A brilliant adventure tale of life in the Court of Louis XIV and of Canada under French rule...and Huguenot persecution The Refugees is set in both 17th Century France and in the wilds of North America. When you are reading the French episodes, you think you are reading Alexander Dumas. When reading the American episodes, you think you are reading James Fenimore Cooper. Yet, all of it was written by one person. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many people do not realize that the creator of Sherlock Holmes was also one of the best historical novelists of his day. His books span events ranging from the Hundred Years War, to the 19th Century British occupation of Egypt-and include, as in this work, the Huguenot persecutions. The year is 1690 and the De Catinat family is facing disaster. Because they are Huguenots, French Protestants, Louis XIV has stripped the family of their wealth, titles and soon, in all likelihood, their lives. They are rescued, however, by an American who is visiting Paris. He arranges for them to escape to the New World, but their troubles are just beginning.Warrants are out for their arrest and they are being hunted by a fanatical Jesuit priest who is hot on their trail. Their only hope is to leave French Canada and try to make it to the Protestant communities in New England. Unfortunately, to get there they have to make it through hundreds of miles of trackless forests, while being chased by the priest, and avoiding a band of Iroquois who would rather torture and kill a white man as look at him. As you might expect from a writer like Conan Doyle, it is an adventure that will keep you guessing right up to the last page.