to break up his funeral and to drag his remains
ignominiously through the streets. The king condescended, as his only
act of courtesy, to send a messenger to ask tidings of the condition
of his minister. As the messenger approached the bed, the dying
sufferer turned away his face, saying,

"I will not hear that man spoken of again. If I had done for God what
I have done for him, I should have been saved ten times over. Now I
know not what may be my fate."

The day after his death, without any marks of honor, his remains were
conveyed, in an ordinary hearse, to the church of St. Eustache. A few
of the police alone followed the coffin.

Genoa had offended the king by selling powder to the Algerines, and
some ships to Spain. Louis seized, by secret warrant, _lettre de
cachet_, the Genoese embassador, and plunged him into one of the
dungeons of the Bastile. He then sent a fleet of over fifty vessels of
war to chastise, with terrible severity, those who had offended him.
The ships sailed from Toulon on the 6th of May, 1684, and entered the
harbor of Genoa on the 19th. Immediately there was opened upon the
city a terrific fire. In a few hours fourteen thousand bombs were
hurled into its dwellings and its streets. A large portion of those
marble edifices, which had given the city the name of _Genoa the
Superb_, were crumbled to powder. Fourteen thousand soldiers were then
disembarked. They advanced through the suburbs, burning the buildings
before them. The whole city was threatened with total destruction. The
authorities, in terror, sent to the conqueror imploring his clemency.
The haughty King of France demanded that the Doge of Genoa, with four
of his principal ministers, should repair to the palace of Versailles
and humbly implore his pardon. The doge, utterly powerless, was
compelled to submit to the humiliating terms.

CHAPTER IX.

THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES.

1680-1686

Character of Madame de Maintenon.--Depression of the
dauphiness.--Pere la Chaise.--The Edict of Nantes.--The Catholic
clergy indignant.--Ravaillac.--Confirmation of the Edict of
Nantes.--La Rochelle.--Sufferings of the Huguenots.--Policy of
Louis.--Influence of Madame de Maintenon.--Religious zeal of the
king.--False-hearted.--Persecution of the Protestants.--Severe
measures to force proselytism.--The _dragonnades_.--Moral suasion
of the dragoons.--Brutality of the soldiery.--Enactments of
intolerance.--Zeal of the king.--The r