ContentsPreface.Chapter 1: Driven From Home.Chapter 2: An Important Decision.Chapter 3: In A French Chateau.Chapter 4: An Experiment.Chapter 5: Taking The Field.Chapter 6: The Battle Of Saint Denis.Chapter 7: A Rescue.Chapter 8: The Third Huguenot War.Chapter 9: An Important Mission.Chapter 10: The Queen Of Navarre.Chapter 11: Jeanne Of Navarre.Chapter 12: An Escape From Prison.Chapter 13: At Laville.Chapter 14: The Assault On The Chateau.Chapter 15: The Battle Of Jarnac.Chapter 16: A Huguenot Prayer Meeting.Chapter 17: The Battle Of Moncontor.Chapter 18: A Visit Home.Chapter 19: In A Net.Chapter 20: The Tocsin.Chapter 21: Escape.Chapter 22: Reunited.Chapter 1: Driven From Home.In the year 1567 there were few towns in the southern counties ofEngland that did not contain a colony, more or less large, ofFrench Protestants. For thirty years the Huguenots had been exposedto constant and cruel persecutions; many thousands had beenmassacred by the soldiery, burned at the stake, or put to deathwith dreadful tortures. Fifty thousand, it was calculated, had, inspite of the most stringent measures of prevention, left theirhomes and made their escape across the frontiers. These had settledfor the most part in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, inHolland, or England. As many of those who reached our shores werebut poorly provided with money, they naturally settled in or nearthe ports of landing.Canterbury was a place in which many of the unfortunate emigrantsfound a home. Here one Gaspard Vaillant, his wife, and her sister,who had landed in the year 1547, had established themselves. Theywere among the first comers, but the French colony had grown,gradually, until it numbered several hundreds. The Huguenots werewell liked in the town, being pitied for their misfortunes, andadmired for the courage with which they bore their losses; settingto work, each man at his trade if he had one, or if not, taking tothe first work that came to hand. They were quiet and God-fearingfolk; very good towards each other, and to their poor countrymen ontheir way from the coast to London, entertaining them to the bestof their power, and sending them forward on their way with lettersto the Huguenot committee in London, and with sufficient money intheir pockets to pay their expenses on the journey, and to maintainthem for a while until some employment could be found for them.