“My good man,” said the king, addressing himself to Bernard, “for many years you have been in the service of our family, and we have suffered you to retain your religion amidst fires and massacres; but at present I find myself so pressed by the Guises and my own people, that I am compelled to give you into the hands of my enemies. These two poor women, whom I see with you, are to be burned to-morrow; and so will you, unless you be converted.” “Sire,” replied Bernard, “I am ready to yield up my life for the glory of God. You say you feel pity for me. It is rather I that should pity you, who utter such words as these, ‘I am compelled.’ This is not the language of a king, and neither yourself nor the Guises, with all your people, shall compel me; for I know how to die.” “What an impudent rascal!” said one of the courtiers, who afterwards recorded the scene he had witnessed; “one might have supposed that he knew that line of Seneca, ‘Qui mori scit, cogi nescit.’” [169]
Two months later there were fagots blazing in the Place de Grève, and monks gesticulated around the fires which were consuming to ashes the “two poor women” of whom the king had spoken, and who had found grace to continue steadfast to the end.
But Palissy still lived. Some powerful arm had sheltered him, and he was saved from the fiery trial. A few months longer he remained captive in the bonds of his prison-house, and then the message came for him also, Thou hast been faithful unto death, “I will give thee a crown of life.”
He died in the Bastile, in the year 1589.
THE END.
NOTES.
[4] “A true Recipe, whereby all the inhabitants of France may learn to multiply and augment their possessions.”
[58] They occupy forty-five plates in volume vi. of the “Musée des Monuments Français.”
[60] By the body of his countrymen in his own day, his teaching was disregarded, and his writings passed, after a time, into unmerited oblivion. There were, however, a few who made practical use of his suggestions; and of the application of his theory on springs a most remarkable instance is on record.