o heaven. You
also know our persecutors; why need I name them to you. But our
calamity is still new to you, and truly one must live in our days to
deem it possible. It is now some months ago, that the Intendant and the
Marshal caused whole communities to be carried off from the middle of
the Cevennes, as well as from Mialet; women, children, and fathers were
thrown into their prisons, merely because they were suspected by them.
Out of one-and-twenty parishes, three hundred young men were seized
from the district of Nismes alone, besides whole families and are shut
up in the dungeons and fortresses of the level country and of the
mountains. The inhuman Intendant trusts no one, and how can the
subject be tranquil and faithful to the king, when the tyrant in his
cold-blooded intrigues only meditates how to make the people wretched?
The terrible man has been heard to say with his own lips, that the best
and the safest method would be to extirpate from the face of the earth
all who are converted, as well as the rebels. The Marshal himself, it
is said, is shocked at these ideas, God and the king have not so far
forgotten us ever to permit such infamy. But since the day before
yesterday----Yes, weep, mourn, ye unfortunate, banished, houseless
people!" And as in chorus there arose a sobbing and lamentation, but
the speaker continued thus, "Early the day before yesterday, as we were
going forth to our field labours, we heard the beating of drums, we
took it for the usual marching of the royal troops through the country,
but they soon drew near, we ascended the mountain and saw that the
extensive mountain district, valley, and ravine, as far as the eye
could reach, were surrounded. They did not leave us long in suspense,
we were summoned to the square of our large village. Thence they
published to our magistrates and to us, that in Nismes a decree had
been pronounced to entirely depopulate our district, and many others,
two-and-thirty parishes, including more than eighty villages and farms,
to send the inhabitants to the open country, to other provinces, to
islands, and to pull down and set fire to all the houses, stables, and
farms without exception. Four regiments are encamped in the district to
accomplish this devilish work. All uttered screams and lamentations,
but they were disregarded, like ill-fated cattle, destined for
slaughter, the wretched creatures suffered themselves, to be driven
forth; and from the neighbouring moun