The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes:

In the revolutions of our volatile motherland, the same borders have oftentimes been the witness of migration. Oftentimes the Ardennes Forest, the Gorges of the Cerdon between Lyon and Geneva, our seaboards, solitary coves of which are known only to smugglers have seen fugitives under countless disguises seek safety in exile. Yet not all outcasts are the same. The Protestants could stay ; no effort was spared to make them; one word from them and property, homeland were theirs to keep, the worst dangers held at bay. The 1793 émigré wanted to save his life ; the 1685 one wanted to save his conscience

The flight of the Huguenots was a deliberate act of loyalty and sincerity. It was horror of falsehood. It was respect for thought. It is glorious for human nature that so great a number of men and women should, for truth's sake, have sacrificed everything ; passed from riches to poverty ; risked life, family, and all, in the perilous enterprise of a flight so difficult. Some see in these people only obstinate sectarians : I see in them people of lofty ideas of honour who, over all the earth have proved themselves to have been the elite of France. The stoical motto which free-thinkers have popularised is precisely the idea which lies at the root of the Protestant emigration, braving death and the galleys to remain noble and true: Vitam impendere vero ; Life sacrificed for the truth.

That is why these roads of escape, these gorges, these forests, these mountains, these boarding spots are sacred in their memory. So many tears ! It was rare to leave together. A family would separate to migrate to different destinations, or because it was impossible for the sick, the sickly, pregnant women with young children to escape. Mostly, people parted to face vastly diverse fates, This one perished, that one was caught, locked up, lost forever. They would never see each other again on this earth.

Jules MICHELET, Histoire de France. Louis XIV et la Révocation de l'Edit de Nantes [History of France. Louis XIV and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes], t. 12, Paris, Flammarion, 1896, extracts from the beginning of chapter XXIII, entitled « La fuite.- L'hospitalité en Europe (1686) [Flight. – Reception in Europe]», p. 324-325 – part- quoted in Samuel Smiles. Duty. With illustrations of courage, patience and endurance.