FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS
CHAPTER XXI
Persecutions of the French Protestants in the South of France,
During the Years 1814 and 1820
The persecution in this Protestant part of France continued
with very little intermission from the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, by Louis XIV until a very short period previous to the
commencement of the late French Revolution. In the year 1785, M.
Rebaut St. Etienne and the celebrated M. de la Fayette were among
the first persons who interested themselves with the court of
Louis XVI in removing the scourge of persecution from this
injured people, the inhabitants of the south of France.
Such was the opposition on the part of the Catholics and the
courtiers, that it was not until the end of the year 1790, that
the Protestants were freed from their alarms. Previously to
this, the Catholics at Nismes in particular, had taken up arms;
Nismes then presented a frightful spectacle; armed men ran
through the city, fired from the corners of the streets, and
attacked all they met with swords and forks.
A man named Astuc was wounded and thrown into the aqueduct;
Baudon fell under the repeated strokes of bayonets and sabers,
and his body was also thrown into the water; Boucher, a young man
only seventeen years of age, was shot as he was looking out of
his window; three electors wounded, one dangerously; another
elector wounded, only escaped death by repeatedly declaring he
was a Catholic; a third received four saber wounds, and was taken
home dreadfully mangled. The citizens that fled were arrested by
the Catholics upon the roads, and obliged to give proofs of their
religion before their lives were granted. M. and Madame Vogue
were at their country house, which the zealots broke open, where
they massacred both, and destroyed their dwelling. M. Blacher, a
Protestant seventy years of age, was cut to pieces with a sickle;
young Pyerre, carrying some food to his brother, was asked,
"Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant," being the reply, a
monster fired at the lad, and he fell. One of the murderer's
compansions said, "You might as well have killed a lamb." "I
have sworn," replied he, "to kill four Protestants for my share,
and this will count for one." However, as these atrocities
provoked the troops to unite in defence of the people, a terrible
vengeance was retaliated upon the Catholic party that had used
arms, which with other circumstances, especially the toleration
exercised by Napoleon Bonaparte, kept them down completely until
the year 1814, when the unexpected return of the ancient
government rallied them all once more round the old banners.
The Arrival of King Louis XVIII at Paris
This was known at Nismes on the thirteenth of April, 1814.
In a quarter of an hour, the white cockade was seen in every
direction, the white flag floated on the public buildings, on the
splendid monuments of antiquity, and even on the tower of Mange,
beyond the city walls. The Protestants, whose commerce had
suffered materially during the war, were among the first to unite
in the general joy, and to send in their adhesion to the senate,
and the legislative body; and several of the Protestant
departments sent addresses to the throne, but unfortunately, M.
Froment was again at Nismes at the moment, when many bigots being
ready to join him, the blindness and fury of the sixteenth
century rapidly succeeded the intelligence and philanthropy of
the nineteenth. A line of distinction was instantly traced
between men of different religious opinions; the spirit of the
old Catholic Church was again to regulate each person's share of
esteem and safety.
The difference of religion was now to govern everything
else; and even Catholic domestics who had served Protestants with
zeal and affection began to neglect their duties, or to perform
them ungraciously, and with reluctance. At the fetes and
spectacles that were given at the public expense, the absence of
the Protestants was charged on them as a proof of their
disloyalty; and in the midst of the cries of Vive le Roi! the
discordant sounds of A bas le Maire, down with the mayor, were
heard. M. Castletan was a Protestant; he appeared in public with
the prefect M. Ruland, a Catholic, when potatoes were thrown at
him, and the people declared that he ought to resign his office.
The bigots of Nismes, even succeeded in procuring an address to
be presented to the king, stating that there ought to be in
France but one God, one king, and one faith. In this they were
imitated by the Catholics of several towns.
The History of the Silver Child
About this time, M. Baron, counsellor of the Cour Royale of
Nismes, formed the plan of dedicating to God a silver child, if
the Duchess d'Angouleme would give a prince to France. This
project was converted into a public religious vow, which was the
subject of conversation both in public and private, whilst
persons, whose imaginations were inflamed by these proceedings,
ran about the streets crying Vivent les Boubons, or "the Bourbons
forever." In consequence of this superstitious frenzy, it is
said that at Alais women were advised and insigated to poison
their Protestant husbands, and at length it was found convenient
to accuse them of political crimes. They could no longer appear
in public without insults and injuries. When the mobs met with
Protestants, they seized them, and danced round them with
barbarous joy, and amidst repeated cries of Vive le Roi, they
sang verses, the burden of which was, "We will wash our hands in
Protestant blood, and make black puddings of the blood of
Calvin's children."
The citizens who came to the promenades for air and
refreshment from the close and dirty streets were chased with
shouts of Vive le Roi, as if those shouts were to justify every
excess. If Protestants referred to the charter, they were
directly assured it would be of no use to them, and that they had
only been managed to be more effectually destroyed. Persons of
rank were heard to say in the public streets, "All the Huguenots
must be killed; this time their children must be killed, that
none of the accursed race may remain."
Still, it is true, they were not murdered, but cruelly
treated; Protestant children could no longer mix in the sports of
Catholics, and were not even permitted to appear without their
parents. At dark their families shut themselves up in their
apartments; but even then stones were thrown against their
windows. When they arose in the mornin it was not uncommon to
find gibbets drawn on their doors or walls; and in the streets
the Catholics held cords already soaped before their eyes, and
pointed out the insruments by which they hoped and designed to
exterminate them. Small gallows or models were handed about, and
a man who lived opposite to one of the pastors, exhibited one of
these models in his window, and made signs sufficiently
intelligible when the minister passed. A figure representing a
Protestant preacher was also hung up on a public crossway, and
the most atrocious songs were sung under his window.
Towards the conclusion of the carnival, a plan had even been
formed to make a caricature of the four ministers of the place,
and burn them in effigy; but this was prevented by the mayor of
Nismes, a Protestant. A dreadful song presented to the prefect,
in the country dialect, with a false translation, was printed by
his approval, and had a great run before he saw the extent of the
rror into which he had been betrayed. The sixty-third regiment
of the line was publicly censured and insulted, for having,
according to order, protected Protestants. In fact, the
Protestants seemed to be as sheep destined for the slaughter.
The Catholic Arms at Beaucaire
In May, 1815, a federative association, similar to that of
Lyons, Grenoble, Paris, Avignon, and Montpelier, was desired by
many persons at Nismes; but this federation terminated here after
an ephemeral and illusory existence of fourteen days. In the
meanwhile a large party of Catholic zealots were in arms at
Beaucaire, and who soon pushed their patroles so near the walls
of Nismes, "so as to alarm the inhabitants." These Catholics
applied to the English off Marseilles for assistance, and
obtained the grant of one thousand muskets, ten thousand
cartouches, etc. General Gilly, however, was soon sent against
these partizans, who prevented them from coming to extremes by
granting them an armistice; and yet when Louis XVIII had returned
to Paris, after the expiration of Napoleon's reign of a hundred
days, and peace and party spirit seemed to have been subdued,
even at Nismes, bands from Beaucaire joined Trestaillon in this
city, to glut the vengeance they had so long premeditated.
General Gilly had left the department several days: the troops of
the line left behind had taken the white cockade, and waited
further orders, whilst the new commissioners had only to proclaim
the cessation of hostilities and the complete establishment of
the king's authority. In vain, no commissioners appeared, no
despatches arrived to calm and regulate the public mind; but
towards evening the advanced guard of the banditti, to the amount
of several hundreds, entered the city, undesired but unopposed.
As they marched without order or discipline, covered with
clothes or rags of all colors, decorated with cockades, not
white, but white and green, armed with muskets, sabers, forks,
pistols and reaping hooks, intoxicated with wine, and stained
with the blood of the Protestants whom they had murdered on their
route, they presented a most hideous and appealling spectacle.
In the open place in the front of the barracks, this banditti was
joined by the city armed mob, headed by Jaques Dupont, commonly
called Trestaillon. To save the effusion of blood, this garrison
of about five hundred men consented to capitulate, and marched
out sad and defenceless; but when about fifty had passed, the
rabble commenced a tremendous fire on their confiding and
unprotected victims; nearly all were killed or wounded, and but
very few could re-enter the yard before the garrison gates were
again closed. These were again forced in an instant, and all
were massacred who could not climb over roofs, or leap into the
adjoining gardens. In a word, death met them in every place and
in every shape, and this Catholic massacre rivalled in cruelty
and surpassed in treachery the crimes of the September assassins
of Paris, and the Jacobinical butcheries of Lyons and Avignon.
It was marked not only by the fervor of the Revolution but by the
subtlety of the league, and will long remain a blot upon the
history of the second restoration.
Massacre and Pillage at Nismes
Nismes now exhibited a most awful scene of outrage and
carnage, though many of the Protestants had fled to the Convennes
and the Gardonenque. The country houses of Messrs. Rey, Guiret,
and several others, had been pillaged, and the inhabitants
treated with wanton barbarity. Two parties had glutted their
savage appetites on the farm of Madame Frat: the first, after
eating, drinking, and breaking the furniture, and stealing what
they thought proper, took leave by announcing the arrival of
their comrades, 'compared with whom,' they said, 'they should be
thought merciful.' Three men and an old woman were left on the
premises: at the sight of the second company two of the men
fled. "Are you a Catholic?" said the banditti to the old woman.
"Yes." "Repeat, then, your Pater and Ave." Being terrified, she
hesitated, and was instantly knocked down with a musket. On
recovering her senses, she stole out of the house, but met Ladet,
the old valet de ferme, bringing in a salad which the depredators
had ordered him to cut. In vain she endeavored to persuade him
to fly. "Are you a Protestant?" they exclaimed; "I am." A
musket being discharged at him, he fell wounded, but not dead.
To consummate their work, the monsters lighted a fire with straw
and boards, threw their living victim into the flames, and
suffered him to expire in the most dreadful agonies. They then
ate their salad, omelet, etc. The next day, some laborers,
seeing the house open and deserted, entered, and discovered the
half consumed body of Ladet. The prefect of the Gard, M. Darbaud
Jouques, attempting to palliate the crimes of the Catholics, had
the audacity to assert that Ladet was a Catholic; but this was
publicly contradicted by two of the pastors at Nismes.
Another party committed a dreadful murder at St. Cezaire,
upon Imbert la Plume, the husband of Suzon Chivas. He was met on
returning from work in the fields. The chief promised him his
life, but insisted that he must be conducted to the prison at
Nismes. Seeing, however, that the party was determined to kill
him, he resumed his natural character, and being a powerful and
courageous man advanced and exclaimed, "You are brigands--fire!"
Four of them fired, and he fell, but he was not dead; and while
living they mutilated his body; and then passing a cord round it,
drew it along, attached to a cannon of which they had
possession. It was not until after eight days that his relatives
were apprised of his death. Five individuals of the family of
Chivas, all husbands and fathers, were massacred in the course of
a few days.
The merciless treatment of the women, in this persecution at
Nismes, was such as would have disgraced any savages ever heard
of. The widows Rivet and Bernard were forced to sacrifice
enormous sums; and the house of Mrs. Lecointe was ravaged, and
her goods destroyed. Mrs. F. Didier had her dwelling sacked and
nearly demolished to the foundation. A party of these bigots
visited the widow Perrin, who lived on a litle farm at the
windmills; having committed every species of devastation, they
attacked even the sanctuary of the dead, which contained the
relics of her family. They dragged the coffins out, and
scattered the contents over the adjacent grounds. In vain this
outraged widow collected the bones of her ancestors and replaced
them: they were again dug up; and, after several useless efforts,
they were reluctantly left spread over the surface of the fields.
Royal Decree in Favor of the Persecuted
At length the decree of Louis XVIII which annulled all the
extraordinary powers conferred either by the king, the princes,
or subordinate agents, was received at Nismes, and the laws were
now to be administered by the regular organs, and a new prefect
arrived to carry them into effect; but in spite of proclamations,
the work of destruction, stopped for a moment, was not abandoned,
but soon renewed with fresh vigor and effect. On the thirtieth
of July, Jacques Combe, the father of a family, was killed by
some of the natonal guards of Rusau, and the crime was so public,
that the commander of the party restored to the family the
pocketbook and papers of the deceased. On the following day
tumultuous crowds roamed about the city and suburbs, threatening
the wretched peasants; and on the first of August they butchered
them without opposition.
About noon on the same day, six armed men, headed by
Truphemy, the butcher, surrounded the house of Monot, a
carpenter; two of the party, who were smiths, had been at work in
the house the day before, and had seen a Protestant who had taken
refuge there, M. Bourillon, who had been a lieutenant in the
army, and had retired on a pension. He was a man of an excellent
character, peaceable and harmless, and had never served the
emperor Napoleon. Truphemy not knowin him, he was pointed out
partaking of a frugal breakfast with the family. Truphemy
ordered him to go along with him, adding, "Your friend, Saussine,
is already in the other world." Truphemy placed him in the
middle of his troop, and artfully ordered him to cry Vive
l'Empereur he refused, adding, he had never served the emperor.
In vain did the women and children of the house intercede for his
life, and praise his amiable and virtuous qualities. He was
marched to the Esplanade and shot, first by Truphemy and then by
the others. Several persons, attracted by the firing approached,
but were threatened with a similar fate.
After some time the wretches departed, shouting Vive le
Roi. Some women met them, and one of them appearing affected,
said, "I have killed seven to-day, for my share, and if you say a
word, you shall be the eighth." Pierre Courbet, a stocking
weaver, was torn from his loom by an armed band, and shot at his
own door. His eldest daughter was knocked down with the butt end
of a musket; and a poignard was held at the breast of his wife
while the mob plundered her apartments. Paul Heraut, a silk
weaver, was literally cut in pieces, in the presence of a large
crowd, and amidst the unavailing cries and tears of his wife and
four young children. The murderers only abandoned the corpse to
return to Heraut's house and secure everything valuable. The
number of murders on this day could not be ascertained. One
person saw six bodies at the Cours Neuf, and nine were carried to
the hospital.
If murder some time after, became less frequent for a few
days, pillage and forced contributions were actively enforced.
M. Salle d'Hombro, at several visits was robbed of seven thousand
francs; and on one occasion, when he pleaded the sacrifices he
had made, "Look," said a bandit, pointing to his pipe, "this will
set fire to your house; and this," brandishing his sword, "will
finish you." No reply could be made to these arguments. M.
Feline, a silk manufacturer, was robbed of thirty-two thousand
francs in gold, three thousand francs in silver, and several
bales of silk.
The small shopkeepers were continually exposed to visits and
demands of provisions, drapyery, or whatever they sold; and the
same hands that set fire to the houses of the rich, and tore up
the vines of the cultivator, broke the looms of the weaver; and
stole the tools of the artisan. Desolation reigned in the
sanctuary and in the city. The armed bands, instead of being
reduced, were increased; the fugitives, instead of returning,
received constant accessions, and their friends who sheltered
them were deemed rebellious. Those Protestants who remained were
deprived of all their civil and religious rights, and even the
advocates and huissiers entered into a resolution to exclude all
of "the pretended reformed religion" from their bodies. Those
who were employed in selling tobacco were deprived of their
licenses. The Protestant deacons who had the charge of the poor
were all scattered. Of five pastors only two remained; one of
these was obliged to change his residence, and could only venture
to admnister the consolations of religion, or perform the
functions of his ministry under cover of the night.
Not content with these modes of torment, calumnious and
inflammatory publications charged the Protestants with raising
the proscribed standard in the communes, and invoking the fallen
Napoleon; and, of course, as unworthy the protection of the laws
and the favor of the monarch.
Hundreds after this were dragged to prison without even so
much as a written order; and though an official newspaper,
bearing the title of the Journal du Gard, was set up for five
months, while it was influenced by the prefect, the mayor, and
other functionaries, the word "charter" was never once used in
it. One of the first numbers, on the contrary, represented the
suffering Protestants, as "Crocodiles, only weeping from rage and
regret that they had no more victims to devour; as persons who
had surpassed Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, in doing mischief;
and as having prostituted their daughters to the garrison to gain
it over to Napoleon." An extract from this article, stamped with
the crown and the arms of the Bourbons, was hawked about the
streets, and the vender was adorned with the medal of the police.
Petition of the Protestant Refugees
To these reproaches it is proper to oppose the petition
which the Protestant refugees in Paris presented to Louis XVIII
in behalf of their brethren at Nismes.
"We lay at your feet, sire, our acute sufferings. In your
name our fellow citizens are slaughtered, and their property laid
waste. Misled peasants, in pretended obedience to your orders,
had assembled at the command of a commissioner appointed by your
august nephew. Although ready to attack us, they were received
with the assurances of peace. On the fifteenth of July, 1815, we
learned your majesty's entrance into Paris, and the white flag
immediately waved on our edifices. The public tranquillity had
not been disturbed, when armed peasants introduced themselves.
The garrison capitulated, but were assailed on their departure,
and almost totally massacred. Our national guard was disarmed,
the city filled with strangers, and the houses of the principal
inhabitants, professing the reformed religion, were attacked and
plundered. We subjoin the list. Terror has driven from our city
the most respectable inhabitants.
"Your majesty has been deceived if there has not been placed
before you the picture of the horrors which make a desert of your
good city of Nismes. Arrests and proscriptions are continually
taking place, and difference of religious opinions is the real
and only cause. The calumniated Protestants are the defenders of
the throne. You nephew has beheld our children under his
banners; our fortunes have been placed in his hands. Attacked
without reason, the Protestants have not, even by a just
resistance, afforded their enemies the fatal pretext for
calumny. Save us, sire! extinguish the brand of civil war; a
single act of your will would restore to political existence a
city interesting for its population and its manufactures. Demand
an account of their conduct from the chiefs who had brought our
misfortunes upon us. We place before your eyes all the documents
that have reached us. Fear paralyzes the hearts, and stifles the
complaints of our fellow citizens. Placed in a more secure
situation, we venture to raise our voice in their behalf," etc.,
etc.
Monstrous Outrage Upon Females
At Nismes it is well known that the women wash their clothes
either at the fountains or on the banks of streams. There is a
large basin near the fountain, where numbers of women may be seen
every day, kneeling at the edge of the water, and beating the
clothes with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battledores.
This spot became the scene of the most shameful and indecent
practices. The Catholic rabble turned the women's petticoats
over their heads, and so fastened them as to continue their
exposure, and their subjection to a newly invented species of
chastisement; for nails being placed in the wood of the battoirs
in the form of fleur-de-lis, they beat them until the blood
streamed from their bodies, and their cries rent the air. Often
was death demanded as a commutation of this ignominious
punishment, but refused with a malignant joy. To carry their
outrage to the highest possible degree, several who were in a
state of pregnancy were assailed in this manner. The scandalous
nature of these outrages prevented many of the sufferers from
making them public, and, especially, from relating the most
aggravating circumstances. "I have seen," says M. Duran, "a
Catholic advocat, accompanying the assassins of the fauxbourg
Bourgade, arm a battoir with sharp nails in the form of
fleur-de-lis; I have seen them raise the garments of females, and
apply, with heavy blows, to the bleeding body this battoir or
battledore, to which they gave a name which my pen refuses to
record. The cries of the sufferers--the streams of blood--the
murmurs of indignation which were suppressed by fear--nothing
could move them. The surgeons who attended on those women who
are dead, can attest, by the marks of their wounds, the agonies
which they must have endured, which, however horrible, is most
strictly true."
Nevertheless, during the progress of these horrors and
obscenities, so disgraceful to France and the Catholic religion,
the agents of government had a powerful force under their
command, and by honestly employing it they might have restored
tranquillity. Murder and robbery, however, continued, and were
winked at, by the Catholic magistrates, with very few exceptions;
the administrative authorities, it is true, used words in their
proclamations, etc., but never had recourse to actions to stop
the enormities of the persecutors, who boldly declared that, on
the twenty-fourth, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew, they
intended to make a general massacre. The members of the Reformed
Church were filled with terror, and, instead of taking part in
the election of deputies, were occupied as well as they could in
providing for their own personal safety.
Outrages Committed in the Villages, etc.
We now quit Nismes to take a view of the conduct of the
persecutors in the surrounding country. After the
re-establishment of the royal government, the local authorities
were distinguished for their zeal and forwardness in supporting
their employers, and, under pretence of rebellion, concealment of
arms, nonpayment of contributions, etc., troops, national guards,
and armed mobs, were permitted to plunder, arrest, and murder
peaceable citizens, not merely with impunity, but with
encouragement and approbation. At the village of Milhaud, near
Nismes, the inhabitants were frequently forced to pay large sums
to avoid being pillaged. This, however, would not avail at
Madame Teulon's: On Sunday, the sixteenth of July, her house and
grounds were ravaged; the valuable furniture removed or
destroyed, the hay and wood burnt, and the corpse of a child,
buried in the garden, taken up and dragged round a fire made by
the populace. It was with great difficulty that M. Teulon
escaped with his life.
M. Picherol, another Protestant, had deposited some of his
effects with a Catholic neighbor; this house was attacked, and
though all the property of the latter was respected, that of his
friend was seized and destroyed. At the same village, one of a
party doubting whether M. Hermet, a tailor, was the man they
wanted, asked, "Is he a Protestant?" this he acknowledged.
"Good," said they, and he was instantly murdered. In the canton
of Vauvert, where there was a consistory church, eighty thousand
francs were extorted.
In the communes of Beauvoisin and Generac similar excesses
were committed by a handful of licentious men, under the eye of
the Catholic mayor, and to the cries of Vive le Roi! St. Gilles
was the scene of the most unblushing villainy. The Protestants,
the most wealthy of the inhabitants, were disarmed, whilst their
houses were pillaged. The mayor was appealed to; but he laughed
and walked away. This officer had, at his disposal, a national
guard of several hundred men, organized by his own orders. It
would be wearisome to read the lists of the crimes that occurred
during many months. At Clavison the mayor prohibited the
Protestants the practice of singing the Psalms commonly used in
the temple, that, as he said, the Catholics might not be offended
or disturbed.
At Sommieres, about ten miles from Nismes, the Catholics
made a splendid procession through the town, which continued
until evening and was succeeded by the plunder of the
Protestants. On the arrival of foreign troops at Sommieres, the
pretended search for arms was resumed; those who did not possess
muskets were even compelled to buy them on purpose to surrender
them up, and soldiers were quartered on them at six francs per
day until they produced the articles in demand. The Protestant
church which had been closed, was converted into barracks for the
Austrians. After divine service had been suspended for six
months at Nismes, the church, called the Temple by the
Protestants, was re-opened, and public worship performed on the
morning of the twenty-fourth of December. On examining the
belfry, it was discovered that some persons had carried off the
clapper of the bell. As the hour of service approached, a number
of men, women, and children collected at the house of M. Ribot,
the pastor, and threatened to prevent the worship. At the
appointed time, when he proceeded towards the church, he was
surrounded; the most savage shouts were raised against him; some
of the women seized him by the collar; but nothing could disturb
his firmness, or excite his impatience; he entered the house of
prayer, and ascended the pulpit. Stones were thrown in and fell
among the worshippers; still the congregation remained calm and
attentive, and the service was concluded amidst noise, threats,
and outrage.
On retiring many would have been killed but for the
chasseurs of the garrison, who honorably and zealously protected
them. From the captain of these chasseurs, M. Ribot soon after
received the following letter:
January 2, 1816.
"I deeply lament the prejudices of the Catholics against the
Protestants, who they pretend do not love the king. Continue to
act as you have hitherto done, and time and your conduct will
convince the Catholics to the contrary: should any tumult occur
similar to that of Saturday last inform me. I preserve my
reports of these acts, and if the agitators prove incorrigible,
and forget what they owe to the best of kings and the charter, I
will do my duty and inform the government of their proceedings.
Adieu, my dear sir; assure the consistory of my esteem, and of
the sense I entertain of the moderation with which they have met
the provocations of the evil-disposed at Sommieres. I have the
honor to salute you with respect.
SUVAL DE LAINE."
Another letter to this worthy pastor from the Marquis de
Montlord, was received on the sixth of January, to encourage him
to unite with all good men who believe in God to obtain the
punishment of the assassins, brigands, and disturbers of public
tranquillity, and to read the instructions he had received from
the government to this effect publicly. Notwithstanding this, on
the twentieth of January, 1816, when the service in commemoration
of the death of Louis XVI was celebrated, a procession being
formed, the National Guards fired at the white flag suspended
from the windows of the Protestants, and concluded the day by
plundering their houses.
In the commune of Anguargues, matters were still worse; and
in that of Fontanes, from the entry of the king in 1815, the
Catholics broke all terms with the Protestants; by day they
insulted them, and in the night broke open their doors, or marked
them with chalk to be plundered or burnt. St. Mamert was
repeatedly visited by these robberies; and at Montmiral, as
lately as the sixteenth of June, 1816, the Protestants were
attacked, beaten, and imprisoned, for daring to celebrate the
return of a king who had sworn to preserve religious liberty and
to maintain the charter.
Further Account of the Proceedings of the Catholics at Nismes
The excesses perpetrated in the country it seems did not by
any means divert the attention of the persecutors from Nismes.
October, 1815, commenced without any improvement in the
principles or measures of the government, and this was followed
by corresponding presumption on the part of the people. Several
houses in the Quartier St. Charles were sacked, and their wrecks
burnt in the streets amidst songs, dances, and shouts of Vive le
Roi! The mayor appeared, but the merry multitude pretended not
to know him, and when he ventured to remonstrate, they told him,
'his presence was unnecessary, and that he might retire.' During
the sixteenth of Oc tober, every preparation seemed to announce a
night of carnage; orders for assembling and signals for attack
were circulated with regularity and confidence; Trestaillon
reviewed his satellites, and urged them on to the perpetration of
crimes, holding jwith one of those wretches the following
dialogue:
Satellite. "If all the Protestants, without one exception,
are to be killed, I will cheerfully join; but as you have so
often deceived me, unless they are all to go I will not stir."
Trestaillon. "Come along, then, for this time not a single
man shall escape."
This horrid purpose would have been executed had it not been
for General La Garde, the commandant of the department. It was
not until ten o'clock at night that he perceived the danger; he
now felt that not a moment could be lost. Crowds were advancing
through the suburbs, and the streets were filling with ruffians,
uttering the most horrid imprecations. The generale sounded at
eleven o'clock, and added to the confusion that was now spreading
through the city. A few troops rallied round the Count La Garde,
who was wrung with distress at the sight of the evil which had
arrived at such a pitch. Of this M. Durand, a Catholic advocate,
gave the following account:
"It was near midnight, my wife had just fallen asleep; I was
writing by her side, when we were disturbed by a distant noise;
drums seemed crossing the town in every direction. What could
all this mean! To quiet her alarm, I said it probably announced
the arrival or departure of some troops of the garrison. But
firing and shouts were immediately audible; and on opening my
window I distinguished horrible imprecations mingled with cries
of Vive le Roi! I roused an officer who lodged in the house, and
M. Chancel, Director of the Public Works. We went out together,
and gained the Boulevarde. The moon shone bright, and almost
every object was nearly as distinct as day; a furious crowd was
pressing on vowing extermination, and the greater part half
naked, armed with knives, muskets, sticks, and sabers. In answer
to my inquiries I was told the massacre was general, that many
had been already killed in the suburbs. M. Chancel retired to
put on his uniform as captain of the Pompiers; the officers
retired to the barracks, and anxious for my wife I returned
home. By the noise I was convinced that persons followed. I
crept along in the shadow of the wall, opened my door, entered,
and closed it, leaving a small aperture through which I could
watch the movements of the party whose arms shone in the
moonlight. In a few moments some armed men appeared conducting a
prisoner to the very spot where I was concealed. They stopped, I
shut my door gently, and mounted on an alder tree planted against
the garden wall. What a scene! a man on his knees imporing mercy
from wretches who mocked his agony, and loaded him with abuse.
'In the name of my wife and children,' he said, 'spare me! What
have I done? Why would you murder me for nothing?' I was on the
point of crying out and menacing the murderers with vengeance. I
had not long to deliberate, the discharge of several fusils
terminated my suspense; the unhappy supplicant, struck in the
loins and the head, fell to rise no more. The backs of the
assassins were towards the tree; they retired immediately,
reloading their pieces. I descended and approached the dying
man, uttering some deep and dismal groans. Some national guards
arrived at the moment, and I again retired and shut the door. 'I
see,' said one, 'a dead man.' 'He sings still,' said another.
'It will be better,' said a third, 'to finish him and put him out
of his misery.' Five or six muskets were fired instantly, and
the groans ceased. On the following day crowds came to inspect
and insult the deceased. A day after a massacre was always
observed as a sort of fete, and every occupation was left to go
and gaze upon the victims." This was Louis Lichare, the father
of four children; and four years after the event, M. Durand
verified this account by his oath upon the trial of one of the
murderers.
Attack Upon the Protestant Churches
Some time before the death of General La Garde, the duke
d'Angouleme had visited Nismes, and other cities in the south,
and at the former place honored the members of the Protestant
consistory with an interview, promising them protection, and
encouraging them to re-open their temple so long shut up. They
have two churches at Nismes, and it was agreed that the small one
should be preferred on this occasion, and that the ringing of the
bell should be omitted, General La Garde declared that he would
answer with his head for the safety of his congregation. The
Protestants privately informed each other that worship was once
more to be celebrated at ten o'clock, and they began to assemble
silently and cautiously. It was agreed that M. Juillerat
Chasseur should perform the service, though such was his
conviction of danger that he entreated his wife, and some of his
flock, to remain with their families. The temple being opened
only as a matter of form, and in compliance with the orders of
the duke d'Angouleme, this pastor wished to be the only victim.
On his way to the place he passed numerous groups who regarded
him with ferocious looks. "This is the time," said some, "to
give them the last blow." "Yes," added others, "and neither
women nor children must be spared." One wretch, raising his
voice above the rest, exclaimed, "Ah, I will go and get my
musket, and ten for my share." Through these ominous sounds M.
Juillerat pursued his course, but when he gained the temple the
sexton had not the courage to open the door, and he was obliged
to do it himself. As the worshippers arrived they found strange
persons in possession of the adjacent streets, and upon the steps
of the church, vowing their worship should not be performed, and
crying, "Down with the Protestants! kill them! kill them!" At
ten o'clock the church being nearly filled, M.J. Chasseur
commenced the prayers; a calm that succeeded was of short
duration. On a sudden the minister was interrupted by a violent
noise, and a number of persons entered, uttering the most
dreadful cries, mingled with Vive le Roi! but the gendarmed
succeeded in excluding these fanatics, and closing the doors.
The noise and tumult without now redoubled, and the blows of the
populace trying to break open the doors, caused the house to
resound with shrieks and groans. The voice of the pastors who
endeavored to console their flock, was inaudible; they attempted
in vain to sing the Forty-second Psalm.
Three quarters of an hour rolled heavily away. "I placed
myself," said Madame Juillerat, "at the bottom of the pulpit,
with my daughter in my arms; my husband at length joined and
sustained me; I remembered that it was the anniversary of my
marriage. After six years of happiness, I said, I am about to
die with my husband and my daughter; we shall be slain at the
altar of our God, the victims of a sacred duty, and heaven will
open to receive us and our unhappy brethren. I blessed the
Redeemer, and without cursing our murderers, I awaited their
approach."
M. Oliver, son of a pastor, an officer in the royal troops
of the line, attempted to leave the church, but the friendly
sentinels at the door advised him to remain besieged with the
rest. The national guards refused to act, and the fanatical
crowd took every advantage of the absence of General La Garde,
and of their increasing numbers. At length the sound of martial
music was heard, and voices from without called to the beseiged,
"Open, open, and save yourselves!" Their first impression was a
fear of treachery, but they were soon assured that a detachment
returning from Mass was drawn up in front of the church to favor
the retreat of the Protestants. The door was opened, and many of
them escaped among the ranks of the soldiers, who had driven the
mob before them; but this street, as well as others through which
the fugitives had to pass, was soon filled again. The venerable
pastor, Olivier Desmond, between seventy and eighty years of age,
was surrounded by murderers; they put their fists in his face,
and cried, "Kill the chief of brigands." He was preserved by the
firmness of some officers, among whom was his own son; they made
a bulwark round him with their bodies, and amidst their naked
sabers conducted him to his house. M. Juillerat, who had
assisted at drivine service with his wife at his side and his
child in his arms, was pursued and assailed with stones, his
mother received a blow on the head, and her life was some time in
danger. One woman was shamefully whipped, and several wounded
and dragged along the streets; the number of Protestants more or
less ill treated on this occasion amounted to between seventy and
eighty.
Murder of General La Garde
At length a check was put to these excesses by the report of
the murder of Count LaGarde, who, receiving an account of this
tumult, mounted his horse, and entered one of the streets, to
disperse a crowd. A villain seized his bridle; another presented
the muzzle of a pistol close to his body, and exclaimed, "Wretch,
you make me retire!" He immediately fired. The murderer was
Louis Boissin, a sergeant in the national guard; but, though
known to everyone, no person endeavored to arrest him, and he
effected his escape. As soon as the general found himself
wounded, he gave orders to the gendarmerie to protect the
Protestants, and set off on a gallop to his hotel; but fainted
immediately on his arrival. On recovering, he prevented the
surgeon from searching his wound until he had written a letter to
the government, that, in case of his death, it might be known
from what quarter the blow came, and that none might dare to
accuse the Protestants of the crime.
The probable death of this general produced a small degree
of relaxation on the part of their enemies, and some calm; but
the mass of the people had been indulged in licentiousness too
long to be restrained even by the murder of the representative of
their king. In the evening they again repaired to the temple,
and with hatchets broke open the door; the dismal noise of their
blows carried terror into the bosom of the Protestant families
sitting in their houses in tears. The contents of the poor box,
and the clothes prepared for distribution, were stolen; the
minister's robes rent in pieces; the books torn up or carried
away; the closets were ransacked, but the rooms which contained
the archives of the church, and the synods, were providentially
secured; and had it not been for the numerous patrols on foot,
the whole would have become the prey of the flames, and the
edifice itself a heap of ruins. In the meanwhile, the fanatics
openly ascribed the murder of the general to his own
self-devotion, and said, 'that iw as the will of God.' Three
thousand francs were offered for the apprehension of Boissin; but
it was well known that the Protestants dared not arrest him, and
that the fanatics would not. During these transactions, the
system of forced conversions to Catholicism was making regular
and fearful progress.
Interference of the British Government
To the credit of England, the report of these cruel
persecutions carried on against our Protestant brethren in
France, produced such a senation on the part of the government as
determined them to interfere; and now the persecutors of the
Protestants made this spontaneous act of humanity and religion
the pretext for charging the sufferers with a treasonable
correspondence with England; but in this sate of their
proceedings, to their great dismay, a letter appeared, sent some
time before to England by the duke of Wellington, stating that
'much information existed on the events of the south.'
The ministers of the three denominations in London, anxious
not to be misled, requested one of their brethren to visit the
scenes of persecution, and examine with impartiality the nature
and extent of the evils they were desirous to relieve. Rev.
Clement Perot undertook this difficult task, and fulfilled their
wishes with a zeal, prudence, and devotedness, above all praise.
His return furnished abundant and incontestable proof of a
shameful persecution, materials for an appeal to the British
Parliament, and a printed report which was circulated through the
continent, and which first conveyed correct information to the
inhabitants of France.
Foreign interference was now found eminently useful; and the
declarations of tolerance which it elicited from the French
government, as well as the more cautious march of the Catholic
persecutors, operated as decisive and involuntary acknowledgments
of the importance of that interference, which some persons at
first censured and despised, put through the stern voice of
public opinion in England and elsewhere produced a resultant
suspension of massacre and pillage, the murderers and plunderers
were still left unpunished, and even caressed and rewarded for
their crimes; and whilst Protestants in France suffered the most
cruel and degrading pains and penalties for alleged trifling
crimes, Catholics, covered with blood, and guilty of numerous and
horrid murders, were acquitted.
Perhaps the virtuous indignation expressed by some of the
more enlightened Catholics against these abominable proceedings,
had no small share in restraining them. Many innocent
Protestants had been condemned to the galleys and otherwise
punished for supposed crimes, upon the oaths of wretches the most
unprincipled and abandoned. M. Madier de Mongau, judge of the
cour royale of Nismes, and president of the cour d'assizes of the
Gard and Vaucluse, upon one occasion felt himself compelled to
break up the court, rather than take the deposition of that
notorious and sanguinary monster, Truphemy: "In a hall," says
he, "of the Palace of Justice, opposite that in which I sat,
several unfortunate persons persecuted by the faction were upon
trial, every deposition tending to their crimination was
applauded with the cries of Vive le Roi! Three times the
explosion of this atrocious joy became so terrible that it was
necessary to send for reinforcements from the barracks, and two
hundred soldiers were often unable to restrain the people. On a
sudden the shouts and cries of Vive le Roi! redoubled: a man
arrived, caressed, appluaded, borne in triumph--it was the
horrible Truphemy; he approached the tribunal--he came to depose
against the prisoners--he was admitted as a witness--he raised
his hand to take the oath! Seized with horror at the sight, I
rushed from my seat, and entered the hall of council; my
colleagues followed me; in vain they persuaded me to resume my
seat; 'No!' exclaimed I, 'I will not consent to see that wretch
admitted to give evidence in a court of justice in the city which
he has filled with murders; in the palace, on the steps of which
he has murdered the unfortunate Bourillon. I cannot admit that
he should kill his victims by his testimonies no more than by his
poignards. He an accuser! he a witness! No, never will I consent
to see this monster rise, in the presence of magistrates, to take
a sacrilegious oath, his hand still reeking with blood.' These
words were repeated out of doors; the witness trembled; the
factious also trembled; the factious who guided the tongue of
Truphemy as they had directed his arm, who dictated calumny after
they had taught him murder. These words penetrated the dungeons
of the condemned, and inspired hope; they gave another couragious
advocate the resolution to espouse the cause of the persecuted;
he carried the prayers of innocence and misery to the foot of the
throne; there he asked if the evidence of a Truphemy was not
sufficient to annul a sentence. The king granted a full and free
pardon."
Ultimate Resolution of the Proestants at Nismes
With respect to the conduct of the Protestants, these highly
outraged citizens, pushed to extremities by their persecutors,
felt at length that they had only to choose the manner in which
they were to perish. They unanimously determined that they would
die fighting in their own defense. This firm attitude apprised
their butchers that they could no longer murder with impunity.
Everything was immediately changed. Those, who for four years
had filled others with terror, now felt it in their turn. They
trembled at the force which men, so long resigned, found in
despair, and their alarm was heightened when they heard that the
inhabitants of the Cevennes, persuaded of the danger of their
brethren, were marching to their assistance. But, without
waiting for these reinforcements, the Protestants appeared at
night in the same order and armed in the same manner as their
enemies. The others paraded the Boulevards, with their usual
noise and fury, but the Protestants remained silent and firm in
the posts they had chosen. Three days these dangerous and
ominous meetings continued; but the effusion of blood was
prevented by the efforts of some worthy citizens distinguished by
their rank and fortune. By sharing the dangers of the Protestant
population, they obtained the pardon of an enemy who now trembled
while he menaced.
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Matthew 14:9 (KJV)