of Languedoc hasten to confirm the resolution
adopted in your favour by the nobles assembled at Turin. They appreciate
the zeal and the courage which have distinguished your conduct and that
of your family; they have therefore instructed us to assure you of the
pleasure with which they will welcome you among those nobles who are
under the orders of Marshal de Castries, and that you are at liberty to
repair to Lorch to assume your proper rank in one of the companies.

"We have the honour to be, monsieur, your humble and obedient servants,
"COMTE DE TOULOUSE-LAUTREC

"MARQUIS DE LA JONQUIERE "ETC."

CHAPTER VII

The Protestants, as we have said, hailed the golden dawn of the
revolution with delight; then came the Terror, which struck at all
without distinction of creed. A hundred and thirty-eight heads fell on
the scaffold, condemned by the revolutionary tribunal of the Gard.
Ninety-one of those executed were Catholic, and forty-seven Protestants,
so that it looked as if the executioners in their desire for impartiality
had taken a census of the population.

Then came the Consulate: the Protestants being mostly tradesmen and
manufacturers, were therefore richer than the Catholics, and had more to
lose; they seemed to see more chance of stability in this form of
government than in those preceding it, and it was evident that it had a
more powerful genius at its head, so they rallied round it with
confidence and sincerity. The Empire followed, with its inclination to
absolutism, its Continental system, and its increased taxation; and the
Protestants drew back somewhat, for it was towards them who had hoped so
much from him that Napoleon in not keeping the promises of Bonaparte was
most perjured.

The first Restoration, therefore, was greeted at Nimes with a universal
shout of joy; and a superficial-observer might have thought that all
trace of the old religious leaven had disappeared. In fact, for
seventeen years the two faiths had lived side by side in perfect peace
and mutual good-will; for seventeen years men met either for business or
for social purposes without inquiring about each other's religion, so
that Nimes on the surface might have been held up as an example of union
and fraternity.

When Monsieur arrived at Nimes, his guard of honour was drawn from the
city guard, which still retained its organisation of 1812, being composed
of citizens without distinction of creed. Six decorations were confer