t, the local authorities were distinguished for their zeal and
forwardness in supporting their employers, and, under pretence of
rebellion, concealment of arms, non-payment of contributions, &c.
troops, national guards, and armed mobs, were permitted to plunder,
arrest, and murder peaceable citizens, not merely with impunity, but
with encouragement and approbation. At the village of Milhaud, near
Nismes, the inhabitants were frequently forced to pay large sums to
avoid being pillaged. This, however, would not avail at Madame
Teulon's: On Sunday, the 16th of July, her house and grounds were
ravaged; the valuable furniture removed or destroyed, the hay and wood
burnt, and the corpse of a child, buried in the garden, taken up and
dragged round a fire made by the populace. It was with great difficulty
that M. Teulon escaped with his life. M. Picherol, another protestant,
had deposited some of his effects with a catholic neighbour; this house
was attacked, and though all the property of the latter was respected,
that of his friend was seized and destroyed. At the same village, one of
a party doubting whether M. Hermet, a tailor, was the man they wanted,
asked, "Is he a protestant?" this he acknowledged. "Good," said they,
and he was instantly murdered. In the Canton of Vauvert, where there was
a consistory church, 80,000 francs were extorted. In the communes of
Beauvoisin and Generac similar excesses were committed by a handful of
licentious men, under the eye of the catholic mayor and to the cries of
"Vive le Roi." St. Gilles was the scene of the must unblushing villainy.
The protestants, the most wealthy of the inhabitants, were disarmed,
whilst their houses were pillaged. The mayor was appealed to:--the mayor
laughed and walked away. This officer had, at his disposal, a national
guard of several hundred men, organised by his own orders. It would be
wearisome to read the lists of the crimes that occurred during many
months. At Clavisson the mayor prohibited the protestants the practice
of singing the psalms commonly used in the temple, that, as he said, the
catholics might not be offended or disturbed.

At Sommieres, about ten miles from Nismes, the catholics made a splendid
procession through the town, which continued till evening and was
succeeded by the plunder of the protestants. On the arrival of foreign
troops at Sommieres, the pretended search for arms was resumed; those
who did not possess muskets were even compelle