Arriving the same day about four o'clock, Diesbach would not go to the guildhall or the castellan's; but sitting down in the open air near the old castle,[384] he sent his officers to fetch Friar Juliani. The sergeants carefully searched the convent and several houses without finding the monk, who was hiding in the house of a woman named 'Frances Pugin, instructress of girls in all virtue and learning.' Being informed of the search, he took courage, left the house, and went straight to the bailiff, who was still seated in front of the castle, waiting the result of his enquiries. Friar Michael saluted him respectfully; but the lord of Diesbach, rising up, caught him by the hand and said: 'I arrest you in the name of My Lords,' and then, taking him to the prison, 'drew Hollard out of his hole and put the said friar in his place.' Such were the energetic proceedings of Berne.
=ROMAIN IS ILL-TREATED.=
Mark Romain, as pleased at having rescued his friend, 'as if he had gained a thousand crowns, and thinking he had achieved a master-piece,' says a contemporary, was going quietly home. Meanwhile the people, alarmed at the arrival of the bailiff and the imprisonment of the monk, had assembled in the market-place, and spoke of flinging the schoolmaster into the river to punish him for having gone to fetch the Sieur de Diesbach. Unfortunately Mark Romain came in sight just at this moment. The townspeople, 'seeing him come joyfully along,' pointed him out to one another. 'There he is,' they said, and began to cry: 'Master, come here!' Romain, observing the tumult, passed suddenly from joy to fear and took to flight, all following in pursuit. They gained upon him: he looked from side to side to see if some door would not open to receive him, but all remained closed. Arriving in front of the church, he rushed into it; but had hardly set his feet inside, when he stopped in astonishment. The women who had desired to tear Hollard to pieces were in the church, as well as some men, on account of the Salve Regina which was said daily at five in the afternoon. Kneeling before the altar, with clasped hands and eyes turned to the ground, they were invoking the Queen of heaven: 'Hail, queen of mercy; we send up our groans to thee! O thou who art our advocate, save us!' At the moment when Romain entered, the women turned their heads and caught sight of him; being suddenly changed into furies, they rushed upon him, as they had done before upon Hollard, 'caught him by the hair, threw him on the ground, and beat him.' The women were the champions of Catholicism in Orbe. The grand banneret looked on quietly at this execution. 'I saw the whole affair,' he said, 'and I did not think the schoolmaster would ever get out alive.' Pierrefleur took care not to go to his help, and the blows continued to fall on poor Romain, until one of his friends arrived. 'I am certain,' says the banneret, who had seen all this without being moved, 'that had it not been for the assistance he received from this Lutheran, he would never have gone out of the place until he was dead.'[385] We read in Scripture of people who ceased not to beat St. Paul; Romain, who experienced 'this riotous and cruel rage,' was afterwards a minister of the gospel. He was now going through his apprenticeship.
A mob had collected round the castle in which Friar Michael was confined, and angry voices were heard loudly demanding his liberty. At this moment the bailiff of Diesbach came out to return to his place of residence, having Hollard by his side, whom he was going to restore to his mother. When he saw the crowd he was much astonished, for 'all were crying out and demanding their good father.' 'Why have you arrested Friar Michael?' asked some. 'Why have you delivered Christopher?' asked others. 'By order of My Lords of Berne,' answered the imperturbable bailiff; and then added, pointing to the lofty walls of the castle, 'If you can set him at liberty, you may take him ... but I advise you not.'[386] 'We will be bail for our good father, body for body, goods for goods,' exclaimed the burgesses; but the bailiff kept on his way without answering them.
The Sieur of Diesbach had hardly arrived at the great square, when he perceived the ladies and other women of the city waiting for him, their hearts full of sorrow and anguish. They all fell on their knees 'with many tears,' and stretching their hands towards him exclaimed: 'Mercy for the good father! set him at liberty!' These cries softened the Bernese, he stopped and could hardly speak for emotion. He made them understand, however, that it was not in his power to liberate Juliani, and then returned home, for 'the hour was late.'[387]
=FAREL ARRIVES AT ORBE.=
The principal catholics now assembled to consider what was to be done. A priest put in prison in Orbe, for a strictly Romish sermon.... What a scandal! They resolved to appeal from the heretical Bernese bailiff to the Friburgers who were good catholics. The grand banneret volunteered for this important mission, and next day Noble P. de Pierrefleur and Francis Vuerney set out for Friburg, where they related everything to the council. The lords and princes of that city were much 'concerned and vexed,' and a deputation composed of Bernese and Friburgers received instructions to arrange the difference. But this measure, far from diminishing the struggle, was destined to increase it. As the deputation passed through Avenches, a Roman city older than the Cæsars, they fell in with Farel, who for more than a month had been preaching the gospel there, amid its ruined aqueducts and amphitheatres, and had met with nothing but lukewarmness. Without hesitation the evangelist left Avenches, and departing with the Bernese arrived at the banks of the Orbe, whither the noise of battle attracted him. No ruins were to be seen there: but seven churches and twenty-six altars testified to the ancient splendour and Romish fervour of the city.
It was the 2nd of April, Palm-Sunday. Mass had been celebrated, the various offices had been said, even to vespers. Farel, who had stayed quietly in doors, observing that the service was over, left his inn 'with presumptuous boldness.' His friends followed him, idlers flocked round him, the devout ran after, and a crowd of men, women, and children soon filled the church with a great noise. Then 'without asking leave of any one, Farel went into the pulpit to preach.' But he had scarcely opened his mouth, when everybody, 'men, women, and children, hissed, howled, and stamped with all sorts of exclamations to disconcert him. Dog, they cried; lubber, heretic, devil, and other insults: it was a glorious noise.' 'You really could not have heard God's thunder,' said Pierrefleur. Farel, who was accustomed to tumult, as a soldier to the whistling of the bullets, continued his address. Anger got the better of some of them. 'Seeing that he would not desist, they grew riotous, surrounded the pulpit, pulled him out of it, and would even have proceeded to blows.' The confusion was at its height, when the bailiff, 'fearing that worse would follow,' rushed into the midst of the crowd, took the reformer by the arm, and escorted him to his lodging.
The mixed commission was empowered to restore peace to this agitated city; but as for Farel he had but one idea: Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. If he cannot preach it in the church, he will do so in the open air. On the following day (Monday) he left the house of his entertainer at six in the morning, and proceeding towards the great square, began to preach. There was nobody present; it mattered not; he thought that his powerful voice would soon collect a good assembly. But satisfied with the victory of the evening before, the inhabitants of Orbe had said to themselves that they would leave the preacher alone: he had not a single hearer.[388] That was not, however, the only reason: a plot was concerting against Farel—a women's plot naturally; for the men in general were cold in comparison with the other sex.
There was a noble dame at Orbe, a native of Friburg, Elizabeth, wife of Hugonin, lord of Arnex, an honest and devout woman, but enthusiastic, violent, and fanatical. Elizabeth, being persuaded that the death of the reformer would be a very meritorious work, had assembled at her house some other bigoted women, had addressed them, and worked upon them, so that they had agreed to beat the reformer and even kill him: they only waited for an opportunity. The same day at four in the afternoon a city council was held at which the deputies of Berne and Friburg and even Farel also were present. When the council was over, the reformer came out: it was the moment that Elizabeth and her accomplices, informed of the circumstance, had selected to carry out their plot. A gentleman, Pierre de Glairesse, knowing the danger the evangelist ran, quitted the council after him, and begged permission to accompany him. Meanwhile the women who had left their houses were waiting for Farel in the middle of a street through which he must necessarily pass. Approaching them without any mistrust, they fell upon him unawares, 'and took him by the cloak so gently,' says the chronicler ironically, 'that they made him stagger and fall.' They then attempted to ill-treat him and beat him; but Pierre de Glairesse rushing in between them, took him out of their hands, and said, bowing to them very politely: 'Your pardon, ladies; at present he is under my charge.' They all let go of him, and Glairesse conducted him to the inn where My Lords of Berne awaited him.