Villars had made him
most anxious; he looked upon all the promises given as snares, and
he regarded the compromise favoured by his chief as a defection on
Cavalier's part. He therefore called all the officers and men together,
told them of his fears, and ended by imbuing them with his suspicions.
This was all the more easily done, as it was very well known that
Cavalier had joined the Huguenots less from devotion to the cause than
to avenge a private wrong, and on many occasions had given rise to the
remark that he had more genius than religion.

So, on getting back to Calvisson, the young chief found his principal
officers, Ravanel at their head, drawn up in the market-place, waiting
for him. As soon as he drew near they told him that they were determined
to know at once what were the conditions of the treaty he had signed
with the marechal; they had made up their minds to have a plain
answer without delay. Such a way of speaking to him was so strange and
unexpected, that Cavalier shrugged his shoulders and replied that
such matters were no business of theirs, being too high for their
intelligence; that it was his business to decide what course to take and
theirs to take it; it had always been so in the past, and with the
help of God and his own, Cavalier's, goodwill, it should still be so
in future; and having so spoken, he told them to disperse. Ravanel upon
this came forward, and in the name of all the others said they would
not go away until they knew what orders Cavalier was about to give the
troops, that they might consult among themselves whether they should
obey them or not. This insubordination was too much for Cavalier's
patience.

"The orders are," he said, "to put on the uniforms that are being made
for you, and to follow me to Portugal."

The effect of such words on men who were expecting nothing less than the
re-enactment of the Edict of Nantes, can be easily imagined; the words
"coward" and "traitor" could be distinguished above the murmurs, as
Cavalier noticed with increasing astonishment. Raising himself in his
stirrups, and glancing round with that look before which they had been
used to tremble, he asked in a voice as calm as if all the demons of
anger were not raging in his heart, "Who called Jean Cavalier traitor
and coward?"

"I," said Ravanel, crossing his arms on his breast.

Cavalier drew a pistol from his holsters, and striking those near him
with the butt end, opened a way towards his l