In his wonderful volume, The Splendid Century W.H. Lewis relates this moving account of a Huguenot sent to the galleys:
Marolles, another Huguenot, who in 1686 found himself in La Tournelle, the Paris assembly-point, has a grimmer story to tell; after complaining of the “filthiness and execrable blasphemies” to which he is subjected, he goes on: “We lie 53 of us in a place which is not above 30 feet in length and 9 in breadth. There lies on the right side of me a sick peasant, with his head to my feet and his feet to my head. There is scarce one among us who does not envy the condition of several dogs and horses”; and the conclusion of his letter to his wife is worthy to be written in letters of gold–“When I reflect on the merciful providence of God towards me, I am ravished with admiration and do evidently discover the secret steps of Providence which hath formed me from my youth after a requisite manner to bear what I suffer.”
