Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-08-07
PRISONER OFCHILLON
His History an Interesting Romance Com
tanning the Tragical and the Frivolous
Convivial Habits His Chief Weakness.

Every traveller who visits Geneva, Vevay
or Chamouni makes pilgrimage to the
castle of Chillon, and, if familiar with
Byron's poem, INDUCES in much senti-
mental objurgation over the tyranny which
consigned the hero of the poem and his i'll
fated brother to the gloomy fortress. Aside
from the fact that Francois Downward was
confined there for six years and the marks
left by his footsteps as he paced the gloomy
crypt-confrmed by his one recorded rem
iniscence of his four years of dungeon life
that "he had such abundant leisure for
promenading that he wore in the rock
pavement a little path as neatly as if it had
| been done with a stone hammer''-the
whole poem is, as Byron himself styles it,
"a fable, - and the two brothers, the mar
tyred father, the anguish of the prisoner,
were all the invention of the poet on a
rainy day in the tavern at Auchy when
and where he wrote the story Even the
level of the dungeon below the water of the
lake turns oft to be u mistake, although
Downward believed it was so. The floor of
the crypt is eight feet above high water
mark.
The accounts in English about Bonni-
wards life have been heretofore very
meager though they are voluminous in
French, and Downward himself after his
release and return to Geneva, wrote very
full narrative of himself and his adven-
lures though surprisingly reticent about
his prison existence
Leonard Woolsey Bacon, who appears tc
have found leisure when at Geneva to study
up u considerable amount of reconcile cru
dition among the archives there, has un
earthed the whole history of Downward
and given readable summary of it in
little volume entitled "Ircnics and Polem-
-.
side of the celebrated st. Francis de Sales,
strips Garrison of much of bis reputation
as an antislavery pioneer and polemically
discusses some interesting church history.
According to his account, Downward,
though a layman, having never taken
monastic vows or holy orders, and a wild
young fellow at the time was by arrange
ment at Rome invested on the dccease Of
his uncle, the former prior, with the spir
itual and temporal authority and emolu-
ments, of no inconsidcruble amount, of the
priory of St Victor, u rich Bcnedictine
monastery just outside the eastern gate of
Geneva, surrounded with walls and moats
of its own, independent of the bishop Of
Geneva and of the city, with cortege of II
dozen well provided monks
Here the young prior held gay and fes-
tive court ilnDibcd and INDUCED his APP
petite freely, heard causes sentenced to
prison, and otherwise aped royalty and
autocracy lie had come from the uniVer-
sity with theories of republican liberty, and
St Victor became an outpost i'll defense Of
the liberties Of Geneva and a rendezvous of
all the young Liberal leaders of that little
repupnc' Many stories are to!u Oh ms IN
teflerehce 10 prevent injustice " uhe Duke
Oh savoy ana inc plsnop Oh Geneva anu
ms rescue OF persecuteu persons from uhelr
tyrahnlcal measures puU uhercpy ne naue
hlnseil esleclaIiy OBNOXIOUS 10 tlose pow
erIu1 lllulNluuals, VINO eventually WORKED
out ms rum. ne was traltorously IN
NelSleu ny TWO OIL MS llosU trusted Irlehus'
colilpellcu 10 rehouhce ms prlorY III laNor
VI oHe VI 'neili "iiu Curncu cNer W tle
CUSTODY Oh uHe ouAe' VINO imprisoned MN
Ior TWO years IN one Oh ms castles WhiIe
at tle same tllhe inc plshop ana uhe uuke
supJugateu the Guy Oh Geneva ana llhprs-
oheu' tortured ana hiliiged tne cltlAens'
some I'VE years iater bohnlVaru goU pos
session again OF ms prlory, put the estates
nau peen "resteu from IL ny uile duke ana
ms mlnlons, ana ne mad TO depend on The
pouht9 VI INC Guy Vi OeheN" lor solne-
, thlhg 10 I'VE on amounting TO o12 crowns
huohlhly -harOiy suIllciehU 10 ehaple MN
? 10 Keep up " st4Ve worthy Vi uiie ulgnlUy VI
, a sovereign. lie hau again mace hllhselt
very oDhoXlous 10 the duke by attempting
10 regain py Iorce Oh arms some me oI .ho
estates vi "lllch ne ilau ueIriNeu ulie lrloTy'
anu m"NliiB gong ~ NisiU ms lIlo'iioi VIM
was ~ aV ilor oiu ioiiic "V oe9 9sei' III "a
Fo9' Hc was sei@eu ~ ms "U'elnpU ~ rcuuih
10y cilliSSt'll'S VI INC uUhG anu sGcic'eu ~
Vic uuNe ''iStic VI Nlllioi' anu ior BIN
years ne was nl''''cI from INC " "ilu'
INC Hr9U ,"o years Ho was hotU.ln .iiS
uPpGr cil''lHpcI u INC caStle anu 'rcl'cu
hlulS' ouu DIT INC emu VI inns 'iitIe, oil SnI
uuhc Nlsi'iilS inc cusulG' nc was rclIlaIuc ca
W 'lic "N IUi any, any. se l JiS III iooJ
tle army u Derli cHec.eu ms Ielc'sc' anu
nc was laAeh III triumph 10 GENEVA WrcI'
ne loulu Il reVo4u'loh' uuho anu plshoi
anu an uhelr Iuhctionarles nay ing pceh eA
IRllcu ana inc fcIOflllclS nuNluB taken INT