priests were disputing the altars. A letter
from the minister of the interior came to authorise the nonjuring
priests to celebrate the holy sacrifice in the churches where they had
previously done duty. Obedient to the law, the constitutional priests
opened to them their chapels, supplied them with the ornaments necessary
for divine worship; but the multitude, faithful to their ancient
pastors, threatened and insulted the new clergy. Bloody struggles took
place between the two creeds on the very threshold of God's house. On
Friday, November the 4th, the former _cure_ of the parish of Saint Jean,
at Caen, came to perform the mass. The church was full of Catholics.
This meeting offended the constitutionalists and excited the other
party. The _Te Deum_, as a thanksgiving, was demanded and sung by the
adherents of the ancient _cure_, who, encouraged by this success,
announced to the faithful that he should come again the next day at the
same hour to celebrate the sacrament. "Patience!" he added; "let us be
prudent, and all will be well."

The municipality, informed of these circumstances, entreated the _cure_
to abstain from celebrating the mass the next day, as he had announced;
and he complied with their wishes. The multitude, not informed of this,
filled the church, and clamoured for the priest and the promised _Te
Deum_. The gentry of the neighbourhood, the aristocracy of Caen, the
clients and numerous domestics of the leading families in the
neighbourhood, had arms under their clothes. They insulted the
grenadiers; an officer of the national guard reprimanded them. "You come
to seek what you shall get," replied the aristocrats: "we are the
stronger, and will drive you from the church." At these words some young
men rushed on the national guards to disarm them: a struggle ensued,
bayonets glittered, pistol shots resounded in the cathedral, and they
made a charge, sword in hand. Companies of chasseurs and grenadiers
entered the church, cleared it, and followed the crowd, step by step,
who fired again upon them when in the street. Some killed and others
wounded, were the sad results of the day. Tranquillity seemed restored.
Eighty-two persons were arrested, and on one of them was found a
pretended plan of counter-revolution, the signal for which was to be
given on the following Monday. These documents were forwarded to Paris.
The nonjuring priests were suspended from the celebration of the holy
mysteries in the churches o