esires that you continue to give great care to this matter. He thinks
it best that the chief part of the cavalry and officers should be
lodged in the houses of the Protestants. If, after a just
distribution, the Calvinists would have to provide for ten soldiers,
you can make them take twenty."

The governor, Marillac, lodged from four to ten dragoons in the house
of every Protestant. The soldiers were directed not to kill the people
with whom they lodged, but to do every thing in their power to
constrain them to abjure Protestantism. Thus originated that system of
_dragonnades_ which has left an indelible stain upon the character of
Louis XIV., and the recital of which has inspired every reader with
horror.

"The cavalry attached crosses to the muzzles of their muskets to force
the Protestants to kiss them. When any one resisted, they thrust
these crosses against the face and breasts of the unfortunate people.
They spared children no more than persons advanced in years. Without
compassion for their age, they fell upon them with blows, and beat
them with the flat side of their swords and the butt of their muskets.
They did this so cruelly that some were crippled for life."[T]

[Footnote T: Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes, t. iv., p. 479.]

It does not reflect credit upon Madame de Maintenon that she was eager
to enrich her friends from the spoils of these persecuted Christians.
Her brother was to receive a present of one hundred and eight thousand
francs ($21,600). This sum was then three or four times as much as the
same amount of money now.

A law was now passed prohibiting the Protestants from leaving the
kingdom, and condemning to perpetual imprisonment in the galleys all
who should attempt to escape. France was ransacked to find every book
written in support of Protestantism, that it might be burned. A
representation having been made to the king of the sufferings of more
than two millions of Protestant Frenchmen, he sternly replied,

"To bring back all my subjects to Catholic unity, I would readily,
with one hand, cut off the other."

In some places the Protestants were goaded to an appeal to arms. With
the most merciless butchery they were cut down, their houses razed,
while some were put to death by lingering torture. In September, 1685,
Louvois wrote,

"Sixty thousand conversions have taken place in the district of
Bordeaux, and twenty thousand in that of Montauban. The rapidity with
which they go on is su