enomed hatred. Not content with applauding the slow roasting of those
whom the courts had condemned to this torture, they sought to aggravate
the barbarity of other sentences. In August, 1559, a young carpenter was
taken from prison to suffer death for his heretical views. He was to
have been strangled and then burned. The mob, however, resented the
leniency, or were indignant that a pleasant show should lose one-half
of its attraction. They therefore resolved to defraud the hangman of his
share in the work, and suspended the youth, yet living, above the
roaring flames.[788]

[Sidenote: Traps for heretics.]

An ingenious method was devised for the detection of the reformers. At
almost every street-corner a picture or image of the Virgin Mary, or of
some one of the saints, was set up, crowned with chaplets of flowers,
and with waxen tapers burning in its honor. Around this object of
devotion were collected at all hours a crowd of porters, water-carriers,
and the very dregs of the populace, boisterously singing the praises of
the saint. Woe to the unlucky wight who, purposely or through
negligence, failed to doff his hat or drop a coin into the box placed in
convenient proximity! He was an impious man, a heretic, and fortunate
was it for him if he escaped with his life. To refuse to swell the
collection of the monk or nun that came to a man's own door to solicit
funds for the trial of the Protestants, was equally perilous. In short,
it was no unfrequent device for a debtor to get rid of the importunity
of his creditor by raising the cry, "Au Christaudin, an Lutherien!" It
went hard with the former if he did not both free himself from debt and
spoil his creditor.[789]

It is time, however, that we should turn to chronicle the fortunes of a
more illustrious victim--the most illustrious victim, in fact, of the
first period of French Protestantism.

[Sidenote: Trial of President Anne du Bourg.]

[Sidenote: His successive appeals.]

Among the five counsellors of parliament arrested by Henry's orders at
the "Mercuriale," as related in a previous chapter, Anne du Bourg had
incurred his special displeasure by his fearless harangue, and with Du
Bourg the trials began. A special commission was appointed for the
purpose, consisting of President St. Andre, a _maitre de requetes_ and
two counsellors of parliament, Du Bellay, Bishop of Paris, and
Demochares, Inquisitor of the Faith. Brought before it, Du Bourg refused
to plead,