and sometimes one of their number would read a consolatory chapter from the Bible, the yells of the populace frequently drowning the voice of the reader. Day-light came at last, but it brought no relief. The doors were forced, and the unarmed worshipers would have been torn to pieces, when a detachment of the city guard arrived and took them off to prison, saving many of them for a still crueler death. As the helpless captives were dragged through the streets, the mob reviled and cast mud at them. On reaching the Châtelet, they were thrust into filthy dungeons from which the vilest criminals had been removed to make room for them; where the light of day hardly penetrated, and where “they could neither sit nor lie down, they were so crowded.”[57] The Reformed Church of Paris was in a pitiable state, so many of its members being in peril of their lives. Extraordinary prayers were offered up in every family for the delivery of the martyrs, and a remonstrance drawn up by the elders was presented to the king, who put it aside unnoticed. But (strange to say!) there was no eager haste to punish the prisoners any farther, the example of their seizure having frightened many back to orthodoxy. But orthodox agitators were busily at work to keep up the popular excitement and prevent the escape of the captives. The heretics and all who would shelter them were vehemently denounced from the pulpit, and inflammatory placards were stuck on every wall. A verse from one of these, posted all over Paris on Christmas day, 1557, will show the style in which the popular fury was stirred against the “Lutherans.” Paris, en ce temps froidureux Que les nuits sont longues et fraiches, Tu dois bien veiller sur tous ceux Qui font auprès de toi des prêches. Si, de bref, tu ne les dépêches, Jamais paix n’auront les chrétiens; Car ceux que tu souffres et tiens Te causeront tant de courroux, Que tu diras, toy et les tiens: Montagnes, tombez dessus nous. When the excitement had abated, and the affair was almost forgotten, the prisoners of the Rue St. Jacques were brought to trial. Their lives were forfeited by the mere fact of their presence at an unlawful assembly, and the alternative of recantation or death was presented to them; but they would not yield an inch. They found that man’s weakness was God’s strength.