Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 3
Chapter III.
MAJOR-GENERAL CAVALIER.
Major-General John Cavalier is a name that may be seen in the British Army List in the reign of George II. This is no other than the valiant Camisard chief, and renowned self-taught officer.
Jean Cavalier was born in the year 1681 in the village of Ribaute, near Anduze, in Languedoc. His father outwardly conformed- to Romanism, but, because his wife refused to abjure Protestantism, had to pay a share of the salary of the Romish Missionary Teacher, on the pain of being sent to prison or having soldiers quartered upon him, and also had to send his sons to the mission school. Jean Cavalier thus became well-versed in their catechisms and doctrinal books, and in due course he was confirmed and went to mass. His mother, however, filled his memory with Bible truth, and with proofs of the errors and follies of Papal Rome. The Romanists themselves, by their barbarities, alienated his heart from the priests and emissaries of their communion. In his early youth his indignation was called forth. One of the congregations in the desert, with which his mother frequently worshipped, was broken up by the soldiery, some of the men then apprehended were hanged, others were sent to the galleys, the women had their heads shaved, and were sent either to convents or to the dreadful Tower of Constance. His agitated mother told him all this; the boy was filled with abhorrence, wished he could take revenge on the persecutors, and thenceforth (though without making an open vow) ceased to attend mass. After this, when he was thirteen years of age, he heard Mr Claude Brousson preach, and his convictions on the side of Protestantism grew stronger and more intelligent. A long time passed before any notice was taken of his absence from mass, and when his father was informed and officially admonished as to the grave omission, the son had courage to declare to him that he could go to prison but not to mass. Yet he prudently kept himself retired from observation, and while the great Williamite war lasted, no inquisitorial search was made for him. The Peace of Ryswick gave the authorities more leisure. In 1698 a stringent Edict came out; and (says our young hero) “my father was one of the first that was fined, because his wife and children did not go to mass, a crown for the first time, and double for every time afterwards; if he did not oblige us to go they threatened to confiscate his land and chattels,[1] and banish him out of the kingdom.” Young Cavalier went out of the way, and paid a long visit to some relations. In September 1699 he was deeply affected by the martyrdom of Brousson. At the end of that year the lads began to meet and sing psalms in the open air before the parish churches. The priests raised a militia against them. This provoked the boys to destroy crucifixes and images. A party of them took up arms to fight their way into Switzerland and Cavalier joined the party; they (thirty in number) passed the frontier unopposed and arrived safely in Geneva; he thus succeeded in escaping from France.
It is said that he worked as a journeyman baker at Geneva and also at Lausanne; he does not himself say so in his book. When he heard that his parents had been imprisoned because he had gone out of France, he rushed home to organize a party to rescue them. Partly to his joy, and partly to his sorrow, he found that they had procured their own liberty by consenting to go to mass. This was in the end of June 1701. He meant to retrace his steps to Geneva forthwith, but being invited and prevailed on to stay at home till the harvest was over, he became involved in the commotions of the eventful time when the butcheries of the Abbe Du Chaila, Inspector of Missions in the Cevennes, provoked armed resistance.
A student, the only pastor left by persecution to the poor people (his name was Esprit), led sixty men to rescue from the cells and from the instruments of torture in the Abbé’s stronghold, some prisoners, ladies and gentlemen, who had been seized when attempting to fly to a country of refuge. This expedition was successful, and Le Chaila was killed. The authorities burnt Esprit alive. The military general, Count Broglio, made with the rest of the assailants a treaty of peace, which he broke by hanging all that he could find at the doors of their own houses. Cavalier was not of this party; he would have thankfully escaped to Geneva, but the frontier was too strictly guarded. He therefore, in self-defence, joined the insurgents, was at once made an officer, and soon had the chief command.
On Christmas day 1701, being Sunday, five hundred of the outlawed Protestants met for worship near Monteze, upon the river Gardon. They received information that six hundred men, cavalry and infantry, were on the way to attack them. The unarmed worshippers retired, and Cavalier entrenched the fighting men so well, that their enemies were decisively repulsed; he then led the pursuit, and made the rout complete, nearly a hundred of the enemy being killed. The next day Cavalier was deliberately chosen to take the command.
The following manifesto was issued:—[2]
“Matters having come to this pass, that we are permitted neither to reside quietly in the kingdom nor freely to quit it, we do no longer regard those as our governors who thus treat us as enemies; hence we resolve to resort to those means of preservation with which nature has furnished us. And hereby we invite all our neighbours to join us in endeavours to cast off the yoke of slavery under which they have so long groaned. With respect to those who refuse to join us, but who remain neutral, doing us no harm, we hereby promise not to molest them, either in their persons, or their goods, or their religion; on the contrary, to protect and defend them of whatever religion they may be. But as for those who have been, or shall be found in arms against us, as we expect no quarter from them, so we are resolved to give none, but to treat them in the same manner they have treated us, or may hereafter treat us.
Cavallier.
Roland.
Ravenal.
Constanet.
La Rose.
Catinat.”
Nearly a quarter of a century afterwards, in his peaceful retreat in Ireland, he published a book, entitled “Memoirs of the Wars in the Cevennes under Colonel Cavallier, in defence of the Protestants persecuted in that country, and of the Peace concluded between him and the Mareschal Duke of Villars. Written in French by Colonel Cavallier, and translated into English” (Dublin, 1726). Dedicated to Lord Carteret, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1727 a second edition was published. The main facts are confirmed by documentary evidence. But Huguenot antiquaries complain of many inaccuracies of detail, while they make allowances for an unpractised author writing from memory.
That his pen did not indite romances as to the feats of his sword, we have evidence in a letter from Roland, printed in Mr Hill’s Correspondence (p. 123), dated Anduze, ce 22 May 1704:
“Brother Cavalier’s battles have always been favourable to us, and it seems (what we have no doubt of) that the Lord fights for us. Brother Cavalier has fought more than thirty battles with wonderful successes. . . . His great victory near Uxes has struck terror into the enemy, who dare not march without 1500 or 1600 men as an escort. Since Marshal Villars has been here he has continually caused incursions to be made, both into Lower Languedoc and into our Cevennes without (thank God) having produced any effect, which has obliged him to send us proposals for peace, which appears to us to be suspicious.”
Of the devastations and bloodshed which marked this civil war, the persecuted and justly incensed Protestant peasantry cannot bear the chief blame. However, their co-religionists in the more tranquil provinces reproached them, and hence they were distinguished from the northern and midland Huguenots by the name of Camisards. For the etymology of that nickname there cannot be a better authority than Cavalier himself. According to him —
“Our men commonly carried but two shirts with them, the one on their back, the other in their knapsack; so that when they would pass by their friends’ houses, they would leave the dirty, and take the clean, not having time to spare to wash their own linen. Also, when they discovered Romish citizens, they took clean shirts from them, leaving dirty ones in exchange. If a jocose neighbour heard any of the victims of this system of exchange expressing resentment and rage, he would say, ‘You are very lucky that they did not take away your skin instead of your shirt’ [camise].”
Notwithstanding that one Marshal after another came to oppose the insurgents Cavalier could not be conquered, and the government was reduced to the necessity of treating with him. All his military knowledge had been gained by watching the manoeuvres of the town guards of Geneva. His fame was immense; at the age of twenty-two he was more renowned than any commander in the armies of Europe. “Every one,” writes Villars, “was surprised to see a man of low origin and without experience in the art of war, behave under the most difficult and delicate circumstances like a great general.” The historian Browning says:— “There was nothing in his pe son to impress beholders. On the contrary, he is represented as small in stature; the head large, and sunk upon the shoulders; with a broad red face, and light hair. His countenance did not bespeak intelligence; but his career proves that he was well endowed.”
Cavalier and Marshal Villars, with their military escorts, met to negotiate. The king had no intention to keep faith with the heretic, but took this method of hearing What he had to say. “In that (to borrow the words of an old English pamphleteer) we may see what account is to be had of all promises made to heretics in matters of religion by any prince of the Roman communion, but more particularly by a prince who has put the conduct of his conscience in the hands of a Jesuit.” On the 17th May 1704, at Nismes, the following concessions to the Protestants were promised provisionally by the Marshal, and by Lamoignon de Basville:— First, Liberty of conscience, and permission to hold religious assemblies in such country places as they think convenient (provided they do not build churches), but not in cities or walled towns. Secondly, All such as are detained in prisons and galleys only on account of religion since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, shall be set at liberty in six weeks after this date. Thirdly, All who have left the kingdom on account of religion shall have free liberty to return, and be restored to their estates and privileges, on condition they take the oath of allegiance to the king. Lastly, A regiment of 2000 shall be raised by Cavalier for the French army in Portugal, and the remainder of the party shall lay down their arms, trusting to the royal toleration.
Cavalier took a journey to Paris, and being admitted to an interview with Louis XIV., he began by saying, “We have not taken up arms against your Majesty, but only in self-defence against those who, contrary to your royal intentions, have oppressed and persecuted us.” After enlarging on their woes, he added that it was with lively regret that his followers had appeared in arms against so good and great a king; but on receiving the royal clemency, and the ratification of the Marechal de Villars’ engagements, they would be ready to shed their blood in his service. The king, with warmth, refused to hear of the treaty with Villars, except to the extent of releasing the prisoners and galley-slaves upon the submission of all the rebels. Being interrogated, Cavalier said that he got no arms from the Duke of Savoy or foreign princes. “Where did you get arms?” asked the king. “Sir,” replied Cavalier, “We took care to attack none of your troops but them we were much superior in number to; and having overcome them, especially in the beginning, it was from them that we supplied ourselves.” “How many of my troops did you destroy?” the king inquired. Cavalier answered that he did not know, but that his Majesty’s generals could tell. The king then upbraided him at some length for outrages on persons and property. Cavalier in reply exposed the great provocations done by the magistracy and Romish soldiery, and gave some heartrending recitals, which the courtiers in substance confirmed, and which made an evident impression on the king. His majesty brought the audience to a close, by asking if he would become a good Catholic. Cavalier replied, “My life, sir, is in your hands, and I am ready to lay it down in your service, but as for my religion, I am resolved not to change it for any consideration this world can afford.” “Well,” said the king, “go and be wiser in future, and it will be better for you.”
In the antechamber, Cavalier was offered, if he would recant his religious creed, pensions both for himself and his father, and a commission as Brigadier. But he accepted no title but that of “obstinate Huguenot.” Thereafter, though treated with apparent kindness, he felt he was under surveillance, and having good information that it was intended to beguile him into a fortress, he escaped into Switzerland.
There have been critical estimates of Cavalier’s character, tending to the verdict that his moral and religious character was but low as compared to his bravery. But this has arisen from forgetfulness that the stratagems and severities incident to a civil and unequal war bring out exceptional features of character, and cannot fairly be commented on as the only or the best materials for deciding a question of personal character. A young man, deprived of his spiritual guides, and debarred from stated Scriptural instruction, assailed with insulting orders and threats (and such was Cavalier), must labour under disadvantages which can account for many errors of judgment and of conduct. Some accusations, however, arose from mistaking him for one of the Camisard Prophets, another Jean Cavalier.[3] Mr. John M. Kemble, in his interesting volume of “State Papers” (printed from Leibnitz’s correspondence), notes as to the pretended prophets:—
“Their pretensions to inspiration, absurd as they were, attracted the attention and excited the alarm of the clergy. With these impostures, or, perhaps, manifestations of unsound mind, Cavalier had nothing to do. We have no doubt, from the evidence before us, that in his earlier days, and while it served his purposes as a leader, he had, like the others, administered the sacraments, and made pretensions to the gift of prophecy; but in the larger world in which his lot had since been cast, he had naturally learned common sense, and discovered that claims to immediate inspiration were not likely to find much favour in the eyes of practical and thinking men.”
It suited the king-craft of Louis XIV. both to deny that he ever had an interview with Cavalier, and to enjoin his privy councillors to deny it. Hence some persons have naturally suspected that Cavalier’s narration of an audience with the king was a fabrication. The Electress Sophia directed Leibnitz to write some interrogatories to Cavalier as to this audience (as to the fact of which no rational doubt is now entertained), and as to his escape from France. A copy of his answer is preserved, docquetted “Copie de la Reponse de M. Cavalier, Sevenois, 1704,” and the following is a translation of it by Mr Kemble:—
“With regard to Fraignant he was never with me. The object of my journey to Paris was to demand of the king the ratification of the articles of the treaty which Marshal Villars had made with me, which were:— That all the prisoners and galley-slaves, who had been condemned since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, were to be set at liberty; that they were to give us liberty of conscience throughout the whole province of Languedoc; and that all those who had expatriated themselves for the sake of religion should have liberty to return, and to have full enjoyment of their property. After I had made all these demands, the king said to me, That the hearts of all kings were in the hands of God, and that it was not for subjects to meddle with religion; that the ministers had to answer for the salvation of their flocks; that if his religion had not been the good one, God would have let him know it, since He gave him the grace to vanquish his enemies on every spot where he had attacked them. And he asked me where I got my money and ammunition from? I answered him, that we were so often engaged with his troops that they furnished me abundance of all that I was in need of. Upon that he gave me orders to retire, and replaced me in the hands of the Sieur de Chamillard, saying to me that he would do something for me — that I must be steady. Afterwards I was reconducted into Burgundy by the same courier, being forbid, on pain of incurring the king’s indignation, to say that I had spoken with him or that I had been to Paris, all of which I observed very exactly until my escape from France.
“Afterwards, having remained six weeks in Burgundy, I received orders to set out for Brissac, under escort of the Marechaussee of Dijon, which was relieved from place to place till Besancon. When I was two days' journey from Besancon I was lodged in a village where the houses stood very far apart. Seeing myself so near Switzerland, I took the resolution to escape from the hands of my enemies. I gave my orders to all my troop to be ready at such an hour, which they did; and at night I began to file off with a guide in the direction of Switzerland, without any one’s asking me whither I was going. Providence conducted me to Neufchatel in Switzerland, where I was well received.”
Cavalier was accused by comrades of desertion and treachery. But he was guilty only of a miscalculation of probabilities; when he agreed to negotiate, he did not see that he was virtually laying down his arms. For if his treaty were ratified, the Camisards would gain the blessings of peace and liberty, which would be a good finishing stroke. But if his treaty were not ratified, the circumstance would simply and inevitably make him a prisoner of war.
Mr Kemble brings a mild charge of provincialism and narrow-mindedness against Cavalier on account of one of the articles in his treaty, “Liberty of Conscience through all the Province of Languedoc (which ought to have been liberty of conscience over the whole kingdom of France). The answer to this is, that there had been no declaration of war, except in Languedoc, and the formal treaty could extend no farther. But that Cavalier’s aspirations were confined within one province we can safely deny. I have read, in one of the numbers of the Bulletin of the French Protestant Historical Society, an account of a conversation between him and a Romish priest, who asked him on what terms he and his troops would lay down their arms. Cavalier’s reply was, “La liberté de prier Dieu en esprit et en verité. Le repos de tout le monde. L’elargissement des captifs.”
The friendly Swiss in the vicinity of France could shew Cavalier and his men a ready hospitality, but could not venture to consent to their taking up their quarters with them. The exiles, therefore, moved cautiously onward, in separate detachments, till they halted at Lausanne. From this place of safety Cavalier sent a letter offering his services to the Duke of Savoy:—
“May it please your Royal Highness, —
“Providence having saved me from the snares the French had laid for me, I am safely arrived in this country. I think I cannot do better than to address myself to so great a prince as you are, and to offer you my most humble services. The honour of serving under your Royal Highness’s banner will be to me the greatest felicity I could wish for, looking upon your Royal Highness as the protector of the poor oppressed people in France, and I hope by your valour the neighbouring people of France will be secure from being molested by the most ambitious of monarchs. For my part, I shall embrace all opportunities of shewing your Royal Highness my inviolable attachment for your service. I have about 250 men come out of France along with me, and willing to follow me whithersoever I shall go. As soon as I have received the honour of your Royal Highness’s orders, I shall repair to whatsoever place you shall command me. I shall leave officers here to raise recruits, in order speedily to form a regiment, if your Royal Highness thinks proper. I am, with the profoundest respect, Sec,
“Lausanne, August 31st, 1704.”The Right Honourable Richard Hill, the British Ambassador to the Duke, and the Duke himself also, had been watching with anxiety and dismay the negotiation between Marshal Villars and Cavalier. Their plan was to foster the war in the Cevennes by sending auxiliary troops by sea, and thus to keep the French monarch so busy at home that he might send no reinforcements abroad. Mr. Hill wrote to the Farl of Nottingham from Turin, 12-23 May 1764, “The two last posts assure us that the Camisards have laid down their arms. We do not want zeal or mettle; but I am not willing to play off the Queen’s ships and 500 good Protestants if the game is already lost.” To Lord Godolphin he wrote, on 16-27 May:—
“What does affect and mortify me most sensibly is, the loss of our Allies in the Cevennes who have submitted to the tyrant and have laid down their arms.” May 30th. “All our advices from France continue to affirm that Cavallier had accepted the amnesty offered by the Mareschal de Villars, and made his peace with the French King; but the conditions cannot be known till the return of the courier whom the Mareschal sent to Versailles. . . . Letters from Nismes, of the 17th inst., say that day M. Cavallier came thither to meet the Mareschal de Villars, with whom he had a long conference; he had left his troop at Lusary, about a league from Nismes, and was conducted into the town by M. de Linde, Lieut.-General, who was sent out to meet him with a small guard. In the evening he returned to his troop, very well satisfied with his reception and the civilities he received from the Mareschal. People of all sorts crowded to see Cavallier, and were so well satisfied with his person and his modest behaviour, that some of the most considerable of Nismes accompanied him to his troop. It is impossible to express the joy that country has on this account, in hopes that now they may stir out without being in danger of being murdered. The same letters give an account that Messrs Roland and Castanet, two captains of the Cevennes, had, the very same day on which Cavallier had offered to submit, defeated the battalion of Tiurnon, killed about 200 soldiers, eight or ten officers, and the Lieut.-Colonel. This action makes us believe and hope that Roland may still hold out, and not come into the resolutions which Cavallier seems to have taken, and we are still willing to hope that something may break off the negotiation with Cavallier himself.” 19-30 June. “I embarked last week at Nice about 450 men, officers, and soldiers, with money, with arms, and ammunition, for the relief of the Camisards.” 1st July. “They are gone upon a desperate errand, and I am in pain for them; but it was not reason able to expect the Cevennois should hold out any longer, if nobody would endeavour at least to come to their relief. The defection of Cavallier. and the negotiations of the rest with the Mareschal de Villars.and the appearances of the entire submission of the whole party, made it impossible for me to embark mes enfans perdus, till I had assurances to shew them, from a man whom I had sent on purpose to Languedoc, that Ravenal and a great party held out still.” [This expedition failed.]
With regard to Cavalier at Lusanne, Mr. Hill writes to Sir Charles Hedges from Turin, 9th September 1704:—
“The last week his Royal Highness received a letter from Cavallier, who had formerly done so good service in Languedoc. He said he had saved himself from the hands of his enemies, who were leading him to Brisach; that he was come to Lausanne, and that he would come on to offer his services to his Royal Highness if they might be agreeable; that he had 100 of his own men with him who would follow him anywhere. I went to the camp immediately, and desired his Royal Highness to accept the offers of a man who had been so useful and might still be so; that I would answer for the sincerity of his intentions; that if his Royal Highness would take him immediately into his service, and employ him with his troop in the Valleys, I hoped he might augment his number and form a battalion: that the encouragement which was given him might animate the Camisards, and keep their party alive in the Cevennes, and give new zeal and vigour to the levies which the Queen and the States were about to make in England and Holland; that the refusal of Cavallier’s good offers would have the contrary effects; and, lastly, that I would write to London, and did not doubt but that I should have such orders from the Queen as would take these people off his Royal Highness’s hands, if he found they were not for his purpose. His Royal Highness did consent very generously to receive them, sent a gracious letter to Cavallier to invite him hither, settled a route for him and for all the men he had or could bring with him, and sent him 100 pistoles to bear his expenses over the mountains. I must say that I look upon him at present as his Royal Highness’s officer; but I shall receive him here as if he were to be the Queen’s officer upon occasion.”
The following is the Duke of Savoy’s letter:—
“Monsieur Cavallier, — We have received with pleasure the letter you wrote to us from Lausanne, the 31st of last month. Being well pleased with the testimony of your zeal for our service, we send you money by the courier, in order that you repair with your men to the city of Aosta, where you will apply to the Marquis De Cirie, governor of the province, who will shew you the route you must take to go into the Valleys of Luzerne with your people, which you must endeavour to increase as much as you can with sure and choice men upon whom one may safely depend. We are very glad you have experienced how little foundation there is in the promises of France, which reckons the greatest violences as nothing. Assure yourself that, upon all occasions, we shall willingly contribute to all your advantage; and, in the meanwhile, we pray God to have you in His holy keeping.
“V. Amede.
J. Cullat.”
“From the Camp at Crescentino,
The 5th of September 1704.”
Cavallier immediately sent off Lieut.-Colonel Billard with a detachment to Aosta, and was lingering to raise recruits, where the alarm of the French cutting off his communication with Piedmont, compelled him to set out in a Swiss costume, and with two Swiss gentlemen as fellow-travellers. On his reaching Aosta, the Marquis De Cirie sent him to join the troops at La Tuille, which the French were on the eve of assaulting. Unfortunately, the General, Baron De St. Remis, had an army of Swiss recruits and Savoyard militia, very unlike the intrepid Camisards. The entrenchments were strong, and Cavallier, at his post, was expecting a good fight, when, to his surprise, he was almost surrounded by the French, the above-mentioned army having surrendered without fighting. He had to draw off his men precipitately into a wood; soon they sprang out and routed a party that had taken De Cirie and St. Remis prisoners, and rescued them, but as these chiefs would not fall back on Aosta, Cavallier and his men made with all haste for Turin, and got the start of the French, who would have intercepted his party if he had delayed but an hour.
Mr Hill wrote to the Duke of Marlborough on the 3rd October, “I have got the famous Cavalier to me now, with about sixty-seven of his Camisards, good men and true. I carry him to-day to his Royal Highness in hopes to place him in his service, till the Marquis de Mircmont comes.” Again he wrote to Sir Charles Hedges, 8th October:—
“Mons. Cavallier came hither last week just before the passages were stopped, and brought about seventy men with him, officers or soldiers, good men and true. He had an opportunity, as he come through the Val d’Aoust, to show his zeal for the service of his Royal Highness. But at the first sight of La Feuilliade’s troops, our new-raised Swiss and our militia abandoned ail their posts which had been a-fortifying these six months, and our Camisards came away in the crowd without hearing one musket fired. The Swiss ran up the mountains and their officers with them. M. Cavallier came the better way, and came hither. So soon as he arrived, I carried him to our camp, and his Royal Highness received him very well. He gave him a commission to be Colonel in his service, and he is now to make up a battalion as soon as he can possibly, in which I will give him all the assistance I can possibly.”
Cavallier’s quarters were in the Valley of Luzerne. “The Vaudois,” he writes, “were very glad of having me with them, being a companion in their sufferings for the same cause; for there is no difference betwixt their church and our churches oi France, Geneva, and Holland.” He had not been many days there before he bad a project to communicate to Mr. Hill; he wrote from Luzerne, ioth October 1704:—
“Sir, — I do myself the honour of writing to assure you of my most humble respects, and to beg you to continue your favours, and the honour of your protection. I have just found a man who offers to go to the country [Languedoc]. He is one whom I know, and on whom I can rely. He asks no reward, and promises to bring me an answer in a month and a half. If your Excellency thinks proper to give him anything, I beg you will send it to me by the bearer of this. I shall be forgetful of nothing in keeping an eye on matters relating to our country, and to the Divine service. 1 have heretofore penetrated into Dauphiny a little. I hope to go and make a little excursion there very soon, in order to observe the disposition of the people and the country. I hope God will bless all our enterprizes. I venture to ask of your Excellency to send me word if letters can pass for Switzerland or Geneva. I can assure you that no one can have more pleasure than I have in the honour of subscribing myself, most respectfully, and with respect, &c.”
“Luzerne, 10th October 1704.
“There are here, sir, many refugees who would wish to take part with me, but their officer requires an order to that effect. I beg of your Excellency to write to his Royal Highness on the subject. I shall have the honour of obeying his orders; also as to my Turin expenses [de la depense de Turin].”
Mr. Hill to M. Cavallier.
“Turin, October 12th, 1704. — Sir, — I have received the letter which you did me the honour of writing to me on the 10th, and by the bearer of that letter shall send you this reply. I applaud your zeal and your attachment to the interests of our religion and of our friends, and I pray to God to bless your anxious attentions. I very much approve of your design of sending a trusty man into Languedoc, taking it for granted that you will give him good instructions. He can assure our friends in the Cevennes that they shall never be forsaken, that great efforts will be made to go to them next spring, and that for this object the Marquis de Miremont is levying troops in England and in Holland. Their chiefs may be told that orders have already been given to several persons to put money into their hands; and if they will please to let me know the names of persons in Nismes, Anduze, or in any other town to whom money might be safely given for them, I will cause it to be put in their hands. Your man will on his return bring us their news. I have given 10 louis d’or to Mons. de la Feuterie for your man’s travelling expenses.
“I will speak to H.R.H. to let you have an order, if he thinks fit, that the refugees who are in the valleys may be able to enrol themselves in your regiment. I shall also make arrangements regarding the expenses incurred at Turin. Letters can no longer go from this either to Switzerland or Geneva by the Val d’Aosta; but if you send me your letters for those places, I will forward them, via Genoa and Venice. I am very glad that you have already thought of extending your views into Dauphiny. I hope that you will find a path through that province for the establishment of affairs in France.”
Mr. Hill’s letter to Secretary Sir Charles Hedges at this period is important as a testimony to the religious character of Cavallier and his men. I give an extract:—
“Turin, 6th Nov. 1704. — I am glad the Queen was pleased to approve of what I did for M. Cavallier I should say nothing of him now, if I were not amazed so oft as I see him. A very little fellow, son of a peasant, bred to be a baker, at twenty years of age, with eighteen men like himself, began to make war upon the King of France. He kept the Geld for eighteen months against a Mareschal of France and an army of 10,000 men, and made an honourable capitulation at last with the mighty Monarch. It is certain that he and his followers were animated with such a spirit of zeal for their religion which is the true enthusiasm. I fear they may lose that temper of mind in the commerce of the world, though they are very devout and very regular. I therefore will do all I can to get them back into France, where one Camisard is worth 100 refugees.”
The siege of Verrue by the French, and its gallant defence by the Duke of Savoy, lasted from the 10th October 1704 to the 19th April 1705. Cavalier was with the Duke’s army about six weeks during that time. He contined to hold communication with France, and became very uneasy about difficulties and obstructions cast up in Holland. In October he was at Turin to apply for leave to remove his quarters to Switzerland. From the camp de la Turin, 13th October 1705, he addressed this letter to Mr. Hill:—
“Sir, — I give myself the honour of writing this, having learnt from a man who came from Languedoc the manner in which things are going on there, and I was unwilling to fail in sending information to your Excellency. I wished to send him to you : but he would not go for fear of being recognised. He assures me that the man named Claris had 200 men with him (this man was one of my troop), and that another named Portefrajeue had as many. As their route is given to all men, great and small, to go to Catalonia, they are always increasing. There even are many Papists who are joining them every day. I hope that your Excellency seeing this will have the goodness to obtain leave of absence for me from His Royal Highness, to go to Switzerland. I am making efforts to find a good number of men to go thither, as the opportunity is so manifestly favourable. I would go to join the Marquis de Guiscard in Holland, as they are disagreeing very much with the Marquis de Miremont. It is known that they will do nothing, and the time will still slip away without any succour being given to the poor people. As for me I have the honour to say to you that at the peril of my blood and of my life I will do all I possibly can to go and join them wherever I may be, whether here or elsewhere. If I see no sign of diligence, I for my part will do all that shall be possible to me, with the help of God, and I hope that I shall not lose my time. I am entirely persuaded that your Excellency will have the goodness to lend a hand and to give your approbation to this, since it is for nothing but the deliverance of poor down-trodden people [des pauvres catis] and for the advancement of the glory of God that I act. I continually demand the honour of your powerful protection, since I for ever am with profound respect, &c.
In November the Duke sent him with formal instructions to concert measures in Switzerland for the relief of Montmelian. It appears, however, that his actual orders were different. Mr. Hill wrote to Godolphin from Turin 14, 25 Nov. — “Mr. Cavallier is gone disguised over the Alps to try if he can find the way once more into the Cevennes. The enemies have few or no troops left in Languedoc, and if he can once more get at the head of an army, he may prove of great use to his friends who are now in Catalonia. I have provided him with 400 louis d’or, half of which I must require from your lordship. We do yet conceal his journey with all the care that is possible.” By a devious route he managed to reach Berne, and to report himself to the Duke’s Ambassador, but news had just come from Savoy of the surrender of Montmelian. Cavalier had been several times recognised in his route by Frenchmen, and had narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. Instead, therefore, of returning to the Valley of Luzerne, he traversed Germany, and reached his new destination, namely, Holland.
The States granted him a regiment of foot, to receive its pay to the extent of two-thirds from Queen Anne, one-third being promised by Holland. Cavalier had the naming of the officers and the giving of commissions. The Duke of Marlborough wrote to him from St. James’s, “ce 22 Fevrier 1706,” “Monsieur, J’ai recu votre lettre du 16 de ce mois et ne puis assez louer votre zéle, en faveur de vos pauvres frères opprimés en France, et pour le bien de la cause commune. La Reine, je vous assure, en est sensible.” The Duke felt really glad to have his services, and had already written to Spain to the Prince of Lichtenstein (5th Feb.), “By the next convoy from Holland, we expect a batalion of Cevenols. It will be commanded by Colonel Cavallier, who has so highly distinguished himself in the Cevennes, and who gives us reason to hope that from Catalonia he will always keep up communications with his people, which cannot but occasion a good diversion.” Some months, however, were required to complete the enlistments; a large number responded to the Colonel’s call in Prussia and Hanover. Mr. Howe wrote to Mr. Stepney from Hanover, April 4th, 1706: “On the 27th past, about 120 French refugees and others, by the name of Camisards, listed to serve in Cavallier’s regiment of foot, came from Berlin to the neighbouring places in this town; and fourteen of these men, with a Swiss sergeant at the head of them, came hither, and were quartered by billets. They listed some few men, and set out on the 31st for Minden, the appointed place for their rendezvous, from whence they are to continue their march to Holland.” (Stepney Papers, quoted by Kemble.)
Cavalier arrived in England the 31st July 1706. Next day he had an interview with the Lord Treasurer (Godolphin), and went to St Helen’s. His regiment was among the reinforcements sent to Spain for the campaign of the following year, and he himself went out with them. His inventive mind had some suggestions to make though it is not recorded what they were), as appears from a sentence in the letter of instructions from the Earl of Sunderland to General the Earl of Galway:—
“I send you a copy of Monsieur Cavalier’s Letter to the Queen. If you think what he proposes practicable, and that the circumstances of affairs do allow it, Her Majesty thinks that it would be of great advantage to the common cause. But that must be left to your judgment.”
At the battle of Almanza, says Professor Weiss, “Cavalier’s regiment, composed entirely of Protestant refugees, found itself opposed to a Catholic regiment which had perhaps shared in the pitiless war of the Cevennes. As soon as the two French corps recognised each other, they charged with their bayonets, disdaining to fire, and slew each other with such fury that, according to Berwick’s testimony, not more than three hundred men survived. Cavalier’s regiment was but seven hundred strong, and if, as is possible, the Catholic regiment was complete, its almost total destruction was a bloody glorification of Cevenol valour. Marshal Berwick, though familiar with fierce encounters, never spoke of this tragical event without visible emotion.” Oldmixon informs us that “Colonel Cavalier gave repeated proofs of that courage by which he had before acquired great reputation in the Cevennes. He received several wounds, and having lain some time among the slain, made his escape by the favour of a horse given him by an English officer. Mr Prat, his lieutenant-colonel, five captains, six lieutenants, and five ensigns of his regiment were killed, and most of the other officers wounded or taken prisoners.”
After this, Cavalier was again in the service of the Duke of Savoy, as appears from his letter to the States of Holland, written after his recovery from his wounds received on the field of Almanza[4]:—
“High and Mighty Lords, with the most profound respect, I have to represent the misfortune I have had to lose my regiment at the battle of Almanza. I have had the additional pain of witnessing, on this, the first occasion on which I have had the honour to fight under your standards, that your arms have not had the desired success. The only consolation that remains to me is, that the regiment I had the honour to command never looked back, but sold its life dearly on the field of battle, as Baron Friesheim has probably informed you. I fought as long as a man stood beside me, until numbers overpowered me, losing also an immense quantity of blood, from a dozen wounds which I received. I was looked upon as one of the slain, and as such I was plundered, but Providence gave me sufficient strength to drag myself off from the enemy’s hands. When I began to be conscious of recovery, the generals intimated to me that the service of the States required that I should be transferred to the Duke of Savoy’s forces.[5] At once I joyfully closed with the opportunity thus presented to me; and having received my orders from his Excellency, the Comte de Noyelles, I embarked for Leghorn, and thence for Genoa, whence I shall set out to join the army forthwith. I wish some new occasion, and a more auspicious one, may happen to enable me to continue giving proofs of my attachment and affection to the service of the States. I cherish the hope, that with the wonted generosity of your Highnesses, you will take measures to enable me to replace my regiment, one-third of the officers having survived, the greater part wounded or made prisoners — also, that my solicitor may receive the arrears of pay due to myself and to my regiment. — I have, &c,
The Duke of Savoy made Cavalier a Colonel of hussars, and took him with him in the expedition against Toulon — that great arsenal and dockyard of France, which the Allies had concerted to besiege by land as well as by sea. The only hope of success was a very rapid march, so that the siege might be commenced before the arrival of a French army beneath the walls. Such a surprise, however, was prevented by the vigilance of the French General De Tesse, who found that “the fortifications of Toulon on the land-side could not maintain a six-days’ siege.” There was no slackness in the Duke of Savoy’s dash towards the walls, yet De Tesse succeeded in making an entrenched camp as well as to strengthen the fortifications. Fighting began in earnest on the 15th August (1707), but day after day victory declared more and more for the French; and the Allies’ army retired precipitately during the night between the 21st and 22d August. In the correspondence connected with this expedition, I find the following information:— “Cavalier, chief of the Camisars, is at the head of the Hussars, one Meissonier of Souliers is with him.”[6]
This is the last record of his campaigning that has come under my notice. Professor De Felice says of Cavalier, that he is the hero of a martial epic, skilful, adventurous, dashing, and the bravest of the brave. Both Roland and Cavalier, like Oliver Cromwell, relied on the authority lent by inspiration. If they must plead guilty to sanguinary reprisals on their persecutors, the spirit whom they consulted instructed them to release prisoners from whom they had received no harm, and punish their own men with extreme severity for wanton murder or robbery. The Camisards, as all admit, were not guilty of swearing, drunkenness, or quarrelling. The accusations of licentiousness were false, and arose from their mothers, wives, and daughters living in their camps to cook their food and to nurse the wounded. Until otherwise informed, I conclude that Cavalier was not again in action after the year 1707.
He is now only in his twenty-seventh year, so that probably it was thought impracticable to promote him to be a general officer. He retired on a pension, and took up his residence in England and Ireland. That pension was inadequate to his expenses, and his future life was much embittered by debt. His debts seem to have been his chief faults. The Duke of Marlborough writes to Mr. Granville from the Hague, 10th March 1711:
“I have been solicited by so many people of note here in behalf of Madame Du Noyer, who all complain of the ill usage she meets with from Colonel Cavallier, that I cannot help troubling you with her petition. I pray you will send for the Colonel and exhort him to compliance with her just request, otherwise I shall be obliged to complain to the Queen, that she may have justice done her out of his pension.”
An Edinburgh Reviewer (in 1856) believes that Cavalier married Madame Du Noyer’s daughter; and, at the same time, he attaches weight to the attacks which the said Madame made on Cavalier’s character. Now Madame fired off her countless poisonous missiles, just because he refused to marry her daughter. It is evident that in that affair Cavalier’s error lay in making an engagement, not in breaking it. Mr. Kemble says, “Much obscurity rests over this period of his life, which is not much illustrated by the scandalous libels and evidently false accusations of Madame Du Noyer, whose daughter he was engaged to marry, but disappointed.”
My late lamented correspondent, Sir Erasmus Borrowes, discovered, from original letters in his possession, that Cavalier married the daughter of an aristocratic refugee at Portarlington, Mademoiselle E. Ponthieu, of whose family I have spoken in the chapter on the Rochefoucaulds and the Champagnés. The signatures, “Jn. Cavallier” and “E. Cavallier” are still extant in Portarlington.
To his pecuniary embarrassments we are indebted for his book. A kind-hearted creditor, Major Champagne, took the trouble of collecting payment for copies of his “Memoirs of the Wars in the Covennes,” and gave him credit in his account-book for five books at five shillings and five pence each. This model account-book was in the possession of the Major’s great-grandson, the late Sir Erasmus Borrowes, through whose great kindness I saw and examined it. A loan of £50 was on one occasion granted to Colonel Cavallier. The debtor and creditor account between the Major and Colonel, extending through several pages, seems pretty nearly balanced at last, as far as cash is concerned; but a memorandum is appended: “The colonel owes me for a horse which he borrowed from me and never returned, valew’d four or five pounds.” Perhaps some less patient creditor had arrested the horse on Cavallier’s premises and appropriated it.
In 1723 Champagné bought in Holland for Madame Cavallier, “narrow lease (lace?), cambric and Holland.” He lent her money at different dates, “a guyney,” “a moydore,”[7] &c, &c. He paid for grazing Mrs Cavallier’s yong mere," and on one occasion £12 to release her “gould watch.”
At last the Colonel was remembered as he deserved. Primate Boulter (Hugh, Archbishop of Armagh, formerly Bishop of Bristol), in whom the British Government placed implicit confidence, recommended him to the Duke of Newcastle:—
“Dublin, Jan. 5, 1726-7. — My Lord, As we talk here that some new regiments will be raised, Colonel Cavallier was with me to-day to desire I would recommend him to be put in commission on this occasion. I told him it was wholly out of my way to recommend to the army, but as he had very much distinguished himself abroad in the last war, I would venture to take the liberty to acquaint your Grace that he is alive, and very willing to serve his Majesty if a war comes on. — I am, &c,
“Dublin, April 29, 1727. — My Lord, The Bearer, Colonel Cavalier,[8] desired I would favour him with a letter to introduce him to your Grace. If there had been occasion to raise any new regiments, he would have been glad to have served his Majesty in this juncture in the new levies. As there has been lately a promotion of general officers, and some of his juniors have been made brigadiers, he comes over to England in hopes that it was purely his being out of the way that made him be forgotten. The figure he made, and the faithfulness and the courage with which he served the Crown in the last war, are the occasion of my recommending him to your Grace’s favour and protection in this affair, though it be so much out of my sphere.”
Cavalier was promoted to the rank of Brigadier on the 27th of October 1735. In 1738 he was made Lieutenant-Governor of Jersey. The following was his commission:—
“George the Second, By the grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, to our trusty and well-beloved John Cavalier, Esq., Brigadier-general of our Forces, greeting: We, reposing special trust and confidence in your prudence, loyalty, and courage, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you to be Lieutenant-Governor of our Island of Jersey, and of the ports and garrisons thereunto belonging, whereof our right trusty and well-beloved cousin and councillor, Richard Viscount Cobham is Governor, in the room of Colonel Peter Bettesworth deceased. You are, therefore, carefully and diligently to discharge the duty of Lieutenant-Governor of our said Island, forts, and Garrisons, by doing and performing all and all manner of things thereunto belonging. And all our officers and soldiers, and our loving subjects of our said Island are hereby required to acknowledge and obey you as our Lieutenant-Governor thereof. And you are to observe and follow such orders and directions from time to time as you shall receive from Us, our Governor of our said Island for the time being, or any other your superior officer, according to the rules and discipline of war in pursuance of the trust we hereby repose in you — Given at our Court at St James’s, the twenty-fifth day of March 1738, in the eleventh year of our reign.
Brigadier Cavalier took the oaths of office at a Session of the Cour Royale in Jersey on the 18th August 1738. At first the Estates were disposed to be disorderly at their sittings, and the Lieutenant-Governor had, by letter, to quell them. This letter was an illustration of the union of French and English in the affairs of the Channel Islands, the letter being written in French, but dated according to what the French call the “English style,” viz., 19th January 1738 (instead of 1739). The Estates had to meet, hear the letter read, enter it in a minute, and at once adjourn. The following is a translation:—
“Gentlemen, The Lieutenant Bailly, and Gentlemen of the Estates, —
“I had resolved to be at your meeting to-day if I had not found it inconvenient. It would have been in order to declare to you that, having seen the confusion which reigns in your Assembly, through the conduct of the Procurator of the King, who said to me that he had as much authority to speak as I, I declare to you, gentlemen, that until I have fresh orders from the English Court I shall hold no more Estates. And it is to the King, my master, and to his Council, that I shall give account. I am, gentlemen, your very humble servant,
“St Helier, 19 January 1738.
“Jn. Cavallier,
Lieutenant-Gouverneur.”
Tranquillity seems to have been restored. Cavalier was promoted to be Major-General on the 2d July 1739. From the 21st July to the 19th October, six sittings of the Estates took place, at all of which he was present. At one meeting he spoke about the boulevards and platforms round the island.
The Gentleman’s Magazine announces that he died at Chelsea on the 17th May 1740; he is styled “a brave old officer;” he was about sixty years of age. And at Chelsea, on the north side of the churchyard, his remains were interred. His successor in Jersey (Francis Best, Esq.) took the oaths on the 17th Sept. 1741.
- ↑ The French give to any man’s possessions (however small) the sounding name of “his estates.” This is Cavalier’s phrase as to his father’s little property and stock, but in case of mistakes I have translated the phrase into more sober English.
- ↑ Baynes’s “Witnesses in Sackcloth,” page 197.
- ↑ In Pointer’s “Chronological History of England,” page 584, it is stated that the French prophets, “by their formal cant and their feigned extatic fits, deluded several of their countrymen in Soho, London, which gave just offence to the soberer part of the French refugees, who looked upon them as impostors, as they really were. They were censured in the French Church in the Savoy. . . . One of the said Camisars, and two of their abettors, were indicted and prosecuted at the charge of all the French churches in London as disturbers of the public peace and false prophets. On the 28th November 1707, they received their sentences at tkc Court of Queen’s Bench Bar, to stand twice on a scaffold, with a paper denoting their offence, to pay a fine of 20 marks each, and to give securities for their good behaviour for one year.” This affair led to the mistake that the word “Camisard” meant a prophet. As to our hero’s namesake, Jean Cavalier of Sauve, three affidavits, disclaiming all relationship and sympathy, signed by Colonel Cavalier, are printed in “Nouveaux Memoires pour servir à l’histoire des trois Camisars,” London 1708. To one of these affidavits the Rev. Edmund Calamy refers in his “Caveat against New Prophets,” page 52.
- ↑ Bulletin, vol. vi., p. 70.
- ↑ The Editor of Richard Hill’s Correspondence (page 691) uses the word “desertion” as applicable to Cavalier’s going to Holland; but that the Duke of Savoy did not regard him as a deserter is a fair inference from the above intimation.
- ↑ The information as to the Toulon Expedition is from “The History of the Siege of Toulon, with an Account of the Political Reasons that induc’d the Confederates to undertake it. Together with all the Transactions from the Duke of Savoy’s entrance into Provence to his going out of it. Written in Erench by Monsieur Deviss, Author of the Mercur-Galant. Done into English, from the Paris edition, by Mr. A. Boyer, London, 1708.”
- ↑ A moidore (in 1736) was worth twenty-seven shillings in England, and twenty-seven shillings and ninepence in Ireland (i.e., thirty old Irish shillings). See Primate Boulter’s Letters.
- ↑ The Dublin Editor (George Faulkner, 1770) makes this note: “This is that Colonel Cavallier who made so great a figure in the Cevennes against the powerful armies of France; he was in some respects the Paoli of those days.