THe good Air of France which I find to conduce much to my health, and the desire to see once more the goodly Countreys of the South, made me travel as far as Poitou, where I have much acquaintance of the best sort. Here I was stay'd by the horrible Tragedy which is now acting in this Province, to de­stroy the Protestant Religion, and the Professors thereof, of the middle sort, which in these parts are very numerous. My Heart is so full of it, that I must tell you what I have seen.

The great Actor in it is one Intendant Marillac, who having from the potent Jesuit Father Le Chese, the promises of the present Life, and not caring for those of the Life to come, hath laid upon the Reformed a most heavy Cross, such as was not known since the Reformation. For which he hath got about him a Choice of Hard hearted Villains, expert to do Mischief to good Men, Indicting some of Crimes, suing others for Debts, loading all with Taxes. Those hungry Oppressors are made Jussices, that they may raven and tear by Authority.

They are searching into the Lives of Protestants: If any of them twenty years before hath spoken some offensive Word, or given a Blow, there goeth out a Decree against him. He is Imprisoned in a dark Den, none of his Friends are suffered to come near him. He is put to a most refined kind of Inquisition: For though all his Friends be kept from him, he hath every day two sorts of Visiters; Some seemingly kind and merciful, promise him Goods and Advantages of the World, if he will but go to Mass. Some severely telling him of the King's Absolute Will, that there be but one Religion in his Kingdom: That if he remain obstinate in the Heresie, there is no mercy for him, he must look for the total Ruin of himself and his Family, after he hath been many Years suffering under the Condition of a Gally-Slave. Projects of severe Sentences are given him to read, that he may see what a weight of Distress is hanging over his Head, rea­dy to fall on him and crush him. If these Arts shake not his Constancy, he is left in his dark Den, where he hath Bread allowed him, but hardly enough to live.

Others are sued for their Debts, which are made to swell into fearful excesses of Costs: The Creditor is never to be found when the Debtor hath got money to pay him, whilst the poor Debtor is vexed with all the severe ways of the Law for not paying. The Lands of Debtors are extended for Debts, and themselves put out of their Houses. A­mong those Excesses, they are haunted with evil Counsellors, offering to see the Debts paid, if they will forsake their Religion, the only way for them to be happy.

[Page 2] Another Persecution of the Protestants is by Taxes, so heavy that they sink under the Burthen. Those Taxes are Arbitrary, so that the taxed persons never know what they must pay till it be demanded: And the Protestants whom they have made Collectors, are imprisoned for not being able to pay for others, whom they had no power to distrain.

Some of the Raskally sort of Tradesmen will turn Papists, and then they will set a higher Rate upon their Work; but though they were disliked as ill Workmen, when they are not employed by the Protestants, they will complain to the Justices, who thereupon lay Mulcts upon those that will not employ them.

Finally, when all other tricks to pick Quarrels with Protestants are wanting, the last and certain way to undo them is used, which is to set Souldiers upon them. There are in Poitou four Troops o [...] Horse, who take Free Quarter in Protestants Houses, and use them as Enemies. Their Salute when they come in, is to curse and revile the Master and all his Houshold, with the basest Language. Answerably to that beginning they do their worst to consume and spoil the Goods of the House, till they have ruin'd the Owners. Their way to bring them to Church, is to drag them tied with Cords to their Horses, and cudgel them besides, to make them go. Neither do they make an end of their hor­rible Violences, till they have made the Owners abandon their Houses and Goods, or till they have made them turn Catholicks.

For an increase of Cruelty, those Violences are done when men are preparing for their Harvest, which the Souldiers destroy. Do but imagine what Souldiers will do, when they are commanded to do all the harm they can; and what an Harvest of Tears and La­mentations they leave to poor Families, when they have destroyed the Harvest of their Corn.

To these Cries and Lamentations of persons persecuted for the Gospel, some are the more bitter Cries of others brought to the Brink of Despair by their Abjuration of Gods Truth to save their Estates. Which criminous Act they now openly detest with a Flood of Tears. Between these two sorts of Weepers, a Voice of Lamentation and bitter Weep­ing is heard in Poitou, as once in Rama: And the rest of the Text alluded unto, will short­ly be for them and all the Protestants of France; Rachel Weeping for her Children, and would not be comforted because they are not, when the great declared Design shall be put to farther execution, the getting of all the Children under Age from Protestant Pa­rents. They have gotten too many of them already; and for the keeping of them, they exact such heavy Pensions from the Parents, that nothing remains to them, but their Hands to get a poor Living.

Notwithstanding all this hard usage, I see the generality of the Protestants resolved to un­dergo the dismallest Tryals, as the Gallows, and the Fire, that they may Seal with their Blood the Truth of their Glorious Redeemer. As these Persecutions on the one side fright Christians, on the other side they confirm them, putting them in mind, that Suf­ferings are the Livery of a Christian.

That which is most happy for the Protestant Party, is, that they are not accused of any Crime, and that never Subjects served their King better, or were more subjected to his Will: Wherefore their Enemies durst not accuse them of any Violation of their Duty to the King: And they have this Comfort, that they suffer merely for Righteousness sake.

So they deal now with the ignoble or little Gentlemen. The Turn of the Great Men, among whom he that writ this Letter liveth, is not yet come; but they are in part undone by the undoing of their Tenants.