at Rosni; but there, too, the Royalists were found blocking the
road, and crowding the heights on either side. Cavalier, to avoid
recognition, threw off his uniform, and assumed the guise of a simple
Camisard. Again he sought to force his way through the masses of the
enemy. His advance was a series of hand-to-hand fights, extending over
some six miles, and the struggle lasted for nearly the entire day.
More than a thousand dead strewed the roads, of whom one half were
Camisards. The Royalists took five drums, sixty-two horses, and four
mules laden with provisions, but not one prisoner.

When Villars reached Nismes and heard of this battle, he went to see
the field, and expressed his admiration at the skill and valour of the
Camisard chief. "Here is a man," said he, "of no education, without
any experience in the art of war, who has conducted himself under the
most difficult and delicate circumstances as if he had been a great
general. Truly, to fight such a battle were worthy of Caesar!"

Indeed, the conduct of Cavalier in this struggle so impressed Marshal
Villars, that he determined, if possible, to gain him over, together
with his brave followers, to the ranks of the royal army. Villars was
no bigot, but a humane and honourable man, and a thorough soldier. He
deplored the continuance of this atrocious war, and proceeded to take
immediate steps to bring it, if possible, to a satisfactory
conclusion.

In the meantime, however, the defeat of the Camisards had been
followed by other reverses. During the absence of Cavalier in the
South, the royalist general Lalande, at the head of five thousand
troops, fell upon the joint forces of Roland and Joany at Brenoux, and
completely defeated them. The same general lay in wait for the return
of Cavalier with his broken forces, to his retreat near Euzet; and on
his coming up, the Royalists, in overpowering numbers, fell upon the
dispirited Camisards, and inflicted upon them another heavy loss.

But a greater calamity, if possible, was the discovery and capture of
Cavalier's magazines in the caverns near Euzet. The royalist soldiers,
having observed an old woman frequently leaving the village for the
adjoining wood with a full basket and returning with an empty one,
suspected her of succouring the rebels, arrested her, and took her
before the general. When questioned at first she would confess
nothing; on which she was ordered forthwith to be hanged. When taken
to the gibbet i