J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8)

Bellegarde varied his treachery. He had kidnapped Lévrier as he was leaving the cathedral, and had conveyed him in person to the castle where he was to meet his death. This time he preferred to keep out of sight, and for that reason a message had been despatched to Lausanne. After watching over Bonivard during the night, lest he should escape, as Hugues had escaped from Châtelaine, Bellegarde took leave of him, giving him a very courteous embrace, and strongly recommending him to the care of the sergeant. The road from Moudon to Lausanne runs for about five leagues through the Jorat hills, which at that period were wild and lonely. Gloomy thoughts sprang up from time to time to disturb Bonivard. He remembered how Lévrier had been seized by Bellegarde at the gates of St. Pierre.... If a similar fate awaited him!... His confidence soon revived, and he went on.

=BONIVARD TREACHEROUSLY KIDNAPPED.=

It was a fine day in May, this Thursday, the 26th. Early in the morning Messire de Beaufort, captain of Chillon, and the Sire du Rosey, bailli of Thonon, having received their instructions from Moudon, had quitted Lausanne, followed by twelve to fifteen well-armed horsemen. On reaching the heights of the Jorat, near the convent of St. Catherine, they hid themselves in a wood of black pines, which still remains; 828and there both leaders and soldiers waited silently for the unfortunate Bonivard. He was provided, indeed, with a safe-conduct from the duke; but John Huss's had been violated, and why should they observe that of the prior of St. Victor? 'No faith ought to be kept with heretics,' had been said at Constance, and was repeated now at Moudon. Erelong De Beaufort and Du Rosey heard the tramp of two horses; they gave a signal to their followers to be ready, and peered out from among the trees where they lay hid to see if their victim was really coming. At last the guide on horseback appeared, then came Bonivard on his mule; De Bellegarde's servant led him straight to the appointed place. Just as the unlucky prior, wavering between confidence and fear, was passing the spot where Beaufort, Du Rosey, and their fifteen companions were posted, the latter rushed from the wood and sprang upon Bonivard. He put his hand to his sword, and clapped spurs to his mule in order to escape, calling out to his guide: 'Spur! spur!' But, instead of galloping forwards, the sergeant turned suddenly upon the man he should have protected, caught hold of him, and 'with a knife which he had ready' cut Bonivard's sword-belt. All this took place in the twinkling of an eye. 'Whereupon these honest people fell upon me,' said the prior when he told the story in after years, 'and made me prisoner in the name of Monseigneur.' He made all the resistance he could; produced his papers, and showed that they were all in order; but his safe-conduct was of no avail with the agents of Bellegarde and De Chalans. Taking some cord from a bag they had brought with them, they tied Bonivard's arms, and bound him to his mule, as they had once bound Lévrier, and in this way passing through Lausanne, near which the outrage had been committed, they turned to the left. The prior crossed Vaux, Vevey, Clarens, and Montreux; but these districts, which are among the most beautiful in Switzerland, could not for an instant rouse him from his deep dejection. 'They took me, bound and pinioned, to Chillon,' he says in his Chronicles , 'and there I remained six long years.... It was my second passion.' 829

=THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.=

Nine years before, almost day for day (May 1521), Luther had also been seized in a wood for the purpose of being taken to a castle; but he had been carried off by friends, while the prisoner of Chillon was perfidiously taken by enemies. Bonivard, a reformer of a negative and rather philosophical character, was much inferior to Luther, the positive and evangelical reformer; but Bonivard's imprisonment far exceeded in severity that of the Saxon doctor. At first, indeed, the prior of St. Victor was confined in a room and treated respectfully; but Charles the Good, after visiting him and holding some conversation with him, ordered, as he left the castle, that the prisoner should be treated harshly. He was transferred to one of those damp and gloomy dungeons cut out of the rock, which lie below the level of the lake. It is probable that the duke gave this cruel order because the prisoner, true to light and liberty, had refused to bend before him. Bonivard's seizure was a severe blow to his mother, to his friends, and even to the magistrates of Geneva, who, on hearing of it, saw all the duke's perfidy and the prior's innocence, and restored to him their affection and esteem. For some time it was uncertain whether Bonivard was alive or dead; all that people knew was that he had been seized, in defiance of the safe-conduct, on the hills above Lausanne. However, John Lullin and the other envoys of Geneva present at the journée held at Payerne at Christmas 1530, being better informed, did all in their power to obtain the liberation of a man who had done such good service to liberty; but the agents of Savoy pretended ignorance of the place of his imprisonment.

A brilliant existence was thus suddenly interrupted. What humour, what originality, what striking language, what invention, what witty conversations were abruptly cut short! Bonivard never recovered from these six years of the strictest captivity. When he came out of Chillon he was a different man from what he was when he entered it. He was like a bird which, while giving utterance to the sweetest song, is caught by a gust of wind and beaten to the ground; ever after it miserably drags its wings, and utters none but harsh unpleasing sounds. St. Victor wanted the one thing needful ; he was not one of those of whom it is said: their youth is renewed like the eagle's . The brightness of the Reformation eclipsed him. The latter part of his life was as sad as his early part had been brilliant. It would have been better for his fame had he been put to death in the castle-yard of Chillon, as Lévrier had been in that of Bonne.

814Berne MS. Hist. Helvet. v. p. 12.

815Michel Roset, Chroniq. MS. liv. ii. ch. xiv.

816Registres du Conseil des 22 et 29 mars. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 551. Berne MS. Hist. Helvet. v. p. 12.

817Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 551.

818'Quod presbyteri ab inde debeant relinquere eorum lupanaria, lubricitates et meretrices, sub simili pœna (facere in muris Sancti Gervasii tres teysias muri.)'—Registres du Conseil du 1ᵉʳ avril.

819Galiffe, Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève , ii. p. vii. The note contains a long list of the illegitimate children of popes, archbishops, inquisitors, and other churchmen.

8201 Timothy iv. 1-3.

821Romans xiv. 17.

822Lettre de Vandel du 23 juin 1530. Galiffe fils, Besançon Hugues , note to page 395.

823'Procuratorem prosequentem scopettis invasisse, et equum super quo fugiebat vulnerasse.'—Brief of Clement VII., dated January 24, 1528.

824Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 485, 547, 572. Mém. d'Archéologie , tom. v. p. 162.

825Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 572,573. Mém. d'Archéologie , iv. p. 171.

826'Fuit lecta missiva Domini Sancti Victoris. Rescribatur ei ut veniat, si velit, et illum bene tractabimus.'—Council Register, May 2, 1530.

827Gautier MS. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 573.

828The convent of St. Catherine occupied the site of the Chalet à Gobet , an inn situated on the road from Lausanne to Berne.

829'Ce fut ma seconde passion.'—Bonivard, Chroniq.

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