The Project Gutenberg EBook of Massacres Of The South (1551-1815)
by Alexandre Dumas, Pere

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Title: Massacres Of The South (1551-1815)
Celebrated Crimes

Author: Alexandre Dumas, Pere

Last Updated: February 8, 2009
Release Date: August 15, 2006 [EBook #2743]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH (1551-1815) ***

Produced by David Widger and Trevor Carlson

CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE

BY ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

IN EIGHT VOLUMES

MASSACRES OF THE SOUTH--1551-1815

CHAPTER I

It is possible that our reader, whose recollections may perhaps go back
as far as the Restoration, will be surprised at the size of the frame
required for the picture we are about to bring before him, embracing as
it does two centuries and a half; but as everything, has its precedent,
every river its source, every volcano its central fire, so it is that
the spot of earth on which we are going to fix our eyes has been
the scene of action and reaction, revenge and retaliation, till the
religious annals of the South resemble an account-book kept by double
entry, in which fanaticism enters the profits of death, one side being
written with the blood of Catholics, the other with that of Protestants.

In the great political and religious convulsions of the South, the
earthquake-like throes of which were felt even in the capital, Nimes has
always taken the central place; Nimes will therefore be the pivot round
which our story will revolve, and though we may sometimes leave it for a
moment, we shall always return thither without fail.

Nimes was reunited to France by Louis VIII, the government being taken
from its vicomte, Bernard Athon VI, and given to consuls in the year
1207. During the episcopate of Michel Briconnet the relics of St.
Bauzile were discovered, and hardly were the rejoicings over this event
at an end when the new doctrines began to spread over France. It was in
the South that the persecutions began, and in 1551 several persons were
publicly burnt as heretics by order of the Seneschal's Court at Nimes,
amongst whom was Maurice Secenat, a missionary from the Cevennes, w