Chapter XXXVIII: Epilogue

On this day, the 29th of September, 1609, I, Antonicq Lebrenn, now in my sixty-first year, close, on our farm of Karnak, this legend of our family, which is the continuation of the narrative written and bequeathed to us by my grandfather Christian the printer and friend of Robert Estienne.

Immediately upon the raising of the siege of La Rochelle I married Cornelia Mirant. Shortly after I put into execution a project that I had long been fondly nursing--that of moving to Brittany and establishing myself in the neighborhood of the cradle of my family. Before leaving La Rochelle, Colonel Plouernel, who recovered from his wounds sustained in the siege, renewed his offer of leasing out to me a farm belonging to the seigniorial estate of Mezlean, a patrimony of his wife's father, and known as the Karnak farm by reason of its being in the close neighborhood of the druid stones that bear that name. These stones are still extant, ranged in wide avenues, as they stood in the days of Julius Caesar, when our ancestress Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, offered herself to the gods as a holocaust, in the hope of causing them to render the arms of the Gauls victorious in their impending struggle for independence. I accepted Colonel Plouernel's offer, an offer that also pleased Cornelia and her father, who, as he continued almost constantly to travel by water between La Rochelle and Vannes, a port located near Karnak, foresaw, as happened in fact, that he would spend near us all the time that he did not spend aboard ship. I sold my armorer's shop. Leaving my sister Theresa and her husband Louis Rennepont at La Rochelle, where the latter practiced the profession of law, and taking with us my uncle the Franc-Taupin, who promised to himself the pleasure of rocking our children on his knees and singing to them his Franc-Taupin songs, as he had done to my father Odelin, my ill-starred aunt Hena, and my uncle Herve of sad memory, we departed from La Rochelle and settled down on our farm of Karnak on October 20 of the year 1573.

My sister Theresa and her husband Louis Rennepont still reside in the old Protestant city. Every year they come to see us. Thanks to the numerous trips that his profession compelled him to make to Paris, my brother-in-law came in contact with several Huguenots who were well informed on current events. His conversations with them, together with extracts from several books that were published concerning leading public men and important occurrences, furnished him with copious materials which he left with me. These materials enable me here to make a summary sketch of the leading events since the siege of La Rochelle was raised:

The edict of pacification of La Rochelle was not wholly satisfactory to the Huguenots of the other provinces. The example of the Low Countries, then in successful revolt against the monarchic-clerical power of Spain, and organized upon the republican pattern, inspired their brothers in France to renewed efforts. The "Politicals" gained new recruits every day. The Prince of Conde, ashamed of his act of desertion, fled the court and issued a manifesto from Strasburg repudiating his abjuration. Measures were in train to renew the war, and to overthrow Charles IX, when his death gave a new turn to affairs.

The monster expired in 1574, barely twenty-four years of age and haunted by his bloody deeds. "Oh! nurse, nurse!" he would cry in agonies of terror; "Oh! nurse, how much blood--it is St. Bartholomew's blood! Oh! how many murders--how many victims struggling to escape under the sword. I see them--Oh! what wicked councillors I had! Oh, God! Oh, God! have mercy upon me!"[85]

Charles IX was followed by his brother the Duke of Anjou, who, in the meantime, had been elected King of Poland. Apprized by his mother of his brother's decease, he fled his Polish kingdom, and mounted the French throne under the name of Henry III. True to his family traditions, Henry III sought at first to violate the Edict of La Rochelle. Finding this act of treachery unfeasible, he vacillated between extreme reaction and progress. This course earned for him the suspicion of the Catholic clergy and he was assassinated by a Dominican monk, James Clement, in 1589.

War again broke out, with Henry of Bearn now at the head of the Huguenots, to whom he returned during the reign of Henry III. Henry of Bearn now claimed the crown by inheritance as Henry IV, besieged Paris, and was finally crowned, but not until he once more abjured Protestantism. His reign was benign and favorable to the Reformation. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes was signed, granting the Huguenots absolute freedom of conscience. The policy of Henry IV enraged the priesthood, and he also fell a victim to the assassin's knife. The assassin's name was Francis Ravaillac. "Nine days after the death of Henry IV, on Tuesday, May 23, 1610, an altercation took place between Monsieur Leomenie and Father Cotton in full council. Leomenie said to the Jesuit that it was he _and his Society of Jesus that murdered the King_. On that same day, Ravaillac, being interrogated by the commission, answered _in accordance with the maxims of the Jesuits Mariana, Becanus and others, whose writings recommend the killing of a tyrant_."

The death of Henry IV conjured away the danger that Rome, the Empire and Spain saw themselves threatened with--the Christian Republic and the perpetual peace of Europe. The fresh murder, also committed at the instigation of the disciples of Loyola, had fatal consequences. But sooner or later Right triumphs over Wrong, Justice over Iniquity. Therefore, Oh, sons of Joel! no faltering. Some day the Universal Republic will unfurl the red banner of freedom, and will break the yoke both of the Roman Church and of this royalty that has oppressed Gaul for so many centuries.

As to our own family, Cornelia Mirant with whom I have now been married thirty-seven years, gave me after twenty years of our wedded life, a son whom I have named Stephan. We have lived on our farm near the sacred stones of Karnak, and not far from Craigh, the high hill upon which, according to our family traditions, stood the house of our ancestor Joel in the days of Julius Caesar. My uncle the Franc-Taupin remained with us to the end of his long and eventful life. He died on the 12th of November, 1589.

My brother-in-law Louis Rennepont continues to exercise his profession at La Rochelle. The youngest of his sons, Marius Rennepont, embraced the career of merchant mariner and sailed away, when still very young, on board a merchant vessel commanded by one of Captain Mirant's friends. Captain Mirant died in 1593. That same year we lost our old friend Master Barbot, the boilermaker of the isle of Rhe.

I preserved amicable relations to the end with Colonel Plouernel, since the battle of Roche-la-Belle the head of his house. Shortly before his death we visited upon his invitation the old Castle of Plouernel, where our ancestor Den-Brao the mason was buried alive together with other serfs in the donjon constructed by themselves, and out of which Fergan the Quarryman, Den-Brao's son, rescued his own child, a poor boy whose blood was to assist the incantations of Azenor the Pale, the mistress of Neroweg VI. Nothing is left to-day of that feudal edifice but imposing ruins. Its place is now taken by a magnificent castle built in the style of the Renaissance, and raised at the foot of the mountain. Colonel Plouernel's son remained faithful to the Reformed religion, but, after his death, his son abjured Protestantism and took up his residence at the court of Louis XIII, the successor of Henry IV, with whom he became a favorite. The new head of the family never returned to his own castle, which, together with the vast domains attached to it, is ruled by the bailiffs of the seigniories of Plouernel and Mezlean.

Once, on the occasion of a trip to the port of Vannes, I met a traveler just arrived from Germany, who informed me of the death of Prince Charles of Gerolstein, a descendant of one of the branches of our plebeian family whose ancestor was Gaelo, one of the companions of old Rolf, the chief of the Northman pirates. Prince Charles left a son behind, heir of his principality, who remains faithful to the Reformed religion.

Our life has run peaceful and happy at this place. We cultivate our fields, and they satisfy our wants. My son Stephan, now sixteen years of age, helps me in my field labors. He is of a kind, timid and diffident disposition, although born of so intrepid a mother as Cornelia. He will, I hope, live peacefully here, unless the civil discords, which already begin to threaten the minority of Louis XIII, should extend into Brittany.

I shall here close this narrative which my grandfather Christian the printer began under the reign of Francis I. I shall join it to the archives and relics of our family together with the pocket Bible printed by my grandfather, and which his daughter Hena, baptized in religion Sister St. Frances-in-the-Tomb, held in her hands before she was plunged twenty-five times into the flames on the 21st of January, 1535, under the eyes of King Francis I, to the greater glory of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tire-Laines means literally Wool-Pluckers.

[2] Tire-Soies: literally Silk-Pluckers.

[3] Mauvais-Garcons; literally Bad Boys.

[4]

From the bowels of the earth I have cried up to thee, O, Lord;
O, Lord, give ear unto my voice.
May thy ears be ready to listen
To the voice of my supplications.

[5] This whole sermon la a reproduction from the records of the time. See Merle d'Aubigne, _History of the Reformation in the XVI Century_, vol. 1. p. 332. (Pp. 86, 87, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.)

[6] We consider it our duty to cite literally the monstrous fact against which the heart rises in revolt, and reason feels indignant:

"Sub commissariis insuper ac praedicatoribus veniarum imponere ut si quis, per impossibile. _Dei genetricem_, semper virginem violasset, quod eundem indulgentiarum vigore absolvere posset luce clarius est...."--(l'ositiones fratris J. Tezelil, quibus defendit indulgentias contra Lutherum. Theses 99, 100 and 101). Cited by Merle d'Aubigne, _History of the Reformation in the XVI Century_, p. 86, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.

[7] Merle d'Aubigne. _History of the Reformation in the XVI Century_, vol. I, pp. 328, 329. (P. 88, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.)

[8] The seat of the University of Paris.

[9] For these horrible calumnies spread by the clergy against the Reformation, see De Thou, vol. I, book II, p. 97.

[10] In Spanish, as well as French, "woman" and "wife" are the same word. Loyola punned upon the word.

[11] For a thrilling account of one of these invasions, see "The Iron Arrow Head," the tenth of this series.

[12] "Executio ad alios pertinet."--Bellarmin, vol. I, chap. VII, p. 147.

[13] Mariana, _De Rege, vol. I_, chap. VI, p. 60.

[14] "'Alas', the monk explained, ' ... men have arrived at such a pitch of corruption now-a-days, that unable to make them come to us, we must e'en go to them, otherwise they would cast us off altogether; ... our casuists have taken under consideration the vices to which people of various conditions are most addicted, with a view of laying down maxims which ... are so gentle that he must be a very impracticable subject indeed who is not pleased with them.'"--Blaise Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VI, pp. 219, 220, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[15] _Practice According to the School of the Society of Jesus (Praxis ex Societatis Jesu Schola)._ The passage reads: "Si habitum dimmittat ut furetur occulte, vel fornicetur."--Treatise 6, example 7, number 103. Also in Diana: "Ut eat incognitus ad lupanar."--Cited by Blaise Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VI, p. 215, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[16] Father Gaspar Hurtado, _On the Subject of Sins (De Sub. Pecc._), diff. 9; Diana, p. 5; treatise 14, r. 99.--Cited by Blaise Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VII, p. 234, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[17] Father Anthony Escobar of Mendoza, _Exposition of Uncontroverted Opinions in Moral Theology_, treatise 7, example 4, no. 223.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VI, p. 226, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[18] Father Etienne Bauny, _Summary of Sins_ (1633), sixth edition, pp. 213, 214.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VI, p. 226, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[19] "Non ut malum pro malo reddat, sed ut conservet honorem." are the words of Reginaldus, in _Practice According to the School of the Society of Jesus_, book 21, no. 62, p. 260. Also Lessius, _Concerning Justice (De Justitia)_, book 2, chap. 9, division 12, no. 79.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VII, pp. 233, 234, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[20] Sanchez, _Moral Theology_, book 2, chap. 39, no. 7.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VII, p. 237, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[21] Molina, vol. 1, treatise 2, division 88, no. 6. Also Escobar, _Moral Theology_, treatise 6, example 6, no. 48.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VIII, pp. 249, 250, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[22] Father Bauny, _Summary of Sins_, chap. 14.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_, Letter VIII, p. 252, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.

[23] "Media benevolentia."--Escobar, _Moral Theology_, treatise 3, example 5, no. 4.33,34.--Cited by Pascal, _Letters to a Provincial_,