have discovered without a guide, so
cleverly was the entrance hidden by rocks and brushwood. On entering,
the first thing that met their eye was the wounded, about thirty in
number. The miquelets threw themselves upon them and slaughtered them.
This deed accomplished, they went farther into the cave, which to their
great surprise contained a thousand things they never expected to find
there--heaps of grain, sacks of flour, barrels of wine, casks of brandy,
quantities of chestnuts and potatoes; and besides all this, chests
containing ointments, drugs and lint, and lastly a complete arsenal
of muskets, swords, and bayonets, a quantity of powder ready-made, and
sulphur, saltpetre, and charcoal-in short, everything necessary for the
manufacture of more, down to small mills to be turned by hand. Lalande
kept his word: the life of an old woman was not too much to give in
return for such a treasure.

Meantime M. de Villars, as he had promised, took up Baron d'Aygaliers
in passing through Lyons, so that during the rest of the journey the
peacemaker had plenty of time to expatiate on his plans. As M. de
Villars was a man of tact and a lover of justice, and desired above all
things to bring a right spirit to bear on the performance of the duties
of his new office, in which his two predecessors had failed, he promised
the baron "to keep," as he expressed himself, his "two ears open" and
listen to both sides, and as a first proof of impartiality--he refused
to give any opinion until he had heard M, de Julien, who was coming to
meet him at Tournon.

When they arrived at Tournon, M. de Julien was there to receive them,
and had a very different story to tell from that which M. de Villars
had heard from d'Aygaliers. According to him, the only pacific ration
possible was the complete extermination of the Camisards. He felt
himself very hardly treated in that he had been allowed to destroy only
four hundred villages and hamlets in the Upper Cevennes,--assuring
de Villars with the confidence of a man who had studied the matter
profoundly, that they should all have been demolished without exception,
and all the peasants killed to the last man.

So it came to pass that M. de Villars arrived at Beaucaire placed like
Don Juan between the spirits of good and evil, the one advising clemency
and the other murder. M. de Villars not being able to make up his mind,
on reaching Nimes, d'Aygaliers assembled the principal Protestants of
the town,