François Langlade

François de Langlade du Chayla (c. 1647 – 24 July 1702) was the French Catholic Abbé of Chaila (or Chayla), Archpriest of the Cevennes and Inspector of Missions of the Cevennes. His brutal repression of French (Protestant) Huguenots by means of torture caused his assassination and sparked the War of the Camisards.

A missionary in his youth in Siam (modern Thailand), he there suffered near-martyrdom at the hands of Buddhists, was left for dead, but survived and returned to France. His house in Le Pont-de-Montvert served as a prison for Protestants who were tortured. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, Chayla "..closed the hands of his prisoners upon live coal, and plucked out the hairs of their beards, to convince them that they were deceived in their [religious beliefs]."

References

• Massacres of the South (1551-1815), by Alexandre Dumas, père - chapter II has an excellent account of the life and martyrdom of abbe de Chayla.
• "The murder of the abbot of Chaila", English translation. Original page in French.
• Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, by Robert Louis Stevenson. See chapter "Pont De Montvert" for a brief account.