Listers -- here is another installment from the historical novel "London" by Edward Rutherfurd. This book is not about Huguenots but has some interesting passages in it about them. As I mentioned in my previous post on this topic (3 Nov), this book was published in 1997 by Ballantine, which is a division of Random House. The ISBN is 0-449-00263-2. I have written permission to quote these passages from the Copyright and Permissions Dept., Random House, Inc. 299 Park Ave., New York, NY 10171. As I explained in my 3 Nov post, the topic of Huguenots is introduced into the book through the character of young Eugene DE LA PENISSIÈRE who anglicizes his surname to PENNY. He is a watchmaker and, despite having a good job with "the great London clockmaker TOMPION, who was installing the timepiece in the Royal Observatory", he is homesick for his native France and tells his London friends that he is thinking of returning. He is urged to stay and his friends speculate on why he would want to leave. Excepts from pgs. 797-9 (the year is 1675) -- "'Is it the riots?'......There had been several attacks on Huguenots in the eastern suburb of the city that year.........It was true, of course, that there was always some friction between the 'foreigners' -- which still meant anybody from outside the city -- and the Londoners who feared competition for their skills and jobs..........'It's just a local affair......The Londoners aren't against the Huguenots, I promise you.' But Eugene was shaking his head.......He had been sent to England by his father..........they both agreed what must be done. 'The kings of France have sworn, by the Treaty of Nantes, to allow us to worship freely in perpetuity,' he had told Eugene. 'But the Church of Rome is strong; the king is devout. Go to England therefore. If we are sure we are safe here, you can return. If not, you must prepare a new home for your brothers and sisters there.' But after his last trip back to his family, Eugene had been overcome by a terrible homesickness; and with every month it had grown worse.......'I just want to go home to France. My family has come to no harm there. It cannot be really necessary for me to be here.'" It's interesting to learn here that some, like Eugene, apparently went back and forth between France and England for visits, probably until it was too dangerous to do so. Now we skip ahead to pg. 816-17. The date is ten years later,1685. The setting is France, although the exact location is not specified. Eugene is back in France where he has married and had two children. "The two children were clinging to him, terrified. One of the troopers, still mounted, was shaking nuts from the tree while two others had just trussed up a pig and slit its throat with a sabre. The officer in command of the dragoons looked at Eugene with a cool insolence. 'We shall need all three of your bedrooms.' 'And where are we to sleep?' Eugene's wife asked. 'There is the barn, Madame,' the officer shrugged. He eyed the two little girls. 'Their ages?' 'Not yet seven, Monsieur le Capitaine,' Eugene answered drily. 'I assure you.' If only, he thought, I had never returned. Despite the protection of their cherished old Treaty of Nantes, the Protestant Huguenots had found his most Catholic Majesty less and less tolerant of their religion with every year that passed. Not only had their Calvinist synods been forbidden; their pastors had to pay special taxes and they were forbidden to marry good Catholics. To encourage them to mend their ways, they were offered tax concessions if they would abjure their heresy and return to the Catholic fold, but, more recently, King Louis had introduced a sterner measure. Any Huguenot child over the age of seven could be converted, without their parents' consent. Another year or two, Eugene knew, and his girls would be under pressure. Such things would not have happened if he had stayed in London. His return to France had not been happy. His father had been furious. 'You were to prepare the way for us,' he had reminded Eugene coldly, and for a year refused to speak to him. Only when he had married a Huguenot girl whose father was a shipper at Bordeaux, did the rift begin to heal.......five years ago, the older man had died......Within a year, his father's young widow had converted, left the house, and married a Catholic with a small vineyard. As a result, Eugene had not only his own two little girls to look after, but his unmarried half-sister, who had refused to be a Catholic and accompany her mother. Difficult though life had been for Huguenots, however, it was only in the last four years that King Louis XIV had made it intolerable. His method was simple: he quartered his troops on them. Time and again, Eugene had heard how parties of dragoons had arrived, eaten all the family's stores, broken furniture, even terrorized the Huguenots' wives and daughters. Technically, the French king could still say they were free to worship, but in practice it was a policy of persecution. Many times recently Eugene had wondered whether he should emigrate to England again with his family; yet he was unwilling to leave the area he so loved unless he had to...." That's all for now. I'll quote a few more passages when and if I get permission from Random House. If anyone wants to reply/comment on this post, please *<snip> (ie. delete)* all or almost all of the above before doing so. This was not done with a couple of replies to my earlier post on this topic. As a result of this, we now have the same passages (320+ words) repeated three times, on both the list and in the list archives. Best to all, Andrea