was a public
reproach on the authorities at Nismes, and a sentence of condemnation on
all their proceedings.

As the persecution of the protestants was spreading into other
departments, strong and forcible representations were secretly printed
and made to the king. All the ordinary modes of communication had been
stopped; the secrecy of letters violated, and none circulated but those
relative to private affairs. Sometimes these letters bore the postmark
of places very distant, and arrived without signatures, and enveloped in
allegorical allusions. In fact, a powerful resistance on the part of the
outraged protestants was at length apprehended, which, in the beginning
of September excited the proclamation of the king, on which it was
observed, "that if his majesty had been correctly and fully informed of
all that had taken place, he surely would not have contented himself
with announcing his severe displeasure to a _misled people, who took
justice into their own hands, and avenged the crimes committed against
royalty_." The proclamation was dictated as though there had not been a
protestant in the department; it assumed and affirmed throughout the
guilt of the sufferers; and while it deplored the atrocious outrages
endured by the followers of the duke d'Angouleme, (outrages which never
existed,) the plunder and massacre of the reformed were not even
noticed.

Still disorders kept pace with the proclamations that made a show of
suppressing them, and the force of the catholic faction also continued
to increase. The catholic populace, notwithstanding the decrees of the
magistrates, were allowed to retain the arms they had illegally seized,
whilst the protestants in the departments were disarmed. The members of
the reformed churches wished at this period to present another memorial
to the government, descriptive of the evils they still suffered, but
this was not practicable. On the 26th of September, the president of the
consistory wrote as follows: "I have only been able to assemble two or
three members of the consistory pastors or elders. It is impossible to
draw up a memoir, or to collect facts; so great is the terror, that
every one is afraid to speak of his own sufferings, or to mention those
he has been compelled to witness."

_Outrages committed in the Villages, &c._

We now quit Nismes to take a view of the conduct of the persecutors in
the surrounding country. After the re-establishment of the royal
governmen