Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/91

Rh I said, "No, and I can produce any number of witnesses to prove an alibi, if you will allow me to call them. I spent that day at Coses."

Very little was said about my crime in prison, because I acknowledged unhesitatingly that I had prayed there, but in a low tone of voice.

After some other questions, they asked me if I did not know that His Majesty had issued a declaration forbidding illegal assemblies.

I thought that God had now most assuredly opened the door for me to say something on behalf of my fellow-prisoners, and I replied: "Gentlemen, I am aware of it, and I have read the declaration over and over again, and I can find nothing in it which forbids people assembling to pray to God. I look upon it as the height of injustice to His Majesty to pretend that he calls such assemblies unlawful, and you, who are the interpreters of his declaration, ought to have more respect for him and for your own reputation as Christians, than to give it so bad an interpretation as to call assemblies illegal, to which no arms are carried but the Old and New Testament, and where no words are uttered but such as find an echo in those sacred volumes, and where prayers are offered up for the prosperity of the King and his kingdom, and for the conversion of those who persecute the Church of Christ."

A curious interruption occurred here. My advocate, Mr. Maureau, had been listening at the door, and he was afraid I should injure my cause by speaking so boldly, so he put his mouth to a crevice and cried, "Hist! hist! hist!" and ran away. The door was ordered to be opened, but the offender was not to be seen, so they contented themselves with guarding it more carefully. This incident roused the attention of