Part 21 (1/2)
”Civil war is a fearful extremity. All the same, the day may come when the men of arms will be needed by the Reformation.”
”May that untoward day never arrive! My opinion is that patience, resignation and respect for the laws and the Crown should be carried to the utmost limit possible. Nevertheless, should the sword have to be drawn, not for the purpose of imposing the Evangelical church through violence, but for the purpose of defending our lives, and the lives of our brothers, I should not, then, hesitate to call upon the men of arms who are partisans of the Reformation. Among these, it is my belief, we shall number a young man who has barely emerged from adolescence, and who gives promise of becoming a great captain at maturer age. He is called Gaspard of Coligny. His father bore himself bravely in the late wars of Italy and Germany. He died leaving his sons still in their childhood. Madam Coligny raised them in the Evangelical faith. About a year ago I found a place of refuge under her roof, at her castle of Chatillon-on-the-Loing, in Burgundy. I there met her eldest son, Gaspard. The precocious intellectual maturity of the lad, his devotion to our cause, awakened in me the best of hopes. He will be one of the pillars of the new temple--besides a terrible enemy raised against the Pope and Satan.”
”Monsieur,” put in Christian, interrupting John Calvin in a low voice, ”we are shadowed. I have noticed for some little while three men not far behind us, who seem to be timing their steps to ours.”
”Let us stop, let us allow them to pa.s.s. We shall ascertain whether they are bent upon following us. They may be friends, like ourselves bound to our a.s.sembly.”
Christian and John Calvin halted. Shortly they were pa.s.sed by three men clad in dark colors, and all three carrying swords. One of these seemed, as he pa.s.sed closely by John Calvin, to scan his face intently in the moonlight. A moment later, after having proceeded a little distance with his friends, he left them, retraced his steps, and walking towards Christian and his companion, said, courteously touching his cap with his hand:
”Monsieur Calvin, I am happy to meet you.”
”Monsieur Coligny!” exclaimed the reformer gladly. ”You did come--as I hoped you would.”
”It was natural I should respond to the summons of him whose doctrines I share, and for whom my mother entertains so much esteem and affection.”
”Are the two gentlemen you are with of our people, Monsieur Coligny?”
”Yes. One is French, the other a foreigner, both devoted to our cause. I have felt safe to bring them to our a.s.sembly. I vouch for them, as for myself. The foreigner is a German Prince, Charles of Gerolstein, a cousin of the Prince of Deux-Ponts, and, like him, one of the boldest followers of Luther. My other friend, a younger son of Count Neroweg of Plouernel, one of the great seigneurs of Brittany and Auvergne, is as zealous in favor of the Reformation as his elder brother for the maintenance of the privileges and dominion of the Church of Rome.”
”Sad divisions of the domestic hearth!” observed John Calvin with a sigh. ”It is to be hoped the truth of the Evangelium may penetrate and enlighten all the hearts of the great family of Christ!”
”May that era of peace and harmony soon arrive, Monsieur Calvin,”
replied Gaspard of Coligny. ”The arrival of that great day is anxiously desired by my friend Gaston, the Viscount of Plouernel and captain of the regiment of Brittany. With all his power has he propagated the Reformation in his province. To draw you his picture with one stroke, I shall add that my mother has often said to me I could not choose a wiser and more worthy friend than Gaston Neroweg, the Viscount of Plouernel.”
”The judgment of a mother, and such a mother as Madam Coligny, is not likely to go astray regarding her son's choice of his friends,” answered John Calvin. ”Our cause is the cause of all honorable people. I would like to express to your friends my great gratification at the support they bring to us.”
Gaspard of Coligny stepped ahead to inform his friends of John Calvin's wish that they be introduced to him.
Upon hearing the name of the Viscount of Plouernel, Christian had started with surprise. Accident was bringing him in friendly contact with one of the descendants of the Nerowegs, that stock of Frankish seigneurs which the sons of Joel the Gaul had, in the course of generations, so often encountered, to their sorrow. He felt a sort of instinctive repulsion for the Viscount of Plouernel, and cast upon him uneasy and distrustful looks as, accompanied by Gaspard of Coligny and Prince Charles of Gerolstein, he stepped towards John Calvin. While the latter was exchanging a few words with his new friends, Christian examined the descendant of Neroweg with curiosity. His features reproduced the typical impress of his race--bright-blonde hair, aquiline nose, round and piercing eyes. Nevertheless, the artisan was struck by the expression of frankness and kindness that rendered the young man's physiognomy attractive.
”Gentlemen,” said John Calvin, whose voice interrupted the meditations of Christian, ”I am happy, in my turn, to introduce you to one of ours, Monsieur Lebrenn, a worthy coadjutor in the printing office of our friend Robert Estienne. Monsieur Lebrenn has incurred no little danger in affording hospitality to me. Moreover, it is to him we are indebted for the discovery of the locality where we are to meet to-night.”
”Monsieur,” replied Gaspard of Coligny addressing Christian with emotion, ”my friends and I share the sentiments of grat.i.tude that Monsieur John Calvin entertains for you.”
”Besides that, Monsieur Lebrenn,” added Neroweg, the Viscount of Plouernel, ”I am delighted to meet one of the a.s.sistants of the ill.u.s.trious Robert Estienne. All that we, men of arms and war, have to place at the service of the cause of religious liberty is our sword; but you and your companions in your pursuit, you operate a marvelous talisman--the press! Glory to that invention! Light follows upon darkness. No longer is Holy Writ, in whose name the Church of Rome imposed so many secular idolatries upon the people, an impenetrable mystery. Its truth owes to the press its second revelation. Finally, thanks to the effect of the press, the hope is justified that Evangelical fraternity will one day reign on earth!”
”You speak truly, Monsieur Plouernel. Yes, the invention of the press bears the mark of G.o.d's hand,” observed John Calvin. ”But the night advances. Our friends are surely waiting for us. Let us move on, and join them.”
With Gaspard of Coligny on one side, and the Viscount of Plouernel on the other, John Calvin, the great promoter of the new doctrines, proceeded to climb the slope of the hill of Montmartre.
Much to his regret, the extreme astonishment that the affable words of the descendant of the Plouernels threw him into, deprived Christian of the power to formulate an answer. He followed John Calvin in silence, without noticing that, for some time, Prince Charles of Gerolstein was examining him with increasing attention. This seigneur, a man in the full vigor of life, tall of stature, of a strong but open countenance, fell a little behind his friends and joined Christian, whom he thus addressed after walking a few steps beside him:
”Believe me, monsieur, if, a minute ago, I failed to render just praise, as my friends did, to the courageous hospitality you accorded John Calvin, I do not, therefore, appreciate any the less the generosity of your conduct. It was that your name fell strangely upon my senses. It awoke within me numerous recollections--family remembrances.”
”My name, Prince?”
”Spare me that princely t.i.tle. Christ said: 'All men are equal before G.o.d.' We are all brothers. Your name is Lebrenn? Is Armorican Brittany the cradle of your family?”
”Yes, monsieur. It is.”
”Did your family live near the sacred stones of Karnak, before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar?”