Note 668 — Chapter XV · THE SUBURBS OF GENEVA ARE DEMOLISHED AND THE ADVERSARIES MAKE READY. (September 1534 to January 1535.)

‘My beauty attracted many suitors who sought to seduce me. When they saw that their flattering could not make me faithless, they had recourse to threats, and at last prepared to overcome me by force. Then I, unwilling to set my beauty above my virtue, destroyed with inflexible hand my temples, gardens, and houses, and converted them into ramparts, to keep my insensate suitors at a distance. I destroyed my beauty to preserve my honor. I was once Geneva the fair; now I am called Geneva the valiant.’ These lines are preserved in Gautier’s manuscript history.