[785] Registres du Conseil du 25 août. Journal de Balard, p. 178. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 495.
[786] Gazzini, Mémoire au Saint Père. Archives of Turin, Roman Correspondence. Gaberel, Hist. de l'Eglise de Genève, i. p. 95.
[787] 'Ils nous lavèrent bien la tête.'
[788] Letter of B. Hugues. Galiffe, Matériaux, ii. pp. 525, 526.
[789] Letters of Vandel and Girard. Galiffe, Matériaux, ii. p. 533.
[790] Registres du Conseil des 10, 11 et 20 octobre 1528. Journal de Balard, p. 183.
CHAPTER VIII.
DEATH OF PONTVERRE.
(October 1528 to January 1529.)
=PONTVERRE MOWS FOR BONIVARD.=
CHAPPUIS, Gringalet, and Levrat filled the places through which they passed with their complaints, and all the bigots looked upon them as martyrs. The knights of the Spoon, being informed of the fate with which monastic institutions were threatened in Geneva, resolved to avenge religion and do all the injury they could to the audacious burgesses. Pontverre had already opened the campaign by a little scene of pillage, which is of no importance except to show the manners of the age. Wishing to spoil and plunder the Genevans under their noses, he had ordered his tenants to sharpen their scythes. One day in the beginning of June, the peasants shouldered their scythes; Pontverre put himself at their head, his men-at-arms surrounded them, and all marched towards the meadows of the Genevans on the left bank of the Arve, about a quarter of an hour's walk from the city. The mowers arrived, whetted their instruments, and then proceeded to cut down the new grass. At last they came to a meadow which belonged to Bonivard: to rob the prior was a dainty thing for Pontverre. Meanwhile the Genevans, having heard of what was going on, had hurried to the spot, and discovered by the side of the mowers a body of men whose arms flashed in the rays of the sun. Bonivard easily recognised the seigneur of Ternier. The huguenots could hardly contain themselves. The chief of the knights of the Spoon, having charged his people not to leave a blade of grass standing, approached the bridge of Arve which separates the two countries, and, calling out to the Genevans assembled on the right bank, began to insult and defy them. 'Come, come, cheer up!' he said; 'why don't you cross the bridge and fetch the hay we have cut for you?' The citizens loaded their arms, and the two bands began to fire at each other with their arquebuses. 'Let us take him at his word,' said some of the huguenots; 'let us go over the bridge and drive away the robbers.' Already several young men were preparing to cross the river; but Bonivard did not think a few loads of hay worth the risk of a battle that might not end well for Geneva. 'I dissuaded them,' says he, 'and led them back to the city.'[791]