f having no intention of conforming--he went up for
refuge into the mountains of the Cevennes.

The young Cavalier was present at the midnight meeting on the Bouges,
at which it was determined to slay the archpriest Chayla. He implored
leave to accompany the band; but he was declared to be too young for
such an enterprise, being a boy of only sixteen, so he was left behind
with his friends.

Being virtually an outlaw, Cavalier afterwards joined the band of
Laporte, under whom he served as lieutenant during his short career.
At his death the insurrection assumed larger proportions, and recruits
flocked apace to the standard of Roland, Laporte's successor.
Harvest-work over, the youths of the Lower Cevennes hastened to join
him, armed only with bills and hatchets. The people of the Vaunage
more than fulfilled their promise to Roland, and sent him five hundred
men. Cavalier also brought with him from Ribaute a further number of
recruits, and by the end of autumn the Camisards under arms, such as
they were, amounted to over a thousand men.

Roland, unable to provide quarters or commissariat for so large a
number, divided them into five bodies, and sent them into their
respective cantonments (so to speak) for the winter. Roland himself
occupied the district known as the Lower Cevennes, comprising the
Gardonnenque and the mountain district situated between the rivers
Vidourle and the western Gardon. That part of the Upper Cevennes,
which extends between the Anduze branch of the Gardon and the river
Tarn, was in like manner occupied by a force commanded by Abraham
Hazel and Solomon Conderc, while Andrew Castanet led the people of the
western Cevennes, comprising the mountain region of the Aigoal and the
Esperou, near the sources of the Gardon d'Anduze and the Tarnon. The
rugged mountain district of the Lozere, in which the Tarn, the Ceze,
and the Alais branch of the Gardon have their origin, was placed under
the command of Joany. And, finally, the more open country towards the
south, extending from Anduze to the sea-coast, including the districts
around Alais, Uzes, Nismes, as well as the populous valley of the
Vaunage, was placed under the direction of young Cavalier, though he
had scarcely yet completed his seventeenth year.

These chiefs were all elected by their followers, who chose them, not
because of any military ability they might possess, but entirely
because of their "gifts" as preachers and "prophets." Though Ro