The Lily and the Totem; or, The Huguenots in Florida
Page 43
CHAPTER III.
The fates had the blinded Ribault in their keeping. He was ferriedacross the stream for the last time, by the grim ferryman vouchsafedhim; and the trophies which he first laid at the feet of the adelantadoconsisted of his own armor, a dagger, a casque of gold, curiously andbeautifully wrought; his buckler, his pistolet, and a secret commissionwhich he had received at the hands of Admiral Coligny himself. Thestandards of France and of the Admiral were then lowered at the feet ofthe Spaniard, then the banners of companies, and finally the sword ofthe Huguenot general. Never was submission more complete and shameful.The spirit of the veteran was utterly broken and gone. But thisdegradation was not thus to end. Melendez gave orders that he and thecompanions he had brought with him, eight in number, should be tied withtheir hands behind their backs. The indignity brought the blush withtenfold warmth into the cheeks of the old warrior. He foresaw theinevitable doom before him, but he felt the shame only.
"Have I lived for this? Is it thus, Monsieur Melendez, that you treat awarrior and a Christian?"
"God forbid that I should treat a Christian after this fashion. But_are_ you a Christian, senor?"
"Of the Reformed Church, I am!" was the reply.
"I do not hold yours, senor, to be a church of Christ, but of Satan.Bind him, my comrades, and take him hence."
A significant wave of the fatal staff, which had prescribed the lineupon the spot of earth selected as the chosen place of sacrifice--thescene of a new _auto-da-fe_, as fearful as the preceding--finished hisinstructions, and as the guards led the veteran away, he commenced, inthe well-known spirit of the time, to sing aloud the psalm "_Domine,memento mei_, &c.," in that fearful moment well conceiving that therewas left him now but one source of consolation, and none of presenthope. He addressed no words of expostulation to his murderer; but asthey led him away, he calmly remarked--"From the earth we came, to theearth we must return; soon or late, it is all the same; such must havebeen the fate. It is not what we would, but what we must."
He renewed his psalm, the sounds of which grated offensively on thebigot ears of Melendez, falling from such lips, and he impatiently madethe signal to his men to expedite the affair. The Huguenot general wasled off singing. One of the accounts before us--for there is a Spanishand a French version of the history, differing in several minute, butreally unimportant particulars--describes the last scene of Ribault'scareer, in a brief but striking manner. The eight which constitutedthis party had each his assassin assigned him. Among the companions ofRibault at the moment of execution, was Lieutenant Ottigny, of whom wehave heard more than once before in the history of La Caroline. Theywere led into the woods, out of sight and hearing of the French on theopposite side of the bay, all of whom were to be brought over, ten byten, to the same place of sacrifice. The soldier to whom Ribault hadbeen confided, when they had reached the spot strewn thickly with thecorses of his murdered people, said to him--
"Senor, you are the general of the French?"
"I am!"
"You have always been accustomed to exact obedience, without question,from all the people under your command?"
"Without doubt!" replied Ribault, somewhat wondering at the question.
"Deem it not strange, then, senor," continued the soldier, "that Iexecute faithfully the orders I have received from my commandant!"
And, speaking these words, he drove his poignard into the heart of thevictim, who fell upon his face, in death, without uttering a groan.Ottigny and the others perished in like manner, and with no fartherpreliminaries. Why pursue the details with the rest? In this manner eachunconscious band of the Huguenots, thus surrendering to the clemency ofMelendez, was simply ferried across the river to execution. And stillthe boat returned for and with its little compliment of ten--it was onlya proper precaution that denied that more should be brought--and thesucceeding voyagers dreamed not, even as they sped, their comradeswere sinking one by one under the hands of their butchers. More thana hundred perished on this occasion, but four of the number avowingthemselves to be of the Roman Catholic Church, and being sparedaccordingly.