which was
already surrounded by a body of archers headed by John Morin. Calvin was
warned of their approach. "He escaped through a window, concealed
himself in the suburb St. Victor, at the house of a vine-dresser,
changed his clothes, assumed the long gown of the vine-dresser, and,
placing a wallet of white linen and a rake on his shoulders, he took the
road to Noyon." A canon of that city, who was on his way to Paris, met
the _cure_ of Pont l'Eveque and recognized him.

"Where are you going, Master John," he demanded, "in this fine
disguise?"

"Where God shall please," answered Calvin, who then began to explain the
motive and reasons of his disguise. "And would you not do better to
return to Noyon and to God?" asked the canon, looking at him sadly.
Calvin was a moment silent, then, taking the priest's hand--"Thank you,"
said he, "but it is too late."

During this colloquy the lieutenant was searching Calvin's papers, and
secured those which might have compromised the friends of the fugitive.

Calvin found a refuge with the Queen of Navarre, who was fortunate
enough to reconcile her _protege_ with the court and the university. The
person whom she employed to effect this was an adroit man who had
succeeded in deceiving the government. Francis I based his glory upon
the patronage and encouragement which he accorded to learning, and
Calvin, as a man of letters, merited consideration. The King needed some
forgiveness for serious political faults, and, with reason, he believed
that the humanists would redeem his character before the people. He was
at once the protector and the slave of the _literati_.

At that period the little court of Nerac was the asylum of writers, who,
like Desperriers, there prepared their _Cymbalum Mundi_; of gallant
ladies, who composed love-tales, of which they were often the heroines
themselves; of poets, who extemporized odes after Beza's model; of
clerics and other gentry of the Church, who entertained packs of
hunting-dogs, and courtesans; of Italian play-actors, who, in the
Queen's theatre, presented comedies taken from the New Testament, in
which Jesus was made to utter horrible things against monks and nuns; or
of princes, who, like the Queen's husband, scarcely knew how to read,
and yet discoursed, like doctors, about doctrine and discipline.

It was against Roussel, the confessor of Margaret, that Calvin, at a
later date, composed his _Adversus Nicodemitas_. At Nerac he found Le
Fev