es, and from the Lozere even to the sea
Israel will arise! As for arms, have we not our hatchets? These will
bring us muskets! Brethren, there is only one course worthy to be
pursued. It is to live for our country; and, if need be, to die for
it. Better die by the sword than by the rack or the gallows!"

From this moment, not another word was said of flight. With one voice,
the assembly cried to the speaker, "Be our chief! It is the will of
the Eternal!" "The Eternal be the witness of your promises," replied
Laporte; "I consent to be your chief!" He assumed forthwith the title
of "Colonel of the Children of God," and named his camp "The camp of
the Eternal!"

Laporte belonged to an old Huguenot family of the village of
Massoubeyran, near Anduze. They were respectable peasants, some of
whom lived by farming and others by trade. Old John Laporte had four
sons, of whom the eldest succeeded his father as a small farmer and
cattle-breeder, occupying the family dwelling at Massoubeyran, still
known there as the house of "Laporte-Roland." It contains a secret
retreat, opening from a corner of the floor, called the "Cachette de
Roland," in which the celebrated chief of this name, son of the
owner, was accustomed to take refuge; and in this cottage, the old
Bible of Roland's father, as well as the halbert of Roland himself,
continue to be religiously preserved.

Two of Laporte's brothers were Protestant ministers. One of them was
the last pastor of Collet-de-Deze in the Cevennes. Banished because of
his faith, he fled from France at the Revocation, joined the army of
the Prince of Orange in Holland, and came over with him to England as
chaplain of one of the French regiments which landed at Torbay in
1688. Another brother, also a pastor, remained in the Cevennes,
preaching to the people in the Desert, though at the daily risk of his
life, and after about ten years' labour in this vocation, he was
apprehended, taken prisoner to Montpellier, and strangled on the
Peyrou in the year 1696.

The fourth brother was the Laporte whom we have just described in
undertaking the leadership of the hunted insurgents remaining in the
Upper Cevennes. He had served as a soldier in the King's armies, and
at the peace of Ryswick returned to his native village, the year after
his elder brother had suffered martyrdom at Montpellier. He settled
for a time at Collet-de-Deze, from which his other brother had been
expelled, and there he carried on t