ramparts,
parapets, watchtowers, and the gear of their cannon, and having laid in
a stock of firearms, powder and ball, they formed eight companies each
fifty strong, composed of townsmen, and a further band of one hundred
and fifty peasants drawn from the neighbouring country. Lastly, the
States of the province sent an envoy to the king, praying him graciously
to take measures to check the plague of heresy which was spreading from
day to day. The king at once sent M. Julien in answer to the petition.
Thus it was no longer simple governors of towns nor even chiefs of
provinces who were engaged in the struggle; royalty itself had come to
the rescue.

M. de Julien, born a Protestant, was a member of the nobility of Orange,
and in his youth had served against France and borne arms in England and
Ireland when William of Orange succeeded James II as King of England,
Julien was one of his pages, and received as a reward for his fidelity
in the famous campaign of 1688 the command of a regiment which was sent
to the aid of the Duke of Savoy, who had begged both England and Holland
to help him. He bore himself so gallantly that it was in great part due
to him that the French were forced to raise the siege of Cony.

Whether it was that he expected too much from this success, or that the
Duke of Savoy did not recognise his services at their worth, he withdrew
to Geneva, where Louis XIV hearing of his discontent, caused overtures
to be made to him with a view to drawing him into the French service.
He was offered the same rank in the French army as he had held in the
English, with a pension of 3000 livres.

M. de Julien accepted, and feeling that his religious belief would be
in the way of his advancement, when he changed his master he changed his
Church. He was given the command of the valley of Barcelonnette, whence
he made many excursions against the Barbets; then he was transferred to
the command of the Avennes, of the principality of Orange, in order to
guard the passes, so that the French Protestants could not pass over
the frontier for the purpose of worshipping with their Dutch Protestant
brethren; and after having tried this for a year, he went to Versailles
to report himself to the king. While he was there, it chanced that
the envoy from Gevaudan arrived, and the king being satisfied with
de Julien's conduct since he had entered his service, made him
major-general, chevalier of the military order of St. Louis; and
com