Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/183

  “King Charles II., of blessed memory, issued a Declaration, whereby he invited the poor Protestants, who were persecuted in France for the cause of the Gospel, to take refuge in the kingdom. If the poor refugees who have abandoned country, friends, property, and everything sweet and agreeable in this life for their religion and the glory of the Gospel, if they had not the means of gaining a livelihood, the parish would be burdened with their maintenance, for you could not send them to their birth-place. The parish is obliged to Mr. Fontaine for every morsel of bread he earns for his family. In the desire he has to live independently, he humbles himself so far as to become a tradesman, a thing very rarely seen among learned men, such as I know him to be from my own conversations with him. There is no law that can disturb him.”

Fontaine then retired amidst showers of benedictions.

Strange to relate, he was in personal danger after the landing of William of Orange. Some of the inhabitants had denounced him as a Jesuit.“On the arrival of a company of soldiers at Taunton,” says Fontaine, “they were informed that there was a French Jesuit in the place who said mass in his house every Sunday. The captain of this company was a French Protestant, who had taken refuge in Holland. He was determined to be the first to seize the Jesuit. He was posted opposite to the door of my house with a guard of soldiers, before any of the family were stirring, except a female domestic, who was a Frenchwoman. He asked her who lived in that house. She replied, ‘Mr. Fontaine, a minister from Royan, in France, lives here.’ The captain immediately desired her to go up to my room, and tell me that Captain Rabainières was be!ow. I waited only long enough to get on my dressing-gown, and went down to welcome a dear friend; for we had been intimately acquainted with each other in France, and our residences were only four or five miles apart. We embraced one another with the warmth of fraternal affection. I was then introduced to the rest of the officers, who were most kind in their offers of friendship. They went to the door to disperse the crowd, which was not an easy matter, under the disappointment they felt at not seeing the Jesuit punished. They told them that their captain knew Mr. Fontaine to be a good Protestant — better than they were in all probability.”

When Fontaine went to Ireland, a new home was soon chosen. He found a congregation in Cork, where he arrived in 1694, and was installed by an Act of Consistory, dated January 19th, 1695. His settlement attracted many refugees to Cork, and the congregation increased. He turned his £1000 to account, and established a manufactory of broad cloth. This provided much welcome employment, and was also necessary for his own support, because the congregation could not give him any stipend. He also received the freedom of the city. All this happiness was destroyed in consequence of his sermon on the text, “Thou shalt not steal.” In his expository details he upbraided dishonesty so effectively, that a merchant interpreted the discourse as a personal attack, he having just perpetrated a swindling act, of which, however, Fontaine had not heard. The said Mr. De la Croix took his revenge by propagating notions of the advantages of Episcopal ordination, which Fontaine had not. By this artful scheme the Bishop of Cork was drawn into the quarrel, and also His Excellency the Earl of Galway; and so Fontaine resigned the pastorate in 1698. But Lord Galway recommended a French Presbyterian as his successor, Mr. Marcomb, who was appointed, to Fontaine’s satisfaction.

Soon after this, Fontaine took a farm at Bear Haven on Bantry Bay, being anxious to found a fishery. He took also other small farms, including the island of Dursey. In 1699 his son Aaron’s death affected him and his family so much, that they finally quitted Cork. Some London merchants took shares in the fishery; but becoming engrossed with the wine trade, they detained the vessels that should have transported the fish, and the fishery company failed. Fontaine, however, still resided at Bear Haven. He thus describes his neighbours:—

“My Irish neighbours were in the habit of pillaging and cheating me in a thousand indirect ways. I had brought thirteen destitute Frenchmen into the neighbourhood, who had served in the army under King William, and had been discharged (the war being over), and they knew not where to lay their heads. I gave them land to cultivate; but whether it was owing to their ignorance of agriculture, or their habits of indolence engendered by a military life, or the perpetual injuries they received at the hands of the Irish, I know not, but certain it is, they became discouraged, and most ot them left me before the end of the three years. I lost £80 by them, having advanced so much for their use.

“There was a Court held for the Barony of Bear Haven, which was competent to decide in all causes under forty shillings. I do not believe that there were mere than half-a-dozen Protestants in the adjacent country besides my own family and those I had brought with me; so that when I or any of my Protestants demanded what was due to us, the matter was referred to a jury of Papists, who invariably decided against us. If the Irish took it into their heads to