tward, he
came up with them at Font-Morte. They suddenly started up from amongst
the broom where they had lain down to sleep, and, firing off their
guns upon the advancing host, without offering any further resistance,
fled in all directions. Poul and his men spurred after them, cutting
down the fugitives. Coming up with Seguier, who was vainly trying to
rally his men, Poul took him prisoner with several others, and they
were forthwith chained and marched to Florac. As they proceeded along
the road, Poul said to Seguier, "Well, wretch! now I have got you, how
do you expect to be treated after the crimes you have committed?" "As
I would myself have treated you, had I taken you prisoner," was the
reply.
Seguier stood before his judges calm and fearless. "What is your
name?" he was asked. "Pierre Seguier." "Why do they call you Esprit?"
"Because the Spirit of God is in me." "Your abode?" "In the Desert,
and shortly in heaven." "Ask pardon of the King!" "We have no other
King but the Eternal." "Have you no feeling of remorse for your
crimes?" "My soul is as a garden full of shady groves and of peaceful
fountains."
Seguier was condemned to have his hands cut off at the wrist, and he
burnt alive at Pont-de-Montvert. Nouvel, another of the prisoners, was
broken alive at Ladeveze, and Bonnet, a third, was hanged at St.
Andre. They all suffered without flinching. Seguier's last words,
spoken amidst the flames, were, "Brethren, wait, and hope in the
Eternal. The desolate Carmel shall yet revive, and the solitary
Lebanon shall blossom as the rose!" Thus perished the grim,
unflinching prophet of Magistavols, the terrible avenger of the
cruelties of Chayla, the earliest leader in the insurrection of the
Camisards!
It is not exactly known how or when the insurgents were first called
Camisards. They called themselves by no other name than "The Children of
God" (_Enfants de Dieu_); but their enemies variously nicknamed them
"The Barbets," "The Vagabonds," "The Assemblers," "The Psalm-singers,"
"The Fanatics," and lastly, "The Camisards." This name is said to have
been given them because of the common blouse or camisole which they
wore--their only uniform. Others say that it arose from their wearing a
white shirt, or camise, over their dress, to enable them to distinguish
each other in their night attacks; and that this was not the case, is
partly countenanced by the fact that in the course of the insurrection a
body of peasant
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