History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 61

[1265] Arcere, i. 412.

[1266] Ibid., i. 422; De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 654; J. de Serres, iv., fols. 75, 76.

[1267] Delmas, eglise ref. de la Roch.e.l.le, 105, 106. The same author cites Henry IV.'s eulogy: "Il etait grand homme de guerre, et plus grand homme de bien." See also De Thou's strong expressions, viii. (liv. cii.) 8.

[1268] See the detailed "Carte du Pays d'Aulnis, avec les Isles de Re, d'Oleron, et Provinces voisines, dressee en 1756," prefixed to the first volume of Arcere, Histoire de la Roch.e.l.le.

[1269] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 34, 35 (liv. i., c. 6); De Thou, iv. (liv.

liii.) 655-656; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 75; Arcere, i. 427-429.

[1270] Arcere, i. 429, partly on MS. authority.

[1271] Ibid., i. 430.

[1272] The att.i.tude of the Huguenot general had been and yet was one of the strangest. That he was able in the end to extricate himself without a stain attaching to his honor is still more remarkable. Both king and Protestants understood full well that he would counsel nothing which was not for the interest of both; and it was, therefore, no violation of his duty as envoy of Charles, if, as Jean de Serres informs us, when urging an amicable arrangement, he privately advised the Roch.e.l.lois to admit no one into the city in the king's name, before receiving ample provisions for their security. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv., fol.

75.

[1273] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.

[1274] Ibid., iv., fol. 81.

[1275] See the very clear account in the "Description chorographique de l'Aulnis," by Arcere, prefixed to his history of La Roch.e.l.le, i. 97, etc.

[1276] Compare Arcere, i. 418, etc., and, especially, his plan of the city in 1573. See also Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 83; De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 759-761; D'Aubigne, ii. 36, 37 (liv. i., c. 7).

[1277] De Thou, iv. (liv. lv.) 765; Arcere, i. 436.

[1278] De Thou, iv. 761; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 68.

[1279] _E.g._, of Virolet, Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 76.

[1280] Feb. 15th, according to J. de Serres, iv., fol. 83. Arcere (i. 452) says Feb. 12th.

[1281] Arcere, i. 458.

[1282] So, at least, Brantome expressed himself. He was with the army before La Roch.e.l.le.

[1283] Letter of Catharine, March 17th, Arcere, i. 466.

[1284] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 789; Arcere, i. 489, 490; Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 99, etc.

[1285] The poor, according to Jean de Serres, came to use the sh.e.l.l-fish in lieu of bread. If, as he a.s.sures us on the authority of men deserving credit, the supply ceased almost on that precise day upon which the royal army left the neighborhood, after the conclusion of peace, the reformed may be pardoned for regarding the fact as a miracle little inferior to that of the manna which never failed the ancient Israelites until they set foot in Canaan. Commentarii de statu religionis et reipublicae, iv. 104 _verso_. "Dont lez reformez ont encores les tableaux en leurs maisons pour memoire comme d'un miracle," writes Agrippa d'Aubigne, about forty years later (Hist. universelle, 1616, ii. 53).

[1286] Arcere, i. 504, 505.

[1287] Arcere, _ubi supra_.

[1288] Arcere, i. 477, 480.

[1289] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 780; Arcere, i. 477; D'Aubigne, ii. 45 (liv. i., c. 9).

[1290] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 102; Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 48 (liv. i., c. 9); De Thou, iv. 767, 786, 787, etc.

[1291] La Mothe Fenelon to Charles IX., June 3, 1573. Corresp. diplom., v.

339.

[1292] Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 87) states the length of the siege of Sommieres as _four_ months, and the loss of men as five thousand killed.

The Recueil des choses memorables, 1598 (p. 485), ascribed to the same author, reduces the loss one-half. Cf. De Thou, iv. 746-748.

[1293] Jean de Serres, iv., fols. 88, 89; De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 749, 750.

[1294] "In ipso regni umbilico." Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 92.

[1295] Ibid., iv., fols. 72, 77, 79; Ag. d'Aubigne, ii. 40, 41; De Thou, iv. (liv. liv.) 660-663.

[1296] Jean de Serres, iv., fol. 93, 94.

[1297] "Ut Ierosolymitanae, Samaritanae, Saguntinae famis memoriam exaequare, nisi et exsuperare videatur." Ibid., iv., fol. 92.

[1298] "Discours de l'extreme famine, cherte de vivre, chairs, et autres choses non acoustumees pour la nourriture de l'homme, dont les a.s.siegez dans la ville de Sancerre ont ete affligez." 1574. Reprinted in Archives curieuses, viii. 19-82.

[1299] Edward Smedley, History of the Reformed Religion in France (London, 1834), ii. 88.

[1300] "Fade et douceastre," p. 24.

[1301] De Thou, iv. (liv. lvi.) 796. As early as on the twelfth of April, such was the discouragement felt in Paris, that orders were published to make "Paradises" in each parish, and to inst.i.tute processions, to supplicate the favor of heaven, in view of the repulses experienced by the Roman Catholics before La Roch.e.l.le. Journal d'un cure ligueur (Jehan de la Fosse), p. 158.

[1302] Histoire du siege de La Roch.e.l.le par le duc d'Anjou en 1573, par A.

Genet, capitaine du genie; _apud_ Bulletin de la Societe de l'histoire du prot. francais, ii. (1854) 96, 190.

[1303] Memoires de Claude Haton, ii. 722.

[1304] At Troyes, for instance, where the poor who had flocked to the city were invited to meet at one of the gates, to receive each a loaf of bread and a piece of money. This done, they saw the gates closed upon them, and were informed from the ramparts that they must go elsewhere to find their living until the next harvest. Claude Haton, ii. 729.

[1305] _Ante_, chapter xix., p. 552.

[1306] Here is his letter to Henry: "Mon frere. Dieu nous a fait la gra.s.se que vous estes ellu roy de Poulogne. J'en suis si ayse que je ne scay que vous mander. Je loue Dieu de bon coeur; pardonnes moy, l'ayse me garde d'escrire. Je ne sceay que dire. Mon frere, je avons receu vostre lestre.

Je suis vostre bien bon frere et amy, CHARLES." MS. Bibliotheque nationale, _apud_ Haton, ii. 733.

[1307] The edict says expressly (Art. 5th): "Et y faire seulement les baptesmes et mariages a leur facon accoustumee sans plus grande a.s.semblee, outre les parens, parrins et marrines, jusques au nombre de dix." Text in Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 98, etc., and Haag, France protestante, x.

(Doc.u.ments) 110-114. Jean de Serres (iv., fol. 107, etc.) and Von Polenz (Gesch. des Franz. Calvinismus, ii. 632) give a correct synopsis; but Soldan is wrong in including among the concessions "den Hausgottesdienst"

(ii. 536), and De Thou still more incorrect when he speaks of "les preches et la Cene" (iv., liv. lvi. 796).

[1308] According to Davila, Sancerre was _not comprehended_ in the terms made with the Roch.e.l.lois, "because it was not a free town under the king's absolute dominion as the rest, but under the seigniory of the Counts of Sancerre." London trans. of 1678, 193.

[1309] Jean de Lery, Discours de l'extreme famine, etc., 25-27.

[1310] Jean de Lery, 38.