t attire les regards de la police par leur
beaute, etaient enlevees a leurs meres par plusieurs
artifices, conduites a Versailles, et retenues dans les
parties les plus elevees et les plus inaccessibles des petits
appartements du roi.... Le nombre des malheureuses qui
passerent successivement a Parc-aux-Cerfs est immense; a leur
sortie elles etaient mariees a des hommes vils ou credules
auxquels elles apportaient une bonne dot. Quelques unes
conservaient un traitement fort considerable." "Les depenses
du Parc-aux-Cerfs, dit Lacratelle, se payaient avec des
acquits du comptant. Il est difficile de les evaluer; mais il
ne peut y avoir aucune exageration a affirmer qu'elles
couterent plus de 100 millions a l'Etat. Dans quelques
libelles on les porte jusqu'a un milliard."--SISMONDI,
_Histoire de Francaise_, Brussels, 1844, xx. 153-4. The
account given by Sismondi of the debauches of this persecutor
of the Huguenots is very full. It is _not_ given in the "Old
Court Life of France," recently written by a lady.]

[Footnote 72: Sismondi, xx. 157.]

In the midst of all this public disregard for virtue, a spirit of
ribaldry and disregard for the sanctions of religion had long been
making its appearance in the literature of the time. The highest
speculations which can occupy the attention of man were touched with a
recklessness and power, a brilliancy of touch and a bitterness of
satire, which forced the sceptical productions of the day upon the
notice of all who studied, read, or delighted in literature;--for
those were the days of Voltaire, Rousseau, Condorcet, and the great
men of "The Encyclopaedia."

While the King indulged in his vicious pleasures, and went reeking
from his debaucheries to obtain absolution from his confessors, the
persecution of the Protestants went on as before. Nor was it until
public opinion (such as it was) was brought to bear upon the hideous
incongruity that religious persecutions were at once brought summarily
to an end.

The last executions of Huguenots in France because of their
Protestantism occurred in 1762. Francis Rochette, a young pastor,
twenty-six years old, was laid up by sickness at Montauban. He
recovered sufficiently to proceed to the waters of St. Antonin for the
recovery of his health, when he was seized, together with hi