EZ-LIBR.
It was close on midnight. The moon, now on the wane, had just risen in a
cloudless sky. Hardly had the silvery crescent lifted itself above the
horizon when the parish bells, spread over an area of about ten square
leagues round about the burg of Plouernel sounded the tocsin at their
loudest. At the signal, a troop of peasants armed with hatchets,
hay-forks, scythes and old halberds, and preceded by a sort of vanguard
consisting of fifty men armed with muskets, sallied out of the burg of
Plouernel. They followed in silence the long avenue that led to the iron
gate of the court of honor before the castle. At the head of this
vanguard marched Gildas Lebrenn, the leasehold peasant of Karnak, Madok
the miller, three leasehold peasants of the domain of Plouernel itself,
and Tankeru. Tankeru carried, flung over his shoulder, his heavy
blacksmith's hammer into the head of which he had cut the Breton words:
EZ-LIBR--To Be Free. His arms were bare; in the pocket of his leathern
apron was a roll of paper partly visible above the edge. The light of
the moon illumined Tankeru's face. In two nights the sturdy man's hair
had turned grey. His features were hardly recognizable since Tina's
death. Despair had left its stamp upon them. He stopped at about a
hundred paces from the iron gate of the castle, and said to Madok in a
hollow voice:
"We swore to Salaun Lebrenn that we would follow his advice and place
justice on our side before coming to blows, and to submit the Peasant
Code for the approval of the Seigneur Count. Perhaps he has already
hanged Salaun; but, dead or alive, Salaun has our word. We shall keep
it! Tell our men to stop at the avenue. We shall enter the castle
unarmed."
The order was given and executed. The vanguard, together with the troop
of armed vassals, halted under the trees of the avenue. Tankeru and his
five companions advanced to the iron gate, which closed the entrance to
the court of honor and stood between two pavilions, where the gateman or
porter was housed. The vestibule and all the windows on the first floor
of the castle could be seen brilliantly illuminated. Tankeru drew near
the gate and called:
"Halloa! Porter! Porter! Come out!"
The porter, clad in a rich livery, came out of one of the pavilions, and
approaching Tankeru, inquired:
"Who goes there? What do you want?"
"We want to speak with your master, and on the spot. Open the gate of
the castle."
"You, clown?" answered the porter, with the insolence of a lackey, as he
spied through the iron bars the blacksmith and his companions, all of
whom were poorly clad. "Go your ways! Go, barefooted rabble! If you
don't, I shall take my cane and come out--and then, look to your backs!"
"If you do not open, I shall force the gate!" cried Tankeru to the
porter, who started to return to his pavilion grumbling.
Tankeru seized his hammer in both his hands, swung it, and with one blow
snapped the lock of the gate. It flew open. The frightened porter ran
towards the winding staircase of the castle, shouting:
"Help!"
The six vassals entered the court of honor, and walked across it at a
rapid pace. Suddenly Tankeru stopped. His eyes had caught sight of three
gibbets, recently reared, as shown by the fresh earth that was thrown up
at their feet. He called Gildas's attention to the instruments of death,
and said:
"We arrive on time! The gibbets are intended for Salaun, his friend
Serdan, and--"
The blacksmith did not mention the name of Nominoe. His features
contracted and assumed a frightful expression. The robust man smothered
a sob, clenched with convulsive rage the handle of his heavy hammer, and
pursued his march a few stops ahead of his companions.
The frightened gateman rushed into the vestibule of the castle where a
large number of other lackeys were playing cards. Among the gamesters
was Sergeant La Montagne and his corporal. The soldiers of his
detachment, tired out with their recent tramp, were resting in one of
the adjoining out-buildings.
"A number of vassals have forced open the gate!" shouted the porter as
he tumbled in. "They demand to see monseigneur immediately! Go and tell
the Count, and ask his orders!"
One of the lackeys ran off to carry the news to his master. The Count
was at that moment discussing with his bailiffs, Abbot Boujaron and the
Marchioness of Tremblay the sentence that was to be pronounced upon the
three "murderers" early next morning. At first stupefied at the audacity
of his vassals, the Count bounded up with indignation, and left the
hall, followed by his bailiffs and Abbot Boujaron. As the Abbot crossed
the vestibule he perceived Sergeant La Montagne, stepped towards him,
and gave him a few hurried instructions in a low voice. The sergeant
forthwith called to him his corporal, and both left the antechamber by
an inside staircase. With his arm in a sling, followed by his bailiffs,
and surrounded by a bevy of gallooned lackeys carrying torches in their
hands, the Count of Plouernel presented himself upon the stairway of the
castle at the moment when Tankeru was ascending the lower steps. The
blacksmith and his friends had reached the middle of the stairs when the
Abbot said in an undertone to the young Count of Plouernel:
"Gain time--a quarter of an hour, or if but ten minutes. The sergeant
has gone out to wake up the soldiers and arm them, together with the
forester guards. We shall bag the whole pack."
The Count of Plouernel nodded with his head approvingly to the Abbot,
and addressed his vassals in an angry tone:
"Wretches, who forced the gate of my court! What do you want? What do
you come for?"
"You shall know in a minute, monseigneur," answered Tankeru in a firm
voice as he drew the scroll of paper from the pocket of his leathern
apron. While so doing, he ascended the steps that separated him from the
landing where the Count of Plouernel stood, and handed him the writing:
"Read this, if you please, monseigneur."
"What is this silly paper that you hand me, rustic?"
"It is the PEASANT CODE, monseigneur. Our code, the code of the poor, of
the rustics, as you call us, Count of Plouernel."
"In other words, ye clowns, you presume to discuss!"
"Monseigneur," replied Tankeru, "we here are six honorable men who are
delegated by your vassals of Mezlean and Plouernel. In that writing,
which contains the Peasant Code, we humbly present our grievances, and
we endeavor to lay down, as clearly as is in our power, the rules that
it may please you to observe towards us, monseigneur, from this day on.
It is in great humbleness that we present our code to you, monseigneur."
"A code! Rules dictated by this rustic rabble!" stammered the Count of
Plouernel, beside himself with rage. "The audacity! Is it insolence,
carried to a climax? Is it folly? Or are these clowns simply drunk? Go
back, rustics! Back to your work!"
"Humor the miscreants," whispered the Abbot to the Count; "entertain
them, gain time; the soldiers and the foresters must be here soon--we
must bag the whole pack."
"Indeed, my clowns. You present your grievances?" proceeded the Count of
Plouernel, thus admonished, with supreme disdain not unmixed with
stupefaction. "So you have drawn up rules that it may please me to
observe towards you! The grievances of this plebs must be droll to
read!"
"We have taken the liberty, monseigneur, to submit our grievances to
you. We are at the end of our endurance; this must change! In short, we
demand of you no longer to be treated worse than draft animals; we
demand of you, monseigneur, no longer to be driven with sticks applied
to our backs; we demand of you, monseigneur, no longer to be overwhelmed
with taxes imposed at your _good pleasure_; we demand of you,
monseigneur, no longer to be thrown into prison, whipped with switches,
sent to the galleys, or hanged if we kill your stags, or your boars,
when they enter our fields and ravage our crops; finally, we demand of
you--but read the paper, monseigneur, and you will see that all we ask
is Justice--read the Peasant Code! Accept it; it will not ruin you--far
from it! But then at least, we and our families would no longer die of
hunger, neither worse nor better than foundered horses! We shall still
continue to work for you from dawn to dusk, monseigneur, you will still
have the larger share, we the smaller;--but then you would allow us to
live as the creatures of the good God should live! Accept the Peasant
Code, monseigneur; sign it; be, then, faithful to your signature, and
we will be faithful to our agreement--it will mean peace--a good peace
for you and for our families."
"Ho! Ho!" broke in the Count of Plouernel, whom the audacity of his
vassals threw into all manner of wrathful transports. "So, then, if I
accept your code, we shall have peace? Whence it follows that, in case I
refuse--please complete your sentence!"
"'Sdeath! It will then be war, monseigneur! And, take notice, it will
then be your fault, not ours," answered Tankeru resolutely. "Finally, in
order to cancel the whole bill, we demand of you that it may please you
to set free three prisoners whom you are holding in the castle. You
intend to have them hanged. Well, monseigneur, you must deliver them to
us, if you please; they must be set free--without further delay. If
not--"
"If not?" cried the Count of Plouernel at the end of his patience. "If I
refuse to set the prisoners free, what will you do? Please answer,
miserable fellow! What will you do? I would like to know!"
"'Sdeath! Monseigneur, we shall set them free ourselves! We shall open
the war. It will be you who will have made the choice!"
"This is too much!" cried the Count of Plouernel. But suddenly breaking
off and listening to windward, he turned to the Abbot and asked: "Is not
that the ringing of the tocsin that I hear from afar?"
"Yes, monseigneur," observed Tankeru in a hollow voice that now waxed
threatening. "With the rise of the moon, the tocsin was rung in all the
parishes of your seigniories of Plouernel and Mezlean--it is now ringing
at Rennes--at Nantes--at Quimper, where the fight is on. Everywhere the
revolt is on--war everywhere--in case our seigneurs refuse to accept the
Peasant Code. Decide on the spot!"
And pointing with his hand in the direction of the avenue to the castle,
where the troop of armed vassals was assembled, the blacksmith added:
"All the people of Plouernel and other parishes are yonder under arms;
they are waiting for your answer, monseigneur! It will be peace, if you
sign the Peasant Code and deliver us the prisoners; if not--fire and
flames!--it will be war! War without mercy towards you, as you have been
towards us, merciless and pitiless."
"Sergeant! Kill these rebels with your bayonets, or the brigands down
the avenue will hear the fire of your muskets and run to their help!"
suddenly ordered the Count of Plouernel addressing Sergeant La Montagne,
who, at the head of his men and hidden in the dark, had noiselessly
crept along the facade of the castle. "This way, foresters!" added the
Count in a ringing voice. "The castle is going to be attacked! Kill,
kill the malignant rustic plebs--kill them all!"
"Run the clowns through! Let not one escape! Head and bowels! They tried
to disarm us on the road to Mezlean!" cried Sergeant La Montagne. "This
is our revenge! Prick them through and through! Death to the rustics!"
At the word of command the soldiers suddenly rushed forth upon the
staircase, charging Tankeru and his companions with their bayonets.
While the soldiers turned to obey the order to massacre the vassals upon
the stairway of the castle, Nominoe was awaiting death in his cell,
whither the forester guards of the Count had taken him. The bailiff of
the seigniory, assisted by his registrar, had proceeded to interrogate
the prisoner, who was charged with a murderous attempt, followed by
wounds, upon the person of the very high, very powerful and very
redoubtable seigneur, etc. Nominoe remained silent, declining to answer
any of the bailiff's questions. The only words he uttered were to
inquire about the condition of Mademoiselle Plouernel. Not considering
it fit to impart the information to the prisoner, the officer of justice
once more urged him to consider that his refusal to answer the charges
against him was equivalent to a confession of guilt on his part, and
that the crime, in which he was caught red-handed, was punishable with
death. The prisoner was to appear early the next morning at the bar of
the seigniorial tribunal, together with his two accomplices, guilty like
himself of attempted murder, also followed by serious wounds upon the
person of the very high, very powerful and very redoubtable seigneur,
etc. The execution of the sentence was immediately to follow the
judgment. The three gibbets were to be erected that same night. Nominoe
persisted in his silence. Thereupon the bailiff and the registrar took
their departure, and he was left alone.
"To die!" pondered Nominoe. "I am about to die. Or rather, I am about to
be re-born yonder! Oh! I would greet that new life with a shout of joy,
were it not for my sorrow at departing from this world at the very
moment when there is about to break out the revolt of which my father is
the soul, and which, under his direction, might have led to the
overthrow of the royal power itself. This is what attaches me to life."
Absorbed in his meditations, Nominoe had not noticed that for a
considerable space of time the sound of a number of bells, though
weakened by the distance, reached him through the air-hole of his cell.
Suddenly a tumultuous noise that drew nearer and nearer attracted his
attention. With the noise of the tumult was speedily mingled the
detonations of musketry fire, frequent and well sustained, and but
irregularly answered. Little by little the musketry discharges ceased.
The turmoil seemed hushed. A long silence ensued--and, presently, a
reddish glint of flames penetrated through the air-hole of the cell,
reflected itself upon the opposite wall, and speedily threw the same
into a flamboyant glare. It was the war upon the castles that broke out!
Peace to the huts, war to the palaces!
"The vassals have attacked the feudal manor--they have seized it--they
are in the halls! They are now setting it on fire!" cried Nominoe,
ecstatic with joy. But immediately struck by an opposite train of
thought: "Good God! What will become of Bertha!"
A prey to distracting anxiety, Nominoe dashed himself against the thick
and iron-studded door; vainly he sought to break it down with his
shoulders. Presently loud cries reached his ears. They proceeded from a
throng of people, who, rushing by the air-hole of his cell, shouted
aloud to one another:
"The prisoners must be here! This way! this way! break open their cells!
The fire is spreading! Save the prisoners! Save the prisoners!"
"God be blessed! Perhaps I may yet see Bertha--and save her once more!"
cried Nominoe.
Encouraged by this thought, Nominoe approached his lips to the key-hole
and called out:
"Friends! This way! This way!"
"Here I am!" answered the voice of Tankeru. "I have heard you! I am
coming!" And turning the key, which was left by the jailer in the lock
outside, he opened the door. The blacksmith stepped into the cell of
Nominoe.
Tankeru looked ashen pale. He bled. He had received two bayonet
thrusts--one in the arm, the other in the thigh. When, with felled
bayonets, the soldiers charged upon the delegates of the vassals, the
blacksmith, armed with his hammer, a fearful weapon in his hands,
succeeded in beating his way through the soldiers and joined his
companions who were waiting for him outside the gate. Immediately
placing himself at the head of the vassals' troop, he marched back with
them upon the castle and successfully conducted the assault. The
forester guards, the soldiers, the Count's hunting men, concealed behind
the embrasures of the windows on the ground floor, directed a plunging
fire against the assailants. Many of these fell mortally wounded. The
survivors rushed up the wide stairway with Tankeru at their head. The
door of the vestibule was beaten down; a stubborn and bloody combat
immediately ensued inside the edifice. Victory fell to the vassals.
Heated and furious with the ardor of the battle, these threw down and
smashed whatever they could lay hands upon in the sumptuous castle.
Tankeru and several other peasants proceeded immediately to search for
Serdan, Salaun and Nominoe. A fleeing lackey who was caught, pointed out
the building in which the prison was situated, and tendered his services
to the vassals as a guide while he begged for his life. He led them to
the jail. It was then that Tankeru heard Nominoe's voice and stepped
into his cell.
At the aspect of Tina's father Nominoe forgot the anxious thoughts that
but a moment before were assailing him, and fell back terror-stricken as
if a living remorse had suddenly risen before him. With features
distorted by fury, the blacksmith bounded forward, raising his hammer,
over the head of him whom he held responsible for the death of his
daughter.
"Strike!" said Nominoe without moving, and lowering his head with
resignation. "Strike! It is your right."
The blacksmith lowered his hammer, remained for a moment steeped in
thought, and then said with icy calmness:
"You shall die; but, before you do, you shall know how my daughter
died!"
Again the blacksmith paused, and again proceeded:
"Listen, murderer. On the day of the wedding, as you know, I took flight
upon seeing that the attempt to disarm the soldiers miscarried. After
dark I returned to my house; I knocked at the door; my mother opened it.
She was pale; she was sobbing. I asked what was the matter--as yet I
knew nothing. She answered: 'It is all over. Nominoe has fled. He said
to Salaun and Tina that they would nevermore see him. The child was
brought home in a swoon. A short while ago she regained consciousness.
She is upstairs. She is spinning at her wheel as if nothing had
happened. She does not speak. She does not weep--she frightens me--I
fear the poor girl has gone crazy.'"
"Oh, God!" murmured Nominoe, hiding his face, in his hands. "Poor child!
Poor--poor child!"
"Upon hearing these words from my mother," Tankeru proceeded without
seeming to hear the painful wail that escaped Nominoe, "at these words
from my mother, I was at first seized with a vertigo. The blood rushed
to my brain; I fell seated upon a bench; my head reeled. Presently I
could think again. I said to myself--it is done for my daughter, grief
will kill her! I went upstairs. Tina, seated before her wheel, spun. Her
eyes were fixed; her cheeks were purple; heavy drops of sweat rolled
down her forehead. When I came in, her eyes were turned in my
direction--she did not budge--she did not recognize me. I believed she
was crazy; sobs choked me. I called to her--'Tina! Tina! My child!' No
answer; no look of recognition--nothing! nothing! I left her to my
mother's care, and ran to Vannes in quest of a physician. I trembled
with fear lest he should arrive too late. I informed the physician of
what had happened. He took horse, and followed me. I ran afoot faster
than he on horseback. I knocked again at our door, and entering I asked
my mother: 'Is she dead?' 'No,' she answered, 'she had a spell of
weakness, but, upon recovering, she recognized me. I wished to undress
her to lay her to bed. She wept and begged me not to take off her
wedding clothes. She is now on her bed.' We ran upstairs with the
physician. We found her lying on her bed with her nuptial headdress and
clothes. She had grown so pale that I shivered. This time she recognized
and stretched out her arms to me. She endeavored to rise; her strength
failed her. I approached close to her pale face; she embraced me--her
lips were icy--also her cheeks. I realized on the instant that she was
expiring. I felt as if my heart was being wrung--I screamed with actual
pain! My mother drew me away. I had forgotten the physician. He
contemplated my daughter for a long time; he touched her hand, her
forehead; and then he motioned to me to leave the room with him. The
sudden shock that my daughter had sustained caused all her blood to rush
to her heart; a blood vessel had burst; she was dying. That was what the
physician said to me. I returned to Tina's room. She endeavored to
smile--what a smile!--and she said to us, to my mother and me: 'Give me
your dear hands, and leave them in mine till the end.' She pressed them
gently, and a little later said: 'Oh! that warms me up.' Poor dear
child, her hands were so cold! her little hands were already so cold
that they froze the very marrow in my bones. I sought to comfort her.
She shook her head and said to my mother: 'Do you see grandma, do you
now agree that heaven does send us tokens to prepare us for misfortune?
The black crow of this morning? The little dead dove? Do you remember?
No--God did not wish me to be the wife of Nominoe. We exchanged
rings'--and she raised to her lips the ring that she wore on her
finger--'I was his wife, and see me, now, his widow before his death. He
married me only out of kindness, but the Lord God did not want that
marriage. May His will be done! May Nominoe be happy! Father, you must
pardon him, as I pardon him the sorrow that, despite himself, he has
caused us. It is not his fault. Had he been able to love me with a
husband's love he would have loved me. Pardon for him--it is the last
request of your daughter Tina. She also asks you to bury her in her
bridal robe, with her ring and her nuptial ribbons. Good father, adieu!
Grandma, adieu. Leave your hands in mine--I die--'"
Tankeru could not finish the sentence. His voice, which trembled more
and more as he proceeded, utterly broke down. Sobs convulsed his frame.
In the tenderness of his grief he forgot for a moment the revengeful
rage that transported him, and he himself repeated the supreme last
words of Tina--the pardon that with her last breath she implored for
Nominoe! The latter, utterly overwhelmed with the distressful report of
Tina's last hours, listened to it in mournful silence. So profound was
his grief, so sincere his remorse, that he never thought of his anxiety
concerning the fate of Mademoiselle Plouernel. Suddenly Tankeru's tears
ceased to flow. With them also ceased his tenderness. Only his despair
now remained. His fury was rekindled; he picked up the hammer that had
fallen at his feet, swung it in the air and rushed upon Nominoe crying:
"I have informed you of the sufferings and the agony of your
victim--now, assassin, die!"
The heavy hammer of the blacksmith rose to drop upon the head of
Nominoe. The latter jumped aside, threw his arms around Tankeru's neck,
embraced him effusively, and said in a voice choked with tears:
"I do not fear death! Not that! But, believe me, my death would one day
weigh heavily upon your conscience! You loved my mother so dearly! Tina
has pardoned me, and she asked you to have mercy upon me! You see my
tears, my remorse--you loved me once--your heart is good--uncle!
uncle!--do not kill me! Eternal remorse would pursue you for the act!"
The touching words of Nominoe, his tender embrace, the memory of his
sister, the last words of Tina, the paternal affection he had always
felt for his nephew disarmed Tankeru. The hammer slipped from his hand
and fell at his feet.
At that moment Serdan and Salaun Lebrenn, whom the vassals had freed,
entered precipitately into the cell. Serdan cried out:
"Flee! Flee! The fire is reaching the building!"
Having overheard his son's words in answer to Tankeru's threat to kill
him, Salaun took the blacksmith's hand and pressing it warmly in his
own, said:
"Brother, I swear to God! Despite the immensity of the wrong that he has
done, Nominoe does deserve, if not your pardon, at least your pity!"
"The fire! The fire!" cried several peasants who had descended into the
prison to deliver the captives, and who, having regained the stairs, now
ran through the gallery of cells. In view of the increasing danger, the
blacksmith, Salaun and his son dashed across the black clouds of smoke,
picking their way by the ruddy reflections which the conflagration
projected upon the steps of the staircase through the prison gate, that
looked like the mouth of a roaring furnace. Nominoe followed close upon
the steps of his father and the blacksmith who preceded him. Despite the
imminence of the danger that he ran, the youth's thoughts now returned
to Mademoiselle Plouernel. In heartrending accents he muttered:
"Oh, woe! Oh, woe! The fire is consuming the castle. What may have
become of her? Where may Bertha be?"
"She is safe!" answered Serdan, who, happening to walk close by the side
of Nominoe, had overheard him. "The peasants informed us that, once
masters of the castle, their companions took care of their _good
demoiselle_. A carriage was quickly hitched to a team of horses, and
Mademoiselle Plouernel departed with her nurse and an equerry to
Mezlean. The Marchioness, terror-stricken, died of apoplexy."
Tankeru, Serdan, Salaun Lebrenn and Nominoe made their escape through
the underground staircase of the prison building. The building itself
was now ablaze, the same as all the out-houses appertaining to the
castle. Their roofs fell with crash upon crash within the walls that
had partly crumbled in the conflagration, and shot up long streamers of
fire and sparkling embers. Seeing that the castle itself did not contain
the mass of combustible materials of all sorts with which the out-houses
were filled, it offered a longer resistance to the conflagration. Off
and on a tongue of fire would be seen expiring in the midst of smoke
that was still escaping from the windows on the ground floor; the panes
of glass had exploded noisily and the frames were charred black. But the
fire spared the upper floors where the vassals still pursued their work
of devastation, throwing out of the windows pieces of furniture, looking
glasses, bedding, books, pictures. Debris of all kinds was heaped in the
center of the court of honor, and the insurgents turned the heap into a
huge bonfire that lighted the three gibbets which were erected for
Salaun, Serdan and Nominoe, but from which now dangled the lifeless
bodies of the Count of Plouernel, Abbot Boujaron and Sergeant La
Montagne, all three objects of the implacable hatred of the people--the
_seigneur_, the _priest_ and the _King's soldier_.
Informed of the death of his brother Gildas who was massacred together
with the other delegates of the vassals, Tankeru excepted, Salaun looked
for and found the body, and laid it in a grave that he dug with the
assistance of Tankeru, Serdan and Nominoe. That funeral duty being
fulfilled, Salaun said to them, as he sadly contemplated the scene of
wreck and ruin which they had been unable to prevent:
"Oh, my son! my friends! Had we been free, we would have succeeded in
preventing these acts of savagery that are so fatal to our cause! Alas,
it is now too late! What is the mysterious law that causes the
re-vindication of human rights ever to drag excesses in its wake! The
vassals of the Count of Plouernel first submitted their grievances
humbly to him, and presented the surely legitimate demands which they
formulated in the Peasant Code. Had the Count listened to their claims,
he would have done an act of humanity and justice, and he would have
preserved his privileges. By yielding to the peasants' wishes, and
discontinuing to look upon his peasants as beasts of burden, that man
would have shown himself not only just, but also intelligent in his own
interest. If these wretched people were spared the homicidal privations
that, before taking them to their graves, gradually sap their health,
undermine their strength, and render them unfit for continued toil, they
would have yielded more wealth to him, and would have rendered more
fruitful the seigniorial domains. But no! In his pitiless egotism, the
Count of Plouernel answered the peasants' prayers with disdain, with
insult, with murder! They thereupon grew furious, enraged. They returned
blow for blow, death for death; gave themselves over to frightful acts
of reprisal; killed their seigneur; and now ravage and burn down his
castle! It will cost the brother of the Count of Plouernel a good deal
to repair the disasters of this single night--twenty times more than it
would have cost the Count to ease his vassals for a century and more of
the taxes that oppressed them. Alas! This is not an isolated instance
in history. Did not the seigneurs and their bishops proceed in the same
manner during the Middle Ages towards those communes which our ancestor
Fergan the Quarryman was one of the most intrepid to defend? The
communiers also began with humble supplications to their seigneurs, or
their bishops, to alleviate their taxes. But both seigneurs and bishops
ordered their men-at-arms to mow down the 'villains' and 'clowns.' And,
thereupon, 'clowns' and 'villains' rose in revolt, and, arms in hand, at
the price of their blood, and after taking signal vengeance, conquered
the franchises and the charters--the safeguards of their freedom! Even
during the last century, did not the Reformers first request humbly that
they be granted the right to exercise their own cult? But the Church and
the Crown answered their prayers with the pyre and wholesale massacres.
And thereupon the Reformers in turn, rose in revolt, and, after a half
century of bloody religious wars, the Edict of Nantes finally
consecrated and confirmed the four edicts of tolerance which the
Huguenots had conquered, arms in hand. And yet, as our ancestor
Christian the printer said in the days of Francis I, a simple decree of
two lines only, recognizing in all the right to exercise their cult,
while respecting the cult of others, would have avoided the dreadful
catastrophes that Catholic intolerance brought upon France for over
fifty years. What is the reason that all civil, political or religious
reform can be conquered only at the price of blood and of frightful
disasters? Alas! simply because the nobility, the clergy and royalty
look upon all attempt to curb or clip the rights, that they consider
sacred, as an outrage, as theft, and as the ruination of the land;
because they never will consent voluntarily to curtail their privileges,
these being the source of their power and their wealth; because, even
did they grant some measure of reform under the pressure of necessity,
they would strive to withdraw what they conceded, the moment they
thought the danger was over."
"But, at least, however violent the reaction against the reforms that
are granted, something always remains; some gain always is left,"
observed Nominoe. "It is only by this process, slowly, painfully, and
step by step, that human progress pursues its course across the ages."
"Oh!" broke in Salaun. "Without this deep-rooted faith in the
irresistible progress of humanity, a progress that is as evident as the
sun's light, what would man be? A sport of accident, a blind creature,
fated to wear himself out with impotent efforts in the midst of eternal
darkness! No; no. You did not wish that, Oh, God of justice! You have
pointed out a sublime goal to man! His free will chooses the path, be it
slow or swift, easy or painful, peaceful or bloody. Your sovereign will
is bound to be accomplished, it is in process of being
accomplished.--And now, my friends, seeing we were not able to prevent
these dreadful acts of reprisal, let us rally the peasants. Our troop
will be swollen by accessions from all the parishes that are now in
revolt. We shall march upon Rennes in order to bring assistance to the
people and the bourgeois there in arms. The other chieftains, at the
head of the peasants of the districts of Nantes and of Quimper, will,
on their part, carry succor to their respective cities in revolt. From
that moment, the victorious insurrection, mistress of Brittany as it is
of Guyenne, of Languedoc, of Saintonge and of Dauphine, will impose the
PEASANT CODE upon the clergy and the seigniory, and its national reforms
upon Louis XIV!--THE LAND SHALL BELONG TO THOSE WHO CULTIVATE IT."