dren were forcibly seized, taken away, and brought up in the
Jesuit schools and nunneries. And lastly, when grown up into young men
and women, they must be married by the priest, or their offspring be
declared illegitimate.

The Huguenots refused to conform to all this. Nevertheless, it was by
no means easy to continue to refuse obeying the priest. The priest was
well served with spies, though the principal spy in every parish was
himself. There were also numerous other professional spies--besides
idlers, mischief-makers, and "good-natured friends." In time of peace,
also, soldiers were usually employed in performing the disgraceful
duty of acting as spies upon the Huguenots.

The Huguenot was ordered to attend Mass under the penalty of fine and
imprisonment. Supposing he refused, because he did not believe that
the priest had the miraculous power of converting bread and wine into
something the very opposite. The priest insisted that he did possess
this power, and that he was supported by the State in demanding that
the Huguenot _must_ come and worship his transubstantiation of bread
into flesh and wine into blood. "I do not believe it," said the
Huguenot. "But I _order_ you to come, for Louis XIV. has proclaimed
you to be a converted Catholic, and if you refuse you will be at once
subject to all the penalties of heresy." It was certainly very
difficult to argue with a priest who had the hangman at his back, or
with the King who had his hundred thousand dragoons. And so, perhaps,
the threatened Huguenot went to Mass, and pretended to believe all
that the priest had said about his miraculous powers.

But many resolutely continued to refuse, willing to incur the last and
heaviest penalties. Then it came to be seen that Protestantism,
although, declared defunct by the King's edict, had not in fact expired,
but was merely reposing for a time in order to make a fresh start
forward. The Huguenots who still remained in France, whether as "new
converts" or as "obstinate heretics," at length began to emerge from
their obscurity. They met together in caves and solitary places--in deep
and rocky gorges--in valleys among the mountains--where they prayed
together, sang together their songs of David, and took counsel one with
another.

At length, from private meetings for prayer, religious assemblies
began to be held in the Desert, and preachers made their appearance.
The spies spread about the country informed the intendants. Th