Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/22

 16 of noble family cannot engage in trade or the mechanic arts, without forfeiting his claim to nobility.

I have insinuated that our family was of noble origin, and it is true; but I would not have you glory in that knowledge, but rather in the much greater and more glorious nobility which I am going to lay before you—the suffering and martyrdom for the cause of true religion of those from whom we are descended.

The father of my great-grandfather could not bear the idea of bringing up his sons, according to the usual habit of the nobility, without any employment, and therefore placed his son in the king's service. It is with this son I commence these annals.

John de la Fontaine was born in the province of Maine, near the borders of Normandy, about the year 1500; and as soon as he was old enough to bear arms, his father procured him a commission in the household of Francis I., in what was then called "Les Ordonnances du Roi." It was in the tenth or twelfth year of that monarch's reign that he entered his service, and he conducted himself with such uniform, honor and uprightness, that he retained his command, not only to the end of the reign of Francis I., but during the reigns of Henry II., Francis II., and until the second year of Charles IX., when he voluntarily resigned. He and his father had become converts to Protestantism on the first preaching of the Reformed religion in France,—about 1535. He had married, and had at least four sons born to him, during his residence in the Court. He wished to retire to private life at an earlier period, but being in the king's service was a sort of safeguard from persecution. He and his family not only ran less risk from his remaining near the king's person, but it