nhabitants of the Cevennes whose houses were burnt or
otherwise destroyed during the war be exempt from taxes for seven years.

'Granted.

"8. That it may please His Majesty to permit Cavalier to choose 2000
men, both from among his own troops and from among those who may be
delivered from the prisons and galleys, to form a regiment of dragoons
for the service of His Majesty, and that this regiment when formed may
at once be ordered to serve His Majesty in Portugal.

'Granted: and on condition that all the Huguenots everywhere lay down
their arms, the king will permit them to live quietly in the free
exercise of their religion.'"

"I had been a week at Calvisson," says Cavalier in his Memoirs, "when I
received a letter from M. le Marechal de Villars ordering me to repair
to Nimes, as he wished to see me, the answer to my demands having
arrived. I obeyed at once, and was very much displeased to find that
several of my demands, and in particular the one relating to the cities
of refuge, had been refused; but M. le marechal assured me that the
king's word was better than twenty cities of refuge, and that after
all the trouble we had given him we should regard it as showing great
clemency on his part that he had granted us the greater part of what we
had asked. This reasoning was not entirely convincing, but as there was
no more time for deliberation, and as I was as anxious for peace as the
king himself, I decided to accept gracefully what was offered."

All the further advantage that Cavalier could obtain from M. de Villars
was that the treaty should bear the date of the day on which it had been
drawn up; in this manner the prisoners who were to be set at liberty in
six weeks gained one week.

M. de Villars wrote at the bottom of the treaty, which was signed
the same day by him and M. de Baville on the part of the king, and
by Cavalier and Daniel Billard on the part of the Protestants, the
following ratification:

"In virtue of the plenary powers which we have received from the king,
we have granted to the Reformers of Languedoc the articles above made
known.

"MARECHAL DE VILLARS. J. CAVALIER.

"LAMOIGNON DE BAVILLE. DANIEL BILLARD.

"Given at Nimes, the 17th of May 1704."

These two signatures, all unworthy as they were to stand beside their
own, gave such great delight to MM. de Villars and de Baville, that
they at once sent off fresh orders to Calvisson that the wants of the
Camisards should be abundantl