Her dark eyes betrayed her Southern origin, confirmed by her
speech, which, although refined by culture, still retained the soft
intonation and melody of her native Languedoc.
Dame Rochelle, the daughter of an ardent Calvinist minister, was
born in the fatal year of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
when Louis XIV. undid the glorious work of Henri IV., and covered
France with persecution and civil war, filling foreign countries
with the elect of her population, her industry, and her wealth,
exiled in the name of religion.
Dame Rochelle's childhood had passed in the trying scenes of the
great persecution, and in the succeeding civil wars of the Cevennes
she lost all that was nearest and dearest to her--her father, her
brothers, her kindred nearly all, and lastly, a gallant gentleman of
Dauphiny to whom she was betrothed. She knelt beside him at his
place of execution--or martyrdom, for he died for his faith--and
holding his hands in hers, pledged her eternal fidelity to his
memory, and faithfully kept it all her life.
The Count de Philibert, elder brother of the Bourgeois, was an
officer of the King; he witnessed this sad scene, took pity upon the
hapless girl, and gave her a home and protection with his family in
the Chateau of Philibert, where she spent the rest of her life until
the Bourgeois succeeded to his childless brother.
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