er,
late in the month of August, 1573, in the city of Milhau-en-Rouergue, from
which they shortly transferred their sessions to Montauban.

[Sidenote: Military organization of the Huguenots.]

This important assembly resolved to accept no peace unless based upon
equitable terms and secured by ample guarantees. In view of the
possibility of the recurrence of war, provision was made for a complete
military organization of the Huguenot resources in the south of France.
For this purpose Languedoc was divided into two "generalites" or
governments--the government of Nismes, or Lower Languedoc, placed under
command of M. de Saint Romain, and that of Upper Languedoc, with Montauban
for its chief city, to which the Viscount de Paulin was assigned as
military chief. Both governments were in turn subdivided into dioceses or
particular governments, each furnished with a governor and a deliberative
assembly. It was provided that in Nismes and Montauban respectively a
council should be convened consisting of deputies from all the dioceses of
the government, and that to this council, together with the governor,
should be intrusted the administration of the finances, with authority to
impose taxes alike upon Protestants and Roman Catholics. The organization,
it was estimated, could readily place twenty thousand men in the
field.[1319]

Such were the first attempts to perfect a system of warfare forced upon
the Huguenots by the treacherous assaults of their enemies--a fatal
necessity of instituting a state within a state, foreboding nothing but
ruin to France.

[Sidenote: Petition to the king.]

One of the chief results of the deliberations at Montauban was the
preparation of a petition to be laid before the king. This paper, which
has come down to us with the signatures of the viscounts, barons, and
other adherents of the Huguenot party, was intended to be an expression
not only of their own individual views, but also of the sentiments of the
churches they represented.[1320] The language is sharp and incisive, the
demands are unmistakably bold. For a sufficient justification of their
recent words and actions, the Huguenots of Guyenne point the monarch to
his own letter of the twenty-fourth of August, 1572, by which constraint
was laid upon them to assume arms. They call upon Charles, in accordance
with the promise contained in that letter, to follow up the traces there
alleged to have been found regarding the murder of Gaspard de