ands (for the Huguenots had long ceased to exist as a
political force) of law-abiding citizens expatriated themselves and
carried their industries to enrich foreign lands.[143] Many pastors
were martyred, and drummers stationed at the foot of the scaffold
drowned their exhortations. Let us not say persecution is ineffective;
the Huguenots who at one time threatened to turn the scale in favour
of the Protestant powers and to wreck the Catholic cause in Europe,
practically disappear from history. On the whole, the measure was
approved by Paris; Racine, La Fontaine, the great Jansenist Arnault,
as well as Bossuet and Massillon, applauded. Louis was hailed a second
Constantine, and believed he had revived the times of the apostles.
But the consequences were far-reaching and disastrous. In less than
two months the Catholic James II. of England was a discrowned
fugitive, and the Calvinist William of Orange, the inveterate enemy of
France, sat in his place; England's pensioned neutrality was turned to
bitter hostility, and every Protestant power in Europe stirred to
fierce resentment. Seven years of war ensued, which exhausted the
immense resources of France; seven years,[144] rich in glory perhaps,
but lean years indeed to the dumb millions who paid the cost in blood
and money.

[Footnote 143: The writer, whose youth was passed among the
descendants of the Huguenot silk-weavers of Spitalfields, has
indelible memories of their sterling character and admirable
industry.]

[Footnote 144: Marshal Luxembourg was dubbed the _Tapissier de Notre
Dame_ (the upholsterer of Notre Dame), from the number of captured
flags he sent to the cathedral.]

After three short years of peace and recuperation, the acceptance of
the crown of Spain by Louis' grandson, Philip of Anjou, in spite of
Maria Theresa's solemn renunciation for herself and her posterity of
all claim to the Spanish succession, roused all the old jealousy of
France and brought her secular enemy, the House of Austria, to a new
coalition against her.

Woe to the nation whose king is thrall to women. The manner in which
this momentous step was taken is characteristic of Louis. Two councils
were held in Madame de Maintenon's room at Versailles; her advice was
asked by the king, and apparently turned the scale in favour of
acceptance. "For a hundred years," says Taine, "from 1672 to 1774,
every time a king of France made war it was by pique or vanity, by
family or private inter