over, seven hundred and thirty-six French officers, for the most part veterans, accustomed to victory under Turenne and Condé, were dispersed through the battalions of the prince's army. A great number of these had found themselves compelled, in 1685, to become nominally Catholics, in order to avoid the shame of being declared unworthy to serve under the flag of France, in whose shadow they had so long fought. Reconciled with the Protestant religion in the French churches in Holland, they burned for revenge upon their persecutors. William of Orange had no partisans more resolute and devoted. He had placed fifty-four in his regiment of horse-guards, and thirty-four in his body-guard. . . . . Marshal Schomberg was second in command; and such was the confidence inspired by that skilful commander, that the Princess of Orange gave him secret instructions to assert her rights, and continue the enterprise, should her husband fall. Two other refugee of ficers were bearers of similar instructions to direct the expedition, in case of the death of both the prince and the marshal."

As a great captain, Schomberg stood, in the public opinion of that century, immediately after Condé and Turenne. He was as wise a counsellor as he was a valiant and skilful leader. "When William would have sailed straight up the Thames to London, in hopes that his presence would suffice at once to cast down the banner of the Stuarts, and rouse the country to revolution, Schomberg made him understand that the liberator of England ought not to present himself as a conqueror, and enter the capital of his future kingdom at the head of an army of Dutch and French; that it was better to temporise a little, show his partisans the forces that were ready to second them, and so inspire them with courage to take a resolution." It was in pursuance of this sensible advice that William steered for Torbay. Schomberg's anticipation was fulfilled. The sight of his valiant menat-arms gave confidence to the country; the troops sent against him joined him; James fled. The Dutch prince triumphed, almost without drawing a sword. "By one of those

odd caprices of fate frequent in political catastrophes, the Sieur de l'Estang, a French refugee, and lieutenant in William's guards, was selected by the conqueror to enjoin the King of France's ambassador to quit London within four-and-twenty hours; and another refugee, Saint Leger, a gentleman of Poitou, received orders to accompany him to Dover, and to protect him, if necessary, against the animosity of the English." This last precaution seems to have been hardly necessary, for Barrillon wrote to Louis XIV. that he had received all manner of civility and good treatment wherever he passed.

During the early period of Schomberg's emigration, passed at Berlin, the Elector had done everything in his power to attach him to his service. He had named him governor-general of Prussia, minister of state, member of the privy council in which the princes of the blood sat, and generalissimo of the Brandenburg troops. Schomberg preferred the great interests of Protestantism to these honours and advantages, and accompanied William of Orange to England, to find a glorious death by the waters of Boyne. In Ireland, he proved at once his devotion to the cause he had embraced and his own disinterestedness. When the army was in arrear, and no money forthcoming, "Je n'oserais me vanter de rien,' he wrote to the king; but if I had in my hands the hundred thousand pounds sterling your majesty has done me the grace to bestow upon me, I would deliver them, by the person you might appoint, for the payment of your army.' This sum, which parliament had voted to him, but which he delicately attributed to royal munificence, was actually employed to pay the troops, and he contented himself with a pension. What wonder that French refugees flocked from all parts of Europe to fight under his glorious banner?" In Ireland, the marshal found himself in much the same position in which Wellington was placed in the Peninsula-compelled to manoeuvre, with inferior forces, in front of a formidable enemy, double his own strength; to avoid a battle, which would have been certain destruction, and patiently to prepare the way for future triumph-a mark,

the while, for the attacks of fireside civilians in England. William's courtiers accused him of weakness and indecision. He energetically defended himself. "I confess," he wrote to William, "that, but for my profound submission to your majesty's orders, I should prefer the honour of being tolerated near your person, to the command of an army in Ireland such as that I had under my orders in the last campaign. Had I risked a battle, I should perhaps have lost all you possess in this kingdom, to say nothing of the consequences in Scotland, and even in England." The numerous refugees in his army seconded him with the greatest vigour. On the banks of the Boyne, at sight of the foe, their ardour was unrestrainable. The following sketch of their exploits in that celebrated fight is as spirited and stirring as if the writer had himself worn basnet and brandished sabre before he donned the professor's gown and ascended the rostrum at the Lycée Bonaparte.

"Count Ménard de Schomberg, son of the Marshal, passed the Boyne, accompanied by his father and by the élite of his companions in exile, and, rudely driving before him the eight Irish and French squadrons placed to defend the passage, routed them and formed in order of battle. William, witnessing this brilliant action, took his army across the river, and the combat became general. Allons, mes amis,' cried Schomberg, addressing the refugees, bear in mind your courage and your resentment; yonder are your persecutors!' Animated by these words, they impetuously charged and broke the French regiments under the command of the Duke of Lauzun. But, in the heat of pursuit, Schomberg, fighting at the head of his men, was suddenly surrounded by Tyrconnel's guards, and received two sabre-cuts and a carbine wound. The venerable hero fell, mortally struck, but, with his dying eyes, he looked upon the flight of James II.'s soldiers. He was eighty-two years of age when he thus fell in the flush of victory. Few men have attained, during their lives, to greater honours and more flattering distinctions. He was Marshal of France, Duke and Grandee in Portugal; Governor-Ge

neral of Prussia, and generalissimo of its armies; in England a duke and peer, and knight of the garter. He everywhere justified the confidence he inspired by the most irreproachable loyalty, by the rare constancy of his opinions, by his courage and military skill, and by all those chivalrous qualities which our modern civilisation daily effaces and has not yet replaced.

"In this same battle La Caillemotte Ruvigny, younger brother of the Marquis of Ruvigny, was mortally wounded. To glory, my children, to glory!' he shouted to his countrymen, as he was carried, covered with blood, past the French Protestant regiments, then marching against the enemy."

In

The Marquis de Ruvigny rendered brilliant services, both as a military man and a diplomatist, and William conferred upon him the rank of lieutenant-general and the title of Earl of Galloway. Whilst his brother found a glorious death at the Boyne, he fought and triumphed at Aghrim. "At the battle of Nerwinde, he and his regiment kept at bay, almost unsupported, the entire force of the French cavalry. He was made prisoner for a moment, but the French officers let him go, their chiefs affecting not to perceive it, and he continued to cover the retreat of the English, fighting like a hero. 1705, at the siege of Badajoz, he lost his right arm, which a cannon-ball carried off as he raised it to show General Fagel the spot he intended to attack. On the 26th June 1706 he entered Madrid at the head of the English and Portuguese troops, and proclaimed Charles III., whilst Philip V. fled before his victorious army. Medals struck at Madrid called the Austrian pretender Catholic King by favour of the heretics." St Simon reproaches Ruvigny with fighting against his country, and Louis XIV., after repeatedly notifying his displeasure, which the Marquis utterly disregarded, confiscated his property.

In his first book, entitled "The Protestants in France," Mr Weiss records, to the honour of his nation and of humanity, the disinterested and noble conduct of French Catholics, who, after aiding the escape of their persecuted countrymen, became depo

sitaries of their fortune, and faithfully transmitted it to them in their exile. In London, in Amsterdam, in Berlin, many refugees, when telling the tale of their disasters, spoke with deep emotion of those of their fellowcitizens whose probity and charity had thus been proof against the prevalent fanaticism. From such probity there were occasional painful and glaring deviations. "Old Ruvigny" (the father of the two we have spoken of), says St Simon, in a passage cited by Mr Weiss, was a friend of Harlay, then attorney-general and afterwards first president, and, confident in his fidelity, he left a deposit in his hands. Harlay kept it as long as he could not abuse the trust; but when he saw the éclat" (the confiscation of young de Ruvigny's property), "he found himself modestly embarrassed between his friend's son and his master, to whom he humbly revealed his trouble: he pretended that the king already knew of it, and that it was Barbezieux who had found it out and told his Majesty. I will not investigate this secret, but the fact is that he told it himself, and that, as a recompense, the king gave him the deposit as confiscated property; and that this hypocrite of justice, and virtue, and disinterestedness, did not blush to take it, and to shut his eyes and ears to the noise his perfidy made."

Mr Weiss's book teems with facts that are little known, with characteristic details, and with anecdotes that cannot fail to interest and attract all classes of readers. Before laying aside the chapter relating to England, to take such brief glance as we can permit ourselves at the fate of the refugees in other countries, we must say a few words of a remarkable man, the peasant leader of a Protestant insurrection, which some of the best generals in France were long unable to quell. We speak of Jean Cavalier, the hero of the Cevennes. When Marshal Villars, summoned from Flanders for the purpose, at last brought him to terms, the guerilla chief went to Paris, where the eagerness of the mob to behold him impeded his horse's progress through the streets and scandalised St Simon. Admitted to the king's presence, the peasant's son dared to justify the insurrection, alleging the

VOL. LXXIV.-NO. CCCCLIII.

cruelties of Montrevel, and claiming the performance of Marshal Villars's promises. The king himself condescended to exhort him to conversion, but in vain. Chamillard, the minister, was indignant at his obstinacy. How could he refuse the honour of being the proselyte of so great a sovereign? Let him but abjure, and there was a pension for his father, the rank of major-general for himself. "Do you suppose,' ," added the minister,

that the king's religion can be false? Would God bless him as he does?" -"Monseigneur," replied Cavalier, "Mahometanism has possessed a great part of the earth. I do not judge the designs of God."-"I see that you are an obstinate Huguenot!" said the minister, and dismissed him. He was sent to the fortress of Brissach, in Alsatia. Fearing that it was intended to confine him there, he resolved to quit France, and, on arriving in a wooded country, about three leagues from the frontiers, he escaped with a number of companions, and reached Switzerland, where he was joined by his principal lieutenants, and by a great many of his former followers. He stopped at Lausanne, and busied himself with the organisation of a regiment of volunteers, with which he intended to enter the service of the Duke of Savoy, to penetrate into Languedoc, and cover the landing of a body of troops from a Dutch fleet. The French ambassador to the Swiss Diet remonstrated, and gave in a diplomatic note-very different in style from the former imperious mandates of the French king to foreign powers. Marlborough's victories had singularly abated the prestige of the Fourteenth Louis. The Diet, without deciding anything, handed the note to the council of Berne, which pretended to expel the chiefs of the refugees, most of whom, however, remained hidden in the Canton of Vaud. Cavalier and his best officers went to Holland, and took service in the Anglo-Dutch army. He received the rank of colonel, and his former soldiers, the famous Camisards, flocked to form his regiment. An unforeseen difficulty then arose. The Anglo-Dutch commissioners required that all the companies should be commanded by gentlemen, whilst Cavalier insisted on selecting his own

B

officers. The commissioners were fain to come to terms with the shepherd of the Gardon, who at last consented that one-half of the officers should be men of noble birth. Thus the cap tain and lieutenant of each company were taken alternately from amongst the gentlemen and the Camisards. Upon his staff Cavalier admitted none but his mountain warriors, of whose obedience and enthusiasm he was sure, and who had already won him so many triumphs.

"After serving for some time in Italy, Cavalier was sent to Spain. At the memorable battle of Almanzawhere Berwick, born English, and become French by a revolution, was opposed to the Marquis of Ruvigny, born a Frenchman, and converted into an Englishman by persecution-Cavalier's regiment, composed entirely of Protestant refugees, found itself opposed to a Catholic regiment, which had perhaps shared in the pitiless war of the Cevennes. As soon as the two French corps recognised each other, they charged with the bayonet, disdaining to fire, and slew each other with such fury, that, according to Berwick's testimony, not more than three hundred men survived. Cavalier's regiment was but seven hundred strong; and if, as is probable, the Catholic regiment was complete, its almost total destruction was a bloody glorification of Cévenol valour. Marshal Berwick, who had witnessed so many fierce encounters, never spoke of this tragical event without visible emotion.

"Notwithstanding the loss of the battle of Almanza, Cavalier received promotion in the English army. He reached the rank of general, was subsequently appointed governor of the island of Jersey, and died at Chelsea in 1740. The valley of Dublin still contains a cemetery formerly devoted to the refugees. It was there that were interred his remains, which, by a strange fatality, repose near one of those military colonies founded by William III. upon the soil of Catholic Ireland."

About the middle of the sixteenth century, Admiral Coligny, in presence of the disfavour shown to the Huguenots, and with a presentiment, perhaps, of coming catastrophes, con

ceived the bold idea of forming a vast Protestant colony in America, which should serve as a refuge for the persecuted members of the reformed church. In 1555, a knight of Malta, Durand de Villegagnon, sailed from Havre, by Coligny's directions, in command of two vessels full of emigrants. They reached the coast of Brazil, ascended to the Rio Janeiro and built a fort. But disunion grew up amongst them; they had gone out insufficiently provided; they dispersed; some perished, others returned to France. A second attempt, also under Coligny's auspices, to found a Protestant colony-this time in Florida-had no better result. A fort was built, called Fort Charles, in honour of the king of France, and garrisoned by a Captain Albert and twenty-five soldiers. It was the first citadel in North America over which the flag of a civilised nation had floated, and it was the scene of a mutiny, provoked by Captain Albert's despotism. That officer was killed, and the colony was broken up and abandoned.

"These two checks did not discourage Coligny. Taking advantage of the re-establishment of peace in France, and of a temporary return of royal favour, he again solicited Charles IX., and obtained from him three ships, whose command he gave to René Laudonnière, a man of rare intelligence, but whose qualities were those of a sailor rather than of a soldier. Instead of reconstructing the fort built by his predecessor, and which could not but have revived painful associations in the breasts of the new colonists, he built another near the mouth of the river St John, and called it Fort Caroline. But, in the following year, the Spaniards seized this Protestant colony, which gave them umbrage; and their chief, Pedro Melendez, having made prisoners of most of the French, hung them to trees, with this inscription: Hung as heretics, and not as Frenchmen.' This tragical event, which was the first act of hostility between two European nations in the New World, excited the liveliest indignation in France. Dominic de Gourgues, a gentleman of Mont-de-Marsan, was so incensed at it that he vowed signal vengeance. He had once been

taken prisoner by the Spaniards, when fighting against them in Italy, and had been condemned to the galleys, as a punishment for the obstinate valour with which he had refused to surrender. He was on his way to Spain, when the vessel that bore him was captured by an Algerine corsair. But a ship, manned by knights of Malta, bore down upon the pirate, and the captives, who were about to be reduced to slavery, were restored to liberty. Since that day, the outraged gentleman had turned searover, and had largely compensated himself, at the cost of the Spaniards, for his losses and injuries. On his return to his native country, he learned the crime perpetrated by Melendez. He instantly sold his patrimony, and, assisted by two of his friends, he equipped three vessels in the port of Bordeaux, enlisted two hundred men, and sailed for America in 1567. Upon his arrival at his destination, he won, by costly presents, the good-will of the Indians, and prevailed on them to join him against the Spaniards, whom he attacked by surprise, making a great slaughter of them. Then, using cruel reprisals, he hung his prisoners, affixing to them the inscription: Hung as assassins, and not as Spaniards.' This revenge taken, he returned to France, where a price had just been set upon his head by his Catholic Majesty, with the courteous permission of the most Christian king; and the noble gentleman who had sacrificed his fortune and exposed his life to revenge the insult offered to his country, was long compelled to concealment to avoid the scaffold."

Although the French Protestants failed in establishing a refuge in America, they largely availed themselves, a century later, of that presented to them by the twelve flourishing colonies which the English had then founded in the New World. Some years before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, numerous fugitives, chiefly from the western provinces of France, sought an asylum in English America. In 1662, some La Rochelle shipowners were fined for affording passage to emigrants, and conveying them to a country belonging to Great Britain. "One of them, named

Brunet, was condemned to produce, within one year, either thirty-six young men, whose escape he was accused of favouring, or a valid certificate of their death, under penalty of one thousand livres' fine, and of exemplary punishment." The amounts of these fines were characteristically applied to the support of Catholic churches and convents. The refugees whose escape was the cause of their being levied, settled in Massachusetts. Soon various states received similar accessions to their population. "At sixteen miles from New York, on East River, some refugees founded an entirely French town, which they called New La Rochelle. Too poor, at first, to build a church, they used to set out, on Saturday eveningafter passing the whole week in the rudest toil for New York, which they reached, on foot, in the course of the night. The next day they went twice to church, started again in the evening, walked a part of the night, and reached their humble dwellings in time to go to work on Monday morning. Happy and proud that they had conquered their religious liberty, their letters to France informed their persecuted brethren of the favour God had shown them, and urged them to go out and join them." South Carolina was the favourite province of the French emigrants, especially of the Languedocians, whom the warm climate well suited. After the Revocation, very large numbers of refugees settled there, and the province received the name of the Huguenots' Home. The sufferings of many of these poor people, before they got settled, were terrible. Mr Weiss quotes, from Bancroft, the touching narrative of Judith Manigault, whose family, after quitting their dwelling in the night-time, leaving the soldiers in bed, and abandoning all their house contained, succeeded, after remaining some time concealed in France and after a long circuit through Germany, Holland, and England, in reaching Carolina. Deeply sensible though the emigrants were of the blessings of that freedom of conscience for which they had sacrificed everything, many of them long regretted their native land. From Gayare's History of Louisi