The Huguenot and The Tower of Constance

By D.C. Force

Author D.C. Force has brought another bit of lesser known history to vivid life in this novella inspired by a true story.

In the 17th century, Louis XIV of France took an old medieval tower built on the southern coastline to guard against pirates and designated it a women’s prison. A formidable stone structure completely devoid of cr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dolly C. Force
• Release date: Jan 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781733976244

Book preview

The Huguenot

and

THE TOWER OF CONSTANCE

A Novella of the Huguenot Series

By

D.C. Force

The Huguenot and THE TOWER OF CONSTANCE

is a work of fiction

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 by D.C. Force

All rights reserved.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Force, D.C.

The Huguenot and THE TOWER OF CONSTANCE a novella / D.C. Force

eISBN 978-1-7339762-4-4

Published in the United States of America

Books by D.C. Force

The Huguenot Series

The Huguenot: Flight From Terror

(full length novel)

The Huguenot II: Building the Dream

(full length novel)

The Huguenot and The Tower of Constance

(an e-book novella)

The Huguenot and the Heathen

(full length novel)

(release planned for 2020)

The Huguenot and the Heathen II: The Prodigal Returns

(full length novel)

(release planned for 2020)

Other Books by the Author

Family: a Century of Blood and Tears

released 2007

Visit our website to leave comments, ask questions, learn about the author, or catch previews of books to come.

www.dcforce.com

This series is dedicated to all the men, women, and children throughout history who have suffered severely and cruelly because of their sincere and non-political beliefs in and love for our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Huguenot

and

THE TOWER OF CONSTANCE

A Novella of the Huguenot Series

By

D.C. Force

To banish, imprison, plunder, starve, hang, and burn men for religion is not the gospel of Christ, but the policy of the devil.  ___ Unknown

Chapter 1

France 1767

Nine years before the American Revolution

Twenty-two years before the French Revolution

It was the twenty-sixth of December and the Prince of Beauvau and his aide-de-camp were traveling to la Tour de Constance on a specific errand. Beauvau had been made governor of the Languedoc district of the kingdom wherein the tower was located. He believed in personally assessing all that was within the realm of his responsibilities and so the task set him by King Louis XV to release three prisoners from the tower coincided perfectly with the prince’s own desires to inspect this prison within his jurisdiction.

He understood it to be a women’s facility and evidently the three to be released were simply Huguenots. Release was certainly understandable, no sense in allowing them to remain incarcerated along side prostitutes and thieves. It was no longer a crime to hold to religious practices outside the Catholic Church. He, himself, had never been that accomplished in Latin and he found reading a Bible written in French most illuminating even if the Church still frowned upon the practice.

Religious liberty was being debated in France for some three years and in light of this renaissance of toleration, the families of the three prisoners had humbly petitioned Louis XV, great-grandson of Louis XIV, to have their loved ones pardoned and released. That it had taken three years for the petitions to wend their way through the bureaucracy was very unfortunate but Beauvau smiled at the pleasantness of his task. It was always a pleasure to reverse a sentence, especially for someone who could be considered a rather innocent victim. To set such an ill fated malefactor free was a good deed and he could only imagine that to carry-out such a favor to a woman was even more pleasant.

As they drew near to the town of Aiguës Mortes, Prince Beauvau looked out of his very comfortable and plushly appointed carriage and saw a very bleak stone tower built at the corner of the ancient town wall. That was it, no doubt. He expected the usual scurry of flustered subordinates trying to present themselves in the best light while inwardly resenting the fact that they had been taken by surprise with no advanced warning. It was good for them he believed. How was one to see how things were really operating if one gave them time to prepare a false tableau?

Once inside the grounds, Beauvau looked about with a keen eye. The grounds were clean, well kept, tidy but surprisingly devoid of guards. He could find no fault exactly but he did find this a most unusual design for a prison.

His Highness the Prince of Beauvau! announced his aide-de-camp loudly to anyone within hearing distance which at the moment was only a singular guard, an apparent doorkeeper at the entrance to the prison.

Your Highness! The guard on duty recognized the princely crest, did his best to snap smartly to attention and bowed deeply. No one had ever told him the proper greeting for a prince. No one would have ever imagined a prince coming here to pay a visit.

The prince has been made the governor of the Languedoc district and has come to inspect the prison, the aide further declared.

The guard bowed again.

"Where is le directeur?" asked the prince graciously.

The man charged with being the prison warden was, in reality, in town lounging with his mistress. He would have to be sent for immediately.

His office and residence are in that building, the guard pointed, but I believe he has gone into town on business, your Highness. How might I help you?

You have three prisoners here who are Huguenots, perhaps you know them? They have been granted a royal pardon by His Majesty. I have come to see to their release. And while here I should like a tour.

The guard looked a bit befuddled. If I may know their names, your Highness.

Beauvau looked at his aide who began scratching through his valise for the paperwork.

Surely you must know who the Huguenots are. Lead me to them. I would expect them to be quite different in demeanor from the prostitutes and pick pockets housed here, the prince said and the guard looked mutely stupid. Beauvau gestured for the man to lead the way.

The guard did not attempt to respond but led them up a series of dark, worn and winding stone stairways at the top of which was a long walkway at the end of which stood a huge, heavy, and formidable appearing iron door. Looking at the prince, the guard hesitated. Beauvau gestured for the door to be opened and the guard produced an enormous key and immediately turned the lock and drew back the massive iron bolt. It took effort but the door swung open with an unearthly groan of protest from hinges that said they had not been forced to move in a very long time.

Stepping across the thresh-hold, the prince and his aide suddenly found themselves in a singular, gloomy, and airless chamber.

It took Beauvau some moments for his eyes to adjust and when they did he was shocked beyond speech and stood motionless for a time. In the large stone chamber he could make out the gray figures of old women, some squinting toward him with expressions of shocked surprise, some quietly weeping from chronic pain perhaps, or anguish, and some much too decrepit to be bothered even to look his way. There were perhaps forty in all.

"Mon Dieu! Beauvau gasped then coughed at the stench and the smokey air. It is freezing in here. I see no braziers, where is the smoke coming from?"

Perhaps the braziers below, your Highness. The guards have several. The smoke and heat rises.

Below? There are more prisoners below?

No-no, your Highness, only guards.

Why is there no heat in here? The guard did not respond. And what is it the guards do down there?

They deliver up the daily rations of bread and water through the floor, the hole you see there, he pointed to the round opening in the middle of the floor. No men are allowed in here unless...

Unless what?

Unless it is to take out a dead body, he replied a bit nervously.

How long have these women been here? Beauvau asked louder than he intended, his voice ringing off the stone walls.

The guard shrugged. "I do not know, your Highness, le directeur would have the records."

How long has it been since you have received new prisoners?

Again, a shrug. "Le directeur has the records, your Highness."

Yes-yes, but surely you have a memory. How long has it been since any new prisoners have come in?

Not since I have been here, your Hi...

Which is how long?

Almost five years, your Highness.

Beauvau continued to look at the gray figures, gaunt, many toothless, all dressed in rags layered over rags, and huddled together in each other’s arms in an effort to stay warm. Worn pallets, scant straw, and thinly worn blankets appeared to be their only bedding and their only cushioning from the hard, cold stone. There were a few stools and even fewer small tables scattered about.

The sentence of a prostitute or thief is not so long for one to become so aged, the prince murmured in contemplation.

No, your Highness. They stopped sending us common criminals years ago.

The prince turned an iron-like gaze on the guard. Are you telling me all of these women are guilty of nothing more than being Huguenots? The incredulity in Beauvau’s voice shook the guard to his very boot soles.

Terrified of overstepping his bounds, the guard could only respond very weakly, "Le directeur has the official records, your Highness."

This is disgraceful! It has been three years since being Huguenot is no longer an offense. And no one has come to restore these women to the world? To pardon them? To show them some small mercy and human kindness?

Hearing the tenor of the conversation and perceiving the prince’s shock and apparent sympathy for their conditions, the women who were able to walk or crawl began to creep forward, crying out as they approached him. They fell at his feet and wept. His were the first sympathetic words from authorities they had heard in decades. They covered his boots with their tears as they tried to speak through their sobs. They begged for deliverance, for pity, for mercy but their sobs and their lack of teeth made their speech unintelligible to the two visitors who stood in compassionate shock.

For so many, many years these women had been left to languish in slow starvation and disease with no one to care. Starvation not just for food but for a commiserative word, for hope. Except for the three, everyone’s families were dead, even neighbors and friends who had known them were now gone. No one visited, no one answered their letters, no one saw to their rescue even three long years after attitudes had changed.

It was impossible not to be moved and Beauvau found himself near weeping. Then he ordered that not just the three but all were to be released at once.

As the women slowly stumbled out into the cold daylight, Beauvau became even more aware of their extraordinarily poor condition. One woman, he was told, was ninety, several were over eighty. Many were of poor sight and one was completely blind. Those who could walk, could barely do so, clinging to one another for support and obviously very ill. Those too weak to walk were carried out by litter. All were deathly pale and filthy but bathing had to be approached with care as they also showed signs of various skin diseases and infections that would not heal.

Beauvau demanded a doctor be brought in and when the warden finally arrived the prince ordered that decent shelter be established within the compound immediately, someplace that could be made warm with comfortable cots and chairs. Fresh clothing was to be found. Decent meals were to be served and nursing care arranged.

But the tower is the only chamber large enough to hold them, protested the warden, a small, greasy looking little man.

To the contrary, monsieur. You have room aplenty. These women are no longer prisoners and need not sleep under lock and key. You have a reception room, meeting rooms, guest rooms, a spacious apartment I am told… I do not care if you must give up your own bed, monsieur, you will shelter these poor souls where there is heat, light, and breathable air!

For how long? the warden asked and received a cold stare in reply.

For as long as it takes!

Forgive me, your Highness… I only meant I have no budget for such accommodations… for all the food… the fuel… doctor’s care...

I presume a budget for the new year has already been allocated?

The warden nodded hesitantly.

Then the funds are there, anything it costs beyond this I will personally cover.

But, your Highness, if the monies run out, how will I pay for operating expenses the rest of the year…? Wages? Supplies?

If you have no prisoners, you have no need of supplies… or guards for that matter.

A messenger brought a report to the king and Louis XV sent a return message to the prince saying:

It has been reported that you have taken it upon yourself to release all the prisoners in la Tour de Constance. We do not take kindly to our authority being so usurped. We have not agreed to such measures and have not given any such orders.

Upon hearing the king’s messenger, it was reported that Beauvau drew himself up to his full height and indignantly replied, The King is my master and can deprive me of my place, but he cannot prohibit me from fulfilling my duties to my conscience and my honor.

Prince Beauvau continued to work on the women’s behalf. He soon learned that some of the poor souls he had just released had been locked away for most of their life, imprisoned when they were only small children, and therefore, they had no experience in dealing with the outside world. Others had been little more than children when they had arrived at the tower. All these surviving women were now well beyond fifty years of age and in poor health; most were entirely without resources or education; and, except for the original three, none had anyone to whom to return. Indeed, he now recognized that they ran the risk of new misfortunes in their unexpected liberty if they had no one to guide them, advise them, and watch over them.

Having made provision for their immediate needs of food, shelter, clothing, and nursing care, Beauvau commenced upon a campaign of letter writing in which he personally championed their cause. In time, he was able to arrange for most to be placed in sympathetic households willing to care for them for what time was left to them. For the remaining, arrangements were made with the recently resurrected Huguenot churches in their old home villages. Church members collectively pledged to support them as beloved martyrs of the Faith for the rest of their lives

With all the women moved out and relocated elsewhere, Prince Beauvau closed the prison and ordered the door to the tower to be bricked up so the structure could never again be used to imprison anyone so inhumanely.

King Louis XV (1710-1774) reigned for seven more years, a total of 59. His reign was second in length only to the 72 year reign of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV (1638-1715) and it was very disappointing in its lack of reforms. At the king’s death, his surviving grandson, who was twenty and married to Marie-Antoinette, was crowned Louis XVI (1754-1793). This Louis and his wife both lost their crowns and their heads to the bloody revolt of the Third Estate (the common people) against the First Estate (the aristocracy) while the Second Estate (the Catholic Church of France) stood impotently by. This extremely brutal class war known as the French Revolution put an end to the French monarchy of absolute power that had reigned for generations with growing callousness, lack of compassion, and excessive extravagance.

Chapter 2

France 1712

55 years earlier

"Please, Duchesse, we must leave immediately. Now…  please." The young lawyer, perhaps just twenty-two or three years old and trying to look older dressed in