Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n
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A52742
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An account of the sufferings of the French Protestants, slaves on board the French kings galleys by Elias Neau, one of their fellow sufferers ; together with a list of those who are still on board the said galleys.
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Neau, Elias, b. ca. 1661.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing N363; ESTC R13188
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10,633
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23
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Sir don't pity me for could you but see the secret pleasures my heart experiences you would think me too happy He told me that the greatest sufferings did not entitle a man to the Glory of Martyrdom unless he was so happy as to suffer for Truth and Justice which I granted him but told him withal that the Holy Ghost had sealed that truth in my heart and that very thought was my comfort in all my afflictions That Priest taking his leave of me he wished that God would multiply his Grace on me and sent me a Straw-bed to lie upon I continued 22 months in that Prison without changing any Cloaths my Beard being as long as the hair of my head and my face as pale as Plaster There was just under me a generous Confessor whom they had so much tormented that they had turned his Brains but having some good intervals had always reason enough to refuse to comply with their desires he asked me one morning with a loud voice how I did This was immediately reported to the Governours whereupon I was immediately removed into another Prison where I continued very little because of my singing of Psalms tho I sung with a very low voice that I might disturb no body I was put on the 20th of May 1696. in a subterraneous Hole wherein I remained till the 1st of July next following that I was sent together with the distracted person I have named by express order from the Court to the Castle of If about five miles from Marseilles in the mouth of the Harbour They had likewise five weeks before sent thither five other persons from the same Cittadel We were all at first in different Prisons but as five Centinels were required to keep us they obtained leave from the Court to put us together in a secure place so that on the 20th of August I and the poor Gentleman I have spoken of were put in a Hole and the other three in another The place was so disposed that we were obliged to go down a Ladder into a dry Ditch and then go up by the same Ladder into an old Tower through a Cannon hole The Vault or Arch wherein we were put was as dark as if there had been no manner of light in Heaven stinking and so miserable dirty that I verily believe there is not a more dismal place in the world We might have received some Money to help us in this great distress but they would not suffer it so that all our senses were attacked at once sight by darkness taste by hunger smell by the stench of the place feeling by Lice and other vermin and hearing by the horrid blasphemies and cursing which the Soldiers who were obliged to bring us some Victuals vomited against God and our Holy Religion The Missionaries who flattered themselves that we could not resist much longer were almost enraged when they saw our firm resolution to dye in the profession of our Religion and therefore began to talk of nothing else but of the Judgments of God and thereupon I could not forbear one day to tell them that the Judgments of God were upon them for he suffered them to fill the measures of their Crimes in insulting over us in our miseries but that God was just and would not fail to avenge us and punish them according to their demerits Having continued 6 months in that Pit my fellow sufferer happening to dye I was removed into the other with the other 3 Confessors As that poor man was in his agony he heard some of the Soldiers say that it was necessary to send for the Chaplain but he made a sign with his hand to testify his aversion to it and so gave up the Ghost unto the Lord. We continued all four in the other Pit for some time without seeing any light at all but at last they gave us leave to have a Lamp while we eat our Victuals The place being very damp our Cloaths were rotten by this time but God was pleased to have mercy upon me miserable sinner and of another of my fellow sufferers for on the 3d of July the Lord broke our Fetters the Right Honourable the Earl of Portland then Extraordinary Ambassador to the Court of France having reclaimed us in his Majestys name We left two of our Companions in that dreadful Pit and about 370 others on board the Galleys where they glorify the name of God with an unparallell'd Courage and Constancy This is the short but sincere account of my sufferings which I have written at the request of several eminent persons as a means to comfort and rejoyce in the Lord the Faithful Servants of Jesus Christ and confound the Emissaries of Satan who would fain make the world believe that there is no persecution in France And now Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his only name and forget not his benefits I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications Because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live The sorrows of Death compassed me and the pains of hell got hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Then called I upon the name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Return unto thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee For thou hast delivered my soul from Death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living I believed therefore have I spoken I was greatly afflicted I said in my haste All men are liars What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me I will take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints O Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid thou hast loosed my bonds I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people In the courts of the Lord's house in the midst of thee O Jerusalem Praise ye the Lord. ELIAS NEAU A True and Exact List of the French Protestants Slaves on board the French Galleys for adhering to the Profession of the Protestant Religion The name of the places of their Birth Names of the Protestants  The Year that they were sent to the Galleys  On Board the FORTUNE   Montauban Mr Peter Serres Senior  1686 Vivares Antony Grange  1689 Sevenes Peter Gascuel  1691 Provence Matthew Pelanchon  1689 Givaudan Anthony Pelevuer  1691  Anthony
AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUFFERINGS OF THE FRENCH Protestants Slaves on board the French Kings Galleys By Elias Neau one of their fellow Sufferers Together with a List of those who are still on board the said Galleys LONDON Printed for Richard Parker at the Vnicorn under the Royal Exchange and Sold by A. Baldwin near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-lane 1699. An Account of the Sufferings of the French Protestants Slaves on board the French King's Galleys c. IT is not out of any vanity that I have been induced to publish the following account of my sufferings while I have remained on board the French Kings Galleys or in the Dungeons of Marseilles but the Lord out of his infinite mercy having saved me out my distresses brought me out of darkness and broken my Fetters some pious persons have thought I should be ungrateful did I not praise the Lord for his goodness and publish his wonderful works to the children of men I left the Kingdom of France upon account of my Religion in the year 1679 being then aged about 18 years of age and went to St Domingo and from thence to New York where I marry'd some time after and as I had been bred to Sea some friends of mine fitted out a small Ship of about 80 Tuns which they trusted to my care and command having been made a Free Denizen of England by his present Majesty in the first year of his Reign I sailed from New York on the 15th of August 1692 bound for Jamaica and was taken on the 29th by a Privateer from St Malo who was returning home from St Domingo I continued two months on board his ship after which I was put in Prison with other Seamen and Prisoners at War The Judge of the Admiralty being informed that I was a French Protestant gave notice thereof to the King's Attorney who having acquainted Monsieur de Pontchartrain with it received order to perswade me to change my Religion or in case I prov'd obstinate to condemn me to the Galleys This order was signify'd unto me but God was pleased to assist me in such a manner that I was not terrified in the least and did not hesitate at all to answer that I could not comply with their desire seeing it was against my Conscience Their sollicitations proving vain I was brought before the Court to be examined and asked why I was not returned into the Kingdom when the King had by a Proclamation recalled all his Subjects who were in foreign Countries I answered that it was because the Gospel commanded me when I was persecuted in one Kingdom to fly into another Country The Judge being likely a stranger to Scripture maxims and expressions told me that I blasphemed but having desired him to tell me wherein he would not and repeated the same word I replyed that this was an expression of the Son of God contained in the Gospel whereupon he inclined his head looking upon the Greffier or Clerk of the Court repeating once more that I blasphemed He examined me also upon several other articles foreign to my purpose and sent the Informations he had taken to Court I remained four months in the Prisons of St. Malo where I had many temptations to overcome as threats and promises but by the grace of God I was proof against all their artifices The order of the Court being arrived my Sentence was pronounc'd and I was sent to Rennes to appear before the Parliament of Britany I was put on Horseback bound hand and foot but the shaking of the Horse causing my Arms to swell the Manacles prov'd then too little and I felt then a most exquisite pain An Advocate of the Parliament who travelled the same Road pitying my condition desired those who were appointed to conduct me to take off the Manacles but had much ado to perswade them to it I was then considerably eased but it was impossible ble for me to hold a Pen to write in a fortnights time Some days after my arrival at Rennes I appeared before the great Chamber and was commanded to hold up my hand and swear to answer truly and directly to the Interrogatories which should be made unto me They asked me first my Name and Profession and then why I had settled my self in a foreign Country contrary to the Kings orders I own I was then struck with such a terror that I could hardly speak but they bid me to be assur'd and to answer the questions that were put to me This having revived me I told them I had left my Native Country because Jesus Christ the King of Kings commanded me to fly from that Country where I could not enjoy the Liberty of Conscience and retire into another The first President told me that Persecution was a great evil but added that I was not to be ignorant that St Paul commands to obey Kings not only in temporal things but likewise for Conscience I replyed that likely St Paul did not understand that passage in the sense of his Lordship for if he did so My Lord said I to the President Why did he not obey Nero He asked me afterwards whether I had fired upon the Kings Subjects but understanding that my Ship had no Guns nor any other offensive Arms he asked me whether I would have fired upon them if I had been in a capacity to do it I replyed that it was natural for a man to defend his Estate and Goods whereupon he interrupted me in these words it is a great misfortune for you to be born in that Religion and that the Holy Ghost has not enlightened you withdraw I was remanded to the Prison and two hours after the Attorney General came to tell me that if I would change my Religion I should have my Pardon and that they would help me to a good employment at Brest I gave him the same answer I had given to the Kings Attorney at St Milo viz. that I was ready to lose my life rather than renounce my Religion whereupon he went away commanding to put me to the Chain with some other Galley-Slaves It was on the 3d of April 1693. that I was ty'd to the great Chain with 59 other Slaves which were condemn'd to that dreadful Punishment some for desertion others for defrauding the King's Duties upon Salt and others for horrid Crimes as Robbery Murther and 4 for Rapes It rained almost all that month so that we could hardly Travel 5 Leagues a day and when we arrived at night in any Village or Town to lye they put us as so many Beasts in Stables where tho always wet and dirty we often wanted Straw to lie upon We had three pence half-penny a day for our nourishment but it often happened that we could find no Bread for our Money in those Villages where we were obliged to lie upon the Road. When they put us in these Stables they fastned both ends of the Chain to the Walls so that we had only the liberty