but of all Flanders, even as far as Brussels, and used his influence with them to beg many temporal favors for his people; got his village schoolmasters exempted from service in the army, saved the farmers and their horses from forced labors in the winter, and even warned the Ministry at Paris that the devastated country could be the theater of no more campaigns. When the commissariat of the king was in extreme want of corn, the archbishop emptied his immense granaries for their subsistence, and absolutely refused all compensation. He said, “The king owes me nothing, and in times of calamity it is my duty as a citizen and a bishop to give back to the State what I have received from it.” It was thus he avenged himself for his disgrace. At another critical moment, only a timely advance from his own purse prevented the garrison of St. Omer from going over in a body to the enemy, as other unpaid regiments had done. It is no wonder that he became the idol of the troops, who sang his praises even in the antechambers of Versailles. And his fame stood equally high with those who were fighting against the king. He was loved by so many because he was himself so full of love. An instance of his largeness both of mind and heart occurred during these closing years, which deserves to be recorded, for it certainly does not stand alone. The English prince known as the Old Pretender was an officer in the French army in 1709, and his duty took him near to Cambrai. In the conversations which passed between them, the archbishop recommended to him very emphatically never to compel his subjects to change their religion. “Liberty of thought,” said he, “is an impregnable fortress which no human power can force. Violence can never convince; it only makes hypocrites. When kings take it upon them to direct in matters of religion instead of protecting it, they bring it into bondage. You ought therefore to grant to all a legal toleration; not as approving everything indifferently, but as suffering with patience what God suffers; endeavoring in a proper manner to restore such as are misled, but never by any measures but those of gentle and benevolent persuasion.”