ho
was taken in the very act of preaching. Thenceforth Nimes rejoiced in
two martyrs and two patron saints, one revered by the Catholics, and one
by the Protestants; St. Bauzile, after reigning as sole protector for
twenty-four years, being forced to share the honours of his guardianship
with his new rival.

Maurice Secenat was followed as preacher by Pierre de Lavau; these two
names being still remembered among the crowd of obscure and forgotten
martyrs. He also was put to death on the Place de la Salamandre, all the
difference being that the former was burnt and the latter hanged.

Pierre de Lavau was attended in his last moments by Dominique Deyron,
Doctor of Theology; but instead of, as is usual, the dying man being
converted by the priest, it was the priest who was converted by de
Lavau, and the teaching which it was desired should be suppressed
burst forth again. Decrees were issued against Dominique Deyron; he was
pursued and tracked down, and only escaped the gibbet by fleeing to the
mountains.

The mountains are the refuge of all rising or decaying sects; God has
given to the powerful on earth city, plain, and sea, but the mountains
are the heritage of the oppressed.

Persecution and proselytism kept pace with each other, but the blood
that was shed produced the usual effect: it rendered the soil on which
it fell fruitful, and after two or three years of struggle, during which
two or three hundred Huguenots had been burnt or hanged, Nimes awoke one
morning with a Protestant majority. In 1556 the consuls received a sharp
reprimand on account of the leaning of the city towards the doctrines
of the Reformation; but in 1557, one short year after this admonition,
Henri II was forced to confer the office of president of the Presidial
Court on William de Calviere, a Protestant. At last a decision of the
senior judge having declared that it was the duty of the consuls to
sanction the execution of heretics by their presence, the magistrates of
the city protested against this decision, and the power of the Crown was
insufficient to carry it out.

Henri II dying, Catherine de Medicis and the Guises took possession of
the throne in the name of Francois II. There is a moment when nations
can always draw a long breath, it is while their kings are awaiting
burial; and Nimes took advantage of this moment on the death of Henri
II, and on September 29th, 1559, Guillaume Moget founded the first
Protestant community.

Guil