My will must serve as the reason why. I am king. I speak to
you as king.--I will be obeyed.' To the clergy he said, 'My predecessors
have given you good words, but I, with my gray jacket,--I will give you
good deeds. I am all gray on the outside, but I'm all gold within.'
Praise to those noble sentiments, peace was maintained in the realm; the
honor of which alone belongs to Henry IV.
In the first half of the seventeenth century, there could be counted in
France more than eight hundred Reformed churches, with sixty-two
Conferences. Such was the prosperity and powerful organization of the
Protestant party until the fall of La Rochelle, which was emphatically
called the citadel of 'the Reform.' This misfortune terminated the
religious wars of France. The Huguenots, now excluded from the
employment of the civil service and the court, became the industrial
arms of the kingdom. They cultivated the fine lands of the Cevennes, the
vineyards of Guienne, the cloths of Caen. In their hands were almost
entirely the maritime trade of Normandy, with the silks and taffetas of
Lyons, and, from even the testimony of their enemies, they combined with
industry, frugality, integrity all those commercial virtues, which were
hallowed by earnest love of religion and a constant fear of God.
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