t became the duty of
these enrolled men to post themselves as sentinels on the surrounding
heights, and give notice of the approach of their enemies. They also
constituted a sort of voluntary police for their respective districts,
taking notice of the changes of the royal troops, and dispatching
information by trusty emissaries, intimating the direction of their
march.

The Intendant, Baville, wrote to Louvois, minister of Louis XIV.
during the persecutions, expressing his surprise and alarm at the
apparent evidences of organization amongst the peasantry. "I have just
learned," said he in one letter,[33] "that last Sunday there was an
assembly of nearly four hundred men, many of them armed, at the foot
of the mountain of Lozere. I had thought," he added, "that the great
lesson taught them at Vigan and Anduze would have restored
tranquillity to the Cevennes, at least for a time. But, on the
contrary, the severity of the measures heretofore adopted seems only
to have had the effect of exasperating and hardening them in their
iniquitous courses."

[Footnote 33: October 20, 1686.]

* * * * *

As the massacres had failed, the question next arose whether the
inhabitants might not be driven into exile, and the country entirely
cleared of them. "They pretend," said Louvois, "to meet in 'the
Desert;' why not take them at their word, and make the Cevennes
_really_ a Desert?" But there were difficulties in the way of
executing this plan. In the first place, the Protestants of Languedoc
were a quarter of a million in number. And, besides, if they were
driven out of it, what would become of the industry and the wealth of
this great province--what of the King's taxes?

The Duke de Noailles advised that it would be necessary to proceed
with some caution in the matter. "If his Majesty," he wrote to
Baville, "thinks there is no other remedy than changing the whole
people of the Cevennes, it would be better to begin by expelling those
who are not engaged in commerce, who inhabit inaccessible mountain
districts, where the severity of the climate and the poverty of the
soil render them rude and barbarous, as in the case of those people
who recently met at the foot of the Lozere. Should the King consent to
this course, it will be necessary to send here at least four
additional battalions of foot to execute his orders."[34]

[Footnote 34: Noailles to Baville, 29th October, 1686.]

An