villages had broken out into open rebellion; that
fifteen thousand armed insurgents had met in a single body. They had
captured towns and castles, liberated prisoners, and hindered the course
of justice. They were intending to march against Marseilles, and when
successful would establish a republic fashioned on the model of the
Swiss cantons.[485]

[Sidenote: Francis, misinformed, revokes his last orders.]

Thus reinforced, Cardinal Tournon found no great difficulty in exciting
the animosity of a king both jealous of any infringement upon his
prerogative, and credulous respecting movements tending to the
encouragement of rebellion. On the first of January, 1545, Francis sent
a new letter to the Parliament of Aix. He revoked his last order,
enjoined the execution of the former decrees of parliament, so far as
they concerned those who had failed to abjure, and commanded the
governor of Provence, or his lieutenant, to employ all his forces to
exterminate any found guilty of the Waldensian heresy.[486]

[Sidenote: His letter construed as authorizing a new crusade.]

The new order had been skilfully drawn. The "Arret de Merindol,"
although not alluded to by name, might naturally be understood as
included under the general designation of the parliament's decrees
against heretics; while the direction to employ the governor's troops
against those who had not abjured could be construed as authorizing a
local crusade, in which innocent and guilty were equally likely to
suffer. Such were the pretexts behind which the first president and his
friends prepared for a carnage which, for causelessness and atrocity,
finds few parallels on the page of history.

[Sidenote: An expedition stealthily organized.]

Three months passed, and yet no attempt was made to disturb the peaceful
villages on the Durance. Then the looked-for opportunity came. Count De
Grignan, Governor of Provence, was summoned by the king and sent on a
diplomatic mission to Germany. The civil and military administration
fell into the Baron d'Oppede's hands as lieutenant. The favorable
conjuncture was instantly improved. On a single day--the twelfth of
April--the royal letter, hitherto kept secret, that the intended victims
might receive no intimations of the impending blow, was read and
judicially confirmed, and four commissioners were appointed to
superintend the execution.[487] Troops were hastily levied. All men
capable of bearing arms in the cities of Aix, Arle