So highly was his merit appreciated at Versailles that he had been solicited to accept indulgences which scarcely any other heretic could by any solicitation obtain.

Had he chosen to remain in his native country, he and his household would have been permitted to worship God privately according to their own forms.

But Ruvigny rejected all offers, cast in his lot with his brethren, and, at upwards of eighty years of age, quitted Versailles, where he might still have been a favourite, for a modest dwelling at Greenwich.

That dwelling was, during the last months of his life, the resort of all that was most distinguished among his fellow exiles.

His abilities, his experience and his munificent kindness, made him the undisputed chief of the refugees.
He was at the same time half an Englishman: for his sister had been Countess of Southampton, and he was uncle of Lady Russell.