Dauphiné (France) -- Description and travel; Huguenots; Waldenses
We may briefly mention a few of the last of the galley-slaves. Daniel
Bic and Jean Cabdié, liberated in 1764, for attending religious
meetings. Both were condemned for life, and had been at the
galley-chain for ten years.
Jean Pierre Espinas, an attorney, of St. Felix de Châteauneuf, in
Viverais, who had been condemned for life for having given shelter to
a pastor, was released in 1765, at the age of sixty-seven, after being
chained at the galleys for twenty-five years.
Jean Raymond, of Fangères, the father of six children, who had been a
galley-slave for thirteen years, was liberated in 1767. Alexandre
Chambon, a labourer, more than eighty years old, condemned for life in
1741, for attending a religious meeting, was released in 1769, on the
entreaty of Voltaire, after being a galley-slave for twenty-eight
years. His friends had forgotten him, and on his release he was
utterly destitute and miserable.[81]
[Footnote 81: "Lettres inédites des Voltaire," publiées par
Athanase Coquerel fils, 247.]
In 1772, three galley-slaves were liberated from their chains. André
Guisard, a labourer, aged eighty-two, Jean Roque, and Louis Tregon, of
the same class, all condemned for life for attending religious
meetings. They had all been confined at the chain for twenty years.
The two last galley-slaves were liberated in 1775, during the first
year of the reign of Louis XVI., and close upon the outbreak of the
French Revolution. They had been quite forgotten, until Court de
Gébelin, son of Antoine Court, discovered them. When he applied for
their release to M. de Boyne, Minister of Marine, he answered that
there were no more Protestant convicts at the galleys; at least, he
believed so. Shortly after, Turgot succeeded Boyne, and application
was made to him. He answered that there was no need to recommend such
objects to him for liberation, as they were liberated already.
On the two old men being told they were released, they burst into
tears; but were almost afraid of returning to the world which no
longer knew them. One of them was Antoine Rialle, a tailor of Aoste,
in Dauphiny, who had been condemned by the parliament of Grenoble to
the galleys for life "for contravening the edicts of the King
concerning religion." He was seventy-eight years old, and had been a
galley-slave for thirty years.
The other, Paul Achard, had been a shoemaker of Châtillon, also in
Dauphiny. He was condemned to be a galley-slave for life by the
parliament of Grenoble, for having given shelter to a pastor. Achard
had also been confined at the galleys for thirty years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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