CLAUDE BROUSSON, PASTOR AND MARTYR.
Brousson left Lausanne on the 22nd of July, accompanied by his dear
friend, the Rev. M. de Bruc. The other members of the party had
preceded them, crossing the frontier at different places. They all
arrived in safety at their destination, which was in the mountain
district of the Cevennes. They resorted to the neighbourhood of the
Aigoual, the centre of a very inaccessible region--wild, cold, but
full of recesses for hiding and worship. It was also a district
surrounded by villages, the inhabitants of which were for the most
part Protestant.
The party soon became diminished in number. The old pastor, De Bruc,
found himself unequal to the fatigue and privations attending the
work. He was ill and unable to travel, and was accordingly advised by
his companions to quit the service and withdraw from the country.
Persecution also destroyed some of them. When it became known that
assemblies for religious observances were again on foot, an increased
force of soldiers was sent into the district, and a high price was set
on the heads of all the preachers that could be apprehended. The
soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the paid spies, they
shortly succeeded in apprehending Boisson and Dombres, at St. Paul's,
north of Anduze, in the Cevennes. They were both executed at Nismes,
being first subjected to torture on the rack, by which their limbs
were entirely dislocated. They were then conveyed to the place of
execution, praying and singing psalms on the way, and finished their
course with courage and joy.
When Brousson first went into the Cevennes, he did not undertake to
preach to the people. He was too modest to assume the position of a
pastor; he merely undertook, as occasion required, to read the
Scriptures in Protestant families and in small companies, making his
remarks and exhortations thereupon. He also transcribed portions of
his own meditations on the Scriptures, and gave them away for
distribution from hand to hand amongst the people.
When it was found that his instructions were much appreciated, and
that numbers of people assembled to hear him read and exhort, he was
strongly urged to undertake the office of public instructor amongst
them, especially as their ministers were being constantly diminished
by execution.
He had been about five months in the Cevennes, and was detained by a
fall of snow on one of the mountains, where his abode was a sheepcote,
when the proposal that he should become a preacher was first made to
him. Vivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal
made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the
approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also
prayed in the several assemblies that Brousson might be confirmed, and
that God would be pleased to pour upon him his Holy Spirit, and
strengthen him so that he might become a faithful and successful
labourer in this great calling.
Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and conscience alike
called upon him to give the best of his help to the oppressed and
persecuted Protestants of the mountains. "Brethren," he said to them,
when they called upon him to administer to them the Holy Sacrament of
the Eucharist--"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God
calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred
office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the
grace of God I will comply with your pious desires; dedicate and
devote myself to the work of the ministry, and spend the remainder of
my life in unwearied pains and endeavours for promoting God's glory,
and the consolation of precious souls."
Brousson received his call to the ministry in the Cevennes amidst the
sound of musketry and grapeshot which spread death among the ranks of
his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits,
who sought his apprehension and death; and he was hunted from place to
place by the troops of the King, who followed him in his wanderings
into the most wild and inaccessible places.
The perilous character of his new profession was exhibited only a few
days after his ordination, by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at
St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to the assemblies.
He was at once conducted to Montpellier and executed on the 15th of
January, 1690.
During the same year, Dumas, another preacher in the Cevennes, was
apprehended and fastened by the troopers across a horse in order to be
carried to Montpellier. His bowels were so injured and his body so
crushed by this horrible method of conveyance, that Dumas died before
he was half way to the customary place of martyrdom.
Then followed the execution of David Quoite, a wandering and hunted
pastor in the Cevennes for several years. He was broken on the wheel
at Montpellier, and then hanged. "The punishment," said Louvreleuil,
his tormentor, "which broke his bones, did not break his hardened
heart: he died in his heresy." After Quoite, M. Bonnemere, a native of
the same city, was also tortured and executed in like manner on the
Peyrou.
All these persons were taken, executed, destroyed, or imprisoned,
during the first year that Brousson commenced his perilous ministry in
the Cevennes.
About the same time three women, who had gone about instructing the
families of the destitute Protestants, reading the Scriptures and
praying with them, were apprehended by Baville, the King's intendant,
and punished. Isabeau Redothiere, eighteen years of age, and Marie
Lintarde, about a year younger, both the daughters of peasants, were
taken before Baville at Nismes.
"What! are you one of the preachers, forsooth?" said he to Redothiere.
"Sir," she replied, "I have exhorted my brethren to be mindful of
their duty towards God, and when occasion offered, I have sought God
in prayer for them; and, if your lordship calls that preaching, I have
been a preacher." "But," said the Intendant, "you know that the King
has forbidden this." "Yes, my lord," she replied, "I know it very
well, but the King of kings, the God of heaven and earth, He hath
commanded it." "You deserve death," replied Baville.
But the Intendant awarded her a severer fate. She was condemned to be
imprisoned for life in the Tower of Constance, a place echoing with
the groans of women, most of whom were in chains, perpetually
imprisoned there for worshipping God according to conscience.
Lintarde was in like manner condemned to imprisonment for life in the
castle of Sommieres, and it is believed she died there. Nothing,
however, is known of the time when she died. When a woman was taken
and imprisoned in one of the King's torture-houses, she was given up
by her friends as lost.
A third woman, taken at the same time, was more mercifully dealt with.
Anne Montjoye was found assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She
was solicited in vain to abjure her faith, and being condemned to
death, was publicly executed.
Shortly after his ordination, Brousson descended from the Upper
Cevennes, where the hunt for Protestants was becoming very hot, into
the adjacent valleys and plains. There it was necessary for him to be
exceedingly cautious. The number of dragoons in Languedoc had been
increased so as to enable them regularly to patrol the entire
province, and a price had been set upon Brousson's head, which was
calculated to quicken their search for the flying pastor.
Brousson was usually kept informed by his Huguenot friends of the
direction taken by the dragoons in their patrols, and hasty assemblies
were summoned in their absence. The meetings were held in some secret
place--some cavern or recess in the rocks. Often they were held at
night, when a few lanterns were hung on the adjacent trees to give
light. Sentinels were set in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining
roads were watched. After the meeting was over the assemblage
dispersed in different directions, and Brousson immediately left for
another district, travelling mostly by night, so as to avoid
detection. In this manner he usually presided at three or four
assemblies each week, besides two on the Sabbath day--one early in the
morning and another at night.
At one of his meetings, held at Boucoiran on the Gardon, about half
way between Nismes and Anduze, a Protestant nobleman--a _nouveau
convertis_, who had abjured his religion to retain his estates--was
present, and stood near the preacher during the service. One of the
Government spies was present, and gave information. The name of the
Protestant nobleman was not known. But the Intendant, to strike terror
into others, seized six of the principal landed proprietors in the
neighbourhood--though some of them had never attended any of the
assemblies since the Revocation--and sent two of them to the galleys,
and the four others to imprisonment for life at Lyons, besides
confiscating the estates of the whole to the Crown.
Brousson now felt that he was bringing his friends into very great
trouble, and, out of consideration for them, he began to think of
again leaving France. The dragoons were practising much cruelty on the
Protestant population, being quartered in their houses, and at liberty
to plunder and extort money to any extent. They were also incessantly
on the look out for the assemblies, being often led by mounted priests
and spies to places where they had been informed that meetings were
about to be held. Their principal object, besides hanging the persons
found attending, was to seize the preachers, more especially Brousson
and Vivens, believing that the country would be more effectually
"converted," provided they could be seized and got out of the way.
Brousson, knowing that he might be seized and taken prisoner at any
moment, had long considered whether he ought to resist the attempts
made to capture him. He had at first carried a sword, but at length
ceased to wear it, being resolved entirely to cast himself on
Providence; and he also instructed all who resorted to his meetings to
come to them unarmed.
In this respect Brousson differed from Vivens, who thought it right to
resist force by force; and in the event of any attempt being made to
capture him, he considered it expedient to be constantly provided with
arms. Yet he had only once occasion to use them, and it was the first
and last time. The reward of ten thousand livres being now offered for
the apprehension of Brousson and Vivens, or five thousand for either,
an active search was made throughout the province. At length the
Government found themselves on the track of Vivens. One of his known
followers, Valderon, having been apprehended and put upon the rack,
was driven by torture to reveal his place of concealment. A party of
soldiers went in pursuit, and found Vivens with three other persons,
concealed in a cave in the neighbourhood of Alais.
Vivens was engaged in prayer when the soldiers came upon him. His hand
was on his gun in a moment. When asked to surrender he replied with a
shot, not knowing the number of his opponents. He followed up with two
other shots, killing a man each time, and then exposing himself, he
was struck by a volley, and fell dead. The three other persons in the
cave being in a position to hold the soldiers at defiance for some
time, were promised their lives if they would surrender. They did so,
and with the utter want of truth, loyalty, and manliness that
characterized the persecutors, the promise was belied, and the three
prisoners were hanged, a few days after, at Alais. Vivens' body was
taken to the same place. The Intendant sat in judgment upon it, and
condemned it to be drawn through the streets upon a hurdle and then
burnt to ashes.
Brousson was becoming exhausted by the fatigues and privations he had
encountered during his two years' wanderings and preachings in the
Cevennes; and he not only desired to give the people a relaxation from
their persecution, but to give himself some absolutely necessary rest.
He accordingly proceeded to Nismes, his birthplace, where many people
knew him; and where, if they betrayed him, they might easily have
earned five thousand livres. But so much faith was kept by the
Protestants amongst one another, that Brousson felt that his life was
quite as safe amongst his townspeople as it had been during the last
two years amongst the mountaineers of the Cevennes.
It soon became known to the priests, and then to the Intendant, that
Brousson was resident in concealment at Nismes; and great efforts were
accordingly made for his apprehension. During the search, a letter of
Brousson's was found in the possession of M. Guion, an aged minister,
who had returned from Switzerland to resume his ministry, according as
he might find it practicable. The result of this discovery was, that
Guion was apprehended, taken before the Intendant, condemned to be
executed, and sent to Montpellier, where he gave up his life at
seventy years old--the drums beating, as usual, that nobody might hear
his last words. The house in which Guion had been taken at Nismes was
ordered to be razed to the ground, in punishment of the owner who had
given him shelter.
After spending about a month at Nismes, Brousson was urged by his
friends to quit the city. He accordingly succeeded in passing through
the gates, and went to resume his former work. His first assembly was
held in a commodious place on the Gardon, between Valence, Brignon,
and St. Maurice, about ten miles distant from Nismes. Although he had
requested that only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood
should attend the meeting, so as not to excite the apprehensions of
the authorities, yet a multitude of persons came from Uzes and Nismes,
augmented by accessions from upwards of thirty villages. The service
was commenced about ten o'clock, and was not completed until midnight.
The concourse of persons from all quarters had been so great that the
soldiers could not fail to be informed of it. Accordingly they rode
towards the place of assemblage late at night, but they did not arrive
until the meeting had been dissolved. One troop of soldiers took
ambush in a wood through which the worshippers would return on their
way back to Uzes. The command had been given to "draw blood from the
conventicles." On the approach of the people the soldiers fired, and
killed and wounded several. About forty others wore taken prisoners.
The men were sent to the galleys for life, and the women were thrown
into gaol at Carcassone--the Tower of Constance being then too full of
prisoners.
After this event, the Government became more anxious in their desire
to capture Brousson. They published far and wide their renewed offer
of reward for his apprehension. They sent six fresh companies of
soldiers specially to track him, and examine the woods and search the
caves between Uzes and Alais. But Brousson's friends took care to
advise him of the approach of danger, and he sped away to take shelter
in another quarter. The soldiers were, however, close upon his heels;
and one morning, in attempting to enter a village for the purpose of
drying himself--having been exposed to the winter's rain and cold all
night--he suddenly came upon a detachment of soldiers! He avoided them
by taking shelter in a thicket, and while there, he observed another
detachment pass in file, close to where he was concealed. The soldiers
were divided into four parties, and sent out to search in different
directions, one of them proceeding to search every house in the
village into which Brousson had just been about to enter.
The next assembly was held at Sommieres, about eight miles west of
Nismes. The soldiers were too late to disperse the meeting, but they
watched some of the people on their return. One of these, an old
woman, who had been observed to leave the place, was shot on entering
her cottage; and the soldier, observing that she was attempting to
rise, raised the butt end of his gun and brained her on the spot.
The hunted pastors of the Cevennes were falling off one by one.
Bernard Saint Paul, a young man, who had for some time exercised the
office of preacher, was executed in 1692. One of the brothers Du Plans
was executed in the same year, having been offered his life if he
would conform to the Catholic religion. In the following year Paul
Colognac was executed, after being broken to death on the wheel at
Masselargais, near to which he had held his last assembly. His arms,
thighs, legs, and feet were severally broken with the iron bar some
hours before the _coup de grace_, or deathblow, was inflicted.
Colognac endured his sufferings with heroic fortitude. He was only
twenty-four. He had commenced to preach at twenty, and laboured at the
work for only four years.
Brousson's health was fast giving way. Every place that he frequented
was closely watched, so that he had often to spend the night under the
hollow of a rock, or under the shelter of a wood, exposed to rain and
snow,--and sometimes he had even to contend with a wolf for the
shelter of a cave. Often he was almost perishing for want of food; and
often he found himself nearly ready to die for want of rest. And yet,
even in the midst of his greatest perils, his constant thought was of
the people committed to him, and for whose eternal happiness he
continued to work.
As he could not visit all who wished to hear him, he wrote out sermons
that might be read to them. His friend Henry Poutant, one of those who
originally accompanied him from Switzerland and had not yet been taken
prisoner by the soldiers, went about holding meetings for prayer, and
reading to the people the sermons prepared for them by Brousson.
For the purpose of writing out his sermons, Brousson carried about
with him a small board, which he called his "Wilderness Table." With
this placed upon his knees, he wrote the sermons, for the most part in
woods and caves. He copied out seventeen of these sermons, which he
sent to Louis XIV., to show him that what "he preached in the deserts
contained nothing but the pure word of God, and that he only exhorted
the people to obey God and to give glory to Him."
The sermons were afterwards published at Amsterdam, in 1695, under
the title of "The Mystic Manna of the Desert." One would have expected
that, under the bitter persecutions which Brousson had suffered during
so many years, they would have been full of denunciation; on the
contrary, they were only full of love. His words were only burning
when he censured his hearers for not remaining faithful to their
Church and to their God.
At length, the fury of Brousson's enemies so increased, and his health
was so much impaired, that he again thought of leaving France. His
lungs were so much injured by constant exposure to cold, and his voice
had become so much impaired, that he could not preach. He also heard
that his family, whom he had left at Lausanne, required his
assistance. His only son was growing up, and needed education. Perhaps
Brousson had too long neglected those of his own household; though he
had every confidence in the prudence and thoughtfulness of his wife.
Accordingly, about the end of 1693, Brousson made arrangements for
leaving the Cevennes. He set out in the beginning of December, and
arrived at Lausanne about a fortnight later, having been engaged on
his extraordinary mission of duty and peril for four years and five
months. He was received like one rescued from the dead. His health was
so injured, that his wife could scarcely recognise her husband in that
wan, wasted, and weatherbeaten creature who stood before her. In fact,
he was a perfect wreck.
He remained about fifteen months in Switzerland, during which he
preached in the Huguenots' church; wrote out many of his pastoral
letters and sermons; and, when his health had become restored, he
again proceeded on his travels into foreign countries. He first went
into Holland. He had scarcely arrived there, when intelligence reached
him from Montpellier of the execution, after barbarous torments, of
his friend Papus,--one of those who had accompanied him into the
Cevennes to preach the Gospel some six years before. There were now
very few of the original company left.
On hearing of the martyrdom of Papus, Brousson, in a pastoral letter
which he addressed to his followers, said: "He must have died some
day; and as he could not have prolonged his life beyond the term
appointed, how could his end have been more happy and more glorious?
His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility,
his faith, his hope, and his piety, affected even his judges and the
false pastors who endeavoured to seduce him, as also the soldiers and
all that witnessed his execution. He could not have preached better
than he did by his martyrdom; and I doubt not that his death, will
produce abundance of fruit."
While in Holland, Brousson took the opportunity of having his sermons
and many of his pastoral letters printed at Amsterdam; after which he
proceeded to make a visit to his banished Huguenot friends in England.
He also wished to ascertain from personal inquiry the advisability of
forwarding an increased number of French emigrants--then resident in
Switzerland--for settlement in this country. In London, he met many of
his friends from the South of France--for there were settled there as
ministers, Graverol of Nismes, Satur of Montauban, four ministers from
Montpellier for whom he had pleaded in the courts at Toulouse--the two
Dubourdieus and the two Berthaus--fathers and sons. There were also La
Coux from Castres, De Joux from Lyons, Roussillon from Montredon,
Mestayer from St. Quentin, all settled in London as ministers of
Huguenot churches.
After staying in England for only about a month, Brousson was suddenly
recalled to Holland to assume the office to which he was appointed
without solicitation, of preacher to the Walloon church at the Hague.
Though his office was easy--for he had several colleagues to assist
him in the duties--and the salary was abundant for his purposes, while
he was living in the society of his wife and family--Brousson
nevertheless very soon began to be ill at ease. He still thought of
the abandoned Huguenots "in the Desert"; without teachers, without
pastors, without spiritual help of any kind. When he had undertaken
the work of the ministry, he had vowed that he would devote his time
and talents to the support and help of the afflicted Church; and now
he was living at ease in a foreign country, far removed from those to
whom he considered his services belonged. These thoughts were
constantly recurring and pressing upon his mind; and at length he
ceased to have any rest or satisfaction in his new position.
Accordingly, after only about four months' connection with the Church
at the Hague, Brousson decided to relinquish the charge, and to devote
himself to the service of the oppressed and afflicted members of his
native Church in France. The Dutch Government, however, having been
informed of his perilous and self-sacrificing intention, agreed to
continue his salary as a pastor of the Walloon Church, and to pay it
to his wife, who henceforth abode at the Hague.
Brousson determined to enter France from the north, and to visit
districts that were entirely new to him. For this purpose he put
himself in charge of a guide. At that time, while the Protestants
were flying from France, as they continued to do for many years, there
were numerous persons who acted as guides for those not only flying
from, but entering the country. Those who guided Protestant pastors on
their concealed visits to France, were men of great zeal and
courage--known to be faithful and self-denying--and thoroughly
acquainted with the country. They knew all the woods, and fords, and
caves, and places of natural shelter along the route. They made the
itinerary of the mountains and precipices, of the byways and deserts,
their study. They also knew of the dwellings of the faithful in the
towns and villages where Huguenots might find relief and shelter for
the night. They studied the disguises to be assumed, and were prepared
with a stock of phrases and answers adapted for every class of
inquiries.
The guide employed by Brousson was one James Bruman--an old Huguenot
merchant, banished at the Revocation, and now employed in escorting
Huguenot preachers back to France, and escorting flying Huguenot men,
women, and children from it.[28] The pastor and his guide started
about the end of August, 1695. They proceeded by way of Liege; and
travelling south, they crossed the forest of Ardennes, and entered
France near Sedan.
[Footnote 28: Many of these extraordinary escapes are given
in the author's "Huguenots: their Settlements, Churches, and
Industries, in England and Ireland."]
Sedan, recently the scene of one of the greatest calamities that has
ever befallen France, was, about two centuries ago, a very prosperous
place. It was the seat of a great amount of Protestant learning and
Protestant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot academies of
France was situated in that town. It was suppressed in 1681, shortly
before the Revocation, and its professors, Bayle, Abbadie, Basnage,
Brazy, and Jurieu, expelled the country. The academy buildings
themselves had been given over to the Jesuits--the sworn enemies of
the Huguenots.
At the same time, Sedan had been the seat of great woollen
manufactures, originally founded by Flemish Protestant families, and
for the manufacture of arms, implements of husbandry, and all kinds of
steel and iron articles.[29] At the Revocation, the Protestants packed
up their tools and property, suddenly escaped across the frontier,
near which they were, and went and established themselves in the Low
Countries, where they might pursue their industries in safety. Sedan
was ruined, and remained so until our own day, when it has begun to
experience a little prosperity from the tourists desirous of seeing
the place where the great French Army surrendered.
[Footnote 29: There were from eighty to ninety establishments
for the manufacture of broadcloth in Sedan, giving employment
to more than two thousand persons. These, together with the
iron and steel manufactures, were entirely ruined at the
Revocation, when the whole of the Protestant mechanics went
into exile, and settled for the most part in Holland and
England.]
When Brousson visited the place, the remaining Protestants resided
chiefly in the suburban villages of Givonne and Daigny. He visited
them in their families, and also held several private meetings, after
which he was induced to preach in a secluded place near Sedan at
night.
This assembly, however, was reported to the authorities, who
immediately proceeded to make search for the heretic preacher. A party
of soldiers, informed by the spies, next morning invested the house in
which Brousson slept. They first apprehended Bruman, the guide, and
thought that in him they had secured the pastor. They next rummaged
the house, in order to find the preacher's books. But Brousson,
hearing them coming in, hid himself behind the door, which, being
small, hardly concealed his person.
After setting a guard all round the house, ransacking every room in
it, and turning everything upside down, they left it; but two of the
children, seeing Brousson's feet under the door, one of them ran after
the officer of the party, and exclaimed to him, pointing back, "Here,
sir, here!" But the officer, not understanding what the child meant,
went away with his soldiers, and Brousson's life was, for the time,
saved.
The same evening, Brousson changed his disguise to that of a
wool-comber, and carrying a parcel on his shoulder, he set out on the
same evening with another guide. He visited many places in which
Protestants were to be found--in Champagne, Picardy, Normandy,
Nevernois, and Burgundy. He also visited several of his friends in the
neighbourhood of Paris.
We have not many details of his perils and experiences during his
journey. But the following passage is extracted from a letter
addressed by him to a friend in Holland: "I assure you that in every
place through which I passed, I witnessed the poor people truly
repenting their fault (_i.e._ of having gone to Mass), weeping day and
night, and imploring the grace and consolations of the Gospel in their
distress. Their persecutors daily oppress them, and burden them with
taxes and imposts; but the more discerning of the Roman Catholics
acknowledge that the cruelties and injustice done towards so many
innocent persons, draw down misery and distress upon the kingdom. And
truly it is to be apprehended that God will abandon its inhabitants to
their wickedness, that he may afterwards pour down his most terrible
judgments upon that ungrateful and vaunting country, which has
rejected his truth and despised the day of visitation."
During the twelve months that Brousson was occupied with his perilous
journey through France, two more of his friends in the Cevennes
suffered martyrdom--La Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri
Guerin on the 22nd of June following. Both were broken alive on the
wheel before receiving the _coup de grace_.
Towards the close of the year, Brousson arrived at Basle, from whence
he proceeded to visit his friends throughout the cantons of
Switzerland, and then he returned to Holland by way of the Rhine, to
rejoin his family at the Hague.
At that time, the representatives of the Allies were meeting at
Ryswick the representatives of Louis XIV., who was desirous of peace.
Brousson and the French refugee ministers resident in Holland
endeavoured to bring the persecutions of the French Protestants under
the notice of the Conference. But Louis XIV. would not brook this
interference. He proposed going on dealing with the heretics in his
own way. "I do not pretend," he said, "to prescribe to William III.
rules about his subjects, and I expect the same liberty as to my own."
Finding it impossible to obtain redress for his fellow-countrymen
under the treaty of Ryswick, which was shortly after concluded,
Brousson at length prepared to make his third journey into France in
the month of August 1697. He set out greatly to the regret of his
wife, who feared it might be his last journey, as indeed it proved to
be. In a letter which he wrote to console her, from some remote place
where he was snowed up about the middle of the following December, he
said: "I cannot at present enter into the details of the work the
Lord has given me grace to labour in; but it is the source of much
consolation to a large number of his poor people. It will be expedient
that you do not mention where I am, lest I should be traced. It may be
that I cannot for some time write to you; but I walk under the conduct
of my God, and I repeat that I would not for millions of money that
the Lord should refuse me the grace which renders it imperative for me
to labour as I now do in His work."[30]
[Footnote 30: The following was the portraiture of Brousson,
issued to the spies and police: "Brousson is of middle
stature, and rather spare, aged forty to forty-two, nose
large, complexion dark, hair black, hands well formed."]
When the snow had melted sufficiently to enable Brousson to escape
from the district of Dauphiny, near the High Alps, where he had been
concealed, he made his way across the country to the Viverais, where
he laboured for some time. Here he heard of the martyrdom of the third
of the brothers Du Plans, broken on the wheel and executed like the
others on the Peyrou at Montpellier.
During the next nine months, Brousson laboured in the north-eastern
provinces of Languedoc (more particularly in the Cevennes and
Viverais), Orange, and Dauphiny. He excited so much interest amongst
the Protestants, who resorted from a great distance to attend his
assemblies, that the spies (who were usually pretended Protestants)
soon knew of his presence in the neighbourhood, and information was at
once forwarded to the Intendant or his officers.
Persecution was growing very bitter about this time. By orders of the
bishops the Protestants were led by force to Mass before the dragoons
with drawn swords, and the shops of merchants who refused to go to
Mass regularly were ordered to be closed. Their houses were also
filled with soldiers. "The soldiers or militia," said Brousson to a
friend in Holland, "frequently commit horrible ravages, breaking open
the cabinets, removing every article that is saleable, which are often
purchased by the priests at insignificant prices; the rest they burn
and break up, after which the soldiers are removed; and when the
sufferers think themselves restored to peace, fresh billets are
ordered upon them. Many are consequently induced to go to Mass with
weeping and lamentation, but a great number remain inflexible, and
others fly the kingdom."
When it became known that Brousson, in the course of his journeyings,
had arrived, about the end of August, 1698, in the neighbourhood of
Nismes, Baville was greatly mortified; and he at once offered a reward
of six hundred louis d'or for his head. Brousson nevertheless entered
Nismes, and found refuge amongst his friends. He had, however, the
imprudence to post there a petition to the King, signed by his own
hand, which had the effect of at once setting the spies upon his
track. Leaving the city itself, he took refuge in a house not far from
it, whither the spies contrived to trace him, and gave the requisite
information to the Intendant. The house was soon after surrounded by
soldiers, and was itself entered and completely searched.
Brousson's host had only had time to make him descend into a well,
which had a niche in the bottom in which he could conceal himself. The
soldiers looked down the well a dozen times, but could see nothing.
Brousson was not in the house; he was not in the chimneys; he was not
in the outhouses. He _must_ be in the well! A soldier went down the
well to make a personal examination. He was let down close to the
surface of the water, and felt all about. There was nothing! Feeling
awfully cold, and wishing to be taken out, he called to his friends,
"There is nothing here, pull me up." He was pulled up accordingly, and
Brousson was again saved.
The country about Nismes being beset with spies to track the
Protestants and prevent their meetings, Brousson determined to go
westward and visit the scattered people in Rouerge, Pays de Foix, and
Bigorre, proceeding as far as Bearn, where a remnant of Huguenots
still lingered, notwithstanding the repeated dragooning to which the
district had been subjected. It was at Oberon that he fell into the
hands of a spy, who bore the same name as a Protestant friend to whom
his letter was addressed. Information was given to the authorities,
and Brousson was arrested. He made no resistance, and answered at once
to his name.
When the Judas who had betrayed him went to M. Penon, the intendant of
the province, to demand the reward set upon Brousson's head, the
Intendant replied with indignation, "Wretch! don't you blush to look
upon the man in whose blood you traffic? Begone! I cannot bear your
presence!"
Brousson was sent to Pau, where he was imprisoned in the castle of
Foix, at one time the centre of the Reformation movement in the South
of France--where Calvin had preached, where Jeanne d'Albret had lived,
and where Henry IV. had been born.
From Pau, Brousson was sent to Montpellier, escorted by dragoons. At
Toulouse the party took passage by the canal of Languedoc, which had
then been shortly open. At Somail, during the night, Brousson saw that
all the soldiers were asleep. He had but to step on shore to regain
his liberty; but he had promised to the Intendant of Bearn, who had
allowed him to go unfettered, that he would not attempt to escape. At
Agade there was a detachment of a hundred soldiers, ready to convey
the prisoner to Baville, Intendant of Languedoc. He was imprisoned in
the citadel of Montpellier, on the 30th October, 1698.
Baville, who knew much of the character of Brousson--his peacefulness,
his piety, his self-sacrifice, and his noble magnanimity--is said to
have observed on one occasion, "I would not for a world have to judge
that man." And yet the time had now arrived when Brousson was to be
judged and condemned by Baville and the Presidial Court. The trial was
a farce, because it had been predetermined that Brousson should die.
He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's
prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had
administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because
he was neither a traitor nor informer to accuse his brethren. He was
also charged with having conspired to introduce a foreign army into
France under the command of Marshal Schomberg. This he declared to be
absolutely false, for he had throughout his career been a man of
peace, and sought to bring back Christ's followers by peaceful means
only.
His defence was of no avail. He was condemned to be racked, then to be
broken on the wheel, and afterwards to be executed. He received the
sentence without a shudder. He was tied on the rack, but when he
refused to accuse his brethren he was released from it. Attempts were
made by several priests and friars to add him to the number of "new
converts," but these were altogether fruitless. All that remained was
to execute him finally on the public place of execution--the Peyrou.
The Peyrou is the pride of modern Montpellier. It is the favourite
promenade of the place, and is one of the finest in Europe. It
consists of a broad platform elevated high above the rest of the town,
and commanding extensive views of the surrounding country. In clear
weather, Mont Ventoux, one of the Alpine summits, may be seen across
the broad valley of the Rhone on the east, and the peak of Mont
Canizou in the Pyrenees on the west. Northward stretches the mountain
range of the Cevennes, the bold Pic de Saint-Loup the advanced
sentinel of the group; while in the south the prospect is bounded by
the blue line of the Mediterranean.
The Peyrou is now pleasantly laid out in terraced walks and shady
groves, with gay parterres of flowers--the upper platform being
surrounded with a handsome stone balustrade. An equestrian statue of
Louis XIV. occupies the centre of the area; and a triumphal arch
stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to commemorate the
"glories" of the same monarch, more particularly the Revocation by him
of the Edict of Nantes--one of the entablatures of the arch displaying
a hideous figure, intended to represent a Huguenot, lying trampled
under foot of the "Most Christian King."
The Peyrou was thus laid out and ornamented in the reign of his
successor, Louis XV., "the Well-beloved," during which the same policy
for which Louis XIV. was here glorified by an equestrian statue and a
triumphal arch continued to be persevered in--of imprisoning,
banishing, hanging, or sending to the galleys such of the citizens of
France as were not of "the King's religion."
But during the reign of Louis XIV. himself, the Peyrou was anything
but a pleasure-ground. It was the infamous place of the city--the
_place de Greve_--a desert, barren, blasted table-land, where
sometimes half-a-dozen decaying corpses might be seen swinging from
the gibbets on which they had been hung. It was specially reserved,
because of its infamy, for the execution of heretics against Rome; and
here, accordingly, hundreds of Huguenot martyrs--whom power, honour,
and wealth failed to bribe or to convert--were called upon to seal
their faith with their blood.
Brousson was executed at this place on the 4th of November, 1698. It
was towards evening, while the sun was slowly sinking behind the
western mountains, that an immense multitude assembled on the Peyrou
to witness the martyrdom of the devoted pastor. Not fewer than twenty
thousand persons were there, including the principal nobility of the
city and province, besides many inhabitants of the adjoining mountain
district of the Cevennes, some of whom had come from a great distance
to be present. In the centre of the plateau, near where the equestrian
statue of the great King now stands, was a scaffold, strongly
surrounded by troops to keep off the crowd. Two battalions, drawn up
in two lines facing each other, formed an avenue of bayonets between
the citadel, near at hand, and the place of execution.
A commotion stirred the throng; and the object of the breathless
interest excited shortly appeared in the person of a middle-sized,
middle-aged man, spare, grave, and dignified in appearance, dressed in
the ordinary garb of a pastor, who walked slowly towards the
scaffold, engaged in earnest prayer, his eyes and hands lifted towards
heaven. On mounting the platform, he stood forward to say a few last
words to the people, and give to many of his friends, whom he knew to
be in the crowd, his parting benediction. But his voice was instantly
stifled by the roll of twenty drums, which continued to beat a quick
march until the hideous ceremony was over, and the martyr, Claude
Brousson, had ceased to live.[31]
[Footnote 31: The only favour which Brousson's judges showed
him at death was as regarded the manner of carrying his
sentence into execution. He was condemned to be broken alive
on the wheel, and then strangled; whereas by special favour
the sentence was commuted into strangulation first and the
breaking of his bones afterwards. So that while Brousson's
impassive body remained with his persecutors to be broken,
his pure unconquered spirit mounted in triumph towards
heaven.]
Strange are the vicissitudes of human affairs! Not a hundred years
passed after this event, before the great grandson of the monarch, at
whose instance Brousson had laid down his life, appeared upon a
scaffold in the Place Louis XIV. in Paris, and implored permission to
say his few last words to the people. In vain! His voice was drowned
by the drums of Santerre!