Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/456



I have been at considerable pains to ascertain the present condition of the descendants of the sons and daughter of James Fontaine, who settled in Virginia; and the result of my inquiry is, that, in regard to temporal circumstances, they are chiefly in the condition so touchingly prayed for by Agur, when he says:—"Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." I find scarcely any of the family who are not earning a comfortable subsistence for themselves and those who depend upon them, and at the same time there are very few who can be called actually wealthy. I am the more disposed to dwell upon this fact, from observing the very different condition of the descendants of another Huguenot refugee, who, like our ancestor, left a written memoir for the use of his children. From this record I learn that he had been a notary, and had been deprived of his employment on account of his being of the Reformed religion. He was a husband and a father. During the persecution which preceded the actual revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the dragoons visited his house, and behaved with their usual