My
Great-grandmother’s Letter
|
It is strange that men of intellectual
eminence concern themselves not with saving civilization or reforming
the abuses of the administration, but with preaching the merit of
virginity and the damnation of unbaptized infants.
|
Bertrand Russell
|

A brief Report of my
Escape from France (translation)
“It happened at La
Rochelle de Saint Denis, where there is a
harbor, in the year of the Lord 1687. I was the oldest among my
brothers and
sisters, and during the absence of my parents the oldest in the house,
with
five siblings younger than me, the youngest brother five and the
youngest
sister only two years of age. My dear parents had impressed on me not
to miss
any opportunity to escape from the kingdom if not with all, then at
least with
some of my siblings.
“On
April 24, of the same year, 1697, there
came into our house a good and dear friend who asked me not to mention
his name
because of the harsh penalties and awful consequences this may cause
him to
suffer, and informed me of a small vessel bound to England, whose
skipper he
had implored to take on board four or five people, and that there is no
more
space on this ship than to accommodate just five people, although in
order to
hide us between the cargo of sea-salt he would have to toss a barrel of
wine
into the ocean, lest he would run the danger of being discovered and
lose
everything, and therefore demanded a great sum of money to cover his
risks. All
this was no obstacle for our plan and we accorded.
“I
asked our friend that he may bring the ship’s captain to our house, not
later
than 3.45 a.m., so that none of the neighbors would grow suspicious,
while I
could employ our friend’s services in this agreement as a witness and
translator. We came to an accord, I promised the skipper 200 Louis’dors
per
head of the five people he would provide with passage; this was 1,000
Louis’dors in French currency. One half he was to receive before we set
out,
and the rest when safely landing us in Chichester (a city in England),
to where
he promised to bring us. After in the presence of our witness I made
the
accord, we then agreed, that the time to go aboard should be on the
27th of
April in the evening at 8.00 p.m. - When the day arrived, I, two of my
brothers
and two of my sisters dressed up as clean and fastidious as possible
with
everything that we were allowed to carry on us, the circumstances did
not allow
us to handle it any other way, and I ordered the governess for the
little ones
to go with us, because she knew of the secret.
“We pretended to
take a turn on the palace promenade, where people of consequence used
to gather
every evening. About ten, the people began to disperse, and we sneaked
away
from our acquaintances; but on a very different route, namely to the
spot,
which had been communicated to me, not far off from the city’s pond. In
the
building behind it we found a door ajar, slipped in, and climbed up the
unlit
stairs and holding our breath remained there in utmost silence well
until after
midnight, when our friend and the captain came in. I said to the
captain that
nothing could cause me greater pains than leaving behind my smallest
sister;
especially since she is my goddaughter, I felt even more obliged to
rescue her from the
idolaters than with the others.
“This I couldn’t say
without great many tears and sorrow of my heart: I promised the captain
everything, whatever he desired and the heaven’s blessing, if he
complied to do
the good work. My address and my tears moved him to such lengths, that
he
expressed willingness, to let her go with us, too, if only I could
promise him
that she wouldn’t scream and make noises should the coast guards
inspect his
vessel which at two or three occasions might not go without poking
rapiers into
suspicious nooks and crannies. I promised him, hoping that the grace of
God
will be with me. Immediately my friend and the governess rushed into
town to
fetch my sister from where we used to live.
“The governess
lifted the child from the bed, wrapped her together with her dresses
into a
blanket and carried her hither hidden in her apron; it was God’s will
that
nobody would notice the least of it. The little child, which was
particularly
attached to me, was very glad to see me again, and promised, to be
faithful and
quiet, and only to do, what I would tell her to do. I dressed her and
swaddled
her in the remainder of her belongings.
“In the same night,
at about two a.m., four members of the crew came from the harbor and
carried
all of us on their shoulders on board of the ship - me with my little
sister in
the arm - and to the prepared place in the cargo hull: the entrance to
our
hiding spot was so small, that somebody needed to enter it first to
drag us
into it; and when we had found our positions between the salt barrels,
and were
unable to move about, they sealed the opening behind us, so that it
looked as
before and nobody would suspect anything. The deck’s rafters were so
low that
we hit it with our heads; yet we all endeavored to hold our heads high,
so that
the coast guards’s rapiers couldn’t reach us.
“As soon as we had
boarded, the vessel hoisted the sails; the king’s guards came to
inspect it but
we had the good fortune that neither on the 28th nor on the other two
occasions
we were discovered. The wind was favorable and by 11 or
12 a.m. carried us away from all the
enemies of the truth ... .”
Here
the torn fragment ends. Together with the letter there has been handed
down the
information that it was written by my great-great-grandmother when she
was
seventeen and that it had been mailed from Amsterdam, not Chichester,
the
original destination. Why and how is unknown; we also know that
Marianne
married an other Huguenot living in Scotland, a Monsieur Coliere, my
father’s
ancestor on the mother’s side. The “idolaters”
mentioned in the letter are the Roman Catholics.
1687
was the year when the catholic King James II of England endorsed the
Declaration of Indulgence which suspended the laws against Catholics
and
nonconformists while his catholic colleague on the French throne, Le
Rois
Soleil, Louis XIV continued to enforce intolerance by persecuting a
thrifty
minority of the middle-class and so created the cause that made him
slip from
the pinnacle of his power.
Louis
had seen it all, and as early as 1648 an angry mob had entered even his
bedchamber - but the guillotine still waited to be invented and
undeterred the
monarch took charge of his own destiny in 1661, turning a bankrupt and
divided
nation around to unprecedented splendor and greatness. An able cabinet
of
advisors assisted him in reforms of the currency, efficient taxation,
and the
introduction of profitable industries. For the first time, after a
number of
disastrous engagements, the English navy went in hiding and refused to
accept
the challenge by the newly created fleet of the French. Trafalgar was
still a
long way off. In 1685, in a private ceremony, Louis XIV married his
second wife
a former Huguenot, Françoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de Maintenon.
It is said the
malaise of the Protestants in France under his reign is dating from
this
liaison.
Madame
de Maintenon had converted to Catholicism and the people of her former
faith
accused her of being involved in the vigorous persecution of the
Protestants;
it was generally believed that her urging had moved the king to rescind
the
Edict of Nantes from 1598, which had granted religious freedom to the
Huguenots.
On
the pretext that the near-extinction of Protestantism and Protestants
in France
made any edict granting them privileges redundant, the Edict of
Fontainebleau,
from 1685, affected every non-catholic in Louis’s empire.
In the colonies all Jews were to be
expelled. At home Protestant schools and institutions were banned. The
children
of Protestant families were to be forcibly baptized by Roman Catholic
priests,
and Protestant places of worship were torn down or confiscated and
turned into
stables. The Edict precluded individuals from exercising their religion
in
public, but provided "liberty granted to the said persons of the
Pretended Reformed Religion on condition of not engaging in the
exercise of the
said religion, or of meeting under pretext of prayers or religious
services." It was the
final chapter to a policy of
lingering discriminations that for years had continued to burden the
Protestants
with forced billeting.
In
recognition of their value for the French economy - Huguenots were
skilled in
the crafts and commerce - the same bill that prosecuted their faith
prohibited
the Huguenots from leaving the country.
This
failed.
200,000
Huguenots slipped through the guarded border and carried their trade to
other
countries where they were hugely appreciated. As is evident from the
letter,
not every refugee was a fully educated adult. Still, it illustrates
Hegel’s
observation, that whenever you instigate something considered
beneficial you
can be sure that this very action is going to set in motion a number of
unforeseen factors that achieve exactly the opposite, and this law
began
sinking its fangs into the juiciest piece of Europe: France. The
economy that
had carried King Louis XIV to such heights began to falter, but his
military
success continued to grow and with it his expenses.
So
his European enemies united in a coalition under the leadership of
Winston Churchill’s
ancestor, John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, who turned the
tide in
the Battle of Blenheim. In 1709 the series of French defeats continued
in the
battle of Malplaquette. The engagement became notorious for two
reasons: A new
type of rifle made its appearance, the flintlock musket in combination
with a
new drill of rapid loading, and, by accident, the Swiss mercenaries on
either
side confronted each other directly. With flying colors the opposing
lines had
marched up to each other as if on the parade ground, then stopped at
shouting
distance. The officers courteously waved their hats and politely
offered the
other side to fire the first round. This exchange of niceties ended
with the
first exchange of full volleys on short range in history.
It
was also the last time, that this was attempted in this direct fashion.
The
butcher's bill was appalling, the worst inflicted in centuries of
warfare. The
"victorious" suffered far more casualties - 25,000 - than the French
- 16,000, according to the most conservative estimates. In the future
the
approaching battalions would fire from a greater distance and try to
traverse
the no-man’s land between the lines as soon as possible. The other
horror at
Malplaquet was even more sinister. Both sides had enlisted contingents
of Swiss
mercenaries - according to the color of their uniforms called the
“Blue-” and the
“Red Swiss.” It was not the practice to pitch intentionally against
each other
units of the same ethnicity, but here it happened.
There
was hesitation in the ranks of the Swiss, but then the two battalions
went to
work. It was unbelievable.
The
armies looked on in amazement and horror. Across both sides of the
front, these
Swiss were often blood relations or at least friends from the same
valleys and
villages; they knew each other by name. It was the most merciless
slaughter in
this merciless battle, no quarter given and literally carried to the
bitter end
with knives, teeth and fingernails. It was a primeval horror -
unexpected,
unforeseen and utterly irrational.
But
so was the cause for my great-great-grandmother’s exile.
©
- 6/7/2007 - by michael sympson
2,000
words, all rights reserved