Saint Bartholomew's Eve

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Saint Bartholomew's Eve:
A Tale of the Huguenot Wars
By G. A. Henty.

Illustrated by H. J. Draper.

Contents

Preface.
Chapter 1: Driven From Home.
Chapter 2: An Important Decision.
Chapter 3: In A French Chateau.
Chapter 4: An Experiment.
Chapter 5: Taking The Field.
Chapter 6: The Battle Of Saint Denis.
Chapter 7: A Rescue.
Chapter 8: The Third Huguenot War.
Chapter 9: An Important Mission.
Chapter 10: The Queen Of Navarre.
Chapter 11: Jeanne Of Navarre.
Chapter 12: An Escape From Prison.
Chapter 13: At Laville.
Chapter 14: The Assault On The Chateau.
Chapter 15: The Battle Of Jarnac.
Chapter 16: A Huguenot Prayer Meeting.
Chapter 17: The Battle Of Moncontor.
Chapter 18: A Visit Home.
Chapter 19: In A Net.
Chapter 20: The Tocsin.
Chapter 21: Escape.
Chapter 22: Reunited.

Illustrations

Map of France in 1570.
Gaspard Vaillant makes a proposal.
Philip and Francoise in the armoury.
Philip gets his first look at Pierre.
"If you move a step, you are a dead man."
Philip and his followers embarking.
Philip in prison.
Philip struck him full in the face.
Pierre listens at the open window of the inn.
Gaspard Vaillant gets a surprise.
"You have not heard the news, Monsieur Philip?"
"That cross is placed there by design."
Philip, Claire and Pierre disguise themselves.

[Illustration: Map of France in 1570.]

Preface.

It is difficult, in these days of religious toleration, to
understand why men should, three centuries ago, have flown at each
others' throats in the name of the Almighty; still less how, in
cold blood, they could have perpetrated hideous massacres of men,
women, and children. The Huguenot wars were, however, as much
political as religious. Philip of Spain, at that time the most
powerful potentate of Europe, desired to add France to the
countries where his influence was all powerful; and in the
ambitious house of Guise he found ready instruments.

For a time the new faith, that had spread with such rapidity in
Germany, England, and Holland, made great progress in France, also.
But here the reigning family remained Catholic, and the vigorous
measures they adopted, to check the growing tide, drove those of
the new religion to take up arms in self defence. Although, under
the circumstances, the Protestants can hardly be blamed for so
doing, there can be little doubt that the first Huguenot war,
though the revolt was successful, was the means of France remaining
a Catholic country. It gave colour to the assertions of the Guises
and their friends that the movement was a political one, and that
the Protestants intended to grasp all power, and to overthrow the
throne of France. It also afforded an excuse for the cruel
persecutions which followed, and rallied to the Catholic cause
numbers of those who were, at heart, indifferent to the question of
religion, but were Royalists rather than Catholics.

The great organization of the Church of Rome laboured among all
classes for the destruction of the growing heresy. Every pulpit in
France resounded with denunciations of the Huguenots, and
passionate appeals were made to the bigotry and fanaticism of the
more ignorant classes; so that, while the power of the Huguenots
lay in some of the country districts, the mobs of the great towns
were everywhere the instruments of the priests.

I have not considered it necessary to devote any large portion of
my story to details of the terrible massacres of the period, nor to
the atrocious persecutions to which the Huguenots were subjected;
but have, as usual, gone to the military events of the struggle for
its chief interest. For the particulars of these, I have relied
chiefly upon the collection of works of contemporary authors
published by Monsieur Zeller, of Paris; the Memoirs of Francois de
la Noue, and other French authorities.

G. A. Henty.

Chapter 1: Driven From Home.

In the year 1567 there were few towns in the southern counties of
England that did not contain a colony, more or less large, of
French Protestants. For thirty years the Huguenots had been exposed
to constant and cruel persecutions; many thousands had been
massacred by the soldiery, burned at the stake, or put to death
with dreadful tortures. Fifty thousand, it was calculated, had, in
spite of the most stringent measures of prevention, left their
homes and made their escape across the frontiers. These had settled
for the most part in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, in
Holland, or England. As many of those who reached our shores were
but poorly provided with money, they naturally settled in or near
the ports of landing.

Canterbury was a place in which many of the unfortunate emigrants
found a home. Here one Gaspard Vaillant, his wife, and her sister,
who had landed in the year 1547, had established themselves. They
were among the first comers, but the French colony had grown,
gradually, until it numbered several hundreds. The Huguenots were
well liked in the town, being pitied for their misfortunes, and
admired for the courage with which they bore their losses; setting
to work, each man at his trade if he had one, or if not, taking to
the first work that came to hand. They were quiet and God-fearing
folk; very good towards each other, and to their poor countrymen on
their way from the coast to London, entertaining them to the best
of their power, and sending them forward on their way with letters
to the Huguenot committee in London, and with sufficient money in
their pockets to pay their expenses on the journey, and to maintain
them for a while until some employment could be found for them.

Gaspard Vaillant had been a landowner near Civray, in Poitou. He
was connected by blood with several noble families in that
district, and had been among the first to embrace the reformed
religion. For some years he had not been interfered with, as it was
upon the poorer and more defenceless classes that the first fury of
the persecutors fell; but as the attempts of Francis to stamp out
the new sect failed, and his anger rose more and more against them,
persons of all ranks fell under the ban. The prisons were filled
with Protestants who refused to confess their errors; soldiers were
quartered in the towns and villages, where they committed terrible
atrocities upon the Protestants; and Gaspard, seeing no hope of
better times coming, or of being permitted to worship in peace and
quietness, gathered together what money he could and made his way,
with his wife and her sister, to La Rochelle, whence he took ship
to London.

Disliking the bustle of a large town, he was recommended by some of
his compatriots to go down to Canterbury, where three or four
fugitives from his own part of the country had settled. One of
these was a weaver by trade, but without money to manufacture looms
or set up in his calling. Gaspard joined him as partner, embarking
the little capital he had saved; and being a shrewd, clear-headed
man he carried on the business part of the concern, while his
partner Lequoc worked at the manufacture.

As the French colony in Canterbury increased, they had no
difficulty in obtaining skilled hands from among them. The business
grew in magnitude, and the profits were large, in spite of the fact
that numbers of similar enterprises had been established by the
Huguenot immigrants in London, and other places. They were, indeed,
amply sufficient to enable Gaspard Vaillant to live in the
condition of a substantial citizen, to aid his fellow countrymen,
and to lay by a good deal of money.

His wife's sister had not remained very long with him. She had,
upon their first arrival, given lessons in her own language to the
daughters of burgesses, and of the gentry near the town; but, three
years after the arrival of the family there, she had married a
well-to-do young yeoman who farmed a hundred acres of his own land,
two miles from the town. His relations and neighbours had shaken
their heads over what they considered his folly, in marrying the
pretty young Frenchwoman; but ere long they were obliged to own
that his choice had been a good one.

Just after his first child was born he was, when returning home one
evening from market, knocked down and run over by a drunken carter,
and was so injured that for many months his life was in danger.
Then he began to mend, but though he gained in strength he did not
recover the use of his legs, being completely paralysed from the
hips downward; and, as it soon appeared, was destined to remain a
helpless invalid all his life. From the day of the accident Lucie
had taken the management of affairs in her hands, and having been
brought up in the country, and being possessed of a large share of
the shrewdness and common sense for which Frenchwomen are often
conspicuous, she succeeded admirably. The neatness and order of the
house, since their marriage, had been a matter of surprise to her
husband's friends; and it was not long before the farm showed the
effects of her management. Gaspard Vaillant assisted her with his
counsel and, as the French methods of agriculture were considerably
in advance of those in England, instead of things going to rack and
ruin, as John Fletcher's friends predicted, its returns were
considerably augmented.

Naturally, she at first experienced considerable opposition. The
labourers grumbled at what they called new-fangled French fashions;
but when they left her, their places were supplied by her
countrymen, who were frugal and industrious, accustomed to make the
most out of small areas of ground, and to turn every foot to the
best advantage. Gradually the raising of corn was abandoned, and a
large portion of the farm devoted to the growing of vegetables;
which, by dint of plentiful manuring and careful cultivation, were
produced of a size and quality that were the surprise and
admiration of the neighbourhood, and gave her almost a monopoly of
the supply of Canterbury.

The carters were still English; partly because Lucie had the good
sense to see that, if she employed French labourers only, she would
excite feelings of jealousy and dislike among her neighbours; and
partly because she saw that, in the management of horses and
cattle, the Englishmen were equal, if not superior, to her
countrymen.

Her life was a busy one. The management of the house and farm
would, alone, have been a heavy burden to most people; but she
found ample time for the tenderest care of the invalid, whom she
nursed with untiring affection.

"It is hard upon a man of my size and inches, Lucie," he said one
day, "to be lying here as helpless as a sick child; and yet I don't
feel that I have any cause for discontent. I should like to be
going about the farm, and yet I feel that I am happier here, lying
watching you singing so contentedly over your work, and making
everything so bright and comfortable. Who would have thought, when
I married a little French lady, that she was going to turn out a
notable farmer? All my friends tell me that there is not a farm
like mine in all the country round, and that the crops are the
wonder of the neighbourhood; and when I see the vegetables that are
brought in here, I should like to go over the farm, if only for
once, just to see them growing."

"I hope you will be able to do that, some day, dear. Not on foot, I
am afraid; but when you get stronger and better, as I hope you
will, we will take you round in a litter, and the bright sky and
the fresh air will do you good."

Lucie spoke very fair English now, and her husband had come to
speak a good deal of French; for the service of the house was all
in that language, the three maids being daughters of French workmen
in the town. The waste and disorder of those who were in the house
when her husband first brought her there had appalled her; and the
women so resented any attempt at teaching, on the part of the
French madam, that after she had tried several sets with equally
bad results, John Fletcher had consented to the introduction of
French girls; bargaining only that he was to have good English
fare, and not French kickshaws. The Huguenot customs had been kept
up, and night and morning the house servants, with the French
neighbours and their families, all assembled for prayer in the
farmhouse.

To this John Fletcher had agreed without demur. His father had been
a Protestant, when there was some danger in being so; and he
himself had been brought up soberly and strictly. Up to the time of
his accident there had been two congregations, he himself reading
the prayers to his farm hands, while Lucie afterwards read them in
her own language to her maids; but as the French labourers took the
place of the English hands, only one service was needed.

When John Fletcher first regained sufficient strength to take much
interest in what was passing round, he was alarmed at the increase
in the numbers of those who attended these gatherings. Hitherto
four men had done the whole work of the farm; now there were
twelve.

"Lucie, dear," he said uneasily one day, "I know that you are a
capital manager; but it is impossible that a farm the size of ours
can pay, with so many hands on it. I have never been able to do
more than pay my way, and lay by a few pounds every year, with only
four hands, and many would have thought three sufficient; but with
twelve--and I counted them this morning--we must be on the highroad
to ruin."

"I will not ruin you, John. Do you know how much money there was in
your bag when you were hurt, just a year ago now?"

"Yes, I know there were thirty-three pounds."

His wife went out of the room and returned with a leather bag.

"Count them, John," she said.

There were forty-eight. Fifteen pounds represented a vastly greater
sum, at that time, than they do at present; and John Fletcher
looked up from the counting with amazement.

"This can't be all ours, Lucie. Your brother must have been helping
us."

"Not with a penny, doubting man," she laughed. "The money is yours,
all earned by the farm; perhaps not quite all, because we have not
more than half as many animals as we had before. But, as I told
you, we are growing vegetables, and for that we must have more men
than for corn. But, as you see, it pays. Do not fear about it,
John. If God should please to restore you to health and strength,
most gladly will I lay down the reins; but till then I will manage
as best I may and, with the help and advice of my brother and his
friends, shall hope, by the blessing of God, to keep all straight."

The farm throve, but its master made but little progress towards
recovery. He was able, however, occasionally to be carried round in
a hand litter, made for him upon a plan devised by Gaspard
Vaillant; in which he was supported in a half-sitting position,
while four men bore him as if in a Sedan chair.

But it was only occasionally that he could bear the fatigue of such
excursions. Ordinarily he lay on a couch in the farmhouse kitchen,
where he could see all that was going on there; while in warm
summer weather he was wheeled outside, and lay in the shade of the
great elm, in front of the house.

The boy, Philip--for so he had been christened, after John
Fletcher's father--grew apace and, as soon as he was old enough to
receive instruction, his father taught him his letters out of a
horn book, until he was big enough to go down every day to school
in Canterbury. John himself was built upon a large scale, and at
quarterstaff and wrestling could, before he married, hold his own
with any of the lads of Kent; and Philip bade fair to take after
him, in skill and courage. His mother would shake her head
reprovingly when he returned, with his face bruised and his clothes
torn, after encounters with his schoolfellows; but his father took
his part.

"Nay, nay, wife," he said one day, "the boy is eleven years old
now, and must not grow up a milksop. Teach him if you will to be
honest and true, to love God, and to hold to the faith; but in
these days it needs that men should be able to use their weapons,
also. There are your countrymen in France, who ere long will be
driven to take up arms, for the defence of their faith and lives
from their cruel persecutors; and, as you have told me, many of the
younger men, from here and elsewhere, will assuredly go back to aid
their brethren.

"We may even have trials here. Our Queen is a Protestant, and
happily at present we can worship God as we please, in peace; but
it was not so in the time of Mary, and it may be that troubles may
again fall upon the land, seeing that as yet the Queen is not
married. Moreover, Philip of Spain has pretensions to rule here;
and every Englishman may be called upon to take up bow, or bill,
for his faith and country. Our co-religionists in Holland and
France are both being cruelly persecuted, and it may well be that
the time will come when we shall send over armies to their
assistance.

"I would that the boy should grow up both a good Christian and a
stout soldier. He comes on both sides of a fighting stock. One of
my ancestors fought at Agincourt, and another with the Black Prince
at Cressy and Poitiers; while on your side his blood is noble and,
as we know, the nobles of France are second to none in bravery.

"Before I met you I had thoughts of going out, myself, to fight
among the English bands who have engaged on the side of the
Hollanders. I had even spoken to my cousin James about taking
charge of the farm, while I was away. I would not have sold it, for
Fletchers held this land before the Normans set foot in England;
but I had thoughts of borrowing money upon it, to take me out to
the war, when your sweet face drove all such matters from my mind.

"Therefore, Lucie, while I would that you should teach the boy to
be good and gentle in his manners, so that if he ever goes among
your French kinsmen he shall be able to bear himself as befits his
birth, on that side; I, for my part--though, alas, I can do nothing
myself--will see that he is taught to use his arms, and to bear
himself as stoutly as an English yeoman should, when there is need
of it.

"So, wife, I would not have him chidden when he comes home with a
bruised face, and his garments somewhat awry. A boy who can hold
his own, among boys, will some day hold his own among men; and the
fisticuffs, in which our English boys try their strength, are as
good preparation as are the courtly sports; in which, as you tell
me, young French nobles are trained. But I would not have him
backward in these, either. We English, thank God, have not had much
occasion to draw a sword since we broke the strength of Scotland on
Flodden Field; and in spite of ordinances, we know less than we
should do of the use of our weapons. Even the rules that every lad
shall practise shooting at the butts are less strictly observed
than they should be. But in this respect our deficiencies can be
repaired, in his case; for here in Canterbury there are several of
your countrymen of noble birth, and doubtless among these we shall
be able to find an instructor for Phil. Many of them are driven to
hard shifts to procure a living; and since that bag of yours is
every day getting heavier, and we have but him to spend it upon, we
will not grudge giving him the best instruction that can be
procured."

Lucie did not dispute her husband's will; but she nevertheless
tried to enlist Gaspard Vaillant--who was frequently up at the farm
with his wife in the evening, for he had a sincere liking for John
Fletcher--on her side; and to get him to dissuade her husband from
putting thoughts into the boy's head that might lead him, some day,
to be discontented with the quiet life on the farm. She found,
however, that Gaspard highly approved of her husband's determination.

"Fie upon you, Lucie. You forget that you and Marie are both of
noble blood, in that respect being of condition somewhat above
myself, although I too am connected with many good families in
Poitou. In other times I should have said it were better that the
boy should grow up to till the land, which is assuredly an
honourable profession, rather than to become a military adventurer,
fighting only for vainglory. But in our days the sword is not drawn
for glory, but for the right to worship God in peace.

"No one can doubt that, ere long, the men of the reformed religion
will take up arms to defend their right to live, and worship God,
in their own way. The cruel persecutions under Francis the First,
Henry the Second, and Francis the Second have utterly failed in
their object. When Merindol, Cabrieres, and twenty-two other towns
and villages were destroyed, in 1547; and persons persecuted and
forced to recant, or to fly as we did; it was thought that we were
but a handful, whom it would be easy to exterminate. But in spite
of edict after edict, of persecution, slaughterings, and burnings,
in spite of the massacres of Amboise and others, the reformed
religion has spread so greatly that even the Guises are forced to
recognize it as a power. At Fontainebleau Admiral Coligny,
Montmorency, the Chatillons, and others openly professed the
reformed religion, and argued boldly for tolerance; while Conde and
Navarre, although they declined to be present, were openly ranged
on their side. Had it not been that Henry the Second and Francis
were both carried off by the manifest hand of God, the first by a
spear thrust at a tournament, the second by an abscess in the ear,
France would have been the scene of deadly strife; for both were,
when so suddenly smitten, on the point of commencing a war of
extermination.

"But it is only now that the full strength of those who hold the
faith is manifested. Beza, the greatest of the reformers next to
Calvin himself, and twelve of our most learned and eloquent pastors
are at Poissy, disputing upon the faith with the Cardinal of
Lorraine and the prelates of the Romish church, in the presence of
the young king, the princes, and the court. It is evident that the
prelates are unable to answer the arguments of our champions. The
Guises, I hear, are furious; for the present Catharine, the queen
mother, is anxious for peace and toleration, and it is probable
that the end of this argument at Poissy will be an edict allowing
freedom of worship.

"But this will only infuriate still more the Papists, urged on by
Rome and Philip of Spain. Then there will be an appeal to arms, and
the contest will be a dreadful one. Navarre, from all I hear, has
been well-nigh won over by the Guises; but his noble wife will, all
say, hold the faith to the end, and her kingdom will follow her.
Conde is as good a general as Guise, and with him there is a host
of nobles: Rochefoucauld, the Chatillons, Soubise, Gramont, Rohan,
Genlis, and a score of others. It will be terrible, for in many
cases father and son will be ranged on opposite sides, and brother
will fight against brother."

"But surely, Gaspard, the war will not last for years?"

"It may last for generations," the weaver said gloomily, "though
not without intermissions; for I believe that, after each success
on one side or the other, there will be truces and concessions; to
be followed by fresh persecutions and fresh wars, until either the
reformed faith becomes the religion of all France, or is entirely
stamped out.

"What is true of France is true of Holland. Philip will annihilate
the reformers there, or they will shake off the yoke of Spain.
England will be driven to join in one or both struggles; for if
papacy is triumphant in France and Holland, Spain and France would
unite against her.

"So you see, sister, that in my opinion we are at the commencement
of a long and bloody struggle for freedom of worship; and at any
rate it will be good that the boy should be trained as he would
have been, had you married one of your own rank in France; in order
that, when he comes to man's estate, he may be able to wield a
sword worthily in the defence of the faith.

"Had I sons, I should train them as your husband intends to train
Phil. It may be that he will never be called upon to draw a sword,
but the time he has spent in acquiring its use will not be wasted.
These exercises give firmness and suppleness to the figure,
quickness to the eye, and briskness of decision to the mind. A man
who knows that he can, at need, defend his life if attacked,
whether against soldiers in the field or robbers in the street, has
a sense of power and self reliance that a man, untrained in the use
of the strength God has given him, can never feel. I was instructed
in arms when a boy, and I am none the worse weaver for it.

"Do not forget, Lucie, that the boy has the blood of many good
French families in his veins; and you should rejoice that your
husband is willing that he shall be so trained that, if the need
should ever come, he shall do no discredit to his ancestors on our
side. These English have many virtues, which I freely recognize;
but we cannot deny that many of them are somewhat rough and
uncouth, being wondrous lacking in manners and coarse in speech. I
am sure that you yourself would not wish your son to grow up like
many of the young fellows who come into town on market day. Your
son will make no worse a farmer for being trained as a gentleman.
You yourself have the training of a French lady, and yet you manage
the farm to admiration.

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