Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/43

 One of the prayers ordered to be printed and offered up on the occasion was the following:—

“O Lord our God, abundant in goodness and truth, whose mercies are over all Thy works! we beseech Thee to extend Thy compassion and favour to all mankind, more particularly to the Reformed Churches abroad, and especially to those who are still under persecution for truth and righteousness’ sake. Relieve them according to their several necessities. Be a shelter and defence to them from the fury of the oppressor; and in Thy good time deliver them out of all their troubles. And whatsoever they have lost for Thy sake, return it to them, according to Thy gracious promise, in the blessings of this and a better life. And we humbly beseech Thee to enlighten all those who are in darkness and error, and to give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, that we may all become one Flock under the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer, to whom, with Thee, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory for evermore. Amen!”

The frustration of the Assassination Plot, and of the embryo Invasion coupled with it, made Louis XIV. willing to promise in the Ryswick Treaty that he would acknowledge William as king of Great Britain, and that he would be no party to future attacks upon him. This concession, as well as the blessing of peace, was as advantageous to the refugees as to the British natives. But Louis denied our king’s right to prescribe to him how any of his own subjects should be treated; and thus the question of toleration to the Huguenots in France, and of the restoration of the estates and liberties of their brethren in exile, could not even be debated. Burnet says, " The most melancholy part of this Treaty was, that no advantages were got by it in favour of the Protestants of France. . . . It did not appear that the Allies could do more for them than to recommend them, in the warmest manner, to the king of France.”

In the years 1688-89, England was flooded with reprints of famous tracts in opposition to the principles, to the spirit, and to the aims of the Stuart Dynasty. Charles II. and James II. having been pensioners of Louis XIV., Great Britain had seemed to be gradually, and perhaps rapidly, becoming a province of France, and doomed to become, like France, the scene of an awful persecution of Protestants. Such being the circumstances, it seems surprising that the translation of Claude’s Plaintes des ''Protestants was not one of the seasonable reprints. This omission'', however, was made up for, by the publication of a new quarto tract of 28 pages, entitled:— “Popish Treachery, or a Short and New Account of the Horrid Cruelties exercised on the Protestants in France, being a true Prospect of what is to be expected from the most solemn Promises of Roman Catholick Princes. In a letter from a gentleman of that nation to one in England, and by him made English. London, printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin, in the Old-Baily, 1689.” I give an extract from the Preface:—

“For the matters he here relates, there are thousands of other French Protestants now in England that confirm the truth of all. . . . I expose it, hoping it may give some seasonable information to our own people. For though most of them have heard much talk of a Persecution in France, and have generously and bountifully contributed their charity towards the relief of those miserable persecuted French Protestants who are come hither for refuge and succour, yet I have reason to believe that very few of them know anything of the cruel manner wherewith the barbarous and inhuman Papists have pursued that persecution.”

One more extract, page 19. “After they had in this manner dispersed so many families, ruined so many houses, made so many tears to be shed, and caused a general desolation, they at length made a public spectacle and divertisement thereof. The king’s players acted for many months together in Paris a comedy called Merlin Dragoon, in which the persecutors and the persecuted were the persons represented; and the court and people went in crowds to laugh and divert themselves at the oppressions and torments which the Protestants had suffered.” 