t-Laurent-d'Aigozre, at Milhaud, in
Rouergue.

Meanwhile all this torturing and questioning had taken so much time that
when the stake and the scaffold were ready it was almost dark, so that
the duke put off the executions until the next day, instead of carrying
them out by torchlight. Brueys says that this was done in order that the
most disaffected amongst the fanatics should not be able to say that
it was not really Catinat, Ravanel, Villas, and Jonquet who had been
executed but some other unknown men; but it is more probable that the
duke and Baville were afraid of riots, as was proved by their ordering
the scaffold and the stake to be erected at the end of the Cours and
opposite the glacis of the fortress, so that the garrison might be at
hand in case of any disturbance.

Catinat was placed in a cell apart, and could be, heard cursing and
complaining all night through. Ravanel, Villas, and Jonquet were
confined together, and passed the night singing and praying.

The next day, the 22nd April, 1705, they were taken from the prison and
drawn to the place of execution in two carts, being unable to walk,
on account of the severe torture to which they had been subjected, and
which had crushed the bones of their legs. A single pile of wood had
been prepared for Catinat and Ravanel, who were to be burnt together;
they were in one cart, and Villas and Jonquet, for whom two wheels had
been prepared, were in the other.

The first operation was to bind Catinat and Ravanel back to back to the
same stake, care being taken to place Catinat with his face to windward,
so that his agony might last longer, and then the pile was lit under
Ravanel.

As had been foreseen, this precaution gave great pleasure to those
people who took delight in witnessing executions. The wind being rather
high, blew the flames away from Catinat, so that at first the fire burnt
his legs only--a circumstance which, the author of the History of the
Camisards tells us, aroused Catinat's impatience. Ravanel, however, bore
everything to the end with the greatest heroism, only pausing in his
singing to address words of encouragement to his companion in suffering,
whom he could not see, but whose groans and curses he could hear; he
would then return to his psalms, which he continued to sing until his
voice was stifled in the flames. Just as he expired, Jonquet was removed
from the wheel, and carried, his broken limbs dangling, to the burning
pile, on which