Protestantism in France From Death of Henry IV to the Revolution - James Aitken Wylie

twenty on them." The number of soldiers allotted
to each Protestant family varied from four to ten.
The men were made aware that they might do as
they had a mind, short of actually killing the
inmates. "They gave the reins to their passions,"
says Migault, describing the horrors of which he
was eye-witness; "devastation, pillage, torture --
there was nothing they recoiled at." The details
must be suppressed; they are too horrible to be
read. The poor people knew not what to do; they
fled to the woods; they hid themselves in the caves
of the mountains; many went mad; and others,
scarce knowing what they did, kissed a crucifix,
and had their names enrolled among the converts.
The emigration was resumed on a great scale.
Thousands rose to flee from a land where
nothing awaited them but misery. The court
attempted to arrest the fugitives by threatening
them with the galleys for life. The exodus
continued despite this terrible law. The refugees
were joyfully welcomed in England and in the
other Protestant lands to which, with their persons,
they transferred their industry, their knowledge of
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