DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0221
THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE
179
the wall of the house of Maitre Loys de Harlay,” near the
Church mf Little Saint Antoine. One day it was found
mutilated; the heads of both figures had been knocked off,
and no trace of the destroyer was discoverable. “ Where-
upon the King, who was in Paris, being told thereof, was
so much angered and so far undone that, saith report, he
wept bitterly.” The deed was trumpeted for two days
through Paris, and a reward offered to the finder of the
desecrator; but in vain. Then came a season of processions
to the Parish where the sacrilege took place. First the
University and the Schools of Paris, then the King and the
prelates, marched to the scene of the crime, “ with instruments
of music and hautboys, and many bugles and trumpets, beauti-
ful to see and sweet to hear.” Next the King, and a Bishop
in full dress, bore to the spot a new figure in silver beneath
a red silk canopy, with a statue of the King to stand below
it; they set it up to the sound of music, with “ three deep
curtseyings before it,” and carried off the broken Virgin as
a relic. Unfortunately, at this moment, Berquin was for
the third time in prison on charge of heresy. He sent a
letter to his servant, bidding him burn his books in a
certain place which he indicated. The servant, in carrying
them there, had to pass the new silver statue and, as ill
luck would have it, just as he reached it he turned faint
and fell down. Some bystanders, running to his help, found
inculpating letters upon him. They took them to a priest
hard by, who conveyed them to Beda, the persecuting
leader of the Sorbonne. Berquin underwent a mock trial,
the scholar Bude in vain urging him to make some form of
submission. He refused, and was condemned to death.
179
the wall of the house of Maitre Loys de Harlay,” near the
Church mf Little Saint Antoine. One day it was found
mutilated; the heads of both figures had been knocked off,
and no trace of the destroyer was discoverable. “ Where-
upon the King, who was in Paris, being told thereof, was
so much angered and so far undone that, saith report, he
wept bitterly.” The deed was trumpeted for two days
through Paris, and a reward offered to the finder of the
desecrator; but in vain. Then came a season of processions
to the Parish where the sacrilege took place. First the
University and the Schools of Paris, then the King and the
prelates, marched to the scene of the crime, “ with instruments
of music and hautboys, and many bugles and trumpets, beauti-
ful to see and sweet to hear.” Next the King, and a Bishop
in full dress, bore to the spot a new figure in silver beneath
a red silk canopy, with a statue of the King to stand below
it; they set it up to the sound of music, with “ three deep
curtseyings before it,” and carried off the broken Virgin as
a relic. Unfortunately, at this moment, Berquin was for
the third time in prison on charge of heresy. He sent a
letter to his servant, bidding him burn his books in a
certain place which he indicated. The servant, in carrying
them there, had to pass the new silver statue and, as ill
luck would have it, just as he reached it he turned faint
and fell down. Some bystanders, running to his help, found
inculpating letters upon him. They took them to a priest
hard by, who conveyed them to Beda, the persecuting
leader of the Sorbonne. Berquin underwent a mock trial,
the scholar Bude in vain urging him to make some form of
submission. He refused, and was condemned to death.