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Brightwell</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +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: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALISSY THE HUGUENOT POTTER*** +</pre> +<p>This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/fp.jpg"> +<img alt= +". . . our artist was struck dumb with admiration" +title= +". . . our artist was struck dumb with admiration" +src="images/fp.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>PALISSY<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE</span><br /> +HUGUENOT POTTER.</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">A TRUE TALE.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">BY</span><br +/> +C. L. BRIGHTWELL</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> + +<div class="gapshortline"> </div> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><span +class="GutSmall">PHILADELPHIA:</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF +PUBLICATION</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">AND SABBATH SCHOOL WORK,</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET.</span></p> +<h2><a name="page3"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +3</span>PREFACE.</h2> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page4"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +4</span>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.</p> +<p>So with the religious events narrated: they are given from his +work, “Recepte Vèritable, par laquelle tous les +hommes de la France,” etc. <a name="citation4"></a><a +href="#footnote4" class="citation">[4]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><a name="page5"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 5</span>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.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Norwich</span>, <i>November</i>, 1858.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><a name="page7"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 7</span> +<a href="images/p7.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The Town of Saintes" +title= +"The Town of Saintes" +src="images/p7.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h2><a name="page9"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 9</span>CHAPTER +I.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“And unto one he gave five talents, to +another two, and to another one; to every man according to his +several ability.”—<span class="smcap">Matthew</span> +xxv. 15</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 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 <a name="page10"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +10</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page11"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 11</span>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="page12"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +12</span>on the works of God and the productions of human +skill.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page13"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 13</span>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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page14"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 14</span>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.’”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page15"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +15</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page16"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 16</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page17"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 17</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page18"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 18</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page19"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 19</span>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h2><a name="page20"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +20</span>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it +with thy might.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Eccles</span>. +ix. 10.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">For</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page21"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 21</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page22"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 22</span>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p22.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Palissy devoutly opened the sacred volume" +title= +"Palissy devoutly opened the sacred volume" +src="images/p22.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <a name="page23"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 23</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page24"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 24</span>cheerful +hope. It has well been said, “Ideas become passions +in the breasts of poets and artists.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page25"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 25</span>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—</p> +<blockquote><p>“God is the refuge of his saints,<br /> +When storms of sharp distress invade.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page26"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 26</span>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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p26.jpg"> +<img alt= +". . the trial pieces were . . absolutely worthless" +title= +". . the trial pieces were . . absolutely worthless" +src="images/p26.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Three years had been spent about this work, and, for the +present, he was no wiser than when he <a name="page27"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 27</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><a name="page28"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 28</span>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h2><a name="page29"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +29</span>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Here is the patience of the saints; here +are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of +Jesus.”—<span class="smcap">Rev</span>. xiv. 12.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Of</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page30"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 30</span>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 <a name="page31"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 31</span>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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="page32"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 32</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page33"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 33</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page34"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 34</span>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.</p> +<p><a name="page35"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 35</span>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; <a +name="page36"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 36</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <i>apple</i> 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 <a name="page37"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +37</span>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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page38"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +38</span>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 <a name="page39"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 39</span>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.</p> +<p>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. <a name="page40"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 40</span>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page41"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +41</span>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“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.”—<span class="smcap">Jer</span>. xviii. 3, +4.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Shortly</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><a name="page42"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +42</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page43"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 43</span>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.</p> +<p>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 +<a name="page44"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 44</span>feel such +joy as made me think I was become a new creature.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p44.jpg"> +<img alt= +". . he exclaimed, “I have found it!”" +title= +". . he exclaimed, “I have found it!”" +src="images/p44.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <a name="page45"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 45</span>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page46"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +46</span>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!</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page47"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 47</span>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.”</p> +<p><a name="page48"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 48</span>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.’”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page49"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 49</span>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 <a name="page50"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +50</span>to give the potter all his meals, and to lodge him for +six months, putting the cost down to the account of Bernard.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Those were eventful months during which Palissy <a +name="page51"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 51</span>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page52"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +52</span>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to +the waters, and he that hath no money.”—<span +class="smcap">Isa</span>. lv. 1.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page53"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 53</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page54"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +54</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page55"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +55</span>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.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p54.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Palissy relating his failures to Lady Anne" +title= +"Palissy relating his failures to Lady Anne" +src="images/p54.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page56"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +56</span>was sufficient for the melting. How, then, did you +fail?”</p> +<p>“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 <a +name="page57"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 57</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The building of this château, distant about four <a +name="page58"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 58</span>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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="citation58"></a><a href="#footnote58" +class="citation">[58]</a> 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 <a +name="page59"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 59</span>was formerly +a fountain, called “<i>Fontaine Madame</i>,” 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">“HO, +EVERY ONE THAT THIRSTETH, COME YE TO THE +WATERS.”</span></p> +<p>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 <a name="page60"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +60</span>fountains conducted him to the true solution of an +enigma which baffled all the skill of Descartes. <a +name="citation60"></a><a href="#footnote60" +class="citation">[60]</a></p> +<p>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 <a +name="page61"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 61</span>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page62"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +62</span>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken +away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”—<span +class="smcap">Job</span> i. 21,</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> six or seven years have passed +away since we last saw Palissy; and it is now the month of +February, 1557 . . .</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p62.jpg"> +<img alt= +"“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away”" +title= +"“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away”" +src="images/p62.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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, <a name="page63"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +63</span>“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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>They spoke, as was natural, first of the domestic +circumstances of Palissy, and of the bereavement <a +name="page64"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 64</span>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.</p> +<p>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 +<a name="page65"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +65</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page66"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 66</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page67"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 67</span>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 +<i>the Parable of the Talents</i>, 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; <a +name="page68"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 68</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Bernard +Palissy</span>.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page69"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +69</span>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.” +<i>This</i> was the great cardinal truth which Palissy taught, +and which his hearers received in the love of it.</p> +<h2><a name="page70"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +70</span>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“He had respect unto the recompense of the +reward.”—<span class="smcap">Hebrews</span> xi. +26.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page71"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +71</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page72"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +72</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page73"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 73</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page74"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 74</span>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?”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p74.jpg"> +<img alt= +". . a sad meeting of the infant church" +title= +". . a sad meeting of the infant church" +src="images/p74.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Before the assembly broke up, Victor, calm in manner, though +with intense feeling, narrated to <a name="page75"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 75</span>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?”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page76"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 76</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page77"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 77</span>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—</p> +<blockquote><p>“They ride the air—they will not +down,<br /> + The ashes of the just;<br /> +Nor graves can hide, nor waters drown,<br /> + That spirit-pregnant dust.<br /> +Where’er the winds that seed have flung<br /> + Soldiers are gendered;<br /> +And Satan’s foiled, and Christ is sung<br /> + By voices from the dead.” <a +name="citation77"></a><a href="#footnote77" +class="citation">[77]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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, <a name="page78"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +78</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page79"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +79</span>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page80"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +80</span>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“In all labour there is +profit.”—<span class="smcap">Prov</span>. xiv. 23</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Probably</span>, 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 <a +name="page81"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 81</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page82"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 82</span>jasper. That fed me several +years; and, when at length, I had discovered how to make my +rustic pieces, <a name="citation82"></a><a href="#footnote82" +class="citation">[82]</a> 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 <a name="page83"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 83</span>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 <a name="page84"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 84</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page85"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 85</span>circumspect. Is there not a +word in the Holy Book which bids us be ‘wise as +serpents?’”</p> +<p>“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 <a +name="page86"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 86</span>for +themselves. It is in their name that parliament addresses +to you its humble remonstrance, and its ardent +supplication.’”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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, <a name="page87"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 87</span>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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page88"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 88</span>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.”</p> +<h2><a name="page89"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +89</span>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“The works of the Lord are great, sought out +of all them that have pleasure therein.”—<span +class="smcap">Psalm</span> cxi. 2.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Palissy</span> 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.”</p> +<p>Nor was this merely a question of psalm-singing and prayers, +he assures us. The Reformation was practical and +earnest. Quarrels, dissensions, and <a +name="page90"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 90</span>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 <a +name="page91"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 91</span>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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page92"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 92</span>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p92.jpg"> +<img alt= +"“This dish is charming!” said the lady" +title= +"“This dish is charming!” said the lady" +src="images/p92.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <a name="page93"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 93</span>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?</p> +<p>“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; <a name="citation93"></a><a +href="#footnote93" class="citation">[93]</a> but which were quite +massive; and he maintained that the said shells had been carved +by the hand of the workman, and was quite <a +name="page94"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 94</span>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.</p> +<p>“The inhabitants of that place,” said he, +“daily <a name="page95"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +95</span>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.” <a name="citation95"></a><a href="#footnote95" +class="citation">[95]</a></p> +<p>“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 <a name="page96"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 96</span>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 <a name="page97"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +97</span>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 <i>virtú</i>. 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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page98"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +98</span>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.”</p> +<h2><a name="page99"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +99</span>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“The wicked walk on every side, when the +vilest men are exalted.”—<span +class="smcap">Psalm</span> xii. 8.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Thus</span> 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 <a name="page100"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 100</span>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.</p> +<p>Happily and swiftly flew the years of prosperity, <a +name="page101"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 101</span>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 <a +name="page102"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 102</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page103"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +103</span>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p102.jpg"> +<img alt= +"“Heretic dogs! Huguenot rebels! Kill, kill!”" +title= +"“Heretic dogs! Huguenot rebels! Kill, kill!”" +src="images/p102.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page104"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +104</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The following year, as the blood-thirsty duke lay <a +name="page105"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 105</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page106"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +106</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page107"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 107</span>from Bordeaux, by which the +Reformers were abandoned, without appeal, to the mercy of any +royal judge.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page108"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +108</span>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.’”</p> +<h2><a name="page109"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +109</span>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother +is born for adversity.”—<span +class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xvii. 17.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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 <a name="page110"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 110</span>forbidden any interference with +Palissy or his work, through respect to his employer.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page111"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 111</span>have been +put to death before appeal could have been made to the +constable.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page112"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 112</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p112.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Victor obtained admission into the prison" +title= +"Victor obtained admission into the prison" +src="images/p112.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <a +name="page113"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 113</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page114"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 114</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page115"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 115</span>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 <a name="page116"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +116</span>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—”</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page117"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 117</span>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:—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The time is dark, we faint with woe,<br /> + Our foes are mightier far than we;<br /> +They say, ‘Their God forsakes them now,<br /> + And who shall their deliverer be?’<br /> +Lord, show thy presence—prove thy power,<br /> +And save us at the latest hour.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="page118"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 118</span>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p118.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Victor . . . watched their movements" +title= +"Victor . . . watched their movements" +src="images/p118.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>He knew that his errand admitted not of delay. There was +but one chance that Palissy might be <a name="page119"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 119</span>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page120"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +120</span>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“A good man shall be satisfied from +himself.”—<span class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xiv. +14.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Palissy</span> 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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>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 <a +name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>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>i.e.</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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, <a +name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 123</span>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p><a name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +124</span>“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 <a name="page125"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 125</span>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.”</p> +<p>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:</p> +<blockquote><p>“François premier, prédit ce +point,<br /> +Que ceux de la maison de Guise<br /> +Mettraient ses enfants en pourpoint<br /> +Et son pauvre peuple en chemise.” <a +name="citation126"></a><a href="#footnote126" +class="citation">[126]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p><a name="page126"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +126</span>Catherine looked disconcerted at this unexpected +<i>jeu-de-mot</i> of her son, and rising somewhat hastily, +stepped across the room, and taking the arm of Charles, bowed +gracefully to the constable and withdrew.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 127</span>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—</p> +<blockquote><p>“The man of strong resolve and just +design<br /> +When, for bad ends, infuriate mobs combine,<br /> +Or gleams the terror of the monarch’s frown<br /> +Firm in his rock-based worth, on both looks down.” <a +name="citation127"></a><a href="#footnote127" +class="citation">[127]</a></p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <a +name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 128</span>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.”</p> +<h2><a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +129</span>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but +the Lord directeth his steps.”—<span +class="smcap">Proverbs</span> xvi. 9.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">Victor</span> 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.</p> +<p>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. <a +name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>I passed so +near in the road, I could have touched the lappets of your coat, +but you saw me not.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p130.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Palissy studying a shell on the sea-shore" +title= +"Palissy studying a shell on the sea-shore" +src="images/p130.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>“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 <a name="page131"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 131</span>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.”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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 <a +name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>shall +follow the statutes and ordinances of our Lord.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>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.”</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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 <a name="page134"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +134</span>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 <a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +135</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>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 <a +name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>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 <a name="page138"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 138</span>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.’”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page139"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 139</span>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.</p> +<p>How often, in after years, did this farewell recur to the mind +of Bernard, with sweet and consolatory power!</p> +<h2><a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +140</span>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“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.”—<span class="smcap">Rev</span>. xvii. +6.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p140.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Palissy dishes" +title= +"Palissy dishes" +src="images/p140.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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 <a +name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>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 <i>quatre pans au +pourtour</i>, (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.”</p> +<p>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, <a name="page142"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 142</span>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. <a +name="citation142"></a><a href="#footnote142" +class="citation">[142]</a> 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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p142.jpg"> +<img alt= +"A Palissy pitcher and Dish" +title= +"A Palissy pitcher and Dish" +src="images/p142.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>He spoke from experience when he said, “If you had seen +the horrible excesses of men that I have <a +name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 143</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page144"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +144</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>Happily, it is not necessary for this narrative to <a +name="page145"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 145</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="citation145"></a><a href="#footnote145" +class="citation">[145]</a> till late into the night, and was on +the point of leaving him, when one of the royal hussars came, +bringing a summons <a name="page146"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +146</span>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 <a name="page147"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 147</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page148"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +148</span>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.</p> +<p>“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 <a name="page149"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 149</span>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.”)</p> +<h2><a name="page150"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +150</span>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and +of creeping things, and of fishes.”—1 <span +class="smcap">Kings</span> iv. 33.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><span class="smcap">We</span> 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 <a name="page151"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 151</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page152"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 152</span>indebted to Charles IX., who used to +send him many of the rarest and most valuable he obtained, to +preserve.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p152.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Palissy exploring a quarry" +title= +"Palissy exploring a quarry" +src="images/p152.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>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, <a +name="citation152"></a><a href="#footnote152" +class="citation">[152]</a> 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 <a +name="page153"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 153</span>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. <a name="citation153"></a><a +href="#footnote153" class="citation">[153]</a></p> +<p>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,’ <a name="page154"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 154</span>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.”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +155</span>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page156"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 156</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page157"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 157</span>excellent +secrets, in order to bequeath them to posterity.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page158"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 158</span>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.”</p> +<p>The result of this experimental course was most +successful. “Thanks be to God,” says the +triumphant lecturer, “never man contradicted me a single +word.”</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page159"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +159</span>knowledge,” Bernard “took courage to +discourse” of various matters concerning which he had +attained a surprising degree of knowledge.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2><a name="page160"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +160</span>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> +<blockquote><p>“Be thou faithful unto +death.”—<span class="smcap">Revelation</span> ii. +10.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>“<span class="smcap">The</span> 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 <a name="page161"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +161</span>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.”</p> +<p>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 <a name="page162"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 162</span>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page163"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 163</span>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.”</p> +<p>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—</p> +<blockquote><p>“That shame to manhood, and opprobrious +more<br /> +To France, than all her losses and defeats<br /> +Old, or of later date; by sea or land;<br /> +Her house of bondage, worse than that of old<br /> +Which God avenged on Pharaoh—the Bastile.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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 <a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>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. <a name="page165"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 165</span>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.</p> +<p>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 <a +name="page166"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 166</span>protection +of the court was now unavailing; and the venerable man was sent +to the Bastile.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page167"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +167</span>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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“Stone walls do not a prison make,<br /> + Nor iron bars a cage;<br /> +Minds innocent and quiet take<br /> + That for a hermitage.<br /> +If I have freedom in my love,<br /> + And in myself am free,<br /> +Angels alone, that soar above,<br /> + Enjoy such liberty.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <a name="page168"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 168</span>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p168.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The King visiting Palissy in his dungeon" +title= +"The King visiting Palissy in his dungeon" +src="images/p168.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>“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, <a name="page169"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 169</span>and neither yourself nor the Guises, +with all your people, shall compel <i>me</i>; 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.’” <a +name="citation169"></a><a href="#footnote169" +class="citation">[169]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>He died in the Bastile, in the year 1589.</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">THE END.</p> +<h2>NOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote4"></a><a href="#citation4" +class="footnote">[4]</a> “A true Recipe, whereby all +the inhabitants of France may learn to multiply and augment their +possessions.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote58"></a><a href="#citation58" +class="footnote">[58]</a> They occupy forty-five plates in +volume vi. of the “Musée des Monuments +Français.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote60"></a><a href="#citation60" +class="footnote">[60]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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, <i>Utile dulci</i>, +and a laudatory inscription.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote77"></a><a href="#citation77" +class="footnote">[77]</a> “Die Asche will nicht +lassen ab,<br /> +Sie staübt in alle Landen.<br /> +Hie hilft kein Bach, noch Loch, noch Grab.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote82"></a><a href="#citation82" +class="footnote">[82]</a> 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>i.e.</i>, 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote93"></a><a href="#citation93" +class="footnote">[93]</a> Radiata.</p> +<p><a name="footnote95"></a><a href="#citation95" +class="footnote">[95]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote126"></a><a href="#citation126" +class="footnote">[126]</a> “Francis the First has +plainly foretold,<br /> + That they of the household of Guise<br /> + Would clothe their children in purple and gold,<br +/> + But the poor folk only in frieze.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote127"></a><a href="#citation127" +class="footnote">[127]</a> “Justum et tenacem +propositi virum<br /> + Non civium ardor prava jubentium,<br /> + Non vultus instantis tyranni<br /> + Mente quatit solidâ, . . . ”</p> +<p><a name="footnote142"></a><a href="#citation142" +class="footnote">[142]</a> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote145"></a><a href="#citation145" +class="footnote">[145]</a> Coligny, who had been wounded by +the dagger of an assassin only two days before.</p> +<p><a name="footnote152"></a><a href="#citation152" +class="footnote">[152]</a> Afterwards first physician to +Henry IV.</p> +<p><a name="footnote153"></a><a href="#citation153" +class="footnote">[153]</a> 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.</p> +<p><a name="footnote169"></a><a href="#citation169" +class="footnote">[169]</a> “He who knows how to die +cannot be compelled.”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PALISSY THE HUGUENOT POTTER***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 44930-h.htm or 44930-h.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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