He accordingly served as a subaltern in the above-named regiment, and when the peace had been arranged, he returned to his studies.
One of the officers in the service of Britain, killed at Piedmont, was Monsieur Brutel de la Rivière, son of Noble Gedeon Brutel de la Rivière, and Demoiselle D’Audemar, his wife, residents in Montpellier (the father became a refugee in Lausanne), and brother of the Pasteur Jean Brutel de la Rivière, refugee in Holland.
Cornet Vilas, of Galway’s Regiment, son of a medical practitioner in Saint Hypolite, was a prominent agent in a plot to surprise Nismes and Montpellicr, and to carry off, to the Anglo-Dutch fleet, Basville, the Duke of Berwick, and other officers of the highest rank, along with the judges and bishops of the two towns — Basville to be executed, the rest to be detained as hostages. The conspiracy failed. Vilas was broken on the wheel, and died with the greatest fortitude, 23rd April 1705. A storm that dispersed the fleet was the immediate occasion of the failure. Two French refugee officers, who were shipwrecked, fell into the hands of their great enemy; Pierre Martin, captain in the English service, was hanged, and Charles de Goulaine, holding a Dutch commission, was beheaded. The expedition had been organised by Major-General Belcastel.
In 1740 Captain Lacan, late of Lord Galway’s regiment of foot in Piedmont, gave information of some Jacobite plots prepared in Holland by Sir George Maxwell, Captain Levingston, and others.
Officers from Piedmont, whose names a committee had struck out of the Irish Establishment, were reinstated in their half-pay to the amount of £1012, by the King’s letter, dated 12th August 1718.
8. Lord Rivers’ Brigade.
The refugee officers were offered congenial employment. Britain and Holland planned a descent upon France in 1706, the Earl of Rivers to command in chief. The Protestants in France were to be invited to rise, and to furnish the principal strength of six regiments, the frame-work of which was to be manned by the refugees. A translation of Lord Rivers’ preamble to his proposed manifesto shows the spirit of the undertaking:—
“Whereas (as is known to everybody) there has, for several years past, appeared in the management of the councils of France an ambitious and restless spirit which has manifested itself by the most outrageous violences against her neighbours without the least provocation on their side; and treaties of peace which had been sworn in the most solemn manner, have been violated with design to usurp a universal monarchy in Europe, the French king being first made absolute master at home: Whereas, in the accomplishment of this design the liberties and privileges of the French nation have been totally overthrown, the ancient rights of the States-General, Parliaments, and Courts of Judicature have been suppressed, the immunities of provinces, cities, towns, clergy, princes, nobility, and people have been abolished, and a great number of innocent persons have been sent to the galleys, or reduced to the hard necessity of abandoning their country, and seeking sanctuary elsewhere: And whereas, in the train of all these violences at home, use has been made of the sunk subjects of France to carry like desolation into other countries, Therefore, the Queen of Great Britain, the Lords of the States-General, Sec, &c, were obliged to enter into engagements for the preservation of their own dominions, and for stopping the encroachments of so encroaching and so dreadful a Potentate.”
The project is thus described: —
“Because the High Allies ardently wish, that the French who at present are reduced to the extremest misery, may not henceforward serve as instruments in enslaving both their countrymen and their neighbours, but may reap the opposite fruit and advantage, Her Britannic Majesty and the States-General have sent a considerable military force and a strong fleet to put arms into their hands . . . to restore the States-General, the Parliaments of France and the ancient rights of all cities, provinces, clergy, princes, nobility, and people, and to secure for those of the Reformed Religion the enjoyment of the privileges stipulated by the Edict of Nantes.” The manifesto was dated London, 25th July 1706.
The six regiments raised in Britain were to form a Brigade, and to have as Colonels, the Earl of Lifford, the Comte de Paulin, Count Francis of Nassau (youngest son of Monsieur Auverquerque), Colonel Sibourg, Colonel Montargis, and Colonel de la Barthe. On its being announced that the Marquis de Guiscard was to command this Huguenot Brigade, Lifford, Paulin, and Montargis declined to serve, and were succeeded by Brigadier Josias Vimare (or Veymar), Colonel Fonsjuliane,
