heir theses to the cathedral doors, beat the priests who carry
the Holy Sacrament to the dying, and, to crown all other insults, turn
churches into slaughter-houses and sewers.

The Catholics, on the contrary, march at night, and, slipping in at the
gates which have been left ajar for them, make their bishop president of
the Council, put Jesuits at the head of the college, buy converts with
money from the treasury, and as they always have influence at court,
begin by excluding the Calvinists from favour, hoping soon to deprive
them of justice.

At last, on the 31st of December, 1657, a final struggle took place,
in which the Protestants were overcome, and were only saved from
destruction because from the other side of the Channel, Cromwell exerted
himself in their favour, writing with his own hand at the end of a
despatch relative to the affairs of Austria, "I Learn that there have
been popular disturbances in a town of Languedoc called Nimes, and I
beg that order may be restored with as much mildness as possible, and
without shedding of blood." As, fortunately for the Protestants, Mazarin
had need of Cromwell at that moment, torture was forbidden, and nothing
allowed but annoyances of all kinds. These henceforward were not only
innumerable, but went on without a pause: the Catholics, faithful to
their system of constant encroachment, kept up an incessant persecution,
in which they were soon encouraged by the numerous ordinances issued by
Louis XIV. The grandson of Henri IV could not so far forget all ordinary
respect as to destroy at once the Edict of Nantes, but he tore off
clause after clause.

In 1630--that is, a year after the peace with Rohan had been signed in
the preceding reign--Chalons-sur-Saone had resolved that no Protestant
should be allowed to take any part in the manufactures of the town.

In 1643, six months after the accession of Louis XIV, the laundresses
of Paris made a rule that the wives and daughters of Protestants were
unworthy to be admitted to the freedom of their respectable guild.

In 1654, just one year after he had attained his majority, Louis XIV
consented to the imposition of a tax on the town of Nimes of 4000 francs
towards the support of the Catholic and the Protestant hospitals; and
instead of allowing each party to contribute to the support of its own
hospital, the money was raised in one sum, so that, of the money paid by
the Protestants, who were twice as numerous as the Catholic