The bishop, the humble servant of the duke, prepared to act according to his instructions. Charles had set a trustee over him, who allowed him only what was absolutely necessary for his bare maintenance. One day, when an eminent citizen asked him a favour, John of Savoy exclaimed: ‘I have only my crozier and my mitre, the property belongs to the duke. He is bishop and abbot.’ ... ‘For,’ adds the chronicler, ‘the duke being very rapacious, John was forced to give the rein to his Highness’s extortioners.’ They imposed excessive fines; where in the inferior courts the penalty should not exceed sixty sols, they exacted fifty livres. No prince ever made such efforts to suppress revolt as the bastard to foment it. He was almost brave in his devices for losing his principality, but it was the result of servility. He deprived the syndics of their judicial functions; he threw men into prison to avenge private or imaginary offences. The people began to murmur: ‘A singular shepherd this!’ they said. ‘He is not satisfied with shearing his flock, but tears and worries them with his dogs.’ The partisans of Savoy were delighted. By one of these exploits the bastard very nearly revolutionised Geneva.[85] Claude Vandel was one of the most respected citizens of Geneva. A distinguished lawyer, a man of noble character and spotless integrity, of retiring and respectful manners, but also of great courage, he protected at his own expense the weak and poor against the violence of the great. A citizen having been unjustly prosecuted by a bishop’s officer, Vandel undertook his defence and so enraged the prelate that he swore to be revenged on him. But how was he to begin? The people respected Vandel; his ancestors had filled the highest offices in the State; his wife, Mie du Fresnoir, belonged to a good family allied to the Chatillons and other Savoyard houses of the best blood. Moreover Vandel possessed four sons, united by the closest affection, full of veneration for their father, and all destined one day to be called to important duties. Robert, the eldest, was a syndic; Thomas, a canon, procurator-fiscal, and one of the first priests that embraced the Reformation; of the two youngest, who were still youths, Hugo was afterwards the representative of the republic in Switzerland, and Peter captain-general. It was known at the bishop’s palace that Vandel’s sons would not permit a hand to be laid upon their father; and that even the people would take up his defence. Nevertheless it was decided to make the Genevans bend under the yoke of absolute authority. Thomas, who was then incumbent of Morges, hurried to Geneva on hearing of the design that threatened his father. He was a man of most decided character, and ‘handled the sword better than his breviary.’ When they learned what were the bishop’s intentions, his brothers and he had felt in their hearts one of those sudden and unlooked-for impulses that proceed