he Assembly wished to reform the
Catholic Church without consulting the Pope. From that day, they were
the enemies of the Revolution. Their protests were energetic, and from
protests they passed to acts. The Catholics took up arms ostensibly to
defend themselves against the Protestants, but chiefly to defend their
menaced religion. The Protestants, who were in communication with their
religious brethren in Paris and Montauban, were also ready to take the
field at any moment. A regiment was quartered in the city. The
sympathies of the officers were with the Catholics, who represented the
aristocracy in their eyes; the soldiers seemed to favor the
Protestants--the patriots. This division brought a new element of
discord into the civil war. This condition of affairs lasted several
months. A conflict between some of the National Guards--Catholics--and a
company of dragoons was the signal for a struggle that had become
inevitable. The Protestants of Nimes sided with the dragoons; the
Catholics espoused the cause of the National Guards. Several of these
last were killed. This happened on the 13th of June. The following day,
bands of peasants, summoned to the aid of the Protestants from the
country north of Nimes, descended upon the city. They entered it in an
orderly manner, as if animated by peaceful intentions; but many of the
men were either half-crazed fanatics or wretches who were actuated by a
desire for plunder. They ran through the streets, becoming more and more
excited until their fury suddenly burst forth and they rushed wildly
about the city, carrying death and devastation in their track. There was
a Capuchin monastery at Nimes. They invaded this first, slaying the
priests at the foot of the altar in the church that still retains the
ineffaceable stain of their blood. The assassins then hastened to the
monastery of the Carmelites. The monks had fled. They sacked the church,
and then plundered a number of private houses. The bandits showed no
mercy. They opened a vigorous cannonade upon the tower of Froment where
many had taken refuge. In three days three hundred persons perished.

At the news of these massacres a cry of rage and terror rose from the
Catholic villages on the banks of the Rhone and the Gardon. The cry was
this:

"They are slaughtering our brothers at Nimes!"

The influential men immediately assembled and counselled the frightened
and indignant populace to take up arms in their own defence. The toc