ath and destruction; if they only feel how we hate
and abhor them, if but one and then another, and a third be made to
acknowledge to us, struggling in agonising death, and with closing
eyes, that this happens to them for their evil doings." All the men
pressed forward brandishing their weapons and gnashing their teeth. A
smothered cry of rage suddenly burst from every lip. "Controul
yourselves my friends," said Roland, "As well as you can; you,
Bertrand, with your horrifying account have filled my soul with sorrow,
for your woe concerns us altogether and your loss admits of no
restitution. Repose and refresh yourselves here with all that I can
offer you; then follow my counsel, and let the old men, women, and
children return peaceably, for here there is neither shelter nor help
for them. God will ordain, that all shall turn for the best, that the
proprietors find their own again and that your cottages shall rise once
more from their ruins. Only do not despair, bear your calamity with
pain and sorrow, but do not despair, for that belies God, opposes
itself to him, nay, mocks his inscrutable decrees, and in its hellish
dictates, would even annihilate him. Do not give yourselves up to this
feeling, which is unworthy of men. We have all indeed been long since
innured to misery by the hand of the Lord. Shew now that you are
obedient, well conducted children, who though he may look upon you with
a severe and reproving countenance, will not mistake the father."

All shewed themselves more quiet and the younger men exclaimed, "Give
us weapons! weapons! Roland!" "Those that I have left," replied the
latter, "you shall have; such as cannot obtain any, must wait for the
first combat, and take them from the enemy, for it has been arranged
thus from the beginning. The troops must bring us arms up into the
mountains, and a gun which oneself has wrested from a strange foe is
quite a different arm to what one buys. Pooh! who would give money for
iron and arms, as long as the Marshal will still so kindly give himself
the trouble to send out his people in heat and rain, that they may
laboriously enough provide us very conveniently with arms, which he
himself with his Intendant and his baton will have reason to fear. Thus
thinks a true Camisard. Clothing also shall they deliver up to you,
shoes and boots, but you must learn to be courteous and assist them, my
countrymen, a little to undress. With a hundred such valets, Cavalier
was here