place their
children in Catholic schools, to be taught the Catechism by the
priests. A new ordinance was soon issued, which required that the
children, between five and sixteen, of all _suspected_ of
Protestantism, should be taken from their parents and placed in
Catholic families. A general search was made throughout the kingdom
for all books which could be deemed favorable to the Protestant
faith. These were destroyed to the last copy. Thus perished many very
valuable works. "The Bible itself, the Bible above all, was
confiscated and burned with persevering animosity."[U]

[Footnote U: History of the Protestants of France, by Prof. G. De
Felice.]

But there is no power of persecution which can utterly crush out two
or three millions of people. There were occasional reactions. Louis
XIV. himself became, at times, appalled by the atrocities his dragoons
were perpetrating, and he commanded more moderation. In some of the
provinces where the Protestants had been greatly in the majority, the
king found it very difficult to enforce his despotic and sanguinary
code. The persecuted people who could not fly from the kingdom, some
having given a compulsory and nominal assent to Catholicism, held
secret assemblies in forests, on mountain summits, and in wild
ravines. Some of the pastors ventured to return to France, and to
assist in these scenes of perilous worship.

"On hearing this, the king, his ministers, and the Jesuits were
transported with uncontrollable rage. Sentence of death was
pronounced in the month of July, 1686, against the pastors who had
returned to France. Those who lent them an asylum, or any assistance
whatever, were condemned to the galleys for life. A reward of five
thousand five hundred livres was promised to any one who seized or
secured the seizure of a minister. The sentence of death was
pronounced against all who should be taken in any of these religious
assemblies."[V]

[Footnote V: M. G. De Felice.]

Soldiers were sent in all directions to hunt the Protestants. "It
was," writes Voltaire, "a chase in a grand cover." If the voice of
prayer or of a psalm were heard in any wild retreat, the soldiers
opened fire upon the assembly of men, women, and children, and hewed
them down without mercy with their blood-stained swords. In several of
these encounters, three or four hundred men, women, and young children
were left dead and unburied upon the spot.

If any sick persons, apparently near death, re