e was indescribable tumult in the street, dominated by the cry of
women; a shrill wordless involuntary cry of terror, vibrating above
the uproar like a desperate appeal to which no supernatural power
replied. Pastor Rouville stopped. The house next his own was in
flames. They were setting fire to the one opposite. The houses between
the Rue de Beaune and the Rue du Bac, red from cellar to garret, were
vomiting flame from all the broken windows.

The pastor's family were not at Paris. He was alone with a faithful
maid, who did not leave him for a moment. This doubtless determined
his resolution, and gave him courage to brave all to save his house.
If he had felt his wife and daughter near, he would have thought only
of their safety, and would have hastened to get them away from the
place, where, he said, "One could die of horror."

Pastor Rouville is a small man, whose great activity keeps him young
and remarkably energetic. He belongs to the strong race of Southern
Protestants, which has resisted everything to guard its faith. I
should not be surprised if he has had some nimble Cevennole, companion
of Jean Cavalier, among his ancestors. Chaplain in the prisons of the
Seine, accustomed to sound doubtful spirits, to seek in vicious hearts
some intact fibres which could re-attach them to virtue; fervent in
faith, eloquent, with a high voice which could rise above the tumult,
knowing by experience that there is no obscurity so profound that
light cannot be made to penetrate it,--he had remained on duty at his
post during the Commune; for the prisoners had more need of spiritual
aid, now that the regular administration no longer watched over them.
He had been indignant at the incarceration of Catholic priests, and
had signed the fine protest demanding the liberty of the archbishop,
which the ministers had carried to the Hotel de Ville.

Alone in the presence of the great disaster which threatened him, he
commended his spirit to God, remembering that the little stone of
David had killed the giant Philistine, and he decided to fight for his
home. He encamped energetically before the door, to forbid access; and
using the weapons bestowed upon him by Providence and study, he spoke.
The federates stopped before this man, whose simplicity rendered him
heroic. One may guess what he said to them:--

"Why strike the innocent and tender, as if they were execrable? Why be
enraged with a Protestant, a minister, whose religion, founde