fused to receive the
sacraments of the Catholic Church from the hands of a Catholic priest,
should they recover, they were punished with confiscation of property
and consignment to the galleys for life. If they did not recover,
their bodies were refused respectful burial, and were dragged on a
hurdle and thrown into a ditch, to be devoured by carrion crows.

Many honorable Catholics cried out with horror against these
enormities. All humane hearts revolted against such cruelty. The voice
of indignant remonstrance rose from every Protestant nation. The
French court became embarrassed. Two millions of people could not be
put to death. The prisons were filled to suffocation. The galleys were
crowded, and could receive no more. Many were transported to America.

The Jansenists remonstrated. The good Catholic bishops of Grenoble and
St. Poins boldly addressed the curates of their dioceses, directing
them not to force communion upon the Protestants, and forbidding all
violence. Many pious curates refused to act the part of accusers, or
to torment the dying with their importunities. But the Jesuits and the
great mass of the clergy urged on the persecution.

Madame de Maintenon became greatly troubled by these atrocities,
against which she did not dare to remonstrate. Louis XIV. was somewhat
alarmed by the outcry which these measures aroused from Protestant
Europe, but his pride revolted against making the admission, before
his subjects and foreign courts, that he could have been guilty of a
mistake. He could not endure the thought of humbling himself by a
retraction, thus confessing that he had failed in an enterprise upon
which he had entered with such determination. Thus influenced, the
king, on the 13th of April, 1662, issued a decree solemnly confirming
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. "Not one law of torture and
blood was abolished."

The king, meanwhile, urged by his growing passion for Madame de
Maintenon, determined to remove from court Madame de Montespan, whom
he had come to thoroughly dislike. But he had not the courage to
announce his determination in person. He therefore commissioned Madame
de Maintenon to make the painful communication. She, shrinking from so
unwelcome a task, persuaded the Marquis de Vivonne, brother of the
marchioness, to break the tidings to his sister. He invited her to
take a ride with him in his carriage, gradually introduced the
subject, and at last plainly informed her that she