oming into notice. At the age of
about twenty he was thrown into the Bastille; for having
written a satire on Louis XIV., of which the following is an
extract:--

"J'ai vu sous l'habit d'une femme
Un demon nous donner la loi;
Elle sacrifia son Dieu, sa foi, son ame,
Pour seduire l'esprit d'un trop credule roi.

* * * * *

J'ai vu l'hypocrite honore:
J'ai vu, c'est dire tout, le jesuite adore:
J'ai vu ces maux sous le regne funeste
D'un prince que jadis la colere celeste
Accorda, par vengeance, a nos desirs ardens:
J'ai vu ces maux, et je n'ai pas vingt ans."

Voltaire denied having written this satire.]

Louis XIV. died in August, 1715. During that very month, Court
summoned together a small number of Huguenots to consider his
suggestions. The meeting was held at daybreak, in an empty quarry near
Nismes, which has already been mentioned in the course of this
history. But it may here be necessary to inform the reader of the
early life of this enthusiastic young man.

Antoine Court was born at Villeneuve de Berg, in Viverais, in the year
1696. Religious persecution was then at its height; assemblies were
vigorously put down; and all pastors taken prisoners were hanged on
the Peyrou at Montpellier. Court was only four years old when his
father died, and his mother resolved, if the boy lived, to train him
up so that he might consecrate himself to the service of God. He was
still very young while the Camisard war was in progress, but he heard
a great deal about it, and vividly remembered all that he heard.

Antoine Court, like many Protestant children, was compelled to attend
a Jesuit school in his neighbourhood. Though but a boy he abhorred the
Mass. With Protestants the Mass was then the symbol of persecution; it
was identified with the Revocation of the Edict--the dragonnades, the
galleys, the prisons, the nunneries, the monkeries, and the Jesuits.
The Mass was not a matter of knowledge, but of fear, of terror, and of
hereditary hatred.

At school, the other boys were most bitter against Court, because he
was the son of a Huguenot. Every sort of mischief was practised upon
him, for little boys are generally among the greatest of persecutors.
Court was stoned, worried, railed at, laughed at, spit at. When
leaving school, th