es were
accordingly confiscated and sold, land speculators, as well as grand
seigneurs who wished to increase their estates, were constantly on the
look-out for good bargains. Even before the Revocation, when the
Huguenots were selling their land in order to leave the country,
Madame de Maintenon wrote to her nephew, for whom she had obtained
from the King a grant of 800,000 francs, "I beg of you carefully to
use the money you are about to receive. Estates in Poitou may be got
for nothing; the desolation of the Huguenots will drive them to sell
more. You may easily acquire extensive possessions in Poitou."

The Revocation was especially gratifying to the French Catholic
Church. The Pope, of course, approved of it. _Te Deums_ were sung at
Rome in thanksgiving for the forced conversion of the Huguenots. Pope
Innocent XI. sent a brief to Louis XIV., in which he promised him the
unanimous praises of the Church, "Amongst all the proofs," said he,
"which your Majesty has given of natural piety, not the least
brilliant is the zeal, truly worthy of the most Christian King, which
has induced you to revoke all the ordinances issued in favour of the
heretics of your kingdom."[5]

[Footnote 5: Pope Innocent XI.'s Letter of November 13th,
1685.]

The Jesuits were especially elated by the Revocation. It had been
brought about by the intrigues of their party, acting on the King's
mind through Madame de Maintenon and Pere la Chaise. It enabled them
to fill their schools and nunneries with the children of Protestants,
who were compelled by law to pay for their education by Jesuit
priests. To furnish the required accommodation, nearly the whole of
the Protestant temples that had not been pulled down were made over
to the Jesuits, to be converted into monastic schools and nunneries.
Even Bossuet, the "last father of the Church," shared in the spoils of
the Huguenots. A few days after the Edict had been revoked, Bossuet
applied for the materials of the temples of Nauteuil and Morcerf,
situated in his diocese; and his Majesty ordered that they should be
granted to him.[6]

[Footnote 6: "Louvois et les Protestants," par Adolphe
Michel, p. 286.]

Now that Protestantism had been put down, and the officers of Louis
announced from all parts of the kingdom that the Huguenots were
becoming converted by thousands, there was nothing but a clear course
before the Jesuits in France. For their religion was now