Caen, Bergeracs and Nimes, etc. etc.  To the Huguenot gentlemen, in the reign of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV., France was indebted for her most brilliant victories.  Marshal Rantzan, brave and devoted, received no less than sixty wounds, lost an arm, a leg, and an eye, his heart alone remaining untouched, amidst his many battles.  Need we add the names of Turenne, one of the greatest tacticians of his day, with Schomberg, who, in the language of Madame de Sevigne, ’was a hero also,’ or glorious Duquesne, the conqueror of De Ruyter?  He beat the Spaniards and English by sea, bombarded Genoa and Algiers, spreading terror among the bold corsairs of the Barbary States; the Moslemin termed him ’The old French captain who had wedded the sea, and whom the angel of death had forgotten.’  All these were illustrious leaders, with crowds of distinguished officers, and belonged to the Reformed religion.  Wonderful and strange to relate, in the midst of all this national happiness and prosperity, the kingdom of France was again to appear before the world as the persecutor of her best citizens, the destroyer of her own vital interests.  The Edict of Nantes was revoked on 22d October, 1685.  It is not our purpose to name the causes of this suicidal policy, as they are indelibly written on the pages of our world’s history, nor shall we point to the well-known provisions of this insane and bloody act.  In a word, Protestant worship was abolished throughout France, under the penalty of arrest, with the confiscation of goods.  Huguenot ministers were to quit the kingdom in a fortnight.  Protestant schools were closed, and the laity were forbidden to follow their clergy, under severe and fatal penalties.  All the strict laws concerning heretics were again renewed.  But, in spite of all these enactments, dangers and opposition, the Huguenots began to leave France by thousands.

Many entreated the court, but in vain, for permission to withdraw themselves from France.  This favor was only granted to the Marshal de Schomberg and the Marquis de Ruoigny, on condition of their retiring to Portugal and England.  Admiral Duquesne, then aged eighty, was strongly urged by the king to change his religion.  ‘During sixty years,’ said the old hero, showing his gray hairs,’ I have rendered unto Caesar the things which I owe to Caesar; permit me now, sire, to render unto God the thing which I owe to God.’  He was permitted to end his days in his native land.  The provisions of the Edict were carried out with inflexible rigor.  In the month of June, 1686, more than six hundred of the Reformed could be counted in the galleys at Marseilles, and nearly as many in those of Toulon, and the most of them condemned by the decision of a single marshal (de Mortieval).  Fortunately for the refugees, the guards along the coast did not at all times faithfully execute the royal orders, but often aided the escape of the fugitives.  Nor were the, land frontiers more faithfully guarded.  In our day, it is impossible