ceived this assurance, Cavalier
gave orders that the loaves in hand should be distributed for that day,
but probably fearing poison, he first made M. de Vincel and his clerks
taste them in his presence. These duties accomplished, he visited in
person all the gates of the town, placed guards and posted sentinels
at all the entrances and along all the avenues, the most advanced being
three-quarters of a league from the town. Besides this, he placed guards
in the streets, and a sentinel at each door of the house he occupied;
in addition, thirty guards always slept outside the door of his bedroom,
and these accompanied him as an escort when he went out; not that he was
afraid, for he was not of a mistrustful character, but that he thought
it politic to give people an exalted idea of his importance. As to his
soldiers, they were billeted on the inhabitants, and received each
as daily rations a pound of meat, a quart of wine, and two and a half
pounds of bread.

The same day a convocation was held on the site of the old meeting-house
which had been destroyed by the Catholics. It was a very numerous
assembly, to which crowds of people came from all parts; but on the
following days it was still more numerous; for, as the news spread,
people ran with great eagerness to hear the preaching of the word
of which they had been so long deprived. D'Aygaliers tells us in his
Memoirs that--"No one could help being touched to see a whole people
just escaped from fire and sword, coming together in multitudes to
mingle their tears and sighs. So famished were they for the manna
divine, that they were like people coming out of a besieged city, after
a long and cruel famine, to whom peace has brought food in abundance,
and who, first devouring it with their eyes, then throw themselves on
it, devouring it bodily--meat, bread, and fruit--as it comes to hand.
So it was with the unfortunate inhabitants of La Vannage, and even of
places more distant still. They saw their brethren assembling in the
meadows and at the gates of Calvisson, gathering in crowds and pressing
round anyone who started singing a psalm, until at last four or five
thousand persons, singing, weeping, and praying, were gathered together,
and remained there all day, supplicating God with a devotion that went
to every heart and made a deep impression. All night the same things
went on; nothing was to be heard but preaching, singing, praying, and
prophesying."

But if it was a ti