[344] Notwithstanding the interested advances made by the King of
France to the Swiss Cantons, and despite his alliance with the
Protestants of Germany, the persecutions did not terminate in
France. A minister of the district of Neuchatel, originally from
the neighbourhood of Mans, named Hugues Gravier, having undertaken
a journey to his native country, was arrested at the bridge of
Maçon, and, after a long imprisonment, condemned to the flames,
notwithstanding the intervention of the Seigneurs of Berne in his
behalf. He submitted to this cruel torture at Bourg-en-Bresse,
with wonderful firmness; and his death, says the historian of the
_Martyrs_, was the means of forming a nursery of the faithful
throughout the entire neighbourhood.--_Hist. des Martyrs_, p. 234,
anno 1552. _Hist. Eccl._, p. 86.
* * * * *
My dear Farel, I do not ask pardon for my slothfulness, as if I had
rather abstain from writing you, but that you may the sooner hasten
hither that we may have a conversation. Adieu, again and again.
[_Lat. orig. autogr._--_Library of Geneva._ Vol. 107, _a_.]