Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/484

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MEMOIRS OF A HUGUENOT FAMILY.

forever remain free, they and their agents alike, from all inquiry about the management and administration of the said funds, on condition that they produce, before our Court of Parliament of Paris, within four months after the publication of the present Edict, receipts duly executed by the Chiefs of the said religion or by persons empowered by them to audit and close the accounts, or by the City Corporations who held power during the troubles. They shall remain equally free from disturbance on account of any acts of hostility, levying and leading troops, coining and valuing money, according to the orders of said Chiefs, casting or seizing upon artillery and ammunition, manufacturing gunpowder, seizing, fortifying, dismantling and destroying cities, castles, towns, &c., making attempts upon them, burning and otherwise destroying churches, houses, &c.; creating courts of justice, carrying out their sentences whether in matters civil or criminal, police regulations under them, journeys made, correspondence, negotiations entered upon, treaties and contracts concluded with foreign Princes and Governments, the introduction of foreigners within cities and other places in our Kingdom, In short, every thing is to be included within this general amnesty, that has been negotiated, arranged or completed, during the said troubles, by those of the said religion and their party, since the death of the late King. Henry II.

77th.—There shall no accusation be brought against any person of the said religion for holding General or Provincial Assemblies, as well that at Mantes as elsewhere, and since, up to this present time, together with Councils established and ordered through the Provinces, Deliberations, Ordinances and Regulations, made by said Assemblies and Councils; establishing and increasing garrisons, assembling troops, levying taxes, taking them out of the hands of our Receivers, Parish Collectors or others, in any way whatever, seizing salt, continuing or erecting new stage stations, toll houses, and receiving the tolls from them, even at Royan, and on the rivers Charente, Garonne, the Rhone and Dordonne; fitting out vessels and fighting with the same, together with any accidents or excesses arriving from enforcing the payment of said tolls and other rates, fortifying cities, castles and other places, imposing taxes and forced labor (cortées) receipts from the same, deposing our Receivers, Farmers and other Officers, appointing others in their places; all combinations formed, dispatches sent and negotiations carried on within or without the Kingdom: in short, nothing done, discussed,