DESTRUCTION OF THE CASTLES—JOY IN GENEVA—LIBERATION OF BONIVARD.
(FROM FEBRUARY TO THE END OF MARCH 1536.)
There was now to be an interview between the liberators and the
liberated. Berne and Geneva, united by a common faith, were to embrace
each other. The members of those two republics loved one another not
only as allies but as brothers. On Thursday (February 3d) the Council of
Two Hundred assembled; many other citizens were present, and the hall
was full. Nägueli appeared, accompanied by his principal officers and
the representatives of the Council of Berne. The assembly gave utterance
to its joy, and all eyes were fixed on the valiant general. 'Most
honored lords,' he said, 'this long while past we have heard your
complaints. For these twenty months we have been making great efforts at
Lucerne, Baden, and even Aosta; and having thus exhausted all the means
of peace, we have drawn the sword, and the enemy has fled on every side.
Now we will do whatever you command us, for we are here to fulfil the
oaths that unite Geneva and Berne.' Such noble language moved the
assembly. 'May God do the same for you,' replied the premier syndic.
Then desiring the work to be perfect, he added: 'Now, gentlemen, march
onwards; pursue the enemy until the end; we are ready to give you all
necessary assistance.' It was decided that the army should make itself
master of Chablais on the left shore of the lake, and push forward on
the other side as far as Chambery. In all those districts they would
circulate the Word of God.[725]
[Sidenote: BURNING OF THE CASTLES.]
There was first another task to be completed. For centuries the castles
had obstructed the progress of civilization, and in later years that of
the gospel. It was from those eyries, perched on their lofty rocks, that
the vultures swooped down upon the plain. Bishops even had been known to
entreat the princes to destroy, 'for the love of God and the honor of
the blessed Mary, those buildings constructed by the inspiration of
Satan.'[726] This the evangelical Nägueli was about to do, and
henceforth the husbandman would drive his plow in peace through fields
from which he would no longer fear to see the fruit of his labors swept
away.
The inhabitants of the castles had disappeared: fear of the Bernese had
depopulated the country. Men, women, and children had taken refuge in
the miserable chalets of the Salève, Voirons, Mole, and Jura. Priests
and monks, hurriedly abandoning their parishes and their convents, threw
off their frocks and assumed the garb of the peasantry. 'Not one man in
all the country dared represent himself as a priest or a monk.' Every
now and then one of them dressed in a coarse gray coat would leave his
hiding-place, and mysteriously entering some half-deserted hut, would
ask the affrighted peasant 'what the bear of Berne was doing.' 'But take
care,' he added, 'you tell nobody that I am a priest.' The clerical and
lay despots of the Middle Ages learnt in their turn what it was to
tremble.
At length a great spectacle of desolation, which was to be the last,
began. A judgment—may we not call it a judgment of God?—was
accomplished. Here and there at first a few flames were seen flashing
forth, and these soon became an immense conflagration. Detachments,
consisting of Bernese and Genevans, issued from the city: some turned to
the right, others to the left; the ancient walls of some old towers were
their aim. 'It was from thence,' said the Genevans, 'that rapine and
death have so often rushed out upon us.' The building was surrounded,
the most impetuous made their way into the interior and set fire to it,
and when the flames had caught they rushed off for another execution.
These detachments were followed by a numerous troop of men, women, and
boys, who had their share also in the business. The judgment of God
swept over the country, as of old over the land of Canaan. The
fortresses of Gex, Gaillard, and Jussy, those terrible scourges of
Geneva; the castles of Coppet, Prangins, Bellerive, Vilette,
Ville-la-Grand, and many others, fell a prey to the flames. They were in
all, according to Froment, from a hundred to a hundred and forty. Geneva
was sometimes surrounded by a circle of fire. The longer and crueller
the offence, the more terrible was the punishment. No one was put to
death, but those feudal lairs, which crumbled away in the midst of the
flames, were a sacrifice offered by the Swiss to the shades of the
citizens immolated by their former possessors.
[Sidenote: DESTRUCTION OF PENEY.]
There was one castle in particular whose destruction the Genevans
desired: it was Peney. On the 8th of February some Bernese, accompanied
by a few horsemen and gunners of Geneva, started for this purpose. The
blood shed by the Peneysans and their numberless outrages made them cry
out unanimously, 'No mercy for Peney!' The almost abandoned fortress was
easily occupied. A fire was kindled in that courtyard where the victims
had been so cruelly tortured. The castle was soon in flames, and there
remained nothing but dismantled towers and blackened walls; but that was
not enough. Those walls still seemed guilty, and the Genevans so
completely destroyed the ill-omened ruin that not a trace of it can now
be found. All the country was at length swept clean of a long-continued
brigandage; but (we repeat) it does not appear that one of those
gentlemen or of their dependents suffered death or even imprisonment for
their crimes. The device of Geneva and of Berne during this remarkable
expedition was: 'Spare the tyrants, but destroy their dens.'[727]
At the same time peace reigned within. A spirit of pardon seemed to have
descended upon the Genevans. Happiness enlarged all their hearts. On
Sunday (February 6th) sermons were preached in the different churches by
the reformers; after which the great bell, Clémence, reserved for solemn
occasions, summoned all the people to St. Pierre's. It was, as it were,
the first day of the new republic. 'Citizens,' said one of the syndics,
'in order that the city may prosper we must believe what the Gospel
teaches and live according to its commandments. Accordingly—and this is
our new decree—let all the animosities which sprang up during the war be
renounced; all offences pardoned, all quarrels forgotten, all lawsuits
given up. Let us drop all hateful names. Let no man henceforth say to
another, "You are a papist," or the latter reply, "You are a Lutheran."
But let us all live according to the Holy Gospel of God,' Such were the
first fruits of the Reformation. 'We will! we will!' shouted the people.
They then proceeded to the election of the four syndics who were to be
at the head of the new republic. The assembly chose the energetic Claude
Savoye, the amiable and persevering Ami Porral, and the zealous Etienne
de Chapeaurouge, men on the side of the Reformation but especially of
political experience. The people, wishing to have among their
magistrates one man purely evangelical, named Ami Levet, the husband of
the pious Claudine, although he was not on the list proposed by the
senate. Shortly afterwards the Two Hundred elected the twenty-five
members of the Council, and Balard, as well as Richardet,
Roman-catholics but good citizens, preserved their seats. In the hour of
their greatest enthusiasm the Genevans behaved justly and without
party-spirit—a thing rarely witnessed in the annals of nations.[728]
On the evening before, Nägueli, at the head of the army, augmented by a
Genevese contingent, had marched out in order to follow up his victory
as far as Chambery and _farther_. Ambitious thoughts may then perhaps
have stirred the hearts of some of the Bernese. For the triumph of the
Reformation (they might possibly have said for the grandeur of Berne)
they thought that Savoy, and even the north of Italy, ought to be
conquered. Let there be formed in the centre of Europe, on both sides of
the colossal citadels of the Alps, a great confederation of independent
and evangelical people, which shall circulate liberty and truth through
Germany, France, and the Italian peninsula. Therefore forward to
Chambery, and _farther_!
The dream was to melt away as soon as formed. The general was riding in
front, calm and pensive, followed by some of his officers. He turned his
head—there was no army to be seen. Nägueli galloped back towards Geneva,
and found his soldiers drawn up in a square in a large field and
deliberating democratically. What was the cause of such a breach of
military discipline? The soldiers, satisfied with having delivered
Geneva, did not care to follow their captain in his daring schemes. They
deliberated therefore, as they were wont to do in their valleys. Should
they march forward or turn back? 'To Berne,' cried many; 'to our fields,
our flocks, our mountains!' Nägueli succeeded, however, in getting the
army to march. Was he not their _good Franz_?[729]
[Sidenote: THE FRENCH INVADE SAVOY.]
On Saturday, 12th of February, the Swiss advanced guard had reached
Rumilly, near the lake of Bourget, eight leagues from Chambery, when M.
de Villebon, grand provost of Paris, arrived in great haste at the camp.
'The king my master,' he said, 'has a quarrel with the duke of Savoy,
his uncle, about his mother's rights. Yesterday (February 11th) he
signed at Lyons the commission given to the Sire de Brion-Chabot,
admiral of France, to attack Savoy. Eight hundred French lances, a
thousand light horse, twelve thousand infantry, six thousand
lansquenets, two thousand French adventurers, three thousand Italians,
and a powerful artillery are about to enter the states of the duchy; and
when Savoy is conquered, the French army will invade Piedmont. I require
you, therefore, in the name of the king, to proceed no farther.'
Nägueli, already shaken by the demands of his soldiers, answered that as
the King of France had rights over those countries, the Swiss would
discontinue their advance.[730]
[Sidenote: LAST YEARS OF THE DUKE.]
Other hands than those of Switzerland were to deal the last blows
destined to secure the Reformation and independence of Geneva. Villebon
had hardly got back to Lyons, when the army of Francis I. moved forward,
overran Bresse and Savoy, then invaded Piedmont, and afterwards the
Milanese. The duke, always irresolute, had taken no steps to check the
French. It was in vain that at the last moment he called Medici to his
aid; that captain, who had been unable to destroy Geneva, could not save
Piedmont. Charles III., abandoned by the emperor, his brother-in-law,
found himself, after spending thirty years of his life in hunting down
Geneva, robbed in four months of his states, which he never entered
again, and driven to bay on the shores of the Mediterranean. All kinds
of disasters fell upon him at once. His country was devastated by the
plague; his friends turned against him; the emperor showed him no pity;
his son, the heir to his crown, was taken away by death; his beautiful
and haughty wife, Beatrice of Portugal, pierced to the heart by so many
misfortunes, died of a wasting sickness. Of all his states there was
nothing left but the valley of Aosta, Nice, and two or three other
cities. Alone and affrighted, this unhappy prince dragged out a
wearisome life. He regretted his son, regretted his wife, regretted his
states. His heated imagination surrounded him with phantoms; Geneva,
which, unopposed, was developing her glorious and new existence, was to
him an avenging ghost. He fell ill: he broke out in sweats; he shivered
with cold; his eyes grew dim and his face pale; he wasted away of a slow
fever. After a punishment of twenty-three years, death, the consequence
of his reverses and his sorrows, put an end to the painful existence of
the great enemy of Genevese independence and of the Reformation.[731]
His son, Emanuel Philibert, a man of great capacity, recovered his
states; but having many evils to repair, he adopted a pacific policy
with regard to Geneva. Forty-four years of peace permitted the
Reformation and the new republic to strengthen and organize themselves.
God gives to the people and the churches, whom he designs to make use
of, the time necessary for their development.
While these things were going on, dangers less apparent, but as great as
they were unexpected, threatened Geneva. As the Bernese desired to reap
advantage from the help accorded to the little republic, their
ambassadors put forward certain pretensions, which they set up a little
later with respect to Lausanne and Vaud, and which were then too easily
conceded. The lords of Berne, regardless of the reproach that might be
urged against them of having consulted merely their own interests in the
expedition, hinted to the council of Geneva that they ought to have
their reward, and asked that the rights and prerogatives of the duke and
the bishop should be transferred to them. Such a demand revolted the
proud independence of the Genevese, and they rejected the sovereignty of
Berne with as much decision as they had rejected that of Savoy. 'If we
had desired to have a master,' they answered with firmness, 'we should
have spared ourselves all the trouble, expense, and bloodshed of which
we have been so prodigal to secure our independence.' Berne was forced
to give way before a resolution that appeared immovable. When Nägueli
re-entered Geneva, after having taken the Fort de l'Ecluse on returning
from his short campaign, he was surprised to meet with a cold and
embarrassed reception, very different from the former enthusiastic
welcome. The noble general, who did not like such discussions, gave
immediate orders for the departure of his army.
There was still a great work to be accomplished. In conformity with the
instructions of the Bernese government, Nägueli was to break the twofold
yoke of the pope and the duke which pressed heavily upon the territory
of Vaud. His troops marched into that country without resistance, and
took Yverdun, in which the intrepid Mangerot had fortified himself. In a
short time cities, villages, and castles submitted; a few towns, tired
of the Savoyard rule, desired to be annexed to Berne. Others, especially
Lausanne and some rural districts, wished to retain all their rights;
but they gave way, when the Bernese promised to respect their
franchises. Under any circumstances it was a good work to take away from
the pope and unite to Switzerland the beautiful country that extends
from the lake of Geneva to that of Neuchâtel. Nägueli re-entered Berne
in peace, and his soldiers, proud of a four weeks' campaign that was to
have such important consequences, gave vent to their exultation, and
concluded their songs with this line:
Respecte l'ours, ou bien crains les oursons.[732]
The work appeared to be accomplished. The city of the Reformation
thrilled with joy, and exulted in the air of liberty and of the Gospel.
Here and there, however, sorrows and regrets remained. Many hearts were
wrung, and many an eye was turned with mortification in the direction of
Chillon, where Bonivard had been languishing for six years. He had done
so much to give liberty to Geneva, and he alone was not free. He was
pining away, imprisoned within those rocks, which, excavated below the
level of the lake, form a gigantic sepulchre. A loophole permitted a
feeble ray of light to enter the dungeon, and the prisoner, while
walking slowly round the column to which he was chained, delighted to
turn his eyes towards that side, and sometimes contemplated (according
to tradition) a little bird, which used to perch on the iron bars of the
narrow opening. At the slightest noise, the bird flew off to the wood
behind the castle, or skimmed away over the surface of the lake. The
bird was free; but Bonivard was in chains. 'I had such leisure for
walking,' he said, 'that I wore away a path in the rock, as if it had
been done with a hammer.'[733] When he was seized by the perfidious
hands of his enemies he had said: 'I am going alone, with God, to suffer
my passion!' And suffer it he did. But while his body and heart
suffered, his mind was at work. Some of the thoughts which then occupied
him have been recorded by his own hand: _Live in remembrance of
death_,—_Courage increases by wounds_, and such like. For five or six
months the Genevan envoys, so traitorously seized at Coppet, had also
been imprisoned at Chillon, but not in the underground dungeons.
[Sidenote: CHILLON ATTACKED.]
Such iniquities could not be tolerated. Berne again took up her
_fire-sticks_, and Geneva prepared her boats. On the 20th of March one
hundred armed men were embarked on four war cutters and other vessels.
The Genevese councils had given the command to Francis Favre and Francis
Chamois. All the citizens would have liked to march in person to Chillon
to set Bonivard and the plenipotentiaries at liberty. On the day of
sailing, everybody left their houses, and from an agitated crowd
assembled near the Rhone, there rose a universal cry, 'Rescue the
captives!'
On Sunday morning—it was the 26th of March—Bonivard being as usual in
his dungeon, pricked up his ears. He fancied he heard an unaccustomed
noise; he was not mistaken. Loud but still distant cannon shots
re-echoed through the vaults of his prison. What was going on? It was
the artillery of Berne which, on its arrival at Lutry, between Lausanne
and Chillon, announced its presence. But that signal of deliverance was
to be the signal of death to Bonivard and the three envoys. 'If the
Bernese appear before the place,' wrote the duke of Savoy to the
governor, 'you will give the prisoners of Geneva the estrapade twice,
and then put them to death without hesitation.'[734] The duke intended
that the deliverers should find nothing but corpses.
The next morning (27th of March) Chillon was surrounded. Berne had drawn
up her troops and planted her guns below the village of Veytaux, between
the castle and Montreux. The Valaisans, although catholics, had also
taken up arms to expel the duke from their neighborhood, and had placed
their artillery on the Villeneuve side; the Genevans blockaded the
castle from the lake. The batteries opened fire, and the governor
perceiving that all resistance was useless, demanded a parley at
nightfall. Nägueli, Favre, and some other captains assembled at the foot
of a steep rock between the castle and the Bernese batteries, to receive
his deputies; but as they could not come at once to terms, the
conference was prolonged. The garrison, by no means anxious to fall into
the hands of the Swiss, determined to take advantage of this momentary
respite and of the veil of night, to make their escape. Silently they
crept on board the great galley; not a voice, not a sound of arms was
heard, and having thus mysteriously got away, they made rapidly towards
Savoy. When Favre was informed of it, he went immediately on board his
boat, which was moored to the shore, and hastened in pursuit of the
enemy; but before he could get up with them, they had thrown their
cannons into the lake, set fire to the galley, and from Lugrin, where
they landed, hurried into the Savoyard Alps below the Dents d'Oche. Had
they taken Bonivard and the three plenipotentiaries with them? It was a
question that could not be answered, and Favre, ill at ease, veered
round and returned to Chillon.[735]
[Sidenote: BONIVARD LIBERATED.]
The governor had surrendered just as he arrived. Nägueli, on leaving
Berne, had written to him that he should answer with his head for the
lives of the prisoners: he had, therefore, some hope of recovering them.
Favre, Chamois, and the other Genevans hastily sprang from their boats,
entered the castle, and in a minute they embraced the three envoys. But
where was Bonivard? They seized the keys of the vaults, unlocked a sunk
door, and entered. It was the hall of execution: beneath its rude arches
were wheels, axes, pulleys, cords, and all the horrible instruments with
which men were crippled or killed. The Genevans, without stopping, ran
to the door of an inner vault, undid the bars, pulled back the bolts.
The friends of the prior of Saint Victor sprang over the threshold,
rushed into the gloomy dungeon, reached the column. 'Here he is! he is
alive!' Bonivard fell into their arms. His friends found it difficult to
recognize him. The features changed by suffering, the long unkempt
beard, the hair falling over his shoulders—had changed his
appearance.[736] 'Bonivard,' they said to him, 'Bonivard, you are free!'
The prisoner, who seemed to be waking from a long sleep, did not think
of himself: his first words were for the city he had loved so much. 'And
Geneva?' he asked. 'Geneva is free too,' they replied. His chains were
taken off, and, conducted by his friends, he crossed the door of that
vast prison. The bright light which burst upon him affected his eyes
which had been deprived of it for so many years, and he turned them
mechanically towards the gloom of his dungeon. At last he recovered
himself and bade farewell to his sepulchre. The crowd looked at him for
some moments with emotion, and then rushed into that dismal cell, where
the wretched man had suffered so long. Every one desired to see it, and
for ages yet to come the traveller will visit it. The illustrious
prisoner was delivered; the last fortress of tyranny was captured; the
victory of the Reformation was complete. No traveller wandering along
the picturesque shore of Montreux can fail to look at those walls,
rising out of the water, without a feeling of horror for despotism and
of gratitude for the Gospel. Those rocks, so long the witnesses of
oppression, are now hailed with emotion and joy by the friends of the
Word of God and liberty.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar.[737]
The flotilla was soon sailing back to Geneva with Bonivard and the three
parlementaires on board. They were returning joyously through the help
from on high, and in a short time they landed from their boats amid the
joyful shouts of their fellow-citizens, and placed their feet on a free
soil.[738]
[725] Registres du Conseil du 3 Février 1536.—Froment, _Gestes de
Genève_, pp. 210, 211, 213.
[726] Letter from Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, to King Robert.—Guizot,
_Civilisation en Europe_, p. 313.
[727] 'Epargnons les tyrans; abattons leurs repaires.'—Registres du
Conseil des 14 Mars et 4 Avril 1536.—Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, pp.
211, 212.—MSC. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 61.—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 82.
[728] Registres du Conseil du 6 Février.—MSC. de Roset, liv. iii.
ch. 62.—From this day the Council minutes are drawn up in French and not
in Latin. The old times are succeeded by the new.
[729] Mémoires de Pierre-Fleur, p. 146.
[730] Guichenon, ii. p. 212.—Froment, _Gestes de Genève_,
p. 214.—Stettler, _Chronik_, p. 85.—MSC. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 61.
[731] Costa de Beauregard, _Mémoires de la Maison de Savoie_, pp.
323-327.—Du Bellay, Guichenon, Calvin, _passim_.
[732] 'Respect the bear, or fear his cubs.'—Chant de la Guerre de
Genève.—Mémoires de Pierre-Fleur, pp. 148-152.—Stettler, _Chronik_,
p. 87.
[733] 'J'avois tel loysir de me pourmener, que j'empreignis un chemin en
la roche, comme si on l'eût fait avec un martel.'—This pathway is well
known to all who have visited Chillon.
[734] Bonivard MS.—Mémoires d'Archéologie, iv. p. 207.—Mémoires de
Pierre-Fleur, p. 153.
[735] Bonivard MS.—Mémoires d'Archéologie. iv. p. 207.—Mémoires de
Pierre-Fleur, p. 153.—Registres du Conseil du 29 Mars 1536.
[736] 'Era divenuto difforme, con un volto tutto coperto da un gran pelo
et da lunghi capelli.'—Leti, _Hist. Giverrina_, tom. iii.—Mémoires
d'Archéologie, p. 269.
[737] Lord Byron, _The Prisoner of Chillon_.
[738] Registres du Conseil _ad diem_.