292 Readings in European History followed it, were the fruits of a frightful plot, in which the new spouse was one of the chief conspirators, and which depop- ulated a quarter of the realm ; ruined its commerce ; weak- ened it in every direction ; gave it up for a long time to the public and avowed pillage of the dragoons ; authorized tor- ments and punishments by which many innocent people of both sexes were killed by thousands ; ruined a numerous class ; tore in pieces a world of families ; armed relatives against relatives, so as to seize their property and leave them to die of hunger ; banished our manufactures to foreign lands; made those lands flourish and overflow at the expense of France, and enabled them to build new cities ; gave to the world the spectacle of a prodigious population pro- scribed without crime, stripped, fugitive, wandering, and seeking shelter far from their country; sent to the galleys nobles, rich old men, people much esteemed for their piety, learning, and virtue, people carefully nurtured, weak, and delicate ; — and all solely on account of religion ; in fact, to heap up the measure of horror, filled the realm with perjury and sacrilege, in the midst of the echoed cries of these un- fortunate victims of error, while so many others sacrificed their conscience to their wealth and their repose, and pur- chased both by simulated abjuration, from which without pause they were dragged to adore what they did not believe in, and to receive the divine body of the Most Holy whilst remaining persuaded that they were only eating bread which they ought to abhor ! Such was the general abomination born of flattery and cruelty. From torture to abjuration, and from that to com- munion, there was often only a space of twenty-four hours ; and executioners were the guides of the converts and their witnesses. . . . The king received from all sides detailed news of these conversions. It was by thousands that those who had abjured and taken the communion were counted ; ten thousand in one place, six thousand in another, — all at once and instantly. The king congratulated himself on his power and his piety. He believed himself to have brought back the days of the apostles, and attributed to himself
