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Show 378 THE L[LY AN"D THE TOT£)!. CHAPTER IlL Tm: fates had the blinded Rib:mlt in their keeping. He was ferried across the stream for the l:lst time, by the grim ferryman vouchsnf<!d him i and the trophies which he fir>:! laid at the feet of the adelantado consisted of his own :mnor, a dagger, a casque of gold, curiously and beautifully wrought i his buckler, his pistolet, and a secret commission which he had received at the hands of Admiral Coligny himself. The standards of France nnd of the Admiral were then l<'wercd at the feet of the Spani:ud, then the banners of companies, and finally the sword of the llugucnot gcncrnl. Never was submission more complete and shameful. The spirit of tho veteran was utterly broken and gone. But this dcgrndation was not thus to end. Melendez ga,·e orders that he und tho companions he hnd brought with him, eight in number, lihoulJ be tied with their hands behind their backs. 'l'hc indignity brought the blush with tenfold warmth into the checks of the old warrior. Tie foresaw the inc\"itable doom before him, but he felt the shame only. " JTavc I lived for this ? Is it thus, Monsieur Melendez, that you treat a warrior and a Christian?" <e God forbid that I should treat a Christian after this fashion. But are you a Christian, sef!.or ?" "Of the Reformed Church, I am!" was the reply. "I do not hold yours, sci'iOr, to be a church of Christ, but of Satan. Bind him, my comrades, and take him hence." A sirrnificant wave of the fatal staff, which had prescribed the line u;n tho spot of earth selected as the chosen place of sacrifice- the scene of a. new a;,,ao-<IA,-{1, ns fearful as the prcccdiQ£'- TilE FOilTONJ::S OF RtliAULT. 379 finished his instructions, and as the guards led the \'Clcran away, he commenced, in the well-known spirit of the time, to sing aloud the psalm "Domine, numento mei, &c.," itt that fearful moment \l'ell conc0iving that there was left. him now but one source of consolation, and none of present hope. He addressed no words of expostulation to his murderer; but as they led him away, lJC caltuly remarked-" From the earth we came, to the earth we must t·eturn; soon or late, it is all the same i such must lta\"C been the fate. It is not what we would, but what we must. 11 He renewed his psalm, the sounds of which grated offensively on tho bigot cars of l\lelendcz, falling from such lips, and he impatiently made the signal to his men to expedite the affair. The Huguenot general was led off singing. One of the accounts before us-for there is a Spanish and a French \'ersion or the history, differing in several minute, but really unimportant. particulars --describes the last scene of Ribnult.'s career, in a brief but striking manner. The eight which constituted this party had each his assassin assigned him. Among the companions of Rihault at the moment of execution, was Lieutenant Ottigny, of whom we haYe heard more than once before in the history of La Caroline. 'l'hcy were led into the woods, out of sight and hearing of the French on the opposite side of the bay, all of whom were to be brought O\'Cr1 ten by ten, to the S.."lme place of S..'lcrilice. The S')ldicr to whom Ribault had been confided, when they had reached the spot strewn thickly with the corscs of his murdered people, said to him- " Sctwr 1 you arc the general of the French ?11 "I am!" "You have alw::.ys been accustomed to exact obedience, with· out question, fJ:Oill all the people Ulldcr your commOJld :n |
