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governor of which granted an escort to all refugees who requested it to conduct them to Charleroi. But it was God's will that we should remain in this ignorance, so that our constancy and our faith should be put to trial during many years of misery.

were Protestants escaping from France; and as the spoils of those who were arrested belonged to the informer, he conceived the design of having us arrested, if, in leaving Couvé, we passed by Mariembourg, a league distant in the French territory. This was not our intention, for, following the instructions of the good peasant, in leaving Couvé we were to take a road to the left, by which we should have avoided touching upon any French territory. But who can avoid his destiny?

We arrived, then, as I said, at Couvé. We were wet to the skin. We entered an inn to dry ourselves and get something to eat. Having sat down to table, they brought us a pot of beer with two handles, without giving us any glasses. On asking for some, the host said he perceived that we were French-left; men-for the custom of that country was to drink out of the pot. We at once conformed to

it.

Going forth from Couvé, we walked along the road to the

but perceiving in the distance an officer on horseback coming towards us, we were afraid, as the least thing increases fear, lest the officer should stop us, which made us turn back and take the fatal road which led us to Mariembourg. This town is small, and has only one gate; so there is We

But this request for glasses, which seemed a mere trifle, and of no consequence, was, humanly speaking, the cause of our ruin; for in the same room with us were two men, one a citizen of the place, the other a game-no keeper of the Prince of Liège. The latter, noticing the observation of the landlord, that he had perceived at once that we were Frenchmen, began to examine us very minutely, and at last made free to accost us, and declared that he was quite ready to lay a wager that we did not carry rosaries in our pockets. My companion, who was taking a pinch of snuff, showing him his snuff-box, said, very imprudently, that that was his rosary. This reply confirmed the gamekeeper in his opinion that we

passage through it. knew this, and resolved to leave it upon our right, and to proceed to Charleroi, keeping to the left, according to our previous plan. But we did not know that the treacherous gamekeeper was following us in the distance ready to pounce upon us. At last we arrived before Mariembourg, and as it was almost dark, and we saw an inn opposite the gate of the town, we decided to stop there for the night. We went in; they gave us a room, and we had a good fire made to dry ourselves.

were hairdressers' apprentices, and that we were making the circuit of France; that our design was to go to Philippeville, from thence to Maubeuge, Valenciennes, Cambrai, etc., and thus return to our own country. The governor had us examined by his own valet, who knew something about a barber's work, and who fortunately began with my companion, who really was one. He was convinced that such was our business. The governor then asked us of what religion we were; we told him plainly that we were of the reformed religion, for on this

We had scarcely been there half an hour, when a man came in, whom we thought was the landlord. He saluted us very civilly, and then asked us whence we came and whither we were going. We told him we came from Paris, and were going to Philippeville. He said that we must go and speak to the governor of Mariembourg. We thought to quiet him as we had done our host at Mezières, but in this we deceived ourselves, for he replied immediately, and sharply enough, too, that we must follow him thither at once. We met this bad luck with a good heart, and without show-question our conscience would ing any fear, prepared to follow him. Speaking in patois to my companion, so that the man should not understand, I said that, as it was such a dark night, we might escape from our conductor between the inn and the town; so we followed the fellow whom we took for the landlord, but who was really a sergeant of the town guard, accompanied by a detachment of eight soldiers with fixed bayonets, whom we found in the court-yard of the inn. At their head was the treacherous gamekeeper of Couvé; these soldiers seized us in such a way that it was impossible for us to escape. We were led to the governor, M. Pallier by name, who asked us what countrymen we were, and whither we were going. To the first question we told him the truth, but to the second we prevaricated, telling him that we

not allow us to disguise the truth. Alas! that we were weak and foolish enough not to tell the whole truth to the other questions which the governor asked us; for this may God pardon us; for, to be faithful followers of the Christian religion, we ought never to lie. But such is the weakness of human nature, which never performs a good work perfectly. The governor having asked us whether our design was not in reality to leave the kingdom, we denied it.

After this examination, which lasted a good hour, the governor ordered the major to conduct us safely to prison, which he did with the escort which had arrested us. On the way from the government house to the prison, the major, named M. de la Salle, asked me if it were true that we were from Ber

gerac. I told him that indeed

it was.

searched, had the impudence to tell the major that was not the way Huguenots were treated when they fled to Holland. ‘I shall know how to find their money,' said he, attempting roughly to search us himself.

'I was also born half a league from Bergerac,' said he; and having asked my name and my family, he exclaimed, Why, your father is my best friend; be comforted, my children,' he added; 'I will get you out of this unhappy affair, and you will be free after two or three days.' Thus discoursing, we arrived at the prison. The gamekeeper asked the major to have us searched, that he might have his reward, believing that we had a great deal of money; but all our capital consisted of about one pistole, which the major told us to give to him without having us searched. The major, who was touched with compassion at our unhappy fate, and who wished to be of service to us, feared lest we had much more money, which circum-less and cunning fellow. stance would have been to our detriment, as it would have been a sign that we wished to escape from the kingdom; for it is well known that wandering apprentices are not overburdened with cash. Besides, he feared that the wicked gamekeeper, of whom he had a perfect horror, because he caused us to be arrested, would receive from our spoils too lucrative a recompense for his perfidy. The major, then, fearing this, would not have us searched, but kept the little money which we had given him, to remit it afterwards to the governor. The gamekeeper, seeing that we were not

Rascal,' said the major, 'if you are not off at once, I'll have you well thrashed. Do you think you are going to teach me my duty?' At the same time he drove him from his presence. Such was the reward this wretch received for all the trouble he had taken in causing us to be arrested, added to which, a few days after, the Prince of Liège, at the solicitation of the Dutch governor of the castle of Couvé, dismissed him from his service, and banished him from his dominions, on account of this wicked and treacherous action. A fit recompense for this worth

We were now placed in a frightful dungeon. With tears in our eyes, we asked, 'What crime have we committed, sir, that we should be treated as criminals who have deserved the gallows and the wheel?'

'These are my orders, children,' said the major, much affected; but I will take care you don't sleep here.'

He went immediately to give in his report to the governor, telling him that he had caused us to be very strictly searched, and that he had only found about a pistole on us, proving clearly enough that we had no design of leaving France,

without reckoning other proofs which we had given him to the same effect, and that he thought it would be just and right to set us at liberty. But, unfortunately, it was the evening of the day on which the courier left for Paris; and while we were being conducted to prison, the governor had written to the court about our detention. Owing to this mischance, he could not now liberate us without an order from the court. The major was mortified at this obstacle, and entreated the governor to release us from this terrible and infamous dungeon, and to grant us the jailor's house for our prison, promising to place a sentinel at the gates to watch us, and that he would be responsible, even to his head, that we did not escape. The governor acquiesced; and we had not been an hour in the dungeon, when the major returned to the prison with a corporal and a sentinel, to whom he consigned us. He gave orders that we should have full liberty within the jailor's house, and chose himself a bed-room for us. Moreover, he gave the little money which we had given up to him to the jailor, ordering him to provide us with food as long as the money lasted, not wishing that we should appear to be criminals fed by the government. He told us with deep regret, that the governor had already written to the court about our detention, but that he would do his best with the

governor that our procès-verbal should be favourable. The major's kind treatment consoled us a little.

Soon after, the governor sent our procès-verbal to the court; it was strongly in our favour. But the declaration we had made, that we were of the reformed religion, prejudiced the Marquis de la Vrillière, the minister of state, so strongly against us, that he would pay no attention to the remarks contained in this procès-verbal, which indicated that we had no intention of leaving the kingdom, and he ordered the governor of Mariembourg to prosecute us, and condemn us to the galleys for being found on the frontiers without a passport. Meanwhile, the curé of Mariembourg was to use every effort to bring us back within the pale of the Roman Catholic Church. If he succeeded, after we had been instructed, and had made an abjuration, by the favour of the court we might be set at liberty, and brought back to Bergerac. The Major had these instructions of the Marquis de la Vrillière read to us.

'I shall give you no advice,' he said to us, 'as to what you ought to do; your faith and your conscience must decide you. All that I can say is, that your abjuration will at once open the door of your prison, and that unless you make it, you will certainly go to the galleys.'

We replied that we placed our whole confidence in God,

and that we resigned ourselves to His holy will; that we did not expect any human help; and that by God's grace, which we would never cease to implore, we would never deny the divine and true principles of our holy religion; that he must not believe it was through obstinacy or infatuation that we continued stedfast; that it was, thank God, through a firm conviction of the goodness of our cause; and that our parents had taken all possible care to instruct us in the truth of our religion and the errors of the Roman faith, that we might boldly profess the one and avoid falling into the dangers of the other. We thanked him very affectionately for all the pains he had taken to be of service to us, and assured him that, not being able by any other means to testify our gratitude, we would always pray to God for him. This good major, who was in his heart a Protestant like ourselves, though a Roman Catholic, tenderly embraced us, confessing that he felt less happy than we did, and left us, weeping bitterly, entreating us not to think it unkind of him if he did not see us again, for he had not the courage to do so.

Our money, which had been given to the jailor, was exhausted. They gave us a pound and a half of bread a day, the king's bread; but the governor and the major, by turns, sent us every day enough to eat and

drink. The curé, who hoped to make proselytes of us, and the nuns of a convent in the town also, sent us occasionally things to eat; so that we in our turn fed the jailor and his family.

The curé came to visit us nearly every day, and gave us a controversial catechism to prove the truth of the Roman religion. We opposed to this the catechism of M. Drelincourt which we had. Upon his deposition, it was resolved to commit us for trial. The judge of the place and his registrar came to interrogate us judicially in the prison, and two days after our sentence was read to us, the substance of which was as follows: "That being found upon the frontier without passports from the court, and that being of the pretended reformed religion, we were suspected and convicted of having intended to escape from the kingdom, against the ordinances of the king, who has forbidden it; and as a punishment, we were therefore condemned to be taken to his majesty's galleys, to remain there in penal servitude for life, with confiscation of our property, etc.' Our sentence read, the judge asked us if we wished to appeal to the parliament of Tournay, in the jurisdiction of which the town of Mariembourg is situated. We replied that we should only appeal from his iniquitous sentence to the tribunal of God; that all men were against us; and that we

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