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    clinecL They pursued their route till they came to a place called Cascarre . Isabeau , in the mean time , had attempted to follow them , but some of the party stopped her ; and when she intreated pe rmission to be near her husband , they replied by . striking her with the butt end of their muskets . On a sudden she heard the discharge of fire-arms . * Monsters !' she cried , * they have murdered him /

    and springing forward , deaf to calls and threats , she reached the Cascarre . The first object that met her eye was the corpse of Imbert ; desperate , she threw herself upon it , and embraced it . But who can imagine her horror , when one of the arms , separated from the body , remained in her hands ! Her first thought was to secure the mutilated form ; she lifted it up , and attempted to carry it , but sunk under its weight . She then requested a child to fetch her sister ;—her sister had fled to escape assassination . She renewed her efforts to bear away the corpse : the barbarians had the cruelty to insult her affection and mock her grief : * when you have dragged it as

    far as you can / said one of them , we shall fetch it back again . ' At the same time , her daughter , only five years of age , wounded her heart by her cries and tears . At length her sister arrived , and

    together they succeeded in carrying off the body of Imbert . The murderers seated themselves on a bench , laid aside their arms , and conversed as composedly as though nothing had happened . The mother and the aunt of the deceased

    passed by—they wished them good morning—and the mother , ignorant of her son s death , and anxious to shew them civility , eagerly returned their salutation . The party consisted of Gilly die Menade , Aime , jun ., Bouvier , Roger , jun ., Bresson , &c .

    " It was when returning to my hotel , after listening to the recital of these deeds , that I first beheld the infamous Trestaillon ; he was walking with several of his companions in front of the barracks , on the spot where the troops were massacred ; and I shuddered as I gazed ° n this worse than tiger , and while I reflected that there existed in France

    Persons sufficiently wicked and powerful t 0 protect such a monster from the pursuit of justice and the vengeance of out * raged humanity . " —Pp . 200—210 . Horrible as these facts are , they do j * ° t excite stronger indignation than ? t e following recital of the fiendlike joc ularity of these dons Catholtques :

    . ' At Nismes , as in all France , the ^ habitants wash their clothes either at me fountains or on the banks of streams .

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    There is a large basm near the fountain , where everv day great numbers of women may be see , * kneeling at the edge of the water , and beating the linen with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battledoors This spot became the scene of the most cruel and indecent practices . The

    Catholics vented their fury on the wives , widows and daughters of Protestants , by a newly-invented punishment . They turned their petticoats over their heads , and so fastened them as to favour

    thenshameful exposure ^ their subjection to chastisement ; and nails being placed in the wood of the battoirs in the form of fleurs-de-lis 9 they beat them till the blood streamed from their bodies , and their screams rent the air . The 14 th

    and 15 th of August were especially signalized by these horrors ; and thus the f £ te of the Assumption , professedly designed by the Catholics to recall the most exalted purity and the Divine

    benevolence , was observed by those of Nismes by the most revolting violation of female modesty , and by brutal gratifications at which even savages might blush . Often was death demanded as a

    commutation of this ignominious punishment ; but death was refused with malignant joy ; murder was to perfect , and not prevent , the obscene and cruel sport . To carry their outrage to the highest possible degree , they assailed in this manner several who were in a state of pregnancy . ** —Pp . 247 , 248 .

    These atrocities seem incredible , but they are , unhappily for human nature , beyond doubt > they do not rest on Mi \ Wilks ' s or any Protestant ' s sole testimony . " ' I have seen , ' says M . Durand , a Catholic avocat , ' the assassins in the

    faubourg Bourgade , arm a battoir with sharp nails in the form of fleurs-de-lis ; I have seen them raise the garments of females , and apply with heavy blows to the bleeding body this battoir to which they gave a name , which my pen refuses to inscribe . The cries of the sufferersthe streams of blood—the murmurs of

    indignation , which were suppressed by fear—nothing could move them . The surgeons who attended on those who are ) dead , can attest by the marks of their wounds , and the agonies which they endured , that this account , however horrible , is most strictly true . *"—Pp . 250 ,

    251 . For months these scenes were exhibited . The last named witness describes what he himself saw" in October , 1815 : " M . Durand , an advocate , -a Qithalie *

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    Review . — - Wilkt fs Persecutions of the Protestants of Frdncd : 67 &

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 675, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/43/