The
massacres of 1562 were not as horrible as those of the Albigense
Crusade, though committed--which the former were not--under severe
provocation. The massacres of 1793--in spite of all that has been
said--were far less horrible than those of 1562, though they were the
outpouring of centuries of pardonable fury and indignation. The
crimes of the Terreur Blanche, at the Restoration--though ugly things
were done in the south, especially in Nismes--were far less horrible
again; though they were, for the most part, acts of direct personal
retaliation on the republicans of 1793. And since then the French
heart has softened fast. The irritating sense of hereditary wrong
has passed away. The Frenchman conceives that justice is done to
him, according to his own notions thereof. He has his share of the
soil, without which no Celtic populace will ever be content. He has
fair play in the battle of life; and a 'Carriere ouverte aux talens.'
He has equal law and justice between man and man. And he is content;
and under the sunshine of contentment and self-respect, his native
good-nature expands; and he shows himself what he is, not merely a
valiant and capable, but an honest, kindly, charitable man.
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