Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/193

 that this was an expression of the Son of God contained in the Bible. Whereupon he inclined his head, looking on the greffier (or clerk of the court), repeating once more that I blasphemed. He examined me also upon several other articles foreign to my purpose, and sent the informations, which he had taken, to court.

I remained four months in the prisons of St. Malo, where I had many temptations to overcome, as, threats and promises; but by the grace of God I was proof against all their artifices. The order of the court having arrived, I was sent to Rennes to appear before the Parliament of Brittany. I was put on horseback bound hand and foot, but, the shaking of the horse causing my arms to swell, the manacles proved then too little, and I felt then a most exquisite pain. An advocate of the parliament who travelled the same road, pitying my condition, desired those who were appointed to conduct me to take off the manacles, but had much ado to persuade them to it. I was then considerably eased, but it was impossible for me to hold a pen to write in a fortnight’s time.

Some days after my arrival at Rennes I appeared before the Great Chamber and was commanded to hold up my hand, and swear to answer truly and directly to the interrogatories which should be made unto me. They asked me first my name and profession, and then why I had settled myself in a foreign country contrary to the king’s orders. I own I was then struck with such a terror that I could hardly speak; but they bid me be assured, and to answer the questions that were put to me. This having revived me, I told them I had left my native country because Jesus Christ, the king of kings, commanded me to fly from that country when I could not enjoy liberty of conscience, and retire into another.

The First President told me that persecution was a great evil, but added that I was not to be ignorant that St. Paul commands to obey kings not only in temporal things but likewise in conscience. I replied that likely St. Paul did not understand that passage in the sense of his lordship; for if he did so, my Lord (said I to the President), why did he not obey Nero?

He asked me afterwards, whether I had fired on the king’s subjects; but understanding that my ship had no guns, or any other offensive arms, he asked me whether I would have fired upon them, if I had been in a capacity to do it. I replied that it was natural for a man to defend his estate and goods; whereupon he interrupted me in these words: ''It is a great misfortune for you to be born in that religion, and that the Holy Ghost has not enlightened you. Withdraw.''

I was remanded to the prison; and two hours after, the attorney-general came to tell me that if I would change my religion, I should have my pardon, and that they would help me to a good employment at Brest I gave him the same answer that I had given to the king’s attorney at St. Malo, namely, that I was ready to lose my life rather than renounce my religion; whereupon he went away, commanding to put me to the chain with some other galley slaves.

It was on the 3d April 1693 that I was tied to the great chain, with fifty-nine other slaves, who were condemned to that dreadful punishment — some for desertion, others for defrauding the king’s duties upon salt, and others for horrid crimes, as robbery, murder, and worse. It rained almost all that month, so that we could hardly travel five leagues a day; and when we arrived at night at any town or village, to lie, they put us as so many beasts in stables, where, though always wet and dirty, we often wanted straw to lie upon. We had 31/2 [sous?] a day for our nourishment; but it often happened that we could find no bread for our money in those villages where we were obliged to lie upon the road. When they put us in these stables, they fastened both ends of the chain to the walls, so that we had only the liberty to lie down, but not to stir at all. That hard fatigue and the coldness of the walls threw me into a being unable to walk. I gave forty livres to our captain to be carried in a cart — happy to find a man whose cruelty could be melted with money!

As we went through all the capital cities of the Provinces that lie between Brest and Marseilles, our number increased apace; for we took sixty other slaves at Saumur and Angers, condemned for various crimes. We recruited also at Tours, Bourges, and Lyons, insomuch that we were upwards of 150 men when we arrived. It is indeed a horrid spectacle, to see such a number of men fastened to a chain, and exposed to so many miseries, that death is not so hard by half as this punishment.

We arrived at Marseilles on the 10th May; and about the same time arrived also 800 slaves from several parts of that kingdom. We were divided into forty lots; and I and several others were sent on board the Magnanimous, commanded by Mr. De Soison. There were on board that galley six persons on account of their religion; and among them were three, very timorous and fearful, who had sometimes the weakness to comply, in some manner, with the idolatries of the mystical Babylon. God was pleased to send me thither to encourage them; and my example and exhortations wrought such an impression upon them, that they resolved to glorify their Saviour openly, and without disguise. One of them told the first-lieutenant of the galley, with a Christian courage and resolution, that he had indeed been so unhappy as to taint under the weight of the persecution, but that he begged God’s pardon for that crime, and that he abhorred the idolatry of the Church of Rome. They told him, in my hearing, that they would make him expire under beating; but he answered that, by the grace of God, he was ready to die. This was enough to kindle the fury of the captain of the galley, who complained that, since I was arrived, that man had discontinued to do his duty (to use his own phrase, for thus they speak of such who have the weakness to go to mass, &c). This incensed