintained the boundaries of my +garden, which being burnt also, I was forced to burn the tables and the +flooring of my house, to cause the melting of the second composition. I +suffered an anguish that I cannot speak, for I was quite exhausted and +dried up by the heat of the furnace; it was more than a month since my +shirt had been dry upon me. Further to console me, I was the object of +mockery; even those from whom solace was due ran crying through the town +that I was burning my floors. In this way my credit was taken from me, +and I was regarded as a madman.” + +How grievous those plaintive words—scarcely condemnatory—yet keenly +sensitive to desertion on the part of those who should have comforted him +in the time of his calamity! It was a scandal under which he pined away, +and with bowed head, slipped through the streets like a man put to shame. +No one gave him consolation in this extremity; on the contrary, men +jested at him, saying it was right and just that he who had left off +following his trade should die of hunger. Will he succumb to this new +trial? Hear the brave heart’s resolve—“All these things assailed my ears +when I passed through the street; but for all that there remained still +some hope which encouraged and sustained me. So, when I had dwelt with +my regrets a little, because there was no one who had pity upon me, I +said to my soul; ‘Wherefore art thou saddened, since thou hast found the +object of thy search? Labour now, and the defamers will live to be +ashamed.’” + +For a few sad days only, Palissy “dwelt with his regrets.” But “a little +while” did he indulge his sorrow. Scarcely had his physical powers, +exhausted by long tension, regained their spring, than he was again in +pursuit of his darling object. Could he but find some friendly hand to +aid him a little, all would go well; but where was the good Samaritan to +be sought? Alas! he knew of none. Pondering sorrowfully over this +matter, he one evening chanced to pass by a small inn on the outskirts of +the town, and saw sitting on the bench, beside the door, two or three +labouring men who had just come from the fields. One of these was a +potter, whom Palissy knew to be a good workman. The thought immediately +came into his mind, could he but engage the services of this man for a +few months, it would be the very thing he wanted. At that instant the +host stepped out into the porch, and, seeing Bernard, addressed a few +friendly words to him. They sounded sweet to the thirsty soul that +craved for sympathy, and he gladly accepted the landlord’s offer of a +refreshing draught, and presently entered into chat with him. As they +conversed, it chanced that mention was made of the religious troubles +then so thickly gathering around their father-land. A chord of sympathy +was thus struck, to which their hearts responded with deep feeling. It +soon appeared that Hamelin was not unknown to the worthy innkeeper; he +had, indeed, found shelter of old, beneath his roof, when closely pressed +by the spies of Collardeau. In short, Palissy had found one like-minded +with himself; and mutual good will toward the new religion formed a bond +between himself and Victor. This man was the same whom we have already +seen in company with Bernard, on the eve of St. John, when they beheld +that cruel sight which made their hearts burn with righteous zeal. +Victor, the little deformed innkeeper, was a man of sterling worth and +rare courage, and he proved a steady friend and ally to Palissy. +Learning from him his present difficulties, he at once offered to give +the potter all his meals, and to lodge him for six months, putting the +cost down to the account of Bernard. + +And thus was he started afresh, with new hope. He had made drawings of +the vessels he wanted to produce, and these he gave to the potter, as +models to work by, while he occupied himself about some medallions, which +he was commissioned to execute, and in this manner he gained a little +ready money on which to support himself and his family. As for the debts +he owed, the payment of them must be postponed till the completion of his +new batch, from which he confidently reckoned to reap nearly four hundred +livres. + +The six months passed slowly by, and were followed by some two or three +more; during which Palissy wrought alone, at building an improved +furnace, and preparing fresh chemicals for the enamel. Of this latter +business, he says, “It was a labour so great as threatened to baffle all +my wits, had not the desire I felt to succeed in my enterprise made me do +things which I should have esteemed impossible.” Some idea of the +difficulties he encountered may be obtained when we learn that, after +having wearied himself several days in pounding and calcining his drugs, +he had to grind them in a hand-mill, which it usually required two strong +men to turn, and all this while his hand was bruised and cut in many +places with the labour of the furnace. + +Those were eventful months during which Palissy thus toiled in the depths +of poverty and neglect. The fiery blaze that consumed the good brother +of Gimosac had awakened alarm in the hearts of not a few who inhabited +the ancient town of Saintes, and other and more fearful sights and sounds +were swift to follow. But these must be reserved for another chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + + “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that + hath no money.”—ISA. lv. 1. + +IN the year 1547, Henry II. ascended the throne of France. With the +intrigues of the court it is not our province to intermeddle; but from +the fierce contests waged during that stormy period, our story cannot be +dissevered. There were four principal factions, each pledged to the +interests of a distinct chief, of whom the most influential were the +celebrated constable, Anne de Montmorency, and his great rivals of the +house of Guise. The constable was a personage of supreme importance, +possessing enormous wealth, and raised to the pinnacle of power. As he +became, in course of time, one of the chief patrons of that skill which +Palissy was acquiring at the cost of so much toil and suffering, a slight +sketch of this famous man, who stands out as one of the giants of the +ancient monarchy, will not be misplaced here. + +In early life he had gained a powerful influence over the mind of Francis +I., which he long retained, and on the death of that monarch he stood +high in favour with his successor, Henry II. Faithful to the interests +of the throne and of his country, valiant in arms, possessed of intrepid +courage, and resolute in the maintenance of what he believed right, he +was, nevertheless, full of terrible blemishes and errors. He was an +austere man, hard and rugged, rough and ungracious in manner, stern in +his resolves, and fearful in the severity of the punishments he +inflicted. + +One of the first acts of the new king was to issue an edict confirmatory +of religious penalties. A blasphemer was to have his tongue pierced with +a hot iron, but all heretics were to be burned alive. The spirit of this +sanguinary enactment was completely in harmony with the fierce bigotry +which formed one of the distinguishing traits of Montmorency’s character. +So great was his zeal against the heretics that he received on one +occasion the nickname of “Captain Bench-burner,” because he made bonfires +of the pulpits and benches taken from the churches of the Calvinists. +Such was the man who now undertook the suppression of a revolt which +broke out among the inhabitants of Saintonge and the surrounding +districts. The occasion of this disturbance was the oppressive character +of the new salt tax, which heavily burdened the poor country-people, who +were consequently the first to take up arms and drive out the officers of +the gabelle. In a short time the excitement spread. Pillage, fire, and +massacre abounded, and the insurrection extended to Bordeaux, which +became the head-quarters of the disaffected. Montmorency marched in +person against the inhabitants of the disturbed districts, and wherever +he went he erected gibbets and inflicted horrible punishments. + +The inhabitants of Saintes had now something to divert their thoughts +from the doings of Palissy. They trembled as they heard of the +tremendous scenes enacted at Bordeaux, where the stern marshal, +disdaining to accept the keys of the town, marched his troops into it as +a triumphant enemy, and presently put to death one hundred citizens in +its great square; at the same time compelling the magnates of the town to +dig up with their nails the body of the royal governor, who had been +slain in one of the recent tumults. Having inflicted this summary +vengeance at Bordeaux, Montmorency advanced through Saintonge, resting, +on his route, at Pons, a town not far from Saintes, where resided the +king’s lieutenant for that department, who was also the Count of +Marennes, the famous salt district. This nobleman, Sire Antoine de Pons, +and his lady, Anne de Parthenay, were among the earliest and staunchest +friends and patrons of Palissy. It was at their château he saw the cup +of “marvellous beauty,” which had acted as a talisman to elicit his +genius; and from them he had frequently received commissions for various +works of art. The “Dame Pons” was, especially, a lover of gardens, and +delighted in floriculture. Scarcely could she have found another so +admirably suited to give her assistance in her favourite pursuit as +Palissy, whose congeniality of taste in this matter caused him in after +days to say, “I have found in the world no greater pleasure than to have +a beautiful garden.” + + [Picture: Palissy relating his failures to Lady Anne] + +It chanced at the time when Montmorency came to Pons, that Bernard was +engaged at the château of the Sire Antoine, in designing some panels and +decorations, as well as in laying out the pleasure grounds. He had +suffered another disappointment in his darling object, even more +overwhelming than all previous ones, and had been again driven to a +temporary renunciation of its pursuit. The narrative of his toils and +struggles had been drawn from him by the gentle-hearted lady, who, as she +marked with discerning eye the exquisite skill and taste of Palissy, +became interested to learn somewhat of his history. He told her, in his +own strong and simple language, all that had befallen him from the day +when her lord had shown him the Italian cup. Alas! his latest trial, +like all the others had proved a failure, and (as he declared) “his +sorrows and distresses had been so abundantly augmented,” that he lost +all countenance. + +“And yet,” said the lady Anne, as she listened to his tale, “you assure +me, that on this last occasion you had been right in every one of your +calculations, and that the enamel was so correctly mixed, and the furnace +so well ordered, that one single day was sufficient for the melting. +How, then, did you fail?” + +“From this unforeseen accident,” said Palissy; “the mortar of which I had +erected the furnace, had been full of flints, which burst with the +vehement heat, at the same time that the enamels began to liquefy; and +the splinters, striking against the pottery, which was covered with the +glutinous matter, became fixed there. Thus, all the vessels, which +otherwise would have been beautiful, were bestrewn with little morsels of +flint, so firmly attached to them that they could not possibly be +removed. The distress and embarrassment I felt from this new and +unforeseen disaster exceeded all I had before experienced. The more so +that several of my creditors, whom I had held in hope to be paid out of +the produce of these pieces, had hastened to be present at the drawing of +my work, and now seeing themselves disappointed of their long delayed +expectations, departed in blank dismay, finding their hopes frustrated.” +“Were there none of your pieces that had escaped injury?” “None, madame; +it is true, though they were all more or less blemished, they would hold +water, and there were some who would have bought them of me at a mean +price, but because that would have been a decrying and abasing of my +honour, I broke in pieces the entire batch from the said furnace, and lay +down in melancholy—not without cause, for I had no longer any means to +feed my family. After a while, however, reflecting that if a man should +fall into a pit, it would be his duty to endeavour to get out again, I, +Palissy, being in like case, resolved to exert myself in making +paintings, and in various ways taking pains to recover a little money.” +“A wise resolve,” replied the lady; “and one in which it will be in my +power to assist you. But hark! there sounds a horn, which I know to be +that of my lord, and it announces his approach, accompanied by +Monseigneur, the duke de Montmorency. An idea strikes me; his highness +has great taste for ornamental art; his patronage would secure the +fortune of one who possesses your skill in designing. Bring hither +to-morrow your paintings and sketches of animals, foliage, and groups, +not forgetting the designs of your vases, and I will take occasion to +present them to the notice of Monseigneur.” + +The lady was as good as her word; and, as she had foreseen, Montmorency +was struck with the marks of genius perceptible even in these early and +imperfect productions of the great artist, and he immediately decided to +afford Palissy an opportunity of exercising his talents in his service. + +In this manner did the great constable first become acquainted with +Palissy. A few years later he was intrusted with important charges in +the pot decoration of the celebrated château d’Écouen, one of the most +famous architectural works of France in that day. + +The building of this château, distant about four leagues from Paris, had +been one of the principal amusements of the wealthy marshal, during his +seasons of forced leisure, when the sunshine of royal favour had deserted +him. The architect employed upon it was Jean Bullant, who afterwards +enjoyed the patronage of Cathurine de Medici, and assisted in the +building of the Tuilleries. Of the work contributed by Palissy towards +the decoration of the château, nothing remains in the present day but the +beautiful pavement in the chapel and galleries. Much time was employed +by him in the painting and enamelling of the decorated tiles which +compose this pavement. The designs were all his own, of subjects taken +by him from the Scriptures, very highly finished, and so admirably +arranged and contrived as to give to the whole a surprisingly rich effect +of beautiful colouring, surpassing, it is said, that of the finest turkey +carpeting. + +In one part of the sacristy the passion of our Lord was represented upon +pottery, in sixteen pictures, in a single frame, copied from the designs +of Albert Durer, by the hand of Palissy. Of this piece, and of another +painted by him on glass, representing the history of Psyche, after the +designs of Raffaelle, there remain only representations upon paper. {58} +Of all the windows of Écouen, Palissy is also said to have been the +painter; nor must we omit to mention that in a grove of the garden there +was formerly a fountain, called “_Fontaine Madame_,” to which was +attached a rustic grotto, of which Palissy always spoke with pride, as +one of the chief triumphs of his handiwork. His skill and ingenuity were +exerted in the adornment of the grotto; and the rock from whence the +cascade fell was a grand specimen of his painted pottery. Figures of +frogs and fishes were placed in and about the water, lizards were upon +the rock, and serpents were coiled upon the grass. And, that devout +thoughts might be awakened in the breasts of those who came to enjoy the +sweets of this pleasant retreat, its pious artificer had contrived that +on a rustic frieze, should be inscribed in a mosaic, formed with various +coloured stones, the text we have chosen as the motto of this chapter. + + “HO, EVERY ONE THAT THIRSTETH, COME YE TO THE WATERS.” + +Probably the formation of the fountain, and the arrangements made for its +supply, were suggested by Palissy, whose acute observation in the study +of nature had, by that time, led him to the discovery of the true theory +of springs. “I have had no other book than heaven and earth, which are +open to all,” he was wont to say, and upon all subjects connected with +the study of that marvellous volume, Palissy was assuredly far in advance +of the men of his time. He delighted in grottoes and fountains of +waters, and his inquiry into the sources of natural fountains conducted +him to the true solution of an enigma which baffled all the skill of +Descartes. {60} + +We are, however, antedating the course of this narrative. At the time of +Palissy’s introduction to the constable, he was about forty years old, +and his labour to discover the enamel ware had been spread over a period +of some eight years. It cost him eight years more during which he +endured great toil and numerous mishaps, before he attained full +perfection in the moulding and enamelling of ornamental pottery. But +from this time he did not lack patronage, and business was always to be +obtained sufficient for the supply of household necessities. We shall +presently have occasion to return with him again to the detail of his +trials and struggles, and to hear of privation and distress yet to be +endured in the prosecution of the object of his ambition. But first we +are about to see him in a new aspect, and it will be necessary to +interrupt the story of his toil in the pursuit of art, while we dwell +upon some other facts in his history, by which his mind was exercised, +and his character, as a man and a Christian, formed and illustrated. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + + “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of + the Lord.”—JOB i. 21, + +SOME six or seven years have passed away since we last saw Palissy; and +it is now the month of February, 1557 . . . + + [Picture: “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away”] + +The short day is just drawing to a close, and our old friend, who is +sitting with a book open before him, has given over the effort to +continue reading, and is pensively resting, with his hand supporting his +head, which now begins to show a few silvery threads among the long dark +brown hair that overshadows the brow. His lips are moving, and he utters +the words he has just perused on the page of that holy book with which he +has formed so close and reverent an acquaintance. “Whom the Lord loveth +he chasteneth.” “Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” +And he sighed deeply, and rising, went slowly toward a corner of the +chamber, where was placed a baby’s cot. Bending down, he raised the +covering that shrouded the infant form which rested there. It was that +of a girl some few months old, who looked so like a marble statue, that, +at first sight, you would have said, “It is the work of the sculptor.” +But no; the eyes were slightly open, and the lashes drooped over the +violet orbs, that even in death seemed beautiful. + +The father stooped to kiss the fair delicate face, and then kneeled down +beside the cot, to read more closely the innocent features by the fading +twilight that still lingered. + +He had remained several minutes thus absorbed in thought, and prayerfully +abstracted in spirit, when suddenly a low and peculiar noise was heard +close to the window. It roused him from his reverie, and he quickly +lifted his eyes. Again the sound met his ear, and immediately he rose, +and going to the door, looked abroad, and uttered a signal cry, +responsive to the one he had heard. “It is Philebert Hamelin,” he +exclaimed, and the next instant his friend stood beside him. Most +heartily did Palissy receive his unexpected visitor, and bade him welcome +to his lowly roof, where he might be in safety, seeing its owner was then +under the patronage of Sire Antoine, who had commanded that the premises +of the potter should be held inviolate from all intrusion. + +After discharging the duties of hospitality, and seeing the wants of his +guest supplied, Bernard seated himself beside Hamelin, and the two fell +into long and earnest discourse. + +They spoke, as was natural, first of the domestic circumstances of +Palissy, and of the bereavement that now weighed heavily upon him. It +was the sixth of his children from whom he had been called to part in +their tender age, and his spirit was cast down within him. Hamelin, who +had a soul full of tender sensibilities, felt his eyes fill with tears as +he listened to the sorrows of his friend, and lovingly sought to comfort +him. + +After a time he inquired for the two boys, Nicole and Mathurin, who were +the sole survivors of so numerous a family. “They are grown tall and +hearty, and will soon take their part in the workshop,” said Palissy. +“The younger is a sharp wit. Certain monks of the Sorbonne were sent, +last summer, into this town and many others of the diocese, to win over +the people to allow their woods to be cut down for the king’s pleasure. +They made strange gestures and grimaces, and all their discourses were +nothing but outcry against the new Christians. It chanced that one of +them, as he was preaching, taught how it behoved men to purchase heaven +by their good works; but Mathurin, who stood there listening, exclaimed, +‘That’s blasphemy! for the Bible tells us that Christ purchased heaven by +his sufferings and death, and bestows it on us freely by his mercy.’ He +spoke so loud that many heard, and some disturbance ensued. Happily, +Victor was near by, and he sheltered the lad, who might otherwise have +paid dearly for his unadvised utterance.” “In good truth,” said Master +Philebert, “it was a perilous deed, and these are fearful times. When a +child of fifteen is not deemed too young for the stake, when young +maidens have been stabbed for their singing, and fellow-tradesmen broken +on the wheel for exercising liberty of conscience, then it is no marvel +if our children, being taught the truths of God’s word, should exchange +their youthfulness of manner for a manly fortitude, and should be ready +sternly to sing their hymns in the free air of heaven.” + +The conversation now turned upon Geneva, from whence Hamelin had recently +come. He was one of those agents who, at the instigation of Calvin, +travelled through the length and breadth of France, spreading the +Reformed tenets, sometimes reading the Scriptures and pious +books—sometimes preaching the word and exhorting, and above all, +providing for the establishment of a gospel ministry; everywhere taking +occasion to search out pastors to undertake the charge of those small and +despised flocks that were scattered about in the hamlets and towns. + +The marvellous energy of the great Reformer was unceasingly at work in +various ways. He encouraged many French refugees to become booksellers +or printers; he formed numerous schools for the training of his +disciples; and Geneva, under his auspices, became the metropolis of the +Reformed religion; the centre of a vast propagandist system, and one of +the most famous schools of learning and theology. It is almost +impossible to conceive how he could support the immense labours of his +latter years. He preached almost every day; gave three theological +lessons in the week; assisted at all the consistorial deliberations, and +all the assemblies of the clergy, and was the soul of their counsels. He +carried on, besides, an immense correspondence throughout Europe, and +published, every year, some work on theology or controversy. With all +these labours and many others, he was, nevertheless, of a feeble +constitution, and all his life long suffered under various maladies. +Hamelin gave the following graphic description of his personal appearance +at this period: “He resembles an old hermit, emaciated by long vigils and +fasting; his cheeks are sunken, his forehead furrowed, his face +colourless as that of a corpse, but his brilliant eyes glow with an +unearthly fire. His figure is slightly bowed, the bones seem bursting +through the skin, but his step is steady, and his tread firm.” + +The two friends spoke next upon a subject of deep interest to both. By +the advice, and at the instigation of Hamelin, Bernard had, for a +considerable time, been in the habit of gathering together a small +company of poor people on sabbath days, to read the Scriptures, and to +make exhortations weekly. At first their number did not exceed nine or +ten, and they were indigent and illiterate men, nevertheless they had the +matter at heart, and from this small beginning was established a church +which, in a few years, grew and flourished. Very simple and touching is +Palissy’s account of the manner in which he, “moved with an earnest +desire for the advancement of the gospel,” daily searched the Scriptures +with Victor; and how at length the two, taking counsel together, one +Sunday morning assembled a few neighbours, to whom Bernard read “certain +passages and texts which he had put down in writing, and offered for +their consideration.” First, he showed them how each man, according to +the gifts he had received, should distribute them to others, and that +every tree which bore not fruit, must be cut down and cast into the fire. +He also propounded to them _the Parable of the Talents_, and a great +number of such texts; and afterwards exhorted them, to the effect that it +was the duty of all people to speak of the statutes and ordinances of +God, and that his doctrine must not be despised on account of his own +abject estate, seeing that God little esteems those things which men +account great. For, while he gives wisdom, birth, or worldly greatness, +to such as shall never see his face, he calls to the inheritance of glory +poor despised creatures, who are looked upon as the offscouring and +refuse of the world. These, he raises from the dunghill, setting them +with princes, and making them his sons and daughters. “Oh, the wonder!” +He then begged his auditors to follow his example, and do as he had been +doing; which he so successfully urged, that they resolved that same hour, +that six of their number should make exhortations weekly; that is to say, +each of them once in six weeks, on the Sunday. And it was agreed that +“since they undertook a business in which they had never been instructed, +they should put down in writing what they had to say, and read before the +assembly.” “That was,” said Palissy, “the beginning of the Reformed +Church of Saintes.” Six poor and unlearned men were all who had the +boldness, with resolute hearts, to form themselves into a worshipping +assembly of Protestant Christians in that town, which had so recently +beheld the burning of a heretic. + +We seek in the chronicles of earthly glory for the names of our famous +heroes, patriots, and statesmen. The only annals in which the name of +our potter is recorded are those of the despised Huguenot church of +Saintes. In a contemporary list of preachers we find mentioned BERNARD +PALISSY. + +We have no other record of the manner in which his ministrations were +carried on, than those few sentences just given; but we know that the +doctrine of the Reformed Church of France was identical with that of +Luther. The motto of that school was, “The word of God is sufficient.” +“To know Christ and his word, this is the only living, universal +theology; he who knows this knows all,” said the two men who first +proclaimed the gospel in Paris. The doctrine of justification by faith +overturned at one sweep the subtleties of the schoolmen, and the +practices of Popery. “It is God alone,” said Lefèvre, within the walls +of the Sorbonne, “who by his grace, through faith, justifies unto +everlasting life. There is a righteousness of works, there is a +righteousness of grace; the one cometh from man, the other from God; one +is earthly, and passeth away, the other is heavenly and eternal; one is +the shadow and the sign, the other the light and the truth; one makes sin +known to us that we may escape death, the other reveals grace that we may +obtain life.” “We are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of +ourselves; it is the gift of God.” _This_ was the great cardinal truth +which Palissy taught, and which his hearers received in the love of it. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + + “He had respect unto the recompense of the reward.”—HEBREWS xi. 26. + +THE morrow after Hamelin’s unexpected visit to his friend was Sunday, and +he gladly embraced the opportunity, so soon as the shadows of night had +spread their friendly veil, to slip through the streets, and repair to +the place of meeting, where he exhorted and prayed with the little +congregation, bidding them be of good cheer, and encouraging them with +the hope, that before long, they should have a minister to take the +charge of them. The next day he departed for Allevert, where, being +kindly received by many of the people, he remained some time, calling +them together by the sound of a bell, to listen to his exhortations, and +also baptizing a child. Tidings of these proceedings were not long in +reaching Saintes, and a great stir was immediately raised by divers +officials of the town, who instigated the bishop at that time in +residence, to authorize proceedings against Hamelin. + +So slenderly provided was the poor Huguenot, that he had taken with him +no other outfit than a simple staff in his hand; neither purse nor scrip +had he, nor carried any weapon of defence. Alone, and without fear, he +went his way, solely intent on the errand he was about. His friend, who +evidently regarded him with the utmost love and reverence, after +describing his defenceless condition, his poverty, and his trustful +spirit, humorously contrasts with all this the extravagant and absurd +measures adopted by his enemies, who “constrained the bishop to produce +money for the maintenance of a pursuit of the said Philebert, with +horses, gendarmes, cooks, and cutlers.” With all this fuss and ado, they +speedily transferred themselves to the islands of Allevert, where they +re-baptized the child—thus, as far as was in their power, repairing the +mischief done by the heretic, whom, though they failed to catch him in +that place, they shortly discovered in the mansion of one of the +neighbouring gentry; and, laying forcible hands on him, they carried him +off as a malefactor, to the criminals’ prison in Saintes, where they +lodged him in safe custody. + +Sore was the grief of Palissy when he learned that the friend whom he +esteemed above all others, had thus been captured by wicked men; and well +he knew that they had both power and will to destroy Hamelin. +Indignation struggled in his breast with sorrow; and as he reflected on +the blameless conversation, pure charity, and simple-heartedness of the +man, he exclaimed—“I am full of wonder that men should have dared to sit +in judgment of death over him, when they had heard and well knew, that +his life was holy.” Not content with passively bewailing his friend’s +calamity, he tells that he mustered hardihood, notwithstanding that these +were perilous days, “to go and remonstrate with six of the principal +judges and magistrates of the town, that they had imprisoned a prophet or +an angel of the Lord,” assuring them that for eleven years he had known +this Philebert Hamelin to be of so holy a life that it seemed to him as +if other men were devils compared with him. + +Strong and impetuous language, prompted by the indignant earnestness of a +loving and faithful heart, which set at nought all selfish +considerations! It was, indeed, no light risk our noble-hearted Bernard +was incurring. The edict of Châteaubriand had recently appeared, +aggravating all former penalties, forbidding all assistance to those who +were of the new religion, and all refuge of them; offering rewards to +such as should denounce them, and, in short, rendering the laws against +heresy so stringent, that the life of any one known to be a heretic +depended wholly on the sufferance of his neighbours. In the face of such +a danger, Palissy went to the very men who were officially engaged to +punish his rashness, and boldly remonstrating with them, proclaimed the +innocence and virtue of their prisoner. This courageous and honourable +conduct was fruitless. The judges, indeed, showed sufficient humanity +not to avail themselves of his boldness as a weapon against himself; they +even heard him with courtesy, and tried to excuse themselves in reference +to Hamelin’s condemnation. To use Palissy’s words—“The better to come by +a wash for their hands, that would acquit their hearts, they reasoned +that he had been a priest in the Roman church; therefore they sent him to +Bordeaux, with good and sure guard, by a provost-marshal.” Thus they set +the seal to his doom; for Bordeaux was well-known to be the +waiting-chamber to the scaffold. + +An effort was made, while yet Hamelin remained imprisoned at Saintes, to +procure his release, which deserves to be mentioned on more than one +account. The tidings of his captivity had spread abroad, among the +neighbouring districts, and reached the ears of a little church founded +by him in a somewhat remote region. These poor people, with overflowing +hearts, when the evil tidings reached them, lost no time in considering +how they might best help to procure the release of one whom they loved +and honoured as their spiritual father. The result of their deliberation +was apparent, when, the day previous to his removal to Bordeaux, an +advocate came secretly to the prison-house in which Hamelin lay, and +offered to the jail-keeper the sum of 300 livres, provided he would, that +night, put the captive outside the prison door. The bribe was tempting; +and the frail official hesitated, desiring first, however, to take +counsel of Master Philebert in the matter. His magnanimous reply was +that he chose rather to perish by the hands of the executioner than to +expose another man to peril, for the purpose of securing his own safety. +On hearing this, the advocate, taking back his money, returned to those +who had sent him. “I ask you,” said Palissy, as he recounted this worthy +conduct of his friend, “which is he among us who would do the like, being +at the mercy of enemies, as he was?” + +It was a sad meeting of the infant church when they assembled on the +Sabbath after Hamelin’s death. They looked each other in the face, and +sorrowfully proceeded to the sacred exercises of the hour. After the +service was concluded, Palissy introduced to them a minister, named De La +Place, who had been chosen by their deceased friend to undertake the +office of pastor in Allevert. The events which had since befallen +rendered it, however, highly dangerous and undesirable that he should +repair thither for a time; and he had received notice, warning him to +abstain from proceeding on his journey. + + [Picture: . . a sad meeting of the infant church] + +In compliance with this intimation he had stopped short at Saintes where +he remained in safety with Bernard, who now made him known to the +brethren, and they with one accord prayed him to stay among them and +minister the word of God. Thus were they, most unexpectedly, supplied +with a pastor. + +Before the assembly broke up, Victor, calm in manner, though with intense +feeling, narrated to them some touching incidents he had learned of the +last hours of their martyred friend. He had not been alone; a companion +in tribulation shared his sufferings and death, whom Philebert had +strengthened in the hour of trial by his own quiet confidence and joyful +anticipation of the future that awaited them. On the morning fixed for +their execution he awoke his comrade, who was sleeping in the same cell, +and pointing with his hand to the splendid sunrise just visible on the +eastern horizon, he exclaimed, “Let us rejoice; for, if the aspect of +nature, and the return of daylight, be so beautiful on earth, what will +it be to-morrow, when we shall behold the mansions of heaven?” + +His composure and piety affected even the stern jailer, who was so much +impressed with what he saw and heard that he had spoken of it to one who +secretly sympathized with the martyrs, and related everything to Victor. +When conveyed to the gibbet, Hamelin remained self-possessed, and a +divine peace was visible on his countenance. He was asked once more, if +he would renounce his errors, and return to the true faith, but, unmoved, +and steadfast in hope, he sang a hymn, making no other reply to the +importunities of those around him than this, “I die for the name of Jesus +Christ.” His last words were, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me.” + +When Victor had concluded his narrative, Palissy said, “You have heard, +brethren, the end of this child of God, to whom we are indebted in no +small degree; for if there be among us any of that Christian fellowship +in love which is the blessed product of communion with the members of the +body of Christ, we must assuredly trace it to his influence. All that +has been done among us is the result of the good example, counsel, and +doctrine of this brother, beloved in the Lord. And think you,” he +continued—his eye kindling, and his voice tremulous with emotion—“that +they who condemned the just will be excused on the plea of ignorance? +Assuredly the judges of this town knew well that his life was holy; +nevertheless, they acted through fear, lest they should lose their +offices: so we must understand it. And thus they delivered him up, and +caused him to be hung like a thief. But, will not God avenge his elect? +Will he not show that precious in his sight is the death of these, his +witnesses? Truly, a rich harvest has always sprung up from the blood of +the martyrs, and the ashes of the just, scattered to the four winds of +heaven, have been as the seed of the kingdom.” + +These words of the noble-hearted potter recall to our minds what Luther +had spoken, some thirty years before this period, when tidings reached +him of the persecution and death of some of his followers. “At length,” +he exclaimed, “Christ is gathering some fruit from our labours, and is +creating new martyrs. Their bonds are our bonds; their dungeons our +dungeons; and their fires our fires. We are all with them, and the Lord +himself is at our head. He afterwards celebrated these first victims of +the Reformation in a noble hymn, whose strains were speedily heard +echoing throughout Germany, and everywhere spreading enthusiasm for the +cause— + + “They ride the air—they will not down, + The ashes of the just; + Nor graves can hide, nor waters drown, + That spirit-pregnant dust. + Where’er the winds that seed have flung + Soldiers are gendered; + And Satan’s foiled, and Christ is sung + By voices from the dead.” {77} + +The early years of the little Reformed church of Saintes were very +troublesome ones. It was established, in the outset, with great +difficulties and imminent perils, and those who ventured to enroll +themselves among its number were blamed and vituperated with perverse and +wicked calumnies. The ignorance and superstition of that age and country +were called into active exercise against the adherents of the new faith, +and the vilest slanders were fabricated against them, and accredited even +by those who witnessed their blameless lives. Most frequently their +meetings for religious worship were held during the hours of darkness, +for fear of their enemies; and occasion was taken from this circumstance +to insinuate that, if their doctrine were good, they would preach it +openly. They were even accused of wickedness and unchaste conduct in +their assemblies; nor were there wanting some “of the baser sort” who +said that the heretics had dealings with the devil, whose tail they went +to kiss by the light of a rosin candle. Notwithstanding all these +things, however, the church continued to exist, and to grow; and after a +time, it made surprising increase. The timid commencement, the rapid +advance, and, finally, the successful establishment and prevalence of the +Reformed tenets in Saintes, were all noted by Palissy, with loving +fidelity. He scanned, with the eye of a Christian and a philosopher, the +dealings of God’s providence; and watchfully observed the various ways in +which his purposes of wisdom and mercy were brought to pass. + +It is remarked, by a Roman Catholic historian of the day, that “the +painters, clock-makers, modellers, jewellers, booksellers, printers, and +others, who, although in humble trades, have still some exercise for +thought, were the first to adopt these new ideas.” What a pleasing and +instructive fact, proving, as it does, that not only for the rich and +leisurely, the learned and studious, are reserved those best and choicest +gifts of God—the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and the heart wise to +discern the heavenly wisdom of the cross! Nowhere could we find an +instance more strikingly in point than that afforded us by the life of +Palissy. While he laboured with enthusiasm and devoted earnestness at +the calling of his choice (and of his necessity), his most precious, his +chosen pursuit was not his art, but the knowledge and service of God his +Saviour. He obeyed the sacred mandate, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God +and his righteousness,” and girding himself to the conflict with error, +his soul became possessed with a holy enthusiasm; and having assumed to +himself the right of free inquiry, he did not scruple to make bold +confession of his faith. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + + “In all labour there is profit.”—PROV. xiv. 23 + +PROBABLY, the happiest time of Palissy’s life is that at which we are now +arrived. He may be accounted to have reached the end of his great period +of struggle as a potter. He was labouring prosperously in his vocation; +he was yet in the vigour of his age, and he had, above all, the enjoyment +of feeling that he had solved the problem and effected the object for +which he had endured a long struggle with privation and contumely. We +will not dwell on the remaining disappointments he had been doomed to +suffer before he attained this point. They were numerous and painful in +the extreme. We get a passing glimpse of them in the following incident. +One day he encountered a friend whom he had not seen for many a long +year. He had first met with him in the days of his youth at Tarbes, +where they had worked together, and listened in company to the teachings +of Hamelin. His companion had, in consequence, embraced the Reformed +doctrine, and afterwards became one of the colporteurs employed in the +circulation of religious books. In the course of his wanderings he had +occasionally visited Saintes, but it was long since he had been there. +As on former occasions, he now eagerly sought out Palissy, to whom he +related much of deep interest with reference to the progress of religious +truth throughout the provinces of France, while, at the same time, he +drew a distressing picture of the fearful sufferings of all classes; for +it has been said, and probably with little exaggeration, that in France +during the sixteenth century, there scarcely lived a poor rustic, the +current of whose life was not distressed and troubled by the course of +state affairs; and who had not been, or was not destined at some time of +his life to be, heavily bruised by a hard-fisted government. Having +finished his narrative, the worthy man asked of Bernard some particulars +concerning his own history, and that which had transpired in the good +town of Saintes during the last few years. + +“For myself,” replied Palissy, “I may say matters are now, comparatively +speaking, prosperous with me. Much have I suffered, however, since I +last saw you. During the space of fifteen or sixteen years in all, I +have blundered on at my business. When I had learned to guard against +one danger, there came another on which I had not reckoned. I made +several furnaces, which caused me great losses, before I understood how +to heat them equally. At last I found means to make various vessels of +different enamels, intermixed, in the manner of jasper. That fed me +several years; and, when at length, I had discovered how to make my +rustic pieces, {82} I was in greater trouble and vexation than before, +for having made a certain number of them, and put them to bake, my +enamels turned out, some beautiful and well melted, and others quite the +reverse; because they were composed of different materials, which were +fusible in different degrees. Thus, the green of the lizards was burnt +long before the colour of the serpents was melted; and the colour of the +serpents, lobsters, tortoises, and crabs, was melted before the white had +attained any beauty. All these defects caused me such labour and +heaviness of spirit, that, before I could render my enamels fusible at +the same degree of heat, I verily thought I should be at the door of my +sepulchre.” “Nay, my friend, you look tolerably stout, at present, and +carry your fifty years as well as most men.” “It may be so,” was the +reply, “but you would have thought otherwise, had you seen me some time +since, for, from incessant labour and anxiety, in the space of more than +ten years, I had so fallen away in my person, that there was no longer +any form in my legs or roundness in my arms; insomuch that my limbs were +all one thickness, and as soon as I began to walk, the strings with which +I fastened the bottom of my hose dropped about my heels, together with my +stockings. I frequently used to walk in the meadows of Saintes, +considering my vexation and affliction, and above all, that I could meet +with no comfort or approval even in my own house. But, indeed, I was +despised and scorned by all. Nevertheless, I always contrived to make +some ware of divers colours, which afforded me some sort of a living. +The hope which supported me, meantime, gave me such manly courage for my +work, that oftentimes, to entertain persons who came to see me, I would +endeavour to laugh, although within me I felt very sad.” . . . “Who +would believe Master Bernard was ever very sad?” said a lively voice, and +at the same moment a cavalier entered the workshop, and passing through +it, peeped in at the door of the studio where Palissy was seated with his +friend. “You are too prosperous a man to speak after that fashion; and +your coffers must be filling apace, to judge by the value set on your +beautiful designs in pottery.” “The Seigneur de Burie speaks too +favourably of my work,” replied Bernard, while his visitor, rapidly +glancing round, noticed admiringly some charming things which were in +progress of completion, and gave orders for several pieces of enamelled +earthenware—specimens of that beautiful sculpture in clay, which was +destined, before long, to adorn the mansions and palaces of the nobles of +the land. + +“M. the Count de la Rochefoucault is eager to visit your studio, Master +Bernard,” said the seigneur, as he took his leave; “and his patronage +will be valuable to you for more reasons than one. Not only will he give +you commissions for your works, but his influence can protect you from +the dangers you incur as one of the new religionists. It is true, +indeed, that the support of Monseigneur de Montmorency is so powerful as +to stand you in sufficient stead; and a man who is intrusted with an +important share in his famous building-works at Écouen, will be sure to +have a large circle of friends, or, at all events, admirers and +employers. Nevertheless, I would say a word of advice in your ear. It +is but the other day I met his reverence, the dean of this town, in a +courtly circle, where the gentry were discussing the progress of +heretical doings, and I heard, with concern, that you had made yourself +obnoxious to that dignitary, as well as to the chapter of this place, by +your unguarded language. Indeed, excuse me, if I say, it were well to be +more circumspect. Is there not a word in the Holy Book which bids us be +‘wise as serpents?’” + +“I thank you heartily, monsieur, for the good will you are pleased to +show towards me,” said Bernard; “but I do assure you these gentry have +none occasion against me, except in that I have urged upon them many +times certain passages of Scripture in which it is written that he is +unhappy and accursed who drinks the milk and wears the wool of the sheep +without providing for their pasture. Assuredly this ought to have +incited them to love me, rather than to take umbrage at the words of +truth and uprightness. In the mouth of an honest man the language of +remonstrance is friendly, and gives none occasion for displeasure.” “By +my faith, though,” said the seigneur, laughing heartily, “such reproof +must have stung sharply. I trow, the cap fitted too closely. It is +notorious that similar language has been spoken in the ears of Majesty +itself. The Advocate-General, Séguier, in the name of the parliament of +Paris, recently made the king’s ears tingle with his bold utterance. ‘If +heresy is to be suppressed,’ said he, ‘let pastors be compelled to labour +among their flocks. Commence, sire, by giving an edict to the nation, +which will not cover your kingdom with scaffolds, nor be moistened with +the blood or tears of your faithful subjects. Distant from your +presence—bent beneath the toil of labour in the fields, or absorbed in +the exercise of arts and trades, they cannot plead for themselves. It is +in their name that parliament addresses to you its humble remonstrance, +and its ardent supplication.’” + +“Methinks such counsel was wise and timely. How did the king reply?” +“The king? oh, he listened, smiled assent, and went on as before. +However, the speech was to good purpose, for the opposition of parliament +prevented a most oppressive enactment, against which the appeal was +made.” + +As the young nobleman turned to leave the apartment, his eye was caught +by a carved group, which stood somewhat apart. “Ah! what have we there? +How lovely that infant form; it reminds me of my own sweet little +Amélie;” and he approached it more nearly. It was a young girl who had +caught up a litter of puppies, and was taking them up in the lap of her +pinafore to exhibit, their little heads peeping out helplessly over the +sides of the cloth, while the mother, fondly and anxiously following its +young, had seized the skirt of the child’s dress while she was turning +with a smile to quiet its solicitude. “So simple and so natural!” said +the young man, who was himself a father. “One sees, at a glance, it is +modelled from the life.” + +Palissy sighed. “It is from a sketch of my eldest little daughter,” he +said, “as she came one day into my garden-house, carrying her new pets, +to show me. Alas! it was almost the last time her frolicsome glee +delighted my heart, for she fell sick soon after.” “I almost envy you, +good Master Bernard, the power thus to perpetuate your reminiscences of +past joys. I had rather be a successful artist than a victorious +warrior.” And with these words the Seigneur de Burie at length departed. + +The two friends, being left to themselves, continued their discourse; and +Palissy related at considerable length, the history of his beloved +church, now a flourishing community. “The little one has become a +thousand,” said he. “Within comparatively a short period we have made +rapid strides. When our first minister, De la Place, was with us, it was +a pitiable state of affairs, for we had the goodwill, but the power to +support the pastors we had not. So that, during the time we had him, he +was maintained partly at the expense of the gentry, who frequently +invited him. When he removed to Allevert, he was succeeded by M. de la +Boissière, whom we have at the present time. For a long time there were +very few rich people who joined our congregation, and hence we were often +without the means of his support; frequently, therefore, did he content +himself with a diet of fruit and vegetables, and water as his drink. +Yet, were we not forsaken, nor without manifest tokens of God’s favour +and protection. Insomuch that, notwithstanding the enmity of those who +sought to destroy the cause, there was no evil suffered to overcome us; +but God bridled them, and preserved his church. He fulfilled in our town +an admirable work, for there were sent to Toulouse two of the principal +opponents, who would not have suffered our assemblies to be public, and +it pleased God to detain them at that place for two years or thereabout, +in order that they might not hurt his church during the time that he +would have it manifested publicly.” “You are then, now so prosperous, as +to venture openly to avow your principles?” “Yes; the absence of these +two opponents encouraged us, so that we had the hardihood to take the +Market Hall in which to hold our meetings; and now that they have +returned, though, indeed, their will is to molest and persecute us, as +before, yet are matters so much changed that their evil designs are +frustrated, and they dare not venture openly to malign a work which has +so well prospered that it is changing the whole aspect of the town.” + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have + pleasure therein.”—PSALM cxi. 2. + +PALISSY had not exaggerated when he said that the influence of the +Reformed church in Saintes was changing the whole aspect of the town. +Though but of short duration, its period of prosperity was bright and +happy, and he was prominent among its firm and peaceable supporters. The +picture he has drawn of it is a lovely one. “You would have seen in +those days,” he says, “fellow-tradesmen, on a Sunday, rambling through +the fields, groves, and other places, singing in company psalms, +canticles, and spiritual songs—reading and instructing one another. You +would also have seen the daughters and maidens, seated by troops, in the +gardens and other places, who, in like way, delighted themselves in +singing of all holy things. The teachers had so well instructed the +young, and affairs had so much prospered, that people had changed their +old manners, even to their very countenances.” + +Nor was this merely a question of psalm-singing and prayers, he assures +us. The Reformation was practical and earnest. Quarrels, dissensions, +and hatreds were reconciled; unseemly conduct and debauchery suppressed; +and this had been carried so far that “even the magistrates had assumed +the control of many evil things which depended on their authority.” +Innkeepers were forbidden to have gaming in their houses, and to +entertain the householders, whose duty it was to abide with their own +families, not eating and drinking their substance elsewhere. Even the +enemies of the church were constrained, to their very great regret, to +speak well of the ministers, and especially of M. de la Boissière, who +seems to have won general respect and esteem by his judicious and manly +piety, as well as his pastoral instructions. Thus were the opponents of +the gospel fairly silenced, and recourse was had to a system of +counteraction, in the shape of a reformation on the part of the Roman +Catholics. This went to such a point that Palissy says, “certain of the +priests began to take part in the assemblies, and to study and take +counsel about the church.” In fact, it was time they should be on the +alert, for the monks and ecclesiastics were blamed in common talk; that +is, by those who cared nothing for religion, but who were ready enough to +throw a stone at these idle shepherds. “Why do you not exhort your +people, and pray, as these ministers do?” they asked; “you are paid +salaries for preaching.” These taunts reaching the ears of Monsieur, the +theologian of the chapter, measures were taken accordingly, and the +shrewdest and most subtle monks engaged for the service of the cathedral +church. “Thus it happened that, in these days, there was prayer in the +town of Saintes every day, from one side or the other.” But the thing +which worried the priests more than any other, and which seemed to them +very strange, was, that several poor villagers refused to pay tithes, +unless they were supplied with ministers. It was certainly a strange +thing to see, as Palissy says, when certain farmers, who were no friends +to the religion, finding these things so, actually went to the ministers, +praying them to exhort the people of the districts they farmed, in order +that they might get paid their tithes; the labourers having refused to +supply them with corn and fruits on any other conditions. In short, the +efforts of the little church had so well prospered, that they had +constrained the wicked to become good—at all events, to seem so. + +How delightful to think of Bernard now! at his ease, rejoicing in the +peace and happiness around him, and in the religious aspect of his town; +frequently journeying abroad, to Écouen and elsewhere, to and fro, as his +business required, and coming home again, to wander, thoughtfully and +tranquilly, among the rocks and fields in which he took such delight. He +was now so well supplied with patronage that he might have been growing +rich, had he not, with his own ardent zeal and restless energy, been ever +expending time, and toil, and money, on new efforts to improve his art. +Now, too, he had leisure to pursue those inquiries which, in his +character of a naturalist, so deeply interested him. With surprising and +marvellous sagacity he penetrated some of the problems which have puzzled +the most skilful investigators, and there was always mingled with his +love of nature a spirit of glowing and unaffected piety. The bright +gladness of his pious soul was as a beaming light that shone upon his +path and made it ever radiant. + + [Picture: “This dish is charming!” said the lady] + +How skilfully he turned to use all the modes of acquiring knowledge, and +what good account he made of his own sharp wits, we see in a little +incident he has recorded. It chanced one day, he received a visit from +the Dame de la Pons, for whom he was executing a commission, in which the +lady felt, naturally, a woman’s interest. She had ordered a complete set +of dishes, to be adorned with his favourite “rustic figulines;” the work +was progressing favourably; there remained only a few pieces to be +completed; and she had come to see and to criticise. “This dish is +charming,” said the lady; “the bottom covered with sea weeds and corals, +while the fish, with open fins, seem darting across the water. Really, +one can fancy the slight tremor of the tail, so like the helm of the +living ship. The cray-fish, too, the spider of the waters, stretches his +long claws as if to grip the rock, and shrink into its crevices.” “And +see this one, mamma,” said her daughter, who had accompanied her, “this +is for the fresh water fish. Look at the edges, fringed with the dank +mosses, and the sides covered with the broad leaves of the plants. It is +the subaqueous world of waters, with all the leaves, stems, and flags of +the marsh, and its aquatic animals, transferred to clay, as true in form, +and as brilliant in colours, as if a housemaid had dipped one of her +plates in the stream, and drawn it out, filled to the brim, with the +plants, shells, and animals of the brook.” “It is admirable,” said her +mother. Palissy’s eyes sparkled, for praise is sweet; and what son of +Adam is there to whom it does not come doubly welcome from the lips of a +woman? + +“What a curious shell is this!” exclaimed Madame, taking up one, from +which Palissy was modelling. “That comes from the shores of Oléron,” +said the artist; “there are numbers more on yonder table,” and he pointed +to one, covered with a multitude of similar ones. “I engaged a score of +women and children to search for them on the rocks. And now, lady, I +must tell you something curious about those shells. Only a day or two +after they were brought to me, I chanced to call on M. Babaret, the +advocate, who, you know, is a man famous for his love of letters and the +arts. We fell into some discussion upon a point in natural history, and +he showed me two shells exactly similar to these—urchin shells; {93} but +which were quite massive; and he maintained that the said shells had been +carved by the hand of the workman, and was quite astonished when I +maintained, against him, that they were natural. Since that time, I have +collected a number of these shells converted into stones.” “You surprise +me,” said his attentive hearer; “I was indeed greatly puzzled myself, +some years since, when I chanced to find certain stones embedded in rock, +made in the fashion of a ram’s horn, though not so long nor so crooked, +but commonly arched, and about half a foot long. I could not imagine, +nor have I ever known how they could have been formed.” “Your +description, madame, much interests me; for, it so happens that I have +also seen, nay, possess, a stone of the kind you describe, which was +brought to me one day by Pierre Guoy, citizen and sheriff of the town of +Saintes. He found, in his farm, one of these very stones, which was +half-open, and had certain indentations, that fitted admirably, one into +the other. Well knowing how curious I am about such things, he made me a +present of it, which I was greatly rejoiced at; for I had seen, as I +walked along the rocks in this neighbourhood, some similar stones, which +had awakened my curiosity; and from that time I understand that these +stones had formerly been the shells of a fish, which fish we see no more +at the present day.” He then showed his visitors the picture of a rock, +in the Ardennes, near the village of Sedan, in which were paintings of +all the species of shells that it contained. + +“The inhabitants of that place,” said he, “daily hew the stone from that +mountain to build; and in doing so, the said shells are found at the +lowest, as well as at the highest part; that is, inclosed in the densest +stones. I am certain that I saw one kind which was sixteen inches in +diameter. From this I infer that the rock, which is full of many kinds +of shells, has formerly been a marine bed, producing fishes.” “You speak +as if stones grew, or were made, in process of time,” said the lady; +“while we know that from the beginning, God made heaven and earth. He +made also the stones; and from that time there have been none made, for +all things have been finished from the commencement of the world.” {95} + +“It is indeed, madame, written in the book of Genesis that God created +all things in six days, and that he rested on the seventh. But yet, for +all that, God did not make these things to leave them idle. Therefore, +each performs its duty according to the commandment it received from him. +The stars and planets are not idle. The sea wanders from one place to +another, and labours to bring forth profitable things. The earth +likewise is never idle; that which decays naturally within her, she forms +over again; if not in one shape she will reproduce it in another. It is +certain that if, since the creation of the world, no stones had grown +within the earth, it would be difficult to find any number of them, for +they are constantly being dissolved and pulverized by the effects of +frosts, and an infinite number of other accidents, which daily spoil, +consume, and reduce stone to earth.” “You tell us startling things; very +hard to be understood, Master Bernard,” said the Dame de la Pons, “yet +full of deep interest to one who loves to note the wonderful works of +creation, and would fain learn to see them with discernment as well as +admiration.” Palissy paused from his work, (he had continued to sketch +while he conversed,) and opening a cabinet with drawers which stood near +him, he showed the ladies several specimens of fossils and minerals, +which in his enthusiastic researches he had collected; for, with the +acuteness of a philosophic observer, he had perceived the importance of a +detailed study of fossil forms to the discovery of geological truths; and +it may be truly said that the first who pursued this study (on which +undoubtedly modern geology and all its grandest results are founded) was +Palissy, the self-educated potter, who had taught himself in the school +of nature. “I have been anxious,” said he, “to represent by pictures, +the shells and fishes which I have found lapidified, to distinguish +between them and the sorts now in common use; but because my time would +not permit me to put my design in execution, I have, for some years, +sought, according to my power, for petrifactions, until at length I have +found more fishes and shells in that form petrified upon the earth than +there are modern kinds inhabiting the ocean.” He then showed them a +small specimen which he begged them carefully to observe. “What can it +be?” they inquired; “it resembles wood more nearly than anything else.” +“You will think it very strange when I assure you that it is indeed wood, +converted into stone. It came into my possession through the kindness of +the Seigneur de la Mothe, the secretary to the king of Navarre, a man +very curious and a lover of _virtú_. He was once at court in company +with the late king of Navarre, when there was brought to that prince a +piece of wood changed into stone. It was thought so great a curiosity +that the king commanded one of his attendants to lock it up, among his +other treasures. + +“Taking occasion to speak with the gentleman who had received this +charge, Monsieur de la Mothe begged that he would give him a little +morsel of it, which he did; and some time after, passing through Saintes, +be brought the treasure to me, and seeing how much pleasure and interest +I took in examining it, he gave it me. I have since made inquiry, and +find that it was brought from the forest of Fayan, which is a swampy +place. It appears to me, indeed I am persuaded, that in the same manner +as the shells are converted into stone, so is the wood also transmuted, +and being petrified it preserves the form and appearance of wood, +precisely like the shells. By these things you see how nature no sooner +suffers destruction by one principle, than she at once resumes working +with another; and this is what I have already said—to wit, that the earth +and the other elements are never idle.” “Where can you have learned all +this?” asked the young lady, with girlish wonder; “I would fain know to +what school you have been, where you have learned all that you are +telling us.” “In truth, Mademoiselle,” said Palissy smiling, “I have had +no other teacher than the heavens and the earth which are given to all, +to be known and read. Having read therein, I have reflected on +terrestrial matters, because I have had no opportunity in studying +astrology to contemplate the stars.” + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are + exalted.”—PSALM xii. 8. + +THUS happily occupied with the pursuits he loved, but taking no share in +the turmoils of the time, Palissy prospered and cheerfully pursued his +way. He could not, indeed, be an unconcerned observer of the events that +were transpiring around. Having eyes, he doubtless saw the clouds that +were gathering over his country, and from time to time, heard the +thunders that threatened before long to burst in a terrific storm. For a +season, however, the evil day was deferred, and the hymns of the +rejoicing Huguenots continued to gladden his heart. We have already had +sufficient evidence that he did not spare his remonstrances against those +who, while they enjoyed the revenues of the church, neglected the +performance of its duties. Nor did he stop there, and as his censures +extended from the highest to the lowest matters, his shafts were often +pointed against those who could ill endure the test of common sense, +which he unceremoniously applied to them. His criticisms on the follies +and vices of his neighbours had too much the character of home-thrusts +not to be felt. In his lively way he relates that, on one occasion, he +remonstrated with a certain high dame upon the absurdities and +improprieties of feminine attire; but “after I had made her this +remonstrance,” he quietly adds, “the silly woman, instead of thanking me, +called me Huguenot, seeing which—I left her.” At another time, he +relates that, being on a visit to the neighbouring town of Rochelle, he +earnestly remonstrated with a tradesman, of whom he inquired what he had +put into his pepper which enabled him, though buying it in that place at +thirty-five sols the pound, to make a great profit by selling it again, +at the fair of Niord, at seventeen sols, in consequence of the +adulteration of the article. In reply to the man’s excuse of poverty, +Bernard replied, that, by such criminal acts he was heaping up to himself +fearful punishments, “and surely,” said he, “you can better afford to be +poor than be damned.” Strong, though faithful language, which was wholly +ineffectual upon this “poor insensate, who declared he would not be poor, +follow what might.” Plain speaking of this sort was evidently very +characteristic of Palissy, who uttered his remonstrances without +reckoning on the consequences. The same originality and force of +intellect which procured him patrons in his art, undoubtedly, when +applied in a different direction, served to multiply enemies around him, +and their time was not long in coming. + +Happily and swiftly flew the years of prosperity, but (as we have already +seen) the clouds were gathering in the horizon, and soon the cruel hounds +of war were let slip, and most frightful were the results. Two great +parties had involved in their disputes the passions of the whole French +nation. One, which included all the Huguenots, was headed by the high +old French nobility; while the leaders of the others, embracing all the +Roman Catholics, were the Guises. These opposing factions, with their +strong deep passions, rapidly precipitated themselves into a fierce and +bloody contest. One of the young sons of Catherine de Medici had died, +after a few months of nominal rule, and a child no more than ten years +old, called Charles IX. had succeeded to the throne. The queen mother, +who, as regent for her son, assumed the government of affairs, was +anxious, as far as possible, to offend neither of the contending parties, +but to hold them so well balanced, as to preserve the power in her own +hands. For a short time, there was a cessation of disputes, and efforts +at conciliation. The policy of Catherine was the maintenance of peace, +and she spoke fair to the Huguenots, feigning so well and so successfully +that she was even accused by those of the Roman Catholic party, of being +in heart one with the new sect. The Reformers took courage, and were +full of fervour and hope; the enthusiasm spreading throughout the +provinces and awakening everywhere the hope that the triumph of the +Reformed faith was at hand. It was but a passing gleam, presently +followed by a darker gloom, which finally deepened into the thick night +of the Black Bartholomew. In vain did the queen and the chancellor, De +l’Hôpital, labour to secure peace by colloquies and edicts of toleration. +The Guises fiercely stirred the fires of contention, and employed +themselves in active preparations for a struggle. At length, the first +signal for the outbreak of the civil war was given. + +There was in Champagne, a small fortified town, called Vassy, containing +about three thousand inhabitants, a third of whom, not reckoning the +surrounding villages, professed the Reformed religion. It happened, on +the 28th of February, 1562, that the Duke of Guise, journeying on his way +to Paris, accompanied by his cousin, the cardinal of Lorraine, with an +escort of gentlemen, followed by some two hundred horsemen, visited the +château de Joinville, which was situated in the neighbourhood, on an +estate belonging to the Lorraines. + +The mistress of the castle was a very old lady, the dowager Duchess of +Guise, whose bigoted attachment to the faith of her ancestors made the +very name of Huguenot an offence to her. Sorely indignant was she at the +audacity of the inhabitants of Vassy, who had no right, she declared, as +vassals of her granddaughter, Mary Stuart, to adopt a new religion +without her permission. Often had she threatened vengeance upon them, +and the time was now come to inflict it. And the aged woman urged her +son, the fierce Duke Francis, to make a striking example of these +insolent peasants. As he listened to her angry words, he swore a deep +oath, and bit his beard, which was his custom, when his wrath waxed +strong. + + [Picture: “Heretic dogs! Huguenot rebels! Kill, kill!”] + +The next morning, resuming his march, he arrived at a village not far +from the obnoxious town; and the morning breeze, as it came sweeping up +the hills, brought to his ears the sound of church bells. “What means +that noise?” he asked of one of his attendants. “It is the morning +service of the Huguenots,” was the reply. It was, in fact, the sabbath +day, and the Reformers, assembled to the number of some hundreds, were +performing their worship in a barn, under the protection of a recent +edict of toleration. Unsuspicious of danger, there was not a man among +them armed, with the exception of some ten strangers, probably gentlemen, +who wore swords. + +Suddenly, a band of the duke’s soldiers approached the place, and began +shouting—“Heretic dogs! Huguenot rebels! Kill, kill!” The first person +whom they laid hands on was a poor hawker of wine. “In whom do you +believe?” they cried. “I believe in Jesus Christ,” was the answer; and +with one thrust of the pike he was laid low. Two more were killed at the +door, and instantly the tumult raged. The duke, hastening up at the +sound of arms, was struck by a stone, which drew blood from his cheek. +Instantly the rage of his followers redoubled, and his own fury knew no +bounds. A horrible butchery followed; men, women, and children were +attacked indiscriminately, and sixty were slain in the barn or in the +street, while more than two hundred were grievously wounded. + +The pastor, Leonard Morel, at the first sound of alarm, kneeled down in +the pulpit and implored the divine aid. He was fired at; and then +endeavoured to escape, but, as he approached the door, he stumbled over a +dead body, and received two sabre cuts on the right shoulder and on his +head. Believing himself to be mortally wounded, he exclaimed, “Into thy +hands I commend my spirit, O Lord; for thou hast redeemed me.” He was +captured, and carried, being unable to walk, into the presence of the +duke. “Minister, come this way,” he said, “what emboldens thee to seduce +this people?” “I am no seducer,” said Morel, “but I have faithfully +preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.” “Does the gospel teach sedition, +sirrah?” said M. de Guise, with his usual blasphemous oath; “thou hast +caused the death of all these people; and thou shalt thyself be hanged +immediately. Here, Provôt, make ready a gallows for him on the spot!” +But even among that fierce crew none seemed willing to obey the savage +mandate, and no one came forward to enact the part of hangman. This +delay saved the life of the captive, who was removed under good guard, +but eventually escaped. + +The following year, as the blood-thirsty duke lay on his death-bed, +mortally wounded by the hand of an assassin, he protested that he had +neither premeditated nor commanded the massacre of Vassy. This may be +true; but his consent at the moment of its perpetration is beyond +question. + +An extraordinary effect was produced throughout the whole kingdom, by the +tidings of this cruel slaughter. Among the Reformed party it created a +universal feeling of indignant horror and alarm. It was like the +war-whoop of the Indians, which precedes the rush to battle. Each party +flew to arms, after putting forth manifestoes, asserting the merits of +their respective causes. The Prince of Condé hastened to Orleans, which +he succeeded in occupying, and there the army of the Huguenots +established their headquarters. In that town the Calvinist lords +assembled, on the 11th of April, 1562, and after partaking the Lord’s +supper together, bound themselves in an alliance, to maintain the Edicts, +and to punish those who had broken them. They took a solemn oath to +repress blasphemy, violence, and whatever was forbidden by the law of +God, and to set up good and faithful ministers to instruct the people; +and lastly, they promised, by their hope of heaven, to fulfil their duty +in this cause. + +And thus the fearful work began, and tumult, massacre, battle, and siege +prevailed. Every town in France was filled with the riot of contending +factions. “It was a grand and frightful struggle of province against +province, city with city, quarter with quarter, house with house, man +with man,” says a recent historian. “Fanaticism had reduced France to a +land of cannibals; and the gloomiest imagination would fail to conceive +of all the varieties of horrors which were then practised.” + +We have to do with the town of Saintes. There were few places in which +the Huguenots were so numerous, and had multiplied so rapidly, as in +Saintonge. Passions were nowhere stronger; no place was more trampled by +combatants; it was the scene of many of the maddest contests during the +days of the religious warfare. At the invitation of the Duke de La +Rochefoucault, all the Protestant leaders of the district gathered +themselves together at Angoulême, and betook themselves, under his +guidance, to Orleans, in order to join the Prince of Condé, who was his +brother-in-law. After the departure of these forces, the various towns +in that neighbourhood, Angoulême, Saintes, Pons, and others, remained +indeed in the possession of the Huguenots, but without defence, nearly +all the Reformers of the district, capable of bearing arms, having +followed the march of De La Rochefoucault, “especially” we are told, +“those of Saintes.” Consequently, the town, deprived of its soldiers, +presented an easy prey to the enemy, and in a short time, fell into the +hands of a hostile leader, named Nogeret, who treated with harsh severity +all that remained in the place, in execution of a decree from Bordeaux, +by which the Reformers were abandoned, without appeal, to the mercy of +any royal judge. + +Among those thus given over to the power of these miscreants, was +Palissy. In few but emphatic words he has recorded the terrors of that +fearful time. “Deeds so wretched were then done,” he said afterward, +“that I have horror in the mere remembrance. To avoid those dreadful and +execrable sights, I withdrew into the secret recesses of my house, and +there, by the space of two months, I had warning that hell was broke +loose, and that all the spirits of the devils had come into this town of +Saintes. For where, a short time before, I had heard psalms, and holy +songs, and all good words of edification, now mine ears were assailed +only with blasphemies, blows, menaces, and tumults, all miserable words, +and lewd and detestable songs. Those of the Reformed religion had all +disappeared, and our enemies went from house to house, to siege, sack, +gluttonize, and laugh; jesting and making merry with all dissolute deeds +and blasphemous words against God and man.” + +Very terrible is this truth-breathing description of the miseries of a +city given over to the license of an unbridled soldiery; but the most +affecting picture is that which he draws when closing his short narrative +of those “evil days.” “I had nothing at that time but reports of those +frightful crimes that, from day to day, were committed; and of all those +things, that which grieved me most within myself was, that certain little +children of the town, who came daily to assemble in an open space near +the spot where I was hidden (always exerting myself to produce some work +of my art), dividing themselves into two parties, fought and cast stones +one side against another, while they swore and blasphemed in the most +execrable language that ever man could utter, so that I have, as it were, +horror in recalling it. Now, that lasted a long time, while neither +fathers nor mothers exercised any rule over them. Often I was seized +with a desire to risk my life by going out to punish them; but I said in +my heart the 79th Psalm, which begins, ‘O God, the heathen are come into +thine inheritance.’” + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for + adversity.”—PROVERBS xvii. 17. + +THE Seigneur de Burie had not spoken without sufficient cause when he +warned Palissy that he had made himself enemies of certain high church +dignitaries in Saintes. Those admonitions he had uttered were not +forgotten by the Romish ecclesiastics, who bestirred themselves so +zealously, that after the city had been in the power of the Roman +Catholic party for a few weeks, violent hands were laid upon the +unsuspecting potter. He had believed himself secure from actual assault +within his own premises, and not without cause, since he was under the +protection of a safeguard, given him by the Duke de Montmorency, which +expressly forbade the authorities undertaking anything against him or his +house. It was also well known by both parties that the building in which +he worked for the constable had been partly erected at the expense of +that nobleman, and that, on occasion of an outbreak in the city which had +occurred some time before, the leaders of the Roman Catholic party had +expressly forbidden any interference with Palissy or his work, through +respect to his employer. + +But matters had now reached a strange height, and there seemed to be a +favourable season for malice and bigotry to work their will. Palissy was +arrested and imprisoned; and, as soon as he was taken into custody, his +workshop was broken into, and part of it laid open to the intrusion of +the public. The magistrates, at their town meeting, actually came to a +resolution to pull down the building, and would infallibly have carried +their purpose into effect, had not the Seigneur de Pons and his lady +immediately interfered. These tried friends of Bernard lost no time in +personally remonstrating with the magistrates, from whom they, with some +difficulty, obtained the promise to defer carrying out their design. To +deliver him from the clutches of his enemies was not so easy a matter. +His prosecutors were, in fact, no other than the dean and chapter, who, +he says, were his cruel foes, and would have delivered him to death for +no other cause than his free speech in the matter of their neglect of +duty. + +The Sire de Pons, as king’s lieutenant in Saintonge, had power to control +the justices of Saintes; and, consequently, the hands of his judges were +tied. They were all, indeed, “one body, one soul, and one single will” +with the reverend prosecutors of their prisoner, and without a shadow of +doubt, had they been able to work their pleasure, he would have been put +to death before appeal could have been made to the constable. + +“An awkward business is this,” said the dean to one of his brethren, as +they discussed the matter of the interposition of the Sire de Pons. +“Plainly, we cannot carry out our intentions here; but once at Bordeaux +this obstinate heretic would be given up into the hands of the parliament +there, and then the interference of the king alone could save him.” +“There will be no satisfaction till he is silenced,” was the reply; “and, +without doubt, he has done ample mischief. Only think of the labourers +on our farms beginning to murmur at paying tithes to those who they, +forsooth, say do not deserve them. This comes of his unbridled tongue. +And shall we thus be defied and brow-beaten by an insolent mechanic?” +“Nay, there is no need to urge me on. If he were but in our power; . . . +but the question is, how to manage the affair, and get him safely out of +the jurisdiction of these people, who will certainly never be brought to +consent to his condemnation. There are so many wealthy men in this +neighbourhood by whom the knave is employed in decorative works, besides +the buildings at Écouen, and his skill in pottery-ware has made him so +much thought of, that he is safe as long as he remains within this +district.” “To Bordeaux, then, let him go, and that without delay. Why +not this very night? In the daytime the matter would get bruited abroad, +and his friends might contrive to send to the rescue; but by night, and +across by-roads, he can be carried off silently and safely; and once at +Bordeaux—” . . . “You say well. Measures shall be taken immediately.” + +Little did our captive imagine what were the devices of those that hated +him. He might easily have contrived to escape beyond their reach, had he +not reckoned himself so safe that his arrest came upon him wholly +unawares. It had fared ill with him at this juncture but for the +watchful and affectionate care of his old friend, Victor. Through the +interposition of those from whom he had learned the particulars of +Hamelin’s last hours, he obtained admission into the prison where Palissy +was confined, and ministered to him with the solicitude of a brother. By +his means, communication was carried on between the prisoner and his +patrons, the Seigneurs de Burie and de Jarnac, as well as the king’s +lieutenant. All these gentlemen took much trouble, and made +interposition with the dean and chapter, to whom they repeatedly urged +that no man but Palissy could complete M. de Montmorency’s work, and that +the displeasure of his highness would be incurred if a person under his +especial patronage were injured. We have seen that their interference +did but hasten on the catastrophe, and make his doom more certain. + + [Picture: Victor obtained admission into the prison] + +Victor’s heart misgave him that evil was designed against his friend. He +had seen the fearful end of the two pastors of Allevert and Gimosac, and +the more recent fate of Hamelin; and the most cruel forebodings oppressed +him. He was incessantly on the watch, and when obliged to leave the +prison, and compelled to abandon Palissy to solitude, he could not go to +his own home and rest there, but remained, pacing to and fro, in the +neighbourhood of the jail; and, while thus restless and agitated, he +poured out his soul in earnest entreaties for help from on high. Oh, the +blessing of a true friend in the hour of adversity! How sweet a thing is +heavenly charity—the brotherhood of love in Christ Jesus! It was a true +word, spoken by the great lawyer, Gerbellius—“There is nothing the devil +hates so cordially as sincere friendship;” and what marvel, since, as an +old divine says, “it makes men so unlike his ill-natured self.” But, as +long as we enjoy prosperous days, and sail before a favouring wind, there +is no test by which we can prove the strength and value of this +principle. The time to know who truly loves us is the season when +troubles assail us. All sorts of affliction and misery test this, and +show what friendship is genuine and hearty. This is one of “the uses of +adversity,” as friendship is one of its sweetest alleviations. + +On the afternoon of the day when Palissy’s abstraction from Saintes was +plotted, Victor was at his customary post beside his friend, who remained +quite composed and free from anxiety on his own account. “Be not so +anxious,” he said, endeavouring to soothe the fears he did not share; “I +am, at all events, secure from further harm, since the power is not in +the hands of these judges. No thanks, indeed, to them; they fear to lose +some morsel of benefice which they possess, and consequently go hand in +hand with my sanguinary enemies. It is certain I can but take the blame +of what has befallen me to my own account. Jesus Christ has left us a +counsel, written in the 7th chapter of St. Matthew, by which he forbids +us to scatter pearls before the swine, lest, turning upon us, they rend +us. If I had obeyed this injunction, I should not now have been +suffering, and at the mercy of those who, though they want the power, +have undoubtedly the will to bring me to destruction as a malefactor.” + +Just at that moment the jailer entered, desiring a man who followed him +to bring in a box, which they placed in a corner of the room. “You must +be going soon,” said he, addressing Victor; “I have some business in +hand, and must lock up doors early to-night. Your friend can stay, +however,” he added, casting a glance at Palissy, which seemed to the ever +observant Victor to have a shade of compassion in it, “for half an hour +longer if you wish it.” So saying he retired, turning the key, which +grated heavily and with a harsh sound in the lock. Victor would have +spoken of his suspicion that something was wrong, and that mischief was +designed; but Bernard interrupted him with a gesture of impatience, and +presently began talking on a theme which appears to have formed the +solace of his prison-house, and by which he whiled away the hours, which +else had seemed so tedious to his free and active nature. He had for +some time had it in his intention to publish a little book containing his +observations and opinions on various matters—in short, the experience of +his past years. He now recurred to this subject. “I have resolved,” +said he, “that my book shall treat on four subjects; to wit, agriculture, +natural history, the plan of a delectable garden (to which I will append +a history of the troubles in Saintonge), and lastly, the plan of a +fortified town, which might serve as a city of refuge in these perilous +times. Of the two former I have sketched the plan in my imagination, and +the matter of the garden now fills my thought. You know well the delight +I have in so great a recreation, and how I have been minded to make me +such a pleasant retreat, as a place of refuge, whither I might flee from +the iniquity and malice of the world to serve God with pure freedom.” +“Would to heaven, my beloved friend, you were safe sheltered there,” said +Victor, “but oh! methinks, this is but a pleasant dream.” “Often, in my +sleep, I have seemed to be occupied about it,” said Bernard, “and it +happened to me only last night, that, as I lay slumbering on my bed, my +garden seemed to be already made, and I already began to eat its fruits +and recreate myself therein; and it came to pass, in my night vision, +that, while considering the marvellous deeds which our Sovereign Lord has +commanded nature to perform, I fell upon my face, to worship and adore +the Living of the living, who has made such things for man’s service and +use. That also gave me occasion to consider our miserable ingratitude +and perverse wickedness; and the more I entered into the contemplation of +these things, the more was I disposed to value the art of agriculture, +and I said in myself, that men were very foolish so to despise rural +places and the labours of the field, which is a thing just before God, +and which our ancient fathers, men of might and prophets, were content +themselves to exercise, and even to watch the flocks; and being in such +ravishment of spirit—” + +The sentence was broken short by the return of the jailer, who announced +that the time he had allowed was now expired. Victor reluctantly took +his leave of Palissy, and, with a heavy heart, turned to go from him. No +sooner had he reached the open street than, again recurring, in his own +thoughts, to what had transpired, he felt convinced that something was +wrong. That compassionate glance of the stern jailer intimated, as it +seemed to him, the cause of the favour he had granted, in allowing the +two friends a longer interval before they were parted. “Parted!” cried +Victor, his heart filled with dismay as his lips unconsciously uttered +the ominous word—“parted! can it be that we are parted for ever? Lord!” +he exclaimed, in a burst of feeling, “be thou his guard and his defence, +as a wall of fire to keep thy servant; and in this hour of trial show +that thine arm is not shortened, that it cannot save.” After a short +interval, he repeated, in a low tone, this verse of a hymn composed by +the Protestant Gondinel, and often sung by the little persecuted church +of Saintes:— + + “The time is dark, we faint with woe, + Our foes are mightier far than we; + They say, ‘Their God forsakes them now, + And who shall their deliverer be?’ + Lord, show thy presence—prove thy power, + And save us at the latest hour.” + +Continuing to pace to and fro, he remained within sight of the prison +until the darkness gathered around, and the bright stars, one by one, +came shining in brilliant beauty overhead. The sight of them, as he +raised his prayerful eyes upwards, calmed his spirit, and he whispered +gently, “He calleth them all by their names.” It was a thought +calculated to inspire confidence in Him who has promised to his children +that they shall be graven on the palms of his hands, and who has said, +“Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee,” and the spirit +of Victor was cheered as he pleaded the exceeding great and precious +promises of divine love. + +At length the hour of midnight approached, and still all around remained +hushed in repose. There was nothing to justify his prognostications, nor +to awaken alarm, and he had just resolved to retire, when the sound of +horses tramping at a distance, caught his ear. Presently, from a side +street emerged a small troop of horsemen, who moved cautiously along, and +kept, as much as possible, within the deep shadows of the walls. They +proceeded down the street, and drew up before the gate of the +prison-house. Victor, who had hastily retired beneath an archway, +watched their movements with strained eyes, and dimly saw, by the +starlight, the outline of their figures as they filed along. The gate +was unbarred to them without summons, and the next instant a muffled form +was led out between two men, and hastily lifted on to the crupper of one +of the horses behind the stalwart form of a trooper. There was not a +moment to lose, for the party were evidently about to resume their march, +and Victor, with ready wit, emerging from his hiding-place, reeled +forward, in the manner of a drunken man, and began to sing a carol. Just +as the horse with its double freight passed him, he shouted the words, +“Save us at the latest hour.” His stratagem succeeded, for a shrill +whistle was instantly heard mingling with the ringing sound of the +horses’ hoofs on the stones, as they passed along the street. “It is +he!” cried Victor, and, with the speed of a greyhound he darted down the +nearest passage. + + [Picture: Victor . . . watched their movements] + +He knew that his errand admitted not of delay. There was but one chance +that Palissy might be saved. It was an intercession with the king; and +possibly the Sire de Pons, on receiving immediate information of the +secret Victor had thus learned, might take timely measures to frustrate +the deadly designs of Barnard’s enemies. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + + “A good man shall be satisfied from himself.”—PROVERBS xiv. 14. + +PALISSY was now immured within the walls of the Bordeaux prison. While +he lies there, bereft of the consolation he had hitherto enjoyed in the +society of Victor, we must betake ourselves to a very different scene. + +In consequence of the information he received from the Sire de Pons, the +constable Montmorency determined, as the only means of averting the fate +which threatened his ingenious workman, to apply himself, in person, to +the queen mother, through whose influence the court might be induced to +protect him. In fact, Catherine was herself virtually monarch, and a +word from her would suffice. The sole redeeming quality of this woman of +evil renown was, an enlightened taste for literature and the fine arts, a +taste which seems to have been hereditary in her family. She enriched +the royal library with many precious manuscripts of Greece and Italy, and +presented to it half the volumes which her great ancestor Lorenzo de +Medici had purchased of the Turks, after the taking of Constantinople. +Especially she excelled in her love of the fine arts, and her taste and +genius were displayed in the erection of many châteaux in various +provinces, remarkable for the exactness of their proportions and their +style, at a period when the French had scarcely a notion of the +principles of architecture. At the present time she had just conceived +the purpose of constructing a new residence for herself; and Montmorency +found her, in one of the apartments assigned to her use, in the palace of +the Louvre, busily engaged in looking over some manuscript plans. As the +constable was announced, she raised her eyes from the table on which +these designs were placed, and after receiving his salutations, begged +him to be seated beside her, and pointing with her hand (the most +beautiful one ever beheld, according to a contemporary historian), she +smilingly requested his assistance in her choice. “Allow me, monsieur,” +she said, “to appeal to your judgment, for in the matter now under +consideration, I could not have an adviser whose opinion I should more +highly value. You are aware that the château des Tournelles has been +destined to demolition, and I have, therefore, determined to build me a +new palace, the site of which I am anxious to fix upon. The plan now +before his majesty”—and she glanced at her son, the poor young boy king, +who sat opposite her—“appears to me to present no small advantages.” The +paper to which the queen referred was the plan of a plot of ground close +to the trenches of the Louvre, situated, at that time, out of Paris, and +which had been purchased, some half century before, by king Francis I., +as a present to his mother, Marie Louise, of Savoy. It had been +originally occupied by tuileries (_i.e._, tile-kilns), and in the old +drawings which Catherine was inspecting, the spots where formerly stood +the wood-yards and baking-houses used in making the bricks and tiles, +were marked out. “Its situation by the river, and the large space +suitable for garden ground attached to it, seem much in its favour, +madame,” said the constable. “And its neighbourhood to the royal +dwelling also,” said the queen, at the same time she unrolled another +map, which she proceeded to examine, with the assistance of Montmorency. + +Whilst they are thus engaged we will take the opportunity to say +something of the two royal personages present. Charles IX. was not yet +fourteen years old, tall in stature, strongly but not gracefully built, +and with a countenance of energetic expression, but fierce and unrefined. +The poor lad, invested at so early an age with unbounded authority, +appears to have been naturally of a violent temper, with high animal +spirits. His great passion was the chase, and he also showed +considerable taste for letters. But, kept in subjection to the will of +his mother, and tutored by her to suspect and dissimulate, his natural +character was vitiated, and he suffered himself to continue, to the time +of his death, the passive instrument of her ambition and cruelty. A +remarkable anecdote is told of him, which seems to prove that better +things might have been expected of him, had his education been in +different hands. When but a youth, having perceived that after drinking +wine he was no longer master of himself, he swore never to use it again; +and he kept his oath. What might not have been expected from a prince +gifted with such powers of self-control, had he been judiciously trained? + +At the time of which we are speaking, the queen mother was in the decline +of her beauty, though she still retained some remnants of those charms +which adorned her in youth. She was clad in the black robes of her +widowhood, which it was her fancy to persist in wearing long after the +usual period; her hair was completely hidden beneath the angular white +cap we see in the pictures of that day, and her strongly marked features +were softened by the shade of a grey gauze veil. Her eyebrows were dark, +and her eyes, large and brilliant, had a restless severity in their +expression which inspired fear and distrust. Her complexion was olive, +and her figure tall and large, her movements full of grace and majesty, +while an air of command was visible in every gesture. + +As she spoke now, the tones of her voice were soft and musical, for it +was her wish to please; but, when angry passions agitated her bosom, they +became dissonant, harsh, and startling. + +“I think,” she said, in answer to an observation made by Montmorency, +“the balance of advantages lies much in the favour of the first design, +to which I shall, therefore, give the preference, and will immediately +give directions for digging the foundations of the new palace, and it +shall be named, from the site on which it is built, the Palace of the +Tuileries.” “Well, madam,” said the constable, “your majesty has +admirably chosen, and skilfully selected, an appropriate name for the +intended royal abode.” “It occurred to my recollection,” said Catherine, +“that one of the finest quarters of ancient Athens was called the +Ceramic, because it occupied ground once held by extra-mural potteries.” +“Speaking of potteries reminds me, madam,” said Montmorency, “of the +principal object I had in seeking an interview with your majesty. Among +the workmen I have employed at Écouen, there is a mechanic who evinces a +surprising genius in the art of painting on glass, and who has invented +an enamelled earthenware of great beauty. I know of none equal to him in +skill, and, in fact, I cannot supply his place should he be sacrificed.” +“You should not allow so great a treasure to slip through your hands. +What danger threatens him?” “He is a Huguenot, madam,” was the reply. +“No matter,” said the queen, laughing, “his heresy won’t alter the hues +of his glass or pottery-ware.” “Nay; but he has fallen into the hands of +Nogeret, one of the royalist leaders in Saintonge, and will infallibly be +hanged or burned, and serve him right, as I should say, for a heretic +knave, but that my work is incomplete, and that Master Palissy is a rare +workman. Such skill, too, as he shows in designing, and in the adorning +of gardens! In short, he is precisely the man whom your majesty would +find invaluable in the works you have now in prospect.” + +Queen Catherine was by no means unwilling, in so trifling a matter, to +oblige the great constable; besides that, she had a taste for the +patronage of clever artists, and knew too well the difficulty of +procuring such a one as had been described, to turn a deaf ear to the +hint thrown out by Montmorency. “Let an edict be issued, in the king’s +name,” she said, “appointing this Palissy ‘workman in earth to his +majesty.’ He will then, as a servant of the king, be removed from the +jurisdiction of Bordeaux, and his cause can come under no other +cognizance than that of the grand council.” Montmorency expressed his +gratitude, and rose to depart, when the Queen carelessly remarked, “That +was a blundering affair of M. de Guise at Vassy; it drove the Protestants +to such extreme measures that the game of moderation was at an end.” The +constable made no reply, save to shrug his shoulders; but the young king +tittered the following impromptu, which history has preserved: + + “François premier, prédit ce point, + Que ceux de la maison de Guise + Mettraient ses enfants en pourpoint + Et son pauvre peuple en chemise.” {126} + +Catherine looked disconcerted at this unexpected _jeu-de-mot_ of her son, +and rising somewhat hastily, stepped across the room, and taking the arm +of Charles, bowed gracefully to the constable and withdrew. + +The result of this colloquy was that, in as short a time as the royal +post could convey the letter of M. de Montmorency to Bordeaux, Palissy +was released from the power of his enemies, and being thoroughly +protected from the hostilities of the belligerents on either side, +returned to Saintes, and resumed his place in the dilapidated workshop, +whose broken doors bore sorrowful witness to the ravages of civil strife. +Alas! it was now a very different home, for the town was half +depopulated; the best of the inhabitants had fled or been slaughtered in +the streets, churches had been battered, and rude hands had wrought +destruction everywhere. But nothing seems to have shaken the equilibrium +of his spirit, and he could say, with St. Paul, “I have learned, in +whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” It is evident that he +had attained to that fortitude and equanimity, that happy confidence of +spirit, which so substantially realizes the truth of the divine +promise—“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on +thee, because he trusteth in thee;” the solid reality, this, of what the +ancient sages did but dream about, and of which they sweetly sang, as in +the famous ode of Horace— + + “The man of strong resolve and just design + When, for bad ends, infuriate mobs combine, + Or gleams the terror of the monarch’s frown + Firm in his rock-based worth, on both looks down.” {127} + +Bernard was now at leisure to renew the past, and he availed himself of +the opportunity to complete his little book, which we have seen so busily +absorbing his thoughts when he was captive within the walls of his +prison. He bethought him again of the beautiful garden, and he tells +how, one day (when peace was for a season restored), as he was walking +through the meadows of the town, near to the river Charente, +contemplating the horrible dangers from which God had delivered him in +the past time of tumult and trouble, he heard once more the sounds which +had so delighted him before those evil days. “It was the voice of +certain maidens, who were seated under the shade of the trees, and sang +together the 104th Psalm; and, because their voice was soft, and +exceedingly harmonious, it caused me to forget my first thought, and +having stopped to listen, I passed through the pleasure of the voices, +and entered into consideration of the sense of the said psalm; and having +noted the points thereof, I was filled with admiration of the wisdom of +the royal prophet, and said, ‘Oh divine and admirable bounty of God! I +would that we all held the works of God’s hands in such reverence as he +teaches us in this psalm;’ and then I thought I would figure in some +large picture the beautiful landscapes which are therein described; but, +by-and-by, considering that pictures are of short duration, I turned my +thoughts to the building of a garden, according to the design, ornament, +and excellent beauty, or part thereof, which the Psalmist has depicted; +and having already figured in my mind the said garden, I found that I +could, in accordance with my plan, build, near thereto, a palace, or +amphitheatre of refuge, that might be a holy delectation and an +honourable occupation for mind and body.” + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + + “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his + steps.”—PROVERBS xvi. 9. + +VICTOR and Bernard were now more closely united to each other in bonds of +loving fellowship than ever. With thankful joy they embraced the +opportunity once more given them of taking sweet counsel together, +without fear of those rude alarms they had so recently experienced. They +could, indeed, no longer meet with their brethren in church communion, +for, alas! the members of that once flourishing flock were scattered, and +the voice of their honoured pastor was hushed in death; but they two met, +as of old, to unite in the sacred exercises of devotion. But few +evenings passed without some words of loving intercourse, generally +closed with prayer and thanksgiving. + +On one of these occasions, Victor, coming in, found his friend engaged in +studying the formation of a shell, which he was turning round and +diligently examining. “I thought better not interrupt your cogitations +the other day,” said he; “you were walking like a man absent in mind, +having your head bowed down, and noticing nothing around you. I passed +so near in the road, I could have touched the lappets of your coat, but +you saw me not.” + + [Picture: Palissy studying a shell on the sea-shore] + +“Nay, I saw you not, my friend, for my spirit was engrossed because of my +interest regarding the matter of some town or fortress which might serve +as a place of refuge for exiled Christians. Having vainly sought among +the plans and figures of architects and designers for what might assist +me, I have been fain to wander among the woods and mountains, to see +whether I could find some industrious animal which might give me a hint +for my design; and, indeed, I saw a vast number of them, which caused me +astonishment at the great industry God has given them; and I have had +frequent occasion to glorify him in all his marvels; and from one and +another have gained some little aid to my affairs; at the least, I have +been encouraged to hope I might eventually succeed. Having employed many +weeks thus, during my hours of leisure, I at length bethought me of +visiting the shore and rocks of the ocean, where I perceived so many +diverse kinds of dwellings and fortresses, which sundry little fish had +made with their own liquor or saliva, that I began to think I might +discover here what I was searching for. So I contemplated all the +different sorts of fish, beginning from the least to the greatest, and I +found things which made me all abashed because of the amazing goodness of +divine Providence, which had bestowed such care upon these creatures. I +perceived, also, that the battles and stratagems of the sea, were, +without comparison, greater in the said animals than in those of the +earth, and saw that the luxury of the sea was greater than that of the +earth, and that, without comparison, it produced more fruit.” + +“You surprise me,” said Victor, “that you still retain this desire; for I +would gladly hope and believe that there will be no need of such a thing. +Consider that we have now peace, and also we hope there will shortly be +liberty of preaching through all France; and not only in our own land, +but throughout all the world; for it is written so in St. Matthew, +chapter xxiv., where the Lord God says, that ‘the gospel of the kingdom +shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.’ That +is what causes me to say there is no longer need to seek out cities of +refuge for the Christians.” + +“You have not duly considered other sayings of the New Testament,” +replied Palissy, “for it is written that the children and elect of God +shall be persecuted to the end, hunted, mocked, banished, and exiled. It +is true St. Matthew says that the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached +unto all the world; but not that it shall be received of all; only, it +shall be a witness unto all; that is, to justify those who believe, and +to condemn righteously the unbelieving. In consequence, it is to be +concluded that the perverse and iniquitous, the avaricious and all kinds +of wicked people will be at all times ready to persecute those who by +straight roads shall follow the statutes and ordinances of our Lord.” + +The amiable Victor, yielding to his friend’s superior judgment, did not +contest his opinion; but contented himself with asking whether he had +succeeded at length in the object of his search. “I seem to myself to +have done so. Look at this shell; it was given me the other day when I +was at Rochelle, by a citizen there, named L’Hermite. It is that of a +purple murex; and yonder larger one on the desk is a conch. They were +brought from Guinea; and are both made in the manner of a snail, with +spiral lines; but that of the conch is stronger and larger than the +other. Now, the result of my observation of these things is, that God +has bestowed more industry upon the weak creatures than on the strong; +and has given them skill to know how to make each for himself a house, +constructed on such a system of geometry and architecture that never +Solomon, in all his wisdom, could have made the like. Considering, +therefore, this proposition, I stayed to contemplate more closely the +shell of the purple murex, because I assured myself that God had given to +it something more, to make compensation for its weakness; and so, having +dwelt long upon these thoughts, I noticed that, in the shell of the +murex, there were a number of tolerably large projections, by which it is +surrounded.” “I see what you mean; they add greatly to its beauty and +ornament.” “Do you think that is all? No, no, there is something more. +These are so many bulwarks and defences for the fortress and refuge of +the inhabitant of the shell. Now, seeing this, I resolved to take +example from it, for the building of my fortified town, and I took +straightway a compass, rule, and the other tools, necessary for the +making of my picture.” + +Bernard then produced the plan he had drawn, which he described at length +in his little book. As a curiosity and specimen of ingenuity, this idea +of his is exceedingly interesting, and it shows another of the numerous +subjects on which his busy wits were exercised, and shows too, how +thoroughly his love of nature governed all his other thoughts. Who, but +an enthusiast in that delightful study, would have had recourse to the +nests of birds, and the shells of the sea, when he wished to plan a +fortress that would resist the utmost fury of a siege? + +At length his book was completed and printed at Rochelle, in the year +1563, the one succeeding that of his imprisonment. He prefixed to it +three letters, written after his release, addressed to the constable, to +his son the marshal Montmorency, and to the queen mother. Having +rendered his grateful acknowledgments to these illustrious patrons, he +proceeded to relate the particulars of the ill-usage he had received, +desiring that it might be understood that he was “not imprisoned as a +thief or a murderer.” He then went on to explain the subjects of which +his work treated, and showed that they were, in themselves, worthy of +attention, although not couched in learned language, “seeing,” he said, +“I am not Greek nor Hebrew, poet nor rhetorician, but a simple artisan, +poorly enough trained in letters. Notwithstanding, these things are no +less valuable than if uttered by one more eloquent. I had rather speak +truth in my rustic tongue than lie in rhetoric; therefore I hope you will +receive this small work with as ready a will as I have desire that it +shall give you pleasure.” In his address to queen Catherine, he hinted +at his readiness to be employed in her service, and at his ability to +assist much in her building work and gardens. Nor was it long before he +had an opportunity to exercise his skill. Through the medium of his +excellent friends, the Sire de Pons and his lady, he received the tidings +that he had been chosen, in company with Jean Bullant, his co-worker at +the château d’Écouen, to assist in the new works commenced by the queen +mother. His removal to Paris would follow, as a matter of course. +“Indeed,” said the Sire de Pons, “it is time, Master Bernard, that you +left Saintes, for many reasons. Your position here is cramped and +inconvenient. Your enemies are but muzzled—not removed out of the way. +Your principal patrons are great men, necessarily much in attendance upon +the court; and in a remote province you can neither receive, not execute, +their commands. In Paris your advantages will be great. You will live +in constant intercourse with men of genius, and your taste will be +perfected by the study of the choicest works of art collected in the +capital.” “Your sons, too, Nicole and Mathurin, are now young men, for +whom employment and patronage will be thus secured,” said Madame; “and +though we shall be sorry to lose you, we cannot be selfish enough to +regret an event so fortunate for yourself and your family.” “I had not +thought,” said Bernard, “to be thus distinguished. It is doubtless the +good word of my lord, the constable, which has gained me this +appointment. I am resolved, according to the ability I possess, to do +credit to his patronage. And this I may say, that the work which I have +wrought for him gives witness enough of the gift which God has been +pleased to bestow on me as an artist in earth. I am, therefore, not +without hope that my work may prove acceptable in that place to which his +providence now calleth me.” “It is our purpose to journey before long to +Paris,” said the Sire, “and you can, if you think fit, accompany us. The +time is but short, ten days or a fortnight, at the utmost; but, I doubt +not, you will be in readiness.” + +This friendly proposal was gratefully accepted, and, at the time +appointed, Palissy bade farewell to Saintes, and, accompanied by his two +sons, set off for the French capital, which was thenceforward to be his +place of residence. It was with a full heart that he left the city which +had been, for so many years, his home; where his children had been born, +and where he had served his long apprenticeship of sorrow and trial, and +eventually triumphed over all the obstacles that threatened to overwhelm +him, and to blight his fond expectations. As he returned, the evening +before his departure, from visiting the graves of his wife and their six +little ones, while meditating, and slowly and pensively moving onward, he +was overtaken by Victor, who had gone in search of him, anxious to spend +the last few hours in his company. They returned together, and Victor +announced to his friend a most unexpected piece of tidings. “I shall not +remain here long after you have gone,” he exclaimed, with unwonted +energy, his pale face flushed and eager. “A kinsman of mine has this +very afternoon brought me a communication which will lead to my removal +hence, probably within a few months. Had you not been leaving I should +have felt it a grief indeed, but now, it is well; for I could scarcely +have borne your loss.” “What has befallen, and where will you go?” asked +Bernard, in his quick manner. “My eldest brother was killed (as you +know) last year, in one of the murderous assaults upon those of our +religion. He has left a young family, and his poor wife, who has never +recovered the shock of his death, is now sinking rapidly. She entreats +me, through the kinsman she has sent, to go back to my native place, and +to undertake the care of my brother’s children. They will inherit the +small property which was our father’s, and which would, in all +probability, be soon dissipated in the hands of strangers. I have myself +no family; and my wife, loving soul, will be a true mother to these poor +orphans. It seems the voice of our heavenly Father, which is saying to +us, ‘Arise and go hence.’” “I have never heard you speak of your early +days, Victor.” “True; I was thinking, as I came hither, of my boyhood. +Happy time, and happy household ours, where comfort and content reigned! +The property on which we all subsisted was very small; but order, +domestic arrangement, labour, and frugality, kept us above want. Our +little garden produced nearly as many vegetables as we required, and the +orchard yielded us fruits. Our quinces, apples, and pears, preserved, +with the honey of our bees, were, in winter, most excellent breakfasts +for us children, and the good old women, our grandmother and aunts. We +were all clothed by the small flock that pastured on the neighbouring +hills; my aunts spun the wool; and the hemp of the field furnished us +with linen. In the evenings, by the light of our lamp, which was fed +with oil from our walnut trees, the young people of the neighbourhood +came to help us to dress our flax, and we, in our turn, did the same for +them. The harvest of the little farm sufficed for our subsistence. Our +buckwheat cakes, moistened, smoking hot, with the good butter of Mont +d’Or, were a delicious treat to us. I know not what dish we should have +relished better than our turnips and chestnuts. When we sat, on a winter +evening, round the fire, and saw these fine turnips roasting, and heard +the water boiling in the vase where our chestnuts were cooking so sweet +and nice, our mouths watered; and the grandmother, delighted with our +childish pleasure, added, now and then, to the feast, a quince, whose +delicious perfume, while roasting under the ashes, I still remember. +Dear, kind old dame! She, with all her frugality and moderation, +nevertheless made little gluttons of us boys. Ah! my friend, it is the +women who begin it from our cradle, and go on fondling and humouring us +to the grave. So, you see we had enough to satisfy all our wants, for, +in our household, if there were little to expend, there was nothing lost, +and trifling things united, made plenty. In the neighbouring forest, +too, there was abundance of dead wood, of small value, and there my +father was permitted to take his annual provision. Dear and honoured +father! He ruled us all, in the fear of the Lord; and the crowning bliss +of my life it has ever been to come before God and plead, ‘Thou wast my +father’s God; be thou also my God.’” + +How much longer Victor would have indulged in these fond memories, cannot +be told. He was interrupted by the entrance of some neighbours who came +to take leave of Palissy and his sons, and when they had departed, the +hour was late. The two friends bent the knee together in prayer at the +throne of heavenly grace, and commended each other to the divine +protection and favour. Victor then arose and departed; but, on the +threshold, he paused, and looking fixedly on his friend, his eyes filled +with tears, as he grasped his hand, and said, “Yes, God is a sweet +consolation.” And, with these words, he turned away and was gone. + +How often, in after years, did this farewell recur to the mind of +Bernard, with sweet and consolatory power! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + + “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with + the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her I wondered with + great admiration.”—REV. xvii. 6. + +THE present chapter will embrace the history of ten years in the life of +Palissy—years full of terrible interest to France, during which there +were two more bursts of civil war, with intervals of peace between, and +followed by that event of world-wide renown in the annals of crime and +blood, the massacre of St. Bartholomew. During those years Bernard was +quietly and laboriously engaged, protected from harm by the patronage of +the court, and probably also, having learned from experience the +necessity of a prudent restraint in the utterance of his opinions. + + [Picture: Palissy dishes] + +Arrived at Paris, he established his workshop in a place allotted to him +in the precincts of the Tuileries, and the gardens that partly occupied +the site of the new palace, and surrounded by the debris of buildings +that had to be removed, and the scaffolding of workmen who were engaged +about the new erections. At no great distance was the Louvre itself, +then a new structure and the royal residence; and queen Catherine, +attended by her courtiers, frequently went to watch the progress of the +buildings, and to direct, with her admirable taste, the works of Palissy, +familiarly known as “Master Bernard, of the Tuileries.” There is still +in existence, in the royal library at Paris, a MS., containing an account +of the queen’s expenditures, dated 1570, among which is a note of payment +“to Bernard, Nicole, and Mathurin Palissy, sculptors in earth, for the +sum of 2,600 livres, for all the works in earth, baked and enamelled, +which have yet to be made to complete the _quatre pans au pourtour_, (the +four parts of the circumference) of the grotto commenced by the queen, in +her palace, near the Louvre at Paris, according to the agreement made +with them.” + +We are told that his taste being improved by the study of the great works +of Italian art, he became a more consummate artist, and produced +masterpieces, far surpassing his former efforts. He found, also, much +employment in garden architecture, then greatly in vogue, and for which +his larger pieces, rocks, trees, animals, and even human figures, were +designed. A few only of these have withstood the accidents of time, but +it is known they adorned some of the sumptuous residences of the French +nobles in that day, especially the château of Chaulnes, that of Nesles, +in Picardy, and of Reux, in Normandy. His smaller productions, designed +to ornament rooms, and to find a place in the buffets and cabinets of the +wealthy, were very numerous; and such as have been preserved are highly +valued, as works of art, at the present time. Statuettes, elegant +groups, ewers, vases, with grotesque ornaments, plates, rustic basins, +cups, tiles for the walls and floors of mansions, as well as for the +stoves used on the continent; all these, and many similar articles, were +made in great perfection by our skilful artist. {142} Working thus, with +busy hands and inventive skill, Palissy saw the years pass by, and beheld +strange scenes, far exceeding in fearful interest all he had formerly +witnessed. + + [Picture: A Palissy pitcher and Dish] + +He spoke from experience when he said, “If you had seen the horrible +excesses of men that I have seen, during these troubles, not a hair of +your head but would have trembled at the fear of falling to the mercy of +men’s malice; and he who has not beheld such things, could never think +how great and fearful a persecution is.” He had scarcely become settled +in his new occupation when the “Second Troubles” broke out; and one of +the first victims of the war was his great patron, the constable +Montmorency. Upon the tenth of November, 1567, the battle of St. Denys +was fought outside the walls of Paris, when the aged constable, at the +head of his army, in fine array, with colours flying and drums beating, +marched out to meet the foe. The heights of Montmartre presented, on +that occasion, a strange spectacle. They were crowded with eager +spectators, in the highest excitement; all the busy, restless population +of the great city flocking there, to gaze upon the scene of warfare. +Priests chanting litanies and distributing chaplets to the warriors, +foreign ambassadors, fair ladies dressed as Amazons, some even carrying +lances, which they vibrated in the air, and magistrates and doctors, +wearing cuirasses beneath their robes; a motley crowd of every rank and +condition huddled together, with mingled curiosity and terror, waiting +the result of the fight. + +The short winter’s day was closing fast when the battle commenced, and an +hour of bloody strife followed. The result was fatal to the gallant old +veteran, whose resolution and bravery led him to push forward into the +midst of the Huguenot ranks. Five times was he wounded, yet still fought +on, and then received the mortal stroke, and was left, stretched, amid +the dead and dying, on the field. Still living, though suffering deadly +agony, he was borne back within those walls he had left in so different a +manner but a few hours before. The night was dark and rainy, his pains +were grievous, and he desired to breathe his last where he lay; but those +around intreated that he would suffer himself to be carried to Paris, +where he died on the following day, preserving to the last a surprising +fortitude and endurance. + +The court ordered a magnificent funeral for the grim old warrior, whose +rugged and austere manners had rendered him so obnoxious to many, and +whose religious bigotry was but too much in accordance with the spirit of +his times. At his own request he was buried at his favourite estate at +Écouen, where Palissy had so long wrought in his service. To Bernard he +had proved a generous patron and a steady friend, and his hand had been +outstretched to save him from the gallows. + +Would that this had been done from a higher motive than the love of art! +Then he might one day have been among the number of those to whom shall +be addressed the joyful words, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of +the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” + +Happily, it is not necessary for this narrative to dwell upon the +well-known story of the massacre. Its fearful horrors are but too +familiar to every reader of history. Bernard escaped being an eyewitness +of them, as he happened to be at the time occupied about one of those +commissions to which we have alluded, and which had carried him to +Chaulnes, where he laid out the park according to a plan resembling that +he described in his “Delectable Garden.” + +There was one among the numerous men of science with whom Palissy +associated who narrowly escaped destruction. This was Ambroise Paré, +first surgeon to the king, who seems to have been a truly pious and +excellent man. Having embraced the Reformed tenets, he steadily adhered +to them, and despite the dangers of his situation, persisted in openly +avowing his principles. As he had drawn upon himself the odium of +heresy, and in addition to that, the rancorous jealousy of a host of +practitioners in his art, he was a marked character; and Charles IX., who +owed his life to the skill of Paré, and is said to have “loved him +infinitely,” took measures to secure his safety. “I will tell you, my +friend,” said he, describing that eventful night to Bernard, “how it +fared with me, and what I saw and heard. I was in attendance upon the +admiral {145} till late into the night, and was on the point of leaving +him, when one of the royal hussars came, bringing a summons to me to +repair immediately to the king. I obeyed, and found him in evident +trepidation. As soon as he saw me, he exclaimed, ‘It is well that you +have come, my dear Ambroise; you must remain with me this night, and in +my chamber.’ So saying, he put me into his dressing room, adding, ‘Be +sure you don’t stir from hence. It will never do to have you who can +save our lives, massacred after this fashion.’ My hiding place adjoined +a saloon where the king remained, and to which, after midnight, the queen +came, evidently for the purpose of watching over her son. Four of the +principal agitators were present, all urging him to preserve his courage, +while his mother endeavoured, by every means in her power, to irritate +his fiercer passions, and to silence his remorse. Though I could not +hear all that passed, a few words occasionally reached my ears, and the +appearance of Charles, and the words he had spoken to me, sufficed to +convince me that a terrible crisis was at hand. At length a single +pistol-shot rang through the silence. It was dark, the morning had not +yet dawned, when at that signal, through the deep silence of the night, +the tocsin of St. Germain’s was heard uttering its dreadful alarum. The +queen and her two sons came, with stealthy tread, to the windows of the +small closet through the king’s chamber, which overlooked the gate of the +Louvre: and there those three miserable and guilty beings, opening the +window, looked out, to watch the first outbreak of the dreadful tragedy. +Presently shouts were heard of ‘Vive Dieu et le Roi,’ and armed men, +issuing from the gates, trampled along the causeway, hastening to perform +their bloody work. + +“About five in the morning, I ventured to quit the dressing room, and, +eager to see what was passing, gazed from one of the windows which looked +in the direction of the Fauxbourg St. Germain’s, where Montgomery, Rohan, +Pardaillan, and many of the Calvinist gentlemen lodged. As you know, it +lies upon the opposite bank of the river from the Louvre; all had +hitherto been quiet in that direction, but the sound of the tocsin, and +the cries and screams which were heard across the river, had roused the +Huguenots, who, suspecting some mischief, hastily prepared to cross the +water and join their friends; but as they were about to embark, they saw +several boats filled with Swiss and French guards, approaching, who began +to fire upon them. It is said the king himself, from his closet window, +was seen pointing and apparently directing their movements. They took +the hint in time to save their lives by flight. They mounted their +horses, and rode off at full speed.” “Thanks be to God, they escaped, as +a bird from the hand of the fowler. May they live to avenge the blood of +the saints.” “I shall never forget,” continued Paré, “the scene, when +the broad light of an August day displayed, in all their extent, the +horrors which had been committed. The bright, glowing sun, and the +unclouded sky, and magnificent beauty over-head; and at our feet, the +blood-stained waters of the Seine, and the streets bestrewn with mangled +corpses. It was too terrible. To crown the whole, it was the holy +sabbath. + +“Towards the evening of the second day, the king called again for me. +Sickened with horror and remorse, his mind and spirits were giving way. +‘Ambroise,’ said he, taking me into his cabinet, ‘I don’t know what ails +me, but these last two or three days, I find both mind and body in great +disorder. I see nothing around me but hideous faces, covered with blood. +I wish the weak and innocent had been spared.’ I seized the moment of +relenting in the unhappy monarch, and urged him to put an immediate stop +to the massacre, and he did, in effect, issue orders by sound of trumpet, +forbidding any further violence to be committed, upon pain of death.” +“Alas!” said Palissy, “no hand was outstretched to save our French +Phidias, Jean Goujon, the master of my comrade and co-worker, Bullant. +He was struck down on his platform, while working on the Caryatides of +the Louvre; with his chisel yet in his hand, he fell a corpse at the foot +of the marble his genius was moulding into life.” “No power could +restrain the violence of the rabble. In vain were the royal commands, +and useless every effort of the bourgeoisie, and the higher orders. Day +after day the barbarous slaughter continued. Ah! my friend,” concluded +Paré, “that fatal night will form a black page in our history, which +Frenchmen will vainly desire to erase, or to tear from its +records.”—(“Feuillet de notre histoire à arracher, à brûler.”) + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + + “He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of + fishes.”—1 KINGS iv. 33. + +WE learn from his own words that king Solomon, amid all his magnificence +and glory, found nothing truly satisfying to his spirit. He discovered +that silver and gold, and costly apparel, and singing men and singing +women, with all the luxuries of the East, sufficed not to give him +happiness. They did not even keep him amused: he wanted something +better. And a purer, more refined, and enduring delight was tasted by +him when he turned the powers of his active and inquiring mind to the +investigation of nature, the works of God’s hands, in the diversified and +beautiful productions of the fields, woods, and lakes of Judea. He +sought them out diligently, and then he “spake of” them—spake of the +richly-varied productions of the animal kingdom, and “spake also of +beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” Very +interesting it must have been to hear the great Solomon speaking of these +works of God’s hands, and no wonder the sacred writers have recorded the +fact. Most edifying of all to the thoughtful part of his audience it +would be to reflect on the moral phenomenon he himself presented—taking +his refreshment, his recreation, his pleasure, after the toils and +disappointments of riches and of worldly honours, in considering the +lilies, how they grew, and the fowls of the air, how God cared for them. + +But if Solomon found, in this pursuit, a relief from ennui and satiety, +how many, in all succeeding times, have found therein support and +consolation amidst inevitable anxieties and painful trials. There have +been persons who declared that it was the study of nature alone which +made their condition tolerable, by diverting their minds from painful and +oppressive thoughts. It must have been the same experience which caused +Palissy, amid the terrible scenes of his day, to retire into his cabinet, +or to wander in the roadside, among the fields and caves, searching after +“things note-worthy and monstrous,” which he “took from the womb of the +earth,” and placed among his other treasures, the accumulated hoard of +long years. We find him the same Bernard still—unaltered by time and +change of fortune; as simple-minded, as diligent in research, and as +enthusiastic in utterance as at Saintes, in the days of his youth. He +had found, too, some congenial associates and friends. Among them, we +have seen, was Ambroise Paré, who had a great taste for natural history, +and himself possessed a collection of valuable and curious specimens, +especially of foreign birds, for which he was principally indebted to +Charles IX., who used to send him many of the rarest and most valuable he +obtained, to preserve. + + [Picture: Palissy exploring a quarry] + +There was, too, one “Maistre François Choisnyn,” physician to the queen +of Navarre, a special favourite with Bernard, of whom he says—“His +company and visits were a source of great consolation to me.” These two +went a little geological exploration together, in the year 1575. “He had +heard me often speak,” said Palissy, “of these matters, and knowing that +he was a lover of the same, I begged him to accompany me to the quarries, +near St. Marceau, that I might give him ocular proof of what I had said +concerning petrifactions; and he, full of zeal in the affair, immediately +caused waxen flambeaux to be brought, and taking with him his medical +pupil, named Milon, {152} we went to a place in the said quarries, +conducted by two quarrymen; and there we saw what I had long before +known, from the form of stones shaped like icicles, having seen a number +of such stones, which had been brought, by command of the queen mother, +from Marseilles; also among the rocks on the shores of the river Loire. +Now, in those quarries we saw the distilled water congeal in our +presence, which set the matter at rest.” Another day, walking with his +friend, he found himself, while wandering over the fields, very thirsty, +and passing by some village, asked where he could meet with a good +spring, in order to refresh himself; but he was told there was no spring +in that place, all their wells being exhausted on account of the drought, +and that there was nothing but a little muddy water left in them. This +caused him “much vexation,” and expressing his surprise at the distress +suffered by the inhabitants of that village through want of water, he +proceeded to explain to his companion his theory on springs, in which he +propounded a doctrine which the science of the present day has pronounced +absolutely correct. {153} + +This subject led Bernard to recur to the home of his early manhood, and +he added, “At Saintes, which is a very ancient town, there are still +found the remains of an aqueduct, by which, formerly, they caused the +water to come from a distance of two great leagues. There are now no +ancient fountains; by which I do not mean to say we have lost the +water-courses, for it is well known that the ancient spring of the town +of Saintes is still on the spot where it formerly existed; to see which, +the chancellor De l’Hôpital, travelling from Bayonne, turned out of his +way to admire the excellence of the said spring. Now, in the +neighbourhood of Saintes, is a small town called Brouage, situated on the +coast amongst the marshes of Saintonge. Its name points out its nature, +the word ‘brou,’ meaning, marshy soil. That said town has undergone two +sieges during the civil wars; the last in the year 1570. When besieged, +it suffered much from want of water, and I am, at the present time, +preparing an advertisement to the governor and inhabitants thereof, to +explain to them that the situation of the place is very commodious for +making a fountain there, at small expense.” + +“Your mention of this reminds me,” said his companion, “of the remarkable +manner in which the city of Nismes fell into the hands of the Huguenots, +some four or five winters ago.” + +Palissy expressed a wish to hear the particulars, with which he was but +imperfectly acquainted; and as the story affords a striking instance of +the spirit which animated even obscure individuals in the cause of +religion and freedom, it shall be told here. + +The governor of Nismes, a ferocious old man, had treated the Huguenots +with the utmost barbarity, and had plundered and banished great numbers +of them, who had retired to a neighbouring town. Among those left in +Nismes was a carpenter, named Maderon, who resolved to deliver the town +into the hands of his exiled brethren, and for that purpose took +advantage of the famous fountain, the abundant waters of which flowed +between the gate of Carmes and the castle, through a channel which was +closed by a grate. Just above, and close by the castle, a sentinel was +placed, who was relieved every hour. When he was about to leave he was +accustomed to ring a bell, in order to advertise the soldier who was to +relieve him, to come and take his place. A short interval always elapsed +between the departure of one soldier and the arrival of the other, and +Maderon having observed this, undertook, in those moments, to file +asunder the bars of the grate. + +He executed his purpose thus. In the evening he went down into the +ditch, with a cord fastened round his body, the end of which was pulled +by a friend when the soldier quitted his post, and again, when the other +arrived. Maderon worked during these few moments, and then ceasing, +waited in patience till another hour elapsed. In the morning he covered +his work with mud and wax. In this manner did this indefatigable man +work for fifteen nights, the noise he made being drowned by the rushing +of the waters. It was not till his work was nearly completed that he +informed the exiles of his success, and invited them to take possession +of the town. They appear to have wanted courage for the undertaking; and +while irresolute, a flash of lightning, though the weather was otherwise +serene, terrified and put them to flight; but their minister, pulling +them by their sleeves, exhorted them to come back, saying, “Courage! this +lightning shows that God is with us.” + +Twenty of them entered the town, and being joined by others who were +exasperated at the cruelty of the governor, it was taken, and the castle +surrendered a few days after. “That was truly an admirable occurrence,” +said Bernard. “And the results were very important, since the town, by +the large supplies it afforded, was of great service to the army of the +princes during the ensuing spring.” “There will doubtless be many +historians who will employ themselves upon these matters,” said Palissy; +“and the better to describe the truth, I should think it wise that in +each town there should be persons deputed to write faithfully the things +that have been done during these troubles. I have myself already given a +short narrative of what befell when I was resident in Saintonge, and I +have left others to write of those things which themselves have +witnessed. At present I am engaged in preparing a volume of Discourses +on Natural Objects, of practical use to agriculturists and others, and I +purpose, in the Lectures I have just commenced, to discuss various +positions with reference to these matters, to which end, as you know, I +have invited interruption, contradiction, and discussion, from those who +may attend them.” + +Palissy referred, in these words, to an undertaking which we find he +commenced in the Lent of the year 1575, and which he carried on, for +several seasons, annually. “Considering,” he says, “that I had employed +much time in the study of earths, stones, waters, and metals, and that +old age pressed me to multiply the talents which God had given me, I +thought good to bring forward to light those excellent secrets, in order +to bequeath them to posterity.” + +But, like a true philosopher, he was anxious, first, to subject his +theories to the test of keen criticism. Free discussion was, he knew, +the best friend to the true interests of science, and he resolved, +therefore to invite about him the most learned persons then resident in +the capital, and to meet them in his lecture room to state to them his +opinions, and to hear their arguments in reply. He set about doing this +in a peculiar manner, which he describes. “Thus debating in my mind, I +decided to cause notices to be affixed to the street corners in Paris, in +order to assemble the most learned doctors, and others, to whom I would +promise to demonstrate, in three lessons, all I have learned concerning +fountains, stones, metals, and other natures. And, in order that none +might come but the most learned and curious, I put in my placards that +none should have admission without payment of a dollar. I did this +partly to see whether I could extract from my hearers some contradiction +which might have more assurance of truth than the arguments I should +propound; knowing well that, if I spoke falsely, there would be Greeks +and Latins who would resist me to my face, and who would not spare me, as +well on account of the dollar I should have taken from each, as on +account of the time I should have caused them to misspend. For there +were very few of my hearers who could not elsewhere have extracted profit +out of something during the time spent by them at my lessons. Also, I +put in my placards that if the things therein promised did not prove +trustworthy, I would restore the quadruple.” + +The result of this experimental course was most successful. “Thanks be +to God,” says the triumphant lecturer, “never man contradicted me a +single word.” + +Of the character of the audience whom Palissy attracted around him in his +museum (as he called his cabinet of natural history), on this occasion, +we are fully informed. He has given a list of more than thirty of them, +including many skilful physicians, celebrated surgeons, grand seigneurs, +gentlemen, and titled ecclesiastics, also some of the legal profession, +and others, who were drawn together by a common love of scientific +research. These were no idlers, but an assemblage of the choicest +students—a sort of Royal Society, instituted for the occasion—who sat +listening to the self-taught philosopher, the wise and vigorous old man, +who, illustrating his cases as he went on, by specimens of the things +about which he spoke, turned his cabinet into a lecture-room, where he +delivered the first course of lectures upon natural history ever given in +the French metropolis, held in the first natural history museum ever +thrown open to the public there. Supported by the favourable opinion of +such judges—than whom he could not have “more faithful witnesses, nor men +more assured in knowledge,” Bernard “took courage to discourse” of +various matters concerning which he had attained a surprising degree of +knowledge. + +The science taught by the self-educated potter was such as has entitled +him, in the present day, to the admiration of men like Buffon, Haller, +and Cuvier. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + + “Be thou faithful unto death.”—REVELATION ii. 10. + +“THE number of my years hath given me courage to tell you that, a short +time since, I was considering the colour of my beard, which caused me to +reflect on the few days which remain to me before my course shall end: +and that has led me to admire the lilies and the corn, and many kinds of +plants, whose green colours are changed into white when they are ready to +yield their fruits. Thus, also, certain trees become hoary when they +feel their natural vegetative power is about to cease. A like +consideration has reminded me that it is written, ‘Better is the fool who +hides his folly, than the wise man who conceals his wisdom.’” We are +peeping over Palissy’s shoulder as he bends his silvery locks over his +writing-desk, and commences the dedication of his last volume of +“Admirable Discourses.” Its superscription is as follows:—“To the very +high and very powerful lord, the sire Antoine de Pons, knight of the +order of the king, captain of a hundred gentlemen, and his majesty’s very +faithful counsellor.” It is to his ancient patron he pays this tribute +of loving respect. The good old sire was probably still more aged than +himself, but his friendship had stood the test of years, and their +intercourse had been renewed “in these later days,” with mutual pleasure +and edification; their conversation having often turned on “divers +sciences; to wit, philosophy, astrology, and other arts drawn from +mathematics,” in which, “without any flattery,” Bernard declares himself +convinced of the venerable knight’s marvellous ability, which “length of +years had but augmented, instead of diminishing therefrom.” + +It is pleasant to find Bernard thus steadfastly retaining the friendship +of earlier years, but far more satisfactory to perceive that he had +preserved his religion pure, and that the source whence his activity in +the pursuit of knowledge was derived remained the same. At the close of +a pious and laborious life, he remembered there was still something left +which he might do. He had learned the wonderful secrets of nature to the +glory of Him who had given him the hearing ear, and the seeing and +observing eye; and now, recurring to the ruling motive of his life—that +solemn idea of responsibility—he says, “It is a just and reasonable thing +that the talents a man has received from God, he should endeavour to +multiply, following his commandment. For which reason I have studied to +bring unto the light the things of which it has pleased God to give me +understanding. Having seen how many pernicious errors have been set +abroad, I have betaken me to scratch in the earth for the space of forty +years, and search into the entrails of the same, in order to understand +the things which she produces in herself; and by such means I have found +grace before God, who has caused me to understand secrets which have +hitherto been unknown even to the learned.” + +The book, thus dedicated and prefaced, contained the mature fruit of his +studies as a naturalist. It is a collection of short treatises upon +waters and fountains, metals, salts, stones, and earths, fire, enamels, +and many other things, besides a treatise on marl, “very useful and +necessary for those concerned in agriculture.” It was published at Paris +in the year 1580, when its author was more than seventy years of age. + +Four years later he was still lecturing in his museum, wandering out, now +and then, to the river side and elsewhere to find an illustration of some +lesson he was teaching. Thus, one winter’s day, he was seen standing +beside the Seine, opposite the Tuileries, surrounded by a throng of +listeners and objectors, among whom were several of the boatmen, who +persisted in maintaining what Palissy was combatting: namely, that the +floating masses of ice upon the river came from the bottom of the water. +Among those who listened with interest and discernment to his instruction +was the Sieur de la Croix Dumaine, who afterwards, in a volume published +in 1584, described Palissy as “a natural philosopher, and a man of +remarkably acute and ready wit, flourishing in Paris, and giving lessons +in his science and profession.” + +His was a vigorous old age, and he looked so much younger than he really +was, that the Sieur supposed him little more than sixty. He might, in +all probability, have continued thus to lecture and discourse about the +wonders of the earth and waters some years longer; yet, even a few months +later we should have vainly sought him in his beloved museum, or on his +pleasant rambles around the environs of Paris. He was no longer there, +but immured within the walls of yon grim fortress— + + “That shame to manhood, and opprobrious more + To France, than all her losses and defeats + Old, or of later date; by sea or land; + Her house of bondage, worse than that of old + Which God avenged on Pharaoh—the Bastile.” + +Although in his lectures and in his book he had abstained from all +allusion to the struggles of the times, he was well-known for a staunch +Huguenot, a man whom nothing could induce to change or to conceal his +religion. They were indeed “evil days” in which his lot was cast. It +had been sorrow and trouble enough to live in Paris then, and behold the +vice, frivolity, and riot which prevailed. True, most true it is, that +“between the excesses of depravity, and those of bigotry, there exist +remarkable and intimate affinities.” Nowhere was this more strikingly +exemplified than in the French court and capital during the rule of the +house of Valois. The religious ideas of a court in which fanatical +intolerance reigned, give sufficient proof of this. The vilest and most +sanguinary passions were excited by the ceremonies of religion. The +sermons of “the League” preachers were like torches, which set the +kingdom in a blaze. The most impious and revolting spectacles were +presented to the eyes of the mob. Thus, at Chartres, after the day of +barricades, a Capuchin monk in the presence of Henry III., represented +the Saviour ascending Mount Calvary. This wretched priest had drops of +blood apparently trickling from his crown of thorns, and seemed with +difficulty to drag the cross of painted card-board which he bore; while, +ever and anon, he uttered piercing cries and fell beneath the load. The +king himself, utterly steeped in the vicious pleasures of the court, +became a member of the brotherhood of Flagellants, and, in a solemn +procession, king, queen, and cardinal, headed the white, black, and blue +friars, as they traversed the city barefoot, with heads uncovered, +chaplets of skulls around their waists, and flogging their backs with +cords till the blood flowed. The atrocities committed within many of the +churches by the soldiers of “the League,” it is impossible here to +relate. Since the massacre of St. Bartholomew the mobs of Paris had +become familiar with blood, and a spirit of increased ferocity prevailed. +Assassinations, tortures, and executions were frequent, and the extreme +Roman Catholic party, to which the city had, from that time, been +heartily attached, was pledged to exterminate the Huguenots. + +At the head of “the League” was the Duke of Guise, the hero of the +violent among the Roman Catholics, whom they desired to make king, +instead of the worthless and despised Henry. At length, in the year +1585, the king, finding no other way of saving himself from the imminent +peril which threatened him, made peace with the duke at the expense of +the Reformers, and issued a decree, prohibiting the future exercise of +the Reformed worship, and commanding all its adherents to abjure, or +emigrate immediately, on pain of death and confiscation. This was no +miserable court quarrel; it affected the interests of all, and touched +the liberty, faith, fortune, and life of every man. So rigorously was +the edict carried out, that the petition of a few poor women, who begged +permission to dwell with their children in any remote corner of the +kingdom, was refused. The most they could obtain was a safe conduct to +England. Flight was out of the question for Palissy; and he remained at +the mercy of men who respected neither age, virtue, nor misfortune. That +he had friends who would gladly have protected him was known; nay, the +king himself would willingly have sheltered one who had so long and +skilfully served his mother. But the protection of the court was now +unavailing; and the venerable man was sent to the Bastile. + +Four years of life yet remained to Bernard; all spent within the walls of +his prison-house. There, in communion with God and his own soul, he +passed the residue of his days, shut out from the eye of man, within that +gloomy fabric, the very thought of which inspires one’s soul with +shrinking horror. Profound secrecy and mystery were among the most +prominent features in the management of the Bastile, and he who was +retained there to waste away life within its damp and dismal cells, was +sedulously kept from all knowledge of what was passing in the busy world +without, while no tidings of him were ever permitted to reach the ears of +his kindred and former companions. + +Debarred from the enjoyment of the beautiful sights of nature, the +treasures of intellect, and the delights of social converse, fearful, +indeed, was the lot of such a prisoner, unless sustained by divine +consolations. We know not in what words our beloved Palissy would have +clothed his thoughts, could he have spoken to us from his living tomb; +but the following passage, contained in the narrative of one who was for +some months a prisoner there, affords a pleasing example how, even in +such circumstances, the soul has been sustained in hope. “I recollect,” +says the narrator, “with humble gratitude, the first idea of comfort that +shot across this gloom. It was the idea that neither massive walls, nor +tremendous bolts, nor all the vigilance of suspicious keepers, could +conceal me from the sight of God. This thought I fondly cherished, and +it gave me infinite consolation in the course of my imprisonment, and +principally contributed to enable me to support it with a degree of +fortitude and resignation that I have since wondered at: I no longer felt +myself alone.” So true it is, + + “Stone walls do not a prison make, + Nor iron bars a cage; + Minds innocent and quiet take + That for a hermitage. + If I have freedom in my love, + And in myself am free, + Angels alone, that soar above, + Enjoy such liberty.” + +And Palissy was a true Christian. He was free with the freedom wherewith +Jesus Christ makes his people free. Therefore, as an old and faithful +servant of the Lord, he was willing, for the testimony of Christ, to +suffer affliction, even unto bonds; nay, he counted not his life dear +unto him, so that he might win Christ, and be found in him. + +One glimpse we have within his dungeon. Its doors are, for once, +unbarred, and we are permitted to look, for the last time, at him whose +history we have lovingly retraced. + +Sentence of death, executed upon many who had remained staunch in their +refusal to obey the royal edict, had been deferred, in the case of +Palissy, only by the artifice of friends in power. But now, at length, +the formidable Council of Sixteen became urgent for the public execution +(already too long deferred) of so obstinate a heretic. + +The king was loath to yield to these barbarous and bloodthirsty counsels, +and determined to try what a personal interview might effect in bringing +the recusant to a more pliant mood. + +He went, accompanied by some of his gay courtiers, to visit and +remonstrate with Bernard, whom he found not solitary, for his captivity +was shared by two young girls, the daughters of Jacques Foucand, the +attorney to the parliament, condemned, as he was, for the firm faith and +resolute tenacity with which they refused to yield to the threats of +their persecutors. + + [Picture: The King visiting Palissy in his dungeon] + +“My good man,” said the king, addressing himself to Bernard, “for many +years you have been in the service of our family, and we have suffered +you to retain your religion amidst fires and massacres; but at present I +find myself so pressed by the Guises and my own people, that I am +compelled to give you into the hands of my enemies. These two poor +women, whom I see with you, are to be burned to-morrow; and so will you, +unless you be converted.” “Sire,” replied Bernard, “I am ready to yield +up my life for the glory of God. You say you feel pity for me. It is +rather I that should pity you, who utter such words as these, ‘I am +compelled.’ This is not the language of a king, and neither yourself nor +the Guises, with all your people, shall compel _me_; for I know how to +die.” “What an impudent rascal!” said one of the courtiers, who +afterwards recorded the scene he had witnessed; “one might have supposed +that he knew that line of Seneca, ‘Qui mori scit, cogi nescit.’” {169} + +Two months later there were fagots blazing in the Place de Grève, and +monks gesticulated around the fires which were consuming to ashes the +“two poor women” of whom the king had spoken, and who had found grace to +continue steadfast to the end. + +But Palissy still lived. Some powerful arm had sheltered him, and he was +saved from the fiery trial. A few months longer he remained captive in +the bonds of his prison-house, and then the message came for him also, +Thou hast been faithful unto death, “I will give thee a crown of life.” + +He died in the Bastile, in the year 1589. + + * * * * * + + THE END. + + + + +NOTES. + + +{4} “A true Recipe, whereby all the inhabitants of France may learn to +multiply and augment their possessions.” + +{58} They occupy forty-five plates in volume vi. of the “Musée des +Monuments Français.” + +{60} By the body of his countrymen in his own day, his teaching was +disregarded, and his writings passed, after a time, into unmerited +oblivion. There were, however, a few who made practical use of his +suggestions; and of the application of his theory on springs a most +remarkable instance is on record. + +Coulange la Vineuse, in Burgundy, was a place in which there was much +wine and little water. In fact, the town was entirely destitute of that +necessary element. Thrice had it fallen a prey to alarming +conflagrations, and great efforts had been made, though with fruitless +labour and expense, to supply its natural deficiency. At length the +domain of the town having come into the possession of the chancellor +d’Aguesseau, he invited M. Couplet, a distinguished mathematician and +hydraulist, to consider the case, in September, 1705, the dry month of an +unusually dry year. M. Couplet had studied the theory of springs as +contained in the writings of Palissy, and to such good purpose did this +shrewd pupil apply the knowledge he had derived from the pages of Master +Bernard, that he was enabled to point out to his employer, not only on +what spots to dig, but at what depth he would find water. In three +months his prophecies having been fulfilled, a plenteous supply of water +was brought into the town. The joy exceeded that of the most profitable +vintage time; men, women, and children ran to drink; and the judge of the +town, a blind man, travelled out, incredulous, to wave the waters through +his hands, as a miser fingers gold. The grateful inhabitants testifiod +their feelings by a device representing Moses bringing water from a rock +encircled with vines, with the words, _Utile dulci_, and a laudatory +inscription. + +Mr. Morley, in his Life of Palissy (after quoting this anecdote from the +quarto edition of his works), says, “Palissy has a statue somewhere I +think. This, among other pictures, would look well upon its pedestal.” + +{77} “Die Asche will nicht lassen ab, +Sie staübt in alle Landen. +Hie hilft kein Bach, noch Loch, noch Grab.” + +{82} The pottery made by Palissy (of which, under the name of Palissy +Ware, exquisite specimens are still existing) was very characteristic of +himself. He was a naturalist, and had a keen, innate love of the +beautiful. To reproduce, in his works, the bright colours and elegant +forms of the plants and animals on which he had so long and so often +gazed in the woods and fields was his delight, and he founded his +reputation on what he called rustic pieces. The title which he took for +himself was, Ouvrier de Terre, et Inventeur de Rusticities +Figulines—Worker in Earth, and Inventor of Rustic Figulines (_i.e._, +small modellings). These were, in fact, accurate models from life of +wild animals, reptiles, plants, and other productions of nature, +tastefully introduced as ornaments upon a vase or plate. His rich fancy +covered his works with elaborate adornment; but all these designs were so +accurately copied from nature, in form and colour, that the species of +each can be readily recognized, and there is hardly found a fancy leaf, +and not one lizard, butterfly, or beetle, which does not belong to the +rocks, woods, fields, rivers, and seas of France. + +{93} Radiata. + +{95} Sixty-three years after this time, these opinions of Palissy +concerning stones were propounded, in a public disputation by three +savants (one of them an inhabitant of Saintes). The faculty of theology +at Paris protested against their doctrines as unscriptural. The +treatises were destroyed, and the authors banished from Paris, and +forbidden to live in towns or enter places of public resort. It was only +the contemptuous neglect in which Palissy was held, that saved him from a +similar fate. + +{126} “Francis the First has plainly foretold, + That they of the household of Guise + Would clothe their children in purple and gold, + But the poor folk only in frieze.” + +{127} “Justum et tenacem propositi virum + Non civium ardor prava jubentium, + Non vultus instantis tyranni + Mente quatit solidâ, . . . ” + +{142} The master-pieces of Palissy adorn the private collections of the +wealthy and noble continental amateurs. Mr. Marryat, in his history of +pottery, says, the most extensive and complete collection of his Fayence +crockery exists in the Musée Royale, in the Louvre, and in the Hôtel de +Cluny; purchased since the death of its late proprietor, M. de Sommerard, +by the French government. “These magnificent specimens,” he says, “have +been eagerly bought up, from a just appreciation of the merits of their +talented and much persecuted countryman.” Mr. M. gives the following +description of the Fayence of Palissy. “It is characterized by a +peculiar style and many singular qualities. The forms of his figures are +generally chaste. The ornaments, the historical, mythological, and +allegorical subjects, are in relief and coloured. The colours are +generally bright, but not much varied, being usually confined to yellows, +blues, and grays, though sometimes extending to green, violet, and brown. +The enamel is hard, but the glaze is not so good as that of Delft, and he +never succeeded in attaining the purity of the white enamel of Luca della +Robbia.” “At a sale at Phillip’s, of Palissy ware, belonging to M. +Roussel, of Paris,” it is added, “an extraordinary large vase, enriched +with boys in relief, supporting flowers and fruit in festoons, with +masked heads, on a fine blue ground, and snake handles, sold for £57 15s. +A very curious candlestick, with perforated work and heads in relief sold +for £20; equal to $100.” + +{145} Coligny, who had been wounded by the dagger of an assassin only +two days before. + +{152} Afterwards first physician to Henry IV. + +{153} It is worthy of note, that a work of great pretensions, published +by French naturalists, (“The New Dictionary of Natural History, +1816–1830,”) two hundred and fifty years after Palissy’s demonstrations, +gives an incorrect theory on this subject. + +{169} “He who knows how to die cannot be compelled.” + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALISSY THE HUGUENOT POTTER*** + + +******* This file should be named 44930-0.txt or 44930-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/9/3/44930 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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