sts of their faith, assuring them that it was only a few days since
he had learned with much regret that their religious services had been;
suspended since the 16th of July. The delegates replied that in such a
time of agitation the closing of their places of worship was, a measure
of prudence which they had felt ought to be borne, and which had been
borne, with resignation. The prince expressed his approval of this
attitude with regard to the past, but said that his presence was a
guarantee for the future, and that on Thursday the 9th inst. the two
meeting-houses should be reopened and restored to their proper use. The
Protestants were alarmed at, having a favour accorded to them which was
much more than they would have dared to ask and for which they were
hardly prepared. But the prince reassured them by saying that all
needful measures would be taken to provide against any breach of the
public peace, and at the same time invited M. Desmonts, president, and M.
Roland-Lacoste, member of the Consistory, to dine with him.

The next deputation to arrive was a Catholic one, and its object was to
ask that Trestaillons might be set at liberty. The prince was so
indignant at this request that his only answer was to turn his back on
those who proffered it.

The next day the duke, accompanied by General Lagarde, left for
Montpellier; and as it was on the latter that the Protestants placed
their sole reliance for the maintenance of those rights guaranteed for
the future by the word of the prince, they hesitated to take any new step
in his absence, and let the 9th of November go by without attempting to
resume public worship, preferring to wait for the return of their
protector, which took place on Saturday evening the 11th of November.

When the general got back, his first thought was to ask if the commands
of the prince had been carried out, and when he heard that they had not,
without waiting to hear a word in justification of the delay, he sent a
positive order to the president of the Consistory to open both places of
worship the next morning.

Upon this, the president carrying self-abnegation and prudence to their
extreme limits, went to the general's quarters, and having warmly thanked
him, laid before him the dangers to which he would expose himself by
running counter to the opinions of those who had had their own way in the
city for the last four months. But General Lagarde brushed all these
considerations aside: