Note 132 — Chapter XXVIII
Reading edition
To the student of morals and to social reformers, we draw attention to a "mémoire" of the King on March 30, 1687, to Denonville and Champigny, the new Intendant, in which His Majesty does not approve of their proposition to send back to France the women of evil life; that, he says, would not be a punishment great enough. "It would be better to employ them by force on the public works, to draw water, saw wood and serve the masons."