To enter into the minute particulars of this disastrous period would be superfluous ; suffice it to say. that now commenced a renewal of the outrageous proceedings of former years. Commissioners were sent into the provinces to dispossess the Reformed of all they held as citizens; nothing awaited them but fines^ humiliation and poverty. Troops of soldiers were quartered among them, who inflicted the most horrid barbarities, while others scoured the country, and dragooned men into false confessions. And not only this ; hundreds were condemned to the galleys, and sent to the French provinces in America. One of their own ministers, Jeurieu, informs us that a friend of his saw a great number of men, at Aries, fastened to the horses, underneath, by means of cords, followed by long carts filled with men and women, tied by their waists to the carts ! and these were carried to Marseilles, to be shipped to America; others again were sent to the islands of this country in the king's ships, to be sold, like slaves, to those who would giv^e most for them.^ Wearied with the incessant persecution, and despairing of repose around their native hearths, the Huguenots began to leave France for more secure regions. Their well known industry and skill made them be welcomed in every Protestant country. No

»■ Sketch of the Huguenots, Christian Intelligencer, Mr- Disosway, b Jeurieu's Pastoral Letters,

390 HISTORY OF THE

less than five hundred thousand thus escaped, and found homes in Germany, Holland, and England. "* King Charles 11. granted letters of denization in council, under the great seal, and assured the exiles that, at the next meeting of Parliament, he would introduce a bill by which they should be naturalized ; relieved them at the momenf from importation duties and passport fees, and encouraged voluntary contributions for their support.''^ This order was issued on the 2Sth of July, 16SI, the same year in which the Huguenots of New Rochelle fled from Frnnce,c conclusive evidence that they constituted a portion of those exiles who accepted the royal offers, and afterward, under the patronage of the government, purchased and settled here in 1689.