opulent citizens, advocated a
surrender of Nismes to Joyeuse, which must have been the prelude to a
fresh and perhaps indiscriminate massacre.[1257]

[Sidenote: Montauban.]

Scarcely less important to the Protestants of southern France was the
refuge they found in Montauban. Regnier, the same Huguenot gentleman who
had himself been rescued from slaughter at Paris by the magnanimity of
Vezins,[1258] was the instrument of its deliverance. On finding himself
safe, his first impulse was to hasten to Montauban and urge his brethren
to adopt instant measures for self-defence. But despair had taken
possession of the inhabitants. They had heard that the dreaded black
cavalry of the ferocious Montluc, the men-at-arms of Fontenille, and
other troops, were on the march against them. Their enemies were already
reported to be so near the city as Castel-Sarrasin. Not a gate, therefore,
would the panic-stricken citizens close; not a sword would they draw.
Nothing was left but for Regnier, with the little band of less than forty
followers he had gathered, to abandon the devoted place. As he was
wandering about the country, uncertain whither to betake himself, he
unexpectedly fell in with the very enemy before whom Montauban was
quailing. Neither Regnier nor his handful of followers hesitated. It was a
glorious opportunity for the display of heroism in a good cause, for there
were ten Roman Catholics to one Protestant. Happily the ground was
favorable to the display of individual prowess; a river and a tributary
brook rendered the field so contracted that only a few men could fight
abreast. "Brethren and comrades," cried Regnier, "whether for life or for
combat, there is no other road than this." Then putting forward a
detachment of ten horsemen headed by an experienced leader, when he saw
the enemy pause to put on their helmets, he seized the opportunity in true
Huguenot fashion to act as the minister of his followers, and uttered a
brief prayer, devout and courageous. Next came the charge, such as those
men of iron determination knew well how to make. The van of the enemy made
no attempt to resist them; the cavalry in the centre was driven back in
confusion upon the mounted arquebusiers of the rear. The fight became in a
few minutes a disgraceful rout, and for a whole league the handful of
Huguenots continued the pursuit. Of nearly four hundred royalists, eighty
were killed and fifty captured. When Regnier, returning to Montauban,
br