Nawenn’s brydell and onder nycht, be the mosit cursitt kyng of France, mansuir his bond, and be the dewyse of the paip, cardinalls, bischoipis, aboitts, priowris, moynks, freires, chaunwnis, prestis, nwnnis, and haill rabell of yt deweillige switt of papists dewysset at the counsall of treyntt, quhas crwel murder we pray god to rewenge.So be it.”
The drift of this manifesto is not hard to be understood. As to some of the words, Jamieson’s Dictionary has Mansweir, to perjure; he has Sotter, a swarm of insects, and refers to the Icelandic noun Siot, a multitude; so that the registrar, if now alive, would perhaps say, “the whole rabble of that devilish swarm.”
A Scotch gentleman, Sir James Kirkcaldy, happened to be in Paris, and a letter from him to his distinguished brother in Edinburgh, dated August 22 and 25, 1572 (according to the Calendar of the Scottish Series of State Papers), contained the startling news: “Marriage of the King of Navarre and Madame Margaret. Assassination of the Admiral. Particulars of the massacre of them of the religion by the French king, by his brother the Duke of Guise, and by other princes.” Queen Elizabeth sent Killigrew as her ambassador in Scotland in order that the lesson of the St. Bartholomew massacre might be impressed on Scottish statesmen, namely, to beware of Queen Mary’s faction, and to cultivate friendship and amity with Protestant England. One of the instructions to Killigrew was, “To request the nobles and others to take warning by the strange accident in France, in which the Admiral and a great number of the noblemen of the Reformed Religion have been murdered — to think what efforts are being made to eradicate and destroy all such as shall make profession of the true religion; and among these efforts may not there be a design, by the offer of pensions and by other fair promises, to cut off the nobility of Scotland?” Killigrew seems to have been well pleased with the state of public feeling in Scotland regarding “the late most horrible and detestable murder committed in France;” and wrote from Edinburgh, 13th June 1573: “The ministers are still as earnest in their sermons against the French king as though the news of the Admiral’s death had come but yesterday.”
Among the refugees in London in 1571, my readers have already seen in my chapter i., the names of Nicolas Langlois and his wife and children. I now copy them from the original census verbatim:—
| The Warde of Faringdon wthin Blacke-Fryers. 10 Nov. 1571. |
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| French IV. |
Nicholas Inglishe, Frenchman, scoolemr, howsholder, Marye, his wife, and David, his sonne, and Yester, his daughter, came into this realme about two yeares past for religion. | French Church. | |
This is the family immortalized in antiquarian society by David Laing, LL.D., who introduces us to them in Edinburgh, in the year 1574, and to whom I am mainly indebted for my information regarding them (though it now appears that they fled from France before the date of the St. Bartholomew massacre). Whatever may have been the date of their arrival in Scotland, the family was kindly received on their landing at Leith. Marie Presot, wife of Nicolas Langlois, was an adept in calligraphy, which she turned to good account. On the anniversary of St. Bartholomew in 1574, “9 Calend. Septemb. 1574 quo die multa Christianorum millia, duos abhinc annos in Galliis trucidatione perfidiosâ, e vivis fuerunt sublata,” Nicolas Langlois wrote a Latin letter to Mr David Lyndsay, Minister of Leith, acknowledging his obligations. The letter is followed by a copy of some sets of verses, in which his wife exhibits her beautiful writing in various styles of penmanship. This artistic portion of the still-existing manuscript is introduced by the announcement, “Uxor mea vario caracteris genere ilia pro viribus in sequente paginâ, me suasore, descripsit;” and it is signed thus:— Marie Presot Francoise escrivoit à Edimbourg le 24 d’ Aoust, 1574.”
The son, David, probably died in early life. In an ancient scrap-book, now the property of the Marquis of Lothian, some Latin verses are written, signed, “David, cognomento Anglus, natione Gallus, et educatione Scotus.”
Ester was born in London in 1571 (the Threadneedle Register of that period is non-existent). Thanks partly to her mother’s example and instruction, she became a wonderful calligraphist, and is still well known as such. Mr. Laing’s Paper in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1866-67, is entitled, “Notes relating to Mrs Esther (Langlois, or) Inglis, the celebrated calligraphist, with an enumeration of Manuscript Volumes written by her between the years 1586 and 1624.” Besides Ester, there was another daughter Marie, who died between 1611 and 1614, as appears by the father’s will and relative documents. Perhaps there w as also a son, Jaques; at any rate in the year 1614, “Jaques Inglis, wax-maker in Edinburgh,” was cautioner for Nicolas Langlois’ widow as her husband’s executrix.
