224 The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
[ 219 ] ishment and misgiving that the victim had been chosen from the best and bravest of the noble families of France. Amazement, indignation, scorn, and bitter hatred darkened the faces of that surging crowd; but upon one face no shadow rested. The martyr ' s thoughts were far from that scene of tumult; he was conscious only of the presence of his Lord.
The wretched tumbrel upon which he rode, the frowning faces of his persecutors, the dreadful death to which he was going,— these he heeded not; He who liveth and was dead, and is alive forevermore, and hath the keys of death and of hell, was beside him. Berquin ' s countenance was radiant with the light and peace of heaven. He had attired himself in goodly raiment, wearing“ a cloak of velvet, a doublet of satin and damask, and golden hose.” 325 He was about to testify to his faith in presence of the King of kings and the witnessing universe, and no token of mourning should belie his joy.
As the procession moved slowly through the crowded streets, the people marked with wonder the unclouded peace, the joyous triumph, of his look and bearing.“ He is,” they said,“ like one who sits in a temple, and meditates on holy things.” 326
At the stake, Berquin endeavored to address a few words to the people; but the monks, fearing the result, began to shout, and the soldiers to clash their arms, and their clamor drowned the martyr ' s voice. Thus in 1529, the highest literary and ecclesiastical authority of cultured Paris“ set the populace of 1793 the base example of stifling on the scaffold the sacred words of the dying.” 327
Berquin was strangled, and his body was consumed in the flames. The tidings of his death caused sorrow to the friends of the Reformation throughout France. But his example was not
325 D ' Aubigné,“ History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin,” b. 2, ch. 16. 326 Wylie, b. 13, ch. 9.
327 Ibid.