moon rose on this dreadful scene, and revealed to the Royalists the
smallness of the force opposed to them. The struggle was renewed again
and again; Cavalier still seeking to relieve those shut up in the
tower, and the Royalists, now concentrated and in force, to surround
and destroy him.

At length, after the struggle had lasted for about five hours,
Cavalier, in order to save the rest of his men, resolved on retiring
before daybreak; and he succeeded in effecting his retreat without
being pursued by the enemy.

The three hundred Camisards who continued shut up in the tower refused
to surrender. They transformed the ruin into a fortress, barricading
every entrance, and firing from every loophole. When their ammunition
was expended, they hurled stones, joists, and tiles down upon their
assailants from the summit of the tower. For four more hours they
continued to hold out. Cannon were sent for from Alais, to blow in the
doors; but before they arrived all was over. The place had been set on
fire by hand grenades, and the imprisoned Camisards, singing psalms
amidst the flames to their last breath, perished to a man.

This victory cost Montrevel dear. He lost some twelve hundred dead and
wounded before the fatal Tower of Belliot; whilst Cavalier's loss was
not less than four hundred dead, of whom a hundred and eighteen were
found at daybreak along the brink of the ravine. One of these was
mistaken for the body of Cavalier; on which Montrevel, with
characteristic barbarity, ordered the head to be cut off and sent to
_Cavalier's mother_ for identification!

From the slight glimpses we obtain of the _man_ Montrevel in the
course of these deplorable transactions, there seems to have been
something ineffably mean and spiteful in his nature. Thus, on another
occasion, in a fit of rage at having been baffled by the young
Camisard leader, he dispatched a squadron of dragoons to Ribaute for
the express purpose of pulling down the house in which Cavalier had
been born!

A befitting sequel to this sanguinary struggle at the Tower of Belliot
was the fate of Guignon, the miller, who had betrayed the sleeping
Camisards to Montrevel. His crime was discovered. The gold was found
upon him. He was tried, and condemned to death. The Camisards, under
arms, assembled to see the sentence carried out. They knelt round the
doomed man, while the prophets by turn prayed for his soul, and
implored the clemency of the Sovereign Judge. Guigno