Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/431

  “, — Your subjects who profess the Religion, which the Edicts name The Pretended Reformed, and whereof you have, for some years, interdicted the public exercise, come to throw themselves at your Majesty’s feet to make their very humble remonstrances, and to entreat your royal pity for their miseries which are so frightful, that your Majesty will not be able to cast your eyes on their deplorable state without having compassion on it.

“Sire, his Majesty has always done himself the honour of arresting the progress of his arms, and of suspending the course of his victories, in order to give peace to Europe. Must it be that your own subjects who have never violated the fidelity which they owe to you, and which the religion that they follow prescribes to them, that they alone shall be deprived of your royal bounty?

“What have they done, Sire? (permit them to use these terms). What have they done, and what vile pencil have people been able to employ in order to blacken them before the eyes of your Majesty?

“But finally, your Majesty is not immortal. Perhaps, Sire, on the bed of death his Majesty will have some alarm and regret for having been pleased to constrain the conscience of his subjects, who give him, with obedience and respect, a reason for their faith whenever required by his Majesty to do so. In the name of God, Sire, we entreat your Majesty to reflect that perhaps in the last hours of life the frightful miseries of such a large number of your subjects, into which some spurious devotees have engaged your Majesty to precipitate them, will come before your eyes to disturb the repose of your soul.

“We have lived in silence while your Majesty was occupied in a great war. At present, when the peace of Europe is the work in hand, vouchsafe your approbation, Sire, when, with all the respect which we owe you, we demand the peace of our consciences. Some of us entreat your Majesty to restore to them their wives and children; some ask you for their fathers and mothers; some pray you to release them from cloisters, from prisons, and from barbarous lands, where they are imprisoned among savages; and others to set them at liberty from the chains and oars where they are fastened along with slaves.

“That we may not be the only individuals, Sire, to whom your throne and your benevolence are inaccessible, we ask from you to live peaceably as subjects, submissive and faithful to your Majesty, with liberty to serve God according to our conscience. Permit, Sire, oh! permit a great number of your subjects, whom religion has constrained to depart from your States, to return to finish their days there under your royal authority, in order to invoke God along with us, as we have done heretofore.

“Receive, Sire, with your accustomed benevolence, this Memorial, which would be signed by several thousand persons if your Majesty gave permission. Listen to our just demands. We address ourselves to your Majesty. We entreat your Majesty to cast your eyes upon our miseries and on the tears which we shed with our families. Our fidelity is known to you.