Marie Durand: hell in Constance tower
And also
The tops
King of France saint Louis raised tower Constance, adding it to the city ramparts.
Then it became a State jail: they locked here Protestants between the 17th c. and the end of the 18th c.
Besides, in the 18th century, the tower became a sinister women jail: among the prisoners, we had Marie Durand, a Protestant who spent 38 years locked here…
Since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, France forbade Protestantism. Some Protestants all the same still practised their religion in secret, at great risk for their lives…
Marie’s mum was arrested after a gathering in their house in Ardèche, and her brother Pierre, a pastor, was tracked.
In 1730, Marie was 18: she was arrested. Her crime? To be a pastor’s sister. Pierre was hanged in Montpellier...
Look at that: Marie engraved this sentence on the stone: Au ciel. Résistez. (″To Heaven. Resist″)
Because she never gave up, never abandoned her faith, she was a real support for her companions, despite the cold, the hunger, the seclusion.
Finally in 1767 prince of Beauvau, governor of Languedoc, set her free...