Aimé Levet, instead of escaping by the right bank, on which his house was situated, had chosen the left bank, and thrown himself into that beautiful country which extends between the Rhone and the lake on one side, and Mount Voiron and Mount Salève on the other, and where the wide opening which these two mountains leave between them, permits the traveller to contemplate the magnificent range of the Alps of Mont Blanc. Was it Levet's wish to avoid taking the usual road of the fugitives, on which he was sure to be arrested; or did he intend hiding in the mountains, as the fine month of July invited him, to climb the easy and graceful slope of the Voiron, or to scale, by the road called l'Echelle (the ladder), the abrupt walls of Salève, whose enormous rocks overhang the plain? That is possible; other fugitives had done so. Levet wandered for some time in that part of the valley where the sandy torrent of the Arve utters a low murmur; but, thinking only how he should escape his persecutors, he had no leisure to contemplate the dazzling vision of the Alps lighted up by a July sun, which made so striking a contrast with the gloomy paths he was then traversing. He knew that mamelukes, priests, ducal partisans, and above all, the Sire de Montagny, castellan of Gaillard, would follow in his track. How strange his destiny! Only a few months ago he had been a zealous catholic, and then the surprising conversion of his wife had led to his.... Now, he was wandering about as a fugitive, without a place where to lay his head. We cannot tell all the anguish he went through, and all the groans he uttered. He did not lose courage, however, for he knew Him who was his protector, and who maintains the right. He was assured of being able to stand before God and His angels at the very moment when men were hunting him down. He had wolves behind him eager to tear him in pieces, but 'God saves His poor sheep, even out of the jaws of the lions.'[772]
=LEVET PURSUED AND TAKEN.=
They were indeed in pursuit of him. Messire de Charanzonay, a canon of Geneva, had kept his eye on Levet: he knew that he had made off in the direction of the mountains, and that he must be found either in the bailiwick of Gaillard, or in the parish of Bonne. He had an interview, therefore, with the castellan of Gaillard, M. de Montagny, a good catholic and Savoyard, who furnished him with aid; a band of men left the castle, and the chase began, the canon leading the way. Erelong, poor Levet heard the footsteps of the people in search of him: he was seized. The canon, eager to vent his anger, had him scourged without any form of trial, and after he had been soundly beaten, sent him off to the castle of Gaillard.[773] Levet, encompassed by guards, was conducted to that fortress, situated at the point where the Arve, issuing from the mountains, enters the plain, and where many an innocent man had been imprisoned. The drawbridge fell and rose again, the massive gates opened, the armed sentinels halted to see the huguenot pass, and at last Levet, doubly guilty, as a liberal and as an evangelical, was thrown into a deep dungeon. From that moment the husband's captivity assured the liberty of the wife.
=FRIBURG DEPUTIES CALL FOR REVENGE.=
Other circumstances happening on the same day (6th of July) rejoiced the bishop and his court, and put to the proof the firmness of the council as well as the tranquillity of the citizens. A man sent from the Pays de Vaud reported that a number of well-armed Friburgers had arrived at Nyon and threatened Geneva. They were the avengers of Wernli's blood. 'Go and tell the captain-general,' said the syndics, 'and bid him look to the safety of the city.' Shortly after this, a citizen told the council that the Friburgers who were in Geneva were preparing to set out for the castle of Gaillard. Presently a third person came and informed the syndics that the Friburgers were crossing the lake from Nyon, and that their boats could be clearly distinguished from the upper part of the city, making for the south. Finally, news came from Gaillard that Wernli's relations, accompanied by a great number of Friburg men-at-arms, had entered the fortress, vowing they would wash their feet in the blood of the evangelicals. The council did not know what to do, and the city was filled with apprehension.[774]
The extremes of anguish were felt in the homes of the prisoners. The most sinister stories were propagated through the city as to the severity employed by the bishop towards his captives. Some began to lose courage and to ask—it was a question often put in the time of the Reformation—why the disciples of the Gospel had to endure not only the afflictions common to all men, but calamities from which their enemies were exempt? 'Ah!' replied the wiser ones, 'the corn is first threshed in the barn along with the straw; but afterwards it is pressed and crushed alone on the millstone.'[775] All were not to be comforted, and from many an afflicted house the cries of sorrow rose to heaven.
Meanwhile, the avoyers of Friburg pressed the council to grant to Wernli's relations the justice they demanded, and insisted that the Genevans arrested on the 23rd May and 4th June should be brought to trial immediately. The mamelukes cried still louder than the Friburgers, and demanded the trial of the eleven persons imprisoned on the 5th July. While the case of the Friburgers was entirely judicial, that of the mamelukes was political: they wished to take advantage of a trial to effect a revolution. The council instructed the procurator-fiscal to have the accused brought before him, as the Genevan constitution required; but the fiscal declared he could not do so on account of the order of the prince, who had cited the case before himself. The bishop meant to be at once judge and interested party, and to substitute clerical despotism for the protecting forms of the lay tribunals. The alarmed magistrates immediately waited on the prince to make their humble but resolute protest.[776]
Pierre de la Baume had just dined when the syndics appeared. 'I have cited the cause before me,' he said: 'I have my reasons.' The syndics represented to him that he might pardon men after sentence, but not try accused persons, who must necessarily appear before the lawful tribunals. 'I cite the case before me,' repeated the bishop. The indignant syndics bowed and withdrew. Sebastian de Diesbach, the banneret of Weingarten and other deputies from Berne, had arrived at Geneva, and Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, as it seems, had returned with them. The syndics prayed their intervention, and the Bernese spoke to the bishop; but the passionate headstrong churchman would not listen to them. He stretched the cord at the risk of breaking it. 'I have cited the case before me,' he said again.