Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/355

  Messieurs Le Coq and De Romaignac, and Dumont himself. This sorrowful company was conveyed by the river to the French Church of the Savoy in the Strand, and there a funeral service was performed. The interment is registered at Greenwich:—

BURIALS IN JULY 1689. 28 &#x007C; The above is a true Extract from the Register of Burials belonging to the Parish Church of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, taken this 20th day of July 1863, By me,, Curate.

Here I may introduce Benoist’s summing up of the character and reputation of the deceased (it barely does him justice):—

“The most ardent and zealous decided that he temporised too much, that he was too much disposed to take his time and make his footing sure, that he proposed nothing [to the king] until by prudent measures he had done away with any appearance of being disagreeably importunate, — in one word, that the fear of damaging his own fortune deprived him of courage to speak firmly in matters involving the interests of the Church. The provinces more adjacent to Paris looked with more favour on his behaviour and his counsels. They did not blame him for dexterous management in a conjuncture when he might well fear that their all might be ruined by uncourteous language and unfortunate coincidences. They did not believe that the complaisance which he had for the Ministers of State was incompatible with zeal for religion, or that because he was a smart courtier he was less at heart a good man. In fact they sometimes received from him advices, both very useful and very opportune, on the secret designs of the court and clergy, into which he probably would not have possessed the means of penetrating, if he had had less management and address. This diversity of opinions was never cleared up, and during the whole of his deputation he was exposed to these opposite judgments. Nevertheless, fairness requires that two things should be said in his favour:— first, that his deputation fell to him in times so vexatious, that it was impossible for him to acquit himself to the taste of every one ; and that any other man, gifted with the same power of being agreeable to the court, would probably have been more unhappy in the discharge of the office ; and, secondly, that the end of his life has proved to conviction that he loved his religion, since he chose to quit the kingdom with all his family to continue in the profession of the Reformed faith to which he had adhered all his life, rather than to advance his fortune several degrees higher by remaining in France and becoming a Roman Catholic.”

Very similar feelings are attributed to Pasteur Du Bosc by his biographer, who says: “The news of the death of the Marquis De Ruvigny did not affect him otherwise than most sensibly, even though that nobleman had, in years, passed the bounds which Moses assigned to the most vigorous. Du Bosc had received kind offices from him, and he did him the justice to believe that if he had not at all times done all that the Churches of France expected from a Deputy-General, the reason was that he knew the spirit of his master, and that he could never have obtained access to him, if he had not studied him with very careful observation. He was edified by the attachment to the truth of which all his family had given proof, and by the indefatigable assiduity with which his sons have promoted the relief of the poor refugees. He could not but place himself in their circumstances, and sympathise in their loss of so good a head.”