Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

unjustly slain; thou wilt avenge it."[20] That appeal
went up to the bar of the great Judge; but the
answer stood over for 230 years. With the
Revolution of 1789, came Carrier of Nantes, a
worthy successor of the Cardinal of Lorraine, and
then it was seen that the cry had been heard at the
great bar to which it ascended. On the banks of the
same river did this man enact, in the name of
liberty, the same horrible butcheries which the
cardinal had perpetrated in the name of religion. A
second time did the Loire roll onward a river of
blood, bearing on its bosom a ghastly burden of
corpses.
When we look down on France in 1560, and
see her rivers reddening the seas around her coasts,
and when again we look down upon her in 1790,
and see the same portentous spectacle renewed, we
seem to hear the angel of the waters saying, "Thou
art righteous, O Lord, who art, and wast, and shalt
be, because thou hast judged thus: for they have
shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast
given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.
And I heard another angel out of the altar say, Even
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