he lesson they had learned under tyranny, and became the
oppressors of those who had oppressed them.

Unhappy France reaped in blood the harvest she had sown. Terrible were the
results of her submission to the controlling power of Rome. Where France,
under the influence of Romanism, had set up the first stake at the opening
of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. On
the very spot where the first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned
in the sixteenth century, the first victims were guillotined in the
eighteenth. In repelling the gospel, which would have brought her healing,
France had opened the door to infidelity and ruin. When the restraints of
God's law were cast aside, it was found that the laws of man were
inadequate to hold in check the powerful tides of human passion; and the
nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible
inaugurated an era which stands in the world's history as "The Reign of
Terror." Peace and happiness were banished from the homes and hearts of
men. No one was secure. He who triumphed to-day was suspected, condemned,
to-morrow. Violence and lust held undisputed sway.

King, clergy, and nobles were compelled to submit to the atrocities of an
excited and maddened people. Their thirst for vengeance was only
stimulated by the execution of the king; and those who had decreed his
death, soon followed him to the scaffold. A general slaughter of all
suspected of hostility to the Revolution was determined. The prisons were
crowded, at one time containing more than two hundred thousand captives.
The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of
revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast field
for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions. "In Paris one
tumult succeeded another, and the citizens were divided into a medley of
factions, that seemed intent on nothing but mutual extermination." And to
add to the general misery, the nation became involved in a prolonged and
devastating war with the great powers of Europe. "The country was nearly
bankrupt, the armies were clamoring for arrears of pay, the Parisians were
starving, the provinces were laid waste by brigands, and civilization was
almost extinguished in anarchy and license."

All too well the people had learned the lessons of cruelty and torture
which Rome had so diligently taught. A day of retribution at last had
come. It was not now