Part 1 (1/2)

The Huguenot.

by G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James.

DEDICATION.

TO

CHARLES RUDOLPHE

LORD CLINTON,

My Lord,

Although I, of course, look upon the book, which I now venture to dedicate to one whom I so much esteem and respect, with those parental prejudices which make us often overlook all defects, and magnify any good qualities in our offspring, yet, believe me, I feel that it is very far inferior to that which I could wish to present to you. Do not, then, measure my regard by the value of the work, but accept it only as a very slight testimony of great esteem; and, at the same time, allow me, even in my Dedication, to say a few words concerning the book itself.

I will not trouble you or the public with any reasoning upon the general conduct of the story--why I suddenly changed the scene here, or flew off to another character there,--why I gave but a glimpse of such a personage, or dwelt long and minutely upon another. I believe and trust that those who read the work attentively will discover strong reasons for all such proceedings, and I am quite sure that much thought and care was bestowed on each step of the kind before it was taken. Your own good taste will decide whether I was right or wrong, and blame or approve, I know, whatever I might plead. The public will do so also; and, as a general rule, I think it best to conceal, as far as possible, in all cases, the machinery of a composition of this kind, suffering the wheels to produce their effect without being publicly exhibited.

I have heard many authors blamed, however, and, doubtless, have been so myself, for frequently changing the scene or character before the reader's eyes. There are people who read a romance only for the story, and these are always displeased with anything that interrupts their straightforward progress. But nature does not tell _her_ stories in such a way as these readers desire; and, in the course of human life, there are always little incidents occurring, which seem of no earthly importance at the time, but which, in years long after, affect persons and produce events where no one could imagine that such a connexion is likely to be brought about.

I have always in this respect, as in all others, endeavoured to the best of my abilities to copy nature; and those readers who pa.s.s over little incidents, because they seem at the time irrelevant, or run on to follow the history of one character whenever a less interesting personage is brought upon the scene, will derive little either of profit or pleasure from any well constructed work of fiction. I have, as far as possible, avoided in all my works bringing prominently forward any character or any scene which has not a direct influence upon the progress and end of the tales; but I have equally avoided pointing out to the superficial reader, by any flourish of trumpets, that the personage he thinks of no importance is ”to turn out a great man in the end,” or that the scene which seems unconnected and irrelevant will be found not without results.

Besides these considerations, however, I trust every romance-writer in the present day proposes to himself greater objects than the mere telling of a good story. He who, in the course of a well-conceived and interesting tale, excites our good pa.s.sions to high and n.o.ble aspirations; depicts our bad pa.s.sions so as to teach us to abhor and govern them; arrays our sympathies on the side of virtue, benevolence, and right; expands our hearts, and makes the circle of our feelings and affections more comprehensive; stores our imaginations with images bright, and sweet, and beautiful; makes us more intimately and philosophically acquainted with the characters of our fellow-men; and, in short, causes the reader to rise wiser and with a higher appreciation of all that is good and great,--attains the grand object at which every man should aim, and deserves the thanks and admiration of mankind. Even he who makes the attempt, though without such success, does something, and never can write altogether in vain.

That you, to whom I inscribe this work, can appreciate such purposes, and will encourage the attempt, even where, as in these pages, it goes little beyond endeavour, is no slight pleasure to me: nor is it an unmeaning or insincere compliment when I say, that though I yield my own opinions to no man, yet I have often thought of you and yours while I have been writing these volumes. I know not whether you remember saying one day, after we had visited together the school inst.i.tuted by our n.o.ble acquaintance Guicciardini, ”that whether it succeeded or failed, the endeavour to do good ought to immortalize him.” Perhaps you have forgotten the words, but I have not.

Allow me, ere I end this long epistle, to add something in regard to the truth of the representations made in the work, and the foundation on which the story rests. If you will look into the curious ”Memoires Historiques sur la Bastille,” published in 1789 (vol. i., page 203), you will find some of the bare facts, as they are stated in the Great Register of the Bastille, on which the plot of the tale that follows entirely hinges.

Of course I cannot forestall my story by alluding more particularly to those facts; and I have only further to say on that subject, that for many reasons I have altered the names inserted in the Great Register.

I have also taken the same liberty with regard to the scenes of many events which really occurred, placing in Poitou what sometimes took place in Dauphiny, sometimes in Provence. Nor have I felt myself bound in all instances to respect the exact dates, having judged it expedient to bring many events within a short compa.s.s which were spread over a greater s.p.a.ce of time. I have endeavoured, however, to represent most accurately, without prejudice or favour, the conduct of the French Catholics to French Protestants, and of Protestants to Catholics, during the persecutions of the seventeenth century. My love and esteem for many excellent Catholics--priests as well as laity--would prevent me, I believe, from viewing the question of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the consequences thereof, with a prejudiced eye; and when I read the following pa.s.sages in the writings, not of a Protestant, but of a sincere Catholic, I am only inclined to doubt whether I have not softened the picture of persecution.

”Il restait peu a faire pour exciter le zele du roi contre une religion solemnellement frappee des plus eclatans anathemes par l'eglise universelle, et qui s'en etait elle-meme frappee la premiere en se separant de tout l'antiquite sur des points de foi fondamentaux.

”Le roi etait devenu devot, et devot dans la derniere ignorance. A la devotion se joignit la politique. On voulut lui plaire par les endroits qui le touchaient le plus sensiblement, la devotion et l'autorite. On lui peignit les Huguenots avec les plus noires couleurs; un etat dans un etat, parvenu a ce point de licence a force de desordres, de revoltes, de guerres civiles, d'alliances etrangeres, de resistance a force ouverte contre les rois ses predecesseurs, et jusqu'a lui-meme reduit a vivre en traite avec eux. Mais on se garda bien de lui apprendre la source de tant de maux, les origines de leurs divers degres et de leurs progres, pourquoi et par qui les Huguenots furent premierement armes, puis soutenus, et surtout de lui dire un seul mot des projets de si longue main pourpenses, des horreurs et des attentats de la ligue contre sa couronne, contre sa maison, contre son pere, son aeul, et tous les siens.

”On lui voila avec autant de soin ce que l'evangile, et d'apres cette divine loi les apotres, et tous les peres et leur suite, enseignent la maniere de precher Jesus Christ, de convertir les infideles et les heretiques, et de se conduire en ce qui regarde la religion. On toucha un devot de la douceur de faire, aux depens d'autrui, une penitence facile qu'on lui persuada sure pour l'autre monde. * * * * *

”Les grands ministres n'etaient plus alors. Le Tellier au lit de la mort, son funeste fils etait le seul qui restat, car Seignelay ne faisait guere que poindre. Louvois, avide de guerre, atterre sous le poids d'une treve de vingt ans, qui ne faisait presque que d'etre signee, espera qu'un si grand coup porte aux Huguenots reunirait tout le Protestantisme de l'Europe, et s'applaudit en attendant de ce que le roi ne pouvant frapper sur les Huguenots que par ses troupes, il en serait le princ.i.p.al executeur, et par la de plus en plus en credit.

L'esprit et le genie de Madame de Maintenon, tel qu'il vient d'etre represente avec exact.i.tude, n'etait rien moins que propre, ni capable d'aucune affaire au-dela de l'intrigue. Elle n'etait pas nee ni nourrie a voir sur celle-ci au-dela de ce qui lui en etait presente, moins encore pour ne pas saisir avec ardeur une occasion si naturelle de plaire, d'admirer, de s'affermir de plus en plus par la devotion.

Qui d'ailleurs eut su un mot de ce qui ne se deliberait qu'entre le confesseur, le ministre alors comme unique, et l'epouse nouvelle et cherie; et qui de plus eut ose contredire? C'est ainsi que sont menes a tout, par une voie ou par une autre, les rois qui, par grandeur, par defiance, par abandon a ceux qui les tiennent, par paresse ou par orgueil, ne se communiquent qu'a deux ou trois personnes, et bien souvent a moins, et qui mettent entre eux et tout le reste de leurs sujets une barriere insurmontable.

”La revocation de l'edit de Nantes, sans le moindre pretexte et sans aucun besoin, et les diverses proscriptions plutot que declarations qui la suivirent, furent les fruits de ce complot affreux qui depeupla un quart du royaume; qui ruina son commerce; qui l'affaiblit dans toutes ses parties; qui le mit si longtemps au pillage public et avoue des dragons; qui autorisa les tourmens et les supplices dans lesquels ils firent reellement mourir tant d'innocens de tout s.e.xe par milliers; qui ruina un peuple si nombreux; qui dechira un monde de familles; qui arma les parens contre les parens pour avoir leur bien et les laisser mourir de faim; qui fit pa.s.ser nos manufactures aux etrangers, fit fleurir et regorger leurs etats aux depens du notre, et leur fit batir de nouvelles villes; qui leur donna le spectacle d'un si prodigieux peuple proscrit, nu, fugitif, errant sans crime, cherchant asile loin de sa patrie; qui mit n.o.bles, riches, vieillards, gens souvent tres-estimes pour leur piete, leur savoir, leur vertu, des gens aises, faibles, delicats, a la ruine, et sous le nerf tres-effectif du comite, pour cause unique de religion; enfin qui, pour comble de toutes horreurs, remplit toutes les provinces du royaume de parjures et de sacrileges, ou tout retentissait de hurlemens de ces infortunees victimes de l'erreur, pendant que tant d'autres sacrifiaient leur conscience a leurs biens et a leur repos, et achetaient l'un et l'autre par des abjurations simulees, d'ou sans intervalle on les trainait a adorer ce qu'ils ne croyaient point, et a recevoir reellement le divin corps du saint des saints, tandis qu'ils demeuraient persuades qu'ils ne mangeaient que du pain qu'ils devaient encore abhorrer. Telle fut l'abomination generale enfantee par la flatterie et par la cruaute. De la torture a l'abjuration, et de celle-ci a la communion, il n'y avait pas souvent vingt-quatre heures de distance, et leurs bourreaux etaient leurs conducteurs et leurs temoins. Ceux qui, par la suite, eurent l'air d'etre changes avec plus de loisir, ne tarderent pas par leur fuite ou par leur conduite a dementir leur pretendu retour.”--_St. Simon_, vol. xiii. p. 113. ed.