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 A Computer Science Electronic Dictionary for NOOJ

Farida Aoughlis

Faculté de Génie électrique et informatique

Université Mouloud Mammeri,
Tizi Ouzou, Algérie
[email protected]

Abstract. An automatic text analysis system cannot lexically recognize a word

unless it already exists in the electronic dictionary. Our works applies to the
NOOJ system. Work remains to be made to build terminological dictionaries.
To build the terms dictionary, it is necessary to identify the terms in the texts, to
count and to acquire them, to locate the terms by deciding if a word group con-
stitutes or not an entry in the dictionary, and for all that the problem is to find
corpora.

Keywords: Terminology, terminology extraction, terminology acquisition,

electronic dictionary, compound noun, local grammar, NOOJ.

1 Introduction

Automatic translating software needs increasingly significant and varied terminologi-

cal resources. They can be simple lists of terms that are more or less structured (struc-
tured indices, thesaurus, lexical networks) used by automatic indexing systems or for
information retrieval or more documented terminological reference frames. [54]
The computer science compound words dictionary INFO_COMP that we build will
allow the analysis and the automatic computer science texts indexing. The context of
works is NOOJ was developed by Silberztein M. NOOJ is a new linguistic develop-
ment environment, issued of author 12 years experience, as the INTEX user and de-
signer at the LADL [48].
For the construction of our dictionary, we extract manually terminology from texts.
We also extract terms automatically with NOOJ but here the terms extracted are
examined if they are possible entries in the dictionary.

2 Terminology, Term and Specialized Language

The computer science texts are technical texts and the language is specialized. What
do we mean by terminology? ISO, 1990 defines the terminology as the scientific
study of the notions and the terms used in the specialist’s languages. A specialized
language [24], [25] is the use of a language that makes it possible to give an account

Z. Kedad et al.(Eds.): NLDB 2007, LNCS 4592, pp. 341–351, 2007.

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
342 F. Aoughlis

technically of specialized knowledge. This specialized knowledge is linguistically

called by terms that are words, word groups. In a general language, the lexemes con-
stituting the inputs of the dictionary are words; in the case of a specialized language,
the lexemes are terms. In the linguistics dictionary [22], any discipline, and with
stronger reason any science needs a set of terms, rigorously defined, by which it indi-
cates the concepts which are useful for him: this set of terms constitutes its terminol-
ogy. In what follows a term relates to a compound noun. One will find in [36] work
an examination of the techniques of extraction of the terminological data and their
impact on the terminologist work.

3 Tools for Automatic Extraction of Terminology

A census of the various existing systems is made in [16].They make it possible to

extract new terms starting from texts or corpus. Here also the various linguistic,
statistical or mixed methods exist and are used to develop the tools for automatic
extraction. Some extraction software evaluation criteria are examined in [35]. In
[19], standard techniques for terms extraction are examined. In the thesis of [18]
and in [21], specialized lexical pivots are used for the automatic acquisition of
terms. In [20] a non-technical corpus is used for the extraction of terminology. An
evaluation of acquisition tools for information extraction is made in [43]. In [31] we
find studies about terminological variation. The majority of the authors [17] con-
sider it essential to maintain a human activity in the acquisition systems, with an
acceptance or a refusal of the results but also as far as being the acquisition centre,
the computer processing will thus be reduced to a presentation and data-recording
tool. Studies based on a semantic approach and terminology acquisition can be
found in [40] and [16]. In the framework of the corpora specialized in terminology
and the automatic acquisition of collocations, various works in progress [33], [41]
and [45] are presented. A study about collocation can be found in [44]. In [38],
Meilland J.C presents an automatic extraction terminology from short textual
words. Smadja et al., [53] used statistical methods for translating collocations for
bilingual lexicons.

3.1 Tools Using the Linguistic Methods

They are based on a syntactic analysis of the texts. A morpho-syntactic tagging

locates all he noun syntagms (candidate terms). The expert retains the terms. Four
systems are listed in [54]; we have TERMINO [15], LEXTER [8], [9], XTERM de-
veloped in 1999 by Cerbah, F. and FASTER [31]. Another system SINTESI (Systema
INtegrato per TESti in Italiano), is described in [24], the extraction of terminology is
used to generate search keys for a database. To acquire English computer science
terms the system LEXPRO [46] uses the system INTEX [48]. NOOJ [50] allows
terms extraction.
 A Computer Science Electronic Dictionary for NOOJ 343

3.2 Statistical Methods

System ANA [23] automatically extracts concepts from texts to produce a semantic
network. MANTEX developed by [42] is founded on the repeated segments principle.
In his doctoral thesis, [4] evaluates the statistical approaches capital in locating com-
plex lexical units. MANTEX [45] extracts collocations.
In these methods, pertinent words having only one occurrence are not acquired
(silence).

3.3 Mixed Methods

System like ACABIT [14] allows curing the problems of noise which arises in the
linguistic methods. XTRACT [52] is a generic tool for location of collocations and
not only of the terms.

4 Compound Nouns

In order to constitute our dictionary, a manual collection of the terms is carried out. It
is significant to know if a compound noun can constitute an input in the dictionary.
We are interested in the linguistic aspects of the terminology and particularly in the
compound nouns composition.

4.1 Concept of Composition and Compound Nouns

All the completed research tasks try to define the concept of a compound noun com-
position but do not provide a magic recipe for their recognition. There is not a single
definition of a compound noun but a certain number of common properties. The con-
cept of nominal composition, very much discussed was approached by [10], [11],
[29], [5], [6], [7] and [34] who admit that it is not possible to distinguish the com-
pound nouns from free sequences. We will quote other work [37] and [39] for the
syntax of the compound nouns, [32] on the lexicon of the compound nouns and [30]
for syntactic and semantic automatic processing. Work on compounds N “of” N was
studied without giving operational definition of “freezing” [1]. French compound
nouns “freezing degree” notions for NN (Noun Noun) and NDN (Noun “of” Noun)
categories are defined in [27].

4.2 How to Decide if a Compound Noun Is an Entry of the Dictionary?

A term can be simple if it contains one word or compound if it contains more than
one. A compound word is built starting from simple words. Silberztein M. defines
a compound noun as a consecutive sequence of at least two simple forms and
blocks of separators. A simple form is a nonempty consecutive sequence of charac-
ters of the alphabet appearing between two separators. A simple word is a simple
344 F. Aoughlis

form that constitutes an input of dictionary. We will use indifferently term or com-
pound noun to indicate the same concept within the selected technical language
(computer science).
A terminological bank is essentially composed of compound nouns. Each linguist
uses his own terminology to define the compound words and proposes his own crite-
ria. In our case the simple words are partly listed in the electronic simple words dic-
tionary, the DELAS. The compound words are listed in the DELAC, but the terms
concerning the specialized vocabularies are there in a very small number. Our task is
to set up the computer science French terms dictionary, this dictionary will be thus a
specialized dictionary. Will all the compound nouns found in the texts constitute an
input in the dictionary? In order to decide if a word is or not an input of the dictionary
we have to know what is a possible lexical entry? In [27] work morpho-syntactic, or
semantic criteria are defined to make the distinction between free nominal group and
compound noun. In [48] criteria defined a compound word and in [49] work, semantic
is used and productive nominal groups and the lexicalised compound nouns are pre-
sented. We can find in [26] a study about “frozen sequences” and the semantic
factors.

5 The Electronic Dictionary of Computer Science: INFO_COMP

NOOJ [51] is a development environment used to construct large-coverage formal-

ized descriptions of natural languages, and apply them to large corpora, in real time.
The description of natural languages are formalized as electronic dictionaries, and
grammars represented by organized sets of graphs.
For our specialized dictionary, at first we collected terms from texts, we studied the
shape of an input, the compound nouns gender and number, the possible determinants,
the particular inflection of the compound nouns and their local grammars. In [47], we
can find the plural of some compound nouns. We defined the compound words
classes for computer science terminology in [3], [2].
Our dictionary contains about 10 000 compound words. 30 000 compounds are
extracted manually and will be added to the dictionary. With NOOJ, we also extract
automatically candidate compounds, from texts and corpora. We add manually the
terms retained in the dictionary with codifying the entries, it is the terminology
acquisition.

5.1 NOOJ Grammars

A NOOJ grammar makes it possible to gather the terms by family; here, a family is
the principal word (noun) in the compound, called the “head”. A grammar can contain
several graphs and can be used for removing ambiguous forms. For the term card we
have: card to band, card to card, card to disk…We give the local grammar “carte”
(card) in the Fig. 1:
 A Computer Science Electronic Dictionary for NOOJ 345

Fig. 1. A local grammar for the term “carte” (card)

5.2 NOOJ Dictionaries

NOOJ dictionaries [51] are a great enhancement over INTEX DELA-type dictionaries
[12] as well as lexicon grammars. NOOJ dictionaries can represent spelling and ter-
minological variants. DELAC is the dictionary of the compound nouns. Courtois B.
studied binary compounds [13], Gross M. ternary compound nouns [28] and longest
(4, 5 and 6 full words), only for French natural language.
In NOOJ, the INTEX dictionaries are represented in one unique format [50] the
full description of the inflexion and derivation is encoded inside NOOJ dictionaries
for the entries.

5.3 INFO_COMP Dictionary and Flexional Models .FLX

In the Fig. 2, For the term “accès aléatoire” (random access), we have the entry :
accès aléatoire,N+NA+info+FLX=AccesAccordé
accès aléatoire is a term, for this dictionary entry, we have the category N or NA:
N+NA; info is a semantic information: computer science term;
346 F. Aoughlis

Fig. 2. Extracts from the dictionary INFO_COMP; the inflectional description Test-COMP

FLX gives the name of the flexional model here AccesAccordé, defined in the inflex-
ional description file Test-COMP.flx:

AccesAccordé = <E>/m+s + s/m+p;

The lemma “accès aléatoire” has two forms:

m+s => accès aléatoire masculine (m) singular (s)

m+p => accès aléatoires masculine (m) plural (p)

5.4 Automatic Extraction of Compound Terms with NOOJ

A pattern is a NOOJ expression and we can locate any pattern in the text. We use “
locate a pattern” to extract compound nouns from texts or corpus, for example, in
Fig. 3, a linguistic analysis of the text uc.not is made with NOOJ, the option locate a
pattern is used to find the <N><A> (Noun Adjective) terms in the text. The list of
concordance (candidate terms) is given, here 472. From the concordance for the text,
the linguist selects the terms which are entries for the INFO_COMP dictionary and
adds them manually to it (acquisition) with the format given at 5.3. We can locate any
pattern we want [51].
 A Computer Science Electronic Dictionary for NOOJ 347

Fig. 3. Locating terms with a pattern here <N><A>

6 Conclusion

We started with newspapers terms were collected. These newspapers made it possible
to collect terms but not much (3000), in spite of the size of the texts. Specialized
books of computer science were taken as corpus and the number of terms clearly
increased, because these books are of the studied speciality. Actually we collect
manually terms from Hildebert dictionary and automatically from texts with NOOJ.
We are building a big corpus of computer science with different texts of computer
science from PDF, word and text files. The corpus contains actually 1071 text files;
its size is 90 Mo. It remains to test terminology extraction from this corpus.
More than 10 000 terms were extracted and listed manually and added (terminol-
ogy acquisition) to the INFO_COMP dictionary. 30 000 terms are collected and will
be added to the dictionary. The manual collection of the terms is long and setting up a
corpus for French computer science terminology is long and not easy. Manual extrac-
tion is long and needs to read big corpus. Semantic is often used to decide if a
compound is a term. Others information (conceptual, syntactic, synonymous, links,
translation in English…) can be added to the entry of the dictionary according to the
use that one will make of it.
The elaborate dictionary INFO_COMP and the local grammars will make it possi-
ble to analyse computer science corpus, texts. With NOOJ, one will be able with this
348 F. Aoughlis

new dictionary of terminology to treat computer science technical texts and to use
them in various applicability such are the automatic indexing, the information re-
trieval, the machine analysis of texts, and machine translation. A translation in Eng-
lish will be added for each term.
It remains to finalize the coding of all the terms of the dictionary, to set up all the
other grammars. Tests are then designed to analyse computer science texts, to index
them. We expected to compare between NOOJ linguistic method of indexing and
extraction with statistics methods like ANA.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Max Silberztein, from the LASELDI laboratory at the Franche-
Comté University for his help and Elisabeth Metais from the CEDRIC Laboratory at
the CNAM of Paris for all her remarks and help.

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 A Computer Science Electronic Dictionary for NOOJ 351

Appendix: INFO_COMP Dictionary Extract for the Term “Accès”

accès accidentel accès conflictuel
accès accordé accès d’arrivée
accès aléatoire accès d’objet
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“Nay, I saw you not, my friend, for my spirit was engrossed because
of my interest regarding the matter of some town or fortress which
might serve as a place of refuge for exiled Christians. Having vainly
sought among the plans and figures of architects and designers for
what might assist me, I have been fain to wander among the woods
and mountains, to see whether I could find some industrious animal
which might give me a hint for my design; and, indeed, I saw a vast
number of them, which caused me astonishment at the great
industry God has given them; and I have had frequent occasion to
glorify him in all his marvels; and from one and another have gained
some little aid to my affairs; at the least, I have been encouraged to
hope I might eventually succeed. Having employed many weeks
thus, during my hours of leisure, I at length bethought me of visiting
the shore and rocks of the ocean, where I perceived so many
diverse kinds of dwellings and fortresses, which sundry little fish had
made with their own liquor or saliva, that I began to think I might
discover here what I was searching for. So I contemplated all the
different sorts of fish, beginning from the least to the greatest, and I
found things which made me all abashed because of the amazing
goodness of divine Providence, which had bestowed such care upon
these creatures. I perceived, also, that the battles and stratagems
of the sea, were, without comparison, greater in the said animals
than in those of the earth, and saw that the luxury of the sea was
greater than that of the earth, and that, without comparison, it
produced more fruit.”
“You surprise me,” said Victor, “that you still retain this desire; for I
would gladly hope and believe that there will be no need of such a
thing. Consider that we have now peace, and also we hope there
will shortly be liberty of preaching through all France; and not only
in our own land, but throughout all the world; for it is written so in
St. Matthew, chapter xxiv., where the Lord God says, that ‘the gospel
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations.’ That is what causes me to say there is no longer need
to seek out cities of refuge for the Christians.”
“You have not duly considered other sayings of the New Testament,”
replied Palissy, “for it is written that the children and elect of God
shall be persecuted to the end, hunted, mocked, banished, and
exiled. It is true St. Matthew says that the gospel of the kingdom
shall be preached unto all the world; but not that it shall be received
of all; only, it shall be a witness unto all; that is, to justify those who
believe, and to condemn righteously the unbelieving. In
consequence, it is to be concluded that the perverse and iniquitous,
the avaricious and all kinds of wicked people will be at all times
ready to persecute those who by straight roads shall follow the
statutes and ordinances of our Lord.”
The amiable Victor, yielding to his friend’s superior judgment, did not
contest his opinion; but contented himself with asking whether he
had succeeded at length in the object of his search. “I seem to
myself to have done so. Look at this shell; it was given me the
other day when I was at Rochelle, by a citizen there, named
L’Hermite. It is that of a purple murex; and yonder larger one on
the desk is a conch. They were brought from Guinea; and are both
made in the manner of a snail, with spiral lines; but that of the
conch is stronger and larger than the other. Now, the result of my
observation of these things is, that God has bestowed more industry
upon the weak creatures than on the strong; and has given them
skill to know how to make each for himself a house, constructed on
such a system of geometry and architecture that never Solomon, in
all his wisdom, could have made the like. Considering, therefore,
this proposition, I stayed to contemplate more closely the shell of
the purple murex, because I assured myself that God had given to it
something more, to make compensation for its weakness; and so,
having dwelt long upon these thoughts, I noticed that, in the shell of
the murex, there were a number of tolerably large projections, by
which it is surrounded.” “I see what you mean; they add greatly to
its beauty and ornament.” “Do you think that is all? No, no, there is
something more. These are so many bulwarks and defences for the
fortress and refuge of the inhabitant of the shell. Now, seeing this, I
resolved to take example from it, for the building of my fortified
town, and I took straightway a compass, rule, and the other tools,
necessary for the making of my picture.”
Bernard then produced the plan he had drawn, which he described
at length in his little book. As a curiosity and specimen of ingenuity,
this idea of his is exceedingly interesting, and it shows another of
the numerous subjects on which his busy wits were exercised, and
shows too, how thoroughly his love of nature governed all his other
thoughts. Who, but an enthusiast in that delightful study, would
have had recourse to the nests of birds, and the shells of the sea,
when he wished to plan a fortress that would resist the utmost fury
of a siege?
At length his book was completed and printed at Rochelle, in the
year 1563, the one succeeding that of his imprisonment. He
prefixed to it three letters, written after his release, addressed to the
constable, to his son the marshal Montmorency, and to the queen
mother. Having rendered his grateful acknowledgments to these
illustrious patrons, he proceeded to relate the particulars of the ill-
usage he had received, desiring that it might be understood that he
was “not imprisoned as a thief or a murderer.” He then went on to
explain the subjects of which his work treated, and showed that they
were, in themselves, worthy of attention, although not couched in
learned language, “seeing,” he said, “I am not Greek nor Hebrew,
poet nor rhetorician, but a simple artisan, poorly enough trained in
letters. Notwithstanding, these things are no less valuable than if
uttered by one more eloquent. I had rather speak truth in my rustic
tongue than lie in rhetoric; therefore I hope you will receive this
small work with as ready a will as I have desire that it shall give you
pleasure.” In his address to queen Catherine, he hinted at his
readiness to be employed in her service, and at his ability to assist
much in her building work and gardens. Nor was it long before he
had an opportunity to exercise his skill. Through the medium of his
excellent friends, the Sire de Pons and his lady, he received the
tidings that he had been chosen, in company with Jean Bullant, his
co-worker at the château d’Écouen, to assist in the new works
commenced by the queen mother. His removal to Paris would
follow, as a matter of course. “Indeed,” said the Sire de Pons, “it is
time, Master Bernard, that you left Saintes, for many reasons. Your
position here is cramped and inconvenient. Your enemies are but
muzzled—not removed out of the way. Your principal patrons are
great men, necessarily much in attendance upon the court; and in a
remote province you can neither receive, not execute, their
commands. In Paris your advantages will be great. You will live in
constant intercourse with men of genius, and your taste will be
perfected by the study of the choicest works of art collected in the
capital.” “Your sons, too, Nicole and Mathurin, are now young men,
for whom employment and patronage will be thus secured,” said
Madame; “and though we shall be sorry to lose you, we cannot be
selfish enough to regret an event so fortunate for yourself and your
family.” “I had not thought,” said Bernard, “to be thus
distinguished. It is doubtless the good word of my lord, the
constable, which has gained me this appointment. I am resolved,
according to the ability I possess, to do credit to his patronage. And
this I may say, that the work which I have wrought for him gives
witness enough of the gift which God has been pleased to bestow on
me as an artist in earth. I am, therefore, not without hope that my
work may prove acceptable in that place to which his providence
now calleth me.” “It is our purpose to journey before long to Paris,”
said the Sire, “and you can, if you think fit, accompany us. The time
is but short, ten days or a fortnight, at the utmost; but, I doubt not,
you will be in readiness.”
This friendly proposal was gratefully accepted, and, at the time
appointed, Palissy bade farewell to Saintes, and, accompanied by his
two sons, set off for the French capital, which was thenceforward to
be his place of residence. It was with a full heart that he left the
city which had been, for so many years, his home; where his
children had been born, and where he had served his long
apprenticeship of sorrow and trial, and eventually triumphed over all
the obstacles that threatened to overwhelm him, and to blight his
fond expectations. As he returned, the evening before his
departure, from visiting the graves of his wife and their six little
ones, while meditating, and slowly and pensively moving onward, he
was overtaken by Victor, who had gone in search of him, anxious to
spend the last few hours in his company. They returned together,
and Victor announced to his friend a most unexpected piece of
tidings. “I shall not remain here long after you have gone,” he
exclaimed, with unwonted energy, his pale face flushed and eager.
“A kinsman of mine has this very afternoon brought me a
communication which will lead to my removal hence, probably within
a few months. Had you not been leaving I should have felt it a grief
indeed, but now, it is well; for I could scarcely have borne your
loss.” “What has befallen, and where will you go?” asked Bernard, in
his quick manner. “My eldest brother was killed (as you know) last
year, in one of the murderous assaults upon those of our religion.
He has left a young family, and his poor wife, who has never
recovered the shock of his death, is now sinking rapidly. She
entreats me, through the kinsman she has sent, to go back to my
native place, and to undertake the care of my brother’s children.
They will inherit the small property which was our father’s, and
which would, in all probability, be soon dissipated in the hands of
strangers. I have myself no family; and my wife, loving soul, will be
a true mother to these poor orphans. It seems the voice of our
heavenly Father, which is saying to us, ‘Arise and go hence.’” “I have
never heard you speak of your early days, Victor.” “True; I was
thinking, as I came hither, of my boyhood. Happy time, and happy
household ours, where comfort and content reigned! The property
on which we all subsisted was very small; but order, domestic
arrangement, labour, and frugality, kept us above want. Our little
garden produced nearly as many vegetables as we required, and the
orchard yielded us fruits. Our quinces, apples, and pears, preserved,
with the honey of our bees, were, in winter, most excellent
breakfasts for us children, and the good old women, our
grandmother and aunts. We were all clothed by the small flock that
pastured on the neighbouring hills; my aunts spun the wool; and the
hemp of the field furnished us with linen. In the evenings, by the
light of our lamp, which was fed with oil from our walnut trees, the
young people of the neighbourhood came to help us to dress our
flax, and we, in our turn, did the same for them. The harvest of the
little farm sufficed for our subsistence. Our buckwheat cakes,
moistened, smoking hot, with the good butter of Mont d’Or, were a
delicious treat to us. I know not what dish we should have relished
better than our turnips and chestnuts. When we sat, on a winter
evening, round the fire, and saw these fine turnips roasting, and
heard the water boiling in the vase where our chestnuts were
cooking so sweet and nice, our mouths watered; and the
grandmother, delighted with our childish pleasure, added, now and
then, to the feast, a quince, whose delicious perfume, while roasting
under the ashes, I still remember. Dear, kind old dame! She, with
all her frugality and moderation, nevertheless made little gluttons of
us boys. Ah! my friend, it is the women who begin it from our
cradle, and go on fondling and humouring us to the grave. So, you
see we had enough to satisfy all our wants, for, in our household, if
there were little to expend, there was nothing lost, and trifling things
united, made plenty. In the neighbouring forest, too, there was
abundance of dead wood, of small value, and there my father was
permitted to take his annual provision. Dear and honoured father!
He ruled us all, in the fear of the Lord; and the crowning bliss of my
life it has ever been to come before God and plead, ‘Thou wast my
father’s God; be thou also my God.’”
How much longer Victor would have indulged in these fond
memories, cannot be told. He was interrupted by the entrance of
some neighbours who came to take leave of Palissy and his sons,
and when they had departed, the hour was late. The two friends
bent the knee together in prayer at the throne of heavenly grace,
and commended each other to the divine protection and favour.
Victor then arose and departed; but, on the threshold, he paused,
and looking fixedly on his friend, his eyes filled with tears, as he
grasped his hand, and said, “Yes, God is a sweet consolation.” And,
with these words, he turned away and was gone.
How often, in after years, did this farewell recur to the mind of
Bernard, with sweet and consolatory power!
 CHAPTER XIV.

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints,
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her
I wondered with great admiration.”—Rev. xvii. 6.

The present chapter will embrace the history of ten years in the life
of Palissy—years full of terrible interest to France, during which there
were two more bursts of civil war, with intervals of peace between,
and followed by that event of world-wide renown in the annals of
crime and blood, the massacre of St. Bartholomew. During those
years Bernard was quietly and laboriously engaged, protected from
harm by the patronage of the court, and probably also, having
learned from experience the necessity of a prudent restraint in the
utterance of his opinions.
Arrived at Paris, he established his workshop in a place allotted to
him in the precincts of the Tuileries, and the gardens that partly
occupied the site of the new palace, and surrounded by the debris of
buildings that had to be removed, and the scaffolding of workmen
who were engaged about the new erections. At no great distance
was the Louvre itself, then a new structure and the royal residence;
and queen Catherine, attended by her courtiers, frequently went to
watch the progress of the buildings, and to direct, with her
admirable taste, the works of Palissy, familiarly known as “Master
Bernard, of the Tuileries.” There is still in existence, in the royal
library at Paris, a MS., containing an account of the queen’s
expenditures, dated 1570, among which is a note of payment “to
Bernard, Nicole, and Mathurin Palissy, sculptors in earth, for the sum
of 2,600 livres, for all the works in earth, baked and enamelled,
which have yet to be made to complete the quatre pans au
pourtour, (the four parts of the circumference) of the grotto
commenced by the queen, in her palace, near the Louvre at Paris,
according to the agreement made with them.”
We are told that his taste being improved by the study of the great
works of Italian art, he became a more consummate artist, and
produced masterpieces, far surpassing his former efforts. He found,
also, much employment in garden architecture, then greatly in
vogue, and for which his larger pieces, rocks, trees, animals, and
even human figures, were designed. A few only of these have
withstood the accidents of time, but it is known they adorned some
of the sumptuous residences of the French nobles in that day,
especially the château of Chaulnes, that of Nesles, in Picardy, and of
Reux, in Normandy. His smaller productions, designed to ornament
rooms, and to find a place in the buffets and cabinets of the wealthy,
were very numerous; and such as have been preserved are highly
valued, as works of art, at the present time. Statuettes, elegant
groups, ewers, vases, with grotesque ornaments, plates, rustic
basins, cups, tiles for the walls and floors of mansions, as well as for
the stoves used on the continent; all these, and many similar
articles, were made in great perfection by our skilful artist. [142]
Working thus, with busy hands and inventive skill, Palissy saw the
years pass by, and beheld strange scenes, far exceeding in fearful
interest all he had formerly witnessed.
He spoke from experience when he said, “If you had seen the
horrible excesses of men that I have seen, during these troubles, not
a hair of your head but would have trembled at the fear of falling to
the mercy of men’s malice; and he who has not beheld such things,
could never think how great and fearful a persecution is.” He had
scarcely become settled in his new occupation when the “Second
Troubles” broke out; and one of the first victims of the war was his
great patron, the constable Montmorency. Upon the tenth of
November, 1567, the battle of St. Denys was fought outside the walls
of Paris, when the aged constable, at the head of his army, in fine
array, with colours flying and drums beating, marched out to meet
the foe. The heights of Montmartre presented, on that occasion, a
strange spectacle. They were crowded with eager spectators, in the
highest excitement; all the busy, restless population of the great city
flocking there, to gaze upon the scene of warfare. Priests chanting
litanies and distributing chaplets to the warriors, foreign
ambassadors, fair ladies dressed as Amazons, some even carrying
lances, which they vibrated in the air, and magistrates and doctors,
wearing cuirasses beneath their robes; a motley crowd of every rank
and condition huddled together, with mingled curiosity and terror,
waiting the result of the fight.
The short winter’s day was closing fast when the battle commenced,
and an hour of bloody strife followed. The result was fatal to the
gallant old veteran, whose resolution and bravery led him to push
forward into the midst of the Huguenot ranks. Five times was he
wounded, yet still fought on, and then received the mortal stroke,
and was left, stretched, amid the dead and dying, on the field. Still
living, though suffering deadly agony, he was borne back within
those walls he had left in so different a manner but a few hours
before. The night was dark and rainy, his pains were grievous, and
he desired to breathe his last where he lay; but those around
intreated that he would suffer himself to be carried to Paris, where
he died on the following day, preserving to the last a surprising
fortitude and endurance.
The court ordered a magnificent funeral for the grim old warrior,
whose rugged and austere manners had rendered him so obnoxious
to many, and whose religious bigotry was but too much in
accordance with the spirit of his times. At his own request he was
buried at his favourite estate at Écouen, where Palissy had so long
wrought in his service. To Bernard he had proved a generous patron
and a steady friend, and his hand had been outstretched to save him
from the gallows.
Would that this had been done from a higher motive than the love of
art! Then he might one day have been among the number of those
to whom shall be addressed the joyful words, “Inasmuch as ye have
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
unto me.”
Happily, it is not necessary for this narrative to dwell upon the well-
known story of the massacre. Its fearful horrors are but too familiar
to every reader of history. Bernard escaped being an eyewitness of
them, as he happened to be at the time occupied about one of those
commissions to which we have alluded, and which had carried him
to Chaulnes, where he laid out the park according to a plan
resembling that he described in his “Delectable Garden.”
There was one among the numerous men of science with whom
Palissy associated who narrowly escaped destruction. This was
Ambroise Paré, first surgeon to the king, who seems to have been a
truly pious and excellent man. Having embraced the Reformed
tenets, he steadily adhered to them, and despite the dangers of his
situation, persisted in openly avowing his principles. As he had
drawn upon himself the odium of heresy, and in addition to that, the
rancorous jealousy of a host of practitioners in his art, he was a
marked character; and Charles IX., who owed his life to the skill of
Paré, and is said to have “loved him infinitely,” took measures to
secure his safety. “I will tell you, my friend,” said he, describing that
eventful night to Bernard, “how it fared with me, and what I saw
and heard. I was in attendance upon the admiral [145] till late into
the night, and was on the point of leaving him, when one of the
royal hussars came, bringing a summons to me to repair
immediately to the king. I obeyed, and found him in evident
trepidation. As soon as he saw me, he exclaimed, ‘It is well that you
have come, my dear Ambroise; you must remain with me this night,
and in my chamber.’ So saying, he put me into his dressing room,
adding, ‘Be sure you don’t stir from hence. It will never do to have
you who can save our lives, massacred after this fashion.’ My hiding
place adjoined a saloon where the king remained, and to which,
after midnight, the queen came, evidently for the purpose of
watching over her son. Four of the principal agitators were present,
all urging him to preserve his courage, while his mother
endeavoured, by every means in her power, to irritate his fiercer
passions, and to silence his remorse. Though I could not hear all
that passed, a few words occasionally reached my ears, and the
appearance of Charles, and the words he had spoken to me, sufficed
to convince me that a terrible crisis was at hand. At length a single
pistol-shot rang through the silence. It was dark, the morning had
not yet dawned, when at that signal, through the deep silence of the
night, the tocsin of St. Germain’s was heard uttering its dreadful
alarum. The queen and her two sons came, with stealthy tread, to
the windows of the small closet through the king’s chamber, which
overlooked the gate of the Louvre: and there those three miserable
and guilty beings, opening the window, looked out, to watch the first
outbreak of the dreadful tragedy. Presently shouts were heard of
‘Vive Dieu et le Roi,’ and armed men, issuing from the gates,
trampled along the causeway, hastening to perform their bloody
work.
“About five in the morning, I ventured to quit the dressing room,
and, eager to see what was passing, gazed from one of the windows
which looked in the direction of the Fauxbourg St. Germain’s, where
Montgomery, Rohan, Pardaillan, and many of the Calvinist gentlemen
lodged. As you know, it lies upon the opposite bank of the river
from the Louvre; all had hitherto been quiet in that direction, but the
sound of the tocsin, and the cries and screams which were heard
across the river, had roused the Huguenots, who, suspecting some
mischief, hastily prepared to cross the water and join their friends;
but as they were about to embark, they saw several boats filled with
Swiss and French guards, approaching, who began to fire upon
them. It is said the king himself, from his closet window, was seen
pointing and apparently directing their movements. They took the
hint in time to save their lives by flight. They mounted their horses,
and rode off at full speed.” “Thanks be to God, they escaped, as a
bird from the hand of the fowler. May they live to avenge the blood
of the saints.” “I shall never forget,” continued Paré, “the scene,
when the broad light of an August day displayed, in all their extent,
the horrors which had been committed. The bright, glowing sun,
and the unclouded sky, and magnificent beauty over-head; and at
our feet, the blood-stained waters of the Seine, and the streets
bestrewn with mangled corpses. It was too terrible. To crown the
whole, it was the holy sabbath.
“Towards the evening of the second day, the king called again for
me. Sickened with horror and remorse, his mind and spirits were
giving way. ‘Ambroise,’ said he, taking me into his cabinet, ‘I don’t
know what ails me, but these last two or three days, I find both
mind and body in great disorder. I see nothing around me but
hideous faces, covered with blood. I wish the weak and innocent
had been spared.’ I seized the moment of relenting in the unhappy
monarch, and urged him to put an immediate stop to the massacre,
and he did, in effect, issue orders by sound of trumpet, forbidding
any further violence to be committed, upon pain of death.” “Alas!”
said Palissy, “no hand was outstretched to save our French Phidias,
Jean Goujon, the master of my comrade and co-worker, Bullant. He
was struck down on his platform, while working on the Caryatides of
the Louvre; with his chisel yet in his hand, he fell a corpse at the
foot of the marble his genius was moulding into life.” “No power
could restrain the violence of the rabble. In vain were the royal
commands, and useless every effort of the bourgeoisie, and the
higher orders. Day after day the barbarous slaughter continued.
Ah! my friend,” concluded Paré, “that fatal night will form a black
page in our history, which Frenchmen will vainly desire to erase, or
to tear from its records.”—(“Feuillet de notre histoire à arracher, à
brûler.”)
 CHAPTER XV.

“He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things,

and of fishes.”—1 Kings iv. 33.

We learn from his own words that king Solomon, amid all his
magnificence and glory, found nothing truly satisfying to his spirit.
He discovered that silver and gold, and costly apparel, and singing
men and singing women, with all the luxuries of the East, sufficed
not to give him happiness. They did not even keep him amused: he
wanted something better. And a purer, more refined, and enduring
delight was tasted by him when he turned the powers of his active
and inquiring mind to the investigation of nature, the works of God’s
hands, in the diversified and beautiful productions of the fields,
woods, and lakes of Judea. He sought them out diligently, and then
he “spake of” them—spake of the richly-varied productions of the
animal kingdom, and “spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of
creeping things, and of fishes.” Very interesting it must have been
to hear the great Solomon speaking of these works of God’s hands,
and no wonder the sacred writers have recorded the fact. Most
edifying of all to the thoughtful part of his audience it would be to
reflect on the moral phenomenon he himself presented—taking his
refreshment, his recreation, his pleasure, after the toils and
disappointments of riches and of worldly honours, in considering the
lilies, how they grew, and the fowls of the air, how God cared for
them.
But if Solomon found, in this pursuit, a relief from ennui and satiety,
how many, in all succeeding times, have found therein support and
consolation amidst inevitable anxieties and painful trials. There have
been persons who declared that it was the study of nature alone
which made their condition tolerable, by diverting their minds from
painful and oppressive thoughts. It must have been the same
experience which caused Palissy, amid the terrible scenes of his day,
to retire into his cabinet, or to wander in the roadside, among the
fields and caves, searching after “things note-worthy and
monstrous,” which he “took from the womb of the earth,” and placed
among his other treasures, the accumulated hoard of long years.
We find him the same Bernard still—unaltered by time and change
of fortune; as simple-minded, as diligent in research, and as
enthusiastic in utterance as at Saintes, in the days of his youth. He
had found, too, some congenial associates and friends. Among
them, we have seen, was Ambroise Paré, who had a great taste for
natural history, and himself possessed a collection of valuable and
curious specimens, especially of foreign birds, for which he was
principally indebted to Charles IX., who used to send him many of
the rarest and most valuable he obtained, to preserve.
There was, too, one “Maistre François Choisnyn,” physician to the
queen of Navarre, a special favourite with Bernard, of whom he says
—“His company and visits were a source of great consolation to
me.” These two went a little geological exploration together, in the
year 1575. “He had heard me often speak,” said Palissy, “of these
matters, and knowing that he was a lover of the same, I begged him
to accompany me to the quarries, near St. Marceau, that I might
give him ocular proof of what I had said concerning petrifactions;
and he, full of zeal in the affair, immediately caused waxen
flambeaux to be brought, and taking with him his medical pupil,
named Milon, [152] we went to a place in the said quarries,
conducted by two quarrymen; and there we saw what I had long
before known, from the form of stones shaped like icicles, having
seen a number of such stones, which had been brought, by
command of the queen mother, from Marseilles; also among the
rocks on the shores of the river Loire. Now, in those quarries we
saw the distilled water congeal in our presence, which set the matter
at rest.” Another day, walking with his friend, he found himself,
while wandering over the fields, very thirsty, and passing by some
village, asked where he could meet with a good spring, in order to
refresh himself; but he was told there was no spring in that place, all
their wells being exhausted on account of the drought, and that
there was nothing but a little muddy water left in them. This caused
him “much vexation,” and expressing his surprise at the distress
suffered by the inhabitants of that village through want of water, he
proceeded to explain to his companion his theory on springs, in
which he propounded a doctrine which the science of the present
day has pronounced absolutely correct. [153]
This subject led Bernard to recur to the home of his early manhood,
and he added, “At Saintes, which is a very ancient town, there are
still found the remains of an aqueduct, by which, formerly, they
caused the water to come from a distance of two great leagues.
There are now no ancient fountains; by which I do not mean to say
we have lost the water-courses, for it is well known that the ancient
spring of the town of Saintes is still on the spot where it formerly
existed; to see which, the chancellor De l’Hôpital, travelling from
Bayonne, turned out of his way to admire the excellence of the said
spring. Now, in the neighbourhood of Saintes, is a small town called
Brouage, situated on the coast amongst the marshes of Saintonge.
Its name points out its nature, the word ‘brou,’ meaning, marshy
soil. That said town has undergone two sieges during the civil wars;
the last in the year 1570. When besieged, it suffered much from
want of water, and I am, at the present time, preparing an
advertisement to the governor and inhabitants thereof, to explain to
them that the situation of the place is very commodious for making
a fountain there, at small expense.”
“Your mention of this reminds me,” said his companion, “of the
remarkable manner in which the city of Nismes fell into the hands of
the Huguenots, some four or five winters ago.”
Palissy expressed a wish to hear the particulars, with which he was
but imperfectly acquainted; and as the story affords a striking
instance of the spirit which animated even obscure individuals in the
cause of religion and freedom, it shall be told here.
The governor of Nismes, a ferocious old man, had treated the
Huguenots with the utmost barbarity, and had plundered and
banished great numbers of them, who had retired to a neighbouring
town. Among those left in Nismes was a carpenter, named Maderon,
who resolved to deliver the town into the hands of his exiled
brethren, and for that purpose took advantage of the famous
fountain, the abundant waters of which flowed between the gate of
Carmes and the castle, through a channel which was closed by a
grate. Just above, and close by the castle, a sentinel was placed,
who was relieved every hour. When he was about to leave he was
accustomed to ring a bell, in order to advertise the soldier who was
to relieve him, to come and take his place. A short interval always
elapsed between the departure of one soldier and the arrival of the
other, and Maderon having observed this, undertook, in those
moments, to file asunder the bars of the grate.
He executed his purpose thus. In the evening he went down into
the ditch, with a cord fastened round his body, the end of which was
pulled by a friend when the soldier quitted his post, and again, when
the other arrived. Maderon worked during these few moments, and
then ceasing, waited in patience till another hour elapsed. In the
morning he covered his work with mud and wax. In this manner did
this indefatigable man work for fifteen nights, the noise he made
being drowned by the rushing of the waters. It was not till his work
was nearly completed that he informed the exiles of his success, and
invited them to take possession of the town. They appear to have
wanted courage for the undertaking; and while irresolute, a flash of
lightning, though the weather was otherwise serene, terrified and
put them to flight; but their minister, pulling them by their sleeves,
exhorted them to come back, saying, “Courage! this lightning shows
that God is with us.”
Twenty of them entered the town, and being joined by others who
were exasperated at the cruelty of the governor, it was taken, and
the castle surrendered a few days after. “That was truly an
admirable occurrence,” said Bernard. “And the results were very
important, since the town, by the large supplies it afforded, was of
great service to the army of the princes during the ensuing spring.”
“There will doubtless be many historians who will employ themselves
upon these matters,” said Palissy; “and the better to describe the
truth, I should think it wise that in each town there should be
persons deputed to write faithfully the things that have been done
during these troubles. I have myself already given a short narrative
of what befell when I was resident in Saintonge, and I have left
others to write of those things which themselves have witnessed. At
present I am engaged in preparing a volume of Discourses on
Natural Objects, of practical use to agriculturists and others, and I
purpose, in the Lectures I have just commenced, to discuss various
positions with reference to these matters, to which end, as you
know, I have invited interruption, contradiction, and discussion, from
those who may attend them.”
Palissy referred, in these words, to an undertaking which we find he
commenced in the Lent of the year 1575, and which he carried on,
for several seasons, annually. “Considering,” he says, “that I had
employed much time in the study of earths, stones, waters, and
metals, and that old age pressed me to multiply the talents which
God had given me, I thought good to bring forward to light those
excellent secrets, in order to bequeath them to posterity.”
But, like a true philosopher, he was anxious, first, to subject his
theories to the test of keen criticism. Free discussion was, he knew,
the best friend to the true interests of science, and he resolved,
therefore to invite about him the most learned persons then resident
in the capital, and to meet them in his lecture room to state to them
his opinions, and to hear their arguments in reply. He set about
doing this in a peculiar manner, which he describes. “Thus debating
in my mind, I decided to cause notices to be affixed to the street
corners in Paris, in order to assemble the most learned doctors, and
others, to whom I would promise to demonstrate, in three lessons,
all I have learned concerning fountains, stones, metals, and other
natures. And, in order that none might come but the most learned
and curious, I put in my placards that none should have admission
without payment of a dollar. I did this partly to see whether I could
extract from my hearers some contradiction which might have more
assurance of truth than the arguments I should propound; knowing
well that, if I spoke falsely, there would be Greeks and Latins who
would resist me to my face, and who would not spare me, as well on
account of the dollar I should have taken from each, as on account
of the time I should have caused them to misspend. For there were
very few of my hearers who could not elsewhere have extracted
profit out of something during the time spent by them at my
lessons. Also, I put in my placards that if the things therein
promised did not prove trustworthy, I would restore the quadruple.”
The result of this experimental course was most successful. “Thanks
be to God,” says the triumphant lecturer, “never man contradicted
me a single word.”
Of the character of the audience whom Palissy attracted around him
in his museum (as he called his cabinet of natural history), on this
occasion, we are fully informed. He has given a list of more than
thirty of them, including many skilful physicians, celebrated
surgeons, grand seigneurs, gentlemen, and titled ecclesiastics, also
some of the legal profession, and others, who were drawn together
by a common love of scientific research. These were no idlers, but
an assemblage of the choicest students—a sort of Royal Society,
instituted for the occasion—who sat listening to the self-taught
philosopher, the wise and vigorous old man, who, illustrating his
cases as he went on, by specimens of the things about which he
spoke, turned his cabinet into a lecture-room, where he delivered
the first course of lectures upon natural history ever given in the
French metropolis, held in the first natural history museum ever
thrown open to the public there. Supported by the favourable
opinion of such judges—than whom he could not have “more faithful
witnesses, nor men more assured in knowledge,” Bernard “took
courage to discourse” of various matters concerning which he had
attained a surprising degree of knowledge.
The science taught by the self-educated potter was such as has
entitled him, in the present day, to the admiration of men like
Buffon, Haller, and Cuvier.
 CHAPTER XVI.

“Be thou faithful unto death.”—Revelation ii. 10.

“The number of my years hath given me courage to tell you that, a

short time since, I was considering the colour of my beard, which
caused me to reflect on the few days which remain to me before my
course shall end: and that has led me to admire the lilies and the
corn, and many kinds of plants, whose green colours are changed
into white when they are ready to yield their fruits. Thus, also,
certain trees become hoary when they feel their natural vegetative
power is about to cease. A like consideration has reminded me that
it is written, ‘Better is the fool who hides his folly, than the wise man
who conceals his wisdom.’” We are peeping over Palissy’s shoulder
as he bends his silvery locks over his writing-desk, and commences
the dedication of his last volume of “Admirable Discourses.” Its
superscription is as follows:—“To the very high and very powerful
lord, the sire Antoine de Pons, knight of the order of the king,
captain of a hundred gentlemen, and his majesty’s very faithful
counsellor.” It is to his ancient patron he pays this tribute of loving
respect. The good old sire was probably still more aged than
himself, but his friendship had stood the test of years, and their
intercourse had been renewed “in these later days,” with mutual
pleasure and edification; their conversation having often turned on
“divers sciences; to wit, philosophy, astrology, and other arts drawn
from mathematics,” in which, “without any flattery,” Bernard declares
himself convinced of the venerable knight’s marvellous ability, which
“length of years had but augmented, instead of diminishing
therefrom.”
It is pleasant to find Bernard thus steadfastly retaining the friendship
of earlier years, but far more satisfactory to perceive that he had
preserved his religion pure, and that the source whence his activity
in the pursuit of knowledge was derived remained the same. At the
close of a pious and laborious life, he remembered there was still
something left which he might do. He had learned the wonderful
secrets of nature to the glory of Him who had given him the hearing
ear, and the seeing and observing eye; and now, recurring to the
ruling motive of his life—that solemn idea of responsibility—he says,
“It is a just and reasonable thing that the talents a man has received
from God, he should endeavour to multiply, following his
commandment. For which reason I have studied to bring unto the
light the things of which it has pleased God to give me
understanding. Having seen how many pernicious errors have been
set abroad, I have betaken me to scratch in the earth for the space
of forty years, and search into the entrails of the same, in order to
understand the things which she produces in herself; and by such
means I have found grace before God, who has caused me to
understand secrets which have hitherto been unknown even to the
learned.”
The book, thus dedicated and prefaced, contained the mature fruit
of his studies as a naturalist. It is a collection of short treatises upon
waters and fountains, metals, salts, stones, and earths, fire,
enamels, and many other things, besides a treatise on marl, “very
useful and necessary for those concerned in agriculture.” It was
published at Paris in the year 1580, when its author was more than
seventy years of age.
Four years later he was still lecturing in his museum, wandering out,
now and then, to the river side and elsewhere to find an illustration
of some lesson he was teaching. Thus, one winter’s day, he was
seen standing beside the Seine, opposite the Tuileries, surrounded
by a throng of listeners and objectors, among whom were several of
the boatmen, who persisted in maintaining what Palissy was
combatting: namely, that the floating masses of ice upon the river
came from the bottom of the water. Among those who listened with
interest and discernment to his instruction was the Sieur de la Croix
Dumaine, who afterwards, in a volume published in 1584, described
Palissy as “a natural philosopher, and a man of remarkably acute and
ready wit, flourishing in Paris, and giving lessons in his science and
profession.”
His was a vigorous old age, and he looked so much younger than he
really was, that the Sieur supposed him little more than sixty. He
might, in all probability, have continued thus to lecture and discourse
about the wonders of the earth and waters some years longer; yet,
even a few months later we should have vainly sought him in his
beloved museum, or on his pleasant rambles around the environs of
Paris. He was no longer there, but immured within the walls of yon
grim fortress—

“That shame to manhood, and opprobrious more

To France, than all her losses and defeats
Old, or of later date; by sea or land;
Her house of bondage, worse than that of old
Which God avenged on Pharaoh—the Bastile.”

Although in his lectures and in his book he had abstained from all
allusion to the struggles of the times, he was well-known for a
staunch Huguenot, a man whom nothing could induce to change or
to conceal his religion. They were indeed “evil days” in which his lot
was cast. It had been sorrow and trouble enough to live in Paris
then, and behold the vice, frivolity, and riot which prevailed. True,
most true it is, that “between the excesses of depravity, and those of
bigotry, there exist remarkable and intimate affinities.” Nowhere was
this more strikingly exemplified than in the French court and capital
during the rule of the house of Valois. The religious ideas of a court
in which fanatical intolerance reigned, give sufficient proof of this.
The vilest and most sanguinary passions were excited by the
ceremonies of religion. The sermons of “the League” preachers
were like torches, which set the kingdom in a blaze. The most
impious and revolting spectacles were presented to the eyes of the
mob. Thus, at Chartres, after the day of barricades, a Capuchin
monk in the presence of Henry III., represented the Saviour
ascending Mount Calvary. This wretched priest had drops of blood
apparently trickling from his crown of thorns, and seemed with
difficulty to drag the cross of painted card-board which he bore;
while, ever and anon, he uttered piercing cries and fell beneath the
load. The king himself, utterly steeped in the vicious pleasures of
the court, became a member of the brotherhood of Flagellants, and,
in a solemn procession, king, queen, and cardinal, headed the white,
black, and blue friars, as they traversed the city barefoot, with heads
uncovered, chaplets of skulls around their waists, and flogging their
backs with cords till the blood flowed. The atrocities committed
within many of the churches by the soldiers of “the League,” it is
impossible here to relate. Since the massacre of St. Bartholomew
the mobs of Paris had become familiar with blood, and a spirit of
increased ferocity prevailed. Assassinations, tortures, and
executions were frequent, and the extreme Roman Catholic party, to
which the city had, from that time, been heartily attached, was
pledged to exterminate the Huguenots.
At the head of “the League” was the Duke of Guise, the hero of the
violent among the Roman Catholics, whom they desired to make
king, instead of the worthless and despised Henry. At length, in the
year 1585, the king, finding no other way of saving himself from the
imminent peril which threatened him, made peace with the duke at
the expense of the Reformers, and issued a decree, prohibiting the
future exercise of the Reformed worship, and commanding all its
adherents to abjure, or emigrate immediately, on pain of death and
confiscation. This was no miserable court quarrel; it affected the
interests of all, and touched the liberty, faith, fortune, and life of
every man. So rigorously was the edict carried out, that the petition
of a few poor women, who begged permission to dwell with their
children in any remote corner of the kingdom, was refused. The
most they could obtain was a safe conduct to England. Flight was
out of the question for Palissy; and he remained at the mercy of
men who respected neither age, virtue, nor misfortune. That he had
friends who would gladly have protected him was known; nay, the
king himself would willingly have sheltered one who had so long and
skilfully served his mother. But the protection of the court was now
unavailing; and the venerable man was sent to the Bastile.
Four years of life yet remained to Bernard; all spent within the walls
of his prison-house. There, in communion with God and his own
soul, he passed the residue of his days, shut out from the eye of
man, within that gloomy fabric, the very thought of which inspires
one’s soul with shrinking horror. Profound secrecy and mystery were
among the most prominent features in the management of the
Bastile, and he who was retained there to waste away life within its
damp and dismal cells, was sedulously kept from all knowledge of
what was passing in the busy world without, while no tidings of him
were ever permitted to reach the ears of his kindred and former
companions.
Debarred from the enjoyment of the beautiful sights of nature, the
treasures of intellect, and the delights of social converse, fearful,
indeed, was the lot of such a prisoner, unless sustained by divine
consolations. We know not in what words our beloved Palissy would
have clothed his thoughts, could he have spoken to us from his
living tomb; but the following passage, contained in the narrative of
one who was for some months a prisoner there, affords a pleasing
example how, even in such circumstances, the soul has been
sustained in hope. “I recollect,” says the narrator, “with humble
gratitude, the first idea of comfort that shot across this gloom. It
was the idea that neither massive walls, nor tremendous bolts, nor
all the vigilance of suspicious keepers, could conceal me from the
sight of God. This thought I fondly cherished, and it gave me
infinite consolation in the course of my imprisonment, and principally
contributed to enable me to support it with a degree of fortitude and
resignation that I have since wondered at: I no longer felt myself
alone.” So true it is,
 “Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love,
And in myself am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.”

And Palissy was a true Christian. He was free with the freedom
wherewith Jesus Christ makes his people free. Therefore, as an old
and faithful servant of the Lord, he was willing, for the testimony of
Christ, to suffer affliction, even unto bonds; nay, he counted not his
life dear unto him, so that he might win Christ, and be found in him.
One glimpse we have within his dungeon. Its doors are, for once,
unbarred, and we are permitted to look, for the last time, at him
whose history we have lovingly retraced.
Sentence of death, executed upon many who had remained staunch
in their refusal to obey the royal edict, had been deferred, in the
case of Palissy, only by the artifice of friends in power. But now, at
length, the formidable Council of Sixteen became urgent for the
public execution (already too long deferred) of so obstinate a
heretic.
The king was loath to yield to these barbarous and bloodthirsty
counsels, and determined to try what a personal interview might
effect in bringing the recusant to a more pliant mood.
He went, accompanied by some of his gay courtiers, to visit and
remonstrate with Bernard, whom he found not solitary, for his
captivity was shared by two young girls, the daughters of Jacques
Foucand, the attorney to the parliament, condemned, as he was, for
the firm faith and resolute tenacity with which they refused to yield
to the threats of their persecutors.
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