s which had so long
occupied Languedoc had been summoned away by the war of succession in
Spain; the militia could no longer restrain the Reformers growing every
day more enthusiastic through the prophetic hopes which were born of
their long sufferings. The arch-priest of the Cevennes, Abbe du Chayla,
a tyrannical and cruel man, had undertaken a mission at the head of the
Capuchins. His house was crammed with condemned Protestants; the breath
of revolt passed over the mountains on the night of July 27, 1702, the
castle of the arch-priest was surrounded by Huguenots in arms, who
demanded the surrender of the prisoners. Du Chayla refused. The gates
were forced, the condemned released, the priests who happened to be in
the house killed or dispersed. The archpriest had let himself down by a
window; he broke his thigh; he was found hiding in a bush; the castle was
in flames. "No mercy, no mercy!" shouted the madmen; "the Spirit willeth
that he die." Every one of the Huguenots stabbed the poor wretch with
their poniards: "That's for my father, broken on the wheel; that's for my
brother, sent to the galleys; that's for my mother, who died of grief;
that's for my relations in exile!" He received fifty-two wounds. Next
day the Cevennes were everywhere in revolt. A prophet named Seguier was
at the head of the insurrection. He was soon made prisoner. "How dost
thou expect me to treat thee?" asked his judge. "As I would have treated
thee, had I caught thee," answered the prophet. He was burned alive in
the public square of Pont-de-Montvert, a mountain burgh. "Where do you
live?" he had been asked at his examination. "In the desert," he
replied, "and soon in heaven." He exhorted the people from the midst of
the flames. The insurrection went on spreading. "Say not, What can we
do? we are so few; we have no arms!" said another prophet, named Laporte.
"The Lord of hosts is our strength! We will intone the battle-psalms,
and, from the Lozere to the sea, Israel shall arise! And, as for arms,
have we not our axes? They will beget muskets!" The plain rose like the
mountain. Baron St. Comes, an early convert, and colonel of the militia,
was assassinated near Vauvert; murders multiplied; the priests were
especially the object of the revolters' vengeance. They assembled under
the name of _Children of God,_ and marched under the command of two
chiefs, one, named Roland, who formerly served under Catinat, and the
other, a