Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/195

 obtained leave from the court to put us together in a secure place, so that on the 20th of August I and the poor gentleman I have spoken of were put in a hole, and the other three in another. The place was so disposed that we were obliged to go down a ladder into a dry ditch, and then to go up by the same ladder into an old tower through a cannon hole. The vault or arch wherein we were put was as dark as if there had been no manner of light in heaven, stinking, and so miserable dirty, that I verily believe there was not a more dismal place in the world. We might have received some money to help us in this great distress, but they would not suffer it, so that all our senses were attacked at once, sight by darkness, taste by hunger, smell by the stench of the place, feeling by lice and other vermin, and hearing by the horrid blasphemies and cursing, which the soldiers (who were obliged to bring us some victuals) vomited against God and our holy religion.

The missionaries, who had flattered themselves that we could not resist much longer, were almost enraged when they saw our firm resolution to die in the profession of our religion, and therefore began to talk of nothing else but the judgments of God. And thereupon I could not forbear one day to tell them that the judgments of God were upon them, for he suffered them to fill the measure of their crimes in insulting over us in our miseries; but that God was just and would not fail to avenge us, and punish them according to their demerits. Having continued six months in that pit, my fellow-sufferer happening to die, I was removed into the other with the other three confessors. As that poor man was in his agony, he heard the soldiers say that it was necessary to send for the chaplain; but he made a sign with his hand to testify his aversion to it and so gave up the ghost unto the Lord.

We continued all four in the other pit for some time without seeing any light at all; but at last they gave us leave to have a lamp while we eat our victuals. The place being very damp, our clothes were rotten by this time; but God was pleased to have mercy upon me, miserable sinner, and upon another of my fellow-sufferers. For on the 3d July the Lord broke our fetters, the Right Honourable the Earl of Portland, then Extraordinary Ambassador to the Court of France, having reclaimed us in his Majesty’s name. We left two of our companions in that dreadful pit, and about 370 others on board the galleys, where they glorify the name of God with an unparalleled courage and constancy.

This is the short but sincere account of my suffering which I have written, at the request of several eminent persons, as a means to comfort, and rejoice in the Lord, the faithful servants of Jesus Christ, and confound the emissaries of Satan, who would fain make the world believe that there is no persecution in France.

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The above narrative shows that the fact, that he was a naturalised subject of Britain, procured his deliverance, our ambassador having a plain right to demand his release when negotiating the Peace of Ryswick.

With evident propriety the larger memoir was dedicated to the Earl of Portland by Elie Neau’s Pasteur,. From this work the following additional details may be interesting. St. Domingo was a French colony, and he did not leave it until compelled by persecution; thus any Frenchman at home who had facilitated his departure would not be chargeable with the offence of promoting emigration to British territory. Boston in America was the “city belonging to the English” which first sheltered him, after flying from the spreading flames of persecution. The vessel which he commanded was the Marquise (80 tons), belonging to Gabriel Le Boiteux, merchant of New York; the date of its capture was 8th September 1692. The vessel was sent back to New York, Elie Neau having promised 3500 livres (£140 sterling) for its redemption. The privateer kept hold of his person as security for payment. And it was not the interest either of the captor or of his partners at St. Milo, that Neau should be regarded by the law of France as a felon, for then the price of their prize would be lost to them. It was therefore in spite of their strenuous endeavours that the religionistic prosecution was insisted on. His sentence was. “To serve the king as a convict (forcat) at the galleys, for life — and that, for having settled in foreign countries without the permission of His Majesty, and contrary to his declaration in 1662 which prohibited his subjects from leaving the kingdom.”

The larger memoir also contains some letters from Elie Neau. Some are addressed to Monsieur Morin, who had been his pasteur in France, and had settled as a refugee in Holland. The following is a part of one written to his sister, Rachel, on 14th September 1696; she, as well as his father and mother, had apostatised from the dread of persecution, a circumstance which the martyr regarded with lamentation and indignation:—

“ . . . . You have pierced my heart with lively grief by the tidings of the death of my very dear mother. I have full in view the beaten path along which ail mankind must pass. . . . Think, my dear sister, of that enormous crime which you have committed at the instigation of those who gave you birth, — that terrible shipwreck which keeps you engulphed in a sea of misery. For these twelve years and more, do not the waves of God’s justice go over