Palissy was a protestant, firmly attached to his religion, and from that attachment arose the only troubles which molested him in the decline of life. When the public exercise of their worship was prohibited, he gathered into a private assembly a few individuals of his own class, each of whom in his turn expounded the tenets of the Gospel. In 1562, though the duke of Montpensier had given him a safeguard, and his manufactory had been declared a privileged place, the bigoted judges of Saintes destroyed his establishment, and would have destroyed the proprietor also, had not the king interposed, and rescued him from their hands. The memory of Charles the ninth is branded with eternal infamy, but candour requires it to be owned, that he was a man of taste and talent; a lover of literature and the arts. It is melancholy to think upon what he might have been, and what he was. He invited the persecuted artist to Paris, and gave him apartments in the Tuileries. Thus protected, Palissy remained unhurt during the horrible slaughter of St. Bartholomew’s day. The protection which Charles the ninth extended to Palissy, the weaker-minded Henry the third wanted courage to continue. When the influence of the Guises became predominant in Paris, the venerable artist was arrested by the Council of Sixteen, and thrown into the Bastile. There Henry visited him. “My good man,” said the king, “if you cannot bring yourself to conform on the point of religion, I shall be compelled to leave you in the clutches of my enemies.” Palissy was then nearly ninety years of age, but his spirit was not bowed by the weight of years, or the prospect of death. He firmly replied, “Sire, you have several times said that you pity me; but I pity _you_, who have uttered the words ‘I am compelled.’ This is not speaking like a king. I will teach you the royal language. Neither the Guisarts, nor your whole people, can ever compel me to bend my knee before an image, for I know how to die.” The firmness of Palissy was not put to the extreme proof; but, had it been so, there is no reason to believe that his conduct would have belied his words. He was saved from the fiery ordeal by the duke of Mayenne, who humanely threw so many obstacles in the way of his trial, that Palissy died a natural death, in the Bastile, about the year 1589, no less respected for his virtues than admired for his talents.[4]