- You can see this yourself by
one example. On the 31st of August, 1792,[78] eight thousand non-
juring priests, driven out of their parishes, are at Rouen, a town
less intolerant than the others, and, in conformity with the decree
which banishes them, are preparing to leave France. Two vessels
have just carried away about a hundred of them; one hundred and
twenty others are embarking for Ostend in a larger vessel. They
take nothing with them except a little money, some clothes, and one
or at most two portions of their breviary, because they intend to
return soon. Each has a regular passport, and, just at the moment
of leaving, the National Guard have made a thorough inspection so as
not to let a suspected person escape. It makes no difference. On
reaching Quilleboeuf the first two convoys are stopped. A report
has spread, indeed, that the priests are going to join the enemy and
enlist, and the people living round about jump into their boats and
surround the vessels. The priests are obliged to disembark amidst a
tempests of "yells, blasphemies, insults, and abuse:" one of them, a
white-headed old man, having fallen into the mud, the cries and
shouts redouble; if he is drowned so much the better, there will be
one less! On landing all are put in prison, on bare stones, without
straw or bread, and word is sent to Paris to know what must be done
with so many cassocks.
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