suaded him thus to seek expiation for his sins. The result of
the act was that four hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the
most industrious, intelligent, and useful people of France, left the
country rather than to give up their religion. They took refuge in
Great Britain, Holland, Prussia, Switzerland, and America. From them
these countries learned some of the finest French arts.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was one of the many acts of
injustice that opened the way for the French Revolution, by destroying
public virtue.

Some of the most terrible scenes of the Revolution were enacted at
Nantes.

One of the first visits made by the Class at Nantes was to the old
warehouse, called the Salorges, built as an entrepot for colonial
merchandize, which is associated with the inhuman murders of the
Revolution. Here the monster Carrier caused men and women to be tied
together and hurled into the Loire, making an exhibition of the
cruelty which was known as Republican Marriages. It was in front of
the Salorges that executions by water, called Noyades, were
performed. Boats loaded with from twenty to forty victims were towed
into the middle of the river, and were sunk by means of trap-doors in
their sides, which were opened by cords communicating with the shore.
If any of these wretched people attempted to escape by swimming, they
were shot. As many as six hundred human beings perished in this way in
a single day. The whole number of persons thus destroyed reached many
thousands. Women and children were drowned as well as men. The river
became so full of bodies that the air was made pestilent.

This was during the dark days of the Reign of Terror, when Marat and
Robespierre ruled France. Besides the victims of the Noyades were
those who perished in other merciless ways. Five hundred children were
shot in a single day, and were buried in trenches that had been
prepared for the purpose.

"I do not wonder that Charlotte Corday, who killed Marat, should have
been regarded as a heroine," said Frank Gray. "I cannot understand how
Frenchmen, who seem to be the most polite, obliging, kind-hearted,
people in the world, could have been led to do the bloody deeds of the
Reign of Terror."

"That is because you have read history too much without thought. In
reading history always go back to the causes of things. Read backward
as well as forward. All the great palaces in France you have seen were
built by the money o