wall till
they reached the grating without being perceived. There Maduron was
waiting, and as soon as he caught sight of them he gave a slight blow to
the loose bars; which fell, and the whole party entered the drain, led by
de Calviere, and soon found themselves at the farther end--that is to
say, in the Place de la Fontaine. They immediately formed into companies
twenty strong, four of which hastened to the principal gates, while the
others patrolled the streets shouting, "The city taken! Down with the
Papists! A new world!" Hearing this, the Protestants in the city
recognised their co-religionists, and the Catholics their opponents: but
whereas the former had been warned and were on the alert, the latter were
taken by surprise; consequently they offered no resistance, which,
however, did not prevent bloodshed. M. de St. Andre, the governor of the
town, who during his short period of office had drawn the bitter hatred
of the Protestants on him, was shot dead in his bed, and his body being
flung out of the window, was torn in pieces by the populace. The work of
murder went on all night, and on the morrow the victors in their turn
began an organised persecution, which fell more heavily on the Catholics
than that to which they had subjected the Protestants; for, as we have
explained above, the former could only find shelter in the plain, while
the latter used the Cevennes as a stronghold.

It was about this time that the peace, which was called, as we have said,
"the insecurely seated," was concluded. Two years later this name was
justified by the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

When this event took place, the South, strange as it may seem, looked on:
in Nimes both Catholics and Protestants, stained with the other's blood,
faced each other, hand on hilt, but without drawing weapon. It was as if
they were curious to see how the Parisians would get through. The
massacre had one result, however, the union of the principal cities of
the South and West: Montpellier, Uzes, Montauban, and La Rochelle, with
Nimes at their head, formed a civil and military league to last, as is
declared in the Act of Federation, until God should raise up a sovereign
to be the defender of the Protestant faith. In the year 1775 the
Protestants of the South began to turn their eyes towards Henri IV as the
coming defender.

At that date Nimes, setting an example to the other cities of the League,
deepened her moats, blew up her suburbs, an