Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/250

 where a dozen dragoons kept guard, but the rumour of “my lord” had reached them, and it being represented by the outrider that his master was a great officer travelling express, he crossed without interruption, the guard filing on each side and saluting.

He had now passed the French frontier; but there was still a guarded post on the great road across the Alps, and which the Duke of Savoy, then in alliance with France, maintained expressly to hinder the retreat of fugitive Protestants. Here the postillion informed him that the guards (seven in number) had placed themselves in a position to stop the way. He ordered him to dash through them. But a musket was pointed to the horses, and a soldier with a drawn sword came up to the carriage-door. To the question, “Why he dared to stop his carriage?” the soldier replied, that he had orders to let no person proceed without a passport. “How, sir?” cried De Chambrun, “do not I carry it upon my countenance? Is it thus that you retard the king’s service? When I arrive at Chambery I will have you put in prison.” The soldier saluted and began a cautious apology, which made De Chambrun redouble his threats. He asked the man, “Who and where is your officer?” “His name,” replied the soldier, “is Favier, and he is in yonder enclosure, eating grapes.” “He deserves,” exclaimed De Chambrun, “to be imprisoned for not being at his post. Let him be called, that I may speak to him.” He was accordingly summoned, and perhaps informed of the lordly envoy’s menace. He contented himself with calling to the guard, “Let my Lord pass.”

The cavalcade started with renewed speed and reached Chambery. After waiting to effect a trifling repair on the carriage, they went on safely, and the mountainous part of the journey was accomplished, not without agitating fears on the part of the fugitive that he might yet be overtaken by a government express. Having gained the bridge of the Arve, his heart was relieved, and at six o’clock on Tuesday morning, he drove through one of the gates of Geneva.

As his horses made the final halt in the inn-yard, the carriage broke down. His arrival was soon known; crowds of hospitable people congratulated him, among whom were the great Francis Turretin and the other pastors of Geneva. He met them with joy, but with deep humiliation and many tears, for his verbal recantation pressed heavily on his conscience. For this reason he gave to the book which he published concerning the Bourbon Persecution the title of “Les Larmes de Jacques Pineton de Chambrun,” alluding to the bitter tears of the Apostle Peter, whose case he took as the text of a sermon on the same Protestant and personal history. The sermon was published with the title, “Le Retablissement de Saint Pierre en son Apostolat.”

In Geneva De Chambrun insisted on confessing publicly his alleged abjuration, and on receiving a consistorial rebuke before partaking of the Lord’s Supper; he was also formally restored to the office of the ministry by an assembly of French refugee ministers, solely on account of his own request.

I have reserved for a continuous paragraph some memoirs of Madame de Chambrun, who is also upon our list of refugees. This lady was Louise, daughter of Monsieur De Chavanon of Orange; she had the additional surname or title of Perrot or De Perote. When the dragoons were molesting and torturing her husband, she continued in charge of his house, in spite of foul language constantly addressed to her, to watch opportunities for succouring him; but on his enforced farewell to Orange, she by his advice fled to her father’s house, where she hid herself. She was dragged from her hiding-place, and ordered to wait upon the dragoons in De Chambrun’s house. A friendly monk sent a messenger, who told De Tessé that she had done her duty. This was true morally and in words, but it was an imposition upon De Tessé, who interpreted it to mean that she had become a Catholic, the phrase, Elle a fait son devoir, having this meaning in the laws of France as to religion. This enabled her to go to her husband at St. Esprit, the dragoons being withdrawn, and herself set at liberty. She was with him until his memorable start of Lyons, when she immediately stole away into another house which he had taken for her. While a scheme was being arranged for smuggling her into Switzerland, the fact of her being in Lyons was reported, and an inquisitorial search was made for her, which she eluded by hiding among a pile of firewood. De Chambrun hired and paid some guides, with whom she and three other ladies left Lyons one night, but after a two hours’ walk the guides deserted them. Pursued by the military, and haunted by informers, they during nine successive wintry nights continued their walk through mountain paths, ice, and snow, and found themselves at the gate of Geneva on the 31st 