d crowns induced the fellow instead to lead the president's
daughter and her husband to a place of safety in the house of a Roman
Catholic friend. But La Place himself, after having applied at three
different houses belonging to persons of his acquaintance and been denied
admission, was compelled to return to his home and there await his doom. A
day passed, during which La Place and his wife were subjected to constant
alarms. At length new orders came in the king's name, enjoining upon him
without fail to repair instantly to the palace. The meaning was
unmistakable; it was the road to death. But neither the Huguenot's piety
nor his courage failed him. He gently raised his wife, who had fallen on
her knees to beg the messenger to save her husband's life, and reminded
her that she should have recourse to God alone, not to an arm of flesh.
And he sternly rebuked his eldest son, who, in a moment of weakness, had
placed a white cross on his hat, in the hope of saving his life. "The true
cross we must wear," he said, "is the trials and afflictions sent to us by
God as sure pledges of the bliss and eternal life He has prepared for His
own followers." It was with unruffled composure that he bade his weeping
friends farewell. His apprehensions were soon realized; he was despatched
by murderers who had been waiting for him, and before long his body was
floating down the Seine toward the sea.[1038]

[Sidenote: Regnier and Vezins.]

From such instances of inhumanity it is a relief to turn to one of a few
incidents wherein the finer feelings triumphed over prejudice, difference
of religious tenets, and even personal hatred. There were in Paris two
gentlemen, named Vezins and Regnier, of good families in the province of
Quercy in southern France. Both were equally distinguished for their
valor; but their dispositions were singularly unlike, for while the
Huguenot Regnier was noted for his gentle manners, the Roman Catholic
Vezins, who was lieutenant of the governor, the Viscount of Villars, had
acquired unenviable notoriety because of his ferocity. Between the two
there had for some time existed a mortal feud, which their common friends
had striven in vain to heal. While the massacre was at its height, Regnier
was visited by his enemy, Vezins. The latter, after effecting an entrance
into the house by breaking down the door, fiercely ordered the
Huguenot--who, well assured that his last hour was come, had fallen upon
his knees to impl