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.[1] 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
- ↑ 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.
