Walter Horatio Pater - "Gaston de Latour: an unfinished romance"

r, The Inner Life of the Author - "Ernest Linwood"

Matthew L. Davis - "Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 2."

Alice Turner Curtis - "A Little Maid of Old Maine"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

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Attack after attack was repulsed, with heavy loss; several of the
bravest royalist officers, among them the governor of Brittany,
being killed. The town was valiantly defended until the 2nd of
December, when De Piles, satisfied with having detained the royal
army seven weeks before the walls, and seeing no hope of relief,
surrendered on the same conditions that had before been agreed on.
Its capture had cost the Duc d'Anjou 6000 men, about half of whom
had fallen by disease, the rest in the assaults; and the delay had
entirely defeated the object of the campaign.

The gates were opened, and the little body of defenders marched
out, with colours flying. One of the conditions of surrender had
been that they should not serve again during the war.

The Duc d'Aumale, and other officers, endeavoured to ensure the
observance of the condition of their safe conduct through the
Catholic lines; but the soldiers, furious at seeing the handful of
men who had inflicted such loss upon them going off in safety,
attacked them, and nearly a hundred were killed--a number equal to
the loss they had suffered throughout the whole siege. De Piles
with the rest were, by their own exertions and those of some of the
Catholic leaders, enabled to make their way through, and rode to
Angouleme.

There De Piles sent a letter demanding the severe punishment of
those who had broken the terms of the surrender; but, no attention
having been paid to his demand, he sent a herald to the king to
declare that, in consequence of the breach of the conditions, he
and those with him considered themselves absolved from their
undertaking not to carry arms during the war; and he then rode
away, with his followers, to join the Admiral.

The French army rapidly fell to pieces. With winter at hand, it was
in vain to attempt the siege of La Rochelle. Philip of Spain and
the pope ordered the troops they had supplied to return home,
alleging that the victory of Moncontour, of which they had received
the most exaggerated reports, had virtually terminated the war. The
German and Swiss troops were allowed to leave the service, and the
nobles and their retainers were granted permission to do the same,
until the spring. Thus the whole fruits of the victory of
Moncontour were annihilated by the heroic defence of Saint Jean
d'Angely.

In the meantime, the Admiral had been moving south. In order to cross
the rivers he had marched westward, and so made a circuit to Montauban,
the stronghold of the Huguenots in the south. Moving westward he joined
the Count of Montgomery at Aiguillon, and returned with him to Montauban,
where he received many reinforcements; until his army amounted to some
twenty-one thousand men, of whom six thousand were cavalry.

At the end of January they marched to Toulouse, a city with an evil
fame, as the centre of persecuting bigotry in the south of France.
It was too strong to be attacked; but the country round it was
ravaged, and all the country residences of the members of its
parliament destroyed. Then they marched westward to Nismes, sending
marauding expeditions into the Catholic districts, and even into
Spain, in revenge for the assistance the king had given the
Catholics. De Piles and his party had joined the Admiral at
Montauban, and the former commanded the force that penetrated into
Spain.

Coligny turned north, marched up the Rhone, surmounting every
obstacle of mountain and river; until he reached Burgundy, arriving
at Saint Etienne-sur-Loire on the 26th of May. Here they were met
by messengers from the court, which was in a state of consternation
at the steady approach of an enemy they had regarded as crushed;
and were ready, in their alarm, to promise anything. The Admiral
fell dangerously ill and, at the news, the king at once broke off
the negotiations. He recovered, however, and, advancing, met the
royal army, under Marshal Cosse, in the neighbourhood of the town
of Arnay de Duc.

Coligny's army had dwindled away during its terrible march, and it
consisted now of only two thousand horsemen and two thousand five
hundred arquebusiers, the cannon being all left behind. Cosse had
ten thousand infantry, of whom four thousand were Swiss; three
thousand cavalry, and twelve cannon. The armies took post on the
hills on opposite sides of a valley, through which ran a stream fed
by some small ponds. The Royalists commenced the attack but, after
fighting obstinately for seven hours, were compelled to fall back
with heavy loss.

A fresh body was then directed against an intrenchment the
Huguenots had thrown up, near the ponds. Here again the fighting
was long and obstinate, but at last the Catholics were repulsed.

The next morning both armies drew up in order of battle; but
neither would advance to the attack, as the ground offered such
advantages to those who stood on the defensive; and they
accordingly returned to their camps.

The Admiral, being unwilling to fight till he received
reinforcements, marched away to La Charite; where he was
reorganizing his force, when a truce of ten days was made. At the
end of that time he again marched north and, distributing his
soldiers in the neighbourhood of Montargis, took up his quarters at
his castle of Chatillon-sur-Loing, where he remained while
negotiations were going on.



Chapter 18: A Visit Home.


While Coligny had been accomplishing his wonderful march round
France, La Noue, who had been exchanged for Strozzi, had betaken
himself to La Rochelle. He forced the Catholics, who were still
languidly blockading that place, to fall back; defeated them near
Lucon, and recaptured Fontenay, Niort, the Isle of Oleron, Brouage,
and Saintes. At Fontenay, however, the brave Huguenot leader had
his left arm broken, and was obliged to have it amputated.

Negotiations were now being carried on in earnest. Charles the
Ninth was weary of a war that impoverished the state, diminished
his revenues, and forced him to rely upon the Guises, whom he
feared and disliked. Over and over again, he had been assured that
the war was practically at an end, and the Huguenots crushed; but
as often, fresh armies rose. The cities that had been taken with so
much difficulty had again fallen into their hands, and Paris itself
was menaced.

The princes of Germany wrote, begging him to make peace; and
although the terms fell far short of what the Huguenots hoped and
desired, the concessions were large and, could they have depended
upon the good faith of the court, their lives would have at least
been tolerable. A complete amnesty was granted, and a royal command
issued that the Protestants were to be exposed to neither insults
nor recriminations, and were to be at liberty to profess their
faith openly.

Freedom of worship was, however, restricted within very small
proportions. The nobles of high rank were permitted to name a
place, belonging to them, where religious services could be
performed. As long as they or their families were present, these
services could be attended by all persons in their jurisdiction.
Other nobles were allowed to have services, but only for their
families and friends, not exceeding twelve in number. Twenty-four
towns were named, two in each of the principal provinces, in which
Protestant services were allowed; the privilege being extended to
all the towns of which the Huguenots had possession, at the
signature of the truce.

All property, honours, and offices were restored, and judicial
decisions against their holders annulled. The four towns, La
Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite were, for two years, to
remain in the hands of the Huguenots, to serve as places of refuge.
The edict, in which the king promulgated the terms of peace, stated
the conditions to be perpetual and irrevocable.

The Huguenots had the more hope that the peace would be preserved,
since Montmorency, who was an opponent of the Guises, and had done
his best to bring about peace, was high in favour with the king;
and indeed, held the chief power in France.

There can be little doubt that, at the time, the king was in
earnest. He ordered the parliament of Paris to annul a declaration
they had made, declaring the Cardinal Chatillon, the Admiral's
brother, deprived of his bishopric; and as it hesitated, he ordered
its president to bring the records to him, and with his own hand
tore out the pages upon which the proceedings were entered.

The priests, throughout France, threw every obstacle in the way of
the recognition of the edict; and in several places there were
popular disturbances, and wholesale massacres. Paris, as usual, set
the example of turbulence and bigotry.

As soon as the peace was concluded, Philip prepared to return for a
while to England. In the three years which had elapsed since he
left home, he had greatly changed. He had been a lad of sixteen
when he landed in France. He was now a tall, powerful young fellow.
Although still scarcely beyond the age of boyhood, he had acquired
the bearing and manners of a man. He stood high in the confidence
of Coligny, and the other Huguenot leaders; was a special favourite
with the young Prince of Navarre, and his cousin Conde; and had
received the honour of knighthood, at the hands of one of the
greatest captains of his age.

"You had better stay, Philip," his cousin urged. "You may be sure
that this peace will be as hollow as those which preceded it. There
will never be a lasting one until we have taken Paris, and taught
the bloodthirsty mob there that it is not only women and children
who profess the reformed religion, but men who have swords in their
hands and can use them."

"If the troubles break out again, I shall hasten back, Francois;
indeed, I think that in any case I shall return for a while, ere
long. I do not see what I could do at home. My good uncle Gaspard
has been purchasing land for me, but I am too young to play the
country gentleman."

"Nonsense, Philip. There have been plenty of young nobles in our
ranks who, if your seniors in years, look no older than you do, and
are greatly your inferiors in strength. They are feudal lords on
their estates, and none deem them too young."

"Because they have always been feudal nobles, Francois. I go back
to a place where I was, but three years ago, a boy at school. My
comrades there are scarcely grown out of boyhood. It will seem to
them ridiculous that I should return Sir Philip Fletcher; and were
I to set up as a country squire, they would laugh in my face. Until
I am at least of age, I should not dream of this; and five-and-twenty
would indeed be quite time for me to settle down there.

"Here it is altogether different. I was introduced as your cousin,
and as a son of one of noble French family; and to our friends here
it is no more remarkable that I should ride behind Coligny, and
talk with the princes of Navarre and Conde, than that you should do
so. But at home it would be different; and I am sure that my father
and mother, my uncle and aunt will agree with me that it is best I
should not settle down, yet. Therefore I propose, in any case, to
return soon.

"I agree with you there will be troubles again here, before long.
If not, there is likely enough to be war with Spain, for they say
Philip is furious at toleration having been granted to the
Huguenots; and in that case there will be opportunities for us, and
it will be much pleasanter fighting against Spaniards than against
Frenchmen.

"If there are neither fresh troubles here, nor war with Spain, I
shall go and join the Dutch in their struggle against the
Spaniards. Prince Louis of Nassau told me that he would willingly
have me to ride behind him; and the Prince of Orange, to whom the
Admiral presented me, also spoke very kindly. They, like you, are
fighting for the reformed faith and freedom of worship and, cruel
as are the persecutions you have suffered in France, they are as
nothing to the wholesale massacres by Alva."

"In that case, Philip, I will not try to detain you; but at any
rate, wait a few months before you take service in Holland, and pay
us another visit before you decide upon doing so."

Philip journeyed quietly across the north of France, and took
passage to Dover for himself and his horses. Pierre accompanied
him, taking it so greatly to heart, when he spoke of leaving him,
behind that Philip consented to keep him; feeling, indeed, greatly
loath to part from one who had, for three years, served him so
well. The two men-at-arms were transferred to Francois' troop, both
being promised that, if Philip rode to the wars again in France,
they and their comrades now at Laville should accompany him.

From Dover Philip rode to Canterbury. He saw in the streets he
passed through many faces he knew, among them some of his former
schoolfellows; and he wondered to himself that these were so little
changed, while he was so altered that none recognized, in the
handsomely dressed young cavalier, the lad they had known; although
several stopped to look at, and remark on, the splendid horses
ridden by the gentleman and his attendant.

He drew rein in front of Gaspard Vaillant's large establishment
and, dismounting, gave his reins to Pierre and entered. He passed
straight through the shop into the merchant's counting house.

[Illustration: Gaspard Vaillant gets a surprise.]

Gaspard looked up in surprise, at the entry of a gentleman
unannounced; looked hard at his visitor, and then uttered his name
and, rushing forward, embraced him warmly.

"I can hardly believe it is you," he exclaimed, holding Philip at
arm's length and gazing up in his face. "Why, you have grown a
veritable giant; and as fine a man as your father was, when I first
knew him; and you have returned Sir Philip, too. I don't know that
I was ever so pleased as when you sent me the news. I gave a
holiday to all the workmen, and we had a great fete.

"But of course, you cannot stop now. You will be wanting to go up
to your father and mother. Run upstairs and embrace Marie. We will
not keep you at present, but in an hour we will be up with you."

In a minute or two Philip ran down again.

"Pardieu, but you are well mounted, Philip," the merchant said, as
he sprang into the saddle. "These are the two horses, I suppose,
you told us about in your letters.

"And is this Pierre, who saved your life when you were captured at
Agen?"

"And a good many other times, uncle, by always managing to get hold
of a fat pullet when we were pretty near starving. I was always
afraid that, sooner or later, I should lose him; and that I should
find him, some morning or other, dangling from a tree to which the
provost marshal had strung him up."

"Then I shall see you in an hour."

And Philip galloped off to the farm.

The delight of Philip's parents, as he rode up to the house, was
great indeed. Philip saw, before he had been at home an hour, that
they were animated by somewhat different feelings. His mother was
full of gratitude, at his preservation through many dangers; and
was glad that he had been able to do some service to her persecuted
co-religionists--the fact that he had won great personal credit,
and had received the honour of knighthood at the hands of Coligny
himself, weighed as nothing in her eyes. It was otherwise with his
father. He was very proud that his boy had turned out a worthy
descendant of the fighting Kentish stock; and that he had shown, in
half-a-dozen fights against heavy odds, a courage as staunch as
that which his forefathers had exhibited at Cressy, Poitiers, and
Agincourt.

"Good blood tells, my boy," he said; "and you must have shown them
a rare sample of what an Englishman can do, before they knighted
you. I would rather you had won it in an English battle, but all
admit that there is no more capable chief in Europe than the
Huguenot Admiral. Certainly there are no English commanders of fame
or repute to compare with him; though if we ever get to blows with
the Spanish, we shall soon find men, I warrant me, who will match
the best of them.

"There was a deal of talk in Canterbury, I can tell you, when the
news came home; and many refugees who came through the town
declared that they had heard your name among those of the nobles
who rode with the Admiral, and the brave La Noue. Indeed, there are
two families settled here who fled from Niort, and these have told
how you and your cousin saved them from the Catholics.

"I warrant you they have told the tale often enough since they have
come here; and it has made quite a stir in Canterbury, and there is
not a week passes without some of your old school friends, who used
to come up here with you, running up to ask the last news of you,
and to hear your letters read; and it has been a pleasure to me to
read them, lad, and to see how they opened their eyes when they
heard that the Queen of Navarre and her son had given you presents,
and that you often rode with the young prince, and his cousin
Conde.

"You have changed, Philip, mightily; not in your face, for I see
but little alteration there, but in your manner and air. The boys
did not seem to understand how you, whom they looked on as one of
themselves, could be riding to battle with nobles and talking with
princes; but I think they will understand better, when they see
you. You look almost too fine for such simple people as we are,
Philip; though I do not say your clothes are not of sombre hues, as
might be expected from one fighting in the Huguenot ranks."

"I am sure, father," Philip laughed, "there is nothing fine about
me. I have gained knighthood, it is true; but a poorer knight never
sat in saddle, seeing that I have neither a square yard of land nor
a penny piece of my own, owing everything to the kindness of my
good uncle, and yourself."

"I must go out tomorrow morning, Philip, and look at those horses
of yours. They must be rare beasts, from what you say of them."

"That are they, father. Methinks I like the one I bought at
Rochelle even better than that which the Queen of Navarre bestowed
upon me; but I grieved sorely over the death of Victor, the horse
Francois gave me. I was riding him at the fight of Moncontour, and
he was shot through the head with a ball from a German arquebus."

Pierre had, as soon as they arrived, been welcomed and made much of
by Philip's mother; and was speedily seated in the post of honour
in the kitchen, where he astonished the French servants with tales
of his master's adventures, with many surprising additions which
had but slight basis of fact.

Gaspard Vaillant and his wife thought that Philip's parents would
like to have him, for a time, to themselves; and did not come up
for two or three hours after he had arrived.

"You will admit, John, that my plan has acted rarely," the merchant
said, when he was seated; "and that, as I prophesied, it has made a
man of him. What would he have been, if he had stayed here?"

"He would, I hope, brother Gaspard," Lucie said gravely, "have been
what he is now--a gentleman."

"No doubt, Lucie. He promised as much as that, before he went; but
he is more than that now. He has been the companion of nobles, and
has held his own with them; and if he should go to court, now, he
would do honour to your family and his, though he rubbed shoulders
with the best of them.

"And now, what are you thinking of doing next, Philip? You will
hardly care to settle down among us here, after such a life as you
have led for the last three years."

Philip repeated the views he had expressed to Francois de Laville,
and his plans were warmly approved by his uncle and father; though
his mother folded her hands, and shook her head sadly.

"The lad is right, Lucie," the merchant said.

"He is lord now of the Holford estates--for the deeds are completed
and signed, Philip, making them over to you. But I agree heartily
with your feeling that you are too young, yet, to assume their
mastership. I have a good steward there looking after things,
seeing that all goes well, and that the house is kept in order. But
it is best, as you say, that a few years should pass before you go
to reside there. We need not settle, for a time, whether you shall
return to France, or go to see service with those sturdy Dutchmen
against the Spaniards. But I should say that it is best you should
go where you have already made a name, and gained many friends.

"There is no saying, yet, how matters will go there. Charles is but
a puppet in the hands of Catherine de Medici; and with the pope,
and Philip of Spain, and the Guises always pushing her on, she will
in time persuade the king, who at present earnestly wishes for
peace, to take fresh measures against the Huguenots. She is never
happy unless she is scheming, and you will see she will not be long
before she begins to make trouble, again."

The news spread quickly through Canterbury that Philip Fletcher had
returned, and the next day many of his old friends came up to see
him. At first they were a little awed by the change that had come
over him, and one or two of them even addressed him as Sir Philip.
But the shout of laughter, with which he received this well-meant
respect, showed them that he was their old schoolfellow still; and
soon set them at their ease with him.

"We didn't think, Philip," one of them said, "when you used to take
the lead in our fights with the boys of the town, that you would be
so soon fighting in earnest, in France; and that in three years you
would have gained knighthood."

"I did not think so myself, Archer. You used to call me Frenchie,
you know; but I did not think, at the time, that I was likely ever
to see France. I should like to have had my old band behind me, in
some of the fights we had there. I warrant you would have given as
hard knocks as you got, and would have held your own there, as well
as you did many a time in the fights in the Cloisters.

"Let us go and lie down under the shade of that tree, there. It
used to be our favourite bank, you know, in hot weather; and you
shall ask as many questions as you like, and I will answer as best
I can."

"And be sure, Philip, to bring all your friends in to supper," John
Fletcher said. "I warrant your mother will find plenty for them to
eat. She never used to have any difficulty about that, in the old
times; and I don't suppose their appetites are sharper, now, than
they were then."

Philip spent six months at home. A few days after his return many
of the country gentry, who had not known John Fletcher, called on
Philip, as one who had achieved a reputation that did honour to the
county--for every detail of the Huguenot struggle had been closely
followed, in England; and more than one report had been brought
over, by emigres, of the bravery of a young Englishman who was held
in marked consideration by Admiral Coligny, and had won a name for
himself, even among the nobles and gentlemen who rode with that
dashing officer De La Noue, whose fame was second only to that of
the Admiral. Walsingham, the English ambassador at Paris, had heard
of him from La Noue himself, when he was a prisoner there; and
mentioned him in one of his despatches, saying that it was this
gentleman who had been chosen, by Coligny, to carry important
despatches both to the Queen of Navarre and the Duc de Deux-Ponts,
and had succeeded admirably in both these perilous missions; and
that he had received knighthood, at the hands of the Admiral, for
the valour with which he had covered the retreat at the battle of
Jarnac.

Philip was, at first, disposed to meet these advances coldly.

"They have not recognized you or my mother, father, as being of
their own rank."

"Nor have we been, Philip. I am but a petty landowner, while it is
already known that you are the owner of a considerable estate; and
have gained consideration and credit, and as a knight have right to
precedence over many of them. If you had intended to settle in
France, you could do as you like as to accepting their courtesies;
but as it is, it is as well that you should make the acquaintance
of those with whom you will naturally associate, when you take up
your residence on the estate your uncle has bought for you.

"Had your mother and I a grievance against them, it might be
different; but we have none. We Fletchers have been yeomen here for
many generations. In our own rank, we esteem ourselves as good as
the best; but we never thought of pushing ourselves out of our own
station, and in the ordinary course of things you would have lived
and died as your fathers have done. The change has come about,
first through my marrying a French wife of noble blood, though with
but a small share of this world's goods; secondly through her
sister's husband making a large fortune in trade, and adopting you
as his heir; and thirdly, through your going out to your mother's
relations, and distinguishing yourself in the war. Thus you stand
in an altogether different position to that which I held.

"You are a man with an estate. You are noble, on your mother's
side. You are a knight, and have gained the approval of great
captains and princes. Therefore it is only meet and right that you
should take your place among the gentry; and it would be not only
churlish to refuse to accept their civilities now, but altogether
in opposition to the course which your uncle planned for you."

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