During this speech the Genevans flushed with anger and indignation. They could not understand how the proud canton of Berne could ask them to renounce the cause of independence and the Swiss alliance. The deputy having ended his address—the general council of the people had been convened to hear it—the premier syndic replied: 'We will listen to no arrangement except how to preserve the alliance. The more we are threatened, the firmer we shall be. We will maintain our rights even till death. We trust in God and in Messieurs of the two cities. And if, to pay you what we owe, we must pawn our property, our wives, and our children, we will do so. As for the alliance, we are resolved to live and die for it.' The syndic had scarcely done speaking, when all the people cried out: 'So be it! We will do nothing else—we will die first!' The arquebusiers of Jean Philippe and of Richardet were of the same mind. The ambassadors thought it strange that they should dare to resist Berne. 'We will carry your answer back to our lords,' they said, 'and they will do what pleases them.' They then retired. The people held up their hands, and all swore to be faithful to the alliance.
The Bernese envoys had left. The people were in great agitation. The cause of liberty had just been vanquished at Cappel; the armies of the duke surrounded the city, and the Swiss desired to cancel the alliance. Geneva was not exempt from secret terrors: the women shed tears, and even the men felt an oppression like that of the nightmare; but enthusiasm for liberty prevailed over every fear. Deprived of the help of men, the Genevans raised their eyes to heaven. Many of them experienced extraordinary emotions, and were the victims of strange spectral hallucinations. One night, the sentries posted on the walls saw seven headless horsemen, dressed in black, keeping guard around the city. They were dressed in black, for all Geneva was in mourning; they were without heads, for no one could reckon upon preserving his own; and then these Genevans fancied, in their enthusiasm, that they could defend Geneva, even when their heads were off. The duke, having learnt that some mysterious allies had come to the help of the city, quitted Gex, and hurried off to Chambéry. It is probable, however, that his conference with the three lords of Berne had more influence in arresting the execution of his designs, than the apparition of the seven black horsemen.[882]
=GOD PREPARES GENEVA BY TRIAL.=
The trials, the terrors, the repeated attacks that Geneva was forced to undergo at the hands of her enemies, are the characteristics of her history at the epoch of the Reformation. Her citizens, plundered, hunted down, captured, thrown into the dungeons of the castles, always between life and death, lived continually in the apprehension of an assault, and almost every year their fears were changed into terrible realities; of this we have seen several instances, and we shall see more. There is probably no city of the sixteenth century which arrived at the possession of truth and liberty through such great perils. When their supplies failed, when their communications, with Switzerland were interrupted, when no one could leave the city, when all around the arms of the Savoyards were seen flashing in the rays of the sun, the citizens no doubt displayed an heroic courage; but yet the women and the aged men, and even men in the vigour of life, felt a mortal fear and anguish. 'Christians are not logs of wood,' it was said subsequently in this city, and we may well apply the words to the Genevans of this epoch; 'they are not so devoid of human feeling, that they are not touched by sorrow, that they do not fear danger, that poverty is not a burden to them, and persecution sharp and difficult to bear. This is why they feel sad when they are tried.'[883] Long ago in the early days of Christianity, famines, earthquakes, plagues, persecution, and afterwards, at the period of the invasion of the barbarians, the devastations with which that calamity was attended, made serious souls feel the presence of God, and led them to the cross. An earthquake which threw down part of the city of Philippi, terrified a gaoler, until then hardened in superstition, humbled him, and made him listen to the teaching of the disciples which he had previously despised;[884] and, later still, a similar calamity in Africa brought a great number of pagans to confess the Gospel and be baptised.
It was by such trials as these that Geneva was now prepared. God was ploughing the field which he wished to sow. Distresses and deliverances continually repeated revealed to thoughtful men the power of God: to this even the Registers of the Council bear witness. Did this rough school lead any souls further? Were there any who sought beyond the world for life incorruptible?... The inward travail of men's minds is generally concealed, and the chroniclers give us no information on this point (it is not their department); but we cannot doubt that the end for which God sent the trial was attained. Perhaps at that time there were souls which, in the midst of the evils they saw around them, were led to discover in themselves the supreme evil—sin; perhaps in some private chamber humble voices were then raised to heaven; perhaps the judgments of God, which were suspended over their heads and those of their wives and children, induced some to dread the last judgment; and perhaps there were many who embraced the eternal love, that inexhaustible source of salvation, who believed in the Gospel of the Son of God and found peace therein. We know not what took place in the secret depths of men's hearts; but certainly the times which we are describing were times of trial which contributed to make Geneva what it subsequently became: it was a 'burning furnace from which came forth fine brass.'[885] If Geneva shone out in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was partly because at the epoch of the Reformation it had been sorely tried, and, if the expression be allowable, 'brightly burnished.'—'We are as it were annealed in the furnace of God,' may be said of this city, 'and the scum of our faith has been thus purged away.'[886]
=SWISS PATRICIANS CANCEL THE ALLIANCE.=
On the 7th of February, 1532, five ambassadors—two from Berne, and three from Friburg—with Sebastian de Diesbach at their head, appeared at Geneva before the Council of Two Hundred; they were the representatives of the Swiss aristocracy, of those proud captains who figured in battles and appeared in the courts of kings. They discharged their mission with as little ceremony as they observed in taking cities, and demanded that Geneva should renounce its alliance with the Swiss and put the Duke of Savoy again in possession of his supremacy.... What will the Genevans do? Even Friburg, which had at first appeared favourable to them, failed them now.... Two hundred voices exclaimed: 'We will die sooner!' The next day, when the general council was assembled, the greatest excitement prevailed among them; everybody seemed eager to speak at once; loud clamours arose on every side: 'All the people began to shout,' say the minutes of this assembly. The language of Diesbach was urgent, imperative, and threatening.... A hurricane was blowing over Geneva; the tree must bend or break. But it neither bent nor broke. The ambassadors, amazed and indignant, returned to their own country.[887]
The Genevans, left alone, asked what was to be done.... The cup was overflowing. Suddenly a happy idea crossed the minds of certain patriots. Although the patricians and pensioners are opposed to the rights of Geneva, will not the people, and the grand council which represents them, be in favour of liberty? When the Reformation was established at Berne, in 1528, the noblest resolutions were formed. The indigent had been clothed with the church ornaments, the pensions of the princes renounced, and the military capitulations which bound the Swiss to the service of foreign powers abolished. Then the enthusiasm had cooled down; the pensioners regretted the old times; they tampered with the more influential people of the city, and exasperated them against the alliance with Geneva which displeased their old master the duke. 'Let us make an attempt,' exclaimed some of the Genevese, 'to revive in Berne the noble aspirations for Reform and liberty.' Robert Vandel and two other deputies departed for the banks of the Aar.
Vandel was well suited for this mission. Ever since the day when he saw his aged father illegally seized by the bishop and thrown into prison, he had given his heart to independence, as he subsequently gave it to the Gospel. He knew that the people had retained their sympathy for Geneva, and that if the patricians prevailed in the little council, the citizens prevailed in the great council: he therefore appeared before this body. He explained to them the dangers of the Genevans, their love of independence, and their resolution to risk everything rather than separate from the Swiss. His language moved the hearts of the Bernese, and the good cause prevailed. 'We will maintain the alliance,' they said; 'and, if necessary, we will march to defend your rights.' Friburg adopted the resolutions of Berne.[888] Thus after the trial came the deliverance; Geneva began to breathe freely. Yet another sorrow was in store for it.
=RESIGNATION AND DEATH OF HUGUES.=