Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/277

 upon, I content myself to tell them what a shrewd nuncio from the Pope at Paris was repeating to crowds of ignorant people that kneeled and gaped for his Benediction:— QUI VULT DECIPI, DECIPIATUR.

 

. — The refugee of this name was descended from a noble Protestant family in the Cevennes. His grandfather was Abel Brunier, one of the fathers of modern botany, court physician to Henri IV. and Louis XIII., whose son was also named “Abel.” The second Abel was famous for his ornithological paintings, and, like his father, was keeper of the unique collection of medals formed and augmented at the expense of Gaston, Duke of Orleans. On the Duke’s death, his Protestantism drove him into retirement, and at his country house near Blois he spent his time in the education of his children, and in discharging all the duties of an elder of the church. He died 19th January 1685, leaving five sons, of whom the youngest, aged ten, remained in France; three others took refuge under the sway of the Prince of Orange, and of these two died at the victory of the Boyne, and one was wounded at Landen. The eldest, Abel, made a feigned recantation, which imposed upon no one. The Roman Catholics endeavoured to make him a real convert to their creed. Bertier, Bishop of Blois, was the last and the greatest of the baffled missionary fraternity. The Bishop then resorted to a more impressive mode of address, and obtained a lettre de cachet for his apprehension and imprisonment. Brunier received timely information, and fled to Holland; this was in 1699. He removed to England soon after, and was naturalized there. His joy, however, was bitterly alloyed. He heard of the death of his wife (a daughter of Jean Laugier, M.D.) about a year after his flight; she had been forcibly detained in France, and died of grief and vexation. A daughter, whom he had conveyed to Holland, became the wife of a pastor; but the rest of his children were placed in convents, and were brought up as Roman Catholics. The eldest son was educated in the college of the Oratorians at Vendosme, and received a gift of his father’s estate, which has been inherited by his lineal descendants.

The families of Brunier and Chamier were intimate during six generations, so that Abel Brunier was not without friends in England (their two founders had been advocates in Avignon, and had renounced Popery together). He became tutor to Henry, Viscount Boston, and his pupil’s early death, which took place 19th June 1718, is supposed to have hastened his own.

Monsieur de Petigny of Blois has written the family history entitled, “Les trois Brunyer.” As to the refugee he mentions that the Duke of Marlborough’s influence obtained him the tutorship in the Earl of Grantham’s family, also that Abel Brunier’s descendants in France possess an autograph letter proving that he actively interested himself in procuring the release, by an exchange of prisoners, of some French officers who had been taken at the Battle of Hochstet; — and this he did, notwithstanding the rigour with which the French Government prevented all correspondence between him and his family.  

The great and learned traveller Jean Chardin, son of Jean Chardin and Jeanne Ghiselin, was born at Paris 26th November 1643. His father was a rich jeweller, who by Caron was named along with a Monsieur Raisin, and both were described as très-honnestes gens et marchands très-experimentés. The son left Paris and began his career of foreign travel in 1664; he did not return home till the summer of 1670. He printed a 12mo volume, entitled “An Account of the Coronation of Solyman III., Schah of Persia.” Seeing how dark the temporal prospects of the Protestants were, he resolved to quit his native country; accordingly on the 17th August 1671 he set out on his return to Persia, where he remained till 1677, when he turned his steps to India, and did not see Europe again till 1680.

He says as to himself that his great desire to know the Empire of Persia, and to publish a faithful account of it, moved him to study for several years the language of the country and the customs and manners of its inhabitants. His celebrated volumes of travel do not detail his first or ’prentice wanderings, but begin with 1671; his route to Persia then was “by the way of the Black Sea, through the countries of Circassia, Mingrelia, the country of the Abcas, Georgia, Armenia, and Media,” Before this, however, he had lingered in Italy and Constantinople for several months