During this time Claude Savoye and Wildermuth were appealing to the men of good-will at Neuchâtel and in its valleys. In every place Savoye uttered his lament over the poor city of Geneva: 'Help us in God's name,' he said. 'Give aid and succor to your Christian brethren, who hold the same faith and obey the same law as you: and who, because they have the Gospel preached, and defend their liberties and franchises, are beleaguered by the enemies of the faith.' These words were not ineffectual. Many generous minds threw far from them the selfish thoughts that might have restrained them. 'Shall we not be moved with pity towards our brethren in the Lord?' said the men of Neuchâtel to one another. 'Shall not the charity we owe to our neighbor impel us?' One of the most fervent was Jacques Baillod, called also the Banneret, whose family, one of the oldest in the Val de Travers, filled the chief offices of the state. He was, as it would appear, misshapen in body, short,[629] and a little hunch-backed, not very unlike Æsop (said some); but he was a skilful and valiant captain. Many men from the Val de Travers and other places listened to his appeal. Even at Neuchâtel, an ex-councillor was distinguished by his zeal; this was André, surnamed Mazellier, or 'the butcher,'[630] one of those firm characters who, when they have put their hands to the plow, never look back. 'In a short time,' says a contemporary chronicler, 'a thousand picked men, fine men-of-war, faithful and of stout heart—if there are any such in all Switzerland—were assembled, and ready to march at once to the succor of Geneva at their own expense.'[631] According to others, only eight or nine hundred men took up arms.
=OPPOSITION OF DE PRANGINS.=
Meanwhile the rumor of these preparations reached the castle of Neuchâtel. The Sire de Rive de Prangins, governor of the county for the princess of Longueville, 'a papist and a Savoyard,' says the chronicler Roset; 'a great enemy of the Word,' says Froment; had done all he could to prevent the establishment of the Reformation in the county, and now the Neuchâtelans wanted to go and support Geneva. Astonished at so much audacity, he forbade those brave men to move under pain of his serious indignation. Among those who had answered to the appeal of Savoye, there were some who now hesitated. A certain number of these brave men had no strong belief or strong will to maintain them. Full of respect for the princess and her lieutenant, they bent easily beneath the authority which presumed to constrain them. Their wives endeavored to revive their zeal. In the eyes of the latter it was not an ordinary war; it was a struggle for the Word of God. Being ardent evangelists, they had at heart, as much as Farel, to uphold the faith, and combined with pure doctrine that keen sensitiveness, that impulsiveness of the heart, which are the portion of their sex. 'Go,' they said; 'if you do not go, we will go ourselves.' Some, indeed, did go, like the heroine of Nidau. Others, speaking in the name of religion, overawed their husbands and decided them: 'We will not leave our Christian brethren of Geneva to perish miserably,' said the Neuchâtelans to those who wished to detain them; 'they are attacked for no other cause than to destroy the Gospel and their liberties. In such a quarrel we will all die.'
It was necessary to depart at once. The men who had risen in the towns, the valleys, and the plain, to defend, without official character, a city they had never seen, were not armed cap-à-pied like the brilliant knights of Savoy whom they were going to fight. Some had muskets, all had swords, but they wore neither helmet nor cuirass. The justice of their cause was to be their breast-plate. In the evening of the 7th October the most distant corps—that from Bienne, the bishopric of Basle, Nidau, and the Seeland—began their march. It is probable that they crossed the lake of Neuchâtel to avoid the city. On arriving at the entrance to the Val de Travers they halted, that being the place of rendezvous. Those from Neuchâtel, Valangin, and other places soon arrived, and all were now assembled in that picturesque country where the Areuse rushes out of the valley. The intrepid Wildermuth took the command.[632]
=STRUGGLE OF THE NEUCHATELANS.=
The little army was preparing to depart when it saw a cavalcade approaching from the direction of Neuchâtel: they were officers of the government sent to prevent any of Madame's subjects from marching to the help of Geneva. Having reached the force, these delegates from the Sire of Prangins approached the men under their jurisdiction, and ordered them to return each one to his home. To go and fight against the duke of Savoy was to put themselves in revolt against their sovereign, who would treat them as rebels. 'They were forbidden, and in stronger terms than before, and with fierce threats, so that many lost courage.' These Neuchâtelans had not at first reflected that their government was strongly opposed to the Reformation. Now their respect for the established powers counterbalanced the sentiments which had induced them to go to the help of the Gospel. They feared the unpleasant consequences that their disobedience might entail upon themselves and their families. They were agitated and divided. Wildermuth and other worthy persons perceiving that some of them were giving way, were grieved at it; but they did not want men whose hearts were weakened. It was right in their eyes to protect the innocent against the wicked; but they would not force their convictions on their brethren. Wildermuth called out: 'Comrades, if you have not the courage to die for Geneva, and kill as many false priests as shall offer themselves, go about your business! It is better for us to be few, but men of heart, as in the days of Gideon, than to drag half-hearted ones after us.'
The struggle in these Neuchâtelans became more severe. Should they go forward or should they return? Wildermuth had named Gideon: they remembered how that Israelitish chief had consulted God to know if he was to march against Midian. These honest people, who had taken up arms in God's cause, believed in God and in His help. All, therefore, knelt down on the spot in order to ask of their Sovereign Lord the road they ought to take; and that troop, but lately so tumultuous, remained for some minutes in deep silence. God himself was to choose whom He would for the battle. When the prayer was ended, each man stood up, and the energetic captain exclaimed aloud and with great earnestness: 'Now, let those return home whom threats alarm; but you, to whom God has given hearts to fight for your brethren, without fear for your lives—forward!' Three or four hundred returned home.[633] It is not doubtful that they acted thus from a spirit of obedience to the superior authority.
The others, who belonged particularly to the canton of Berne and to the Jura, had not received a similar prohibition, and although diminished in number, they did not hesitate. The little force was reduced by one half, and consisted of four hundred and fifteen men; but those who remained were filled with faith and courage. They departed calling upon the name of God, and praying Him to be their helper.
[613] Froment, Gestes de Genève, p, 169.