The Project Gutenberg EBook of Villegagnon, by W.H.G. Kingston

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Title: Villegagnon
A Tale of the Huguenot Persecution

Author: W.H.G. Kingston

Release Date: October 17, 2007 [EBook #23073]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VILLEGAGNON ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Villegagnon, by W.H.G. Kingston.
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The date is sometime during the reign of Philip and Mary, the Catholic
interlude between the Protestant times of Henry the Eighth and his son
Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth. Religious intolerance was at an
extreme, with burnings at the stake and other very nasty tortures being
applied to persons of an opposite sect.

Nigel Melvin comes to the Court of France with some letters to deliver.
His young cousin Mary Seton is with him in the opening scene, and she
introduces him to the young royals who happen to be walking in the same
garden. We find that there are several with Protestant leanings even
in that setting. Nigel is conducted to a house where he is to find
Admiral Coligny, who is setting up an expedition to found a Protestant
colony the other side of the Atlantic in the bay now known as Rio de
Janeiro, and idea that had been propounded by Monsieur Villegagnon.
Nigel is given command of one of the ships. They set off for Havre,
where the vessels are, but on the way Nigel overhears a conversation
between Villegagnon and a monk, which makes it plain that Villegagnon
is no Protestant, and that there is a dubious motive in all these
plans.

On arrival at Rio they meet with a local Indian chief who warns them
about some white settlers nearby who appear to have a religion not at
all satisfactory to Indian tastes. These are the Portuguese, Catholics.
They are permitted to settle on any island in the bay. There is a gale
and it becomes plain they must move to a more sheltered island than the
one they started on. Nigel falls in love with the fair lady Constance,
but so also does the Indian, Tecumah.

Nigel returns to France to pick up more Protestant emigrants, who have
to run the gauntlet