ims broke the peaceful slumbers
of M, le Prefet and M. le Commissaire General de la Police. But if the
civil authorities slept, General Lagarde, who had shortly before come to
town to take command of the city in the name of the king, was awake. He
had sprung from his bed at the first shot, dressed himself, and made
a round of the posts; then sure that everything was in order, he
had formed patrols of chasseurs, and had himself, accompanied by two
officers only, gone wherever he heard cries for help. But in spite
of the strictness of his orders the small number of troops at his
disposition delayed the success of his efforts, and it was not until
three o'clock in the morning that he succeeded in securing Trestaillons.
When this man was taken he was dressed as usual in the uniform of
the National Guard, with a cocked hat and captain's epaulets. General
Lagarde ordered the gens d'armes who made the capture to deprive him of
his sword and carbine, but it was only after a long struggle that they
could carry out this order, for Trestaillons protested that he would
only give up his carbine with his life. However, he was at last obliged
to yield to numbers, and when disarmed was removed to the barracks;
but as there could be no peace in the town as long as he was in it, the
general sent him to the citadel of Montpellier next morning before it
was light.

The disorders did not, however, cease at once. At eight o'clock A.M.
they were still going on, the mob seeming to be animated by the spirit
of Trestaillons, for while the soldiers were occupied in a distant
quarter of the town a score of men broke into the house of a certain
Scipion Chabrier, who had remained hidden from his enemies for a
long time, but who had lately returned home on the strength of the
proclamations published by General Lagarde when he assumed the position
of commandant of the town. He had indeed been sure that the disturbances
in Nimes were over, when they burst out with redoubled fury on the 16th
of October; on the morning of the 17th he was working quietly at home at
his trade of a silk weaver, when, alarmed by the shouts of a parcel
of cut-throats outside his house, he tried to escape. He succeeded in
reaching the "Coupe d'Or," but the ruffians followed him, and the
first who came up thrust him through the thigh with his bayonet. In
consequence of this wound he fell from top to bottom of the staircase,
was seized and dragged to the stables, where the assas