d he resolved to take advantage of it.

So the next day he paid a visit to M. de Paratte, and instead of
demanding satisfaction, as the latter quite expected, for the rudeness
of his remarks on the previous day, he professed himself very much
obliged for what he had said, which had made such a deep impression on
him that he had made up his mind to give proof of his zeal and loyalty
by going to Paris and petitioning the king for a position at court. De
Paratte, charmed with what he had heard, and enchanted with his convert,
embraced d'Aygaliers, and gave him, says the chronicler, his blessing;
and with the blessing a passport, and wished him all the success that a
father could wish for his son. D'Aygaliers had now attained his object,
and furnished with the lucky safe-conduct, he set out for Paris, without
having communicated his intentions to anyone, not even to his mother.

On reaching Paris he put up at a friend's house, and drew up a statement
of his plan: it was very short and very clear.

"The undersigned has the honour to point out humbly to His Majesty:

"That the severities and the persecutions which have been employed
by some of the village priests have caused many people in the country
districts to take up arms, and that the suspicions which new converts
excited have driven a great many of them to join the insurgents.
In taking this step they were also impelled by the desire to avoid
imprisonment or removal from their homes, which were the remedies chosen
to keep them in the old faith. This being the case, he thinks that the
best means of putting an end to this state of things would be to take
measures exactly the contrary of those which produced it, such as
putting an end to the persecutions and permitting a certain number of
those of the Reformed religion to bear arms, that they might go to
the rebels and tell them that far from approving of their actions the
Protestants as a whole wished to bring them back to the right way by
setting them a good example, or to fight against them in order to show
the king and France, at the risk of their lives, that they disapproved
of the conduct of their co-religionists, and that the priests had been
in the wrong in writing to the court that all those of the Reformed
religion were in favour of revolt."

D'Aygaliers hoped that the court would adopt this plan; for if they
did, one of two things must happen: either the Camisards, by refusing to
accept the terms offered to