he
demolition of the large Protestant temple at Montpellier. The pretext
for destroying the latter was of a singular character.

A Protestant pastor, M. Paulet, had been bribed into embracing the
Roman Catholic religion, in reward for which he was appointed
counsellor to the Presidial Court of Montpellier. But his wife and one
of his daughters refused to apostatize with him. The daughter, though
only between ten and eleven years old, was sent to a convent at
Teirargues, where, after enduring considerable persecution, she
persisted in her steadfastness, and was released after a twelvemonth's
confinement. Five years later she was again seized and sent to another
convent; but, continuing immovable against the entreaties and threats
of the abbess and confessor, she was again set at liberty.

An apostate priest, however, who had many years before renounced the
Protestant faith, and become director and confessor of the nuns at
Teirargues, forged two documents; the one to show that while at the
convent, Mdlle. Paulet had consented to embrace the Catholic religion,
and the other containing her formal abjuration. It was alleged that
her abjuration had been signified to Isaac Dubourdieu, of Montpellier,
one of the most distinguished pastors of the French Church; but that,
nevertheless, he had admitted her to the sacrament. This, if true, was
contrary to law; upon which the Catholic clergy laid information
against the pastor and the young lady before the Parliament of
Toulouse, when they obtained sentence of imprisonment against the
former, and the penance of _amende honorable_ against the latter.

The demolition of temples was the usual consequence of convictions
like these. The Duc de Noailles, lieutenant-general of the province,
entered the city on the 16th of October, 1682, accompanied by a strong
military force; and at a sitting of the Assembly of the States which
shortly followed, the question of demolishing the Protestant temple at
Montpellier was brought under consideration. Four of the Protestant
pastors and several of the elders had before waited upon De Noailles
to claim a respite until they should have submitted their cause to the
King in Council.

The request having been refused, one of the deputation protested
against the illegality of the proceedings, and had the temerity to ask
his excellency whether he was aware that there were eighteen hundred
thousand Protestant families in France? Upon which the Duke, turni