two of them
girls, whom he suspected to be Cavalier's prophetesses. On the people
refusing to indicate the direction in which the Camisards had gone, he
gave the village up to plunder, and the soldiers passed several hours
ransacking the place, in the course of which they broke open and
pillaged the wine-cellars.

Meanwhile, Cavalier and his men had proceeded in a northerly
direction, along the right bank of the little river Droude, one of the
affluents of the Gardon. A messenger from Lascours overtook him,
telling him of the outrages committed on the inhabitants of the
village; and shortly after, the inhabitants of Lascours themselves
came up--men, women, and children, who had been driven from their
pillaged homes by the royalist soldiery. Cavalier was enraged at the
recital of their woes; and though his force was not one-sixth the
strength of the enemy, he determined to meet their advance and give
them battle.

Placing the poor people of Lascours in safety, the Camisard leader
took up his position on a rising ground at the head of a little valley
close to the village of Martinargues. Cavalier himself occupied the
centre, his front being covered by a brook running in the hollow of a
ravine. Ravanel and Catinat, with a small body of men, were posted
along the two sides of the valley, screened by brushwood. The
approaching Royalists, seeing before them only the feeble force of
Cavalier, looked upon his capture as certain.

"See!" cried Lajonquiere, "at last we have hold of the Barbets we have
been so long looking for!" With his dragoons in the centre, flanked by
the grenadiers and foot, the Royalists advanced with confidence to the
charge. At the first volley, the Camisards prostrated themselves, and
the bullets went over their heads. Thinking they had fallen before his
fusillade, the commander ordered his men to cross the ravine and fall
upon the remnant with the bayonet. Instantly, however, Cavalier's men
started to their feet, and smote the assailants with a deadly volley,
bringing down men and horses. At the same moment, the two wings, until
then concealed, fired down upon the Royalists and completed their
confusion. The Camisards, then raising their battle-psalm, rushed
forward and charged the enemy. The grenadiers resisted stoutly, but
after a few minutes the entire body--dragoons, grenadiers, marines,
and Irish--fled down the valley towards the Gardon, and the greater
number of those who were not killed were d