f pretension and principle. Estimates of his
character differ widely. From the standpoint of Catholic orthodoxy,
"C'etait un fort mauvais sujet et un plus mauvais pretre;" and even his
captivity, infamous as it was, "ne peut rendre Bonivard interessant"
(_Notices Genealogiques sur les Famillies Genevoises_, par J. A.
Galiffe, 1836, iii. 67, sq.); whilst an advocate and champion, the
author of the _Preface_ to _Les Chroniques de Geneve_ par Francois de
Bonnivard, 1831, tom. i. pt. i. p. xli., avows that "aucun homme n'a
fait preuve d'un plus beau caractere, d'un plus parfait desinteressement
que l'illustre Prieur de St. Victor." Like other great men, he may have
been guilty of "quelques egaremens du coeur, quelques concessions
passageres aux devices des sens," but "Peu importe a la posterite les
irregularites de leur vie privee" (p. xlviii.).

But whatever may be the final verdict with regard to the morals, there
can be no question as to the intellectual powers of the "Prisoner of
Chillon." The publication of various MS. tracts, e.g. _Advis et Devis de
l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Geneve_, 1865; _Advis et Devis des
Lengnes_, etc., 1865, which were edited by the late J. J. Chaponniere,
and, after his death, by M. Gustave Revilliod, has placed his reputation
as historian, satirist, philosopher, beyond doubt or cavil. One
quotation must suffice. He is contrasting the Protestants with the
Catholics (_Advis et Devis de la Source de Lidolatrie_, Geneva, 1856, p.
159): "Et nous disons que les prebstres rongent les mortz et est vray;
mais nous faisons bien pys, car nous rongeons les vifz. Quel profit
revient aux paveures du dommage des prebstres? Nous nous ventons touttes
les deux parties de prescher Christ cruciffie et disons vray, car nous
le laissons cruciffie et nud en l'arbre de la croix, et jouons a beaux
dez au pied dicelle croix, pour scavoir qui haura sa robe."

For Bonivard's account of his second imprisonment, see _Les Chroniques
de Geneve_, tom. ii. part ii. pp. 571-577; see, too, _Notice sur
Francois Bonivard_, ...par Le Docteur J. J. Chaponniere, Memoires et
Documents Publies, par La Societe d'Histoire, etc., de Geneve, 1845, iv.
137-245; _Chillon Etude Historique_, par L. Vulliemin, Lausanne, 1851;
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Seconde Periode, vol. 82, Aout, 1869, pp.
682-709; "True Story of the Prisoner of Chillon," _Nineteenth Century_,
May, 1900, No. 279, pp. 821-829, by A. van Amstel (Johannes Christiaan
Neum