A Tale of the Huguenots or Memoirs of a French Refugee Family

Front matter

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TALE OF THE HUGUENOTS

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Introduction

The history of the little work now in the reader’s hands, is briefly this. Among the private documents, belonging to one of the most respectable families under the parochial charge of the present writer, there has long been preserved, with pious care, a manuscript autobiography of one of its ancestors, who, as a persecuted Huguenot, endured much for the sake of his faith. It was the labour of his latter days to prepare for his descendants the record alluded to, as a memorial of his gratitude for the Providence that had sustained him in many dangers and trials, and as an admonition to his posterity to adhere to the faith for which their forefathers hazarded life. The work, which extended to several hundred pages, was written in the French language, and without any view to publication.

In the friendly confidence growing out of parochial relations, the existence of this manuscript became known to the writer of this introduction. Curiosity led to its examination; the strange and interesting nature of the incidents it recorded, related as they were with unpretending simplicity, soon fixed his attention. It struck him as being a vivid picture of by-gone times sketched by an honest eye witness; and the page of past history thus illustrated was not the least interesting in the records of Protestantism.

There was also, as it seemed to the writer, many an useful lesson to be gathered from the leading events of the story. Independent of the spirit of piety that pervaded the book, and of the testimony it afforded to the doctrine of God’s providential care of the Christian, who in humble faith cast all his care upon Him, there were valuable lessons of wisdom, applicable to “the life that now is;” and it was thought that youth might here find an example worthy of its imitation.

Here was the spectacle of a man, accustomed in his early days to the enjoyments of a competent estate, and educated accordingly, who, for conscience sake, resisting the oppression and persecution of himself and his countrymen with indomitable courage, was, at last stripped of all, and obliged to abandon his country. An exile in a strange land, ignorant of its language, unaccustomed to manual labour, and with the refinement of feeling belonging to his education and former rank in society; he felt that he was thrown upon his energies as a man, and nobly girding himself to the work before him, he trusted in his Maker, and proved that if true to God and true to himself, man need never despair.

He who had enjoyed the case of affluence, and found occupation and delight in the pursuit of letters, accommodating himself to his altered situation becomes an artisan and works at his trade; and soon by his science, observation and industry, distances all his companions of the same craft. Persecuted out of his calling, because he had been guilty of success in it; with a perseverance accustomed to remove obstacles, he finds another occupation, and again directing all his faculties to his business, he again succeeds. More than once losing his all, he yet never desponds, but sets about retrieving his losses with the willing industry of one who never knew a reverse of fortune. In the midst of all this, he finds time to train his family in the fear of God, devises means to educate them for respectable callings, and lives to see some of them among the first and most esteemed ministers of the Gospel in Virginia.

The example of such a man is surely a lesson for youth. Now a scholar, and now a manufacturer; now a civilian, and now a soldier, he may be seen, at one time enjoying letters, and at another, labouring with his hands for bread; on one day he will be found asserting the rights of the oppressed before the courts of the oppressors; and on another he is withstanding a siege. In all situations, he bears himself with the noble spirit that becomes a man for he never loses his great trust in God, nor his proper confidence in himself.

It has been remarked more than once that this country has never had better citizens in it than the Huguenots and their descendants. The instances are rare indeed in which one of that stock, has been charged with crime before the tribunals of the land. The descendants of the man, a sketch of whose biography is in the reader’s hands, only confirm the truth of these observations. Many hundreds of them are now among our countrymen. Some of them have been, some now are, clergymen of worth and usefulness, some have been at the bar, some in the halls of legislation, some in important public offices and we have yet to learn the name of that one who has disgraced himself, his ancestry, or his country.

These, and kindred reflections passing through the writer’s mind induced him to believe that extracts might be made from the manuscript before him, worthy of publication, and he made a suggestion to one of the members of the family to prepare the work. In proposing the measure, he had in view chiefly the benefit of the young, though he thought the book would have interest for all. His suggestion was adopted, upon the condition that he would explain the circumstances connected with the publication, and would assure its readers of the authenticity of the story. Having done the first, he has only to state further that it is a veritable narrative, and as such has long been preserved in the family of one of our worthiest countrymen. If in its perusal, some of the events related should appear to others, as they did to the writer, of an unusual character, let it be remembered that their truth makes their strangeness more striking still; and serves to show that real life sometimes imbodies adventures, little, if at all, inferior to those found on the pages of fictitious narrative.

Rectory of St. Thomas N.Y. F. L. Hawks. August, 1st. 1838

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CHAPTER I.

Reasons for writing these memoirs — Noble origin of our family — John de la Fontaine born — Obtains a commission in the household of Francis I. — Embraces Protestantism — Persecution of Protestants — January Edict — John de la Fontaine resigns his commission — His assassination — Flight of his three sons — Arrival at Rochelle — Charitable reception — Marriage of James de la Fontaine — Attempt to poison him — Application for pardon to Henry IV.

My dear children,

Having observed the deep interest you have taken in all that has befallen your ancestors, when I have related their adventures to you, I am induced to write down their history for your use, to the end that the pious examples of those from whom we derive our origin may not be lost to you, or those who succeed you.

I trust that it may be the means of engaging you to dedicate yourselves wholly and unreservedly to the service of that God whom they worshipped at the risk of their lives, and to be steadfast in the profession of that pure faith for which they suffered the severest hardships with unshaken constancy. And also that you may admire the watchful and wonderful providences of God exerted in supporting and preserving them through every trial. Indeed, without looking beyond the compass of your own memories, you may recall numberless instances of the providential care of that same God “whose hand is not shortened.”

For my own part, I trust that the making of this retrospect may be attended with great benefit, bringing before me the frailties and sins of each age and condition of my past life, and making me humble myself before the throne of grace, and with trembling pray for pardon through the mediation of my Blessed Saviour: and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit, I may hope for more watchfulness and circumspection for the time to come. And when I review the uncommon, innumerable, and unmerited mercies I have received through the whole course of my life, I hope my gratitude will be increased towards my Almighty benefactor, and surely I shall be encouraged to put my whole trust in him for the future. If I owe such a debt of gratitude for the things of this life, its comforts and conveniences, how incalculably great must it be for his mercy to my immortal soul, shedding the blood of his only begotten Son for my redemption. Oh my God! I entreat thee to continue thy goodness during the few days that may yet remain to me, and at last receive my soul. Amen.

Before proceeding to the history, I should mention that our name was originally De la Fontaine, and not Fontaine. My father, from motives of humility was the first to cut off the De la, an indication of nobility; my older brothers wished to resume it, but he would not consent, having a large family and little property; for you must know that in France no one of noble family can engage in trade or the mechanic arts without forfeiting his claim to nobility.

The father of my great grandfather, who was a nobleman, could not bear the thought of bringing up his children without employment, according to the usual custom, and therefore placed his son in the King’s service.

It is with this John De la Fontaine that I commence these annals, he being the first of whom I have any accurate knowledge.

He was born in the province of Maine, about the year 1500, and as soon as he was old enough to bear arms, his father procured him a commission in what was then called Les ordonnances du Roi in the household of Francis I of France. It was in the tenth or twelfth year of this monarch’s reign that he entered his service, and he conducted himself so honourably and uprightly, that even after his father and himself had embraced Protestantism at its first preaching in 1535, he remained in the same situation, and continued there during the reigns of Henry II of France, Francis II of France, and until the second year of Charles IX. He married, and had at least four sons, when he retired from a service in which he had remained so long, only as a sort of safe-guard from persecution. The king’s officers were protected by right of their office; and our ancestor, it would appear, was much beloved by all his Juniors in the service, which made the Roman Catholic party afraid to meddle with him, though at the same time they thirsted for his blood, not only on account of his exemplary piety, but of the exercise of a power his office conferred upon him, and which he had freely used, of assisting the poor Protestants, many of whom he had shielded from persecution. From the year 1534 to April 1598, when Henry IV of France granted the Edict of Nantes, the professors of the pure faith were continually subjected to every variety of injustice and cruelty, as you have read in the history of France*

Open hostilities were occasioned by an event which occurred at the little town of Vassy, in Champagne, in the year 1562. The Protestants were engaged in prayer outside the walls, in conformity with the king’s edict, when the Duke of Guise approached. Some of his suit insulted the worshippers, and from insults they proceeded to blows, and the Duke himself was accidentally wounded in the cheek. The sight of his blood enraged his followers, and a general massacre of the inhabitants of Vassy ensued; the report of this roused the suffering Huguenots throughout the kingdom, and a savage and bloody war followed, during which, Anthony of Bourbon, king of Navarre fell fighting in the Catholic ranks, leaving a son eight years old, the future Henry IV., that great supporter of the Protestant cause. The constable Montmorency was taken prisoner, and the Duke of Guise slain; thus the Catholics were without a leader. The Prince of Conde being also a prisoner, and the Protestant Coligny the only chief remaining on either side, an accommodation appeared indispensable, and in March, 1563 an edict was granted which allowed the Huguenots to worship within the towns they were possessed of up to that day. This permission led some of the Bishops and other clergy who had embraced Protestantism, to celebrate divine worship in the cathedrals, according to the rites of the Reformed Church; such an extension of the meaning of the edict had never been contemplated, and it was soon modified by a declaration that ancient cathedrals should in no case be used as Protestant churches.

These forms of persecution were carried on with some of the forms of law, but the gallows were erected and the fires ("burning at the stake")were kindled, not to support the law, but in order to extinguish, if possible, the very name of Protestant.

Another edict was passed very shortly, which imposed greater restrictions, and the Huguenots, (French Protestants) finding that they were likely to lose by edicts all that they had wrested from the king by the sword, prepared to take up arms again, and in, 1567 another struggle commenced, which, with a very short interval of peace, lasted until 1570, when a treaty was concluded upon terms so favourable to the Huguenots as to excite some suspicion in their minds that all was not right. They were to have liberty of conscience, and their worship was allowed in all the towns they had held during the war, and they were permitted to retain and garrison Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite, as guaranties for the observance of the treaty.

All had now the appearance of peace, but it was the delusive calm which precedes a storm; vengeance was preparing, and the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s day massacre followed, with all its horrors, which are too well known to need repetition. The number of Huguenots slaughtered, has been estimated at 50,000, those who survived were for a moment paralysed by the blow, and the Catholics themselves seemed stupefied with shame and remorse. Charles was as one struck by avenging retribution, he became restless, sullen, and dejected, and laboured under a slow fever to the day of his death. He tried to excuse his perfidy on the plea of its having been necessary for self-preservation, and he sent instructions to his ambassador in England to give such an explanation to queen Elizabeth. Hume speaking of this interview, says, “Nothing could be more awful and affecting than his audience. A melancholy sorrow sat on every face: silence as in the dead of night, reigned through all the chambers of the royal apartment; the courtiers and ladies clad in deep mourning were ranged on each side, and allowed him to pass without affording him one salute or favourable look, till he was admitted to the queen herself.”

The lives of the young Prince of Conde and Henry of Navarre had been spared, on condition of becoming Catholics, a condition to which they merely pretended to accede, as both attempted to escape from Paris immediately afterwards; Conde alone was successful, and placed himself at the head of the Huguenots; and this sect which Charles had hoped to exterminate at one blow soon mustered an army of 18,000 men, and they had kept possession of Rochelle and Montauban, besides many castles, fortresses, and smaller towns. Thus Charles, and Catherine his mother, gained nothing by their infamous treachery, but a character for perfidy and cruelty which has been unequalled in the annals of history.

After the death of Charles IX. the condition of the Huguenots was ever changing; they were frequently in the field, and when successful obtained favourable edicts, which were broken as soon as they laid down their arms, and then they would resume them, and fight until their success gained fresh concessions.

In 1576 the Catholic League was formed, having for its main object the exclusion from the throne of France of Henry of Navarre, who was next heir to Henry III, the reigning monarch. War was carried on between the League and the Huguenots until 1594, five years after the death of Henry III, when Henry IV, from motives of policy, united himself to the Catholic Church and was thereupon generally recognized as the legitimate monarch. He still felt favourably disposed towards his old friends, and in 1598 granted the celebrated edict of Nantes, which allowed them to worship in freedom in all towns where their creed was the prevailing one. They were to pay the regular tithe to the established Church but were permitted to raise money for their own clergy, and to hold meetings of their representatives for church-government. In all law suits Protestants were to have the privilege of one half the judges being of their own faith, and several towns were left in their possession for a limited time as a surety. The parliament objected to registering this edict, but the king was resolute, and finally overcame their obstinacy.

The means adopted, however, had frequently an opposite effect and increased the followers of the true faith. The martyrs by their constancy, proved, in many cases, the instruments which God made use of to open the eyes of the papists, and it was no uncommon occurrence to see those who had aided in the destruction of others rush to the same martyrdom themselves

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CHAPTER II.

James Fontaine — Fond of study — Travels as tutor to a young nobleman — Called to the churches of Vaux and Royan — Marries an English lady — Second marriage — His personal appearance — Habits — Labors in the ministry — Capuchins and Jesuits come to hear him preach — Summoned to appear before the governor for preaching on the ruins of the church — A second summons — Anticipation of future persecution — Death.

I now proceed to my own father, who at an early age discovered great aptitude for study, and a very serious turn of mind. He was fortunate in gaining the friendship of Mr. Merlin, a minister at Rochelle, and this worthy servant of God assisted him greatly in his education, and recommended him as tutor to a near relation of the Countess of Royan, in which station he accompanied his pupil to the College of Saumur, and while superintending his studies there, completed his own preparation for the ministry.

Before entering on the sacred office, he travelled with this youth through various countries, and thus had the opportunity of acquiring several foreign languages in perfection. They made a long stay in London, and there my father fell in love with a very beautiful girl of the name of Thompson. She was of good family, well educated, spoke the French language with fluency, and played well on the spinette. They exchanged vows and portraits, and he returned to France with his young lord.

No sooner had he arrived than he received a call from the united churches of Vaux and Royan, and he was settled there by the authority of the synod; and from the very first he was most tenderly beloved by his charge. At the end of a year, he asked and obtained permission to go to London, to fetch her who had all this time held his heart captive, and who was herself faithfully waiting for him. They were married in the year 1628, my father being about twenty-five years of age. They lived together twelve years, and had several children.

In about a year after her death, my father married my mother, Mary Chaillon, of Rue au Roy, a village about a mile and a half distant from the town of Pons, in Saintonge. She was a handsome brunette, twelve years younger than her husband, and had a fortune of four thousand francs. During the life of his first wife, my father had lived in a small, inconvenient, ready-furnished house in the borough of Vaux. After his second marriage, he was persuaded by my mother to purchase a pretty little estate called Jenouille, and the manor of Jaffe near to it; he added some commodious apartments to the house, and made it a very comfortable and desirable residence. I was the youngest child of my parents, and have but little personal recollection of my father, being only eight years old when he died. He was a man of fine figure, clear complexion, pure red and white, and of so dignified a deportment that he commanded the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He was remarkably abstemious, living chiefly upon milk and vegetables until the decline of life, when, by the advice of his physician he went upon a more generous diet. He absented himself on festive occasions, but never failed to visit every family in his flock twice a year. The sick and afflicted were attended to as soon as their affliction was made known to him. When it was understood that he was praying with the sick, crowds would flock to hear him, filling the house; for you must know that in that district all were Protestants, save four or five families. He was most zealous and affectionate, and employed all his knowledge, his talents, and his studies in the service of God, and it was most gratifying to him to find his labors thus appreciated by his flock. He had great learning, quick and ready wit, clear and sonorous voice, natural and agreeable action, and he always made use of the most chaste and elegant language; and genuine humility crowning the whole, gave such a charm to his discourses that he delighted all who heard him.

I must mention an instance illustrative of his facility in preaching. On the afternoon of a communion Sunday, just after reading his text, which had been selected with reference to the services of the morning, he perceived some Capuchins and Jesuits entering the church; he paused — and addressing himself to his own people, he said, that the text he had at first taken was intended for the edification of those who, by the grace of God, were already well informed in the pure religion, but as these people were still in ignorance and superstition, he felt it a duty to leave the ninety and nine sheep, and endeavor to bring back the lost sheep to the fold. He then opened his Bible, and read a controversial text, and treated the subject with so much force and perspicuity, that the fathers were obliged to confess, on going out, that they never heard error (as they called it) so well defended.

When there was any difference between pastor and flock, he was usually the person appointed by the synod to go and endearour to heal the breach, and he was almost always successful, softening the hearts, and drawing tears from the eyes, of his auditors.

He was invited to take charge of the church at Rochelle, where the minister’s salary was just twice as large as that which he received. He refused, for he had not the heart to abandon a flock by whom he was so tenderly beloved.

I have mentioned that he was pastor of the united churches of Vaux and Royan; and at the commencement of his ministry he preached in one church in the morning, and the other in the afternoon alternately, the distance between them being two short miles. After a time the church at Royan was pulled down, in conformity with an order in council, and my father persisted in preaching on the ruins. The governor was enraged when he heard of it, and summoned him to appear before him. My father defended himself on the plea of ancient privileges and liberties; to which the governor made answer, that he knew of no privilege or liberty to which a subject was entitled but such as had been granted to him by the king, the council, or the ancient laws, and that he had ascertained that this church had been erected without permission, (which was very true,) and therefore as its building had been an act of usurpation, its demolition could not be regarded as an arbitrary stretch of power, and surely there was no great hardship in his followers at Royan having the trouble to walk over to Vaux to hear him. This was unanswerable, so of course he had to acquiesce.

Soon after this, there was another order in council forbidding Protestant ministers to appear in their clerical robes in the streets; my father felt this as an indignity, and continued wearing his as heretofore. For this offence he was summoned a second time to appear before the governor. He went in his gown, and it so happened that the governor’s wife was present at the examination, and she was so forcibly touched with the dignity and eloquence of his defence, that she persuaded her husband to permit him to continue wearing a garb to which he did so much honor.

Little vexatious trials of this sort perpetually occurring, led him to believe that a more serious persecution was not far distant, and he exerted all his energies to prepare his flock beforehand, that they might not fail when the day of trial should come. His instructions were most assuredly accompanied by the blessing of God, for, though his death took place full eighteen years before the great persecution, yet the influence he had exerted over his people lived after him, and there were very few parishes in which so large a proportion of the inhabitants left their homes as in Vaux and Royan, and I have reason to believe that of those who remained behind, many worshipped God in sincerity around their family altars, according to the true faith.

My father was as skilful in the ruling of his own household as of the church over which God had placed him. His favorite recreation was gardening, and it was in coming out of his garden in the year 1666 that he was seized with a fit of apoplexy, which proved fatal. You may well imagine how deeply and sincerely he was regretted by all, but I think to myself, though at the time unconscious of my loss, it was the most serious. Had it pleased the Almighty to prolong his days, what a guide and instructor he would have been to my youth.

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CHAPTER III

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My birth — Lameness — Imitation of my father’s prayers — Meditations upon the heavenly bodies — Sent to school — Disgusted with study — Letter to sister — Mr. De la Bussiere — Admirable preceptor — Eccentric man — Enter college — Take degree of master of arts — My mother’s death — Division of property.

I have now arrived at the history of my own life, which I shall give more in detail, as being more immediately interesting to you than those which have preceded it; and you will find a tissue of adventures, checquered with extremes of prosperity and adversity, but amidst all its varied joys and sorrows you cannot fail to discern the hand of Almighty God, whose good providence may be distinctly traced watching over me and making all things work together for my ultimate advantage.

I was born at Jenouille, on the 7th April, 1658. The first disaster which befell me proceeded from the carelessness of my nurse; she trusted me to her daughter, a young, and giddy girl, who played with me, tossing me in the air and catching me in her arms, until at last she missed, and I fell to the ground and broke my leg. The nurse, afraid to inform my parents, took me to an ignoramus of a surgeon, who pronounced that no harm had been done. The result to me has been lameness for life, my right leg being shorter, thinner, and much weaker than the other. I inherited something of the family beauty of face, and was of a very lively and inventive turn. When only four years old, I was so taken with my father’s reading of the Scriptures, and praying with the family, that I had a fancy to imitate him, and calling together the servants and my sisters, I made them kneel down while I prayed. They gave my father such an account that he had a curiosity to be present also; I would not proceed unless he knelt down with the rest; and my mother has since told me that he was much affected by the earnestness of my manner, and discovering, as he thought, the germ of future talent and piety, he himself prayed heartily to God to preserve and bless one who evinced a zeal unusual among children. I was younger by seven years than any of my brothers and sisters, and this circumstance occasioned my being left much to myself, and I used to reflect a great deal; and some of my meditations in childhood being a little remarkable, I will not pass them by. You must bear in mind that my knowledge was derived from no book save the Holy Scriptures, which I hear my father read daily. I beheld the glorious sun arise each morning to renew our joys and pleasures, and every night thousands of stars enamelled the vault our heads; I also noticed another beautiful luminary, which day by day decreased, and again returned to its first glory by the same degrees. Now I knew from the Scriptures that God inhabited a light which no man could approach unto; and that he dwelt in the third heaven, to which St. Paul had been caught up. I concluded thence that his dwelling place was above the sun, moon. and stars, and that in order to hold him and the celestial court, consisting, as I understood, of an infinite number of angels and glorified saints. I imagined the floor of the third heaven must be of a solid and opaque substance, and the dwelling place of God all resplendent with the light that his glory diffused around him. I concluded that what we saw of the sun, (beauteous as it is) was but a hole in the ceiling of the second and floor of the third heaven, which illuminated us with a faint gleam of that light which shone fully upon the angels and, saints. As to the stars, they were only so many gimblet holes in that part which was opposite to, the sun and most distant from the throne of God. The moon, too, I supposed to be a hole nearly as large as the sun, but situated, like the stars, away from the immediate presence of God. As to her changes, they gave me no trouble. for taking the lid of a pot and sliding it over the top produced exactly the same varied form, and I left the angels of God to slide the round cover over the round hole of the moon according as they bidden. My only difficulty was to find out how the heavens could turn round without shaking the foundations or pillars upon which David said the earth rested. But if my reason proved unequal to the solution, my faith made up all deficiencies, being confident that to Him who made all things out of nothing, it could not be difficult. In cloudy weather I prayed earnestly to God to lift up his foot from the round hole which gave us light.