The Huguenots in France

places. They all arrived in safety at their destination, which was in the mountain district of the Cevennes. They resorted to the neighbourhood of the Aigoual, the centre of a very i

to the fatigue and privations attending the work. He was ill and unable to travel, and wa

chers that could be apprehended. The soldiers scoured the country, and, helped by the paid spies, they shortly succeeded in apprehending Boisson and Dombres, at St. Paul's, north of Anduze, in the Cevennes. They were both executed at Ni

rely undertook, as occasion required, to read the Scriptures in Protestant families and in small companies, making his remarks and exhortations there

bled to hear him read and exhort, he was strongly urged to undertake the office of public instr

ivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also prayed in the

ister to them the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist-"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the g

ranks of his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits, who sought his apprehension and death; and he was h

by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to

cross a horse in order to be carried to Montpellier. His bowels were so injured and his body so crushed by th

Montpellier, and then hanged. "The punishment," said Louvreleuil, his tormentor, "which broke his bones, did not break his hardened heart:

or imprisoned, during the first year that Brousso

ptures and praying with them, were apprehended by Baville, the King's intendant, and punished. Isabeau Redothière, eighteen

on offered, I have sought God in prayer for them; and, if your lordship calls that preaching, I have been a preacher." "But," said the Intendant, "you know that the King has fo

fe in the Tower of Constance, a place echoing with the groans of women, most of whom we

is believed she died there. Nothing, however, is known of the time when she died. When a woman was

tjoye was found assisting at one of the secret assemblies. She was solicited in

s and plains. There it was necessary for him to be exceedingly cautious. The number of dragoons in Languedoc had been increased so as to enable them reg

they were held at night, when a few lanterns were hung on the adjacent trees to give light. Sentinels were set in the neighbourhood, and all the adjoining roads were watched. After the meeting was over the assemblage dispersed in different directions, a

g the service. One of the Government spies was present, and gave information. The name of the Protestant nobleman was not known. But the Intendant, to strike terror into others, seized six of the principal landed proprietors in the neighbo

houses, and at liberty to plunder and extort money to any extent. They were also incessantly on the look out for the assemblies, being often led by mounted priests and spies to places where they had been informed that meetings were about to be held.

ist the attempts made to capture him. He had at first carried a sword, but at length ceased to wear it, being resolved

the first and last time. The reward of ten thousand livres being now offered for the apprehension of Brousson and Vivens, or five thousand for either, an active search was made throughout the province. At length the Government found themselves on the track of Vivens. O

was struck by a volley, and fell dead. The three other persons in the cave being in a position to hold the soldiers at defiance for some time, were promised their lives if they would surrender. They did so, and with the utter want of truth, loyalty, and manliness that character

ion, but to give himself some absolutely necessary rest. He accordingly proceeded to Nismes, his birthplace, where many people knew him; and where, if they betrayed him, they might easily have earned five thousand livres.

n, an aged minister, who had returned from Switzerland to resume his ministry, according as he might find it practicable. The result of this discovery was, that Guion was apprehended, taken before the Intendant, condemned to be executed, and sent to Montpelli

ace on the Gardon, between Valence, Brignon, and St. Maurice, about ten miles distant from Nismes. Although he had requested that only the Protestants in the immediate neighbourhood should attend the meeting, so as not to excite

en dissolved. One troop of soldiers took ambush in a wood through which the worshippers would return on their way back to Uzes. The command had been given to "draw blood from the conventicles." On the approach of the people the soldi

advise him of the approach of danger, and he sped away to take shelter in another quarter. The soldiers were, however, close upon his heels; and one morning, in attempting to enter a village for the purpose of drying himself-having been exposed to the winter's rain and cold all night-he suddenly came upon a detachment of soldiers! He avo

y watched some of the people on their return. One of these, an old woman, who had been observed to leave the place, was shot on enteri

his life if he would conform to the Catholic religion. In the following year Paul Colognac was executed, after being broken to death on the wheel at Masselargais, near to which he had held his last assembly. His arms, thighs, legs, and feet were severally

, exposed to rain and snow,-and sometimes he had even to contend with a wolf for the shelter of a cave. Often he was almost perishing for want of food; and often he found himself nearly rea

Poutant, one of those who originally accompanied him from Switzerland and had not yet been taken prisoner by the s

is knees, he wrote the sermons, for the most part in woods and caves. He copied out seventeen of these sermons, which he sent to Louis XIV., to show him t

under the bitter persecutions which Brousson had suffered during so many years, they would have been full of denunciation; on the contrary, th

ure to cold, and his voice had become so much impaired, that he could not preach. He also heard that his family, whom he had left at Lausanne, required his assistance. His only son w

ght later, having been engaged on his extraordinary mission of duty and peril for four years and five months. He was received like one rescued from the dead. His health

d, he again proceeded on his travels into foreign countries. He first went into Holland. He had scarcely arrived there, when intelligence reached him from Montpellier of the execution, after

ow could his end have been more happy and more glorious? His constancy, his sweetness of temper, his patience, his humility, his faith, his hope, and his piety, affected even his judges and the false pastors who e

orwarding an increased number of French emigrants-then resident in Switzerland-for settlement in this country. In London, he met many of his friends from the South of France-for there were settled there as ministers, Graverol of Nismes, Satur of Montauban, four ministers from Montp

es, while he was living in the society of his wife and family-Brousson nevertheless very soon began to be ill at ease. He still thought of the abandoned Huguenots "in the Desert"; without teachers, without pastors, without spiritual help of any kind. When he had undertaken the work of the ministry, he had vowed that he would devote h

he service of the oppressed and afflicted members of his native Church in France. The Dutch Government, however, having been informed of his perilous and

m, but entering the country. Those who guided Protestant pastors on their concealed visits to France, were men of great zeal and courage-known to be faithful and self-denying-and thoroughly acquainted with the country. They knew all the woods, and fords, and caves, and places of natural shelter along the route. They made the itinerary o

not preachers back to France, and escorting flying Huguenot men, women, and children from it.[28] The pastor and his guide started about the

otestant learning and Protestant industry. One of the four principal Huguenot academies of France was situated in that town. It was suppressed in 1681, shortly before the Revocation, an

es.[29] At the Revocation, the Protestants packed up their tools and property, suddenly escaped across the frontier, near which they were, and went and established themselves in the Low Countries, where they might pursue

villages of Givonne and Daigny. He visited them in their families, and also held several pr

next morning invested the house in which Brousson slept. They first apprehended Bruman, the guide, and thought that in him they had secured the pastor. They next rummag

ldren, seeing Brousson's feet under the door, one of them ran after the officer of the party, and exclaimed to him, pointing back, "Here, si

et out on the same evening with another guide. He visited many places in which Protestants were to be found-in Champa

s), weeping day and night, and imploring the grace and consolations of the Gospel in their distress. Their persecutors daily oppress them, and burden them with taxes and imposts; but the more discerning of the Roman Catholics acknowledge that the cruelties and injustice done towards so many innocent persons,

of his friends in the Cevennes suffered martyrdom-La Porte on the 7th of February, 1696, and Henri Guer

ceeded to visit his friends throughout the cantons of Switzerland, and then

ident in Holland endeavoured to bring the persecutions of the French Protestants under the notice of the Conference. But Louis XIV. would not brook this interference. He proposed

o be. In a letter which he wrote to console her, from some remote place where he was snowed up about the middle of the following December, he said: "I cannot at present enter into the details of the work the Lord has given me grace to labour in; but it is the source of much consolation to a large number of his poor people. It will

had been concealed, he made his way across the country to the Viverais, where he laboured for some time. Here he heard of the

nd Dauphiny. He excited so much interest amongst the Protestants, who resorted from a great distance to attend his assemblies, that the spies (who wer

with soldiers. "The soldiers or militia," said Brousson to a friend in Holland, "frequently commit horrible ravages, breaking open the cabinets, removing every article that is saleable, which are often purchased by the priests at insignificant prices; the rest they burn and brea

Brousson nevertheless entered Nismes, and found refuge amongst his friends. He had, however, the imprudence to post there a petition to the King, signed by his own hand, which had the effect of at once setting the spies upon his track. Leaving the

was not in the house; he was not in the chimneys; he was not in the outhouses. He must be in the well! A soldier went down the well to make a personal examination. He was let down close to the surface of the water

roceeding as far as Bearn, where a remnant of Huguenots still lingered, notwithstanding the repeated dragooning to which the district had been subjected. It was at Oberon that he fell into the hands of a spy

the reward set upon Brousson's head, the Intendant replied with indignation, "Wretch! don't y

time the centre of the Reformation movement in the South of France-where Calvin

w that all the soldiers were asleep. He had but to step on shore to regain his liberty; but he had promised to the Intendant of Bearn, who had allowed him to go unfettered, that he would not attempt to

sidial Court. The trial was a farce, because it had been predetermined that Brousson should die. He was charged with preaching in France contrary to the King's prohibition. This he admitted; but when asked to whom he had administered the Sacrament, he positively refused to disclose, because he was neither a traitor no

hudder. He was tied on the rack, but when he refused to accuse his brethren he was released from it. Attempts were made by several priests and friars to add hi

ng extensive views of the surrounding country. In clear weather, Mont Ventoux, one of the Alpine summits, may be seen across the broad valley of the Rh?ne on the east, and the peak of Mont Canizou in the Pyrenees

e of Louis XIV. occupies the centre of the area; and a triumphal arch stands at the entrance to the promenade, erected to commemorate the "glories" of the same monarch, more particularly the Re

e policy for which Louis XIV. was here glorified by an equestrian statue and a triumphal arch continued to be persevered in-of

here sometimes half-a-dozen decaying corpses might be seen swinging from the gibbets on which they had been hung. It was specially reserved, because of its infamy, for the execution of he

nty thousand persons were there, including the principal nobility of the city and province, besides many inhabitants of the adjoining mountain district of the Cevennes, some of whom had come from a great distance to be present. In the centre of the plateau, near where

walked slowly towards the scaffold, engaged in earnest prayer, his eyes and hands lifted towards heaven. On mounting the platform, he stood forward to say a few last words to the people, and give to many of his friends, whom he knew to

narch, at whose instance Brousson had laid down his life, appeared upon a scaffold in the Place Louis XIV. in Paris, and implor