My wife and I were wakened a dozen times during those terrible months by the rattle of musketry about 5.30 in the morning, and we knew that another batch of poor Malagasy were shot as suspects. According to British law, every man is regarded as innocent until he is proved guilty; but according to French law any one can be arrested on suspicion, and must prove himself innocent. Many a poor Protestant pastor, evangelist, or church member, was arrested at night, brought out at daylight and shot, without getting the chance of proving anything, until even the French colonel-commandant of the capital said, ‘there had been a great deal too much indiscriminate shooting’; and himself rescued some who were to be shot. Some of the French officers treated the Malagasy very humanely, and some few even kindly. I knew one who confessed he could not sleep at night for thinking of how unjustly they had been treated; but, he added, ‘I am determined they shall have justice in my jurisdiction,’ and they had, with the result that the people adored, almost worshipped that officer, and wept like children when he left. On the subject of the shooting of innocent Protestant pastors and church members, I content myself by allowing the late Pasteur B. Escande to bear his testimony, by quoting some extracts from the private letters to his wife, written during his stay in the island, which she has published since his murder under the title ‘_Nine Months in Madagascar_.’ ‘October, 1896. You know the events which have changed the political and religious outlook in Madagascar:--M. Laroche recalled, General Gallieni given the charge in the interim of the general residence, finally the state of siege proclaimed in the disturbed parts of the island, notably in Imèrina and Bètsilèo, where the great mass of Protestant missionaries are located. ‘From the religious point of view this change of _régime_ is greatly to be regretted. It is not that General Gallieni is in any way hostile to Protestant missions, or that we have not found in him the aid and protection which we had the right to expect from the representative of France. The General, on the contrary, has been very kind to M. Lauga and myself; very courteous also to the English and Norwegian missionaries, who had assured him of the loyal sentiments they felt towards France. On that side everything is satisfactory, and we have only to congratulate ourselves on our new Resident. It is not less the fact, however, that the Jesuits have profited by the new arrangements, in order to try and restore in Madagascar the France of Louis XIV. Under the administration of M. Laroche, and previously also, they had indulged in skirmishes, partial combats. To-day war is declared, “war to the knife,” as an officer well acquainted with the situation said to us, and a war in which the Jesuits have an advantage over us in having at their disposal those redoubtable weapons which one calls calumny, lies, and deceit in all their forms.