Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/180

 himself to be a good Catholic, yet a better Frenchman, or a better Subject, that great monarch had not in all his dominions — which is a plain proof that Louis XIV., with all his policy, served the priests much more than himself or his family in driving so many thousands of Protestants out of his territories."





It was in the year 1535, that two members of the noble family of De La Fontaine, a father and son, became converts to the principles of the Reformed Church. The son, Jean, was born in 1500, and died a martyr in 1563, himself and his wife being assassinated one night in the mansion of the family estate in the Province of Maine. His scattered family fled and was at last re-united within the walls of La Rochelle. The eldest surviving son was Jacques de la Fontaine, who was fourteen years old, and destitute, but soon learned to support his younger brothers as a journeyman shoemaker. He became a merchant of competent fortune, and died in 1633, aged eighty-three. His only son was Jacques Fontaine, the Huguenot pastor of Vaux and Royan, who dropped the aristocratic prefix to his surname from motives of humility. In his youth he travelled as tutor to a young French gentleman, and spending some time in London, he betrothed himself to Miss Thompson. He married this lady in 1628, and she left several children at her death.

The refugee, Jacques, or James, Fontaine, was the youngest child of the pasteur, by his second wife, Marie Chaillon, daughter of the proprietor of Rue au Roy, near Pons, in Saintonge. He was born on April 7, 165S, and during his infancy became lame for life through the carelessness of a nurse. His father died in 1666, so that his boyish education was irregular; but being placed at the age of seventeen under the tuition of the eccentric De la Bussière of Marennes, he took the degree of M.A. with distinction at the College of Guienne in 1680. About this time his mother died; and by buying off his brothers and sisters he became sole proprietor of the estates of Jenouille and Jaffe, with an annual income of 1000 francs and a dwelling-house.

His sister Marie had married Pastor Forestier of St Mesme in Angoumois, and under his roof young Fontaine studied theology. Forestier had to take refuge in England soon after. Fontaine, finding the Protestant population without a temple, encouraged public worship in the open air, and he sometimes officiated. For this crime he was imprisoned and tried, and was condemned in the inferior courts. But his accusers having specified a meeting for worship, at which he was not present, he carried his plea of alibi to the Parliament of Paris, and was acquitted; this was in 1684. “The history of our persecution,” he writes, “spread far and wide, and I received many letters of congratulation upon the courage and successful result of my appeal to the Parliament. Among others the Marquis de Ruvigny, father of Lord Galway, wrote me a complimentary letter.”

The dragoons visited the district of Royan early in 1685. Several shiploads of Protestants had escaped a few days before, but Fontaine was not among them. He fled, accompanied by his valet. Both were on horseback, remarkably well mounted, and his saddle was decorated with scarlet housings and black fringe, and pistols within holsters. His clerical costume was secularised by the fashionable wig which he wore and by a band of crape round his hat. As he sat well on his horse, his distinguished appearance was not marred by his lameness. Officers and soldiers, whom he frequently met, saluted him as an orthodox gentleman. He passed some time in paying visits to relatives and friends. At length, that he might not waste his money, which at his setting out amounted to 500 francs, he dismissed his valet and fixed his headquarters with a peasant on the estate of the Comte de Jonzac. The Comte’s