militia, and were marched back to the
archpriest's quarters at Pont-de-Montvert. The women were sent to
Mende to be immured in convents, and the men were imprisoned in the
archpriest's dungeons. The parents of some of the captives ran to
throw themselves at his feet, and implored mercy for their sons; but
Chayla was inexorable. He declared harshly that the prisoners must
suffer according to the law--that the fugitives must go the galleys,
and their guide to the gibbet.

On the following Sunday, the 23rd of July, 1702, one of the preaching
prophets, Pierre Seguier of Magistavols, a hamlet lying to the south
of Pont-de-Montvert, preached to an assembly on the neighbouring
mountain of Bouges; and there he declared that the Lord had ordered
him to take up arms to deliver the captives and exterminate the
archpriest of Moloch. Another and another preacher followed in the
same strain, the excited assembly encouraging them by their cries, and
calling upon them to execute God's vengeance on the persecutors of
God's people.

That same night Seguier and his companions went round amongst the
neighbouring hamlets to summon an assemblage of their sworn followers
for the evening of the following day. They met punctually in the
Altefage Wood, and under the shadow of three gigantic beech trees, the
trunks of which were standing but a few years ago, they solemnly swore
to deliver their companions and destroy the archpriest.

When night fell, a band of fifty determined men marched down the
mountain towards the bridge, led by Seguier. Twenty of them were armed
with guns and pistols. The rest carried scythes and hatchets. As they
approached the village, they sang Marot's version of the
seventy-fourth Psalm. The archpriest heard the unwonted sound as they
came marching along. Thinking it was a nocturnal assembly, he cried to
his soldiers, "Run and see what this means." But the doors of the
house were already invested by the mountaineers, who shouted out for
"The prisoners! the prisoners!" "Back, Huguenot canaille!" cried
Chayla from the window. But they only shouted the louder for "The
prisoners!"

The archpriest then directed the militia to fire, and one of the
peasants fell dead. Infuriated, they seized the trunk of a tree, and
using it as a battering-ram, at once broke in the door. They next
proceeded to force the entrance to the dungeon, in which they
succeeded, and called upon the prisoners to come forth. But some of
them were so