Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/32

 26 their abode in a small, and not very convenient house, which they hired. They continued to occupy it until her death, which took place twelve years after their marriage. They had been very happy together, and were the parents of several children, five of whom lived to mature age, and perhaps I may as well name them here, before I proceed to the second marriage of my father.

1. Jane married unfortunately a Mr. L'Hommeau, a man of good property, but who turned out to be an idle, drunken spendthrift, who wasted his substance in riotous living, and in the end Jane was obliged to maintain herself and family by keeping a school.

2. Judith married Mr. Guiennot, and was left a widow with four children. She was seized during the persecution and confined in a convent, from which she only obtained release by making a compulsory abjuration. She was so fortunate as to escape from France, and she and her daughters maintained themselves by needlework in London.

I would here pause, and call your attention to the uncertainty of this world's goods. You may observe, in the short history I have already given of the fortunes of a single family, how mutable are all worldly possessions. Who could have foreseen, when the father of my grandfather was honored and respected in the Court of Francis I., that three of his children would have to beg their bread from door to door, and be glad to learn how to support themselves by mechanical employments; and equally in my father's family; how little could it have been anticipated, when Jane and Judith married rich men, that they also would be obliged to work for their living!

3. James was educated for the ministry, and became pastor