s in the Desert. All
persons found attending them, who could be captured, were either
killed on the spot or hanged. Two companies of militia were quartered
in Pont-de-Montvert at the expense of the inhabitants; and they acted
under the direction of the archpriest Du Chayla. This priest, who was
a native of the district, had been for some time settled as a
missionary in Siam engaged in the conversion of Buddhists, and on his
return to France he was appointed to undertake the conversion of the
people of the Cevennes to the faith of Rome.

* * * * *

The village of Pont-de-Montvert is situated in the hollow of a deep
valley formed by the mountain of Lozere on the north, and of Bouges on
the south, at the point at which two streams, descending from their
respective summits, flow into the Tarn. The village is separated by
these streams into three little hamlets, which are joined together by
the bridge which gives its name to the place. The addition of "Mont
Vert," however, is a misnomer; for though seated at the foot of a
steep mountain, it is not green, but sterile, rocky, and verdureless.
The village is best reached from Florac, from which it is about twenty
miles distant. The valley runs east and west, and is traversed by a
tolerably good road, which at the lower part follows the windings of
the Tarn, and higher up runs in and out along the mountain ledges, at
every turn presenting new views of the bold, grand, and picturesque
scenery which characterizes the wilder parts of the Cevennes. Along
this route the old mule-road is still discernible in some places--a
difficult, rugged, mountain path, which must have kept the district
sealed up during the greater part of the year, until Baville
constructed the new road for the purpose of opening up the country for
the easier passage of troops and munitions of war.

A few poor hamlets occur at intervals along the road, sometimes
perched on apparently inaccessible rocks, and at the lower part of the
valley an occasional chateau is to be seen, as at Miral, picturesquely
situated on a height. But the country is too poor by nature--the
breadth of land in the bottom of the ravine being too narrow and that
on the mountain ledges too stony and sterile--ever to have enabled it
to maintain a considerable population. On all sides little is to be
seen but rocky mountain sides, stony and precipitous, with bold
mountain peaks extending beyond them far away in