Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/366

 for although the husband, being not naturalized, might go if he pleased, yet the wife and child were subjects of France, and should not have that permission. It happened that at the same time I requested leave for one Mrs. Wilkins to sell her estate at Rouen and to return to her husband in England, whose case was this: Humphrey Wilkins had for many years been a merchant in Rouen, but falling into troubles, his wife obtained a sentence of separation de habitation et des biens from him, and so he went to London. Monsieur De Croissy told me that the king would not grant her any leave as she desired, but because her husband had been naturalized he looked upon her as his subject. So that in the case of Sir William Douglas they separate man and wife, and in the other, they join them that were separated by the sentence of their own judges.”

During the Williamite war the estate was forfeited, and after the peace of Ryswick a petition for its restoration was transmitted. Our ambassador reported on 12th December 1699, “I have mentioned the case of Sir William Douglas, and have obtained as much as could be desired, it being a matter triable at law, so it is recommended by the king’s order to the chief president of Alsace, with which Sir William Douglas is well satisfied.” The following epitaph is on a tablet in St. James’ Church, Westminster:—

“Near this place lies the body of Lady Anne de Bey of Batilly, daughter of the Right Hon. Anthony de Bey, Lord Baron of Batilly (Major-General to Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., Kings of France, Governor of the town and citadel of New Chateau in Loraine), and of the Lady Susanne de Pas, the daughter of the Marquis of Feuquière, who was made Marshal of France the day he died. This illustrious person was famous for her piety, charity, virtue, and goodness, and was married to Sir William Douglas, Major-General of Her Majesty’s forces, by whom she had four children, Charles only surviving, now Colonel of Her Majesty’s forces. She died the 20th of March 1709.”

7. in October 1685 was a very little girl, “a child of old age,” daughter of a farmer-proprietor in Normandy, and of an invalid mother. A writer in Household Words, vol. viii., gives a beautiful narrative of her parting from her parents, and her being shipped off to Jersey with a great chest of clothes hastily but abundantly collected. From one of her brothers descended a Duke of Dantzic. She herself is represented by English descendants, one of whom was the lady who told the story to the writer. That lady, as an orphan child, had lived in London with two maiden aunts, who always spoke French, thinking English a foreign language, and often reminded their niece that she was a little French girl, bound to be polite, gentle and considerate, to curtsey on entering or leaving a room, to stand until her elders gave her leave to sit down. Upstairs was the very chest with which Magdalen Lefebvre was sent off from France. Out of Magdalen’s trousseau the little Spitalfields girl was dressed. When she shrank from putting on so peculiar a frock, with such a quiet pattern, she was told, “You ought to be proud of wearing a French print, there are none like it in England.” They were surrounded by families like their own. Some correspondence had been kept up with the unseen and distant relations in France (third or fourth cousins perhaps); but it languished and ceased. Yet there remained characteristic relics from Normandy and Languedoc, a sword, wielded by some great-grandfather, a gold whistle that had summoned household servants and out-of-door labourers when bells were unknown; bibles with silver clasps and corners; strangely-wrought silver spoons, the handle enclosing the bowl; a travelling case with coat-of-arms engraved in gold, containing a gold knife, spoon, and fork, and a crystal goblet. Many such relics still tell of the affluence and refinement which the refugees left behind for religion’s sake. (The above facts and phraseology are from Household Words.)

8. A Huguenot wife reached England. The husband, who had taken a different road to avoid suspicion, was captured and consigned to a French prison. His cell had an iron floor, which was heated from beneath till it was red hot, whenever the attempt to torture him out of his religion was resorted to. He became a cripple, and was at last let out, to go about the town on crutches. He had no means of corresponding with his wife, and knew not whether she was safe, or even alive. But at last he found his way to London, and startled the passengers by enquiring if they knew where Louise his wife was. Some one at length thought of directing him to a coffee house near Soho Square, kept by a French refugee, and resorted to by Huguenots; but even there he could get no information. A pedlar, overhearing all that was said in the coffee-room, silently resolved to enquire for the poor stranger’s wife in every town where French settlers were to be found. At length, at Canterbury, his enquiries made a noise, and Louise, who was there, and living by needle-work, lost no time in starting for London. Reduced to the lowest poverty, and