North to strike a blow in
their behalf.

England and Holland had been especially appealed to. Large numbers of
Huguenot soldiers were then serving in the English army; and it was
suggested that if they could effect a landing on the coast of
Languedoc, and co-operate with the Camisards, it would at the same
time help the cause of religious liberty, and operate as a powerful
diversion in favour of the confederate armies, then engaged with the
armies of France in the Low Countries and on the Rhine.

In order to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed landing, and the
condition of the Camisard insurgents, the ministry of Queen Anne sent
the Marquis de Miremont, a Huguenot refugee in England, on a mission
to the Cevennes; and he succeeded in reaching the insurgent camp at
St. Felix, where he met Roland and the other leaders, and arranged
with them for the descent of a body of Huguenot soldiers on the coast.

In the month of September, 1703, the English fleet was descried in the
Gulf of Lyons, off Aiguesmortes, making signals, which, however, were
not answered. Marshal Montrevel had been warned of the intended
invasion; and, summoning troops from all quarters, he so effectually
guarded the coast, that a landing was found impracticable. Though
Cavalier was near at hand, he was unable at any point to communicate
with the English ships; and after lying off for a few days, they
spread their sails, and the disheartened Camisards saw their intended
liberators disappear in the distance.

The ministers of Louis XIV. were greatly alarmed by this event. The
invasion had been frustrated for the time, but the English fleet might
return, and eventually succeed in effecting a landing. The danger,
therefore, had to be provided against, and at once. It became clear,
even to Louis XIV. himself, that the system of terror and coercion
which had heretofore been exclusively employed against the insurgents,
had proved a total failure. It was accordingly determined to employ
some other means, if possible, of bringing this dangerous insurrection
to an end. In pursuance of this object, Montrevel, to his intense
mortification, was recalled, and the celebrated Marshal Villars, the
victor of Hochstadt and Friedlingen, was appointed in his stead, with
full powers to undertake and carry out the pacification of Languedoc.

Villars reached Nismes towards the end of August, 1704; but before his
arrival, Montrevel at last succeeded in settling account