Narration is conducted on behalf of the eldest of six brothers — a prisoner of the Chillon Castle, a terrible prison with intolerable conditions of detention. Five of his close relatives have already died. Two of them could not stand the conclusion in the cellars of the castle.
The prisoner lost count of days and years, and when he was released, he became so accustomed to imprisonment that the outbreak did not cause him any emotion.
Pretty illustrations by Elena Odarich provide you with new impressions from reading this legendary story.
Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind![1]
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art:
For there thy habitation is the heart—
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned—
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar — for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace
Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard! — May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.[2]
When this poem[3] was composed, I was not sufficiently aware of the history of Bonnivard, or I should have endeavoured to dignify the subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. With some account of his life I have been furnished, by the kindness of a citizen of that republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man worthy of the best age of ancient freedom:
“Francois De Bonnivard, fils de Louis De Bonnivard, originaire de Seyssel et Seigneur de Lunes, naquit en 1496. Il fit ses etudes a Turin: en 1510 Jean Aime de Bonnivard, son oncle, lui resigna le Prieure de St. Victor, qui aboutissoit aux murs de Geneve, et qui formait un benefice considerable…
“Ce grand homme — (Bonnivard merite ce litre par la force de son ame, la droiture de son coeur, la noblesse de ses intentions, la sagesse de ses conseils, le courage de ses demarches, l'etendue de ses connaissances, et la vivacite de son esprit), — ce grand homme, qui excitera l'admiration de tous ceux qu'une vertu heroique peut encore emouvoir, inspirera encore la plus vive reconnaissance dans les coeurs des Genevois qui aiment Geneve. Bonnivard en fut toujours un des plus fermes appuis: pour assurer la liberte de notre Republique, il ne craignit pas de perdre souvent la sienne; il oublia son repos; il meprisa ses richesses; il ne negligea rien pour affermir le bonheur d'une patrie qu'il honora de son choix: des ce moment il la cherit comme le plus zele de ses citoyens; il la servit avec l'intrepidite d'un heros, et il ecrivit son Histoire avec la naivete d'un philosophe et la chaleur d'un patriote.
“Il dit dans le commencement de son Histoire de Geneve, que, des qu'il eut commence de lire l'histoire des nations, il se sentit entraine par son gout pour les Republiques, dont il epousa toujours les interets: c'est ce gout pour la liberte qui lui fit sans doute adopter Geneve pour sa patrie…
“Bonnivard, encore jeune, s'annonca hautement comme le defenseur de Geneve contre le Duc de Savoye et l'Eveque…
[4]