occurred soon
after his installation as prior. His uncle on his deathbed had confessed
to young Francis the burden on his conscience in that he had taken Church
money and applied it to the making of a battery of culverins wherewith to
levy war against one of his neighbors in the country; and bequeathed to
his nephew the convent and the culverins, with the charge to melt down the
latter into a chime of church-bells which should atone for his evil deeds.
Not long after, Bonivard was telling the story to his friend Berthelier,
the daring and heroic leader of the "Sons of Geneva" in their perilous
struggle against tyranny, when the latter exclaimed, "What! spoil good
cannon to make bells? Never! Give us the guns, and you shall have old
metal to make bells enough to split your ears. But let guns be guns. So
the Church will be doubly served. There will be chimes at St. Victor and
guns in Geneva, which is a Church city." The bargain was struck, as a vote
in the records of the city council shows to this day. But it was the
beginning of a quarrel with the duke of Savoy which was to cost Bonivard
more than he had counted on. There was reckless deviltry enough among all
these young liberals, but some of them--not Bonivard--were capable of
seriously counting the cost of their game. On one occasion--it was at the
christening of Berthelier's child, and Bonivard was godfather--Berthelier
took his friend aside from the guests and said, "It is time we had done
with dancing and junketing and organized for the defence of
liberty."--"All right!" said the prior. "Come on, and may the Lord prosper
our crazy schemes!" Berthelier took his hand, and with a serious look that
sobered the rattle-headed ecclesiastic for a moment, replied, "But let me
warn you that this is going to cost you your living and me my head."--"I
have heard him say this a hundred times," says Bonivard in his
_Chronicles_. The dungeon at Chillon and the mural tablet in the Tour de
l'Isle at Geneva tell how truly the prophecy was fulfilled.

There was so little of the strut of the stage-hero about Bonivard that
he could not be comfortable in doing a chivalrous thing without a joke
to take off the gloss of it. Before the ducal party had quite given up
hopes of him there was a serious affair on their hands--the need of
putting out of the way by such means, treacherous and atrocious, as the
Savoyards of that day loved to use, one of the noblest of the Geneva
magistrates, Aime L