ing warmly
thanked him, laid before him the dangers to which he would expose
himself by running counter to the opinions of those who had had their
own way in the city for the last four months. But General Lagarde
brushed all these considerations aside: he had received an order from
the prince, and to a man of his military cast of mind no course was open
but to carry that order out.

Nevertheless, the president again expressed his doubts and fears.

"I will answer with my head," said the general, "that nothing happens."
Still the president counselled prudence, asking that only one place of
worship at first be opened, and to this the general gave his consent.

This continued resistance to the re-establishment of public worship on
the part of those who most eagerly desired it enabled the general at
last to realise the extent of the danger which would be incurred by
the carrying out of this measure, and he at once took all possible
precautions. Under the pretext that he was going to-have a general
review, he brought the entire civil and military forces of Nimes under
his authority, determined, if necessary, to use the one to suppress the
other. As early as eight o'clock in the morning a guard of gens d'armes
was stationed at the doors of the meeting-house, while other members of
the same force took up their positions in the adjacent streets. On the
other hand, the Consistory had decided that the doors were to be opened
an hour sooner than usual, that the bells were not to be rung, and that
the organ should be silent.

These precautions had both a good and a bad side. The gens d'armes at
the door of the meetinghouse gave if not a promise of security at least
a promise of support, but they showed to the citizens of the other party
what was about to be done; so before nine o'clock groups of Catholics
began to form, and as it happened to be Sunday the inhabitants of the
neighbouring villages arriving constantly by twos and threes soon united
these groups into a little army. Thus the streets leading to the church
being thronged, the Protestants who pushed their way through were
greeted with insulting remarks, and even the president of the
Consistory, whose white, hair and dignified expression had no effect
upon the mob, heard the people round him saying, "These brigands of
Protestants are going again to their temple, but we shall soon give them
enough of it."

The anger of the populace soon grows hot; between the first bubb