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place it will be readily supposed that } ainor crimes abounded . The Protestants were in fact given up to pillage , and were hurried in crowds to the gaols . To this last fact we hare the testimony of ML Madier de Montjau , « Counseiller a la Cour Royale de Nismes , et Juge , " who saysi , in his tr "Du Governenaent Occulte , "
« < In the month of September , I saw in the prison oi the Palais , or in the Citadel , more than six "hundred Protestaats , all detained without a warrant , or the order of any public authority
whatever . Several hundreds remained for months . They remained six months without being able to procure a trial , liberation , or even the regular registration of their imprisonment , ' "—P . 503 , Note .
This upright judge has himself borne witness that the tribunals of justice were polluted by the foaming rage of faction . His evidence to this point is thus introduced by Mr . Wilks : " In the month of March , " ( 1816 , ) " several Catholics of Nismes , who had
been arrested by the efforts of M . Cavalier , were brought to trial . They had invaded the commune of Senilhac , armed , and in uniform , pillaged the whole village , and levied arbitrary contributions . They were taken in the act of robbery , and the property they had plundered was found
upon them . The Journal Officiel observed , « that as these ten individuals were all of Nismes , and h ^ td all marched under the banners of the Duke d'Angoul £ me , a great concourse of people was collected . ' The inference is direct : they were all acquitted . The next day , six
Protestants were put to the bar , charged with having taken part in a quarrel , in which a man , named Riche , had received a wound or a scratch in the hand : they were all condemned j ^ Sa ua e le Pur , and Deylau , sen ., having twelve children , to
be marked with hot irons , the pillory , and the galleys for life ; Gourdoux to ten years' imprisonment , the pillory , and the hot iron ; Sauze de Pinet , to the galleys for seven years , the hot iron and the pillory ; Deylau , jun . to the galleyg for five years , the pillory and the hot iron .
The manner in which these verdicts were obtained , has thus beep described by the celebrated M . JVfadier de Montjau , judge of the Cour Royale of Nismes , and President of the Cour dT ^ tssises of the Gard and the Vaucluse s
" My conscience tells me that I did aot merit censure the day that I quitted the court rather than witness the crime ? TnijphSmy . —In a hall of the palace of Justice , Opposite that in which I sat , unfor-
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tunate persons , persecuted by the faction , were being tried . £ very deposition tending to their crimination , was applauded with criei 0 f * FTvele Rot f Three times the explosion of this atrocious joy became so terrible , that it was necessary to send for reinforcements from the bar racks , to increase tenfold tlie military
posts , and two hundred soldiers wore often unable to restrain the people . Dn a sudden , the shouts and cries erf ' Vive le Rot J * redoubled . A man arrives ^ caressed , applauded , borne in triumph it is the horrible Truphemy ; he approaches the tribunal ; he comes to depose against
the prisoners ; he is admitted as a witness ; he raises his hand to take the oath 1 Seized with horror at the sight , 1 rush from my seat , and enter the hall of council ; my colleagues follow xne ; in vain they persuade me to resume jony seat , f No , ' exclaimed I , * I will not
consent to see that wretch admitted to give evidence in a court of justice , in the city which he has filled with murders , in the palace , on the steps of which he has murdered the unfortunate Bourillon . * 1 should not more revolt from seeing him kill his victims , as of late , with his
poniard , than from seeing him kill them by his depositions , He , accuser I he , a wit- > ness ! No ! never will I consent to see this monster raise , in the presence of magistrates , to take a sacrilegious oath , his hand still reeking with blood !* ' These words were repeated out of doors : the
witness trembled , the factious trembled ; the factious , who guided the tongue of Truphemy , as they had directed his arm , who dictated calumny , after having taught him murder . The 3 e words penetrated the dungeons of the condemned , and inspired hope ; they gave to a courageous advocate the determination to sustain
the cause of the persecuted . He carried to the foot of the throne the prayer of misery and innocence . There be asked if the evidence of a Truphemy was not enough to annul a sentence . The king accorded a free and full pardon . "—pp . 551—553 .
To this attestation we cannot forbear adding * that of a Catholic adtfo , cate ia the Cour Royale of Nismes : " * I arrived at Nismes at a late period / says M . Lauze de Peret , in May , * " M . Bourillon was killed by
Traphemy on the esplanade , August 2 d , the day appointed for the adoption of an address to the king . The magistrates , assembled in the Patate de Juatice , heard the report of the muskets with which he was shot . ' *
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Review . —Wilte ?* Persecutions of the Protestants of France . &f ]
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1821, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2506/page/45/
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