[828] The convent of St. Catherine occupied the site of the Chalet à Gobet, an inn situated on the road from Lausanne to Berne.
[829] 'Ce fut ma seconde passion.'—Bonivard, Chroniq.
CHAPTER XI.
THE ATTACK OF 1530.
(August, September, and October.)
=ARREST OF THE FISCAL MANDOLLA.=
BONIVARD'S arrest was not an isolated act, but the first skirmish of a general engagement. The duke and the bishop were reconciled, and their only thought was how they could reduce Geneva by force of arms. A singular resolution for a pastor! Fortunately for him, the Genevans gave him a pretext calculated in some measure to justify his warlike cure of souls.
The iniquitous conduct of the Duke of Savoy towards Bonivard refuted the unjust accusations brought against him, and the Genevans at once manifested their sympathy with the unhappy prisoner of Chillon. They were indignant at the duke's violation of the safe-conduct that he himself had given. 'You see his bad faith,' they said. Thinking that when the innocent were put in prison, it was time to punish the guilty, they determined to have their revenge.
There was at Geneva a man named Mandolla, a procurator-fiscal and thorough-going partisan of the duke and the bishop. 'He was a bastard priest of evil name and fame,' say the chronicles of the times, 'who indulged in exactions, and in plundering and arbitrarily imprisoning those who displeased him.' The vicar-general, Messire de Gingins, abbot of Bonmont, an upright and benevolent man, often remonstrated with him, but Mandolla answered him with insolence. Nor was this all; for, having the temporal authority under his jurisdiction, he was continually intriguing to deliver up Geneva to the duke. The citizens, irritated at these encroachments on their rights, addressed several strong remonstrances to the abbot of Bonmont against the foreign priest who was trying to rob them of their independence. It was a serious accusation: Mandolla's conscience told him it was just; he took the alarm, and, wishing to escape justice, hastily quitted Geneva, and fled for refuge to the castle of Peney.
The Genevans now complained louder than ever. 'Remove this thorn from the city,' said they to the vicar-general. The abbot acknowledged the justice of their demand, and the council, the guardians of the rights of the city, came to his assistance; for they recollected how, at the election of the syndics in 1526, that man had intrigued to carry the list which contained the name of the infamous Cartelier. Some armed men were sent to the castle of Peney, where they seized Mandolla, bound him to a horse, as Lévrier and Bonivard had been bound, and on the 24th of June he was brought back to Geneva, surrounded by guards who led him to prison. A procurator-fiscal treated like a criminal! it was a thing unprecedented. The people stopped in the streets as he passed, and looked at him with astonishment. The unhappy Mandolla's mind was in a state of great confusion. He wondered if they would avenge on him the deaths of Lévrier and Berthelier and the captivity of Bonivard. He felt that he was guilty, but trusted in his powerful protectors. His friends did not, indeed, lose a moment, but wrote to the bishop, who was at Arbois.
=THE BISHOP PLOTS AGAINST GENEVA.=