368 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



Arrest and 

 Imprisonment 



Boldness and 

 Acquittal 



1685 The 

 Dragoons 



An Exile 



that meetings were held in the parish and that he was the 

 preacher. He was advised by friends to stop the meet- 

 ings, but believed he was in the path of duty and kept on 

 leading the services. 



In 1684 at Easter the open attacks began. On deposi- 

 tion of a lawyer M. de la Fontaine was arrested on a 

 charge of leading in unlawful assemblies. He advised 

 all the Protestants to remain steadfast, and willingly went 

 to jail to test the rights of citizens. In prison he offered 

 prayer aloud, and established a daily prayer circle, by 

 this means confirming in their faith the many Protestants 

 who were brought there for no other crime than meeting 

 together quietly to worship. The people had become so 

 determined through this bold stand of their leader and 

 his willingness to suffer imprisonment for the truth, that 

 they no longer fled from the provost and his archers who 

 were sent out to arrest them, but indeed seemed to be 

 eager to show their courage. When M. de la Fontaine 

 came to trial, charged with having taught in prison, 

 given ofiense to the Eoman Catholics who were in prison, 

 and interrupted the priest in his celebration of divine 

 worship, suborned evidence was produced ; but acting in 

 his own defense, the able minister turned the tables on his 

 persecutors, and was triumphantly acquitted in the end 

 by Parliament, to which he appealed his case. 



But the spirit of persecution became more and more 

 bitter, and in 1685 the dragoons apj^eared. Then James 

 de la Fontaine left the home of his childhood, never to 

 return to it. He had 500 francs, two good horses, on one 

 of which his valet was mounted, and was well armed. 

 From his amply furnished house he removed nothing, 

 and within two hours after he quitted it the dragoons 

 came and lived there till they had consumed or sold 

 everything they could lay hands on, even to the locks 

 and bolts of the doors. If one would abjure his religion 

 he would be let alone, if not, death or torture was his 

 fate. Eiding rapidly forward, he visited the homes of 



