out a month later--in August,
1704--while a body of Camisards occupied the Chateau of Castelnau, not
far from Ners, the place was suddenly surrounded at night by a body of
royalist dragoons. The alarm was raised, and Roland, half-dressed,
threw himself on horseback and fled. He was pursued, overtaken, and
brought to a stand in a wood, where, setting his back to a tree he
defended himself bravely for a time against overpowering numbers, but
was at last shot through the heart by a dragoon, and the Camisard
chief lay dead upon the ground.

The insurrection did not long survive the death of Roland. The other
chiefs wandered about from place to place with their followers, but
they had lost heart and hope, and avoided further encounters with the
royal forces. One after another of them surrendered. Castanet and
Catinat both laid down their arms, and were allowed to leave France
for Switzerland, accompanied by twenty-two of their men. Joany also
surrendered with forty-six of his followers.

One by one the other chiefs laid down their arms--all excepting
Abraham and Ravanel, who preferred liberty and misery at home to peace
and exile abroad. They continued for some time to wander about in the
Upper Cevennes, hiding in the woods by day and sleeping in caves by
night--hunted, deserted, and miserable. And thus at last was Languedoc
pacified; and at the beginning of January, 1705, Marshal Villars
returned to Versailles to receive the congratulations and honours of
the King.

Several futile attempts were afterwards made by the banished leaders
to rekindle the insurrection from its embers, Catinat and Castanet,
wearied of their inaction at Geneva, stole back across the frontier
and rejoined Ravanel in the Cevennes; but their rashness cost them
their lives. They were all captured and condemned to death. Castanet
and Salomon were broken alive on the wheel on the Peyrou at
Montpellier, and Catinat, Ravanel, with several others, were burnt
alive on the Place de la Beaucaire at Nismes.

The last to perish were Abraham and Joany. The one was shot while
holding the royal troops at bay, firing upon them from the roof of a
cottage at Mas-de-Couteau; the other was captured in the mountains
near the source of the Tarn. He was on his way to prison, tied behind
a trooper, like Rob Roy in Scott's novel, when, suddenly freeing
himself from his bonds while crossing the bridge of Pont-de-Montvert,
he slid from the horse, and leapt over the parape