A great commotion ensued, crowds
began to form, and cries of "To the church! to the church!" were heard.
Captain Bouillargues happened to be in the neighbourhood, and being very
methodical set about organising the insurrection; then putting himself
at its head, he charged the cathedral, carrying everything before
him, in spite of the barricades which had been hastily erected by the
Papists. The assault was over in a few moments; the priests and their
flock fled by one door, while the Reformers entered by another. The
building was in the twinkling of an eye adapted to the new form of
worship: the great crucifix from above the altar was dragged about the
streets at the end of a rope and scourged at every cross-roads. In the
evening a large fire was lighted in the place before the cathedral,
and the archives of the ecclesiastical and religious houses, the sacred
images, the relics of the saints, the decorations of the altar, the
sacerdotal vestments, even the Host itself, were thrown on it without
any remonstrance from the consuls; the very wind which blew upon Nimes
breathed heresy.

For the moment Nimes was in full revolt, and the spirit of organisation
spread: Moget assumed the titles of pastor and minister of the Christian
Church. Captain Bouillargues melted down the sacred vessels of the
Catholic churches, and paid in this manner the volunteers of Nimes and
the German mercenaries; the stones of the demolished religious houses
were used in the construction of fortifications, and before anyone
thought of attacking it the city was ready for a siege. It was at this
moment that Guillaume Calviere, who was at the head of the Presidial
Court, Moget being president of the Consistory, and Captain Bouillargues
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, suddenly resolved to create a
new authority, which, while sharing the powers hitherto vested solely in
the consuls, should be, even more than they, devoted to Calvin: thus the
office of les Messieurs came into being. This was neither more nor less
than a committee of public safety, and having been formed in the stress
of revolution it acted in a revolutionary spirit, absorbing the powers
of the consuls, and restricting the authority of the Consistory to
things spiritual. In the meantime the Edict of Amboise, was promulgated,
and it was announced that the king, Charles IX, accompanied by Catherine
de Medicis, was going to visit his loyal provinces in the South.

Determined as was Ca