‘Tanànarìvo, Monday, April 12. The religious situation is greatly improving, at least in certain parts. General Gallieni’s circular, dated March 26, forbidding the appropriation of religious buildings by the Roman Catholics, had produced a cessation. The Protestant congregations, hoping to be no longer disturbed in their worship, begin to take courage. On the other hand, the Jesuits, no longer able to intimidate the Protestant people by taking their chapels, have adopted another plan. More than ever (for the system has always been dear to them) they forge lying accusations against our most influential members (governors, pastors, teachers, deacons) in order to have them condemned. They know by experience that when the head has fallen the rest of the body does not offer much resistance. ‘From all sides they are begging me to go to Bètsilèo, and it would not be surprising if I did accompany M. Minault. There will be ample work for two, and more. I shall, of course, wait till my colleagues have quite got into the work. It is important that our brethren in Bètsilèo should have a helping hand, especially those of the London Missionary Society, whose work has been three-quarters destroyed.’ CHAPTER XVII THE END OF THE MONARCHY ‘As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way.’--HOSEA vi. 9. The French Protestants took a great interest in our work, and rose to the occasion, and came to the rescue of Protestantism in Madagascar in a noble way. The interest in foreign missions on their part, and on the part of French-speaking Switzerland, has been of the greatest service to their churches. It has been a means of blessing to them, and revived what was dying out under the ‘dry rot’ of Rationalism, Unitarianism, and Infidelity. The income of the Paris Missionary Society has risen during ten years from £15,000 to £45,000! Much of the money was given at first from motives of sentiment and patriotism, doubtless in the interests of ‘our latest colony,’ and the spread of the French language; but much also was given, and has been continued, from the highest and purest motives. [Illustration: B. ESCANDE. P. MINAULT.]