died with courage.

In 1742 France was at war, and the Huguenots enjoyed a certain amount
of liberty. The edicts against them were by no means revoked; their
execution was merely suspended. The provinces were stripped of troops,
and the clergy could no longer call upon them to scatter the meetings
in the Desert. Hence the assemblies increased. The people began to
think that the commandants of the provinces had received orders to
shut their eyes, and see nothing of the proceedings of the Huguenots.

At a meeting held in a valley between Calvisson and Langlade, in
Languedoc, no fewer than ten thousand persons openly met for worship.
No troops appeared. There was no alarm nor surprise. Everything passed
in perfect quiet. In many other places, public worship was celebrated,
the sacrament was administered, children were baptized, and marriages
were celebrated in the open day.[61]

[Footnote 61: Although marriages by the pastors had long been
declared illegal, they nevertheless married and baptized in
the Desert. After 1730, the number of Protestant marriages
greatly multiplied, though it was known that the issue of
such marriages were declared, by the laws of France to be
illegal. Many of the Protestants of Dauphiny went across the
frontier into Switzerland, principally to Geneva, and were
there married.]

The Catholics again urgently complained to the government of the
increasing number of Huguenot meetings. The Bishop of Poitiers
complained that in certain parishes of his diocese there was not now a
single Catholic. Low Poitou contained thirty Protestant churches,
divided into twelve arrondissements, and each arrondissement contained
about seven thousand members. The Procureur-General of Normandy said,
"All this country is full of Huguenots." But the government had at
present no troops to spare, and the Catholic bishops and clergy must
necessarily wait until the war with the English and the Austrians had
come to an end.

Antoine Court paid a short visit to Languedoc in 1744, to reconcile a
difference which had arisen in the Church through the irregular
conduct of Pastor Boyer. Court was received with great enthusiasm, and
when Boyer was re-established in his position as pastor, after making
his submission to the synod, a convocation of Huguenots was held near
Sauzet, at which thousands of people were present. Court remained for
about a month in