supported and guarded, as in fact we
do support and guard them, in the full enjoyment of the Edict of
Nantes."

The king had even appointed, the year before, two commissaries, the
one a Catholic, the other a Protestant, to visit every province, and
see that the requisitions of the Edict of Nantes were faithfully
observed. This seemed very fair. But, in appointing these
commissioners, a Catholic was always appointed who was a high
dignitary of the state, a man of wealth and rank, distinguished for
his devotion to the interests of the Catholic Church. On the other
hand, the Protestant was always some poor country gentleman, timid and
irresolute, and often one who had been secretly sold to the court to
betray his duties.

The Protestants had hoped much from the influence of Madame de
Maintenon over the king, as she was the granddaughter of Agrippa
d'Aubigne, one of the most illustrious defenders of the Calvinistic
faith, and as she herself had been a Protestant until she had attained
the age of sixteen years.

But the king was fanatically Catholic, hoping, in some measure, to
atone for his sins by his supreme devotion to the interests of the
Church. Madame de Maintenon found it necessary, in promotion of her
ambitious plans, to do all in her power to conceal her Protestant
origin. She was fully aware of the king's great dislike to the
Protestants, and of the necessity of cordially co-operating with him
in these views. Still she could not refrain from manifesting some
compassion at times for the sufferings of the friends of her earlier
years.

Louis XIV., while assuring the Protestant powers of Europe that he
would continue to respect the Edict of Nantes, commenced issuing a
series of ordinances in direct opposition to that contract. First he
excluded Protestants from all public offices whatever. A Protestant
could not be employed as a physician, lawyer, apothecary, bookseller,
printer, or even as a nurse. This decree was issued in 1680. In some
portions of the kingdom the Protestants composed nearly the entire
population. Here it was impossible to enforce the atrocious decree. In
other places it led to riots and bloodshed.

This ordinance was followed by one forbidding marriages between
Catholics and Protestants. Catholic servants were forbidden to serve
in Protestant families, and Protestant servants could not be employed
by Catholics.

Rapidly blow followed blow. On the 17th of June, 1680, the king issued
the f