Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/65

 Rh Our holy meetings continued without molestation or drawback of any sort till Palm Sunday, 1684. Being only a candidate, and not a regularly authorized minister, I judged it best to advise my people to go to some of the few remaining churches, in order to receive the Communion with their brethren. I wished to partake of that holy sacrament myself, and for the purpose I went to the other side of the province, and tarried with friends there, with whom I received the Communion, both on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, and remained until ten or twelve days after Easter.

On Palm Sunday, some of the neighbors came to my house as usual, and finding that I was not there, they retired to a wood behind the house for religious worship, and one of their number, a mason by trade, who could read very well, officiated as pastor. He read several chapters from the Bible, the prayers of the Church, and a sermon; and some psalms were sung. This meeting having taken place openly, the report of it was noised abroad, and on Holy Thursday from seven to eight hundred assembled on the same spot, the mason again the pastor. On Easter Sunday the number increased to a thousand.

In the neighborhood there lived a miserable pettifogging attorney, named Agoust, a base deceitful man, who had been a Protestant, but had abjured his religion to retain his employment. His house was within four hundred paces of the high road, by which many persons returned from the meeting, and he seated himself at his window to watch the passers-by, hoping to be able to give information by which he might ingratiate himself with those in power. The services had continued until after dusk, therefore it was too dark to recognise individuals at that distance; nevertheless, he made