themselves to every kind of brutal license, violence, and excess, establishing a veritable reign of terror wherever they appeared. It is no wonder that, under these horrors, wearied and worried well-nigh to death by such intolerable impositions, great numbers of Huguenots recanted, nominally, although, of course, their real beliefs were not changed. And when the protecting Edict was formally revoked, still more fearful cruelties followed. Multitudes of the Reformed, obstinately refusing obedience, were consigned to loathsome dungeons, racked with exquisite tortures, and treated with every kind of outrage short of actual murder. Numbers of females were immured for life in convents; infants were torn from the arms of their mothers; their property was destroyed, and whole districts were laid waste. How far the king was strictly responsible for the whole of these horrors is a matter of some question; but it is certain that he received with great satisfaction the chorus of congratulations, on this memorable Catholic triumph, from the court sycophants, who hailed him as the new Constantine, and who included in their number such men as Bossuet, Massillon, Racine, and La Fontaine. But Louis inflicted almost as deadly a blow upon his country by these persecutions as the rulers of Spain had upon theirs when they drove out the Moors and Jews. France robbed herself of her best citizens, the most enterprising and industrious of her skilled artisans. They fled abroad to the number of at least a quarter of a million, escaping from France to enrich England, Holland, and other countries with the fruits of their labors. Among them was the Duke of Schomberg, one of the best generals of his time, who placed his sword at the disposal of the Prince of Orange. Many also who remained were so crippled and depressed that they could no longer render their best service. Moreover, a bitter and profound resentment was kindled in the Protestant States of Europe, which acted very unfavorably upon the foreign relations of France, and strengthened the hands of the coalition against her. So, in every sense, the policy must be adjudged a mistaken one, counting against the greatness of the king.