The news of this tragedy soon spread through France, everywhere causing the deepest sorrow. Berquin was not the only person struck down; other christians also suffered the last punishment. Philip Huaut was burnt alive, after having his tongue cut out; and Francis Desus had both hand and head cut off. The story of these deaths, especially that of Berquin, was told in the shops of the workmen and in the cottages of the peasants. Many were terrified at it; but more than one evangelical christian, when he heard the tale at his own fireside, raised his head and cast a look towards heaven, expressive of his joy at having a Redeemer and a Father's house beyond the sky. 'We too are ready,' said these men and women of the Reformation to one another, 'we are ready to meet death cheerfully, setting our eyes on the life that is to come.' One of these christian souls, who had known Berquin best, and who shed most tears over him, was the Queen of Navarre. Distressed and alarmed by his death and by the deaths of the christians sacrificed in other places for the Gospel, she prayed fervently to God to come to the help of his people. She called to mind these words of the Gospel: Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him?[122] A stranger to all hatred, free from every evil desire of revenge, she called to the Lord's remembrance how dear the safety of his children is to him, and implored his protection for them:
O Lord our God, arise,
Chastise thy enemies
Thy saints who slay.
Death, which to heathen men
Is full of grief and pain,
To all who in heaven shall reign
With thee is dear.
They through the gloomy vale
Walk firm, and do not quail,