Louis XIV.

and his ministers believed in good faith that Protestantism was stamped out.

"The king," wrote Madame de Maintenon, "is very pleased to have put the last touch to the great work of the reunion of the heretics with the church.

Father la Chaise, the king's confessor, promised that it would not cost a drop of blood, and M.de Louvois said the same thing." Emigration in mass, the revolt of the Camisards, and the long-continued punishments, were a painful surprise for the courtiers accustomed to bend beneath the will of Louis XIV.; they did not understand that "anybody should obstinately remain of a religion which was displeasing to the king." The Huguenots paid the penalty for their obstinacy.

The intelligent and acute biographer of Louvois, M.Camille Rousset, could not defend him from the charge of violence in their case.